MAKE UP YOUR MIND
Chapter Six
Trigger warning: Talk of mental issues
It's been three days since the Hogsmeade weekend and things seemed to return to their normal course, but Harry was still having trouble forgetting Parvati's words. Every time he thought about it, it made him angry all over again. How dare she meddle in his affairs? So yes, his relationship with Ginny wasn't at its best right now, and OK, he didn't really know how to fix this but still, that didn't give her the right to say anything!
Everyone thought Ginny was using him, that was what Parvati had said, everyone. As hard as it was for Harry to admit this, Parvati sort of had a point. Up until now he was ready to dismiss the whole thing as Ginny's run for fame, which he thought was a bit too much but still understandable, but after what had happened in the clothes shop in Hogsmeade things were a little different. Ginny tried blackmailing him to spend a sum that was about trice the value of her own home on something she didn't even need. Even he, who had both his parents and Sirius' vaults overflowing with coins wouldn't just spend those sort of sums without thinking.
Harry spent the last couple of days watching his friends and trying to get into their heads, trying to figure out what their real agenda was. They were all bloody traitors if they thought they could hide this from him, bloody hypocrites! The lot of them!
After nearly a week of stewing in his own juices Harry decided he's had enough. He needed to confront his friends, especially Hermione and Seamus who claimed to be the closest to him and hopefully not let Ron know any of this because he probably wouldn't like to hear this about his baby sister, no matter how much they were fighting these days.
He thought about how to approach this, after all he couldn't simply walk over to any of them and start hurling accusations. He needed a plan. He decided to tackle Seamus first- he still had the bloody chocolate pineapples that Parvati made him buy for the Irish boy, so at least he had a plausible excuse to talk to him about the whole incident back in Hogsmeade. He caught up with Seamus outside the Great Hall, just as they were leaving dinner.
"Here," Harry said, as he pushed the box of chocolates into Seamus' hands, "These are for you." Seamus looked up with surprise, a happy smile blossoming on his face at the unexpected gift,
"Thanks! What are those for?" Harry shrugged, cursing himself for not thinking over this some more, and preparing his words better,
"It's to say thank you. For helping me, back in Hogsmeade." Something akin to guilt flashed through Seamus' eyes, causing Harry's anger to flare again, before the other boy smiled wide and happy again,
"You didn't have to get me anything. Honestly." He said, his voice sounding a little unsure. Harry crossed his arms over his chest,
"Shey, what do you really think of Ginny?" He blurted out, and Seamus looked up startled from his chocolates,
"W-what do you mean?" He asked uncertainly, trying to buy some time. He knew something was up, though neither Harry nor Parvati were saying much, he knew that the whole Hogsmeade incident was going to have quite dire consequences and apparently his borrowed time was over,
"Don't play games with me, Finnigan!" Harry snapped and Seamus' eyebrows rose in shock, "Just tell me the truth, do you think Ginny is using me?" Harry was advancing on his friend quite purposefully and Seamus found himself taking a step back, before he stopped himself and stood his ground,
"Harry," He started softly, trying to give himself time to think of the proper words to say, "What's gotten into you?"
"Stop it! Stop playing dumb with me! Parvati told me that you all think Ginny's using me and you're all too scared to tell me the truth!" Damn it! Seamus thought furiously, he was going to kill Parvati for this! This was such a bad idea, leaving the two of them on their own, but it wasn't like he could split himself in half to be able to keep an eye on both Parvati and Ginny. Seamus racked his hand through his hair, a tell-tall sign he was nervous and tried to think quickly how to salvage this situation before he did more damage.
"It's a little more complicated than that..." Seamus started slowly again, knowing he was only making Harry more upset with his slow voice and the evasion of the question but he needed to figure out what he was going to say lest he made things even worse.
"I think it's fairly simple, you did call my girlfriend Hepatitis after all." Harry said in a cold voice, his face grim and his arms still crossed over his chest, but this time he was holding to the edges of his shirt to avoid the temptation of reaching for his wand. He needed to hear Seamus say the words before he hexed him. Seamus grinned sheepishly, quite unaware of Harry's struggle for control,
"That... wasn't me..." He said, somewhat uneasy. He didn't really feel like explaining why Divinia could get away with so much more than he could but it was the truth- when he slipped into his drag personality he didn't even remember half the things that devil woman said.
"Seamus!" Harry was now stomping his foot, feeling just about ready to reach over and shake the other teen until he started talking,
"Fine!" Seamus threw his hands in the air, there was only one way this could end and frankly- Harry did deserve the truth, "Yes! I think Ginny is using you and what happened in Hogsmeade was just the tip of the iceberg and I'm really sorry but I'm not always going to be there to save you from her!" He cried, his face flushed and his hands waving about. Harry took a step back, he hadn't actually expected Seamus to confess, he was actually preparing himself for some more evasive answers- not hard and blunt truth, but it seemed that once the dam was open there was no way to shut it back up again, "She's changed Harry, the war had changed Ginny and not for the better, she's not the same person she used to be, the person you fell for and now you're staying with her out of duty, because you feel like you owe her something, and that's just wrong because she's making you miserable and you..." Seamus shook his head and smiled sadly, "You are just a glutton for punishment, you take on all the hurt and guilt of the war on yourself and wallow in it. You'll probably go on to marry Ginny just to ease your conscience because you think you deserve this!"
"Shut up!" Harry yelled, his hands pulling at his own hair, "Shut up!" He advanced on Seamus, his breathing harsh as he pointed his finger at his friend, "You don't know anything!" He hissed, completely pissed at the fact that Seamus was thinking this about him. If he'd been truly honest with himself Harry knew that what bothered him most was the fact that Seamus was right- he was a glutton for punishment, he's always been, this was what Dumbledore was doing to him for years, cultivating this sense of responsibility for everything that was wrong with their world and it was so hard to let go, so hard not to take every death, every injury and injustice upon himself, and damn you Seamus for playing the guilt card like this. Turning on his heel Harry started running towards his common room, intent on leaving Seamus behind and hopefully regretting his words.
Seamus cursed loudly, this was not how things were meant to go! He was going to kill Parvati for this, how dare she open this can of worms like that? Without even giving him a proper warning in advance so that he could plan his strategy? He ran after Harry, calling his name and trying to get the quick seeker to stop and listen, but Harry was having none of that, and he even managed to slip away from Seamus on one of the revolving staircases. When Seamus finally caught up with him he found Harry standing in front of Lady de Morigen, his wand pulled out and threatening the portrait with incineration if she didn't open up, Seamus ran up to them, his breath coming out in short, painful gasps,
"Ebony toads, ebony toads!" He cried and the irate Lady shook her head and opened up the portrait. Seamus whispered a quick apology to her even as Harry marched forward and hurried after him. Harry strode into the common room, not caring one bit that everyone who was in it was looking at him oddly after they all heard him yell at their guardian portrait. He spotted Hermione sitting in the corner, as usual surrounded by piles of books and made his way over to her, slamming his hands on the table loudly and causing her to jump up with wide eyes,
"Call yourself a best friend!" He yelled at the oblivious girl and turned around, not even waiting for an answer and made his way towards the stairs that led to the boys dormitory, his whole posture rigid with rage which made quite a few people scurry out of his way. Hermione looked up at Seamus who was still panting- he rolled his eyes as he turned towards the stairs as well, followed closely by Hermione who was determined to get to the bottom of Harry's strange behaviour. They caught up with Harry in his room, both Hermione and Seamus burst through the open door, unarmed,
"Harry, what's going on, what..." The words died on Hermione's lips, as the two of them stopped right behind Harry whose gaze was fixed on the wall. On the wall in front of them was a crude graffiti, painted in red which read 'YOU SHOULD HAVE LOST, SCUM!' Hermione and Seamus exchanged a look and the Irish boy quickly closed the door as Hermione gingerly reached and placed a soft hand on Harry's shoulder,
"Get out." Harry's voice was no longer raised in anger, it was low and baleful, and he didn't even turn to his friends,
"Harry, I really think we should tell a teacher about this..." Hermione, ever the voice of reason started saying, before Harry turned around and fixed them both with a scorching glare,
"You two will not say a word about this to anyone," He said, his voice still low and menacing, causing both Hermione and Seamus to take a step back and plaster themselves against the door. Harry lifted his wand and pointed it at them, "Do you understand?" Seamus nodded quickly, grabbing Hermione's arm with one hand and scrambling for the doorknob with the other, but Hermione apparently left all caution back in the common room because she took a step forward and reached for Harry again,
"Harry, please, you can't just ignore..."
"This is just some stupid prank!" He cut through her words, "Get the hell out of my room! Now!" Seamus nodded and grabbed Hermione's arm again as he slipped out of the door, dragging the protesting girl behind him. He stomped his way down the stairs, back into the common room and then up the opposite staircase leading to the girls dorms.
"Shey, we can't just..." Hermione started, her expression confused as she tried to make sense of what was going on with very limited resources. Seamus stopped midway up and turned to the brunette,
"What is wrong with you? You spent six bloody months in a tent with the guy, did you learn nothing?" He asked harshly, because really- either Hermione had a complete death wish or something snapped in her brain if she thought it was even a remotely good idea to approach Harry in this state. He burst into Parvati and Hermione's room- even though they were not originally assigned together the Patil twins had switched rooms that very first night. Parvati looked up from her book to see her best friend storming in looking enraged. She knew this was going to come, she was actually kind of surprised it took Harry this long to explode,
"What right do you think you have going and telling Harry that we think Ginny is using him?" Seamus cried, and behind him Hermione's eyes widened, finally putting together the picture.
"What?" She practically squeaked in her shock, "You told Harry that?" Parvati took her time, marking her place in the book before she rose from the bed to face the two of them,
"Yes I did." She said calmly, and the two teens before her gasped in disbelief, "And I'm not sorry I did. He deserves to know the truth." She looked between Hermione and Seamus who both seemed quite speechless at her confession, they probably expected her to deny the whole thing but she didn't really care anymore, it was high time this was all over, "I'm sick and tired of listening to the two of you bitching about how bad she is for your precious little Harry, while neither of you has the balls to actually talk to Harry and tell him the truth, you're both hypocrites and pathetic!" She finished as she brushed pass them and left the room, slamming the door in behind her. Hermione turned slowly to look at Seamus, who seemed completely out of fighting spirit, falling into a nearby chair and closing his eyes.
"She's right, you know." Seamus snorted without bothering to open his eyes,
"So? That still doesn't give her the right to go behind our backs like that." Hermione shrugged and took a seat on the bed, rubbing her face with her hand. That was also true, but it didn't really matter at the moment, because basically apart from shunning Parvati there wasn't much they could do.
"Do you really think that graffiti was a prank?" She asked, suddenly eager to change the subject. Seamus opened his eyes and looked at the girl, before he shook his head slowly,
"No, but there's nothing we can do about it right now." Hermione opened her mouth to argue, probably to insist they go to one of the teachers, even behind Harry's back, but Seamus raised his hand to stop her before she even started, "You're not going to talk to anyone about this. Not until Harry calms down and is willing to listen." He warned Hermione, who clenched her jaw in anger, clearly battling with herself about the subject, "If you go behind Harry's back, especially after today, he's never going to speak with you again." Hermione deflated, knowing that Seamus was right and that there was no way she could do something without causing irreparable damage to her relationship with Harry.
"Fine!" She cried, slumping back onto her bed with a huff. Seamus gave a small, grim smile before he rose from his seat and left the room, leaving Hermione to fume in quiet.
For the rest of the week things were quite tense around the common room. Harry refused talk to either Seamus, Hermione or Parvati and resorted to hang out with Neville, who looked far more guilty about spending time with Harry than he should have. For her part Hermione was ready to approach Harry the second she left him in his room that day but all her efforts were in vain as the dark haired teen simply refused to even look at her.
But not someone like Hermione was going to be deterred by Harry's attitude and a few days later she saw her opportunity to corner her best friend. She sauntered into the eighth years boys showers, smiling widely at Neville who gave a frightened squeak, though he was fully clothed and practically ran away from the showers. Hermione waved after him, a wide smirk stretching her lips before she leaned against the nearest sink to wait for Harry to finish his shower.
Harry leaned his head forward, letting the hot jet of water massage his nape. This felt so good- a hot shower was always one of his favorite ways to relax, it was one of the only luxuries he had growing up and he never ceased to cherish it. Eventually breathing became a little hard with all the steam and Harry shook his head to rid of the fogginess and shut the water off. Grabbing his towel from the peg he wrapped it around his waist. Humming softly to himself he stepped out of the shower stall,
"Hello Harry." Harry froze in shock at hearing the female voice in the midst of the all-male sanctuary, grabbing his towel and wrapping it more firmly around his waist he tried to side step Hermione but the girl in front of him was having none of that, "We need to talk."
"What the hell are you doing here?" He rasped and Hermione smiled sweetly at him, utterly enjoying Harry's discomfort,
"You've been avoiding me, I had to take drastic measures." Harry rolled his eyes and walked towards the bench where his clothes were, turning his back to Hermione. "I'm really sorry things turned out the way they did, but in a way I'm glad it happened." Harry snorted, the sound muffled by the shirt he was pulling over his head, "We all care about you, Harry, and we want to see you happy and to tell you the truth, I don't think you've been very happy lately."
"What the hell do you know about how I feel?" Harry grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, he knew that if there was one person in the castle who actually did know how he felt and could read him like an open book it was Hermione. Hermione sighed, this was going to be a lot harder if Harry wasn't going to cooperate. Seeing his friend hesitating Harry shook his head and turned his back again, quickly donning his underwear and jeans, feeling a little awkward about having to do that under his towel since he could practically feel Hermione's eyes boring into his back, and frankly- best friend or not, their relationship never went there.
"Fancy meeting you here, Granger." Hermione turned her eyes towards the door to see Draco Malfoy standing there in all his naked glory, a towel slung casually over his shoulder. She blinked twice before catching herself,
"Oh, you know me, can't resist the sausage party you guys got going here." She smirked at the blond and folded her arms again, pointing at Draco's genitalia with her chin, because damn. Harry, who wasn't really listening to what the other two were talking about chose that moment to turn, his eyes widening in shock at seeing the naked man- fuck... he never would have guessed, not in a million years, but Malfoy was hung! Like a bloody horse!
"Merlin!" He cried, snapping his eyes shut (not that it did much good, the image of Malfoy's cock seemed to have been burned into his retinas by now), "Cover yourself up, man!" Draco let out a soft snort, thoroughly enjoying the discomfort he was causing the poor savior before he gave Hermione- who wasn't in the least bit embarrassed by his body, a little wink as he made his way to the showers area, fully aware she was checking out his arse.
"He's gone." Hermione informed poor Harry, and he gingerly opened one eye to make sure she wasn't bluffing. Seeing the coast was clear he immediately grabbed Hermione's elbow and ushered her out of the showers. Slumping on his bed Harry rubbed his eyes furiously, trying to rid himself of the image of the naked Draco Malfoy,
"I survived eighteen bloody years without seeing Malfoy naked once, I could have happily gone twenty more." He bemoaned softly, causing Hermione to giggle,
"Oh, it wasn't that bad, he's got a pretty decent..." Harry clapped his hands over his ears dramatically,
"Shut up!" At that Hermione completely cracked, laughing gaily. Harry tried to maintain his righteous facade but the truth was, he had missed Hermione dearly and hearing her laughing so freely like that was warming his heart. "I'm sorry I yelled at you." Hermione gave her friend a bright smile and came to sit down next to him on the bed, the last couple of days were not easy for her. She was so used to having Harry stuck to her side it sometimes felt like they were meshed together into one person- at least that what it looked like to a lot of their peers. Having Harry blatantly ignoring her was a lot harder than she ever thought.
"It's OK, I'm sorry too- we should have handled the whole thing a whole lot better than we did," She confessed lowly and Harry nodded slowly.
"You really think Ginny is bad for me?" He asked softly, knowing what the answer will be but some part of him needed to hear this over and over again just to make sure it was true. The Hogsmeade weekend made him think, but even though deep down he knew his friends were right Harry wasn't ready to give his relationship with Ginny up, not just yet, but he was starting to realize he wasn't all that willing to fight for it either,
"I think Ginny isn't well." Harry looked up in surprise, from all the things Hermione could have said this was not what he had expected.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know what happened to her during the war but I think she's been very traumatized and that's why she's been acting so oddly." Harry blinked a few times, trying to process this. Ginny was acting very oddly, and completely out of character for her and at first he was ready to chalk it down to wanting to be famous, after all she was a war hero but lately it seemed too much, even for her. "Have you read any of the interviews she gave?" Harry shook his head, he had meant to, especially after Parvati hinted to what was in them but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. If what Ginny's been saying was going to upset him as much as he suspected he rather stay ignorant and oblivious to them.
"Well I have, and to me it seems like a pretty big alarm bell. But I can't just go and tell Mr. and Mrs. Weasley that I think their daughter is sick." Hermione shrugged, as much as muggle forwards as the Weasleys were they were still pure blooded wizards and telling them that Ginny was developing a mental illness was not going to fly well with them.
"Everyone seems to be suffering from trauma these days..." Harry sighed, remembering Seamus' words about the doctors diagnosing everyone with AWAM. Hermione nodded sadly,
"Yes well, that is only to be expected when you base your entire war effort on children who have barely finished puberty." She said, her tone a little bitter. Sometimes, when she truly stopped to think about what she's been through in the last months- hell, the last seven years it made her so angry to think that Dumbledore let them do half the things they did, the things he made Harry do and all in the name of some stupid prophecy made by some quack! No wonder they were all screwed seven ways to Sunday by the end of it. Harry sighed and pulled his knees to his chest, hugging them. Hermione was right, of course, but he truly hated thinking about that, because if he did it made him feel all the more stupid and manipulated- unable to say no to Dumbledore.
"You seemed to have escaped the curse of trauma." He said instead, trying to lighten up the atmosphere somewhat. Hermione gave him a side glance and shook her head slowly,
"No, I didn't." Harry blinked at his friend, what the hell was she saying, Hermione was perfectly fine! "I had nightmares, horrible ones, when I went to Australia. I couldn't sleep and my parents were really scared for me." Hermione told her friend, shrugging helplessly. The reason she chose to go to Australia straight after the war was partly because she missed her parents like hell but mostly because she needed to put some distance between her and what had happened back home. If she could have she'd have taken Harry with her, knowing that they needed each other to heal, but that wasn't a possibility and as a result they each had to deal with their own manifestation of PTSD alone. "Eventually we found a healer in Melbourne who specializes in memories who took away my memories of the war."
"What?" Harry was quite shocked, he didn't know people did that sort of thing- surely removing memories this way was way too dangerous! Hermione could have ended up with no memories at all or something equally bad.
"He was very good, and I still keep those memories with me but at least I don't have to relive it every night. It was starting to effect my studying." Harry bit his lip at that, well, if it was effecting Hermione's studies...
"Maybe I should do that too, Merlin knows there are things I don't want to remember..." Hermione smiled softly,
"It's not that simple you know, and besides, you don't wake up screaming anymore, or scared to go to sleep because of what you might dream, right?" Harry opened his mouth to contradict her when he realized the only thing keeping him up at night these days were erotic dreams about a certain boy he couldn't place that were driving him insane, but in a completely different way than what Hermione's been talking about, so he snapped his jaw shut and tried to smile at his best friend.
"No, I just have to chug down industrial amounts of potions every day..." Hermione patted his knee with affection, of course Harry was going to overreact to the potions thing,
"And they do their job, so who cares." She concluded firmly. Harry shrugged, yes the potions worked, and yes they were making his life a whole lot better but sometimes it still irked him that he couldn't handle the anxiety on his own and was forced to take the damn potions in the first place. Luckily he was feeling like that less and less. "So..." Hermione said softly, "Are we good?" Harry pretended to think about it and she elbowed him, making him pull away from her with a chuckle,
"Yes, we're good." He finally admitted, smiling at Hermione. She returned the smile ten fold and grabbed him in an enthusiastic hug. Harry winced a little, trying not to show it, he loved Hermione dearly but she was a terrible hugger- she squeezed too hard and always left him feeling like he should check for fractured ribs. When they pulled back Hermione sighed,
"You should really talk to Shey, he's pretty hurt." Harry wanted to roll his eyes, he knew he needed to apologize to Seamus, he didn't need constant reminder of that.
"What, not Parvati?" Hermione actually snorted at that,
"Hell no, she needs to suffer!" She declared and Harry couldn't stop his laughter.
Saying he was going to talk to Seamus was one thing, actually bringing himself to do it was another altogether Harry realized. It wasn't that he didn't miss the company of his new best male friend or that he didn't want them to get back to the way things were, it was just that swallowing his pride and actually going to apologize was hard, and Seamus was trying to give him all the space he needed to work things out and Harry realized he wasn't going to be accosted in the showers, or anywhere else by the Irish boy. Which meant he'd have to do the accosting himself.
His opportunity came as he caught Seamus on the way to History of Magic on Wednesday. Harry was squeezing his way through the students until he reached Seamus, who was flipping through a stack of parchments, trying to find the correct homework.
"Hey, can we talk?" Seamus turned to see Harry falling in step next to him. Hermione had told him she had a chat with Harry and everything should be OK now, but Seamus wanted to hear the words out of Harry's mouth before he could believe them,
"Are you going to try burn any portraits this time?" He asked with a smile, and Harry actually rolled his eyes,
"That's funny." He said dryly, "No, I wanted to say that I am sorry and that I was upset and I shouldn't have taken it out on you." He really meant every word, but somehow Harry felt like his apology came a little mechanically, like he was reciting it, and apparently Seamus heard it too,
"Did Hermione threatened you with bodily harm to come and say that to me?" Harry gave his friend a scorching glare,
"OK, I'm done." He said and turned to leave, when Seamus, who couldn't hold his laughter, caught his arm,
"No, no, wait!" He cried, and Harry couldn't stop the victorious smile that was spreading on his lips, "I promise I'll be good. Thank you, for apologizing I mean." Harry nodded his head regally to indicate Seamus was forgiven, "I'm really sorry things got out of hand like that." Harry sighed,
"It's alright, I guess. You guys are just watching out for me." Seamus smiled softly and Harry realized that it was true, his friends were only looking out for him, only they tended to do that really badly. "By the way, thank you for saving me in that shop." Once again Seamus' cheeks flushed and he ran his hand in his hair,
"Oh, that wasn't really me..." Harry wanted to roll his eyes again, Seamus kept saying it wasn't him but no one seemed to want to explain the whole drag personality thing to him, it was very vexing,
"I'm gonna go ahead and assume you do not have multiple personalities." He said dryly, as Seamus cheeks turned a tad rosier. It was a good look on him, Harry decided, especially since it was usually him who ended up all red whenever they were talking,
"It's not multiple personalities, it's a drag personality," Seamus said, as if that was any sort of explanation, "It's a little hard to explain," He confessed, feeling like ten kinds of idiot, but he wasn't sure this was the right time or place to explain how and why he obtained a drag personality, shoving the parchments back in his bag he pulled out the box of chocolates Harry had given him the other day, "Wanna chocolate?"
"Don't try and change the subject by offering me your icky chocolates!" Harry scolded his friend, not entirely playfully either, he knew he was not going to get any explanation about Seamus' drag personality yet again,
"They're not icky!" Seamus actually pouted, as if Harry had personally offended him and his chocolates.
"They look like they're filled with snot." Harry deadpanned. Maybe if Seamus had gone for something other than pineapple it would have been less gross... probably not...
"You are such a chocolate snob!" Seamus cried, though his eyes were dancing with mirth. Harry thought that was a little excessive, after all even after all this time his favorite sweet was still chocolate frogs, "Anyway, you eat Bartie Botts' Beans!"
"Yeah, but not the snot ones, or the ear wax!" Seamus shrugged,
"The blood ones taste surprisingly nice, though." He said thoughtfully and Harry nodded,
"Yes, I know, it's seriously creeping me out every time I eat them." Seamus let out a soft snort of assent as they walked into the classroom.
The next morning Harry was sitting at breakfast, feeling pretty good about the world. Although nothing has changed in regards to his relationship with Ginny, he felt that things could only get better from there on. His friends were back in his corner, hopefully less meddling than before and even Ginny seemed to mellow out a little since Ron yelled at her.
He was just nibbling on his third piece of bacon, half listening to Hermione and Neville discussing Herbology when the noise of dozens of owls swooping into the Great Hall filled the air. Harry wasn't particularly interested in them as he never actually got any mail, so he was quite surprised to see one of the school owls land in front of his plate. Harry looked suspiciously left and right to see if the owl might have gotten the wrong person but the bird stuck out its leg with determination and eventually Harry decided to take the letter. If it did turned out to be a mistake he could always pass the letter along.
Seamus lifted his head from the missive he got from his mother, as usual rambling about the comings and goings of the Finnigan clan when he saw Harry untie a letter from the leg of an owl. He tried to catch Hermione's eye but the girl was too engrossed in what was shaping up to be a heated argument with Neville to notice anything. He watched as Harry opened the letter and the way his jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. Without a word Harry got up and grabbed his bag, leaving the Hall with an angry stride.
Seamus cursed under his breath as he too grabbed his bag and hurried after the dark haired teen. He managed to catch Harry as he was waiting for the staircase that will lead him to the second floor to come round,
"Harry, wait!" He cried, and Harry turned, the frown on his face fading a little, "Bad news?"
"It's nothing." Harry replied with a shrug, hoping his bored tone will satisfy his friend, but of course he should have known better,
"Nothing that made you leave in the middle of breakfast? You didn't even finish your second cup of tea." Harry crossed his arms over his chest,
"Are you following me?" He asked suspiciously, but Seamus waved him off,
"You've been having the same breakfast practically since we started here." He said flippantly, as if that was any excuse for knowing such a thing,
"I have?" Harry thought about what sort of breakfast he was having most days, was he really that predictable?
"Stop stalling!" Seamus said firmly, refusing to let Harry change the subject, "What was that owl?" Harry sighed, knowing that if he didn't show the letter to Seamus he'd probably go and tell Hermione, or worse, a professor. After the incident with the graffiti in his room Harry knew that he wasn't likely to get a second chance at avoiding- even if he blew his top off again,
"Fine! Here!" He cried and thrust the letter into Seamus' hands. The Irish boy quickly skimmed the words and looked up at Harry, his eyes wide,
"Harry..." He started carefully, but Harry waved him off, grabbing the letter from his hands,
"Don't! It's nothing."
"How can you say that?" Seamus cried, "These are very specific threats, they even name the curses they want to use on you."
"Not everyone is happy that the war ended the way it did, and some of that anger is apparently directed at me." Harry said calmly, surprising even himself at how mature and collected he sounded, considering he felt pretty rattled inside,
"How many of these have you gotten?" Harry shrugged,
"This is the first, but it's OK, I'll just burn this." Seamus looked aghast at Harry's idea and the other teen suddenly felt the need to defend his choice, "Look, it's nothing," He said, holding his hand up when Seamus opened his mouth, "Please don't make a fuss over this, I just want a quiet year." Seamus bit his lip, trying to hold the words that were on his tongue at bay. What he really wanted to do now was grab Harry and shake him till he managed to get some sense into him. But this was Harry Potter and apparently nothing was ever going to be normal around him and as his friend Seamus needed to trust that Harry knew what he was doing.
"Argh! Fine!" He finally conceded, letting the air out of lungs and the tension out of his body. Harry gave him a grateful smile and Seamus gritted his teeth, knowing that he'd lost- he'll do anything for Harry and they both knew it. "But you have to promise me you won't burn this."
"Why?" Seamus sighed, how is it possible that even after hanging with Hermione for so long Harry was still so thick?
"Because," He explained slowly, trying not to sound as condescending as he felt, "When this person is caught, this will be used as evidence against him,"
"Or her," Harry supplied helpfully, and Seamus nodded absently,
"Right. And you have to promise me that if you'll get another one of these you'll tell a teacher about it!" Harry rolled his eyes, his whole body vibrating with wanting to throw a tantrum like a four years old. This was not fair, he had the power in his corner, how the hell did this turn around on him so fast?
"No..."
"Please, promise me," Seamus was practically begging at this point, he'd keep Harry's secret safe, if that what Harry wanted but he was not going to make light of this and if Harry refused to take this higher than Seamus will have no choice but to tell on him. "You can go to Professor Lupin, he's not going to get mad at you. Please, please promise me."
"OK, fine!" Harry knew when he was beaten. Besides, if Seamus was so worried about this maybe there was a possibility, slight as it may be, that there was danger here. For now he could gloss over this but Seamus was right, if things escalated he'd go to see Remus.
"Thank you." Seamus said earnestly, feeling a whole lot better now that he got Harry to at least acknowledge this may not be a prank.
"I still think you're overreacting." Harry said stubbornly and Seamus wanted to roll his eyes. Instead he took a deep breath and put his arm around Harry, leading him towards their transfiguration class,
"I rather overreact to nothing then under-react to something."
~~o0o o0o o0o~~
A/N: My friend came back from the USA and brought the muggle version of 'Bertie Botts', i.e. Jelly Belly Halloween edition. The toothpaste tasted just like... toothpaste. The baby wipes tasted like soap, but weren't terrible. The canned dog food broke me... I had to spit it out... I don't even dare try the barf or bugger ones...
One of my childhood favorites was a pineapple filled chocolate, it did look a bit like snot but it was soooo good. Unfortunately, no one makes them anymore….
