I left early in the morning to avoid everyone. I entered the Gryffindor common room, had a shower, got changed then walked back downstairs. Then I saw Fred standing against the wall.
"Hey." Thats all I could say. He didn't say anything, only walk over and hug me. "I'm sorry about not talking to you last night."
"It's ok, it's probably best. Harry wasn't that happy and the party blew." He said.
"Should of partied with the Slytherins, I got a speech and all." I said. "Oh god. What's Charlie going to say. June will panic and she can't panic as she's pregnant. My life is over."
"Calm down, your life isn't over. Let's go to the owlery. Write and tell them what's happened, they'll find out anyway. Much rather it came from you."
"Your right. Let's go." I said, we ignored all comments and just walked to the owlery.
'Dear Charlie,
I'll start with the good news, I have a boyfriend. He's called Fred and I really like him. Please don't try and scare him away!
The bad news, someone has manipulated the goblet of fire and I'm now in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It's very dangerous and people have died in it. I'm scared Charlie and I can't back out of it. People believe I didn't put my name in, one because I couldn't and two because I didn't in the first place.
This boy called Harry Potter also in my situation, but anyone could of put his name in. He has enemy's he doesn't even know about.
I'm scared Charlie and someone wants to kill us.
I miss you and I'm thinking here was a mistake.
Melissa.'
I took Rosabelle and handed her the letter. She quickly took off and Fred didn't even get to look at it.
"I can't use you," Harry told Hedwig, looking around for the school owls. He and Granger had came in while I was writing my letter. "I've got to use one of these."
Hedwig gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that her talons cut into his shoulder. She kept her back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of a large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke Hedwig, but she clicked her beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach.
"First Ron, then you," Harry said angrily. "This isn't my fault."
Fred gave a mini laugh.
"You got a pissed owl mate." Fred joked before we started to all walk out the room.
"Oh Harry, even though we're not the best of friends and we might have to attack each other. I'll stick up for you the best I can and I'll always believe you." I told him.
"Same Melissa." Harry said holding out his hand for the agreement.
"My friends call me Minnie." I said shaking his hand then running off with Fred.
Harry had thought that matters would improve once everyone got used to the idea of him being champion, he was fully mistaken. The next few days proved this.
He was avoiding everyone but me. Purely because we were in the same situation.
He could no longer avoid the rest of the school once he was back at lessons. I wasn't that concerned about avoiding people, once you've been in trouble with the police a few times you start to not care about what people think.
It was clear that the rest of the school, thought Harry had entered himself for the tournament. Unlike the Gryffindors however they did not seem impressed.
Why don't they believe Harry when they believe me?
The Hufflepuffs, who I heard were usually on excellent terms with the Gryffindors, had turned remarkably cold towards the whole of Gryffindor.
One Herbology lesson was enough to demonstrate this.
It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that we had stolen Cedric's glory; also downhearted by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory.
Hey I'm only being told all of this.
Ernie Macmillan and Justin FinchFletchley, with whom Harry normally got on very well, did not talk to him even though they were repotting Bouncing Bulbs at the same tray. I'm lucky Neville believed me because if he didn't. I'd be doomed!
The boys did laugh rather unpleasantly when one of the Bouncing Bulbs wriggled free from Harry's grip and smacked him hard in the face.
Weasley wasn't talking to Harry either. Or me for that matter, that's why I'm back to calling him Weasley.
Granger and JJ sat between them, making very conversations, but though both answered her normally, they avoided making eye contact with each other.
We even thought Professor Sprout seemed angry with me and Harry. But, she was Head of Hufflepuff House after all. She couldn't hate me that much after Cedric kindly explained how I feel to the floor in tears.
Let's say the feeling is worse then mutual.
Harry said he had been looking forward to seeing Hagrid under normal circumstances, but Care of Magical Creatures meant seeing the Slytherins too. I told him they weren't that bad, but he said they've always hated each other.
"Ah, look, boys, it's the champion," Draco said to Crabbe and Goyle the moment he got within earshot of Harry not knowing I was there. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt he's going to be around much longer. . . . Half the Triwizard champions have died... how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet."
"Does that mean I have less of a chance then?" I snapped upset that Draco would say that sort of thing.
But Draco had no time to speak, because Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt.
To our horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk.
"Take this thing for a walk?" Draco repeated in disgust. "And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?"
"Roun' the middle," said Hagrid, demonstrating. "Er - yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus' as an extra precaution, like. Harry - you come here an' help me with this big one.... Melissa - we may need yer fire powers."
Hagrid's real intention, however, was to talk to us away from the rest of the class. He waited until everyone else had set off with their skrewts.
"So - yer competin'. In the tournament. School champions."
"Two of the champions," Harry corrected.
"No idea who put yeh in fer it, Harry?"
"You believe I didn't do it, then?" said Harry.
"Course I do," Hagrid grunted. "Yeh say it wasn' you, an' I believe yeh - an' Dumbledore believes yer, an' all. If Melissa put 'er name in... yer mus' be mad ter think that."
"Wish I knew who did do it," said Harry bitterly.
"If we find out, I will kill them." I said even more bitter.
We looked out over the lawn; the class was widely scattered now, and all in great difficulty.
The skrewts were now over three feet long, and extremely powerful. No longer shell-less and colorless, they had developed a kind of thick, grayish, shiny armor. They looked like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs - but still without recognizable heads or eyes. They had become immensely strong and very hard to control.
"Look like they're havin' fun, don' they?" Hagrid said happily. I assumed he was talking about the skrewts, because the class certainly weren't; every now and then, with an alarming bang, one of the skrewts' ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person was being dragged along on their stomach, trying desperately to get back on their feet.
"Ah, I don' know, Harry," Hagrid sighed suddenly, looking back down at him with a worried expression. "School champion. . . everythin' seems ter happen ter you, doesn' it?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Harry didn't answer.
Yes.
I taking that was answer.
The next few days were some of the worst at Hogwarts. Only a few people talked to me. Those people being, Fred, George, Harry, JJ and Pansy.
The thing is, I could understand the Hufflepuffs' attitude, even if I didn't like it; they had their own champion to support.
Harry expected nothing less than vicious insults from the Slytherins, he was highly unpopular there and always had been. They were more lenient towards me but hardly talked personally to me since the party.
But we had hoped the Ravenclaws might have found it in their hearts to support us as much as Cedric.
We were wrong.
Most Ravenclaws seemed to think that Harry had been desperate to earn himself a bit more fame by tricking the goblet into accepting his name. Also they thought I was a precious sweetheart who was so innocent and could break so easily so looked at me with pity eyes.
Another downer was the fact that Cedric looked the part of a champion so much more than we did. Exceptionally handsome, with his straight nose, dark hair, and gray eyes, it was hard to say who was receiving more admiration these days, Cedric or Viktor.
Harry said he saw the same sixth-year girls who had been so keen to get Krum's autograph begging Cedric to sign their school bags one lunchtime.
How sad.
The plus side is all the Champions talked to me, Fleur and Viktor had also told their friends not to hate me and Cedric said he tried.
Our classes were also affected. Harry could do a summoning charm and my concentration level was rock bottom.
"It's really not that difficult, Harry," Granger tried to reassure him as we left Flitwick's class. "You just weren't concentrating properly -"
"Wonder why that was," said Harry darkly as Cedric walked past, surrounded by a large group of simpering girls, all of whom looked at us with evil eyes. "Still - never mind, eh? Double Potions to look forward to this afternoon. . ."
Double Potions was always a horrible experience, but these days it was nothing short of torture.
Being shut in a dungeon for an hour and a half with Snape.
When we arrived at Snape's dungeon after lunch, they found the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of their robes. In luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:
SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY-- THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!
"Like them, Potter?" said Draco loudly as Harry approached. "And this isn't all they do - look!"
He pressed his badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, to be replaced by another one, which glowed green:
POTTER STINKS!
The Slytherins howled with laughter. Each of them pressed their badges too, until the message POTTER STINKS was shining brightly all around Harry.
"Oh very funny," Granger said sarcastically to Pansy and her gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone, "really witty."
Ron was standing against the wall with Dean and Seamus. He wasn't laughing, but he wasn't sticking up for Harry either.
"Want one, Granger?" said Draco, holding out a badge to Hermione. "I've got loads. But don't touch my hand, now. I've just washed it, you see; don't want a Mudblood sliming it up."
"Your forgetting one thing. I'm a champion to. Have a go at Harry, you have a go at me." I snapped at my 'friends'.
But Harry was to angry, be drew his wand and I felt Pansy pull me out the way.
"Go on, then, Potter," Draco said quietly, drawing out his own wand. "Moody's not here to look after you now - do it, if you've got the guts -"
For a split second, they looked into each other's eyes, then, at exactly the same time, both acted.
"Funnunculus!" Harry yelled.
"Densaugeo!" screamed Draco.
Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in midair, and ricocheted off at angles -- Harry's hit Goyle in the face, and Draco's hit Grangers.
Goyle bellowed and put his hands to his nose, where great ugly boils were springing up - Granger was clutching her mouth.
"Hermione!"
Weasley had hurried forward to see what was wrong with her; He was dragging Granger's hand away from her face. It wasn't a pretty sight.
Her front teeth were now growing at an alarming rate; she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, toward her chin - panic-stricken, she felt them and let out a terrified cry.
"And what is all this noise about?" said a soft, deadly voice.
Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Draco and said, "Explain."
"Potter attacked me, sir -"
"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted.
"- and he hit Goyle - look -"
Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi.
"Hospital wing, Goyle," Snape said calmly.
"Malfoy got Hermione!" Weasley said. "Look!"
He forced Granger to show Snape her teeth - she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles.
Snape looked coldly at Granger, then said, "I see no difference.".
Granger let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran, ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight. I did feel sorry for her.
It was lucky that both Harry and Weasley started shouting at Snape at the same time; lucky their voices echoed so much in the stone corridor, for it was impossible for him to hear exactly what they were calling him. He got the gist, however.
"Let's see," he said, in his silkiest voice. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley. Now get inside, or it'll be a week's worth of detentions."
"Hang on!" I suddenly found myself saying.
Everyone turned to me.
"You punish Harry and Weasley for shouting the truth at you and you don't punish Draco for attacking Harry. Favouritism much? And another thing, what do you possibly have against Granger. Your sick you know that, you insult her to her purely because you can. You sick twisted bastard!" I screamed at him.
Everyone now had their mouths hanging open.
"I suggest you hold your tongue, I suppose you think your the best thing to walk in this school since you cheated your way into being a school champion..."
"HOW DARE YOU! YOU THINK I WANT THIS! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN SOMETHING THAT COULD KILL ME! I WAS HOPING TO HAVE A NORMAL YEAR! IF I WASN'T IN THE COMPETITION TO THE END I WOULD BE LEAVING RIGHT NOW!" I matched off leaving everyone gobsmacked. I didn't know where to go only to get far away from Snape.
Do I sit in the corridor?
Do I sit on the roof?
Walk the grounds?
Find Peeves?
Catch up on homework?
I walked until I got to my destination. I knocked on the door and a faint 'come in' sounded.
I opened the door and entered the room.
"Yes Melissa what can I do for you?" Moody said pleasantly.
Yes I went to Moody!
"Well, I shouted at Snape for favouritism towards the Slytherins and for being downright insulting. I then stormed off, can I hang around in this lesson?" I asked.