Chapter 27: Anticipating the Quidditch
The madness of expecting the Quidditch game, of course, culminated on Friday, when the players of both the Ravenclaw Team and the Slytherin Team couldn't be left alone so they were always escorted by their housemates. Jodie was only seen in the company of her chatty friends; Terry was accompanied by his best friend Anthony wherever he went, occasionally Romilda also joining them; and Malfoy had always with him Davis and Nott.
Harry and Ginny practically didn't see Ron and Hermione that day – they were both nonstop busy with their authoritative duties. With the exception at the Defence Against the Dark Arts class by Dawlish, they met their friends only in the night, when Ron was so exhausted that he didn't even object Hermione when she headed in a straight path to sit next to Harry and Ginny.
"Crazy day, huh?" Ginny asked.
"You can't even imagine," Hermione replied wearily as she stroke Crookshanks who had jumped into her lap just a second ago. "The Toenail-Growing Hex and the Leg-Locker Curse – I think I'll be able to do the counter-spell for them even in my sleep now. And today the most popular was Hair-Tangling Hex. Half of the Ravenclaws and Slytherins had such hairstyles one could think they had just come out of the very depths of a forest. I and Ron checked about a hundred wands. Slughorn and Flitwick were likewise busy, too. They were literally exhausted of taking away the points from the rule breakers. I wonder which one of the Houses is the last in the House Cup competition now – Ravenclaw or Slytherin?"
"I think I saw Slytherin still having a few points," Harry said with a grin. "But they're losing those more with each bypassing second. And the Hufflepuffs seem unusually happy now – it's one of those rare times when they are in the lead with their two hundred and fifty one points."
"I just don't understand it," Hermione said angrily, shaking her head. "Why anyone would need to make such a mess because of some silly Quidditch? Who actually needs all of this?"
Ginny smiled at it – of course, Hermione never understood the passion of the sports. "Eh, Hermione, there are people who find their everyday life boring and tiring, and then the sport is the one thing that allows them to feel another world of emotions, to feel like belonging to a certain group of people, and in such a way they are getting rid of everyday worries and anxieties."
Hermione just laughed at it. "I'd rather say that stupidity is what such people need to get rid of." Even Ron laughed at her harsh opinion.
"Well, there were plenty of idiots we had to deal with today," Ron finally spoke up. "One of them tried to tell us that he had not targeted Lisa, but instead had wanted to hex a funny hairstyle for Peeves. He had wanted to talk him into making a hairy fart right behind Filch. And one definitely needs to come up with such nonsense when Filch was standing just behind the corner. I barely managed to stop Filch from ripping apart that idiot. Well, I'm exhausted. Good night." He said as he stood up to go to the dorm room. "Hairy fart – really?" he just laughed under his breath as he walked away.
Hermione, too, seemed overly exhausted, so all of them went to their beds, anticipating the new events of the tomorrow, since then was planned the Quidditch match. Though Harry couldn't fall asleep easily, so he took out his Marauder's Map and examined all the far corners of the castle – what if Ron was right? Besides, it would be more than foolish not to check it now, when they had no exact idea what to do next in the regard of searching the Diadem. However, after a few hours, as Harry had scanned every part of the dungeon of the castle, he didn't find any wandering dots there. The Slytherins stayed in their Common Room, but the other chambers of the dungeons were completely empty. There were no living souls of any kind. Or at least they weren't there at those parts of the Map that his father and his friends had drawn on it. If there was a secret room, of course, it wouldn't appear on the parchment. Maybe he should ask Malfoy about secret areas in the dungeons? Pondering about all this matter, he finally fell asleep after some time.
The morning of the next day dawned partly cloudy and windy – it was a suitable weather for a Quidditch game. As usual in the last few mornings, Ron got up a few minutes earlier than Harry and hurried down to wait for Hermione as they later stepped down to the breakfast together without uttering a single word to Harry.
Harry also got dressed quickly and went downstairs to the Common Room, hoping a little bit that maybe this morning he would be able to start a normal conversation with Ron. Yesterday, he had spoken in his presence, although he hadn't addressed him – it wasn't much, but at least it was a half-step forward.
However, Harry failed to do so as both girls were already stepping down the stairs on the other side of the tower, so he hadn't the opportunity to start the conversation with Ron. So they split into two pairs and started their way to the Great Hall for breakfast.
When leaving the Gryffindor Tower, if then everything still seemed calm as usual, then as they approached the Entrance Hall, there was a feeling of exceptional excitement vibrating in the air. The students were truly looking forward to the first Quidditch game of this year having fun chatting or exchanging with some usual attributes of the Quidditch spectators, like the Omnioculars, so there were a lot of student clusters at the door of the Great Hall making congestion.
"Granger!" a voice of a young man called somewhere nearby. "Granger!"
Hearing it through the murmur of student chattering, Hermione and Ron stopped, and Harry and Ginny had to wait, too, because an unusually large number of people continuously wanted to get out or enter the Great Hall. They turned to the direction where the caller was standing and saw that it was Malfoy.
The blond guy made his way to Hermione, who had raised her eyebrow in a surprise.
"Granger, listen, I know that the Quidditch means nothing to you, but I have to be on the Pitch in an hour and a half, so could we make our patrol really quick, ok?" Draco said it all in a single breath as he shot an awkward glance at Ron.
"Actually – one starts the conversation with "Good morning" first," Hermione reprimanded the blond guy.
"Oh, yes, yes, – good morning," he said anxiously quickly.
"It's alright, don't worry about it. Go to your Quidditch Pitch; I'll deal with the patrolling duty alone," Hermione simply said.
"Are you serious?" Malfoy asked happily.
"Yes, I am. Just go and play your game. There hasn't been a single Boggart in the dungeons for weeks, and I'm not afraid of those your first-years," Hermione said with a grin.
"Really?" Malfoy asked again, and when Hermione confirmed it with a nod and saying, "Well, yes, I mean it!"; he added, "You really are gold!" Then for a moment, he seemed to hesitate like wanting to hug her, but then he quickly spun around and rushed through the crowd to enter the Great Hall.
As they were holding their hands, their speed through the crowd was much slower and Harry could hear Ron say to Hermione, "Well, well, how it comes that you've become so welcome to Malfoy's needs?"
"Did you see how edgy he was today? During the patrolling, I'll have no use for him, besides, I'll be able to enjoy my time without enduring his annoying person," the girl replied as she smiled at Ron.
Ron also smiled back at his girlfriend, but then added seriously, "But I won't let you go to the dungeons alone."
"I wonder how are you going to manage that?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Because I'll go with you. What if I have to save you from a Boggart today?" he added with a smirk. Meanwhile, they had entered the Great Hall and strayed so far away from Harry and Ginny that they could no longer hear their conversation through the particularly loud chatter of the student voices.
The next part of the morning was spent in a pleasant atmosphere of excitement, of anticipating the Quidditch, as after breakfast slowly filled in the seats of the Pitch. Harry also enjoyed watching the game when he didn't have to take part of it himself.
The game started as any other Quidditch game, and as usual in the beginning, both Seekers – Malfoy and Jodie – didn't have much to do, they rushed forward a few times only for some accidental flashes of light. Every now and then, Alicia Spinnet had to apply a penalty for the Ravenclaw or Slytherin Team in the tense moments. When a few hours of the game had passed, after noon it started to get more intense, but the score still remained close to even, until Dean shouted into his microphone: "IT'S THE SNITCH!"
And indeed, both Seekers had dove in a fast acceleration towards the ground as Jodie flew just a few inches ahead of Malfoy. The whole Pitch seemed to go silent, following the two Seekers as everyone was holding their breath; only Luna's hat with the eagle on top of it made a loud cry. As they rushed down almost to the level of the grass, which had now begun to grow through the grey grass of last year with small green sprouts, both Seekers managed to straighten their brooms as they grabbed along the ground, but both had nothing, but dry, grey tufts in their hands, so they kept rushing forward. Jodie reached out – she practically had the Snitch – but suddenly there was the edge of the Pitch and one of its Stands, and the Snitch instantly shot up, right into Draco Malfoy's hand, who had tried to avoid the approaching Stand a second earlier. A little bit awkward waving his hand, the Slytherin Seeker finally grabbed the small ball, but the Ravenclaw Seeker had just managed to turn sideways so that she didn't hit the Stand straight with her nose, but only lightly touched it with her side.
Malfoy lifted the Snitch in the air excitedly for everyone to see it, and the Slytherin stands exploded in a loud hurrah; though, Jodie's eyes – as Harry could see it very well in his Omnioculars – said that she would like to kill someone with her bare hands.
Naturally, Ravenclaw students weren't pleased of the result of the game at all, and they had lost a huge amount of their House points during the time of the pre-Quidditch madness, so now they were in the last place. At least the Slytherins had now calmed down, but the angry and hostile Ravenclaws made a lot of problems for Hermione and Malfoy, as they had to do their Head Girl and Head Boy duty.
This, in turn, meant that Harry very often had to deal with everything without having Hermione's valuable advice and assistance in studying matters. In addition, Harry was getting increasingly frustrated by his constant failures. Starting his list of troubles, there was the fact that he hadn't been able to deal with the most important thing – he still hadn't found the Diadem or even made any sensible progress towards it; Ron still was mad at him like an angry wolf; besides, he was the only one in Alchemy who couldn't control any of the elements, and he couldn't cast the nonverbal spell for conjuring the rain of stars no matter how hard he tried. He had even read a book on facial transfiguration charms that Hermione had suggested buying last summer, and had tried to conjure up a beard on his face, hoping that at least that could work, but he ended with his eyebrows so long and thick that he could part them like curtains if he wanted to see; so this also went to his rather long list of his failures and troubles. Then Harry had decided to solve his troubles one by one despite everything, starting with the Star Rain Spell Flitwick had asked them to learn, so he was practicing it every waking moment.
The next Wednesday afternoon, when Ginny hadn't arranged a Quidditch practice for them, Harry was struggling hard again with concentration on the amplifying spell for sparks, having a sweat on his forehead. Ginny was with him, though she was working with Switch's new homework on practicing Conjuration – they needed to learn how to conjure back a previously vanished thing.
"Harry," she said, grinning, "I think you've mistaken one thing – you've inflated your cheeks like a bullfrog, but in the fairy tales it usually happens so that frogs turn into princes, and it's not the other way around."
Harry laughed at her comment, but his joy was short. "I just don't get it how to cast that Star Rain Spell. Hermione said it could be cast nonverbally if you concentrate your mind on the spell rhymes and then let them like flowing through your hand instead of pronouncing them. I'm concentrating as much as I can, but I can't make anything more than a few weak sparks any first-year could conjure up. And your presence isn't helping at all," he added at the end, half admonishingly, half playfully.
"Well, I think this nonverbal spell casting is a bit overrated – if I really need to conjure something like that, I doubt anyone is going to protest if I whisper the spell words quietly," she told her point of view.
Then Ginny began to cite softly under her breath:
"Rite, rite, the rain of stars,
Let them fall on the ground so far."
And a gorgeous jet of stars came out of her wand and the sparks were slowly falling down to the ground, glistening.
"Well, I know how to do this much, too," he said grumpily, and then he recited the same words and a second later there showed a stream of the stars out of his wand. The two of them stood now, looking at the stars slowly falling down, which immediately faded when contacting a surface.
A few moments later practically all of the stars had fallen to the ground and disappeared, and then Ginny took his wrist and glanced at his watch. "It's ten to six. The dinner will be ready soon. I'll just go to the loo and then I'll see you at dinner, okay?"
"Then I'll see you at the dinner table," Harry agreed, and Ginny reached up to his face on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss on his cheek, then she left the classroom, waving her hand a second before she closed the door.
When Ginny was gone, Harry struggled with the spell for another minute as his face got red like a tomato, but he still couldn't squeeze more than a dozen sparks out of his wand, at least not when he tried to do it silently without saying any spell words out loud.
The young man sat on a desk, feeling desperate and gazed at the ceiling as the bitter thoughts started to run through his mind. What if Ron was right or at least he was partially right and Voldemort was really wandering around here somewhere, lurking in the darkest corners of Hogwarts castle? Harry had searched over the dungeons part of the Marauder's Map practically every night. If Voldemort was hiding in a secret area which was not on the map, he would still need to get out of his hiding place sometime. However, Harry didn't see even the slightest hint of a dot with Voldemort's name on it; he only saw now and then the names of Pansy Parkinson and Harper Rowle wandering in the tunnels late at night. Harper Rowle studied the same classes with him, but was from Ginny's year and he played in the Slytherin Quidditch Team. Given that they used to stay for a while, presumably in the especially dimly lit places of the dungeons, it was hardly that they did there anything that would concern Harry. He had even tried to examine the Marauder's Map during the quietest hours of the night and very early in the morning, making notes on his research in the diary given by Hermione, but then he didn't observe the slightest movement of anybody, not even the Slytherin couples having fun in the dark. Also, a careful search of the Slytherin Common Room on the Map didn't yield anything useful, since the dots were so many overlapping each other that it took him at least ten minutes while he found the dot of Draco Malfoy, so it seemed almost impossible to find a specific name in the huge crowd of the dwellers of the Common Room. And yet he had devoted some time to this task as well – but he didn't find anything unusual in the tangle among the dots with the names of Slytherin students.
On his last visit to Hagrid, Harry had also asked his giant friend about all the events that had taken place in the Forbidden Forest. Wanting to know if there was any news in the forest everyday life or if something unusual had happened, Hagrid had begun to tell everything in detail, "I'm happy yeh asked, Harry. There's such a crazy things goin' on. I really don't know what to do. Yeh know, the centaurs and spiders have crossed their swords."
Then Ginny had laughed at this, "Hagrid, but neither the centaurs, nor the spiders have any swords."
Hagrid had laughed at it, too, "Yeh're a funny girl. Yeh know, it's just a sayin'," and then the giant went on, "Yeh see, they've practically started a war. I can no longer freely walk in the Forest. I have to be careful for one moment later and there's an arrow shot in my backside or then there's a tuft of hairy legs fallin' on my head. But I need to go in the Forest for I have to feed my little Thestrals; I can't starve them."
But when asked if something else had happened, maybe there's some unusual creature wandering through the Forest, Hagrid just waved his hand and declared that the Forest feels like always. Even the whatacrows were gradually starting to fly away. "I suppose them don't like those centaur and spider quarrels very much. Eh, I'm almost sorry about that – I started to like them. They were fond of the Flobberworms my third-years did tend," Hagrid said with a smile.
So Harry hadn't been able to find any confirmation of their assumption that Voldemort might be near the castle. And yet he needed to take into account that they could have missed something. As far as he had discussed this matter with Ron and Hermione already in the summer, it was likely that Voldemort, if he had transformed in his ghostly form, had somehow managed to get out of the Great Hall through all the chaos there and would have hid in a dark corner. Harry remembered that Quirrel had said that he had voluntarily let Voldemort into his body, which meant that Voldemort wouldn't have been able to possess a person against one's own will. Harry doubted that he could have accidentally met Lestrange and possessed him. As Voldemort had admitted in Harry's first year, he had embodied in mice and other animals before, so Harry hoped that this time Voldemort would do the same.
This morning after the Potions lesson, Harry even had a sudden thought that maybe he should ask Slughorn more about the Horcruxes. It may happen that he could inspire some useful idea for them.
Following the professor up to the Entrance Hall along with the student flow, he had tried to figure out quickly how to formulate his question. But meantime, in the Entrance Hall, the professor had turned to the marble stairs and was heading upstairs, towards the new stream of students, who were arriving at the stairs, starting descending them.
"Hello, dear Horace!" Harry heard a feminine voice coming from the top of the marble stairs to the first floor. He was about to put his foot on the bottom step of the stairs, after excusing Ginny that he needed to do something as he wanted to follow Slughorn, but he froze as he changed his mind at the last second.
"Hello you too, my dear and good Septima," Slughorn greeted her back and climbed the last steps to the top of the stairs, where he met Professor Vector, the teacher of Arithmancy. The Potions Master looked at his colleague, stroking his enormous walrus-like moustache a few times – and there was a reason – even though the Professor of Aritmancy was a middle aged woman, her dark brown eyes and her dark auburn hair could still captivate the hearts of old gourmets. Harry was no longer going to climb up the stairs, but slipped next to them, hoping that Slughorn would soon keep going, after having a small talk with the Professor of Arithmancy.
"Horace, how are you dealing with your students now? It seems they've calmed down a bit when the game is over," the dark-haired professor asked. "At least this week I didn't have to reprimand them so much in our class."
"O, yes, I've managed to control my Slytherins. Here I have to express my gratitude towards my Head Boy Draco Malfoy. He really is trying hard to do his job – well, I'm even starting to think that maybe he could actually go places. That is, one may think of Malfoys what one wants, but they've never been dumb.
Anyway, it's calmer now – last week, I had to ask McGonagall to place my patrolling duty on the timetable before midnight only – you know, I'm no spring chicken, so please accept my apologies, Septima, that you had to take my late night shifts," Slughorn told her.
"Everything's fine, Horace. I can only admire how you are able to deal with all your duties. Being the Head of a House and having to teach the core subject for all seven years of Hogwarts students – I'm sure you have a secret source of energy," Professor Vector praised Slughorn.
"You really know how to flatter me, Septima," Slughorn said, feeling admired as he stroked his moustache again. "In my old age, actually there's no energy left. I think I'll need to go to McGonagall and ask her to look for a younger professor for the O.W.L. students and younger years. I myself rather admire Filius, then. It's been a relatively peaceful week for me now, but he still has to deal with the bitterness of a lost game. This year, the passions of the Quidditch are indeed high. I've worked here for many years, but such a rivalry I've seen just a few times, but on the other hand, this is a particularly difficult year, now; it's a time just right after the fall of You-Know-Who, so we practically have eight courses, which makes an unusually large number of students dwelling in the castle. No wonder there's such a tension between them."
"You're right," Septima agreed. "After the war, there's always only misery and sorrow. The war has never done anyone any good."
"These are golden words, my dear Septima," Slughorn just kept chatting away with the other professor as Harry still waited impatiently pretending he was nibbling with the buckle of his bag. But during the professors' conversation, Harry had begun to consider his quick idea – should he really do this? Slughorn was no fool, so he could easily suspect something was wrong, besides Harry's experience told him it's hardly that Potions Master will very openly start to tell him any information about the Horcruxes. After all, he had hidden his shameful memories even from Dumbledore.
"Excuse me, Septima, I think I'll keep going my way up – I left my stomach ache remedy in my office. Without it, I won't be able to eat my dinner. Old age isn't a pleasant thing," Slughorn made an excuse.
"Of course. Take care of yourself and enjoy your meal," the professor wished with a smile.
"Please, don't start to reprove me, you too. It's already enough for me that Poppy constantly reprimands me for my eating habits. But I'm sure you know the saying that you can't teach an old dog new trick. And those crystallised pineapple – I just can't say no to them. And my dear Gwen just sent me a whole box of them! In addition, she wanted to know whether she could come to one of my meetings for the second time. It seems that my former students are attracted to Hogwarts this year like never; I can't recall having so many guests in my meetings in one single year," Slughorn just kept talking. But meanwhile, Harry had reconsidered his idea that it would actually be too dangerous to ask Slughorn about Horcruxes – it could upset him and make him anxious, besides Harry doubted that he could tell him anything useful without really knowing what it was all about. So the young man left the professors at the top of the stairs and hurried into the Great Hall for dinner as he made a quick glance at the House point hourglasses, seeing only a five sapphires at the bottom of the Ravenclaw one.
Harry stopped thinking back and sighed bitterly again. Then, feeling even more desperate, he pushed up his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. It was just a few days away for Easter – it was on this Sunday – but they had no progress at all towards finding Diadem in the second part of the school year. They had investigated practically all of the empty classrooms and secret passages, Hermione had read the whole bunch of the Dark Arts books also even from the Restricted Section of the Library that she was close to knowing them by heart, in their free time they had tried the Locator Spell, but having no success. So he wanted to have at least one thing he could work out, that's why Harry was determined to master at least this Star Rain Spell. If he can't even cast one simple spell, how could he deal with the most difficult of his tasks?
He got up resolutely again, concentrating his mind hard as he pointed his wand forward. Although he felt he was holding his breath again and his cheeks were getting red and inflated, the spell halfway to his hand somehow just faded. He didn't understand what exactly he was doing wrong. Why – just why – he couldn't perform this – one – little – bloody – spell!
This made the hopelessness washing over him, so he rubbed his eyes again with a bitter grin. It was the last thing he needed that someone, say, Peeves would find him crying alone in an empty classroom.
Harry looked at his wristwatch – it was ten minutes past six. Dinner had started, and Ginny was likely waiting for him at the dinner table.
That night, Harry was at least lucky enough to meet Hermione. After dinner, he had practiced vanishing and conjuring various things up out of thin air together with Ginny, until after nine o'clock they had returned to the Common Room, where he simply sat on the couch with his girlfriend. His mood was gloomy, and as the time approached ten o'clock, he had already started to think that he should go upstairs to the dorm room and spend quite a lot of time to carefully study the Marauder's Map until he would finally be overwhelmed by sleep. Ron was sitting not far away from them in the company of Neville, but then a portrait hole had opened, and rather tired Hermione had entered who sat on the couch closest to her next to Harry and Ginny.
"Hey," both Harry and Ginny greeted their friend at the same time.
"Yeah, it'll be just 'hey' and 'good night'," Hermione laughed. Ron looked at his girlfriend suspiciously, but their seats were hardwood chairs, so it was no wonder she longed for comfort after a long day. "Oh, and hello, Crookshanks," she added as she saw her pet, who jumped on her lap, purring as always.
"Haven't those Ravenclaws calmed down now?" Ginny asked.
"It seems their rage had lessened a little bit. As you see, I'm back before ten o'clock this night. It's a progress," Hermione replied.
"Listen, speaking about progress – I can't cast the Star Rain Spell Flitwick told us to learn no matter how hard I try," Harry said seriously. "I'm concentrating on it all week long, but I just can't figure it out, though it works for me if I say the words out loud."
"Mhm, one could think he is trying to turn into a frog," Ginny added playfully as she gently prickled his side with her finger.
"Well, inflating your cheeks won't help the spell," Hermione agreed with a smile. "What kind of rhymes are you using? Maybe they're just too weak for the nonverbal version of the spell – it may happen so."
"I use 'stars' and 'far'," Harry replied.
"Yes, this could be the case when these rhymes are not suitable for nonverbal spell. I myself tried 'ride' and 'bide'; by the way Ron had joked with similar rhymes at the beginning of the school year, so I tried these and I was successful," she explained as she shot a quick look at her red-haired friend.
Harry took out his wand, feeling interested, and cited the rhymes in his mind:
"Rite, rite, the star in the sky you ride,
Come out of my wand and here you bide."
And indeed, he felt the spell flowing to his fingertips, like warming them as they gathered in his wand, and there shot out a spurt of golden sparks from the end of his wand – they weren't just a few weak and tiny stars anymore. Harry couldn't believe it. He had been so focused on the fact that he wasn't able to concentrate enough to lead the spell to his hand that he hadn't thought of the possibility that he was simply using the wrong spell rhymes. He wondered maybe his other troubles had such a simple solution?
Meanwhile, Ron was eager to meet Hermione, so he came to their three and sat down next to Hermione as he put his arm around her shoulders. He asked how was her patrolling duty, not paying any attention to Harry or Ginny.
When they had finished their small and sweet talk, Hermione started her bad habit and began planning things ahead, "So what are we going to have for tomorrow? It's already Thursday, right? And I haven't repeated anything for the Transfiguration yet!"
"There's not much to repeat," Ron said with a smile. "The most important thing of Vanishing is to remember: 'Do add the representative word, otherwise you won't see your treasure like you can't see your own ears!' and then everything will be fine." He rubbed her back soothingly with his palm he had put around her shoulders.
"I hope you're right. I just don't have any more energy left for today. I'll have to allocate more time for these exercises during the Easter holidays," Hermione said with a hard sigh, but Harry noticed that Ron's gaze had turned strangely unfocused as he looked into the distance.
"Hm, Hermione, an idea just struck me – if you vanish something with adding the representative word, you can conjure it up again even after a very long time had passed, right? I mean, it's a perfect method for hiding something, let's say, the Diadem," Ron explained his idea.
"Theoretically, you might be right, but I'm not so sure about the time limits; I doubt that after a long time had passed you could still conjure back the same object without any damage," Hermione began to object. However, Harry also had started to fancy this idea.
"But I'm sure Voldemort would certainly have known how to amplify the Vanishing Spell, so he could conjure back the vanished Diadem completely intact and in one piece at any time he wanted," Harry said, barely restraining himself from calling out in too much excitement. It even made sense; and his mind started racing. If Voldemort had vanished the Diadem with adding the representative word, it explained why they couldn't find the one exact place where it was hidden, and that's why it seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And it would really be an ideal hiding place, because then the Diadem was possible to be conjured up only by that person, who knew the secret representative word; it would be impossible for any other person; and that means that the Diadem was accessible only to Voldemort. And since he cannot be destroyed until the Diadem is destroyed, he had indeed provided himself immortality, using the wisdom of Ravenclaw and the cunning of Slytherin, all this being done under the nose of very Dumbledore. But then through all this pondering, Harry heard Hermione laugh softly.
"This theory of yours has one very nasty fault," she said with a grin.
"It's not our theory. I didn't ask his thoughts or anything," Ron said irritated as he glared at Harry. Hermione just rolled her eyes – she was gravely exhausted of their bickering.
Harry just ignored Ron's comment. "But Ron's idea really does explain everything, doesn't it? Why the Diadem can't be found with the Locator Spell and why it seems like having vanished into thin air."
"You two really need to take in your hands the Hogwarts, A History and read it for once," Hermione said a little reproachfully. "We already agreed that Voldemort was too proud to keep the piece of his soul among the old stuff in the Room of Requirement, so it's hardly he would have wanted to place it among… the feces."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked in confusion.
"You see, in the Hogwarts, A History, there's a chapter on the use of the Muggle inventions in order to improve the infrastructure of the castle and everyday life for the people dwelling there. So, you know, in one of the subsections of this chapter, there's said about the installation of a water and plumbing system, which was completely built in only in the 18th century," she explained, giving the both young men her knowing gaze.
"And by that you mean…" Harry began slowly.
"That until the eighteenth century everyone was pooping everywhere all around here?" Ginny was also shocked by this.
"Exactly. And then after, they vanished their poop," Hermione confirmed.
"Yuck," that was all Ron could say.
"So it means if we tried to look for objects vanished in Hogwarts without knowing their representative word, we would just bury ourselves… in poop?" Harry said making a wry face.
"That's right. And I'm sure Voldemort had made at least that much effort to read the Hogwarts, A History, so he was certainly aware of this exact fact," Hermione said, declaring it as there was no point in more discussions about this subject.
"So, who would have thought it, it turns out we have centuries old poop in the air all around here," Ron said, wincing.
Soon came and went the Easter holiday with its festive feast, where the elves had come up with like hundred new egg recipes. There were simple devilled egg halves with a variety of fillings, countless egg desserts and even rather magical shelled eggs, which could contain even very wondrous wizard things, and the Gobestones Club later held an egg rolling competition. Having rested during the short holidays, the young people began to actively prepare for the next part of the school year – their Quidditch game was expected in just three weeks, so Ginny had taken all available times for their Quidditch training on the Pitch. The Hufflepuffs also weren't only sleeping in their beds. The Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Quidditch Teams haven't been very successful in Quidditch so far, so this year the Hufflepuff House had a chance to win both the Quidditch and the House Cup, so they weren't going to let such a rare opportunity go past them.
Hermione was pleased with the fact that these three weeks after Easter passed in a much calmer atmosphere without senseless fights between the younger students of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Houses due to the anticipating of the Quidditch game. Harry couldn't complain about having too much attention either – it seemed that some people had started even avoiding him sometimes, but he just ignored them. There was no shortage of the conspiracy theories, and Skeeter was quick on publishing some juicy rumour about him in the Daily Prophet or Witch Weekly, and even the Quibbler rarely provided its readers with some especially peculiar article about him.
The time of these three weeks flew fast like a wind for Harry as there was a visit to Hogsmeade and the meeting of the Slughorn's Club, and then there already was the end of April, so at one moment, he just found himself putting on his Quidditch boots. Somewhere not far away from him, Ron was also dressing, still being mad at him and spitefully not involving into any kind of conversations.
As he took his broom, while listening to Ginny's speech, which consisted of exactly two words, "Go Gryffindor!", Harry went out on the green lawn of the Quidditch Pitch, which was surrounded by the high stands full of enthusiastic fans. Looking at the sky, Harry saw dark grey cumulus clouds he didn't like much as there were already dripping a few raindrops here and there. Then sounded the Alicia's whistle and fifteen brooms rose in the air as the Dean's voice sounded through the microphone, "And the game BEGINS!"
And so the game did begin as the Chasers were doing a great job, however the three of them of the Hufflepuff Team also couldn't be easy to take down, and Ginny had to put a lot of effort to get the Quaffle through the hoops guarded by the Hufflepuff Keeper. The Snitch had revealed itself practically at the start of the game this time, surprising everybody, and Harry couldn't even believe his eyes at the first moment when he saw it flying so close to the lower part of one of the Gryffindor Goal Posts; but the Snitch turned out to be deceptive – it suddenly made a quick move and slipped right past Harry's agile hand, shooting straight in the direction of the Hufflepuff Seeker. It hadn't been more than fifteen minutes since the start of the game, when everyone in the Stands was holding their breath as they were following the intense competition of the Seekers. The score now was 20:10 with Gryffindor in the lead.
But then, seeing the Hufflepuff Seeker heading fast towards the Snitch and already being too close to it, Ritchie aimed the Bludger in his direction, but it hit the Snitch instead of the player of the opponent team as it threw the small ball in an unknown direction. The Seekers needed to start the search for the Snitch anew.
In the likewise way, the Snitch tricked both Seekers a few more times until the moment Dean reported, "The result is 80:80 now – it's a draw; McLagor is already flying towards the Hufflepuff hoops. But what's that? The Snitch has reappeared! Will Potter and Hugh finish their match this time? Oh, look! Seaton intercepts the Quaffle and the Hufflepuff Team lines up to attack the Gryffindor Goal Posts –"
But Harry wasn't listening to Dean's voice anymore – he was flying in a neck breaking speed at the Posts guarded by Ron, because there was the Snitch. A fifth-year boy Andy Hugh, the Hufflepuff Seeker, was racing ahead in the same crazy hurry right next to him. It wasn't far until they'll reach the Snitch.
But then Harry noticed the danger with his skilful Seeker's eyes. Ron had focused all his attention on the Quaffle and wasn't aware that the Bludger was heading in his direction, aiming exactly at his temples, but the both Gryffindor Beaters, Ritchie and Bruce, were too far away to stop this Bludger. If Ron won't avoid it, it'll break his jaw. In the best case scenario.
The Snitch was already flying a circle around the farthest of the Gryffindor Goal Posts, but Harry made a quick decision – he instantly turned his broomstick sideways and at the very last moment, he hit the Bludger away, and just a second later Ron bumped into Harry as he tried to catch the Quaffle. Of course, the Quaffle went through the hoop and two seconds later the large crowd of spectators roared when Andy, the Hufflepuff Seeker, raised his fist in the air in the joy of the victory as the transparent wings of the gilded Snitch were actively flapping in his hand.
Ron gave Harry such a hostile look that even the rare raindrops falling down from the sky could've stopped in the air. When the whole team had gathered down on the ground, Ron finally snapped, "What the hell were you doing up there? Didn't you have to catch the Snitch?!" But meanwhile, Dean had announced the result, "240 to 80; Hufflepuff wins today's game! What an incredible match!"
"Ron, Harry just –" Ginny began, but her brother exploded in anger.
"Just thinking about something that is known only to him? You disturbed my catch and let Hugh get the Snitch. Can you explain it to me – why – the – hell – did you do that?!"
"Because you didn't see the Bludger that would have broken your thick head in two seconds," Harry also was losing his patience. He had sacrificed the victory only because he needed to save Ron. "Ritchie and Bruce were too far away to stop the Bludger, so I hit it away so it wouldn't break your jaw. But you know, if this is your thank you, maybe I should have allowed it to hit you. Because who knows, maybe an unconscious fall from such a height would have felt nicely pleasant or even have looked heroic."
"Ron, he's right – we saw it – the Bludger would've knocked you off of your broom if Harry hadn't hit it with his broom in the last second," Ginny said and the other team members nodded their heads affirmatively.
"Was really that Bludger so close? I didn't see any near me," Ron said thoughtfully, his voice sounding almost questioning as he glanced above in the sky, but meanwhile, Alicia had started to put the balls back in the box with the Summoning Charm.
"Ron, I'm sorry," Bruce said, "I was closer to you and I thought we're lucky that the Bludger was following Hugh, but then it suddenly changed its direction aiming at you. I was too far away from it, it was impossible for me to get to it. At best case, I would have gotten to you while you're falling and caught you then."
"The Bludger approached you more like from your behind and you were so focused on Seaton and the Quaffle, that's why you didn't notice the Bludger," Harry explained, speaking at the same time as his other teammates, and although the rush of the game was still bubbling inside of him, he tried to speak as calmly as possible. "And I don't care much about the lost game, but the unconscious fall from a height of fifty feet is no joke. No matter how angry you are with me and what are the exact reasons, but you're still my friend."
Ron gave Harry a confused gaze, then he looked at all his other teammates.
"No one of us is happy about the loss either," Quintia said, "but we'll have a much better chance of winning the next game if our best Keeper is safe and sound."
Ron looked at Harry awkwardly again, with a little blush, then he turned his eyes at the dreadfully high hoops of the Goal Posts and said, "Then I suppose – I indeed have to say thank you!" And the redhead hugged his old friend as he clapped with his hand a few times on his back. The other teammates also joined their hug, realizing that they might have lost a game today, but their Seeker and Keeper had finally reconciled and have fixed their friendship, which clearly promised them a happier atmosphere in their upcoming practices.