Chapter 23: The Flames of the Fiend
Ron thrust into the Hospital Wing, breathless, sweaty, and immediately rushed to Hermione's bed, where Madam Pomfrey was crouching as she greased the girl's face and hands with various ointments. The redhead noticed Harry standing at the end of Hermione's bed, his expression showing anxiousness and shock.
"How is she," Ron promptly asked Harry.
"Pomfrey said she'll live. There're only burns left to be treated," Harry replied grimly, looking at his friend. It was obvious Ron had run at full speed, because he and Morgan had brought Hermione here no more than ten minutes ago; then Morgan had stayed here for a little while to help Pomfrey take care of Hermione, and then soon the Auror had gone back to her colleagues to inform them about the accident.
His friend just nodded in response and looked at Hermione again, still panting heavily.
About ten minutes later, Ginny and Headmistress McGonagall arrived, who right away started asking questions to Pomfrey about the condition of Hermione's health. The nurse described it as completely stable – there's no danger to her life. "I gave her the Sleeping Potion so that during the sleep there could be cured the internal damage, but this is an extremely powerful curse; scars are going to be painful and difficult to care for, not even mentioning the cosmetic defect."
Upon hearing this, Ron carefully examined Hermione's hands and face – her hands were all blistered, and two wide, vertical wounds stretched across her face apparently cut by the tusks of Fiendfyre dragon, and there were a wide area of burn under her chin.
"Madam Pomfrey, is she going to have those scars?" Ron asked, scared. The healer and McGonagall turned to him with sympathetic expressions.
"I'm afraid, Mr. Weasley, that Fiendfyre burns are very difficult to treat," Madam Pomfrey said sadly, "and this particular curse had amplified itself for so long. Burn scars will remain more or less visible. If you are so worried about her looks, then, as a girl, she'll be able to cope with it using the wide range of cosmetics to mask them."
"No, it's not that… I don't like her only because of her looks," Ron said awkwardly, "but she was very beautiful; she will definitely be upset about that."
"Regarding this, Ronald, I can commend your brother. He makes excellent witch beauty products," McGonagall said. "Unfortunately, his cosmetics could be the only thing that could help her after today's accident. If it somehow makes it easier for you, then I can assure you the both Gryffindor young ladies are going to get a great deal of a punishment from me."
"Oh, all right," Ron just murmured, apparently too shocked to answer anything more sensible.
Then, McGonagall asked Harry to come to her office so they could speak privately, so he released Ginny's hand and shot a quick glance at her as he followed McGonagall out of the Hospital Wing. They climbed two floors higher in silence and walked through the hallways until they reached the entrance to the Headmaster's Office with an ugly gargoyle.
As they entered the office and seated themselves on either side of the Headmaster's desk, McGonagall firstly asked him questions about the whole accident and Harry obediently answered them.
Then Harry asked, "Will everything be fine with Hermione?"
McGonagall watched him with an odd sympathetic look, "Miss Granger's life is in no danger anymore, and she'll wake up as soon as the effects of the Sleeping Potion have diminished. But you need to understand that the Fiendfyre is a particularly nasty curse, and that means her recovery is likely going to be slow and unpleasant, and she is going to have visible scars on her skin."
"How slow could her recovery be?" Harry asked still feeling shocked.
"According to Madam Pomfrey, she'll have to stay in the hospital for a few weeks, maybe even a month," McGonagall replied.
"A month?" Harry exclaimed, his eyes wide with surprise.
"Unfortunately. It will take time to eradicate the effects of the curse completely out of her body," McGonagall explained. "Therefore, I hope you and Mr. Weasley are going to be ready to help her as much as it is in your power."
"Yes, of course," Harry affirmed, still not being able to fully comprehend all the aftermath of this accident.
"And, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall began, but then addressed him more personally, "Harry, I would appreciate it very much if you could look after Ronald so he doesn't turn against the both ladies – culprits – personally . I've already intended to punish them appropriately, and I don't want them to be the subjects to any public terror, all right?"
Harry nodded affirmatively, thinking of the seriousness and absurdity of this whole situation. Only just a few hours ago, they were all safe and sound, happy to be involved in the opening operation of the Room of Requirement. But now Hermione was lying in the hospital bed, most likely suffering great pain, but Ron would be ready to strangle those young Gryffindor girls himself with his own bare hands if he had such an opportunity.
Luckily, it wasn't hard for Harry to keep his promise to McGonagall, because the girls were nowhere to be seen, and he and Ginny only had a few moments when they needed to make company for the particularly grumpy Ron during meals, since he spent the rest of his time at Hermione's bedside.
Hermione regained her consciousness the next evening, when the effects of the Sleeping Potion wore off. Madam Pomfrey right away made her drink the painkilling potion and tried to force her to eat a chicken soup, and Ron immediately offered his help to feed her it. Then in the following days, she was awake for a longer time, and after a few days she was able to eat without additional help, though her hands were stiff with very ugly looking blisters, which definitely were hurting even with the effects of all the painkillers.
So, soon the New Year's Eve had come, which everyone in Hogwarts did spend in an unusually peaceful way this time, because it seemed that the accident with Hermione had put a sorrowful shadow all over the castle, not allowing others to have happy festivities.
In the New Year's Morning, Hermione had recovered to such an extent that she was able to sit in her bed and could engage in conversations for a rather long time. This especially improved Ron's mood, so he wasn't so ready to attack everyone anymore, who allowed showing a too happy face at lunch.
After waking up, Hermione first wanted to know what had happened to the two girls; if everything was fine with them, and Ron had told her all that had happened after her accident and that Melanie and Kate hadn't been seen at school anymore.
"And I really do hope those both girls have been expelled," Ron added hopefully.
"I don't think, Ron, they should be expelled," Hermione replied, looking at her boyfriend understandably, knowing well that he sometimes could express a rather radical but irrational view when being angry.
"It's only because of them, Hermione, why you have to be here in the hospital, and who knows how long it could take until Pomfrey could get that bloody curse out of your body. Expelling from Hogwarts is the least of the punishments they had deserved," Ron said harshly.
"Ron," Hermione addressed him in a gentle way, "they just wanted to see what we are going to do there. The students of the younger years have been discussing the legendary Room of Requirement for the past term passionately, since they were asking Neville so much about it. Moreover, the curse was not expected to be so strong and able to break through all the put up barriers. It was an accident, and it wasn't our two Gryffindor girls' fault," Hermione argued why Ron's anger was exaggerated. Meanwhile, Harry and Ginny sat next to Hermione's bed silently opposite Ron's chair, and let them both argue.
"It wasn't their fault?" Ron asked in disbelief. "Are you crazy? If they hadn't been there, there would have been enough time for you to simply run away from the curse and nothing bad would've happened."
"And if the Aurors would've put up a stronger protection, and if I would've been placed in another hallway, and if Crabbe wouldn't have conjured the Fiendfyre at all. So many what ifs – that way you can make it everyone's fault. It was an accident, it just happened."
"But still – they both broke the rules. Melanie and Kate didn't have to be there at all," Ron argued, but Hermione just smiled about it. "I don't understand what's so funny about it."
"If we had been expelled from Hogwarts each time for being where we didn't have to be, it would probably have happened at least ten times," Hermione said, a flicker of amusement showing on her face.
"But our adventures never ended with serious injuries," Ron objected, shaking his head, but Harry right away knew that this statement was wrong.
"Actually, Ron," Harry spoke up, ready to receive his friend's anger, which will definitely follow when he'll say his thoughts out loud, "our doings didn't always end well. For example, take our first year. Despite McGonagall forbade us to do it, we did go to protect the Philosopher's Stone anyway. Say, weren't we a bunch of daring idiots?"
"We went to stop You-Know-Who," Ron snapped, now turning his full attention to Harry, "it was a sensible thing to do, but these girls just wanted to take a look at the Room of Requirement."
"If you think about it, then our, so to speak, heroic feat didn't make much sense. Dumbledore had hidden the Stone in such a way that Voldemort would actually never be able to get it in his own hands," Harry argued. "In fact, it was only because of our coming there that gave Voldemort a chance to get the Philosopher's Stone, and it ended with you, Ron, getting a serious concussion from the white queen, but I almost died, and the Stone had to be destroyed only because of me."
"Yeah, and in my first year, I let out the Slytherin's Basilisk roaming through Hogwarts," Ginny added bitterly. "It was the sheer luck that nobody died."
Ron sighed gloomily at his sister's statement and said, "But they had deserved a proper punishment anyway. And by that I mean something more than those hundred rubies that flew back to the upper part of the Gryffindor hourglass and left us in the last place."
The second term of Hogwarts began on the fourth of January, so practically all the students had returned to the school the evening before, bringing in the castle the joy and happiness they had taken up at home, which even affected Ron a little. In addition, Hermione's health began to improve significantly with every day, and now she was able to stand on her own feet and could get to the facilities herself, though with great difficulty. The blisters on her hands seemed even uglier as they turned blackish brown with pus inside some of them, but Madam Pomfrey reassured them that it was normal healing process. In cases of burns, the first week is always the worst, but then it'll gradually get better with time.
Hermione wasn't so worried about her blisters at the moment, though, of course they were awfully painful, making her hands stiff as rakes, but she wanted to know when she could return to her studies. After a lot of asking, Madam Pomfrey allowed her classmates bring her homework and studying materials, although the nurse warned Hermione she needed peace and rest now. Too much mental strain could only worsen her already fragile health condition.
However, when Ron, Harry, and Ginny told her about their first Herbology class of this term, her eyes shone with excitement – she indeed longed to be healthy again so she could attend every scheduled seventh-year lesson. Later in the afternoon, Terry came to her, bringing the Rune Dictionary and homework for which Hermione was very grateful.
Later in the evening, Ron reported Harry rather different thoughts about this event, "You see, the whole school already knows what had happened to Hermione, and now he comes in with his Ancient Runes and stares at her. Of course, she looks the way she looks. I wonder, what was he expecting – that she's staying there in the hospital bed because she has nothing better to do? It almost seemed to me that he fellow was so nauseous and was barely holding together his stomach just for only seeing her."
"Did he say something about her looks?" Harry asked.
"No, only that she looked different," Ron said bitterly. "After Terry left, Hermione asked me to give her a mirror. She examined herself for a long time and then started doing the Ancient Rune homework. But I noticed she was terribly sad. Pomfrey smears all those ointments on her face constantly, but they haven't helped much. The scars are very terrible still and they are well visible. Then she remained silent and hid behind the Rune Dictionary. After dinner, I left her to do her homework."
Harry didn't really know what to say to his friend at such a moment. He could only sympathize with his closest friends, having a very heavy heart.
The next evening, when the two young men had returned to Gryffindor Common Room, a few hours later of wandering through the school after dinner, Harry finally had to keep his promise to McGonagall.
After saying the Fat Lady the password "Victory", they stepped through the hole behind the huge painting, and at that moment Ron froze as the expression of the purest rage formed on his face. Harry right away noticed his friend looking at both of the unfortunate third-years, which sat quietly and shyly in the farthest corner of the Common Room and most likely were doing their homework.
Ron's hands clenched into fists and he headed straight in the direction of the two girls with his gaze locked on them. Harry hurriedly followed his friend, hoping Ron wouldn't let his anger out fully but would be able to control himself.
Ron approached the girls, furious as the rolling thunder, and upon seeing the red-haired young man in front of them, they shrank themselves so teeny-tiny that Harry felt almost sorry for them. It seemed that at this very moment, Melanie and Kate were ready for Earth to swallow them up.
"I really do want to know what are you both doing here," Ron addressed the girls, "because didn't McGonagall expel you from the school?"
"No… not quite," one of the girls replied, looking at the floor, blushing.
"What do you mean – not quite?" Ron insisted.
The other girl replied, "We were called to McGonagall's Office, and she allowed us to stay here if we served our sentence and from now on will be utterly obedient."
"And what kind of punishment did she sentence you with? Have you visited Hermione in the hospital? I would like to know what exactly could even out the thing you have done to our Head Girl?"
"No, we haven't been to the hospital," Kate replied. And Melanie explained the punishment they had got, "And every day after dinner for whole January, we have to do public works under Filch's supervision."
Ron smirked at it – doing anything under Filch's supervision was as pleasant as having a toothache.
"Now listen, you two," Harry said, "you'll go to Hermione and apologize her for the trouble you've caused. If you were earlier so brave to sneak into an operation hazarded by Fiendfyre, then now you have to gather up your Gryffindor courage to face your mess. Maybe such a thing could lessen our anger about what happened to Hermione."
Ron even nodded approvingly at this. "And do apologize to Hermione as soon as possible. Perhaps it'll teach you not to stick your nose into places where it doesn't belong."
"Yes… yes, of course," the both girls stuttered as they looked at their wristwatches. It was twenty minutes to nine o'clock, so they both ran out of the Common Room in an instant, most likely wanting to get as far away as possible from Ron as they were running like the wind.
The young man's grin grew even wider, and when Harry inquired about it, he replied, "Filch is always boasting that he's polishing his chains waiting for that day, when he'll be allowed to suspend unruly students by their ankles from the ceiling."
In the following days, Harry, Ron, and Ginny noticed they were spending unusually lot of time in the library anyway, even though there was no Hermione who always urged them to study. However, their willingness to actually do the studying was lessened than when with Hermione in the library, so Harry paid a lot of attention to the last issues of the Daily Prophet. Ginny flipped pages of the Quibbler or the Witch Weekly Magazine, but Ron seemed to have taken over Hermione's traits as he tried to find all of information about Fiendfyre available in the library.
Luna and Neville had joined their group on Wednesday evening. Neville, of course, focused on his additional studies of the plant they had to tend now – the Abyssinian Shrivelfigs, but Luna took out her Rune Dictionary.
"Can I ask you a question, Harry?" the blonde girl addressed him after telling everyone how much in her opinion some of her Ravenclaw classmates were obsessed with studying the Philosopher's Stone, "You had collected all the Deathly Hallows, right?"
"Um, yeah, I had them. But I kept only the Invisibility Cloak for myself. The Wand and the Stone both are in safe places now," Harry replied, turning his attention away from today's Daily Prophet's issue. "Why?"
"Remember when we talked to Flamel about the Philosopher's Stone?" Luna reminded him.
"Well, yes," Harry simply replied, not fully understanding yet how the Deathly Hallows could relate to the Philosopher's Stone or their Alchemy professor, Professor Philip Flamel.
"Professor Flamel asked me to stay after class and said that he was very excited about my mother's research. That is, he would like to try it himself with the greatest anticipation, but…" Luna suddenly fell silent.
"Then what's keeping him from doing it?" Harry asked curiously, beginning to suspect what she might want to ask him.
"But my mother hasn't always written down all the details, and besides her notes doesn't say how exactly her Magic Accelerator was built, and in order for Professor Flamel to repeat the experiment, he needs all this information. So I thought, maybe this problem has a solution if you, Harry, were willing to share your Deathly Hallows," Luna explained, feeling a little awkward that she had to ask her friend for something so big.
"Luna, if I understood you correctly, then you want to meet your mom so that she could reveal to Flamel all the details of her experiment. Therefore, you need the Resurrection Stone, right?" Harry concluded, though feeling no excitement about this idea. Neville, Ginny, and Ron had been all ears now as Luna nodded in approval. Then Harry continued gloomily, "You see, I left the Stone in the Forbidden Forest. Even if your plan to summon your mother is not so bad, that's impossible, because the Stone is lying somewhere deep in the Forbidden Forest."
"Right here, in the Forbidden Forest? That's wonderful, Harry!" the girl exclaimed happily.
Sometimes Harry could only wonder at her oddness. "Luna, I left it in the Forbidden Forest in the very depths of it, where there are huge spiders and other monsters that could eat even Hagrid."
"I know that, but what kind of protection did you put on the ring, Harry? You didn't just leave it to the spiders, right?" Luna said, sounding business-like, ignoring the fact that Harry was looking at her like she was practically insane.
"The Forbidden Forest doesn't seem to you like a good enough protection? Believe me, it was a fat chance that Ron and I actually did get out of there alive at all," Harry said grimly, not really wanting to remember those terrible horrors they both, he and Ron, when being just boys, had survived six years ago. Harry noticed that Ron was swallowing hard next to him, now trying not to remember the dreadful hairy legs of spiders and even scarier venomous pincers which made that awful clicking sound, making chills ran down the spine… "I don't think it's possible to get past those spiders and manage to search over the thicket of Forest."
"Yes, Harry, I already got it about the spiders. I meant the fact how did you protect the ring from magic? Did you protect it from the Summoning Charm, let's say, using the Unsummoning Spell?" Luna asked, sounding flatly again, as if she had asked him about the tomorrow's weather.
Confused, Harry blinked his eyes twice. At first, he wanted to retort his friend something like this: Exactly which part about the scary, murderous spiders' nest you didn't understand? But then a quiet thought sounded in his mind – indeed, maybe the Summoning Charm could work?
"No, I didn't…" Harry said slowly. "At that moment I thought those giant spiders, snakes, and Hagrid's little brother was enough that no sane person would want to sneak in there and search over the ground."
Luna just smiled at that. "When I was a child, my Mom often used to say – if the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain. Therefore, Harry, if the ring is protected only by spiders, then I really don't see any reason why we actually couldn't get that mountain to come to Muhammad with a simple Summoning Charm."
Harry just kept blinking at the girl. It had never occurred to him that the Resurrection Stone was actually very easy to find. You just needed to want to summon it to you.
"That's a brilliant idea, Luna," Ron said appreciatively.
"Thank you, Ron. I am a Ravenclaw, so thinking is an obligation for me," Luna replied to Ron with a smile. "Harry, maybe we can go to an empty classroom and try the Summoning Charm?"
"Right now?" Harry asked, sounding a bit silly.
"Yes, why not?" Luna replied.
"Oh, all right, then let's go and try it," Harry said, still a little distracted by Luna's newly suggested theory, then he got up from his chair deep in thought and went out of the library with his friends to look for the nearest empty classroom. They entered one, closed the door, and approached the window. Luna opened it and asked Harry to tell her about the look of the ring and then concentrated on it as she pronounced the incantation, "Accio the Resurrection Stone!"
They all stood at the window, holding their breath, waiting for what would happen. There passed one minute, two minutes, but nothing happened. Then Luna lowered her wand, refocused again on the Stone and repeated the charm again as she pointed her wand out of the window again.
Still nothing happened, and Luna just kept freezing herself in the cold winter air at the open window, but then suddenly something shot past her and fell to the floor with a clicking sound.
Ginny ran to the unknown object and exclaimed excitedly, lifting it from the floor, "It's the ring!"
Luna quickly closed the window and all of them immediately gathered around Ginny. She placed her find on her palm for everyone to see. It was a golden ring obviously ancient, encrusted with a dark grey gem with the engraved symbol of the Deathly Hallows. It was slit exactly as Harry remembered it – vertically along the symbolic line of the Elder Wand.
"Blimey," Ron said in admiration. Luna had indeed managed to charm here the Resurrection Stone out of the very depths of the Forbidden Forest.
"How is it, then, Harry – can I borrow it to help Professor Flamel to build my Mom's experiment?" Luna asked as she raised her hand ready to take the ring from Ginny's palm.
"Well, yeah, if it's actually here now; then take it, of course," Harry replied.
"Thank you, Harry," Luna said happily.
After the usual Transfiguration class with Professor Switch on Thursday morning, they all hurried to the hospital to tell the news to Hermione, who wasn't very happy about it.
"I've already told you what I think of Alchemy and all those alchemists. I doubt there has been at least one alchemist in the history, which had had any good intentions," she said. "I think the fact, that Flamel could soon have all the necessary information so he could actually try to produce this Stone, sounds like a time-bomb."
"Nothing bad has happened yet. For now, he's just trying to repeat Pandora's experiments," Ron said.
"He's just trying to repeat the experiments? Ron, do you really have any idea how dangerous the experiments with magic are? Pandora miscalculated something and blew herself up. What if Flamel wants to build something even bigger? He may manage to blow up not only himself, but also the whole neighbourhood, including people living there," Hermione said as she couldn't be convinced.
"Then we'll see it how it'll turn out later, but guess who asked us about your health?" Ron smirked as he spoke.
"Well, who was it?" Hermione encouraged him to tell it right away.
"Malfoy," Ginny said. "He came to us before the Transfiguration class and asked – How is Granger's health?"
"Really?" Hermione asked, amused a little.
"Yes, really," Harry confirmed. "I told him you were alive, but you still needed more time to get well," he explained as he examined the nasty ulcers on her hands; though she was able to hold her quill for quite a moment now. Gradually, little by little, her fingers were regaining some of their former flexibility.
"But that Malfoy is one slimy person. I think he's just acting kindly and at the same time he's got cold feet because he'll have to do his duty in the dark corridors on Saturday alone," Ron said, quite venomously.
"We've caught the most of the Boggarts. I doubt he's just afraid of the dark dungeons," Hermione said thoughtfully, and Harry knew what she kept to herself without saying out loud – Malfoy was most likely worried about his secret private studying classes with Hermione, without which he wasn't successful in his studies at the first term of the school year.
"But you aren't denying that he's one slimy person?" Ron asked Hermione suspiciously.
"I think, Ron, we're going to never meet such a jerk as him in our lives again. Tell me, when the Malfoys hadn't taken advantage of the situation and hadn't bidder with the winning side? They're people without principles, for sure. Unless you count a principle that they're always greedy for more money," Hermione said strictly, which really made Ron happy. He definitely didn't like the fact that other guys showed their concern about Hermione, whether that was the hated Malfoy or the dorky Terry.
None other than Terry caused Ron a headache also the next day, when the Ravenclaw young man had visited Hermione after his morning Arithmancy class and had enthusiastically told her all about the Professors Vector's lesson and the homework she had assigned to them in detail. For the rest of the morning until noon, Ron couldn't stop whining about it, and he calmed down only for a moment when he was eating a lamb chop.
After lunch, Dawlish made them busy with the warming up for the new term, asking them to practice the Shield Charm. Then the opponent had to try to break it with a curse. As soon as the lesson was over, Ron was first to rush to Hermione eager to tell her everything in detail how he had disarmed Luna, but she had pierced his own shield with the Hair Growing Curse.
"Luckily Hannah knew how to barber me, otherwise I was beginning to look like Dumbledore," Ron joked.
"Hermione," Harry asked, "did Pomfrey find any cure for your scars? You look much better today."
Hermione just sighed bitterly. "No, she didn't. Terry gave me an idea to try some cosmetic transfiguration spells this morning. So I tried to turn a little piece of my scar into a smooth piece of skin. But it requires a lot of energy. And the effect lasts barely for an hour. I transfigured my look just fifteen minutes ago, but the scars have started to reappear again," Hermione said sadly. "Maybe when I'll be completely recovered, I'll be able to perform a more lasting transfiguration."
"I think you're very beautiful anyway, Hermione," Ron said to her with a smile as he took her palm carefully.
"Thank you, Ron," Hermione said appreciatively as she looked in his eyes.
Later in the afternoon, they all slowly began to walk Hermione, who could stay on her feet for a while, but was still too weak to return to an everyday Hogwarts life.
The evenings had also become calmer, because due to Ron always wearing his gloomy expression, only a very few first-years dared to approach them. Actually, Harry was glad that he didn't have to answer the never ending stream of questions about the horrors of the Battle of Hogwarts, their hiding in the tent, and the wonders of the Room of Requirement. Now the youngest of the Gryffindors had given up their hope of getting signed photographs, which Harry had categorically refused to give them since the very first day. Tonight, like other recent evenings, they sat in their three in the Common Room, exchanging only short phrases, besides Ron was like inseparable from the books as he continuously kept looking for anything that could help Hermione. However, so far he hadn't been lucky enough to find anything useful.
While writing his essay for Switch about the vanishing transfiguration spells, Harry noticed that Ron had suddenly looked up from his book and had frozen. As he followed his friends gaze, he saw the notorious young ladies, due to whose daring Hermione was in hospital.
Noticing Ron's hard and piercing gaze, the girls flinched and rushed up the stairs to the girls' dorms quickly like two does. A twisted smirk formed on Ron's face as he looked at them and then returned to his book of the fire magic.
The reason why Ron had smirked there wasn't much to ponder about – the two girls looked very dirty, covered with soot from head to toe. Apparently the public cleaning works under Filch's supervision was indeed an unpleasant job. They were helping Filch sweeping out the burned area of the Room of Requirement, which now probably looked like an inside of a furnace. Neville knew to tell that practically all of the items in the Room of Requirement had turned to ashes, and the Room can't change anymore, always remaining a burnt-out place of the storeroom. Now they had to wait for the Room to be cleaned and tidied up, maybe then McGonagall will be able to fix something about it.
Depressed by gloomy thoughts, Harry went to bed, but his mood didn't change much as he woke up the next morning. Ron, as usual, was grumpy at the breakfast as he chewed pieces of a bare toast, and even Ginny seemed to have lost her usual liveliness, as though they weren't fully allowed to have fun without Hermione. Ron suggested that they should spend all day in the Hospital Wing with Hermione. Ginny hadn't even tried to argue with him that they should resume their Quidditch training – Ron was definitely too depressed and grim now, and he definitely didn't need to fail at any Quidditch training, too. In addition, they had at least three months until the next game, so they could afford to postpone their practices for a while.
As he ate his omelette quietly, Harry suddenly realized that an unusually anxious whispering was heard here and there among the Hogwarts students. The morning mail had just arrived, and it seemed that the worried voices sounded from those students who had just got the Daily Prophet. Harry tried to hear something, but through the usual murmur at breakfast, he couldn't really understand what the fuss was about.
A few minutes later, Neville joined their trio, looking really grim and even anxious as he was holing today's, Saturday's, issue of the Daily Prophet.
"I think you should see this, especially you, Ron and Ginny," Neville said gloomily as he handed the newspaper to Ginny and sat next to her.
The girl folded out the newspaper over the table so that it could be also seen by Harry sitting next to her and Ron, who had taken a seat on the opposite side of the breakfast table.
Harry felt his insides clench as he saw the front page of the newspaper. At the top, in capital letters, there was the title, saying:
A DISASTROUS FIRE AT OTTERY ST CATCHPOLE – LESTRANGE CHALLENGES MOLLY WEASLEY
Beneath the title was a large black-and-white, moving picture of the several destroyed houses still smoking, and above them, there was the skull of the Dark Mark twisting its hideous snake's tongue. A narrow column of article text was printed next to the image.
Yesterday at 9:15 PM, a large, uncontrollable fire suddenly broke out in the village of Ottery St Catchpole, which gained the attention of the wizarding community after the appearance of the Dark Mark.
Three Muggle families had deceased in the fire, dozens of the Muggles had suffered severe burns; an emergency situation had been declared in the area of the village, during which a local law enforcement officers – police officers – were trying to maintain the peace in the universal chaos. According to the latest news, after sever hours of intensive work, the Muggle firefighters did manage to confine the fire until it was finally extinguished after midnight.
Rodolphus Lestrange was to blame for this horrific doing as he gave a clear indication of his identity, leaving a message for Molly Weasley on the wall of one of the burned buildings:
"Molly Weasley, the famous lover of the Muggles, those worms are nothing to me, but maybe this will make you think twice so you will finally step out of your burrow to see me face to face."
The text of the article continues on the pages 4 and 5, where you can read about the emergency measures taken by the involved departments of the Ministry, interviews with eyewitnesses, and information about the further protection works planned by the Auror Office.
Harry felt a chill run down his spine – that Lestrange was insane, and he didn't want to imagine what else this monster was capable of to force Molly to head straight into her death. He flipped the newspaper to the opening, which contained the extensive text of the rest of the article about all the involved wizards and witches of the Ministry's Memory-Modifier Team, which had worked restlessly all the night so the Muggles wouldn't remember the Dark Mark and the inscription on the wall of a building. The Magical Law Enforcement Squad had assisted the local police and fire-fighters, and the Auror Team had combed the entire area in search of any traces left by Lestrange, but unfortunately these efforts had been unsuccessful. He seemed to have simply appariated into the village, done his dreadful job, and then left immediately so quickly that even the web of the protection spells set up by the Aurors had not detected him clearly. In addition, until now, after the horrors of Halloween, there had been an absolute zero activity of Lestrange.
After Harry and Ginny had finished reading the article, Ron took the newspaper and read it carefully now. Then he raised his eyes, showing a glaring angry stare as he growled in a low voice, "Damned that Lestrange if he'll do as much as lays his finger on my Mom. Then, honestly, I'll kill him with my bare hands."