The Darkening of Your Soul

Chapter 15

Time began moving faster as Harry got used to his new routine as a first-year Slytherin. Or at least it felt like the days passed by quicker and quicker the closer they got to Samhain.

Neville kept them all up to date on the gossip from Gryffindor tower. Molly Weasley did indeed send a howler and it was rather legendary as she screamed across the Great Hall that she would pull Ron out of Hogwarts if he dared to lose so much as one more point. Ron looked a little green and ready to throw up by the time the howler destroyed itself. After that, according to Neville, Ron kept to himself for the most part and didn’t put a toe out of line, at least for a few weeks. He’d found a chess friend in a third year Ravenclaw girl named Madison Coles, a Muggleborn who was somewhat of a chess prodigy and who had competed in Muggle chess matches before learning she was a witch and attending Hogwarts. The twins introduced them, since she was in their year, and Ron and Madison could be found playing chess at least a few afternoons a week in the Great Hall where Madison regularly trounced Ron, much to his delight. The rest of the time Ron spent with Seamus and Dean, playing cards in the common room and even joining them in the library on occasion to do his homework.

Hermione took a while longer to calm down, and Neville heard from Lavender that it involved talks with the seventh year Gryffindor prefect named Rhonda Hollis, Angelina Johnson’s older cousin, who explained to Hermione in no uncertain terms why people were treating her the way they did and how Hermione was only making things worse for herself by how she acted in response. That didn’t do the trick just yet, and it took McGonagall actually bringing Hermione’s parents to Hogwarts for a serious conversation with their daughter and herself. Hermione’s parents were both saddened and appalled that their daughter was making such a spectacle of herself and gave her a good talking to while also making suggestions for how to behave in ways that didn’t involve Hermione trying to police the whole world around her. After that Hermione kept her head down and while she still occasionally couldn’t resist trying to boss people around, now most people simple pointed out what she was doing and she backed down. Usually. Other than that, Hermione spent her time studying in the library by herself, reading in the Gryffindor common room in the evening and generally minding her own business.

Harry was utterly relieved when that meant she ignored him as well.

Ron and Hermione still couldn’t stand each other, though, and after another Potions class where they lost thirty points between them, McGonagall stepped in (much to Snape’s chagrin) and insisted that Ron pair with Seamus while Hermione worked with Dean. Order was thusly restored, Dean’s Potions grade improved a significant amount, and while Ron and Seamus were well matched in terms of talent in Potions, at least now Ron managed to brew something instead of blowing up cauldrons every class.

Harry watched it all from a distance, fascinated and amused to see his former best friends unknowingly adjust to a life without him by their side. It was a strangely appealing social experiment, and Harry spent a few hours debating the concept of how one small change could cause huge ripples in the world around them with Barty, who had gotten his hands on a few Muggle books on chaos theory and the like, and who found the whole idea fascinating as well.

Neville came through for them with a few pictures of the Cerberus courtesy of the Weasley twins. It took some doing to get them since the twins didn’t have a camera. They finally convinced Lee Jordan’s older sister Juliet, already out of Hogwarts, to send them her camera. The twins then took the pictures and sent the camera back to Juliet so she could develop the pictures before sending them to the twins to hand off to Neville. All in all, it took a few weeks, but finally Susan sent the needed evidence to Amelia Bones, who promised to take the pictures before the board of governors and demand an explanation. This was apparently standard procedure for any concerns that weren’t urgent and life-threatening, and it wouldn’t be happening until the end of November during the next meeting of the board.