Chapter 29 - Rika Skeeter
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe… JKR owns all!
AN: Thanks to Turnlach for his wonderful beta work as always
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When Harry woke up the next morning he let out sad sigh, well this is it, he thought to himself, knowing full well that now half the school had turned against him. He only hoped that Hermione believed him again. Quickly getting out of bed Harry noticed that everyone else was already up. He quickly jumped into the shower and walked into the common room about fifteen minutes later.
Harry let out a relieved sigh when he saw Hermione standing there with a plate of toast.
"Hey." Harry said softly.
"Hey... you want to go for a walk?" Hermione asked with a small smile.
"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea...Room of Requirement?" Harry suggested. Hermione nodded, took his hand and led them both out of the common room.
"So... how many people believe that I entered myself?" Harry asked softly.
"Hmm... everyone... well everyone except Cedric actually. I heard him saying that someone else had entered your name, no one believed him though." Hermione said. Harry sighed.
"Have you seen Ron?" Harry asked softy, Ron was taking this a lot harder than last time.
"Umm... yes... he was mumbling to himself, saying stuff about you always getting what you want or something." Hermione said softly.
By now they had reached the black wall where the room was located. Harry paced back and forth in front of it thinking of a relaxing place to talk. On the third pass the door appeared and they entered, it was a simple cosy room, had a fireplace and a comfortable looking couch.
Harry sat down and Hermione then dropped herself onto his lap. Harry grunted softy before wrapping his arms around her.
"You can do it right?" Hermione asked softly, her lip trembling a little.
"Yeah... I could do them last time so I can easily do them again... though this time I will make it easier on myself." Harry said softly. "It's the backlash of actually being the 'fourth' champion that somehow cheated his way in that I'm not looking forward to."
"I'm sure everyone will treat you fairly." Hermione said softly.
"I'm sure Gryffindor will, but not Slytherin..." Harry said but Hermione cut him off.
"Since when are they nice." Hermione pointed out.
"I know but it will be worse, then there is Hufflepuff. They won't like me since I stole their flame so to speak... Ravenclaw will most likely be split, as will the public." Harry said sighing.
They sat in silence for a moment before Hermione once again spoke up, "What do you have to do for the first challenge?" Hermione asked.
Harry smiled at her, "Well you're not suppose to know, but since I have done it before... well actually we have to steal a golden egg from a mother dragon." Harry said as if it wasn't much.
Hermione on the other hand went stiff, "YOU WHAT!" she yelled. She was about to continue though Harry cut her off with a kiss.
"Now don't worry Hermione." Harry whispered when he broke it, "I know exactly what I'm going to do."
Hermione looked at him with those, 'oh you better know' eyes, "Well?" she asked.
" I'm going to put up a number of illusions of my self, use an invisibility spell and sneak up, if that doesn't work then I will simply stun the dragon." Harry said softy.
"What? Stun a dragon, are you crazy Harry!" Hermione said looking at him like he was mad, "You know dragons are very resistant to magic..."
"Yes but if he spell is powerful enough..." Harry explained.
Hermione's eyes were wide, "You're powerful enough to stun a dragon...?" she whispered.
"So will you be." Harry said softly. Hermione once again looked at him like he was crazy, "trust me Hermione, you're a very powerful witch."
Since Harry didn't want to face the school yet, they spent the rest of the day practicing and learning new spells.
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Harry was exactly right in his assumptions, the Slytherins were teasing him a lot more, the Hufflepuffs who were usually on good terms with the Gryffindors were cold towards them and the Ravenclaw were torn down the middle.
The first class that they had with the Slytherins was Care of Magical Creatures, and Harry already was in a bad mood.
"Ah if it isn't the fake Hogwarts champion." came the drawling voice of Draco Malfoy, "So Potter how long are you going to last, personally I think you won't last ten minutes, though father says five tops." Crabbe and Goyle laughed at Draco's stupid joke.
"Seriously Malfoy, when are you going to give up on this petty little grudge you have against me? You now I always came out on top." Harry said with a sad little shake of his head before heading over to listen to Hagrid.
During Care of Magic Creatures Hagrid was making them walk the Skrewts, though Harry manage to get out of it by talking with Hagrid. Hermione of course came with him and also got out of walking him.
By the time they left Harry was happy that Hagrid also believed him and nearly laughed as he watched Malfoy walk back to the castle muttering under his breath, his robes had a lot of burn holes on them.
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The next day Harry and Hermione were walking down to Potions with Snape, Harry knew today was the day that Malfoy would have his badges out, but Harry already had a plan for this.
"POTTER! OI POTTER" came Malfoy's amused voice, "Like the badges?" he asked pulling his robes out so it stood out.
SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY
THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION
All the Slytherin's behind them were also wearing them and were sniggering at Harry. Harry only smiled in return.
"Oh but that's not all Potter watch" Draco said. All the Slytherins pressed their badges and the message vanished, Harry then quickly flicked his wrist, the movement was so subtle no one noticed, after a second the badge wore a new message.
MALFOY STINKS!
The message was flashing red, Malfoy looked at it shocked, before he pressed it again, instead of changing back it stopped flashing red and started to flash green.
"Wow... great badges Draco." Harry said with a chuckle. Draco then reached for this wand and pulled it out; Harry however was fast and had his wand out now.
"You really don't want to do that Malfoy." Harry said seriously.
"Densaugeo!" Malfoy yelled.
"Stupefy!" Harry yelled.
Harry's spell hit and sent Malfoy crashing into the wall knocked out, though of course Malfoy missed Harry and hit Hermione.
"Finite!" Harry said pointing his wand at Hermione, stopping her teeth from growing, they were only about an inch to big.
"Common I'll fix this." Harry said quickly picking up Hermione and taking her into an empty classroom around the corner.
"Um... Hermione... last time this happened you had Pomfrey fix your teeth a little more than they were, do you want me to do that?" Harry asked softy.
"You mean fix my teeth so I don't have buckteeth anymore? Yes! That's great." Hermione said happily. Harry waved his hand in front of her and her teeth slowly went back to normal, he continued the spell until they were perfect, just like she had done last time.
Harry then conjured a mirror and showed her. Hermione beamed at Harry and she then gave him a rather passionate kiss.
"Come on, we better get back before Snape gets there." Harry said breaking the kiss. Hermione nodded and took his hand and they walked back to the class hand in hand, Hermione with a large grin on her face.
When they got back, they noticed that Malfoy was still knocked out on the ground. Harry looked at some students near them questionably, but they just shrugged in return. It seemed that even though most of them didn't like Harry since he was also a champion, they still hated Malfoy more.
When Snape came out he seemed to be in a bad mood, "GET IN CLASS NOW!" he roared.
"Sir, Malfoy…" Pansy started, but Snape cut her off with a glare.
"I SAID IN NOW!" Snape yelled again, Pansy let out a same whimper before heading into the class room. Lucky for Harry, Draco was behind the door so Snape never noticed him.
"Today, we will be testing your antidotes!" Snape said with an evil grin, his eyes met Harry's. Harry for his part raised an eyebrow which caused Snape to get even angrier.
"The first person will be P…" Snape started cut was cut off by someone knocking at the door.
"COME IN!" Snape yelled, when the door opened Colin Creevey stood there looking rather nervous.
"Yes?" Snape asked coldly.
Colin seemed to be sweating slightly, "I, umm need to get Harry Potter upstairs." Colin said a little nervously.
"Potter has another hour of potions, you can wait." Snape said in his usual cold tone.
"B-but sir… Mr Bagman wants him… All the champions have to be there…" Colin said, now he really was sweating.
"Fine, Potter leave your things, you will be testing…" Snape said but Colin cut him off… everyone held their breath, no one had seen anyone cut Snape off.
"No, they have to take all their things, all the champ…" Colin said.
"Fine! Get out of here Potter!" Snape yelled. Harry gave Snape an evil little grin which seemed to make him even angrier.
When the door closed behind him Harry flicked his wand over his shoulder using a delayed enervate spell.
Colin then led Harry to a classroom, he hadn't said anything since they left Snape's classroom and Harry guessed Snape scared the shit out of him.
"Good luck Harry." Colin said before leaving. Harry then entered the same small classroom that he had last time, Cedric was talking with Fleur while Krum stood in a corner by himself. Harry noticed Krum's glare and gave his own glare back.
"AH! Here he is Champion number four! Now come on Harry, the judges will be here along with the specialist for the wand weighing in a second." Ludo said steering Harry over to a seat.
"Oh, yes this is Rita Skeeter, she will be doing a small article for the Prophet." Bagman said.
"Maybe not so small anymore." Harry hear Rita mumble to herself, "Mr Bagman I was wonder if I could have a word with Harry before we start… you know youngest champion and all." Rika asked sweetly.
"Certainly!" Ludo said happily, "That is of course if Harry has no problems with it."
"No thanks." Harry said immediately, Harry noticed a look of anger shoot past Rita's eyes.
"Come on now Mr Potter, just a small interview." Rita said grabbing his arm and dragging him out of the room. Once Harry was outside he ripped his arm free.
"I said no you old bat." Harry spat at her.
"You will give me an interview." Rita said angrily.
"I will only say this once you slag… FUCK OFF!" Harry said, yelling the last two words.
It seemed that Dumbledore had perfect timing and happened to come around the corner at the same time as Harry yelled the words.
"How dare you… Dumbledore did you hear what his foul mouthed boy said." Rita said in a 'fake' offended way.
"I heard a bit more than the last two words Rita and I don't think Harry would like to give you an interview… now if you will please." Dumbledore said, not a trace of apology in his voice.
Rita re-entered the room in a huff, Harry quickly turned to Dumbledore, "Sorry about that sir… not my best couple of days…" Harry said sighing a little.
"No problem Harry… but please try and refrain from using that language again" Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling, Harry just nodded, "Now I think we better get in before they start without us."
Harry and Dumbledore entered the room; Harry noticed that everyone had their eyes on him… after all they must have heard what happened outside.
"Ah now that we're all here," Dumbledore said, all the eyes now left Harry and turned to Dumbledore, "May I introduce Mr Ollivander. He will be checking your wands today."
Ollivander went through everyone's wands checking them over and using a simple spell; he once again took longest to check Harry's, even though Harry had polished it for the last two weeks to get it looking as good as new.
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The next day Rita's article on the tri-wizard tournament came out, and even though Harry had not said anything to her she had still reported an interview.
Once again she had gone on to say how he still cry's about his parents, how he thinks they would be proud of him and are looking out for him. That wasn't the part that annoyed him the most though, it was the in depth report on his relationship with Hermione that really had him angry.
The article had Draco once again at it and Ron still was not talking to him, something that he knew would most likely happen. Though the thing that worried Harry the most was maybe that Ron wasn't only jealous that Harry had got into the tournament. What if he was also jealous that Harry was going out with Hermione… When Hermione had broken up with Ron last time and started dating him, Ron didn't talk to Harry for half the year and his friendship with Hermione was all but ruined. He could only hope that it wouldn't happen this time.
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AN: Sorry about the wait on this chapter, just had a lot going on and didn't have the time to post it :/, well as always review! And don't forget to check out my webby , the link can be found in my profile :p
Luke