Detention with Dolores

No one can stop talking about what happened between Harry Potter and Professor Umbridge in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. It seems that all of the Hogwarts students truly want to know what is going on. After Dumbledore told the students the truth at the end of the school year the previous year, they all went home to their parents, all of whom were reading a Daily Prophet busy pandering to the Ministry of Magic and making Harry and Dumbledore sound like fools. 

When Fred and George try out their joke sweets on some first-year students, Hermione rounds on the twins. She threatens them not with detention but with a note to their mom, Mrs. Weasley. This stops Fred and George dead in their tracks.  

Up to her own tricks, Hermione then takes out some strange knitted hats and begins leaving them around the common room. Her plan is to have the Hogwarts House Elves mistakenly pick them up as “clothes” to get free. (Obtaining clothes is the only way a House Elf can be freed from servitude.) Hermione’s cause for the Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare, SPEW, continues.

As the professors continue to impress upon the students how important their O.W.L.s are, Harry is more worried about the absence of Hagrid and about the fact that none of the students at Hogwarts seems to believe him about Voldemort. When they go to their Care of Magical Creatures class, Professor Grubbly-Plank refuses to tell Harry where Hagrid is. 

Suddenly, Harry is presented with one true believer: Luna Lovegood. She strides up to Harry and tells him in front of everyone that she believes his story. Unfortunately, she is wearing radish earrings that undermine her credibility. 

After being told off in the Great Hall by Angelina for having to miss Quidditch tryouts due to detention, Harry heads off to Professor Umbridge’s office to serve out his punishment. Detention with Umbridge is unparalleled torture because of the special quill she has Harry use. As Harry begins to write what he thinks are regular “lines” (namely “I must not tell lies”), they magically become etched in the flesh on the back of Harry’s hand, causing excruciating pain. Professor Umbridge smiles at Harry’s discomfort, but Harry refuses to let her see his displeasure. 

Professor Umbridge uses the horrible quill on Harry each night of detention. Finally, as Ron admits that he is trying out for the Quidditch team, he realizes the scar on the back of Harry’s hand. During Harry’s last Friday detention, Harry tries to watch the Quidditch tryouts through the pain of writing his lines with the special quill. At the end of detention, Professor Umbridge takes Harry’s hand in order to survey the damage. As she does so, Harry’s lighting bolt scar sears with pain. Harry thinks this might be a connection between Umbridge and Voldemort. Hermione suggests that Harry tell this to Dumbledore, but Harry is to upset with Dumbledore to do so.  Meanwhile, the Griffindor Common Room erupts in cheers for Ron who has just made the Quidditch Team, as Keeper.