Miss Quinn

109 ~ The Letters

The morning after Emma's attack, Madam Pomfrey finally let her leave the hospital wing. Emma went up to her dormitory to freshen up and get her school bag. Venus and Hermione were the only ones left in the dormitory when Emma arrived.

Venus hugged her, and whispered into her ear that she'd cleaned up all the blood and dumped the snake out the window before anyone saw. Emma thanked her.

"How is it that you and Harry are always getting attacked?" asked Hermione, giving Emma a hug as well.

"Not sure," said Emma. "How much did I miss yesterday?"

Hermione didn't miss a beat. She rattled off a tale of how she, Harry, and Ron had gone down to the kitchens to see Dobby, and had found Winky in bad shape. Hermione started talking about S.P.E.W. again, and said she was furious at the boys for not being on her side. Then she told Emma about the letter they'd sent to Ron's brother Percy asking if he'd seen Mr. Crouch lately, because apparently no one had. She suspected Mr. Crouch was hiding something, because Winky had talked about some sort of secret. Emma hardly got a word in through Hermione's whole spiel.

"That's all interesting and everything, but I was asking about the classwork I missed," said Emma when Hermione had finally finished.

"Oh!" said Hermione as the three girls started down the stairs. "Not much, but you'll want to see Professor McGonagall about the essay, and Professor Snape about the potion we made."

Emma said she'd talk to McGonagall, but that Snape would probably excuse her from the potion. It was probably one she'd already made, anyway.

The girls met up with Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, and Neville in the common room and went down to breakfast. Emma received 'Glad you're well's from all the boys, and she thanked them all. They sat down at the Gryffindor table and began eating. Emma was starving, as the only food she'd had the day before was the dinner Madam Pomfrey brought for her.

When the post owls arrived, Hermione looked up eagerly; she seemed to be expecting something.

"Percy won't've had time to answer yet," said Ron. "We only sent Hedwig yesterday."

"No, it's not that," said Hermione. "I've taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet. I'm getting sick of finding everything out from the Slytherins."

"Good thinking!" said Emma, glancing at the slytherin table.

"Hey, Hermione," said Harry, "I think you're in luck --"

A gray owl was soaring down toward Hermione.

"It hasn't got a newspaper, though," she said, looking disappointed. "It's --"

But to her bewilderment, the gray owl landed in front of her plate, closely followed by four barn owls, a brown owl, and a tawny.

"How many subscriptions did you take out?" said Harry, seizing Hermione's goblet before it was knocked over by the cluster of owls, all of whom were jostling close to her, trying to deliver their own letter first.

"What on earth -- ?" Hermione said, taking the letter from the gray owl, opening it, and starting to read. "Oh really!" she sputtered, going rather red.

"What's up?" said Ron.

"It's -- oh how ridiculous --"

She thrust the letter at Emma, who saw that it was not handwritten, but composed from pasted letters that seemed to have been cut out of the Daily Prophet.

YOU ARE A WICKED GIRL. HARRY POTTER DESERVES BETTER. GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM MUGGLE.

"They're all like it!" said Hermione desperately, opening one letter after another. "'Harry Potter can do much better than the likes of you....' 'You deserve to be boiled in frog spawn....' Ouch!"