The Interview

To Heaven'n'Elle: Thanks for reviewing! Glad you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

'So, how did your date go,' said Kitty joining Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor Table for breakfast the next day.

'Well, it was a complete fiasco, now that you ask,' said Harry admittedly, 'I mean it was going well at first. Then I told her that I had to meet Hermione later in the Three Broomsticks. She went all stiff and told me that Roger Davies had also asked her out, and then she started asking me if Cedric mentioned her before dying. And over at the next table, Roger Davies and his girlfriend were kissing fiercely, and then I told her that I didn't want to talk about Cedric. And next thing I know, she's crying all over the table.'

Hermione and Kitty exchanged exasperated looks.

'Well, you shouldn't have told her that you wanted to meet me halfway through your date,' said Hermione.

Kitty nodded vigorously. 'Yeah you are so tactless.'

'Me, tactless?' said Harry, outraged. 'One minute we were getting on fine, next minute she was telling me that Roger Davies asked her out and how she used to go and snog Cedric in that stupid teashop-how was I supposed to feel about that?'

'You should have told her differently,' said Hermione, with a maddeningly patient air. 'You should have said it was really annoying, but I'd made you promise to come along to the Three Broomsticks, and you really didn't want to go, you'd much rather spend the whole day with her, but unfortunately you thought you really ought to meet me and would she please, please come along with you and hopefully you'd be able to get away more quickly. And it might have been a good idea to mention how ugly you think I am, too,' Hermione added as an afterthought.

'But I don't think you're ugly,' said Harry, bemused.

'Look-you upset Cho when you said you were going to meet Hermione, so she tried to make you jealous. It was her way of trying to find out how much you liked her,' said Kitty patiently.

'Is that what she was doing?' said Harry,'Well, wouldn't it have been easier if she'd just asked me whether I liked her better than Hermione?'

'Girls don't often ask questions like that,' said Hermione.

'Well, they should!' said Harry forcefully. 'Then I could've just told her I fancy her, and she wouldn't have had to get herself all worked up again about Cedric dying!'

'You both should get together and write a book,' Ron told Hermione and Kitty, as he cut up his potatoes, 'translating mad things girls do so boys can understand them.'

'Anyway, forget about it,' said Kitty, 'Tell me, what's this I hear about an interview you've given in the Quibbler? I heard that that you, Luna, Hermione and Rita Skeeter met up somewhere in the grounds after returning from Hogsmeade, and you gave an interview?'

Harry said, 'Yeah it was about the night Voldemort returned. I reported the truth, not the trash the Prophet's printing.'

Kitty looked at him, her eyes shining. 'Oh, this is excellent. Now, maybe people will start believing us.'

There was a Quidditch match the very next week; Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. The very best thing you could say about the match was that it was short; the Gryffindor spectators had to endure only twenty-two minutes of agony. It was hard to say what the worst thing was: Harry thought it was a close-run contest between Ron's fourteenth failed save, Sloper missing the Bludger but hitting Angelina in the mouth with his bat, and Kirke shrieking and falling backwards off his broom when Zacharias Smith zoomed at him carrying the Quaffle. The miracle was that Gryffindor only lost by ten points: Ginny managed to snatch the Snitch from right under Hufflepuff Seeker Summerby's nose, so that the final score was two hundred and forty versus two hundred and thirty.

Harry soon got another week's worth detentions, when Umbridge found out about the interview he had given in The Quibbler. It took her no time at all to issue a notice aying that anyone who was found in possession of the magazine, would be expelled. However, Harry received several letters from the readers of The Quibbler, assuring him that they believed him. Everyone in the school seemed to have read the article, even the teachers. Kitty heard the girls discussing it in the toilets, and whenever she went to the library, she thought she could hear snatches of conversation quoting the article.

Meanwhile, Professor Umbridge was stalking the school, stopping students at random and demanding that they turn out their books and pockets: Kitty knew she was looking for copies of The Quibbler, but the students were several steps ahead of her. The pages carrying Harry's interview had been bewitched to resemble extracts from textbooks if anyone but themselves read it, or else wiped magically blank until they wanted to peruse it again.

Harry and Cho had got back together, for Cho considered that it was very brave of Harry to report how Cedric had died. Several Ravenclaw students had also asked Kitty to tell the story from her perspective. Kitty had been forced to conjure up excuses to avoid this.

The teachers were of course forbidden from mentioning the interview by Educational Decree Number Twenty-six, but they found ways to express their feelings about it all the same. Professor Sprout awarded Gryffindor twenty points when Harry passed her a watering can; a beaming Professor Flitwick pressed a box of squeaking sugar mice on him at the end of Charms, said, 'Shh!' and hurried away; and Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister for Magic and have twelve children.

To cap it all, Luna told her over dinner that no issue of The Quibbler had ever sold out faster.

'Dad's reprinting!' she told Kitty, her eyes popping excitedly. 'He can't believe it; he says people seem even more interested in this than the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!'

Late that night, Kitty was sitting in her dormitory, on her four poster bed, reading the book on Animagi Remus had given her. Suddenly, she heard a voice come from her school trunk. Hurriedly, silencing the area around her bed, so that the other girls could not hear, she crept over to her trunk and pulled out the two way mirror Vandyll had given her.

However, she got a shock when she looked into it. The face peering into it was not Vandyll's, but Malfoy's. Her jaw dropped in surprise.

'How did you…'

'Shh!' said Malfoy, 'I saw the mirror lying on your friend's bed and I recognized it as a two way mirror. I was just curious as to who he's communicating with.'

Kitty didn't know what to say.

'Well, how come you're awake at this time of the night?' said Kitty at last.

'Couldn't sleep,' said Malfoy, 'What about you? Have your nightmares stopped?'

'Yes,' said Kitty, 'Thanks so much, Draco.'

Malfoy nodded curtly.

'And,' said Kitty, 'And, um…I'm really glad you're joining our side, Draco. It's really very brave of you.'

Malfoy didn't say anything.

'And, I'm sorry Harry hit that day after the Quidditch match,' continued Kitty.

'And I'm sorry I made fun of your mother that day,' said Malfoy unexpectedly, 'Just…just don't tell your brother that I apologized.'

Kitty smiled and nodded.

'So I read that interview of Potter's in that magazine,' said Malfoy, 'He labeled my father as a Death Eater.'

Kitty kept silent. Malfoy stared at her for a few seconds, and then said, 'He didn't say anything wrong. Not only is Father a Death Eater, but he keeps…er…persuading me to become one too.'

'So,' said Kitty slowly, 'Does he…I mean does he torture you at home?'

Malfoy narrowed his eyes and said irritably, 'Will you please stop treating me like a victim?'

'No! No, I meant…' began Kitty.

'Forget about it, anyway…er…I'll talk to you later, goodnight,' said Malfoy, and disappeared from the mirror.

Kitty cursed herself mentally and lay back in her bed, thinking about Malfoy.

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