part 8
The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho Chang’s friend shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, looked fixedly, even eagerly, at Harry.
“Well… that’s the plan anyway,” said Hermione. “If you want to join us, we need to decide how we’re going to-”
“Where’s the proof You-Know-Who’s back?” said the blonde Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.
“Well, Dumbledore believes it-” Hermione began. Celio resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“You mean, Dumbledore believes him,” said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.
“Who are you?” said Ron rather rudely. Celio actually agreed with his attitude.
“Zacharias Smith,” said the boy, “and I think we’ve got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who’s back.”
“What right?” Celio scoffed, earning a room full of eyes. “Why does he owe you answers? Go find You-Know-Who yourself and find out.”
“Look,” said Hermione, intervening swiftly, “that’s really not what this meeting was supposed to be about-”
“It’s okay, Hermione, Celio.” said Harry.
Celio shot him a look, but Harry wasn’t looking back at him.
“What makes me say You-Know-Who’s back?” he asked. “I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn’t believe him, you don’t believe me, and I’m not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone.”
Zacharias said dismissively, “All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory’s body back to Hogwarts. He didn’t give us details, he didn’t tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we’d all like to know -”
“If you’ve come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can’t help you,” Harry said. He didn’t take his eyes from Zacharias Smith’s aggressive face. “I don’t want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that’s what you’re here for, you might as well clear out.”
He cast an angry look in Hermione’s direction, but no one left their seats. Not even Zacharias Smith, though he continued to gaze intently at Harry. Harry glanced past Hermione at Celio, who gave a slight nod of support.
“Alright then.” Smith sneered. “Then why is there a Death Eater here?”
The room was immediately dead silent. Celio blinked, looking around for the alleged Death Eater before suddenly realising everyone’s eyes were on… him. Anger roared in his head.
“Oh, sod off you miserable excuse of air.” He snapped at the Hufflepuff. “Start accusing me of false things and I’ll start trying to fulfil your bright expectations of me.”
Zacharias Smith narrowed his eyes with a twist to his mouth. “Where’s your proof?”
“I don’t need to prove anything to you.”
“So,” said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. Smith seemed taken aback by the interruption. “So… like I was saying… if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we’re going to do it, how often we’re going to meet, and where we’re going to-”
“Is it true,” interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back, looking at Harry, “that you can produce a Patronus?”
There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.
“Yeah,” said Harry slightly defensively.
“A corporeal Patronus?”
“Er — you don’t know Madam Bones, do you?” he asked randomly.
The girl smiled.
“She’s my auntie,” she said. “I’m Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So — is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?”
“Yes,” said Harry.
“Blimey, Harry!” said Lee Jordan, looking deeply impressed. Celio knew him from his loud commentary of school quidditch matches. “I never knew that!”
“Mum told Ron not to spread it around,” said Weasley twin 1, grinning at Harry. “She said you got enough attention as it was.”
“She’s not wrong,” mumbled Harry and a couple of people laughed.
“And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore’s office?” demanded Terrance. “That’s what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was there last year…”
Celio made a face at his friend - Terry entirely ignored him.
“Er - yeah, I did, yeah,” said Harry.
“And in our first year,” said the pudgy Gryffindor boy to the group at large, “he saved that Philoso's Stone -”
“Philosopher’s,” hissed Hermione.
“Yeah, that, from You-Know-Who,” finished Neville.
“And,” said Celio, “all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournament last year - getting past a dragon, merpeople and acromantulas.”
There was a murmur of impressed agreement around the table.