Chapter 239

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On the first Sunday in March, I invited Hermione to Hogsmeade, and from the look on her face, she was going to do exactly the same thing. So Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati joined us on the way out of the castle. The crowd grew larger on the way to Hogsmeade, adding the Padma, Parvati's sister from Ravenclaw, and a couple of her classmates, including Goldstein, whom I hadn't seen in a while since I didn't go to class and we had potions with the Slytherins.

So, we walked around Hogsmeade in this noisy crowd. During this walk, Hermione decided that the best way to walk together was to walk under the arm. The others threw sly glances at us, smirking. We visited both the Honeyduke and the local magical clothing store, which was not only an enchanted commodity for practicality but even humorous in a way. The loud yelling socks were especially nice. Of course, the end of such an outing was the Three Broomsticks. Why couldn't the Leaky Cauldron be such a pleasant place? Perhaps because of the contingent? Who knows.

For several hours we sat in friendly company, enjoying butterbeer and various sweets, which were exactly what went well with this drink.

In general, nothing unusual, but I did not relax. The goal of my participation in the Tournament was to win. However, that might involve some difficulties in the form of the portal to the cemetery and Voldemort's rebirth. The simplest plan is to show up there with Potter and shield myself from Avada with a shield of blood. However, there will be no Wormtail and not the fact that it will be used exactly Avada. So there's a lot of uncertainty. Among other things, it's worth taking care of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes. Destroy the Horcrux in the house on Grimmauld, remember, finally, where the mansion of the Gaunts with the ring is. Although it seems to be in the same village as the Riddle house. So it's worth digging up some archives. There must be a cemetery there, too.

Returning from a walk to Hogwarts, I sent a letter to the Knights with a school owl, asking if possible to find out something about Tom Riddle, who lived at the beginning of the century in some remote village. The reply came soon, and sadly - no information about any Tom Riddle at all in any of the registers. And I owe two thousand pounds, spent on bribes for such information. That's sad.

If Delphine finds a way to rid Potter of the Horcrux, that leaves the question of Nagini, Voldemort's serpent. If you believe the canon and the fact that Harry has been dreaming on the serpent's behalf, perhaps she already has a Horcrux in her. Was Nagini at the cemetery? I don't remember. If the question is not resolved, it seems unreasonable to leave only one Horcrux, which would be Potter. So rebirth it is. This is both good and bad, as fucked up as it sounds. A reborn Tom is a predictable Tom. However, if you destroy all the Horcruxes before the rebirth, he won't go to the other world anyway - he has some kind of body.

Anyway, my attempts to somehow minimize the casualties could lead to even worse consequences. Even if I had eliminated all the Horcruxes much earlier, there would still be Potter, and Voldemort would still be tied to this world. I couldn't just kill the guy, and even if I did, I would have a lot of conscience issues. I could kill some bandit in the Knockturn Alley, no problem. Wormtail - he deserved it. Five wizards at the World Cup was a matter of survival and health for me and those around me. But to kill a simple guy? Yeah, he's not growing up to be the best person, but what are his years? To kill a guy who's "just Harry" - well, that's a bit too much. We can only hope that Delphine will find a way, and I will do my best to destroy Voldemort in the cemetery. If there's a snake there. If not, it's pointless.

On Friday the eleventh of March, at breakfast in the Great Hall, there was a particularly large amount of mail, and that included me. Of course, I wouldn't have been surprised by the Pirate with some regular packet of assignments from regular school or word from the Knights, but there was a different kind of owl, albeit a small one.

"Who's writing?" asked Hermione sitting next to me, taking a sip of pumpkin juice. Pretty useful and not too gross, even though I don't like pumpkins.

Looking at the envelope and checking for surprises, I found nothing special except the familiar magical signature of Lady Greengrass. I opened the envelope and pulled out a small letter in beautiful handwriting.

"A teacher is writing," I replied without giving her name. "Will not be earlier than in a couple of days. Some interesting business has come up."

"Yeah? So there's still some time for the usual routine," Hermione nodded importantly.

At that moment, Ron spoke rather loudly.

"What? He broke into Hogsmeade?"

Harry tugged on the guy's sleeve to lower the volume. They can't keep a secret at all.

"No way," Potter exhaled, shocked. "He's going to get caught and..."

"We'll find out on Saturday," Ron nodded importantly.

Hermione and I looked at each other, and with a shrug, we continued our breakfast. So Black will be at Hogsmeade this very Friday. Interesting. It gets extremely boring here. The Slytherins aren't doing anything active. The girls haven't come up with decent revenge for them for the dress yet. Fake Moody is teaching everyone, Snape is spitting bile, and Karkaroff thinks that no one notices his fear and constantly pokes the mark on his left hand in the face of the potion master. This means that Voldemort is gaining strength. Also, I still need to somehow protect Narcissa, but she will not leave the idiot Draco, and I have no desire to mess with him. And he'll probably let the Dark Lord on the doorstep as soon as he sends a note to the new Lord Malfoy. He'll be all over the lad's ears by then, that's all. What a mountain of trouble from being attached to people! And I don't even really know Narcissa, but there is affection. Do wizards have some special imprinting?