The Gaily Gossip
Harry tiredly slid open the compartment door and plopped down beside the window. Ron walked in after him and threw himself down next to Harry. Ron stretched out and rested his head down beside Harry.
"Where'd you 'spect Hermione is?" Ron muttered sleepily.
"I dunno," Harry said in an equally tired voice as Ron's.
Ron groaned and rubbed the dark lines underneath his eyes. "I hate Ginny."
Harry, as tired as he was, couldn't help but laugh until he gripped a stitch in his side. He looked down at Ron's hard glare. "Oh, come on, Ron... You have to admit, that was pretty funny."
"Oh, what, and you're going to say that you don't hate George and Fred now?"
Harry shrugged and laid his head back against the compartment wall.
The next second, laughter was heard and the compartment door slid open. Ron growled as Ginny and Hermione entered, laughing heartily.
"You really did that to Ron?" Hermione asked Ginny, completely ignoring the two boys as she sat down. Ginny sat down next to her, nodding her head.
"Yup, and guess what George and Fred did to Harry?"
"What?" Hermione asked eagerly.
"They turned him green!"
Harry blushed heavily as Hermione's jaw fell open, though the corners of her mouth were twitching upward.
"He was up all night trying to make himself turn back to normal! Ron would've helped, but he was too busy trying to get the spiders out of his hair!"
Hermione and Ginny went into laughter they weren't able to get out of.
"But really, I think Harry should've left himself alone," Ginny gasped after a while. "It matched his eyes!"
Ginny and Hermione started laughing all over again.
"When you're finished!" Ron yelled angrily over the two girls.
Their laughter only hardened. Finally, after about ten minutes of non stop laughter, Hermione and Ginny started talking about boys with a few random giggles and snorts.
"Jesus," Ron muttered. "Can't you take your dumb talk someplace else?"
"What, jealous?" Ginny asked with a small smirk. She glanced knowingly at the oblivious Hermione in a playful, yet dangerous way.
Ron narrowed his eyes. "Out."
"You can't make me," Ginny said, sticking out her tongue. Ron rolled his eyes and looked at Harry for help. Harry was too busy staring out of the window, though. Ron was wondering whether Harry was about to fall asleep when the compartment door slid open once again.
"Is it true?" Seamus asked instantly from the entrance. "Were you green, Harry? And did spiders start crawling out of your mouth and hair, Ron?"
Ron turned to Ginny with a hard glare. "How many people did you tell?!"
"Hermione... and a few others..." Ginny said sheepishly.
"So it's true!" Seamus said with a laugh. Then when Ron's glare turned to him, he stopped himself and cleared his throat. "That's truly horrible, Ginny, how could you do something like that?"
Ginny rolled her eyes with a small smile.
"Can't we talk about something else?" Ron said, and then he quickly added, "And nothing to do with boys - or books," casting a knowing look at Hermione.
Seamus sat down next to the outstretched Ron. "Fine. Did you hear about Japan winning the Quidditch finals this year?"
Ginny and Hermione sent dark looks at the boys, two of which were suddenly very alive. But they ignored Ginny and Hermione as they continued talking non-stop about Quidditch. So the two girls, knowing they wouldn't be missed, stood up and left.
They walked down the train, peeking inside every compartment in search of Lavender, Parvati, and Padma. They finally found them in one of the first compartments and sat down next to them, happily telling the story of what happened last night. The Parvati and Lavender then told their share of gossip, and then it was finally Padma's turn.
"You'll never believe this, but..." she started calmly.
"What is it?" Lavender asked impatiently.
Padma smirked slightly. She was obvious enjoying torturing the other girls. "Don't blame me if this isn't true... I heard this from another Ravenclaw student that will remain unknown."
"Go on!" Ginny said.
"Okay... Draco Malfoy..."
"What about him?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Oh, come on, Padma! You wouldn't even tell me this morning! What is so important?" Parvati said in annoyance.
Padma sighed, though she was still smirking. "Okay, all right... Draco Malfoy is... is..."
The girls all leaned in, with wide eyes.
"Gay."
Their jaws dropped to the ground. They just stared at Padma for a few seconds before Hermione closed her mouth and collected herself together quickly. With furrowed eyebrows, she asked:
"What?"
"You heard me," Padma said with a grin. "He's gay. Not the happy gay, but gay, as in he likes watching men's asses."
Ginny's eyes widened all the more as she just continued staring at her, but Parvati and Lavender collected themselves together at this moment.
"That can't be true! That dumb brute, gay?" Lavender said with crossed arms. "Aren't gays supposed to be nice and loving, and aren't they supposed to like fluffy bunnies or something?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Padma said with a shrug. "The Ravenclaw that told me this says he heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else, and so on. And now I am asking you to spread the word with quietness and secretively tell only one person at a time. Really, I bent the rules slightly by telling you four at once, but really, it doesn't matter that much. Just make sure the persons you tell don't know that I told you, or the line of tellers will become unraveled, and each of them will be pounded into the ground by Slytherins. You know how Slytherins can be with their fellow students, so protective, but who's going to protect me when I'm being thrown out of the astronomy tower? No one. So don't say you heard it from me!"
The girls nodded with understanding, Ginny finally recovering from the shock.
"The first one I'm telling is Katie," Lavender said. She stood up and left quickly with a huge grin on.
"Come on," Parvati said to Padma "Lets continue to spread the word!"
The two twins left, leaving Ginny and Hermione alone in the room. The two slowly turned to each other. Their mouths slowly dropped, their mouths twitching up into huge grins.
"This is-"
"Unbelievable," Hermione finished for Ginny.
The two girls jumped up and ran back to the compartment with the boys. They slid the compartment door open so quickly and hard that it shattered.
The boys looked up with raised eyebrows. Neville had joined them at some point. Hermione grabbed her wand from her pocket and corrected the shattered glass, then spun around to the boys with a huge grin on her face. Ginny had an identical grin on her face as she bounced up and down on her toes and heels.
"What is it?" Ron asked.
"Guess!" Ginny said, her grin growing. She pointed at Seamus.
"Um... Classes have been canceled?"
The two girls shook their heads and Hermione pointed at Neville.
"I don't know," Neville said quietly. "The Slytherins have been kicked out of Hogwarts?"
The two girls, once again, shook their heads and Ginny pointed at Ron.
"Snape is dead?" he asked.
The two girls shook their heads and pointed at Harry.
Harry shrugged and yawned sleepily. "Quidditch is now an official class and it has taken over Hogwarts?"
The two girls shook their heads, their grins growing huger by the second.
"What is it?" Ron asked impatiently.
Ginny burst it out so quickly that it was impossible to understand her, but Hermione took a deep breath and said it more slowly.
"Draco Malfoy is gay."
Harry's glasses slipped off his nose and fell to the ground; he didn't seem to notice as he gaped at the two girls. Ron's eyes nearly popped out of head. Seamus burst out laughing. Neville sat there in quiet shock. Their reactions were exactly what Hermione and Ginny expected.
Ron then joined in Seamus's laughter, who was joined by Harry, and a nervous laugh from Neville had been pitched in. The students continued with the gossip, though Ginny and Hermione refused to tell them who had told them this little secret.
What all of them wanted to know was who had started this chain, and how that person had found out. Neville became even more quiet, but no one except for Ginny seemed to notice. When they had run out of ideas of who it was and how they found out, Ginny suggested that Neville put in a few ideas.
They all stared expectantly at Neville.
"Well... Um..."
"It was you, wasn't it!?" Ginny demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Neville. The other four had no idea what Ginny was talking about, Neville's cheeks went sweltering hot as he blushed.
"I didn't mean to! I was walking in Diagon Alley with my grandma when she went to Gringotts to get my money since she said I might loose it on my way back! While I was waiting, I saw you, Harry! You were going over to that ice cream place, and it seemed you were waiting for someone, and then I saw that Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle come from the Quidditch store, and I panicked! I didn't want to be seen by them, they would bully me, so I hid in an alley, but they only walked towards me! Then I heard Goyle ask Malfoy if he still liked you, and I couldn't help but listen-"
"Wait!" Ron yelled. "Repeat the last thing you said!"
"I couldn't help but listen-"
"No, no, before that!"
"Well, I heard Goyle ask Malfoy if he still liked Harry..."
All heads whirled around and stared at Harry. Harry sat there, staring blankly at Neville. He didn't know what to say, feel, or think. The words just echoed around in his mind.
"Not like, like like-like!" Neville said before any of them could keel over hurling. "Just..."
"Attracted like?" Hermione asked, turning to him.
Neville nodded.
"And you're the one that started this?" Seamus asked incredulously.
"I couldn't help but instantly tell the first person I saw - that is, besides you three... I was hoping that the information would never get to you, Harry, and I never thought it really would, because I told Dean to keep it a secret! I didn't know how you would react..."
It was silent for a while before Ron spoke up. "Wake me up when it's time to put on our robes."
"How typical of you!" Hermione said angrily. "You just find out that our worst enemy is attracted to Harry, and you decide to go to sleep!"
"No, it's all right," Harry said with a yawn. "I'd like to go to sleep too."
"Fine," Hermione said huffily.
"I have to go talk to Dean," Seamus said. "I want to know why he didn't tell me about this," and he was gone.
"I have to go hide now," Neville said quietly. He stood up to leave, but Ginny placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll come with you," she said, casting an apologetic look at Hermione, who merely nodded with a small smile. Ginny smiled back at Hermione as she led Neville outside.
Hermione looked down at Ron and Harry, both of whom were all ready starting to drift away into dreamland, or rather, nightmare land. She sat down across from the two and wondered what they both thought about this. She looked down at the glasses lying on the floor in front of Harry, got out her wand lazily, cast a small spell, and made the glasses fly up onto the table.
Harry tiredly slid open the compartment door and plopped down beside the window. Ron walked in after him and threw himself down next to Harry. Ron stretched out and rested his head down beside Harry.
"Where'd you 'spect Hermione is?" Ron muttered sleepily.
"I dunno," Harry said in an equally tired voice as Ron's.
Ron groaned and rubbed the dark lines underneath his eyes. "I hate Ginny."
Harry, as tired as he was, couldn't help but laugh until he gripped a stitch in his side. He looked down at Ron's hard glare. "Oh, come on, Ron... You have to admit, that was pretty funny."
"Oh, what, and you're going to say that you don't hate George and Fred now?"
Harry shrugged and laid his head back against the compartment wall.
The next second, laughter was heard and the compartment door slid open. Ron growled as Ginny and Hermione entered, laughing heartily.
"You really did that to Ron?" Hermione asked Ginny, completely ignoring the two boys as she sat down. Ginny sat down next to her, nodding her head.
"Yup, and guess what George and Fred did to Harry?"
"What?" Hermione asked eagerly.
"They turned him green!"
Harry blushed heavily as Hermione's jaw fell open, though the corners of her mouth were twitching upward.
"He was up all night trying to make himself turn back to normal! Ron would've helped, but he was too busy trying to get the spiders out of his hair!"
Hermione and Ginny went into laughter they weren't able to get out of.
"But really, I think Harry should've left himself alone," Ginny gasped after a while. "It matched his eyes!"
Ginny and Hermione started laughing all over again.
"When you're finished!" Ron yelled angrily over the two girls.
Their laughter only hardened. Finally, after about ten minutes of non stop laughter, Hermione and Ginny started talking about boys with a few random giggles and snorts.
"Jesus," Ron muttered. "Can't you take your dumb talk someplace else?"
"What, jealous?" Ginny asked with a small smirk. She glanced knowingly at the oblivious Hermione in a playful, yet dangerous way.
Ron narrowed his eyes. "Out."
"You can't make me," Ginny said, sticking out her tongue. Ron rolled his eyes and looked at Harry for help. Harry was too busy staring out of the window, though. Ron was wondering whether Harry was about to fall asleep when the compartment door slid open once again.
"Is it true?" Seamus asked instantly from the entrance. "Were you green, Harry? And did spiders start crawling out of your mouth and hair, Ron?"
Ron turned to Ginny with a hard glare. "How many people did you tell?!"
"Hermione... and a few others..." Ginny said sheepishly.
"So it's true!" Seamus said with a laugh. Then when Ron's glare turned to him, he stopped himself and cleared his throat. "That's truly horrible, Ginny, how could you do something like that?"
Ginny rolled her eyes with a small smile.
"Can't we talk about something else?" Ron said, and then he quickly added, "And nothing to do with boys - or books," casting a knowing look at Hermione.
Seamus sat down next to the outstretched Ron. "Fine. Did you hear about Japan winning the Quidditch finals this year?"
Ginny and Hermione sent dark looks at the boys, two of which were suddenly very alive. But they ignored Ginny and Hermione as they continued talking non-stop about Quidditch. So the two girls, knowing they wouldn't be missed, stood up and left.
They walked down the train, peeking inside every compartment in search of Lavender, Parvati, and Padma. They finally found them in one of the first compartments and sat down next to them, happily telling the story of what happened last night. The Parvati and Lavender then told their share of gossip, and then it was finally Padma's turn.
"You'll never believe this, but..." she started calmly.
"What is it?" Lavender asked impatiently.
Padma smirked slightly. She was obvious enjoying torturing the other girls. "Don't blame me if this isn't true... I heard this from another Ravenclaw student that will remain unknown."
"Go on!" Ginny said.
"Okay... Draco Malfoy..."
"What about him?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Oh, come on, Padma! You wouldn't even tell me this morning! What is so important?" Parvati said in annoyance.
Padma sighed, though she was still smirking. "Okay, all right... Draco Malfoy is... is..."
The girls all leaned in, with wide eyes.
"Gay."
Their jaws dropped to the ground. They just stared at Padma for a few seconds before Hermione closed her mouth and collected herself together quickly. With furrowed eyebrows, she asked:
"What?"
"You heard me," Padma said with a grin. "He's gay. Not the happy gay, but gay, as in he likes watching men's asses."
Ginny's eyes widened all the more as she just continued staring at her, but Parvati and Lavender collected themselves together at this moment.
"That can't be true! That dumb brute, gay?" Lavender said with crossed arms. "Aren't gays supposed to be nice and loving, and aren't they supposed to like fluffy bunnies or something?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Padma said with a shrug. "The Ravenclaw that told me this says he heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else, and so on. And now I am asking you to spread the word with quietness and secretively tell only one person at a time. Really, I bent the rules slightly by telling you four at once, but really, it doesn't matter that much. Just make sure the persons you tell don't know that I told you, or the line of tellers will become unraveled, and each of them will be pounded into the ground by Slytherins. You know how Slytherins can be with their fellow students, so protective, but who's going to protect me when I'm being thrown out of the astronomy tower? No one. So don't say you heard it from me!"
The girls nodded with understanding, Ginny finally recovering from the shock.
"The first one I'm telling is Katie," Lavender said. She stood up and left quickly with a huge grin on.
"Come on," Parvati said to Padma "Lets continue to spread the word!"
The two twins left, leaving Ginny and Hermione alone in the room. The two slowly turned to each other. Their mouths slowly dropped, their mouths twitching up into huge grins.
"This is-"
"Unbelievable," Hermione finished for Ginny.
The two girls jumped up and ran back to the compartment with the boys. They slid the compartment door open so quickly and hard that it shattered.
The boys looked up with raised eyebrows. Neville had joined them at some point. Hermione grabbed her wand from her pocket and corrected the shattered glass, then spun around to the boys with a huge grin on her face. Ginny had an identical grin on her face as she bounced up and down on her toes and heels.
"What is it?" Ron asked.
"Guess!" Ginny said, her grin growing. She pointed at Seamus.
"Um... Classes have been canceled?"
The two girls shook their heads and Hermione pointed at Neville.
"I don't know," Neville said quietly. "The Slytherins have been kicked out of Hogwarts?"
The two girls, once again, shook their heads and Ginny pointed at Ron.
"Snape is dead?" he asked.
The two girls shook their heads and pointed at Harry.
Harry shrugged and yawned sleepily. "Quidditch is now an official class and it has taken over Hogwarts?"
The two girls shook their heads, their grins growing huger by the second.
"What is it?" Ron asked impatiently.
Ginny burst it out so quickly that it was impossible to understand her, but Hermione took a deep breath and said it more slowly.
"Draco Malfoy is gay."
Harry's glasses slipped off his nose and fell to the ground; he didn't seem to notice as he gaped at the two girls. Ron's eyes nearly popped out of head. Seamus burst out laughing. Neville sat there in quiet shock. Their reactions were exactly what Hermione and Ginny expected.
Ron then joined in Seamus's laughter, who was joined by Harry, and a nervous laugh from Neville had been pitched in. The students continued with the gossip, though Ginny and Hermione refused to tell them who had told them this little secret.
What all of them wanted to know was who had started this chain, and how that person had found out. Neville became even more quiet, but no one except for Ginny seemed to notice. When they had run out of ideas of who it was and how they found out, Ginny suggested that Neville put in a few ideas.
They all stared expectantly at Neville.
"Well... Um..."
"It was you, wasn't it!?" Ginny demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Neville. The other four had no idea what Ginny was talking about, Neville's cheeks went sweltering hot as he blushed.
"I didn't mean to! I was walking in Diagon Alley with my grandma when she went to Gringotts to get my money since she said I might loose it on my way back! While I was waiting, I saw you, Harry! You were going over to that ice cream place, and it seemed you were waiting for someone, and then I saw that Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle come from the Quidditch store, and I panicked! I didn't want to be seen by them, they would bully me, so I hid in an alley, but they only walked towards me! Then I heard Goyle ask Malfoy if he still liked you, and I couldn't help but listen-"
"Wait!" Ron yelled. "Repeat the last thing you said!"
"I couldn't help but listen-"
"No, no, before that!"
"Well, I heard Goyle ask Malfoy if he still liked Harry..."
All heads whirled around and stared at Harry. Harry sat there, staring blankly at Neville. He didn't know what to say, feel, or think. The words just echoed around in his mind.
"Not like, like like-like!" Neville said before any of them could keel over hurling. "Just..."
"Attracted like?" Hermione asked, turning to him.
Neville nodded.
"And you're the one that started this?" Seamus asked incredulously.
"I couldn't help but instantly tell the first person I saw - that is, besides you three... I was hoping that the information would never get to you, Harry, and I never thought it really would, because I told Dean to keep it a secret! I didn't know how you would react..."
It was silent for a while before Ron spoke up. "Wake me up when it's time to put on our robes."
"How typical of you!" Hermione said angrily. "You just find out that our worst enemy is attracted to Harry, and you decide to go to sleep!"
"No, it's all right," Harry said with a yawn. "I'd like to go to sleep too."
"Fine," Hermione said huffily.
"I have to go talk to Dean," Seamus said. "I want to know why he didn't tell me about this," and he was gone.
"I have to go hide now," Neville said quietly. He stood up to leave, but Ginny placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll come with you," she said, casting an apologetic look at Hermione, who merely nodded with a small smile. Ginny smiled back at Hermione as she led Neville outside.
Hermione looked down at Ron and Harry, both of whom were all ready starting to drift away into dreamland, or rather, nightmare land. She sat down across from the two and wondered what they both thought about this. She looked down at the glasses lying on the floor in front of Harry, got out her wand lazily, cast a small spell, and made the glasses fly up onto the table.