Chapter Ten: Loyalty

Harry woke up in a cold sweat. He breathed for a few moments, catching his breath. He grabbed his journal that he had in his nightstand, and started to write.

I'm glad Firenze told me this. For the past few weeks, I've been seeing a pattern, and it's starting to scare me. At least three times a week I see my friends turn their backs on me, ignoring me. Sometimes it's not just me, but Blaise, Remus, Dobby and Firenze too. I don't know what it means, but I don't like it.

I think someone will betray the DA, no matter what the consequences are. The group as become…different, split, since Blaise came out, and I don't know what to do. Ron and the Gryffindors hate Blaise now, and they're teasing the boy during their lessons.

I feel awful when seeing it, and every time Blaise looks at me…I can tell there's a lot more going on than I know about. Susan is a sweetheart though, and she's okay with him. I think she has a little crush on him, but I don't think he's ready for anything yet.

I keep seeing them together though, in my dreams, dueling each other, but with smiles on their faces. I think that that's telling me that they're good for each other, that they can work together, among other things. Maybe I'll try and set them up later this semester. Luna's been giving me a lot of strange looks lately, I don't know what that's about.

And sure enough, the DA was betrayed two days later by Marietta, one of Cho's friends. Then there was all the drama of Umbridge and the Inquisitorial squad finding out, and Harry was sad to see the group disband. Oddly though, he wasn't sad to see Dumbledore go.

One night, after Harry came back from the library from studying with Susan, Harry stopped in the doorway of the dorm to see Seamus and Dean rifling around his bedroom. He gasped, he did NOT want them getting to his journal.

"What are you guys doing?" Harry said nervously.

Neville looked up from his book for a moment, looking over at Dean and Seamus. Ron walked in the door with his broomstick in his hand and looking rather windswept from practice. Seamus just grinned. "Looking for dirty magazines, I cant find mine anywhere-"

Harry gaped. "I don't have any-"

"Aha!" Seamus said with a grin as his hand reached the obvious glossy pages of magazines stuffed under Harry's mattress. He pulled them out, and Harry snatched them from him. "No Seamus, these are mine-"

Ron started to laugh. "Oh come on, the rest of us share, except for Neville there, he's too innocent…" Neville flushed, glaring at the red head. Ron reached for Harry's magazines, but Harry clutched them to his chest, heart pounding.

"No."

"Come on Harry-" Seamus said, finally snatching them out of Harry's hands. Seamus jaw dropped as he looked at the covers. "What the bloody hell!? Harry!"

Harry felt his eyes start to burn, and he sprinted to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He could hear their voices on the other side of the door as he started to cry.

"He's fucking gay!" Ron blurted.

"Maybe he was holding the magazines for someone else…" Neville said quietly.

"They have to be his, why wouldn't he want us to see them-"

"Yeah right, come on Nev, do you really believe it?"

"Merlin, this is disgusting-"

Harry felt himself cry harder, and the boys went quiet.

"He's crying."

"well, yeah, he's worried that all of you guys are going to tease him like you do Zabini." Neville said, his voice growing stronger.

"I just cant believe it! I mean, he had that thing with Cho Chang, then all those girls following him around-"

"The bloody ponce thinks he's too good for girls, and they're all holding out for him, maybe we should-"

"NO! Think about the Daily Prophet! If they got wind of this, Harry's life would be awful!" Neville cried.

"Fine. This stays in the dorm room. But if he ever checks one of us out, we're telling."

"And we don't have to be all friendly with him, I don't want him to think he can hit on me-"

Harry opened the door reluctantly, wiping his tears away. "I wont do that to any of you guys. I promise." Harry said quietly. Seamus grimaced, throwing his magazines to Harry.

"Keep them. You're disgusting Potter." He spat, going to his own bed.

--

The boys ignored Harry completely the next day, not that it was unexpected. However, it was unexpected when Ron bounced back to normal two days later, treating Harry the same as always. Harry just supposed that Ron had gotten over whatever it was and considered their friendship more important.

Neville treated Harry the same as always and Harry realized that his friendship with Neville was one of the strongest he had in loyalty. He rather liked that, and he vowed to include Neville more in his other activities.

Harry was quickly distracted on his ponderings of his and Ron's friendship when Umbridge took over as Headmistress. Fred and George provided the pranking goods and wreaked havoc on Hogwarts. It was wonderful to see the evil little toad so pissed off, and even more so when he saw McGonnagal tell Peeves, who was trying to unscrew a chandelier to 'turn it the other way'. It was great!