Daughter of Mine | Harry Potter

XXVI.

"What?" said Harry. "Rita Skeeter again?"

"No," said Ron, in an entirely unconvincing tone.

But before Harry could demand to see the paper, Draco Malfoy shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? You feeling all right? Sure you're not going to go berserk on us?"

In Malfoy's hand was a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Let me see it," Harry said to Ron. "Give it here."

Very reluctantly, Ron handed over the newspaper. Harry found a picture of himself and a headline that read:

HARRY POTTER "DISRURBED AND DANGEROUS"

The story covered his scar causing him pain in Divination, and a quote from Draco about him being able to speak Parseltoungue.

"Gone off me a bit, hasn't she?" said Harry lightly, folding up the paper.

Harry ignored Malfoy and his followers faces they were making at him.

"How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?" Ron said. "There's no way she was there, there's no way she could've heard -"

"The window was open," said Harry. "I opened it to breathe."

"You were at the top of the North Tower!" Hermione said. "Your voice couldn't have carried all the way down to the grounds!"

"Well, you're the one who's supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging!" said Harry. "You tell me how she did it!"

"I've been trying!" said Hermione. "But I ... but ..."

An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hermione's face. She slowly raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Are you all right?" said Ron, frowning at her.

"Yes," said Hermione breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth, as though speaking into an invisible walkie-talkie. Harry and Ron stared at each other.

"I've had an idea," Hermione said, gazing into space. "I think I know ... because then no one would be able to see ... even Moody ... but she's not allowed ... she's definitely not allowed ... I just think we've got her! Just give me two seconds in the library - just to make sure!"

With that, Hermione seized her school bag and dashed out of the Great Hall.

"Oi!" Ron called after her. "We've got our History of Magic exam in ten minutes! Blimey," he said, turning back to Harry, "she must really hate that Skeeter woman to risk missing that start of an exam. What're you going to do in Binn's class - read again?"

Exempt from the end-of-term tests as a Triwizard champion, Harry has been sitting in the back of every exam class so far, looking up fresh hexes for the third task.

"S'pose so," Harry said to Ron, glancing at the Ravenclaw table.

"Have you seen Lalia?" He asked Ron. "I haven't seen her come in yet."

Ron glanced around the Great Hall.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her since last night."

Harry began looking around for Ginny or Lalia's Ravenclaw friends.

"She's probably fine, Harry. Studying last minute no doubt."

"No. No. She promised me she would eat with us."

Harry caught sight of a worried Ginny leaving Morag and Sue at the Ravenclaw table. He waved the girl over and she headed straight to him.

"Where's Lalia?" He asked quickly when she was close enough for the conversation to be semi private.