Sirius Black's Daughter

Chapter Twenty-One: Rita Skeeter's Scoop

Posted: January 28th, 2021

Edited:

Author's note:
I'm writing another book called Total Drama World Tour Book 2. Check that out if you haven't :)

On another note could some of you give feedback on the chapter lengths?? I'm thinking about making them smaller so they are easier to read 😊😊

Remember to comment and vote!!

Major editing: August 7th, 2021
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Everybody got up late on Boxing Day.
(Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated the day after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide. Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday.)

The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Hermione's hair was bushy again; she confessed to Natalia that she had used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball, "but it's way too much bother to do every day," she said matter-of-factly, scratching a purring Crookshanks behind the ears.
Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal.

Ron and Harry wasted no time in telling Natalia and Hermione about the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid, but they didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Ron did.
"Well, I thought he must be," Hermione said, shrugging. "I knew he couldn't be pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible....It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves....It's just bigotry, isn't it?"
Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply scathingly, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly while Hermione wasn't looking.

It was time now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over and had to do work again.
Harry had told Natalia that he has been having trouble opening the golden egg without it screeching and Harry had also told the hint that Cedric had given him but Harry is still mad at Cedric for dating Cho.

In all honesty, Natalia didn't care about Harry's feelings because she has her own to figure out.
She and Jae had been meeting secretly all over Hogwarts. They usually meet somewhere outside and wonder around.
Natalia wondered how much longer it would be until people found out about her and Jae's relationship.

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Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.
When they arrived at Hagrid 's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.
"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago," she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.
"Who're you?" said Jae, staring at her. "Where's Hagrid?"
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" Harry said loudly.
"He is indisposed," said Professor Grubbly-Plank shortly.

Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Natalia's ears. She turned; Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins were joining the class (Jae had been walking with the Gryffindors).
All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"This way, please," said Professor Grubbly-Plank, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering. Natalia, Jae, Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed her, looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed.