Chocolate frogs

Gryffindor's recent Quidditch triumph put the whole house in high spirits, and the next weekend it improved even further, because Slytherin beat Ravenclaw with two hundred and fifty to seventy, ensuring that for the first time in five years the final for the Quidditch Cup would be played between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Harry was no less enthusiastic about this prospect, especially because he was able to show it to Malfoy and all Slytherin once again in his probably last Quidditch game. The teachers, of course, saw it differently, because this pairing, which in any case always caused a lot of trouble in the run-up due to the great rivalry between the two houses, gained further tension. Harry often wondered in the coming weeks whether the ever-increasing amount of homework was due to this, or whether it wasn't just the normal stress before the NEWTs.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dawlish had put the Patronus charm on the agenda, which also brought relief to Harry because Zabini and Nott had made a habit of pretending to miss each other with their spells and disarming Harry from behind while he was practicing with Neville.

"The Patronus charm is magic that goes far beyond the usual level of the average wizard," Dawlish said. "To be precise, it goes so far beyond that it is not even part of the NEWT tests. However, since we are already very advanced with our curriculum and you have all already had experience with dementors, we will dedicate some lessons to it."

- "Please, sir", Dean Thomas asked with a raised hand, "Where exactly are the dementors at the moment? They have been withdrawn from Azkaban."

"I can't tell you that, Mr Thomas," Dawlish said calmly. "However, the answer is likely to be known to the Department of The Leadership and Supervision of Magical Creatures and the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Magic Penitentiary."

They didn't have that answer, Harry thought. As far as he knew from Savage's last letter, the absence of the dementors still caused great concern to the ministry. Dawlish probably knew this too, but probably did not want to let it be known that the ministry was clueless. Old habits die hard, he thought.

"The Patronus charm has several useful features," Dawlish continued. "On the one hand, the most well-known: it is the only known protection against dementors. However, there are other functions. Who can tell me - Miss Granger?"

Hermine's practiced hand was, as always, up first.

"A Patronus can also serve as a messenger of news, sir," she said, sounding as usual as if she had swallowed a textbook. "Depending on the wizard's familiarity with this spell, multiple messages can be sent simultaneously."

"Five points to Gryffindor, Miss Granger," Dawlish said, which left Theodore Nott snorting aloud. "Absolutely right. Well, what exactly does a Patronus look like? Mr Boot?"

"It's different with every wizard and every witch, sir," Terry Boot said. "Basically, it's a protective spirit in the form of the animal that best reflects the personality of the wizard."

Harry had to grin involuntarily when he heard Terry literally repeat the explanation he had given to the DA at the time.

"Five points for Ravenclaw, Mr Boot," Dawlish said. "That's absolutely right, too. I would like to add that the shape of a Patronus can also change if the personality of the wizard has changed." He rattled off briefly. "Who of you has already created a corporeal Patronus?"

About half of the class raised their hands, so all who had been in the DA, except for Neville, who had never achieved it.

"Very good," Dawlish said. "Mr Potter, would you be so kind to demonstrate the spell?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders, remembered how he had kissed Ginny for the first time, and raised his wand.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silver stag appeared, turned an elegant round through the room and then squandered.

"Oooh," Lavender enthused.

"Five more points to Gryffindor," Dawlish said. "Well, how do you summon a Patronus? Focus on a happy, a really happy memory and speak the words. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work out right away, this spell isn't easy to master."

He swung his wand and the tables floated over to the walls. "If you have already mastered the spell, form couples with those who have not yet mastered it. At the same time, please try to perform the spell non-verbal. I will go around and watch your efforts. Start."

Harry practiced with Neville, who was eager to finally see his Patronus.

"Well, you know how to do it," Harry said. "The important thing is that the memory is strong, okay? Snape in your grandmother's clothes won't be enough.'

Neville grinned briefly. "All right... Expecto Patronum!"

A silver cloud appeared, but did not take shape. Neville shrugged. "Thought, that's worth a try."

- "What were you thinking of?", Harry asked curiously.

Neville grinned at him broadly. "The best moment of my school career... You don't need to call me 'Sir', Professor. "

Harry laughed aloud, earning an annoyed look from Nott, who practiced with Ernie Macmillan.

"Okay," he said. "It's strange that it didn't work out. But can't you think of anything better?"

"Yes," Neville said. "But I wanted to start small."

His face took on a concentrated expression. "Expecto Patronum!"

A giant bear jumped out of Neville's wand, looked critically around the room and then disappeared again.

"Great, Neville," Harry said impressed.

"Good that it's not a frog," Neville said dryly, but he beamed all over his face.

"Very impressive, Mr Longbottom," said Dawlish, who came over. "Ten points to Gryffindor. Now try it non-verbal."

Summoning his Patronus without saying the words turned out to be the expected difficult task. Even Hermione, who practiced alongside them with Daphne Greengrass, failed to bring out her silver otter and looked unusually consternated. Shortly before the end of the hour, the thing happened which caused all Slytherins in the room to freeze in horror. Expecto Patronum!, Harry thought for the fourteenth time and suddenly there was the silver stag which jumped over Dawlish's desk and disappeared again.

"Excellent, Mr Potter," said Dawlish, who looked unusually impressed. "Twenty points to Gryffindor!"

"Insane, Harry", Ron said, deeply impressed as they headed for lunch. "That was really awesome, even Hermione couldn't get it!"

Harry smuggled a grin in Hermione's direction, which she answered with a faint smile. She shrugged.

"I've always said that no one can beat Harry in defense, especially not at this spell," she said.

"Thank you," Harry quid with rather red ears.

In the other subjects, they were faced with increasingly difficult tasks, too, some of which only individual ones managed. In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall had them turn snails into mice.

"Transforming invertebrates into mammals is the supreme level of Transfiguration," she lectured as she marched back and forth in front of the board. "This is one of the most difficult tasks which expects you in your NEWT exams."

By the end of the double period, Harry had managed to give his snail hair, but Hermione's became a mouse with a snail tank, earning her five points for Gryffindor. Flitwick and Sprout confronted them with increasingly heavier spells and plants, and the recipes in Potions became so complicated that even Hermione had to ask Professor Slughorn for help repeatedly. Harry and Ron barely got out of work between quidditch training, homework and repetition, but Hermione's workload was absolutely inhumane: unlike them, she had not only the tasks of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Transfiguration and Potions to do, but also had to struggle with Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, and from what Harry heard from Terry Boot and Daphne Greengrass when he met them in the library, these were the two subjects for which you had to do the most. So they spent most evenings in the common room always according to the same scheme: Harry and Ron brooded over their homework, watched pityingly by Ginny, until they were finally finished and then chatted in a whisper about Quidditch, so as not to disturb Hermione, who scribbled countless rolls of parchment with her teeth bitten together, while caressing the Crookshanks, who was sitting on her lap and was visibly disappointed to receive so little attention.

The announcement that the next Hogsmeade weekend would not be cancelled despite Selwyn's sighting there, but would take place under maximum security, therefore caused great relief for everyone, as it provided a welcome distraction. Hermine, of course, grumbled about a full day of lost learning time, which she tried to compensate for by manically reading a thick waltz at breakfast entitled Early Germanic Runes of Scandinavia. The others saved themselves a comment so as not to annoy her, it had been hard enough to get her to come along as it was.

The way from the castle to the village was unusually busy: all the students were brought together by the teachers to Hogsmeade to guarantee their safety, and once they arrived at the village they noticed that a good dozen Aurors were patrolling the streets in pairs. It was a brilliantly beautiful spring day and so they decided to stroll through the shops before visiting the Three Broomsticks. In Honeydukes, Ron bought tons of various sweets, for which he probably spent most of his auror pay from the summer.

"The exam phase is going to be tough," he growled when Harry asked him about it. "A bit of chocolate in between will be good for us."

- "Chocolate only helps against dementors, Ron," Ginny smiled. "And with such a lot of it, you're going to be so fat in June that you won't pass through any door."

"In addition, a fitness test is part of the Auror training if I'm not mistaken," Harry added with a grin. "How do you want to track suspects when you can't see your feet anymore?"

"I'm just aiming more accurately," Ron said. "And now shut up before Hermione hears you and remembers that her parents are dentists."

Hermione actually seemed to want to say something in the direction when they stepped out of the store, but at the sight of the joke shop they were turning to, she forgot her sermon.

"Did you know that?" she asked, stunned.

The joke shop had changed fundamentally, the big sign above the door was no longer "Zonko's" but "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes - London, Hogsmeade, Bordeaux". In addition to the well-known products, the shop windows now also contained those that Harry knew from George's shop in Diagon Alley.

"He didn't say a word," Ginny said indignantly.

"Let's complain," Ron decided with a grin, and they walked over to the store, which was full of students - apparently all their supplies replenished over the Christmas days had already been emptied. Ginny pointed grinning over to Seamus Finnigan, who was just storing a slew of stink bombs in his backpack.

"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen," said a familiar voice from above. "Feel at home!"

They raised their heads and, not surprisingly, saw George standing on the railing on the floor above them. As they walked up the stairs, Harry spotted other familiar faces among the staff: Lee Jordan stood behind the till and Alicia Spinnet advised a few giggling Ravenclaw fifth-years on love potions.

"I thought Alicia works in her father's company now?", Ginny asked after she had hugged George for a welcome. "Feathers, right?"

"Right," George said. 'But she's free at the weekend and she's helping out here, I needed extra staff to deal with all these innocent students here.'

"Since when do you own the shop?", Harry asked.

"Got it from Zonko last week," George said. "The good man wanted to retire for a long time and kept asking me if I wanted to take over the shop."

Ron looked a little jealous. "And what about Bordeaux?"

"Our dear sister-in-law is responsible for this," George said with a grin. 'Bill annoyed her until she finally took a break from Gringotts because of her pregnancy, but she wasn't busy enough with that. Fleur has drawn my attention to the fact that the troublemakers in Beauxbatons are scandalously ill-positioned and I have seen it as my duty to intervene. The field office has been open for a month and is really running very satisfactorily."

- "George," groaned Hermione, whose face had taken on a tortured expression. "How many OWLs did you do again?"

George pretended to think hard and then counted them on his fingers. "Defense Against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures and Charms," he said with a grin. "Personally, I thought that my performance in Potions deserved extra points for creativity, but unfortunately the examiners saw it a little differently."

Hermione seemed to seriously reconsider her learning workload in the face of the success George had, despite his school misconduct.

George grinned at her. "Don't worry, Hermione, you've made it to something despite your eagerness to learn, haven't you?"

She looked at him suspiciously. "What exactly do you mean now?"

- "Well, being Ron's girlfriend is far from glorious, of course, but I don't think any other witch of your age has made it into the chocolate frog cards."

"What?" she asked, confused. 'I'm not in the - what? – am I?"

George's grin got wider, he looked like he was advertising toothpaste. "You don't know? How lovely!"

He leaned over the parapet. "Lee! You were right! Throw the package!"

Lee Jordan gave Dennis Creevey his change and then threw a small packet containing three chocolate frogs and cards over to George.

"As our lovely sister-in-law would say: Voila! "

Hermione still looked suspiciously at George. "You're making fun of us!"

- "Au contraire, ma chére!" said George indignantly. "I would never do that!"

Ron ripped open the chocolate frog and gasped for air as he stared at his face, which was scratching his nose bored.

"That's me!"

"What an enviable intelligence, Ronald," George said dryly.

Harry took the card with his picture and turned it around curiously. It said:

Harry James Potter

Harry Potter, Order of Merlin, First Class, became famous when, at the age of one, he became the first person to survive the Avada-Kedavra-Curse. The 'Boy Who Lives' thus ended the First Wizarding War and sixteen years later also the Second when he defeated the darkest wizard of all time Tom Riddle, who styled himself 'Lord Voldemort'.

Mr Potter is also known as the winner of the 1994-95 Triwizard Tournament and the youngest player on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in more than a century, winning the Quidditch Cup three times as a seeker. He is currently captain of the team.

He also received an award for special services to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Why can they just publish it without asking us?", Hermione asked angrily.

Ginny chuckled. "You are the only person I know who seriously complains about being included in the chocolate frog cards."

"Don't be a frog, Hermione," George said. "Look at Ronniekins as it almost bursts with pride. Mum will freak out when she hears about it."

Ron was indeed quite red.

"Exactly what I needed," Harry sighed. "More attention."

"I think it's a nice form of respect," Ginny said sternly. "Stop complaining - Ron, stop grinning so stupidly and be glad they let out your first game against Slytherin."

Harry lurked over on Ron's card; she was right: to Quidditch it merely said:

... Mr Weasley took part in two seasons as Keeper of the Gryffindor team in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's Quidditch Cup, which the team won in both years.

Hermione stowed her card in her handbag before he could take a look at it.

"Should we help you, George?" she asked in an obscure attempt to change the subject.

"Not necessary," George said. "Go to the Three Broomsticks, I'll be there soon. The biggest crowd has already been here."

The pub was as usual completely overcrowded and since not even a single table was available, they stood at the counter to drink a butterbeer.

"Pretty hot in here," Ginny muttered, fanning air. "They should leave the door open."

At that moment, a cool breeze drove through the pub, because the door opened briefly and then closed again. Ron, looking at who had come in, swallowed his butterbeer and almost spat it over the counter.

"Harry," he said, horrified.

The others swirled around and at that moment there was a flash of light that dazzled them all. Harry ripped out his wand and shouted "Protego!" in the direction in which he suspected the door. There was a dull bang and then several people screamed loudly.

When Harry was able to see again, he found that the majority of the visitors were either hiding under the tables or had wands in their hands. Both were superfluous, as a glance was enough for him to realize that the flash of light was not from Selwyn, but only from Rita Skeeter's camera. The reporter herself struggled and grimly replaced her jewel-studded glasses.

"You'll have to replace the camera, Harry!"

- "Repair it yourself!" Ron spat angrily.

"The headline will strike like a bomb," Rita said sugar-sweetly. "Potter attacks reporter - attack on press freedom-"

Hermione slammed her butterbeer on the counter so heavily that the bottle almost broke. "You are an attack on humanity," she growled. "Get out of here as long as you can!"

"Oh, little Miss Perfect is here, how pleasing," Rita said. "The public has a right to know-"

Harry was never supposed to know exactly what the public had to know, as Madam Rosmerta came out trembling with anger behind the counter and pointed her wand at Rita.

"Get out of here!" she yelled out loud. "And never come back here again, you have a house ban! That was the last time you've molested one of my customers!"

- "Rosmerta, my dear-"

- "OUT!"

The door of the Three Broomsticks slammed shut in front of Rita's nose.

"Thank you," Harry said, somewhat embarrassed.

"No need to thank me, Harry," Madam Rosmerta growled, "I should have done this years ago."