抖阴社区 it on my Heart-Mattheo Riddle story

Claire prided herself on only writing gossip that she could verify as absolute truth. And that was proving harder this year. She had a lot more free time to be a fly on the wall around Hogwarts last year. Not to mention the additional students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang added to the gossip pool. It was just the perfect storm for observation because it was easier to be overlooked while eavesdropping when the student body was bigger.

When she started the article, she hadn't anticipated it becoming a regular section in the paper. She also hadn't prepared for how well received it would be. The students seemed to like the codenames she created for the people she wrote about, and how Confidential Campus Confessions could be easily digestible if they didn't dig into who the stories were about, or a difficult puzzle to solve if they wanted to know the subjects of the gossip.

Creating those codewords and codenames was well worth the extra effort, but she hadn't considered how hard it would be to maintain come OWL year. Homework was piling up, plus she had to learn about quidditch so she could write about it, and she had to figure out how to water down her experiences at Hogwarts in her letters to her mum so she wouldn't pull Claire or Jane from classes. Finding free time to just walk around and observe others was proving difficult. She couldn't be everywhere at once, and it wasn't like Sprout would give her a time-turner so she could write her column. Claire was pretty sure if Sprout knew she was the author of Confidential Campus Confessions, she'd make her stop writing it. So, she'd just have to keep stretching herself thin, which currently meant writing to her mum.

"Whose owl is that?" Shannon asked when she entered their dorm to find a great horned owl perched on the back of Claire's desk chair.

"Mattheo's," Claire said without looking up from the envelope she was addressing to her mum. She sat leaning against the headboard of her bed, her calico cat, Willow, curled up in her lap.

"And why is Mattheo's owl in our dorm?"

"He leant me her so I wouldn't have to hike all the way to the owlery to send my letter to my mum." Moving Willow to the bed, Claire stood and crossed the room to the owl.

"Hmm," was all Shannon said, laying across Claire's bed to pet Willow.

"What?" Claire asked, handing her letter to the owl and opening the window so she could leave.

"Nothing."

"That wasn't a nothing 'hmm,' that was a something 'hmm.'" It sounded like both a skeptic and amused 'hmm.'

"It's just very nice of him to lend you his owl."

"Since when does someone being nice invoke a 'hmm' response?"

"Since it's Mattheo. He isn't exactly known for being friendly. Unless he wants something." And Shannon would bet twenty gallons he wanted something from Claire.

"Is that fact or gossip?"

"The two aren't exclusive. You write truthful gossip."

"Only when I see it first-hand, or someone reliable did. Are either of those the case with your claim about Mattheo? Did Lorenzo tell you that?"

"No..." Lorenzo had actually avoided answering any subtle questions she had about Mattheo.

"Then it's entirely possible he's being nice for the sake of being nice."

"You're so adorable when you're being naïve," Shannon said.

"If you say so." Grabbing her bag from her chair, she stuffed her journal, quill, and a new jar of ink in it.

"Where are you going?" It was their free hour, so she didn't have a class to go to.

"I'm going truthful gossip hunting."