When Anthony told Harry and Ron their detention was cleaning the Muggle Studies classroom with Slytherin's Pansy Parkinson, their expressions reminded him of the Skeleton Cat smelling Quirrell.
"Hermione will laugh herself to death," Ron muttered. "Parkinson!"
But they'd chosen this time themselves—Anthony originally scheduled daytime, but Harry said except for classes he had Quidditch training and asked if detention could be arranged for evening. Ron complained but also chose evening to serve detention with Harry.
They glared at each other fearlessly the moment they met Pansy. Even while serving detention, Pansy proudly declared this year's Quidditch Cup definitely belonged to Slytherin, and of course the House Cup too—just like all those previous years.
Pansy also mocked Harry's loneliness and Ron's poverty. This infuriated Harry and Ron. They retorted without backing down, mocking Pansy's stupidity and ugliness. If not for the professor standing aside, "having students clean the classroom" would probably become "asking house-elves to repair the classroom."
If Anthony weren't the one maintaining order, he'd say tonight's detention was quite spectacular. Pansy's cloth unconsciously landed on Ron's head ("Oh, I didn't see you."), Harry couldn't lift the mop bucket when dumping dirty water and soaked Pansy's socks through ("How did this happen! Too heavy, Professor."), and Ron accidentally knocked over a table while sweeping, fumbled dropping the broom when steadying the table, and it precisely hit Pansy ("Oops, ow! Sorry, Parkinson. I didn't see you either.").
But Harry seemed quite experienced with housework like cleaning. When Ron had to re-sweep dust stuck to the floor by water, he skillfully took the broom and pushed it to dry spots, movements so practiced as if he'd done it countless times.
After Anthony announced half an hour remained, all three silently quickened their pace. From the start, he'd divided work: Pansy wiped the blackboard and windowsills, Ron swept, Harry mopped. Each unwilling to have problems in their assigned area, couldn't bother sabotaging each other and only focused on handling their own troubles.
Honestly, there wasn't really anything worth cleaning—house-elves did excellently—but after a cleaning tool battle, the classroom gained some broken chalk, snapped broom twigs, and mop strips somehow separated from the main body. Dust originally on the floor appeared on the blackboard. Dead leaves from windowsills were pushed onto the floor.
What surprised Anthony was that half an hour later, the entire classroom became spotless again, as if these three had never come. Students' potential was astonishingly great—they actually showed some degree of cooperation. When Pansy's cloth fell to the floor, Harry even picked it up for her. Then when Ron swept, Pansy silently made way and didn't block his cleaning path with her water-soaked shoes that squelched when stepped on.
He couldn't find fault and had to tell the three they'd completed their work and could return to dormitories. Harry and Ron returned looking relieved. Pansy followed behind them gloomily, realizing she still had detention next week.
Saturday arrived in a flash. The Quidditch pitch was packed. The sun hung high in the sky. To let Dumbledore attend smoothly, this match was scheduled for afternoon.
Anthony sat beside Professor Flitwick. Ravenclaw students were far less enthusiastic about Quidditch than Gryffindor. Their house had no match today, so most stayed in the castle, each busy with their own affairs, just waiting to know the result before calculating points.
He'd thought Slytherin should be similar, but many Slytherin students were also in the stands—because they never liked sitting with other houses, this group wearing various silver-green decorations was quite easy to identify—they clearly desired Gryffindor's defeat and would even support Hufflepuff for this.
"Wait—is that Snape?" Anthony pointed at the figure beside Madam Hooch holding a broom.
"Yes, he's today's match referee," Professor Flitwick said. From his tone, Hufflepuff had definitely won today.
Anthony guessed he couldn't watch a fair Quidditch match again. Quite disadvantageous for understanding this sport. He looked around and realized many weren't here to watch the match. They came to watch the drama.
"Snape blows the whistle—all right, Professor Snape—match begins," Lee Jordan's voice came over. "Hufflepuff gets the Quaffle first, charges ahead, dodges interception, very spectacular—beautiful! Weasley twins with a Bludger, seize initiative—ball's now in Alicia Spinnet's hands, well done, Gryffindor team's fresh blood—wait, why did the referee whistle?"
Snape indicated Gryffindor fouled and awarded Hufflepuff a penalty. Wood glared furiously at Snape and raised his hand signaling players to obey the referee.
Two minutes later, Snape unreasonably awarded Hufflepuff another penalty. Even Hufflepuff students looked uncomfortable. Anthony heard them discussing quietly, "What is this," "Completely unfair." Hufflepuff Quidditch team's captain looked inquiringly at Wood. Wood nodded to him while breathing deeply. Only then did he let his player shoot with a straight face.
Slytherin was delighted instead, as if they were the team being arbitrarily favored. If not for players wearing yellow jerseys on the pitch, Anthony would almost think he was watching a third Gryffindor-Slytherin match.
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