
part 7
Hogs Head was already packed by the time Celio made it there, clinging to the warmth of his school robes as he pushed open the heavy door that groaned in protest. He must have been the first there - It was just him and the proclaimed ‘Golden Trio’. They must have not noticed him yet as Ron Weasley said something about trying Firewhiskey.
“Aren’t you a prefect?” Celio asked, approaching the trio.
Ron and Hermione immediately went on the defensive. Celio glanced at them but besides that paid their obvious hostility no mind.
“What’s a Slytherin doing here?” Ron snarled, brown eyes like knives.
“I was in-”
“He must have heard about it from Boot,” Harry cut in, breathless. “They’re friends.”
Celio’s heart sank, and he shot Harry a filthy look. “Right. He’s on his way right now, I just didn’t want to wait around in Honeydukes for him to lick every lolly in the store.”
Harry was refusing to look at him now. Celio just exhaled out his nose and took the closest seat to sit and wait. Hermione was watching him sort of fearfully, despite seeming to be the most normal of the three.
After a minute of tense silence, Hermione stood across from him with a smile. “Shall I fetch you a butterbeer?”
“Oh.” Celio was surprised, an embarrassed flush creeping up his neck as he itched his nose. “That would be lovely, thank you.”
He now felt suddenly awful for misjudging her as she went to get him his drink. When she returned, the previous anxiety she had harbored seemingly vanished as she slid the dusty bottle across the table. Celio immediately dug in his pockets for the silver coin he owed, but she waved him off.
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t think I’ve introduced myself to you properly - I’m Hermione Granger. You’re Celio Terran, right?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you know me.”
“Well you always beat me in wandless magic sections of exams,” She seemed a bit miffed, but continued on. “So I remember your name from the result pages.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be - it gives me a reason to work harder.”
Beside them, Harry and Ron fidgeted in silence without an opportunity to join the conversation. Harry’s eyes were now burning into the side of Celio’s face - Oh so now you want to look at me. Traitor.
“How did you get so proficient in wandless magic?” Hermione asked, leaning forward eagerly. She clearly thought he could give her some master tips. “McGonagall says you’re the best she’s ever seen.”
Celio gave a nervous smile. “You know, I break my wands so often… It was just a natural solution.”
“I was wondering about that,” Ron finally found his place to cut in. His words were still guarded. “Why do you kill your wands so often?”
“Not built for a tool, I guess.” Celio mumbled in response, looking anywhere but the trio. He wished desperately for a subject change. Did he really need to delve into his magic with the three people that would immediately suspect him for being involved with the Dark Lord?
“What kind of wizard isn’t built for using a wand?” Ron scoffed.
Finally the door of the pub opened, and a huge rush of people filed in. Celio’s eyebrows shot up as suddenly all the tables around him filled with students from every house… but his own. He felt very out of place. Everyone was giving him suspicious looks and he just stared blankly back at them.
“A couple of people?” said Harry hoarsely to Hermione. “A couple of people?”
“Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular,” said Hermione happily. “Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?”
The man at the bar had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked like it had never been washed. He probably had never seen his pub so full.
“Hi,” said one of the Weasley twins, reaching the bar first and counting the group quickly. “Could we have… twenty-five butterbeers, please?”
The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar.
“Cheers,” said the twin, handing them out. “Cough up, everyone, I haven’t got enough gold for all of these…”
Harry was watching numbly as the large chattering group took their drinks and rummaged in their robes to find coins. He suddenly rounded on Hermione.
“What have you been telling people?” he said in a low voice. “What are they expecting?”
“I’ve told you, they just want to hear what you’ve got to say,” said Hermione soothingly, but Harry was looking at her so furiously that she quickly added, “You don’t have to do anything yet, I’ll speak to them first.”
“Hi, Harry,” said a pudgy Gryffindor boy, beaming and taking a seat opposite Harry.
Harry tried to smile back, but did not speak. Celio watched his gaze curiously, landing on Cho Chang who had just smiled at Harry and sat down on Ron’s right. Her friend, who had curly reddish-blonde hair didn’t smile, but gave them a thoroughly mistrustful look.
In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around the trio and Celio, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna Lovegood gazing dreamily into space. When everybody had pulled up a chair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry.
“Er,” said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. “Well - er - hi.”
The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry.
“Well… erm… well, you know why you’re here. Erm… well, Harry here had the idea - I mean,”
Harry had thrown her a sharp look, making her swap tracks.
“I had the idea - that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts - and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts-”
“Hear, hear,” said a random kid in the crowd.
“Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands.” She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on, “And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells-”
“You want to pass your Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. too though, I bet?” said a crowd member.
“Of course I do,” said Hermione at once. “But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because… because…” She took a great breath and finished, “Because Lord Voldemort’s back.”