Chapter 34: The End of Term
The morning of the next day dawned quite gloomy and clouded. Likewise, Harry's eyelids seemed only to be able to open if he would stick matches between them. However, he managed to slip out of his bed after ten minute napping while Ron trying to wake him up for several times – today was the last N.E.W.T. exam in Defence Against the Dark Arts. He wanted to perform every task perfectly; this one was his favourite class after all and this knowledge had also proved to be the most useful fighting against the dark wizards.
As he made his way down to the Great Hall, Harry began to feel better and better – in fact, everything was more than fine at the moment. They had finally found the Diadem! And very Voldemort was in his pouch hanging around his neck now, trapped in Narcissa Malfoy's sapphire necklace. All that was left to do was to destroy both of these items and they would truly have rid the whole world of the darkest wizard ever for good.
"Hello, Jodie," Harry greeted the Ravenclaw girl cheerfully as he walked down the grand marble staircase next to her. She gave him an odd look, greeting him back reluctantly.
Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and most of his other classmates were already eating their breakfast food.
"I see, you actually did manage to get out of your bed," Ron stated with a smirk. "I was starting to think I would have to go and pour some water on you after breakfast."
"I'd rather pour some liquid inside me," Harry replied, still grinning, as he poured some cool pumpkin juice in his glass.
"Then you'd rather check it if it's not too stiff," Ron said, teasing his friend, and then they both laughed softly. Hermione gave them a suspicious look, but that didn't change the fact that Harry felt incredibly happy. Even the dark clouds overhead seemed to have a silver lining. Summer had begun, there was only this exam left, and their days off would start tomorrow.
"Smile, Hermione," Ron said to his girlfriend, patting her on her shoulder. "Finally, we have found what we were looking for all year long."
"But it's not over yet," Hermione argued softly, taking a bite of her toast.
"So what could possibly go wrong?" Ron asked.
"Do you really want me to explain it in detail?" she asked, looking at him like he didn't know what he was talking.
"Okay, okay, relax," Ron said evasively. "I know, no joking around before the exam."
"It's not that, Ron," Hermione said with a sigh and she gave Harry a strict look as well. "We only found the Diadem. Until it's destroyed, I still feel restless. In other words, don't count your chickens before they hatch."
"Of course you're right, Hermione," Harry said. "Bet you also have to admit that we have really accomplished something finally. Today we're going to pass the exam and then in the evening, we're going to plan carefully what to do with it, and then we're going to get done with it for good."
"Of course, you're right," Hermione agreed. "But I still think it's too soon to be happy about it."
The breakfast was over soon, and the writing part of their final N.E.W.T. exam began. Harry filled in the answers of the exercises and required descriptions almost with a laugh – of course, the main topic was the use of defensive spells, and he had used those countless times. Harry read the next question, "Please, describe the symptoms of the Imperius Curse. Why is it one of the Unforgivable Curses? Do give examples of situations of its usage!" He knew answer of this too, since he remembered the first disguised Moody's lesson and how he himself had used this exact forbidden curse on one of Gringotts goblins, which, of course, Harry wasn't going to write about in his exam paper.
There was quite some amount of sand left in the hourglass when Harry had already given the answers to all of the questions. He reread them again and added a few more words to some of them and then reread them again once more. The exam was over then, and Professor Slughorn charmed their answer sheets to his desk, almost ripping the parchment sheet out of Luna's hands.
They all walked out of the Great Hall so it could be rearranged for lunch as they discussed lively the process of the exam.
"This was a piece of cake!" Ginny said with a smile.
"I agree, I gave answers practically without thinking at all," Harry said, agreeing with her with a smile.
"Please, give an example of an illegal use of magic!" Ron quoted from his memory. "Like the Death Eaters hadn't used it a lot. I wrote loads of facts about this guy Peter Pettigrew." Ron seemed to still take it as an insult that Pettigrew had chosen to be his pet.
"Hermione, how it comes you still have nothing to say about your exam answers?" Ginny asked, because Hermione usually couldn't be silenced after an exam – she was always excited to discuss it over and over. However, now she looked oddly thoughtful and seemed to flinch at Ginny's question.
"Are you okay, Hermione?" Ron asked, also noticing her pensive mood.
"Don't you think that the exam was a little bit… wrong or something?" she finally asked in a soft voice.
"Wrong?" Harry asked. "How can an exam be wrong?"
"You see, in the summer, I asked Bill about his N.E.W.T.s, and he said that half of the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam was about various dark creatures – Dementors, Inferi, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls. But in our exam…"
"There was only one question about werewolves," Harry knew what she wanted to say, but he still didn't understand what exactly she meant. "So what? The exams may vary from year to year. They even must vary."
"It's not that," Hermione replied. "But didn't you see that it was kind of biased? It was like if the ministry didn't want to test our academic knowledge on the exam, but rather they were trying to collect information from us."
"You mean they were like spying on us?" Ron asked, frowning.
"Yes, technically they were doing that," Hermione stated as she began to follow the chattering crowd, making their way into the Great Hall for lunch, "Like they were interrogating us; like they were looking for evidence of illegal methods of magic usage or dark magic."
Harry thought back about the exam questions, and indeed Hermione was probably right. The questions had seemed so practical that perhaps it was their goal – to find out if any of the students knew something useful for any investigation, or maybe they were hiding something.
"Well, anyway," Ginny said, "I don't think that our answers will somehow hurt us."
"It won't affect us in any way, that's true," Hermione agreed, "but some Slytherins could be interrogated if they carelessly gave their answers." The young people took their seats at their golden lunch plates.
"You know, I wouldn't mind if Parkinson gets to jail because of her stupidity," Ron said. "Maybe she also knows where Lestrange is hiding."
"Well, if some of them are so thick that they had bragged in their exam paper how they had been shooting dark curses left and right a year ago," Ginny agreed with her brother, "then they really should be interrogated properly."
"I meant the fact that I don't think such a method was fair, when such information was collected and given to the Aurors with such trickery."
"You don't think it's fair?" Ron asked in disbelief. "What difference does it make how fair it is, if it helps to get rid of the evil from among us?"
"Because," Hermione began to explain, "there must be a reason why the good ones are the good ones. If our enemy uses forbidden methods and we do the same because of it, then how are we actually different from them? The good is not good just because we want it to be such. Good is good when we act honestly and justly without finding any excuses why we can be evil."
"Wow, you really have quite an opinion," Ron said simply.
"But am I wrong?" Hermione asked.
"Of course, not," Ron agreed with a smile. "You're right extremely often, and that's why I love you."
Hermione smiled, blushing a bit at his words, but then soon, they were about to get ready for the practical part of the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam.
Harry thought for a moment about what Hermione had said. Indeed, how can you tell the good from the bad in a war? Doesn't everyone think they're fighting on the right side?
But there wasn't much time for long pondering, since Professor Griselda Marchbanks called everyone in and led them to the small additional chamber at the end of the Great Hall. Apparently, they are going to be called out in small groups again now.
After waiting for a rather long time as he was thinking over and over again all the possible spells that could be asked of him, Harry heard his name called along with Pansy Parkinson and Jacob Prewett. He entered the Great Hall, where three examiners waited for the students at the teachers' table.
"Oh, hello, Harry Potter," Professor Pence addressed him as he approached her. "Do I need to examine you at all?" she asked him jokingly with a smile.
"Hello," Harry said awkwardly as he readied his wand.
"Oh, well then, for starter, tell me and show how you'll defend yourself if a simple curse is cast towards you."
Harry began to tell her about the Shield Charm and he remembered how he had taught it in the D.A. class to Dean, Seamus, Fred, and George and others and how Neville finally had succeeded it. After asking some more questions about the use of this spell, Professor Pence asked him to conjure a Patronus, and the exam was over for him already. He looked at his wristwatch – it had lasted less than ten minutes.
There in the Entrance Hall, Hermione was already waiting for him as she was standing not far away from a group of Ravenclaws who were actively discussing their successes and failures in the exam.
"How was it?" Hermione immediately asked.
"It was easy, just the Shield Charm and the Patronus," Harry said with a smile.
"That's interesting, I had to demonstrate the counter-curse of Medea's curse and the protection of a banshee's scream," Hermione told him.
"But that's much more complicated than my task. It kind of doesn't seem fair," Harry said.
"It is so, isn't it? I did say this exam doesn't seem fair," Hermione told him, smiling. "Well, a Patronus actually isn't one of the easiest spells, so maybe it's not that bad."
"Did you manage to figure something out about the Diadem?" Harry asked quietly as he shot a quick look at the group of Ravenclaw students.
"Not really. We should look up for something in the library. I suppose we should search for some kind of Light magic," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"Alright then, let's wait for Ginny and Ron now," Harry suggested and Hermione agreed with him. They had to wait for their friends quite a while, but meanwhile, he overheard a fragment of the Ravenclaws' conversation.
"It's a pity Terry couldn't make it to the final exams," Lisa said. "What actually did happen to him?"
"Romilda told me that his mother got sick with Dragon Pox so badly he needs to take care of her since she's lying on her bed all day long now," Anthony explained.
"That's terrible!" several Ravenclaws gasped.
"I hope she'll recover soon!" added Morag.
So Romilda had done her job and it had worked.
After dinner, they rested a bit and then they headed to the library. However, Madame Pince looked at them like they were crazy, "Haven't you already finished your exams?"
"We just want a little bit of peace and quiet," Hermione replied, giving the librarian a friendly smile.
"Oh well, but today I'm closing the library entirely, so I need everything to be in perfect order," said Madam Pince.
"Entirely? Like entirely for the whole summer?" Ron asked.
"Of course, for the whole summer," madam said grumpily. "Just please don't say that you wanted to come to the library tomorrow, too. You have to go and fly with those brooms of yours in the Pitch."
"No, no, we don't. Tomorrow we're going to play Quidditch. We aren't coming to the library any other time," Harry simply said before Madam Pince got angry and had kicked them out. He guessed she also wanted to take a rest, and they indeed were the only ones who wanted to spend this evening in the library.
Madam Pince gave them a suspicious look and went back to her desk to check the condition of several books, but they approached a desk as far away from the annoyed librarian as possible.
While they were taking their seats, Hermione had already taken a quick run in between the bookshelves and was following the spines of the books with her finger in the air. Finding nothing useful there, she soon turned to other shelves. After several moments, the girl returned with a few books.
"I didn't find much. There's a Guide to Light Magic, Illuminating the Dark, and Good and Evil," Hermione stated as she placed the books on the desk. "Maybe there could be some more in the Restricted Section, but we can't get in there now."
"Okay, let's check these ones we already have, maybe they give us some useful ideas," Harry said as he picked up a book with a title Good and Evil. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything useful at all. It seemed someone had tried to write an epic song story about Dumbledore fighting Grindewald.
"And he raised his wand flexible
As the White wizard cast a fire incredible.
It was met by a rainbow shield swiftly,
Which the Dark wizard put up boldly."
Harry read a few lines from the middle of the book. He looked at Ron and they barely suppressed their laugh.
"Well, such an epic song," Ginny said with a smile, too.
"What do you have there, Hermione?" Harry asked with an amusement in his voice.
"In the Guide of Light Magic, there's a lot of information of Patronuses. I find it interesting, there's said that they are able to protect the Patronus caster from all kinds of Dark Magic, and it's supposedly so because the Patronuses are "the aggregation of a heart power"," Hermione read out loud the last words from the book.
"So technically, a Patronus should be able to destroy a Horcrux?" Ginny asked in a bit of disbelief.
"You see, there isn't said anything about a Patronus being able to destroy the Dark Magic, just that it doesn't allow it to work," Hermione explained with a sight. "I suppose a Patronus could prevent the Horcrux affecting your mind, but I don't think it could do more than that."
"And what else there is?" Ron asked.
"Then there's something about the Lightning Spell, which is an extremely powerful pulse of light and an electrical spark," Hermione said as she flipped through the pages.
"And how about potions?" Harry asked. "Perhaps there's something that can destroy only the soul without affecting the Diadem itself?"
"I don't know such potion. It would probably destroy the Diadem as well," Hermione replied.
"But there's other types of magic besides light magic," Ginny spoke up. "We've got also fire, earth, water, and air magic."
"Well, considering fire magic, we know about the Fiendfyre, but we certainly aren't going to try that," Harry stated.
"The earth magic could be useful only then," said Ron sarcastically, "if you wanted to crush the Diadem with some kind of a heavy stone."
"Water won't help either," Harry agreed. "I doubt his soul could be drowned."
"Then the Lightning spell is the only option worth trying now," Hermione said wearily. "That is, if we actually want to try doing something before we finish it with the Basilisk venom."
"What time is it now?" Ginny asked.
"It's half to eight," Harry said as he looked at his wristwatch.
"Then let's go and do it for once and all," suggested Ron.
They all agreed that it would be safer to do the experiments in Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom, so they left the library, having put the books back neatly in their places, to the delight of Madam Pince. Harry hurriedly run up to the Gryffindor Common Room for the Diadem and met his friends again in the long-abandoned bathroom.
"Could you place the Diadem on the floor, please?" Hermione suggested, and Harry obeyed her. The girl took her wand and concentrated; then she pointed it at Ravenclaw's Diadem, exclaiming, "Fuliminis magnum!" A bright, crackling bolt of lightning shot out from her wand and struck the Diadem. It rose into the air for a second and then fell back to the floor with a clattering sound. The smoke rose up from the Diadem, but it didn't look like any damage had been done to the Horcrux itself. Harry leaned closer to the Diadem and he could still feel the evil inside it easily.
Suddenly, Harry felt like something had twitched in his mokeskin pouch. He reached into it and grabbed a chain, and pulled out the Slytherin's Locket – no, he didn't need it. He reached into his pouch again and this time he pulled out the necklace he wanted – Narcissa Malfoy's sapphire pendant and he put back the Slytherin's Locket right away which was once again covered with several brown spots again. Harry carefully inspected the sapphire embedded in the metal frame.
"Guys, don't you think this sapphire did glow brighter green before?" Harry asked, trying to keep anxiousness out of his voice.
"It did, Harry," Hermione confirmed, looking at him worriedly. Would this mean the effect of Lucius Malfoy's Dark Arts was wearing off?
It seemed that Voldemort's imprisoned soul had like taken a deep breath of fresh air and had regained some of its strength once freed from the pouch. Harry suddenly felt in his hand a strange, warm tingle and he let go of the necklace as he shook his hand intensely.
"Ouch, it somehow bit me!" Harry said as he glared at the blue gem.
"We'd better get rid of those two bloody things fast," Ron urged.
Hermione tried the Lightning Spell on the Diadem again, but it failed to destroy the Horcrux. In the meantime, a kind of greyish, shapeless mist had begun to emanate from the sapphire gem.
Ginny pointed at it and said, "I think we're having a trouble."
Hermione tried Petrificus Totalus on the mist that had just come out and it seemed to freeze. "Get that Basilisk venom, quickly!" she exclaimed.
Harry rushed over to the sink with the tiny snake engraved on it. He tried to remember Parseltongue, but his mind felt oddly blank. Ron approached next to him and helped him remember. "Open – I guess it sounded something like that," Ron hadn't managed to say it precisely, but Harry now remembered the correct pronunciation and he opened the large hole of the pipe.
"You two stay here," he said as he turned to the both girls, and then he and Ron jumped down the pipe. After falling down for a while, they went deep underground, landing on a layer of rodent skeletons. After climbing over the fallen rocks, the two of them rushed into the Chamber of Secrets, where the snow-white skeleton of the Serpent King lay, still showing his fearsome venomous fangs, which some of them had been broken off by Ron and Hermione before when they had destroyed the Hufflepuff's Cup.
"A few will do," Harry said as he broke off four of venom fangs, then he took off his robes and carefully wrapped them in the cloth with Ron's help. The least he needed to injure and poison himself with a deadly venom, and there were no phoenixes around here anymore.
Then the two guys rushed back right away as quickly as they can. Giving the fangs to Ron, Harry was the first to climb over the rocks, and then Ron gave the dangerous package to him as he freed his hands to make it easier for him to get over the rocks. But then they both stopped in their places.
"Ron, how did you and Hermione get back the last time?" Harry asked confused.
"Yeah, you see, Hermione conjured a sort a platform and then lifted both of us back up with the Levitation Charm. But I'm not sure I'll be able to conjure such a solid platform now…" Ron said pondering.
"Oh!" Harry actually knew a way of very fast travelling. "Kreacher!"
The elf appeared in front of two of them in a second. "Kreacher is ready to serve you," the elf said resolutely, but then he muttered softly, "Even though his master asks him to go to the utter hellhole."
"Kreacher, we only need you to take us back up to the Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom to Hermione and Ginny. Can you do it?" Harry asked kindly.
"Of course, sir," the elf said submissively and held out his hand. The young men grasped it and a moment later, after feeling strangulated in the narrow teleportation wormhole, they were standing in the long unkempt and abandoned Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom.
Harry's eyes widened in horror as Hermione and Ginny seemed to be trying their best to confine Voldemort's soul, which was desperately trying to escape the necklace.
Harry quickly unsheathed the fangs from his robe and grabbed one of them; he swiftly stabbed the Diadem with it, ignoring the soul shard's efforts to weaken his resolve. Oh, just shut up, he thought, and after the stab, there immediately oozed a thick, pitch-black mass out of the Diadem along with the venom, which seeped further along the floor, and a sound of a heart-tearing scream echoed from the walls. Meanwhile, the mist seemed to flinch.
Harry grabbed the next fang and hurriedly slammed it into the sapphire gem. It broke into pieces, but this action did nothing to the mist.
It started to make its way towards the exit, but Ginny cast the Freezing Spell, and Voldemort's soul froze, forming in the mist something like a face with snakelike features. He had apparently mutilated his soul so much it could no longer appear in a shape of a human.
Hermione had an idea.
"Harry, place another Basilisk fang in the middle of it, do it quickly," she ordered.
Harry didn't have to be told twice. He grabbed the third fang and hastily tossed it into the middle of the ghostly grey mist.
"Anima incarcero," Hermione exclaimed as she pointed her wand at the last part of Voldemort's soul. It began to seep into the venomous snake fang and it turned into black dust, which covered the immediate area around it; and there was left only pitch black soot around the fang.
"Phew, it worked. Before, I tried to imprison it back in the sapphire," Hermione explained with relief, "but, I guess, the home for the soul needs to be prepared properly first. Therefore, after a second, it started to break out again; but this time the venom in the fang managed to destroy it."
"Indeed, phew," Harry agreed with a smile.
"Well, we've finally destroyed that monster," Ron said, also smiling as he patted his friend on his shoulder.
"And he got a few little freezing spells from me, too," Gin said with a smirk, though Harry saw her body was trembling so he went over to her and hugged her.
Hermione carefully approached the destroyed Diadem and used her wand to vanish the nasty fang and to clean the venom from the metal band; then she picked it up to take a closer look at it.
"Unfortunately, the Diadem looks badly damaged," she announced as she brought it closer to Harry, Ron, and Ginny. The back part of it where Harry had stabbed it with a fang had melted completely. The rest of the Diadem seemed to be covered with black ulcers, only a small part on the opposite side of the place, where the fang was stuck, was shining a bright metal and was still adorned with the large sapphire gem. The remaining moonstone had turned ugly greyish.
"There's still a bit of the front left," Ron commented. "And look at it from the bright side – that hole in the hoop allows you to adjust its size."
Hermione smirked. "Yeah, that's a big comfort, you know. But I still want to try it on anyway; I wonder what happens if I put it on my head?" she said curiously as she was looking at the Diadem.
"Good old Xenophilius said it was supposed to increase wisdom," Harry said.
"And that's the reason I don't think you should put it on your head," Ron added, still grinning.
"Why not?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"You are already too smart. If you get any smarter, it could become harmful to one's health," Ron joked as he was saying it with exaggerated seriousness.
"In what kind of way can it be harmful to my health?" Hermione laughed as she placed the Diadem on her bushy hair.
"If you'll get any smarter, then, I guess, you could become too proud to communicate with us, and then I'll die out of sadness. I didn't say it would harm your health," Ron explained with a smirk, while Hermione gave him a warm smile.
"Well, how is it? Do you feel anything?" asked Ginny, who was halfway out of Harry's embrace now.
"Oh, yeeeeah, I do," Hermione said in an emphatic drawl. "I feel that standing here with such an old metal piece on my head is absolutely silly!" And they all laughed joyfully as they were overwhelmed by the knowledge that they had finally defeated the darkest wizard ever.
And they had achieved it cooperating all together, joining their forces with both the experimental knowledge of the Lovegoods and the collection of the Dark Arts by the Malfoy generations, and Flamel had also shown the usage of his Alchemy skills. If they hadn't all combined their knowledge, Harry alone would never have found the Diadem and would never have destroyed Voldemort completely. Only through cooperation Harry was able to face Voldemort's cunningly prepared secret; only by befriending and forming alliances with seemingly strange or unusual wizards had he been able to eliminate the world's greatest evil entirely.
Harry took away his quill from the parchment sheet and turned his eyes to the other one as he read the next question. "14. Please give your opinion, which color of Gilderoy Lockhart's robes made him look the most respectable as a Hogwarts professor?" Harry smirked at the question, but his thoughts drifted off once again to the events of the past few days as the wheels of the Hogwarts Express clattered over the rail joints.
Yesterday, he and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team had had a match versus Slytherin. The weather was great for Quidditch then – it was clouded a little so the sun didn't shine in the eyes, but in any other way it was warm and calm. The game had started quite evenly as the Gryffindor Chasers were only a few shots in the lead, but they needed a load of points for the Quidditch Cup since they didn't get the points for catching the Snitch in their first game versus the Ravenclaw Team. Contrarily, the Slytherin Team had won both of their previous matches, so they only needed to get at least 30 points to win the Quidditch Cup. Harry had delayed Draco catching the Snitch several times, though as the game went on until late afternoon, their Chasers weren't able to gain even half of the enormous amount of points they needed to even get out of the last place. So when there was a dangerous situation, Harry decided to catch the Snitch anyway. He remembered how Malfoy had already reached out, the Snitch was just a few inches away from the Slytherin Seeker's palm, but he was right next to him too. He had simply called out, "Hey, Malfoy!" as a distraction, and Malfoy hesitating for just half second had been enough for Harry to catch the Snitch right under his nose. The crowd cheered in excitement, and this was the first time when there were hooraying both the Gryffindor and the Slytherin stands. The Gryffindors congratulated their Seeker on winning the game, and the Slytherins had won the Quidditch Cup in this school year's Quidditch season. That night they had celebrated their victory in the common room as they were cursing the Ravenclaw team in every way for their lost points.
Then this morning, was the last day of the school year with its usual the End-of-Term Feast and headmistress's last speech as she wished everyone a warm and nice summer as well as to receive the exam results for those who were waiting for them. Today, there was a big surprise for Hogwarts students they hadn't experienced for decades – Hufflepuffs had the most House points. Some people knew that Hufflepuff House hadn't won the House Cup for at least twenty years – it had always gone to Gryffindors in previous years, and before then, the Slytherins had had it for seven years in a row, and even before that Ravenclaws had won it a few times, so the Hufflepuffs were overwhelmed with joy now. Ernie hugged Hannah happily, but he let go of the girl quickly as he glanced at Neville. Justin started jumping up and down like a little boy who finally got what he wanted, and some younger year girls were holding their hands together as they were merrily spinning around each other. Even the Fat Friar floated proudly with his back straight, and Professor Sprout seemed to have a tear of joy in her eye. Even though it wasn't Harry's House who had won the House Cup, the excitement over the golden badger decorations hanging in the Great Hall at the next table was contagious. It seemed to be true – shared joy is a double joy, but a shared sorrow is half a sorrow.
Having eaten while their stomachs were overly full, they had gone outside, but before they could see the Thestral-drawn carriages, Hagrid had called all the seven-year students to him.
"So, are all the graduates here?" Hagrid had asked in his hollow giant voice. Then they had waited for a few more overjoyed Hufflepuffs, and then Hagrid had led them all down to the boat dock as they were walking in a long line following each other.
"Since there's Hogwarts tradition yer comin' here with these boats, then yer are leavin' it with the same ones," the giant had addressed them. "But don't get in there four anymore. You've grown big and heavy, so better be two or three in each boat, otherwise yer go down to the squid."
Harry had laughed softly along with the others. He and Ginny stepped into the nearest boat while Ron and Hermione took the one next to them. It slowly and evenly began to slide forward over the calm water of the lake until the grandiose Hogwarts Castle came into view.
It was clearly visible during the day, and Harry had looked closely at all of its many turrets as he quietly whispered to himself, "Goodbye, Hogwarts. You were like home to me." Then he looked at Ginny, who also examined the castle. Now we are leaving into our own life and will be able to build our future together. The redhead turned to him and smiled warmly as she looked in his eyes…
"What are you doing, Harry?" suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice. Ron had returned from his patrolling duty as he came into the compartment, Hermione following right behind him. He took a quick look at Harry's writing as he sat down next to Luna, who was talking with Ginny about their future plans. Ginny was now telling her friend that she was going to apply for the journalism course organized by the Daily Prophet.
Harry glanced at the sheet with questions again and, without answering Ron, he turned to Hermione right away, "Hermione, which one is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite color?"
"It's lilac," she answered without hesitating a second. "Why?" she asked suspiciously.
Harry wrote down her answer. "I'm writing a reply letter for Lockhart. After all, it was because of his letter how we actually discovered Voldemort's disguise." He smiled at his friends as Hermione took a seat across to Ron, next to Ginny.
"You still remember Lockhart's favourite color?" Ron asked in a teasing voice as he looked at Hermione.
"Just leave it, okay?" Hermione replied grumpily. "Harry asked and I answered, that's all. I'd rather like to know how you occupied yourselves here while I and Ron were herding the potential second-year students back to their compartments," she said as she turned to Luna and Ginny.
"Oh, Harry gave us the Diadem, so we inspected it," Luna began excitedly as she took the Ravenclaw's Diadem out of her bag.
Hermione looked at it suspicious. "Harry, did you give her the Diadem for keeping?"
"No, not at all," Luna said happily. "This is just a copy. I want to show it to my Dad so much; he'll be so happy to see it. Though, the Diadem is damaged, but he'll be able to produce a true replica of it in his free time. Besides, he wouldn't believe me otherwise about all of our experiences!"
"Actually, Luna, how's your dad? I suppose he isn't back yet to his home, is he?" Ron asked.
"No. The Aurors say it's still too dangerous. Lestrange isn't arrested yet, so my Dad has organised the printing of the Quibbler somewhere safe and protected," Luna told him.
Suddenly, Hermione began digging in her bag as she had remembered something until she took out yesterday's copy of the Daily Prophet. "I didn't want to bother you before the game yesterday, but Harry, Ron, and Ginny, you should definitely read this." She handed the newspaper to Harry first. He put aside the letter to Gilderoy Lockhart, unfolded the newspaper and looked at its first page.
THE NEWLY BUILT LABORATORY OF HOGWARTS ALCHEMY PROFESSOR IS ABANDONED
Below the title was a large black-and-white photo in which there were calm surroundings, just the distant trees swayed a little in the wind in the background. The gray, half-finished new building looked even more gloomy and dark than Harry remembered it from their visit there, when they were invited by Professor Flamel.
The text of the article was placed around the photograph.
The Daily Prophet has received news from worried residents of Hogsmeade that they hadn't seen or met Professor Flamel at least for a week. The neighbours next to his laboratory also report that they are finally getting their sleep now, since the laboratory had been humming and glowing non-stop for the whole month before regardless of the heat of the day or the blackness of the night. Despite their inconvenience, they express their concern though that they would not want anything bad to happen to the professor.
Madam Puddifoot claims that Professor Flamel hadn't been in her Tea Shop for food since last Friday, although he was always a frequent guest during his laboratory experiments. "He came here to buy the buns I bake every day. Always for taking away. His looks then made me think like he hadn't had a proper good night's sleep since he built that lab of his. And the last time he came here on Friday for some fresh rolls, he bought a full bag of them as usual, and I couldn't guess at all that it was the last time I see him." The reporter of the Daily Prophet got similar information when inquiring about the circumstances of this case to Minerva McGonagall, the Headmistress of Hogwarts. "On Friday, June 11th, was the Alchemy examination for the N.E.W.T. students, and after supervising it, the professor left Hogwarts Castle, most likely to return to his Hogsemeade laboratory, where he conducted his latest experiments, on which you can read about in his published article in the newest issue of the Transfiguration Today. The professor has not been seen at Hogwarts since then."
However, Professor Flamel's sister, Alice Oakwood, claims there is no reason for concern. "There's always a trouble with him. I've heard before so many times him saying that he needs a very, very little bit and he'll figure out the way to produce the Philosopher's Stone, but in the end he achieves nothing. I'm sure he'll turn up after some time, having a bunch of weird things and substances, and start doing that his Alchemy again, like nothing had happened." On the other hand, the respected Archibald Aberratius, the chairman of the Alchemists' Guild, comments that Professor Flamel's latest research could make a revolution in the field of Alchemy. In addition, after the publication of the scientific article by Professor Philip Flamel on June 3rd, Mr. Aberratius has started the construction of his own round laboratory.
The greatest concern among the residents of Hogsmeade and other people close to Professor Flamel is caused by the fact that the circumstances of this case do seem quite strange, as if he had disappeared without any trace. Also, the officials of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, investigating Flamel's laboratory, have concluded that there are absolutely no signs of a break-in or a fight; moreover, in the laboratory with its austere arrangement, there is not the slightest disorder at all. This leads one to believe that his disappearance isn't related to the notorious Death Eater group led by Lestrange, however, the residents of Hogsmeade are worried because this is the first mysterious case of a missing person since the days of the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named terror.
The Daily Prophet expresses its hope for Professor Flamel to turn up soon and promises to inform all readers on further development of this case.
"Flamel is missing," Harry said in disbelief as he looked at Hermione and Ron.
"What could have befallen him?" Ron asked in surprise. "Did someone do something bad to him?"
"Or was there an accident?" said Ginny.
"Or maybe he's run away with all his discoveries," Hermione said grimly. "Alchemists can never be trusted."
"You mean he could really have invented the Philosopher's Stone and had gone off some other place?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Mhm," said Ron, "to start a new life, having a name, let's say, John Johnson."
Everyone laughed at that, except Hermione. "I've told you before that the history of Alchemy is indeed cruel and bloody. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised at all, if he had a reason to run away," she argued.
"But what could be the reason for him running away? He seemed a very nice professor when I worked with him," Luna said to Ron; then she gazed to Harry.
"I think he might want to hide what he had so recklessly revealed to the rest of the world. It's a good thing, he didn't mention your name in his article, Harry," Hermione said.
"Or someone kidnapped him to get the rest of the information out of him, which he hadn't published in his article," Luna stated thoughtfully.
"Anyway, let that matter with Flamel be," Hermione said with a wave of her hand, "there's another article over there you should read."
Harry flipped some pages forward and soon found the article Hermione had meant. On the fifth page next to the advertisement of Malfoy's Apothecary, was printed a headline, AURORS PREVENTED ATTEMPTED ATTACK.
Lestrange's grim face loomed under the headline, and the article recited the report by Martin Hunter.
"Lestrange is acting again," Harry said anxiously as he glanced at Ron, and he began to read aloud the text printed in the newspaper.
"There had been received news from the Head of the Auror Department, Martin Hunter, that on the night between June 17th and 18th, there was a new attack attempt by the Death Eater group led by Lestrange. This time the target of their attack was the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes Shop in Diagon Alley, owned by George Weasley; the goal of the attempted attack was to challenge Molly Weasley out of her protected hiding place again.
Fortunately, the Aurors had managed to stop the attack before it happened, saving George Weasley and his friend Angelina Johnson from the intended arbitrariness of the Death Eaters. "Luckily, the sensory detection spells we had set up had worked instantly and we were able to immediately arrive as soon as they appeared at Diagon Alley, catching them off guard. However, the Death Eaters, upon seeing us, teleported away in a second, only managing to cast the Dark Mark burning on the window of Weasleys' Shop. Unfortunately, we still aren't able to locate their teleportation arriving place. This task currently takes up most of the Aurror Office's resources. Capturing Lestrange now is ours and the public safety priority."
As it was reported earlier, Lestrange, the most dangerous officer of the Death Eater group formed by the fallen He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, is still at large. The Auror Office keeps welcoming everyone to report any information to them that may contribute the capturing of the dangerous Death Eater."
"Hermione, why didn't you show us this yesterday?" Harry asked.
"I didn't want to distract you from your Quidditch game, and it doesn't make much of a difference whether you read it yesterday or today," she replied.
Harry felt a little worried about this news, however, looking at Ron, he realized his friend was barely holding his anger. Their joy over the wonderful weekend was swept away.
Ron looked up at Harry's eyes with strict determination. "That Lestrange must be caught no matter what." Harry agreed with him – they needed to become Aurors and catch Lestrange; there were no other options.