The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|43| Split Feather

Harry told me about the odd looks he got when he left with Hermione for a walk, so I stayed in the Gryffindor Tower all of Sunday. But Monday came and I couldn't hide anymore, classes started again.

Together, Harry, Hermione, and I made our way to our first lessons. Ron didn't speak to Harry nor me, he was upset over our names being called. And, unlike how I thought he would, Ron hadn't believed us when we said we didn't do it.

The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on excellent terms with the Gryffindors, had turned remarkably cold toward the whole lot of us. One Herbology lesson was enough to demonstrate this. It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Harry and I had stolen their champion's glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory. Instead of sitting next to me, Hermione sat between Harry and Ron; both making very forced conversation, but answering Hermione normally, avoiding eye contact with each other. I stuck to myself, not wanting to deal with the problems of them.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been looking forward to seeing Hagrid under normal circumstances, but Care of Magical Creatures meant seeing the Slytherins too — the first time I would come face-to-face with them since becoming a champion.

Predictably, Malfoy arrived at Hagrid's cabin with his familiar sneer firmly in place. "Ah, look, boys, it's the champions," he said to Crabbe and Goyle the moment he got within earshot of Harry and me. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt they're going to be around much longer. Half the Triwizard champions have died... how long d'you reckon you're going to—"

"Shut up, Malfoy!" I shouted, not wanting to hear his trap. "Just shut up. For once in your bloody life, just shut up."

Hagrid got wind of my discomfort and during lesson, had Harry and I help him with walking a huge Blast-End Skrewt. But Hagrid's real intention, however, was to talk to us away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone else had set off with their skrewts, then turned to us and said, very seriously, "So — yer two are competin'. In the tournament. School champions."

"We're not the only ones," I corrected him.

Hagrid's beetle-black eyes looked very anxious under his wild eyebrows.

"No idea who put yeh in fer it?"

"You believe we didn't do it, then?" said Harry.

" 'Course I do," Hagrid grunted. "Yeh two say it wasn' you, an' I believe yeh— an' Dumbledore believes yer, an' all."

"Wish I knew who did do it," I said bitterly.

The next few days were some of the worst I've had at Hogwarts. The closest I had ever come to feeling like this had been during those months, in my second year, when a large part of the school had suspected Harry and me of attacking his fellow students. But Ron had been on our side then. Nevertheless, it was lonely with dislike pouring in on me from all sides— never been this thankful to have Harry.

Everyone stared at us as if we had four heads each. No one supported us except Hermione, it was quite lonely. I heard the small whispers of people comparing me to Fleur and Harry to Krum and Cedric. People muttered and pointed, some even giggled behind their hands.

I could tell Harry was having a hard time as well. He told me how Professor Trelawney was predicting his death with even more certainty than usual, and he did so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick's class that he was given extra homework — the only person to get any, apart from Neville.

"It's really not that difficult, Harry," I said softly as we left class. "You just weren't concentrating properly —"

"Wonder why that was," said Harry darkly as Cedric Diggory walked past, surrounded by a large group of simpering girls.