So Much for No Strings Attached

Chapter 13 Loyal as a Dog?

That Friday a small brown owl came telling them to be at the stile at the end of Hogsmeade at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Harry closed his eyes and pretended to be worried about Sirius being caught. In actual fact he knew that he was going to have find out one and for all whose side Sirius really was on.

 

He'd have to bring the Weasel and the beaver along on Saturday. But there was nothing stopping him from sneaking out on Saturday evening. Severus could help him cover for that and provide Veritserum so that Harry could figure out exactly how much – or how little – Sirius knew about Dumbledore's plots.

 

Harry knew he needed an excuse to talk to Severus as he approached the Potions classroom. It turned out that Granger had been painted by Skeeter as a Scarlet woman. Harry found it hilarious and guessed that his people had been the one to spread the rumours. Hopefully it would turned people against Granger even if Dumbledore was still untouchable.

 

Weasley looked furious and Harry pretended to be angry throwing a scathing look at Pansy and Draco. However, Harry would be sure to thank the Slytherins for their article. It wasn't like it wasn't completely a lie. Okay Granger had been trying to drug him to fall for the Weaslette not with Granger but that was the only falsehood.

 

'How could Rita Skeeter have known…?' murmured Granger seemingly forgetting Harry's presence.

 

'Known what?' Weasley asked sharply. 'You haven't really been mixing up love potions?' he demanded giving Harry a pointed look.

 

'Of course not,' Granger lied. 'How did she know that Viktor asked me to stay over summer?'

 

Harry felt sorry for Krum. The young man seemed a good enough bloke. He didn't deserve to end up with a scheming bitch like Granger. The only one who deserved Granger was Weasley. They could spread their poison to each other. As long as they didn't have children it was fine.

 

Granger and Weasley began arguing. Harry knew that Weasley liked Granger. Before all this came out he had been waiting for them to go out. Now however he couldn't care less what happened to them as long as it hurt them.

 

Snape came up and took points of Granger and Weasley for arguing. He then confiscated the newspaper and placed Harry in detention on Saturday night for reading magazines in class. Harry was glad considering that he needed Snape to help him.

 

That was when Karkaroff entered. Lucius had told him Karkaroff's history. Harry felt that the man would be useful on the recruitment front. Also, if they were to upgrade their school system to that of the rest of the Wizarding World then they would have to have someone who knew the school system.