Kevin Entwistle looked up from his parchment. "Hey, Justin — Hermione. We working together then?"
"Actually," started Justin, "I wanted to talk to you about something." Kevin put down his quill. "Sure, what's up?"
"I just got out of a sort-of fight with Malfoy—"
Kevin's eyes hardened.
"—He was trying to get me in trouble with wizarding laws and things we don't know about. Hermione says she'll teach us, but she wants all us muggleborns in together. To make sure we don't give them all excuses to get us in trouble."
Kevin's look turned pensive.
"So, you in?"
Kevin looked towards Hermione. "You can also teach us to make swords like you used on that troll, yeah? That was way cool." Hermione smiled. "Thank you. Maybe we'll have some time leftover, although you really shouldn't be waving swords around unless you know how to use them."
Justin looked sideways at her. "So, you know how to use them?"
"Ah," Hermione blushed slightly, "Well, my lord says that when facing something very large all you really need to know is 'pointy bit goes forward.'"
Kevin and Justin both snorted with laughter.
Kevin picked his quill back up. "So, when's this happening then?"
Hermione looked towards Justin. "As soon as we get all the other's to say yes, and I get something to help from my lord." Justin raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I don't want to say in case I can't get it. But if I can it will help a lot."
"Oh, okay then." Justin pushed his chair back. "Let's go find Sophie and Dean."
Just a few metres away, Harry, invisible under the Peverell cloak, passed Hermione chatting to Finch-Fletchley and Entwhistle, entered the library's restricted section, made his way to his fidelius charmed area, pulled his shrunk trunk out of his pocket, enlarged it, and climbed inside.
Daphne sat in one of the trunk's armchairs, book open in her lap, palms under her chin, fingers resting on her cheeks, looking utterly fed up. She looked up. "This is hopeless."
Harry moved to sit down in the chair opposite Daphne. "Still no luck?"
Daphne flipped the pages of the book. "Every single reference I've found to anything that might help leads nowhere. Missing books, erased text, pages torn out… The spells all sound really helpful, but they just aren't there! Listen to this one! 'Eye of Kilrogg Summons a floating eyeball that allows the caster to see through it and direct its movement. Passes through all known solid objects… Invisible to unaltered human sight.' That—" She jabbed her finger at the page "—is just the kind of thing that might not trip the fidelius tripwire around the stone, but the page with the casting details is gone!"
Harry chewed his cheek. "Looks like they purged the sources quite thoroughly then."
"I'll say." "Hmm…." Harry leaned back and brought the tips of his fingers together. "Then we'll just have to extend our search to sources that might have survived the purge."
Daphne paused while idly flipping more pages. "Sources like what?"
"My first thought is the paintings around the school. The ones painted before the statute of secrecy, and therefore before the purging of divination."
Daphne's eyes widened.
"I don't know if there's a seer among them, but if there is we might be able to persuade it to teach us."
Daphne slammed the book shut. "Would you like me to handle that?" Harry nodded. "Yes, thank you, Daph — and I'll write an owl to Luna. She and Alex sound like they're getting on quite well these days. Who knows? Maybe the Black Library will furnish us with a solution."
Hermione indignantly stared at the eagle-headed bronze knocker guarding the entrance to Ravenclaw tower. "What do you mean you won't let us in? We answered correctly!"
The eagle-headed knocker stared back. "You didn't honestly think that answering a riddle was the only thing you had to do to get in here did you? I can see you're not a Ravenclaw from your crest!"
Hermione huffed. annoyingly familiar.
This
situation
felt
Beside her, Justin snickered. "Yes, well, laugh it up." She turned to the browny-blond haired muggleborn "I guess we'll be here until someone comes that can take a message."
Justin pointed behind her.
She turned. "Oh."
An older Ravenclaw prefect walked towards them, arms full of books.
They exchanged greetings and the prefect agreed to take their message.
"Just let me do the talking," Hermione said, as they waited for Sophie to arrive.
Soon after, the door opened and Sophie emerged, followed closely by Padma, Lisa, and Terry Boot. "Hey, Hermione, what's up?" Sophie asked.
"Hi." She glanced at the other three Ravenclaws. Padma and Lisa had been friendly yet cautious to her and Daphne after the troll incident, but she was still hesitant to talk to Sophie about delicate matters in front of them. "I was wondering if we could talk to you about something in private?"
Padma stepped in front of a surprised Sophie. "Anything that needs to be said can be said in front of us."
Sophie looked between Padma and Hermione, confusion showing on her face. "Um… I really don't mind—"
"Sophie," Padma interrupted, "right now it's really not a good idea. She can speak with us all together." Hermione frowned. "I only wanted to talk about wizarding culture."
Padma and Lisa both narrowed their eyes.
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