Chapter 9:
The next day I was feeling awful, I hadn't even wanted to get up because my sleep had left me more exhausted then before. It sadly wasn't a dreamless sleep like I had hoped for, and I had to relive all of what Jonathan had described in his letter. I jumped in surprise realizing I thought his name, which instantly made so sad, no depressed.
At breakfast that day I was just staring at my food thinking about what it meant that after all this time I thought his name and not him. Did it mean I was healing? Or the more likely one, that I was getting so bad that I was going to be fully living in the past again. I shook my head when I heard the rush of owls come into the hall. I jumped a little in shock when suddenly Errol dropped right in front of me and Ron. "Oh no." Ron moaned. "What is it?" Harry asked. "It's a howler, you better open it Ron." Neville said. Ron was still just staring at it so I reached over and took out the letter, he didn't grab it from me so I went ahead and opened the letter for him. I instantly dropped the letter when it literally exploded in a roar of words:
"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE"
Mrs. Weakly yelling was so much louder through the letter than it was when we went over to her house over the summer. People all over the grand hall started turning their hands and trying to see who had gotten the letter. Others were covering their ears from the deafening noise.
"LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED. YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."
Ron by that time had pushed himself so low on the table that only his bright crimson forehead was showing. Hermione set down the magazine she was reading and said, "Well Ron-" "Don't." He said, finally sitting almost all the way up.
The one great thing about the letter was that Hermione was back to being her usual self with Ron and Harry, thinking that they finally got enough punishment. I could tell Harry felt guilty about causing Mr. Weasly to have an inquiry at work, but before I could work up the courage to say something Mrs. McGonagall was handing out the course schedules. As she was coming along she gave Harry his course schedule, and then when she got to me she handed me mine, turned away, but then paused. She turned back around and said quietly, "Oh yes Dumbledore also wanted me to give this to you." She handed me a letter, then continued passing out the schedules as if nothing happened. I stared at the letter then just set it down on the table. "Aren't you going to open it?" Hermione asked.
I just shook my head, so Harry took it and opened it. He read it then whispered to me, Hermione, and Ron, "Arrington, it says Dumbledore wants to meet you tonight after dinner." Hermione looked at me with wide eyes and said, "Did you do anything Arrington?" I looked at her incredulously and just rolled my eyes. "Maybe he wants to talk to you about us." Ron said nervously. "No he probably wants to talk about the letter that he sent me." I finally said. Everyone stared at me but then Hermione said, "Well you can't blame him, I mean he was doing what he thought could help you." "He knew I didn't want to talk about it, he could've just left me alone." I said starting to get upset. I was starting to attract attention again so I finally told Harry, "Just tell the teachers I'm not feeling well."
I stood up and was walking out of the hall when I got stopped by Malfoy. "Oh no did somebody upset you? I'll have to write them a thank you letter." He said laughing. "Haha so funny Malfoy. Did your Dad get you into a ton of trouble? I mean being friends with a muggle born, ohh so bad. I've been thinking, if your family was the only pure blood family left, and you had a sister, would you marry her to keep pure?" "W-what?" Malfoy sputtered. "Oh what are you speechless? So I'm taking that as a yes." I left it at that and walked away. I knew Malfoy wasn't worth me even trying to break him, but he just always happened to find me at a bad time. Oh well must be his own karma I thought.
After the double herbology ended I decided to stop hiding in a bathroom and go to the rest of my classes. I quickly ran and caught up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry was about to say something to me when Mrs. McGonagall walked up to me since we were already standing outside. "Arrington wait here for a second. Alright class go ahead inside." She said the first part just to me then spoke loudly for the whole class. Harry looked at me and winked, knowing I was probably in trouble for skipping class, and it made me smile a little. Once everyone was finally inside she asked "Where were you for herbology?" "I wasn't feeling well ma'm. I had Harry tell Mrs. Sprouts that for me." "Why didn't you go to the nurse?" She said sternly. "I wasn't aware that you were able to follow every single child to make sure they were okay and made it to the nurse. But for your information I wasn't feeling to well, but I was okay enough not to go the nurse." Suddenly her voice turned nicer and more pitiful, and I knew that she knew exactly why I skipped class. "Arrington," she tried saying but I cut her off, "I'm fine know we should get to class." I instantly went inside and I could hear everybody whispering and staring at me, but I was far from caring at this point. I went to the only empty seat, which was right next to Hermione, right behind Ron and Harry, so I was assuming they saved it for me. I went ahead and sat down with everyone still staring at me.
Finally after a while everyone got engrossed in the activity of turning a beetle into a button. I found whenever I was upset I did so much better in schoolwork, maybe because I was more focused I guess. I easily turned the beetle into a button just like Hermione. After getting it a few times, Hermione whispered to me when Professor McGonagall's back was turned, "What was she asking you about?" I decided I was done not talking, I was strong enough to be able to talk without giving everything away anyway. "She wanted to know what you guys would like to know. She just used me skipping class as a pretense." Hermione tried not to look shocked but wasn't covering it very well. She obviously wasn't expecting me to answer, and especially the answer I gave. "Well we all... are worried about you Arrington." She whispered back. I nodded my head and whispered, "I know. But I'm fine." But my voice kinda broke on the word fine, and I could see her giving me a sideways glance, as if she was saying 'uh huh sure.'
Finally the lunch bell rang, after my talk with Hermione my beetle just kept turning into water, and I had no idea why. Luckily most people already forgot about me having to talk to Mrs. McGonagall so it was no bid deal anymore. But I was still preparing myself mentally for what came after dinner tonight, my talk with Dumbledore.
After we finished eating lunch we all went outside into the courtyard. Hermione after telling Harry and Ron what McGonagall was asking me about, started reading Voyages with Vampires for the fourth time. Harry and Ron were talking about quidditch when suddenly I noticed a young 1st year who was staring at Harry and me. I nudged Harry, and he looked up and noticed the little boy staring at us and holding a camera. "Hello, Harry and Arrington! I'm Colin Creevy. I'm in Gryffindor too." "Hello." I said trying to stop from laughing. "Hello." Harry said a little confused not getting what this was about yet. "Do- do you think it would be alright if- can I get a picture with you two?" Harry turned bright red, and right than Malfoy walked up as Colin continued, "Maybe you could also sign it?" "Are you guys giving out signed photos now?" Sneered Malfoy as loud as he could.
"No we're not." Harry said getting heated at Malfoy now. Malfoy roared to the crowd who was starting to gather, "Everyone come and get signed photos from the famous twins!" "You're just jealous." Colin said in his little squeaky voice. "Jealous? Ha." Snorted Malfoy, who had stopped screaming since half the courtyard was listening now. "You're just upset your Daddy now thinks that you like us." I crowed at him. I obviously hit a nerve like I knew I would, his face burned bright red. "Well at least I have a family." He hissed back. I hid my emotions boiling at that thought and pretended to yawn, and said, "Same retort every time Malfoy, its getting old." "Have fun signing photos." Malfoy yelled and marched away.
Right then Gilderoy Lockhart walked up and hearing Malfoy he quickly walked up to Colin and said, "Why don't you take a photo of me, Harry and Arrington? It can be a double feature." "Ok." Colin said practically forcing the words out of his mouth he was so excited. Colin put up his camera, and Lockhart put his arm around Harry but he wasn't close enough to force me in the shot. After they signed the photos the bell rang so Gilderoy who wanted to talk to Harry, kept his arm around him and swept him inside. We all smiled and laughed at the sight of Gilderoy dragging an obviously unwilling Harry with him into the castle. We quickly packed up all of our items so we wouldn't be late to class.
When we got to class Harry was already there and sitting in the back of the class. I smiled at his bright red face, he looked at me and muttered "Shut up." I only smiled bigger, but this time he couldn't resist he smiled too. "Hello class." Gilderoy said with a flourish. I spaced out what the teacher was saying and the next thing I knew we were getting handed a quiz. When I looked down at the paper I snorted out loud, luckily it was quiet so only Harry heard. He looked at me and I rolled my eyes and he shrugged exasperated. We started working on the quiz that was literally just questions about Gilderoy. What was his favorite color? What was his dream present? I had no idea for any of them.
Finally we handed them all in. Lockhart started going through the quizzes right there. "Well barely anybody remembered my favorite color! It's lavender folks, you could find that information in magical me, by me." Then he smiled his award winning smile. A few girls giggled but most people were staring at him dumbfounded. "Hmm, well it seems one person got my favorite color, in fact she got full marks. Where is Hermione Granger?" Hermione put her hand up and blushed readily when he congratulated her.
I stopped listening once again because I figured that he was just going to brag about himself to the class, but boy was I wrong.
The next thing I knew there were pixies flying all over the class room and everyone was screaming trying to run for the door. Neville got picked up and flown to the ceiling by a few pixies. Soon it was only the four of us left, well five but Neville was kind of out of action, and Gilderoy. "Well, I'm just gonna have to ask you four to round the rest of them up." He said and quickly ran into his office. "You've got to be kidding me." Ron said. "He's just trying to give us some hands on training." Hermione said defending him. I just shook my head trying to keep from laughing. Hermione and I were freezing them with a freezing charm, and Ron and Harry who hadn't got the spell yet, were just stuffing them into the cages with their hands.