The Hogwarts Herald

[Magical Beast information from Harry Potter Wikia]

(Book: B4, 193-194 It's cleared up outside, they go over their schedule for the day and the morning post comes in, which includes something for Neville that he'd forgotten, Draco Malfoy gets sweets from home)

Hedwig fluttered on the table with two letters in her beak. Siria quickly took the letters and broke apart a piece of toast for Hedwig. "Thanks, girl. You're the best." Siria grinned as she opened the first letter, which was from Sirius.

Dear Siria,

I'm looking forward to a mountain of letters from you. As I imagine you'll have nothing better to do than write. If Moody is there, it should be a boring year.

"Really?" Ron looked closer at the letter.

"That means he thinks something's up" Siria noted. "See" she pointed at the next line.

Though, things are boring everywhere, after the World Cup.

"He's saying something is up. We talked about it over summer and made a bit of a code." She continued through the rest of the letter, which was mostly about how things at Moony & Padfoot were busy, he didn't know when he would be out to see her, Mrs. Weasley was starting work next week, and "Keep yourself out of the tournament or I'll go grey."

"Did everyone except us know about the tournament?" Ron asked. Hermione lifted the book she checked out from the library and pulled it closer. "You didn't know." Ron told her. Siria opened her other letter to avoid answering that she and Hermione did know, but couldn't have told him. The second letter was much shorter, but full of color. Small doodles of flowers surrounded the border of the letter, which was on paper— not parchment.

Dear Siria,

You're not really going to sign up for the Triwizard Tournament, are you? We overheard some seventh and sixth years saying they were going to put their names in and one of them said you were entering. Daphne said they said that to encourage other Slytherin students to submit their names, but I couldn't wait until Sunday to ask.

My Best,

Astoria Greengrass

Siria put the letter down and looked across the Great Hall, to the Slytherin table. She scanned for the petite frame, but didn't see Astoria or Daphne. "You'll see Daphne after Herbology." Ron reminded Siria.

"See her, sure. Be able to talk to her, that's another thing entirely." Siria said as she stuffed the letters into her bag and added some eggs to her plate for Hedwig. If Daphne was with the other Slytherin girls. Siria stood a better chance at asking Travers out than getting a word in around Daphne's friends, and Travers was dating Warrington.

(Book: B4, 194-196 They work with Bubotubers in Herbology & learn that it's dangerous when the pus is pure, but a good cure for acne when properly diluted. Then the Gryffindors head down to Hagrid's cabin for Care of Magical Creatures)

Hagrid was waiting for them, outside of his cabin, with Fang and a wooden crate. Hermione peered into the crate and backed away so quickly she stepped on Ron's foot. Siria saw why. (As per the book, the Blast-Ended Skrewts, which look like shell-less lobsters). "Er…" Siria started and looked to Hagrid.

"Unfortunately, those 're fer the sixth years." Hagrid sighed. He lowered his voice some "Ol' Snuffles had other thin's in mind for yer all." Relief rushed over Siria, though she felt a little sorry for the sixth years.

Once the Slytherins showed up, Hagrid led the class into a clearing at the outskirts of the forest. They started a few small fires and Hagrid put a handful of what looked like green salamanders at each fire. "Now, yer all 'ave seen Salamander, but yer'll notice these are a bit different." Hagrid began. Hermione's hand shot into the air as she sensed the question Hagrid was leading to. "Alrigh'. Go ahead, 'ermione."

"These are Amazonian Salamanders, which is why they're green— though there are red ones. Amazonian Salamanders are weak to Glacius, but resistant to Incendio." Hermione went on about other vulnerabilities and strength of the Salamander.

Hagrid then brought out English Salamanders and went over how different the two breeds were. The class took notes on the two Salamanders and Hagrid finally pulled out some Peruvian Salamanders. Lavender Brown let out a cry of awe at the sight of the purple Salamanders. Aside from being purple, the Peruvian Salamanders weren't much different than the Amazonian ones.

They watched the three breeds of Salamanders until class was nearly over. Hagrid told them to put out the fires. "Yer can never be too careful. If yer don' put out fires, they might make Ashwinders an' then yer 'ave a real problem. Can burn down yer house with their eggs, Ashwinders."

"Now, next class yer'll be meetin' me at the lake. We're gon' be goin' over what lives in it." Hagrid told them.

"Aside the giant squid?" Ron asked.

"As long as we don't have to get in the lake, I don't really care." Siria confessed. She'd never learned to swim and could only imagine how deep the lake went, or how foolish she'd feel if she drowned in front of everyone.

[Book: B4, 199-200 Hermione goes to Arithmancy while Ron & Siria go to Divination, where they start on stars & planets]

While Professor Trelawney trailed off on their term's goals, Siria scratched away her parchment with her quill. Hagrid had invited them to tea on Saturday and she hoped Sirius would be able to stop by. Mostly, Siria wanted to know, if they completed the Animagus ritual and she could turn into a dog, if she would be able to swim. As she couldn't write that on parchment, because Sirius had insisted "you never know who could read it!" she spent a fair amount of time starting at the parchment, as if it could tell her how to say what she wanted without announcing what they were doing to her possible mystery reader.

Under the table, Ron tapped Siria's knee with his own. She looked over her glasses at him and he looked to Professor Trelawney.

[Book: B4, 200-201 Trelawney tells Siria she was no doubt born in mid winter because of her "dark hair, mean stature, and tragic losses"]

"So close!" Siria grimaced. She had said it much louder than she intended. "I was born a little earlier than anticipated— just before August." Ron nearly choked on his attempt to stifle his laugh so badly he broke into a coughing fit (B,201). Professor Trelawney pulled her shawl up around her shoulders and sent Siria a glare that Siria thought had been reserved for Hermione.

Out of pure stubbornness, Siria raised her head a little higher. She had been earlier than anticipated, by both Professor Trelawney and her own parents. The day Siria was born was one of Remus's favorite stories to tell. Remus and Sirius had been with Lily, and completely unprepared for Siria's early arrival. Lily, however, had everything: a hospital bag packed and beside her door, had a folder of readied paperwork, and then some. Lily had remained calm and told them "Just wait until the baby's out; they'll be ready for everything before we're ready for them to be."

Siria felt like, if she had been raised only by Sirius and had gotten to hear that story when she was younger, she would only be more ready to dive in to things. Though, if she had heard that story, she might have also wanted to join the Triwizard Tournament because she might feel like she was ready, even if Sirius wasn't. Even after they were assigned complicated star charts of how the planets and stars were aligned at their birth, Siria smirked to herself. She wondered if her life would have been any different if she had waited the two or so weeks.

On their way to the Great Hall, Hermione caught up with Ron and Siria. The three had barely sat down when Colin and Dennis Creevey rushed into Siria. "Siria!" Colin gasped and thrust a crumbled Daily Prophet page into Siria's hands.

[Book: B4, 202-203 the article "Further Mistakes at the Ministry of Magic" by Rita Skeeter]

"Rita Skeeter" Hermione tsked when they had finished reading the article.

"You know her?" Siria asked.

"No, but she wrote the other article too. You know, the one about bodies being carried from the woods." Hermione told her.

"But isn't it about Ron's dad?" Colin asked as he looked to them.

"She got his name wrong." Ron grumbled.

"Honestly Ron," Hermione waved it off as she folded up the page. "Don't worry about it. Skeeter isn't a journalist, she's a gossiper" and Hermione handed the page back to Colin.

"Thanks for letting us read it." Siria gave Colin an apologetic smile. "Why don't you two sit with us?" She asked and scooted herself closer to Ron. Dennis jumped at the opportunity and half sat on Siria's leg while trying to sit beside her. "Sorry!" He shouted and slid beside her.

"It's okay." Siria told him. Hermione glared at nothing in particular as she plopped hefty scoops of mixed vegetables onto their plates.

"'Mione?" Siria asked while she received a heaping helping of sausage pasta bake. "Are you that upset about the article?" Hermione raised her eyebrow.

"You know… I suppose I could…." Hermione trailed off. Ron and Siria looked to each other and sighed. They knew she would come back to the conversation when she was ready to share or else bolt off to do what she was thinking about. Hermione froze for a breath then seemed to inhale her food. "Gotta go to the library!" Hermione waved as she rushed past them.

"Did we upset her?" Dennis whispered to Colin. Siria sighed while she watched Hermione's bushy brown hair disappear through the doors of the Great Hall. Beside the door, at the end of the Slytherin table, Daphne Greengrass caught Siria's eye. Siria meant to smile, but her lips pressed together before they smiled and it resulted in Siria feeling awkward. Daphne gave a nod so small, it looked like she was just looking to her plate.

With Daphne's gaze on her, Siria crossed her forearms in a "X" then pantomimed writing, and pointed to the Professor's table. Just as small as the first, Daphne nodded. When she looked back up, she wasn't looking anywhere near Siria. Siria tsked. She wanted to tell Daphne about how Sirius and Hermione knew Siria liked Travers, but she supposed she could tell Daphne on Sunday.

"What are you doing?" Colin asked. He and Dennis were looking around for who she could have been talking to.

"Stretching" Rib suggested. He knew that wasn't it, but wasn't sure who Siria was talking to.

"More importantly," Siria turned to Colin and Dennis. "You know not to even try and sign up for the Triwizard Tournament, right?" The two nodded.

"Are you going to?" Dennis asked.

"Ab-so-lutely NOT!" Siria looked the two brothers in the eyes. "Sirius might worry himself to death if I so much as wanted to for a moment. People died and I've had enough near death experiences for a lifetime!"

When Siria returned to her dorm room that night, Fay Dunbar, Ginny Weasley, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil were in a circle with Hermione, in the middle of the room. "You're late!" Lavender shouted to Siria.

"I'm late?" Siria asked. The other girls scooted back to make the circle larger and give Siria a spot between Hermione and Fay. "Didn't know we had a meeting." Siria confessed. Her heart was racing and she felt a little like she was actually in trouble or else about to be told off by the other girls for doing something terrible.

She forced her eyes to the middle of the circle, where a pile of newspapers, parchment, and old books were sprawled out. Lavender and Parvati had covered the floor behind them with magazines. Hermione seemed to have emptied out all the books she had behind her. The area between Fay's and Siria's beds seemed to be the only area of clean floor.

"We're starting a school paper!" Hermione told Siria. Siria looked around the circle.

"We?" She asked and gestured from herself to the other girls. "We can't agree long enough to sit together at meals and we're starting a paper?"

"We agreed not to sit together— there's a difference!" Parvati insisted.

"Besides, this is actually very important!" Lavender said. Siria looked to Hermione, who didn't disagree.

"Okay" Siria nodded. "Why? Or about what? Like… what would we even write about?"

The other girls dove into explaining. They spoke all at once and over each other in a loud rush of jumbled words that Siria managed to catch and pieces bits of it together, "OKAY!" She called over them. "But isn't it going to be a lot of work? We have classes too and, if it's a school paper, don't we need permission?"

"I'll get it." Hermione replied with such confidence, Siria wouldn't be surprised if Hermione had already gotten permission.

"And we won't be doing it alone. On Sunday, I'll ask people from the study group if they want to join. Ernie MacMillan, Susan Bones, and Cedric Diggory already said they're interested."

"Diggory?" Siria asked.

"Isn't he handsome!" Lavender giggled, but Ginny rolled her eyes.

"He came up when I was talking to Ernie and Susan, to ask about Sunday." Hermione whispered.

"You don't have to join." Ginny told Siria.

"She should though," Hermione suggested, "Remember what you told me over summer? Well, this is how I'm making my stand and I could really use your help."

"Okay." Siria nodded. She looked around at the eyes on her. "So, what are we calling it?"

"The Hogwarts Herald."