𝐎, 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 ⎥ "He wants a fight with
a God? I'll give him one."
﹙ from stardust we came, to stardust we return ﹚
Prisoner of Azkaban - Deathly Hollows
...
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HARRY HAD FINALLY received the memory from Slughorn. He had told Elara, Ron, and Hermione everything that had happened during next morning's Charms lesson (having first cast the Muffliato spell upon those nearest them). They were all satisfyingly 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 and Elara 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."
"Lara's coming with us," said Harry, his hand laced with Elara's under the table. "Dumbledore said that without her, we're screwed."
Their affection for each other had grown since what Harry had said since the Felix Felicis.
"Wait— Harry, you said these Horcruxes were parts of Voldemort's soul?" asked Elara.
Harry nodded.
"Oh my god, I am so fucking stupid! Anya literally told me about them, except she called them the 'Anima Exercituum'. . . . ugh."
"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, Elara 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 Elara and Harry out of the corner of his mouth. "Last night. When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you, Harry, 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."
