Thrill (Drarry)

1. Before the First Task

 Harry stomped down the hallway. Hermoine walked by his side silently. She knew about his bad mood. Then again, it was not unusual for Harry to be in a bad mood nowadays. It was like every day, the universe was trying to proof to him, yes, it can get worse.

Right now, Harry was just angry.

The detention with Ron had not gone how he had hoped it would. He had not spoken a word to Harry the whole two hours except for anything related to their task of pickling rat's brains. It had not been pleasant work. And doing it with the person who was supposed to be his best friend, but was angry because he thought Harry was an attention seeking prat, had crushed his mood even further.

Additionally, Rita Skeeter's article was published, which fuelled Ron's ridiculous mistrust towards Harry even more.

And there it was. The first mockery quotes of the article accompanying his walk. Many of them were carrying the Daily Prophet, reading it aloud when he passed them.

He could kind of understand the Hufflepuffs. The newspaper article was supposed to be about the participants of the Triwizard Tournament, but Cedric Diggory, the champion who was supposed to represent Hogwards on his own, had not even been mentioned. Instead, the article was revolving around Harry and wrong assumptions about his life and feelings. 

Harry could understand them, but that did not mean he was happy being the victim of their mockery.

Yet the Hufflepuffs were not even the worst. They were mostly just glaring at him.

The worst were, surprise, surprise, the Slytherins. He had passed a fair share of them today and the quoting and mocking was really making him itch to hex something into oblivion.

"You cry about your parents? Aww, how touching."

"What is it Potter? Gonna start crying now?"

Harry passed all of them without giving them a single glance. "Just ignore them, Harry." Hermione said quietly like that was not what Harry was trying to do the whole time.

"Stunningly pretty? Her?" They heard a familiar voice shrieking. "What was she judging against- a chipmunk?"

Harry internally groaned. Now Hermione was getting jabs. Rita Skeeter had depicted Hermione as Harry's girlfriend in the article. Which was of course not true. 

Parkinson, who had just insulted Hermione, also meant that Malfoy was not too far off. "Ignore it." Hermione reminded him in a dignified voice, holding her head in the air and stalking past the sniggering Slytherin girls as though she could not hear them. "Just ignore it, Harry."

He really wished he could take it just like Hermione, but the anger at Ron, Snape and Rita Skeeter on top was really shortening his temper, not that he had ever been anything but short tempered to begin with. However, it seemed like the whole world was constantly working to make him angry. And this annoying high-pitched voice quoting Skeeter's article and mocking his best friend was not helping.

Harry heard another voice and his head snapped up. Of course, he knew it. 

Malfoy stood in between a group of Slytherins, loudly reading the twisted life story that had been made out of Harry's 'er's. His cold grey eyes met Harry's and he smirked at him, stepping out of the crowd surrounding him.

"Ooh, Potter is in company of his oh so 'stunningly pretty Muggle-born' girlfriend." Malfoy mocked and his little crowd laughed.

"Shut up, Malfoy." Harry snapped and tried to pass them but Malfoy stepped into his way. In a faux-touching tone he began quoting the article, making huge gestures just to make every word seem more ridiculous than it already was.