The stars (Harry Potter fanfiction)

Chapter Forty

It's been a couple of weeks, and my hand is still tender from the detention.

Right now I'm behind Harry, and I'm picking the scabs that healed on my hand. I have a problem with not letting cuts heal.

"This is mad. Who'd wanna be taught by me? I'm a nutter, remember?" Harry asks, I sigh loudly and roll my eyes. But since I'm in the back they can't see that.

"Look on the bright side: you can't be any worse than old toad face," Ron tells Harry. I giggle a little at that, she does resemble a toad.

"Thanks, Ron."

"I'm here for you, mate."

"Who's supposed to be meeting us, then?" Harry questions Hermione. She lies and says. "Just a couple of people."

Ron then pushes the door open. And inside is a hog head on the wall. With a man standing there looking at us. And then a goat comes from behind him?

"That's odd," I speak, still staring into the door.

"Lovely spot," Ron says, still staring.

"Thought it would be safer off the beaten track." We all walk in, Hermione leading us to where everyone is.

And it's quite a lot of people.

I take a seat next to Ron. And continue to pick my scabs, Hermione gets up and starts talking."Hi... So you all know why we're here. We need a teacher. A proper teacher. One who's had experience defending themselves against the Dark Arts."

"Why?" Some kid asks, I turn and look at him and say. "Why? Because You-Know-Who's back, you tosspot."

"So he says." The kid replies to me. "So Dumbledore says," Hermione adds on, but the kid keeps going. "So Dumbledore says because he says."

"The point is, where's the proof?"

"The proof is up your arse."

The kid scoffs and looks away from me. While I roll my eyes, how could people pull away from someone who is trying to help?

Then the kid next to him starts talking. "If Potter could tell us more about how Diggory got killed..."

That catches me off guard and my face drops. Cedric is still a touchy subject, I don't like hearing anything about him.

Harry looks at me, and see's how my face looks. So he gets up from his chair and starts talking."I'm not gonna talk about Cedric, so if that's why you're here, clear out now." He then turns to Hermione and whispers to her.

"Come on, Hermione. They're here because they think I'm some sort of freak." He then starts to walk off. Before Luna starts talking.

"Is it true you can produce a Patronus Charm?" Harry doesn't say anything. Instead, he's silent, so I stand up and grab his hand and talk for him. "Yes."

"I've seen it."

Harry leans in and whispers to me. "You did it too." I nod and whisper back. "Yeah, I did. But it was you. You helped me."

Dean then speaks up. "Blimey, Harry. I didn't know you could do that." Then Neville starts talking. "And he killed a basilisk, with the sword in Dumbledore's office."

"It's true." Some other girl says.

"Third year, he fought off about a hundred Dementors at once," Ron says, smiling. Hermione then butts back in.

"Last year, he really did fight off You-Know-Who in the flesh."

"Wait," Harry tells her, letting go of my hand and walking further up. "Look, it all sounds great when you say it like that... but the truth is, most of that was just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I nearly always had help."

He then points to me and says. "Athena. She can produce the Patronus Charm too."

Everyone then looks at me, I smile and say. "He's just being modest. He was helping me."

"No, I wasn't Athena. I didn't have your wand and conjured your Patronus. That was all you." I roll my eyes at Harry and take my seat next to Ron again.

"Facing this stuff in real life is not like school. In school, if you make a mistake, you can just try again tomorrow. But out there... when you're a second away from being murdered... or watching a friend die right before your eyes... You don't know what that's like."

No one is talking, it's just awkward silence now. Hermione takes a seat and stares at Harry.

"You're right, Harry, we don't. That's why we need your help. Because if we're going to have any chance at beating... Voldemort..."

Hermione spoke his name, that's a big thing for her.

"He's really back." The kid who didn't believe Harry just a second ago says.

Harry nods his head slowly, then Hermione pulls out a parchment paper. And sets it on the desk in front of us. She writes her name down and passes the quill and paper down to us. Harry signs his name than Ron. Now it's my turn, I sign my name. Sloppy cursive is my handwriting.

I push the paper out towards everyone else. And place the quill next to it nicely.

Slowly everyone comes up and signs the paper. I look towards the line of people and notice Cho is staring this way, but not at me. It's Harry. I look over towards him and he's smiling at her, he notices me staring at him and looks over at me.

"What?" He asks me, I shake my head and reply with. "Nothing."

I put my head down, and block everyone else out.

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We're all now walking across the bridge. Harry talking to us and telling us what we need to do."Right. First, we need to find a place to practice... where Umbridge won't find out."

"The Shrieking Shack," Ginny shouts out, Harry shakes his head disagreeing with her.

"It's too small."

"Forbidden Forest?" Hermione suggests, Ron quickly shoots the question down. "Not bloody likely.

"Harry, what happens if Umbridge does find out?" Ginny asks him. "Who cares?" Hermione asks her.

"I mean, it's sort of exciting, isn't it, breaking the rules?" Hermione says, laughing a little bit. Merlin, I've never seen Hermione like this. It's kind of scary.

"Who are you and what have you done with Hermione?" Ron playfully asks her. Hermione giggles a little.

"Anyway, at least we know one positive thing that came from today."

"What's that?" Harry asks Hermione, she smirks before saying.

"Cho couldn't take her eyes off you, could she?"

When Hermione says that Harry smiles a little. I stand a little in the back, feeling hurt. He pays more attention to Cho than his actual girlfriend.

I walk in front of everybody, crossing my arms and walking off as fast as I can.

"Come on Athena it was a joke."

I ignore Hermione and continue walking away from them. Harry doesn't even say anything, what an amazing boyfriend he is.

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A/N

Harry is kind of a prick boyfriend. But that's my opinion.

-lei