Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 24 ⚡️

The dinner that night in the Great Hall was definitely one of the worst that Vega had ever experienced in her time at Hogwarts. She had not even wanted to come down to eat – mainly because she felt like she was filled up to the brim with something else, and there was no place for her to shove food inside. And not to mention, there wasn't enough energy in Vega to deal with all sorts of rumours this year around as well.

News about their shouting match with Umbridge seemed to have travelled exceptionally fast – even by Hogwarts standards. Vega could hear every single whisper around them as she sat down to eat with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

It was funny because none of the whisperers seemed to mind that the two of them may overhear them. On the contrary, it was as though they were hoping either one of them would get angry and start shouting again, so that they could hear their story first-hand.

"They say they saw Cedric Diggory murdered..."

"They reckon they duelled with You-Know-Who..."

"Come off it..."

"Who do they think they're kidding?"

"Puh-lease..."

"What I don't get," Harry said in a shaking voice, laying down his knife and fork as his hands were trembling too much to hold them steady. "Is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them..."

"The thing is, Harry, I'm not sure they did," Hermione said grimly and Vega frowned as she played with her sticky toffee pudding. "Oh, let's get out of here,"

Hermione slammed down her own knife and fork; Ron looked sadly at his half-finished apple pie but followed suit. Vega was starting to have a nice time eating her own dessert, too, but she was happier leaving the Great Hall. People stared at the four of them all the way out of the Hall.

"What do you mean, you're not sure they believed Dumbledore?" Harry asked Hermione when they reached the first-floor landing up the marble staircase.

"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," Hermione said quietly. "You two arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body... None of us saw what happened in the maze... We just had Dumbledore's word for it that You-Know-Who had come back and killed Cedric and fought you,"

"Which is the truth!" Harry said loudly.

"I know it is, Harry, so will you please stop biting my head off?" Hermione responded wearily. "It's just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase, Vega's a traitor, and Dumbledore's going senile!"

Rain was pounding on the windowpanes as they strode along the empty corridors back to the Gryffindor Tower. Vega slowed down until she was a few feet behind her friends, wanting to keep a distance between her friends and herself. She stared out to the dark skies that rumbled and lit up periodically with the sound of thunder and sight of lightning.

The sight of the clouds reminded Vega of her Patronus and she wondered if she would ever get to use it again – she didn't want to use it against Dementors but it had been okay to use them against dragons or people who threatened her. Vega's shoulders slackened as she remembered how Crouch Junior had been administered a Dementor's Kiss.

Vega glanced toward her friends and then looked away, feeling like they wouldn't understand what she was feeling whenever she remembered the way Crouch Junior had treated her. Would they understand her if she told them that she had felt violated every time that man had even looked at her?