A Hogwarts Legend: Chaos Begins [4] (SLOW UPDATES)

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Seven - "I deserve a fan club."

The next few days are some of my worst at Hogwarts. I might be able to cope with the rest of the school's behaviour if I could just have Maya and Elinor back as my friends, but I'm not going to try and persuade them to talk to me if they don't want to. Nevertheless, it's lonely, even with Harry and Hermione by my side.

I can understand the Hufflepuffs' attitudes, even if I don't like it; they had their own champion to support. I expect nothing less than vicious insults from the Slytherins - though most of them are just ignoring, which I have an idea is something to do with Draco. I hoped the Ravenclaws might have found it in their hearts to support Harry and I as much as Cedric. I'm wrong, however. Most Ravenclaws seem to think that we were both desperate to earn ourselves a bit more fame by tricking the Goblet into accepting our names.

Then there's the fact that Cedric looks the part of a champion. Exceptionally handsome, with his straight nose, dark hair and grey eyes, it's hard to say who's receiving more admiration these days, Cedric or Viktor Krum. I actually saw the same sixth-year girls who'd been so keen to get Krum's autograph, begging Cedric to sigh their schoolbags one lunchtime.

Harry is having an even worse time than me. On top of all the above, there's no reply from Sirius, Hedwig is refusing to come anywhere near him, Professor Trelawney is predicting his death with even more certainty than usual, and he does so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick's class that he's given extra homework - the only person to get any, apart from Neville.

"It's really not that difficult, Harry," Hermione tries to reassure him, as the three of us leave Flitwick's class - both of us have been making objects zoom across the room to us all lesson. "You just weren't concentrating properly -"

"Wonder why that was?" says Harry darkly, as Cedric Diggory walks past, surrounded by a large group of simpering girls, all of whom look at Harry and I as though we disgust them. I glare at them. "Still - never mind, eh? Double Potions to look forward to this afternoon ..."

Double Potions is always a bad experience, but these days it's nothing short of torture. Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape and the Slytherins, all of whom seem determined to punish Harry as much as possible for daring to become school champion, and ignoring me at all costs.

When Harry, Hermione and I arrive outside Snape's dungeon after lunch, we find the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of his or her robes. For one wild moment, I thinks they're S.P.E.W. badges - then I see that they all bear the same message, in luminous red letters that burn brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:

Support CEDRIC DIGGORY -
the REAL Hogwarts Champion!

So this is why Draco asked me how to make badges ...

"Like them, Potter?" says Malloy loudly, as Harry approaches. "And this isn't all they do - look!"

He presses his badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, to be replaced by another one, which glows green:

POTTER STINKS

The Slytherins howl with laughter. Each of them press their badges, too, until the message POTTER STINKS is shining brightly all around us. I place my hand on Harry's arm, trying to calm him.

"Oh, very funny," Hermione says sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who are laughing harder than anyone, "really witty."