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chapter forty | back to school
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Stella Mason inhaled a huge breath coming up from the icy water she and her friends jumped into. She felt her clothes stick to her skin, almost like glue, giving it an uncomfortable feel. She got a glimpse of her friends before swimming to a nearby hill. Hermione and Stella helped each other onto the grass before the four started walking, shaking in their shoes from the cold.
"He knows," Harry blurted, shivering, "You-Know-Who. He knows we broke into Gringotts. He knows what we took and he knows we're hunting Horcruxes."
Stella scoffed, trying to keep up with her friends' fast pace, "how is it he knows?"
"I saw him."
"You let him in," Hermione raged, "Harry, you can't do that!"
"Hermione, I can't always help it," Harry snapped, "or maybe I can... I don't know."
Ron intervened as Hermione and Stella brought out dry clothes for the boys and towels for themselves, "never mind! What happened?"
"Well, he's angry. And scared, too. He knows if we find and destroy all the Horcruxes, we'll be able to kill him," Harry rushed as he put on a clean shirt, "I reckon he'll stop at nothing to make sure we don't find the rest. There's more, one of them is at Hogwarts."
Stella wrapped a towel around herself to keep warm as Hermione gaped beside her, "what? You saw it?"
"I saw the castle. And Rowena Ravenclaw. It must have something to do with her, we have to go there now!"
"What we can't do that," exclaimed Hermione, "we've got to plan, we've got to figure it out!"
The Potter scoffed, "Hermione, when have any of our plans ever actually worked? We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose."
Now dressed fully in clean clothes, Ron breathed, "he's right. Only one problem. Snape's Headmaster now, we can't just walk through the front door."
"Um... we'll go to Hogsmeade—to Honeydukes. Take the secret passage in the cellar," Harry solved. He looked around at his friends, "there's something wrong with him," he shared, "it's like, you know, in the past, I've always been able to follow his thoughts. And now, everything just seems disconnected."
"Maybe it's because of the Horcruxes," Stella offered, "maybe he's weaker, maybe he's dying!"
Green met blue as the boy shook his head, "no. It's more like he's wounded. If anything, he feels more dangerous."
Harry's words didn't scare his friends, if anything, the words made them more encouraged to fight and end the war once and for all. But first, Stella needed to change into some dry clothes.
