New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|53| Chapter Fifty-Three

F I F T Y  T H R E E

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The anti-Harry Potter sentiment truly kicked in when the weekend came to a close on Monday and it was sickening for Saffron to have to walk around with Harry all day, as the majority of Hogwarts students had reason to be angry at Harry. The Ravenclaws were irked by the fact he had outshined their own champion, the Hufflepuffs were frustrated that their own golden boy Cedric Diggory hadn't been chosen and the Slytherins were mad because Harry was a member of Gryffindor house. Had these people had any respect, they would have kept these opinions to themselves but they were incapable of doing so.

The Ravenclaws were particularly nasty as they did feel as though Harry had robbed them of their victory against the other houses in getting a candidate to begin the champion. Saffron thought this was prevalent when she went to Astronomy on Tuesday night and saw Anthony Goldstein move his stuff as far away from Harry as he could, given they were sat beside each other, staring adamantly away from him to make a statement.

"I'll talk to him about it," Olly, who was still sat beside Saffron in the class, whispered to her to avoid being told off by their teacher Professor Sinistra. "Because that's just rude,"

"Thank you," said Saffron appreciably, thankful that at least someone was on their side outside of Gryffindor.

"Just to let you know, I heard something... something awful," Olly informed her warningly. "Apparently, some seventh year is mass-producing these badges to support your sister... but also to take a dig at Harry,"

"Great, just great," Saffron sighed despairingly, glancing over at Harry again, dreading whenever these badges were going to be seen across the school, he deserved so much better than what was happening and it pained her to see everything escalate so badly. "Thanks for telling me,"

Saffron forewarned Harry about these badges being implemented and over the next two days, they hoped that the Ravenclaw seventh-year had had a change of heart and decided against selling the badges off. She also asked Maya about it who hadn't heard of such a thing but assured Saffron and Harry that she wouldn't endorse such things. In the end, their hopes had been wishful thinking as when Saffron, Hermione and Harry arrived at double Potions on Friday, each and every Slytherin had a badge attached to their uniforms:

SUPPORT MAYA MITCHELL
THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!

"Like them, Potter?" enquired Draco loudly as Harry neared them. "I'm sure you love it Mitchell, anything to get your name out there,"

Saffron shot a rude hand gesture that she never would have used against Squire in his direction making Draco laugh viciously.

"Of course, we all know the Goblet decided to choose the people who needed the popularity and money the most," Draco stated matter-of-factly, his eyes glaring at Saffron and Harry, both of whom were glaring at him with much more hatred. "It did some nice charity work for the orphans, how considerate of it, but I think I'll support the lesser of two evils. Not you, Potter... want to see something cool?"

He didn't care for an answer and pressed his badge into his chest and a vomit green colour replaced the red saying:

POTTER STINKS!

The Slytherin group laughed gleefully, all following suit and making their badges say POTTER STINKS! Saffron saw Harry blush and she wanted to remove him and Hermione from the situation before it got ugly but was unable to do so.