𝐀𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬 | ʜᴀʀʀʏ ᴘᴏᴛᴛᴇʀ

✧. * 028 Hermione's secret ✧. *

H E R M I O NE ' S    S E RC E R T

"One day...just one day we'll be a proper family again..."

"SHOCKING BUSINESS...shock​ing ... mir​acle none of them died ... nev​er heard the like ... by thunder, it was lucky you were there, Snape ..."

"Thank you, Min​is​ter."

"Or​der of Mer​lin, Sec​ond Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can wan​gle it!"

"Thank you very much in​deed, Min​is​ter."

"Nasty cut you've got there ... Black's work, I suppose?"

"As a mat​ter of fact, it was the Black twins, Pot​ter, Weasley and Granger, Min​is​ter ..."

"No!"

"Black had be​witched them, I saw it im​me​di​ate​ly. A Con​fun​dus Charm, to judge by their be​haviour. They seemed to think there was a pos​si​bil​ity he was innocent. They weren't re​spon​si​ble for their ac​tions. On the oth​er hand, their in​ter​fer​ence might have permit​ted Black to es​cape ... they ob​vi​ous​ly thought they were go​ing to catch Black sin​gle-​hand​ed. They've got away with a great deal be​fore now ... I'm afraid it's giv​en them a rather high opin​ion of themselves ... and of course Pot​ter and Black has always been al​lowed an ex​traor​di​nary amount of li​cence by the Head​mas​ter –"

"Ah, well, Snape ... Har​ry Pot​ter, and Aurora Black, you know ... we've all got a bit of a blind spot where they're con​cerned."

"And yet – is it good for them to be giv​en so much special treat​ment? Per​son​al​ly I try to treat them like any oth​er stu​dent. And any oth​er stu​dent would be sus​pend​ed – at the very least – for lead​ing their friends in​to such dan​ger. Con​sid​er, Min​is​ter: against all school rules – af​ter all the pre​cau​tions put in place for their pro​tec​tion – out of bounds, at night, con​sort​ing with a were​wolf and a mur​der​er – and I have rea​son to be​lieve they have been vis​it​ing Hogsmeade il​le​gal​ly, too –"

"Well, well ... we shall see, Snape, we shall see ... they have un​doubt​ed​ly been fool​ish ..."

Aurora lay lis​ten​ing with her eyes tight shut. She felt very grog​gy. The words she was hear​ing seemed to be trav​el​ling very slow​ly from her ears to her brain, so that it was dif​fi​cult to un​der​stand. Her limbs felt like lead; her eye​lids too heavy to lift ... she want​ed to lie here, on this com​fort​able bed, for ev​er ...

"What amazes me most is the be​haviour of the Demen​tors ... you've re​al​ly no idea what made them re​treat, Snape?"

"No, Min​is​ter. By the time I had come round they were head​ing back to their po​si​tions at the entrances ..."