Chapter 10: Very Bad days
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. IT BELONGS TO JK ROWLING.
A/N: Read, enjoy, and remember not to take either life or my writing too seriously.
Ginny Weasley was having a terrible morning—possibly the worst morning she had experienced in a very long time.
Her life had taken a disastrous turn a few days earlier when Harry Potter had kissed Hermione Granger right in front of the entire Great Hall.
How could Hermione betray her like that?
Hermione was supposed to be her friend. And Hermione knew perfectly well that Harry belonged to Ginny. It was simply a matter of time before Harry finally realized it himself.
Eventually Ginny had managed to calm down. After all, surely Harry would eventually recognize that he could do far better than that bushy-haired bookworm with the oversized front teeth.
Her temporary peace lasted until the previous evening.
Hermione had appeared with perfectly straight teeth.
Perfect.
And she had tried to brush it off with some weak explanation about Draco Malfoy casting a spell on her.
Ginny wasn't fooled for a second.
In Ginny's mind the truth was obvious: Hermione was doing everything possible to make herself more attractive just to keep Harry away from her.
Ginny had spent the entire night boiling with anger.
Eventually she reached a conclusion.
She needed to do something about this situation.
That morning she confronted the know-it-all directly and made it very clear that Harry Potter belonged to her.
Unfortunately, that conversation had not gone the way Ginny expected.
At one point she had pulled out her wand, intending to unleash her famous Bat-Bogey Hex on Hermione.
But she had forgotten one crucial detail.
Hermione Granger was much quicker—and much smarter.
While Ginny had been ranting, Hermione had already slipped her own wand into her hand, clearly expecting something like this to happen.
The moment Ginny reached for her wand, Hermione reacted.
Seconds later Ginny was standing there with a stinging hex burning across her hand and a massive pimple growing directly between her eyebrows.
Her morning had continued downhill from there.
At breakfast she had to listen to her idiot brother complaining endlessly about the newspaper article.
Ginny clenched her fists.
Tonight, she thought angrily.
Tonight I'll show that know-it-all exactly who Harry Potter belongs to.
Elsewhere
Far away, another individual was also having a miserable morning.
An extremely miserable one.
Lord Voldemort had begun the day in relatively good spirits—aside from the unpleasant necessity of drinking snake-venom potion.
While Peter Pettigrew read aloud from the newspaper article describing the Triwizard Tournament, the Dark Lord entertained himself with pleasant thoughts.
He imagined his return to full power.
He imagined gaining a new body using Harry Potter's blood.
And he imagined slowly torturing the boy who had caused him so much trouble years earlier.
The fantasy was quite enjoyable.
So enjoyable that Voldemort almost failed to hear the final lines of the article.
But the words slipped into his awareness anyway.
They slowly pushed their way into his thoughts.
Then the realization hit him.
"TOM WEASLEY?" Voldemort shrieked in his high, thin voice.
He turned sharply toward Pettigrew.
"Wormtail… who is this Tom Weasley?"
The rat-faced man froze.
"I… I don't know, my Lord," he stammered. "I spent years living with Arthur Weasley's family, but I've never heard that name before."
Voldemort's red eyes narrowed.
"CRUCIO!"
Pettigrew collapsed instantly, screaming as the curse twisted his body in agony.
For nearly a full minute Voldemort simply watched, enjoying the sound of his servant's suffering.
Finally he lifted the curse.
"Send a message to Crouch," Voldemort said coldly.
"I expect Harry Potter to arrive at the graveyard exactly as planned. There will be no excuses."
He paused.
"And instruct him to discover everything he can about this… Tom Weasley."
"Yes, Master," Pettigrew whispered weakly before scrambling from the room.
Somewhere over England
Another creature was also having a dreadful morning.
A very long, exhausting morning.
Errol—the Weasley family owl—had known the day would be unpleasant the moment he heard Molly Weasley screaming after reading the morning newspaper.
Errol had heard that tone many times before.
And it always meant the same thing.
Another delivery to Hogwarts.
Do they realize how far away that school is? Errol grumbled internally.
It's practically at the other end of the entire island!
Wizards might be able to appear anywhere they pleased in an instant.
But owls had to fly.
And Scotland was a long way from home.
Errol remembered the good old days when deliveries were occasional.
Then the twins arrived at Hogwarts.
Then Ron.
Now he was flying across the country every week.
Even summers weren't peaceful anymore since that ridiculous hyperactive owl Pigwidgeon had appeared.
Errol heard Molly shouting again as she tied a red envelope to his leg.
A Howler.
Naturally.
With a tired sigh Errol launched into the air.
Three hours into the flight something unexpected happened.
The string holding the Howler began slipping loose.
Normally Errol would have grabbed the envelope in his beak and carried it the rest of the way.
But today he was tired.
Very tired.
The knot loosened further.
The envelope dropped.
It landed deep within a forest near a small camping area.
The Howler waited patiently for someone to open it.
When no one did, it activated automatically.
Molly Weasley's furious voice erupted through the forest before the envelope exploded into fragments.
The explosion accidentally ignited a small fire.
It was quickly contained.
Later witnesses could only report that they heard a woman shouting something about tournaments and weasels.
The investigation into the strange fire was never solved.
Meanwhile Errol had already landed nearby.
After catching a fat rodent for lunch he curled up and fell asleep.
For the first time in weeks he was not flying across the country.
Later that night he discovered something else pleasant.
Another owl lived nearby.
And she was rather attractive.
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Thank you for reading!
See you in the next chapter ✨
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