Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Chapters 1-6.

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Cho watched Harry from afar the next few days. He seemed to cope very well. His injuries were recovering, his clothes were mended, and he had a strange smile on his face. Was it something that the bookworm Hermione told him? Cho knew they weren't dating. Her older brother worked for the Daily Prophet as assistant editor. He wrote her and told her that most of Rita Skeeter's stories were all lies but his supervisor took them anyway because they would sell good.

Personally, Cho couldn't wait for her brother to be promoted. He worked for the press, but he was very rare in the fact that he was honest. He often refused to print anything if it was a lie. The same could not be said of Arnold Beedle. Mr. Beedle was her brother's supervisor. He took anything he could get his hands on that would make a great sale. No one bothered trying to stop him because he made the Prophet rich.

At this thought, Cho reluctantly opened up her Daily Prophet to see what the HORRID woman had to write on Harry today. It took her a couple of minutes to realize that there was nothing on Harry except that he won the TriWizard Tournament. Rita hadn't written anything except that Ludo Bagman had struck it rich somehow. The part that stood out most was,

Ludo Bagman makes tons of Galleons to pay off debts.

Mr. Ludo Bagman had recently made enough money to cover debts he owed to multiple witches and wizards in the world. How he acquired the Galleons needed to pay of these debts is a mystery. This writer can only wonder how he made all those Galleons.

It must also be noted, that he had been spending time in the company of some angry Goblins. Could Mr. Bagman have done something illegal to cause our peace with the Goblins to end, or is it something else?

Cho stopped reading at that point. Mr. Bagman did owe a lot of people money. Her father was one of the wizards he owed money to. A good 200 Galleons. That's a lot of money to pay back, and he was paying everyone back. It was possible he was doing something illegal. But if the Goblins were going to end the peace, they would've done it by now. They HAVE been throwing angry looks at Ludo the past few days, but they also seemed to not do anything. Perhaps a bet? Ludo was very good at making them.

Cho was snapped out of her reverie by Marietta Edgecomb, her best friend. "You're thinking of him again." Cho almost jumped at the sound of her voice, but looked at Marietta. "Thinking of who? What are you talking about?"

Marietta just stared coldly at her. "Bloody Harry Potter, that's who!" Cho sighed, she knew that Marietta disliked Harry. Marietta was too influenced by the Ministry and Daily Prophet. At the moment, their were rumors going around about discrediting Harry and Dumbledore. Well, when the Prophet discredits a person, Marietta would go against that person even if she liked him/her before. But Cho was not going to give up on her.

Marietta was actually an amazing witch. She had many talents that would make many people filled with envy. She could charm a watch to whistle the time, transfigure a stone on the ground into a snitch. But she also tended to hate whoever's time it was to hate them in the prophet. Even if there were just rumors of it she would jump on the bandwagon.

But Cho knew that for all of her prejudices, she had no experience in anything. It was easy to turn on someone based off of what someone else said. But when faced with the consequences of their actions, seeing first hand the damage words can do. That she had no knowledge of. Cho knew that Marietta was a sweet person who cared for people's feelings. She cared for everyone's feelings, her opinions were just too easily switched. Cho had been working on this with her. But Cho knew, if Marietta was ever faced with following such a prejudice, seeing her actions affect others, she would feel sorry and do what she could to fix it. But the problem would be if the person she betrayed would let her.

"What's wrong with Harry. He just dueled You-Know-Who and survived! He just went through HELL and back and he seems as happy as ever. He gets pushed down, he gets up stronger than before! What is there NOT to like!"

Marietta just looked at her. "I bet he's lying. Lying through his teeth to get more fame. The top people are saying that, so it must be true! FUDGE is even saying it! I was walking by a class and heard Fudge saying Harry is an attention seeking dare devil with mediocre skills and Dumbledore is losing his marbles! He was talking to the Daily Prophet too!"

Cho just rolled her eyes. Here, her friend hears something and instantly joins a side without listening to the others. She was one day going to regret being like that.

Little did either of them know, was that it would be a little under a year when she finally did regret it. And regret it she would.

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Harry was inwardly smiling at Hermione telling him how she had blackmailed Rita into not writing trash about Harry. Leave it to Hermione to figure out that Rita was an unregistered animagus and blackmail her. Who knew she had it in her to blackmail someone?

Ron seemed to be thinking the same thing as he muttered, "Scary how women can be sometimes. You think you got them figured only to have one throw off the balance and leave a bloke to start all over." Harry had to agree. Women could be so confusing! Oh well, no need worry about it. Voldemort was a bigger issue. But so was Ginny staring moodily into her food. Ron was oblivious and Hermione was too happy about scoring a victory over "that wretched, evil, loathsome little cockroach of a woman!" to notice. "Ginny?"

Ginny jumped, pulling out her wand. "Oh, it's you Harry, nice day isn't it! Yep, this is good, the food that is!" Hermione looked at Ginny with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Ginny, are you all right?"

"Of course! I mean, the sun is out, the food tastes good, Ireland won the Quidditch World Cup, what's there not to be happy about?" Even Ron was beginning to notice Ginny's weird behavior now. "Ginny, that match took place ages ago." "Has it really? OH! I must go now." She left quickly, leaving her food untouched. "Bloody mental!" Ron sighed.

Hermione just looked at her go, then went back to reading the Daily Prophet. Her face filled with concentration on what she was reading, not a thought in her head about Ginny. She knew what was wrong with her. She was crushing after Harry, but he was oblivious. Maybe things would work out. Maybe.

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Authors Note: Another chapter done. Not much action, romance, blah blah blah in this chapter. However, look closely. I left a few hints about some things to come. I may be disregarding OoTP. But I am going to put things in that's in it. Like Umbridge. (shudder) how I hate that woman. Next Chapter is when all the Students go home. The going away feast and the Ceremony for Harry getting 1000 Galleons. Dumbledore will announce Voldemort's return. But the wording will be different, (as Cedric's alive) and has a Dumbledore moment.