In Harry's opinion, the seventh of May couldn't have come any faster. Before he knew it, he and Ron were up in their room, rummaging through their trunks to find the suits Mrs. Weasley had sent. It seemed so long ago that they had sat here, debating whether or not Harry should ask Ginny to the Ball.

"Oh where could it be?"

Harry lifted his head, the pants of his suit clutched in his hand.

"What's that Neville?" he asked.

"My suit," Neville moaned, frantically digging through his clothes. "It's gone! I could have sworn it was right here!"

Ron straightened up, dusting off the pepper gray suit he was holding.

"I still say these are the ugliest things I've ever seen," he said, scratching his head in dismay.

"Here, Neville. Let me help you," Harry said, tossing his suit pants on the bed.

He hadn't gone more than two paces when the door was flung open and in sauntered Seamus and Dean.

"Hullo," Harry said, kicking aside some of Neville's clothes which had fallen to the floor. "Neither of you have seen Neville's suit have you?"

Dean grinned at Seamus who smiled.

"No, we haven't seen it anywhere," he said coolly, striding over to his own trunk.

"What am I going to do?" Neville cried, covering his face with his hands.

Seamus popped open the lid of his trunk.

"Here," he said nonchalantly, "You can wear this. Mum sent an extra incase mine didn't match my date's dress." He tossed Neville a relatively new looking black suit.

Neville caught it, looking stunned.

"You sure?" he squeaked.

Seamus nodded, grinning. "It's all yours. It should be just about your size, too."

"Thank you!" Neville cried. With that, he began to frantically pile all of his clothes back into his trunk.

Harry watched Seamus for a moment, wondering what had sparked the sudden generosity. Seamus had never really come off as someone who liked Neville. Sure, he had always been a nice guy, but he didn't seem to have enough patience to handle Neville's antics.

"Not wearing that are you?" Ron's laughter brought Harry back from his daydream.

"No," he muttered, going red. "I just can't find the top half of my suit."

"Well, I'll help you look," Ron offered, climbing over the bed. "I'm not too eager to put that thing on anyway," he added in an undertone to Harry, who grinned and shook his head.

Within ten minutes, they had been through his entire clothing supply twice, and the other boys had gone down to the Common Room to talk with the others.

"I don't get it," Harry said, scratching his head. "It was right here. I'm sure of it."

Ron glanced at his watch. "It's almost time," he said nervously. "I don't know what you're going to do, but whatever it is, you'd better do it fast."

Harry looked around desperately. He didn't have anything that he could substitute in place of his suit shirt and jacket.

"Wait a minute," Ron said suddenly. "What's that?"

The edge of something black was sticking out from under Seamus' bed.

"I dunno," Harry said. He jumped over his bed and pulled it out carefully. Once it was exposed entirely, he held it up for Ron to see.

"What the…"

"Is this?"

"But I thought…"

They stopped dead and looked at eachother. Harry had in his hands none other than Neville's suit.

"They said they didn't see it," Ron said, yanking it out of his grasp and examining it.

"Ya," Harry replied, "But…why?"

Ron shrugged. "Maybe he didn't realize it was there. You know how Neville is, he puts things everywhere and then forgets about them."

Harry nodded. "I guess."

"Er, maybe we should just check it out, right?" Ron said after a moment.

Harry nodded. "Right."

Ron got down on all fours and stuck his hands underneath the bed. A second later he emerged, holding the top half of Harry's suit.

"Great!" Harry said, grabbing it. "You found my suit!" But Ron didn't look overjoyed.

"Hang on a minute," he said, one arm still under the bed. "There's still something under here."

He felt around for a moment before his hand came out once more, this time there was a small black gadget clutched in his fist.

He slouched comfortably into a sitting position.

"What is that thing?" Harry said, leaning closer.

Ron looked pale. "If it's what I think it is, it's not good."

"What, Ron? What is it?" Harry asked. Even a closer look at the object revealed nothing spectacular. To Harry, it looked merely like a small, black jewelry box.

"Dad had a big mess going on with these a few years back," Ron said, turning the object over in his hands. "Muggles thought it was a box for a ring or a necklace or something. It's not," he said quietly.

"What's it do?" Harry asked, dreading the answer.

Ron took a deep breath. "It's called a matoria disintegrate. I guess that was the latin name for it or something. Anyway, a long time ago, there was this evil wizard that wanted to kill every single Muggle alive, so he created this." He stretched out his palm, the black box balanced in the middle. "Whenever someone opens it," he paused, "they disintegrate. There's no trace of them left behind whatsoever. No one ever knows what happens to them." He looked at Harry. "And there's one sure way to tell if this is really what I think it is." He stretched his hand out to Harry

Harry took it from him, looking very closely. Suddenly, brighter than lightning, an inscription appeared on the bottom.

Ron scrambled up beside him. "Oh no," he whispered. "It is. It really is a matoria disintegrate!"

Harry looked at Ron.

"What do we do now?"



(A/N) The suspense! Ack! Review and I will try to post soon….perhaps.. )