Chapter 121

I have a serious question for you!

What is the best abbreviated name for Hermione?

Hermi? Mione? My little PogChamp? (no)

Suggest your options in the comments!

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"Well, what's there to tell? According to the information I know, Sirius Black turned out to be innocent of the crimes he was charged with. Peter Pettigrew appeared to have faked his own death. Do you remember what Black was accused of?"

"Of betraying the Potter family and giving their hiding place to the Dark Lord. Everyone knows that in general."

"Yes. As I understand it, the hiding place was under Fidelius charms, and Black wasn't the secret-keeper at all."

A dramatic pause forced Hermione only to arch an eyebrow in anticipation of the continuation.

"Peter Pettigrew. He was the secret-keeper. He was the one who gave it away."

"Strange things, I must admit," Hermione pondered. "There's no record of the trial, and I have nothing to say, but couldn't the Veritaserum have been used?"

"I don't know anything either. It's just... That's the way it is."

"I see. Tell me, Max, why do you suddenly need literature on lycanthropy?"

"Oh, that's a separate topic. Did you know that Lupin is a werewolf?"

"Professor Lupin. I guessed," Hermione nodded.

"And you didn't even share your guesses?"

"I should have gathered more information. Statistics. His 'strange illness' coincided very well with the full moons. On the day of the full moon and the day after, he didn't attend classes or meals. You probably don't know it, but Professor Lupin successfully taught a class with a boggart in the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw group. One girl's boggart took the form of a scary jack in the box. Judging from the stories, it was really scary, and the girl almost fainted. She was shielded from the boggart by the professor, and the boggart immediately took the form of the moon from behind the clouds. Well, someone said it was a piece of cheese in flakes of dust, but that's even harder to believe."

Such information made me scratch the back of my head thoughtfully.

"And why didn't I know about something like this?"

"You just need to communicate with someone else besides me. I'm certainly not eager to listen to a pile of gossip at night in my room with the girls, but who's going to ask me?"

"And ours just snore and spew nonsense."

"Boys," the girl sniggered. "I thought you were in some kind of trouble. Like that time last year."

Of course, I did! How could you think otherwise?

"You didn't get into anything, did you?" Hermione looked intently into my eyes. So intently that if it weren't for the calmness of my mental defenses, she might have been suspected of legilimens.

"I don't think so."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"You seem to have an overly honest look."

"What are you two cooing about?" the twin voice of the twins sounded behind us, but neither for Hermione nor for me, they came as a surprise. I heard them approaching, and Hermione, as the "owner" of the set muting charms, should have felt the crossing of their border.

" Well," I turned to the smiling redheaded brothers, as did Hermione. "Speculating."

"Trying to find out from Max if he got himself in trouble while I was gone."

"Wow, Brother Fred..."

"Yes, Brother George?"

"Don't you think that in the near future..."

"Maybe not in the near..."

"And not in the future..."

"But already..."

"Yah?"

"Yah!"

"We're going to have a new couple!" they shouted together, clapping their hands, spreading some glitter around. However, both Hermione and I immediately swished our wands briefly, making the glitter disappear before it touched us.

"Brother Fred," one twin looked at the other with ostentatious dejection and resentment.

"Yes, Brother George..."

"They don't trust us."

"They don't trust at all."

"Oh, as if there was no reason at all," I smirked back.

"That's right," Hermione nodded in agreement. "I don't know what you've got mixed up in your pollen."

"Pollen?" both twins were surprised. "That's a great name!"

"We'll just have to combine it. Let's go, let's go quickly..." and they left.

"Jesters," Hermione snapped back without malice, turning her gaze on the merry Gryffindors all over the common room.

I, on the other hand, became thoughtful. Until this moment, I'd never considered Hermione, or anyone at Hogwarts, from this perspective. And the hormones have been going around since last year, but for someone who's been through this stage of growing up, such chemical upheavals of their own body are nothing new, and that's the first reason. It was strange and incomprehensible in my previous life - you wanted something, but you didn't know what it was, so you rushed back and forth. Now I know very well what these or those reactions of the body are connected with, what they lead to, and, in general, there is no secret of relations in the "horizontal plane" for me, and I can hardly be surprised in this matter. However...

However, I have not considered anybody, and the second reason for that is simple - well, they're still children! And not even in terms of physical development - there, the sixth-seventh graders are already quite mature. It's about the mental aspect. I remember all those awkward adolescent attempts to be with someone: hand in hand, embarrassing glances, all sorts of awkward moments, fear of rejection, excitement and stupor from not knowing how to act, shy kisses. When it was all just starting out, and you had no idea where it was supposed to lead, and the biology textbook only made it more complicated! The guys in the yard say different things but in reality... Oooh... I'm not sure I want and can relive those embarrassing and very memorable moments again. Also, I didn't love anyone. My relatives don't count - it's different there. I didn't love anyone as a woman - it just so happened. Youthful attractions - of course, but love? What is love anyway? Not like a chemical reaction, which is an attraction, but, as Dagworth-Granger said in his work on potions? The unwavering, unchanging, unconditional devotion and loyalty that only love can be called.