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Aurora Areli
DINNER IN THE GREAT HALL that night was not a very pleasant experience. The news about the shouting match in Umbridge's class travelled fast, even by Hogwarts' standards. I wasn't acknowledged nearly as much as Harry was, though; there were whispers all around as Harry and I ate with Ron and Hermione, but it didn't seem to matter that we could overhear. On the contrary, it was almost like people were hoping Harry would get angry and start shouting again so that they could hear the story firsthand.
"He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered . . ."
"He reckons he duelled with You-Know-Who . . ."
"Come off it . . ."
"Who does he think he's kidding?"
"Pur-lease . . ."
"What I don't get," Harry said, his voice shaking as much as his hands as he laid down his knife and fork, "is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them . . ."
"The thing is, Harry, I'm not sure they did," Hermione said grimly.
"Can we just get out of here?" I asked suddenly, slamming down my own utensils. "I can't stand that whispering anymore."
"Yeah, let's go," Harry agreed without hesitation.
Ron looked longingly at his half-finished apple pie, but followed Harry, Hermione and I out of the Great Hall nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, people stared at us as we went. Harry grabbed my hand and pulled me along faster.
"What do you mean, you're not sure they believed Dumbledore?" he asked Hermione when we reached the first floor landing.
"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," Hermione said quietly. "You arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body . . ."
I bit my lip, shaking my head to rid myself of the memory of that horrible night. Cedric's lifeless grey eyes would be there almost every time I closed my own.
"None of us saw what happened in the maze . . ." Hermione went on, "we just had Dumbledore's word for it that You-Know-Who had come back and killed Cedric and fought you."
"Which is the truth!" Harry exclaimed.
"We know it is, Harry," I said softly, "so will you please stop biting all of our heads off?"
Harry turned his head to look at me, and I distinctly saw his hard expression soften. His grip on my hand loosened as well, so that my fingers stopped feeling tingly.
Hermione nodded at me before continuing. "It's just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and Dumbledore's going senile."
