Luck of Nines

51

         Theo and he stared at each other from across the table, a pale Draco huddled at his side and Davis at Theo's, looking like she'd rather be anywhere but as she played with her eggs.  Silence hung thickly between them all.  Besides Calliope, none of the other first years remained, and many of the upper years had ditched Hogwarts too. A show of unity against Dumbledore's reign, they had been reassured in the days following the troll attack, but no one was making promises about returning.

        At the head table several seats had been added, although they, alongside Dumbeldore and Mcgonagall's, remained empty, making the handful of teachers who were up there seem all the fewer.  Snape had announced that classes would be cancelled for the day before hurriedly turning and making his way out.

       It wasn't just the Slytherin table which sat half empty and silent though, although it perhaps was the most empty and quiet of them, Many of the Ravenclaws were also missing, although they had more than, The Hufflepuff table which could compete with the Slytherin one for emptiness.  The Hufflepuff students  spoke quietly amongst themselves though, huddled in one corner of the long table, sometimes glancing suspiciously at the Slytherin, others pityingly at the Gryffindor.  It was almost ironic that besides the missing first year students, only a handful of the Gryffindors seemed to have left, in fact besides them, it seemed the unsorted students were the only other ones with a mostly unchanged number of students.  Silently he noted that the girl who he thought was Kellah Jones, was sitting at the table, Lavender Brown's arm wrapped about her.

      They glared defiantly at the Slytherin table, as if the professors keeping a careful eye on them was the one thing that kept them from pouncing.

      Cutlery clicked gently against the plates, but otherwise complete silence had fallen, as if everyone was waiting for someone else to make the first move.

      And then the doors quietly creaked open.

       Hermione Granger, limped in through it, although if it hadn't been for her hair and familiar smell, practically hidden underneath the smell of a large assortment of potions, Harry wouldn't have known it. Her face, arms, and legs were wrapped thickly in bandages, the one eye which peeked out was at a noticeably lower position than where her other eye looked to be from the shape of the bandages.   Mcgonagall walked at her side, offering support as Hermione made her way to the table, chiding one of the more obvious Ravenclaws for staring despite everyone doing so.

      Harry wondered how bad the damage was to need all of those bandages with the supposed miracle recoveries magic helped make.

      The Gryffindors parted slightly on either side, giving her a large berth as she sat down, but none moved to welcome her back. Mcgonagall frowned but made her way up to the staff table.

      Not even silverware clinked against the dishes anymore as everybody sat in waiting silence, waiting for what would happen next. Even Harry watched with interest.

      He was not disappointed, "Fay died because of you!" Brown exploded, standing up and pointing accusingly at Granger as she did so. The newly return girl flinched, making a noise of pain at her own sudden movement, and cowered back. Harry wondered if she was even able to talk anymore, she certainly never hesitated to defend herself before.

"Lavender Brown!" Mcgonagall scolded, standing up from her seat as well, "That's more than enough out of you. Detention."