Detention

[haro]

Honestly. Some people were too uptight for their own good.

Mercedes sighed, and wearily wiped a spot of grime from the large trophy nestled in her lap. Only an hour into her detention, and her arms were already feeling leaden. It was not too surprising; the Hufflepuff team captain had been steadily increasing not only the level of difficulty of their training, but also the duration. Just earlier that evening, Mercedes had been forced to practice catching the snitch at differing angles for nearly three hours.

Laying her rag over the jar of polish, Mercedes examined the trophy critically, searching for any spots she might have missed. Out of all the detentions she could have been given, cleaning and polishing the trophies was not so bad. After all, she had noticed just the other day how grimy some of the plaques and cups were starting to look. Besides, this sort of work could even be enjoyable at times. Monotonous as it might be, Mercedes liked the feeling of accomplishment that came with seeing a tangible result to her hard work. No, what irked her was the principle of the matter.

As she always did when she needed to relax or work off some steam, Mercedes had slipped down to the kitchens after Quidditch practice to make a cup a tea and to chat with the house elves. Or rather, Mercedes would talk, and the house elves would pipe in when they felt comfortable. It was not until much later did she notice that it was nearly half an hour after curfew, and not two minutes after she had left the kitchens she was caught by Filch. He, being the crotchety old man he was, told the strictest professor he could find about her infraction. The Arithmancy professor was a wizened old lady who took every opportunity she could to harp on the laziness of this new generation of students. All those in her class that were not precisely punctual were punished harshly, her most favorite punishment being an essay on the merits of punctuality, though she was not above handing out detentions.

Groaning as sore muscles protested, Mercedes pushed herself to her feet, trophy in hand, and shuffled over to a cabinet. Only three more shelves to go, and she would be able to finally get some sleep.