The Stare

Chapter Three

***

A few days passed with Harry trying not to freeze whenever he saw Draco. He was actually succeeding pretty well. The only real incident was in Transfiguration where they were trying to change a desk into a tiger, and of course Harry's eyes had wandered over to a certain blonde. This proved to be troubling when Harry dropped his wand and then proceeded to trip over it because he wasn't looking where he was going, and then got in the way of Ron's spell. Which ended up with the hairs on his arm turning long, orange and black, and His had being turned into a tigers paw. It took a lot of time to get it back to normal.

But other than that the week was fine. Until, it came to the anniversary banquet.

***

Getting ready for the banquet was an ordeal all by itself. Harry was stressed and frantic and lost his wand multiple times. He failed at putting on his dress robes so much that Hermione had to come in to help, and his hair could not be tamed. Harry swore that his hair reacted to his stress level. The more stressed he was, the more his hair refused to cooperate with him.

But, eventually Harry was ready and he apparated over to the Ministry with Ron and Hermione.

They arrived to a flurry of reporters and journalists all yelling at them for varying purposes. Harry had almost gotten used to paparazzi but this was too much. He was already feeling terrible from the fact that he even had to go to this damn event. He basically broke into a sprint as he tried to bypass the deafening noise that was the paparazzi. It didn't get any better though, because as soon as Harry burst into the ministry hall, he was met with thousands of witches and wizards applauding. The sound was pounding his eardrums to the point where he couldn't even hear his own thoughts. Harry just kind of froze in place, unable to move, speak, or think. He just...stood there. Some tears threatened to escape, but he felt two people guiding him to a table and blinked them back.

Eventually Ron and Hermione got him to sit down and drink a glass or two of water (it was the only thing Harry felt he could keep down) and he calmed down a bit. He took a couple bites of his dinner (which was actually pretty good, the ministry knew how to cook) and felt some of himself coming back. He started chatting with the rest of the people at his table. Luna and Ginny looked great and came together. They were constantly touching in one way or another, be it hand holding, or leaning against each other. Harry really had to admit that they were adorable. Same with Ron and Hermione. There was so much love that they shared, it was wonderful. Harry thanked Merlin that they finally got together. Neville was there too, and Harry found himself mostly chatting with him. Neville was doing pretty good, and studying Herbology. He hoped to become a Herbology teacher one day.

Harry and Neville were finishing a conversation when they heard an announcement.

"Would you all please rise for the Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shaklebolt!"

Then the applause started again.

The noise.

Harry's heartbeat started beating faster, and faster, and he could barely stand up. His legs felt like they had been hit with The Jelly-Legs Jinx. He was infinitly grateful when Kingsley made a gesture to let them sit down.

"My fellow witches and wizards" Kingsley started. "We are gathered here today to celebrate to downfall of Voldemort, and the Wizarding World we recovered from him!"