Settling In (4)!

{Harry's POV}

...

The scattered clapping didn't seem to affect Lupin as he stood up and nodded toward the hall, though his eyes quickly met mine, his face set in stone as his gaze lingered. I don't know if it was because of his history with Harry or because Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were clapping pretty hard, the only source of enthusiastic sound around the hall.

'Right, I was supposed to clap,' I thought as Ron turned toward me. I was thinking up an excuse when he practically hissed in my ear, "Look at Snape!"

An expression of pure loathing was directed at Lupin as the black-eyed man glared. That was going to be a problem, wasn't it? But should I even intervene with that? He would end up spilling that Lupin is a werewolf anyway, and that was a better result than all the other DADA teachers; who knows how Remus would end up if I tried to intervene?

'Better for him to resign on his own. He was a part of the order later, anyway. I don't need to worry about him right now. The main source of my worries is the rat and the escapee.' My musings were cut short as Dumbledore spoke again.

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued as the lukewarm applause for Professor Lupin died away. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

The contrast of emotions struck me. From where I was sitting, I was able to see the two different phases of shifts. Both Hermione and Ron, who were sitting in front of me, went from stunned to ecstatically happy as they both leaped to their feet, their hands a blur as they aggressively clapped, excitement shining in their eyes. On the other hand, the table on the other side of the room let out a wave of groans. Most of the Slytherins held their head down while, surprisingly, it was the Ravenclaw's who bemoaned the loudest.

The two very real and very enthusiastic wavelengths of emotions had me floored. My unresponsiveness clearly stood out as Hermione was giving me a weird look. 

'I'm never going to be able to emulate Harry anyway perfectly, so do I even bother trying?' I thought acting wasn't really my forte, and pretending that I was a naive optimist wasn't really my thing. Since I have an opportunity with the dementor attack, I might as well make full use of it.

'Still, as long as I don't practice dark magic in front of everyone and shout Avada-' I stop.

A chill ran through my spine at the horrific thought of what if? I now can't joke about that stuff. I mean, I'm 99% sure that just thinking the incantation of the death spell won't summon the dark green ray of soul explosion, but one can never really be sure, right?

'Okay, so I'm 100% sure, but still, why tempt fate since clearly something has been meddled with here.' My eyes shifted from Hermione's worried face to the students around me. Not one of them was a short squirt, as I had noticed earlier; whatever had happened, this world doesn't send their 11-year-olds to learn reality-building spells in an unsupervised school.

"We should've known!" Ron roared, pounding the table; his outburst brought my attention back to the table; the redhead wasn't clued into the subtle shift of my changes, so his behavior remained unchained. "Who else would have assigned us a biting book?" His eyes held a soft mirth, and his grin slowly vanished when our eyes met.

'Never mind, he isn't as dense as he was described.'

"Yeah, only Hagrid, right?" I shook my head, and the redhead seemed to buy it, for now.

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore. "Let the feast begin!"

It wasn't supposed to be impressive; at the back of my mind, I even knew it would happen. But suddenly, in front of me was a feast. With various dishes sprawled across the table, for a second ago, there was nothing there, but I didn't actually put my hand there, so maybe it was hidden under a charm.

'If that was the case, then a charm that could perfectly blend inanimate things into the surroundings would certainly be helpful.' 

"Harry, are you alright? You seem a little lost?" Hermione spoke, her soft voice causing Ron to look up confused, the bone of a drumstick sticking out of his mouth.

"Yeah," I answered, not that my answer did anything to help. Even Ginny was now looking at me. "That thing, the Dementor," I began but then shook my head. I don't remember the actual effects of being under its aura, but I did have to suffer from the extreme cold when I was still disoriented.

"Maybe I just need to rest," I do need some alone time to reorient my thoughts. Not eating one day wouldn't kill me, and worst comes to worst, I could always ask Dobby or some other house-elf for some food if I'm hungry.

"Are you sure?" she asked; already, she was putting her food down, clearly intent on coming with me, and it was Ginny who came to my rescue.

"I-i don't feel like eating as well." She stuttered a bit in the beginning but then pushed through, "Can I come with you?"

"Sure, can you listen and tell us if Professor Dumbledore has something important to say?" I directed my question toward Hermione, who looked at me for a long second before nodding.

"Come on, Gin, let's go." The redhead paused momentarily before she began moving, and aside from some eyes following our exit, no one stopped us, which was a positive that I would take right about now.

'Now, I need to figure out a plan.'