Miss Quinn

175 ~ Foreshadowing

The next morning during Charms, Harry cast Muffliato upon those closest to the five Gryffindors and told Ron, Hermione, Emma, and Venus about the events of the night before. It seemed that Harry had made use of his Liquid Luck to get a memory from Slughorn about something he'd told a young Tom Riddle. (Emma had completely forgotten about her own vial of Felix Felicis, and made a mental note to remember to use it at some point). After getting the memory from Slughorn -- getting the old man severely drunk in the process -- Harry had taken the vial up to Dumbledore and they'd viewed it together.

Slughorn, Harry explained, had told Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, a vessel to store a part of one's soul, and proceeded to explain how someone might make one (by killing a person), warning that it was extremely dark magic and not natural to split a soul at all. And finally the key piece: Tom had suggested making seven horcruxes, which had told Dumbledore all he needed to hear. Because Dumbledore, as it turned out, had been deliberating over how many Horcruxes Voldemort had made.

Harry told them about the Diary from second year, which Emma remembered vividly, the ring that had caused Dumbledore's hand to turn black and gnarled, and the potential third, fourth, and sixth Horcruxes: Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, and the snake Nagini. The fifth was either something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's, but Dumbledore didn't know what. The seventh piece of Voldemort's soul. Harry explained, was what inhabited his current body.

They were all impressed by the way Harry had wheedled the memory out of Slughorn and positively awed when he told them about Voldemort's Horcruxes and Dumbledore's promise to take Harry along, should he find another one.

"Wow," said Ron, when Harry had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore... and try and destroy...wow."

"Ron, you're making it snow," said Hermione patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lavender Brown, Emma noticed, glared at Hermione from a neighboring table through very red eyes, and Hermione immediately let go of Ron's arm.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry... looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now..."

He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder Lavender burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her.

"We split up," he told Harry, Emma, and Venus, "Last night. When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you, so she thought it had just been the two of us."

"Ah," said Harry. "Well -- you don't mind it's over, do you?"

"No," Ron admitted. "It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it."

"Coward," said Hermione, though she looked amused. "Well, it was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry."

Emma and Venus shared a knowing look as Harry, keeping his face as immobile and his voice as indifferent as he could, asked, "How come?"

"Oh, something really silly. . . she said he was always trying to help her through the portrait hole, like she couldn't climb in herself. . . but they've been a bit rocky for ages."

Emma glanced over at Dean on the other side of the classroom. He certainly looked unhappy. That was two horrible endings for him now. Not that Emma had been hoping for him and Ginny to end up together, anyway.

"Of course, this puts you in a bit of a dilemma, doesn't it?" said Hermione.

"What d'you mean?" said Harry quickly.