The Potter Twins and the Order of the Phoenix {5}

30. Seen and Unseen

"Kali Ma reign over me, rip your hands into my chest, rip out my beating heart for the world to see" ~ Kali Ma, Neck Deep

Luna says vaguely that she does not know how soon Rita's interview with Harry and I will appear in The Quibbler, that her father is expecting a lovely long article on recent sightings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, "--and of course, that'll be a very important story, so Harry and Haylee's might have to wait for the following issue," says Luna.

We did not find it an easy experience to talk about the night when Voldemort had returned. Rita had pressed us for every little detail and we had given her everything we could remember, knowing that this was our one big opportunity to tell the world the truth. I wondered how people would react to the story. I guess that it would confirm a lot of people in the view that we're  completely insane, not least because our story would be appearing alongside utter rubbish about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. But the breakout of Bellatrix Lestrange and her fellow Death Eaters had given Harry and I a burning desire to do something, whether or not it worked...

"I can't wait to see what Umbridge thinks about you and Harry going public," Katie says during Quidditch practice, as we toss the Quaffle back and forth. Tay is too busy shouting - or teaching, rather - at the new team members to even notice us. 

"It was the right thing to do," Riley says, swooping down beside us, holding his club. "What was it like? Was it hard to talk about?"

"Of course it was," I say, tucking the Quaffle under my arm, "but how else were we meant to warn everyone about Voldemort?"

"That's right," he says. "His Death Eaters too, everyone should know. Even if - "

His sentence hangs in the air as Tay swoops down on us, covered in splatters of mud. "Riley, keep working," she says firmly, her eye twitching slightly. "We can't afford to stop training, we just can't." She watches as Riley flies away, and once he's a safe distance away she moves closer towards us and lowers her voice. "We're fucked," she declares. "We've got no hope, we're going to be absolutely slaughtered." Her eyes are shining with tears. "I've completely ruined this team...Let's just go back inside, everyone's covered in mud and miserable anyway."

With a muddy, grumpy looking Ron trailing behind me, I pack away my things and head to the Great Hall for dinner, cold and tired from training. We drop down in front of Harry and Hermione, both splattered in mud which incites some very strange look from our fellow Gryffindors. 

"Is that what she's doing?" Harry asks, eyeing us carefully. "Well, wouldn't it have been easier if she'd just asked me whether I liked her better than you?"

 "Girls don't often ask questions like that," says Hermione, and I assume that they're talking about the Cho incident. 

"Well, they should!" Harry says forcefully. "Then I could've just told her I fancy her, and she wouldn't have had to get herself all worked up again about Cedric dying!"

"I'm not saying what she did was sensible," says Hermione, as Ginny joins them, just as muddy as Ron and me, and looking equally disgruntled. "I'm just trying to make you see how she was feeling at the time."

"You should write a book," Ron tells Hermione as he cuts up his potatoes, "translating mad things girls do so boys can understand them." 

"Yeah," says Harry fervently, looking over at the Ravenclaw table. Cho has just got up, and, still not looking at him, she leaves the Great Hall. Frowning, he looks back at Ron, Ginny, and I. "So, how was Quidditch practice?"

"It was a nightmare," says Ron in a surly voice.

"Oh come on," Hermione says, looking at Ginny and me, "I'm sure it wasn't that--"

"No, it was bad," I say quickly. "Tay was almost in tears by the end of it."

I have a quick bath after dinner, and then join Hermione and Harry in the common room to attack our piles of homework. Fred and George are with them when I arrive, speaking in low voices.