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Harry sighed in frustration as he leaned back against the wall. He glanced over to see that Flitwick was still engrossed in paperwork, grading the previous lesson. Harry took advantage of that to put aside the trophy he was cleaning before anyone noticed. He had been doing that a lot during this detention, pretending to work on cleaning trophies, but he simply could not concentrate much. He knew he could never get away with it if it had been Snape overseeing his detention, but things were much easier with Flitwick.
Flitwick took a short look at Harry, ensuring that he was working, before pulling out the next parchment to check.
Harry once more switched the trophy in his hand for another one. His mind refused to focus on the task at hand this lovely spring evening. He wished he was outside practicing Quidditch with Ron or perhaps tending to Hedwig, but no! He was stuck in here for a long while.
For some stupid reason, all he could think about was an activity he saw children back home do: jump rope. He remembered how when he was younger, he used to watch them go skipping down the road. He often wondered what that was like until he had once borrowed Dudley’s rope to try it out. It had been fun!
He switched trophies once more before his mind wandered off outside without him again.
He wondered if Ron knew about this activity. Hermione certainly would. He envisioned her showing Ron how to do it, using Harry as an example.
Harry could picture it now...
He imagined the three of them on the beach of Black Lake. Hermione had her long dark blue rope, which she used a few times before giving it to Harry. Both demonstrated to Ron how to use it before letting him have a go at it.
Ron’s first attempt did not go well at all. He promptly tripped over it, landing head-first into the water. Hermione went to help him up as Harry turned his face away, hiding a laugh. Fortunately, the weather was warm, allowing Ron to dry off rather quickly. The three of them moved away from the water a little before trying again.
“I say, Mr. Potter, are you alright?” Professor Flitwick asked, waving a hand in front of Harry’s eyes.
“Hmm?” Harry blinked. He had been staring across the classroom for a while, the half-polished trophy still in his hands. “Oh, yes, I’m fine. Sorry, Sir.” He automatically put the trophy back as if he had completely finished it before grabbing the next one to start working on that.
“Very well, then,” Professor Flitwick said. “You seem to be doing these quite nicely. Very fast, my boy. Keep it up. You’re almost finished.”
“Yes, Sir,” Harry answered, feeling a little guilty for doing only a half-assed job for Flitwick. He liked this Professor, but this entire day was nothing more than a discombobulated mess in his head.
He pretended to be very interested in cleaning this one for a long while. He swiped the cloth over the golden edges as he tried to read the name written on it. Jason… Jason…something or other. It had something to do with earning a whole bunch of OWL’s, anyway. It worked for a minute or two, but the warm air pressed in harder into the stuffy classroom, eventually making Harry’s mind wander off, once more.
He found himself daydreaming about being near the lake with his friends, again. By now, Ron was skipping like a pro, so Hermione wanted to take it up a notch. She was now showing Ron the Double Dutch version of the game.
She conjured a second rope before giving Harry the ends of both. She stretched both out before swishing the ropes in tight, circular motions with Harry to show Ron what they looked like. Next, she gave her ends to Ron before going into the middle.
While Ron swished the ropes with Harry ...
CLANG!
Harry snapped out of his daydream as he dropped the trophy.
“Oh my!” Flitwick squeaked.
“Sorry, Sir! It slipped!” Harry tried to cover for the fact that he had literally just fallen asleep for a moment or two.
“Best give it a quick wipe,” Flitwick said. “Make sure it didn’t pick up any dirt from the floor.”
“Right, Sir,” Harry muttered, not wanting to announce the fact that all he had been doing was, in fact, giving them ‘quick wipes’ today. Just enough to remove the primary layer of dust to make it look like he had done something.
Harry put it back on the shelf before glancing left, down the long line. He had almost twenty more to do. A brilliant idea struck him, just then. Wondering if he could pull it off, he looked around to see what Flitwick was up to at the moment.
The little guy was currently on a pile of books, reaching up to put another one away.
In a quick movement, Harry swiped the cloth he had been using over the tops of the following four trophies, taking off just the bit of dust on their tops. Checking back behind him, he could see Flitwick coming back down. Well, at least he had pretended to do a few more in a row. Harry quickly picked the next one before heading to the desk farthest away from the Professor. Harry sat down, holding the cloth on the trophy as if he had been cleaning it.
Now, where was he, again? Oh, right. Hermione was about to jump into the two swishing ropes to show Ron how it was done.
Hermione was a pro at this, better than even Harry who had never gone this far in the jump-rope games.
After a few minutes of Hermione jumping over both ropes at the same time, she decided it was time for Ron to try it out.
“What, you mean, get in the middle like that?” Ron asked apprehensively.
“Oh, come on, Ron!” Hermione exclaimed. “It’s fun. I’m sure you’ll be great at it!” She pushed him to the middle. “Just try it. I’m sure you’ll do fine!”
The funny thing about daydreams was that one could imagine anything they wanted.
Harry knew that if Ron ever tried this in real life, he would most likely trip up the first few times. So Ron did precisely that in Harry’s daydream three whole times before getting the hang of it.
“See? I told you,” Hermione said as Ron barely kept the pace. So far, he had gone almost a minute without messing up, finally.
“Think I can beat your score, Hermione?” Ron teased as he stopped for a moment. Of course, this made him mess everything up.
Hermione stared at him, rolling her eyes. “You will have to start over if you want to try.”
Ron sighed heavily before attempting all that again. It took a few tries, but eventually, he finally beat her score by one point; although, Harry knew Ron could do better but he wouldn’t want to outdo Hermione, much.
By now, Harry had switched out several trophies, each one decidedly looking a little more dusty than the previous ones. Harry grabbed the last one. He gave it one good swipe before saying, “Professor, I think I’m done now.”
Harry put that back on the shelf, a higher one just above Flitwick’s height so that he could not inspect it closely. He glanced over the trophies he had pretended to wash, hoping the ruse was good enough to fool the Professor for now.
“Well, that was rather speedy,” Flitwick said. “I’m impressed! I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”
“Yes, Sir. Goodnight,” Harry said, walking out. Flitwick had been impressed with him. Great! Harry felt worse now, knowing he deliberately did not do a good job, but he just could not concentrate this evening.
But as he headed to Gryffindor Tower, Harry wondered if he could make this daydream a reality! He was sure Hermione would love the idea, so he decided to ask her about it the moment he found her.
It would definitely be fun to teach Ron how to skip rope! Fun? Or perhaps funny! Harry smiled as he climbed up to the dormitory with that thought in mind.
