the rise

chapter fourteen

The Great Hall was humming. Harry felt weak as he could not resist a glance at Tom, lounging at the Slytherin table. They had slept in Harry's room again last night but Harry had woken up late and the other boy was already gone by then.

He didn't smile despite feeling like it and slumped down beside Hermione.

"Good morning Harry"

"Morning" He grumbled in return, he hated his eleven year old self. He hated these people.

The sound of the owls swooping in over breakfast drowned his self pitying thoughts, and letters, parcels and more importantly; newspapers dropped down into the laps and hands of students.

Harry's heart-rate increased as he began to untie the string keeping his Daily Prophet in a tight bundle.

HOGWARTS STUDENTS LIVING IN FEAR; "THIS IS MY EDUCATION AND I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO FEAR FOR MY LIFE"

Tom had made the front page. Harry feigned confusion and pretended to read over the article, as his friends were all doing.

"This is fucked! Some pansy is scared so they slag off Dumbldore! Bull bloody shit"

"Ron. Don't swear... Professor Dumbledore will handle this and set things right"

"They make a good point though..." Fred said from down the table.

"What is stopping some blood thirsty animal from breaking into the castle and killing us all?"

"And why didn't those Ravenclaws set off any sort of maintenence of the forest?"

"You two are taking this...this... cowards side!? A person hiding behind Rita fucking Skeeter!?"

"We aren't taking Dumbledore's side Ron."

"You two are being ridiculous. Dumbledore would never put any of his students... he would never put anyone in harms way! You forget he was the one to put Grindewald away for good" Hermione was standing up as she finished speaking, hands pressed either side of her untouched breakfast.

"You are being an idiot"

"Hey guys! Good mor- what's going on?" Neville was late to breakfast and his face dropped as he spotted the signs of confrontation.

His eyes skipped over the tense scene and darted over the headline. Harry watched his childhood friend pale slightly at the headline.

"Someone is claiming Professor Dumbledore creates an unsafe schooling enviroment..."

"Which is bull because Dumbledore is the leader of the light!"

"O-kay..."

Harry sighed. "Sit down Hermione"

"Don't tell me what to do Harry." She did anyway, agressively digging into her hash-brown.

The group was tense, Harry began eating his own breakfast but his appetite was dampened by Ron snarling profanities under his breath right beside him.

Harry glanced down the table, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were muttering between themselves, clearly discussing the headline from the way they kept glancing up at Dumbledore. He was intrigued by the twin's reaction, he had expected all the Weasleys to take Dumbledore's side, they worshipped the man as reverently as his own family.

"Someone is finally pointing out Dumbledore's failiures... about time I think" Tom's familiar sneer knocked him from his pondering, though he didn't trust himself to look up without bursting into a fit of giggles.

"I bet it was you Riddle! Slimy git"

"Ha, I wish, if it was me I probably would have added some of Dumbledore's other qyestionable behaviours, his blatant favouring of his former house, his use of slavery if house elves within the school... I could go on but Weasel is going very red"

Ron spluttered something akin to an insult but it was unintelligiable.

Harry finally looked up at Tom as his posse began to cackle at Ron. Tom smirked at him. His eyes twinkled in the morning light and Harry swallowed hard.

"How are you feeling about it all Potter? Gonna cry because Gandalf never... oh fuck. Muggle reference. Granger will get it" That was probably the first time Tom had fucked up a snarky comment.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "They let you go muggle around them?" She asked, guesturing at Draco.

"Blood discrimination is not something I allow"

Harry was impressed that Tom didn't get nitpicky about being catergorised as "muggle". Their eyes locked again and Harry begged the rest if the world to fade away. It failed to do as he asked. He wanted to kiss Tom, their plan had worked, it was working, they were fucking great and this was a moment in History, the beginning of the fall of the great headmaster. Mostly he wanted to kiss Tom.

He opened his mouth to declare some bullshit light propaganda, but luckily, the side door of the Great Hall swung open.

The Board of Goveners had arrived.

Tom was dragged away by the rest of the posse and the whole school fell into a lull, Lucius Malfoy began to speak to Dumbledore, the old man looked annoyed and Professor McGonagal joined the conversation. Harry felt excitement curl it's fingers into his gut and he impulsively looked to Thomas who seemed to be experiencing similar emotions.

"What do you think they're saying?" Neville whispered as the rest of the school began to buzz with gossip.

"They must have seen the newspaper"

Abruptly, Dumbledore and McGonagal stood up and led the Board of Goveners out of the Hall.

"I hope he doesn't get fired"

"Don't worry Harry, Dumbledore isn't going anywhere"

Carlos' mind was full, full of what had happened that morning, he didn't have a cynical mind like Tom or Draco. He hadn't thought much about the Headmaster but he supposed the letter-writer was right.

It made his new task much more daunting.

The newspaper had revealed just how unsafe Hogwarts is, especially the forbidden forest. And that was where they had gotten the deer last time...

Carlos noted down what Snape scribed onto the chalk board.

No. He couldn't go into the forest alone, he would have to hunt within the castle walls.

He glanced up over his Gryffindor classmates... it would be easy, trapping a lion.