WITHDRAWAL. draco malfoy

iii. harry's arrival

« HARRY'S ARRIVAL »

"He was expelled from Hogwarts?!" Lillian exclaimed, her eyes opened wide.

"Apparently.. And it's not even the worst part." Ron answered. "He has an audition at the Ministry with Cornelius Fudge."

"Why? Wait, are they planning on throwing him to Azkaban?"

"I don't think but knowing Fudge, it wouldn't surprise me.." Ron sighed, "After all, he might blame Harry for what happened to Diggory."

Lillian stood up angrily and rushed downstairs as Ron and Hermione ran after her, trying to stop her before she could do anything stupid. But it was too late, she bursted inside the dining room where all the adults —except for Dumbledore who only showed up twice during the summer, were talking around the table.

"Lilli—"

"What was I saying about telling everything to Harry, uh?" Lillian shouted, her face red with anger.

"Look what's happening now! He has been expelled from his true home and will have to face the Ministry! And we didn't do anything to help him." she added, slamming her hands on the table.

"Lillian please, listen—" Sirius started but was interrupted by the blonde girl who didn't seem to be done just yet.

"And we were here, hiding! Talk about an army to beat Vold—"

"Lillian!" Ellen shouted, causing the girl to stop dead in her tracks. "Please, sit down."

Noticing the rest of the kids in the doorway, she motioned for them to sit as well, Ron putting a comforting hand on Lillian's back as he tried to calm her down. Over the years he had witnessed a lot of her short tempers and —from what he remembered, they were never good.

And this one didn't seem better, Lillian's hands were shaking violently and her breaths were short but heavy at the same time.

"Harry was attacked by dementors and had to use the Patronus charm to get rid of them, they were two." Molly started, walking around the table.

"And his cousin was there as well." she added.

"Which is why he was 'expelled' from Hogwarts." Sirius added, his gaze focused on Lillian. "However, his audition will be the right place to prove his innocence and explain he didn't use the spell deliberately to disobey the code of wizards."

"Anyway, Harry will be here soon, go back upstairs— all of you." Molly finished.

Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins stood up and walked to the door but froze when they realized Lillian wasn't ready to leave, in fact she had noticed that they had been ignoring what she had previously said.

"So where does that leave us in all of this?" Lillian asked, her voice more soft. "What I meant to say is that we have been useless for Harry when he needed us the most."

Lillian looked down, the floor suddenly way more interesting as guilt hit her right in the pit of the stomach.

"I don't want to sit here and do nothing, I want to help him, I want him to lean on us when everything goes wrong and when he feels lonely.." Lillian confessed.

"And we didn't do that, at all. Instead we pretented we were protecting him and— you know what, whatever, it doesn't change anything, we have been bad friends, all of us."

Lillian left the room, pushing Fred out of the way and ran upstairs but not going in the bedroom she shared with Hermione and Ginny, instead she retreated in the room where she had her very first talk —out of many, with Sirius Black, the vacant lounge.