Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Unfortunately, winter break was almost over, and it was time now to think of the homework we'd neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over.

I was still giving Harry the silent treatment, and Luke and the girls were still backing him up. After two days of Harry still not completely understanding why I was ignoring him, Hermione asked me if she should just tip him off.

"Yeah, if he hasn't figured it out by now, I don't think he's going to at all," Ginny said.

"You're right," I agreed. "I'll let you tell him, Hermione."

A part of me still felt like this was stupid. The argument hadn't been that bad, had it?

But when I voiced my thoughts to Lavender and Parvati, they both immediately assured me I was doing the right thing.

"He's not respecting your space," Lavender said. "If you don't want to talk, then you don't have to talk."

"Exactly," Parvati added. "You don't owe him any explanations about a secret you've been told by your guardian not to tell."

The next day, Harry sat across from me at breakfast with a purposeful expression on his face. Lavender, Parvati, Hermione, and Ginny all shot me wide-eyed look, but I tried not to show any surprise or satisfaction. Was he really about to apologize? That was fast.

"Ash," he said, "You've made your point. I shouldn't have gotten so angry or questioned whether I can trust you or not."

I allowed myself a glance at him. The whole questioning-whether-he-could-trust-me thing wasn't really the main point of the issue, but at least he was acknowledging it.

"But do you really think it's worth giving me the silent treatment over that?"

And nope. He missed the point completely.

Hermione discreetly but exasperatedly face-palmed; Lavender and Parvati gave each other looks like, can you believe this guy; Ginny rolled her eyes and continued to eat her porridge.

Harry was lucky I'd decided to give him the silent treatment and ignore him, because I wanted to jump on the table and shake him until I could hear his small brain rattling around in his skull.

Instead, I started rambling to the girls about how good and filling the food was and how much I was going to miss it when I left for the summer. Then I got up and went to find Luke so he could take me to wherever he'd been training for the last couple of months, because if I didn't put an arrow in the bullseye of a target, it was probably going to be the spot right between Harry's eyes.

A week later, when classes started up again, snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that we couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though Ron said the skrewts would probably warm us up nicely, either by chasing us, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.

But when we arrived at Hagrid's cabin, we found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door. She introduced herself as Professor Grubbly-Plank and told us that she'd be standing in for Hagrid until further notice.

Harry and Ron showed up a bit late, and they seemed just as surprised as I'd been to see the new teacher.

"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago," she barked at Harry and Ron as they struggled toward her through the snow.

"Who're you?" said Ron, staring at her. "Where's Hagrid?"

"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."