Chapter 13: The Weighing of the Wands

                                    

                                          
The next few days were... confusing. No one really knew what to think or how to feel about Harry's entrance into the Tournament, even though he'd made it very clear that he was only cooperating with the judges and other officials because they had basically refused to even attempt to find him a way out of it. Harry's obvious friendship with four of the five other champions had gone a long way to diffuse any possible antagonistic behaviour towards him from the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang contingents, and the Hogwarts upper years had apparently unanimously decided to lay aside house rivalries to support their two champions.
                          
The Hufflepuffs were the most confused, as was made obvious in his first class with them since Hallowe'en, Herbology. Most of them, namely Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchely, and Ernie MacMillan were overly friendly to him, as though their first thought was to be cold-shouldered towards him, and their second thought was to be ashamed of their un-Hufflepuff behaviour, so they overcompensated. Zacharias Smith was downright rude, but only slightly more than he normally was... Harry had no idea how he'd made it into Hufflepuff in the first place. Then there was Hannah Abbott, who seemed stuck between the two extremes. Even Professor Sprout seemed more distant than her usual cheerful self, but then again, she was the Head of Hufflepuff, and her champion was somewhat of a competitor to Harry.
                          
Care of Magical Creatures was simply horrible. Parkinson was making increasingly snide and cruel remarks, the other Slytherins present, Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott, simply laughed with her and jeered at Harry. Hagrid's Skrewts had also gotten worse, since they'd apparently started to kill one another. Hagrid said it was just pent-up energy, but Harry and his friends silently disagreed, believing instead that the cross-breeding of Fire Crabs and Manticores simply made for horrifyingly cruel creatures who liked to kill things for fun.
                          
The cruelty of those particular Slytherins was made worse when they had Potions on Friday. Snape was being somewhat kinder to non-Slytherins since his Dark Mark had been removed, no longer having to play the part of the devoted undercover servant of the Dark Lord, but he was still being preferential to his house. This included ignoring any nasty things they said to the Gryffindors across the room, as long as they didn't become louder than a loud whisper; he was still pretending that he hated James Potter, after all, and if Dumbledore got wind that this was no longer the case, he might decide that Snape was no longer useful to him. How Snape had managed to spin getting his Mark removed, he didn't know, and he didn't think he wanted to know, either. Mostly, he got through that class by muttering smart comebacks under his breath and listening to Hermione, who had intoned, "Ignore them, ignore them, ignore them," under her breath repeatedly.
                          
The next Potions class was a double, which was sure to be absolute torture. For a start, every Slytherin except a visibly angry Blaise was wearing a large badge on their robes, whose glowing red messages read:
                          
Support CEDRIC DIGGORY -
                          
The ONLY Hogwarts Champion!
                          
"Like them, Potter-Black?" screeched Parkinson in glee as Harry approached. "This isn't all they do-look!"
                          
She pressed the badge, and the message swirled around, becoming green words:
                          
POTTER STINKS!
                          
The participating Slytherin howled with laughter and pressed their badges as well. Hermione gasped in outrage, Neville and Draco growled, Dean made to move towards them with his fists raised, but Seamus held him back even as he screwed up his face in hatred, and Blaise clenched his jaw and held back a fountain of insults, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Harry, too, wanted to insult and curse them, and he intended to act on it, damn the consequences. Before he could, though, Draco grabbed his arm to stop him just in time, for Professor Snape had opened the classroom door. "And what is all this noise about?" he asked in a quiet, deadly voice.