Black and Potter | H. Potter

29 ⋆*⋆:⋆ unfamiliar feeling.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:✧*⋆.*:･ﾟ✧.: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ☾

| UNFAMILIAR FEELING |
song: brother by kodaline.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:✧*⋆.*:･ﾟ✧.: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ☾

BESIDES HER CONCERNING HEADACHES AND HER ATTEMPTS At FINDING A PROPER TIME to tell Harry about them, the other matter that occupied Ara's mind was the prospect of talking with her Dad face-to-face. Harry had told her that Sirius asked that they meet by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock on November 22nd and she had been counting down the hours ever since.

Ara was the one who wrote to her Dad, informing him that they would meet him where he'd requested. She, Harry and Hermione spent a long time going over plans for forcing any stragglers out of the common room on the night in question. If the worst came to the worst, they were going to drop a bag of Dungbombs (Ara's suggestion), but they hoped they wouldn't have to resort to that — Filch would skin them alive. Ara was tempted to simply do it for fun, but her idea was quickly shut down by Hermione, much to her dismay.

In the meantime, it seemed that Rita Skeeter's article about the Triwizard Tournament, which had turned out to be not so much a report on the tournament but instead a highly coloured life story of Harry, only managed to make him attract even more negative attention as the article had been all about him, the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions (misspelt) had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric hadn't been mentioned at all.

To add to Ara's displeasure, she was less than amused when she saw that Rita Skeeter had seemed it fit to include her in the article, making insinuations that made her cheeks burn and her blood boil with rage at her ridiculous lies. The article had appeared ten days ago and yet people still seemed to be talking about it, more specifically Harry and, on occasion, Ara.

Harry still got a sick, burning feeling of shame in his stomach every time he thought about it. Rita Skeeter had reported him saying an awful lot of things that he couldn't remember ever saying in his life, let alone in that broom cupboard.

I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now. . . . Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it. . . . I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me. . . .

But Rita Skeeter had gone even further than transforming his "er's" into long, sickly sentences: She had interviewed other people about him too.

Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Ara Black, the stunningly pretty daughter of the Mass Murderer Sirius Black, she, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.

From the moment the article had appeared, Harry had had to endure people — Slytherins, mainly — quoting it at him as he passed and making sneering, even sometimes inappropriate, comments about him and Ara, who had to be held back each time someone dared to test her patience with their looks or words.

"Want a hanky, Potter, in case you start crying in Transfiguration?"

"Since when have you been one of the top students in the school, Potter? Or is this a school you and Longbottom have set up together?"

"Just let me at them, Harry," Ara snarled, pushing against him as he  grabbed her arm; he wasn't about to let her get another detention. He held her firmly yet gently as he tugged her along with him, practically forcing her to keep walking.