Disclaimer: The characters and places and stuff belong to JKR. But for now, they are at my mercy. *evil grin* I'll return them as soon as I'm finished…maybe.
Beth: I've been posting a chapter a day, but since I don't have too many chapters already written, I'm going to start posting one every two or three days, just until I get more done. As for the darkness in the dorm, I'm kind of going by what it was like in the HP movies: there's that window with the light from the moon shining through. Know what I mean? I probably should have been clearer on that. And Harry telling his friends about the summer, think of it like this: They're like his brothers, and he wants them to know what happened to him, but he doesn't want them to think it bothers him, even though it does. So he acted like he wasn't bothered. Get it? lol anyway, thanks for the review! I love getting reviews that I can really reply to!
Lee Lee Potter: Good question about Sirius and a patronus, but in my mind, I don't think that he would be able to conjure an effective patronus. After being locked in Azkaban for 12 years, I would think that the dementors would affect him too easily and too quickly for him to even think about it.
Saavik: You'll find out eventually what Harry would have faced with the boggart. *smile*
Thanks for the great reviews, everybody!
In this chapter: Leaked information, Hermione shocks all, Severus and Albus talk
~~~
Chapter 17
Draco practically ran up to the High Table after the arrival of the post owls, holding a copy of the Daily Prophet. He rushed over to Remus and Sirius and asked them where Harry was.
"Probably slept in," Remus replied, shrugging his shoulders. "He didn't sleep well last night after he came to our rooms. Why?"
Draco slammed the paper down in front of Harry's godfathers, whose eyes widened with shock.
"Oh, God," Sirius gasped.
The biggest headline on the front page of the Daily Prophet read 'Boy-Who-Lived Gay, Abused by Muggle Relatives.'
At that moment, Harry entered the Great Hall, and nearly every student turned to stare at him. Just about everyone was silent, except for several students who actually pointed and giggled at him. He glanced around, confused and uncomfortable under the stares, before making his way to his seat. Sirius, Remus, and Draco watched as Seamus silently put a copy of the paper in front of Harry, whose face went deathly pale. He stared at the article for a moment and quickly read it. Then he looked around frantically to find everyone still watching him before he ran as fast as he could out of the room. Seamus, Dean, Draco, Sirius, and Remus quickly followed.
Outside the doors to the Great Hall, they found Harry pacing back and forth. His hands pulled painfully at his hair as he mumbled to himself, tears spilling from his eyes. Draco reached out to hug him, but Harry jerked away. He dropped his hands and glared at his friends and godfathers. They'd never seen such a mixture of emotions in his eyes before; they conveyed pain, anger, defeat, and fear as he stared at them.
"Who told?" Harry whispered, harshly. When nobody answered, he screamed, "Who fucking told them?!"
As soon as he said that, he collapsed against a wall and slid to the floor in a fit of sobs, bringing his arms up to cover his face.
"Why can't they just leave me alone?" he whispered.
Sirius dropped to the floor next to Harry and pulled his godson into his arms, whispering words of comfort into his ear.
"Shh, love, calm down," Sirius murmured, rubbing Harry's back.
"They know everything," Harry cried into Sirius's shoulder. "Every detail, they know everything they did to me!"
Remus ran as quickly as he could down to the dungeons and into the potions classroom. Severus was in there, setting out ingredients, but he stopped suddenly when Remus came in.
"Do you have a Calming Potion?" Remus asked, hurriedly.
"Yes, why? Who needs it?" Severus wondered as he retrieved the potion from his storage room.
"You have to come up," Remus told him as he turned back towards the door. "I don't know how much to give him." He began to run again, and Severus followed.
"How much to give who?" Severus asked again.
"Harry!"
Severus sped up considerably after hearing that.
By the time they reached the group in the hallway, now joined by Albus, Minerva, and Charlie, Harry was having a full-blown panic attack. He was hyperventilating and sobbing uncontrollably, and his body trembled violently in Sirius's arms. Severus quickly knelt down on Harry's other side and prepared to administer the potion.
"Lift his head," he told Sirius, who obeyed. Severus poured a small amount of the Calming Potion down Harry's throat.
Within minutes, Harry had stopped shaking, and his breathing had eased, though he was still crying into Sirius's chest. Sirius just pulled him into his lap, slowly rocking him back and forth. Severus stood with Draco and asked what had happened. Draco shoved the newspaper at him, and Severus gasped in shock.
Whoever had written the article had known all the details. The cupboard, the rape, the pistol, the cutting, the nightmares, the flashbacks--everything. They had even known how close and affectionate Harry had become with Draco and Severus, though the journalist had called them 'Death Eaters.'
He or she knew everything about Harry's summer after being rescued from the Dursleys, including the treatment for the Ecilam, the trip to the restaurant and cinema, and every other detail imaginable. There was even a paragraph in the article hinting at Harry's feelings for Severus!
"Harry," Albus said, softly, as he knelt down with an ease that should have been unknown to a man his age. He gently touched Harry's hair, and the boy turned to look at him with red-rimmed eyes. "Aside from all of us out here and Madam Pomfrey, who did you tell anything to?"
Harry thought for a moment, wiping his eyes.
"Ron, Hermione...Ginny...and Neville," he whispered, finally. He broke down in tears again. "I didn't want anyone to find out... Not like this..."
Albus just stroked Harry's hair for a moment before standing up again.
"Take him up to Poppy," the old wizard requested. "All of you, go up. I will be there shortly."
With that said, Albus went back into the Great Hall. All of the students stared at him expectantly as he cleared his throat.
"Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger," he said, firmly. "Come with me, please."
When everyone arrived in the hospital wing, and when Harry had been given a Sleeping Draught, Albus looked around the room, his dark, sparkle-less eyes stopping on each face.
"If any of you has any idea how somebody at the Daily Prophet received all of this information on Harry, I suggest that you speak up now."
Nobody spoke. Draco looked around and realized the he was most-likely the only person in the room who had known every single thing that was in the article. Nobody else would have been capable of providing the information to the Daily Prophet, and since he, himself, hadn't...how did they found out?
"Then I suppose I will have to contact the Prophet and find out for myself," Albus sighed.
All was silent for a moment, until Draco noticed Ron and Hermione. He glared menacingly at them.
"What the bloody hell's up with the two of you?" he hissed. "You're supposed to be his best friends, and you didn't even follow him out when he needed you! Why not?"
"Because it's disgusting, that's why!" Hermione shot back, sharply. "Because what he is is disgusting!" At those words, at least eight of the fourteen people in the room--minus Harry--flinched, but Hermione continued. "I was raised to believe that homosexuality is abnormal and wrong. My religion teaches that, my parents teach that, and I believe it! And to think that this whole time, one of my best friends has been like...like that?!"
Draco lunged for her, his eyes burning with anger, but Severus and Sirius caught him, holding him back before he could reach her. So Draco settled for struggling against them and glaring murderously at Hermione.
"It's people like you who made him afraid to tell anyone!" he shouted. "You were never really his friend in the first place, if you could reject him so easily. It's disgusting? Get over it because half the people in our world are homosexual!"
"Silence!" Albus bellowed before Draco could go any further. The older wizard looked down at Hermione, seeming to have a look of disappointment in his eyes. "Miss Granger, you are dismissed."
Hermione left the room without another word, and Albus looked around again.
"Will anybody else be joining Miss Granger?" Nobody moved. "Very well, then. Minerva, get in touch with Arthur. I will contact the Daily Prophet. Severus, please come with me. Everyone, please leave when Madam Pomfrey tells you to."
After the three left, Draco looked at Ron, who seemed slightly shaken.
"What's the deal with you, Weasley?" Draco asked, eyeing him warily. "Why didn't you go after him? Do you agree with that bitch, Granger?"
"Malfoy, look at my family." Ron chuckled slightly. "All of my siblings are either gay or bisexual. Do you really think I could resent them for it?"
"And what of you?" Draco wondered, curiously.
"Oh, I'm the oddball. I'm as straight as they come." Ron sighed softly. "I didn't follow Harry because... Well, honestly, I thought, he has you now. He doesn't need me anymore."
"Are you mad?" Draco asked in astonishment. "You're his best friend! Merlin, if you heard how much he talked about you over the summer... 'Oh, I wish Ron could come and visit.' 'Ron would love to see this!' I was about to come and kidnap you, just to shut him up!"
"Seriously?" Ron laughed. After a moment, he gave Draco a solemn look. "He thinks of you as his best friend, as well. He's always talking about the things you two did over the holiday. Do you really care for him, Malfoy?" Draco nodded. "Well, I do, too. And if we deal with Harry, that means we deal with each other. So...maybe we should call a truce, for Harry's sake?" Draco nodded again.
"I agree." He stuck out his hand, and Ron shook it. "Truce."
~~~
Meanwhile, Severus was in Albus's office, sitting on the sofa while the headmaster spoke to someone at the Daily Prophet by Floo in the next room. While he waited for Albus, he leaned over with his elbows on his knees, his hands folded under his chin as he thought about that article.
"It seems as though Potter enjoys the company of older men, as he has taken a romantic interest in a teacher twenty years his senior. Though this teacher has treated Potter horribly since his first year, it is highly possible that those feelings are now mutual."
That was what the article said about Harry and Severus. It hadn't used Severus's name, but it was quite obvious to anyone who knew them that it was referring to him.
"Well, Severus," Albus said, jolting Severus out of his reverie. Albus sat in the chair across from him. "It seems as though we have another unregistered Animagus on our hands. I wasn't given much more information than that, but I'm surprised they told me even that much." Severus snorted.
"I'm not. Your powers of persuasion are quite above average, Albus."
There was a pause as Albus studied Severus with those twinkling blue eyes. Severus's eyes flitted around as he tried to look anywhere but at the headmaster.
"Tell me, Severus," Albus said, finally. "What do you think of what was said in that article."
"I think that I'm going to be receiving many Howlers in the near future," Severus replied, dryly. "I predict at least eleven by tomorrow evening."
"And Harry? What are your feelings on him?"
Severus sighed, shaking his head, and glared at Albus.
"First Draco, then Lupin, now you," he muttered. He raised his voice to a normal volume. "Don't worry, Albus. No matter what my feelings are, I won't be corrupting your precious Boy Who Lived."
"That's not what I asked," Albus said, gently. Severus didn't reply. "I know that you care greatly for him, Severus. I see the way you look at him and the way he looks at you. Don't think that if you tell me the truth, you'll be in any trouble for it. Quite the contrary, actually. I completely approve because I can see the feelings you have for one another. Besides, there are no rules or laws against it. He is of age by the Ministry's standards, and there are no Hogwarts rules against relationships between teachers and students."
"That's nice, Albus, but I can't just pursue a relationship with the boy. For one thing, he is still just that: a boy. As long as he's my student..." Severus just shook his head and stood up. "Anyway, he's young. He doesn't know what he wants. Therefore, I will do nothing. Now, if you don't mind, I have a class to teach in fifteen minutes, and I need to prepare."
Before Albus could reply, Severus swept out of the office and went down to his classroom, where the seventh-year Slytherin-Gryffindor class had already accumulated, minus Harry and Draco. The room became silent when Severus came in, and he glared at everyone who stared at him.
"If you all insist on staring at me like a bunch of idiots, then leave this classroom immediately," he hissed. Nobody moved, but they averted their eyes. "I don't care what has happened so far this morning. Lessons will continue as usual. If I hear so much as a single word about the article in the Daily Prophet, the moron who utters it will find himself with at least a week of detention and twenty-five House points lost; more if I see fit. Have I made myself clear?"
