Chapter Forty
The morning of the fourteenth was bright and clear. Harry dressed carefully, getting Daphne to look over his smart jeans and shirt combo; he'd even left a note for the house elves to polish his shoes over night.
He had just sat down for breakfast when he felt his bracelet warm. Glancing around he could see Hermione looking very clearly over her newspaper at him. Daphne stood up and walked over, asking Hermione if she could borrow her paper.
Hermione nodded happily and handed it, carefully folded, over to her. Daphne sat down again next to Harry, scanning the front page.
"I can't see anything of note." Daphne muttered to herself.
She opened the paper and a small sheet of parchment fell out. Harry grabbed it before it fell to the floor and looked it over. Quickly scrawled was a note from Hermione asking Harry to meet her at the Three Broomsticks at midday.
"I'm meeting Cho ten." Harry sighed, "Cuts it a bit close."
"I'll make sure I'm there for midday." Daphne offered, "Just try and make it as soon as you can. She wouldn't ask if this wasn't important."
Harry couldn't argue there. If Umbridge had caught them, reading this note, Hermione would have been in a lot of trouble.
It wasn't long before he was waiting, trying not to breath too quickly, in the entrance hall of Hogwarts, pulling at his jacket.
Cho saw him and waved, her cheeks flushing slightly as she wondered over.
"Hi Harry." she said softly, leaning in and brushing his cheek with a kiss.
"H...*cough* Hi." Harry grinned, "I've booked a table for us at Madam Puddifoot's I hope that's OK?"
Cho smiled, "Yes, yes. I like it in there."
They walked out the door and headed, in the long stream of students also heading towards Hogsmead and a day of freedom. Harry glanced up at the Quidditch pitch, Gryffindor was clearly having another day of practice, their colours flapping in the gentle breeze.
"You really miss it, don't you?" Cho said kindly, "I miss playing against you."
Harry forced a smile, "Yeah. It's been tough not getting to fly. Do you remember our first match against each other?"
Cho laughed and nodded, "Yep. You won, of course. You're the best seeker I've ever seen at Hogwarts, better than a lot in the professional teams as well."
"You're not bad yourself." Harry grinned, this was easy. Talking to her seemed to be no more difficult than talking to his friends.
"Scrapping the bottom of the barrel there." Gemini scoffed as they walked passed her, sitting surrounded by her group of minions.
Rodolphus was there but once again, Corvus was absent from the group.
"What's that meant to mean?" Harry snapped, "She's one of the most beautiful, talented girls in the school. Jealous much?"
Gemini laughed, "I wasn't talking to you. I mean at least Cedric was good looking, such a shame he died in that tragic accident."
Harry felt his blood boil and took a step towards her, Cho caught his arm.
"Don't worry Harry." Cho said calmly, smiling towards Gemini, "It's not her fault, that despite asking out everyone she crossed paths with, she still doesn't have a date for Valentines day."
Gemini's eyes flared with anger as Harry smirked to himself, walking quickly out of the grounds with Cho at his side.
"Meow." Harry grinned, "I'm proud of you."
Cho laughed, "That girl makes my teeth hurt."
Harry let out a snort of laughter, "Yeah, she has that effect."
It wasn't a long walk to Hogsmead and then through to the cozy tea room. Harry hadn't ever been into the tea room before, he'd booked the table with Hedwig delivering the message so was rather unprepared to see an explosion of pink in the window.
"Oh look." Cho grinned, "She's decorated it for Valentines day, how sweet."
Harry forced a smile, it looked like Professor Umbridge's office on steroids. He pushed the door open for her and guided her in, a hand on the small of her back. There was one table left, a 'reserved' card sitting in the middle. Harry quickly checked that 'Potter' was written on the inside and they had the right table before pulling out her chair.
"What can I get you me'dears?" a stout woman with a shiny black bun asked, who Harry assumed was Madam Puddifoot herself.
"Coffee please." Cho said, looking to Harry.
"Oh umm, the same." Harry smiled, "And a slice of lemon cake. Would you like one?"
Cho nodded and smiled. Madam Puddifoot left them alone, leaving them in an awkward silence.
"I need to meet Hermione later." Harry said after a few minutes.
"You're meeting her today?" Cho asked in a tone of disbelief.
Harry gave an awkward smile, "I'm really sorry. It was very last minute and," he looked around to make sure everyone around them was busy kissing, "she sent me the note this morning, she wouldn't of done that if it wasn't important."
Cho sighed and played with the arrangement of napkins, "I get it."
Harry didn't know how to make her see that he wasn't trying to dumb her off for someone else. He reached over and took her hand, she flinched away in surprise for a second before smiling and settling her hand in his.
Their coffee and cakes arrived, Harry had to admit they were very good, almost good enough to excuse the pink confetti falling on them every few minutes.
Roger Davies was sitting at the table next to them, lips glued to his girl friends. He kept bumping his chair into Cho's.
"He asked me out you know. A few weeks back." Cho said quietly.
"You said no?" Harry asked, wondering why as much as anything.
Cho smiled and rolled her eyes, "Yes. I've never felt anything for Roger in that way."
Harry finished the last of his coffee and brushed confetti off his cake.
"I came her with Cedric last year. He ordered lemon cake as well." She said softly, staring down at her uneaten piece.
Harry put his cake down, he didn't know what to say.
Cho looked at him and smiled sadly, "I'd never had it before, I don't know why it was just something I'd managed to miss. It was nice."
"I..." Harry could feel her pain and still didn't know how to help.
"I… I've been meaning to ask you, for a while." Cho said, taking a deep breath, "Did… I don't suppose he did, but… did he say anything about me? In the end?"
Harry didn't want to talk about this with Cho, not now of all times.
"He… he went very quickly, there wasn't time for him to say anything." Harry said quickly, "So did you manage to see any Quidditch over the summer? You support the Tornados right?"
Harry looked in horror as Cho's eyes began to fill with tears.
"Look, let's not talk about Cedric right now OK?" Harry said desperately, "Let's talk about something else, anything else-"
Harry knew it was the wrong to say as soon as the words came out. Cho glared at him, snatching her hand away from his.
"I thought…" she wiped the tears dripping down her nose, "I thought you'd understand! I need to talk to him! I… surely you need to be able to talk about it as well? I mean you were there! You saw him… didn't you?"
Harry tried to focus on Cho, rather than everyone around them who was staring, "Well, yes. Of course yes, I have talked about it."
"But you wont with me?" Cho said quietly, "Why? I don't understand. Am I that… repulsive?"
"It's not that!" Harry snapped, trying not to raise his voice, "Of course not. I… just don't know you all that well yet and I have mum and dad and my friends."
"Like Hermione?" Cho accused, "That you've agreed to meet after me, on Valentines day?"
"I told you it was last minute and important." Harry said.
"So important that I can't come?" Cho sniffed.
Harry shrugged, "I don't know, I didn't get the chance to ask. I'm sure it'll be fine if you wanted to come though." he said quickly.
Cho rolled her eyes and gave them a violent wipe with her sleeve, "How kind." she spat, "I don't even know why you bothered to ask me out in the first place."
"Because… because…" Harry couldn't say it, not with a whole room of people watching him and listening in, even Madam Puddifoot had stopped pouring coffee.
"Just go." Cho said, shaking her head, "Let's just pay and get out of here."
Harry put a couple of galleons on the table and stood to leave. Cho grabbed her cardigan and left the tea room quickly, not looking back at Harry once. Harry didn't know how everything had managed to go wrong so quickly.
He trudged through the now rain filled streets towards the Three Broomsticks and shook the worst of the rain out of his hair before looking around for Hermione and Daphne.
He spotted them, sitting in the corner with two of the most unlikely people, Luna Lovegood and Rita Skeeter.
Harry walked over slowly, giving Hermione a worried smile, "What's going on?"
"A plan." Hermione grinned, "You're early. I thought you were with Cho?"
"Cho? A girl?" Rita said, a smile forming on her lips, she reached round into her crocodile skin handbag, digging inside.
"It is none of your business, so don't even think about it, buggy." Daphne hissed.
Rita snapped her handbag shut again and glared at Daphne.
Harry sat down slowly, feeling very uncomfortable.
"Would you like a drink Harry?" Hermione asked calmly, pulling her purse out.
"No. Thank you." Harry said, "What's going on?"
"Little Miss Prissy was just about to tell us when you arrived." Rita said, flicking her eyes towards Hermione, "So Harry, is she a pretty girl?"
"One more question about Harry's love life and the deal is off, Rita." Hermione hissed.
"What deal? You haven't told me anything other than meet you here." Rita snapped.
Harry could almost feel sorry Rita, unemployment clearly didn't suit her. Her once bouncy hair now hung, limply around her face. She was picking at the table with her long finger nails, more of the red paint chipped off than was left.
Then he remembered it was her own fault for trying to make his and his friends lives miserable with her stories last year and it was exactly what she deserved.
"As you know, the Daily Prophet has been, less than favourable towards Harry this year." Hermione said.
"That has nothing to do with me!" Rita said quickly, "They've been writing those all by themselves!"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "I am aware."
"Don't worry so much, Rita, you'll get more wrinkles." Daphne smirked.
Harry grinned at Rita's shocked face.
"Anyway," Hermione said, "The point is that currently Harry isn't being listened to."
"So you actually stick with the insane story that You-know-who is back?" Rita asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course." Harry hissed, "It's the truth!"
Rita looked less than convinced but said nothing more, taking a long sip of her Firewhisky.
"And it is a truth we need to get out there." Hermione said, "So, Rita, I would like you to write an article detailing Harry's story."
Rita and Harry looked at her in shock.
"Hermione, you can't be serious?!" Harry said after a moment.
Rita had jumped so much she'd spilled half her drink down her front. She tried to wipe it off her grubby rain coat with a quickly dissolving bit of tissue.
"The Prophet would never run a story like that." Rita snapped, "In case you haven't noticed, everyone has seen straight through his cock and bull story, they think he is insane. Now if you'd let me write the story from that angle-"
"No." Hermione said firmly, "It will be a straight up truth, no lies, no twists, no crazy Harry. Just what actually happened and no more."
"Look," Rita huffed, "There is no market for a story like that."
"You mean the Prophet won't print it as it's not total bullshit?" Daphne said, rolling her eyes.
"I am well aware that the main newspaper wouldn't be interested in such a story, that is were Luna comes in." Hermione said, taking a long sip of her drink, "Luna's father, Xenophilius Lovegood, runs a magazine of his own."
"You can't be talking about that rag the Quibbler!" Rita said, outraged.
"I don't think any sort of paper would work very well as a rag." Luna said dreamily, Harry seeing her shoot a nasty look at Rita for just a second.
"What I mean is, well..." Rita was lost for words. She knew that she had little choice but to take whatever deal Hermione offered, however if someone had told her a year ago she'd be writing for the Quibbler she'd of thought them mad.
"You will write an article for the Quibbler, detailing what happened to Harry and Cedric last year." Hermione told her, "In exchange, as long as you keep some of your nastiness in check, I will let you write freely again."
"It's been nearly a year." Rita hissed, trying to keep the desperation from her voice, "I don't even know if the Prophet would rehire me. Especially if they hear I have been working for such a… an unusual paper."
"Well if you don't try, you'll never know." Daphne hissed, "Besides there are other papers, magazines. Mama has always been very fond of the Domina Pura, although even at your peak I doubt they would have hired you."
Rita downed the last of her firewhiskey without flinching, "Well how much does this rotten job pay?"
"I don't think Daddy really pays people." Luna said slowly, "They do it to get the truth out, and the honour of seeing their names in print."
"So I'm meant to work for free?" Rita gasped.
"It's the only chance you have." Hermione said firmly, running out of patience.
Rita glared between them, "Fine. When am I meant to get this interview?"
"Now." Daphne suggested, before the slippery little witch could change her mind.
Harry wasn't fond of the idea of being interviewed at all by Rita but now was a good a time as any.
He nodded quickly and sighed, "Get me a butterbeer?" He smiled to Hermione.
She nodded and jumped up to fetch him the drink, grateful he'd not argued against her plan. She didn't hold up much hope, but it was worth a try.