Chapter 20: Unplottable Diadem
That evening, as soon as they returned to their Common Room, Hermione right away asked Ron to give her the notes of Luna's mother's research. Then she just started reading them greedily so that she talked to nobody for a next few days.
Harry only noticed it on Friday morning that Hermione was eating breakfast like a normal person, looking at her plate instead of a book or notes.
"So did you finally read it?" Ron asked her, grumpily.
"Yes, of course. I'll give you those notes after breakfast if you want to better your performance at Flitwick, too," Hermione simply replied like it wasn't a big deal.
"Hermione, I haven't practically seen you since Tuesday night. Right now, I just want my girlfriend back," Ron stated as he looked at Hermione a little condemningly, but she seemed slightly confused and didn't know what to reply.
"Um, the both of you will have enough time to talk it out today, but, Hermione, could you please tell us what did you find out?" Harry asked. Hermione seemed to be happy to answer Harry's question, leaving the dealing with the awkward situation with Ron to later.
"Her notes were really interesting. At the beginning, she had written all kind of suggestions for formulating Rite Chants and which rhymes fit best together. I'm not surprised if something like this was published in the Quibbler, it could really seem useful to people, contrary to the nonsense that is now published by Xenophilius…"
"Hermione," Ginny spoke up, "I see – it's interesting and all, but I think Harry wanted to know more about the facts you did read about the Essence."
"Yes, of course," Hermione said with a smile. However, Harry could understand her – she had read for two days without resting something so important to their task so that she now wanted to tell everything to the last detail she had learned and deduced. "As for the Essence of Magic, her method, if you could call it like that, was extremely unusual, though I wouldn't be as optimistic as Luna. I don't think she died because she was struck by the substance of the Essence of Magic. I likely tend to think that something went wrong after all."
"So then, what was her method if you are so critical about it?" Ron demanded quite sceptically.
"You see, she had assumed that magic must be amplified not only by Chants, but also physically with the kinetic energy," Hermione explained. But all three of them – Harry, Ron, and Ginny – looked at her in utter confusion.
"Hermione, please forgive me for being so stupid, but I didn't understand a single word of that," Ginny stated.
"'Kinetic' means 'in motion'. She thought that magic itself must be moved, excited so that it thus way become more active. That's also the reason why they had built a round house. In order to be able to install an accelerator of magic in the basement," Hermione tried to explain it as intelligible as possible.
"An accelerator?" Ron said. "But what exactly did she accelerate with it? I suppose they weren't Crumple-Horned Snorkacks?"
Harry and Ginny snorted so loud and vividly and they were very close to tipping over their breakfast plates. An Accelerator of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks? You don't say! Ron, too, began to look more amused with each second until he couldn't resist chuckling anymore, and also Hermione's lip began to curl up forming a smile.
Then she laughed and replied, "No, she amplified her own magic, combined with the energy of other magical creatures. In this way, she tried to get fast-rotating plasma of the Essence of Magic, which, in the end, she would only have to collect it somewhere in some kind of an object."
"But, Hermione, if she succeeded and the Essence gathered in her because she was there, that magic was definitely too strong, so that's the reason why she died so quickly," Harry concluded excitedly. In his opinion, Luna's version sounded perfectly reasonable.
"Harry, but I've never read in any book that the physical acceleration of magic could in any way affect the effects of magical energy. That doesn't make sense," Hermione argued.
"But how fast has anyone really tried to move the magical energy?" Ginny asked.
"I don't know," Hermione replied grumpily. "Anyway, this experiment of hers isn't very helpful to us, because we are not going to build the Accelerator of Magic and we are not going to toy with our lives."
When Hermione mentioned 'accelerator', Ron muttered giggling, "An Accelerator of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks," and Harry grinned again. However, Hermione was probably right, at least in the sense that they were not going to do such an experiment themselves, so it didn't really matter if Pandora actually managed to get the Essence or not. At least, as far as it's regarding on their task.
Though, the suggestions written by Pandora at the beginning of her research notes helped them find better and more accurate spelling for amplifying charms, and on Monday next week, Harry and Hermione were ready to begin their search for Voldemort's energy.
Outside, behind the window, in the dim winter sunlight, there was falling snow with thick flakes as Harry and Hermione stood in the hallway on the third floor, where no student or teacher was even nearby, as they were armed with their wands, charms and little bottles of their own brewed Essence of Magic.
Harry began citing the Locator Spell incantation, which was amplified by a dimly glowing vial in his palm. He focused intently on Voldemort's face and being as he looked at his wand. It twitched and pointed more or less to the west. They slowly followed the signal, but then it started to change the direction, taking both of them to the Library Wing. Some visitors were in there, so neither Harry nor Hermione dared to place it under scrutiny.
Much later, they repeated the search when Harry wasn't trembling anymore and was ready to let the thoughts of Voldemort in his mind. This time, his wand took him to a completely different part of the castle – to the Middle Courtyard, where a lot of Hogwarts students were having a nice snowball fight with the fresh snow.
Even after the lunch, when they returned again to their searching task, his wand took them to another part of the Hogwarts castle – to the Owlery, the westernmost point of the castle.
"It doesn't make sense," Harry said as he wiped the cold sweat away from his forehead. The searching for Voldemort's energy was not only exhausting, but also very depressing. He then had to suppress the overwhelming urge to hide in some dark place for the rest of the day, where he could fall deeply in his gloomy thoughts about all his failures.
"Harry, I think you should take a rest," Hermione suggested. "Today we should stop searching."
"You're right, then we'll continue our search tomorrow," Harry reluctantly agreed, "but that still doesn't explain how we could get to three completely different places." Harry and Hermione had slowly begun to walk back to the Gryffindor Tower.
"This is only the first day, when we're looking for Voldemort's soul; it may not have any significant meaning," Hermione said, though she was having a stiff look down the hallway. Harry understood perfectly well what she was avoiding to say; he had thought the same thing. If previously, when following the amplified energy of Hogwarts, they had reached the Headmaster's Office and the Ravenclaw's Tower, where the statue of Rowena was placed, then now they had reached very odd and different places, which were also public. As if they were following a person moving inside a castle. But that was impossible. Completely and utterly impossible.
"And still, why there were so many places? As if it was moving," after a few moments, Harry finally said his concerns out loud.
"I doubt the thing that is moving, is a Horcrux. Harry, I don't want to scare you, but I guess you may have detected Voldemort's own energy," Hermione explained as she looked at him this time. "Remember, Flitwick said this spell is more suitable for finding people."
Harry felt a shiver running down his spine. If Hermione thought the same… "Voldemort – here at Hogwarts? But what if I did something incorrectly, or mistook the incantation of the spell?"
"I was next to you every time you cast the spell, and you did everything right. However, it is not so bad as you have imagined it, Harry," Hermione said reassuringly.
"It's not so bad?" Harry said, barely restraining his voice so it doesn't sound an octave higher. Voldemort wandering through Hogwarts was definitely a very bad thing. Hermione really had the guts.
"We reached a public place every time and then just stopped searching there," Hermione explained calmly. "We have considered it before that Voldemort may be wandering somewhere near here in his ghost form. I guess this just means that he isn't far away, let's say, he could have possessed a spider at the Forbidden Forest. It doesn't mean that he's actually moving down the hallways of Hogwarts."
This idea, of course, seemed a little less disturbing to Harry, but that strange, unpleasantly annoying feeling in his stomach didn't leave him as if the answer Hermione had suggested didn't seem entirely valid.
"Then maybe we should try searching at night when we won't be disturbed by the hordes of students?" Harry suggested.
"It's worth a try. We just have to be very careful. I definitely don't want to be caught when I'm not on my duty," Hermione replied.
"Then let's do the searching when you're on your duty," Harry said simply.
"You know that I'm assigned on night duties on Saturday nights, so it doesn't interfere with studies. I have the last one of this term on this Saturday."
"Then do put it in your schedule that you'll have to help me searching the castle on Saturday night," Harry said and suppressed a smile. Wandering through Hogwarts during night with his Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map; it's going to be like in the good old days. Hermione just nodded in response.
Afterwards, Harry and Hermione had agreed that they should do again the searching during the daytime until Saturday night has come; besides on Saturday the castle could be practically empty during the day as the last visit to Hogsmeade was planned in this term.
As he woke up on Tuesday morning, it was very dark, but as the breakfast began, the sun rose up, promising a bright and sunny day. Harry also felt that he had recovered from the previous day's searching episodes and he watched with pleasure as Ginny carelessly put sausage and beans on her plate next to the fried eggs.
While eating their breakfast, the young people heard the usual sound of wing fluttering as the post owls brought everyone their morning mail and for some of the students also their favourite delicacies, what the most anxious parents used to send to their children who studied here for their first year. Hermione received her everyday copy of the Daily Prophet, which still reported new successes for the Aurors in their hunt for the rest few Death Eaters. The main topic, of course, was Lestrange's capturing operations. Until now, it seemed that the evacuation of wizards of the surrounding area had helped, since there was no seeing of Lestrange. However, while this monster wasn't captured yet, the Weasleys couldn't feel safe. Danger preying on Molly could surprise her behind every bush.
"Is there anything about Lestrange?" Ron asked as soon as Hermione had opened the page to the section of the Auror news.
"No, there's nothing new; they've just strengthened the security for George's shop," she replied, running her eyes over the article. While reading the articles, she flipped a few more pages forward as she ate mouthfuls of her breakfast cheese sandwich. "Whoa," she just said with her eyes wide.
"What's the matter?" Ginny asked, but Harry just made a face.
"I'm sure it's that Skeeter again," he snorted. "Hermione, I told already a long time ago that I don't want to hear even a single line from her writings anymore. It's so clear anyway – this world has never experienced a worse and more depraved Death Eater than Snape, even Voldemort himself wasn't half as evil; and of course I'm restlessly making evil plans on how to replace Voldemort in order to be able to dominate the world."
Hermione laughed; though, Harry's contemptuous summary was quite accurate. "This time she has finished denigrate Snape, and is now introducing her Christmas present to the entire magical community."
"A Christmas present? Then she must be giving something scandalous about me," Harry said grimly.
"That's right," Hermione confirmed, "but at least she's not writing about Snape anymore. Now, before Christmas, she is going to publish her book she promised in September, which is going to be your biography of two thousand pages, paying special attention to the circumstances of the defeat of the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the events after the great Battle of Hogwarts." She quoted Skeeter's writing.
"Lest she goes and fries an egg," Harry said angrily. "I'm tired to think about her and worrying about what has come into her mind again. Hermione, unless you want to inform me that you've captured her in a jar again with a twig and a few leaves, I don't want to hear anything more about that stinking Skeeter."
"Okay, okay, I got it, calm down." Hermione smiled at her friend. "We still have an hour before Charms."
So with their bellies full and having waited for the bell when the crowds of students in the hallways had vanished, they turned to the excruciating searching again. This time, his wand showed the direction to Harry quite reluctantly – he guessed that the boiling hatred for Skeeter could have been blamed for that, which kept him from concentrating fully. They gradually moved west, making strange twists and turns until they suddenly met Anthony and Jodie in the hallway followed by a few more Ravenclaws. Classmates told them that they were heading to the library to read more about Charms. Unfortunately, the meeting of his schoolmates had disturbed his thoughts, so he could no longer detect the previous direction.
After the Charms, when doing the searching, Harry and Hermione came to different places each time again. In the afternoon before dinner, it even seemed that the wand was trying to take them out into the grounds, somewhere towards Hagrid's hut or the Quidditch pitch.
"The Forbidden Forest," Hermione confirmed confidently as they stood on the first floor next to the balustrade of the grand staircase in the Entrance Hall, looking at the wand as it showed a direction, slightly oscillating.
"Are you sure?" Harry thoughtfully objected. "I think it points more to the direction of the Quidditch pitch."
"Then let's go out and check it," Hermione suggested the obvious thing to do.
However, as soon as they wanted to go down the stairs, the front door opened and several students entered each carrying a broomstick over their shoulders. In front of the pack, Harry spotted platinum blond hair; it was Draco Malfoy – obviously the Slytherin Quidditch Team was returning from their parctice, but they seemed to be rather dissatisfied, murmuring some complaints about the shamelessness of the Ravenclaw Team.
One of the younger Slytherins saw Harry and Hermione staring at them from the top of the stairs, so he told them frustrated, "What is it, Potter? Why are you looking like that? Are you going to throw us out of here, too?"
Draco seemed to be a little worried about his teammate's statement, and after taking the most hostile of them to the door leading to the dungeons, he turned to Harry. "I apologize for my teammate's rudeness; the Ravenclaws simply drew us out of the pitch due to a silly misunderstanding. That's why they're so angry right now."
"It's all right," Harry simply said, and when the members of the Slytherin Team had disappeared in the dungeons, he tried to perform the Locator Spell again, but he could no longer concentrate enough on it – his hands were shaking too much.
"You know what – let's end the searching tonight. The dinner will be ready just after a minute," Hermione suggested to him and, after receiving an affirmative answer from her friend, she muttered something incomprehensible about the actions of the Quidditch players.
In the next few days, they also stopped to the very different places at Hogwarts, which made Harry more and more anxious and grim. Besides, the fact that Ginny tried to treat him in especially tolerant and understanding way, strangely, only seemed to worsen his mood.
Practically without even noticing it, Christmas had approached, and the professors began to get ready for finishing the first term of the school year.
Professor Switch was the first having the last lesson before Christmas. For most time of the lesson, he simply announced each student's earned term mark out to the class of the quietly murmuring students and, if he was in doubt about the mark, he asked that student to demonstrate something from what he or she had learned during the term. Of course, Hermione received Outstanding without any additional testing; Harry got Exceeds Expectations and Ron also got the same mark after a little longer answering and suffering, but to Ginny and Luna Switch decided to leave E. For Ron's regret, Malfoy barely evaded of getting a failing mark as Switch raised it from Poor to Acceptable after a successful demonstration. Harry noticed that it in some way this made Hermione feel delighted for a second as she smiled secretly.
There were still ten minutes left until the end of the lesson, and Pansy was brave enough to ask if they could finish the lesson sooner, because he had already told everyone their mark. Harry had to agree that this was one of the extremely rare case when Pansy had said something sensible – the festive mood was already in the air, if only because they were allowed to whisper something to their classmates during this lesson, which was absolutely prohibited during Switch's regular classes.
"Don't be so insolent, Miss Parkinson," Switch said sternly, giving her even a harder look, so that she practically shrunk in her seat. "However, when the Christmas is only a week away, I could entertain you with an anecdote if we are feeling like it's already the holiday."
His students looked at him as if two horns would have grown up on their teacher's head. Professor Emerald Switch, always as strict as McGonagall, was now going to tell them an anecdote? Harry, then indeed, couldn't believe his ears.
Though, the professor took the silence in the class as an affirmation, so he began.
"Once a troll, a hag and a leprechaun all go into a bar and start talking about their troubles with their spouse's mother.
A hag begins to complain that she hates her mother-in-law so much, she is thinking about giving her a transfigured broom. – Just think about it, she says, she'll fly high, high in the air, but then suddenly the broom will lose its magic and she'll fall and hit hard the ground, and I'll be rid of her.
A leprechaun now is putting forward his plan. – I think I'll buy a ticket for her to some distant resort. And I'll pay with my leprechaun gold and the ticket will be one-way only.
A troll now tells his intention, making additional growling sounds. – Me thinks me needs do this – me gets a very big bag with unicorn nail powder, you know, this thing helps us much when us have a very big headache. Then me just makes a very big pill and put it on the stump in the middle of our cave for her. She'll come in and start wonder – oh, what a very big pill this is, and meanwhile me comes to her from the back and stab her with an ax, with an ax, with an ax."
The students, who had started smiling at the part about the leprechaun, laughed at the end of the anecdote. Besides, Switch did let them go five minutes before the bell had rung, and everyone, indeed, felt as if the Christmas had come already. And then later among the seventh-years, here and there during their conversations one could hear an answer for some questions: "With an ax, with an ax," followed by a lot of laughter.
The next day, Dawlish also finished his lessons in a similar way giving Outstanding for all D.A. members without any exception, but the Auror didn't take an example from Switch and didn't tell any jokes.
And to the delight of her friends on Friday night, Hermione had decided, because of the holiday feeling, to take a break of studies, so she watched with pleasure how Ron challenged one Gryffindor after another for a chess game. He played really well, and Harry was glad to see that Hermione was obviously proud that her boyfriend was the best in some kind of field.
Still having the festive mood, the friends also decided to dedicate their time to relaxation also in the next day after Hermione's meeting with McGonagall and then they could go for a proper walk to Hogsmeade.
But before that, another surprise awaited them during breakfast, when several owls landed in front of them in the Great Hall, dropping small rolls of parchment tied with green ribbon. They unfolded their each own roll of their message and read that it was an invitation to the Slughorn's Club Christmas party tomorrow. Harry smiled a little about it – Christmas indeed had arrived in an instant. He wondered – where those first months of the term had vanished?
After breakfast, they had decided to visit Hagrid on the way while waiting for Hermione. The giant, as usual, received them with his wildly bearded smile.
Hagrid put the kettle with water on fire and began to talk about his observations in the Forbidden Forest. Now, as it was the winter, the whatacrows have calmed down, so now he has been able to peacefully choose the Christmas trees for the Great Hall. Then tomorrow, Hermione will have to help decorate them.
While discussing various details about life at Hogwarts, they barely noticed the two hours passing by, when Hermione was already knocking on the door.
Hagrid got up and went to the door; he opened it and welcomed the girl inside.
"Wait a second, I'll pour yeh tea," the giant said to her as he took a large cup and placed it on the table in front of Hermione.
"Thank you, Hagrid," she said as the giant poured a hot drink into her mug.
"So, Hermione, how's it goin for yeh with that Malfoy boy? Haven't yeh thought about strappin him somewhere far away in the dungeons?" Hagrid asked with a grin.
"Hagrid, I could only tell you the same again that we're just walking through the dungeons along the Slytherin Common Room and the kitchen without paying much attention to each other," Hermione replied a little annoyed. Harry could understand Hermione's reaction, because Hagrid liked to tease her about it every time they came visiting their big friend for tea.
"That's not very long to walk them down the corridors of the dungeons, but yeh were quite a long time away this time. Really, don't I have to go unstick that Malfoy from a wall?" Hagrid still pressed on further. Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat because he knew Hermione's secret – she helped Malfoy with his studies, especially Transfiguration, Potions and Arithmancy. But what if Ron, when finding it out, will begin to think that this seems too suspicious or even misunderstands everything?
"It was nothing like that, Hagrid," she simply stated. "There was no duty today, because I had to go to the meeting with McGonagall. She's planning to open the Room of Requirement during the holiday. Meanwhile, I and Malfoy will have to patrol at both ends of the hallway at a safe distance and make sure no one accidentally gets near it."
"Oh, then she's goin to let that hell out of there," Hagrid said thoughtfully. "Yeh see, I heard some time ago, them say that this room is gettin suspiciously hot."
"It definitely isn't safe to keep such a bomb inside the castle," Ron agreed.
"Look, Hagrid, but what's going on in the Forbidden Forest?" Hermione asked. "Haven't you seen anything suspicious or unusual?"
"No, Hermione, I can't think of anythin unusual right now. Everythin is the same every year – when the winter comes, the forest is full with snow and it gets calmer," Hagrid said, wondering a little about her question. However, Harry knew well why she was asking this – if there was someone who could have noticed if something unusual was wandering through the forest, disturbing the usual order, it was Hagrid. But if there was nothing like that in the forest, what exactly had he been tracking down this week?
After exchanging a few more words for the goodbye, they joined the last walkers to Hogsmeade, and on this cloudy but calm day, they went for a long and snowy walk to the favourite nearby magical village of the students of Hogwarts.
Arriving at the main street of the village, Harry saw that nothing had changed significantly here, but the village had gained a gloomy feeling, since some of the windows of the houses were barred with boards, and some of the usual shops no longer offered their goods.
"Shouldn't there be a musical instrument shop?" Ron wondered.
"I think you are right," Hermione confirmed, looking at a remote, recently closed store. "But last time we were here, it was still open."
"There were a lot of people of Hogsmeade who died in the war," Ginny said. "It seems it's not easy for the new owners to go into business."
"The supply in Honeydukes is also reduced to a half," Ron added as they walked down the street, looking at the snow-covered houses. "Its owner lost his wife and is now struggling with the shop's business on his own, but I suppose there are times when it feels extremely difficult to deal with everything alone."
Harry soon saw it himself that Ron's words were true, when they entered his favourite candy shop. Although the stock of the products was fewer today than in the past, but it didn't prevent them from buying their pockets full with chocolate, Blowing Gums, Every Flavour Beans, and Ron's favourite Cauldron Cakes. Harry even laughed when he saw on the cake stand also Canary Cream – the former invention of Fred and George.
However, Ron was more sceptical about it, "I wonder does George know about this?"
Having left the warm and fragrant shop, they took a slow stroll down the street until they reached the side street that lead to the Hog's Head Inn. Although it was a bright daytime when one could already start to think about lunch, this street looked especially dark and gloomy. Probably because it looked like half of the houses were abandoned.
The frost began to bite their fingers a bit, so they decided to turn back and go to the Three Broomsticks Inn. Butterbeer and hot lunch was exactly the thing they needed now.
Harry opened the door to the usually crowded inn and was glad that at least nothing much had changed here – there were a lot of people, some eating lunch, some drinking a drink with a little bit of alcohol in it. There were some professors at a few tables, chattering lively with their colleagues.
Most of the tables were occupied by the groups of students – including Jodie and her friends – but at the few two seat tables here, Harry saw Neville and Hannah and at another small table there were Draco and a dark-haired, pale girl whom Harry recognized as Astoria Greengrass from his Alchemy class.
With a particularly gloomy expression, Ron looked at the bar of the inn, where they had to order what they wanted for lunch.
"What's the matter, Ron?" Harry asked, noticing his friend's sudden change of mood.
"Rosmerta is gone," he replied sadly as they approached the bar. "On the first visit to Hogsmeade this year, I learned that she was in the front rows of the army next to Aberforth. She had wanted to prove that she was loyal to you after being possessed by Death Eaters for so long. But she didn't survive the Battle of Hogwarts. So then some distant relative of hers is running all the business here."
Arriving at the bar, Harry ordered a glass of Butterbeer and day's offer of lunch from the young, sedulous hostess, who was as blonde as Rosmerta but not even half as beautiful. A moment later, he heard that his friend had chosen mead instead of Butterbeer at lunch – Harry thought that his choice was strange. The girls, on the other hand, chose to drink plain lemonade.
When they took their seats at the table which was freed just a second ago, Harry asked Ron about it.
"What's the point of being an adult if you can't buy a decent beer?" he just said, but Hermione rolled her eyes at it.
"Yeah, right, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the present owner of this pub brews Butterbeer differently," Hermione commented.
"And so what if it's true?" Ron said grumpily. "One way or another, but without Rosmerta, it's not the same."
Drinks were soon brought, and Harry could taste it for himself – the taste of this Buterbeer had a strange sour tinge now. The changes had also affected the students' favourite pub after all.
When they had finished eating the beef stew with sauerkraut, they decided to go and take a look at Shrieking Shack, but luckily or unfortunately it looked as pathetically gloomy as ever. On the way back to Hogwarts, their conversations were rather short, because it seemed that the Shrieking Shack had awakened the unpleasant memories of the terrible events in the night of May the second in their minds. Voldemort then had chosen Shrieking Shack as his place of residence… from which a secret passage led to Hogwarts.
Maybe Hagrid hadn't noticed anything suspicious in the forest, because Voldemort was hiding somewhere else? Harry was looking forward eagerly to the night when he and Hermione could search the castle, when they wouldn't be delayed by crowded libraries, courtyards and corridors.
Having wasted their time for the rest of the day, friends went to dinner with their gloomy thoughts in their minds. As a complete contrast, Neville sat down next to Harry – he radiated happiness like the warmest spring sun as he greeted his Gryffindor friends.
"Hello to you too," Harry replied, taking a look at Neville at the same time trying to force a smile on his face.
"Neville, you look so happy today," Ginny stated the obvious fact.
"Saying that I'm happy is an understatement," he replied cheerfully and then added with a dreamy smile on his face, "I'd rather say I'm blissful!"
"I'm so glad for you, Neville," Hermione said sincerely.
"Does your happiness have anything to do with Hannah?" Ginny asked boldly. A barely noticeable redness appeared on Neville's cheeks.
"Um, yeah. I finally got my courage up to ask her on a date, so today we went to Hogsmeade together," Neville told his friends, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"Did you kiss her?" Ron asked him with a grin, but Hermione glared at Ron with that-was-so-insensitive look. However, Neville blushed even more and raised his eyes suspiciously against the sky in the ceiling.
Harry smiled at his friend's reaction and put his hand on his shoulder, "I wish you to be happy with Hannah. She is a smart and good girl."
Neville looked at him and replied with a smile, "Thank you."
"And what exactly did you both do on your date?" Ginny asked again, also obviously rejoicing in her friend's happy mood, and Harry remembered that Ginny had always helped Neville in the past before she became his girlfriend and had talked to him now and then so that he wouldn't feel so lonely. But her questions had also reminded Harry of his own first time, when Ron and Hermione had tried to get out some facts of him about his first kiss with Cho in a rather awkward conversation. Back then, he had felt two contrary feelings: on the one hand, there was the feeling urging him to shout out his "feat" to the whole world, on the other hand, it felt so personal that no living soul should know about it and such a thing he should only take with him to his grave. But while Harry was immersed in his thoughts, Neville had begun to tell how he had met Hannah in the Entrance Hall, and then they both were talking, chattering, and laughing, while taking a slow stroll to Hogsmeade.
Even later in the evening chattering with Neville, time flew fast, and the clock was already showing five to nine, when Hermione remembered worriedly that she had to go to Filch to attend her patrolling duty. Then Harry arranged with Hermione to meet her soon at the Trophy Room and rushed upstairs for his Marauder's Map and Invisibility Cloak – the usual set for Hogwarts night pranksters. He also took a whole bunch of small glass vials out of his suitcase. He still had to sneak down to the Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom to scrape out the last leftovers of the essence from the bottom of the cauldron.
It didn't take long for Harry to meet Hermione at the door of the Trophy Room, after he had provided the supplies needed to amplify his spell.
"So, I have my duty in this exact wing of the castle from the third to the seventh floor today," Hermione said in a soft voice, "so we have to worry only about Mrs. Norris. Then at midnight, I'll be replaced by Filch."
"Okay, so we have time until midnight," Harry concluded. "And now it's twenty past nine, so we could explore the castle all over everywhere as much as we like it." So far, it seemed that their search had a good beginning.
At first, Hermione wanted to spend the first half hour, making sure the hallways were actually empty, asking Harry to hide under his Invisibility Cloak. Having checked also the upper floors, Hermione escorted the last of the members of the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Houses, who were late to return to their respective Common Rooms, and then at ten o'clock, the castle fell into silence as it sank into shady darkness – there were just some portraits snoring or some squeaky helmets of the sets of armor.
Having taken off his Invisibility Cloak, Harry took his Marauder's Map out of his mokeskin pouch and looked at a few dots wandering through Hogwarts. Somewhere on the second floor of the East Wing, Mrs. Norris was heading down the corridor, Switch was on his duty near her, then Draco was patrolling at the lower part of the West Wing, and Alicia was watching over the part of the North Tower and fortifications.
"Until midnight, there are usually two on-duty persons, but on Fridays and Saturdays, they are put more in the hallways. After midnight, there is only one person in charge, but after two o'clock everyone goes to sleep," Hermione explained.
"It's a pity we didn't know it sooner that no one was patrolling through the castle in the morning," Harry chuckled. "Oh well, better let's start the search."
"Well, I suppose Mrs. Norris is definitely wandering throughout Hogwarts all the time anyway," Hermione objected thoughtfully as Harry took a tiny bottle of their half-successful Essence of Magic out of his pocket. "You know, actually, I suspect that she could be no ordinary cat, just like my dear Crookshanks. It wouldn't be a big surprise if she had maintained the peace of Hogwarts here long before Filch."
Harry wasn't in mood to think about cats right now, but since Hermione mentioned it, he had to admit that Filch's cat had always looked wiser and older that a normal cat should. It would be no wonder that her actual owner and witch was Hogwarts, but Argus Filch was just her ally in keeping the peace and order in this place.
Anyway, now was the time to turn his attention to Voldemort. Harry again began to focus on the unpleasant disgusting task and grabbed the lightly glowing vial of the magic essence as he started to cite the incantation of the Locator Spell, amplifying it with the spell of the Rite Chants created by Hermione.
Harry saw that the wand in his palm was turning in a certain direction. At the moment, they were at the Grand Staircase and his wand clearly pointed west to the upper floors.
Harry and Hermione rushed excitedly in the direction that led them to the direction of the Owlery. However, somewhere in the halfway, they noticed that his wand had started to oscillate. The Library Wing and the Hospital Wing were nearby. However, exploring these two usually public places, his wand tended to point west again as if there was nothing special in there. Then they decided to go to the Owlery and perform the Locator Spell there again – this time his wand oscillated indefinitely somewhere about the direction to the East practically making a semicircle.
Carefully studying Switch's movement in the East Wing of Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione sneaked there and performed the Locator Spell. They got a perfectly clear West direction. When checking the spell also at the northern side where Alicia patrolled, his wand pointed undoubtedly to the west part about in the direction of the Owlery, but as they approached it, walking down the corridor on the fifth floor, his wand began to oscillate again until it refused to show any direction at all when they were very close to the Owlery, which was located near the Ravenclaw tower.
"You know what; I'm utterly confused right now. The wand pointed somewhere to the west before, but now it's not working at all," Harry said, perplexed. "If the Diadem had to be somewhere near here, shouldn't the signal be stronger and the direction clearer?"
Contrary, Hermione just smiled. "I think it all becomes clearer now," she said. "You see, the fact that we now end up in about the same place, but we can't place a precise location means…"
Suddenly Hermione was interrupted by a strict voice, "Miss Granger, may I ask you what exactly Mr. Potter is doing with you right now?"
Harry and Hermione spun around and saw the very Headmistress of Hogwarts coming towards them. They had indeed been close to the teachers' bathroom on the fifth floor, from which McGonagall had been on her way returning to her Headmaster's office, already having changed into her tartan pattern sleeping robe.
"Um, yeah, Harry is…" Hermione began to stutter, not really knowing what kind of answer she should give.
"Yes, you know, since Christmas is coming, I volunteered to help her on her duty. She is my best friend, so I just wanted to make her a company so Hermione doesn't feel so lonely," he explained, making an innocent expression.
McGonagall's face changed from surprise to comprehension. "Oh, well, of course, I should have already thought of it that you just wanted to help your dear friend, especially before Christmas. But after half an hour, when your duty is over, Miss Granger, you both have to be in your beds, okay?" McGonagall said.
"Of course, professor," they both replied at the same time.
Then after wishing them a good night's sleep, McGonagall headed to the stairs that led upstairs to the upper floors until she disappeared behind the corner.
"Phew, you really saved us," Hermione praised him. "I simply couldn't make up anything at that moment and we definitely couldn't start explaining her that we were looking for Ravenclaw's Diadem."
"Actually, this exact excuse that we are going to help you had once saved both Ron and I. It worked again," Harry whispered with a chuckle. "But what exactly did you want to tell me about the searching?"
"Oh," Hermione whispered, remembering, "the way your wand behaves tonight may mean that the subject we're looking for is probably located on the west side of the castle, but it has been charmed with some protective spell, like Unplottability. After all, he had put all kinds of protective spells on all of his Horcruxes."
"The Unplottability Spell? But doesn't it mean that it's not allowing to find the searching subject at all?" Harry asked anxiously.
"That's right, Harry, that's exactly what it means," Hermione said, sounding too happy for Harry's liking, but then he thought about it more carefully.
"But we actually detected a signal and located some kind of area, then it means the Unplottability Spell doesn't work so well after all," he understood.
"Exactly. Apparently we have amplified our spell to such an extent that we have been able to break through the Unplottability field. If we could figure out how we could amplify our Locator Spell more, then it could be probable for us to determine the direction more accurately," Hermione said happily. "But now I'll take you to the Gryffindor Tower and then go to Filch's Office to sign that I've finished my duty."