They all were sitting in the library and the huge pile of books were standing next to them. Hermione looks tired. She hasn't slept for a long time trying to find any clue for May's disappearing. Ron looked as exhausted as Harry. Ginny joined them later when she found out what had happened. They spent hours in the library after classes. Hermione was able to get permission to visit the Restricted Section by telling McGonagall what happened. The professor was not at all happy about the next adventure of this trio, but she could not prevent them. May's disappearance bothered her just as much, even if the professor looked as usual.
"How could she just disappear in the middle of the toilet in the castle?" asked Ron again: "Hogwarts is the safest place for all of us and the Death eaters wouldn't dare come here"
"Myrtle said she didn't see anyone and she didn't flood the toilet" added Harry: "I talked to her"
"Did she say anything about Malfoy?" Ginny suddenly asked looking Harry straight in the eyes, which made him a little embarrassed and he looked away.
"She didn't say anything about him. But I didn't ask directly. I just asked if anyone else comes here as often as we did in our second year."
"Maybe you should ask her directly about Malfoy?" Ginny suggested calmly, which Harry just snorted and said nothing. Hermione noticed that Harry's reaction to Ginny's questions became gentler than if Ron or her had asked the same questions. Every time they tried to hint Harry that it was worth talking to Myrtle a little more openly, he would get mad and just brush them off.
"Do you think she'll be honest with me?" he asked, causing Ginny to smile softly and said:
"Myrtle would love to tell you everything she knows. She's quite lonely, and you were nice to her in your second year, and Myrtle hasn't forgotten that."
"Why, when we ask her about something, she does not hurry to answer us, but simply screams?" said Ron, rubbing his eyes from exhaustion and pushing the book away from him. No one answered this question, but it remained rhetorical.
"Are you sure we'll find anything here at all? Harry asked looking at Hermione and she just sighed tiredly and replied:
"I cannot answer your question. I can only assume that we might find something here. Did you hear what Lupine said? He said that at the place of May's disappearance, they found magic similar to the one used to enchant an item so that it works like a portal."
"Maybe just talk to Malfoy? It would be more efficient." Ron noticed. He and Harry were obviously tired of being in the library forever and were even more pressured by the strange behavior of the Order, who pretended that everything was in order, but Tonks only once hinted to Ginny that an unhealthy atmosphere was inside the Order after May's disappearance.
"Yeah, and then Snape will punish you for the rest of the year and you won't be able to participate in any of the Quidditch matches." Ginny noticed with a frown: "Look, Harry, Tonks hinted that it would be nice if neither of us looked for a fight. She asked us not to try to beat Malfoy for information or anything."
"In general, she asked not to run into trouble, as always."
"I hear your irony, but this time it's much more serious."
"It is just as serious as ever."
"No, this time it's more serious." Ginny shook her head and lowered her voice to a whisper, causing them to literally huddle together to hear what she was saying.
"The problem is that the Order doesn't know shit at all. All this time while May was with them and while May was here at school, they were looking for information about her, about her mother, about dating him and what exactly he needed May for. Tonks said it's easier to find a needle in a haystack than information about a baby. Tonks said that now the Order thinks that he needs May to take all her power. Absorb her or something like that."
"Did they find her mother?" Hermione was surprised. "And what did she say?"
"Yes, the Order found her. That was hard. Very hard. Kingsley did his best and found his old friends in Europe to help contact her. She is a dark witch from an old Italian wizard's family. She is pureblood and there are no doubts why he was with her"
"Holy shit if they found her mother." that's all Ron could say.
"Tonks said it wasn't just difficult, but it was that fucking difficult. Her mother's family were not eager to communicate with people who came from nowhere, and the Ministry has no power over them at all. But this woman, when she found out about May, agreed to talk to Kingsley and Dumbledore.
"And what did she say?" Harry was just burning with curiosity and Ginny added:
"She said that when May was still in the womb, he tried to perform some kind of ritual that, in the case of his death, would allow him to get his strength back in double. May is something like a magical storage and that's why her power is so uncontrollable. She was not supposed to be alive"
"Wait! But Harry killed him." Hermione didn't understand: "He has lost all of his powers when he tried to kill Harry, then why is May alive? She had to die."
"You really hit the bull's-eye! That's the whole point of situation! May wasn't supposed to live. May wasn't supposed to live, but her mother saved her. She was able to make sure that the ritual did not work and May stayed alive and was born. She turned the ritual in the opposite direction and when Harry deprived him of magic, this magic returned to May and May absorbed it."
"Holy shit! And Tonks told you all this so easily?" Ron was surprised. "I was sure that the secret of May's origin would be kept by everyone."
"Tonks told me because she knew that we would start looking for information and if we started looking, we would definitely get into a huge shit and get into huge troubles. She didn't want to let that happen. She's worried. Frankly speaking, the Order does not know what to do with it at all. They found out about it two days before May disappeared and now, they don't even know where she could have disappeared. It looks like a kidnapping."
"This is it! If May had taken all his power, then he would surely want it back. Just imagine, all his magical power was inside a tiny newborn and it is your, but you can't even touch her!" Ron whispered loudly.
"Maybe she's being held in the Malfoy Manor?"
"Wait, wait, there are inconsistencies here" Hermione said thoughtfully: "Why then did Harry participate in the Tournament in the fourth year? Why did he need Harry's blood if May had taken all his power? This is illogical. As far as I know, Pettigrew performed a ritual to return his body and along with the body, the magic returned, does this not mean that May should have died?"
"You're right." Ginny nodded. "I asked Tonks the same questions when she told me about it, but Tonks said that the rituals were too different and had different goals. In addition, May's mother was able to completely destroy the effects of the ritual when May was just a baby. When there was a choice whose name to throw into the Cup, Crouch Jr. chose Harry because he is his master's enemy and May is his master's daughter, which means she could become the next dark great witch."
"Did Crouch know?!" Harry was too stunned by this news: "Did he know before everyone knew?"
"Sure. As it turned out, he knew everything perfectly well even before he got to Hogwarts. Even when Snape gave him the truth serum, Crouch didn't tell him anything because no one asked. And May wasn't as interesting to him as you are. Barty Crouch would never involve his master's daughter in helping some Harry Potter."
"It sounds like a crazy fairy tale! No one touched May even though everyone knew!" Ron asked in surprise: "Also tell me that in the fifth year, the Death Daters knew even before the Ministry who May was!"
"You'll be surprised, brother, but that's how it was. The Death Eaters knew everything related to May. May's mother said that he personally came to her in Italy before fifth year when he realized that his ritual had failed. Probably they tried to agree on something. She did not talk about this, but she said that he was very serious about May and wanted to take her for himself. if he kidnapped her from school, then he will try to win her over to his side"
"That's fucking huge!" Harry could only whisper:" If May doesn't take his side, then he'll just kill her, right?"
"Yes, it is. May's mother said it wouldn't cost him anything. May shouldn't have turned out like this. May shouldn't have been strong and shouldn't have survived. Both of them didn't expect to have a child. When her mother was in the late stages of pregnancy, he was already looking for a way to get to your parents, Harry. And even then, they had a big fight and May's mother ordered not to approach them and she left for Italy. May was born in Italy."
"Then how did she end up in the UK?"
"Well, let's just say, her grandparents were not thrilled with the birth of their granddaughter. Her mother could be left without inheritance, without money, without a name and without power. She would have left high society immediately if she had kept May. Then she decided that it was best to hide May from Muggles. Holy shit, right? A pure-blooded dark witch decided to leave her child with Muggles. She was afraid that May's strange abilities might frighten wizards. Back then, no one believed that he had disappeared forever. May was already showing her magical talents, and Muggles wouldn't have noticed anything or didn't attach much importance."
"And Tonks told you all this!" Ron was stunned to the extreme that he barely restrained himself from saying it out loud, but only whispered loudly. He leaned back a little in surprise and scratched his head.
"It doesn't look like an Order at all." Hermione also noticed in amazement and Ginny just shrugged and replied
"I was as amazed as you are now. I didn't expect Tonks to be so honest with me at all. In general, all this should have been said to May in a personal conversation, but in the summer the Order only began to search for May's mother."
"Maybe she can help us?" Suggested Harry: "I think if May's mother helps us look for her it will be much easier. She had already saved May once."
"The Order doesn't trust her, and she doesn't want to work with the Order. I think she knows about May's disappearance and is also looking for her."
They were silent for a while, sitting in silence and trying to get used to the new information. It was amazing that Ginny had been silent about it for so long and only now decided to tell, but Harry decided not to ask her why she did it only three weeks after her disappearance. He assumed that Tonks had been talkative not so long ago and Ginny just couldn't find a moment to tell. May's story sounded fantastic to him, and at the same time he tried on her fate for himself, noticing how much they were similar. As much as he and Voldemort were similar in fate. He immediately thought that any child in May's place would have been doomed to the same destiny and would have gone through all this. Harry couldn't understand how May could have been left for money and high society. He said this out loud and Ginny and Hermione just shook their heads and Hermione said.
"In the oldest magical families, it is not customary to part with all privileges so easily. May was born from someone unknown and his origin spoke for itself and not in his favor. Of course, the family went against May's very existence."
"I don't believe what I'm saying, but the Dursleys don't look like such assholes anymore" Harry grinned. "Can we go to bed? It's almost past midnight. We didn't find anything in these books. Hermione, are you sure you can somehow track such magic?"
"Sure" she nodded. "It was written here in the book that it turns out to track such magic, but for this you need to spray a certain potion in the air."
"Spray it?" Ron was surprised: "The potion may not be liquid?"
"Yes, it needs to be kept in hot dry air and when it freezes, it will turn into dry pebbles that can be set on fire and then you can better understand the picture."
"Are you sure this is even possible?" Ginny asked again: "It sounds like something too fantastic. And in this smoke, we should see something?"
"Yes, the last minutes before May disappeared."
"Here's what I thought. It turns out that we are all talking here alive and well because when the one witch made the decision to save her child?" Ron remarked: "We are all alive now only because May's mother decided not to make a magical artifact out of her baby and saved her, because otherwise he would have survived and would have received double magic power."
It was unexpected and such a deep thought that they all immediately fell silent. None of them can answer or add anything to this, only realizing that Ron is absolutely right in his observation and they are alive because one day another mother decided to save her child and do everything possible for her.
"Wow, how many destinies could have been destroyed even if May's mom had decided to go along with him." Hermione quietly remarked and added: "It's such a sad and difficult fate and so scary. May was rejected by her mother because she did not want to lose everything, her father is a dangerous wizard and she enters the same year for the first year with the child her father tried to kill. If she had known earlier, how difficult it would have been for her."
"If anyone had known before, May wouldn't have been raised in a Muggle family. Sure, she would have been raised by one of his henchmen and now we would not be friends" noticed Harry: "But I agree, it is a tough fate"
"Why can't we just use a spell?" after a short silence, Ginny asked when they were already returning to the Tower, trying not to get caught by Filch or anyone else. It was a little calmer to come back with the faculty boy and girl, but they still didn't want to run into the Slytherins or anyone else.
"Because the Order and the professors have already tried different reverse spells and none of them worked," Hermione explained patiently. "They concluded that it was some kind of unusual portal since it left behind so much magic."
"It's time to think about who could have planted this thing." Harry noticed and Ginny just smiled at him and said:
"It wasn't Malfoy. They say he has mental breakdowns. Look at him, Harry, he has obvious mental problems. Whoever planted this thing, he calculated everything correctly because otherwise anyone can enter the toilet except May. It was especially for May."
"What does the Order think?" Hermione asked as they entered the empty, semi-dark Gryffindor common room. The students had been sleeping in their beds for a long time, and then the fire in the fireplace was almost extinguished and only light thin small flashes of flame licked the burnt black coals.
"That's the problem. They don't know who it could be and therefore assume that one of them is a traitor."
"Snape?" Harry immediately suggested, which made Ron chuckle and say:
"It seems too obvious to me, but it makes sense. He doesn't miss the opportunity to bully you and there's a girl who pisses him off as much as you piss him off. She has uncontrollable magic power, she is also smart like Hermione, she has sharp tongue and has been punished a couple of times because of this. He's got a jackpot!"
Harry couldn't disagree with Ron, but they stopped building theories about who could be a traitor in the Order of the Phoenix and went to their rooms. Harry couldn't sleep for a long time thinking about everything Ginny had said about May, and immediately his thoughts were confused with the fact that, according to Dumbledore's instructions, Slughorn should have liked him a little more than the rest of the students. Immediately there was a thought about the upcoming match and how to convince Ron that he is a good Quidditch player and will not let the team down. Harry was worried that he felt nothing at all, his scar stopped hurting back in September as soon as May appeared at school and since then scar has not bothered him in any way. It looked as if Voldemort had just disappeared at one point. Harry rolled over on his side, looking into the darkness and listening to Neville muttering something unintelligible in his sleep. Harry thought that maybe, like last year, Voldemort is able to see through his eyes and be in his mind, and therefore is well aware that they are looking for May. This thought burned hard and unpleasant chill and goosebumps ran down his back. Suddenly his jaw tightened. For some reason, Harry didn't immediately think that he could see and hear everything that Ginny told them today. At the same time, he thought that Voldemort wouldn't have heard anything that he didn't know. The scar didn't burn from his anger, and therefore it alarmed Harry.
"We'll find her anyway. Wherever you hide her, we'll find her anyway." Harry thought angrily, as if Voldemort could hear or see him right now.
He lay for several more hours trying to fall asleep and finally sank into the darkness of sleep. For several weeks they searched for the right potion that Hermione mentioned, and when they finally found the recipe, Hermione was concerned about how complicated the recipe was and that half of the ingredients could only be found in a certain shop in Diagon Alley and some of the ingredients in Snape's office. Ginny went to steal from Snape this time. She was not at all afraid of such a task and only vaguely shrugged her shoulders when asked if she could get the necessary parts of the potion. For a second it seemed to Harry that she took it as a personal insult because she only smiled wryly at Ron's questions. A couple of hours later, some of the ingredients from Snape's dungeon were lying in front of them, and Ron only whistled in amazement trying to get Ginny how she could get them so deftly and quickly. For three weeks they waited for the potion to be brewed and infused to a certain state, and then Hermione created the necessary conditions for it where the thick liquid could harden and dry out. This time they brewed the potion to the Shrieking Hut, fearing that if Malfoy had become a frequent visitor to Myrtle's toilet on the fourth floor, then it was worth changing the place. It was also a good decision because the potion stank terribly of something bitter-salty and if they had brewed it in the castle, someone besides Malfoy would have come to check it out.
"Hermione, you're a fucking genius!" Ron said admiringly, looking at the small oblong stones of pale pink color in Hermione's hands, which she carefully poured into a tiny bag.
"Thanks, Ron." she replied, putting the bag in her pocket.
"And now what are we going to do?" Ginny asked as they were getting out of the cabin and getting ready to go back to school. It was already chilly outside, and the ground underfoot was soft from the rain. The slope was covered with withered yellow-brown grass wet from the heavy morning rain. Low gray clouds were running to the West.
"Now we have to wait until the evening and see if our plan will work. The recipe says that the potion will smell like flowers. Let's check if this is true."
"I hope so, otherwise the whole school will come running to this stink," said Harry
They could hardly wait for the deep evening when the students went to their rooms or to the library. On the fourth floor it was quiet, and they barely fit under the invisibility cloak in the fourth. Harry and Ron had to bend down so that they could all fit and their heels could not be seen from under the cloak. They cautiously opened the door to the toilet, checking if there was anyone else there, and when they were sure that the toilet was empty and there was not even Myrtle, Harry threw off the mantle from them. Hermione immediately went to the booth where presumably there was more magic.
"Are you ready?" she turned to look at them and all three of them nodded their heads. Hermione sighed, spread out the pebbles on the floor and set them on fire with one movement of her wand. For a second, the pebbles flashed and immediately thick white smoke smelling of jasmine poured from them. Hermione moved away, resting her hip against the sink and peering into the thick white smoke, which immediately became transparent, turning into an almost mirror-like surface. They could see a familiar reflection on its surface.
"This... Is that May?" Ginny whispered in amazement.
"Yes, that's her. Looks like her. Look!"
They stared at the reflection in the transparent smoke, watching as May leans towards some object that looks like a book, illuminating the booth with the end of a wand.
"What's that in her hands?" Ron asked quietly, trying to get closer to the surface, but Hermione suddenly grabbed his arm, stopping him and immediately looked away.
May turned slightly to them, half-sideways, whispering something that they could not read on her lips and they peered at the object in her hands. Ginny barely suppressed a cry of horror, realizing exactly what May was holding in her hands.
"It's his diary! This is Tom Riddle's diary!"
And the next moment, with a slight flash, May disappeared and the smoke cleared.
"How is this possible?! I destroyed his diary!" Harry said in amazement, looking at a handful of pink ashes in place of pebbles.
"I don't know, Harry, but the diary looks brand new." Hermione said seriously
"This means that someone slipped her a copy of the diary or an item enchanted under the diary and turned it into a portal" Ron said gloomily. "Now it is clear for sure that he has her and how exactly she got to him."
"Do you think it's worth telling the Order or the professor?"
"I think we should tell the professor," Ginny agreed. "We won't be able to find the person who planted the diary because everything looks like the diary could have waited for May for a long time. I think the Order will listen to us and will now look more carefully."
"Well, or Snape will simply be kicked out of the Order and he will show his face himself" Harry noted leeringly.
"And finally, we will also be taken into account," Ron added. "Come on, we have something to tell Professor McGonagall."