Lockhart's Rescue and "Guidance" (3)

When there was a duel on the platform, they watched. When there was no duel on the platform, they watched. They watched when Dean took a quill from his bag, when Colin wiped his camera lens, when Lavender and Parvati whispered to each other. Even when Neville flipped through his History of Magic notes, his eyes would lift from the page and drift toward Harry before snapping back, as if confirming something.

Hermione noticed. Her quill hovered over the parchment as ink dripped onto the page and spread into a blue dot. She did not wipe it away. Her brows were drawn tightly together, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"They're watching you." Her voice was so soft that only the few people beside her could hear it. Ron wiped the filth from his mouth, looked up, and followed Hermione's gaze across the Gryffindor table, then across the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables. Some of those caught in their sweep lowered their heads. Some pretended to read. Some casually raised their cups to drink.

"They're not just 'watching.'" Ron's voice was a little hoarse, but his tone was unchanged, carrying the disgust of someone thoroughly fed up. "They're observing. A bunch of spineless fence-sitters with no minds of their own."

Harry said nothing. He simply sat there quietly, watching group after group of students step onto the dueling platform, fight, and come back down. The winners did not seem particularly happy, and the losers were not especially dejected. No one's mind was on the duels, yet everyone pretended it was.

Things looked entirely different on the Slytherin side. Pansy lounged against the back of her chair, idly twirling her hair around one finger. Whenever there was a duel on the platform, the corner of her mouth occasionally curved upward—not in