Window into the Past

🌙69🌙

"Is he still doing it?" I asked Hermione. "Unfortunately," she groaned. Ron was telling all the girls how he got 'kidnapped' by the teachers in order to take part in the task.

I poured milk on my cereal and noticed a soft glow out of the corner of my eye. "Huh?" I frowned.

I pulled out my notebook and I saw a message from Sirius. I handed the notebook to Harry. "He wants us to meet on Saturday at two, and bring food," Harry told us. "If my dad asks about the notebook, I'm throwing him under the bus," I said, spooning cereal into my mouth. "Jones!" Malfoy walked over to me. "Happy Birthday!"

He put a copy of Witch Weekly in front of me and walked away. "It's not even my birthday!" I shouted after him. "Why would he give me this?"

I opened the magazine and found a page folded down. I turned to that page and widened my eyes. "Oh, shit."

"What?" Harry asked me. "Harry Potter's Secret Heartache," I read aloud. "Oh, come on!" he complained.

"According to this..you're dating Hermione and she's been leading you and Krum on and guess who wrote it," I grumbled. "Oh, not her!" Hermione groaned. "Ding ding ding, we have a winner," I quipped, handing her the magazine. "I told you not to piss her off!" Ron exclaimed. "Now look what she did!"

"How did she know? About Viktor asking me to visit during the summer? He only asked me after he pulled me out of the lake, Skeeter wasn't there."

"And about Hagrid too," Harry added. "She must have an invisibility cloak or something."

***

"Reading magazines under the table? Ten points from Gryffindor," Snape sneered at us, snatching it from me. "Of course, Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings." Snape started reading it aloud, much to our dismay, embarrassing both Harry and Hermione.

"I'd better separate you four, so you can focus on potions rather than your love lives, Weasley, you can stay here, Jones, over there, Granger, over there, Potter, up to the front," Snape ordered.

I gathered my stuff and shuffled next to a Slytherin girl. "Sorry," I muttered as I accidentally bumped her shoulder. "It's fine," she told me. "Snape's a real prick to you and your friends."

"Tell me about it," I muttered under my breath. "He's bullying Potter right now," she motioned towards the front of the classroom. "I'm Daphne Greengrass by the way, we never talked much."

"Nice to meet you," I smiled. "Ignore Malfoy, he's a douche," she whispered to me as Malfoy displayed his 'Potter Stinks' badge."I heard you punched him on the first day, was it a jab or right hook?"

Not all Slytherins are evil gits. "Right hook," I told her.

There was a knock on the dungeon door. "Enter!" Snape called out. Karkaroff came in, surprising most of us. "We need to talk," he grumbled. "I'm in the middle of a lesson, come back later," Snape told him.

"No! I want to talk now, so you can't slip away, Severus, you've been avoiding me!" Karakaroff snapped at him. "Is he not aware that we can all hear him?" Daphne whispered to me. "I don't think he cares," I whispered back.

"After the lesson!" Snape barked at him.

***

The four of us waited where Sirius told us to. I found him in his Animagus form with a newspaper in his mouth. "You do realise Tia and Dad are going to kill you right?"

I know, I know.

"Especially Dad, when he finds out that he didn't lose the notebook and that you stole it," I grumbled.