Slughorn bustled around his office pulling out various shades of pastel stationary and various colors of ink. James Potter and Scorpius Malfoy were due to arrive anytime, to write out invitations to a select group of students; known unofficially as the "Slug Club". He placed the stationary and bottles next to a jar of quills and took his seat.

James actually arrived on time for his punishment. Surprising...Never-the-less, James was resigned to his punishment with the Malfoy boy. And whatever Slughorn had planned for them, he was resigned to that too. James knocked on the Professor's office door, his bag at his side.

Scorpius arrived just behind James. He said nothing -at first-, but the loathing in his eyes spoke volumes. "Are you going to knock?" He asked slowly, as if speaking to a mentally handicapped person. He had missed the previous knock.

He held out his hand and moved with exaggerated slowness, "like this...". He knocked twice.

James rolled his eyes, exasperated. "I already covered that, thanks." He stated simply, restraining his anger. One thing about the Potter boys, they had a mean temper. James had to keep his under control. He leaned against the wall next to the door, awaiting Slughorn to open the door. Why did he have to be so slow? It was agonizing standing outside with Scorpius. Any minute he could lose it and end up with more detention.

Slughorn leaned against the door from the inside of his office, his ear pressed up against the hard wood. He chuckled softly. I think I'll leave them out there for a few minutes longer. It'll do them some good. Force them to play nice.

He shifted his weight and continued to listen to the conversation on the other side of his office door.

Scorpius scowled but could think of nothing to say in turn. He took a turn at knocking again. His hand accidentally bumped James' arm on the way up to the door.

"Sorry," he muttered quickly, though the tone of his voice was anything but apologetic. He didn't want to give James any reason to start another duel.

"Sounds like it." James muttered back sarcastically, crossing his arms in the most characteristic James Potter way. He chewed on his lip, forcing away any raging emotions in his body. He half-turned to look at Scorpius. "Look, I really don't want to get in trouble any more than I am and I'm not in the mood to play Cyrano with you. So what do you say? Truce? For now to say the least?" James figured a negotiation would work best, and this was the only way he knew how to handle it.

Scorpius gave James a sharp look, immediately suspecting him of some sort of mischievousness. "Whatever," he replied, neither committing himself to a truce or denying the offer. He looked away from James and knocked on the door again, "professor?!"

James was taken aback. His head shot back a bit and he blinked in surprise. His expression then changed indignantly. "Fine. I was just trying to do us both a favor." James responded, settling against the wall again. He was impatient for Slughorn to open the door, but he didn't voice it. That wasn't his way.

Instead he gazed at the opposite wall and began thinking about Teddy's wedding. What if he ended up being the ring bearer or something horrible like that? No. Al or Hugo would be the ring bearer and Adrielle or Lily would be the flower girl. Thank god. No, he'd probably end up as one of the best men or something. That wasn't bad.

Professor Slughorn frowned with disappointment on the other side of the door. He had hoped Malfoy would've been a bit more agreeable. At least Potter was attempting to patch things up.

The door burst open and Slughorn stood to the side. "Come in!" He announced jubilantly, as if he were the host of a party. "I've placed stationary and quills on that table there. I realize the table is awfully small, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to share the space."

The table was designed to fit one person; and a very small person at that. Slughorn placed their assignment in a small space, on purpose, to test their ability to remain calm under pressure. After all, it'd be easy to avoid a fight if life was peachy-perfect. They needed to learn how to avoid a fight when the situation practically demanded a fight.

James turned, peering into Slughorn's office with slight distaste. As Slughorn gestured to the small table, James had to hold back a groan. He'd done this purposefully. Slughorn was much more devious than he looked. Never-the-less, James dumped his bag next to a chair and sat down, pulling the parchment and quills towards him. "So what are we doing? Writing lines? Thou shalt not fight or what?"

Scorpius stepped into the office and stood looking blankly at the table. You have got to be kidding me. "Professor? This won't work." It was plain and simple. They'd be too crowded, and the thought of being that close to the Potter kid made Scorpius want to scream in agony.

He addressed James first, "Oh, you'll be writing out invitations to a handful of students." He waved his hands toward a sample letter. "Read that one, and copy it out 100 times. Lord knows I won't be inviting THAT many students," he chuckled, "but it wouldn't hurt to have some extra copies on hand. One-hundred letters, from the both of you."

"Oh, be sure to sign my name with large loopy letters. If it doesn't look like my signature, then you'll have to start over again."

"Stop your whining, m'boy, and pull up a chair!" His voice was firm but full of mirth. "If you don't finish these letters tonight, you're more than welcome to come back for another night." He paused, "of course, both of you will have to come back, even if only one of you finishes, so do help each other out, won't you?" His grin might have seemed friendly if it weren't for the threat behind it.

James grunted and pulled the sample letter towards himself. He was always good about accepting punishment. You could say it was his full time job. He read the letter, memorizing each sentence before pulling out a single piece of parchment and beginning to copy.

James copied each line to the dot, until reaching the very end. Then came Slughorn's signature. Joy. James began carefully copying...before hitting Scorpius's elbow. A line went straight through his entire work and he groaned, crumbling the paper and tossing it in the rubbish bin.

Scorpius was just about to finish his first letter when James bumped his elbow. "Watch it, Potter!" He hissed, "You might want to come back for another night of this, but I intend on finishing." His eyes darted over to Slughorn. He hated being watched this closely, "just move over a bit. Please." The last word sounded almost polite.

"I would if I could, but as you can see, I can't. You're out of lucky kid." James stated icily, pulling another piece of parchment toward himself and began writing again. He worked slowly to make sure everything was right. One hundred of those stupid invites each was a lot. It was going to take forever to do all of this. Never-the-less, James finished four in a matter of a few minutes. At least he was getting somewhere. However, he was having trouble with Slughorn's signature stuff. He'd never had very good handwriting.

Scorpius fought down the urge to jump out of his chair and kick the ridiculously tiny table across the room. Breathe in, breathe out 10-9-8..... He was beginning to hate numbers. He scowled at James. Numbers weren't the only thing he was beginning to hate.

Eventually he figured out that if he waited for James to write on the far side of his paper, he could write on his own paper without being bumped. As long as he kept up the same pace, they'd never bump elbows. Though, keeping up the pace wasn't as easy as he thought it'd be. His hand started to ache after the fifth letter and he couldn't keep up.

He dropped his quill, and worked out the kinks in his muscles. I can't go on like this. This is insanity. He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. God, how long is this going to take....

James grunted as his hand started to ache. He flexed his fingers and continued, moving on to his sixth piece of parchment. "Professor Slughorn, this will take hours. I understand that this is our punishment, but it's rather impractical. One hundred invitations will take hours to write out. And I'm sure that somewhere along the way, mistakes will be made and probably go unnoticed. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be forward, but it just seems like an unfair punishment to me." James didn't want to be rude, but it did seem a bit excessive, even for a fight as small as theirs.

"Have a difficult time, are you?" He smiled, almost ruefully. He had to admit, that this detention was bound to be unbearable for the two boys. Though, detention wasn't supposed to be easy, or fun.

"Then perhaps the lesson will be learned by the time the two of you have finished." He picked up a first year potions essay and started to mark it, "just be glad I'm not having you grade papers. If you made any mistakes in grading, you'd be accountable to both me AND the students." He chuckled, "when you put matters into perspective, this detention isn't all that bad, now is it?"

Scorpius couldn't help but smirk victoriously. James was having a hard time at it and that fact made Scorpius feel like there really was some amount of justice in the world. Of course, he was being punished too - but Scorpius loved that James seemed to be suffering.

"Aw, it'll be alright Potter. I'll finish your half for you if your hand gets too tired." He wouldn't, of course, but making the offer put a smile on his face.

Slughorn postively beamed at the young Malfoy. "That's the spirit, m'boy!" He continued giving praise, "I'll have to let your father know how well you're getting along."

He picked up a small tin of yellow candies and placed them on the already crowded table. "Have a treat!"