Halloween and all the grief that comes with it
Chapter 16: Halloween and all the grief that comes with it
Harry feels strangely... magicky? Ever since he woke up it feels like he's practically buzzing with it. Magic seems desperate to escape his fingertips, he thinks if someone touched him, they would probably get an electric shock.
It feels right.
He’s in a good mood today partly because of the buzzing magic, partly because it’s a Friday, which means today he has double potions and charms in one day.
It is when he walks into the great hall with his roommates in tow, that his good mood is crushed to dust...
The hall is decorated with pumpkins and all the house ghosts are floating around the hall. Today is Halloween, the 31st of October and the anniversary of the night Lily and James potter were killed protecting him from an evil dark wizard. And Harry… Harry forgot that today was Halloween, the pain of it hits him all at once, with the power of a freight train.
He’s never had a reason to feel grief on Halloween before, but since finding out more about his parents, the dreams, the year book, McGonagall... now he does.
He looks around the hall at all the happy students chattering excitedly, and the professors a few of which are wearing festive hats for the occasion, he feels frozen in place as if someone has nailed his feet to the floor. “Harry? You, ok?” George asks, and Harry notices that his roommates are watching him in concern.
Harry can’t say anything he just stares at the other students who don’t have a reason to feel like the world is breaking today. “Halloween.” He manages to choke out.
His roommates look confused for a moment then understanding dawns on Blaise’s face. “Harry, do you want to leave?”
“We can skip classes as well.” Fred says.
“And the feast later.” George adds.
Harry shakes his head. “No, I want to go to classes, and you have to eat breakfast, I don’t know about the feast… but you shouldn’t have to miss it.” He says shakily. “Where’s Luna? Can any of you see Luna?”
“Hello friends.” Luna says appearing behind them Hermione walking next to her. “Samhain, the veil is thin today.” She states with a pleased sigh, then she takes Harry’s hand in hers softly. Harry looks at her gratefully Luna always makes him feel safe.
“Come on let’s go sit down.” Hermione says looking at Harry with understanding hazel brown eyes. They all follow Hermione as she leads them to the Slytherin table, Luna still holding his hand tightly, they sit down at the end of the table Harry sits next to Luna and Blaise sits down next to him, the twins and Hermione sit across from them.
He looks around at the food, he’s still struggling with having access to unlimited food, he never knows where to start or how much to eat, sometimes he just doesn’t want to eat at all. He’s been taking the nutrition potion that professor Snape sends to his dorm every evening, and Harry is putting on a bit of weight, his bones don’t stick out as much, and he has more energy, which is nice. But with actual eating it’s still difficult.
Blaise slides a bowl of porridge towards him, “eat.” He commands. Blaise seems to have picked up on Harry’s problematic relationship with food, he’s been loading Harry’s plate or passing him pastry’s a lot recently. Harry rolls his eyes at Blaise, and starts to eat the porridge slowly, even though it tastes like ash on his tongue. Blaise nods in approval and starts to eat his own breakfast.
“We’ve got charms and potions together today.” Fred says through a mouthful of eggs.
“We have a free period today aswell, should we go to the library together?” George suggests.
“I have to finish my transfiguration essay, so that’s fine with me.” Hermione says.
“I was going to go to the library anyway.” Blaise shrugs.
“That would be lovely, and panda likes climbing the shelves so she will be happy too.” Luna hums.
“No. No. Noooo, why am I friends with you lot. You want to use free time to study? Are you lot completely insane? Should I owl s’t Mungos?” Fred complains loudly.
Hermione sends a stinging hex at Freds arm. “Shut up Fred, just because we don’t want to fail our classes, does not mean we’re insane.”
“Owww, Merlin’s socks Hermione, your stinging hex hurts!” Fred whines, rubbing at his arm.
Hermione smirks, “Good.”
Blaise laughs. “You’re my favourite friend Hermione.”
“I take personal offence to that.” Harry deadpans.
“Malfoy.” Luna sighs in exasperation.
Malfoy struts towards them not dissimilar to the way a peacock would.
Draco has it out for their whole group, Hermione because she’s a muggle born, the twins because they’re blood-traitors, Harry because he refused to be friends with the idiot blonde boy and because he’s the-boy-who-lived, Luna because she embarrassed him in front of most of Slytherin, and Blaise because… well Harry doesn’t know why he hates Blaise, probably because he’s friends with them. Malfoy has been shooting jinxes at them all term and trying to get them in trouble.
But they all retaliate easily. They have learned hexes and jinxes, and have all got really good at ignoring Malfoy. The boy especially has it out for Luna, shooting spells at her any chance he gets, calling out insults over breakfast and trying to make her upset. But Luna ignores the insults, frequently turns his ears into turnips and occasionally makes Malfoy run off in a rage, when she states a series of harsh truths about Malfoy’s oh so pleasant character.
“Here we go again.” Blaise rolls his eyes and sighs dramatically.
“He never stops.” Hermione mutters darkly.
“He’s worse than the gnomes in mum's garden.” Fred says scrubbing a hand across his face tiredly.
“Are you lost? You see this is the Slytherin table, and you two are Ravenclaws.” Malfoy says with his head held high, sniffing at them in disgust, in a way that is reminiscent of petunia.
“Can you find something more original to say?” Blaise drawls “it’s just we have this conversation almost every day.”
“Maybe you could insult our outfits or our choice of hairstyles.” George suggests helpfully.
“I…you… shut up blood traitor scum.” Malfoy blurts out. Then he rounds on Harry, “Special day today, isn’t it? Do you miss your parents' potty? Did you cry like a baby for them this morning?” Malfoy drawls.
“Shut up Malfoy.” He grits out. Harry cannot deal with this today, he feels his magic prickling on his skin and has to stop himself from tearing Malfoy to shreds. He scoops Solace of his head and strokes the raven softly trying to calm down, and ignore Malfoy like he usually does.
“Did I touch a nerve potty?” He taunts.
“He told you to shut up Malfoy.” Hermione says in a deadly quiet voice.
“Don’t speak to me, muggle born!” Malfoy screeches at her.
In response Hermione discreetly shoots a stinging hex at the blonde, and glares at him with enough hatred to make any sane person fall to their knees and beg for mercy. But Malfoy clearly isn’t sane, he raises his wand pointing it at Hermione’s head. Harry’s friends all stiffen and look ready to spring at Malfoy, Harry wants to sink into the floor and take them with him.
“Draco, I think it would be a good idea to put your wand away, there’s six of us and one of you, and we are also in the middle of the great hall, all the students are now watching you and professor McGonagall is about to give you detention.” Luna says in her typical floaty voice, but her eyes are sharp.
Harry looks around and sees that she’s right, all eyes are on them and professor McGonagall is getting up from her chair at the staff table and marching towards them.
Blaise starts laughing which seems to be his response to most situations, Luna smiles sweetly at Malfoy, Hermione and Fred smirk at Malfoy in amusement, George is muttering under his breath in annoyance, and Harry buries his face in his hands he doesn’t want to deal with this today, he wants to crawl back into bed and go to sleep until this stupid day is over.
“Mr Malfoy, what are you doing!” McGonagall barks, Harry looks up at McGonagall who looks very annoyed, then he stares up at the staff table and sees Snape rubbing his temples tiredly, and Dumbledore watching them with a twinkling smile, as if this is all a nice little show staged for his entertainment.
“Me! I’m not doing anything!” He points at Hermione aggressively, “She threw a stinging hex at me!” He whines.
“I did no such thing.” Hermione folds her arms and glares at Malfoy. “He came over here for no reason just to bully Luna and Harry.” She tells McGonagall firmly.
“Thank you miss Granger. Mr Malfoy with me.” She orders.
Malfoy splutters in disbelief, glaring at Hermione. “My father will hear about this!”
“I said, with me Mr Malfoy.” McGonagall says sternly in her thick Scottish accent.
Malfoy raises his head high in some sort of attempt to save his dignity, and follows the professor out of the hall.
Most of the students go back to their breakfast now the show is over. “Fucking hell, what is that kid's problem?” One of the older Slytherins say.
“Shut up Anthony, don’t swear around the little snakes!” Gemma scolds.
Harry tunes them out, and ignores everything and everyone, trying to retreat into his own personal bubble where there aren’t any problems, somewhere he can let the grief crush him.
He feels someone take his hand, gently pull him up of the bench and lead him out of the hall, he lets himself be pulled along not really caring who’s leading him or where he’s going. “Harry.” Luna says softly. He looks up, he’s outside the great hall all his friends are standing around him looking worried. “Yeah.” He replies tonelessly.
“You went quiet, you weren’t responding to us.” Hermione says softly.
“I - just a lot of people - Malfoy - Halloween.” He says looking at them blankly, his voice flat. His friends look at each other and then back at him.
“Are you sure you can do classes today.” Blaise asks with a frown.
“I’ll make an excuse for you.” Fred says.
“Go back to the dorm, Harry.” George says gently.
Harry shakes his head, “Not missing potions and charms.” He knows they’re worried about him, but Harry can’t care right now, so he shakes them off and heads towards Flitwick’s classroom.
~~~
The day goes by in a blur, he doesn’t know what the teachers are saying or what is happening at any given moment, it feels as if the world is closing in or as if he has simply stopped being real. He feels out of control, like he is a puppet and a shadow of himself is pulling his strings.
It should feel good to be like this, empty of emotion, dizzy with the feeling of numbness... but he doesn’t like it, he feels trapped by his own stupid brain.
The last class of the day is potions. It's his favourite class, he usually sits through the lesson with eager attention, ready to learn and grow his skills. But today... he finds he can’t find the strength to care, instead he stares at the board for two hours, blinking slowly and feeling sick to his stomach.
“Mr Potter.” Harry looks up at the professor in surprise, he didn’t notice the man approaching him, or that the class has ended and the students have left the room.
“Yes sir?” He says quietly, shaking his head slightly trying to clear the cobwebs in his mind.
“You are not yourself today.” Snape surveys him in concern. “Are you Okay, Mr Potter?”
Harry hates those words. It's pathetic that it's such a common question but never said with true meaning or conviction.
Are. You. Okay.
It's even more pathetic that there has only ever been one true answer... No. Harry potter is not okay. He never has been and probably never will be.
However, that is not the answer professor Snape gets. “Yes Sir, I'm fine.”
Snape does not look convinced in the slightest but he lets Harry of the hook, sighing and turning back to his desk. Harry takes that as a cue to leave, he gathers his things and walks out of the classroom, still feeling like a shell of himself.
When Harry steps out his friends ambush him, Luna takes one hand and Blaise takes the other and they start dragging him towards the Slytherin dorms. Hermione and George Walk ahead of them, he doesn't know where Fred is.
He lets himself be dragged through the dungeons and up the stairs to his dormitory too tired and out of it to care what they want from him.
His friends don’t say anything until they’re in the room with the door closed. Blaise and Luna lead him to the nearest bed and Harry sits down wearily. “Why did you kidnap me.” He asks blandly.
“We did not ‘kidnap’ you, we are simply looking out for your well-being.” Blaise says rolling his eyes as he flops down next to Harry.
“You’ve barely said a word all day, you weren’t paying attention in class, you barely ate any breakfast, and you didn’t eat anything at lunch!” Hermione says glaring at him angrily.
“We’re worried about you Harry.” George says quietly.
“You are not going to the feast, not when you’re like this.” Blaise states plainly.
“Fred went to get food. We are going to have our own feast here, without other people or Halloween decorations.” Luna says in her floatiest voice.
“But you’ll miss the feast.” Harry mumbles hiding his face in his hands.
“We don’t care. We would rather stay here anyway.” Hermione says firmly.
He looks up, they’re all staring at him with various levels of worry and determination. He sighs, feeling guilty that he’s being such a burden. “I’m sorry I don’t want to be a burden.” He says quietly.
“Not a Burden, you’re our friend, when you fall, we catch you, you would do the same for us.” Luna says.
“It’s a hard day for you, it’s the anniversary of your parents' death Harry, if you were acting normal today, I would be even more concerned.” Hermione adds.
“We don’t think you’re a burden.” George tells him.
“Don’t be an idiota Harry, let us help you.” Blaise says drily.
Harry swallows around the lump in his throat, he’s never had anyone care about him this much before, he feels overwhelmed, he can hear Petunias voice screaming in the back of his head, worthless, freak, undeserving, burden. He doesn’t know why these people care about him, why they want him, or why they would miss the entire Halloween feast just because he’s having a bad day. He doesn’t deserve them; he doesn’t know how he will ever deserve them.
He wants to fall asleep and never wake up, he doesn’t want to deal with this any of it, oddly he wishes to be back at the Dursleys, there it was simple- Alone, cupboard, Vernon’s fists, Petunias words, Dudley’s taunts, survive, survive, survive -but in Hogwarts, Harry can’t survive, here he has to live, and he does not know how to do that, he doesn’t know how to breathe without bruises, he feels like he never will.
And what can he possibly say to his friends? Thank them? Run away from them? Lash out? He doesn’t know. He looks around at his friends who are all looking at him worriedly while he has an internal crisis. “Harry.” Luna says softly.
And then something terrible happens, Harry starts crying in front of four out of five of his friends. “Not again.” He says his voice cracking, and tears falling out of his stupid self-sabotaging eyes.
Blaise looks at him with understanding on his face, “Cry if you need to Harry, we won’t judge you.”
Luna sits down next to him and pulls him into a hug, Harry slumps into her shoulder, and cries silently because his stupid parents aren’t alive, and Malfoy is an idiot and everyone is always staring and there’s so much food everywhere, and his parents are dead, his parents are dead and have been dead for ten years, and Harry hates it, and hates them because they died, and left him alone.
Eventually he manages to stem the tears, he pulls away from Luna and glares at everyone in the room. “Don’t talk about this to anyone.” He says trying to sound threatening but his voice is all croaky and his face is still tear stained and blotchy.
“Why would we tell anyone about you crying?” George asks bewildered.
“Harry for Christ's sake, who would we tell.” Hermione huffs in a mixture of exasperation and fondness.
“Were you trying to threaten us? You looked like an angry crup puppy.” Blaise chuckles, and then pats Harry on the back consolingly.
“I don’t like crying in front of people, it’s annoying and humiliating, I don’t want you to see me being weak.” He admits, scrubbing at his face angrily trying to get the tears off.
“Before on the train I told you, Harry. It’s not weak to cry, your uncle was wrong.” Luna tells him softly.
Blaise looks Harry in the eye meaningfully, a deadly serious expression on his face. “You are not weak.” Harry hears the hidden meaning in Blaise’s words, (weak people don’t survive houses like ours). “Tuo zio è malvagio, lo ucciderò se mai ci troveremo nella stessa stanza.” Blaise says his voice full of deadly quite rage. Harry doesn’t know what Blaise said, but he’s starting to feel better.
George and Hermione stare at Blaise in surprise, it’s the most Italian Blaise has ever spoken in-front of them. “Your voice is pretty with an Italian accent.” Harry says thoughtfully, scrubbing the last of the tears of his face.
Hermione, George, and Blaise all turn to look at him, in astonishment. “My voice, is… pretty?” Blaise says slowly, something pained flashes in his eyes, only for a moment and then it’s gone.
“Yeah? I mean your voice is usually pretty, but more pretty when you speak Italian.” Harry says matter of factly his voice still slightly croaky, Harry doesn’t know why they’re looking at him like he’s grown an extra head.
Then Blaise (predictably) starts laughing, he rolls around on the bed giggling. “I have a pretty voice.” Blaise says gleefully.
“Blaise you’re an idiot. Harry, are you okay now?” Hermione asks, locking eyes with him.
“Yeah, I’m ok now…thanks for…the stuff…you lot said.” He says stiltedly.
“You were silent all day and ignored us and any other living thing including your familiars, then you were crying, then you attempted to threaten us, and now you say Blaise’s voice is... pretty? I’m deeply confused.” George says shaking his head in exasperated amusement.
“Blaise does have a lovely voice.” Luna says smiling at Blaise who is currently wiping tears of laughter out from his eyes.
The conversation is cut short by the dormitory door opening, Fred walks in grinning at them two huge baskets of food in his hands. “I found the kitchens.” He sing songs. “Actually, I asked an older student, and they told me where to go. But still, I found the kitchens!” He says happily.
“Merlin Fred, you got a lot of food.” George says looking at the baskets Fred is holding.
“Yep! The house elves are generous. Have you made Harry cry yet?” Fred asks as he sets the basket down.
Blaise starts laughing again. “Make me cry?! That was your plan?! You made me cry on purpose?!” Harry exclaims incredulously.
“No, we wanted to help you process your emotions, in a way that didn’t involve you shutting down. My original plan was to shout at you until you got back to normal, but that didn’t end up being necessary.” Hermione informs him.
“Your vibes were off; we had to do something.” Luna says airily, squeezing his hand tightly.
“We staged an intervention.” Blaise chuckles.
“Christs sake why am I friends with any of you.” He Grumbles.
“Because we’re great, and I have a pretty voice.” Blaise grins.
“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Harry says rolling his eyes at the other boy.
“Nope.” Blaise says with a smile, he looks absolutely delighted.
“What are they on about?” Fred questions bemused.
“Harry cried, then he thought he was weak, then he said Blaise had a pretty voice.” George summarises.
“That made no sense.” Fred says blankly. “You know what, I don’t care, it’s time to eat!”
They lay all the food out in the middle of the rug and sit in a circle and tuck into the feast of pumpkin pasties, sandwiches, various desserts, fizzy drinks, and chocolate bars.
They all tuck in, Harry chews slowly on a pumpkin pastie, everyone is quite for a while to busy eating to say anything. Once the two baskets are empty, Luna stands up and starts pacing back and forth. “Luna, are you ok?” Harry asks, frowning at her in concern.
They are all watching her in confusion. Then Luna stops abruptly and stares at them determinedly, “Harry you already know this about me, but the rest of you do not.” She says pointing at the others in turn. “I have decided to tell you because you’re my friends, and I don’t like keeping secrets.”
“Luna what are you on about?” Fred asks.
Luna holds a hand up to silence him, “I am a seer. I speak prophecy’s and I have prophetic dreams.” She says looking at them anxiously, like she thinks they’ll make fun of her.
“That... actually explains a lot.” Hermione says slowly.
“It does?” Luna asks, tilting her head to the side curiously.
“You knew my name before we even met, and a few times you knew things before they happened, and you’re always saying things about people’s, vibes? So that doesn’t really surprise me.” Hermione says with a smile.
“That’s cool, you can see the future and stuff?” Fred asks curiously.
“Yes, but I don’t choose what I see.” Luna tells him.
“You're actually a seer? Woww, we have a seer and a parsel-tongue in our friend group.” George says in awe.
“Oh, so are we all aware of Harry being a parsel-mouth?” Hermione asks.
“You knew?” Harry stares at her.
“Of course I knew, I’m not stupid.” Hermione scoffs.
Harry shakes his head in disbelief.
“I thought most seers go insane.” Blaise says quietly.
Luna nods sadly, “Most do, but I don’t think I will. My mother was a seer too, she taught me how to cope with my gifts. I never search for the future I always let it come to me. The reason seers go mad is because they try to change what’s already destined to be.”
Blaise nods looking thoughtful, “It’s a rare gift, who else knows?” He asks.
“All of you, my dad, panda, and my mother but she’s dead.” Luna says. “If you tell anyone, I would be in danger, people covert gifts like mine for their own benefit.” She says looking at them with her bright blue eyes.
“I won’t tell anyone.” Blaise says solemnly.
“Neither will we.” The twins say at the same time.
“I’ll keep your secret, Luna.” Hermione says seriously.
Harry stands up and walks over to Luna, he picks up her hand gently. “We won’t tell your secrets.”
Luna smiles at them, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “Thank you, friends.”
“Does anyone have any more secrets to share with the group?” Fred asks.
Harry catches Blaise’s eye, and knows there both thinking the same thing, but neither of them say anything about their families.
“I have a secret.” Harry declares. “Actually, it’s not that much of a secret Blaise knows and the twins and Luna kind of knows.”
“Did you lot just keep all the secrets from me?” Hermione huffs.
“Not on purpose.” Harry says sheepishly.
“Go on spit it out Potter, what’s your secret.” She says with a sigh.
“I’ll show you.” Harry stands up, he has been practicing his wandless magic a lot recently Selena has been helping him, he can do most spells wandless and wordless, and here at Hogwarts Selena doesn’t have to shield his magical signature. He holds his hand out towards his bed and thinks firmly, pillow to me. The pillow zips of his bed and into his outstretched hand. “Ta da!” He says happily.
“You just did wandless magic.” Hermione stares at him with her jaw dropped.
“Merlin’s balls, Harry! I thought you broke Selena out with accidental magic! I didn’t know you could do it on command!” Fred exclaims.
“Broke Selena out of where!?” Hermione asks.
Blaise chooses that moment to burst into hysterical laughter. “He…stole…Selena…from a…zoo.” Blaise gasps through his giggles.
“That was very impressive Harry.” Luna says nodding her head and humming in approval.
“Can you do other spells?” George asks curiously.
“Yeah, I can do a few other spells.” Harry says rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“Don’t be modest, any spell you’ve seen him do with a wand he can do it without.” Blaise says still breathless from his hysterics.
“Show us.” Hermione demands, her eyes lighting up the same way they do when she gets her hands on a particularly interesting book.
“Err, ok?” Harry says uncertainly. Then he demonstrates a few spells, he levitates things around the room, makes a ball of light hover over his hand, summons more things, and makes green sparks shoot out of his fingers. It feels nice to use his magic without a wand freer and more natural, and today it comes to him easier than ever.
He feels Selena slither round his ankles and pauses his demonstration briefly. “Hi Selena, I haven’t seen you today.”
“You are getting powerful Star.” She hisses proudly.
“Yeah, I know, it’s getting easier to use magic without a wand.”
“Salazar was powerful too; he preferred wandless magic.” Selena says softly. “I am proud of you Star, and I think you will be better than what Salazar became.” Then she climbs up his body and rests on his shoulders.
“What do you mean Selena. What did he become?” He asks curiously.
“I will tell you another time, Star. Your friends are watching you.” Harry briefly forgot his friends are in the room.
“Sorry I forgot you guys were here.” He says apologetically.
“The way you use your magic, it’s… beautiful.” Hermione says looking at him in awe.
“That was so cool Harry.” Fred declares in amazement.
“Hermione is right, it was beautiful.” Luna says smiling at him.
“Can you try and teach me Harry? I want to learn.” George says awestruck.
“Yeah of course.” Harry says with a nod, then he turns to look at Blaise.
Blaise is looking at Harry softly. “Your voice is pretty when you speak the snake language.” He says with a smile.
Harry blushes and doesn’t meet Blaise’s amber eyes, “Thanks.”
“Yes. I thought parsel-tongue would sound harsh, but the way you speak it, it’s almost like a song, all soft and melodic.” Hermione says thoughtfully.
“Enough focus on Harry, now let’s talk about where the kitchens are, also I found a secret passageway behind that portrait of the lady in the red dress.” Fred says.
The rest of the evening passes smoothly, they speak easily, and Harry tries to teach them wandless magic. Blaise managed to get the quill he was trying to summon wandlessly to twitch, but the others didn’t quite manage it. George and Hermione ask lots of questions about his wandless magic, and Luna’s seeing abilities. At some point Fred brings out a pot of Bertie bots every flavoured beans, and they all dare each other to try particularly disgusting looking ones.
When curfew starts to approach and Hermione and Luna need to head back to their dorm, Luna pulls him aside out of ear shot of the others.
“What’s up Luna?” He asks.
“Tonight, the veil is thin, if you speak to your dead they will hear you.” She says dreamily.
“Err, ok?”
“I always speak to my mother on the 31st of October. You should speak to your parents Harry, they will listen even if they cannot speak.” She tells him softly.
“Ok… I’ll try it.” He says quietly, he trusts Luna and the things she says, even if they sound strange or impossible.
She smiles. “I hope it goes well.”
He smiles back at her, “Come on, you and Hermione need to go before curfew ends. Thanks for staying here with me instead of going to the feast.”
“No problem, Harry, I had a lovely evening. Also, I have a feeling this was a safer place to be tonight.” She says in her floaty voice, then takes his hand and pulls him back towards the others.
“We’ll walk you out of the common room, just in case Malfoy’s down there.” George says to Luna and Hermione.
“If Malfoy tries anything, I’ll make him wish he didn’t.” Hermione says sweetly. “But sure, you can walk us down.”
They all exit the dorms and head downstairs; the common room is in chaos. Marcus Flint runs up to them looking stressed, “Fuck, thank Merlin you’re here! You weren’t at the feast I thought the troll got you.” He says looking relieved to see them.
“Troll?” Hermione asks in confusion.
“Someone let a troll loose in the castle, the professors have gone to kill it.” Pansy says happily.
“Not kill it, subdue it, Pansy.” Daphne says with a board look on her face.
“My father is going to get Dumbledore fired for this.” Malfoy says indignantly. “Crabbe, Goyel. Let go to our dorm.” He orders and his two cronies lumber after him as he heads up the stairs.
“I’ve got to go tell Gemma you’re ok.” Flint says. “Don’t leave the common room until professor Snape says it’s safe, that goes for you too little ravens.” He nods at Luna and Hermione, and then goes off to find Gemma.
“Someone must have let it in. But why?” Fred asks in disbelief.
“I don’t know but I’m glad we didn’t go to that feast. Harry, I sincerely thank you for having a crisis.” Blaise says.
“You're welcome.” Harry replies drily.
Luna hums thoughtfully, “I hope the troll didn’t maim anyone.”
“I don’t think the professors would let that happen.” Hermione says with a frown.
“Dumbledore needs to put better security measures in place.” Harry mutters darkly.
“How in name of Merlin Morgana and your muggle Jesus, did someone smuggle a whole troll into the castle?!” George exclaims loudly.
~~~
They speak about the troll until Snape comes and tells them it’s safe to leave. Then they say goodbye to Luna and Hermione, and promise to meet them in the library tomorrow morning.
Harry heads back up to the dorm with his roommates, he gets ready for bed and says goodnight to them. He draws the curtains around his bed and stares blankly into the darkness.
He thinks of what Luna said- ‘the veil is thin today’ -and thinks about his mum and dad or papa as he’s taken to calling James since the dream, and whispers quietly into the silence.
“Mum. Papa. I hate that you left me. I’m angry that you died. I wish you were here.” He sighs and wipes a stray tear of his face. “Thank you for protecting me, I’m sorry that you died for… me. I hope heaven or whatever there is after you die, is nice. I…I…I love you both. Goodnight.”