Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Eleven

To everyone's delight except Harry's, there was going to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term.

"We can do all our Christmas shopping there!" said Hermione. "Mum and Dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!"

"You said they're orthodontists?" I asked.

"Dentists," She corrected. "But close enough."

I needed to get one of those custom magic shirts for Chiron that said "World's Best Centaur" and blinked different colors. For each of my six siblings at Camp, I'd get different sweets. I was planning on getting Ron something related to the Chudley Cannons and a big box of Chocolate Frogs. I wanted to get Hermione some Sugar Quills and a special bookmarker I found that adjusts the book to the page you need so you never lose your spot. She'd been wanting one since a few weeks ago but was trying to save up her money for Christmas presents. It was hard to think of something for Harry. I decided to look for something Quidditch-related. I probably couldn't buy him a new broom, but hopefully I could get something for when he got one.

We went to Honeydukes, and after deciding on which sweets we'd get for Christmas presents, we decided to get some strange candy for Harry as a prank on him.

Ron looked at a tray of blood-flavored lollipops. "How about these?"

"Ugh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione said.

"How about these?" said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose.

"Definitely not," said Harry's voice from behind us. I jumped and staggered into Hermione (who really didn't deserve it). Ron nearly dropped the jar.

"Harry!" squealed Hermione. "What are you doing here? How — how did you —?"

"Wow!" said Ron, looking very impressed, "you've learned to Apparate!"

" 'Course I haven't," said Harry. He dropped his voice so that none of the sixth years could hear him and told us all about a map Fred and George had given to him.

"How come Fred and George never gave it to me!" said Ron, outraged. "I'm their brother!"

"But Harry isn't going to keep it!" said Hermione, as though the idea were ludicrous. "He's going to hand it in to Professor McGonagall, aren't you, Harry?"

"No, I'm not!" said Harry.

"Are you mad?" said Ron, goggling at Hermione. "Hand in something that good?"

"If I hand it in, I'll have to say where I got it! Filch would know Fred and George had nicked it!"

I could tell Hermione was feeling a bit ganged-up on. I figured she was right, and I stepped in for her.

"But what about Sirius Black?" I asked. "He could use one of the passages on that map to get into the castle. I think Hermione's right. The teachers need to know."

"He can't be getting in through a passage," said Harry quickly. "There are seven secret tunnels on the map, right? Fred and George reckon Filch already knows about four of them. And of the other three — one of them's caved in, so no one can get through it. One of them's got the Whomping Willow planted over the entrance, so you can't get out of it. And the one I just came through — well — it's really hard to see the entrance to it down in the cellar — so unless he knew it was there —" Harry hesitated, and I could tell he was wondering the same thing I was: What if Black did know the passage was there?

Ron, however, cleared his throat significantly, and pointed to a notice pasted on the inside of the sweet shop door.

BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC