Go Lightly ━ Harry Potter (1)

viii. Morning Glory

       "I look decent in the picture! Fuck yes!"

       Pansy laughs. She moves her hand, so that Holly can unfold the newspaper, revealing the article underneath.

       Everyone was shocked when the Goblet of Fire announced that there would be two extra champions during the current Triwizard Tournament, the revival of an old contest joining wizarding schools Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Beauxbatons Academy, and Durmstrang Institute. Normally, there is one champion per school — however, this time, Hogwarts has mysteriously acquired another two. We all know the name Harry Potter, the boy who lived, but the champion is unknown to most of us: Holliday Lippincott.

       Many of us know about her mother, Margo Valen, one of the many Death Eaters imprisoned in Azkaban. But, Holliday — nicknamed Holly by her friends ("Nicknamed Holly by anyone who doesn't want to live at the bottom of a well") — was raised by her father, an American wizard called Augustus Lippincott. "My parents had a fling, and they went separate ways afterwards, but since it was safer for my father to raise me, that's what they decided," says young Holliday Lippincott, upon the mention of her family.

       The event she is referring to is the event on the twenty-fifth of September 1980, when Margo Valen and husband Atticus Malfoy were arrested on their wedding night, and sent to prison the following day. Holliday Lippincott looks to the side when this is mentioned, her eyes glistening lightly with the tragedy of the past. ("Why would I be upset? What?")

       I, the enchanting Rita Skeeter, move the conversation onto a happier subject: the Triwizard Tournament. "Of course I am looking forward to it," says Holliday, smiling ambitiously. ("How the fuck do you smile ambitiously?") "I think it's going to be fun, especially as a way to learn new spells and such."

       Holliday informs me of her academic past: she went to Durmstrang Institute until this school year, where she transferred to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and was promptly sorted into Slytherin. "I've made a lot of great friends whilst being here," she says. "My cousin's friends quickly welcomed me, which has been wonderful."

       Already, Holliday has become a loved member of Slytherin house. "We're all supporting her in the tournament," says best friend, Pansy Parkinson.

       Holly looks up, grinning still. "Hey, it's you!"

       "Yeah, she was looking for people to interview, and it was either me or Harlow, and she'd say you were in love with Harlow, which isn't exactly what we're going for."

       Holly puts her hand on her heart. "I love you, so, so much."

       "Obviously our Holly's going to do well! You haven't seen her in lessons — she knows all of the answers, plus she's quick... She's everything you'd want a champion to be."

       Everything you'd want a champion to be. Could underdog Holliday Lippincott rise through the ranks, and beat the champions older than her, or even the Boy Who Lived? Only time will tell.

       Although Holly continues to grin and hold onto Pansy, excitedly bouncing up and down as she does so, one thing in the article repeats itself in her brain. The tragedy of her past. She doesn't know if it is her tragedy. She may be a part of it, but that tragedy is not about her, it's about a girl a little older than she is, with ice-blonde hair and ambition in her bloodstream. It's about a girl named Margo Valen, who — she doesn't know what happened, she just knows the ending. Her mother tried to get out, because of her, and the opposite occurred.