"Good morning, everyone! Why are you up so early today? Looks like you didn't manage to escape Filch last night!" Jerry teased as he looked at Harry, Ron, and Neville sitting at the long table in the hall, their eyes vacant.
"We barely slept last night!" Harry said indignantly. "It was all Filch's cat's fault. Otherwise, we'd have got away ages ago!"
Ron and Neville nodded helplessly.
"Jerry, the three of us lost a hundred and fifty points last night." Harry's voice was heavy with guilt. "Some Slytherin students were even cheering us this morning! Do you know how awful that felt?"
Seeing how dejected they were, Jerry thought that they apparently hadn't given him and Hermione away.
Jerry tried to comfort the three of them, but it didn't seem to help much. They were still mired in misery and self-reproach. He realized that he probably really wasn't very good at comforting people, especially over something like this.
Perhaps he was better suited to comforting girls.
Afterward, the news spread like wildfire. Harry Potter, the famous, much-admired Harry Potter, the hero of two Quidditch matches, had actually been responsible for losing them a huge number of points. He and two other stupid first-years became everyone's targets.
Harry had once been one of the most popular and admired people at school, but now he had become a laughingstock overnight.
Even the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students treated him coldly, because they had been hoping to see Slytherin lose the House Cup.
Wherever Harry went, people pointed at him, and those insulting him didn't even lower their voices when he approached.
On the other hand, whenever he passed the Slytherin students, they clapped loudly, whistled, and cheered, "You've done us a huge favor! Thanks so much, Potter!" Their voices stabbed into Harry's