Diggory Is A Loser

36- A Small Victory

Celia decided to sit with Harry and his friends on the train ride home, as she couldn't stand to be around Cho.
She sat beside Harry, and opposite Hermione, with their pets freely roaming the carriage.
After they had bought their lunch from the trolley, Hermione took out that mornings Daily Prophet from her bag.
Harry eyed the newspaper warily, and Hermione sighed before closing it.
"There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day, just to make sure. There was a small piece saying that you'd won the Triwizard Tournament, but that was it. They didn't even mention Cedric's death. I expect Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet about it" admitted Hermione.

"He'll never keep Rita Skeeter quiet. Not on a story like this" mumbled Harry.
"He's right. That evil journalist writes whatever she wants, regardless of who she will hurt along the way" agreed Celia.
"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task. As a matter of fact, she isn't going to write anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her" smiled Hermione.
"You mean to say that you figured out how she was eavesdropping on private conversations?" Questioned Celia.

Hermione's grin widened as she nodded her head.
"Go on" encouraged Ron.
"Well, when Harry mentioned bugging it gave me an idea. You see, Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn into a beetle" announced Hermione.
She then pulled out a glass jar from her bag that had a beetle and some leaves inside.
"You're kidding?" Gasped Ron.
"No, I'm not. I caught her on the window-sill in the hospital wing, after the third task. If you look very closely you can see the markings around her antennae look like those hideous glasses she wears" replied Hermione.

"Well done Hermione. I'm sorry I wasn't better help these past few weeks" admitted Celia awkwardly.
"That's alright. You had other things on your mind" reminded Hermione.
"After all the hours we spent in the library trying to work out how she was doing it, I wish I had been there to see her face when you caught her" replied Celia.
"I wanted to tell you earlier, but I couldn't find a good moment. After all the bad things that happened, it's a small victory".

"How exactly did you figure it out?" Asked Harry.
"Well, there was a beetle in my hair after the second task, and one hanging around at the Yule Ball. I'm sure there was one on the window-sill watching your Divination lesson as well. And when we saw Draco talking into his hand, Rita was perched there. That's how she's been getting all those interviews with the Slytherins. They wouldn't care if she was doing something illegal, as long as they were giving her horrible stuff about us and Hagrid" explained Hermione.

"She must have seen me running into the forest at the Yule Ball. But she can't have been that close, otherwise she would have heard what me, Cedric and Benjamin were actually saying" admitted Celia.
"No, I expect she was still listening to Hagrid and Madame Maxime at the time. Or she did hear, and she just made up what you said to each other, because it didn't fit the illegitimate daughter story that she was working on... I've told her that I will release her once we're back in London. I've put an unbreakable charm on the jar, so she can't get out or transform back into a human, until I let her. I also told her that she isn't to write anything for a whole year" informed Hermione, as she placed the jar back into her bag.

Suddenly the compartment door swung open and Draco Malfoy walked in, with his lackies Crabbe and Goyle behind him.
"Very clever Granger. So, you caught some pathetic reporter and Potter's Dumbledore's favourite again. Big deal" sneered Draco.
"Get lost Malfoy" spat Harry.
"Trying not to think about it are we? Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?" Mocked Draco.
Celia's hand closed around the wand hidden under her robes, and she was trying to restrain herself from using it on Draco.
"I won't ask you again" warned Harry.

"You've picked the losing side, Potter. I warned you that you ought to choose your company more carefully, the very first day we met. I told you not to hang around with riff-raff like this. But it's too late now. They'll be the first to go, now that the Dark Lord is back. Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first. Well, second, Diggory was the first to get himself killed" admitted Draco.
"Don't you dare talk about my brother like that!" Shouted Celia as she leapt to her feet.

Suddenly there was a loud bang in the compartment, like a firework had gone off.
When the smoke from the explosion had cleared, Celia saw Draco and his friends lying on the floor.
It turned out that her, Harry, Ron and Hermione had all fired spells at the same time.
And they weren't alone, as the Weasley twins were stood outside the carriage, with their wands also raised.

"Thought we'd see what they were up to" revealed Fred.
"Interesting effect. Who used the Furnunculus curse?" Asked George, as he looked at Crabbe.
"Me" answered Harry.
"Odd. I used Jelly-Legs. It looks like those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face" commented George.
"Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor" added Fred.

The six of them then began kicking and pushing Draco and his friends out of the compartment and down the corridor.
Celia found it nice to get some of her pent up anger out, so she enjoyed kicking Draco as hard as she could.
Once it was done, the group headed back to their carriage.
"Thanks for coming to help" Celia said quietly to the twins.
George placed his hand onto Celia's shoulder.
"You're welcome... We may not have always gotten on well with Cedric, but he was still someone in our year that we cared about. And with him gone, me and Fred want to fill his place as your brother" informed George.

"You don't have to do that" admitted Celia.
"No, but we want to. We're practically neighbours afterall, so we want to do our bit" replied George.
"Yeah. If you ever need a friend, a brother, or a shoulder to cry on, you come to us" added Fred.
"Or if you need us to beat up a boy who's hurt your feelings, we'll do that to" grinned George.
Celia smiled, "Well, with an offer like that, how can I refuse?".
George took his hand off her shoulder and stepped into the compartment.
"Exploding Snap anyone?" He asked.

As Celia sat down and the group began playing snap together, she looked around at the people she could now call her friends.
So much had changed that year, and she certainly hadn't started out her 5th year, thinking she was going to end up with several good friends.
She only wished that Cedric could be around to see her happy.
But she knew that he was gone for good, and would never come back.
After going through such a crazy year, Celia had no idea what was going to happen next.

**************
Thank you for reading my book.
Originally it was just going to be one book, but if I carried on going it would be 70+ pages long. So, I'm going to stop now, and continue Celia's story in another book, splitting up the story.

Please follow Celia's journey with me in; Diggory Is Still A Loser.
And we will see how Celia reacts when Umbridge tries to lie about how Cedric was killed...