Chapter 13: Full Moon's Work

"Really, that Ron is one little…" Ginny whispered to Harry once again as they were sitting on their chairs in the library and were helping Hermione to recover. Harry had asked her with a great interest whether she had already figured out how to do the homework for Slughorn where they needed to prepare for the making of the Beauty Essence. He said to her that he had no idea where to begin with, and Ginny also confirmed that she needed to get prepared for Potions. Although, Hermione understood her friends' intention to help her, she could imagine that they would best like to spend a nice Saturday afternoon in the feel of the Quidditch or being alone, but anyway she gladly accepted their offer. So they had been in the library almost until dinner time, if not considering occasional toilet breaks, which Hermione took quite frequently and for a rather long moment; but meanwhile Ron hadn't shown up to see her.

"Yeah, to get jealous over Malfoy. It's something you have to learn for," Harry chuckled softly, though there was nothing funny there, at least not in Hermione's opinion.

"So far, everything seems clear to me about the Beauty Essence – I think the best raw material for it is the Bubotuber pus. We should go to Sprout and ask her to give us some. I doubt Slughorn is having it in the Potions classroom," Hermione summed up her research, without hearing or pretending not to hear her friends' conversation.

"It sounds plausible. Perhaps we should ask first Neville about Bubotubers?" Ginny suggested.

"It's actually a good idea. It would save us an unnecessary go to the greenhouses," Harry said.

"Or we could ask Sprout about it just after the Herbology class on Monday. Then we won't need any extra go," Hermione offered, thinking about other options.

"That's right," Harry agreed with his friend and smiled at her, but then his face instantly froze. Hermione already knew what might have happened, so she quickly spun around – indeed, Ron was standing in the library doorway. The young man stared at them for a short moment, but then he turned around and hurried out of the library.

Harry immediately shot on his feet and just said to the girls he needed to talk to Ron, then he quickly caught his friend in the hallway, exclaiming to him, "Hey, Ron, wait. Let's talk."

Ron listened to Harry at least that much and turned to his friend with a sour look on his face. "Well then, what exactly do you want to say to me? That I'm a jerk and an ass? So much I've realized myself in these few hours."

"Weeeell, maybe that's not exactly what I wanted to say to you, but, yes, in general that was the idea," Harry admitted. "But what exactly was the problem, why did you get so angry?"

"You know, I ran over to Hermione to those terrible Dungeons, because I thought it had to be awful for her to be on that duty with that moron. She definitely told you about all this, didn't she?" – Harry nodded affirmatively as they began to walk aimlessly down the corridors. – "Then I saw how Malfoy was embracing her – I just didn't understand anything. Why, just why on the earth with Malfoy? And you didn't' see how Malfoy looked at her. Like he would be ready to jump in front of the bullet for her, he seemed so frightened as if he was about to pee his pants when he saw me. Can you believe it, this freak is in love with my Hermione. And she let him touch her!" Ron added, sounding quite angry.

"Oh, then that's what you thought!" Harry exclaimed, barely restraining himself not to laugh out loud.

"What are you laughing about? This is a serious matter! I just did wrong when I shouted at Hermione, she wasn't guilty that that ferret has simply fallen in… I just don't know what to do now? Harry, what should I do now?" Ron asked desperately.

"Ron, I think this matter is not as bad as you have imagined it. Do you know what happened with them in those Dungeons?" Harry asked.

"There did something happen between them?!" Ron exclaimed as his eyes widened. "You want to tell me that there did something happen between them?"

"Not like that 'happened'!" Harry objected, wincing as he turned away his gaze from his friend for a moment. "Hermione told me and Ginny that she saw a Basilisk there in the Dungeons."

"A Basilisk?" Ron repeated slowly, unable to believe his friend. "How on the earth, there could have been a Basilisk? It's just impossible."

"She saw a Boggart shifted into a Basilisk," Harry explained, gazing knowingly at his friend.

"Ah," Ron said stunned as the realization dawned over his face, and he repeated, "Aaahhh." And then his face winced like he would consider himself the most horrid person in the world.

"If I understood it correctly, Malfoy had tried to push her out into the light, because Hermione had been paralyzed with fear. And I suppose he was probably so frightened over his Head Boy position and his fate, because what would happen if the Head Girl had been frightened to death after the very first patrol with him?" Harry explained, watching his friend with a slightly questioning gaze.

"I'm such an idiot! Of course, I asked her just yesterday what she would do if she would encounter a Boggart in a form of You-Know-Who, but, that's right, a Basilisk definitely could be much scarier. Besides, she had actually seen one in her second year, and also that skeleton in the Chamber of Secrets. Oh God, I'm such a fool!" Ron scolded himself. "And Malfoy just wanted to move her to some place full with light, but I immediately thought he has fallen… It's really ridiculous."

"At least I'm pleased that we have clarified this matter. There's still half an hour until dinner – you'll have enough time to apologize," Harry stated, patting his friend on the shoulder. "Just please don't be so quick on saying such a nonsense to her some other time. It's a pity to watch Hermione cry due to you."

They both stopped, turned in the opposite direction, and started heading back to the library, this time walking slightly agilely. Continuing their conversation for a brief moment, they soon fell into silence as Ron put in every effort to formulate an apology in his mind.

"We're here. I'm going to take Ginny away so you can talk to Hermione, okay?" Harry suggested. Ron just nodded as his face turned a little green – he was obviously very worried.

"Wait, can you give me your quill?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Yes, of course. But I left the ink on the desk," Harry explained as he pulled his quill out of his pocket.

"I don't need the ink, just a quill, and I'll give you back another one," Ron said after he took the slim, long object out of his friend's hand. Then he took out his wand and began to murmur a transfiguration spell, slowly moving the wand upwards the quill, starting from its down end. Gradually the quill turned greener, and a rose stem appeared instead of the bird's feather, until a short moment later there formed a red flower.

"Humpf; the ends of the petals are still a bit brownish," he said sadly as he examined his work.

"I think Hermione will appreciate also such a flower. And look, you have practically completed Switch's homework," Harry said with a smile, and the two young men entered through the library door to look for their girlfriends.

"Hermione," Ron began, as soon as he reached the table the two girls were sitting by, "please do accept my apology. I really behaved like a complete jerk." He handed the rose to Hermione as his face got pink. She took it with swollen eyes. Meanwhile, Harry wanted to talk Ginny into leaving them alone, but Ron's sister also wanted to say something to her brother.

"Not only like a complete jerk, but also like an ass, an idiot, and a dimwit!" Ginny tried to scream at him in a half-whisper. Then she turned to Hermione for a short moment. "The rest I'll let you tell him for yourself, but this was from me, my dear brother."

As Harry and Ginny walked out of the library, he still could hear his friend telling Hermione about his jealousy, but Hermione just sniffed. Ginny persuaded Harry that they should linger for a little moment near the library door, "Maybe Hermione will actually shout at him." However, Ginny's expectancies didn't come true and everything remained quiet and peaceful in the library as it was usual to a proper place for book storage. Slightly disappointed, she took her boyfriend's hand and went on with him on a pleasant walk throughout Hogwarts.

Soon they went by an empty, unused classroom, since there was no shortage of them at Hogwarts, so they decided to slip into it and locked the door. The classroom was sunny and warm.

"Well, I hope you'll never do such a foolish thing as getting jealous with Malfoy because of me," she chuckled, and he embraced her around her waist.

"Why exactly with Malfoy? Maybe I should get jealous with somebody else?" Harry asked slyly and kissed his girlfriend on her neck. She just chuckled.

"I would like to know with whom then? You know I love only you," Ginny promised to Harry and kissed him on his lips.

"I don't know, Dean seems kind of suspicious. I guess some of the Slytherins are keeping an eye on you. And maybe I should watch Neville more closely?" Harry said, though there was no reproach in his voice, but rather curiosity and amusement.

"Everything is over with me and Dean, you know that, and I didn't care much for him anyway. But speaking about the Slytherins, I have one nice Bat-Bogey Hex under my belt," she explained with a laugh, lifting up on her tiptoes closer to him.

"But you didn't say anything about Neville," Harry objected, pressing a kiss under her ear.

"Neville is our friend. And he's more like another brother to me. Maybe even a better brother than Ron," she added with a laugh, and then she turned her head to meet his lips. Kissing for a short moment, she pulled away from her boyfriend and added, "Why should I want someone else? I just can't image anyone better than you." Ginny put her hand on Harry's neck and smiled at him sincerely.

Harry took a deep breath as a shot of heat had passed right through his body, and he leaned in again and kissed her hungrily, wanting her to feel that he was thinking exactly the same about her. When Harry was about to tilt her backwards down on the table, there sounded a loud, "Oh!"

Pulling away from each other and standing straight again, they saw Fat Friar in front of them. "I'm sorry, I would have knocked if I had been able to," the ghost said and immediately hurried away through the wall.

They looked at each other and laughed at the incident and, after a moment of warm and happy feeling, they realized that their stomachs were asking for the food, so they leisurely began to step down to dinner. Arriving at the Great Hall, they noticed the food already being served on the table and Ron and Hermione were sitting in their usual seats at the Gryffindor table.

As they took their seats next to their friends, Harry and Ginny saw that everything between Ron and Hermione was as in the good old days – Ron, as usual, put piles of mashed potatoes and carrots in his mouth, but Hermione was prickling a sausage with a fork and her eyes was not so wet anymore.

"Did you get to talk it out?" Ginny asked. Hermione nodded.

Ron was about to open his mouth to answer his sister, but then he cast a quick glance at Hermione. He knew she hated it when he spoke with his mouth full with food, so he got enough courage up and swallowed the huge bite, almost tears welling up in his eyes, and only then gave his answer.

"Yes, she told me everything about the Basilisk. I'm so glad you're fine," Ron added, glancing at Hermione and putting his hand around her waist. "Did you finish your tea? Maybe you want some more?"

"No; no, thank you," Hermione replied with a smile.

"Maybe I should go down to the kitchen for some muffins? It seems you don't like this sausage very much," Ron offered Hermione, not paying any more attention to Ginny.

"No, you don't need to go to the kitchen; it's okay," Hermione told him.

Harry was glad to see that both of his friends had apparently fixed their misunderstanding, though it seemed that they still felt a little awkward at the moment. Harry guessed they just needed some time and all this will be forgotten, so he took one sausage for himself contently and found a bowl of mashed vegetables. But Ron really has a knee jerk reaction, he thought silently, for making such a fuss about Malfoy. What was he actually thinking?

Through all Saturday evening and all Sunday, Ron fulfilled every wish of Hermione like she was some kind of a high-born princess.

Harry was, of course, delighted that his friend had understood and had admitted his hasty overreacting, but this kind of pampering of Hermione meant that Harry couldn't ask her anything about the searching of the Diadem. And without her help, Harry's research wasn't going well, though Ginny tried to help him, but it was no much of use. Of course, she was smart and intelligent, but she hadn't read through half of the library.

So, after spending the first part of the day without any major success, he talked Ginny into doing their homework at afternoon and then after to ramble around the castle. Who knows, maybe they could accidentally find something helpful? However, unfortunately Hogwarts seemed to keep its secrets carefully, so Harry could only get grumpy over the fact that there hadn't miraculously showed up even the tiniest clues.

On Monday, he was in a similar mood, and even up to Herbology, which took place at the time of the third lesson of usual Hogwarts timetable, Ron met each of Hermione's wishes diligently, practically reading them just from her look. Harry noticed that at first she had thought it was nice, but now it had become annoying. She couldn't take a step when Ron didn't ask if she was feeling good or if he should bring her something, like a book or some food.

So after Herbology when Sprout had told them that she indeed had grown Bubotubers for her fourth year students and had allowed them to squeeze two of them, Hermione snapped at Ron, unable to stand his constant pampering anymore. Ron was ready to get started with the first Bubotuber with his bare hands, declaring he wouldn't allow her to get injured by the corrosive pus of the Bubotuber. But Hermione thought differently.

„Ron, listen, you did apologize to me and now everything is fine. You don't have to treat me with kid gloves all the time!"

„I just wanted to make it easier for you," Ron replied shyly, lowering his gaze to the ground.

„If you would have behaved like a normal person from the very beginning, then you wouldn't have to think at all how to get back on my good side," Hermione added, angrily. However, Ron looked utterly ashamed.

„I'm sorry," he muttered. „Then, how would you like me to behave? Obviously, I just don't know how to treat you properly," he said softly.

„Ron, just act as you usually do. I do like normal you the best," Hermione smiled at him as she put her hand on his shoulder.

„Okay. But I'm afraid I'll be that jerk I was before," Ron said.

„Well, I know a few methods how to deal with that jerk, but this babysitter is completely unbearable," Hermione said, grinning.

„Alright, if you say so," her friend agreed perplexedly.

„So this thing is cleared up; now let me deal with that Bubotuber. At least I wasn't the one who forgot my gloves in the Common Room today, and the three of you ready a bucket where we'll put that liquid puss inside."

The following week passed as usual – well, taking into account that there aren't so much usual events at Hogwarts at all. Harry was delighted that he had been able to put a spell on a clock to make it speak out loud at exact hours at his Charms class by Flitwick, besides his spell had indeed remained good enough for a whole week, though at the next lesson the voice of the clock had become more high-pitched and weaker, but Flitwick had given him a good mark anyway. But the Alchemy lesson was a disappointment again. Now everyone had succeeded at least in one of the corners of the four elements, but Harry could move neither fire or air, nor earth or water. Ginny, though, reassured him that he shouldn't worry about such minor things, because there're plenty of other things he was outstanding at. She had then winked at him, which made an odd, but pleasant shiver running over his spine.

Luckily, the students of the younger years were now quite busy with their studies too, so they were getting less and less eager in bothering the four of them and other D.A. members with their never ending questions about their feats. At the moment, there was hovering in the air a legend that McGonagall and Flitwick had been keeping Phoenixes in the wondrous Room of Requirement, and that's why their order was called the Order of the Phoenix.

Then, on Saturday evening, people suddenly began to crowd around the notice board, and a moment later Hermione showed up, stepping out of the crowd.

„Sinistra gave me the notification about the next visit to Hogsmeade. It'll be in October, on the 24th," Hermione told her friends as she also sat down on a chair opposite to Harry, and a second later, her dear pet Crookshanks jumped into her lap.

„Oh, then there's quite a time until it," Ginny simply said.

„Hermione, you better tell us in more detail how exactly went your patrol with Malfoy today," Ron interjected, trying to lure out a more profound answer of his girlfriend for the rest of the day instead of, „Well, there wasn't anything particular. We just went around the Dungeons and that was all."

„I already told you there were no Boggarts in the Dungeons today," Hermione replied grumpily.

„And didn't he really say anything more to you?" Ron continued to question her.

„No, we simply did our duty!" Hermione said, now getting a little bit annoyed.

„But maybe Malfoy accidentally did say something else that seemed somehow strange?" Harry suddenly asked.

"We hardly even had a conversation, exchanging just a few words, so there wasn't anything like th-… Oh, there was just that one thing," Hermione said as she thought back.

"Please, tell what did he say then?" Ron asked impatiently.

"He just said to me like – by the way, Slytherins now are making fun of Hufflepuffs," Hermione said with a despicable tone in her voice as she told her friends about what she had heard from Malfoy this morning.

"What kind of fun?" Ron and Harry asked practically at once, and Ginny listened intently, too.

"How far as I know they are telling jokes such as – How can you make a Hufflepuff busy for the rest of the day? Give him a paper sheet where it's written on both sides Turn it around!" the girl said testily.

There appeared faint grins on Harry's and Ginny's faces for a brief moment, but Ron tried to suppress his laughter. "Hm… h-hm-hm… hm-hm," the young man couldn't control his amusement though.

"Hermione, I heard it all," said Neville as he passed by them. "Whoever could laugh at the Hufflepuffs, but you. And Ron, there really wasn't anything that funny!" he declared angrily.

Hermione hurriedly pushed her cat out of her lap and instantly stood up to her feet, feeling ashamed. "Neville, wait. It's not like that; I respect all Hufflepuffs, but this morning Malfoy told me that the Slytherins had begun making fun of the Hufflepuffs, making jokes about them like they could be very silly," the girl explained.

"The Hufflepuffs aren't silly. They are diligent and loyal, friendly, helpful, and…" There appeared a faint red on his cheek as he stopped in the middle of the sentence. "Anyway, I don't like to hear such jokes in our Common Room or anywhere else in Hogwarts."

"Of course, Neville, I promise I'll do my best to put an end to this injustice towards all Hufflepuffs," Hermione promised, sounding fully serious.

"Oh, alright," he just said and feeling a bit ashamed about his sharp reaction, he lowered his gaze to the floor. "Then I hope very much you'll succeed with this, Hermione. Because they really are smart, nice, and… good looking," the young man's voice faded into a barely audible whisper so that Harry wasn't even sure he had heard it correctly. Then Neville went across the room to the boy's dormitories, and Hermione sat down on her chair again.

"I wonder what was that about?" Ron asked curiously.

"I suspect he likes one of the Hufflepuff girls, maybe Hannah," Ginny suggested. "During the last year Hannah often cured him and saved him countless times of nasty injuries."

"But what's holding him back then? Why isn't he asking Hannah on a date?" Harry didn't understand where the problem was. Although, thinking back about his incidents with the girls – it had actually taken him practically half a year to realize his true feelings towards Ginny before he was able to confess them to her.

"You know, everyone thinks that Neville is together with Luna because they often meet each other and help each other in a lot of matters, but Hannah is in friendly relationship with Ernie," Ginny knew to tell.

"Oh, I agree – if you are afraid to look like a loser when you're asking out a girl and she says no, then it's a really good reason not to make a move," Ron agreed.

"Mhm, so, of course, it's better to feel afraid and anxious all the time rather than to actually act for it," Hermione said. "My mom used to say about similar cases that if you'll just look at a girl for a long time, you'll see how she gets married."

"It's easy for you to say; you're a girl," Ron said grumpily.

"And what's the difference with that?" Hermione asked curiously, wondering what kind of answer Ron would give.

"For you, girls – it's a piece of cake. If someone is asking you on a date, you just have to consider the candidate and then have to answer with yes or no. But we, guys, first must have the courage, then we actually have to approach her and by the way have to speak out loud enough in comprehensible words forming meaningful sentences and in the case of a negative answer, we have to live with that shame for the rest of our lives. I still have nightmares about how I asked out Fleur in my fourth year," Ron replied confidentially as he leaned against the back of his chair.

It made Hermione smile. "Then I suppose you and Harry should be considered like almighty heroes and supermen."

"Exactly," Ron replied as he slowly blinked his eyes and tilted his head. "So, do appreciate it, please."

"But you should appreciate what we girls do to make you actually want to approach us and talk," Ginny objected. "For example, the hair. Do you think it looks so smooth and straight when we get up in the morning? Not at all! So it's nonsense that it's only hard for guys."

"Well, you're now trying to compare combing your hair with the moment of asking someone out when the guys likely are sweating like a waterfall, but at the same time we have to look good enough so the girl wouldn't turn away from us in disgust. Besides in this matter, there's nothing that could help, but courage," Ron objected.

"Of course, there is – you can use the Freezing spell to keep yourself from sweating so much. And then you could actually be the cool guy at the same time," Ginny teased her brother. Ron laughed at that too, and then looked at Harry.

"Look, mate, why I'm defending our positions alone? Where's your supportive opinion?" Ron exclaimed in overly dramatic indignation.

"It was so awful to ask out unfamiliar girls I don't want even to remember it anymore. And though, I find it the most enjoyable talking with my well-known girl," Harry stated, winking at Ginny, and she smiled sweetly at him.

Also, the following week passed without any surprises as the life in Hogwarts turned more simple and common, besides the weather blessed everyone with a warm end of September, making strolls and especially the Quidditch practices particularly enjoyable.

A little surprise came to the friends on a Friday afternoon when a group of excited first-years approached them, while they were quietly sitting on their chairs in the library after the class of Dawlish. The children were so shy they were close to fainting when approaching them, but the bravest of them got up the courage and handed each of the four young people a roll of paper tied with a green, curvy ribbon, and then they hurried away, discussing excitedly their great feat.

Harry untied his roll and unfolded the piece of paper, seeing there a sumptuous letter – as he easily guessed it – there was an invitation sent by Professor Slughorn for him to arrive at his private office tomorrow at 4 PM on "an afternoon tea in cozy atmosphere".

"Slughorn is inviting us to a tea tomorrow," Ron stated as he raised his gaze up away from his invitation.

"I was hoping Slughorn had ended his club thing for good," Harry said, "but it seems the club is actually going on."

"So what are you going to do with it?" Ginny asked. "Let's go to his club or let's skip it?"

"Do we have anything better to do?" Ron asked.

"Ron, you are so funny," Hermione said with a laugh. "But I think we should take part in some activities. At the moment our research is not going very well, so we could never know where some kind of lead could accidentally show up."

"Then it looks like we're going to attend Slughorn's meetings this year," Harry confirmed Hermione's idea.

"Maybe we could ask Slughorn something about the Diadem. Well – when he'll be well-sugared himself with the pineapples," Ginny thought out loud.

"I hardly think it could be a good idea. It may seem suspicious to him. Besides, he knows about the Horcruxes," Harry objected.

"Though, we can listen and watch as much as we please," Hermione stated.

Having spent a nice Saturday morning, now with the gloomy, drizzly autumn clouds over the sky, at breakfast and lunch they discussed the news about the success of the Aurors, published in the Daily Prophet, that there had been caught many of the werewolf pack formerly led by Fenrir Greyback – though many of them had fallen in the Battle of Hogwarts, so there were just a few remained who had escaped the werewolf arresting. Fortunately, this article lastly had silenced the rumors about the dark side of Harry Potter; and now everywhere in the castle, there was going on the discussions about the werewolves.

Harry thought about this news with mixed feelings. Of course, Grayback was a monster and most likely all the werewolves of his pack were no better even for the skin of their teeth, but did this public condemnation benefit other werewolves who could live with their curse? If Lupin was alive, he would have suffered an unprecedented shame and condemnation. Harry began to understand better the Hermione's passion for defending elf rights – did they really had to accept every custom of the society just because it was centuries old and was considered generally conventional? Hermione had been thinking about this since she was fifteen, but Harry and Ron had then secretly ridiculed her for it.

"Then let's go, Harry?" Ginny's voice was distracting his thoughts as she was asking him to come with her to the meeting of the Slughorn's Slug club.

"Yeah, let's go – could it be that terrible?" Harry agreed with a smile.

"Slughorn sometimes likes to invite celebrities to his meetings. The worst thing could be if he would have invited Skeeter," Hermione said, joking.

"Fortunately, you said that McGonagall had forbidden Skeeter to come here, right?" Harry asked, anxiously.

"Of course, she had," Hermione said, showing a comforting smile at him. "Then let's go? Soon it'll be four in the afternoon."

So the four of them left an empty classroom where they had practiced Transfiguration homework and went to the Slughorn's office on the sixth floor. Most of the members of the D.A. had already gathered there, taken their seats on the upholstered furniture. Harry greeted everyone with a hello and he was greeted back by an important looking wizard in a luxurious silver robes.

Slughorn immediately hurried to introduce the two of them to each other, "Harry Potter, I'm glad you came. Today, on our afternoon tea we have a guest – Mr. Lundmark Drucken, the editor of the Daily Prophet."

Mr. Drucken even got up to his feet to shake Harry's hand, but he just nodded to the rest of the friends.

The first half hour of the meeting went by as Slughorn slowly introduced everyone with his club members, telling their feats, mainly expressing delight to Neville's courage and appreciating that he had inherited all the best and most respectable qualities from his parents. While the words of glory flowed like a river through the mountains of the food sliding around the room on trays with little feet underneath them, Harry began to feel that the atmosphere here was not as cozy as Slughorn was trying to make it. And it wasn't just because he had noticed Hermione's suppressed wincing about the indecently treated house-elves, practically used as some kind of slaves. Rather, it seemed as if an unanswered question was hanging in the air.

"Oh, and Mr. Terry Boot!" Slughorn exclaimed excitedly. "One of this year's most outstanding students at Potions. You already did well last year, but this year you are exceeding even yourself."

"Thank you for your kind words, but the greatest merit goes to you, Professor, because it was you who made me understand Potions so well," Terry replied, seemingly timidly to Slughorn's appreciation as he praised his teacher, so the professor with his spectacular walrus-like mustache appeared truly flattered as he threw in his mouth a piece of crystallized pineapple with a smile.

"Pardon me, Professor, but Mr. Drucken, may I ask you a question?" Lavender asked, feeling a little shy as she tried half-way raise her hand in the air.

"Yes, of course," Drucken replied, putting his long finger into the curl of his dark brown goatee as he, feeling intrigued, raised up his eyebrows under his white hair.

"I wanted to ask a question about the article in this morning's Daily Prophet, about the arresting of the werewolves. I think it wouldn't be a mistake if I'll say it had more or less disturbed the whole castle," Lavender spoke up.

"I feel exactly the same towards this issue, Miss Brown, because werewolves truly are very monstrous creatures, but what exactly did you want to ask me, dear?" the gentleman turned his gaze at the pretty girl, and then soon noticed the strangely smooth part of her face, masked with make-up, and he made a weak frown.

"I was concerned about the fact, why the article was so biased – as if all the evil had come from the exact remnants of that particular werewolf pack. Of course, I do not even intend denying that Grayback had done terrible atrocities including biting off half of my face," the girl draw her finger over her cheek with a great make-up layer as she spoke, "but reading the paragraph about the victims of the werewolf bites, I found the statement very offensive that the victims due to the infection of lycanthropy are doomed to exclusion and prejudice."

"I am beginning to see your concerns, Miss Brown, though I can assure you this article refers only to those infected victims who have fully inherited the curse of the lycanthropy. If I'm not mistaken, you have suffered terrible cosmetic defects, but you aren't turning into a werewolf on a full moon nights," Drucken objected.

"Exactly, and that's why I'm concerned about such statements – when I'll be searching for a job who'll bother to clarify how exactly did the werewolf bit me? With such expressions you practically doom me to exclusion and prejudice in society," Lavender quoted the line from the Daily Prophet's article in a venomous tone.

"Miss Brown," Drucken smiled friendly at the girl, "I am absolutely certain that you won't face such exclusion and prejudice because you're a fighter of the famous Dumbledore Army."

"That's right, Lavender," Dean said suddenly, "at least here no one sees you as a werewolf. I'm rather more worried about what this Lunar Brown is going to do now, well, you know, that werewolf who hasn't been caught yet."

"You're right, besides a full moon is approaching," Ernie objected. "What if that werewolf is going to take revenge?"

"I'm sure our brilliant Auror team is doing everything to stop it," Drucken replied diplomatically.

"But still I want to say something more about the werewolves," Lavender pressed further, "I still remember Professor Lupin. He was one of the best and most knowledgeable teachers in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but he had to leave Hogwarts as soon as everyone found out he was a werewolf. Please tell me, wasn't it a direct impression of a public opinion? And it's the newspaper who is forming the public opinion, isn't it?"

"Miss Brown, if it'll please you, then I am truly taking into account your concerns and I promise you to try bringing some political correctness towards the werewolf issue. However, I'm glad you mentioned Hogwarts and its outstanding teachers, who have given you the knowledge you could apply in the Battle of Hogwarts, resulting into gaining general public recognition and fame, and at least the Order of Merlin, Second Class. Though, I feel confused about one exact circumstance. Perhaps you, the dear members of the Dumbledore Army, will feel so kind in explaining it to me in more detail. Why did the battle take place exactly at Hogwarts?" Drucken asked his question after his long and carefully stated monologue, which made everyone look at each other, uncomfortably and confusedly.

"Because You-Know-Who was heading over here," Seamus spoke up shyly. "Did we have any other choice, but defend ourselves?"

"Of course, you had to defend yourselves, but why did You-Know-Who went exactly to Hogwarts? Wasn't there any other place in our Britain country where to start a fight? Of course, the Dark Lord undoubtedly was known as a cruel killer and terrorist, but exposing children to such danger seems simply incomprehensible and illogical. Besides, he wanted to catch you, Harry Potter, am I right?" Drucken asked inquiringly to the most famous of all the young people who had gathered in this room. "As far as I understood from the article you sent in the Daily Prophet back then in May, it sounded as though you had incidentally happened to be at Hogwarts, and the Dark Lord had incidentally learned your whereabouts, so he had gone to great extent to capture you there."

"I could even claim that it was actually exactly like that," Harry replied evasively.

"And you had such a spontaneous idea come back to Hogwarts for no reason, while it was fortified more secure than vaults in Gringott's dungeons?" Drucken asked with a hard, questioning gaze on the young man. He had noticed an obvious dark spot in this version of the story, and now his journalist character urged him to find the true answer.

"Not exactly. You see, Dumbledore had left us a special task, and the final part of that task was located at Hogwarts. Had we not acted according to Dumbledore's plan, we would never have been able to defeat Voldemort," Harry explained, and everyone was listening intently, being all ears.

"Well, it's getting more interesting now." Drucken's eyes lightened up as he had got a tiny shred of information. "And what exactly was the final part of Dumbledore's plan you had to fulfill at Hogwarts?"

"We had to set everything up as Dumbledore had intended it," Harry replied evasively.

"You had to set everything up? Like – building some kind of weapon or something?" Seamus asked, sounding intrigued.

"No, Harry was looking for something that night. He did run up to the Ravenclaw's Tower to search for something," said Jodie Muller, the Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, a girl from Ginny's year.

"Yes, Harry went to see Ravenclaw's Diadem, he needed to find it," Luna confirmed Jodie's suspicions, but Drucken listened to their conversation, becoming more and more excited.

"Harry, did Dumbledore truly foresee that you have to come to Hogwarts that night to look at the statue of Ravenclaw. It sounds not only incredible, but also… crazy, if I may say so," Drucken commented with strong suspicion in his voice.

"No, it wasn't quite like that, but Dumbledore had intended that I have to find the Diadem in order to destroy it," Harry said.

"You had to destroy the Diadem that had been lost for centuries? The more you tell, the more interesting it gets… And all this was just because there was no other way to overthrow You-Know-Who? Rather, it seems to me you want to keep something in secret, Mr. Potter. Perhaps Skeeter has actually dug up some piece of the truth, and you did truly have some selfish goal in this whole mess?" Drucken asked inquiringly the young man and then gazed questioningly at Ron and Hermione. Ginny looked angry next to Harry, but she let Harry defend himself.

"No, sir. It wasn't at all like that. We thought only about the destroying of the objects that Voldemort had given his power, and one of those objects was the Diadem we…" He inhaled a deep breath, but then Hermione replied instead of him, "And we found it hidden in the Room of Requirement, and when Crabbe unleashed the Fiendfyre, the Diadem burned along with other things. I saw it with my own eyes how it turned into dust in Harry's hands."

Hearing this, Slughorn's eyes widened and he whispered quietly, "A Horcrux. And right here at school. The seven parts of the soul."

"Did I hear you saying something, Horace?" Drucken asked as he turned to his friend. "I thought you did mention a Horcrux."

"Yes, well, not quite exactly, but that would explain why," Slughorn stammered, trying to avoid giving the answer since he knew the respectable Editor was a well-educated and intelligent person who was wise enough to understand this matter rather quickly.

"A Horcrux?" asked Terry Boot. "What is that?"

After a brief moment of silence when Slughorn seemed to be busy with getting two pieces of pineapple coming off of each other, Drucken answered the question. "As far as I've got a little piece of information about this subject in my travels, then it's the darkest of the Dark Arts involving a murder of a person in order to associate your power, strength or part of your being with a certain object." Then the gentleman turned to Harry as he widened his eyes with revelation. "That was the job Dumbledore had assigned to you – you had to destroy the Horcrux of You-Know-Who, because if he had it he couldn't be defeated. Harry, then that's the thing you wanted to keep as a secret, but why?"

"Because," Hermione replied instead of Harry, explaining her view, "there were involved – phrasing it with your own words – the darkest of the Dark Arts, and I think such knowledge must be forgotten. You see what evil it can do if it gets in the hands of a monster."

"I do even agree with you, Miss Granger, but I think the public deserves to learn the truth, although in an edited form without diving into all the darkest details. Otherwise, the vacuum of information is quickly filled with some women gossip with some very doubtful guesses," Drucken stated mockingly, but then he made a more sincere smile. "I'm really glad, Horace, that you decided to invite me to this nice afternoon tea, and I'm sure we all got a lot of good impressions, insights and knowledge today, but now I have to excuse myself, because the editor position always makes my schedule busy and now I need to get done some things that are running late. Good bye!" Having said it, the Editor of the Daily Prophet got up and walked through the door. After his departure, there was a moment of still silence in the room – it seemed as everyone was trying to process the new information about the Horcruxes.

Hannah and Seamus wanted to ask Slughorn more about it, but the professor of Potions retorted that Hermione was absolutely right about this – it was associated with so terrible Dark Arts that he literally has nausea if ever someone just says the word "Horcrux".

After finishing the afternoon tea in not so cozy atmosphere, the young people scattered everywhere. The four friends found an empty classroom in which they hadn't searched for the Diadem yet and began to knock along the walls while discussing what had just happened at the Slug club.

"I wonder did Lavender's question really seem so annoying to Drucken?" Ron thought out loud as he remembered the rather urgent departure of the Editor of the Daily Prophet.

"Hardly. Rather, I think he did come here only because he wanted to ask Harry his questions," Ginny objected while she was closely inspecting a detail of a decoration on the wall. "At least I got the impression that he practically wanted to digest you as soon as he saw you."

"Those journalists are all the same, you know. Nothing is sacred to them. They just want to get some scandalous news," Ron said, angrily.

"You are partly right and partly wrong, Ron," Hermione said as she looked at the fine grid before the window panes, "because after the publishing of Skeeter's nonsense, people had something to doubt about and they got confused, and I think Drucken actually just wanted to know the truth."

"I'm not so sure about that, Hermione," Harry stated. "It's unlikely that anything of this conversation won't show up in the Daily Prophet on Monday. Perhaps he had his own curiosity in this matter, but I suppose he'll also want to know what'll happen with the Prophet's sales rates if he'll tell the story of how Voldemort was truly defeated."

Naturally, Harry's foreboding turned out to be true – on Monday morning, everyone was crowding around those who had ordered the newspaper delivery – everyone wanted to read the Editor's article about the Boy Who Lived and his secret task he had got assigned by Dumbledore. Harry, too, began to read it, wincing as he did take the newspaper from Hermione, but to his surprise, the article actually turned out to be almost consistent as it begun with a short story about the Saturday afternoon tea party at the Slug club until it went on to what Harry had said without giving away any additional information they wouldn't want to be revealed to public. And to his delight, he wasn't portrayed there as a cunning master mind planning to take over the world.

"Maybe all journalists aren't that bad. This article even looks practically sensible," Ron said with a frown.

During the following morning, while waiting for Herbology, they heard a few different views of the passing students in the yard. The younger ones all as one was comparing themselves with the famous trio, discussing who was more like any of them, and also a lot of students of senior years were happy with an alternate version of Skeeter's guesses, while the proponents of the conspiracy theory seemed to have practically predicted the likelihood of an existing Horcrux.

"A Horcrux, dude, just think about it, a Horcrux!" a Ravenclaw, who may have been from the fifth year, told his friend. "It's made of so Dark Arts that even Dumbledore himself didn't dare to look into the books where there was something said about them. And hadn't all the professors of the Defence Against the Dark Arts always taught us that the magic of the Dark Arts is extremely difficult to destroy?"

"You're right, mate, because – the darker the magic of the Dark Arts, the stronger must be the counter magic."

"And now think about it," the first one spoke up again in a conspiratorial tone, but, meanwhile, the four friends listened to their conversation, grinning, "if Potter truly got the Horcrux of You-Know-Who full with the power of the Dark Lord. Perhaps it was magically the most powerful object on Earth. And what if he could destroy it with something even more powerful? Do you see over what kind of power is he ruling?"

"But what if he didn't have such a power at all and he actually never destroyed the Horcrux?"

"Oh, and just think about it, then he may be controlling all the power of You-Know-Who! And who knows how long he'll be able to control the power of You-Know-Who and at what point the power of You-Know-Who will begin to control Potter?"

"Well, such very interesting ideas, indeed – I wonder where do they come from?" Ron laughed, whispering quietly next to his friend's ear. Harry listened to conspiracy theories no longer, but instead focused on his essay on Alchemy about the role of four colors in advancing alchemical processes. Alchemy was a true struggle for him, because Hermione was refusing to help him as she kept replying that he had chosen it himself so he had to deal with it without her help.

Soon came the October, bringing not only a bleak, rainy autumn weather, but also even darker and more unpleasant news. There was a new werewolf attack – everyone hurriedly read about it in the Daily Prophet's issue of October 6, on Tuesday morning.

"Lunar Brown and four other werewolves had attacked here in Hogsmeade," Ginny read, horrified.

"Yeah, and they had even bitten one preschool boy and killed his father, biting him to death. It's terrible," Hermione said, a chill running over her spine.

"The Minister informs all efforts are currently dedicated for capturing the werewolves who had committed the crime. Fortunately, the heroic father had managed to stab one of them, so they had been successful to catch him," Harry commented, reading the newspaper article, sitting next to Ginny.

"It turned out Ernie was right," Ron said. "He had suggested it already at the meeting of the Slug club that those werewolves would like to take revenge."

"But who was those people – well, that boy and the father? Did we know them?" Ginny asked.

"No, but they were members of the Hengist family," Hermione said, thinking back about the letter Harry had received some time ago and then she added, outlining her vast knowledge. "As far as I have read about the history of Hogsmeade, their family could have been one of the founders. Although they are not one of the twenty-eight pure-blood families, the Hengists are quite ancient and rich family."

"So those monsters had wanted to kill the descendants of an old and respectable family," Ron concluded bitterly.

"I can easily think that they wanted to avenge the benefits promised by Grayback and Voldemort they hadn't gotten, so they wanted so much as to kill someone rich and powerful," Harry stated. "At least they haven't robbed or ruined the house, though."

"But sane thinking with a werewolf's mind could actually be very difficult," Ron said.

"Oh, God, it means they had purposefully broken into the house of the Hengist family, so they could attack them right after their transformation," Ginny said with a frown, sounding horrified.

"Such werewolves really need to be punished by the strictest law," Hermione agreed, expressing her opinion.

"Just make sure Lavender doesn't hear this," Ron said with a sneer.

"I'm not afraid if she hears this. A criminal is a criminal regardless of his race," Hermione insisted.