Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

76. Detention with Dolores

Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not a pleasant experience for Y/n. The news about his and Harry's shouting match with Umbridge had travelled exceptionally fast even by Hogwarts' standards. They heard whispers all around as he sat eating next to Hermione. The funny thing was that none of the whisperers seemed to mind either of them overhearing what they were saying about the two. On the contrary, it was as though they were hoping one would get angry and start shouting again, so that they could hear the story first hand.

"He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered... "

"He reckons he dueled with You-Know-Who..."

"Come off it..."

"Who does he think he's kidding?"

"Pur-lease..."

"He's just covering for himself."

"They say he did it you know..."

"What I don't get." said Harry through clenched teeth, laying down his knife and fork as his hands were shaking 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." said Hermione grimly. "Oh, let's get out of here."

She slammed down her own knife and fork. Y/n pushed his half-eaten dinner forward and got up. Ron looked longingly at his half-finished apple pie but followed suit. People stared at them all the way out of the Hall.

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

"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened." said Hermione quietly. "You and Y/n arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body...none of us saw what 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!" said Harry loudly.

"I know it is, Harry, so will you please stop biting my head off?" said Hermione 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, Y/n's a murderer and Dumbledore's going senile!"

Rain pounded on the windowpanes as they strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. Harry glanced out of a rain-washed window at the dark grounds as they turned into the Fat Lady's corridor. There was still no light in Hagrid's cabin.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia." said Hermione, before the Fat Lady could ask. The portrait swung open to reveal the hole behind it and the four of them scrambled through it.

The common room was almost empty, nearly everyone was still down at dinner. Noctis and Crookshanks uncoiled themselves from one another on an armchair and trotted to meet them, purring loudly, and when Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione took their four favorite chairs at the fireside Noctis leaped lightly onto Y/n's lap and curled up there like a furry black cushion. Y/n gazed into the flames, feeling drained and exhausted.

"How can Dumbledore have let this happen?" Hermione cried suddenly, making Harry and Ron jump as she pounded the arms of her chair in fury, so that bits of stuffing leaked out of the holes. "How can he let that terrible woman teach us? And in our OWL year, too!"

"Well, we've never had great Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" said Harry.

"We had Professor Lupin in third year." Y/n quickly reminded him as he began to stroke Noctis.

"Yes, but you know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job, they say it's jinxed." Harry said.

"But to employ someone who's actually refusing to let us do magic! What's Dumbledore playing at?" Hermione said.