Disclaimer: I make no claim to the rights of any characters that are owned by J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros., and make no money from this venture. This work is purely for entertainment purposes.
—CHAPTER TEN—
Colin
For most people, the day following the funeral of Neville Longbottom was no different to any other day, Colin had discovered. He knew that Neville's death came as a shock to a lot of people, but he had also noticed that most seemed to have gotten over it quickly. At least, those that hadn't been directly affected had.
When he made his way downstairs that morning, he was greeted by the sight of some Second Year boys joking and laughing. Later he saw some Hufflepuff girls playing near the lake with gleeful looks on their faces. Some others were just generally smiling and happy. Even Dennis appeared to be in a good mood. The worst, and most shameful, part of it all was that Colin really wanted to be part of that.
It wasn't that Neville's death didn't upset him, because it did, but everyone who he was now apparently friends with were affected more than he was and, as a result, they were much more depressing to be around. It wasn't that he didn't want to be around them, he was just feeling the effects of it rather acutely. He just wanted them to smile. It wasn't until lunch time that something happened that was more light-hearted. They had been sitting at the Gryffindor table for about ten minutes and, after a while, Hermione spoke up.
"Harry," she said quietly. "Why do you keep blushing when you look at the Ravenclaw table?" Colin looked at Harry closer and saw that Hermione was right. His cheeks were tinged a slight red.
"Gotta be Cho, right?" Ron asked nonchalantly after swallowing some chicken.
"No!" Harry said suddenly, his face reddening further.
"Who then?" Colin asked, not even trying to conceal his smile.
"Uhh …" Harry said as his eyes flickered to the table behind Colin. Hermione, who was seated next to Harry gasped slightly before smiling and giggling. Harry glared at her. "Stop."
"What?" Colin asked eagerly, looking over his shoulder. "Who is it?" Ginny, who was sitting next to Colin, and who had looked before Colin, giggled as well.
"Stop it," Harry mumbled. Colin turned around to see him blushing even more. Ron, who was on the other side of Harry looked perplexed.
"If it isn't Cho, then who is it?" he asked, confused. Hermione and Ginny giggled even more.
"All right," Harry said abruptly, dropping his fork on his plate. "All right. I'll tell you what happened."
"Ooh, something happened," Ginny said with a broad smile. Harry gave her a glare, but that only made her laugh. "Get on with it then. And don't leave anything out. I live for juicy details." Harry didn't look pleased, but he talked nonetheless.
"Well, Hermione and Colin already know that I went with Luna to Ravenclaw Tower last night because I didn't want her to go alone," he said quietly, so as to not allow anyone else to hear. "We took a quick way. Apparently she knows the castle really well. Maybe better than the Marauders. We went down a corridor I didn't recognise."
"Get on with it," Ginny urged, a grin on her face as she leaned in so she could listen more closely. Harry glared at her again. Colin saw that Hermione had a smile on her face that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"Well, we got there and I was just saying goodbye," Harry continued, his face still red, "and she kissed me." Ginny let out a little squeak and Colin felt a strange jealousy that was almost immediately quashed by his brain.
"She kissed you?" Ron asked, his voice incredulous. "Loony Lovegood kissed you?"
"Luna," Harry corrected. "And don't broadcast it."
"That's so cute," Hermione said brightly.
"It is not cute," Harry said quickly.
"Yes it is," Ginny said, a joking air about her voice. "But what was it like?" Harry blushed even more.
"It wasn't much," he said quietly. "Just a second."
"It could just be Luna being friendly," Colin suggested. Ginny shook her head.
"Luna isn't the type to kiss friends," she said quickly, winking at Harry.
"You gonna go for it?" Ron asked, eating some noodles.
"Have some tact Ronald," Hermione said before turning to Harry. "Well are you?"
"I don't know," Harry said angrily and louder than before. "It was just a kiss."
"Oh look," Ginny said, grinning once again. "She's coming over. Look out Harry!"
In a few moments, Luna was at the Gryffindor table. Colin told her that she could sit next to him and she did.
"Hello," she said airily. She looked at the table. "Ooh! You have noodles! We didn't get those." She found a plate and put some noodles on it. Ginny was barely containing her laughter.
"How did you sleep last night Luna?" Hermione asked nicely, breaking the sudden silence.
"Oh, dreadfully," Luna replied. "I had a very odd dream about a woman in a blue dress."
"Oh, that's no good," Colin said as Luna ate some noodles.
"So you got to Ravenclaw Tower alright?" Ginny asked. Luna didn't look at her, which was probably a good thing because of the look on Ginny's face.
"Yes," Luna replied. "Harry walked me there, did you know?"
"Did he?" Ginny asked in mock surprise, her eyes comically bulging.
"Yes, he offered to go with me after you left," Luna said with a smile, looking at Harry. "That was very nice of you Harry."
"I … it was … it was my pleasure Luna," Harry stammered out, his face red. Colin felt Ginny nudge him in the ribs as she struggled not to laugh.
"You look very red, Harry," Luna said, concerned. "Did you get bitten by anything strange?" For some reason, that was too much for Ginny who suddenly burst out laughing. After a moment, she stopped laughing and stood up. She took one look at Harry's angry face and burst out laughing again. She laughed almost the whole way out of the Hall. When she got to the doors, she looked back for a moment, right at where Harry and Luna were and burst out laughing again before leaving, the Great Hall watching her as she went. Colin was doing his best not to laugh as well.
"Well that was odd," Luna said, eating some more noodles.
After lunch, Colin was stopped by Dennis, who had a strangely concerned look on his face.
"What's wrong?" Colin asked his little brother who was wringing his hands together.
"I was just thinking," Dennis said quietly. "What are we going to tell Dad?"
"What do you mean?" Colin asked, a little confused.
"About Voldemort," Dennis said, even quieter as some young Ravenclaw girls passed them. Colin thought about it. In truth, he hadn't even thought about what he would tell his father. He couldn't very well hide the truth from him.
"I don't know," he said thoughtfully. "I think we should tell him. He needs to know the truth."
"But he won't let us come back to Hogwarts," Dennis said, suddenly rather distraught. "He'll think it's too dangerous. He'll pull us out and we'll never come back. I love it here, Col." Colin put a hand on his brother's shoulder. He realised that Dennis was nearly his own height, and that frightened him a little bit.
"I'll make sure he doesn't," Colin replied softly. "He knows how much we love it here, so I think I'll be able to convince him."
"But what if you can't?" Dennis asked, still concerned. Colin smiled.
"Well, then we'll have to come up with a way to get here," he announced and his little brother's face lit up.
"Yeah!" he said excitedly. "We can run away and catch the train!"
"Maybe," Colin said, with a laugh. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
"Thanks," Dennis said, giving his brother a quick hug. "You always make me feel better."
"No problem," Colin replied. "Now go and find your friends. We leave in a few days, so you should spend some more time with them." Dennis nodded quickly and rushed off somewhere to find his friends. Colin smiled at that. Just a week before then, he knew he would have felt some kind of jealousy or even resentment at that. In so short a time, Colin finally had friends.
Well, one friend that he was certain of. Maybe two. By this point, Colin was sure that Harry was his friend. He couldn't see any way that he couldn't be. And Ginny was nice enough to him before, so he thought that she might have warmed to him a little quicker. Colin wasn't really sure where he stood with the others. Hermione was kind enough, but Colin had to wonder whether she was just being kind to a friend of a friend. Luna was always nice and seemed to like him, though he could never be sure what she thought. He didn't really know why, but something about Luna seemed to keep him at a distance.
The only other person besides Harry that Colin knew where he stood with was Ron Weasley. Colin knew what Ron thought of him, even if the redhead had not voiced it. Not that he could particularly blame him. Harry was Ron's friend first after all. But Colin was rather hurt by the glares and looks of annoyance that Ron gave him more often than not. He understood why Ron was like this, but that didn't mean it made him feel good.
The difficult thing was that Colin couldn't tell anyone all of this. If he went to Harry with it, he had no idea how Harry would react. He couldn't tell Ginny because Ron was her brother. He didn't feel comfortable going to Hermione with this sort of stuff. And he felt it too weird to talk much to Luna. He would have told Dennis only it felt strange now, going to his younger brother for comfort with regards to friends.
So Colin pushed everything to do with that aside. As much as he wished he could change Ron's opinion of him, he didn't think he could actually do it, so he resolved to just be a good friend to Harry. That was what he had wanted before, and it felt selfish to want more now that he had it.
"Oh, look," came a voice from in front of him. Colin looked up and saw Draco Malfoy flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy Parkinson was smirking next to Draco. "It's the Mudblood. Creamy or something." Parkinson laughed a terrible laugh that Colin hated more than anything in the world.
"Excuse me," Colin murmured, trying to walk past Crabbe, who stepped in front of him. The larger boy pushed Colin hard and he fell backwards, falling to the stone ground. He quickly stood back up again.
"We will not excuse you," Malfoy said with a sneer. "We've heard you're hanging around with Potter. Merlin, he chooses vermin to be his 'friends', doesn't he?" Parkinson laughed again as Colin got up from the ground.
"Well, at least he has friends," he said angrily. "I mean, what are they? Bodyguards. And what's she? Because I really don't know. I would say arm candy, but isn't that supposed to look good?" For a moment only Malfoy looked outraged and then, all of a sudden, Parkinson turned vicious.
"How dare you!" Parkinson hissed, turning to Crabbe and Goyle. "Teach him a lesson."
"No, I'll do it," Malfoy said, drawing his wand. Colin groped for his wand in his pocket, but was too late. He flew down the hall about ten feet. He felt winded when he landed on his back. Luckily he had not hit his head. He could hear their laughter as he tried to stand. When he finally stood, he found his wand and pointed it at Malfoy.
"Mr Creevey," came a silky smooth voice from behind him. "What are you doing?" Colin turned around and saw Professor Snape striding towards him. Colin opened his mouth, but Parkinson, who had used her mouth more than Colin, talked faster.
"He attacked us, Professor," she said quickly, still managing to sound frightened. Colin saw that Professor Snape looked strangely dishevelled. Snape looked him in the eyes for only a moment before looking over to the Slytherin group.
"Oh, that surely must have been terrifying," he said smoothly. "Four Fifth, almost Sixth, Year Hogwarts students against a miniscule Fourth Year boy?" Colin wasn't entirely sure, but it actually seemed as though Snape was on his side.
"But, sir," Malfoy said, his voice slightly shocked. "He attacked us first!"
"Well then, why did I see him take out his wand just this very moment?" Snape asked. Colin looked around to see the nervous looks on the faces of Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson. Malfoy was the only one to seemingly remain calm.
"He was going to attack us the Muggle way, sir," Malfoy said coolly. "He was running at us. I was using self-defence."
"Why would a boy of his size run up to four Slytherins?" Snape asked fiercely. "Two of whom are menacing even to adults. Do you take me for a fool? Five points each from Slytherin and I will see you for detention tonight and tomorrow night as well, Malfoy. Move along, Creevey."
Colin didn't do anything but walk past Crabbe in utter shock. He caught a glimpse of Malfoy's face which mirrored his own. For a second, he was wondering whether he had actually been knocked out when he hit the ground and everything that had happened since was just a dream. But it wasn't going away, so he assumed it was real. Snape had just taken points away from Slytherin house and given Draco Malfoy a detention. Colin had to make sure that the sky wasn't red.
He rushed into the Gryffindor Common Room to tell Harry what had just happened and found that Harry wasn't there. Nor were Ron or Ginny. Hermione sat on her own, reading a rather large book. Colin had been wanting to know something for a while, so he plucked up his courage and sat next to her. Upon feeling his weight next to her, she looked up from the book.
"Oh, hi Colin," she said with a smile. "Harry's out flying on his broom with Ron and Ginny. Professor McGonagall just gave it back to him."
"That's okay," Colin replied. "I actually wanted to talk to you. But before that, I need to tell you something."
Colin told Hermione all about Snape, Malfoy and the others. Hermione looked rather confused.
"But that doesn't make any sense at all," she murmured, not saying much more.
"I didn't think so either," Colin said with a nod.
"And he only gave Malfoy detention?" Hermione asked. Colin nodded and Hermione's brow furrowed. She sighed. "There's no point worrying about it. We wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway. You had something else you wanted to talk to me about?"
"I just wanted to know what Harry does when he isn't at Hogwarts," Colin said quietly. Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"Why are you asking?" she asked, her voice slightly suspicious. Colin suddenly felt a little uneasy, not at the question but at what Hermione had to be thinking to say such a thing. "Why don't you just ask Harry?"
"I just think it might be a bit tactless to just ask him straight out," Colin replied defensively. "I know he lives with Muggles, and I know that he doesn't talk about it much. I don't want to touch a nerve or anything. I mean, we aren't really that close yet."
"Makes sense," Hermione said after a moment, only a hint of her former suspicion still present. "But still, why are you asking?"
"I was thinking I might be able to visit him during the holidays if he's close by," Colin confessed. Hermione's eyes suddenly widened.
"Oh, I don't think that's a very good idea," she said quickly and Colin felt rather let down. "His family hates everything magical. You wouldn't be welcome." For some reason, this lifted Colin's spirits slightly, even though he knew that it shouldn't.
"What if I pretend to be a Muggle?" he asked. Hermione thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"Harry doesn't have friends in the Muggle world," she replied. "His aunt and uncle would catch on right away."
"So there's no way?" Colin asked, slightly downcast. Hermione looked on in thought for a moment.
"I wouldn't say that," Hermione said slowly. "I suppose if we found a way to make sure that his family didn't even know that you are there, perhaps it could work."
"How would we do that?" Colin asked excitedly, happy that Hermione was taking him seriously.
"Well, we would have to get Harry involved," she said, thinking. "We could get him to go for a walk when you are coming. Then you and he could meet up."
"Sounds good," Colin said even more excitedly than before. He suddenly had a thought. "Do you live close to Harry?"
"Kind of," Hermione replied. "If I were to ask Dad, he would probably drive me to see him, so I do live somewhat close to him."
"Why don't you come as well?" Colin asked, a grin on his face. Hermione frowned and shook her head grimly.
"Dumbledore wouldn't allow it," she said plainly. Colin tilted his head slightly to the left. "I'm too well known to the Death Eaters and we can't risk it. Actually, that's why you are a good choice."
"Because the Death Eaters don't know me?" Colin asked as Hermione nodded.
"It's always a danger to anyone who tries to connect with Harry outside of Hogwarts," Hermione said softly. "Ron and I are too close to him and now Ginny and Luna are known to them. That leaves you. And if you're close enough, you could keep him company. I know Harry hates it there on his own."
"So where does he live?" Colin asked finally.
"Little Whinging, Surrey," Hermione replied. Colin thought for a moment.
"I think that's actually on Dad's route," he said finally, feeling his excitement building again. "That means it can't be too far from home."
"That's great," Hermione said, a smile on her face. "We just have to get Harry to agree to it and then we'll have to think it through some more to make sure it's foolproof."
"But you think it's good?" Colin asked quietly and Hermione nodded.
"I always feel bad about Harry having to go back there on his own and never visiting him," Hermione replied sadly, her eyes looking at the floor. "I was always either away, my letters never arrived or there was too much danger to go and see him. And now I can't. So I think it's a wonderful idea that you go and see him. I don't like Harry being alone, especially there."
Not long after the discussion, Colin and Hermione decided to find Harry to tell him about their plan and so they started walking towards the Quidditch Pitch. While they walked, Colin idly wondered if he would be good enough to try out for the Gryffindor Team next year. They would need new Beaters. Colin was debating whether or not to try out in his head when he and Hermione ran into Ron and Ginny walking away from the pitch.
"Hey guys," Ginny said, bubbly and with a nice smile. "Where are you headed?"
"We want to find Harry," Hermione said. Ginny giggled, but Ron answered.
"Luna showed up and wanted to talk with him," Ron said, the slightest hint of a smile on his face as he spoke. "So we gave them some privacy." Ginny giggled again.
"Alright," Hermione said. "We'll go and see if Harry will talk with us."
"Good luck," Ginny said with a sly smile as she and Ron shouldered their brooms and walked off towards the castle.
It didn't take the two of them long to get to the pitch and enter on to the grounds. They looked around for a while until they both seemed to spot the two at the same time. Harry and Luna were walking slowly, hand in hand. Colin started walking towards them with Hermione next to him. All of a sudden, Harry and Luna stopped walking. Harry turned around, leant down slightly and kissed Luna.
Colin stopped walking suddenly, jealousy swooping down on him as he watched the scene. He averted his eyes and suddenly felt a great feeling of guilt at what he had just felt. He didn't want to feel the jealousy. He knew he shouldn't, and yet it was there and it annoyed him beyond belief. He looked up and saw that Hermione was smiling, though it wasn't reaching her eyes.