Nine Lives and Bad Luck

22:

     Rumors spread like the plague as Asphodel had been counted in the common room yet never returned. The Slytherins were tight lipped about it placing them, in many students eyes, under suspicion. And yet they bore it with grace. The students couldn't know it, but the two upperclassmen who had gone to protect him had immediately told Flint what had happened; how he had run ahead at a scream, but still was careful to keep leading them.

    Only when he caught sight of the lost student and knew they would not make it in time did he separate from them, and fought to protect them until what seemed like his last breath to buy time.  It had still led to three hundred points being docked from Gryffindor despite complaints from all three who had gone with them. It was a point of honor for the Slytherins as it had been for one of theirs that he had fought for, putting himself at risk- and as a house looked upon so negatively that was something to be rewarded, at the very least in order to keep the allies they had in other houses on their side. So they kept quiet.

       It was at lunch when it began to escalate, the teachers had been equally tight lipped after the interrupted speech at breakfast so the rumor mill had all morning to be whipped into a frenzy. 

      "He's a werewolf!" Seamus was near standing as he bellowed it out, "I'm telling you, Dean, you saw me looking out the door, I saw him transform into this ginormous wolf- right in front of the snakes! I bet they all got bitten and that's why they're so tight lipped about all this. Trying to keep themselves from being thrown out!"

"Seamus, come off it, you've been saying this all morning," Dean Thomas seemed annoyed by the claim which had likely been repeated a thousand times since Seamus saw it, "What did you really see?"

"He's not kidding!" Ron joined in, "I saw it too! Tiamat is a werewolf! Why do you think nobody has seen him since!"

"Oh come off it Weasley! Let him be! Stop that!" Hermione shot up as well, her temper flaring, having heard enough.

"What of it, Granger, how would you know? Not like you share a dorm or anything- I've never seen him sleeping in his bed during a full moon either! Have you seen him? Oh wait you don't share a do-"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I have seen him under the full moon!" Hermione grinned victoriously only to dim slightly when they didn't look defeated.

"What the hell were you doing with him then?! Don't tell me he's your boyfriend or something?" Weasley jeered.

"Wh- no- stop that!"

"Hey leave her alone!" Lavender snapped when she saw the upset look forming on her friend's face at the red head's sneer.

"Ooooh, I bet you have too, haven't you? Guess that's why he's always hanging around with you girls, sluts."   Weasley sneered, getting the reaction he probably wanted as all the girls seemed moments from hitting him, although he probably had only heard the word in passing.

"Hey leave them alone, Weasley," Neville took a try now to get everyone to calm down, "I've seen him during the full moon as well, he's not a werewolf, and they're not dating."

Wesley's nose scrunched up, "Eww, just what are you all doing?"

"It's not like that!" Hermione seemed near tears and Parvati was sending glares at the boys while trying to comfort Hermione and force a shocked Neville to sit down.

"Well what were you doing then, I bet they're all-"

"Silencio!" Draco Malfoy stood tall, wand raised, from the Slytherin table.

"I wonder what your father will say when he hears about that, Malfoy, are you a werewolf too?" Seamus cut in. "Who's the filthy beast now?" As Weasley's closet friends Seamus and Dean got into quite a few verbal fights with Malfoy and more than a few actual fights.

"My father will hear-"

"That is more than enough from all of you," Mcgonngall swept into the room her wand and a quiet finite cancelling the spell, "Five points from Slytherin, and fifteen from Gryffindor for this tasteless disruption."

No one noticed the small beetle that flittered about the dining room before making its exit to the infirmary, especially in the chaos that followed as four of the students who had been seen after the Slytherins were escorted to their dorms, but had left shortly after entered the room. The usual rivalry that hung between the lions and snakes missing as they gave each other worried looks and a nod before heading to their respective tables. One to the red, three to the green. The Slytherins were accepted in to the fold with nods and silence as all of them were aware of what had occurred by then while the singular Gryffindor was attacked with a barrage of questions.

The resurfacing of four of the five missing students only further fueled rumors so they reached new levels.

The issue with rumors is that once they've been said, even if it is only once in a fit of angry frustration, if the wrong person hears it they could quite easily be the one that's continued.