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𝐎 𝐇 , 𝐖 𝐑 𝐄 𝐓 𝐂 𝐇 𝐄 𝐃 𝐏 𝐀 𝐆 𝐄 𝐒
𝐆𝐑𝐘𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑 felt like it had already won the House Cup.
The party went on all day and well into the night. Fred and George disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets, greeted by animalistic cheers and a substantial increase in the volume of the music. Only one person wasn't enjoying the festivities — Hermione, incredibly, was sitting in a corner, attempting to read an enormous book entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles.
The party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up in her tartan dressing gown and hair net at one in the morning, to insist that they all go to bed. Rays of moonlight lulled them to sleep, and by Monday afternoon, the sun had given them something else to rejoice about.
"Hogsmeade, next weekend!" exclaimed Ron, craning over the heads of a group of second-years to read a notice posted in the common room. "What do you think?" he asked Harry quietly as they turned and went to sit down.
"Well, Filch hasn't done anything about the passage into Honeydukes . . ." Harry replied softly.
"Harry!" said a voice from behind them. All three of them looked around at Hermione, who was clearing a space in the wall of books that had been hiding her. "Harry, if you go into Hogsmeade again . . . I'll tell Professor McGonagall about that map!"
"Can either of you hear someone talking?" growled Ron, not looking at Hermione.
"Ron, how can you let him go with you? After what we know about Sirius Black! I mean it, I'll tell—"
Melody, as though magnetized to the sound of trouble, appeared behind Hermione. She cleared away several books, and offered Ron a pair of raised eyebrows: "What's gone wrong here?"
"She's trying to get Harry expelled!" said Ron furiously, then he narrowed back in on Hermione. "Haven't you done enough damage this year?"
Harry watched Melody's eyes dart between the two; ashen ambivalence drumming deep. Hermione herself opened her mouth to respond, but with a soft hiss, Crookshanks leapt onto her lap. She took one frightened look at the expression on Ron's face, gathered up Crookshanks, and hurried away toward the girls' dormitories.
Melody started to rise, but she fell just as fast, perhaps recognizing that Hermione was better off alone with her thoughts. She frowned at Ron, then, and started, "Ron, maybe you should apolo—"
"So how about it?" Ron interrupted, as though Melody now did not exist. "Come on, last time we went you didn't see anything. You haven't even been inside Zonko's yet."
