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Sunday breakfast in the Great Hall of Hogwarts always brought variety to the diet, and for those who were too deeply immersed in their affairs or studies, these same breakfasts could fix the sudden end of the week. More meat, more pastries, more sweets. There was always more of everything on Sunday, except for the students — on this day, many were late for breakfast, but the house-elves, in any case, served everyone, even if this "everyone" would come much later.
On this, without a doubt, a wonderful day for many, absolutely free, satisfying, and due to the weather also promising to be sunny, I only felt a slight tension and dislike for individuals who came to breakfast in full. Daphne and Astoria were also here, but they were sitting in the middle of the female half of the House, although earlier, like almost half of the Slytherins, they communicated with peers of the opposite sex.
"What are you thinking about?" without taking her razor-sharp gaze away from the Slytherins, Hermione suddenly spoke, and cutting off a sausage with a knife, she made a deep scratch in the soft metal of the plate.
"I don't know."
Such an answer caused Hermione to look at me with a slightly surprised look.
"Are you sliding down to the level of some individuals?"
" No, it's just..." I twirled the glass of juice in my hands. "I already know how, what and when I'm going to do, and thinking about it once again is just overthinking."
"By the way, yes, what exactly are you up to?"
The students who were crowding at our table gradually sat down more and more tightly, and now it becomes problematic to talk without witnesses.
"Hi," a sleepy Seamus nodded to us, and Dean, who appeared with him, was, as always, in a perfectly fitting uniform, and looked cheerful.
"Hello, guys. We have secrets here, so..." I smiled guiltily, and the guys just nodded understandingly. More precisely, only Dean nodded, and Seamus ignored the phrase, starting to lazily poke a fork in the portion of food that appeared — his brain needs a little time for the smell and sight of food to trigger the necessary thought process.
Straining a little and putting a privacy charm around myself and Hermione without a wand, I looked at the girl sitting next to me.
"The trial. A case was concocted yesterday, all that sort of thing..."
"And what are you going to win from this trial?"
"Win? We're not going to win anything there, Miona. The point is different. Publicly announce their goals, their loyalty to the Dark Lord, instill doubts in people's minds about their reputation. Publicly, so that everything is documented. In addition, it is a preemptive strike to preserve your reputation and a move ahead of time if they suddenly decide to expose you and the girls guilty. The mental blow will be dealt very soon, and the physical one... after the trial."
"Physical? Here at Hogwarts?"
"No, no," I shook my head. "I will not frame the headmaster like that."
"I'm with you."
"But Mione..."
"And you won't talk me out of it," she interrupted me. "I haven't been torturing myself for years to end up hiding behind the backs of others."
"That's not for me to decide."
"Who will? Wait... I'll text her."
We continued to finish our breakfast, and I kept glancing over at the Slytherin table, and more specifically, at Daphne and Astoria. They were pretending like everything was fine, but they were acting a little atypical. Not so... Easy, was it?
"Miona," I turned to the girl when all that was left of breakfast was juice in glasses. "Are you good with charms?"
"Apparently," the girl thought, straightening a strand of tidied, curly hair. "My part of the library had more books on charms than you do."
"Apparently..." I repeated, wondering what I even needed. "There are Protean charms of the signal type with an activator by situation or phrase or all at once?"
"Hmm..." Hermione thought for a few seconds. "Yes. I've been researching various variations of magical means of communication in my spare time, and there was one like this among them. What do you need it for?"
"To make four linked artifacts. My mentor asked me to keep an eye on the girls, and without an emergency alarm, it's extremely problematic."
"I see. I can do it, but only with a wand. There are a lot of incomprehensible things in the structure."
"Okay."
After quickly thinking over all the ideas, I came to a simple, logical, and obvious option - rings. Immediately transfigured from the air four steel rings with an engraved rune chain to fit the size and strength on the outside. I handed them to Hermione, receiving a surprised look.
"Now?"
"And then look for them all over the castle."
"That's also true," Hermione nodded and, unnoticed by those present both at our table and at the high table, took out a wand and began to draw tiny loops over the rings with it, quietly saying something. Half a minute later, I held four rings in my hands, one of which was lying separately.
"This," Hermione pointed her finger at the lone ring. "The main one. It will receive signals from the other three, and you can easily figure out who it is from."
"How?"
"I'm not sure," Hermione shrugged, and the students were already starting to slowly leave the great hall. "You'll just know."