Chapter 2
Harry groaned the second he stepped into the great hall for breakfast. Silence rang across the room as all eyes stared at him. Hermione sniffed next to him and stuck her nose up as she shoved him towards the Gryffindor table. “Don’t say it,” Harry muttered as he took a seat next to her.
Hermione, to her credit, did not say it. A owl hooted at her and flew down to deposit her copy of the Daily Prophet. “Want me to read it out loud?” she asked.
“No.” Harry plated some food and glared at Ron who was trying to read over Hermione’s shoulder. Ron winced and turned to his own food instead. “Is it that bad?”
In answer, Hermione turned the paper so he could see the front page. ‘HARRY POTTER CORRUPTS QUIDDITCH STAR,’ blasted loud and clear across the cover. Harry didn’t bother looking at the byline.
“How am I corrupting him? All I did was go along with it.”
“Just imagine what Witch Weekly is going to say about it tomorrow,” Ron said around a bite of bacon. “Maybe we should subscribe to more papers.”
The day did not improve from there. Harry received more glares than ever before and a random stinging hex from a passing sixth year class of Ravenclaws. More than once he was called several variations of a slur. “I think they liked me more when they thought I was the Heir of Slytherin,” Harry grumbled to Ron as they waited to enter the potions classroom. “At least it’s not more bull about me crying over my dead parents.”
Ron gave him a sympathetic look and patted his shoulder. “What do you think Snape will be like?”
Harry thumped his head back onto the stone wall and stared at the ceiling. Approaching footsteps had Harry bracing for more comments. The Slytherin half arrived, Malfoy leading the charge, but there was nothing. Malfoy didn’t say a word to Harry or about Harry. Harry looked at him curiously, but Draco stood staring mulishly at the door to the classroom.
Harry blinked and shifted his gaze to Zabini who stood next to Draco and who he never really had any issues with. Zabini met his eyes and winked. Harry straightened, shocked, and a grin split Zabini’s face. Ron snorted next to him, having witnessed the entire interaction.
“Hermione’s going to be late,” Ron said, ignoring the bizarre tension in the hallway. “Where is she?”
“Library, probably.”
At his word, Hermione came running down the hallway. She came to stop in front of them, panting for breath. “Sorry. I was in the library.”
Harry and Ron exchanged an amused look. Hermione rolled her eyes at them, but before she could tell them what she had been up to, the classroom door opened. Harry was jittery as he sat down. Snape on a good day was intolerable.
But, again, to his shock, nothing was said. Nothing was said at all. No points were lost for Gryffindor. No snide remarks. No slurs. Severus Snape had treated him better than the vast majority of his classmates.
They left the room. Harry feeling a little dazed as his subpar potion was turned in without comment from Snape. “Should we tell McGonagall that Snape is sick?” Harry asked Hermione as they climbed the stairs to dinner.
“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” Hermione gave him a little smile, “I think Snape was showing you support.”
“Oh and I’m the one being ridiculous.”
Dinner was the same as breakfast and lunch. The entire school was silent as they made their way to the dinner table. Conversations only picked back up when Harry was sitting at his own table. “I’m meeting with Krum after dinner to dance,” Harry said. “Should I just loudly announce it now to get tomorrow’s gossip over with?”
Ron snorted but was more focused on digging into his food than Harry’s latest brush with the gossip columns. Harry wondered if he was being so laid back about it all out of guilt from the beginning of the year's fight, or if he really just didn’t care. Then Harry paused. Why would Ron care? It was just a dance. It wasn’t like he was dating Krum, despite what the Prophet was saying.
“How many gay students do you think are at Hogwarts?” Harry asked, staunchly ignoring his classmates' curious glances and full on disgusted glares.
“I don’t know, ”Hermione answered. “It’s not really something people admit to, is it? I guess if you’re gay then you know what to look for in other people, but what if you’re wrong, you know? It’s a pretty big risk to confide that in anyone.” Hermione looked irritated for a moment then slammed her fork down. “It’s ridiculous is what it is! Who cares? Why should anyone care about what others do in privacy!”
Harry and Ron exchanged an uncomfortable look. “It’s just not done,” Ron said. “Wizards are against it because we don’t magic to die out. I don’t know why muggles care. I mean, at least it’s not illegal anymore, right? Just not done.”
Hermione’s frustrated expression grew. Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “Oh, at least it’s not illegal,” she mocked Ron’s words. “Yeah, thank heavens we don’t have to worry about Harry being tossed into Azkaban. No, instead we just worry he’ll be attacked.”
Ron looked bewildered. His eyebrows were as high as they could go as he stared at Hermione. “Hermione, he’s been attacked every year since we started Hogwarts. When were we supposed to stop worrying that he’ll be attacked?”
Ron’s eyes left Hermione’s upset face to land over her shoulder. Harry glanced back. Krum had just stopped behind them with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Vould you still like to practice?” Krum asked, glancing between the three of them.
“Definitely,” Harry said, jumping up to get away from that entire conversation. “I’ll see you guys in the common room.”
Harry led Krum out of the great hall and towards the stairs. “Good timing,” he said to Krum.
Krum’s brow was furrowed. “Vhat did your friend mean? You have been attacked?”
Harry waved off the concern. “Just a stinging hex. Are your classmates not reacting the same?” Harry asked.
“No,” Krum sounded confused. “They do not care vhat I do. Karkaroff vould not allow it if they did.”
Because he’s Viktor Krum, not because Karkaroff cared about bullying, Harry was willing to wager. He opened the door to the unused classroom and let the conversation drop.