Recnac Transfaerso

37 - The Emerald Potion

The following days passed quietly. The rest of the tests had been cancelled. Usually, everyone would have skirted around Harry's two best friends in the halls, but many were still plagued with guilt over Voldemort's words to Harry. Dumbledore had called a school assembly and explained what had happened, from the Recnac Transfaerso spell to the downfall of their greatest enemy and their fallen hero.

To make up for their past behaviour toward Harry, students from all different houses and years approached Ron and Hermione, expressing their apologies for what had happened and for their actions in the past. Many had their own Harry stories, from helping one second year hide from Filch after tracking mud inside, to comforting a third year after she had been yelled at by Snape, to defending a few of the younger students against some bullies. Neither Ron nor Hermione knew about half the stories and were filled with both pride and sorrow at each one. They agreed that to Harry, these events were probably nothing special. He would never know how much he had touched people's lives.

"Well, I think Harry got what he wanted," Ron told Hermione.

"What's that?"

"He's being remembered as Harry rather than just the Boy-Who-Lived."

The two had avoided meals in the Great Hall, not wanting to deal with the pitying glances. The condolences and wary glances from the other students were just too much to handle. Ron had begun to slip in and out of long dazes, staring into space or the fire, not responding to anything around him. He had basically stopped talking to anyone except for Hermione, who often also preferred the silence.

Ginny had hardly come out of her room, and when she had, she was always to be seen clutching either the picture of she and Harry sleeping, or the one of the pair dancing. In one of her few trips out of the Gryffindor tower with Hermione, she had overheard Cho Chang insisting to a group of people that she and Harry had been secretly dating and insinuated that they had slept together.

Nobody really believed her at this point, but it had incensed Ginny so much that the smaller redhead had lunged at Cho and tackled her to the ground. She punched Cho square in the face, screaming for her to never insult the memory of Harry like that again. Hermione, for once, did not make any attempt to stop a fight. The memory of what Cho did to Harry was too fresh in her mind. For the girl to dare try and take away Harry's innocence by spreading her horrid and false rumours was enough to get the girl on her permanent bad list, a place no sane person wanted to be.

Professor McGonagall had somehow pulled Ginny off of Cho, the young Weasley kicking and yelling profanities and threats to Cho the whole time she was being dragged away, while the older girl held her bleeding nose sobbing.

After Ginny explained to her Head of House what had happened, Professor McGonagall smiled and told Ginny she was proud of her loyalty to her friend.

Nobody had seen Fred and George so solemn. There were no pranks, no matching evil grins, no laughing. If they had been passing out food, people would most likely have actually felt safe accepting it. No pranks, with only one exception.

They had been walking down to the kitchens when they had heard Crabbe and Goyle talking about Malfoy's "betrayal," saying that he should have "just cursed the li'l bastard."

That night at dinner, after eating some cupcakes that had appeared on their plates, with the help of Dobby the house elf, their tongues had mysteriously fallen out onto the table. The Slytherins had screamed and scrambled away, as Crabbe and Goyle screamed in horror as best they could without tongues. Fred and George had walked right up to them and warned them never to insult a member of their family again, which, as they made clear, included Harry. Crabbe and Goyle grabbed their tongues and bolted to the Hospital Wing.