Percy Jackson and the Department of Mysteries

73) 'T' Stands For Terrific Essay, Right?

"So now we know how we ended up with Umbridge! Fudge passed this 'Educational Decree' and forced her on us! And now he's given her the power to inspect other teachers!" Hermione angrily crumpled up the newspaper. "I can't believe this. It's outrageous..." She stared at the crumpled up paper in her hand and calmly unfurled it.

"I know it is," Harry said, glancing at his hand, where faint white letters were standing out. I rubbed the back of my own hand, though I couldn't see the lettering because of my glove. That was fine, because I could see my other hand perfectly well, so it was basically a big 'fuck you' to Umbridge.

Worryingly, Ron's face split into a grin.

"What?" The three of us said together.

"Oh, I can't wait to see McGonagall inspected," Ron was way too happy about this. "Umbridge won't know what's hit her."

"Well, come on," Hermione stood, "we'd better get going, if she's inspecting Binns's class we don't want to be late..."

Sadly, Umbridge was not inspecting our class, making History of Magic just as dull as it usually was. She wasn't attending our Potions class, either, which I was vaguely worried about. I knew Snape would not be getting a very high grading from her, even if he, and we, performed perfectly while she was there. She would mark him just for being a 'dangerous half-breed', though Snape was hardly dangerous on that side of things at all. He, unlike Ethan and many of his other siblings, had never aggressively searched for revenge. It was a quieter sort of attack, like how he often treated Harry poorly for the actions of his father. He didn't attack Harry or anything. Just insulted him and gave him low grades. Snape wasn't an offense fighter, and was less an immediate danger to Umbridge than Neville was, and Neville could barely lift a spear.

Snape wasn't very pleased when he handed me back my moonstone essay, which had a large, spiky T marked in the corner. I wasn't surprised with that grade, seeing as I had handed him my paper on the Party Ponies (he had talked smack about them, and needed to learn the truth. I had it copied and the other version had been turned in to Binns, who had given me an O).

"Mr. Jackson, detention," Snape said, then turned to pass out the rest of the papers.

"What, why?" I demanded. I was fine with the low grade, but I really didn't want to spend my free time with Snape.

"Because you blatantly ignored the assignment, and you disrespected me," Snape sighed, handing Hermione her paper.

"But you disrespected them!" I cried.

"They wear soda straw hats and give each other concussions."

"They shoot boxing glove arrows!"

"Oh, how truly impressive."

"That is pretty impressive, actually, do you know how hard it must be to shoot those things accurately? I mean, they hit Liam at least twice with them, and saved my life."

"Just because you can't shoot an arrow doesn't mean that the party ponies doing so is impressive."

"Yeah it does, the world revolves around me, remember? I had a whole book series about me, and was a main character in another series, and then there's all of whatever this is," I glared at Snape, motioning to the room around me.

Snape stopped, and turned to look at me, "What are you going on about?" He shook his head. "No, I don't want to know." He addressed the class as a whole. "I have awarded you the grades you would have received if you presented this work in your O.W.L.." Snape smirked and continued to pass back our homework. "This should give you a realistic idea of what to expect in your examination."

"Question, what if we wrote an entirely different paper out of spite for the teacher grading it and got a low grade. Would our grade still reflect how well we would do on our O.W.L.?"

"No, Percy, you know it wouldn't," Snape sighed tiredly, and made his way back to the front of the class, where he turned to look out at us. "The general standard of this homework was abysmal. Most of you would have failed had this been your examination. I expect to see a great deal more effort for this week's essay on the various varieties of venom antidotes, or I shall have to start handing out detentions to those dunces who get D's. And T's, but you will only ever get a T if you write the wrong paper."

"You already gave me a detention," I said.

"Yes, and you will be spending your time with me tonight writing an actual essay over moonstones."

I made some sort of displeased sound that doesn't really translate in writing, and Snape just ignored me.

I was fine with that, because he continued to ignore me as I started making another dreamless sleep potion. He'd seen me make perfect Strengthening Solution, so I imagine he didn't care enough to stop me. At the end of class, he offered to finish it for me, and I said thank you and all that jazz.

"Hey, since I said thank you and all that jazz, can I not do detention?" I asked once everyone had left.

"No, you need to rewrite it so I can give you a better grade," Snape said.

"I don't care about grades, I'm probably going to die before I graduate, so it doesn't really matter."

"Don't say that," Snape snapped. "They do matter. You're one of the few students I have expectations of.  And, if you really don't care for your own future, at least consider mine."

"What do you mean?"

"Umbridge is watching us. A student getting a T for a grade is notable. I would bump it up, but Draco mentioned that she's got assistants at the Ministry checking every paper to see if the grades are accurate. I need something to sun it."

"I will write you the best moonstone essay you've ever read, Severus," I nodded my head seriously. "I will stick it to Umbridge's face and get amazing grades from now on. Mark my words."

"No."

"Okay, don't mark them, then. I'll get my potion when detention rolls around. Peace out."

Kadee has a friend over, so my family kidnapped me to keep me safe from that. I like this friend though, so it wasn't really a problem. We've just been chilling, watching TV. We got weird cereal that's a mix of Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops, and it's... a thing. OH. You guys like ATLA or LoK? Welllll, Legend of Genji is coming out! It's going to take place over several chapters and parts of chapters on Webtoons! The first one is coming out on the 16th, and I'm freaking excited. I need to actually finish LoK before it comes out so that I can know everything. But I think it's gonna be pretty cool and I am very ready for it, and if you guys are into that stuff, it'll probably be pretty dope.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a happy Saturday, and I'll see you on Monday CT. Love ya!