MY TYPE OF LOVE | marauders era

| chapter twenty |

"Speaking of Slug Club, do you guys know when the next club meeting is?" James asked.

I shrugged, grabbing a butterbeer. "I dunno, but it's probably something to do with Halloween."

"I'll probably just ask Regulus tomorrow or something," David said, and I straightened from my position on the floor, my eyes wide.

"Regulus is in Slug Club," I stated, turning to David, "Oh Merlin, he's in Slug Club!"

"Yeah, and?" David said slowly, "Are you ok? Too tired or something?"

"No, no, no!" Excitement coursed through me, and I set my drink down before I could spill it on myself. "Both of you are in the Slug Club! That's it, that's the connection! You're both in Slug Club!"

"For the paper," James said slowly, "The article bashing Regulus. He was in good standing for the competition, wasn't he?"

"Merlin, you're right!" David straightened from his slouched position against a nearby wall. "And if we think about the other articles from the Hogwarts Hogwash, most of the bad ones are all about other members of the club."

"Like the one about the Hufflepuff prefect today who was supposedly unfairly taking points from the different houses, but nobody was doing anything about it," I recalled, "But Ana wrote that one."

"There was an anonymous tip," James said, "Right? Does anyone have a copy?"

"I think I do!" I replied, and walked to my bag, which sat beside Carri, Oliver, and Meredith, who were quietly talking. I flashed a smile at them before quickly dashing back. "It should be in here- aha!"

Pulling the copy of Hogwarts Hogwash from today - I'd bought and read it after lunch - my eyes quickly scanned the article in question. "So?" David asked, and I nodded.

"James is right. The person is listed as an anonymous tipper." I tossed the copy at David, and he began to read the article. "So whoever is the anonymous tipper wrote the article, and they're specifically attacking people in the Slug Club."

"That's motive," Leon chipped in, "Obviously they want to win that competition you guys mentioned."

"We have to figure out who that would be," James said, and I nodded.

"Winning by lying isn't winning at all," I added.

"Interesting scheme, though," David said, "There's no way to really trace it back to whoever it is without the editors telling, and the girls seem to have a pretty serious dedication to keeping the identities of the anonymous people."

"We'll figure it out," I said confidently, "After all, now we know what we're looking for."

I actually wasn't as confident about our skills as I seemed. What if we didn't? From all I knew, we were setting ourselves up for failure without any chance of redeeming David and the others, with a chance that we might be the ones who were dragged through the mud in the process.

"You guys can figure it out," Leon said, "I'm not involved, and my Prefect duties are holding me up pretty badly right now."

"That's ok." David nodded, leaning back against the wall. "After all, you've helped more than the rest of us can imagine already."

I beamed. "It's like a riddle! Or a puzzle!"

"Only a Ravenclaw would be excited about a riddle," James said dryly, grabbing another cupcake.

"Weren't you gonna eat a cupcake in a minute?" David asked, and I grinned.

"I was just preparing myself." James raised an eyebrow, his voice crack gave him away. He swore under his breath and tried to continue the bluff. "Why? Think I can't do it?"