mirrorball

chapter twenty

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The pair continued to eat their breakfast. Clara tried her best to drown out the stares and whispers with the eggs in front of her, but she was extremely aware of every pair of eyes that looked down on her. 

It seemed as though Harry was not at all impacted by the others in the Great Hall. He smiled and discussed his adventure with Slughorn with Ron and Hermione. Having first cast the Muffliato spell upon those nearest them, the four of them, plus Luna, listened intently to Harry recall his encounter with Slughorn and Hagrid two nights earlier. They were satisfyingly impressed by the way he had wheedled the memory out of Slughorn.

"Wow," said Ron, when Harry had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore. . . and try and destroy . . . wow." 

"Ron, you're making it snow," said Hermione patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lavender Brown, Clara noticed, glared at Hermione from a neighboring table through very red eyes, and Hermione immediately let go of Ron's arm. A slight blush crept across the Gryffindor girl's cheeks. 

"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry . . . looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now. . . ." He brushed some of the fake snow off of Hermione's shoulder, making her blush increase. Lavender burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her. "We split up," he told Harry out of the corner of his mouth. "When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you and Clara, so she thought it had just been the two of us." 

"Well, it was a bad week for romance all around." muttered Clara. 

"What?" said Harry, turning his head towards her.

"Er- nothing. Just said finally, you know? It's a good thing, you'll be happier now, Ron."

Ron nodded happily, that familiar golden retriever smile playing on his lips. His eyes drifted quickly towards Hermione, who had taken a great interest in the apple slices on her plate.

There was silence between the group until Hermione cried, "Katie! You're back! Are you okay?"

Harry stared: It was indeed Katie Bell, looking completely healthy and surrounded by her jubilant friends. "I'm really well!" she said happily. "They let me out of St. Mungo's on Monday, I had a couple of days at home with Mum and Dad and then came back here this morning. Leanne was just telling me about McLaggen and the last match, Harry. . . ."

"Yeah," said Harry, "well, now you're back and Ron's fit, we'll have a decent chance of thrashing Ravenclaw, which means we could still be in the running for the Cup. Listen, Katie. . . that necklace . . . can you remember who gave it to you now?"

"No," said Katie, shaking her head ruefully. "Everyone's been asking me, but I haven't got a clue. The last thing I remember was walking into the ladies' in the Three Broomsticks."

"You definitely went into the bathroom, then?" said Hermione. "Well, I know I pushed open the door," said Katie, "so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it. After that, my memory's a blank until about two weeks ago in St. Mungo's. Listen, I'd better go, I wouldn't put it past McGonagall to give me lines even if it is my first day back. . . ."

She gathered up her bag and books and hurried after her friends, leaving  the group to ponder this information.

"So it must have been a girl or a woman who gave Katie the necklace," said Clara, "to be in the ladies' bathroom."