𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒫𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓈ℯ𝒹 𝒪𝓃ℯ | 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 |

#9 A Modern Family Scandal

I woke up the next morning rather happy with the aftermath of Harry's triumph and that Cedric is as good as new after his fiery meet with the dragon.

After the winner announcement, I went to the hospital wing looking for them two. Cedric sat on the edge of a hospital bed, Maribel to his right stroking through his sweaty hair while Madam Pomfrey bandaged his arm. As soon as Cedric spotted me, he instantly asked on which place he landed, so I assumed his injury wasn't that bad. Maribel just rolled her eyes playfully.

After we headed back to the dungeons, she told me that he will be completely fine in a few days as if nothing ever happened.

I wasn't mad about loosing this bet against Draco. I wasn't annoyed about spending time with him, which was probably strange, but nothing that would spoil my mood today.

Even though Blaise saved me and Maribel seats on the Slytherin table, we decided to spent breakfast in the Gryffindor rows. Draco watched my steps as I directly sat down next to Harry, clapping his shoulder proudly. I couldn't ignore my eyes flickering over sometimes, catching him starring with an unreadable expression.

"I bet I missed a great party last night, didn't I?", I snickered as I looked in tired, dark-circled eyes, clearly coming from the lack of sleep.

"Well, at least you're not feeling like ran over by the Hogwarts Express", Ron said, but his words were mumbled since his face was resting in his arms.

It was really good to see that Harry and the ginger sat together again, probably had put their stupid fight aside. Maybe this was a good sign that the others of their house finally came to their senses too.

"Did you already take a look on the puzzle in the egg?", Maribel asked, but the dark-haired boys' attention was drifting away. He was looking across the hall at the Ravenclaw table, especially at the girl I knew as Cho Chang from Astronomy class. The moment the girl noticed Harrys' eyes on her, she shyly smiled and caused the boy next to me spit out his drink in the attempt to return the gesture.

„Charming", I laughed out, handing him the napkin laying next to my plate. "Really attractive."

"Look at this!", Hermione called out as she slammed a copy of the Daily Prophet down on the table. I jumped at the sudden appearance of our friend, she seemed definitely more awake than the boys did by her rising temper. The girl began to read out a piece of writing.

"Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl seemed to has an eye on not only her companion, and Triwizard Tournament legend Harry Potter, but also on Bulgarian Bonbon Victor Krum. It's still unclear how Harry Potter coped with the new setback."

"Look, Maribel, she's not writing about your relationship with Cedric", I breathed out, even though our Gryffindor friend seemed pretty encouraged by the article. As soon as my words called out and Maribel was smiling in relief, Hermione stopped in her tracks.

"Sorry, I was just so angry about this passage, that I didn't -", but Hermione didn't finish the sentence. She simply held out the newspaper for us to see and I hadn't even the need to grab it while my eyes were already traveling over the headline.

Merlin descendant Maribel Fox and sunny boy Cedric Diggory - a modern love story?

„Tiara", Maribel breathed out as she simply looked down without moving. The picture right under the headline was showing their loving hug in the champions tent yesterday, my approving face right next to the love birds.

„Don't panic", I said, but I knew that this indeed was something to panic about because we both knew how much father enjoyed his mug of coffee and his Daily Prophet on the morning table. It was just a matter of time that his owl would approach.