New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|85| Chapter Eighty-Five

E I G H T Y  F I V E 

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The thoughts Saffron was having about how something was terribly wrong with her were put into the background of her mind, partially due to her captors not wanting her to lose focus on aiding Harry for the task ahead and partially because she herself was overwhelmed by how close the task was and what had been discovered before it.

As when she returned to the Gryffindor common room with Ron, Hermione and Harry were already there waiting for them and Harry had quite the tale to account.

Essentially, Harry had followed Sirius' advice and gone straight to Professor Dumbledore to tell him that he had a vision about Voldemort getting stronger during Divination. However, Dumbledore was preoccupied and had to show the Minister of Magic around the grounds, specifically where the attack took place. Harry was told to wait in Dumbledore's quarters and as he did so, accidentally stumbled upon something he would find out was called a Pensive.

He saw memories of Dumbledore's play out right in front of him. In the pensive, he saw trials of Death Eaters take place. The first was of the Durmstrang Headmaster Karkaroff, who managed to get off by snitching on a number of other Death Eaters, including Professor Snape. Ludo Bagman was also on trial for being charged for activities related to the Death Eaters, but the jury were completely on his side, much to the dismay of Professor Moody who was also present. Then the trial of Mr. Crouch's son took place and he was also convicted.

Then Professor Dumbledore pulled Harry out of the pensive but soon showed him it willingly, with memories of Bertha Jorkins being a gossip and Professor Snape talking about what Karkaroff showed him in potions the day the Witch Weekly article about Hermione came out. Dumbledore used it to store memories and was using it a lot more as of late given what had been going on with Mr. Crouch

Harry then explained what it was he had seen in Divination. That being Voldemort having a conversation with a woman who was hidden by the shadows, who's name Harry didn't know but who Saffron did know. Saffron knew precisely who Harry was talking about but that very woman was controlling her as she sat there so she was unable to say anything about that speculation.

Ths most chilling part of all was that both Harry's dream and Dumbledore's own personal belief suggested that Voldemort was getting stronger and that thought terrified Saffron. All the signs were pointing towards it, with Bertha Jorkins disappearing where Voldemort was last known to be, Mr. Crouch's disappearance and an understated one as a man called Frank Bryce had also disappeared, who lived in the village where Voldemort's father once lived. Dumbledore did not believe that these were isolated incidents.

Saffron, Hermione and Ron all exchanged horrified expressions as Harry explained what he had seen. They were at a loss for words at the end of it and there was a two-minute period in which none of them spoke. Until, finally, Ron broke the silence:

"Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well?" Ron shivered even though the common room was roasting. "And he trusts Snape? He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"

"Yes," Harry confirmed.

"What surprises me the most is Ludo Bagman..." said Saffron absently breaking another few moments of silence. "I never would have picked him as the type,"

"But Rita did, she must have reported on it," said Hermione with a look of realisation on her face. "She told me she knew things about him that would make even my hair curl, and Mr. Crouch and Winky weren't too fond of him either,"