Pride and Prejudice | James Potter

Chapter Two

Detention

Elizabeth made her way out of the Potions classroom, weaving her way through students. As far as she could tell, she was the only student to get detention with McGonagall so far, which was a relief. The last thing she wanted was people to know she had detention on the second day of classes. It wasn't really her fault, anyway. She had assumed that someone would wake her up if it got late. If she had seen someone sleeping on the grounds around curfew, she would wake them up. It was basic decency, really, and the students of Hogwarts had failed in Elizabeth's eyes.

She had time to do the minimal homework assigned, get dinner, and then she had to report to McGonagall's office. She hurried back to her dorm, wanting to finish her homework before dinner.

When she made it to her dorm, she put her bag on her bed and pulled out the first assignment.

After about an hour and a half, she had finished all of her assignments, and had a few minutes before dinner started. Remembering her mistake the day before, she decided to head down to the Great Hall, knowing it was a long walk from Ravenclaw Tower.

As she walked down to the Great Hall, she passed the Marauders, having a hushed conversation. Elizabeth didn't know the Marauders well, she had really only ever talked to them when they were all waiting to be sorted in first year. She, of course, knew of them. Everyone at Hogwarts knew about the Marauders and their pranks. Elizabeth found them a bit barbaric, teasing and harrassing people for the fun of it. They didn't really seem like the kindest people, always bullying the Slytherins, especially Snape.

Elizabeth and Snape had gotten along their first few years. They were never especially close, more had a mutual respect for the other. Elizabeth had seen it first hand when Snape had called Lily Evans a mudblood, a terrible name for a witch or wizard that didn't have magical family, in their 5th year. He had avoided her since, and she didn't really have a desire to be around people that believed in using words like that. She did, however, think that the Marauders had gone too far bullying Severus, making up names, teasing him and pulling pranks that hurt him.

Overall, Elizabeth didn't really like the Marauders or Severus Snape. She tended to avoid both of them as often as possible.

She walked past the Marauders quickly, not interested in their conversation. They stopped talking as she walked by, giving her a suspicious look. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and kept walking. Not everyone was interested in the Marauders and their plans, though they seemed to think so.

She sat down at the Ravenclaw table, filling her plate. There were only a few people at each table, none that Elizabeth knew well. She noticed the Marauders sat down just a few minutes after she did, one of them, Potter, she thought, seemingly in a rush.

She checked her watch and hurried to finish her food. It was almost 6:00. Quickly, she finished eating and grabbed her bag, heading to McGonagall's office. She knocked on the door. When she heard a muffled 'Come in', she opened the door and stepped inside. She took a seat opposite to McGonagall and waited. McGonagall looked up, then checked the clock in the corner of the room.

"We'll give him a few more minutes." She said. Elizabeth blinked.

"Give who a few more minutes, Professor?" She asked timidly. McGonagall opened her mouth to answer, but at that moment, there was a knock on the door, followed by it swinging open. James Potter stood, grinning at McGonagall.

"I'm here, Minnie! And not a minute late." He remarked. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. James looked at her.

"Who are you? I was under the impression this date was for Minnie and I alone. Way to be a third wheel."

Elizabeth scoffed. McGonagall did the same, though Elizabeth noticed she looked slightly amused.

"Mr. Potter, have a seat. You two will be writing lines for me. Ms. Tompson, you will write 'I will respect the rules' 100 times, and Mr. Potter, you will write 'I will speak respectfully to my elders' 100 times. I have business to attend to, I will be back in half an hour." She left the room without another word. Elizabeth pulled out parchment and a quill, James doing the same. She got to writing, determined to be done by the time McGonagall came back. James, however, spun the quill around, looking around the classroom.

"It seems my date has ditched me. Would you like to take her place?" He asked, turning to Elizabeth.

"I'd rather not, thanks." She said, still focusing on writing. James ignored the hostility in her voice and kept talking.

"What are you in here for? I was trying to make a joke in Transfiguration. Didn't go as planned."

"Seems like it." Elizabeth said, ignoring his question.

"But why are you here?"

"I fell asleep outside, missed curfew." Elizabeth said, keeping her answer as short as possible.

James clicked his tongue.

"Kind of a lame way to get detention, if you ask me. No offence if that was like your act of rebellion this year or something, but you probably could have done something a little bigger if you were going to get detention out of it anyways." James commented. Elizabeth stopped writing and turned to him.

"Listen, can you just let me finish this? I have no problem talking once we've finished writing these stupid lines, I just don't want to be stuck here any longer than I have to."

James made an "O" with his mouth, nodding. He then pulled out his wand and waved it at her paper, muttering something under his breath. Immediately, her paper filled with the sentence "I will respect the rules" in her handwriting. Elizabeth looked at James, shocked. He grinned.

"You get enough detentions, you figure it out. So, what's your name?"

Elizabeth couldn't even be mad.