black and white ✰ g.w.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Unexpectedly, Olivia was in a very good mood the next morning as she sat next to George in the Great Hall and ate her breakfast. She hadn't felt this good since she got her O.W.L exam results back. All felt well again. Harry had gotten through the first task with nothing but a scratch, her classes were going well, the other Houses weren't being nearly as hostile anymore, and she had had a wonderful night spent with her crush. She couldn't see anything going wrong in the near future, so when Alicia muttered an "oh my" while reading through her copy of the Daily Prophet, she immediately became anxious.

"'Oh my'? What's 'oh my'?" Angelina asked.

Without saying a word, Alicia handed the paper to Angelina. Angelina only read the article in front of her for a moment before making a face and handing it to Fred. He and George exchanged looks and read through the article.

"Skeeter strikes again," Fred sighed.

"Let me see," Olivia said, holding her hand out for the newspaper. Fred slid the paper down the table and Olivia grabbed it and quickly skimmed through it.

It was the most bizarre newspaper article she had ever read. It was about Harry, Hermione, and Arabella, and it strongly implied that the three fourth-years were in a twisted love triangle. Towards the end, there were claims that Arabella had attempted to attack Rita Skeeter, the writer of the article, and that Hermione had a thing with Viktor. There were two photos featured: one with Harry, Hermione, and Arabella hugging, and another where Arabella was yelling, clearly furious about something.

"This cannot possibly be factual. I mean, it has to be a joke," Olivia said, knowing good and well that it wasn't.

"Not a joke, but not factual, either," George said. "You know who Rita Skeeter is?"

"Of course I know who she is, she's a lunatic, but I never thought she would stoop so low as to make up complete lies about some fourteen-year-olds."

"That woman will do anything if it means people will read her articles," Fred said. "And it's not the first time she's made a member of our family look bad, either."

"Are we sure that Bella and Harry don't at least fancy each other, though?" Alicia asked. "They have been spending a lot of time together recently."

"Oh, we're sure. It'd be obvious if they felt that way about each other. Harry stays with us all the time. We'd notice something, just like we did with Ginny."

"Yeah, I bet Ginny'd love to 'share a celebratory kiss' with Harry," George said, quoting the article. He and Fred sniggered.

"What about Hermione?" Alicia asked.

"I seriously doubt Hermione fancies Harry," Olivia said.

"Oh, she definitely doesn't," George agreed. "Ron would have a jealous fit and refuse to talk to either of them if that were the case."

"So none of this is true?" Angelina asked.

"Not a word," Fred confirmed. "Well, that part about Bella trying to kill Rita might have some fact in it, but that's probably super overexaggerated."

"Bella's definitely going to try to kill someone though when she sees this," George said. "Our parents get the Prophet. Dad'll know better, but Mum's going to believe it."