Lazuli - Harry Potter Fan Fiction (Draco Malfoy)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"What the hell is she doing here?!"

I'm about to respond with a sharp remark to Ronald's outburst but Hermione beats me to it. "She's here because I invited her." Ron snaps his head between Hermione and I, a confused glare. I roll my eyes. "What? Why did you invite her? We don't need her!" 

Hermione shoots him a thundering glare. "Yes, Ron, we do. Your sister and I might not get on but nobody can deny she's the best witch in our year." Ron huffs and stomps his foot like a little child, but he keeps silent and points at an empty stool beside a girl with long blonde hair and a distant expression. Luna Lovegood I think.

I smile at Luna as I take the seat and barely notice Ginny on my other side. "Okay, so now that everyone's here, we can get down to business." Hermione says. She leaps to her feet, as usual taking control. "Hi! So, we all know why we're here..." From the shaking of her voice, do I sense nervousity? I can't help but smile smugly. Hermione Granger doesn't like talking in front of people. "We need a teacher," she continues "a proper teacher. One who's had real experience defending himself against the dark arts." I see Harry blink a few times. Even when I entered the pub, he hasn't yet brought himself to look at me. A painful pang in my stomach, for some reason I can't bear the idea of disappointing Harry.

"Why?" Zacharias Smith, an annoying and rude Hufflepuff that I know Cedric disliked immensely. "Why?" Everyone's gaze shots to my brother, Ron, who's leant over his stool in the corner with a dumbstruck expression. "Because You-Know-Who's back, you tosspot." I chuckle a little, thinking of how Cedric would have roared with laughter. "So he says."

"So Dumbledore says" chirps Hermione.

"So Dumbledore says because he says. The point is, where's the proof?"

I can see his point. Not everyone's been living with the Order of the Phoenix over the summer, having heard all of the horror stories from the muggle and wizarding world. People disappearing, witches and wizards who are openly opposed to Voldemort have been found murdered in their beds. Whole towns set alight. But the Ministry chooses to censor this information, they don't want to print anything that could either incriminates them or proves that the dark forces are at work. Zacharias and in fact everyone in this room, except for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny and I, doesn't know half of what's been going on. For all they know, Harry could have murdered Cedric.

I shudder at the thought. It's completely unfair and cruel that Cedric's death is being written off as an accident. It's like he died in vain.

There's another voice that brings my attention back, a strange looking boy with a slight psychotic expression pipes up "perhaps if Potter could tell us a bit more about how Diggory got killed." At the mention of Cedric, for some reason I hiss at the boy. He looks at me like I'm insane, but shrinks into his seat nonetheless and Luna pats my arm comfortingly. "He's not worth it Juliet, let the nargles get him."

Behind some of the other people, I can see that Cho's just as disgusted by the mention of Harry telling us exactly how Cedric as I am. And apparently Harry, who's jumped to his feet and is for the first time actually speaking. "I'm not going to talk about Cedric so if that's why you're here then you might as well clear out now." He grabs Hermione's arm and hisses something in a low voice to her, then he turns to storm out of the pub. "Harry wait..." she pleads.

"Is it true that you can produce a Patronus Charm?" Luna asks in her sweet and slightly melodic voice. Harry looks at her with surprise, maybe he's about to deny it, but Hermione interjects. "Yes, I've seen it." He looks at her with a frown and then around the surprised faces of the others. I knew about Harry's ability to conjure a patronus, since that was the spell he used against the dementor attack and the spell that almost got him expelled. Whilst I'd never seen it, I'd heard that it was incredibly powerful, that strength of a full-matured wizard when he was only 13, according to Lupin.