Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 69 ⚡️

Breakfast was a very noisy affair at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the Third Task. The post owls appeared, bringing Harry a good-luck card from Sirius. It was only just a piece of parchment, folded over and bearing a muddy paw print on its front, but Harry appreciated it all the same.

"That is so nice of him," Vega said, smiling at the sight of the muddy paw print as Harry handed it over to her to see as Sirius had also sent good luck to her. "I wish I was also an Animagus,"

On the other hand, the female Gryffindor had already gotten her letter from home the previous night, as she had already had something else to discuss with her aunt about the Third Task.

A screech owl arrived for Hermione, carrying her morning copy of the Daily Prophet as usual. She unfolded the paper, glanced at the front page, and spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice all over it.

"What?" asked Vega, Harry and Ron in unison, all three of them staring at the brunette in wonder.

"Nothing," Hermione replied quickly, trying to shove the paper out of sight, but Ron grabbed it. He stared at the headline and Vega felt her curiosity shoot up.

"No way," Ron said as he took a look. "Not today – that old cow,"

"What?" asked Vega and Harry yet again. "Rita Skeeter again?"

"No," Ron replied, and just like Hermione, he attempted to push the paper out of sight. Vega narrowed her eyes at him and reached for the newspaper.

"It's about me, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"No," Ron asked, in an entirely unconvincing tone as he tried to hold the newspaper out of Vega's reach, as he was sitting on the other side of the table.

However, before either Vega or Harry could demand him to see the paper, Draco Malfoy shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table – "Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? You feeling all right? Sure that you're not going to go berserk on us?"

Malfoy was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet as well, clearly having subscribed to it for this stuff. Slytherins up and down the table were sniggering, twisting in their seats to see Harry's reaction.

"Let me see it," Harry said to Ron. "Give it here,"

Very reluctantly, Ron handed over the newspaper. Vega quickly turned to look at it and watched as Harry turned it over and she found herself staring at the picture of herself and Harry together with –

HARRY POTTER & VEGA LESTRANGE:
DISTURBED AND DANGEROUS.

The boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is unstable and possibly dangerous, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter's strange behaviour, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts School.

Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying.

It is possible, say top experts at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, that Potter's brain was affected by the attack inflicted upon him by You-Know-Who, and that his insistence that the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion.