The Forgotten Twin

Chapter 17

Throughout the next few days Delilah managed to finish the list for Harry, do all her homework, and summon enough willpower not to jinx a certain journalist named Rita Skeeter.

In the days after the Potion's lesson, Skeeter had published her piece about the tournament. Except, it wasn't actually about the tournament. It really was a highly colored life story of Harry, minus his apparently non-existent twin, who luckily hadn't even been mentioned. Much of the front page had been given over to a picture of Harry; the article (continuing on pages two, six, and seven) had been all about Harry, the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions (misspelled) had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric, the Golden Boy, hadn't been mentioned at all. The article had appeared ten days ago, but Delilah was positive it was fake. She could not picture Harry saying almost any of it.

An example was, on page six, which recorded Harry saying rubbish like how he still cried about their parents. Delilah knew that was untrue, she shared a room with him at Private Drive, and if he didn't cry in that dementor-starving place then he wouldn't cry at Hogwarts. If that wasn't even enough Skeeter had even interviewed others, including that obnoxious Creevey boy about him. It was ridiculous.

Harry had also refused to try and learn any of the spells she had suggested, saying he was already stretched thin on school work. Delilah thought she had handled it well, not yelling at him or showing how he was such a pathetic dueler if the first task involved dueling. He only practiced one dueling spell, which was easily blocked. It was infuriating.

So Delilah spent most of her time either studying with Draco or helping Fred and George with their inventions, though it had mainly been Fred since George had been getting behind with his schoolwork. They were currently trying to figure out how to perfect their Metamorphic Mints, or M&Ms for short, which was fun, even if they didn't get the joke.

"So, I think this Stellarlune should help, I brewed it earlier today," Delilah told them in one of the rarer meetings where all three of them were there. .

Fred grinned.

"Thanks Lil, you're amazing!"

Fred and George had started calling her that ever since the day the Goblet had spat out the champions' names.

Delilah rolled her eyes.

"Really? Still with that nickname? I told you it's weird...."

"Come on! Lil fits! And Delilah is such a mouthful!" George complained.

"Well, since you won't stop anyway," Delilah conceded, grinning as Fred added the Stellarlune to their current mixture.

"Why do you think this will help?" he asked.

"It has changing properties, and if we include it with the essence of murtlap it should change the person into a murtlap, or at least give them some murtlapish features."

George nodded.

"Then that would explain how we switch the type too, and we can add dye so the colors are different, but how will we undo them?"

Delilah paused.

"Well, after so many hours or days it would wear off, but some Billywig wings should undo it if you mix it in with something..."

"Maybe Wiggenbrush bark?" Fred suggested.

"I think that would work, great idea. How long should we let it sit?" George asked.

"Not too long or it will cause even more destruction than last time."

Delilah shuddered just remembering how they had barely escaped Filch.