Love Is In The Air: The Angelic Witch And Draco Malfoy (Book 4)

The Wand Weighing Ceremony

The next few days were some of Heroneka's worst at Hogwarts. She had been followed by boys before. Several senior boys had admired Heroneka for her uniqueness. They admired her eyes that changed colours, her golden halo that glowed along everywhere she went and even her Quidditch skills as one of the best Gryffindor Chasers. But now that she was one of the champions and didn't have Harry and Hermione with her, Heroneka was finding it hard to deal with all the attention. Ron usually liked hanging out with Dean and Seamus as now all the girls had found out that he was a brother to Heroneka. No matter how much she tried, even Ron was avoiding her in public.

To make things even more uncomfortable for her, almost all the Hogwarts boys were now wearing a large badge on the front of their robes. For one wild moment, Heroneka thought they were S.P.E.W. badges - then she eventually realised that they all bore the same message, in luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:

SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY-
THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!

As Heroneka would approach, they would press it and another message would flash, accompanied by tiny hearts.

HOGWARTS QUEEN RULES!
SUPPORT HERONEKA PEARLSTONE, the only underage wild card champion.

They would press the badge again whenever Harry walked past them and it would read, POTTER STINKS.

Heroneka was feeling so alone without Harry. She felt like even though the entire Hogwarts was standing with her, she had nobody.

Then there was the fact that Cedric kept trying to talk to her whenever he would spot her. This made a lot of girls jealous, so now it was mostly the boys who were cheering and praising her. Heroneka had a feeling that Cho Chang was not supporting Heroneka anymore. Cho would stare at Heroneka with so much hatred whenever she spotted her talking to Cedric. It wasn't just Cho Chang, but most of the Hogwarts girls. Exceptionally handsome, with his straight nose, dark hair, and grey eyes, it was hard to say who was receiving more admiration these days, Cedric or Viktor Krum. Heroneka actually saw the same sixth-year girls who had been so keen to get Krum's autograph begging Cedric to sign their school bags one lunchtime.

Meanwhile, Harry was suffering since there was no reply from Sirius, Hedwig was refusing to come anywhere near him, 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," Hermione tried to reassure him as they all left Flitwick's class - she had been making objects zoom across the room to her all lesson, as though she were some sort of weird magnet for board dusters, wastepaper baskets, and lunascopes. "You just weren't concentrating properly -"

Heroneka tried to hide behind Hermione as she spotted Cedric at a distance. Harry wasn't talking to her, but she was still trying to hang out with him.

"Wonder why that was," said Harry darkly as Cedric Diggory walked past, surrounded by a large group of simpering girls, all of whom looked at Harry as though he were a particularly large Blast-Ended Skrewt. "Still - never mind, eh? Double Potions to look forward to this afternoon..." He said sarcastically.

Heroneka had lunch with Fred and George since Harry wanted to sit far away from her.

"You really have become the Queen of Chamber of Secrets, haven't you?" Fred grinned at her. "Be honest! You were the real heir of Slytherin, right? That's why all those boys have gone crazy about you."

"I'm glad you caught on!" Heroneka laughed. "I tried so hard to hide the truth."

"A few more days and the Slytherin boys will be joining Gryffindor," George said scowling at the Slytherin table, for all the boys over there were now sitting, facing the Gryffindor table so they could see Heroneka while they ate.