S E V E N T Y - F O U R

⋮✰⋮

When Hermione had insisted Adeline that meet her at the Three Broomsticks on the next Hogsmeade trip, Adeline was incredibly reluctant to go.

Not because she didn't trust Hermione or anything like that. Normally, Adeline was all in whenever Hermione came up with a plan. But, it was Valentines Day and she had been hoping to spend the entire Hogsmeade trip with George. But, Hermione said it wouldn't take more than an hour, leaving the rest of the day and evening for them.

When she arrived at Three Broomsticks, Adeline nearly ran out the door when she noticed a familiar woman with jeweled spectacles and magenta dress robes, but she pressed on and approached the table in the corner of the pub.

Around the table sat the strangest collection of people she had ever seen. Luna was attempting to start a conversation with Rita Skeeter and was clearly failing as Rita seemed more focused on scribbling something down with a lime-green quill on a piece of parchment paper, Hermione was sitting in the center with a proud smile on her face, and Harry was sitting at the end with the most confused look on his face.

She and Harry locked eyes and she mouthed, "What's going on?". Harry shrugged and shook his head, which didn't make Adeline feel any more at ease.

"I mean it," She could hear Hermione tell Rita. "One word about Harry or even Adeline's love life and the whole deal is off."

"You haven't mentioned anything about a deal, Little Miss Prissy," Rita snapped, causing the two to delve into a snipping argument that had Adeline whipping her head back and forth as if she was watching a Quidditch match and Harry roll his eyes. Luna seemed to be paying no attention and was even quietly singing 'Weasley is Our King' between sips of her butterbeer.

"I'm confused..." Harry interjected. "What deal? What's going on here?"

"So did you just tell everyone to meet you here without telling them the plan like some sort of ambush?" Rita scowled at Hermione. "I'm interviewing the two of you about what happened the night of the Third Task. Although, why it's being published in the Quibbler and not the Daily Prophet is beyond me..."

"Wait, wait...hold on–" Adeline interjected, looking at Hermione, panicked. "You...you want me to talk about what happened that night?"

Hermione hesitated in answering. She had been so focused on what was such a fool-proof plan that she hadn't stopped to consider that maybe Harry and Adeline didn't want to talk about that night. "Well...yes..." She eventually responded. "I thought that maybe if people actually knew what happened that night, they would begin to believe you more. A lot more people have been beginning to doubt the Daily Prophet after the Azkaban breakout because there are so many gaping holes in their story. Even though it sometimes doesn't seem like it, people want to know what happened that night."

"It's an incredible selling point, too," Rita added with a smirk, despite the withering glare from Hermione. "I mean, I get the first, exclusive interview with the two poor souls who saw You-Know-Who come back to life. You can't make up headlines like that!"

Hearing that made Adeline go light-headed. Out of all the people to talk to about that night, she didn't want it to be Rita Skeeter – the woman who would exploit anyone's life for an over-dramatized, borderline false story and snappy headline. She had her words twisted and warped enough as it was by the Daily Prophet. She did not want Rita Skeeter to make that even worse.

Harry seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her.  "How do we know she's actually going to print the truth?" He questioned, eyeing her warily. "And not just use us for some ridiculous headline like she has so much in the past?"

"Because I'll report her to the Ministry for being an Unregistered Animagus if she doesn't just print the truth," Hermione answered with a smirk, earning a glare.

Before Adeline even had time to question the blackmail or even how Hermione had come to find all of this out, Hermione turned to the two other teenagers and asked, "Are you ready to tell the public the truth?"

Harry let out a small sigh, but then shrugged. "I supposed I am."

Adeline hesitated. The thought of the most traumatic night of her life getting put into writing and published for the wizarding world to see made her want to hurl her Butterbeer onto the table. She had never even told the whole story to anyone. Harry was the only one who had any idea what she experienced that night – and even he didn't know exactly what Pettigrew did to her.

But, despite her reservations and fears about exposing such a vulnerable side of herself, Adeline somehow found herself saying, "I'll do it."

Hermione nearly jumped out of her seat from excitement. Next to her, with a smirk on her face, Rita Skeeter's lime green quill hung in the air beside her notepad. "Now," She began, looking back and forth between Harry and Adeline. "Are you ready?"

⋮✰⋮

"I want to tell you all something."

George, Estelle, Melanie, and Ophelia all looked up at her in surprise, not expecting Adeline to blurt something out like that in the middle of the Hogwarts library. It was a quiet area of the library, where very few students

Ophelia stared at her worriedly. "This feels like some sort of strange meeting where you're about to tell us you're dying."

"Okay, first, wizards seem to have almost no concept of long-term illness, so there's no way for me to know that far in advance if I were close to death or not," Adeline responded, which several almost horrified looks from the group.  "But I'm not about to tell you guys I'm dying or anything like that. I just need to tell you something important."

She took a deep breath and finally said, "I did an interview with Harry and talked about what happened on the night of the Third Task, and it's going to be published in The Quibbler."

All of their jaws simultaneously dropped. "Woah, woah, woah, hold on," Estelle said after a few seconds, struggling to wrap her head around the whole thing. "You did an interview? With the Quibbler?"

"So that's why you had to ditch me on Valentine's Day," George mumbled to himself.

"Is that really what's important to you right now?" Melanie questioned aloud. She then turned back to Adeline and asked, "You talked about that night? Are you alright?"

Adeline thought back to the interview. There had been moments where she had frozen up in the middle of a sentence and she even had to step away from the table several times to collect her emotions together in a quiet corner of Three Broomsticks, not wanting Rita Skeeter to see her get too emotional and somehow put those details in the interview.

"I made it through, and that's all that matters," Adeline responded, letting out a small sigh. "Hermione thinks that if more people know what we actually experienced that night, then maybe people might be more willing to believe us. We never really did tell people exactly what happened."

"You weren't forced into this right?" George asked, slightly worried. "Hermione can be pretty terrifying when she comes up with her plans."

Letting out a small laugh, Adeline shook her head. "I wanted to do it. I was really hesitant about it at first, but in the end, I want people to know. And this might be the best way to do it – even if it was Rita Skeeter who did the interview."

"Rita Skeeter?" Ophelia questioned in disbelief, having flashbacks to the salacious articles Skeeter was so famous for in the Prophet. "I know Hermione is supposed to be the brightest witch of her year or whatnot, but even this plan seems a little too mental for her."

"Let's just say Hermione is a lot more terrifying than I thought she was before, and that's saying a lot, because she's already scary enough as it is," Adeline mumbled, letting out a small laugh.

She then took a deep breath, knowing that she hadn't even gotten to the most difficult part of the conversation. "But I don't want you guys to read it." When all her friends looked at her, even more bewildered than before, Adeline continued, "I want to be the one to tell you what happened. I want you to hear it from me."

For a few seconds, the group was quiet, as if they were expecting Adeline to say it was a joke or that she would just want them to read it in the Prophet like everyone else. When she didn't say anything and they realized she was telling the truth, George was the first to speak up. "Addie...you know you don't have to tell us, right? We can just read it in the Prophet like everyone else."

Adeline shook her head. "This is important to me. I need to be the one to tell you guys."

Adeline had debated for a while whether to be the one to tell them or just to let her friends read in the Quibbler like the rest of Hogwarts. To her, showing her most vulnerable parts left her more open to rejection.  When she broke through her hard protective shell to let people have more of an idea of what she was going through in her mind and what she had been through, it only made her more terrified about what would happen if they rejected or just outright abandoned her. Not only that, the four of them know her so well that Adeline sometimes found herself scared that telling them everything from that night would change the whole way they viewed her.

"I just think its a little strange to have you all read this whole interview and I never say a word aloud about it to you, if that makes any sense," She eventually explained. "Plus, I have a lot more control over the narrative than with Rita writing it."

"It makes sense," Estelle reassured. "Just...you'll be okay, right? With talking about it?"

When she nodded, George kissed Adeline's forehead. "Just take your take your time, alright? We're here for you."

⋮✰⋮

a/n:

hi guys!!

i'm (finally) starting my new job next week, and i'm really excited about finally being able to get out of my house lmao !! bc my little sister uses the car to go to school, i'm pretty much stuck at home the entire day with nothing to do, so i'm excited to get out

i hope you all enjoyed the chapter and have a lovely day !! i'll see you guys at the next update !!

- g ♡