Letters

Chris straight walked towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Fair Fortune." Chris said to the fat lady.

"You're early today." The fat lady said as the her portrait swung open.

"Not feeling well. That's it." She replied as she climbed inside the potrait hole.

The common room was completely deserted. Chris sank into an armchair near the fire. The flames reminded her about that crystal ball. She tried to think about something else but failed miserably.

'The day started so good and ended up like a crap.' Chris sighed.

"It's time.. I'm writing him that if he refuse to answer our letter, we're going to tell the Ministry about his glamorous works." Someone said.

Hearing the voice Chris looked up a little and saw Fred and George coming down from the boys dormitory.

"But what if we get in trouble for that Fred." George said.

They didn't noticed Chris.

"We'll not get in trouble George and also it's out last chance." Fred replied angrily.

"But if you write that you're going to tell the Ministry about the goblins then it'll be straight blackmail, Fredie." George said looking worried.

"That was our all savings George. We can't just let it go." Fred said as he sat down on the table pulling a parchment. "It's time to play dirty like him."

Fred started to write and George sat down beside him to see what Fred was writing.

"Who is playing dirty with you two?" Chris asked loudly.

Fred and George froze then looked back at the place where Chris was sitting. Chris got up and walked to them.

"What're you doing here?" George asked.

"I can ask you two the same, because I feel like you're doing more shady business than me." Chris sat on the chair in front of them. "So who is this person?"

"Its nothing Chris." Fred grinned and pulled the parchment away from Chris. "I was only joking."

"Really?" Chris asked raising an eyebrow. "So goblin.. blackmail.. savings...? All were jokes? You know Fred I can put two and two together."

The grin vanished from their faces.

"You can trust me. I'll not tell anyone else, not even Ginny if you ask me to." Chris said earnestly.

After few moments, Fred and George looked at each other then sighed.

"Fine." Fred said. "It's Ludo Bagman."

"Bagman?" Chris looked surprised. "He took your savings for bet, I remember, but didn't he return the money after the World Cup?"

"Yeah. We thought so." George said darkly. "But the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."

"And leprechaun gold vanishes after sometime. Hagrid just told us this morning." Chris said understanding the matter. "So he did it purposely?"

"Yep. But we thought, at first that it was a mistake. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it here at the championship, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."

"And now he's telling us that we are too young to gamble, and he isn't going to give us anything." Fred said.

"So we asked for our money back," said George, glowering.

"And he refused." Fred said darkly. "And then at last Hogsmeade visit we found out what's going on with him."

"Lee Jordan told us his dad had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman like us. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them." George said. "And a gang of goblins cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him."

"And now we're going to write to him that if he doesn't return our money we will tell the Ministry about his blunder with the goblins." Fred sighed. "You see goblins don't have a friendly relation with wizards and have a very bad relation with the Ministry. So it's definitely going to cost him his job if we tell the Ministry."

"Do it." Chris said after listening to them.

"Really?" Fred grinned.

"Yup. He deserves it. He knew it was your all savings but he still insisted to bet." Chris replied. "He knew he can't pay it off. Idiot. Do it Fred. There's nothing wrong in it. I'm sure if the news will be so big to cost his job, then Bagman will not tell anyone about the letter."

"See George, she understands." Fred said.

"Ok let's do this." George grinned too.

And the three of them put their heads together to write a perfect blackmail note.

Next morning Chris woke up and realized a book and her wand was still in her hands. Last light she was reading a Transfiguration book, lying on her bed after talking to Fred and George. As she got up the yesterday's events came back to her as her stomach made a great amount of noise.

"That happens when you decide to skip meals." Ginny said sitting in her own bed.

"Morning." Chris said, as she got out of the bed.

"Good morning. Now go and freshen up quickly." Ginny ordered as she started to arrange her books neatly in her table.

"Alright." Chris replied and went to the bathroom.

When she came out she saw Ginny had arranged Chris's table too.

"You didn't need to do that." Chris said.

"I know. I did it because you were taking so much time in the shower and I was bored." Ginny said rolling her eyes. "Let's go."

"Soo... you yelled at Harry yesterday?" Chris asked as they walked down to the common room.

It looked like Ginny was waiting for Chris to touch yesterday's topic. She didn't want to talk about it first.

"Yes. I did. He had no right to accuse you like that. I've met Jason, I don't think he is bad and I trust your judgement." Ginny replied hurriedly. "Also Colin and Luna told me something at dinner last night."

"Right about the divination class, isn't it?" Chris asked as the entered the common room.

"Yeah." Colin said.

He was just waiting for them near the foot of the stairs.

"What happened to you there?" Ginny asked. "Did you really see a car accident?"

"Er.... no." Chris sighed. "I'll tell you, but not here."

"Ok let's go out then." Colin said and they left the Gryffindor tower.

After breakfast, as they had time before their class, Chris, Ginny, Luna and Colin went to the Owlery.

"But you said Leon lives with you in your room." Colin said as they climbed up.

"Oh he's off to deliver Fred and George's letter." Chris said.

"Who're they sending so many letters to?" Ginny asked.

Chris decided not to answer as Fred and George forbided her.

"I want to take Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly's subscription." Chris said changing the topic. "That's why I'll use the school owls it'll be fast."

"Is it because of today's news at the Daily Prophet?" Luna asked.

"Yes." Chris replied.

Today as they were eating their breakfast Alex, Colin's roommate showed Colin a small article in Daily Prophet which was written by Rita Skeeter about Chris. But this time she modified it a bit. She made sure that people think Chris was very ambitious, power-hungry, ruthless, dark witch. Colin, Luna and Ginny were angry after reading the article but Chris just shrugged. She really doesn't care what people thinks about her.

After reaching the Owlery, Chris sent two barn owls for both subscription requests and told her friends about what she saw in the Crystal ball.

"Do you know what that means?" Ginny asked, looking a little scared.

"No. I don't know. Maybe it's nothing." Chris replied. "I was thinking about Harry when I saw it so maybe it was just a pathological thing in my brain."

Though Chris said that to assure her friends, she didn't believe that herself.

Later that day Jason caught her in a empty corridor.

"My mom is really angry about the article. She reads witch weekly." Jason sighed. "But I'm glad she's more angry on Rita Skeeter than you. She shouldn't have brought father's name in it."

"I'm sorry." Chris said.

"Hey it's not your fault. I know." Jason replied. "Also I'm happy you're not talking to Potter anymore."

"Why?" Chris looked surprised.

"The more you'll stay away from him the more you'll stay away from troubles and dangers." Jason said casually. "But I don't understand how did Rita Skeeter heard our conversation in Madam Puddifoot's teashop?"

"What do mean?"

"You didn't get it?" Jason looked more surprised. "She wrote, you practice illegal potions at a out of order place in Hogwarts. It's the same term I used in the teashop, also we never went outside together. That was our first time then how did she knew we're dating?"

"So we're dating?" Chris said and gave a teasing smile.

To her surprise Jason went red.

"You're going off topic." He said hurriedly looking away.

Chris laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'll think about Rita Skeeter, later." She giggled.

Jason laughed shaking his head.

"You're a bad influence." He replied.

Next week went by without any kind of events. Chris specifically ignored Harry everytime he crossed in the corridors or in the common room. Ginny was glaring at Harry everytime she saw him. Colin stopped saying hi to him. Hermione was talking more with them to know if Chris was okay. Though they talked about every topic except Harry.

"He is really feeling sorry." Hermione insisted one evening.

"Sorry Hermione but I'm really not going to forgive him just because he FELT sorry." Chris replied.

Hermione sighed and changed the topic.

Chris was determined this time, she was not going forgive Harry that easily. Chris was hurt, when Harry Potter, one of her friend judged, Jason, a person for whom she have feelings. Though she never said it out loud, actually Harry was a good friend for her. She never thought he'll accuse Chris like that. She really liked Jason a lot and most importantly she trusted him. Harry just hit her feelings when he suspected Jason, which shook her from inside.

Few days later one morning as Chris was waiting for the Daily Prophet, Hermione, Ron and Harry sat near them on the Gryffindor table. Hermione and Ron both said good mornings but as Harry looked at them, his willpower was destroyed by Ginny's death glares. So he looked down and started eating his food.

Soon a gray owl was soaring down toward Chris but it wasn't the newspaper. But to her bewilderment, the gray owl landed in front of her plate, closely followed by five barn owls, a brown owl, and a tawny.

"Did you take any new subscriptions?" Luna asked seizing Chris's goblet before it was knocked over by the cluster of owls, all of whom were jostling close to her, trying to deliver their own letter first.

"What the hell?" Chris said, taking the letter from the gray owl, and opening it. Chris saw that it was not handwritten, but composed from pasted letters that seemed to have been cut out of the Daily Prophet.

You are a WickEd giRL. HarRy PotTER desErves BeTteR. GO back wherE you cAMe from mUGgle.

Colin who was sitting beside her looked into the letter and read it out aloud for Ginny and Luna. Harry, Ron and Hermione also heard that.

"Really?" Hermione said, looking worried.

"Hmm..." Chris opened the second one.

"I read in Witch Weekly about how you are playing Harry Potter false and trying to harm that boy, he has had enough hardship. I'm writing to the headmaster about you. He should put an end to this." Colin read.

Chris opened the third one.

"You deserve to be boiled in frog spawn.. Harry Potter can do much better than the likes of you Evil witch..." Colin read.

The fourth one.

"I don't think Harry Potter and the other students are safe in Hogwarts anymore because of you crazy evil witch. I'm writing to the Ministry about you. You should be expelled at once."

"Colin will you stop announcing them?" Chris said, feeling annoyed as she opened the fifth envelope. Suddenly yellowish-green liquid smelling strongly of petrol gushed over her hands, which began to erupt in large yellow boils. "OUCH."

"Undiluted bubotuber pus!" Ginny said smelling it. "Chris go to Madam Pomfrey quickly."

Chris was trying to rub the pus off her hands with a napkin, but her fingers were now so thickly covered in painful sores that it looked as though she were wearing a pair of thick, knobbly gloves. It was painful.

"Don't open them." Chris said looking at the remaining letters. "Throw them out. They can hurt you all."

"Alright. You go. We'll tell Professor Flitwik that you're in Hospital wing." Luna said.

"Chris..." Harry started to speak but Chris was already running, cradling her hands.

Madam Pomfrey soon patched up her hands and bandged them though it was still hurting. Chris told her about the letters as she gave her a potion.

"I can't believe." Madam Pomfrey said looking angry. "People believe this things so easily. They never met you in their life and they just assumed you should be expelled."

She fed her some pumpkin juice after that.

"Don't worry dear. I know the headmaster, he'll never believe this stories. I believe, you will never practice something dangerous on others." She said smiling.

Chris smiled back, thanked her and left the Hospital wing.

She checked her watch, it was almost lunch. She missed her Charms and Herbology class. She walked to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Jason came running.

"Chris are you okay?" He said looking at her heavily banged hands. "See what I mean when I said you should stay away from Harry Potter."

"It'll heal." Chris replied.

"I know but..." he sat down. "I heard Luna when she was telling a Hufflepuff girl, about the letters, while heading to Magical Creatures class."

"Great that means the Hufflepuffs already know." Chris sighed.

"You should..." Jason tried to say something but stopped as he saw Harry, Ron and Hermione coming towards them.

"I'll see you later. Take care." He said getting up. Then he threw a nasty look towards Harry and walked away.

"How's it Chris?" Hermione asked sitting beside her.

"Oh it'll be alright by tomorrow night." Chris replied.

"Chris... I'm..." Harry looked at Chris's hand.

"Chris is your hands alright?" Ginny asked cutting off Harry, as she, Colin and Luna came to her.

"Take care." Harry muttered and went to sit a little far from them.