Chapter Thirty-One
[Frankie]
Rita Skeeter, Writer Extraordinaire
The Hall's roof mirrors the actual sky, sporting pure white clouds drifting aimlessly across a perfect blue sky. Frankie might have even appreciated it if she wasn't so preoccupied with downing her second cup of coffee. Frankie never had drunk coffee before; she'd been a tea elitist ever since her first encounter with herbal tea at seven. Erika had forced them to stay up all night, preparing the field and organising teams and alibies for their first underground game in the coming days, and it was Erika who had turned her to the drink she'd sworn she'd never need.
"I never realised how much I love to sleep," Maisie murmured, leaning against Greer's shoulder.
Frankie hummed, rubbing her eyes. Erika hadn't come to the Great Hall, having disappeared with Fred as soon as she saw the infamous flash of red leaving the rest of the team - except Saoirse - in a cloud of confusion, meaning Frankie had little to do but wait until she turned up so she could air her complaints.
"Our sweet Frankie has found loooove, and she didn't even tell us?"
Frankie looked up in confusion, seeing Pansy dramatically twirl her way over to the Slytherin Quidditch team with Theo, Draco and Blaise in tow. She slowly crunched on her toast, not in the right mind to be able to deal with Pansy's theatrics.
"Well, you look terrible," Theo smirked, seating himself opposite them as Frankie scowled.
Draco had thrown the Daily Prophet onto the table with a teasing smile, squeezing in beside her to watch whatever was occurring. Frankie took the page slowly, netting her brows as a larger-than-life photo of Harry covered the front page. What confused her more, however, was the smaller photo of Hermione and Frankie on opposing sides of him.
"Check page five. You'd think Skeeter thought you a Saint," Draco said, turning the pages for her as she tried to figure out what the newspaper had in store for her.
She'd almost dropped her toast at the moving photo of her and Harry sitting rather closely on the fountain rim. She had sworn the courtyard was empty, she had always been outstanding at noticing a person's presence in a room, and the courtyard was not large enough for someone of Rita Skeeter's stature to hide from her.
Francesca Marsh, who had previously found love with Draco Malfoy before meeting our Boy-Who-Lived, has been a staunch supporter of all of Harry Potters's challenges and tribulations. A mutual friend, Park Jae-sung, said Frankie helped him through his worst moments - including his preparation and encounter with serial killer Sirius Black. Their chemistry is obvious and they are becoming one of my personal favourite power couples and I'll be excited to see Francesca supporting Harry through his toughest challenge yet.
I'm sure all of you also hope the equally beautiful Hermione does not manage to steal Harry away from our favourite Slytherin and we will all be cheering for the house-crossed lovers. Although, if Hermione does break up the couple, Francesca will not be alone. Draco appears to be waiting to support his previous twin flame, with Draco having consoled Francesca outside his Divination class after a possible fight over Hermione.
Frankie crumpled the paper into a ball, dunking it into Greer's juice as he protested. Her friends had burst into fits of laughter, leaving Frankie feeling that familiar fiery feeling in her stomach. No amount of coffee could have woken her up like that piece of lies could.
"Who is Park Jae-sung?" Frankie asked, her thoughts bouncing around her brain too rapidly for her to process much else.
"What? He's in our year, Hufflepuff," Greer offered, futilely trying to retrieve the soggy pieces of paper from his drink, "Bit of a gossip if you ask me but nice enough,"
Frankie sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes with her palms as her brain finished processing everything she had just read. She'd never read something that made her so mad, and she'd once had to read the Divination book out loud for Blaise and Pansy in third year. She wondered how people ate that horseshit up when it was obnoxiously fake.
"Wait," Frankie paused for a second, noticing the almost disintegrated photo of her and Draco studying together in the library, "We've never dated. I can't stand you half the time Draco,"
Draco grinned back at her, leaning back slightly, "That's what all good couples are made of,"
"This isn't funny," Frankie said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, it is," Blaise chuckled, trying to dodge the flying toast piece Frankie had sent his way, only for it to hit his cheek.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise you all wanted some random old woman to lie about you in what's read by basically all British, Irish and Welsh wizards," Frankie shot back, shoving Draco slightly to get rid of his obnoxious smile.
"I'd actually love that," Pansy admitted, nudging Theo to get an agreement, but he only broke into laughter, "What? It's free publicity, and all those old women are going to love you. My mum will love you even more,"
"Just so you know," Draco piped up, "I broke up with you,"
The table broke into laughter, Maisie clutching her stomach, as Draco held a bewildered look. Frankie got out of her seat, patting Draco on the shoulder, "Yeah, you wish. I had you crying for months about it,"
Frankie almost walked into a chest. She took a step back, seeing the chest belonged to Niklas, who was accompanied by a grinning Daria.
"Did not realise you were dating glasses boy," Daria smiled, clapping a slightly downtrodden-looking Niklas.
Frankie scoffed, crossing her arms, "Please, that entire newspaper's a bunch of lies,"
"So you're not?" Niklas asked, perking up slightly as she shook her head, "Well, perfect... because I wasn't sure whether you'd have time to play Quidditch otherwise,"
"No, Erika had us staying up to set it all up," Frankie said, kicking the back of her shoe, "It'll be great to watch. I'm sure of it,"
"I'm actually one of Durmstrang's chasers. Daria is one of our beaters. We are missing a Keeper, though," Niklas said, his normal charismatic smile returning to his face, "So I'll see you on the field. I'm excited to play you,"