Blood Bound | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [5]

𝘃𝗶𝗶𝗶 | 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀

Dinner that night was like stepping into the depths of Hell themselves. It seemed that the shouting match that Gwen and Harry had had with Umbridge had spread quicker around Hogwarts than word had ever spread before. All through dinner, the whispers and looks that had been following them since the night before had got louder and more obvious, as if the people whispering were hoping that Gwen and Harry would get angry again and start talking about Cedric Diggory.

  'They reckon Diggory was murdered.'

  'No way!'

  'And they reckon they duelled You-Know-Who.'

  'As if!'

  'They're both mental.'

  'It's funny how they were all ready to believe us two months ago,' Gwen huffed, shaking so much that she had to set her knife and fork down.

  'The thing is,' Hermione murmured, 'I'm not sure they did.'

  'What do you mean?' Harry snapped, almost a touch too loud.

  Hermione glanced around the Hall nervously. 'Let's get out of here.'

  Glad for an escape, Gwen and Harry got to their feet instantly. Ron sent a wistful look at his apple pie, but followed suit. Heads turned as the four of them walked the length between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables; Gwen spotted Lucille a little way down, and, to her utter relief, her sister sent her a quick smile, before turning away just as briskly. Gwen allowed her eyes to travel to the Slytherin table, searching for Felix, but instead, they landed on Theo, who once again had Daphne Greengrass muttering in his ear. He watched Gwen as she left the Hall, which seemed to have annoyed Daphne, for she tugged on his sleeve and shot Gwen a filthy look.

  'What d'you mean, you're not sure they believed us?' Harry asked Hermione again when they had climbed the marble staircase.

  'Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened,' Hermione said quietly. 'You arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body... and Gwen, nobody knew why you were there, I think the first assumption was something like you'd both planned to cheat Harry into winning and it had gone horribly wrong... 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 both.'

  'Which is true!' Gwen cried.

  ''I know it is,' Hermione said 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 Harry's a nutcase, you're a weird cult follower, and Dumbledore's going senile!'

  Rain pounded the window panes as they strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. Gwen felt as though the first day had lasted over a week, and she still had a mountain of homework to do before bed.