"Well hello there, Susan Bones, Heiress of the Ancient and Noble House of Bones."
Susan winced, Granger's brown wavy hair falling down over her face. This was bad. "Look, I can explain."
"Oh, do, please. You stealing House secrets."
were this close to
Susan grimaced and pushed Granger's hair out of her face. "I wasn't trying to — that was by accident."
"Then what were you trying to do?"
"Look, Greengrass, Daphne," Susan tried desperately. "Everyone's worried, okay? No one knows what's going on and it's putting people on edge. The last time there was a mysterious wizard running around who didn't want anyone to know his identity, it turned out to be you-know-who, you see that, right?"
"My lord is not the Dark Lord," Greengrass said, her tone flat.
"I'm not saying he is, but you know, if we just knew a bit more about him it would put so many people's minds at rest."
"That is for my lord to decide when he is ready to release more information about himself, which I know he will do, but only when the time is right."
Susan looked down at the ground.
"But about this situation…"
Susan looked back up.
"…I think three minor favours owed to the House of Slytherin by the House of Bones will suffice, don't you agree?" Susan quickly nodded her head. Three minor favours was the best possible outcome right now.
Greengrass smiled and released her ropes. Susan collapsed backwards on the soft grass. "Here." Greengrass handed her back her wand.
"Thanks," Susan muttered. She looked at her wand for a moment. "That was a wandless stunner back then."
Daphne nodded.
Susan's eyes widened. "Wow."
"My lord is a good teacher."
Susan let out a single laugh. "I'm jealous." "You should be."
Susan grinned. "Mind you, John is a pretty good teacher too."
A strange look crossed Greengrass' face. "Oh really?" "Yep! Me and him have been practising duelling for a few months now." She looked back at her wand. "I guess it's a good thing you're not on the Slytherin duelling team. Fighting each other with these would be tricky."
"I wouldn't count your blessings until you've finished fighting who is on our team."
"Oh, yes, Harry Potter. John really doesn't like him."
"Shocking."
Susan looked down at her wand again. "Not that I'm complaining, but I do feel like I was kind of cheated on the wand front."
"Oh?" "Yeah, divination wands, right?" Susan laid her wand alongside Greengrass' identical foci. Fat lot of good that is in a duel, or anytime, really."
Greengrass looked down at her own wand as though seeing it for the first time. "Oh, yes," she said, idly picking it up and turning it through her fingers. "How useless."
"Profero oculus Kilrogg."
It was the Saturday before the Duelling tournament and in a temporary fidelius charm, in the Hogwarts pipe network, just outside the muggle studies defence room, in the third floor corridor, Daphne sat, 'useless' divination wand pointed at a spot just a few feet in front of her.
Harry and Hermione watched her as a large green eyeball appeared in the spot. Daphne's opened.
world
shifted.
Her
third
eye
In the last few weeks, they'd practised and practised for this moment — gone over everything that could go wrong and made fall backs, back up plans, and plan Bs, all sprinkled with a dash of contingency, not the least of which was the addition of setting up an additional magical shield around the mirror room once they'd entered, to stop anyone trying to blast their way in from the outside, if that was even possible.
All their other plans had taken a back seat while they focused on the one thing that mattered right now — securing the mirror room.
Harry didn't say anything. There was no need for words between them at this stage. Daphne moved the eye into the space Dumbledore's fidelius charm would appear once they tripped the ward. She gave Harry the thumbs up.
Harry nodded back, turned to the pipe's wall and whispered, "$Open$."
The pipe opened a round, human sized hole, and the three stepped into the room beyond.
Dumbledore sat in his office chair, sipping on a perfectly made cup of tea — perfectly made, with five lumps of sugar, three slices of lemon, and two tea bags, both of which were currently bobbing up and down against the cup's fine china walls, humming a song about sailors.
At first he'd been worried about John's extreme aggressive attitude towards Harry, but it looked like it would turn out useful in the end. Perhaps after Harry had been placed in the safety of Azkaban, he should take a personal interest in John's education power like that needed to be carefully managed.
He took another sip of tea.
Unfortunately, Harry being sent to Azkaban would render the third floor corridor project worthless. That was a disappointment. He'd been so sure that keeping Voldemort and Harry in the castle for almost a year together would have triggered some kind of confrontation, especially given Harry's seeming instability, but apparently not. He'd have to deconstruct the defences and send the stone back to Nicholas…
He took another sip.
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