Alright, this is definitely an update long overdue. It's short, yes, and I apologize for that. Truth be told, my love for Harry Potter has waned. I'm just not feeling the same kind of love I had had for it ever since The Crimes of Grindelwald came out. Also, I've been immersed in college and other fandoms, the former being my top priority as I still have one more year to go – which will be mainly focused on writing my own fiction for my thesis – then internship this coming June.

Having said all of this, I think it's time I put this story on hiatus. I'll be reconfiguring the plot, finding a good path for this story to take in the meantime. And, when I've figured all of that out and have brushed up on my Harry Potter lore… I'll come back to this.

In the meantime, here you go.

NOTE: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!

Chapter 25: Worries

"WHY THAT VILE… NOSEY… INSECT!"

Draco couldn't help but smirk as he watched Harry storm out of the small office Robards had given him, Potter, and Weasley so they could work on the investigation. They'd been gathering leads based on other Aurors' reports when a copy of today's Daily Prophet had been dropped onto their desk, a photograph of Jemma flying on her broomstick splashed across the page. They'd read the article and, just one minute afterwards, Potter had exploded, throwing the newspaper into the fireplace and setting it alight with a wordless 'INCENDIO!' then storming off. No doubt he was going to look for Rita Skeeter and give her more than just a piece of his mind.

"You're awfully pleased about this," Ron muttered, eyeing Draco suspiciously.

"I've never seen him so mad," Draco snickered as they heard Harry shouting for information about Skeeter's whereabouts. "Skeeter's days are numbered." Even though he'd found the journalist's articles about Harry during their Fourth Year amusing, Draco knew that Skeeter's methods of getting a scoop were improper. The fact that she was an illegal Animangus made that point abundantly clear.

Ron glanced at the doorway, seeing Harry approach Hermione as she got off an elevator. "Well, 'Mione's there. No doubt that they'll band together to bring Rita Skeeter down," he remarked before wincing as his girlfriend let out an enraged shriek.

Draco laughed before sauntering out of the office. It wouldn't hurt to give Potter and Granger the names of some lawyers he knew to help them in bringing down Skeeter. Hopefully, he was going to have a front-row seat to watch The Daily Prophet's most popular journalist's downfall.

The whispers didn't stop.

"Is she really Harry Potter's cousin?"

"Doesn't look like it…"

"Well, duh, she's a Slytherin. Everyone knows spending time in that House will change you…"

"But Jemma's so nice…"

"Snake in sheep's clothing. She acts all sweet before sinking her fangs in your back."

Whenever the teachers weren't around, it seemed like every student wanted to talk about Jemma. They didn't even bother to be subtle. Even when the young girl was around, they would whisper and point fingers at her. If it had been about the Quidditch match, Jemma wouldn't have minded. But, nope. All everyone wanted to talk about was how she was related to the famous Boy-Who-Lived and how she was destroying his legacy.

In Jemma's opinion, "destroying" her cousin's legacy was a bit of a stretch. So what if she wasn't a Gryffindor? She was still Jemma. She was still herself… right?

In spite of Harry's pep talk when he came to visit, Jemma found herself feeling more isolated than ever before. Even her fellow Slytherins seemed to look at her like she wasn't supposed to be in their House, with the exception of her roommates, Vincent, Wendy, and Lawrence. The seven of them hadn't spoken about the article since that fateful Sunday morning. Instead, they tried their best to take Jemma's mind off of it by taking her either to the library or outside to Hagrid's hut where they would study their lessons under the friendly half-giant's watchful eyes.

Speaking of Hagrid, hearing about Skeeter's article made him furious.

"Codswallop, all of it!" he'd boomed when Jemma came to him in tears not long after her meltdown in the owlery. "What's Skeeter's going on about? Shame over ye bein' in Slytherin… I bet Harry's marchin' over to that woman's office to give her a piece o' his mind…" muttered Hagrid, tossing a copy of The Daily Prophet with Skeeter's ridiculous article over to Fang. Fang took great pleasure in ripping the newspaper to shreds before loping over to Jemma and laying his slobbery head on her lap.

Hagrid took one look at Jemma, her face streaked with tears and doing her best to keep new ones from welling up in those doe brown eyes of hers, and his gaze softened. He handed her a giant spotted handkerchief and brewed a pot of tea for her. "It's alright, Jem. Have a good cry. There we go…" he said softly as Jemma started crying again, wiping her tears away feverishly.

"Why…? Why is it that every bad thing seems to happen to Harry? Why do people like Skeeter target him and whoever's close to him? He didn't do anything wrong! I… I didn't do anything wrong…" Jemma sighed, sniffling.

"The world's just like that, Jem. Some people just can't help bein' selfish and cruel…" Hagrid poured two cups of tea and nudged one towards Jemma. "But, you know what? You and Harry, ye two are the complete opposite o' that. S'long you two have each other, things will work themselves out," he told her, his beetle-black eyes glittering with good cheer.

Fang let out a small whine, prompting Jemma to scratch him behind the ears. As Fang's tail happily thumped on the floor and as Hagrid's kind words sunk in, Jemma found a reason to smile, even if it was just a little.

For Vincent, Wendy, and Lawrence, nothing was going to stop them from being Jemma's friends – not even the insistence of their respective housemates' to stop spending time with her.

"She's a Slytherin," the Hammonds triplets pointed out to Wendy when they saw her accompanying Jemma to lunch outside to which the American Hufflepuff merely said, "So?" before leaving.

Lawrence got into a heated debate with Thomas Gertzy about the influence of House placement on a student's behavior when the latter asked the former about his friendship with Jemma.

"You've heard of how being in Slytherin changes people. I mean, look at Draco Malfoy. His family disgraced because of their involvement in You-Know-Who's side of the war. How much longer until Jemma gets corrupted, too?" Thomas argued.

Lawrence glared and showed him a picture of Merlin. "Well, what about Merlin? One of the most famous wizards of all time who fought on the side of good. He wasn't corrupted by being in Slytherin. You know what? Maybe it's not the House that corrupts whoever gets Sorted into it. Maybe it's the way people look at the House and the people in it," he said flatly.

That had shut Thomas up.

Vincent, on the other hand, knew that a letter from his parents asking him to disassociate himself from Jemma was on its way.

Sure enough, the day after Rita Skeeter's article made rounds, the Aurelius family owl came bearing a strongly-worded letter from Vincent's parents, asking him to stop associating with Jemma Dursley.

"Someone's in trouble," Cassie remarked as she lounged in one of the Gryffindor common room's squashy armchairs while Vincent opened the envelope.

Vincent read the letter once, his face turning redder by the minute, before taking a deep breath and throwing it into the fireplace. Like hell he was going to stop being Jemma's friend! She was one of the kindest people he'd ever met and he liked her.

Cassie frowned at Vincent's thunderous expression. "What are you going to do?" she didn't need to read the letter to know what it was about.

"Remain friends with Jem? What else? Just because she's in Slytherin doesn't mean she's supposed to be my enemy," Vincent said shortly, crossing his arms over his chest, watching his parents' letters burn.

"Even if there's a chance your parents will disown you?" Cassie raised an eyebrow.

"They'd never do that…" Vincent's dark blue eyes were downcast. "They wouldn't," he said quietly.