The Potter Twins and the Goblet of Fire {4}

26. Padfoot and Prongs

"The sound of my youth echoes out through these empty streets, I guess I can't kick up the roots, it's home and that's the truth" ~ Can't Kick Up The Roots, Neck Deep

One of the best things about the aftermath of the second task is that everybody is very keen to hear details of what happened at the bottom of the lake, which means that for once Ron is getting a share of the limelight. Harry and I can't help but notice that Ron's version of events changes subtly with every retelling.

At first, he gave what seemed to be the truth - Dumbledore put the hostages into a bewitched sleep in McGonagall's office, first assuring them that they would be safe, and would wake once they were back above the water. One week later, however, Ron is telling a thrilling tale of kidnap in which he struggled single-handedly against fifty heavily armed merpeople, who had to beat him into submission before tying him up.

As we enter March, the weather becomes drier, but cruel winds still skin our hands our faces every time we go outside. Ther are delays in the post because the owls keep being blown off course. The brown owl we sent to Sirius with the dates of the Hogsmeade dates turned up at breakfast on Friday morning with half its feathers sticking up the wrong way. I rip the letter off, revealing a letter almost as short as the last

Be at stile at the end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish & Bangers) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can. 

"He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" Tay asks incredulously. 

"It looks like it, doesn't it?" Hermione says briskly

"I can't believe him," I say tensely, "if he's caught..."

"Made it so far, though, hasn't he?" Ron says. "And it's not like this place is swarming with Dementors anymore."

I give a lopsided smile, folding up the letter. In all honesty, I do want to see Sirius; and this is the perfect opportunity to inform our Godfather that his best friend has miraculously come back to life. 

I approach our final lesson of the day (double potions) feeling considerably more cheerful than I usually do when descending the steps to the dungeons. 

Draco, Crabbe and Goyle are standing in a huddle outside the classroom door with Pansy Parkinson's gang of Slytherin girls. All of them are looking at something I can't see and are sniggering heartily. Pansy's pug-like face peers excitedly around Goyle's broad back as we approach. 

"There they are, there they are!" she giggles, and the knot of Slytherins break apart. I see Pansy clutching a copy of Witch Weekly in her hands, and the girl on the front has wild hair and a toothy smile. 

"You might find something to interest you in there, Granger!" Pansy says loudly, and she throws the magazine at Hermione. She catches it, looking startled, just as Snape appears to usher us inside the classroom. 

We head to the table at the back as usual, and once Snape turns his back, Hermione begins rifling through the magazine under the desk until we find the article we're looking for. All of us leaning in to read it, we see a colour photograph of Harry headed on a short piece entitled HARRY POTTER'S SECRET HEARTACHE. 

A boy like no other, perhaps - yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger, his sisters best friend. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss. 

Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgaria Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has 'never felt this way about any other girl'.