Potter Stinks!
Friday, November 13, 1994
Potter team members adopted official and un-official guard duty around Harry. All the girls moved in pairs when going anywhere in the castle. Malfoy and his goons suddenly changed their behaviour. Instead of sneering and blocking corridors at any encounters with Merlin House, the Malfoy gang turned and hurried away. It was as though they would get burned if they got too close. The invisible but potent Greengrass influence was at work. Malfoy was not finished though. One day badges appeared on Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and some Gryffindor robes with the slogan 'Support Cedric Diggory' which switched to show 'Potter Stinks'. It quickly looked like most of the school was wearing the badges. The Weighing of the Wands Ceremony was staged. Rita Skeeter managed to corner Harry long enough to ask some disrespectful questions. Harry ducked under her grip and fled the room.
-ooOOoo—
It's been nearly two weeks since that stupid meeting where Mum went berserk. Why does she have to do this? Dad tries to talk to her, but she is not listening. When will this be over?
Ginny was in The Burrow garden, trying to chase some of the gnomes out. That was useless as well. They all sneak back within an hour.
Why didn't Harry say something at that meeting. I wanted to stay. I wanted to join Harry. For years I had a painful crush on him, but I was getting over it. I was noticing other boys and they were noticing me. Harry just sat there and looked at the floor. He didn't answer back, he let my Mum and the others yell at him and he didn't speak up. What is wrong with him? I was so angry at him for not yelling back.
"Ginny! You can finish that now and come in to do your lessons." Mrs Weasley yelled from the kitchen door.
Home schooling. This is painful. I must stay at home and let Mum teach me all the subjects until I get my OWLS. The Ministry gave her permission to do it. She yelled at Dad until he agreed and signed the forms. At least I have a plan for Quidditch. I can join the local junior league. I couldn't do that at Hogwarts. I had to wait until I was picked for the house team. That won't be for years yet, if at all. With the local team, I will be seen by scouts and recruited to bigger teams until I get noticed by the Holyhead Harpies.
Mrs Weasley gave Ginny her Charms work and then made a floo call to her third cousin, a Prewett.
"I had these awful dreams. It was like being threatened by the Gods of Olympus. I could tell it was Dark Magic. Arthur wanted me to talk to Dumbledore. I floo called him and all he said was that the Ministry agreed that the Edicts were right. I was so disappointed with him, after all the years we worked together in the Order of the Phoenix. Ginny only talks about playing Quidditch now. That's all she has left, poor girl. We had such hopes for her and Harry. That's all finished now of course." The conversation continued with many repetitions of opinions about how evil and dark Harry Potter had become.
Ginny kept her own thoughts to herself. She wanted to save her eardrums from yet another Molly Weasley assault.
I had dreams as well. In my dreams I told Athena that I wanted to stay with Harry, but my mother wouldn't let me. Athena told me that the Gods did not want me to defy my mother at this time. Nothing good would come from it. She said that I would suffer no penalty. My mother must answer for it, not me. We get lots of parchments by owl, Mum takes one look at them and puts them in the fire.
-ooOOoo-
The Daily Prophet had reported the Edicts from Mount Olympus with lengthy quotes from Weasley family members. Mrs Weasley did not hold back and called Harry and evil cheat and a fraud who had become a master of dark magic. The one and only official statement from the Ministry which verified that the Edicts were real was buried in small print at the bottom of a back page. The Merlin House girls cancelled any subscriptions they had to the rag. Rita Skeeter took great delight in publishing details of each Merlin House girl, speculating on the morality of each one as they now seemed to be protective of Harry. The girl's families were asked by Professor Dawes to not answer any questions from the press. They were asked to give out prepared statements that said that as parents, they were happy that Hogwarts and Merlin House were providing due care and protection for their children.
In fact, the Merlin House girls continued to mention the extreme lack of balance in the common room. Harry was almost silent when he made an appearance there. He was broody and moody which did not impress the young ladies who were used to getting attention from the male members of their house. Harry did ask Luna if any boys could be recruited. Luna checked with her friends. There was no answer which was interpreted that the answer was no, for now.
On top of that, Professor Dawes interviewed each young lady every week to check on their progress and welfare. She had to tread a narrow path between putting pressure on them to check on Harry's mental state and then cooling their jets if they looked like making a move on him. He didn't need any complications until he was in a stronger frame of mind.
Harry, meanwhile, continued to be oblivious to the fact that if he made even a small effort to be sociable, he could have had a disturbing impact on the girls collected into Merlin House. On the Saturday evening before the first task, Merlin House planned to stage a small housewarming social. A short list of boys was invited from other houses. They were Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor, Blaise Zabini from Slytherin, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw, and Ernie McMillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff. Surprises came with Michael Corner asking if an invitation could be extended to a Beaubatons boy who would like to come and Blaise Zabini requesting an invitation for a Durmstrang boy. As suspicious as these extra guests may have been, the requests were granted. Harry and Professor Dawes didn't think that Merlin House had any secrets to be guarded apart from Harry's own private encounter with dragons scheduled for the next day.
Harry was slipping into two worlds of thought.
In the official world Harry answered questions from Professor Dawes and his housemates. He talked as little as possible. Every sentence was an effort.
In the other world Harry kept his own honest reactions to everything.
When will this end? When will they let me sleep forever? I would go to sleep and never wake up. Let me go to sleep. Anything else is too much effort. I have nothing left to give.
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