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"I believe I've heard of one ritual that simply requires you to continually trace runes of protection and cleansing on his body while you're making love, which makes more sense to me."
"Can we not talk about this right now?" Hermione asks, looking beyond pale – more like sick – now.
"Ah, I suppose now is not a good time to mention the harem method—um, Hermione, should you have the Room conjure a bucket or something?" I chuckle at the two of them. If Harry's eyes get any wider they're going to fall out of his head.
After a few moments of their intense discomfort, I figure I should say something to take their minds off it.
"Uh...maybe instead of my conjecturing we should actually contact some experts? Ron's brother Bill is a cursebreaker, right? Maybe he knows something."
"Maybe," Hermione says hopefully.
"Although, Bill's been spending time in Egyptian tombs, whereas Herpo the Foul from Greece was supposedly the first one to create a Horcrux – that's one of the only pieces of information about them I've found here. Egyptian tombs have been around far longer."
"Well it could be that that's not accurate," I point out. "It could have been discovered independently in Egypt far sooner, even if records of it didn't survive."
"That's true, although you'd think we'd get updated information if cursebreakers ever found one older..." Hermione says with a frown.
Harry stands up quickly. "Yes, that sounds good, let's do that." He pulls out the Marauders' Map. "Now, let's go find...hey!"
"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asks.
"It looks like Ron has come to us, along with Neville and Luna! Can you open the door in the normal entrance location?"
The wall soon grinds and groans into a door. Seeing it form from the wall like that is still an extremely odd and uncomfortable experience, like my eyes are lying to me.
I usually only watch for a short time before I look away. Neville pulls the newly formed entrance open and soon we number three more.
"You're going to have to teach me what you ask for, Hermione," Luna says in her sing-song voice. "I guessed wrong thirty-six and a half times."
"Oh...sorry, Luna," Hermione says, clearly fighting her curiosity about how Luna figured she was half-wrong once. "Remind me in a bit. We were actually just coming to find you, Ron."
"Oh, really?" Ron says, looking thoroughly surprised. "Well I'm just here because Neville was looking for you guys, too, and he brought us along. That works out, doesn't it?"
"It's a good thing we came back and tried this place again. When we realized we couldn't open the Room this time, we figured you must be in it," Luna says with a smile.
"This time," Hermione asks. "So you were — ?"
"Damn, sorry guys," I say with an apologetic frown. "I had to run to Hogsmeade and I roped these two into it." At Ron's pained expression I quickly apologize.
"Sorry, Ron, Harry went under his Cloak and Hermione and I went in disguise as boyfriend and girlfriend. I went to meet Daphne's father at his request, and I didn't want to attract too much attention."
"Oh." Damn, that didn't help at all.
Neville clears his throat. "Anyway, William, I wanted to bring you this as soon as possible."
Only then do I notice Neville holding a large, wrapped box. "What's this?" I ask dumbly.
"Well, it's my Christmas present for you," Neville says with a blush. "Only it makes far more sense for you to get it as soon as possible, and it was delivered to me at lunch."
"Wow, thanks, Neville!" I'm horrible at receiving presents. My voice always sounds fake even when I really do appreciate the gift.
"Well come on then, open it, already!" Hermione says impatiently, suppressing a smile.
"Okay," I say with a grin. I carefully open the paper to avoid tearing it too much, but Hermione has other plans.
"Oh come on!" She grabs and fistfuls of the wrapping and rips into it.
"Well, somebody's impatient," I say, laughing. In short order what appears to be a large clothing box is sitting in front of me. I figure it's another set of school robes since I had to borrow his, but when I open the box and move the tissue paper, the clothing within is far too fine to be school robes.
My breath catches. Dress robes!
"It's less formal than most," Neville says nervously."So I figured you could wear pieces of it outside of the Ball. Hermione said you like practical things, and this way you can go to the Ball, too. The shoes are less formal, too...I took the size from your current ones, I hope that's still good."
He's right, the pants and overcoat wouldn't look out of place over my uniform. "Neville, you didn't...this is too much..."
He waves the objection away. "It was the least I could do, William, after all you've done for me this year."
"But I haven't—ow!"
"I think the words you're looking for are 'thank you,'" Hermione whispers.
I rub my arm and shoot a mock glare at her. "Thank you, Neville, this is...this is amazing."
He beams. "I'm glad you like them."
"Now we have to find you a date!" Hermione squeals, hugging me and then Neville.
I can feel the blood drain from my face, eliciting laughter from most of those present.
"Come on, now, William, it can't be that scary," Hermione chides. "We've all got dates..."
Ron makes an involuntary sound, then turns red and shuffles uncomfortably.
Hermione looks at him in surprise. "Ron, you never asked anybody?"
"Well, I thought I'd hang out with William," he says hotly.
"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we've got six days to find two attractive, kind, unaccompanied girls," Hermione says in her taskmaster voice.
"Luna, can you ask around Ravenclaw?" The small blonde blinks in response.
"Good. The rest of us will head to the Gryffindor common room. Let's go!"
"Geez, slavedriver," I mutter. Since I have my face turned away from her to try and hide my comment I completely miss the weak stinging hex she tosses over her shoulder, which hits me right in the cheek.
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Hey guys if u like the fanfic and want to read ahead by 27+ chapters or just want to support take a visit on my patreon.
(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)
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