58 The talks

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat together, shielded from the endless questions of their classmates by a magical barrier of silence. The fact that Dumbledore and Khromov told a far from truthful version of events wasn't missed by either of them. And they didn't know how to feel about it.

On the one hand, almost no one at school knew that the Trio had once again violated the law. On the other hand, the Professors knew about it and it didn't bode well for them.

And although in previous times they broke the law and got caught, everything was not as serious as this time. If the truth about their actions is revealed, the consequences will reverberate for them for the rest of their lives! They didn't want to get a reputation as thieves!

"... Are we the bad guys? I feel like a bad guy." Ron confessed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Hermione winced at his words. "We couldn't have known his situation, Ron. If the Professors were more-"

"Let's not place the responsibility for our actions onto others." He interrupted the girl with a stern look that looked unusually wrong on his face. "What did they tell us? Leave this matter alone, they have everything under control. We simply ignored their warnings. If we just stopped to think a bit, none of that shite might've happened."

Harry nodded at his friend's words without noticing it. "We really screwed up big time…" He drawled, looking at how Khromov was talking about something with Luna. 

The girl somehow forced him to get up from his seat and relocate to the Hufflepuff table. They sat down next to the couple whose free time Harry had interrupted earlier that day. It was clear that all four were friends. And that raised eyebrows.

Were they familiar with Khromov even before his public appearance to the people? How long had they known about his existence?

"Stop saying 'we'." Hermione said, hiding her eyes from the surprised boys. "I understand perfectly well that if I hadn't pressed, we would have passed by Khromov without asking about his story. We could've just ignored that someone else lived in the castle. In the end, it's all my fault." The only reason she didn't cry now was because she was in the Great Hall. She wasn't going to cry in front of hundreds of people.

Harry put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his body. "You can think as you want, but now we are in this together. So come on, chin up, we'll need optimism to survive the punishment that McGonagall will come up with for us." He tried to lift her spirits, but the joke fell flat.

The thought of Professor McGonagall being disappointed in her as a student didn't make Hermione feel any better. 

"Anyway, let's eat already. The shitty state of our affairs is not a reason to start a hunger strike." Ron said and began to put food on his plate.

At the other end of the hall, at the Hufflepuff table, Danil and Luna felt the full hospitality of the badgers. And if at first, they were still afraid of the monster boy, then after the introduction by Gabriel and Jamie, they began to think of him as a person at the very least. It was easy to get along with already friendly people.

But after the first acquaintance, Danil was dragged under the dome of silence by his friends, where they began the interrogation.

"And what will happen to Potter and his entourage?" Jamie asked, throwing annoyed glances at the golden boy.

"It will be decided by Professors and guardians of idiots." Danil muttered dissatisfaction. "I would love to tear off their heads for destroying my anonymity, but that's just not possible. How did these fools see me for the first time anyway? They came when I had already killed all the Acromantulas." He scratched his chin thoughtfully, but decided that he wasn't destined to discover this particular secret yet. And it wasn't that important right now.

"Well, it's probably even for the best. No matter how stupid Potter is, I wouldn't want him and his friends to be expelled." Danil's questioning look turned to Gabriel. "What? Is it so strange that I don't hate the kid?"

"No, that's not the point." replied Danil. "It's just still hard for me to come to terms with the fact that breaking and entering is considered as the basis for expulsion, but assault is not. Even if I accepted it, it's hard to get used to it."

His gaze itself came across those three girls who, at the very beginning of the school year, tried to bully Luna. Now they were trembling with fear and shivered when they saw that their peeping had not gone unnoticed. He had no doubt that now they were pissing in their pants from the realization that their previous target for bullying now had such a scary little creature on defense.

"How are you feeling?" Luna asked, blinking slowly towards Danil like a cat. He was distracted from his observations and looked down at the girl. 

"Annoyed and disappointed, I guess." Danil sighed heavily. "Even understanding why Potter and his company did what they did, it's still extremely unpleasant for me. The bastard destroyed my way of life in one day."

Just the thought of Potter made the familiar slush of hatred boil in his blood. "It seems that I still haven't completely moved away from our eye contact. Even now I want to smash his head against the wall."

Gabriel patted his unlucky friend on the back without saying anything. His tacit support was enough.

"But the most disgusting thing is that now I can't escape from the Ministry's gaze in any way. Maybe I'll have to move to Japan or South Korea, they're not a part of the International Confederation of Wizards… I think." Danil stretched out, picking up pork ribs from the plate and gnawing into them, as if there was no bone inside.

Luna's frown went unnoticed by everyone, she clenched the hem of her robe into her fists. If because of Grainger's fears and Potter's stupidity, her first real friend will be forced to flee the country, she will never forgive them.

All three of his friends frowned at his words, but this time it was Jamie who spoke up. 

"Are we sure that the Ministry will care about you at all? Although no, that's an empty hope, every employee there has a relative at school. They will certainly try to grab you by the balls." The girl muttered with displeasure and pouted like a hamster.

"Why do they need Danil's balls? Is there something special about them?" Luna said in confusion, but Jamie just waved the blonde away. 

"Right, we'll discuss everything else later, let's get back to socialization. I can see Bones and Abbott going out of their way trying to look at you." Gabriel said, muttering a counter-spell from the dome of silence. "Susan, Hannah! Let me introduce you to my good friend – Danil Khromov!" He started enthusiastically, immediately digging into his victims with metaphorical claws.

The girls squeaked in surprise, but their interest overcame their fear, so they sat down opposite four friends with smiles on their faces.

"Danil, meet my good friends, Susan and Hannah."

Exhaling a short breath through his nose, the boy prepared for long conversations and socialization. Too much time has passed since the last time he was at a gathering of this size.

Students in the lobby actively discussed the replenishment in their ranks. It's such a rarity to have a peer with such a strong curse on his body! For some, he was like an animal in a zoo, only much more dangerous. Everyone was wondering: who he was? Right now, Danil was no worse than an exchange student, even if in some strange sense of the phrase.

"Maybe he's from the USSR? And he fled the country when the curse got him." Cormac McLaggen, a Gryffindor suggested, munching on a piece of scrambled eggs.

"McLaggen, it's no longer USSR, the union has been broken up for two years. Honestly, don't you go outside?" Alicia Spinnet snorted with contempt. "And I strongly doubt that he fled the country, otherwise he wouldn't show himself to us. It would be easier for him to keep hiding."

Seeing that his theory was so quickly destroyed to the nines, Cormac muttered something under his breath and continued to eat in silence. 

"Is he really human?" Marinette Edgecombe from Ravenclaw asked doubtfully. "It's hard to believe that with such a face he was once a man." 

"Marinette!" Cho Chang almost slapped her friend on the back of the head, but held herself back. "Even if he's not human, that was very rude!"

The Weasley twins, meanwhile, were sitting next to Lavender and Parvati. "Just look at how our friend is growing!" The first one said with genuine admiration. "He already has so many friends!" The second one played along. ""We're so proud of him!"" They said together and burst into tears, like proud parents at the wedding of their only child.

"Stop clowning around." Lavender chuckled. "You're just jealous that he hangs out with more girls than you."

"That might be true-" "-but is Jaime a girl?"

Similar conversations were heard all over the hall. Even the professors joined and openly talked about their future plans, because now Danil could be taught with the others, which was much more convenient than their previous methods.

There were two sisters sitting at the Slytherin table, who watched Danil's every move with genuine interest. Daphne and Astoria Greengrass couldn't believe their eyes. A chance appeared in front of them literally out of nowhere! And they certainly weren't going to let him go. 

"Daphne…" Astoria began.

"I know." The older sister interrupted the younger one. "Today we will write a letter to our father, he has to hear about this."

But if he gave them hope, then for Draco Malfoy, Danil was only a source of disgust. "And the Headmaster willingly let this creature study with pureblood wizards? Just wait until my father hears this."

Maybe Danil was too pessimistic in his reactions, but he was right about one thing. A little less than half of all the people in the room did not think his story about the curse was true. In their eyes, he was no better than Centaurs or Goblins, and maybe even worse.

But talking with his two new acquaintances, Danil kept hope in himself. Hope that everything will turn out to be alright.