A/N: Sorry about the delay. Life has been hectic! I promise sooner updates. Look for them every three days!
Chapter 8 - The Plan Unfolds…
When Hermione received her Daily Prophet the next morning she was shocked.
True Love: Hannah Abbot and…Harry Potter's Wallet?
Yesterday afternoon, I, Rita Skeeter, the only Daily Prophet writer that uncovers the truth for her loyal readers, discovered some disturbing news. Harry Potter's girlfriend of six months, Hannah Abbot, is not truly in love with Harry.
After receiving an anonymous tip to check Hannah Abbot's spending, I discovered that she spends over 250 galleons a week! Many of the purchases come from expensive robe shops such as The Silk Unicorn, and she has over 70 pairs of shoes. Extravagant? Also according to the tip, Hannah Abbot apparently hates Harry Potter's children, Raven and Jade Potter, who are both currently attending their first year in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Is it good for the two eleven-year-old girls to grow up in a household where the female role-model is showing them through her actions that it is acceptable to date a man just to spend the money in his wallet? The wielder of this mighty quill says no, but I guess it is just for the wizarding public to decide.
Hermione looked over toward the Gryffindor table to see Raven and Jade stifling laughs. Hermione knew they were going to try to break up Harry and Hannah, but she didn't know that it would entail this! It really seemed a bit drastic and if Harry knew…Hermione shuddered at the thought.
But then she began daydreaming at the staff table. She saw Harry reading the Prophet and throwing it down in disgust. He would check his Gringotts account and see that the Prophet was telling the truth. He would march up to Hannah and break up with her. Then she would finally be free to reveal her feelings to him. He would respond by sweeping her off her feet and giving her a kiss, then they would step into his bedroom and make sure to lock it behind them.
Wait a second, thought Hermione, what the hell is happening to me? She didn't daydream-she only thought logically. She found that as she grew older her heart began to grow enough to affect her brain with silly emotions just a bit…like what had just happened. So Hermione decided to think logically.
She thought through what would really happen-knowing Harry-and sighed. If the girls thought it would be that easy they would have to think again.
---GMAC---
Raven and Jade smirked with glee as they looked down the table at Teddy and Scorpius, who smirked back. The plan was going great. By the end of tonight, Hannah Abbot would officialy be out of the picture…then it was on to phase B: Operation Get-Harry-and-Hermione-Together.
The day was great-Raven and Jade couldn't keep the smiles off their faces. It seemed that nothing could go wrong: They had both been perfect in their first flying lessons, they had beat Teddy and Scorpius in a two-on-two wizard chess match, and had even finished all of their homework by 7:00 PM.
At dinner they had turkey, which was absolutely delicious…until Bird arrived. Bird took off as soon as he had dropped off the letter, which meant that their dad didn't need a reply. Before opening the letter, the twins smirked at each other, obviously believing that this letter signified the end of Hannah Abbot. They eagerly opened the letter and read:
Raven and Jade,
I know you just heard from me yesterday, but this is very important. Never believe anything the Daily Prophet writes, especially if the author of the article is Rita Skeeter.
Raven and Jade looked at each other, mouths open like they were trying to catch flies. This was definitely not what they had been expecting.
I don't know if either of you saw what was written in that horrible paper about Hannah this morning. If you did, please don't let it change your opinions about her. She is a very sweet girl and I am indeed in love with her. It is true that she is spending quite a bit of money, but she grew up poor and isn't used to having this much money to spend. Quite honestly, we have enough to last us. I'm sure that she's just going through a phase.
She was really upset by the article and to make it up to her, I decided to propose to her…and she said yes!
Both girls almost fainted upon reading this.
We're thinking about having the wedding during Easter Break, and we're going to ask Headmistress McGonagall if you can get that week off so you can attend the wedding! (I'm sure she'll say yes, but don't tell her I said that.)
Now I know you already know this, but you're not any under obligation to call Hannah 'mom' or anything just because we're going to get married. The truth is that you won't really see her all that much except for Christmas and summer break.
And as a last question: when are Quidditch try-outs. I want to send you two a little good-luck gift on the big day!
Love,
Dad
After finishing, both girls just stared at each other trying not to burst into tears. Not only had their amazing plan failed, but it completely backfired…their dad had decided to push the proposal up!
At that second Teddy and Scorpius sat down. The two boys looked at the girls and simultaneously asked, "Who died?"
Raven wordlessly handed the letter over to the two to read it, and at the end of it they looked as bleak as their two female friends.
"Now what?" asked Scorpius.
"I don't know," said Jade, who recovered before Raven. "But I think we have to notify Professor Granger of this development."
That said, the group of four slowly and silently made their way toward the Transfiguration classroom. As soon as they knocked the door opened, and Hermione shook her head and said, "I wondered how long it would be until I saw you guys."
She let them in and they gave her the letter to read. When she looked back up her eyes were glistening, but it seemed that she had already known something like this was going to happen. Telling them to sit down, Hermione made her way over to her desk and sat on the edge of it.
"Girls…actually, all four of you, while I appreciate what you were trying to do, that definitely wasn't the best way of doing it…and not just because Harry hates Rita Skeeter," said Hermione as an afterthought. "No matter what you are doing or what you know about someone, it's not right to share their secrets with a newspaper and expose their faults to the entire British wizarding population. You all crossed a line, and I would tell you to apologize to Hannah if I didn't know that you would get into huge trouble from your parents. So this time I'll let it slide, but I hope you four never do something so…so…so Slytherin," Hermione said, unable to think of a better word and knowing that this conversation wasn't going to leave this room, "again. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
All eight downcast eyes rose to meet Hermione's. Raven, Jade, Scorpius, and Teddy simultaneously said, "Yes, Professor Granger."
"Good," said Hermione, satisfied. "Now please go back to your common room."
The young Marauders proceeded up to their dormitories in silence, ashamed that they disappointed their favorite professor. They sat on the comfy chairs in silence for a good fifteen minutes until Scorpius asked, "So that's it? Are we just giving up then?"
"No," replied Raven sulkily. "We're just recovering from being swept off our feet. We need to think of the plans we still have: mine and Teddy's. Unless…Scorpius, have you come up with one yet?"
"No," he replied simply. At the other's semi-angry looks, he said, "I thought Jade's plan was going to work! I didn't think I'd need to come up with one!"
"It doesn't matter," replied Raven, getting a bit frustrated. "We can't use mine until Christmas Break, so I guess we're using Teddy's."
"Mine?" asked Teddy, a bit shocked.
"Of course, dummy," replied Jade. "We'll just write a letter telling our dad that we're concerned by the article and just to make absolutely sure that Hannah is in love with him, he should try restricting her vault access for a while."
"Yeah," said Raven, hopes and spirits rising. "And when Hannah freaks out and throws a hissy-fit, our dad will dump her butt on the streets for sure!"
"Sweet!" said Scorpius.
Three pairs of eyes turned towards him, and he sighed before running upstairs to fetch a quill, some ink, and a piece of parchment, already knowing the drill.
---GMAC---
That night, Hermione lay on her back on her bed, thinking hard and staring up at the ceiling unblinkingly. Her thoughts were like a raging storm and she was trying to make sense of them to no avail. What was mostly getting in the way were her emotions, which had never been her strong suit. Sure, she knew and sympathized what was going on in other people's heads, but for some reason her brain had trouble deciphering her own.
On the one hand, she was pleased that Hannah was exposed to the wizarding world for the fraud she was. On the other hand, she was somewhat disgusted with herself for being pleased. She felt jealousy when she had read that Harry was in love with Hannah and it still burned strong, bubbling in her chest and stomach. She still felt that burning, passionate, undying love for Harry. And to top it all off, she felt ashamed that she was relying on four eleven-year-olds to break up Harry's girlfriend…now fiancée.
She really felt that she was truly pathetic. She was a big girl-she didn't need Raven and Jade to get Hannah Abbot out of the picture. She would let them continue-they always needed a back-up plan and it might be better if that worked first-but Hermione thought it was about time that she get in the ring to win Harry's heart.
Oh yeah. It was definitely just about time for a good-ol' fashioned cat-fight.
---GMAC---
Hannah Abbot lay next to Harry, her back turned to him.
She sighed, wishing that Harry would leave her alone most of the time. Despite being the-boy-who-won, he was very boring! All he wanted to talk about were the twins, or Quidditch, or what they were going to have for dinner, or how her day was, or if she was still okay after that news article. He just always seemed to be talking!
Hannah stifled a laugh as her thoughts drifted back to the news article. She thought that she had been found out-that the gig was up-but she had been lucky that Harry had had several bad experiences with Rita Skeeter in the past. He had come up to her and apologized profusely and kissed her and promised to make it up to her.
And he had. He had asked for her hand in marriage that same night(not that he had been competent enough to even do it right, Hannah thought to herself disgustedly while looking at the glint of gold on her left hand. This ring probably isn't even worth 750 galleons!). Now all his money was going to be hers for the rest of her life! She would get to be rich and laugh at all the poor people like they had done to her!
Grinning like a maniac, Hannah turned her back to Harry and quickly fell asleep, dreaming that she was swimming in a pool of galleons.
A/N: So…um…yeah. Don't really know what to say now but to please review! (Can you all let me know if this chapter felt rushed to you? Because it did when I was writing it.)
And I don't know why, but it seems that I somehow always end the chapter with a character dreaming or going to bed. It's weird, because it's completely unintentional. Huh…whatever.