Because You Love Me

69. Outcast

 When Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked into the Gryffindor Common Room, the tension was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Everybody was staring at them.

"Hello, everyone," Hermione greeted them nervously. There were a few murmurs of a greeting back, but nothing like what it should have been.

Suddenly a student stood. It was Seamus. "So, is it true? Everyone's been dyin' to know and no one is willing to ask. Did you really see You-Know-Who return?"

Harry looked all around the room. Every eye in there was on him. "I didn't see him return fully, but he was there."

"Did he really kill Ginny?" Neville asked quietly.

"I'm afraid so."

His expression saddened. He had thought about her all summer. She was his friend and now she was gone forever.

"Do you know that my mum didn't want me to come back to school this year?" Seamus asked.

Harry frowned. "Why?"

"Uh, because of you. The Daily Prophet has been saying a lot of things about you, Harry and Dumbledore as well. Nobody really saw what went down in that chamber. Nobody but you."

Ron stepped forward. What exactly was he trying to say? "So? That doesn't mean it isn't true."

"Do you believe him?"

"Of course I do! You-Know-Who is back."

Seamus rolled his eyes. He didn't believe it for one minute. "Do you believe it, Hermione?"

Hermione looked at him and then at Harry. "Yes. If Harry says that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back, then I believe him." She had her doubts over the summer, but when she was told about Snape's ordeal, she knew it must have been true as much as she wanted to believe that it wasn't.

He huffed. "You're all mad." He stomped off.

Harry was taken aback by his attitude. He didn't know what to say. Was that what all of these people thought of him? That he was a liar? Or maybe they thought he was just saying it to get attention. Either way, it was insulting. He felt a hand close around his. He looked down. It was Hermione's. He looked up at her. She smiled.

"Don't let him get you down, Harry. We know that it's true and that's all that matters, right?"

He thought about it for a moment and then allowed a smile to spread across his lips. "Right." His smile morphed into a frown. The truth was that he didn't see Voldemort return with his own eyes. He wasn't sure if he was or not. He had heard Voldemort say that if Ginny died, then he would be at full strength again and time would catch up with him. Harry assumed that because Ginny was dead that Voldemort had returned and he was right. He knew he was. He had to be. It was the only thing that made sense. Plus, Snape had stayed at his house over the summer because he had been attacked by Voldemort. He was back and soon everyone would know it as well as he did and that thought scared him most of all.

~ * ~

The next day, Harry ran into a lot of attitudes like Seamus's. People who had befriended him and were nice to him during the last couple of years turned to ice when he passed in the halls. Whispers reached his ears at every turn and the impact of it all hit him like a ton of bricks. He was so overcome with emotion that he headed to the Dungeons without even realizing it. He wasn't supposed to have Potions for another hour or so, but he had to talk to someone and he knew that his mother was already in her classroom. He didn't want to risk being overheard. Besides, he knew that his Potions professor would tell her anyway.