At seven, the three of us split and head for our Detentions. I knocked on the door to Professor Quirrell office, and a stuttering voice answered.
"C...come in."
I opened the door and entered the office. In the center of the room sat a desk, in the corner of the room was large book case. Professor Quirrell sat at the desk. Looking nervous as usual.
" Ah Miss P...Potter." He greeted nervously.
"Professor." I replied politely.
"Up to no g...good aren't we p...potter." He joked and I shrugged.
"All in the name of academic pursuit Professor." I replied. He gave me a twitchy grin.
"I...indeed. Now tonight y...you will be s...sorting my e...essays by l...letter g...grade." He told me handing me a huge pile of graded essays.
"Of course sir." I replied taking the pile.
"I shall c...continue grading. See that f...filing cabinet?" He asked and I nodded. "They are m...marked with a l...letter grade. P...put the a...appropriate essay into the c...correct cabinet. U...understood?"
"Should be easy enough" I replied, as Professor Quirrell went back to grading.
I began to go through the essays. It was simple enough, put Exceed Expectations here, Troll there, Acceptable over there. Though it was dull, I was easy, and thinking back to Lisa, I was thankful.
"Let's see E goes here. T's in this drawer, O up here there." I thought to myself.
I read the next one, it wasn't graded? I looked at the paper confused. It was a essay on dangerous creatures.
An example of a dangerous creature is as follows.
Creature: Quirinus Quirrell
Cannot communicate (Stutters)
Habitat smells like Garlic.
Turban makes weird smell
Dangerously incompetent.
I read the essay disgusted, there was no name, only insult after insult directed at Professor Quirrell. I was once again reminded of the many times Dudley and his friends had bullied me.
"Miss P...potter?" Professor Quirrell voice surprised me as I looked up to see him. "You're detention is f...finished."
"Oh..."
"I'll t...take it from h...here." He told me, snatching away the paper and reading it, his face growing more twitchy with every word.
"H...Heh. Very...funny fourth y...years." He said shakily, then threw the paper into a pile in the corner. I noticed it had a lot of essays in it. "Must h...have missed i...it."
"Sir, whoever wrote that is horrible." I told him sadly.
"I...it's fine P...potter. Some a...adolescent's jokes d...don't affect m...me. N...now I w...would hate to t...take up any m...more of y...your evening." He replied, motioning to the door as it flew open.
I didn't leave, I grabbed a bunch of papers and began to read. All of them where insults, filled with the same sort of insults as the first one.
"Sir, how many of these do you get?" I asked sadly.
"Miss P...Potter, the j...jokes your s...schoolmates play o...on your P...Professors s...should be the least o...of your w...worries." He replied, the look on his face told a different story.
"But I do worry sir." I began as he looked up at me.
"W...why?" He asked, and I couldn't hold back.
"When I was Eight, my cousin Dudley had his friends send me Valentine cards. They said that I looked like a skeleton, and my clothes where ugly, and my hair was a mess. Then they spread them throughout the school and everyone was laughing at me." I began sadly,
"I'm s...sorry to h...hear that Miss P...potter." Professor Quirrell replied, looking at me with an...odd expression.
"Then after school that day, Dudley and his friends chased me and Harry to a local park. I couldn't run as fast as Harry and they caught me without Harry noticing. For the next twenty minutes they told me I would never be anything, that no one would help me, that no one would ever care." I continued, and I could feel small trickle of tears sliding down my cheeks.
Professor Quirrell looked at me speechless, as I continued.
"Finally, Harry noticed I hadn't run off with him. So he came back and distracted the boys, they ran after him and I managed to slip away. And I realized that no matter what those boy's said, I'd always have someone, I'd always have Harry."
"W...what are y...you getting at M...Miss P...Potter?" He asked.
"What I'm trying to say. It doesn't matter that if you're a Professor or not, what those kids are doing is bullying and wrong. It bothers me...and I just want you to know. It's all rubbish. Bullies opinions don't matter." I told him firmly.
"D...don't worry M...Miss P...Potter. Like I s...said, I w...won't let s...some adolescent j...jokes a...affect me." He assured me, and I nodded.
"Good, just wanted to make sure sir. And know that some of us do appreciate you, and your lessons. " I said as I turned for the door.
"Your C...cousin's and h...is f...friends shouldn't h...have done t...that e...either." He said before I walked out the door.
"They do a lot of thing's they shouldn't sir...well good night." I replied.
"Good n...night Miss P...potter." He replied, as I turned and walked out the door.
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