BROTHERHOOD ⟶ Harry Potter

Chapter Eight

"He hates me. He actually hates me."

As much as Milo had hoped and prayed that things would go well between him and Harry during their first meeting, he had been wrong. He had been very wrong. Harry did have valid points, ten years had passed since they last saw each other but he didn't understand that Milo couldn't just make contact with him, even if they had both wanted to. It wasn't up to him and it wasn't even up to his mother, they were under Dumbledore's instructions and Harry's first contact had to be when he arrived at Hogwarts for whatever reason. Maybe Dumbledore believed that the resentment would grow further if the two boys were to meet, Milo didn't know because he wasn't given the opportunity to ask.

He saw the Headmaster around the castle, but he was never given one on one time wth the man. He always seemed to brush Milo off with some sort of witty or bizarre saying that would leave Milo questioning not only Dumbledore's sanity but his own as well. When he asked his mother about Dumbledore and his suspicions that the man was avoiding him, she told them that while it appeared that Dumbledore didn't always make sense, he had his reasonings and his own ways of dealing with things. 

Milo could respect that but it didn't help the situation between the Potter brothers and Dumbledore didn't seem to understand that and if he did, the older wizard didn't seem to care. As Milo had grown older and learned more of his situation, he began to feel a slight annoyance, not towards his mother, but towards Dumbledore. The man seemed to be a keeper of secrets when he had no business withholding secrets from the people it pertained to. Now with being unable to stay in contact with Harry, the two had drifted apart drastically and made Harry grow to resent Milo.

"Milo, he doesn't hate you!" Katie told him, looking to the others to start agreeing with her. Immediately, the girls jumped in while the twins and Lee remained quiet for a moment. Finally, it was Lee, who decided to speak on behalf of the opinion of the boys.

"Look, Milo," the boy with dreads began," even if Harry hates you now, it's because he doesn't know you. He hasn't had the chance to get to know you. But I bet you anything, the moment he does get to learn about you and the type of brother you're going to be to him, he'll warm up and forget whatever he was thinking about."

While everyone wanted to tell Milo that everything was going to be okay, there was really no way of telling. Harry was currently upset with him and maybe, later on, he would get over it, but there was a big chance that he wouldn't and Milo had to be prepared for that. In the back of his mind, he was already aware of the chances, he knew of all the possibilities of something going wrong. But there was a part of him that wanted to leave in a dreamland where it didn't go wrong. 

"I guess we'll just have to see where the year takes this, right?" Milo asked, his voice cracking at the end. The twins noticed him picking at the skin on top of hands, he had been known to pick at it until he made himself bleed and they didn't want him causing harm to himself ever, let alone aboard the train. Before the boy could even think of doing anything else, the two grabbed each of his hands and pulled him up.

Lee grinned while the girls groaned, knowing that nothing good would come of the situation with whatever Fred and George had planned.

"Wh-where are we going?" Milo asked as they pulled him along to the door.

"To have some fun," George told him. "Where else?"

"My m-mother said that I can't get in trouble on the train," Milo told the three as they led him out. He could hear his mother's words echoing in his head, the morning lecture that was burned into his mind before they left the cottage that morning to head to the station.

"Yes," Fred replied with a nod of his head, " but your mother isn't here right now, is she?"

The youngest of the four let out a sigh, but a smile crept on his face as Fred, George, and Lee seemed awfully excited about the small venture they were about to take part in. He gave a shrug of his shoulders before he followed him under his own free will.