Footsteps sounded from the steps down from the girls dormitories and Katie suddenly realised where she was sitting, squeaked in mortification, and threw herself into the chair opposite Harry.
It was Alicia.
'You're down here,' she remarked, coming across to sit next to Katie. 'Have you been crying?' Alicia shot a glare at Harry, the only nearby person and thus te likely guilty party. 'I'm going for a walk to think,' Harry told Katie, 'I'll let you and Alicia talk about things.'
I have a letter to send.
He made his way out of the tower again, ignoring Alicia's whispering behind him. She'd find out what was wrong soon enough, and Alicia knew Katie better than to believe the article.
The Owlery was a long, cold, quiet walk away from the common room. Very few students were up at this hour, and fewer still were out of their house areas. Harry only saw one student, a yawning, upper year Slytherin, who was making his way back from the greenhouses holding a small basket of something brightly coloured. Presumably it was a collection of flowers whose magical properties were lost unless they were harvested at a specific time like dawn. The window of their dormitory was always open so the room didn't get too hot or stuffy, and once Harry was outside he summoned his quill, some parchment and an envelope to him.
Miss Rita Skeeter, Harry wrote on the envelope as he walked, then quickly continued to pen a brief note offering insider information on the sordid relationship of his housemates in Gryffindor. He left it unsigned.
Pausing on the steps up the tower to the Owlery he linked the envelope and a spare piece of parchment in his pocket with the Protean Charm that he'd decided to learn after seeing Hermione utilise it so cleverly, then Harry enchanted the envelope's address to change to whatever it's current location was, something Skeeter was unlikely to notice.
If he wanted to have a quiet, surprise meeting with Rita Skeeter in her home where they wouldn't be disturbed, then he needed to know where she lived.
Harry continued his way up the tower, folding the letter into the envelope, and sealing it.
'This is for Rita Skeeter, Hedwig,' he told his owl, who was eyeing him indignantly. 'Make sure you deliver it to her home.'
The snowy owl fluffed her feathers hooted softly and hopped towards the window before taking off into the sky.
Time for breakfast, I suppose, Harry thought, descending back down the tower.
The corridors were a little busier now, the wave of early breakfasting students were on their way to the Great Hall and Harry could already hear the whispers about him, picking out his name, Katie's and Ginny's from the conversations around him. He gritted his teeth and headed into the hall.
The Gryffindor table was mostly empty, so he took a spot close to the end, and helped himself to sausages, eggs and toast. He was quite hungry having been up earlier than normal.
Katie came down when he was about halfway through his breakfast, but she was shepherded away from him by Alicia and Angelina who trapped her in between them as they went to join the twins.
Harry raised an eyebrow at her down the table, but Katie just shrugged miserably and focused on her breakfast, half-heartedly cutting up a piece of toast into smaller and smaller pieces on her plate.
She looked ever more unhappy than when he'd left her in the common room. He hoped her friends hadn't persuaded her to avoid him to try and prove the article wrong, but he had a niggling fear that they might have.
I shouldn't have made that offer, he decided.
He'd not wanted her to accept his proposition of remaining distant, not in the slightest, but by bringing it up he might have let her be convinced that he wouldn't mind as much as he did. Angelina and Alicia certainly had little care for him beyond being Katie's friend, not now he was no longer on the quidditch team and he didn't doubt that they would try to keep them apart if they thought Katie would be better off.
The worst part was that they might actually be right.
Harry returned his attention to his breakfast, moodily slicing his fried egg open and watching the yolk run across his toast and spill onto the plate. He was definitely going to try and do something about Rita Skeeter.
It's a shame I can't make her disappear under the Dark Mark, he thought viciously, stabbing the egg a few more times.
Skeeter's disappearance would not make sense, she was no threat or concern of Voldemort's.
'Has it offended you?' Neville asked, coming to sit beside him.
'It's not going to be a good day,' Harry told him tersely.
'Seen the paper have you,' Neville realised. 'Well it only gets better,' he added grimly, 'Umbridge first thing with ammunition to use against you.'
'I can keep my cool around her,' Harry promised him. 'It still won't be any fun,' Neville warned. 'I've heard from Gran this morning that there's another Educational Decree being passed today, something that lets Umbridge assess and dismiss the other teachers.'
'Wonderful,' Harry exclaimed sarcastically. 'At this rate the whole school will be carpeted and draped in pink, students will be writing their exams in blood, and she'll be the only teacher left.'
Neville watched him worriedly for a moment, before pouring himself some orange juice. 'Have you spoken to Katie or Ginny?'
'I talked to Katie this morning, she showed me the article, I thought we were ok, but I think Angelina and Alicia have since convinced her to avoid me, or are at least trying to make sure that she does.' 'She looks miserable,' Neville commented, glancing down the table to where Katie was sitting silently between her friends.
'It worries me when she's quiet,' Harry agreed.
'So you haven't spoken to Ginny, then?' Harry shook his head. 'I haven't seen her yet, but I overheard that she was crying in her dorm this morning from.'
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