"Look at this!" Neville spread Rita Skeeter's article across the long table in the Great Hall, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
A huge photograph of Harry dominated the front page. A sprawling article followed, continuing on pages two, six, and seven. Harry was unquestionably its star. The names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang Champions were crammed into a corner at the end, complete with spelling mistakes. Jerry and Cedric were not mentioned at all.
Harry caught a glimpse of the article, and heat rose in his face. Shame washed over him, leaving his cheeks burning.
"How could I possibly cry myself to sleep at night?" Harry gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to crumple the newspaper and throw it into the fireplace. "I never told Rita Skeeter any of this!"
Harry was already on edge. Snape had punished him the night before, making him spend the whole night in the Dungeon Classroom preparing and pickling disgusting rat heads. Now he had come to the Great Hall and found this.
And Rita Skeeter had not stopped at inventing sensational stories. She had gathered other people's opinions of Harry and embellished those too.
The article also claimed that Harry had found his first love at Hogwarts.
According to his close friend Colin Creevey, Harry and Miss Hermione Granger were inseparable. She was extraordinarily beautiful, came from a Muggle family like Harry, and was, like him, one of the school's rare top students.
"Are you sure that last part is about you, Harry, and not Jerry?" Neville scratched his head. Your marks aren't much higher than mine. How did you become a top student?
"How did I get dragged into this?" Hermione took the newspaper and read it with a deep frown. The ugliness of its contents soon left her looking as though she