Harry Potter Male Reader Insert - Book 2

Chapter 5. Lockhart

1

Now at Hogwarts. They all woke up the next day, refreshed, and no grin was on Y/N's face as usual, and Harry's face was not grinning also. Things went downhill from breakfast in the Great Hall. The four long House tables were laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and dishes of eggs and bacon, beneath the enchanted ceiling that presented a dull, cloudy gray in its view. The Gryffindor four sat at their house table. Hermione had her copy of Voyages with Vampires open against a milk jug. Her greeting was sharp as they all came and sat, as she was still standing against Harry and Ron's arrival. And to Y/N, she was better, kinder, like she had always treated him, because why would she not be, was her thought before and after. With Neville Longbottom, it was the opposite: Harry and Ron got spoken to more cheerfully and to Y/N just the same plain greet as always. But Y/N couldn't care less about the boy. And Neville was a boy with the worst memory that Harry and Y/N had ever known.

„Mail's due any minute. I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot."

They had only just started to eat when a rustling sound came above, and a hundred owls flew in, circling the hall and dropping letters and parcels into the chattering crowd as if it rained a heavy rain. A big, lumpy package bounced off Neville's head, and a second later, something gray fell into Hermione's jug, spraying them all with milk and feathers. Y/N stared and grimaced but said no word.

„Errol!" Ron said, pulling the owl out. Eroll lay unconscious on the table with his legs in the air and a red envelope in his beak.

„Oh, no."

„It's all right. He's still alive," Hermione said, touching the owl lightly with her finger.

„It's not that. It's that," Ron said and pointed at the envelope. It looked normal to them, but Ron and Neville did look at it with scared eyes.

„What's the matter?" Harry asked, confused.

„She has . . . She's sent me a howler," Ron said, sounding faint.

„You'd better open it, Ron," Neville whispered. „It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one, and I ignored it. It was horrible."

Harry glanced at the envelope and back at them. Y/N and Hermione glanced at each other briefly.

„What'a Howler?" he asked, but Ron's whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners.

„Open it," Neville urged bitterly. „It'll all be over in a few minutes."

Ron stretched a shaking hand and eased the envelope from the owl's beak, slitting it open. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears. A split second later, they knew why. Harry thought it had exploded, and a roar of sound filled the hall, shaking the dust from the ceiling.

„— STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU. YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU. I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE —"

Mrs. Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen.

„— LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT. I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME. WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS. YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED —"

Harry had been wondering when his name was going to crop up. He tried very hard to look like he couldn't hear the voice making his eardrums throb.

„—DISGUSTED — YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK. IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT, AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."