Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 58 ⚡️

Once Snape had turned his back on them to write up the ingredients of today's potion on the blackboard, Hermione hastily rifled through the magazine under the desk. At last, in the centre pages, Hermione found what they were looking for. A colour photograph of Harry headed a short piece entitled:

Harry Potter's Secret Heartache

A boy like no other, perhaps – yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-Born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss.

Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has 'never felt this way about any other girl.'

However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys' interest.

'She's really ugly,' says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student. 'But she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it.'

Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potters well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate.

Vega was surprised that there was nothing about her and Fred in such lines, and she was a bit concerned that Rita Skeeter wouldn't take long before she wrote something like this about her relationship. She was suddenly weary of who she spent time around with in case she was dubbed –

"I told you!" Ron hissed at Hermione as she stared down at the article. "I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of – of scarlet woman!"

Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter.

"Scarlet woman?" Hermione repeated, shaking with suppressed giggles as she looked around at Ron. But Vega couldn't understand why the brunette was taking this so lightly.

"It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered, his ears going red.

"If that's the best Rita can do, she's losing her touch," Hermione said, still giggling, as she threw Witch Weekly onto the empty chair beside her. "What a pile of old rubbish,"

"You shouldn't take it so lightly anyhow," Vega told her. "It is the little appetizers that get people interested in the rumours and such – you should be careful, Hermione,"

"Nice food puns," Hermione said and Vega looked a bit confused.

Hermione looked over at the Slytherins, who were all watching her and Harry closely across the room to see if they had been upset by the article. Hermione gave them a sarcastic smile and a wave, and she, Vega, Harry, and Ron started unpacking the ingredients they would need for their Wit-Sharpening Potion – which Vega thought that each of her three friends really needed right now.

But the more that Vega herself thought about the situation, she wondered how Rita Skeeter found out about these strange details. The journalist wasn't allowed in the castle anymore, so could it be that there was someone else keeping an eye out for her? She wasn't the only one thinking this way.