▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

chapter eleven | potter stinks!

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

WRONG.

It wasn't long before the news got out that Harry Potter would, for some odd reason, be competing in the tournament. Kaya could not grasp what was going on in Dumbledore's head at the time of deciding. She also found out McGonagall was furious about it - which was understandable.

What was worse was that somebody - probably Draco Malfoy - had created some insulting badges. They flashed between two phrases, "Support Cedric Diggory - The Real Hogwarts Champion" in luminous red letters, and "Potter Stinks" in a glowing foul green.

Kaya, Maisie and Cedric had probably never hated being Hufflepuff so much - they were surprisingly the worst when it came to bashing Harry Potter - Slytherin almost being just as bad, but that was definitely more of a personal reason than just wanting to support Cedric.

The group had even stopped coming to eat at Hufflepuff table completely - even if Maisie and Kaya got to the hall first, they'd head over to see Alfie and Jaeden and sit next to them, any reason not to spend their time eating with Hufflepuff boys and girls breathing down their necks. They couldn't stand being attacked during every meal because they were two of the few amount of Hufflepuff's not wearing 'Potter Stinks' badges.

Today they were extra desperate - Milo and Jaeden weren't here yet, and neither were Alfie or Jeremy - so they sat with the Weasley twins, sitting next to Lee Jordan. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were also a few seats down. Fred was pretty jolly that the girls had decided to join them.

"And what brings you two here?" asked George.

"We don't want to be a part of that," said Maisie, nodding towards the table of which had students sitting with yellow ties and (most of them, anyway) a Potter Stinks badge.

"They're doing my head in," said Kaya. "Even when we're just sitting in the common room, some of them like to harass us because apparently we're 'not being true friends to Cedric' and 'we're going against our house'. Seriously, they wanna get a life."

"I'm gonna need a restraining order," said Maisie. "We're sleeping with one eye open, scared they're gonna pin one of those badges on us in our sleep."

"It is a tad over the top," said Lee.

"A tad?" said Kaya. "The boy's fourteen with people as old as seventeen picking on him, bless him. All because his name came out of a Goblet!"

It was then they were joined by Milo and Jaeden, sitting down opposite the two girls.

"Oh for fuck's sake," said Kaya to Jaeden, holding a circular object, his hand covering the familiar foul green lettering. "What's that doing in your hand?"

"Oh, uh-" he said. "One of my Slytherin mates gave it me... I wasn't sure what to do, so I just took it- I wasn't planning on wearing it!" he added, noticing the scowls from the two girls.

"Harry's literally three seats down from you!" Maisie hissed, eyes flicking between the two to make sure the raven haired boy wouldn't notice. But he was looking glumly at his breakfast.

"Wha- oh," said Jaeden, looking at the boy and then at his badge, unsure what to do.

Kaya huffed and leaned forward, flicking her wrist and whacking the badge out of Jaeden's hand. It flew backwards and landed in the middle of the Hufflepuff table. Fred let out a laugh, and Harry Potter and Hermione Granger soon after turned to join in with the conversation. Milo was frowning, wondering where Ron was.

"Harry, we would like to say, on behalf of Hufflepuff house, we are sorry that most of our housemates are being assholes at the moment," said Kaya, having to lean forward and look down the table to see the boy. He gave her a smile, his face - for one split second - wearing a cheerful expression instead of its usual somber demeanour.

"Where's Ron?" Milo mouthed to George, who glanced at the fourth years, before saying,

"They had an argument,"

Milo nodded, his eyebrows still creased. He hoped it wasn't about the tournament, but his gut feeling said otherwise. Either way, he didn't like the fact that the trio he'd always sat near everyday was now a duo or even a single. It made him sad.

"Also," Maisie added. "Cedric is completely against them as well, I dunno if he's said anything to you, but he's asked people to take them off. They just won't listen,"

Harry nodded, feeling a little awkward at the fact some random sixth years were talking to him.

"Uh... if you didn't know, this is Kaya," said Fred, noticing the boy's subtle confusion. Kaya flashed him a friendly smile.

"And that's Maisie," she said, pointing to the red headed girl on her left. "You know Milo... and that's Jae. I know he's a Slytherin but he's only a dick to me, so you'll be fine,"

Jaeden flicked a piece of egg white at her.

"Yeah, we kind of know you," Hermione spoke up, although from the expression on Harry's face, she might've just been talking for herself. "We've seen you sitting with Milo a few times,"

"Well we definitely know you," said Jaeden. "You're a fourth year and you're probably smarter than all four of us put together,"

Hermione grinned sheepishly.

It was then a Hufflepuff boy named Andrew Edwards passed, deciding to stop and try and convince Kaya and Maisie to wear the badges.

"I dunno why you're over here, for starters," he said. "Especially talking to that little cheat over there. You must really care about Cedric,"

"For the last fucking time," said Kaya. "Cedric has asked you lot constantly to, one, take off the badges, and two, stop harassing a fourteen year old! Leave him alone, he's done nothing wrong,"

"And leave us alone, we don't want anything to do with your shitty badges," Maisie added. Milo and Jaeden were both sitting silently, exchanging glances with the twins and Lee, equally as quiet, as the girls argued with the boy.

"Done nothing wrong?" Andrew said, making a face. "He's a cheat! Trying to steal Cedric's glory, just because the attention isn't on him for once. Like, we get it, he's the Boy Who Lived, but not everything has to be about him-"

"Bloody hell, leave the girls alone, they don't want to hear it," Fred interrupted. "And we don't either, really,"

"Yeah, bugger off," Jaeden added. But the two boys were ignored and Andrew's rant about Harry continued - the fact that he was sitting a few seats down being completely overlooked. Kaya was getting extremely irritated by now.

"If you don't piss off in the next two seconds, I will literally shove this fork up your-"

Maisie nudged Kaya to get her to stop. Andrew gave the group a foul grimace before turning back to Kaya with a dirty look. For the first two seconds, he didn't know what so say. But then he let his mouth run with no hesitation.

"Alright, twig, get back to your food, and add some extra, since you clearly need it - mouthing off when you're just sat there like a bag of bones. I'm surprised you can even fit into your uniform, what with your body of a five year-old,"

Kaya froze in her seat shocked, completely lost for words. Maisie and Lee's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their heads, and everything that happened after that felt like it was happening in slow motion.

Jaeden shot up out of his seat, clenching his jaw, but he was on the other side of the table and couldn't reach the boy. Fred's face had turned a deep scarlet. George's mouth dropped open a little and Milo's fist tightened. Harry and Hermione exchanged a worried look.

Andrew nearly turned to walk away, when Fred stood up, raising his arm. Lee was the one that stopped him from hitting him. But the ginger didn't break eye contact with the boy, and so carried on lunging. Andrew was a messed up combination of nervous and outraged.

His friends had rushed over to drag him away from the enraged Weasley, who was too strong for Lee, and was pushing him forward to follow the boy. Kaya, after processing what was happening, leaped up. Jaeden, George and Milo were making their way around the long table to get to them, and students were now turning to watch the commotion.

"Fred, please stop," she called out to the boy. She wasn't sure what else to say. But she couldn't let Fred carry on when he could get in trouble for defending her.

Fred turned to Kaya upon hearing her voice of desperation and his expression eased as soon as his eyes landed on the small brunette. Professor McGonagall was now starting to make her way over and sort out the fuss.

"He shouldn't have said it," he said.

"I know," said Kaya, nodding. "I know. He's a prick."

She turned to Andrew. "You're a prick," she emphasised. He scowled at her, but she ignored it, turning back to Fred. "But he's not worth you beating the shit out of him,"

The ginger was still breathing heavily, but he was beginning to calm down.

"Let's face it, we know you'd tear him to shreds. We don't want you getting in that kind of trouble, do we?" she spoke. "What would your Mum say?"

Lee was now standing at Fred's side, guiding him away from Andrew.

"Just calm down, mate," he told Fred.

Jaeden, Milo and George all came over to calm Fred down and lead him back to his seat - but McGonagall was here by now. The six all turned towards her as Andrew walked back to Hufflepuff table, muttering something about Fred being a lunatic. Maisie was standing, but out of the way of the commotion. She flipped the Hufflepuff boy off from a distance.

"What on earth was all that for, Mr Weasley?" she said harshly. Fred didn't speak.

"He insulted Kaya," Lee began, but McGonagall hushed him.

"Never would I have expected this kind of behaviour from a Gryffindor student. You should be ashamed of yourself,"

Fred was staring blankly at the woman, his cheeks still a little pink, stained with fury.

"You will see me tonight for detention," she told him. Kaya immediately felt a surge of guilt.

The woman walked off. Everyone slowly returned to their breakfast, the bubble of chatter beginning to rise again, and the group sat back down in silence, unsure of what to say. They were all sending small glances Kaya's way as they ate, checking to make sure she was okay.

She tried her best to seem unbothered, but it was highly noticeable that a fragment of the girl's confidence was now missing. Maisie squeezed her shoulder.

"Thank you," Kaya whispered to Fred after a few minutes, who was next to her cutting up some bacon aggressively. He tilted his head towards her and smiled warmly.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Kaya was incredibly overwhelmed for the rest of the day. She spent most of it wondering if that was what everyone else thought about her body as well. The girl knew she was naturally quite tiny - through no fault of her own - her metabolism was rapid fast, and it was just the way she was built. She knew she wasn't unhealthy, and she knew her body was perfectly fine. But Andrew's comment had made her stop and worry that everyone else thought otherwise.

She'd tried to shake it off a little by the time it was lunch, but the shock from the fact Fred was going to beat Andrew up for her was lingering, and it didn't look like it was going away anytime soon. Even her friends were so astonished by the boys actions, they couldn't bring themselves to joke about it, at first.

But by the time it got to third period, Jaeden was happily singing to Kaya another chorus of 'Freddy My Love' from Grease. She didn't bother telling him to shut up, she forced a laugh. The girl was pretty out of it. This made Jaeden quite sad - he was already missing the default Kaya who didn't give two shits about what people thought. She was like this for the whole day, the event at breakfast still playing over in her head.

Kaya felt extremely guilty at the fact Fred had been given detention for sticking up for her, and she expressed this to her friends.

"Don't worry, he has detention all the time," Jaeden had replied. "It's not like it's new,"

"Yeah, but not for sticking up for other people," Kaya said. "I feel bad,"

"It was his choice," said Maisie. "I mean, I know he doesn't deserve the detention because Andrew's a knob, but what else was he expecting? Don't blame yourself, lovely,"

Kaya could understand Maisie's point, but she still felt guilty. She decided to shut up about it afterwards - though it was visibly obvious she was still thinking about it all as the day progressed.

Nightfall quickly arrived. Everyone was back in their common rooms, which was where Kaya was planning to go. She had been polishing her broom all evening, as it hadn't been used in a while and needed a clean. Maisie kept her company chatting as she worked. But the brunette noticed how tired her friend was getting, and told her to go back to the common room, stating she wouldn't be far behind. Maisie agreed and left, making the girl promise she wouldn't be long.

Kaya finished soon after, and was walking back when her eye caught someone inside an empty classroom. Fred was serving his detention.

If the girl wasn't feeling so guilty, she'd probably have just flashed him a smile and walked off.

But, he was in a classroom on his own working his arse off because of her - she couldn't ignore it.

And so, checking first that McGonagall wasn't around, the girl edged the door open, stepping in.