Work Text:
Harry Potter was exhausted.
Not just tired but exhausted to the point he felt like he was about to pass out.
Harry hadn't been able to get much sleep the past few days.
School classes started at 8:40 but you had to get up at least by 8 if you were going to be able to get any food. School classes ended at 4:30 giving students less than 2 hours before supper. Then an additional 3-4 hours after that curfew would start. Students had to be in the common room area by 9:30pm and be in bed at 10:30pm.
But timing wasn't Harry's issue, it was Umbridge. She had been giving Harry detentions every day this week keeping Harry there from just after 6:30 till midnight. And each time she would have harry write in that horrible quill. It ripped through his skin, etching the words into his hand again and again. An interesting thing about the quill is that with each new phrase it would go to a different location on his left arm [from near his elbow down], and copy of a phrase already done would be in the same space even if it would be days after writing last one. If he wasn't careful with how hard he would press down on the page and how large he wrote, he would tear into skin much deeper or wider making him bleed more and the phrase not be legible. Umbridge hated if he messed up to the point it was impossible to read, she wanted him to be able to see his punishment. She wanted him to learn from his detentions.
With the mountains of homework he was getting and the detentions that would take place Harry wasn't able to get to sleep till at least 3 in the morning as he would struggle to get back to the common rooms with his arm bleeding out, weak from lack of blood and all. Only then would he be able to try and finish up on any lasting homework. Harry desperately wanted to do well in his classes. He wanted to be an auror some day, and with that he would need good grades. So Harry tried desperately to get his work done as fast as possible.
Harry tried to keep his head down, he tried to not address Umbridge. He tried not to get in her way like McGonigal said, but Umbridge found she loved tormenting Harry. She would giggle quietly to herself if Harry was in a lot of pain from the quill and she would constantly take points from Harry if he so much as coughed in class.
So no matter what Harry did he would always wind up in her detention at 6:30 to do lines it sank in, which would always be till midnight.
"I must not tell lies" - Harry's first detention. He simply said the truth.
"I must respect the lessons" - Harry's second detention. He simply yawned not used to staying up so late.
"I must answer when asked" - Harry's third detention. He simply didn't hear her.
"I must respect authority" - Harry's fourth detention. He simply didn't greet her properly.
"I deserve to be punished" - Harry's fifth detention. Harry argued back, that it wasn't fair. He never tried to fight her again after that, he had to write for extra time, he almost passed out from the pain.
Each phrase burned into his skin and would leave him with a bloody arm, sometime the pain would be worse depending on where the line would be on his arm.
Hermione had gotten Harry to tell McGonigal about it, but McGonigal wouldn't listen to him.
All Harry could say was, "Professor I.. am having some trouble with Umbridge-"
Before he could continue or even broach the topic of the blood quill, she quickly cut him off with a stern "Keep your head down Potter. It is not time to be so brave and honorable, you need to learn to keep your mouth shut! You always somehow get yourself into trouble, please try not to aggravate Professor Umbridge. Umbridge isn't simply a strict teacher please try to understand that she is from the ministry and there is nothing I can do. "
So Harry gave up he could barely get any peace from Umbridge. He was worried that telling anyone would else would just make things so much worse.