Lauren was always hearing things, rumours mostly, and I didn’t like to be on the receiving end of whatever she found out. It was all usually untrue anyway, and what wasn’t, was stuff that really should have been kept private. Like last year, when Marcus Flint (a Slytherin who’d failed his seventh year and repeated it last year) had managed to shag a Ravenclaw girl. Amazing, yes – miraculous even – but I really didn’t need to know that.