I Didn't Do It, Harry!
Harry Potter Abandons Girlfriend For Former Schoolmate- By Rita Skeeter
The Boy Who Lived can now be referred to as the Boy Who Left. Harry Potter has broken up with his girlfriend of a year and a half, 20 year old Susan Meyers, for his former best friend from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hermione Granger.
Susan was quoted as saying through her tears, "I should have seen it coming, he'd brought a picture of her along with him on a holiday to a remote island."
Witnesses saw Mr. Potter and Miss Granger together the day after the incident at breakfast, various places around the island during the day and in a restaurant that evening, followed by dancing at a club they left rather quickly not long after arriving. One witness has stated seeing Miss Granger enter Mr. Potter's room that evening and not exiting until late the next morning.
Funny behavior for the duo, whose seven year friendship ended at the end of their last year at Hogwarts due to unknown circumstances. It would seem as if the pair has put their differences behind them and made up.
When asked if she thought that anything had happened while Harry and Hermione were alone together in Harry's hotel room, Miss Meyers replied, "He never did anything with me. I hope that he wasn't 'able to' with her." Reports say that less than a week later, Miss Granger was at Harry's house, which is unplottable and as no one knows who his secret keeper is, one can only presume that she had been told by Harry himself where he lives now. According to the unknown sources, she didn't come back out any time during the weekend, and neither did Harry. What could they have been doing all that time? -
Harry stopped reading the article and raised his angry gaze to Hermione. She stared back at him in shock at the furious look he was giving her.
"What have you done?" he hissed.
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" she replied. He threw the Daily Prophet at her and she read the front page. "Harry, you can't believe that 'I' told her? Not after what you said about wanting to protect me from the press." Harry was clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides, desperately trying to control his anger. She dropped the paper on the table.
"'Someone' told her about our being together in my room. It couldn't have been Susan, she'd already left the island. You told me that you didn't care what she said about you anymore. You hadn't since we left Hogwarts. It only stands to reason that you were the one to spill it. And to the 'Prophet'! Could you possibly find a worst rag to go blabbing to?"
Hermione's eyes filled with tears. She couldn't believe what she was hearing! He really thought she had told about the two of them being together.
"The article doesn't say that 'I' said anything. If I had, Rita would have printed it, don't you think?"
"Not if you told her you would tell her secret if she let it be know that it was 'you' that was the 'unknown source', no I don't," Harry spat back.
"What about Tim? He was the one who said that Helen saw me go into your house."
"Oh, so now you think that I should blame my neighbors? They like the piece and quiet that Godric's Hollow has, Hermione. They wouldn't rat me out just for a quick galleon. I already told you that. Why can't you just admit that you told Rita Skeeter already?"
"Because I didn't! And if you don't trust me, then I have no reason to be with you. Ron, Luna," The other couple turned to her. "I'm sorry, but I 'won't' be staying for dinner." She leveled her eyes at Harry and Disapparated.
"Harry, mate, what is 'wrong' with you!" Ron exclaimed as soon as she was gone.
"She sold me out to the Prophet, Ron!"
"You don't really believe that, Harry," Luna said, placing a hand on his arm. Harry looked down at her and realized that she was right. He collapsed in the nearest chair and put his head in his hands.
"But if she didn't tell, who did?" he moaned.
"I don't know, mate," Ron replied, and pulled the paper closer to him. "But you have got to change the way you deal with the press. They're going to bother you, one way or another, until the day you die. You can't keep blowing up if any part of your life leaks out to them. You know in your heart that Hermione didn't and 'wouldn't' talk to Rita Skeeter. Did you stop to think that maybe you neighbors 'might' jump at the chance to blow the whistle on you? I mean I know that they can't tell anyone where you live, but they can divulge other, more intimate, pieces of your life if it suits their purposes."
A tap on the window made them look up and Luna moved to open it to accept a letter from the handsome barn owl that was on the other side. It flew off into the evening sky as she read the name on the front.
"It's for you, Harry."
He took it and slid his thumb under the flap of the envelope. The note was from Tim and Helen, confessing to being the ones to go to the Daily Prophet about his relationship with Hermione. They apologized repeatedly throughout the note, saying that they had been shopping in Diagon Alley and had needed a few more galleons to afford the potion ingredients they desperately needed. They went on to say that it didn't excuse what they had done, but they'd been desperate. Harry's eyes widened in horror as he now realized he'd probably lost the only woman he'd ever loved.
"Oh, my God, Ron. What have I done?" he whispered. Ron turned the paper around to his friend.
"Harry, I hope you know now that you have got to change." Harry nodded emphatically and Ron showed him the two pictures that headed the article. One of each of the subjects of the article.
"If not for yourself," he tapped Harry's picture, then Hermione's. "Then for her."