Not long after the "wand weighing," an article by Rita Skeeter was published.
The moment I, Ron Weasley, laid eyes on the interview article about Harry, I instantly understood that it was outrageous gossip.
"If my parents could see me now, I'm sure they'd be proud. Yes, even now, sometimes at night, I still think of my parents and tears spill over… but I don't feel ashamed. When I think that my parents are watching over me, courage wells up inside me, no matter how frightening the match may be…"
No. Who even is that?
At the very least, it isn't the Harry I know. For someone else with the same name, the photo looks far too similar, but the Harry Potter who's slept in the bed next to mine for four years since entering Hogwarts does not spend night after night crying over his parents.
And yet, strangely enough, Harry didn't try to deny the article.
"So… in the end, you really are trying to stand out, aren't you?"
I muttered irritably, and Hermione spoke up in a concerned tone. Lately, she's been trying her best to mediate between Harry and me.
"Ron, Harry wants to deny it too. When I saw him yesterday, he was furious. He said that the next time he sees Rita Skeeter, he's going to stuff a Blast-Ended Skrewt larva into that tasteless bag of hers."
I won't deny that I kind of want to see that, but even setting that aside, I could easily imagine that Harry's true feelings were exactly as she said.
"Then he should just do it already."
"…Even if he wants to, he can't."
Hermione's expression turned sorrowful.
"Even Elaina, who knows practically everyone, isn't friends with every single student at this school. Most students haven't even spoken to Harry at all."
To the majority of students, the famous Harry Potter is someone whose name they know, but whose personality and character they don't. He's practically a stranger, and socially speaking, nothing more than a fourteen-year-old child.
"In the end, no matter how much he's the 'Boy Who Lived,' the words of a fourteen-year-old don't carry much weight."
Hermione hit the nail on the head, painfully so.
Even I, who had been closer to Harry than anyone else at this school, hadn't been able to believe in him completely. For students who weren't that close to him, it would be even harder. Compared to the words of a mere fourteen-year-old, it's only natural that they'd believe an article written by adults in the Daily Prophet.
"…What's Harry doing right now?"
"He said he was going to the library to research past Triwizard Tournaments. He thought he might find some clues that could help with the task."
"Was that… because you told him to?"
Hermione shook her head.
"All the champions are doing it. First Elaina, then Krum, after that Cedric, then Fleur, and Harry was last."
"…I see."
No matter how much you complain, the First Task won't wait. Someone as smart as Elaina would understand that, and the model student Diggory would surely follow suit. I don't know Krum or Fleur very well, but anyone chosen as a champion can't be stupid or a coward.
Seeing them, did Harry come to some kind of realization too?
Probably. Even while carrying dissatisfaction and worries, once you're chosen as a champion, you have no choice but to face the task. Somewhere along the line, he must have resolved himself to that.
Before I knew it, my best friend had stretched himself upward and started climbing the stairs to adulthood ahead of me. What should I even call this indescribable feeling that suddenly welled up inside me? Not long ago, we were always together like brothers.
Come to think of it, Hermione has changed too.
The day after Harry was chosen as a champion, she listened to me rant while I was in a foul mood, and she seemed far more mature than before.
Unlike the old days when she'd just wield logic like a weapon to shut people down, she now showed consideration for other people's positions and feelings.
"…What the hell, you two?"
Feeling like I was the only one being left behind, I turned my face away, trying to hide my loneliness.
While walking down the corridor with Hermione on our way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, we passed a group of Slytherins.
They noticed us too, and Malfoy's face lit up as he theatrically began reading aloud from that infamous newspaper article.
"Hey, have you two read this? It says, 'Harry has found love at Hogwarts. According to his close friend Colin Creevey, he is rarely seen apart from a girl known as Hermione Granger, a stunning Muggle-born student and, like Harry, one of the school's top achievers.'"
As Malfoy exaggeratedly taunted us with a dramatic tone, Pansy Parkinson wore a mocking expression.
"Stunning? Her? Compared to what, I wonder. A chipmunk?"
Millicent Bulstrode immediately snorted, and the other Slytherins burst into laughter.
"Chipmunks are cute though. I like them."
"If she actually did her makeup properly, she could be a knockout."
"And get braces for those front teeth, plus some hair care."
"Yeah. Then she'd be perfectly doable."
"Ugh… but she looks like she has a terrible personality!"
Coming from you, that's rich, I shot back at Pansy in my head. And while I'm at it, if we're talking about beautiful girls with nasty personalities, Slytherin probably has more of them. For some reason, opinions like "that's part of the appeal" or "it makes them more fun to chase" have even been increasing in Gryffindor lately.
Still, if you look closely, it seems like the only one who truly hates Hermione is Pansy. The others don't seem that hostile. Their criticism about makeup is intense, but it doesn't feel like baseless nitpicking.
No, no, no… don't be fooled, Ron. They're Slytherins.
Sure, even among Slytherins there are exceptions like Elaina. But that doesn't mean her friends are the same.
As proof, even Daphne Greengrass, who's close with Elaina, was wearing a "Support Cedric Diggory!" badge right there on her casually exposed chest.
While I stared suspiciously at the badge, Daphne suddenly turned toward me, and our eyes met. When she noticed my gaze, she narrowed her green eyes into crescent moons.
"Aww, Ronald, you pervert. You shouldn't stare at me like that."
That's not what I was looking at.
Even so, I reflexively averted my eyes from her chest, only to find Hermione there, wearing an icy expression and looking at me as if I were trash.
"Honestly, boys…"
"Wait, Hermione, this is a very common misunderstanding."
"Oh, spare me."
Unlike with Harry, she didn't believe a word I said. Why not?
"Well, I get how you feel."
The one who threw me a lifeline as I stood completely alone was Blaise Zabini, grinning smugly.
Dark-skinned with well-defined features, long black hair styled into soft waves with wax, a tall, slender build, pierced ears, and a casually disheveled uniform. He's the kind of guy who perfectly fits the phrase "flashy pretty boy."
"But you should read the room, yeah? Staring at another girl's chest right in front of her is a bad move."
"It's not about the situation, Hermione's not my girlfriend, and I wasn't staring at anyone's chest!"
As I desperately denied it, Theodore Nott nodded along in agreement.
He's tall and wiry, with a lean frame, and among the Slytherins, his grades are second only to Elaina's. His dull blond bangs hang low enough to brush his purple eyes, and combined with his constant poker face, he gives off a gloomy, somber impression.
"Exactly, Zabini. It's a prejudice to assume all men automatically like women's chests."
I locked eyes with Nott as he spoke with a straight face.
"It's obviously legs, right?"
What are you even saying? And don't ask for my agreement.
Are these guys actually not bad people, just stupid ones?
Despite my exasperation, there was something oddly refreshing about it. This might be the first time I've had a proper conversation with Slytherins other than Elaina or Malfoy. So this is what Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott are like.
"By the way,"
This time, Millicent spoke up as if she'd just remembered something, turning the conversation toward Hermione.
"There's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while, Granger."
Hermione stiffened slightly, and Millicent asked with obvious curiosity.
"Between Potter and Weasley, which one's your real favorite?"
"…So you're at that age too, I see."
Hermione sighed gloomily at the Slytherin girls, who seemed far more interested in romance than food.
"I'll make this clear. They're both just normal friends. Nothing more, nothing less."
However, the Slytherins didn't seem convinced, and they all started chiming in with more questions.
"Sometimes there are three of you, but you also eat alone together just the two of you, right?"
"Well, I mean…"
When Hermione answered Tracy Davis's question awkwardly, Daphne immediately followed up without missing a beat.
"Then on days off, do you go shopping in Hogsmeade together?"
"We do, but…"
Then it was Pansy Parkinson's turn.
"Birthday and Christmas presents."
"That too…"
"Hooh."
The Slytherins' lips curled into wide, knowing grins, their expressions oddly irritating.
"What is it already?!"
Unable to take it anymore, Hermione shouted, and Malfoy fluttered that familiar newspaper article in front of her.
"Judging by that reaction, Rita's article doesn't seem too far off the mark."
"No, it's nonsense. In the first place, if you're going to believe something like that, then Elaina's article would be…"
That was when Elaina's interview article caught my eye.
To my question, the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts answered with a fearless smile. "I don't feel like I'll lose. This is my home ground, after all. Three consecutive victories from here."
...
...
She really sounds like she's saying something outrageous.
Hermione faltered, momentarily at a loss for words, but then quickly pulled herself together.
"Setting Elaina aside, friendships between boys and girls aren't that rare these days, are they? If you insist that Harry and I are dating, then by that logic, you'd all be dating someone like Malfoy too."
At Hermione's rebuttal, Malfoy's smug grin froze solid. Pansy's lips twitched as if she were debating whether to speak, and from Daphne I could practically hear a "ding" sound effect go off.
"Come to think of it, I used to date Draco, didn't I!"
"Ah, now that you mention it, that did happen… wait, no! Don't lie so smoothly!"
"What? You used to get all shy whenever I said, 'I'm going to marry Draco,' over and over. Don't you remember?"
As Daphne jabbed him repeatedly with her elbow, Malfoy flushed bright red and shot back.
"That was when we were five or six! And besides, you said that to anyone who gave you sweets!"
"That did happen. She said it to you every time we met at social parties."
"I think she even said it to Flint-senpai and Rosier-senpai, didn't she?"
"How nostalgic. Everyone in our year heard it at social parties."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a low voice slipped from Nott's mouth.
"I was never told that even once…"
...
...
...
For some reason, my eyes met Malfoy's, and then Blaise Zabini's as well. Strangely enough, without saying a word, we understood each other perfectly.
"Hey, Nott, um… that kind of thing happens sometimes."
"Cheer up. You're more of a legs guy than a chest guy anyway, right?"
"Besides, including me, most of us were never told that either."
Moved by this sudden spark of something like friendship, we all patted Nott on the shoulder. Male camaraderie can sometimes transcend house boundaries.
"Oh, right. Zabini, didn't you say you're having a drinking party in Hogsmeade with some Hufflepuffs soon?"
Perhaps he was surprisingly considerate, because Malfoy brought up the mixer to Zabini, probably implying that Nott should be invited too. Zabini, however, made a troubled face.
"There is one, yeah, but the girls coming are all after Diggory, and the rest are all polished studs like me. Nott going up against Diggory would be like a lizard trying to challenge a dragon."
Zabini's words made sense, but Nott, perhaps having reached some kind of acceptance, wore a fearless smile.
"Hmph. Don't worry, Zabini. Whether it's Diggory or Krum, I won't fall behind."
"Where does that confidence even come from?"
"When it comes down to it, the Nott family's financial power will roar to life."
I don't know why, but I feel like I'm starting to understand Nott.
"Well… if it's a woman who's weak to money, it's not like there aren't any candidates."
Zabini muttered somewhat halfheartedly.
"Yeah, just off the top of my head…"
If we're talking about girls that come to mind immediately…
"Elaina."
"Elaina, yeah."
"It has to be Elaina."
It seemed everyone was thinking the same thing. But then Daphne, wearing a meaningful expression, held up a hand.
"Ah, Elaina's no good. She's already taken."
As we stared at her in shock, our faces clearly saying, "No way. Elaina?", Daphne spoke confidently.
"It's Krum."
"What?!"
We shouted instinctively, our voices perfectly overlapping with the Slytherins'. Wait, that information hadn't been shared with us?
Satisfied by our reactions, Daphne puffed out her chest proudly and continued.
"Actually, I saw it myself. Not long ago, Elaina was summoned by Headmaster Karkaroff."
According to what Daphne heard from a Durmstrang student, Viktor Krum was also called into the room, and the two of them talked for nearly an hour.
"Honestly, no matter how you look at it, Headmaster Karkaroff is clearly trying to set those two up!"
Is that really the case?
Daphne seemed oddly confident, but the rest of us, myself included, were skeptical.
It's true that lately, you don't see Elaina much during her free time. But that's probably because she's preparing various strategies for the tournament, and that likely includes things like scouting Durmstrang.
Just as I was thinking that, Zabini said something outrageous.
"Isn't Krum actually into Granger?"
What?
"I heard this from Yuffie-senpai, but apparently whenever he's in the library, Granger's almost always there too."
...
...
...
We all froze at once. Then Pansy, Millicent, and the others stared at us with looks that clearly said, "So, what's the truth?"
Hermione and I exchanged glances, then turned back toward the Slytherins.
"No, no, no, no!" "Ow?!"
I denied it with all my strength, and for some reason, Hermione smacked me. The world is seriously unfair.
"I've never even talked to him once."
"Love at first sight happens, you know."
"But there are cuter girls around. Fleur, or Elaina…" Ah.
"See? In the end, you came back to Elaina."
Daphne looked smug, as if to say, "Told you so."
"…If you're going that far, you have proof, right?"
Malfoy asked suspiciously. Still wearing a confident smile, Daphne beckoned everyone closer.
"Actually, just between us…"
Then she dropped another bombshell.
"Tonight, Elaina and Krum are supposedly meeting secretly in the Forbidden Forest!"
(End of chapter)
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