𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗻, cedric diggory

˗ˋ 39

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
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-: seventh year :-

── IN WHICH ROSIE
RECIEVES STARES

. . .

Rosie was being stared at. 

By everyone she passed. And now everyone in the Great Hall, which she had snuck into early whilst the doors were locked and they were setting up through the teachers' entrance, was staring at her too. 

She had been through this before, but when it was about her supposedly playing Cedric and Theo it seemed easier. Now, they were all staring at her because of her little outburst with Umbridge. First it was with Harry, and now her. 

It was funny; the both of them had already been subjected to this treatment on the very first evening because of what happened before the summer began. Of course, Harry had again received so much worse than Rosie, but it always seemed to be those two.

At least Rosie could be glad that some of the attention was off of Harry for the time being, even if that just ended up being one night. Outside all of the Daily Prophet articles, being stared at, ridiculed in the corridor and enduring the detentions handed out by Umbridge (who wasn't sat at the Professors' table like usual), Harry seemed to have other things going on. 

Rosie, the other night following her finding out that all of a sudden it was hard to fall asleep in her Gryffindor dorm with Patricia glaring daggers into her back every time she attempted to do anything, had found Harry wandering the halls on the castle on his way back to the Gryffindor Common Room. He had some sort of dazed look on his face, and as Rosie even looked over now, Harry didn't seem like himself as he sat by Ron and Hermione.

"Quite an audience tonight, haven't we?" Rosie looked up from the Quidditch sign up sheet she was finishing planning - she was going to give it to Dean later on to design, but seeing as the tryouts were next Wednesday, she wanted to get them done before her weekend was taken up. Fred and George were sitting down on either side of hehr, Angelina on the other side.

"This is the last place we thought to look." The Johnson girl said, as she began to fill her plate. Before doing either of theirs, the twins began to do the same for her. Thought you would avoid it like the plague."

"I was considering it." Rosie sighed. "But then I thought I would see if Umbridge would show her face at dinner... and I need to confirm with Madam Hooch about having the tryouts on Wednesday.. I don't know if she for sure got my owl. And I thought I would compose a list of old seventh years I know to try and get their school books from."

"What?" George frowned. "But why?"

"After I.. stormed out of DADA I went to see Professor McGonagall." Rosie added a name to her list of names - Pippa Burrell two years above was rather nice to her and was a Ravenclaw, meaning her books may or may not have extra annotations tucked in. "I told her about what was happening and let her know I wouldn't be too happy continuing to attending classes."

"And how do you expect to manage to pass you NEWT with that?" Fred asked, sharing a worried glance with his brother and friend.

"That's why I'm getting old school books. I'm going to teach myself the rest of the curriculum seeing as I already have Slinkhard's book memorised." Rosie paused, head tilted and quill poised against the parchment. "Do you think Oliver Wood will still have his book?"

"Possibly." George considered. "Although I remember a rumour about a bonfire of school books set up by the Gryffindors on the eve of their graduation."

"Oh I heard about that as well." Fred nodded, taking another glance at Rosie before reaching forward and taking the quill out of her hand. "Eat. And don't worry about it. It was fun seeing someone properly stand up to Umbridge."

"I don't think I've ever seen someone so offended to hear that their chosen shade of pink doesn't suit them so much after all." Angelina smiled, watching as Rosie stabbed a piece of sausage with her fork. "Just relax for the evening, try not to think about it either."

"A bit hard when everyone's staring at you." Rosie sighed, putting down her fork and cradling her head in her hands, covering her eyes. "And I'm just worried about Saturday - McGonagall confirmed that Mr and Mrs Diggory said that I could go and see Cedric." 

She turned back to her plate, taking another bit of sausage. And once again, her friends shared a look of worry. Rosie had a lot on her plate. It seemed that she was going to have a busy year.

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