Harry stared down at the lifeless form of Voldemort, lying prone on the floor of the Great Hall. Nobody uttered a sound as they all took in the reality of what had just occurred.

He turned around to see if his friends were okay, to see if they needed any help, to just make sure they were still there.

He shouldn't have turned around.

All around him, all he could see were his schoolmates, friends, family. Yet, when he moved towards them — they flinched back, as though they were afraid.

He blinked, his motions stalling as he tried to understand what was going on. Everyone was staring at him in different states of shock, looking between him and the body, whispering to one another before glancing to look at the wand he still had, gripped tightly in his hand.

He shook off what he saw, it had to just be nerves. Harry took a step towards Ron and Hermione before a voice abruptly stopped him.

"No!"

Why had Ron shouted that? Harry stayed rooted to the spot as Ron's shaky arm drew his wand and pointed it at him.

"Don't come near us, Harry. How could you? We trusted you, but if you can do this, then I don't know who you really are." Ron's voice had once been a lion's roar, yet this was whispered as if he hadn't wanted to even let the world hear it.

Harry didn't know what to say, what could he say? "Ron, you know me. You know I didn't want this…"

Ron shuddered. "I thought I knew you. But the Harry I know would never do this, would never kill anyone. If you could kill him, then how do we know you won't come after one of us next? Who will you decide to be the next Dark Lord?"

Harry stood in silence as people all around the hall seemed to mutter their agreement. He didn't know what he could do to explain; he didn't understand why they didn't see that he hadn't wanted to kill Voldemort. It was his own spell rebounding, not him.

Harry didn't get a chance to try and explain his side as Ron continued speaking before he could even open his mouth.

"We stayed with you all through this Horcrux hunt, and you explained at the end of it he'd just be an average guy. So why didn't you just disarm him? Arrest him? Throw him in Azkaban until the end of his days?"

Harry tried to speak, but the agitation in the people that were standing around in the hall grew along with their voices as they all began to shout what he had done wrong and questioned each move he had made during the war.

Ron appeared to be the spokesperson of the growing mob as they all seemed to move forward as one. "I think it would be best if you left. If you could do this to someone who was now just an old man, what hope do we have if we disagree with you?"

Harry tried to find an answer but the words seemed to leave him as he took in the wary stances of the bystanders and the look of mistrust in their eyes.

They were all scared of him.

Harry turned and fled from the growing mob; the last thing he saw was the grimace on Ron's face.

Ron watched in silence as the mob followed Harry out the hall and off school grounds.

He was finally gone.

He hadn't trusted Harry since he had started spewing lies about how the government was out to get him and how Dumbledore had shown him a prophecy from Trelawney. Didn't Harry realise that his father was part of the Ministry? Or that Trelawney was a crackpot? Or that he could simply stop for a minute and think things through?

No matter how hard this had been, it was worth it now that the wider Wizarding world knew what the great Harry Potter was really capable of.

THC/The Houses Competition.

Round 7 - Drabble

House - Gryffindor

Class - HoH

Prompt(s) chosen -

[Emotion] Disgust

674 words (wordcounter .net)