𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐆𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 | 𝐓𝐇𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 3

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven-The Daily Prophet Revisited

The next morning Rita Skeeter's story appeared in the Daily Prophet. When it arrived by owl to Harry's room, he and Draco huddled in bed to read it together.

Love Blooms at Hogwarts-or Does It?

By Rita Skeeter

Hogwarts--Green eyes gazed lovingly into gray. Two young men, so different in appearance, in up-bringing, in temperament, in fact in all the ways that count-found themselves inexorably bound by that greatest of magic: Love.

And would it have been so very bad if it had happened in some quaint village green or urban loft? Of course not. This reporter has seen such affection elsewhere and the more enlightened of the Wizarding world barely gives it a backwards glance. But the question is asked because of two simple factors: the two men are teachers at the famed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and because the two men are none other than Harry Potter--whose fame and deeds need not be recounted here--and his arch-nemesis, the notorious Draco Malfoy.

Potter rose from humble beginnings. Parents killed by You-Know-Who, he was raised by Muggles. When he started his schooling at Hogwarts he not only showed an aptitude for magic, but also trouble. There followed a series of unfortunate events at Hogwarts, including the opening of the heretofore unknown Chamber of Secrets harboring a Muggleborn-hating monster, the Tri-Wizard Tournament in which Mr. Potter was the fourth competitor, and many more such occurrences. But despite the horrors that Potter has experienced, his disposition has not altered from that of a bright and intuitive young boy to an equally bright and intuitive young man of twenty.

Love, it seems, knows no bounds. "It's not a question of choice," said Harry Potter, gazing at his lover whilst sitting in the Headmaster's office. "When you fall in love, does it really matter who it is?"

Potter is pragmatic. And as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher one would hope he is. Given his experience with the late You-Know-Who, Potter can be excused for a forthrightness that might make heartier wizards cringe. He talks of his life with his former enemy and as he does, there is a light in his eyes that defies description. Truly he is in love. He explains that their controversial "outing" at the school's Yule Ball three days earlier was less of a statement to the world, and more of a personal choice. "It seemed right. And Draco is such a good dancer. It seemed a waste of good music," he said.

When asked, Potter reluctantly admitted that it was Draco Malfoy who initiated the dance. Malfoy, a name that still brings chills to Wizardry, a once wealthy family whose infamous association with the Dark Lord has long been reported by this very paper, watched detached as Potter tried to take on the blame for the events and the controversy that followed.

"It's all a bunch of nonsense," Malfoy said, sneering at some unseen hurt to his pride.--