As expected, the moment he entered the entire hall became silent. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and Harry instantly likened the disquieting silence to the term 'silent as the grave,' a rather morbid phrase if there ever was one.
Just like he had theorized Harry received many varied looks. Everything from awe to fear to jealousy was displayed by the many faces around him. Harry's mind quickly went to work cataloging the reactions of everyone there and taking careful note of who had which expression. It would be invaluable to know who was afraid of him and who was simply in awe of him.
Slowly, Harry walked down the Great Hall, the heads of many students turning to keep him in sight. His eyes managed to find his friends quickly enough. They were seated at the Ravenclaw. Terry, Lisa and Neville were on one side, while Susan and Hannah were on the other. Their expressions all ran along the lines of being stunned, as if they didn't know what to make of him appearing before them.
Over at the Slytherin table he also saw Blaise giving him an expressionless look. When Harry caught the dark-skinned Italian boy's eyes, the Slytherin nodded in silent acknowledgment. He returned the nod with one of his own. Tracey, on the other hand, was biting her lower lip and looked like she was barely managing to restrain herself from leaping out of her seat and rushing over to him. Knowing her, he would be giving a full recounting of the event that led to him being admitted into the hospital wing.
He did get a bit of a surprise when he looked to Tracey's right and saw Daphne staring at him with a furrowed brow. He was surprise because she wasn't looking at him with cold disdain. Her lips were turned downwards into a small frown, and her eyes only contained a hint of the ice they normally had. Instead they looked pensive. He wondered what she was thinking about.
"Harry!"
All thoughts on Daphne and everything else were completely derailed when a redheaded missile launched herself at him. Surprised would not be the appropriate word to describe what Harry felt when he found his arms full of a crying Susan Bones. He had never expected any of his friends to react like this after the incident with the troll, least of all shy, demure and often times incredibly quiet Susan. Hannah maybe, if she didn't think he was a monster and fear him for what he had done. That girl was very excitable. Susan though, definitely not.
"Thank Merlin you're alright! I was so worried about you! You were in such terrible shape that I was afraid you had been killed! You're not hurt are you? Oh, I'm so sorry I couldn't be of any help!"
The girl was babbling. Her worry spilling out of her mouth at such speeds that Harry's mind had to work over time to decipher them. He had no idea the girl could talk this fast. She would give Lisa a run for her money!
"I'm sorry for worrying you." Harry was unsure of what to say so he said that. At the very least it halted the girl's frantic babbling. He also decided to reciprocate her hug as it would probably hurt her if he didn't. This was the first time he had hugged someone whose name was not Lisa Crawft. It felt very different than the hugs he shared with his best friend. Different, but not unpleasant.
Yet, while Harry hugged Susan, he felt his mixed emotions come back. Anger and joy warred with each other for his attention. A part of Harry felt tempted to begin berating Susan and the others for their foolish decision to stay and try to fight that troll with him while another part simply wanted to bask in the fact that they didn't hate him and still cared for him despite what he had done.
This strange combination of emotions confused him. Harry had always thought himself to be above most emotional responses. Sure, Lisa could evoke a lot of emotions in him, but she had been his friend for years and he'd never felt such a complicated array of opposing emotions when dealing with her. That his new friends could bring out two feelings that stood in direct opposition of each other was shocking, and he wasn't entirely sure how to handle it.
A deep breath was taken as Harry tried his best to calm the thoughts and feelings raging inside of him. He would deal with his friends later, he decided. It would not due to berate them now when they were in front of their peers. He was angry, but not that angry, and he didn't want to alienate his friends from him. For now, he would just pretend nothing was wrong and enjoy his lunch with them.
While Harry worked through his emotional confusion, Susan's face took on the shade of a small red sun, as she realized that she had just run up to Harry and hugged him in front of the entirety of Hogwarts. It didn't help that he hugged her back. With impressive speed, the girl jerked herself away from Harry like she'd just been burned. At the same time, the shock of seeing Harry walking into the Great Hall and Susan of all people practically jumping their friend wore off, and the others who had been sitting at the Ravenclaw table got up and ran over to Harry.
"Harry, mate, are you alright?" asked Neville. Harry bade to answer, but before he could Hannah interrupted him.
"Merlin's beard, Harry! You scared us half to death with that stunt you pulled!"
Harry's nostril's flared for a moment as the urge to tell her that the stunt she and the others had pulled was just as stupid, but held back. Now was not the time, he reminded himself.
Calming down before anyone could notice his growing anger, Harry sat down with his friends at the Ravenclaw table. By now, the other students had gotten back to their food and conversation, though Harry could hear from the closest cluster of students that whatever they had been talking about was no longer their topic of conversation.
Unless, of course, they had been talking about his fight with the troll before he came in.
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