It Could Have Gone That Way; A Harmione Fanfiction

Chapter 46: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

"And the note from Gabrielle that we're still not allowed to read?"

"That...that note was very kind..." Ron went bright pink,"...and informative...on France. Yeah."

"So we can see it?" Harry asked.

"No."

"She's thirteen!" Hermione cried.

"I'm fifteen!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled out the latest copy of the Daily Prophet from her bag. Harry looked at it, unsure whether he really wanted to know what it might say, but Hermione, seeing him looking at it in such a way, said calmly,"There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking everyday. Just a small piece the day after the third task, saying you'd won the Tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet."

"He'll never keep Rita quiet." Harry grumbled,"Not on a story like this."

"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task." Hermione said in an oddly constrained voice,"As a matter of fact, Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."

Ron blinked,"What're you on about?"

"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming into the grounds." Hermione said in a rush.

Harry got the impression that Hermione had been dying to tell them this for days, but that she had restrained herself for Harry's benefit in the light of everything else that had happened.

"How was she doing it?" Harry asked, suddenly very curious.

"Well it was you, really, who gave me the idea, Harry." She smiled at him gratefully.

"Did I?" Harry asked, perplexed,"How?"

"Bugged." Hermione said happily.

Ron sighed,"I doubt she put those electricky buggy things on you, Hermione."

"Not electronic bugs. No, you see...Rita Skeeter," Hermione's voice trembled with quiet triumph,"is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn-"Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag,"-into a beetle."

The boys gazed at Rita for ages, amazed at Hermione's genius. They made her explain again and again how a beetle tied into all of the situations Rita had overheard. Hermione told them that she had promised Rita she would let her out when they got back to London.

"I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people." Smiling serenely, Hermione placed the jar back into her bag.

"Blimey, Hermione." Harry grinned at her in admiration.

The compartment door slid open.

"Very clever, Granger." Draco Malfoy sneered. His entire posse was behind him - both boys and girls - and they were taking up rather a lot of space, three of the five of them - that meaning Crabbe, Goyle and Millicent - being rather large. "So, you caught some pathetic reporter and Potter's Dumbledore's favourite boy again. Big deal."