Love Triangle at Hogwarts, Harry bottom dropping out of his stomach.
read,
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'Fuck,' he swore. Katie started slightly at the vehemence in his tone. It was the first time he had cursed out loud in front of her, normally her didn't swear often at all.
'This bit,' Katie tapped her forefinger weakly on the third paragraph.
'Undeterred by the obstacle I ventured to discover the truth of the matter,' he read aloud. 'Ginny Weasley, a fourth year Gryffindor student and close friend of Harry Potter, who's sensational stores and history have often been a feature of my articles, has her set herself on winning the heart of the Boy-Who-Lived. Your intrepid reporter has discovered that not only does Mr Potter appear to be allowing her affections, but at the same time is pursuing a relationship with former flame and ex-quidditch teammate, Katie Bell. The two of them were known to be briefly together before the Yule Ball last year, but separated under suspicious circumstances when the impressionable Mr Potter suddenly chose to abandon his girlfriend and accompany the French, part-veela instead.'
'It gets better,' Katie commented, her eyes welling up again as Harry's face hardened.
'It seems that having fallen for the allure of Miss Delacour, who subsequently abandoned him, that Mr Potter learnt a few tricks of his own about manipulating the opposite sex and is now stringing along two young, innocent girls in his games. Miss Bell, who according to reliable sources is often seen in close company of Harry Potter, was apparently the slighted party when he assaulted and gravely injured a fellow student, for which he was banned from playing quidditch, and has since become all but inseparable from him as he encourages her to bully and torment younger students.'
Harry stopped reading in disgust. The article only got worse, speculating wildly at what debauched things they must be doing and what dark magic he had to be using to influence Katie and Ginny.
Katie was quietly crying, curled into a ball with her head against his arm.
'Fleur is going to murder me,' Harry remarked, trying to inject some humour into things. His attempt came out weak, flat and worried. Fleur, Gabrielle and her parents would all see this article, and Fleur's family were already reluctant to accept their relationship.
'My parents are going to murder me,' Katie whispered, rubbing her tears away with the heel of her hand. 'They believe most of what the Prophet says, even though they think it sometimes exaggerates.'
'I'm sorry,' Harry apologised, smoothing Katie's hair. 'It's being around me that's dragged you into this.' He steeled himself, taking a deep breath before giving her an easy way out. 'If you want to keep your distance or pretend to dislike me then I understand.' He hoped she wouldn't take his offer, Katie was his closest friend at Hogwarts, Neville was more similar, more likely to understand him, but Katie brightened his day like nobody but Fleur could manage.
'The whole school is going to think I'm some kind of whore,' she spat, angry tears sparkling in her lashes. 'How did Skeeter even know about any of this.' She stabbed her finger at the article, indicating a quote supposedly from Ginny. 'That's word for word what Ginny said outside the portrait last night, but there was nobody there but us.'
There were too many similarities between the quotes and their conversation outside the portrait and Harry's mind was drawn to the speck of blue he had seen crawling over Ginny's top.
'I think I might know how,' he said.
'What?' Katie demanded. 'I hope it's something illegal we can destroy her career for.' Harry blinked, he had forgotten how vicious Katie could be when slighted.
'Sirius Black managed to get in because he was an animagus,' Harry murmured, 'but don't tell anyone that, it might start a panic, if Rita managed to sneak in then maybe she's one too.' 'Ginny had a beetle on her,' Katie remembered. 'It was bright blue. If she's unregistered she could be sent to Azkaban.' Katie seemed quite delighted by the prospect.
'I'm not going to try and expose her,' Harry shook his head. 'She's useful to the Ministry at the moment and she knows it, until they stop needing to discredit me she's more valuable than I am and nothing will happen.' He wasn't lying, the Ministry would never take his word over hers, not now. That didn't mean he wasn't going to try and do something about her, he might be able to bluff her into doing something useful for him.
'So she's going to get away with this,' Katie fumed. 'This article is going to make everything hell. My parents will believe it, the other students will, Fleur will be upset by it and you're telling me you won't do anything.' 'I'd like to think that Fleur knows me well enough not to be worried,' Harry smiled, ignoring the sharp plunging of his stomach at the fear she might not.
'What if I tell everyone about Skeeter?' Katie suggested.
'You've been manipulated and tricked by me, remember,' Harry said acidly.
'There's nothing we can do,' she realised in small voice. 'We just have to live with it.'
'Skeeter will eventually write something offensive about someone dangerous and get her just reward for it,' Harry decided darkly. 'I can reassure Fleur that there's nothing true in the Daily Prophet, even if I have to swear an Unbreakable Vow to convince her, and we will just ignore it, like we ignored all the other rubbish the paper has spouted. It's far worse for Ginny,' he finished, feeling quite sorry for the red -head.
'Oh,' Katie realised. 'She actually loves you, and now everyone is going to know and the think the worst of her for it.'
'Exactly,' Harry frowned. 'I don't think I'll be seeing very much of Ginny for the foreseeable future.'
'What are we going to tell people who ask?' Katie questioned, straightening up next to him and using the sleeve of her robes to hide the fact that she had been crying.
'The truth,' Harry shrugged. 'We have nothing to hide, we're just friends, anyone who really knows us, our genuine friends, will believe us and there's no reason for us to care about anyone else. Your parents will believe you,' he assured her.
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