Magic Never Dies (Harmione)

Chapter 21

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Ron thought Durmstrang students - at least the ones still left there, anyway - remarkably dense. Thick as bricks would hardly be exaggerating. Surely at Hogwarts they would have been called out by now, if nothing else for a pranking. And yet so far...nothing. It wasn't that he wanted to be caught - far from it. It just seemed wrong somehow that they had managed to get this far.

He glanced beside him at Harry, head purposefully ducked so that his fringe kept his scar well out of view. Neither of them looked all that much like your average Drumstrang student, if their attempt to find uniforms that fit was any indication, but Malfoy...

The joke was that Malfoy was the one who could well in theory have actually attended here; Ron reckoned it was a life-saving instinct on his mother's part that insisted on Hogwarts instead. Even in the militaristic Durmstrang uniform Malfoy could be nothing but... Malfoy.

The route Ogby had mapped out for them was simple enough, the problem was the nature of their destination. Much like Hogwarts, the Durmstrang trophy room was centrally located not far from the Dining Hall. Ogby had told them the cup was in the trophy room itself, not on the display shelves lining the hall, one small gift to be thankful for. The problem was getting there: while it was well past the dinner hour the hall was more than likely used for other purposes and busy even at odd hours.

They had encountered mostly younger students so far; none as young as Hogwarts first years, but certainly no more than thirteen or fourteen. They had an air of being kept round as errand-boys: the whole vibe of the place was wrong for a school. A barracks, more like. Obviously it was the older students who were more closely involved in readying the school for Voldemort's visit. It seemed an awful lot of fuss really...

Unless they were up to something they shouldn't be? Or else had something to hide.

"Have you noticed that no one has any books? No one at all?" he whispered to Harry. "You'd think at least some of them would be worried about exams and such."

A group of three younger ones passed, each carrying an identical, weighty, highly polished wooden box by brass handles. Their eyes strayed toward Ron, Harry and Malfoy and widened.

"What are you looking at?" sneered Malfoy. "Eyes ahead and get to it; the Dark Lord didn't send us ahead for you to stare at."

At least they squeaked like Hogwarts firsties, only slightly deeper. Three sets of eyes dropped to the floor as their owners scurried away.

The sound reminded Ron of something. "How do you reckon they manage without girls at all? Seems like it'd be marvelous to start with, but by sixth or seventh year it must get right boring."

"Why do you think those three ran so fast?" Malfoy snickered.

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Lupin, Tonks, Mad Eye, Bill, Fred and George, Viktor Krum and Hermione all apparated to roughly the same spot on the bank of the stream where the thestral had deposited the two girls earlier that day. This time, however, they were prepared with brooms in hand. Viktor had offered to fly Hermione in, but she was determined to do it herself. So Harry'd better be alive when she got there, because he was going to owe her big for this.