In the next day's Double Potions lesson, Leo went straight over to Potter and Weasley. "Look, before you say anything, I have some information in return for what you can tell me about the diary."
"What?" asked Potter sceptically.
"There's a book called Most Macabre Monstrosities, and page seven hundred and twenty-four has been torn out."
"Uh – what does that have to do with anything?" asked Weasley.
"It was in the section on snakes," Leo explained patiently.
"You think someone ripped it out to hide it?" Weasley guessed, at the same time as Potter said "You don't think Hermione could have – "
But before they had a chance to say anything more, Professor Snape swept into the dungeon and Leo had to return to his desk to avoid being caught fraternising with Gryffindors.
One of the many worst things about Marisa being gone was that he had lost his Potions partner – and what was worse, Theo wasn't speaking to him and had partnered with Draco, which left Leo with Vincent as a brewing partner.
That meant he had to do nearly all of the work as Vincent couldn't be trusted not to explode something. And he was hardly on top potion-brewing form today: he didn't have the knack Marisa had of knowing exactly how you were supposed to chop things and add ingredients to the cauldron, even on the best of days, and this was not the best of days
Still, he thought he might have scraped an E, and there were more important things to worry about. For instance, what Potter had said about Granger.
Professor Snape was meant to be taking the Gryffindors to Defence Against the Dark Arts and Slytherins to Herbology, but Potter and Weasley were hanging back, and Leo slipped back to join them. "Well?" he asked impatiently.
"Hospital wing," said Potter. "To find out if my guess is right."
"I'm coming with you," said Leo.
Neither of them objected, perhaps because they were still slightly worried about the Polyjuice incident, although Weasley looked as if he wanted to.
For once, Leo was in luck, as they managed to reach the hospital wing without being caught, and even persuade Madam Pomfrey to let them in (he might have lied and told her they had permission). Feeling slightly awkward, he sat on Marisa's bed while Potter and Weasley dashed over to Granger.
"Hey, Marisa," he said quietly, not wanting to be overheard. "I think we might be onto something. They're finally listening to me, and I reckon if we put our heads together, we can actually solve this."
He was smiling for the first time in days.