𝐎𝐎𝐓𝐏 𝟏𝟏

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Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not a pleasant experience for Emily

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Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not a pleasant experience for Emily.

The news about her shouting match with Umbridge seemed to have traveled exceptionally fast even by Hogwarts standards.

She heard whispers all around her as she sat eating opposite Ron and Hermione, next to Harry. The funny thing was that none of the whisperers seemed to mind her overhearing what they were saying about her, on the contrary, it was as though they were hoping she would get angry and start shouting again, so that they could hear her story firsthand.

"She says she saw Cedric Diggory murdered. . . ."

"She said he's the one who 'killed her'. . ."
"Come off it. . . ."
"Who does she think she's kidding?"
"Pur-lease . . ."

"What I don't get," said Harry in a shaking voice, laying down his
knife and fork (his hands were trembling 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; Ron looked sadly 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 arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Emily's dead body and holding Cedrics arm. . . . 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 Emily 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 they strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. Harry felt as though his first day had lasted a week, but he still had a mountain of homework to do before bed.

A dull pounding pain was developing over his right eye. He 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 and the four of them 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 to meet them, purring loudly, and when Emily, Harry, Ron, and Hermione took their three favorite chairs at the fireside he leapt lightly into Hermione's lap and curled up there like a furry ginger cushion. Emily was sat on the floor next to Harry's leg.

𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒-ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪 ℙ𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣❥Where stories live. Discover now