Rory headed to breakfast with Harry, Ron and Hermione the twins both still fast asleep. Ron's fear that the house-elves would send substandard food up to the Gryffindor table because Hermione had insulted them proved false; the bacon, eggs, and kippers were quite as good as usual. When the post owls arrived, Hermione looked up eagerly; she seemed to be expecting something.
"Percy won't've had time to answer yet," Ron said. "We only sent Hedwig yesterday." they had decided to write to Percy for any information about Crouch.
"No, it's not that," Hermione said. "I've taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet. I'm getting sick of finding everything out from the Slytherins."
"Good thinking!" Harry said, also looking up at the owls. "Hey, Hermione, I think you're in luck" A grey owl was soaring down toward Hermione.
"It hasn't got a newspaper, though," she said, looking disappointed. "It's -" But to her bewilderment, the grey 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?" Harry said, 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 grey owl, opening it, and starting to read. "Oh really!" she sputtered, going rather red.
"What's up?" Ron said. "It's - oh how ridiculous -" She thrust the letter at Harry, 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.
"Hate mail" Sirius says trying not to smile.
"They're all like it!" Hermione said 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!" She had opened the last envelope, and yellowish-green liquid smelling strongly of petrol gushed over her hands, which began to erupt in large yellow boils.
"Undiluted bubotuber pus!" Ron said, picking up the envelope gingerly and sniffing it.
"Ow!" Hermione said, tears starting in her eyes as she tried to rub the pus off her hands with a napkin, but her fingers were now so thickly covered in painful sores that it looked as though she were wearing a pair of thick, knobbly gloves.
The hall fills with winces.
"You'd better get up to the hospital wing," Harry said as the owls around Hermione took flight. "We'll tell Professor Sprout where you've gone "
"Come on Hermione I'll walk you" Rory says standing up leaving her plate of food still untouched.
"You left your food when people were distracted" Hermione says looking at Rory.
"I used peoples distractions to hide things a lot"
"Thank you Rory" she says through tears.
"Aww has Potter dumped you" They see Pansy standing there laughing.
"Why don't you just shut up" Rory spits out.
"Oh didn't see you there under that hideous scar. Moved on to the final Weasley boy now. I mean I thought he'd be a bit young for you but guess you can't afford to be picky can you" Rory ignores her comment, placing her hand under her sleeve.
"Rory" Regulus looks at her.
"Yeah"
"Can you burn yourself?" Everyone looks between the screen and Rory realising.
"I can" She says looking down at the floor.
"You didn't" Sirius looks at her with sadness in his eyes having done a similar thing.
"I did" She whispers as James wraps her in a hug.
"Hey Harry" He looked up from where he was sat with Hermione and Ron in the common room to see Fred and George.
"Hi"
"You seen Rory" The look at him concern on both their faces.
"Not since this morning"
"Alright if you see her let us know" They then head out of the common room as Harry turns back to Ron and Hermione.
"What's going on with Rory at the moment" Hermione asks looking at Harry who shrugs.
"How stupid can you be, it's pretty obvious those twins are concerned yet you didn't think anything of it" Regulus says looking at Rory and Sirius.
Hermione continued to receive hate letters for weeks and eventually stopped opening them. The whispering about Rory continued along with the taunting of the Slytherins. She'd pulled away from the twins barely speaking or spending time with them opting to just hang out in her dorm alone. The end of the Easter holidays was coming around far to fast meaning back to lessons and being able to avoid people less for her. The rumours around Hermione seemed to have nearly stopped but Rory's were still in full swing as she walked through the corridors heading towards the forbidden forest with her head down hoping to not get noticed.
"Rory" Fred called as she tried to ignore him but he grabbed her turning her to face him.
"Oh hey Fred. Where's George?"
"Detention" he says as he guides her towards one of the secret corridors to Hogsmeade.
"Fred I was kinda in the middle of going somewhere"
"The forest. I know that's where you go so does George. This isn't healthy, shutting yourself away this is what you did last time and we've let it go on too long"
"I'm not shutting myself away. I've just been busy with homework and things"
"Molly I'll say it again, I'm spoiling those twins" James said smiling at Molly.
"You don't do homework. Plus Charlie wrote to us. You haven't been writing to him and he's worried. You never shut him out that's how we know it's time to step in"
"I have been talking to Charlie"
"Yeah 2 words every so often isn't really talking is it Rory. When was the last time you spoke to Remus or Sirius. Hell you won't even talk to me and George and we're your best friends" he continues to lead her further down the corridor until they reach Hogsmeade.
"What are we doing here Fred"
"You won't talk to me. But you'll talk to him" he points at the person leaning against a wall. "Charlie" his head snaps up to look at them.
"Charlie" Marlene says nearly cheering.
"Hey Fred thanks for the letter" he says walking over to them. Rory walks straight into him wrapping her arms around him as he does the same.
"I actually approve of this boy" Sirius says as James nods in agreement. Rory just buries her face in Remus's side as he wraps his arms around her.
"Help her. I'll see you later Rory" Fred says as he walks away leaving Rory with Charlie.
"What are you doing here" Rory mutters.
"You needed me" he says holding her at arms length so he can examine her properly.
"I'm fine Charlie. You shouldn't of come"
"Not fine"
"Others might believe you but I know you Nova" he looks at her "I read the article"
"I swear I don't feel that way about any of your brothers" She says quickly.
"I know that. Did you really think I believed what she'd wrote?" She nods slightly "Nova"
"I'm sorry" She whispers.
"Hey you don't need to be sorry"
"I do Charlie. I shut everyone out including you"
"Nova look at me" Her eyes meet his "talk to me please"
"I'm really struggling Charlie. The whispers, the stares it's too much and I'm struggling. I constantly feel like I can't breathe and that I'm weak"
"Oh Rory" James says looking at his daughter before looking at Lily.
"I've managed to find a way to deal with it but it's not healthy and I don't want to hide it from you or do it anymore but I don't know how to stop"
"Come on you can tell me anything"
"The only way I've been able to stop the emotional pain I've been feeling is by replacing it with physical pain" She glances down at her hands as he places a hand on her chin making her look at him.
"Show me please" She slowly takes off her jacket before pulling the sleeves up of her hoody revealing the burnt handprint scars.
"Oh my god" Lily says, tears in her eyes. James puts his head in his hands feeling like he failed his daughter. Remus hugs Rory tighter.
"Nova that won't help" he runs a hand over them gently. "These all look old does that mean you've managed to stop?" She shakes her head lifting her top slightly to reveal the latest ones on her stomach. "Shit Nova"
"I know I'm sorry I know I shouldn't but it was the only way I could get the pain to stop" he pulls her to him.
"Shhhh it's going to be okay, I'm here Nova"
"They're on my legs as well" She whispers knowing he heard "they started off small and I realised how much it helped and it just got worse and I want to stop but I can't when I can't go anywhere without someone staring at me or whispering about me"
"Please tell me that's the worse it gets" Euphemia says looking at her granddaughter who just shakes her head before cuddling back into Remus.
On the morning of June the twenty-fourth breakfast was a very noisy affair at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the third task. A screech owl arrived for Hermione, carrying her morning copy of the Daily Prophet as usual. She unfolded the paper, glanced at the front page, and spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice all over it.
"What?" Harry and Ron said together, staring at her whilst Rory just pushes food around her plate.
"Nothing," Hermione said quickly, trying to shove the paper out of sight, but Ron grabbed it. He stared at the headline and said,
"No way. Not today. That old cow."
"What?" Harry said. "Rita Skeeter again?"
"She better not of written anything else about my daughter" James says glaring at the screen.
"No," Ron said, and just like Hermione, he attempted to push the paper out of sight.
"It's about me, isn't it?" Harry said.
"No," Ron said, in an entirely unconvincing tone. But before Harry could demand to see the paper Draco Malfoy shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table.
"Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? You feeling all right? Sure you're not going to go berserk on us?" Rory's head snapped up to look over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet too. Slytherins up and down the table were sniggering, twisting in their seats to see Harry's reaction.
"Let me see it," Harry said to Ron. "Give it here." Very reluctantly, Ron handed over the newspaper. Harry turned it over and found himself staring at his own picture, beneath the banner headline:
'HARRY POTTER DISTURBED AND DANGEROUS'
The boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is unstable and possibly dangerous, writes
Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter's strange behaviour, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding
competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts School. Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying. It is possible, say top experts at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, that Potters brain was affected by the attack inflicted upon him by You- Know-Who, and that his insistence that the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion. "He might even be pretending," said one specialist. "This could be a plea for attention." The Daily Prophet, however, has unearthed worrying facts about Harry Potter that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, has carefully concealed from the wizarding public. "Potter can speak Parseltongue," reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth year. "There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought Potter was behind them after they saw him lose his temper at a duelling club and set a snake on another boy. It was all hushed up, though. But he's made friends with werewolves and giants too. We think he'd do anything for a bit of power." Some speculate that one of those werewolves was the very one to attack his sister. Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself. A member of the Dark Force Defence League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard any wizard who could speak Parseltongue "as worthy of investigation. Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kinds of Dark Magic, and are historically associated with evildoers." Similarly, "anyone who seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and giants would appear to have a fondness for violence." Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy such as this should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that Potter might resort to the Dark Arts in his desperation to win the tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.
"Gone off me a bit, hasn't she?" Harry said lightly, folding up the paper. Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were laughing at him, tapping their heads with their fingers, pulling grotesquely mad faces, and waggling their tongues like snakes.
"Why does she feel the need to mention me so much" Rory mutters looking back down at her plate Hermione places a comforting hand on her arm as Rory flinches very slightly.
"She's still doing it" Regulus says looking at the screen.
"How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?" Ron said. "There's no way she was there, there's no way she could've heard -"
"The window was open," Harry said. "I opened it to breathe."
"You were at the top of North Tower!" Hermione said. "Your voice couldn't have carried all the way down to the grounds!"
"Well, you're the one who's supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging!" Harry said. "You tell me how she did it!"
"I've been trying!" Hermione said. "But I but " An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hermione's face. She slowly raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair.
"Are you all right?" Ron asked, frowning at her.
"Yes," Hermione said breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth, as though speaking into an invisible walkie talkie. "I've had an idea," Hermione said, gazing into space. "I think I know because then no one would be able to see even Moody and she'd have been able to get onto the window ledge but she's not allowed she's definitely not allowed I think we've got her! Just give me two seconds in the library - just to make sure!" With that, Hermione seized her school bag and dashed out of the Great Hall.
"Oy!" Ron called after her. "We've got our History of Magic exam in ten minutes! Blimey," he said, turning back to Harry, "she must really hate that Skeeter woman to risk missing the start of an exam. What're you going to do in Binns's class read again?" Harry was exempt from the end-of-term tests as a Triwizard champion.
"S'pose so," Harry said to Ron; but just then. Professor McGonagall came walking alongside the Gryffindor table toward him.
"Potter, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast," she said.
"But the task's not till tonight!" Harry said, accidentally spilling scrambled eggs down his front, afraid he had mistaken the time making Rory laugh slightly.
"She smiled" James says looking at his daughter sadly knowing it's only going to get worse.
"I'm aware of that, Potter," she said. "The champions' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is simply a chance for you to greet them you too Aurora seeing as you're family." She moved away. Harry gaped after her.
"She doesn't expect the Dursleys to turn up, does she?" he asked blankly.
"Idiot obviously it'll be Moony or pads"
"Forgot about them" Rory rolls her eyes at him. "Come on Rory let's see who's here" Rory stands following him as Fleur Delacour gets up from the Ravenclaw table and joins Cedric as he crossed to the side chamber and entered. Krum slouched off to join them shortly afterward. Inside the chamber were Cedric and his parents just inside the Door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. He had inherited his fathers hooked nose. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle, was holding her mother's hand. She waved at Harry, who waved back, grinning. Then they noticed Mrs. Weasley and Bill standing in front of the fireplace with Remus and Sirius beside them.
"Surprise!" Mrs. Weasley said excitedly as she smiled broadly and they walked over to them. "Thought we'd come and watch you. Harry!" She bent down and kissed him on the cheek before turning to Rory and looking her over before doing the same to her.
"You all right?" Bill said, grinning at Harry and shaking his hand. "Charlie wanted to come, but he couldn't get time off. He said you were incredible against the Horntail."
"Hey pillock" Rory smirks at him as he wraps her in a hug before whispering so only she can hear.
"Charlie told me to check on you" She smiles at him.
"I'm fine pillock" She whispers back before giving Remus and Sirius a hug. Fleur Delacour was eyeing Bill with great interest over her mother's shoulder whilst giving Rory dagger eyes for being near him.
"She's jealous" Andromeda says smiling slightly.
"This is really nice of you," Harry muttered to Mrs. Weasley. "I thought for a moment - the Dursleys -"
"Hmm," Mrs. Weasley said, pursing her lips. She had always refrained from criticizing the Dursleys in front of Harry, but her eyes flashed every time they were mentioned.
"Yeah he's not the smartest sometimes" Rory says as Harry pushes her.
"It's great being back here," Bill said, looking around the chamber "Haven't seen this place for five years. Is that picture of the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?"
"Oh yeah," Harry said,
"And the Fat Lady?" Bill said.
"She was here in my time," Mrs. Weasley said. "She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning -"
"What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?" Bill said, surveying his mother with amazement. Rory raises an eyebrow at him silently asking if he's serious. Mrs Weasley grinned, her eyes twinkling.
Some of the older ones in the hall laugh.
"Your father and I had been for a night time stroll," she said. "He got caught by Apollyon Pringle he was the caretaker in those days your father's still got the marks."
"Fancy giving us a tour, Harry?" Bill said quickly changing the subject.
"Yeah, okay," Harry said, and we made our way back toward the door into the Great Hall. As we walk Bill wraps an arm around Rory's shoulder making her wince slightly.
"I'll meet you guys later I need to go find the twins make sure they're not getting into trouble" She quickly leaves ignoring the confused looks on their faces and Remus's look of concern as he turns to talk to Harry.
Hermione pauses the film quick before standing up.
"This is where things are going to get bad so I'd suggest older kids watch out for the younger ones" She looks at Rory quickly before continuing "There's going to be unforgivable curses used" She sits back down and restarts the film.
"Potter" Rory turns to see Moody "a word in my office" She follows behind him. "Take a seat" he points to a chair, Rory does as he asks.
"Is everything okay Professor" She asks slightly on edge.
"Tell me about your powers"
"What powers"
"Don't play dumb with me girl I've seen you use them. Should really be more careful no one's watching"
"I don't know what you're talking about" Rory tries to stand but he pushes her back down pointing his wand at her.
"Either tell me or I'll make you"
Rory brings her knees up to her chest and buries her head in them.
"I don't know what you're on about"
"Crucio" She screams falling to the ground.
"NO" James shouts glaring at Mad-Eye ready to kill him as Sirius grabs him and points at Rory. James looks at her and sits back down wrapping his arms around her as she hugs her knees tighter.
"Please stop" She screams. He stops.
"Are you going to answer me now"
"I don't know what you're on about"
"Crucio" She tries not to scream this time but fails. "The dark Lord will get it out of you don't worry" he mutters a spell and she loses consciousness.
"No. Somethings not right her. I'd never support him" Moody says shocked at what the future him did. James hugs Rory tighter to him.
"I've got you Rory" He whispers into her hair.