Challenge: During the story, a character misreads something.
Fandom: HP
Title: Scandalous
Genre: Humor
Scandalous
Sachie Yoritmo
It had started like a normal day in the life of every Hogwarts student, including Ron Weasley. He rose with the rest of the boys in his dormitory, showered, dressed, and then headed down to breakfast with Harry and Hermione.
They ate and chatted amiably, discussing a great number of things that ranged from the weather (slightly rainy and dismal), their food (Ron's favorite dish was missing), house elf rights (Hermione was still trying her best to get more elves paid), and what they ought to do during Easter break (as it started two days later). After a short while, Parvati appeared to talk about Ancient Runes with Hermione, Harry became absorbed into Quidditch tactics, and Ron was left to his third serving of eggs.
He gazed about the Great Hall, and his eyes fell on Luna Lovegood, reading the Quibbler. He strained his eyes to read the stories it advertised on its cover, he saw, in great lettering, something that made his heart stop and nearly made him have a second meeting with his breakfast.
'EXCLUSIVE! POTTER & MALFOY: SEX SCANDAL'
He blinked, rubbed his eyes for a moment, and then glanced back to where Luna was sitting. She had put her magazine away, stood, and was walking out of the Great Hall. Ron desperately wanted to chase after her, but knew he could not catch her. Besides, what would he say to her? "Excuse me, Luna, but were you reading a story about…" the mere thought of it made his insides squirm and he forced himself to fight the overwhelming urge to wretch all over the place.
He noticed Hermione had gone, and Harry was still engrossed in Quidditch. The gears in Ron's head began to turn, and his heart sank even further into the pit of despair it had stumbled upon. A week or so ago, Harry had come into the dorms late, looking very disheveled; his hair was an absolute disaster, his clothes were rumpled and a couple of the buttons on his shirt undone and there was an undeniable hickey just above the collar of his shirt. Harry had refused to divulge any details about what had happened, and Ron had done his best to forget about it.
In recent weeks, Malfoy had been acting very suspiciously too- he did not make fun of them, didn't interact with them at all really aside from small glances at them that he thought they couldn't see.
Desperately trying not to believe what his eyes had seen, the implications about his best friend it made and the logical story he had been able to piece together, he rose, grabbed his books and looked down at Harry.
"Where's Hermione?" he asked, slightly paler than before and a little frightened.
Harry looked up. "Er… I believe she went to class. We'll see her after Divination if you can wait. Actually, it's a good thing you got my attention; we'd better get going."
"Yeah," Ron responded absently.
"Ron, are you feeling alright? You look a little ill. Did you eat too much?" Harry asked.
"I'm… I'm fine Harry." Ron wanted to shoot himself.
As they suffered through Divination, Ron was finally hit upside the head with a brick-like thought that had eluded him earlier; it was so simple, so rudimentary, that he thought himself crazy for overlooking it. He had read that headline on The Quibbler. How often were they right on the money? Feeling much relieved, he walked down to the Dungeons with Harry, talking and laughing about how ridiculous Professor Trelawney was.
Hermione met them there, and they took their seats and set up their cauldrons still smiling. Ron sat on Hermione's left and Harry on her right, and before he could ask her whether or not she had seen the newest Quibbler, Snape had entered the room and started class. They worked diligently on the potion, a relatively simple brew for N.E.W.T. level.
Near the end of class, Harry had been staring off into space and returned from cloud nine. Malfoy caught this, and Ron looked up in time to see Malfoy make kissy faces at Harry and wiggle his eyebrows suggestively over Hermione's bent head; she had seen nothing. Harry bowed his head and his cheeks burned and Ron turned back to his own potion, horrified.
Class ended, they gave their potions to Snape to grade, and filed out of the classroom for lunch. Hermione informed Ron and Harry that she would be spending lunch in the library studying, and Harry offered to join her. Ron told them that he was hungry, a complete lie of course, and they parted ways. It seemed he was never going to be able to get to ask Hermione if she knew anything.
Instead of going to lunch, he headed to the lavatory and ran his head under some cold water, hoping that if he was dreaming it would wake him up. However, all he got for his trouble was sopping wet hair and robes. He then traveled back to the Gryffindor common room, changed his robes, and headed out to double Care of Magical Creatures, where luckily there would be no Malfoy to make him feel even worse. He was silent through Hagrid's class, but did not miss the somewhat goofy grin on Harry's face and was utterly relieved when it was over and he headed back to the castle.
Ron forced himself to sit through dinner, and he even picked at his roast once or twice. Harry and Hermione were silent. When the meal was over, Hermione declared that they should all go to the library and study together that evening. Neither Harry nor Ron complained, however Ron said, "I'll meet you there, I need to get some things first."
Hermione nodded, and she and Harry left for the library.
For a while, Ron searched the great hall for Luna, but did not find her. He walked about some of the hallways where he had seen her previously, but soon gave up and began to walk toward the library.
As he neared, he heard shouting; it sounded an awful lot like Harry and Hermione.
"We've got to tell him," The girl said, "we have to tell him before he walks in or somebody tells him. He needs to hear it from you."
"Why me?"
"Harry…"
"Listen. Ron won't understand. He'll… he'll explode. Please, I don't want to ruin our friendship, Hermione."
"You're going to ruin the relationship if you don't tell him. He deserves to know, Harry. You're his best friend. You can't keep this from him."
"Hermione…"
Ron walked into the stretch of hallway his friends had been arguing in and Harry stopped and the color drained from his face. Before he could open his mouth to explain, Ron spoke.
"If you're talking about your love affair with Malfoy, I already know. I figured it out today."
The two stared at Ron, mouths open, dazed for a long time.
Harry looked at Hermione, who spoke first. "That's not what we were talking about, Ron…"
"Than explain why he's coming in late at night looking like he's had a good snog and why Malfoy's been acting like we're old chums and why he's been passing notes and making suggestive faces at Harry for weeks!" Ron shouted. "Come on then! Let's hear it!"
"Ron… Harry's not been snogging Malfoy," Hermione said tentatively.
"Trust me, I've not," Harry agreed.
"And Malfoy's been being good because his family's in big trouble because of Harry," Hermione continued, "he's just been teasing him about… well, your turn to explain now, Mr. Potter."
Harry's face blanched, but he said, "Er… well… Well, Ron, Hermione and I are… 'ttoldyouyet."
"What?" Ron asked.
Harry sighed, but bit the bullet. "Hermione and I are together and we just haven't told you yet." Harry's cheeks burned and he looked down at the ground. He waited for Ron to explode, but it never happened.
"Is… is that all?" Ron asked, sounding almost hopeful.
Harry looked up. "Er… yes?"
"That's a relief. I really thought you were with Malfoy, Harry!"
"You… you did?"
"Where did you hear that, Ron?" Hermione asked.
"That's the headline I saw on Luna's magazine this morning…" he said.
"What was the headline?" she asked.
"'Exclusive! Potter & Malfoy: sex scandal'" he replied. They stared at him. "Well it was!"
Just then, Luna actually walked down the stairs and joined them. "Hello!" she said cheerfully.
"Luna, could we see your Quibbler?" asked Hermione.
"Sure." She replied, and handed the magazine to them.
Ron's confusion was more or less understandable as all the words and letters were present: Potter Saves World on the top, EXCLUSIVE! EX-AUROR SPEAKS! Just underneath it, and finally Malfoy Family Scandal was also present.
"Well Ron, I guess…" Hermione said.
"I guess you read it wrong," Harry finished.
"Yeah… I… I guess I did. So how long have you two been snogging behind my back anyway!"
End. 1492 words. Scandalous.
R&R
~Sachie