A Young Wizard's Journey - Order of The Phoenix

Try-Outs

The moment Defence Against the Dark Arts had ended. Y/N sped out of the classroom.

It had been easy to keep his temper throughout the rest of the class, another word had been uttered by no one and despite Umbridge occasionally throwing him a look, she seemed to decide she wasn't going to get anything out of him yet.

But that didn't mean that he wasn't angry.

Hermione sped up alongside him but said nothing, and simply followed him through the castle and out into the grounds.

Y/N made his way over to the lake and collapsed down onto its banks, letting out a soft breath of air. Hermione dropped down next to him and drew her wand, waving it idly towards the water, cutting along the surface.

The two of them sat there, saying nothing for a few minutes, and simply watching as Hermione drew nonsense shapes and pictures before Y/N let out a deep sigh, a sign to welcome conversation.

'You did well,' said Hermione. 'Keep that up and she won't have anything to use against us.'

'That's only because of Harry,' said Y/N, 'and he's not going to be happy with me. That's the main thing I'm concerned about. This is probably going to turn into another shouting match.'

'Well if it does-' began Hermione, sounding slightly angry, but Y/N shook his head.

'Leave him to me, I can handle him fine. Plus, it involves the two of us. It's only fair that I'm the one to speak with him.'

The two of them fell back into a comfortable silence and simply enjoyed the peace and quiet of the evening grounds. But it was not to last. Much as Y/N expected, they heard the angry footfalls before the yell.

'Y/N!'

Hermione gave Y/N a soft smile before shimmying away. Y/N stood and turned to face his bespectacled friend.

Harry strode down the bank towards them and stopped several feet away, Ron looking on sheepishly from the top of the lake bank. Y/N could feel the magic coming from Harry's scar even from here.

'What was that?' Harry asked, once Y/N said nothing.

'Care to clarify?' said Y/N innocently.

'Why did you just let her belittle everything we said last year, in front of the entire class. Why are you okay with the fact that no one believes us, and you're doing nothing about it?'

'What exactly can we say, Harry? You give me, the exact words, that we can tell them, to make them believe us.'

'The truth-!' began Harry.

'Which is what? The two of us were pulled into a graveyard by a maniac, witnessed the return of a man who's been dead for 14 years and ruled over much of the wizarding world via fear, that man then proceeded to kill your strongest competition towards the Triwizard cup win, oh, and I just happened to be there. It's not believable, Harry. It's the truth, but it's not believable.'

'But you're supposed to be with the Order!' yelled Harry. 'You're supposed to be convincing people that he's back!'

'What can I do that Dumbledore hasn't? He's the strongest wizard of our age, the man who defeated Grindelwald, the only one Lord Voldemort fears. And the Ministry has spent the last two months treating him as a laughingstock and lumping us in amongst the discreditation. I can walk back into the Great Hall now and declare everything we just did, and I'd be carted off to Azkaban as a madman.'

'But she's treating us like we're crazy-!' said Harry.

'Because we sound like it, Harry,' said Y/N. 'What we're saying, sounds crazy. We know it's true. Dumbledore knows it's true. But it sounds insane. And Umbridge seems like the type who'd call us insane even if Voldemort was back in the open. There's nothing we can do! You have to understand that they will say and think whatever they want to say and think. We can't change that.'