Daylight || Harry Potter

Chapter Ten

Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not a pleasant experience, especially not for Harry. The news about his shouting match with Umbridge seemed to have traveled exceptionally fast even by Hogwarts standards. There were whispers all around us as we sat eating.

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

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

"Come off it..."

"Who does he think he's kidding?"

"Pur-lease..."

"Do they think we're deaf or something?" Ron muttered as he picked at his apple pie. He seemed to be getting upset on our behalf, which was endearing, but not exactly necessary.

"I think they're hoping we'll hear them," I told him. "Or that Harry will lash out at them and they can get the whole story from Harry himself."

"What I don't get," said Harry in a shaking voice, laying down his knife and fork with trembling hands, "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. She huffed in exasperation. "Oh, let's get out of here."

She slammed down her own knife and fork; Ron looked sadly at his half-finished apple pie.

"Just wrap it up and take it, Ron," I told him, handing him a napkin. Ron perked up as he took my proffered napkin and we both followed after Harry and Hermione. I'd been planning on waiting for Luke so I could rant about Umbridge, but I'd have to do it later when it didn't feel like everyone was staring and whispering about us.

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

"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," said Hermione quietly. "You 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!" 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 and Dumbledore's going senile!"

Rain pounded on the windowpanes as we strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. It felt like the first day back had lasted a week, but I still had a mountain of homework to do before bed. I glanced out of a rain-washed window at the dark grounds as we 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 and we all scrambled back through it.

The common room was almost empty; nearly everyone was still down at dinner. Crookshanks uncoiled himself from an armchair and trotted up to meet us, purring loudly. We sat by the fireplace, Harry, Ron, and Hermione in their favorite squashy armchairs, and me on a cushion on the ground to one side of the coffee table. Crookshanks leapt lightly into Hermione's lap and curled up there like a furry ginger cushion. I gazed into the flames, feeling drained and exhausted.

"Hey, guys." We looked up and saw Luke heading in. "I was coming up from training when I saw you guys leaving the Great Hall early. Did something happen?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "Stupid people talking about Harry and Ash."

"That sucks," Luke said sympathetically.