Title: New Beginnings: The Seventh Year
Chapter 11: Picking up the pieces
Ron finally slammed his textbook shut and stretched his hands above him. Draco frowned at Ron, who had disturbed him from reading his textbook in peace. Glancing at the clock, he frowned at the time.
"Dray, what's wrong?" Harry, feeling worry through the mind link, looked up at Draco.
"It's eleven. Day's not back yet. Detention should have ended long ago." Draco picked up his stuff, as he saw Ron and Hermione packing up. Harry packed his things up as well.
"Let's dump our things and go find her." Harry commented, frowning as he got up. The group made their way up to their room. When they entered the Study Area, Harry muttered, "Accio Marauder's Map" and the map came zooming out of the room just as Harry placed his things on his table. Holding the blank piece of parchment, he touched his wand to the parchment and muttered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and the map of Hogwarts appeared on the parchment. Both Draco and Harry were intently peering at it, trying to see where Day was. Draco found it first, as a sense of unease gripped his heart.
"What does it mean… if a dot is… flickering?" Draco looked up at Harry, who was frowning at the flickering dot labeled Day Lee.
Hermione gasped, snatched the map from their hands and looked at it. She then turned her pale face to the two equally pale boys. She then turned to the panel, pressed the button for it to open, with the other people in the room rushing behind her, heading towards the flickering dot on the map.
Along the way, Harry snatched the map back from Hermione and being more used to running, he ran ahead, with Ron at his heels. Reaching the almost unlit passageway, he glanced at the map before turning around frantically trying to find Day. "Day! Where are you? The damned map said she's here." By then Draco, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Seamus and Dean had reached there too, followed by Sirius, who saw them running along the passageway and joined the group, wondering what had happened. Sirius changed back to human form and snatched the map from Harry's hands. Looking at the passageway, then at the map, he motioned Harry to step aside as he moved to stand next to the wall. He stretched his right hand in front of him and pushed his hand firmly against the wall. To the surprise of everyone, his hand went through the wall. The next moment, Harry rushed at the wall, with Draco behind him, but both froze at the sight of Day lying on the floor.
Day laid beside her ripped off clothes with her blood all over her naked body. Her left hand was twisted in the way that indicated that it was likely to be broken. Where her body was not covered with blood they could see bruises forming. Harry pulled off his robe and flung it on top of Day, as he gently picked Day up, trying to ignore the large amount of blood on the floor under his shoes.
"I'll run ahead to the infirmary." Ron shouted, as he left.
"I'll get Dumbledore." Sirius said as he threw the map at Draco and changed back to his dog form and left.
Harry ran out of the room, carrying Day, heading towards the infirmary, hoping that it wasn't too late to save Day. As the rest of the group left the room behind Harry, Draco looked around for clues as to who was involved in this attack. He saw something gleaming at the corner and walked over to the table there. Recognizing the bloody dagger that was left on the table, he remembered seeing it when Pansy had showed him back in her fifth year. Pansy had said that it was a family heirloom. His face hardened as he realized that the culprit for the disgusting deed was Pansy, and her two henchmen who never left her side were likely to be involved as well. He then turned to leave the room without touching the dagger. On his way out, he saw Day's broken wand on the floor. He picked it up and held it in his hand, directing his anger towards it. He could feel anger and worry from his mind link and the anger directed to the wand became a burst of magical energy. A bright light flashed in the room and the next moment when he looked at the wand, it was a wand that was no longer broken. His eyebrows shot up as he looked at the repaired wand in his hand, and then placed it in his pocket. Looking at the room he numbly wondered if Day was still alive, due to the sheer amount of blood on the floor of the room. Using his own wand he sealed the room against entry on the way out, reminding himself to tell Harry about the wand incident afterwards when things had settled down. As he walked slowly to the infirmary, his mind was filled with murderous tortures for the three disgusting culprits who dared to do this to Harry and his family. He would see to Day, before seeing to the tortures.
***
When Harry reached the infirmary with Day in his arms, he found the nurse Madam Promfrey worriedly waiting at the door for them. She hurried him to place Day on a bed and asked Harry to leave the room, so that she could do a documentation of the injuries. From the descriptions that Ron gave, seeing that Day was found naked and injured, it was likely that there was rape and assault involved, so it was now a criminal case. She brought an automatic-writing quill out on a parchment, as she started to give descriptions of the injuries Day had, while she healed her cuts on the body. The quill wrote down every single word she dictated. She then collected bodily fluid as evidence of the rape, as well as for analysis.
While Madam Promfrey was working on Day, Harry went out to the silent group waiting outside. Ginny was crying as Neville was trying to calm her down. Ron was hugging Hermione who seemed to be trembling. Seamus was holding on tightly to Dean's hand as if Dean was going to disappear at any moment. At that moment, Draco entered the infirmary, followed by Professor Dumbledore and Sirius. Draco immediately went to Harry, and pulled Harry to him. Harry tried to blink back his tears as he could not get over the sight of Day lying on the floor all bloody and broken. He told himself that Day needed him to be strong and not to cry for her.
"Do you know who was behind the attack?" Professor Dumbledore asked in a very grave voice.
Harry felt Draco's body stiffen even more if possible as he hissed out what he found. "Parkinson. Crabbe. Goyle. Found a dagger belonging to them that was still in that room."
Dumbledore nodded, looking like he had aged ten years in the past ten minutes and turned back to Sirius. "Sirius, get Severus and Minerva to meet me at the entrance of the Slytherin dorm. Ask Severus to bring some Veritaserum." The dog ran out of the infirmary as Dumbledore left behind it.
It was then that Harry's legs decided to collapse. Draco caught him on the way down and let him sit on a chair behind him. He sat on the arm of the chair brushing Harry's hair to soothe Harry. Using his wand, he muttered a cleaning spell on Harry's bloodstained clothes before leaning his nose against Harry's right temple. He needed to feel Harry near him, otherwise he felt as if he was going to explode at any moment. He could feel Harry trying to comfort him mentally. He briefly wondered if this was going to be how their relationship would be going, by him comforting Harry physically and Harry comforting him mentally.
"It's my fault." Draco said to the silent room. He could feel everyone staring at him.
"How is it your fault?" Neville asked. Ginny had finally stopped crying.
"She defended me on the first day of school. Without me around, Parkinson wouldn't even notice her. It's my fault." Draco said, finally giving up the fight to remain calm as he leant down to place his face at Harry's neck, breathing in his essence. Harry's arms came around him and a tug caused Draco to be seated on Harry's lap as Harry tried to bring himself as close to Draco as possible.
"Then it's my fault too. I knew two years ago that I shouldn't get attached to people as they would be targeted for revenge. It is as much my fault as anyone else." Harry softly said, but in the silent room, it sounded unbearably loud. He gave Draco a soft kiss on his lips.
No one else said anything. Everyone just settled down to wait for Madam Promfrey to finish doing her magic on Day, or for the professors to bring back news on the three Slytherins who were behind the atrocious crime that occurred that night.
Everyone stood up when Madam Promfrey tiredly came out of the room and looked at the eight of them waiting out there. Just then, Professor Dumbledore entered the room with Professor Snape, McGonagall and Lupin, as well as Sirius who immediately went to Harry and Draco.
"Poppy, how is the girl?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
Madam Promfrey held up a piece of parchment. "Thank Merlin they brought her in then. We would have lost her if they had been ten minutes late. She lost a lot of blood from the numerous cuts on her body. Here's a list of injuries she had. She was raped as well. From the sperm sample I collected from her body, the analysis told me that it belongs to two men. I managed to heal the physical injuries, but the mental injuries can only be healed by her own mind. She's still asleep now, from the potions that I gave her."
Snape took the parchment from her and read through it. His face was even paler than before when he finished with the parchment. He passed it to Professor McGonagall who winced at the parchment when reading through it.
Harry didn't like the fact that they were passing the parchment around. Were they going to pass to us too, like a pass-the-parcel game? This is Day lying inside there. Harry was starting to find controlling his temper a difficulty. Draco was also getting angry with the professors. He wanted to know what they did to the three animals that did this to Day.
"So are we going to stand here all day so as to examine that list of injuries? If you are really interested, all we had to do was to mutter a little spell and we could project that picture of Day lying there for you all and you can see it in full color instead of reading about it." Draco drawled, glaring at the professors. Snape glared back at Draco as McGonagall seemed insulted and was about to scold Draco for his rudeness. Draco continued on. "So, pray tell me. Where are those three animals now? Have they confessed? Why did they attack Day?"
Dumbledore sighed. "They confessed under Veritaserum. The reasons of the attack were … they were under the orders of Voldemort to kill a good friend of the two of you and she was the only one who was really unprotected and had the tendency of not traveling in groups. She also offended them in the past two months. She was a chaser for the Quidditch team and they wanted Slytherin to win. But the main reason was that Voldemort promised them initiation into the Death-eater circles if they could kill your friend and get away with it."
Both Draco and Harry had their hands clenched. Both were trying to control their tempers upon hearing this. So it was true that it was their fault, isn't it?
Suddenly Hermione realized that the vases in the rooms seemed to be levitating. She saw a chair wobble as it rose two inches above the ground. The tables started to wobble as well. She suddenly gasped, realizing that someone in the room was leaking magic.
"Someone's leaking magic." Hermione said, noticing that Draco and Harry seemed to be trying to control their temper. Guessing that the ones who were leaking magic, she was afraid to approach them, as everyone around them became aware of the intensifying magic currents in the room. Ron's eyes went wide as he wanted to approach the two but was pulled back by Hermione.
Draco knew that both their emotions were disrupting the shared magical pool and if they actually let the magic lose, they might actually blow up the place. He was trying to send comfort waves to Harry, but because his emotions were also very much on the surface, it seemed to be unable to do anything for Harry. He could sense Harry attempting to control his emotions and the magic, and reached his hand out to tug Harry into his arms, as Harry looked at him for help. Looking at the rest of the people standing staring at them, Harry decided that the main thing was to protect them from any magical outburst. He looked back at Draco's eyes and realized that Draco was thinking the same thing. It was as if they knew what each other was thinking. He then used his mind to conjure a protective bubble around Draco and himself. It was like a protective shield spell, but the difference was that Harry did not use his wand to conjure it. He didn't even know the words for the spell. He simply imagined it being there, surrounding Draco and himself, even if they moved about, and both boys slowly sat down on the floor, still holding on to each other's hands. Harry then rested his head on Draco's shoulders and both breathed in deeply, closing their eyes and trying to control their tempers and their magic.
Everyone else in the room was so shocked when they saw the sudden whitish bubble surround the two boys. They then heard the vases and chairs in the room landing softly on the surfaces and realized that the intense magical currents were no longer there. Seamus stretched his hand out to the bubble and realized that his hand could not even move any part of the bubble. He turned to stare at the others, whose faces except Dumbledore's showed astonishment.
Hermione exclaimed, pointing at them. "That was… he didn't even touch his wand… he… shouldn't even know the spell… we don't learn magical protective shielding in classes here. Much less in the bubble form. And that amount of magic. They were levitating everything." Her eyes were so huge that they looked like they were going to pop out.
Dumbledore smiled. "Miss Granger, calm yourself. It's not that hard to understand, given who they were. And all wizards can perform some wandless magic. It's not impossible."
Hermione breathed in deeply and blushed, realizing that she just lost her composure in front of professors. She nodded, but remained staring fascinated at the whitish bubble and the two wizards in it.
"Albus, it's true that everyone can do some wandless magic. But shielding spells! They are so advanced and even normal Aurors had trouble casting it with their wands sometimes. I myself have never heard of a shield in the bubble form." McGonagall asked.
Suddenly the bubble disappeared and Draco's voice floated up to her. "All it meant was that we are likely to be good Aurors that's all. Sorry we almost lost control." Harry stood up and pulled Draco up. Both of them looked like they were back to normal.
"So what's going to happen to those three?" Harry asked.
"They are being locked up in different rooms at the moment and had been given potions to sleep till tomorrow morning. We would arrange for a Ministry worker to be here in the morning. However, because they are under-aged, it is unlikely that they will end up in Azkaban. The recently implemented punishment was that they serve in the muggle prison after they had their magical powers stripped from them. They don't know about that yet. They were told by Voldemort that we could not do anything to them because they are too young. We'll have to make other sleeping arrangements for her. Remus, can you go up to their dorm and add one more bed? I think it's better for her to be protected now, better late than never." Dumbledore sighed.
Draco sighed. "We really can't do anything else worse than that? I want to dig their black hearts out with a spoon." Draco pouted.
"I'll join you." Ron seconded.
"Me three." Seamus exclaimed.
"Me four." Dean said.
"Me five." Neville answered.
"You guys are corrupting Neville. He's turning violent." Harry exclaimed in exasperation. Everyone chuckled as the atmosphere in the infirmary became lighter. "Seriously, I rather spend my energy on Day when she wakes up and seek my revenge in the Quidditch match against Slytherin. I don't care. We're winning that Quidditch Cup for Day." Ron nodded.
"Why don't you all go back to your dorm to sleep? It's quite late already." McGonagall commented.
"Madam Promfrey, what time will Day wake up? I want to be here when she does." Harry asked.
Madam Promfrey answered. "Well, the potion should allow her to sleep till noon tomorrow. But I got to warn you. Some rape victims are very sensitive to the people around her. So she may… "
Draco cut in. "All we want is to be her support system when she wakes up. If she didn't want us there, we'll get the hell out of here. We just don't want her to wake up alone after the trauma she went through." Harry pleaded with Madam Promfrey with his eyes, till finally she nodded and shooed them out of the infirmary.
Everyone went back to their rooms and with a depressed air got ready for bed. Harry laid down in his bed for a moment, before getting up with his wand. He went to Draco's bed and crawled in, as Draco shifted nearer to the wall. Harry then set the alarm for the next morning and laid on his back, staring up at the starlit canopy. Draco sighed beside him, cast a silencing spell and turned to stare at Harry's face.
"I need to tell you something." He waited for Harry to turn his eyes to him before continuing. "Just now, when I saw Day's broken wand on the floor of that room, I picked it up. We both were angry and I sort of directed my anger at the wand. All a sudden there was a flash of light and this was in my hand." Draco held out Day's repaired wand for Harry to see.
Harry's eyebrows went up. "You repaired it? Hmmm… just like just now when I wanted to protect everyone else in case we destroy the place with our lack of control. All I did was imagining the bubble surrounding us, locking the power within the bubble like a magical shield and it just happened."
Draco smiled. "Somehow, I think we discovered our newest power. Maybe we should get Dumbledore to teach us wandless magic." Harry nodded as he relaxed onto the bed. He closed his eyes and could feel Draco doing the same, as both drifted to sleep after the long day. They would need the energy to deal with tomorrow.
***
Harry's eyes fluttered open, keeping his body immobile. He could sense from his link that Draco was still asleep, and he didn't want to physically wake him up yet. Looking at the blur in front of him, he realized that the past two months of frequently sleeping together had made the two of them used to each other in bed. They had fallen asleep the previous night just lying next to each other on the bed, but during the night, they had searched out each other in the centre of the bed. Harry was lying on his side, facing Draco when he woke up. Draco's face was leaning on Harry's shoulder and his hand was gently on Harry's hips. Their legs were entwined. Harry slowly reached up above the pillow and placed his glasses on his nose. Looking down at Draco's sleeping face, he smiled as he marveled at the fact that someone so good looking was lying beside him. He patiently waited for Draco to wake up, as experience told him that Draco would sense him awake and follow him into the awaken world soon.
Ten minutes later, Draco finally gave visible signs that he was awake, even though Harry sensed it five minutes ago. Harry playfully pushed Draco onto his back, as he was still unwilling to face the outside world yet. The fact that his wand had not buzzed yet meant that it was still early. He placed himself on top of Draco as he slightly nuzzled his neck. Draco blinked his eyes open as his hand came up behind Harry's back.
"Morning." Draco huskily smiled down at Harry. Harry stuck out his tongue and lazily traced patterns on his neck, making him breathe in deeply at the sensation. Harry then single-handedly unbuttoned the shirt of Draco's black silk pajamas, teasingly brushing his hand on Draco's skin at times, as he continued to lick Draco's neck. Finally when the shirt was open, he pulled back and looked at Draco, while still leaning his lower body on Draco. No matter how often he saw Draco's shirt off, he was always struck by the fact that Draco looked beautiful. Especially early in the morning when Draco's hair was messy and he was smiling sleepily up at him. Draco often felt that his body had been damaged, due to the fact that the beatings he had gotten from his father left scars on his back. Harry could remember the first time he saw those scars, after finally persuading Draco to take off his shirt, and how he had nearly wept from seeing them. They were ugly, as line scars showed that his father did not beat him, he whipped him. However, in Harry's mind, those scars were beautiful, because he had survived them. After he saw them that first time, he had kissed the scars and used his tongue to lick them, cherishing them as a part of Draco. Draco had broken down in tears from Harry's actions. Now, as he looked at Draco, he was amazed that both of them had survived till they were so old.
He felt Draco's hand coming up to caress his cheek, as he looked at him. Looking into his grey eyes, he lowered his mouth to Draco's left nipple, till he was hovering one inch above it. He softly blew over it, seeing the muscle under it tighten. He then heard Draco whimper, before sucking his nipple into his mouth, his teeth tugging lightly on it. Draco arched his chest up in pleasure.
He continued doing it to Draco, before switching to the other nipple. Looking up at Draco's flushed face and feeling Draco writhe under him, he brought himself up above Draco's face and kissed his mouth. He opened his mouth and welcomed Draco into his mouth. He then placed his lower body against that of Draco's and… rubbed against him. Draco moaned into the kiss as his right hand searched out Harry's fingers and held tightly, as he started rubbing himself back against Harry, moaning as their erections rubbed against each other over layers of cloth, bringing pleasure to both boys. Harry stopped kissing him and brought his lips to the hickey he left on Draco's neck the previous day and sucked hard, as Draco rubbed back at him even more frantically. After some more rocking their bodies together, Harry brought his mouth to Draco's ear and whispered "Now" as he sent a wave of love through their mind link. It was the softly spoken command and the feeling of love washing over his body that made Draco release, allowing his body to explode in ecstasy. His release was carried over the mind link and Harry reached the peak at the same time.
It was a while before Harry finally rolled off Draco. Looking at Draco smiling at him, he couldn't help returning the smile. "Morning." He muttered, as he bent in to give Draco a peck on his forehead, and muttered a cleaning spell over the wet area on the groin area of both of them.
"I think we should sleep together more often. I definitely like the waking up part." Draco smirked at Harry.
Harry deftly buttoned Draco's shirt till he looked decent, before answering, "But I don't want to be predictable." He then left the bed, hearing Draco chuckle.
***
Her eyes fluttered open, staring at the white ceiling above her. The last thing she remembered was… pain. She turned her head when she felt someone staring at her, and found two pairs of eyes intently looking at her.
She saw Harry and Draco sitting at the edge of the next bed. They knew that she was awake, but her awakening did not cause them to hover around her. She frowned. It wasn't the first time she had landed in the infirmary, as Quidditch players had higher injury rates than normal students. Previous experience told her that when you were a patient, when you first wake up from your injuries, your friends hovered over you like you were their injured pet. Frowning, she didn't remember any Quidditch matches that caused her to be in the infirmary.
"What… happened?"
The two boys looked a little ill at the thought that they had to tell her the reason she was there. They exchanged glances and finally looked at her again. It was Draco who answered her question.
"You were attacked by Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle."
Suddenly, flashes of what happened replayed in front of Day. It was as if the pain she had endured caused the painful memories to be locked away till Draco uttered the words. Her body stiffened as Day gave a whimper. The pain she remembered hit her as if her cuts were still unhealed. Day panted as she suddenly remembered what happened. When she looked up at the two boys with tears in her eyes, she suddenly understood why they were sitting so far away. Both of them had scrambled off the bed and looking at her with worry in their eyes, as she looked like she was going through a seizure.
"It… hurts."
With these words, her tears fell as she twisted her aching body till she was lying on her side facing them and curled her body up. Harry's eyes filled with tears as he looked at her. Even Draco's eyes seemed a little wet. Both were silently blaming themselves for causing her pain.
"Is that why… you are not willing to come near me? Because… I'm dirty?" Day looked up at them.
Draco breathed in deeply, trying to control himself when he heard the words that Day said. His eyes had went wide, at the thought that the girl thought that… she thought that they didn't want to be near her! All Harry did was kneel down next to her face, took her fingers in his palm and give her a soft kiss on her forehead.
"Don't be silly. We thought that… you may not want us near as… we are guys and… Merlin, I'm so sorry. It's our entire fault that they went after you…" Harry leant his forehead against her forehead and let the tears fall.
Draco took Day's other hand and lifted it up to his cheek, brushing the back of her hand with his cheek. "We'll never think that you are dirty. Just because that happened to you did not mean that YOU are the one at fault. It's THEM who are at fault. Not you. Remember what we said? We'll never leave you alone for the rest of your life even if you are tired of us."
Day chuckled tearfully, before starting to sob. All the two boys did was hold on to her hands and trying to comfort her with their presence.
When Day finally calmed down from her sobbing, she looked up at the two boys who had been patiently waiting for her to stop crying, although Harry cried a little with her. She gave them tearful smiles as Draco tried to wipe her teas away with a piece of cloth and Harry tried to get her to lay on her back so that any injuries that had not been fully healed would not be aggravated.
"So how did you guys find me?" Day asked.
"I wanted to talk to you yesterday, remember? When it was eleven o'clock and you were not back from your detention, we got worried. Then there was this special map that showed the whole of Hogwarts and the position of the people in the castle as well. We checked it and… found that you seemed to be injured. We rushed out of the dorms like a herd of bulls after us, as all eight of us came out to search for you. And then, when we found you…" Draco broke off, as the sight of Day lying there all bloody flashed in front of his eyes.
"I carried you to the infirmary. Madam Promfrey said that if it was ten minutes more we would have lost you due to blood loss. Draco found the dagger they used and recognized it belonging to Parkinson. Then Professor Dumbledore took those three and made them confess using truth potion. They are too young for Azkaban, but they are going to be stripped of their magic and sent to muggle prison. You won't ever see them again. They are going to be announcing it during dinner later, not mentioning the victim's name." Harry continued.
Day nodded. "I don't really remember that much… Parkinson cut me so many times that all I felt was the pain. Then I think she said that Crabbe won a bet and could be the first to… you know. And all I remembered before fainting from the pain was that he… started to…" Day could not really go on. One thing good about her fainting then was that she couldn't remember the process of the rape, and mentally could just push it aside for a while, as she had to deal with the memory of the pain first. She then patted the spaces beside her. "Want to sit down? You can't possible stand the entire time you are here."
Both boys frowned at her, before Harry ventured to sit down beside her. Both of them were looking at her as if she was going scream any moment. Then Day realized what the problem was. "You thought I'm going to scream bloody murder because you two are guys huh? In the first place I can't really remember much about… you know… all I really could recall was the first part. And somehow," she smiled up at the two of them, "I had the gut feeling that you two are not going to harm me. And I've always had a good judgment of people. Are you two the only visitors I have?"
Both boys smiled at her. "The whole gang's outside. I'll get them if you okay it." Draco said. Day nodded and Draco left the room. Day then realized that Harry was still holding on to her hand, and was unconsciously brushing her knuckles with his thumb, as if he was trying to ensure that she was there. She must have scared him badly the previous night. Day had read psychological books on rape victims before, and most of them described them as women who could not bear to have people touch them after their trauma. She didn't want that. She wanted to be comforted by the presence of people who cared about her and recover from the experience. She didn't want to be those women who had to bitterly continue their lives. Forgetting the whole thing was impossible, so she would have to deal with it. What more quite a few of her friends are gay. That means that sexually they were not interested in her. And she knew that her friends would never want to harm her, especially the group who patiently waited for her to wake up today and were currently entering the room behind Draco.
She suddenly saw a flash of black and saw a large furry dog barking his greeting, while placing his front paws on the bed beside her shoulder. She reached out the hand that was not held by Harry, and scratched behind the furry ears. "Hey, Snuffles. Were you waiting outside for me too?" Snuffles backed once.
"That mutt had been pestering me to bring him to the infirmary. I brought him here and found the others outside. Hope you don't mind me here." Professor Lupin said hesitantly. Day gave him a small smile and greeted the rest. Hermione and Ginny rushed up to hug her, and both burst into tears. The others who were males sighed helplessly as Day patted the two crying girls on the back trying to soothe them, while the two girls were muttering about how good it was that Day was okay and how sorry they were for her and all. When they finally calmed down, they were peeled off Day by their boyfriends who were sending apologetic looks to Day. Day's reply was a smile at the two of them. For the rest of the hour, everyone was chatting with Day regarding unimportant things, till Madam Promfrey came to chase all the visitors out, saying that she needed the rest to recover from the blood loss. All of them left the room, promising to visit her when they were free. All of them went back to their dorm, all of them promising themselves that they would give all the help Day required for the next few weeks.
***
Professor Dumbledore looked up at the students who had seated themselves at their house tables, frowning when the food did not appear on time. It was times like this when he wished that he was not the headmaster of Hogwarts. He loved being around children, but there were some problems that no one was willing to handle. Like the announcement that he had to make.
He stood up and raised his hands for silence in the Great Hall. The students quickly quieted down and looked at him. "I know you are all hungry, but there is an announcement I have to make. Last night, we found three students guilty of assault and rape of another student. The three guilty parties are Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe from Slytherin. Their reason for committing the crime was because they were under the orders of Voldemort to do it. Their punishment was to be stripped of all magical abilities and to be sent to the muggle prison for fifteen years. They are expelled from Hogwarts and banished by the wizarding laws. I will not tell you who the victim is, but should you happen to know the victim personally, please be kind to the victim as the victim will need your help and understanding in the near future. With this, enjoy your dinner." With that statement, he sat down and food appeared on all the tables. The noise level went up as everyone was discussing about the issue and Blaise and Millicent looked at each other when they realized that they were the only Slytherin seventh years left. They quickly finished their dinner and left the hall as they found that their juniors were curious about their former roommates and made their way to their own dorm room for some peace.
The Gryffindor group ate their dinner slowly. They could hear comments on how their younger housemates always knew that those three people were evil and death-eaters. Harry had to admire Dumbledore for the fact that his announcement was precise and actually did not even give a hint on the gender of the victim. Common sense would make people think straight away that the victim was female, but the fact that Parkinson was also involved made it possible that the victim could be a guy too. However, no guy would really accuse anyone of raping him, for the sake of pride. It would take a while before the rest of the school knew that Day was the victim. The Gryffindor students in Day's year had already been informed of the incident and were told to pretend that the announcement was the first time they heard of it. All of them were sympathetic and promised to help. Day had earlier showed them that she was not so weak as to let this incident make her into one of those psychiatry cases, thus all her friends could do was to stand near her and be there to support her when she needed it.
*****
A/N: Okay… I know that this chapter was to be to pick up the pieces. Someone who reviewed thought it was the literally pieces… even I am not that horrible. Some reviewer also commented on the previous chess game being too short… first and foremost, I thought I made it quite clear that Dray and Ron were really GOOD players??? So they could end the game quite fast if they wanted… they don't really need a few hours. And why on earth are you guys telling me how to write my story? I am quite satisfied with how everything is going. Since Day is not that a main character in this story, I'm not going to make Day the type who mope about the rape. That's why I made her faint before she was that aware that she WAS being raped. She is just NOT like that… given her character. I should find a nice boyfriend for Day huh?? Pair her with whom??? Oh… and the punishment for the disgusting three??? I just wanted to get rid of them so that I won't have them popping out again in the later chapters. I want them OUT completely. OH…….So how was that short scene between Draco and Harry???? Review please!!!!