"Won?" I asked
"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed "with a score of 180: 170!" and then added anxiously "and how are you, okay?
"What do you think?"
"Have you scored eighteen goals?" Lou was surprised. And from an overabundance of feelings, she brushed away a glass of water, standing on the curbstone next to my bed. "Thanks, Lou," I grumbled, dusting myself off.
"Sorry," she drawled, trying to put an expression of extreme remorse on her face. "By the way, Hermione, I'd like you to meet my godfather, Sirius Black. Sirius, it is Hermione Granger, my friend. Not girlfriend, Sirius" I added gloomily, noticing how cheerful curiosity his eyes flashed.
"I'm sorry," the godfather obeyed, but I still didn't like the sly expression on his face. And although I personally let a coverstory about our relationship with Hermione, I myself could not imagine us as a couple. I mean, I would have looked at us from the outside - in my life I would not have believed in this fairy tale. Snape didn't believe it. Although he and Snape...
"So what's up with Quidditch?" I asked.
"Well... they scored us a second quaffle when you did that dead loop… By the way, half of the audience did not notice, everyone was staring at you and how the Bludgers knocked you down. And after you... mmm... Dropped out of the game, Ron seemed to be replaced. I don't know much about Quidditch, but he never missed any more balls. Now, of course, he'll be proud" Hermione grunted skeptically. She sat down next to Lou on the adjacent bed.
"Well, the Bludgers began to get Cho, and therefore she could not catch the Snitch for a long time. Although Ginny is sure that she did it only by a miracle.
"So the Bludgers started pestering this girl the same way they did Harry when he left?" Sirius asked thoughtfully. Hermione frowned, honestly recalling the details in order to answer the question correctly.
"Yes, just the same," she replied.
Pat chuckled.
"It looked like the Bludgers had been thoroughly worked on"
Sirius looked at him, nodded, and brushed a lock of hair from his forehead in a familiar gesture.
"Yes, it's strange. Bludgers always try to attack all team members, rather than focus on any player."
"Harry, confess, what did you annoy the mad balls?" Lou laughed.
I sighed and touched the aching back of my head. And the door opened again, and Rem came in. I wonder who's next? Dumbledore? Snape? Madam Hooch?
"O! Harry, you're awake," Lupine smiled, "and I dissuaded the Gryffindor team from breaking into the hospital wing and making you happy with the result of the game. How are you?"
"As you can see" if at least someone else asks me this question, he will not live until the morning "all my brains have been blown out of me, and I will remain down until the end of my days."
"That's why I don't play Quidditch," Pat added contentedly. "I really need a head. I think to her." "Oh my God, Pat!" Lou widened her eyes in mock surprise "is it really true? I can not believe! Remus."
Meanwhile, dragged Sirius to Dumbledore. The godfather left without much desire - he always liked being in our society. I suspect, not without reason, that he himself has not yet fully emerged from his late adolescence. But on the other hand, where else can you find such a person who will understand all your problems so quickly? As soon as we were alone, there was silence for several minutes. After a short game of staring, Hermione cautiously asked, "Harry, I don't know, but... Your godfather knows about our... Our affairs?"
She pronounced the word "deeds" with such a meaning as if it was about the capture of the Tower.
"No," Pat and I answered in chorus. Lou looked from me to him and was silent.
"I thought so. It's just that the Bludgers attacked you much more aggressively than they did Cho"
"I'm telling you, someone cursed them," Pat said gloomily.
"I think so too," Hermione bit her lip, "maybe Malfoy? For him, of course, it's cool, but stillstill... That's why he laughed today at breakfast..."
"No," my friend said firmly.
Everyone looked at him. He pretended to be a teacher explaining logarithms to negligent students and explained:
"Curses like these are short-lived. So he would have to shove himself tonight - where are the balls stored there? If I had done this before, the spell would dissipate. And tonight he couldn't get out of his native Slytherin damn-them-took-the-dungeons for sure!"
"Why?" I asked. Pat laughed.
"Yesterday we had a scuffle," he looked at our incomprehensible faces and, ironically curling his lips, began to explain "yesterday we played poker. Malfoy lost thirty galleons to me. He plays, by the way, lousy" my friend chuckled, "well, he said that I was juggling. And you know, Harry, that I never jerk. Playing is serious business. Well, word for word... At first, of course, they grabbed the sticks, then it was no longer up to them... You should have seen Jay beat Crabbe" Pat said happily.
I summed up in the voice of an announcer reading the evening news:
"Was there a massive brawl yesterday in the Slytherin dungeons with the participation of two warring parties?"
Pat nodded his head happily.
"In the best traditions of the inn fights of the Wild West."
"And who won?" Lou asked.
"Snape won" Pat grinned "I don't know where he sensed what was going on here, but... he came and yelled at us... Yelled, do you understand? He's usually the angrier, the quieter his hisses. And he yelled like that, but in such expressions... Snape has never been that convincing before, I tell you! He scattered everyone to their rooms, moreover, he personally imposed spells on each one so that no one came out. Yes, no one tried, everyone was shocked... You know, some of the phrases were purely Muggle. How would he know them, eh? Now, by the way, there is a new rule - a ban on gambling for money."
"And not for money?" Hermione asked.
"Didn't you play before?" I was surprised "They probably played" my friend shrugged his shoulders "it just didn't come to fights."
"So Malfoy couldn't get out," I stated after a moment's silence, vividly imagining the scuffle in Slytherin.
"Not. Even I could not get around the Snape charm. For now, at least. By the way, we are punished today too. The entire faculty. Everyone should be in their rooms at five."
"Wow!" asked Hermione "why then Malfoy was so happy at breakfast?"
"I didn't have to repay the debt, so I was happy," I laughed.
Finally Lou was indignant:
"Come on quickly explain what business you have with this Malfoy! We've got your reservations already!"
We have explained briefly. There was no time for detailed answers - I just felt Madame Pompfrey's displeased puffing. She was already leaving her office and announced that fifteen minutes more - and the visit to a sick friend was over.
"So this is the albino that we met in Knockturn Alley... I did not write to you in letters, but... I think I'm being spy."
I lay there and stared at the dark ceiling. Hogwarts at night was filled with some kind of ominous silence, and therefore it was creepy to be alone in a huge chamber. After Madame Pompfrey managed to get my friends out of here, she gave me some kind of sleeping pill and said that I would sleep until morning. For some reason, it didn't work out until morning - I woke up and lay now, wondering what time it was. Lou is being spy. Pat and I believed immediately. Our madcap friend didn't suffer from paranoia, and vice versa. Such a thing as surveillance, due to its frivolous disposition, could not be noticed at all. Although lately, I am more and more often overcome by the thought that we still do not know much about our Lou. My first thought was the creepiest and yet the most believable. Lou has always attracted various psychos like a magnet. I was not the only one who came up with this idea, so Pat immediately said with concern:
"Lou, it might be worth contacting the police?"
Lou snorted derisively.
"You know they'll tell me that I'm nervous. And besides, I don't think I'm being followed by Muggles."
There was a significant pause. Pat, in deep thought, knitted his eyebrows, and, sighing, said:
"Either I'm completely stupid, or you, Lou, are not saying something. And since the probability of the first is negligible... "
"You have never suffered from excess of modesty" I could not resist.
Pat raised his index finger for silence.
"Your grandmother is a Veela. Although I didn't wait for an intelligible answer from anyone who it was, it's not important now. Your father is basically a wizard, too. Your mother"
"She's a Muggle" Lou interrupted.
"Okay, muggle so muggle. Your sister is a witch. You say that you are not a witch. But somehow you know that you are not being followed by Muggles. Who are you after all of the above? Muggle?"
"No" our friend answered irritably.
"Are you a squib?" Pat continued to pry.
"No, I'm not a squib," Lou answered even more irritated.
"I give up" Pat threw up his hands "so why don't you magic?"
Lou rolled her eyes.
"Isn't it clear?" she exclaimed "I cannot do magic" and, looking at our incomprehensible faces, added in a serious tone "it's dangerous!"
Lou and seriousness is a strange combination. Perhaps that is why I immediately remembered that she never once took a magic wand in her hands.
"Dangerously?" Pat chuckled skeptically. "it's dangerous when you appear on the street in a short skirt"
Lou opened her mouth to protest, but I interrupted both of them.
"Enough. When did they start to follow you, Lou?"
She twisted her lips in displeasure for a while and said:
"It seems, after I met this couple on Diagon Alley. Not immediately, but maybe ... well, in a week or a half. Now I don't go out so often, and my father's chauffeur takes me to school."
"Are you afraid you might be kidnapped?" Hermione gasped.
"No, what are you," Lou waved her hand, "if something happens, I can stand up for myself."
Pat grunted in disbelief, Lou frowned at him and continued:
"It's just boring alone."
"And when you met Malfoy with Snape, did you hear anything from their conversation?" I asked.
Lou wrinkled her brow and honestly tried to remember.
"Nothing like that. This one, in black, asked "what's going on." The blond said that he himself did not understand anything. Both looked disgusting. And then they noticed me..."
"Did they see you ?!" I, Pat and Hermione exclaimed in unison.
Lou stared at us blankly.
"Well, yes. I'm not invisible."
"Now spit on whoever says the Malfoys are not involved here," Pat breathed loudly.
"By the way, your cat gave birth to kittens" as always, without any transition, said Lou.
I closed my eyes and began to think about why my life has become so complicated lately. Is this karma? Or did the stars align wrongly? I think I dozed off for a few minutes. Thoughts flowed into a peaceful channel - seven black kittens running around Pata's house in a frenzied crowd... For some reason, a smiling Ginny appeared on a broom... Then Princess Diana riding a dragon... I suddenly came out of a state of half-asleep and screamed, reflexively jerking my aching hand.
In front of me, two phosphorescent tennis balls flickered in the darkness. I didn't immediately recognize Dobby.
"What are you doing here?" I whispered.
"Harry Potter is back to school," the elf whispered bitterly. "Dobby warned Harry Potter. Ah Harry Potter sir why did Harry Potter disobey Dobby? Why didn't Harry Potter drive home when he missed the train?"
It dawned on me.
"So you did the job with Sirius's car?"
"Yes, Harry Potter, sir, this is Dobby," Dobby admitted, nodding his head vigorously; his ears slapped over his cheeks.
Wow, it's not even justified, the unfortunate creature...
Well, God forbid the godfather finds out that this is your handiwork" I said, "he will quickly cut off your hands!"
"And by chance you sent the letters from Hogwarts to another address?" once again dawned on me. "Harry Potter shouldn't be in school," he lamented miserably,
"Nice Harry Potter is in danger, Dobby thought there would be enough Bludgers…"
"It's you who bewitched them," I whispered affirmatively.
I urgently wanted to strangle this unfortunate creature. Dobby felt my condition and moved away from me.
"Harry Potter is in danger" again jammed him "Dobby must protect the glorious Harry Potter. Harry Potter would have gone home injured, but alive," he explained to me his simple train of thought.
"You know, Dobby, as long as the only danger to Harry Potter comes from you," I hissed furiously, "I could have been knocked to death!"
Although, of course, after that nothing would have threatened me! Dobby looked even more unhappy.
"No! No! Harry Potter doesn't understand! There is a conspiracy!"
"What a conspiracy?!"
Dobby shuddered slightly.
"Hogwarts is preparing… murder!" and with a doomed scream, he bumped his head onto the curbstone. I tried to hold it with my left hand, but it didn't work out very well.
"Dobby, who is your master?" I asked.
He let out a strangled, frightened squeak.
"Who is your master?" I asked clearly again.
Of course he didn't answer. He looked at me sadly and Apparated with a soft pop. I leaned back wearily on the pillows, cradling my disturbed hand. Despite my anger at Dobby over the Bludgers, I still felt great pity for him. At least join Hermione S.P.E.W. I have never met a more naive creature.
My first visitors the next morning were Ginny and Demelza.
"I know, I know," I exclaimed, raising my left hand in greeting, "you came to throw me out of the team!"
I felt much better today. There are many benefits to magical medicine.
"I was dreaming," Ginny laughed, sitting down with Demelza on the next bed, "and we wanted to come yesterday, Professor Lupine would not let us in.
"He was talking. And where is the entire promised team?" I asked.
"Katie is scribbling something urgent for tomorrow on Charms," Demelza said. "Jimmy and Ritchie are getting some sleep. Ginny agreed. Thanks to their work, Cho actually caught the Snitch by accident. And Ron, thank Merlin, remembered in time why he was at the stadium."
"Where is he?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Demelza, "he is now at the zenith of fame. We, of course, can call him if you want to die to death, for forty minutes listening in detail about each quaffle that he repulsed."
"And how are you feeling?" Ginny asked.
"Like a man whose skull was broken yesterday," I smiled.
And then I remembered my promise yesterday to kill anyone who ever asked that question. An hour after the girls left, Rem came to me and... Sirius.
"Are you still here?" I was surprised.
"We were wandering around the Forbidden Forest with Dumbledore midnight yesterday," he said, yawning.
"Sirius," Rem warned.
"Harry is not a child, let it be better to be in the know."
"Yes, that's for sure,"I happily assented, "you were looking in the forest for the one who is hiding there?"
Sirius and Remus looked at each other in surprise and even a little frightened.
"Well, Saami told me. Bad man in the Forbidden Forest and all. Did you find anyone there?"
"Well," Sirius drawled, grinning, "you can always find someone in the Forbidden Forest."
"You're off topic, Sirius," I chided him.
"We didn't find anyone," Rem answered, "but very hmm... Talked constructively with the centaurs."
My godfather shrugged.
"Anyway, Harry, we should have stayed up half the night.
"At least Dumbledore didn't bring Snape..."
Then his eyes clouded over with memories, and he snapped his fingers excitedly.
"Snape!"
"What Snape?" Lupine did not understand.
"I remembered who Pat reminds me of. Snape," Sirius said in amazement ,"of course. Michelle Preston. Now I remembered her too. I asked her out on a date in my fifth year. Do you remember, Rem, how she said me "fack off"?
"I wonder how you forgot," Lupine said.
The godfather whistled.
"What happens? Pat is Snape's son?"
"It took a long time to get to you," Rem remarked in a completely uneducated manner.
Everyone was silent for a while. Then Sirius smiled sadly at something and shook his head.
"Fool," he remarked.
"Who? You?" I did not understand.