"Now son, you have…"
"I'M NOT YOUR SON!" Harry shouted, drowning out whatever else Mr. Weasley intended to say. "If I were related to you traitors, I would do whatever was necessary to get myself disowned from your back-stabbing family!"
"Now that's not fair!" Hermione was filled with anger as well. "We made a mistake last year and we're trying to make up for it. You have no right to insult people or not listen to what they have to say."
The emerald eyes that stared at Hermione were like chips of ice. The expression on his face looked a lot like Professor Snape's did. The one that said he thought you were a bug that he was deciding whether or not to waste the time stepping on. Hermione tried to swallow the lump that seemed to have suddenly appeared in her throat.
When Harry finally spoke, his voice was full of venom. "And now we hear from Miss Know-It-All Granger, the fount of all knowledge. She who can't resist poking her nose in to other people's business and who is never wrong."
Then he growled, "but you were wrong, weren't you and not for the first time either. You didn't listen to me last year when I tried to tell you that I was innocent so give me one good reason why I should listen to you now. I guess your passion for justice and fairness only extends to house elves and things that are not human, not to those who are supposed to be your friends.
How could you throw away five years of friendship? How could you possibly think I would kill Neville? Did you forget that I saved your life during our first year at Hogwarts? Remember the troll, Granger? Or do you have a very short memory, like your boyfriend here? Surely the fact that that I was responsible for you not dying during our first year should've been worth a few precious minutes of the know-it-all's time. But noooo, you preferred to join the 'Harry is an evil Dark Wizard' club without even listening to my side of the story. I tell you what I'll give your apology the same amount of attention, that you gave to listening to my side of the story last September. I think that's fair, don't you?"
Hermione was silent. There was nothing she could say because he was right. She hadn't listened to what he had to say. She had been so certain of Dumbledore and McGonagall's infallibility that when they said Harry had been caught red-handed standing over Neville's body, she hadn't looked any further.
"What nothing to say." Harry observed. "You certainly had plenty of things to say both during and after my trial. And don't think I've forgotten what you did the day I was arrested. The Dementors made sure to play that memory over and over again."
"Hey, I was the one who knocked out the troll and saved both your lives." Ron put in and when Harry's icy stare was turned on him, he gulped and wished he hadn't said anything.
"Ah, once more we hear from our sufferer of terminal foot-in-mouth disease."
Ron couldn't help noticing that Harry's sarcasm could put the whole Malfoy clan and Snape to shame. He winced as he realised that Harry was just getting warmed up.
"Do I have to remind you, moron, of just who put Granger in the position of needing to be rescued from the troll in the first place?" Harry inquired.
"Why it was the yearly winner of the Engages-Mouth-Before-Brain Award: Ronald Bilius Weasley. Not to mention the fact that you wouldn't have been there to knock the troll out if I hadn't told you that she was in the bathroom and didn't know about it."
"Mr. Potter," Arthur Weasley spoke up again, trying to avoid getting the young wizard any angrier than he already was. "We know that we made a mistake last year by not listening to you, but we want to try and make up for that mistake. Part of the reason we came was to invite you to spend the remainder of the summer at the Burrow with us."
Harry mentally applauded Mr. Weasley for his balls. It couldn't be easy to stand in front of someone you and your family had royally screwed and invite that person into your home.
"Why would you think I would want anything to do with any of you?" Harry's voice was again filled with venom. "I remember very well the actions of your loving family toward me the day I was arrested as well as during and after my trial. The day you threw me to the wolves. I can never get back what your traitorous son and the rest of the Gryffindors destroyed."
"Ron isn't a traitor." Hermione defended her friend.
"Oh and what is the definition of a traitor, Miss Know-it-All?"
Hermione hated that nickname. She thought she had gotten beyond that with him and Ron and now she was clearly back to square one at least as far as Harry was concerned.
"Well, we're waiting." Harry told her, doing an impression of Snape at his worst. "What is the definition of a traitor?"
"One who commits an act of treason," Hermione stated, knowing full well where he was going with this.
"Come, come, Miss Granger only one out of ten." Harry chastised, his patronising tone making her wince.
"You know full well that a traitor is also one who betrays another's trust, just as you, Ron, and the entire Weasley clan did to me. The Dementors made sure that your many kind words to me as I was being hauled off to Azkaban, were burned deeply into my mind. After all how many sixteen year olds can say that they will remember til their dying day a woman they looked up to as a surrogate mother telling them that 'it is a good thing that your parents are dead so they don't have to see what an evil thing you've become'."
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