Obliviate My Rebellion {Book 3}

40. Real to me

"Hey, Ali-cat." I whispered, gently pulling on one of her curls. "You okay?"

"I was once I used a stupid hair pin to free myself." Alia huffed. "But of course by the time I did that, everybody had flown off into the stupid sunset."

"You wouldn't have wanted to come." Harry spoke up, appearing in front of us. "It was awful."

"Hey, brother." I forced a smile, moving Alia to my side. "You okay?"

Harry shrugged. "Where did you go?"

"To clear my mind, break a few things." I replied. "It was just... a little too much to deal with."

"Well you can deal with some happy news instead of shit news." Alia said bluntly, and dragged me down to the other side of the hospital wing. "See! I told you she hadn't been eaten by wolves!"

 Nearly everybody was crowded around Ron's bed, and looked up as Alia announced my presence. Ron was sat in bed while Hermione perched at the end with a newspaper, and Ginny curled up with her broken ankle on Hermione's bed.

Neville was wedged between the two beds, while Luna read the Quibbler upside-down, not seeming too interested in what's going on.

"It's good to see you." Hermione said, relieved. She patted for me to sit next to her, and I did, curling the blanket around my shoulders for security. "You wouldn't believe what the paper's been printing."

"Where's the others? I heard everybody was okay?" I interupted, pulling on a thread of my jumper worriedly.

"Dumbledore wanted to see Sam about something--she's been up there for hours." Alia said. "But she wasn't in the mood to talk in the first place apparently. Gennie's on bed rest and is asleep over there--" She waved in the general direction of a curtain covered bed, "--And of course, my brother is with her."

"That's good." I said, a feeling of tension releasing from my stomach. "So, what's the paper saying?"

"Fudge has admitted Voldemort is back." Hermione said. "And that the Dementors are rebelling in Azkaban. They're also sending out protection leaftlets soon."

"Because if we have leaflets nobody can hurt us." Alia muttered bitterly. "If only you could wave a leaflet at him, maybe then he'd finally leave Sam and Cole alone."

"So Cameron is still out there?" I said. "And Mark?"

Hermione gave me a sympatheitc look, nodding. "Well Sam nearly beat him to death after--well you know what happened--but then Mark appeared from nowhere, stunned Sam and dragged Cameron away."

There was a silence in the air, that was broken thankfully by Alia. "Also, the papers are back to calling Harry the 'Boy who lived', and Rory 'The girl who survived.'"

"Trying to get back into our good books." Harry muttered. "They're only being nice now because there's proof."

"Oh, and there's an exclusive interview with Harry on page nine..." Alia peered in the paper. "When did you have the time to creep off to reporters, eh?"

“Daddy sold the interview to them,” said Luna vaguely, turning a page of The Quibbler. “He got a very good price for it too, so we’re going to go on an expedition to Sweden this summer and see if we can catch a Crumple-Horned Snorkack.”

Hermione seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, then said, “That sounds lovely.”

"So is everything back to normal now Dumbledore's back?" I asked. "I'd like some good news for once."

"Yeah," Neville said. "It's all settling down again."

"Apart from Filch," Ginny said in a whisper. "He says Umbridge is the best thing to happen to this place."