Since Fish had come to Hermione and Harry's defense, things had gone much better for both of them at school, and even those who still took the newspaper reports as true had, for Fish's sake, stopped badmouthing them or, at best, ignored them.
And while all but the Slytherins still wore the badge, they no longer changed to "Potter sucks" and wore it in support of Fish.
The only thing that bothered Harry was that, even though Fish had come out to prove his innocence and Dumbledore had reminded them all to think for themselves, his best friend Ron still didn't seem to want to talk to him....
He still believed that Dumbledore was behind Harry's choice of Harry as Champion, and the reminder in the Great Hall made Ron more sure of it.
When things got to this point, Harry no longer bothered to talk to this guy who was blinded by jealousy, and set his mind on the competition on November 24th....
That said, Harry could do nothing but dread and feel anxious about the event, which he had no idea about.
If it had been earlier, he would have gone to Ron first to talk about it, and even if nothing had come of it, Harry would have felt more at ease, but now that Ron had fallen out with him, there was no way Harry would go to him until he apologized.
As for talking to someone else, Harry hadn't thought about it yet, because he had no idea about the first event, and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to talk to anyone else.
In fact, Fish, a fellow Hogwarts Champion, would have been a good person to talk to, but Harry saw Fish play like mad every day and fall asleep in class, and he knew there was no point in going to him to discuss it....
Fish wasn't as afraid of the first event with unknown circumstances as he was, and Fish even participated in the whole Triwizard Tournament with a playful attitude.
In the end, Harry had to wait for Sirius to meet him through the common room fireplace at one o'clock in the morning on November 22.
As for how to prevent other people from communicating with Sirius at that time, Harry had not yet thought of any useful methods.
If there was no other choice, Harry was going to throw a bag of eggs into the common room... Hopefully he wouldn't have to, or Filch would skin him alive!
Just as Harry was getting worried, the time quickly came on November 21, which happened to be Saturday, and the school approved for students from third grade on up to visit Hogsmeade.
Harry, who was anxious, naturally planned to go to Hogsmeade to relax, originally wanting to put on the invisibility cloak because he didn't want to run into Ron.
But then Harry thought... I was right in this matter, so why would he avoid Ron? And thanks to Fish and Dumbledore, the others weren't targeting him as much as they used to, so there was no need for the invisibility cloak!
On the other hand, Fish had been teased by Gabrielle first thing in the morning.
"Fish! Gabrielle wants to go to Hogsmeade with you, too."
"But, Gabrielle, you're not old enough, are you?"
Hermione still wanted to be alone with Fish for a while, but with Gabrielle, the little stalker, her idea was about to backfire.
"Gabrielle isn't a Hogwarts student, she doesn't have to follow the rules of your school."
The girl replied, shaking her head and grimacing at Hermione.
Even though she had cleared up the misunderstanding with Hermione with Fish's help, Gabrielle's attitude towards her had been somewhat affected compared to before, of course, partly because the two had gotten to know each other better and the girl was now more likely to show her true nature in front of her.
"That's good..." said Fish: "If Fish could transfer to Beauxbatons and stay at Hogwarts, would Minerva stop scolding me for not following the rules?"
()?
"No way!" cried Hermione, slapping the wayward Fish, "After you transfer, how are you going to be allowed to attend another school unless there's a Triwizard Tournament like now?"
"That's a shame nya..." Fish sighed regretfully.
ε=(′ο'*)
After breakfast, Fish was flanked by a group of girls, as on previous occasions, to Hogsmeade, only this time there were also female students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang in the group.
As the absolute hosts of Hogsmeade, Fish took the students from the two schools for a pleasant stroll, and in the middle of it they ran into Rita Skeeter and the chubby photographer, whom Fish didn't hesitate to run up to and express her displeasure.
"How can you say that about Hermione? she's not a bad girl nya! Fish likes her!"
?(?``?)?
Fish stopped in front of Skeeter, shouting loudly.
Hermione was so happy and shy to be confessed by Fish in front of everyone that she forgot to stop him.
Rita Skeeter, who was suddenly stopped by Fish, was startled at first, but soon grabbed Fish's arm with bright eyes and quickly defended herself, "I couldn't find anyone to interview you, so I had to ask other students about you, and I heard from other girls about all those things in the paper."
=(??ˇ?ˇ??)
Fish turned his head abruptly, looking at the group of girls following him around Hogsmeade.
He believed Skeeter's words, because before Fish had become Hermione's boyfriend, the girls had liked to badmouth each other, but Fish hadn't taken it seriously.
Some of the Slytherin girls awkwardly avoided Fish's eyes, making Fish sure that what Skeeter was saying was true.
"Well then," Fish didn't bother with the Slytherin girls, he turned to Skeeter and said very seriously, "Fish misunderstood you, sorry nya, but don't ever write about Hermione like that again."
"Of course," Rita Skeeter said with a smile that piled the flesh on her face as she took the opportunity to extend another invitation to Fish, "Why don't we go somewhere and chat for a while about you and that Hermione girl? I'll do you justice in my next article."
That was true, but it was up to Skeeter to decide what to write about, she didn't care about Hermione when she had the cat to cover for her, she could just mention her in the article, little Fish seemed so innocent and gullible anyway.
However, she noticed that Fish was looking at her with a strange look on his face...
(???)
"What, what's wrong?" asked Skeeter.
The way he had just made a request with some sort of promise on his behalf, Fish had seen it in the diary of some Dark Lord who did not wish to be named.
So.
This fat chick is really bad, isn't she?
Fish eyed her warily.
(??ˇ?ˇ??)
The only thing is... he didn't show any hostility, and even praised him like that in the paper... he doesn't look good enough to make a move, and if Minerva catches him, there's no convincing excuse.
After a moment's hesitation, Fish decided to ignore that fat aunt who couldn't do any better, so he shook his head and replied, "Fish has to show Gabrielle and the girls Hogsmeade, so he's not available right now nya."
(`′≡`′)
Then, without waiting for Skeeter to speak again, he yanked his arm out of the other's grip with a nonchalant jerk and leapt towards Hermione and Gabrielle in a flash, as Fish grabbed them by the hand and dragged them away at high speed.
"Bloody hell!"
Skeeter cursed in annoyance as she tried to reach out to grab Fish, but failed.
The last time she wrote about Fish, it was because the little wizard was so cute that even Rita Skeeter couldn't help but praise him for a change.
To her surprise, the article was so well received that she wanted to interview Fish, not just because she wanted to, but because she was asked to, but unfortunately she couldn't keep him.
"I'll have to find Harry Potter..." Skeeter bit her nails reluctantly for a moment before barking sternly at the photographer next to her, "Watch the area and let me know if you see Harry Potter! "
As Rita Skeeter bossed the photographer around, she failed to notice that just around the corner, not far from them, was her second target, Harry Potter.
Coincidentally, Harry had just strolled through the village and caught a glimpse of Cho Chang, who was huddled around Fish, and was about to make his presence known in front of her waving at her when he saw the cat suddenly leap towards Rita Skeeter, who was on the other side.
If there was a ranking of who Harry didn't want to see, Rita Skeeter would be at the top of the list, just below Snape, Malfoy and Ron, so she hid at the first opportunity.
Only because of his hiding place could he hear Rita Skeeter's orders....
Suddenly, Harry began to regret not bringing his invisibility cloak.
After a few moments of cautiously peering from behind the wall to make sure that Rita Skeeter and her photographer had left, Harry turned around and headed in the opposite direction.