บท 78: Facts about Harry
Hermione looked uncertainly at the door from where Daphne had just left.
The talk with Daphne had been… dramatic and she didn't really thought Harry would ask for such a price from the girl. And what's more, the girl even gave an Unbreakable vow for that.
How can someone willingly fail their exams.
The thought was hard for her to grasp.
"Weren't you a bit hard on her?" she asked once Harry had closed the door with all the paper filled with runic arrays that probably stopped even a single sound from going out of the room.
"I mean. Now she'll probably be the first person to fail in… I don't even know how long. A few people have be expelled from Hogwarts over the last century for one reason or another but I don't remember anyone being expelled for failing three times in a row. The disgrace that would come with that kind of expulsion will be…"
"She won't be the only one failing." Harry replied before she could continue and she stared at him, completely dumbfounded for a few moments before she understood what she was hearing.
"You want to fail alongside her?" she asked, scandalized by the mere thought of such a genius failing his exams.
"Yes." He replied "And I'll be very happy if you could accompany me when I'm expelled from Hogwarts."
He said those words in a soft voice but they reverberated in her ears like a thunderclap.
Did he want her to fail her exams as well?
The thought horrified her.
Could she even do it.
Sit in an exam, look over at all the test paper, knowing that you could answer all of those questions easily yet still not write their answers in order to fail the class.
Was such a thing even possible for her?
He must have seen the dilemma inside her cause he smiled and pinched her cheeks in an affectionate manner "You don't have to do it if you don't want to. That's just a suggestion Hermione, nothing else."
And then his touch was gone and he had turned around to get back to his work and she was left with a dilemma.
She didn't knew what she should do anymore.
Did he meant it when he said that he wanted her to join him when he's expelled with Daphne.
Was this some kind of hidden test for her.
The thought of Daphne and Harry doing something together, something that she was not a part of grated in her mind.
Daphne was, she was someone who had just joined their group. She should not be given the privilege to do something like that with Harry.
As she thought of this, she wondered since when failing their exams had turned into a privilege.
And what if this was really as test from Harry. To see if she'll stick together with him and she doesn't.
She didn't even want to think of the consequences of betraying him ever again.
She sighed as she folded the paper in front of her.
Her mind was under too much turmoil for her to be able to properly work at the moment.
She needed to think upon Harry's words a bit more before and decide what she was going to do with her life before she did anything else.
—————
The fact that Harry was sitting beside them and simply eating was… a surreal experience.
Lisa had yet to understand how she felt about the boy who had become more of a legend during the last few months despite being in the same class as them.
Of course, the fact that the boy hardly attended any more classes with them was a moot point.
The rumors about his absence from their classes were as numerous as the hair on her head.
Some said that he was being trained by the staff members to become the next leader of light.
Some said that he was so advanced that he simply found the classes boring.
Others said that he didn't like Hogwarts and wanted to leave but was being detained here by the Headmaster and this was his way of showing his defiance.
Some said that he was simply too anti-social and didn't knew what to do in a class full of students.
While others said that he didn't like his fame and simply didn't attended his classes in hopes that the hype about his presence would die down, though it never did.
Some other outrageous rumors said that he was in fact, the illegitimate son of the Headmaster and lived with the old wizard in and the other professors gave him private lessons which was the reason why he didn't attend hi classes.
Some even more outrageous rumors claimed that he was half human half vampire and couldn't stay in the light for too long because of that.
Lisa knew that most of those rumors where groundless and held no ounce of truth in them just like most other rumors circulating in the Hogwarts rumor mill.
But that didn't change a few facts that she knew about Harry.
1. Harry was a Parselmouth. She knew that most of the things they said about a Parselmouth were nothing but superstitions but that didn't change the fact that she still felt a bit afraid of the boy because of his abilities.
2. The teachers were afraid of him. She didn't knew if the rumor about him killing the troll was the truth or not but that didn't change the fact that they were indeed afraid of him. Of course they never showed any definite signs but the signs were still there for anyone who would look.
The slight tension in their bodies and the way they stiffened once Harry entered the room. The way they continued to gaze at him through the corner of their eyes through the rest of period. They way they treated like he was a time bomb ready to blow off any second now.
3. He was a once in a century prodigy in Charms and was being given dueling lessons by Professor Flitwick. She knew this because the Professor himself had admitted to this when they asked him about it once in the common room. And the Professor never lied to them.
4. Hermione and Penelope were probably his only friend. And that the reason why he stayed away from everyone was because of his anti social tendencies and because he hated his fame. She learned this from none other then their own Prefect Penelope Clearwater.
Of course, there were probably a dozen more secrets about him that people didn't know about.
And she was still a bit afraid of him.
But that didn't change the fact that he was probably the most intriguing boy she'd ever met.
He was like a puzzle to her. A puzzle that beckoned you to solve it. A mystery waiting to be solved.
How could one simply sit there and eat their food and still be so damn interesting.
The way he and Penelope whispered to each other like sharing some secret they didn't want others to find about.
The way his face scrunched up as if he'd heard some rather grievous news.
The way he turned to stare at her with those emerald green eyes of his, opened his lips and said "You're staring."
You're sta… wait what?
Her face went beet red faster than one could drink a cup of water and she removed her gaze to look at something else. Anything else.
Oh… the shame.
She had been staring at him with a star struck gaze just like any other brainless fangirl of his and she didn't even knew about it.
Su Li would never let her live this down.
She gazed at her friend sitting beside her and realized with surprise that Su Li looked just as embarrassed as her.
In fact, now that she thought about it…
She looked at the rest of the table and realized that most of the girls and a few boys were not looking away in embarrassment.
Harry had not said those words to her specifically but to the whole table as all of them had been staring at him through out the meal.
Wow… That must have made an impression.
She felt her cheek burn in shame at the mere thought of what she had unknowingly done.
No wonder he never sits with them anymore.
She needed to fix this.
She didn't know how but she did.
She would apologize to him. He would probably not accept it because of her earlier rudeness but if it abetted a bit of his anger at them then it should be with worth it.
With that resolution, she turned to face him once again in order to apologize to him for their rudeness but…
He was not there.
She didn't knew when he left and how. She had certainly not heard heard shift his chair or seen him leave the table. But he was not there anymore.
And now Penelope was staring at her, no, at all of them angrily.
And she suddenly remembered how Penelope had told the girls at the start of the week that she would probably ask the boy-who-lived to join their table and she was also warned them to not openly stare at him and they had done exactly that.
She could already hear the scolding they were about to receive from their Prefect once they went back to their common room.
She hung her head in shame and pushed her food away.
She was not feeling hungry anymore.
She was feeling like shit in fact.
And as she sat in her seat and waited for the lunch to end, she wondered how she and the rest of her friends managed to fuck this up so badly.
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