Chapter 6: Just the Beginning
Harry and Dean walked down the corridors in silence, glancing at each other every once in a while. Dean suddenly turned to Harry, looking at him pleadingly.
"Harry, I swear I don't remember what happened! I didn't mean to… I don't know… I…"
"I know, Dean," Harry answered, his brow furrowed, "I just don't know how. Maybe you were sleepwalking."
Dean stared at him. "People don't strangle their friends in their sleep!"
"I know, I know."
They walked a little further in silence. "Harry, why did Dumbledore ask if I had a dream?"
"You told us you had one."
"Do I really want to know what it was?"
"…No. I don't think you do."
"Kippers," Dean said, causing the portrait to open.
They walked up to their dormitory without another word. When they opened the door, Ron, Neville, and Seamus nearly pounced on them.
"Okay, what in the world happened?!" Ron demanded.
Harry explained how they had both had veritaserum and told them what Dean said, skipping the dream. Dean explained what Harry said and they all just stood there a while.
"But, then what happened?" Neville asked.
"No idea," Harry said, "Let's just get to bed."
The five boys got in their separate beds, closing the curtains. None of them, however, got any sleep.
****
When the sun finally rose that morning, Harry got up to find the other four boys still in the dormitory, waiting almost expectantly. They all stood for a moment, fidgeting.
"I don't think," Harry said, breaking the silence, "that we should tell anyone what happened. We don't want anyone getting the wrong idea, especially since we're not even sure what happened."
"Uh-oh…"
Harry turned sharply to Ron. "What?"
"Er…" Ron rubbed the back of his neck, staring at his feet. "When you and Dean were gone, Fred and George came up. They had been in the common room and wanted to know what was going on. I…er. Well I was still…mad at Dean and, er, they probably…got the wrong impression."
Harry glanced swiftly at Dean. "We'd better stop them before they tell anyone else."
The five boys trooped quickly down the stairs, but halted when the many people who had been circled around Fred and George all turned toward them. Many gaped at seeing both Harry and Dean and an eruption of whispers soon broke out.
The large group soon began to file out of the common room, a few glancing back warily at Dean.
"We're too late," Seamus groaned.
"Dean… I'm so sorry. Just last night, I thought…"
Dean just shook his head sadly. Hermione and the three other Weasleys came over to the group. Hermione flung her arms around Harry, her eyes a little red. Ginny was sniffling and Fred and George just glared at Dean.
"What's he doing here?"
"Yeah, shouldn't he be in Azkaban by now?"
Dean stared solemnly at his feet.
"No, he shouldn't," Harry answered, "I think you guys need to hear what really happened."
Harry explained everything, from the moment he woke up to when they left Dumbledore's office, again artfully leaving out the dream.
"Oh, crikey…" Fred murmured, "And we just told all of Gryffindor that Dean was one of Voldemort's supporters…"
"Dean… We'll do everything we can to right it. Maybe we can stop it from spreading to the other houses."
Sadly, a rumor at Hogwarts was like a wildfire, once it really started, it wasn't going to stop. Dean spent the next few weeks getting dark glares and even a few threats.
"It's awful, Harry," he muttered one day on the way
to Potions, "Everybody hates me and I did nothing wrong. You can't imagine what I'm going through!"
"Actually, I can. Remember last year when everyone was angry
with me for becoming a champion? No one
would believe that I didn't put my name in."
"But at least you had Gryffindor support! All I get is smiles from Slytherins. Slytherins, for crying out loud! Malfoy even congratulated me on the effort. I tell you, right then I felt like strangling him!"
"It'll die down. The fact that you didn't mean to do anything is gradually spreading. It's only that good rumors about people never spread as fast as bad ones."
When they reached the dank classroom, Malfoy was by the doorway, smiling.
"Hope you sleep well the next few nights, Potter. You're gonna need it."
"What do you mean, Malfoy?" Harry said, glaring at him.
"You only had a taste of what's going to happen. The worst is yet to come."
Harry brushed by him angrily, sitting stiffly by Hermione and Ron. As Malfoy walked by, he whispered menacingly, "This is just the beginning, Potter."
~*~*~
A/N: You guys are too smart. Any little hint I give,
you pick up on immediately. Ah, but I might
just have a few tricks up my sleeve. Just you
wait. I'll wallop you when you least expect it!
Mwa-ha-ha!!!
Er…or maybe that's my ego talking. We'll see.
A bit of a short chapter. *shrugs* Oh well.
Thanks, again, to all who reviewed! I enjoy them
very much. Fell free to review again. ^-^
And to those who haven't, PLEASE REVIEW!!!
-Ady
