Chapter 15: Bats and Boogies

When they had flown back up to the upper floors of the castle with their brooms, Hermione had tried to locate again Voldemort's Horcrux, but the concentration on the evil nature of the dark wizard was so tiring and hard for her that she couldn't hold the spell long enough to get some valid direction. The second time her wand had fallen out of her hand, she shivered from head to toe, so Harry and Ron objected that she shouldn't be torturing herself with this any longer. Hermione didn't feel well all evening and she was too edgy and anxious even the next day. Harry had then suggested that he might try to cast the spell instead of Hermione, but he could never make it powerful enough to be able to use it, so he had just exhausted himself with the terrible memories of Voldemort.

So the next few days, Harry was very moody. The fact that in his dreams, there no longer was showing up Ginny, but Voldemort, also didn't help him at all. Besides, the dark wizard was mocking him in every possible way, which made the young man anxious and weary in the morning.

In addition, there were also his grim thoughts adding fuel to the fire – if Hermione's wand showed correctly, it meant she was right – the Diadem was indeed located somewhere here in the castle, and that meant Voldemort had an actual chance to be alive. Perhaps that monster was wandering around somewhere near, maybe in the Forbidden Forest, but earlier Harry had begun to feel dainty – no, the search for the Diadem was too difficult for him, he was getting tired of it and maybe, who knows, he had really only had a dream about it; there was no chance of actually finding anything and maybe he should just go and watch the Quidditch game. Wasn't he a selfish fool? He had seen his desire for life and happiness in the Mirror of Erised, but how was he going to achieve it while the death was still roaming this world?

On Sunday, he had frantically searched over even any least suspicious place of the castle, but he found nothing more than a couple of Hufflepuffs kissing in a broom cupboard. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had tried to calm him down and asked him to sit down and calmly ponder all together what to do next, but he had refused. That's what they had done all of September – they had just sat peacefully on their soft sofas and done nothing, but chattering senseless ideas without any success. Harry was tired of it, he wanted to take an action, but the realization that more than a month had passed and they hadn't come closer to finding the Diadem even by a teeny tiny bit of the skin of their teeth, was driving him mad.

Harry's frustration was fueled even more by the Alchemy lesson of next Wednesday, when all the students had to train their elemental controlling at the end of the second of the double lessons as usual. He just didn't get how it could be done without a wand. The wandless magic was unpredictable, it couldn't be controlled consciously. But then there were Greengrass sisters, who made a great splash of water, Ron managed to pull a great vine as huge as a fully grown sprout of the Devil's Snare out of the floor, and Ginny had made a true fire whirl with her hands.

So Harry was also trying his best at the corner of the fire – as Hermione had said, it was a self-amplifying element – then maybe everyone, even a Muggle, should be able to move it.

Oh, there did something actually move or shiver, he thought with delight, but then he noticed some huge pieces of clouds passing by with the corner of his eye. It turned out there was a hole in the blanket of the autumn clouds through which the sun had shone and had just joked with him. So much of element controlling.

Hermione caught him after her Arithmancy class, wandering alone in a hallway near the Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom on the second floor as he now closely examined a suit of armor. She tried to start a conversation with him – she had to help her friend somehow.

"Harry, I'd like to talk to you for a moment, is it okay with you?" Hermione said, and then asked a second later. "Did you run away from Ginny again?"

Harry growled something for an answer, disgruntled. He had begun to avoid the redheaded girl after the Alchemy class. She was always giving him a feeling of comfort and solace, and that was exactly what he hated right now. Because he hadn't defeated Voldemort so he hadn't actually deserved his fame; and who knows, maybe he was also somehow guilty of the werewolf attack – what if it was somehow organized by Voldemort? It was obvious that he simply hadn't deserved any kind of happiness or joy at the moment. He hadn't done his job, he could even be blamed for lying and deceiving, and such a person like him definitely has deserved condemnation and torture, not a warm embrace of a loving beauty.

"Have you been sleeping well at nights lately?" Hermione asked him, worriedly.

"Sort of," Harry replied bluntly as he gazed somewhere behind the girl.

Hermione looked at him sympathetically. "I understand why you're so angry, Harry, but you can't blame yourself for that."

"Why not?" he replied in a stricter and harsher tone than he had intended, as he suddenly turned his gaze to his friend's face, and he wasn't able to hold back his voice as he spoke. Everything that had been growing inside him for last week seemed to have broken out against his own will. "Wasn't I the one who had to – who was destined to destroy the Horcruxes? But I couldn't do even that. And for what exactly died those fifty persons? Their deaths were in vain…"

Hermione looked around anxiously, but thankfully there was no any other pair of ears in the hallway. "They sacrificed themselves in order to win over the Voldemort and Voldemort's regime was overthrown. And yet I want to remind you that Dumbledore had never said that you are obliged to find all of the Horcruxes in just one year. We still have all the chances to put an end to it. The most important thing is that Voldemort was stopped. The terror is over. Harry, please try to calm down and then we could work all together to find the Diadem. With this you are only torturing yourself and all of us."

Harry just snorted. "But I'm still a liar and a fraud. Voldemort was not defeated, but I have a fame of a superhero. Even just a moment ago, some second-years approached me, because, you see, they wanted my autograph. Of course I sent them away. I'm not going to start signing any autographs."

"Harry, I know how you feel; I also feel bad that we can't tell the truth to everyone, but we have talked it through for hundred times – if Voldemort has returned to his ghost form, this knowledge would only start an unnecessary rush of panic and fear. The chaos is the last thing everyone needs right now," Hermione stated. Harry could even see the logic in her argument, but he stubbornly wanted to feel unhappy.

"Look, what exactly did you see in the Mirror of Erised back then? Somehow I don't believe it was just Ron," he suddenly asked, partly actually wanting to know it, but partly simply wanting to distract Hermione from the topic about Voldemort they were discussing just now.

Hermione gazed at the ceiling as she tightened her lips, then she glanced sideways until she finally turned to him. She adjusted the strap of her bag over her shoulder, nervously, and replied, "Um, not exactly. Just please, please, don't tell it Ron. I saw happy people surrounding me. I saw happy you with happy Ginny, there were also Ron and many other people, I saw even happy Malfoy. I saw happy elves, centaurs and goblins. I saw world of peace and harmony. You know, the happiness and joy in the whole world is what I want most of all – for everyone to have a chance to be happy – and that's why I've given absolutely everything I have to help you with your task, Harry. Voldemort must be destroyed, but you don't have to do it alone. You have me and Ron, and Ginny. We are ready to help you at any time. Please do remember at least that."

Harry just stood there, silent and unresponsive, then Hermione lowered her gaze to the floor and excused herself that she needed to go to the library, so she said goodbye to him.

Harry wandered further through the castle, sinking into contemplation. Hermione was right – even though he thought he hadn't deserved to be happy, with this he was also hurting his closest friends and that was unfair to them and no one actually benefited out of it.

However, as he wandered around the castle, he encountered a lively group of Gryffindor first-years waiting for their lesson to begin with Professor Flitwick, and they all looked at him with their eyes wide of worship, so that made Harry angry again. Though, he replied nothing to the little boys and girls, he just turned away and skulked away through the winding corridors of the castle.

Such was his mood for the rest of the weekend. Ron had also tried to talk to him and so did try Ginny for several times. But when he looked into her beautiful chocolate brown eyes, he instantly forgot everything in the world, and he couldn't let that happen. He had to keep in mind his task. Ginny was just a distraction to him. If he were letting himself into his selfish feelings of joy and happiness with Ginny, Harry was certain that the Diadem would once again become some kind of distant and unpleasant nuisance he was unlike going to get done with, similar like when he had to tidy up a rummaged part of his suitcase, being disorganized for a very long time.

But Dumbledore had trusted him with this duty before his death, because he knew that Harry was a determined and persistent young man, so destroying Voldemort is going to be his highest priority, leaving aside all other business and pleasures.

And the worst part of it was that Harry was truly ready for it – he was willing to go even to the edge of the world, fighting all the possible monsters if it was necessary, but this task just drove him crazy. The Diadem was somewhere exactly here in Hogwarts, he just needed to find it and destroy it, and then Voldemort's power would truly be defeated, and, who knows, maybe he would simply vanish in his ghost form if there were no more Horcrux magic to keep him alive. All I need is finding one bloody Diadem to be able to destroy Voldemort, but I can't do it, I just can't do such a seemingly simple task… At every night before falling asleep, Harry's mind told him again and again.

However, it wasn't so easy to avoid Ginny, for the simple reason that they had their classes together. On Monday there was Herbology, which meant there was always a lot of bustling and moving in the class when each student was tending his or her own chosen Tentacula. It seemed Harry's plant may have been the best-tended one among all the plants of the seventh-year students, so Sprout already joked to Harry that she wouldn't allow him to bring it home as a pet. Then the professor chuckled and looked at Ginny's Tentacula next to him, nodding approvingly – practically all the tended Tentaculas were thriving. The girl cast a gaze at him as she wanted to start a conversation as soon as Sprout had left, but Harry quickly turned away, clearly showing that he didn't want to talk to her. He could imagine she had pressed tightly her lips together and furrowed her brow in frustration.

When the lesson was over, he was one of the first to hurry out of the greenhouse, eager to eat lunch in the Great Hall as soon as possible, so he could again roam alone through Hogwarts more or less without anyone bothering him. Who knows; maybe that Diadem was going to accidentally fall on his head out of thin air? At least this seemed as a likely chance to happen, contrary, when he considered the probability of being able to somehow find it by himself…

"Harry," the girl's voice on his way to the castle pulled him out of his gloomy thoughts. Harry hesitated for a moment, but didn't fully stop to wait for Ginny.

"Harry," she called him again with a little tinge of despair in her voice, then she ran to him and grabbed him by his arm. Harry stopped and turned to face Ginny, gazing somewhere over her shoulder to the nearest bush. Harry was a little afraid of what he would see in her brown eyes – he was already living with the realization that he was a fraud, a liar, and a loser, but if he will see that the girl he loves is hurt and angry because of him – it felt like too much, so he didn't have such a courage to look in her eyes at the moment.

"Harry, I'm starting to seriously consider that you're running away from me on purpose, so I wanted to talk to you," Ginny said.

"Well, not exactly, I wouldn't like to say that I'm doing it on purpose…" Harry began with a little stuttering.

"Actually, I just wanted to ask you – are you okay?" Ginny interrupted his clumsy attempt to justify himself.

"Well, yeah, you know, I have to find that Diadem. And it takes all my time. It's not like that I'm running away from you on purpose," Harry explained, though sounding not very convincing, besides, he still didn't look in her eyes, but rather somewhere at her shoes. They were with such a half round half pointed toes, where under their black leather stood her small feet, which, under her robes, continued into her slender, beautiful legs…

"Harry," she said firmly, "then at least I'd like you to tell me that by looking right in my eyes."

Harry gathered up courage and lifted his gaze up to her eyes. He saw in them resentment and anger as she looked at him with slightly tilted head as she was staring at him rather scolding.

"Tell me precisely – are you really spending every last moment of your life searching for the Diadem for the last week that you don't even have so much time for me like just two minutes?"

"Ginny," Harry began, wanting to make an excuse that the castle was so huge and he really needed every waking moment to search it over, but he didn't want to lie to his girlfriend. He was actually avoiding her, but it wasn't because she had done something bad. No, he was avoiding her because she was too nice.

"Harry," she began in a softer voice, tilting her head even more to the side as she blinked with her big brown eyes, "I know you well enough to understand that something is actually bothering you. I just want you to talk to me so I could know how to help you."

"I don't need any help," Harry objected, "I just need to gather myself together to deal with this thing for good, that's all."

"Harry," Ginny said, now in a sad voice, as she took his palm, and there shot warmth through him, which felt too pleasant, "I know that, but the thing I don't understand is why do you think that you have to do it alone. I'm ready to help you at any time, and so do Ron and Hermione. Harry, please let me at least help you with the searching, if not otherwise. At least I want to be by your side."

Harry felt like a complete jerk when the girl with her big doe eyes begged him to find more time for her too. She didn't shout, didn't cry or didn't order him, but just wanted to be with him no matter what. How it was possible for her to be so perfect and so beautiful at the same time? Suddenly, he felt the urge to give his answer in a completely different kind of oral form, though he suppressed it.

"Ginny, you see, when we were looking for the Diadem all together, all that time spent for searching was just a waste. We didn't succeed even for a tiny bit."

"And now, when you are searching the castle all by yourself, have you found anything more?" Ginny asked as though with great interest, but Harry knew she was just being sarcastic.

"Um, not exactly, but I've searched through most of the hallways. Being alone, I'm attracting less attention than if we were all together wandering around there," he was making excuses again as he turned his gaze away of her eyes.

"Okay, Harry, I understand that, but aren't you missing me at all?" Ginny asked as she ran her palm up along his arm, and Harry felt his arm getting tense by her touch.

Harry just barely resisted inhaling a deep breath. He missed her warm embrace and soft lips so much. He lifted up his gaze from her mouth to her eyes. "Ginny, I always miss you, but really I do have to deal with the Diadem. The realization that he might be wandering around here just drives me crazy," Harry bitterly stated as he gazed for a brief moment at the Forbidden Forest.

"I see," she replied sadly, "If that's what you want and what you need, then I won't bother you for a while, okay? But I expect you to come back to us soon, okay?"

Harry smiled sadly and replied, "Okay." Ginny then reached for him, rising up on her tiptoes, and kissed him on his cheek. He felt a wave of heat shooting through his cheek, and Harry was about to hug her and pull her closer to taste her lips, but Ginny had already pulled away and was now hurriedly going back to Hogwarts castle with her red ponytail waving in the autumn wind.

Also the following few days, Harry tried not to show too much attention to Ginny, though it was particularly difficult during the classes, since Ginny was sitting next to him. Harry then tried to focus on what the professors were saying, perhaps being the most careful listener among all the seventh-years, except for Hermione.

However, Harry had to face another unpleasant side effect – the hallways seemed to be full with giggling and grinning girls, and as there was approaching Saturday's visit to Hogsmeade, some of them had even got their courage up to ask him out. It seemed that the topic of his relationship with Ginny was the hot topic for the society of Hogwarts girls, and if there was a tiny hope that there might be an empty space by his side, the girls were ready to fight tooth and nail without mercy. Needless to say, it did spoil greatly his liking of wandering around the hallways and checking everything he found even a least bit suspicious.

As a relief for Harry, there came Saturday, when all the hordes of the girls had found some other companions than himself with whom to crowd in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. This meant that the Hogwarts corridors were once again empty and quiet, illuminated with the clusters of sunlight, and as he passed through them the steps echoed distantly back of the high walls. Since Harry had been wandering through Hogwarts castle for the past two weeks, so also today he had no idea where he was actually going or what could be the thing he was expecting to find, which he wouldn't have found in his previous wanderings.

Eventually, Harry realized he had strayed to the northern part of the castle, where Alicia's Office was located near the exit to the Middle Courtyard. Flying was his passion; he remembered the first time he had flown with a broomstick – he had felt such a pleasure, such a joy. Ginny had canceled their practice today because of Hogsmeade, but otherwise he was ready to play Quidditch round the clock. Who would not love it when it was just you, the wind in your hair and your broom was obeying to the tiniest of your movements? Only Hermione had never shown any particular interest in the Quidditch, and maybe Voldemort wasn't interested in it either? They had truly searched from top to bottom the Trophy Room and they hadn't seen the name of Riddle in the list of Quidditch Captains. But what if the Quidditch actually was important for him? He hadn't thought about it until now that he should actually check the Quidditch Pitch too. Perhaps I should try to secretly go to the Pitch so I could search over the spectator towers. But then again, he hardly would have wanted that who knows what was sitting on the precious piece of his soul.

"Hi, Harry," he was suddenly greeted by a cheerful voice.

Harry immediately spun around and saw that a bright white ghost of a boy had approached him.

"Hi, Colin," Harry greeted him back and felt his throat tightening. Back then, when Ginny had told him about Colin, it had been hard for him to actually imagine him as a ghost, but now when he saw Colin with his own eyes, Harry felt like something was trying to squeeze his heart out of his chest. The little, fragile young guy; he had given his life so that the world would no longer be governed by evil.

"I'm really happy to see you, Harry," the boy said cheerfully. "How are you doing now?"

"Um, I'm okay," Harry replied evasively. He couldn't say – oh, I'm actually not so well, because, you know, I'm searching for the Ravenclaw's Diadem right now; it turned out, we didn't manage to destroy it, so Voldemort may be alive, which means your death was utterly in vain…

"I'm feeling glad that at least now had begun an era of peace and happiness, isn't it?" Colin kept rejoicing.

"Yes, so it seems everything is back to normal at Hogwarts," Harry confirmed.

"It is, isn't it, Harry? I really do feel so glad, when I see every day that the students are able to simply go to their classes and get so worried over such everyday things. Like, I recently saw a boy crying, because he had spilled his ink over his homework. At that moment, I realized everything we have done, all our effort was worth it. Light has returned back to the world," Colin said as he raised his eyes to the partly cloudy sky behind the windows.

"Yes, you're right," Harry replied, lowering his gaze. "Listen, I'm glad I met you, but I really have other business to do, so I hope to see you soon again."

"I was also very pleased to see you too. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to bring the light and the joy back to the world, so stay strong, Harry. And be happy with Ginny; she's a nice girl and once was a good friend to me. Bye, Harry," Colin said as he waved goodbye with his hand.

Showing a weak smile at the fragile ghost boy, he nodded at him and hurried away without wishing to get anywhere particularly. In his mind, there was only one thought – no matter what was the cost, but he needed to find the Diadem.

His idea was indeed great, but how was he going to realize it? Ginny was right – even when he had searched for it alone, he hadn't got any closer to it. All he had managed to do was lose two pleasant weeks of his life. If he wanted to match Voldemort in wisdom, he needed to have more wisdom for himself. He needed Hermione.

In the evening, when the majority of Hogwarts students had come back from Hogsmeade with flushed cheeks, Harry finally found Hermione and Ron in the first floor hallway, holding their hands. They both looked cheerful, smiling and with wind-ruffled hair. Or their hair was ruffled not only by the wind? Harry shook his head at such a sudden thought and greeted both his friends.

Hermione simply greeted him back, but Ron's face looked quite sour as he retorted, "Oh, now you're talking with us, hm?"

"Um," Harry wasn't sure how to reply to Ron's question, so he chose to ignore him and talk only to Hermione. "Hermione, can we please have a talk?"

"Yes, of course. What did you want to talk about?" the girl asked happily with a tinge of surprise in her voice.

"I want to ask you something," Harry said evasively, giving Ron an apprehensive look. Hermione realized promptly that he wanted to talk only to her without Ron's presence.

"Ron, I'll talk to Harry for a moment, okay? And then I'll find you again right away," Hermione said as she looked at her redheaded boyfriend. He agreed very reluctantly adding a warning to Harry, "Better be careful with your sayings – if you're going to say something that'll upset her, my patience will be over."

"Ron, everything's fine," Hermione reassured him. "We'll just talk for a moment and I'll be back soon."

Ron gave Hermione, too, a warning look as if saying – and so be it. Hermione just smiled instead of replying and kissed Ron on his cheek, then she let go of his hand and asked Harry to come along with her. But Ron, after glancing at them his last gloomy gaze, slipped behind the tapestry within the secret passageway.

"So Harry, what exactly did you want to talk about?"

"Actually, it's about the same Diadem. You see, I'm wandering throughout the castle for two weeks now, though, and how much I wouldn't like to admit it, it was rather pointless," Harry admitted to Hermione, feeling reluctant as he looked somewhere behind her.

"Of course, it's not easy to search for the Diadem; we already made it sure in September. And you know, I'm really glad you finally decided to talk to one of us. Ginny and I were already getting seriously worried whether you hadn't given up the human companionship forever. Actually, I'm a little surprised that you're addressing me first, not Ginny."

"Yeah, I already explained it to Ginny before. Her presence is distracting me, and if I really want to find the Diadem, I need to have all my observing skills and intellectual capacity I have," Harry explained hesitantly.

Hermione smiled cunningly. "Mhm, and I can imagine that now when you're avoiding her, you're not thinking about her at all, right?"

Harry swallowed. After each class or mealtime, it took him at least twenty minutes to get the thoughts about her warm fingers and eyes out of his head. The worst was after the Quidditch practices, which usually ended in the night, then he was rolling and shifting in his bed for like an hour or so without being able to fall asleep, before the fervent thoughts about Ginny let him finally sink into his stirred sleep as he saw again in his dreams the wide bath of the Prefects' Bathroom and the girl, covered in foam again… Unfortunately, then, appearing in the most pleasant moment, his sweet dream was disturbed by Voldemort, and then the spooky images of his ghostly form in his vision still haunted him for quite a time in the middle of the night, so he woke up having a headache and without getting a proper sleep.

„Well, at least I have a little bit more time," Harry explained.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows knowingly and made a winning smile. „Okay, okay, but what exactly did you want to ask me?"

„Hermione, you are the smartest person I know, so I wanted to ask you to help me think," Harry expressed what he wanted.

„Of course, I'll help you with it, but does that mean you'll ask for help also Ron and Ginny as well?" Hermione asked him suspiciously, already foreseeing his denial.

"It looks like Ron's angry with me, but speaking about Ginny, I already said that I don't want her to distract me," Harry explained.

"Harry," Hermione said rather firmly, "they're both missing you. Besides, the fact that Ginny is distracting you is the greatest nonsense I've ever heard, and I used to consider you for a pretty smart person."

"I have to think about her all the time, but now the most important thing is to find the Diadem, not…" Harry stopped.

"And it really has nothing to do with the fact that you simply are happy being with her, but now, for these two weeks while you are wandering alone throughout the castle, you are truly determined to feel unhappy, since it's the only way how you are able to deal with your guilt, now?" Hermione asked him sarcastically with a strict, questioning gaze.

Of course, Hermione was absolutely right, but it didn't mean that he was willing to admit it. Harry twisted his upper lip, turned his eyes away from his friend, but then a moment later looked at her face. "Anyway, will you help me or not?"

"I'll tell you this, Harry. I'm willing to help you any way you want, but I don't want to do it for an indefinitely long time. No one says you have to feel unhappy, Harry, while you're looking for the Diadem. So I'm willing to help you with it for exactly one week, but then you'll have to reconcile with Ron and Ginny," Hermione said with a smile, as she told him her condition.

Harry pondered her suggestion for a moment. But really, how long was he going to act like this? And it seemed that he alone had no hope of finding Ravenclaw's Diadem. And all those whispering and giggling throngs of girls in the Hogwarts hallways. "Okay, let's try to work together the two of us for one week and then I'll apologize to Ron and Ginny."

"Agreed, but tonight Ron and I are going out for a walk, so we can talk about everything you've considered so far tomorrow morning."

All Sunday, Hermione devoted all her time to Harry, while he told her every tiniest detail of his searching over and over again. It was odd, how freely the words seemed to flow out of his mouth, as they would have long waited to finally break free into the air. And his mood was getting better as if he were starting to recover from some kind of illness. His mind also seemed to be working faster and more open. Although Hermione mainly rejected his speculations, the fact was true – he felt pleasure to think of new ones.

"Harry, I'm really amazed at how much you have examined just working alone," Hermione admitted, sitting on her chair next to Harry in the library.

"Of course I am. I also walked through the corridors, detecting them with the Sneakoscope. Once for a moment, it seemed to me that it had begun to whistle, but it turned out it was only Peeves hiding behind the corner. And did I tell you that behind the armor on the second floor near that empty classroom with large, round windows, I found a secret room there, but it contained nothing more than a few unimportant things and some boxes. Apparently it has been just some kind of storage room or hiding place," Harry said enthusiastically.

"Well, yes, Harry, you already told me this at least twice," Hermione said patiently. "Look, I'll tell you this again – Hogwarts is indeed huge, and I think we really have no hope to find Ravenclaw's Diadem just by physically searching over the castle…"

"But you already told about the Locator Spell that it's just not working," Harry said, confused.

"In the way we tried to use it, it didn't work, but we should make every effort to come up with a method how to get the Locator Spell to detect the thing we need," Hermione said. "The problem right now is that the energy of Ravenclaw is suppressed by the magic of Hogwarts, so the signal of the Diadem is too weak."

"It sounds like we should learn how to amplify it," Harry concluded gloomily.

"Exactly, besides, I suspect that in a few weeks' time, Flitwick is going to teach us the amplification of the charms. I really hope it'll give us some kind of new and useful idea," Hermione said eagerly.

"But haven't you already read everything about it?" Harry asked, not understanding why Hermione needed classes by Flitwick. She always knew everything about everything.

"Um, technically you're right, but – well, I don't know how it's for you – but I remember things much better if I hear them. Therefore, those facts the professors tell us seems to be much more valuable than those I have read in a book. When the professor tells about something and shows it, it seems to me like all the pieces of a puzzle fits right into their places. Of course, to obtain those pieces of a puzzle, I have to read a lot of general information afore. Honestly, I can only admire both you and Ron, how are you able to understand everything at once just hearing out the professor. If I wouldn't read so much, I'm sure I would fail in all my classes," Hermione admitted at the end.

"Hermione, this really is something I find especially hard to believe," Harry said as he smiled warmly at his friend. "You have excellent analytical and intellectual abilities even without any books. And at the Charms class, you're the best again – and Flitwick is smiling more widely whenever he sees you."

"Thanks, Harry. I always knew you were a great friend," she replied, smiling at him warmly, and touched his hand friendly. "Then let's get working with the amplification of that obnoxious Locator Spell?"

Harry just responded with and affirmative "Mhm," as he nodded, then he took Hermione's The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7 and opened the chapter on spell amplification.

Two days later, it turned out that Hermione was indeed right – at Tuesday's Charms class, feeling delighted that all the students had managed to make their paper pigeons coo for a whole week long, Flitwick said with even greater enthusiasm that they could get on with the charms amplification the next week just after all of them will have celebrated the thrilling Halloween festivity.

On the same day, Harry was with Hermione in the library again, when suddenly he felt like there something wasn't right. It somehow seemed to Harry like all the shelves of the bookcases were full with whispering whatacrows. Indeed, there was whispering all the bookcases everywhere around him with occasional giggling. He felt like a scary rush waving over him, making him feel rather uncomfortably. "Hermione, is it just me, or there really has something happened with the library today?"

"Are you talking about all that whispering?" Hermione asked, not lifting her eyes from the thick book of spells.

"Yes – why is everyone whispering around us?" Harry wanted to know.

"Not everyone, just all of the girls," Hermione corrected, feeling annoyed. A second later, she released the pressure of her pursed lips, looked him in his eyes, and explained in more detail, "All those girls are orbiting around you, because, you know, Skeeter made an article about you, only this time she published it in Witch Weekly Magazine."

"What's the matter now? I hope it's not again about me recruiting my dark servants or followers?" Harry asked bitterly.

"In Witch Weekly Magazine? You're kidding, right? There are only articles for girls, so of course there everyone can read some very expressive epithets about me since I have stolen Ginny's place," Hermione said mockingly.

Harry was just left speechless; though this subject seemed so stupid to him, that he hadn't even the slightest intention to do something with Skeeter in this regard, unless he did fully commit to forever ignore any kind of articles she had made up.

"I'll make the best Halloween for Ginny," Harry suddenly said, determined.

"Oh, really, Harry?" Hermione asked, delighted.

"She had deserved hundreds of such apologies for such of my behavior," Harry stated with a smile, no longer aware of a sudden laughter not very far from him.

For the rest of the week, Harry and Hermione continued to test the Locator Spell in various places around the castle, which, of course, only strengthened the general conviction that Harry seriously has been going out with Hermione, having completely forgotten about Ginny. Eleanor Branstone, a fifth-year Hufflepuff girl, didn't feel any shyness at all when she was loudly telling her friends at lunch or dinner from where she had seen Harry and Hermione coming out together again. The freshest news, as usual, was always accompanied with loud 'ow's' or high-pitched giggling.

At dinner a day before Halloween, Harry was trying hard to ignore the Hufflepuff girls, and he wholeheartedly hoped that Ginny had taken a similar stance. He glanced sideways at the redhead, who had once again taken her place next to her brother on the opposite side of the table, a place little bit further from Harry. Suddenly Ginny lifted up her eyes, and their gazes met, but Harry no longer wanted to hide from her, he was tired of avoiding her. Ron, noticing their intense looks, stated, "Harry, just get your act together for once and stop kidding around."

Harry flinched, but still gave Ginny a second glance and then turned to his pork stew.

So, the day of Halloween has finally come and I have arranged all the matters I need with Firenze. Kreacher is set ready to help, and I really did succeed inviting Ginny, too, Harry was planning eagerly the afternoon of the Halloween day. He truly hoped this would make Ginny forgive him for the last three weeks of him acting stupidly.

Earlier that day, he had found her on the Marauder's Map and had invited her to meet him at three o'clock in the afternoon at the classroom of Firenze. Harry felt really glad that Ginny had actually agreed to meet him without a lot of thinking, so the young man now wore a silly smile on his face whenever he went, having completely forgotten Lady Ravenclaw and her diadem. Besides Hermione kept insisting that they needed to wait for the Flitwick's class, when he's going to tell them about the spell amplification, so now it was no use for them to keep searching for the Diadem anyway.

To Harry's great agony, all the clocks seemed to have conspired against him, and even though he had volunteered to help Hagrid with the Halloween decorations, the time was passing as slowly as a poisoned snail. He had already taken about a hundred of pumpkins to the Great Hall, but it turned out it had taken him just a half of an hour. But soon Hermione assigned him another job, since the Head Boy and Head Girl always had to help with the decorations for Hogwarts festivals – she and Malfoy have been up on this since the morning, skipping their usual Saturday patrolling duty on the lower floors of Hogwarts. So now the three of them were carving the enormously huge pumpkin berries. To Harry's surprise, Malfoy wasn't even grumbling or complaining, but simply did what he was told to do – after he had dealt with his pile of pumpkins, he started trying to conjure up the bats one by one. At first Hermione had to correct his pronunciation of the spell, and when the Slytherin young man had succeeded producing his first true, living bat, Harry saw a tiny flash of joy in his eyes, and soon the Great Hall was swarmed with the winged animals. Maybe his insane idea could actually turn out to be not so bad after all.

Anyway, at least the carving of the pumpkins had taken him quite a bit of time, and the hour hand of the clock was finally approaching to his much awaited mark of number three. Hermione wished him good luck with a sincere smile and then she turned back to putting the decorations all over the Great Hall.

Harry wiped his hands nonchalantly along his robes and went out of the Great Hall – he wasn't heading far away, just to the adjacent ground floor hallway, where was located the classroom of Firenze. As he passed the mighty marble staircase, a boy hurried past him – Harry guessed he could be a sixth-year – appearing a bit anxious or excited. Although, Harry didn't pay much attention to him, because half of the Hogwarts students were already waiting for the evening feast excitedly now. He wanted to arrive at the meeting place with Ginny a little bit earlier, so he could check how Kreacher had met his request. He wanted everything to be set as well as possible.

Already imagining in his mind Ginny's happy smile, he put his hands in his pockets and walked down the hallway. Though, today the sky was clouded with gloomy clouds, casting practically ghostly shadows even in the middle of the day, but Harry's mood wasn't affected by it at all – he was rather delighted that even the weather was cooperating with Hogwarts to make a true Halloween atmosphere today.

Suddenly, his joyful thoughts and future fantasies were interrupted by a short cry that sounded not far from him, just a little distance further down the hallway on the ground floor. But there were only Firenze's classroom, if you don't take into account the toilet, and the notorious broom closet, where most of the Hogwarts students were heading if they wanted a quiet place for kissing. Harry heard another cry, this time it was louder and longer. No doubt, it was a girl's voice. Ginny.

Immediately Harry's heart was flooded with fear. What possibly could have happened in the ground floor hallway that could have scared Ginny so much? What if someone was attacking her? Could they be some Slytherins? Or Voldemort? With his heart pounding in his chest, Harry instinctively pulled his wand out of his pocket of his robes and run as fast as he could around the corner of the hallway to Firenze's classroom, and then he finally saw what was happening there.

For a one tiny split of a second, there passed a relieving thought through Harry's mind: Thank God, it's not Ginny, but his anxiety wasn't lessened even for the skin of the teeth as soon as Romilda Vane cried once again a high-pitched scream, looking directly at a figure clad in black robes having scarlet red eyes with slits for pupils as he stared at the girl from under the brim of his hood.