Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

106. The Unbreakable Vow

Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more, Christmas was approaching fast. Hagrid had already singlehandedly delivered the usual twelve Christmas trees to the Great Hall, garlands of holly and tinsel had been twisted around the banisters of the stairs, everlasting candles glowed from inside the helmets of suits of armor and great bunches of mistletoe had been hung at intervals along the corridors. Large groups of girls tended to converge underneath the mistletoe bunches every time Harry went past, which caused blockages in the corridors. Fortunately, however, Harry's frequent nighttime wanderings had given him an unusually good knowledge of the castle's secret passageways, so that he was often, without too much difficulty, to navigate mistletoe-free routes between classes.

Ron, who might once have found the necessity of these detours excuse for jealousy rather than hilarity, simply roared with laughter about it all. Although Harry much preferred this new laughing, joking Ron to the moody, aggressive model they had been enduring for the last few weeks, the improved Ron came at a heavy price. Firstly, Harry and Y/n had to put up with the frequent presence of Lavender Brown, who seemed to regard any moment that she was not kissing Ron as a moment wasted, and secondly, Harry found himself once more the best friend of two people who seemed unlikely ever to speak to each other again.

Ron was taking a defensive and resentful tone. "She can't complain." he told Harry. "She's the one who had no faith in me!"

Harry did not answer, but pretended to be absorbed in the book they were supposed to have read before Charms next morning. Determined as he was to remain friends with both Ron and Hermione, he was spending a lot of time with his mouth shut tight. He turned a page of Quintessence, aware that Ron was watching him. Ron's voice trailed away in mutters, barely audible over the loud crackling of the fire.

Hermione's schedule meanwhile was so full that Y/n could only talk to her properly in the evenings, when Ron was, in any case, so tightly wrapped around Lavender that he did not notice what they were doing. Hermione refused to sit in the common room while Ron was there, so Y/n and Harry generally joined her in the library, which meant that their conversations were held in whispers.

Harry was reading his potion's book while Y/n and Hermione worked on their Arithmancy essays.

"He knows I have faith in him, I am simply fed up with him taking us for granted at times." said Hermione, while the librarian, Madam Pince, prowled the shelves behind them. "If anyone had an excuse to be short tempered and grumpy to us at all these past few months it was you two."

She raised her quill and dotted an 'i' so ferociously that she punctured a hole in her parchment.

Y/n just waved his wand over Hermione's parchment repairing it before returning to his own. He knew better than to anger Hermione further so stayed quiet.

Harry following suit said nothing though he thought his voice might soon vanish from the lack of use. He bent a little lower over Advanced Potion-Making and continued to make notes on Everlasting Elixirs, occasionally pausing to decipher the Prince's useful additions to Libatius Borage's text.

"By the way Harry." said Hermione, after a few moments. "You need to be careful."

"For the last time." said Harry, speaking in a slightly hoarse tone after three-quarters of an hour's silence. "I am not giving back this book. I've learned more from the Half-Blood Prince than Snape or Slughorn have taught me in..."

"I'm not talking about your stupid so-called Prince." said Hermione, giving his book a nasty look as though it had been rude to her. "I'm talking about earlier. I went into the girls' bathroom just before I came in here and there were about a dozen girls in there, including that Romilda Vane, trying to decide how to slip you a love potion. They're all hoping they're going to get you to take them to Slughorn's party, and they all seem to have bought Fred and George's love potions, which I'm afraid to say probably work..."