New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|54| Chapter Fifty-Four

F I F T Y F O U R

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If you had of told Saffron that in a weeks time, she would be met by an even worse week that she endured the first week after Harry had been selected for the Triwizard Tournament, she would have found it hard to believe as that entire week felt like an onslaught of attacks being thrown in Harry's direction. But when a week passed, Saffron was completed and utterly blindsided in a way that she hadn't been in the past, as the attack had been directed at her, as she found out when she and Hermione made their way down to breakfast one morning.

"Good morning you beautiful little liars," Lavender was holding the Daily Prophet and looked over it to see that Saffron and Hermione were about to join them at the Gryffindor table. She folded the paper over, revealing that Parvati was sat beside her. When Saffron looked around the hall for a second, she realised that most people had their heads covered by a copy of the Daily Prophet, which probably meant that the Triwizard article was out.

Both Maya and Harry explained to Saffron that the journalist was a woman called Rita Skeeter and that she was the one who Sage spoke ill about over the Summer. Therefore, Saffron knew that whatever Rita was going to write certainly had the possibility of being awful. She anticipated crude things about Harry and Maya, for certain. The article delivered on that front but it also delivered on another front that Saffron never could have expected.

"So when were you going to tell us?" At first, Saffron wasn't sure if Lavender was speaking to Hermione or her but when she finally sat down opposite her she could see her eyes were on her, meaning that was who was supposed to have told her something.

"Tell you what?" Saffron asked her curiously, grabbing a knife and beginning to butter some toast.

"Don't play dumb, Saff," Parvati raised her eyebrows. She giggled. "I'm just surprised, that's all because you've been so fixed on Olly these past few months but I take it that was just a front,"

"A front for what?" Saffron screwed her face up in frustration. She was evidently out of the loop on something. "Just spit it out,"

"You and Harry!" burst out Lavender in excitement.

"Me and Harry what?" Saffron questioned as Hermione said:

"Can we just see the paper?"

Lavender didn't object and handed the paper over to Saffron and Hermione. Hermione flicked through it until she got to the article that everyone was reading that morning. Saffron's insides churned as she started to realise what 'she and Harry' might have meant within the confines of who Rita Skeeter was as a journalist.

Saffron read in horror as she saw words that Harry clearly hadn't said on the page, a paragraph dedicated to how orphans were able to get themselves in such advantageous positions, a sentence from Ms. Squire crediting Maya's selection to herself and then finally, a paragraph that Saffron had to read through her hands, as the lies were too much for her to handle:

Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Saffron Mitchell, a stunningly pretty young girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school. Fellow orphan, and sister of the other Hogwarts champion, Saffron is stuck between a rock and a hard place as to who to support in the tournament. Her sister or her boyfriend.

"Boyfriend?" Saffron said slowly feeling as though she was waking up from a hellish nightmare. "Boyfriend?"

"I guess congratulations are in order," Lavender offered Saffron a weak smile. "I just wish I could have given them sooner, I thought you'd tell your friends before a newspaper,"