A Young Wizard's Journey - Goblet of Fire

Helpful Advice

Madam Pomfrey didn't keep the duo longer than around fifteen minutes. But neither particularly wanted to return to Professor Snape's classroom. Well Y/N didn't, and Hermione didn't want to see him get shouted at. She was throwing him furtive glares every now and then, but she seemed a bit too fixated on her teeth to be truly angry.

The two of them made their way to the library and set up to work on their Transfiguration homework. Then, around an hour later and Harry dropped onto the seats across from them.

'Snape kick you out?' asked Y/N as Harry withdrew his own Transfiguration essay, looking murderous.

'No,' he said darkly. 'Gave me detention for having a go at him about you, but-'

'About Y/N? What did he do?' asked Hermione at once.

'Came to visit you,' said Y/N 'I said I was going to, he said no, so I told him I was doing it anyway. My girlfriend was in the hospital wing. He didn't stop me when you got petrified and he wasn't stopping me then.'

Hermione looked like she didn't know whether to beam or frown, so she settled instead on just wrapping around his arm and looking at Harry.

'So why are you here then?'

Harry lowered his voice and told them in a whisper about the "wand-weighing ceremony" he'd just had to attend and about a reporter called Rita Skeeter who had apparently been ignoring every word he said and instead seemed to be turning it into some sob story before being interrupted by Dumbledore.

'She's the same one who wrote the article about the world cup when we got back,' said Y/N once Harry had finished. 'Nasty piece of work from the sounds of it. We'll want to keep an eye on her. Public image can be a big thing during times like this.'

'What do you mean?' asked Harry.

'Harry, half the schools against you already because of this whole two champions with Cedric thing. If the outside world is united against you, this is going to get ugly fast.'

'Yeah, but they can't do anything can they? We're in Hogwarts.'

'For now. If you've got a bad rep the moment you leave the school, that could have an impact on careers and all sorts. Look at the Death Eaters. How many people do you think would hire them?'

'Well yeah but I'm hardly an ex-Death Eater.'

'Depends on how Rita paints you. Whether she bigs you up, or makes you a scapegoat. I imagine it'll be the first, but we shall see.'

'Why the first?' asked Hermione. 'Surely she likes a scapegoat or drama-inducing story?'

'Yeah, but she's got Cedric, hasn't she? Harry has a massive history with Voldemort and all that. Cedric is a Hufflepuff and doesn't have anything like that. She'll paint Harry as the big Hogwarts champion, I guarantee it. Especially as she didn't ask to interview any of the others.'

'Maybe she'll come for you next then,' said Harry darkly. 'Let you talk all about the basilisk and Quirrell.'

'She doesn't know about that, not a chance. Hogwarts kept it quiet. The Ministry would have interviewed both of us already if they knew. Voldemort in a diary and the back of a man's head? They'd be all over that.'

'This is turning out to be one hell of a year already,' muttered Harry.

'And we haven't even started the tasks or Dominator hunting yet,' added Hermione.

'We'll be fine,' said Y/N, trying to convince himself as much as the others. 'Would just help if we knew what you were meant to be facing in the first task. Hard to know what to prep for you if we don't know what it's going to be.'