New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|81| Chapter Eighty-One

E I G H T Y  O N E

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Saffron and Dean's friendship was put to the test when he started to get dragged into the Witch Weekly debacle that Rita Skeeter had created. Saffron had been hopeful after the newest article that dragged Hermione into the equation, that perhaps everything would die down but it only increased and drastically

Everyone in Hogwarts was now aware of the many love shapes that were being published by Rita. First of all, there was the Saffron-Harry-Hermione one which Saffron frankly couldn't believe anyone believed considering the three of them were as close as could be and there was no way they would still be friends if that had occurred. Then there was the Harry-Viktor-Hermione one which was the one Rita was focussing the most on and it resulted in Hermione receiving a plethora of hate-mail because of the lies.

More recently now, Rita had discovered that Saffron was in a relationship which had created what Lavender coined as a 'love star', combining Saffron, Hermione, Harry, Viktor and now Dean. It was quite the mess and Saffron was tired of shapes, she just wanted normal love lines back or for the shapes to not be exploited in the media. But that was now destined to be the case, thanks to Rita.

"I'm so sorry about all of this," Saffron apologised to Dean, as the two of them ate breakfast together, getting a prolonged glance from the vast majority of students who walked past. "I had no idea it would blow up how it has, but that's Rita for you,"

"Don't worry about it," Dean assured her casually, shrugging his shoulders, undeterred about it all. He then jokingly remarked: "I've never had anything this interesting happen about me before, best embrace it while I still can,"

Saffron chortled on her Cheeri-Owls. "True, we're like the celebrities of Hogwarts. I mean, honestly, you think people have more interesting things to be getting along with,"

"They don't, that's the problem," Dean informed Saffron matter-of-factly. "It's mainly people who walk around in packs, they're not able to get out of that group mindset. Can't stand by themselves, so they care about others too much. It's the exact same for Muggles too, at least in my primary school,"

"Just to reiterate, don't be afraid to put a stop to this whenever you want," Saffron said to Dean, wanting to remind him that she didn't mind as she felt bad about all the attention he was getting and feared the prospect of him getting hate mail. "I know this isn't what you signed up for, me neither to be quite honest,"

"It's all good," smiled Dean. "I'm sure it'll all blow over in a few days,"

But it didn't all blow over in a few days. The articles continued and Saffron could see now why people are so interested in the tales as Rita made it out to be quite the scandal. Writing about how Viktor and Harry quarrelled about who got to have Hermione as their hostage during the challenge, how Saffron and Hermione were faking a friendship to keep up appearances and how Harry was trying to break Dean and Saffron up to get back with her. Yet, even though this was written he wasn't the one receiving hate mail. That was exclusive for the girls. Hermione and to a lesser extent Saffron, but predominately Hermione which they were nastily reminded of when the post arrived one morning.

"They're all the same, huh," said Hermione, completely unbothered by receiving the twelfth letter telling her she was a horrible person. "Is that the best they can do? Telling me that 'Harry Potter can do much better than the likes than you...' 'You deserve to be boiled in frog spawn....' Ouch!"

Upon opening one envelope in particular undiluted bubotuber pus which was a stinking yellowish-green liquid spilt out going all over her hands.

"Ow!" Hermione cried out, her eyes watering up as she unsuccessfully tried to rub the pus off of her hands with a tissue. It became runnier covering her hands completely.

"Come on, you need to go to the hospital wing," Saffron helped Hermione out of her seating position and rushed her to the hospital quickly, where Amanda didn't look too surprised to see them.

"I take it one of that terrible woman Rita's fanatics sent this to you," Amanda said to Hermione sympathetically, wrapping enchanted bandages around her hands that would slowly decay the pus off of her.

"Yes," whimpered Hermione, letting out deep breaths as she tried to ease the pain away.

"You would think first of all they wouldn't care about the love lives of teenagers at their age," said Amanda frustratedly, getting Hermione to hold her arms out straight in order to tighten the bandages. "And second of all that they would see through Rita's lies that she publishes time and time again. She's been spewing lies for years, she'd built a career on it yet they keep reading her stuff because they have nothing better to do with their lives,"

"And everyone here eats it up," said Saffron bitterly. "Or at least everyone who does is loud about it making it feel like everyone,"

"The only source of comfort I can give you is that it'll pass," Amanda told the two girls softly. "I remember back in my school days, people would talk about one scandal rampantly for a while, then once the next thing came along it was almost forgotten about entirely,"

"But it shouldn't have to be that way with Rita," Hermione said with pure determination. "She's not getting these stories legally. Professor Dumbledore banned her from the grounds and yet she's been able to listen in on private conversations. Either she has perfect sources or she's doing something illegal, and I'm going to find out what it is,"

"I'd urge you to let it rest, Hermione," Amanda said to Hermione carefully. "That woman... I wouldn't put anything past her. If you keep your head down for a while, it'll blow over, that I know for sure,"

Amanda took Hermione's silence as Hermione agreeing with her. However, when Saffron and Hermione left the Hospital Wing, she looked for confirmation from her.

"You're not going to 'let it rest', aren't you not?"

"You know me too well," Hermione grinned at Saffron rather mischievously. "Trust me when I tell you that I'm going to take her down. I don't know how yet, but I won't stop until I expose her for what she really is?"

"And what's that?"

"That's to be determined,"

Hermione lengthened her stride and set off on her warpath against Rita Skeeter. All gloves were off and despite their age gap, Saffron knew who she had her money on to come out victorious.