CH 158

'I tried to remove the pain it causes,' Harry explained, 'in case she manages to use it on a student again.' He didn't mention that it also made it more likely to leave permanent scarring, since Umbridge wouldn't notice the effects until it was too late. I do hope the next words she chooses make a student write are appropriately ironic.

'I suppose that makes sense,' Neville conceded, 'but she'd deserve every iota of agony she got.'

'Yes she would,' Harry agreed, pushing open the doors of the hospital wing.

Katie was still in her bed, propped up with a copy of next year's charms textbook looking distinctly bored and miserable.

She perked up when she caught sight of them.

'Hi Harry,' she beamed. Harry gave her a smile and took a seat on the edge of her bed. Neville hovered slightly off to one side.

'What did you bring?' she asked. 'This is Neville,' Harry replied, patting his friend on the cheek. 'He's a who, not a what, Katie, and I'm sure you know each other.'

'I meant for my get well present,' she scowled.

'He got you revenge,' Neville noted, stepping out of Harry's reach.

'You shouldn't have done that,' Katie told him. 'Rita Skeeter devoted the entirety of her column to your attack on Malfoy.'

'Did she?' Harry pulled the copy of the Daily Prophet out from under Katie's pile of chocolate boxes and well-wishing cards.

Boy-Who-Lied attacks student unprovoked assault. Wonderful.

in

vicious,

'Look on the sympathetically,

bright 'either

side,' Katie Fleur sees this

said and murders you, in which case you don't need to worry about anything, or you'll still be able to run off to France.'

'Thanks, Katie,' Harry answered sarcastically. 'I've missed you so much over the last few days.'

'He has, actually,' Neville piped up.

'It's true,' Harry admitted, 'the firsties are all but in revolt without you to terrify them into submission. Black times are ahead without Gryffindor's Dark Mistress to keep order.'

'I'm out of here by the end of the weekend,' Katie informed him happily. 'I'll soon have those little tykes back where they belong.'

'It's the way she says it so seriously and genuinely,' Neville shook his head, 'I'm never quite sure you're joking.' 'She isn't,' Harry grinned. She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.'

'Katie

is

evil,

'Did you read the rest of the article?' Katie tapped the copy of the paper he was still holding.

'No,' Harry shrugged. 'It's certainly all nonsense about me being a murderer and attacking students and the like.'

'Some of it makes no sense,' Katie pointed out. 'It says that Skeeter interviewed Malfoy yesterday, but he was still in here with me, complaining to himself about his injuries, and I never saw her at all.'

'Maybe she got the date wrong,' Neville suggested. 'She got pretty much everything else wrong by the look of it.' He was reading the article over Harry's shoulder. 'It says here that Harry just cursed him in the middle of practice when he stopped to show his concern for an injured friend.'

'Perhaps, but the quotes do sound a lot like what Malfoy was saying in here, so she must have spoken to him at some point.' Katie tugged the paper back out of Harry's hands.

'I was reading that,' Harry frowned.

'Get your own,' Katie laughed. 'This is mine to frame as proof I was once heroically defended by Harry Potter. Girls dream about that, you know.'

'It didn't sound all that heroic to me,' Neville remarked solemnly, wilting slightly under Harry's raised eyebrow. 'Sorry, Harry, but you did kind of curse him in front of a teacher for doing nothing more than opening his mouth like he always does.'

'I was angry,' Harry explained. 'I probably should have made sure there were no witnesses, though.' Neville gave him a look that stated quite clearly he thought he shouldn't have done it all, let alone do it with the forethought to worry about witnesses.

'And now you're banned from quidditch for life,' Katie reminded him. 'It's a good thing Ginny Weasley wanted to be seeker or we wouldn't even have one in time for the first training sessions.'

'I'll try to keep my temper in the future,' Harry promised.

'You better,' Katie ordered sternly, 'you promised me, remember?'

'I won't break my promise,' Harry reassured her.

'What did you do to Malfoy?' Katie asked. 'I didn't really see, but Pomfrey had to grow back a lot of his shoulder and arm, keep him under warming charms, and he was on blood replenishing potions for most of the next day.'

'A dark adaption of the water conjuring spell according to some,' Neville explained. 'I heard there was ice involved, but I also heard that you transformed into a giant serpent and bit him, so really nobody knows and those who saw aren't saying. Malfoy's been quite quiet recently.'

'That rumour must have come from Hufflepuff,' Harry decided. 'It has Ernie Macmillan all over it. He's still scared from second year.'

'I did overhear it from Cedric Diggory,' Neville replied. 'He was laughing at how ludicrous it was in the library until he and Cho were kicked out for kissing by Madam Pince.'

Harry was glad to hear that Cedric remained on his side. The Hufflepuff owed him, even he didn't know it, it would have grated to learn of his ignorant betrayal of Harry after he'd put himself in the way of Skeeter's poisonous pen to make sure Diggory didn't end up in Azkaban with Bagman.

'So what have you been up to while I've been stuck in here?' Katie asked, tucking the Daily Prophet back under her collection of chocolates, most of which had already been eaten.

'Lessons as normal,' Harry told her, 'nothing exciting.' Neville shot him a pointed look. 'I might have tampered with an item of stationary in Umbridge's office,' he confessed.

'The quill?' Katie gasped.

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