Jupiter | Harry James Potter

lii ; skeeter's sabotage

A/N
kinda a filler sorry but promise next chapter will make up for it...

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I know it may seem hard to understand and slightly irrational, but as much as I burned for Harry, I still wanted to be with Cedric. Sirius' words were engraved into my mind, and I knew he was right, but my situation was different. I wasn't just using him in a game to get over Harry or make him jealous, I was with him because I genuinely fancied him.

But Sirius' words lingered within my mind as I stared at Harry from across the table at breakfast the next day. I watched how he ran his hands through his hair every time someone mentioned the tournament next to us. I had to bite my bottom lip and look away from the sight as I found myself longing to do it instead.

I silently cursed myself for this as I struggled to keep my eyes off of him. His tired and puffy eyes still seemed mesmerizing behind his glasses, which were sitting crookedly on his nose. I wanted to reach out and fix them for him, but at least I could control that part of my impulses.

I wouldn't let Harry flirt with me, out of respect to my promise I made to myself, and for Cedric. Even if Sirius was right and I did hold a similar feeling to Harry like he thought, it didn't matter. Cedric was my life, and it was going to stay that way.

Before I could get anymore lost in my thoughts, I was bombarded by a flood of owls landing on the table in front of Hermione and I.

"What on earth-?" Hermione sputtered, taking the letter from the gray owl in front of her, opening it, and starting to read. "Oh really!"

I grabbed a small brown envelope from the owl in front of me, and tore it open. There was only one word on it, and it read: 'Cheater.'

"What's up?" Ron asked as I stared at the letter, my mouth falling open. I felt tears begin to well in my eyes every time I re-read the word.

"You are a wicked girl. The champions deserve better. Go back to where you came from, Muggle." Hermione read out loud, then screamed. Yellowish-green liquid smelling strongly of petrol gushed over her hands, which began to erupt in large yellow boils.

At the same moment, I felt a flicker of heat light up against my hands. The letter had burst into flames. Chaos broke out amongst the Gryffindor table as I threw the letter down onto the table and it began to catch onto the wood, then light the over-flowing pus as well.

George, who was sitting near by, shot a burst of water at the growing flames, which barely had an affect. The smell from the burning pus quickly flooded the hall, causing everyone to start gagging and hurrying away from our table.

Suddenly, and definitely not do to the water being shot at it, the fire went out and left a cloud of grey smoke floating towards the ceiling. Professor Snape stood behind me, looking incredibly unamused with his wand in his hand.

"Party tricks are not tolerated at breakfast, Miss Black. Ten points from Gryffindor."

"But-"

"Twenty." He snapped, glaring down at me with a blank expression. "Now clean it up." He turned on his heel and walked back towards the teachers table, his black robe flowing behind him majestically.

"It wasn't my fault!" I groaned, falling back into my seat. The letter sat on top of the charred table, perfectly untouched. I quickly grabbed it and crinkled it up then shoved it in my pocket.

"You think Snape cares?" Harry scoffed angrily. "He just wanted to make us lose points! We were in first!"

"Is that bubotuber pus?" Ron asked, sniffing the putrid air.