PHANTOM FIGURES | harry potter

52. rita skeeter's scoop

     Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. It seemed to be tradition at Hogwarts. Aspen and Jasmine awoke in the Room of Requirement on their own with no alarm or light to blind their eyes.

     Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal. Aspen and Jasmine refused to speak with Harry and Ron. They did not care how childish they were acting, both of them were sick of the boys treating Hermione like she was dirt on the bottom of their shoes. Harry and Ron wasted no time in telling the three girls the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid. Apparently Hagrid admitted his mother was a giantess unbeknownst that he had two eavesdroppers hiding in the bushes. Hermione didn't seem to find the news that Hagrid was a half-giant nearly as shocking as Ron did.

     "Well, I thought he must be," she said, shrugging. "I knew he couldn't be a pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria around giants. They can't all be horrible... It's the same sort of prejudice people have against werewolves... It's just bigotry, isn't it?"

     Ron looked as though he would have liked to reply scathingly, but perhaps he didn't want another row, because he contented himself with shaking his head disbelievingly whilst Hermione wasn't looking.

     Aspen glared at him. She didn't understand why Ron was so... the way he is. He had been nothing but kind to Hagrid before he found out he was half-giant, it's not like Hagrid was going to change now that Ron knew of his true heritage.

     Ron looked a little frightened at Aspen's expression.

     It was now time for everyone but Aspen to start thinking of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everyone seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over. Aspen was starting (once again) to feel slightly nervous.

     The trouble was that February the twenty-fourth looked a lot closer from this side of Christmas, and she still hadn't done anything about working out the clue inside the golden egg. She therefore started taking the egg out of her trunk every time she went up to her dormitory. She knew that there would be nothing else to hear inside of it, so she focused on looking for any engravings on the outside or hidden messages.

     Aspen had not forgotten the hint that Cedric had given her, but she was slightly scared to listen to him. What if he was tricking her? Or trying to sabotage? Maybe he was only saying that because the egg would break in water, so then she would have no way to win the tournament.

     For once, he was looking for her rather than the opposite. Aspen sat in the kitchens, staring at the golden egg helplessly when Leo walked in, looking frazzled.

     "Can we talk?" he asked, slightly breathless. He was acting like Aspen when she was about to ask him to go to the ball with her.

      "Of course," Aspen accepted his request immediately. She set the egg aside quickly. "Anything to get my mind off this egg." Leo sat in the seat across from her. "Is everything okay?"

     "Yes, yes, everything is okay, I just..." he took a deep breath. Aspen was getting nervous for what he was about to say, "need to get this off my chest. Please don't think any differently. I still want to be your friend. I just feel guilty for some reason..."

     Aspen was turning scared. "Leo, just say it. It's really frightening to see you like this."

     Leo nodded his head and turned pink. "I used to have a crush on you and I was the one to give you those flowers during Lockhart's valentine celebration."