Idiosyncrasy |Harry Potter

Chapter Eighteen

Zakari immediately felt self-conscious after speaking to Harry, as he was unable to hear himself. It was the many reasons why he hated speaking to begin with, he wasn't sure of the volume control of his voice, so he couldn't tell if he was speaking too loudly or too softly. Judging by the vibrations that tickled his throat, he didn't think he was speaking too loud but it still felt too weird for him to use speech regularly.

Biting his lower lip, Zakari awaited Harry's reaction. Both boys seemed rather surprised by Zakari speaking, however the younger boy took it as a sign that he probably had sounded horribly awkward.

"S-s-sorry." he said before closing his mouth completely. He was sure his face was bright red as he looked down to his feet and shuffled about. Desperately wishing that Franklin would appear shortly and rescue him, Zakari was beginning to debate if just walking away from Harry would be for the best because there was no way they could carry on a conversation. He wasn't confident in his lip reading and Harry couldn't sign leaving a large barrier between them.

Burying his face into Duncan's fur, Zakari hid his blushing before turning around and hurrying away.

Harry turned to Ron with a slight grimace before rolling his eyes as Ron began clapping.

"That was brilliant, Harry. Truly brilliant. Not only did you manage to make him feel weird, you ran him off." Ron said. "You really need to work on your social skills, mate."

"You need to work on....shut up Ron." Harry said before turning down to walk the opposite way that Zakari had left. "I need to communicate with him somehow."

"Why are you borthering with him so much, Harry? Leave him alone, he's in Slytherin. Do you forget who else is in Slytherin? Malfoy? Crabbe? Goyle? Ring a familiar bell?"

"Yes, but Malfoy and him don't appear to be anything alike, Ron. I don't see Malfoy running away with a corgi in his hands. Besides if he was truly like Malfoy, do you honestly thing he would have apologized before he left? I don't think so."

"Since when do you think, Harry?"

Since the warning of the Chambers being opened, Franklin kept a watchful eye on Zakari, in hopes to keep the boy out of any sorts of trouble. He knew all too well that Zakari was not capable of such dark magic to petrify a cat, as he was still struggling in his first year classes to even master the levitation charm. But others didn't seem all that convinced about the boy's innocence. Around the Slytherin table, the discussion of the heir was being thrown around and while Zakari was oblivious to the conversations, it didn't mean that they weren't talking about him.

Unfortunately, students took Zakari's quiet nature as a bad sign that the boy could very well be the heir and was putting on a front. It was terrible to hear that children thought of such things and it angered Franklin because all Zakari wanted to do was fit in and make friends. He didn't want anything else setting him apart from the others, but as word got around of the Crow, for some reason everyone held that against the child.

Franklin thought it was odd though, considering there were other children that were the offspring of Death Eaters, even if their parents didn't serve time. The fact that Roderick Lestrange had actually turned himself in and confessed to his crimes above all others was enough for Franklin to believe that Zakari wasn't going to follow any dark steps. Besides he was certain that Liz would probably kill Zakari if he tried anything of the sort.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that it was no easy feat for a wizard or witch to become an animagus. It took years and an intelligent being fully in control of their magic to become one,which meant that Roderick Lestrange was no idiot. Zakari also came from pureblood lines, which had been a well noted common trait among the house. So there were some things that were working against him.

But for people to believe that an eleven year old boy who could not hear and barely spoke was capable of such crimes, was just ridiculous.

Plenty of people stood in Zakari's corner though to defend him. Especially Eve and Jean.

Both girls dedicated the majority of their free time to learn sign language from Franklin, in hopes of being able to communicate with the boy freely.

The man was waiting in Zakari's Transfiguration class for the boy to arrive when he came walking in with Duncan. Instead of greeting him with a hello or a wave, Zakari walked past him and sat in his chair before lowering his head down to the table. He dreaded Transfiguration class because it was the one besides Charms that he struggled the most in. Also, Franklin was pretty sure that Zakari was incredibly intimidated by Professor McGonagall and her stern expression that she wore daily.

He didn't look in Franklin's direction as he turned his head attempting to avoid all conversations.

Franklin sighed.

Some days were good for little Zakari and some days, it was really bad.

Zakari didn't eat much dinner that night and after Eve helped him into the Common Room, he wished her a good night before heading to his dorm. He took a quick shower and crawled into bed, pulling the covers over his body and head completely to hide from the world. He had his eyes closed when someone tapped his leg, startling him as he knew it wasn't Duncan pawing at him.

Pulling the blanket down slightly, Zakari saw one of his dorm mates looking at him. The boy held out an envelope out to him but didn't go any further than that. Once Zakari took the letter, the other boy left the dorm leaving Zakari a little puzzled. But all negative thoughts and confusion were swept away as he read who the letter was from.

A letter from his mother was exactly what he needed.

Except it wasn't from his mother as he quickly found out after opening it.