New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|52| Chapter Fifty-Two

F I F T Y  T W O

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As Saffron began to speak to Maya, Rowan's words in the hospital wing the time Saffron had gone to the Grey after being under the influence of the Imperius curse rung through Saffron's ears. Those words were: 'I'd rather you be honest with us'. 

What Saffron ended up getting out of hearing Maya's explanation was what she saw as honesty, as crazy as that sounded and felt after years of lies and dishonesty, Saffron thought she could hear the truth coming out of her sister's mouth, which was not what she anticipated getting out of the conversation before engaging in it. 

Maya explained that the reason why she didn't tell any of them that she was entering the tournament was that she didn't want any of them to talk her out of it as she wanted to enter in an attempt to win the money to start forming a better life for the four of them outside of Squires, as she didn't want to rely on Sirius for money, despite the fact the man would willingly give them whatever they needed. Even though Saffron didn't want to believe her, as she had been lied to by Maya on many an occasion, it sounded like a Maya thing to do to her and more importantly the way in which Maya spoke sounded genuine too.

"So you didn't just change your mind, you were always going to enter?" Saffron questioned once Maya had finished explaining her reasoning to Saffron.

"Not exactly," said Maya slowly. "I talked myself out of it a few times, more because I didn't think I'd get chosen but then I realised I had nothing to lose by not entering and now here I am,"

"Here you are," repeated Saffron breathlessly looking to Rachel and Rowan who also looked convinced. It said a lot that her brother was believing Maya's explanation as Saffron knew he was going to be the one to be somewhat sceptical, whereas Rachel would have believed whatever Maya told them.

"How's Harry doing?" Maya asked Saffron concernedly, piquing the twin's interests too. "He was insistent in the meeting that he didn't put his name in last night and I believed him,"

"Really?" Rachel raised an eyebrow at Maya in surprise.

"You're telling me you don't?" demanded Saffron, aghast. 

"I just think it's convenient, that's all," said Rachel holding her hands up in defence. "The year the tournament comes back and Hogwarts hosts, we miraculously end up having two champions, one being the Harry Potter who's famous for dealing with stuff like this every year, I'm not saying he put his name in but maybe he knew someone was,"

"I saw his face though," Rowan said fairly. "He looked shocked, much more shocked than Viktor, Fleur or you did, Maya, and all of you knew that your name had been put in at least,"

"You're right though, Rach, in that this wasn't an accident," Saffron said directly to her younger sister. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing, they tricked the Goblet somehow--"

"Moody reckons they put Harry's name in under a fouth school," Maya informed Saffron alluding to the conversation she had had in the chamber the night before. "Seems like a good bet on what happened to me,"

"What happened down there last night?" Saffron questioned and Maya gladly answered her.

The goings-on in the chamber sounded just as chaotic as what happened in the Great Hall. There was an uproar over Harry being chosen to compete, asks for two more students from the other schools respectively to be entered, Moody theorising about Harry being entered to kill him, more complaining and then finally Bagman revealed to them that their first task would take place in a little over three weeks on November twenty-fourth, where they would face something unknown to them all.