Together (A Harry Potter love story) 1

47

MILLIES POV

The story began spreading through the school like wildfire the next day. I heard rumours everywhere:

'Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, and Millie Donovan, the daughter of one of the best aurors in the world, the heroes of two Quidditch matches, had lost the Gryffindors all these points, them and some other stupid first year.'

From being two of the most popular and admired people at the school, we were suddenly the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on us, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup. Everywhere I went, people pointed, and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted me, which trust me, I did not hold back on the rude hand gestures in return.

Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as I walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks gorgeous, we owe you one!"

I felt, for the first time in my life, depressed. Only Ron and Mione stood by us.

"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them." Ron said encouragingly.

"They've never lost a hundred and fifty points in one go, though, have they?" Harry said miserably.

"Well - no."

It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Harry and I swore to each other that were not going to meddle in things that weren't our business from now on. I'd had it with sneaking around and spying.

Even quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to neither me or Harry during practice. This made it extremely hard when your job was to score goals, and none of your teammates would even pass you the ball.

Neville was suffering too. He didn't have as bad a time as Harry and I, because he wasn't as well known, but nobody would speak to him either.

I felt terrible. My eyes had lost their glint, and my stomach felt empty constantly. I was almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the revision I had to do kept my mind off my misery. Our four kept to ourselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells off by heart, memorise the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions ...

Ron, Mione and I were sitting in the library one afternoon, studying. Well, Mione was testing Ron on astronomy, while I stared at the floor miserably. After about thirty minutes of this, Harry came running up to us, panting heavily.

"I just heard-" he dropped into a chair, slumping down, "I just heard Snape threatening Quirrell again."

Ron groaned. "I bet Snape's done it, then!" I continued staring at the floor silently, my thoughts whirring. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his anti-dark force spell-"

"There's still Fluffy, though," Mione reasoned hesitantly.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding us. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here, telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog."

"So, what do we do?"

I sat up in my chair with a small smile on my face, my heart thumping excitedly.

"Go to Dumbledore," Mione answered, watching me closely. "That's what we should've done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves, we'll be thrown out for sure - especially you two," she added, pointing at Harry and I.

"But we've got no proof!" Harry said, glancing at me. I grinned - we had both forgotten about the deal. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor - who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

My smile had grown weaker and weaker the whole time he had spoke. I tore my eyes away from his emerald green ones and looked at the other two. Mione looked like she agreed with Harry, whilst Ron didn't.

"If we just do a bit of poking around-" Ron said.

"No," said Harry flatly.

"Why?" I spat. The word had come out angrier that I had intended. Harry glared at me.

"I thought we'd done enough poking around?" he mocked - but it wasn't in his usual playful way - it was deadly serious.

Without another word, he pulled a map of Jupiter towards him and looked down at it.