Prankster's Champion - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter Seventeen

Magnus had hidden himself away in the dorms for the rest of the evening. There had been far too much attention on him for once day, and he just wanted to rest. It didn't take the twins and Lee long to come up and start pestering him for the story though. They'd been down and dealing with the crowd so long that even they had to hide away. He was more than happy to spend the time and tell them the story, though he couldn't seem to look George in the eye the entire night.

A week passed, and Magnus had grown to avoid the twins again, though this time almost everyone that saw him around them could tell what was up. He'd spot George, instantly turn a deep shade of scarlet, and high tail it away. George could guess why, and made vague attempts to talk to Magnus, but he too was a bit avoidant of the other, not sure how to handle the situation.

By the time Ron was telling tales of a big merperson capture of him, and how he could easily fend them off if he'd really wanted, Magnus had started sitting beside Harry and the others. He didn't want to sit at the Ravenclaw table, Jeremy and Randolph would try to talk to him about the night of the first task, which was far too uncomfortable for Magnus, and Roger would outright ignore him.

The seasons began changing as February ended and March began flying by. Where once Magnus had enjoyed going outside into the nippy air and thick snow, he now dreaded walking outside as the biting wind caused even the owls to hate it.

The Hogsmeade trip was nearly there, and as the Friday morning just before it rolled around, Magnus spotted a rather distressed looking owl swoop in and land in front of Harry. Curiosity sparkled in Magnus's eye as he leaned over, gently petting the owl's back as Harry retrieved the letter. As soon as it was free, the owl took off like it's life depended on it.

"Who's it from?" Magnus asked curiously, resting his chin on his hand as he watched Harry. The boy seemed to struggle on whether to tell Magnus or not, looking over at Hermione and ron. "Whatever it is, it's not like I'm going to go blabbing to the entire school."

The three stared at Magnus for a moment before reluctantly letting Magnus read the letter as well. He, of course, was very confused, but Harry assured him they would fill him in somewhere quieter.

"He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" Once the assurances had been made, Ron turned the attention back to the letter.

"It looks like it, doesn't it?" Hermione looked a bit worried.

"I can't believe him..." Harry was tense, "if he's caught..."

"Made it so far, though, hasn't he?" Ron looked like he was trying to cheer Harry up a bit. "And it's not like the place is swarming with dementors anymore."

Magnus's eyes widened a bit, confused and a little freaked out at the mention of dementors, but he didn't say a thing. Harry just looked at him and shrugged. "We'll tell you later... You can come to Hogsmeade with us if you like. You'll find out about all this eventually anyway."

"That's right, now that you're living with us, we can't really keep you out of the loop, can we?" Ron said, mouth full of toast.

The rest of the day went by slowly, and Magnus just wanted the day to be over. Of course, he also didn't want to deal with the end of the day either. He'd told himself he would go pay back Professor Snape for the ingredients he had taken for the potion, of which he was sure Snape realized he had been missing from his stock.

He met up with Harry, Hermione, and Ron on the way down towards the dungeons, using the beginning of a free period to see Snape quickly. On the way down though, they noticed a group of Slytherins huddled outside the potions classroom. With Draco's distinctly bright hair easily noticed amongst them.