Vengeance| Harry Potter

eight. not-so-sweet dreams

Perhaps it was the fatigue coroding the rational part of her mind, but Viola— before she could stop herself— said, "If you've got something to say, don't be shy."

Parvati went into a fit of giggles as Lavender smirked, though her cheeks turned pink. "Oh, nothing..." she said, "just that you've been in a lot of Daily Prophet articles recently. Well... you and Harry. Have you seen them?"

"You mean the ones making me out to be a liar?" Viola retorted. "Yeah, might've spotted a couple."

Lavender giggled. "Well, they're telling the truth, aren't they? It's obvious that he's not really back. I mean... everything you've said has been a bit... um... fake."

Hermione scoffed; Viola had almost forgot she was still there, half expecting her to have gone down to meet Ron and Harry already. "Keep your big mouth shut about them. They're telling the truth— not that you'd know much about that when all you care about is gossip."

She pursed her lips before Lavender could respond, then said, "Come on, Viola," and led the way to the door, down to the common room.

"Thanks," Viola muttered as they descended the stairs.

"It's rubbish," said Hermione. "If they had a shred of awareness they'd see what's really dancing around right in front of their noses. The amount of evidence!"

Viola was glad for Hermione's unrestrained rambling as she followed after her. She was not in much of a mood for talking, and Hermione seemed to have enough in her for the both of them.

They waited for about five minutes when Ron and Harry finally came down the stairs from the boys' dormitories, the latter looking miserable, the former uncomfortable.

''What's the matter?" Hermione asked them as she and Viola vacated their waiting spot next to the fire. "You look absolutely— oh for heaven's sake."

She was staring up at the notice board, where a vividly bright sign had been posted. It was Fred and George's doing, an advertisement for some sort of job they wanted done.

"They are the limit!" Hermione said angrily, pulling the sign down. "We'll have to talk to them, Ron."

"Why?" he questioned.

"Because we're prefects! It's up to us to stop this kind of thing!"

Ron looked unhappy as they stepped through the portrait hole; clearly he was not as confident in this new role as Hermione.

"Anyway, what's up, Harry?" Hermione asked after Ron said nothing. "You look really angry about something."

"Seamus reckons Harry's lying about You-Know-Who," explained Ron.

Hermione sighed. "Yes, Lavender thinks so too."

"Been having a nice little chat about whether or not I'm a lying, attention-seeking prat, have you?" said Harry.

"Actually, she stuck up for you... us," said Viola. "In case you haven't noticed, whoever's calling you a liar feels the same way about me."

"Exactly," said Hermione calmly, "and it would be quite nice if you stopped jumping down our throats, Harry, because if you haven't noticed, we're on your side."