Dawn Rivera

Seen and Unforeseen

Luna says vaguely that she does not know how soon Rita's interview with Harry and Danny will appear in The Quibbler, that her father is expecting a lovely long article on recent sightings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, " - and of course, that'll be a very important story, so Harry and Danny's might have to fight for the following issue," says Luna.

I don't think Harry and Danny found it an easy experience to talk about the night when Voldemort returned. Rita pressed them for every little detail they gave her everything they could remember; I know that this is their one big opportunity to tell the world the truth. I wonder how people will react to the story. I guess that it will confirm a lot of people in the view that they are completely insane, not least because their story will be appearing alongside utter rubbish about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. But the breakout of Bellatrix Lestrange and her fellow Death Eaters has given me a burning desire to do something, whether or not it works...

"Can't wait to see what Umbridge thinks of you going public," says Dean, sounding awestruck at dinner on Monday night. Seamus is shoveling down large amounts of chicken and ham pie on Dean's other side, but I know he is listening.

"It's the right thing to do, Harry and Danny," says Neville, who is sitting opposite them. He is rather pale, but he goes on in a low voice, "It must have been...tough...talking about it...was it?"

"Yeah," mumbles Danny, "but people have got to know what Voldemort's capable of, haven't they?"

"That's right," says Neville, nodding, "and his Death Eaters, too...people should know..."

Neville leaves his sentence hanging and returns to his baked potato. Seamus looks up, but when he catches my eye he looks quickly back at his plate again. After a while, Dean, Seamus and Neville depart for the common room, leaving Harry, Danny, Hermione and I at the table waiting for Ron, who has not yet had dinner because of Quidditch practice.

Cho Chang walks into the Hall with her friend Marietta. My stomach tightens in anger and jealousy, but she does not look over at the Gryffindor table, and sits down with her back to Harry.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you," says Hermione brightly, glancing over at the Ravenclaw table, "what happened on your date with Cho? How come you were back so early?"

"Er...well, it was..." says Harry, pulling a dish of rhubarb towards him and helping himself to seconds, "a complete fiasco, now you mention it."

And he tells us what happened in Madam Puddifoot's teashop, Danny chipping in occasionally with what he knows, and I have to try and huge my delight at what they tell us.

"...so then," Danny finishes several minutes later, as the final bit of the crumble disappears and he has no other means to hide his smirk; Harry fell silent with fury at the memory of the date a while ago, "she jumps up, right, and says, 'I'll see you around, Harry,' and runs out of the place!" He puts down his spoon and looks at Hermione and I. "I mean, what was all that about? What was going on?" Although he presses his hand to his mouth to try and hide his sniggers. Harry doesn't seem to notice.

I glance over at the back of Cho's head and Hermione and I sigh.

"Oh, Harry," I say sadly. "Well, I'm sorry, but you were a bit tactless."

"Me, tactless?" says Harry, outraged. "One minute we were getting on fine, next minute she was telling me that Roger Davis asked her out and how she used to go and snog Cedric in that stupid teashop - how was I supposed to feel about that?"

"Well, you see," says Hermione, with the patient air of someone explaining that one plus one equals two to an overemotional toddler, "you shouldn't have told her that you wanted to meet me halfway through your date."