38.

Care of Magical Creatures.

Harry awoke with a pounding headache. He showered and dressed, trying not to look at his own reflection as he passed a mirror. Ginny was waiting for him when he got downstairs, with a sour look on her face. "Morning." Harry tried weakly. Ginny slapped a copy of the Daily Prophet in his face.

"Front page Harry." Ginny stalked away and slumped by the fireplace, leaving Harry to read on his own.

Potter's Wild Party Antics!

Hogwarts scored a momentous victory over Beauxbatons last night, but the game was overshadowed by the ongoings at the after-party. Harry Potter and several of his friends seemed to take no consideration for school rules, or their guests as they downed several bottles of Firewhiskey.

Potter, the so-called hero of the Wizarding World and future Quidditch star put on quite the display in the Great Hall as Hogwarts celebrated their historic win. Potter was seen stumbling around drunk in front of the school, including his headmistress, without a care in the world. Eventually he was carted out of the Hall by Hogwarts's resident half-giant, who is surprisingly still employed by the school.

Surely as a respected figure of society Potter should know to maintain a degree of control over his behavior. Perhaps the boy-wizard has simply been broken beyond repair after facing the Dark Lord. We may know more, if it weren't for the walls of Hogwarts shielding the damaged hero from the public eye.

The real question that is surely pressing on everyone's mind is whether or not Potter can handle the pressure of being a professional Quidditch player, especially playing for a joke of a team like the Chudley Cannons. Could we be witnessing another wizard suffer a meltdown? Or will Potter be smart and seek the help he so desperately needs?

Rita Skeeter.

The Daily Prophet.

Harry sat with his head in his hands. Rita Skeeter had got him again. The last time she had done a big report on him, the whole of the world had vilified Hermione. She had received Howlers, and cursed letters. Merlin knows what would happen this time around.

(/)

Marcus couldn't be happier. The weather was fantastic, he had won his first big Quidditch tournament, and a beautiful girl was lying with her head on his chest. "You are going to be in so much trouble you know." Gabrielle looked up at him and smiled.

"So what if I am? Madame is only my Headmistress for another 6 weeks. I'm leaving school early to start moving my things over here. Plus I have all the Quidditch negotiations to attend. Quiberon don't want to lose their best Chaser." Gabrielle wore a smug grin on her face.

"Their best Chaser?" Marcus raised an eyebrow.

"I scored plenty of goals against you." Gabrielle stuck her tongue out and gave him a playful elbow in the ribs.

"True, but the result was in favour of my team." Marcus stuck his own tongue out.

"Thanks to 'Arry."

"I'd been knocked off my broom." Marcus feigned being hurt.

"And I caught you." Marcus leaned his head down and planted a kiss on Gabrielle's cheek before whispering in her ear.

"I caught you first."

(/)

Harry made his way down to Hagrids Hut, his head still pounding. Hagrid threw the door open on his third knock. "You made the front page 'o the paper again Harry."

"I heard the Prophet done a nice spread of our magnificent triumph over Beauxbatons." He tried to make light of it; Hagrid wasn't having any of it.

"Its not funny Harry. You really showed yourself up." Harry knew he should have been more responsible, but he didn't like hearing it from Hagrid. Wasn't he allowed to just act irresponsible for once?

"Hagrid it was one night. Am I not allowed one night off?"

"No. I feel for you Harry, but you need to think of the position you're in. Kids look up to ye', so do lot of adults. You're their hero Harry; you gotta set a good example. Think about Ginny too. Whether or not you realise it yet, you're going to be responsible for her too. Molly won't let her daughter near you if you continue carrying on like that."

Harry nodded. Hagrid had got his point across. "Now, seeing as ye' had a rough night I thought I'd make today's class easy for ye'. I brought yer' favourite creature along." Harry looked out the window, but he needn't have. The loud bangs gave it away. Hagrid had four Blast-Ended Skrewts penned up at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

(/)

Ginny decided to go for a walk. Harry would be dealing with Blast-Ended Skrewts right about now. Hagrid had promised her a little revenge. She didn't mind that Harry wanted to let go every now and then, but not in front of so many people, with reporters swarming around. What annoyed her most was that both teams had played a great game but that would go totally unrecognized now. The game had gotten two paragraphs in the back pages of the Prophet, not the kind of credit it deserved.

Ginny walked along the path away from Hagrids, towards the Black Lake. The day was warm but there was enough of a breeze to cool her down. Ginny was subconsciously making her way to the tree she where usually sat with Harry. But before she got there, she noticed her spot was already occupied. Marcus was sitting with a girl, but it wasn't the third year from Hufflepuff he'd been at the dance with. Ginny didn't like being nosey so she turned and began to walk away. Then she heard a loud giggle, and could make out some words spoken with a French accent. It was Gabrielle! Ginny had no idea; none of the Beauxbatons team had been seen since the match. It seemed that Madame Maxine had forbidden her students to socialize at all during their last few days at Hogwarts. Gabrielle didn't seem to care much.

A/N:

Heyy Guys! Here is chapter 38! Can you believe this little fic I started has grown this big? There's still plenty more chapters to come too! So, a lot of you said you read the Authors Notes... Here is what i want you to do: Leave a review, I want to know what you think of Gabrielle/Marcus. The last chapter was kinda important to me and only one person left a review, it made me a little disheartened. 2: Check out my Facebook page, and vote in the poll on my profile. The story has 90 followers, so surely we can do a little better? Anyway, I do hope you enjoy the chapter, it just seems like less people are reading and sometimes I wider if I should continue. I don't know if my story is good/bad/needs fixing unless you guys tell me!

Iron Man.