²𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 ─ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲

𝟷𝟼 || 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜

'They have seemed quite fond of one another since the kiss," says Cho Chang, a well-respected fifth-year student in Ravenclaw. 'Inseparable actually. Matilda's rarely seen in the Ravenclaw common room or even the dormitories anymore."

Perhaps love is in the air for these two?

"I told you guys!" Ron hissed at Hermione, as she stared down at the article. "I told you two not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made both of you out to be some sort of – of scarlet woman!"

Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter.

"Scarlet woman?" she repeated, shaking with suppressed giggles as she looked around at Ron.

"It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered, his ears going red again.

"Would you two shut up about it already," Matilda hushed them. "The lessons began."

Neither of them listened or cared to listen to Matilda though.

"There's something funny, though," said Hermione ten minutes later, holding her pestle suspended over a bowl of scarab beetles. "How could Rita Skeeter have known ...?"

"Known what?" said Ron quickly. "That Tilly and Harry kissed? Quite easy, Cho told her."

Matilda had expected Ron to sound angry, but his tone was more disappointed – he sounded let down. Her stomach dropped and she continued pound beetles.

"No, Ron," said Hermione, her tone snappy. "No, it's just... how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?"

Hermione blushed scarlet as she said this.

"He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake," Hermione muttered. "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to –"

"Maybe she interviewed Krum?" Ron suggested using his pestle to grin his beetles.

"And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went on, going so red now that Matilda could almost feel the heat coming from her, "but how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She wasn't there... or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak, maybe she sneaked into the grounds to watch the second task..."

"Well, maybe you should quiet down," Matilda once again scolded them.

Once again Hermione was too invested in her own story now to listen, and so she continued.

"I didn't get to give him an answer; I was too busy seeing whether you and Harry were alright too –"

"Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is, Miss Granger," said an icy voice right behind them, "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor."

Matilda's face scrunched up showing a mixture of disgust and annoyance as Snape walked up from behind them at the back table. Hermione had been in such deep thought that she hadn't even noticed him approaching their table.

The entire class was now looking back at their table. Malfoy even used this opportunity to flash his POTTER STINKS across the dungeon at Harry. Matilda was livid. All she had wanted to do was finish this class and forget about the words Rita Skeeter had written. Though she would be talking to Cho Change about her loose lips.

But she wasn't angry. People knowing that she kissed Harry was no bother to her like people would have believed. She wasn't going to cause a scene over it because the kiss was just something that happened. She didn't regret it and it wasn't like she was fussing over it everyday. She and Harry had already talked about it, the situation was fine.