Another Halloween at Hogwarts.

HERMIONE VII

Numbers and equations scrambled on her sheet. In some way, for Hermione, it was like going back to the basics. Back in elementary school, she excelled in mathematics, like in all subjects. Most elementary subjects could be applied in some way at Hogwarts: writing, reading, history, geography, languages, even physical education could be useful in one subject or another. However, mathematics proved almost useless. With Arithmancy, she could finally use them. That may be one of the reasons why it was her new favourite subject. With all the respect she owed to Professor McGonagall, the subject Professor Vector taught was even more interesting than Transfiguration.

Now that she thought about it, she wrote twenty centimetres so far for McGonagall on Switching, the exchange of physical features between two objects. But this homework was not completed yet. There was also her homework in Charms she needed to revise. She thought this morning about a thing or two she might change to make it better. And there was Professor Binns' homework on the case of Jack the Ripper, the most infamous and one of the last witch killers of history, known even among Muggles. Hermione remembered something she read two summers ago while she stayed in Harry's home, something about a witch who killed this man, but she couldn't remember the name of the witch. She tried to find it in the library, without success. She raged, since Hogwarts' library rarely failed her. Though maybe it was because she didn't have enough time to conduct further research. After all, she had many more homework to do.

"Hermione, a game of Wizard's Chess?" Ronald's voice asked from far away.

"Later," she replied, focused on her arithmancy work.

"Hermione, you should take a break."

"Later."

"It's Friday evening," Ron insisted. "You can do your work later."

"No, I can't. I'll tell you when I'm available. Now leave me," she snapped.

She didn't mean to be rude, but she had to finish as much as she could. Tomorrow was Halloween, and their first weekend at Hogsmeade. Hermione wanted to enjoy the weekend, and for that she needed to finish as much as she could this evening. If she had time, later, she would play Wizard's Chess with Ron. But for now, she had better things to do than to get beaten by Ron at his favourite game. She far preferred to enjoy tomorrow with Ron and Harry, and this evening was a small sacrifice in comparison.

"Okay. Have it your way. If you're tired of working, you know where to find us."

Ron walked away, and Hermione dug deeper into her work. She thought about using the Time-Turner to give her more time to do her work, but McGonagall was very clear that it was only to be used to attend her lessons and nothing else. She couldn't use the Time-Turner to give herself more time to study or work outside school hours. As a result, Hermione worked through the entire evening, barely aware of her surroundings. Numbers from Arithmancy, drawings from Ancient Runes, symbols from Divination, essays on technology from Muggle Studies, boiling instructions from Potions, magical creatures from Hagrid and Lupin's lessons scrolled in front of her eyes.

It was midnight when Hermione finally lifted her eyes from her work. She looked at everything she did. She could have done more, but she nonetheless advanced a lot. Yes, she could afford to not work for Halloween, at the condition that she would work on Sunday. She looked around to see that the whole common room was empty. She was all alone. Her eyes tingled, and she rubbed them while she yawned. Yes, it was definitely time for her to sleep. Standing up and stirring herself, Hermione put all her books and parchments inside her bag, then climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Parvati, Lavender, Lily and Sophie were all asleep, so she was careful to make as little noise as possible as she dressed for the night and slipped under her covers. It wasn't long before she fell asleep.

Hermione always woke up earlier than her roommates, but this time she only woke up a few minutes before the others. The first reason was her tiredness from the last evening of work that made her wake up later, and the second reason was that everyone was excited to visit Hogsmeade for the first time and woke up earlier than usual. As a result, she was there to witness Lavender rising up and waking up everybody else.

"Come, Parvati," she said as she shook the shoulder of her best friend. "We're going to Hogsmeade today."

"Oh, yes. Hogsmeade." Parvati rubbed her eyes. She swung her legs across her bed, her feet landing on the floor. "I'm not sure... if I should go."

"Come on, Parvati. It's going to be fun," Lavender encouraged.

"I'm not sure. With what the Professor Trelawney told me..."

"Oh no, you're not going to start with that all over again!" Hermione made a point of complaining aloud. Sophie and Lily, who began to dress for the day, looked at her in surprise.

"Hermione, it's serious," Lavender said. "The Professor Trelawney told us..."

"Are you going to arrange your life on the predictions of a fortune teller?"

"But everything she said so far has become true. My rabbit..."

"She didn't predict the death of your rabbit, Lavender. She said that something terrible would happen on that date. And you only received the news that day. Your rabbit was dead before that day."

"But he died!" Lavender almost shouted.

"Okay! STOP!" Parvati had raised her arms in the air. They were shaking. "Stop arguing! It's not to you that Professor Trelawney said something would happen to her if she left the castle for Halloween."

Hermione sighed loudly. Trelawney told this to Parvati during their last Divination lesson. This woman had taken the habit to predicting catastrophes to Parvati ever since the first class. The Basilisk in the tea leaves had only been the beginning. Each new tea leaves from Parvati brought more dire omens, according to Professor Trelawney, and that was when she limited herself to tea leaves. She often made other terrible predictions about Parvati like that, out of thin air. There wasn't a lesson without a bad omen for Hermione's classmate. This made her depressive, and to Hermione's consternation, Parvati believed everything this teacher told her, going as far as to ask her for advice as to how to avoid catastrophes. So far, Trelawney only told her that destiny was impossible to escape.

"Parvati, technically, she said that a grave danger is awaiting you outside the castle gates on the day of Halloween." Hermione observed. "These were her words. Even if it was true, which I highly doubt, we don't know what danger she's talking about, and we don't even know if it's going to harm you. We don't even know what the danger in question is. We don't even know if there is a danger."

"But... Professor Trelawney said..." Parvati began.

"Something so vague that it can be interpreted in thousands of ways, and no matter what happens today, she will be able to say that she was right, because we have Dementors at every gate."

On that, Parvati looked in utter terror. "Dementors. Of course, why didn't I think about them?"

"Well, I'm sure that Professor Trelawney did think about them. That's why Professor Trelawney made this prediction. This way, even if nothing happens today, she can claim that she was talking about Dementors, and that she didn't predict that anything wrong would happen."

"And what if something wrong happens?" Lavender said defiantly.

Hermione looked at her. "Harry is going to Hogsmeade, even though there are Dementors outside the gates who once caused him to faint, and even though the Ministry of Magic is still looking for Peter Pettigrew. If he is courageous enough to go to Hogsmeade in those circumstances, I'm sure that Parvati will not be scared by the predictions of a fortune teller."

Lavender obviously didn't like Hermione's words. She somehow worshipped Trelawney. Hermione knew she had gone to take lunch or dinner with the professor a few times since the term started, and the worst was that she brought Parvati with her, as if her friend needed to hear more supposed bad omens.

As she left for the Great Hall, Hermione knew the dormitory was mostly hostile to her, but she hoped that Parvati was defied enough to convince herself to go to Hogsmeade all the same. Hermione read as she waited for the boys to go down from their own dormitory. In the meantime, Parvati and Lavender left their dormitory, Lavender throwing an assassin look at Hermione on their passage while Parvati's face looked lost. Ron and Harry came down a minute later and they headed to the Great Hall together.

They sat down close to Seamus and Dean, but before they could realize it, after saying hello to the two boys, the moment they took place at the Gryffindor table, Lavender and Parvati rose from their own seats, close to them as well, and walked away to the other end of the table.

"Don't tell me she's going to start again!" Ron complained. Parvati had just stopped trying to stay away from him.

"It may be me this time, Ronald," Hermione confessed. "Parvati woke up worrying about what would happen to her if she went to Hogsmeade today, and we had a little disagreement."

"We can tell," Seamus commented, looking at the two girls walking away.

"I think Parvati would be better to drop the Divination subject," Dean said. For once, Hermione almost agreed about the mere idea that someone would abandon a subject.

"I'm glad to not have taken it," Harry said. "From what you're telling me, it seems Professor Trelawney spends her time predicting catastrophes. I can already imagine what she would have predicted for me."

"Surely that you would be dead before Christmas," Hermione said. "In the most gruesome and terrible way any human being can imagine."

"Perhaps being impaled by a Basilisk fang," suggested Dean.

"Or buried under debris in the dungeons," Seamus countered.

"Or burned alive."

"Or killed by a Mandrake's screams."

"Or..."

"Okay, enough, guys," Harry snapped.

He didn't talk for the rest of breakfast, eating his eggs and bacon silently. Hermione knew that the day of Halloween was always difficult for Harry. It was the day that his father died, and the festivities and decorations never really managed to lift his mood. Anyway, he could rarely enjoy them since he always missed the feast to go to Godric's Hollow with his mother. This year would be no different in that regard.

When they were done, they headed for the Entrance Hall, then to the castle's gates. Ron had talked excitedly about Honeydukes, Zonko and all the other boutiques in the village he wanted to visit. As they joined the crowd that processed to the village, he kept talking about it with Dean, Seamus and Neville. Hermione remained a little back with Harry.

"Hey, Harry. Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," he replied, looking away, the mood definitely foul.

"Look, I know it's not an easy day for you. But try to enjoy our time at Hogsmeade. We're going to spend some good time together."

He looked at her quizzically. "Hermione, I'm not spending the day at Hogsmeade with you." For a time, Hermione didn't understand. But then she remembered, right at the moment Harry told her. "I'm spending it with my mother and Sirius, my godfather. I told you."

"Yes. Yes. I'm sorry, Harry. I must... There's been a lot on my mind lately. I just... forgot for a moment that your mother was coming."

He shrugged. "It's fine." He looked forward. "When are they going to let us through?"

A long line had taken shape, watched over by professors, marked out by barriers. Students advanced slowly.

"They don't let us get too close to... Dementors," Hermione tried to explain. "They don't want a huge crowd to form at the gates and to slow everyone down. It's to limit our exposition to Dementors."

"Ah."

Harry looked away. Dementors were not an easy topic to discuss with him, not ever since he fainted on the Hogwarts Express. She tried to avoid talking about them as much as she could, even though she wished that Harry was comfortable talking about it with her and Ron. She asked Ron if Harry ever mentioned anything about his experience with Dementors, and Ron denied. And he warned Hermione about ever questioning Harry about it. If he didn't want to talk about what happened on the train, it wasn't to them to push him to do so. She had to admit that she agreed with Ron.

"Hermione, you can go with Ron, if you want," Harry said as their friend was about to walk through the distance where the effects of the Dementors could be felt.

"No, that's fine," she replied. "I'll find him on the other side."

She wanted to stay with Harry, especially since he would be walking near the Dementors again. It would be better if someone remained close to him at this moment.

It seemed that Hermione was not the only to think so. When she and Harry were finally allowed to go through the gates, Professor McGonagall accompanied them. She said she was going to Hogsmeade as well, but Hermione didn't need a dictionary to understand that she wanted to keep an eye on Harry as he walked through the castle's gates.

Once they crossed the line, it wasn't long before the effects of the Dementors' presence could be felt. The air turned cold, and any joy Hermione felt at the prospect of spending the day at Hogsmeade swiftly vanished. Two Dementors hovered not far from them as they got through the portal. Hermione looked at Harry, who was staring straight ahead. They all quickened their pace to get through this as quickly as possible, even McGonagall. Hermione was relieved when she felt the cold vanishing, and thoughts of happiness surfaced once again.

"Hey, Ron is there," Harry pointed towards their friend who was waiting for them, alone. Dean and Seamus must have continued on their path to Hogsmeade. Hermione noticed that Harry's arm seemed to be shaking, even if only slightly.

"It's long to get through the gates," Ron commented.

"This is for your own safety, Mr Weasley," Professor McGonagall explained. "We must protect you."

"From Pettigrew or from the Dementors?"

"Both," the professor sharply replied. "Now, go on. We wanted to avoid a crowd forming near the gates, but we don't want another to be created here."

They walked along the path towards the village. They were halfway when they came across Harry's mother and a man with dark short hair who Hermione suspected had to be his godfather.

"Hi, Mom," Harry said as he walked to her.

"Hi, my dear." She ruffled his hair, then looked at Professor McGonagall. "Thank you, Minerva."

The professor nodded in acknowledgement.

"Have a good day, you two," Harry told Hermione and Ron.

"You too, Harry," she said.

"See you tonight."

And on that, Harry left with his family. Hermione looked at him walking away, and so did Ron.

"Well, don't stay there like stakes," Professor McGonagall woke them up. "Go on. Enjoy the day."

They moved forward towards the village, and soon they arrived. Hermione had read about Hogsmeade, and heard about it quite often, but words, either spoken or written, did not render justice to the place. It looked like one of those picturesque villages she visited in France this summer, but better. The place was animated, filled with wizards and witches of all ages, including many Hogwarts students and professors. As soon as they walked into the village, she and Ron started arguing about where to go first.

"Why not go to the post office first. I'd like to see," Hermione said.

"What? We are in Hogsmeade for the first time, and the first thing you want to do is to visit a post office?" Ron asked incredulously, as if there was anything strange in it.

"Why not? It won't take long. I heard they have over two hundred owls."

Ron shrugged. "All right. But maybe later. Why not try Honeydukes first? There are tons of sweets and pastries there."

"We just took our breakfast."

"So what? We can buy some nice things there and eat them later as we visit."

"There are some places where they will not allow us while we are eating sweets, Ronald. I want to visit Tomes and Scrolls, don't forget."

"Books again? I should have guessed. Okay, the books first, if you want it so much. But then it's Honeydukes."

She agreed. A few minutes later, they walked into the largest magical bookstore Hermione ever visited. Even in France, there was nothing it could be compared to. Hermione plunged into the shelves, marvelling at the rich collection of the place, discussing with the owner and the other clients, grabbing books in each and every section to read the summary or a few pages. She noticed Ron in the section of the comic books, which made her laugh a little, though of course she did it in silence. They were in a bookstore, after all.

As she searched into the alley of history and geographical books, she came upon someone who was reading, her back turned on her, her long dark hair falling on her back.

"Parvati?" she asked.

The girl turned to look at Hermione, who realized her mistake immediately. "Sorry, Padma. I thought..."

"That's alright, Hermione. You're not the first, and you won't be the last," Parvati's twin sister said with a timid smile.

Hermione mistook her probably because she only saw her back first, but she should have thought better. After all, they were in a bookstore. If one of the Patil twins was to be here, it was Padma, the one in Ravenclaw.

"You found what you were looking for?" Padma asked, pointing the three books Hermione carried in her arms.

"Oh, not really. I mean, I'm mostly looking around. What are you reading?"

"History of Magical India. We won't learn about it with Binns, and anyway it's more enjoyable to read about it than to hear it from this ghost."

Hermione saw what she meant. Even though she managed to take notes of all lessons Binns gave them, she had to agree that it was hard by moments. She was the only one in the classroom who managed to follow Binns and what he was talking about through entire lessons. Even though she wished Harry and Ron could do the same, it was harder to blame them when everyone in the class couldn't follow their teacher either. At least, Harry actually tried to follow, even though he never succeeded, while Ron seldom made the effort.

"It must be very interesting," she said, having learned herself a lot of things about French wizards during her summer holidays. "I read somewhere that fear-causing spells were brought to England from India. Is that true?"

Padma looked to the ceiling for a moment, as if she was searching in her mind. "I'm not sure. Maybe. Apparently, there were a lot of exchanges between the two countries when India was a colony. Where are Ronald and Harry?"

"Oh, Ron is in the... comic book section." Padma rolled her eyes. Hermione was tempted to do the same. "And Harry spends the day with his mother."

"Oh yes? Lily Evans is here? At Hogsmeade?"

"Yes." Hermione started to look at the shelves while continuing the conversation. "Harry spends each Halloween with her."

"Oh yes. It's true," Padma said after a while. "Halloween is the day Harry defeated You-Know-Who?"

"Yes. Too bad he's not here. Harry loves books as well."

Padma muttered an unintelligible sound. "I know what you mean. I wish my sister and I shared more of the same interests. But no. While I was completing my homework this summer or quietly reading in my chamber, Miss Gossip Girl spent her time arranging marriages."

"Yes... What? Arranging what?" Hermione asked, stunned.

"Only in a manner of speaking. She developed a board during the summer. A board on which she arranged for everyone in our year to be paired with someone else. I ended up with your friend."

"Harry?" Hermione asked, unbelieving.

"No, Ronald."

Padma smiled widely at this moment, and both she and Hermione couldn't hold back a laugh. Padma then brought Hermione's attention to a book about the history of relationships between Muggles and wizards in France, which indeed interested Hermione, though she wasn't sure if she should buy it. The three other books she already had would cost quite a sum of money on their own, and she wanted to buy some other things at Honeydukes.

"Do you want to know who you ended up with?" Padma asked her.

"No. It doesn't interest me. No offense to your sister, Padma, but I think she could make a better use of her time."

"No offense taken. In fact, I quite agree with you."

Hermione then thought about Parvati and her current sorry state. "Padma, speaking of Parvati, you know her well?"

Padma looked offended. "Did you ever meet twins who don't know each other?"

"Of course, sorry. No, it's just... Our Divination teacher..."

"I stop you there, Hermione. I don't want to hear about this again. My sister takes every word this woman says as the truth."

"That's the thing, Padma. I tried to tell her that Trelawney was no seer, but to no avail. And even Professor McGonagall failed. Do you think you could talk to her and convince her to not take everything Trelawney says as the truth? I mean, she's always miserable and afraid for her life, all that for nothing."

Padma sighed. "Believe me, Hermione, I already tried. She won't listen to anybody. I'm so glad I didn't take Divination this year, but I wish she didn't either. Especially now. It's almost impossible to spend a day without her talking about those crazy omens. I'm really sorry, Hermione. I don't like to see my sister like this me neither."

"Is she with you right now?"

"No. She decided to spend the day with her friend Lavender. I can already picture them gossiping somewhere with that girl from Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott."

Hermione talked with the Ravenclaw a little while longer, while still looking at the shelves, until Ron came to ask her if they could leave. Hermione had picked seven books she wanted to buy, and she reluctantly chose three among them that she actually bought.

"You won't have anything left for Honeydukes or Zonko," Ron said, looking worried.

"I won't buy anything at Zonko. And I have more than enough left for Honeydukes," she replied.

They did go to Honeydukes after that. Ron looked like he just arrived in paradise, and Hermione had to admit that she understood him. Between sugar quills, liquorice wands, crystallised pineapples and glacial snow flakes, there were more than enough choices to turn someone's head, including her own. For a moment, she almost regretted spending so much at the bookstore.

They met Neville, Dean and Seamus at the sweet shop. Neville was savoring an acid pop to the mint.

"Be careful, Neville," Hermione warned him. "If you lick it too quickly, it might burn a hole in your mouth."

Neville removed his tongue from it immediately. Some gases had started emanating from it. A moment later, a gum exploded inside Seamus' mouth. Neville was not the only one who was caught by surprise by wizard candies.

Ron bought much more candies than Hermione, and despite still being early in the morning, he ate most of them in the next thirty minutes. Then they went to visit the village, including the Post Office and the Shrieking Shack, where they stayed to look at it for a moment.

"It is the most severely haunted building in Great Britain," Hermione said as they looked to the house from far away.

"Why don't we hear any noise coming from it?" Ron asked as he took another Chocolate Cauldron.

"Apparently, it's been quieter for a few years now, though some claim they can still hear screams at night."

"Oh yeah? Really?"

This voice that asked this came from behind. Hermione and Ron turned together to face the man who interrupted their conversation. It was Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, who stood a few feet behind them, his arms crossed.

"It hasn't changed a lot," he added. He didn't seem to be looking at them, but rather at the Shack now behind their backs. "Back when I was at Hogwarts, it terrified the villagers. They heard screams and shouts almost every night."

He approached to stand in front of the barrier like they did and looked at the house in ruins. Ron had stopped eating next to her and looked at the man with round eyes.

"Mr Black, why are you here? Shouldn't you be with Harry and Mrs Evans?" Hermione asked him.

"You can call me Sirius. Lily wanted some time alone with Harry," he answered. "I can't really blame her. This day is always very hard for her."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, I can imagine."

A long moment passed by. "By the way, just so that you know, Harry would have liked to spend the day with you two. But Halloween... It's sacred for him. It's a day he gives to his mother, and no one else."

Hermione understood that as well. Harry talked a lot about his mother, and from all the time she saw them together, he didn't need to say any words to Hermione and Ron for them to understand how close Harry was to her.

"Hey, Sirius," Ron asked, on an uncertain voice. "You knew Harry's father, didn't you?"

Sirius Black looked at Ron. "Yes. He was my best friend." He looked at the Shack again. "We became friends the moment we met in our compartment of the Hogwarts Express before our first year. We were inseparable." He then laughed. "The first day of our first visit to Hogsmeade, we tried to break into the Shrieking Shack."

"You did?" Hermione asked, unbelieving.

"We did. Well, we did try to break into it, but to no avail. We can't get inside this place. from the outside."

"How can we get inside?" Ron asked.

Sirius looked at him with an amused look. "It's impossible for a human to get inside this place." His smiled widened. "We also detonated Dungbombs at Zonko once."

"What?" both Ron and Hermione said, but while Hermione was almost scandalized, Ron sounded impressed, almost worshipping.

"Oh yes, we did. It was James' idea. He thought that with all the joke products inside the shop, everyone would think something just went wrong, but the owner caught us all the same. It was a while afterwards before we were allowed inside Zonko again."

Harry's godfather then went to tell them a string of anecdotes on Harry's father, and also on Professor Lupin, who was their friend at the time. Hermione was relieved to see from these anecdotes that Remus Lupin seemed to be the responsible one in the group of friends. She was also relieved to see that Harry didn't inherit his father's propensity to cause trouble. At least, when Harry got himself and them into trouble, he had some good reasons for that. The way Mr Black talked about his father, it seemed that James Potter was a copy of Fred and George.

Ron was very interested in the stories Mr Black told them, laughing hard more than once about the tricks and jokes Harry's father pulled on. Hermione was also interested, but for another reason. Harry seldom spoke about his father. He always said he knew little about him, but Hermione suspected that he actually didn't really want to talk about him, since it only reminded Harry that he was dead. She got to know a few things about James Potter that day, as Sirius Black must have spoken about his best friend to them for about an hour. By moments, she saw that his eyes were somewhat moist. He also told them some stories and legends about the Shrieking Shack that stood in front of them. Finally, he took leave, saying he had to go and find back Harry and his mother.

Ron and Hermione then went to the Three Broomsticks and each took a tankard of Butterbeer.

"Do you realize Ron that we just learned more about Harry's father in the last hour than during the last three years?" Hermione asked after she took a sip that warmed her whole body.

It was really delicious. Everyone said Butterbeer was fantastic, but you couldn't know that exactly before you actually tasted it. And after spending so much time in the cold streets of Hogsmeade in October, it was very comforting.

Ron wasn't responding to her. He was looking in the other direction.

"Ron?" He turned to her, looking surprised.

"Yes. You were saying?"

Hermione had to repeat what she just said.

"Oh yeah. Yeah. I agree with you. It's true," he stammered. "Harry never really talks about his father. I don't see why. According to Sirius, he seemed pretty cool."

"He probably doesn't like to talk about him because he's dead. Perhaps it's too difficult. I mean... I don't know how I would talk about them if my parents were dead."

"Yeah, that's right."

Ron looked down and took a long sip from his tankard. In a corner of the inn, she saw Hannah Abbott exchanging Chocolate Frog cards with Ernie Macmillan. Further away, there was Parvati with Lavender. It seemed Parvati did manage in the end to have enough courage to come to Hogsmeade today. There were also a group of teachers, including Flitwick and Sinistra, at a nearby table. Everyone seemed happy. It was Halloween, they were at Hogsmeade. Hermione had to admit that she was happy too. This village was fantastic.

"What did you like the most so far Ron? Honeydukes? The Shrieking Shack? Here?"

She drank some more Butterbeer. She would probably order one more tankard, against all rational thinking. However, Ron didn't reply to her again.

"Ron?"

He didn't react. Hermione then realized something. Ron was looking away, but his face was moving. She followed the direction of his eyes, to realize that he was following Madam Rosmerta, his mouth half-opened.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Very well, if this was what Ron wanted to do. She took one of the books she just bought and began to read, leaving Ronald to his other passions. She didn't order another tankard and focused on her reading. After some time, Ron patted her on the shoulder.

"Hey, you want to go at Zonko?"

"Yes, why not?" she replied on a sour tone, roughly putting back her bright new book into her bag and following Ronald outside.

Her mood quickly brightened though as they kept visiting the village. Even Zonko was funny to visit, finally. When they came back to Hogwarts at the end of the afternoon, cold and tired, Hermione found that she spent one of the best days in her life. She thought, not without humor, that two years ago the thought of spending a wonderful day in the company of Ronald Weasley would have been ridiculous in her eyes. And this day was not over.

The Halloween feast was just as fantastic as it had always been. Hermione didn't think ill of Ron in any way as he took three portions of everything, despite all the candies he ate during the day. The ghosts made a wonderful show, Nearly Headless Nick reproducing his failed beheading.

When Hermione fell into her bed last in the evening, seeing how everyone enjoyed this day, even Parvati who was all smile as she slipped under her covers, she couldn't help to think about what a marvelous day it had been.

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