Chapter 594: Approaching Conclusive Duel

When they got out of classroom seven, Hermione kept chattering.

“Didn’t expect that at all! It was much better than I expected, I was expecting all sorts of practical battles, like throwing you in the Forbidden Forest and having a bunch of weird creatures chasing you around … I mean, it wouldn’t have been that bad, but I prefer a period of quiet and productive reflection- ”

“Who says it’s not?” Ron snapped.

He and Harry were drenched in sweat and their hair looked askew, like they had just been through a rigorous Quidditch training session.

Hermione didn’t seem to have heard his words, as she continued to share her feelings excitedly, “You can simply talk to the room and have it help in the way you want – which is what I did, you know? I’ve always had a dream of being able to read a dozen books at once. Of course, they’re all interrelated with each other, presumably with different interpretations of the same magic … which I can use to cross-reference, and it’s really helped me achieve it!”

“The best part is that drinks appeared once a half hour in there- I only discovered this later- and you could choose between tea, hot cocoa, and pumpkin juice, they were all ghost food. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Harry and Ron looked at each other, they weren’t exactly being rewarded with hot tea to drink, instead, they were followed by a group of spinning plates of greens that forced them to perform transfiguration. Harry swore he wouldn’t even go near a mushroom for the rest of the week.

“I’ve heard there’s also the classroom model, in which a group of students get together to study, which is modelled upon a Classroom scenario.” Harry changed the subject and said.

“Yeah,” Hermione tried to remember, “I seem to have seen that too, later we can give it a try.”

The next two weeks flew by, and as June approached, the fifth and seventh years spent all their energy on revision, and instead of assigning assignments, the professors reviewed the questions that might come up on the exam in class. The students’ heads were spinning every day and the little time they had in class was not enough, so they were forced to jot down the points and then either spend the whole evening in the library memorizing the material or show up in the classroom seven to practise their spells.

During this time, Hermione also fulfilled her promise to demonstrate the most difficult potion boiling methods for some of the students in the class. There were students from all four houses gathered around, but they could basically be grouped into two categories: the members of the Frontline Lookout Club and their friends, and the dozen or so students from Slytherin.

The former had made a significant effort to simplify the potion process, and the latter – well, paid for a good deal of precious potion materials.

“I didn’t see Goyle or Crabbe.” Hermione whispered when the demonstration was over, looking at Draco Malfoy’s departing back.

“It’s not just the two of them,” Fred said as he came over, “all the ones who are related to Death Eaters are trying to distance themselves from them now, so the few whose immediate family are Death Eaters are miserable and very unpopular.”

Harry’s mind drifted off as he remembered reading in the newspaper a few weeks ago about Crabbe and Goyle’s father being sentenced to life imprisonment by Wizengamot.

“What about Malfoy? Wasn’t his dad undercover?” Ron asked.

“Him? Not that bad or good,” Fred said carelessly, ” he did get some cold shoulder at the start, but there’s no shortage of clever Slytherins, so soon someone came along,” he added, “or maybe their parents are resourceful enough. ”

“Of course, there are some who hold it against him, those who-” George said.

“People whose immediate family are Death Eaters.” Harry said with certainty.

“Exactly.” George winked at him, “There’s a gain as well as a loss. Fair enough, isn’t it?”

Harry put his mind at ease, he had been worried that the Slytherins would be looking for trouble, he had even tried to ask one of the professors to come over – not Snape of course, but Sirius. But Sirius was too busy, and he complained to Harry privately that Dumbledore made sure to assign him extra duties since he knew that he would not be teaching in the next school year.

To motivate the students, Sirius even made a bet with them that if any of them could get ‘Outstanding’ in the wizard grading test, he would present to those students his experience of learning Animagus as a gift.

“Come to think of it, although Professor McGonagall knows about it too, she doesn’t teach it that easily, as far as I know, it’s only for the best students of the Transfiguration Club.” He said grumpily, “Want it? Then get an ‘Outstanding’ and return.”

“Professor Black, will you continue to teach the Defence Against the Dark Arts class next year?” A student asked expectantly.

Sirius shook his head, “Only this year.” Seeing the disappointed look on the student’s face, he hurriedly said, “Don’t worry, I will keep my word, that knowledge is in Professor Hap’s capable hand …”

‘Professor Hap’ only found out about this on the third day, he had basically stayed in the depths of classroom seven all this time, creating a makeshift office for this purpose – the thinking room and classroom seven are simply a perfect match, combined with the constant flow of emotions that the students were generating because of the exams, his research is making extremely rapid progress.

“When did you ever give me the information about Animagus?”

Felix asked in an unpleasant tone as he blocked Sirius at the great hall entrance one day. Who realized, as an afterthought, that the news about ‘Professor Black entrusting his knowledge to Professor Hap’ had spread through the school.

“Am I wrong?” Sirius said dismissively, “The Black family generations of book collections are stuffed into your belly. Animagus is just an insignificant addition, oh – no wonder you don’t remember.”

Felix smartly closed his mouth.

…

After lights out, Harry sat on the windowsill of his dorm room staring out at the stars, realizing with a start that they had won the Quidditch Cup two days ago, which should have been something worth celebrating in a big way, but the Gryffindor team – with the exception of Katie Bell, who doesn’t need to take either of the wizard grading exams – the other six just made a hasty appearance at the celebration party and turned their heads to deal with the ‘pestering gnome’ in Fred’s words.

As the month of June approached, the shadow of exams loomed ever closer.

More than one student had developed exam syndrome, with more or less of them picking up some odd habits, such as Hufflepuff’s Ernest Macmillan’s tendency to probe the study times the other students needed to review for their exams, and then be relieved when he learned that they need more time than he did, and nervous when they did not.

Hermione is just as bad as him, and she excels in two areas in particular. She had single-handedly thwarted the thriving black market trade of young wizards, whether it was poorly packaged, poor quality Baruffio’s Brain Elixir or substandard dragon claw powder disguised as dried fox dung or all sorts of substandard Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Sleeping Draught … were all confiscated from the student’s hand and dumped down the toilet.

Another thing is that she has developed the habit of looking at people with blank eyes, which usually happens on her way to class with Harry and Ron, or during meal times. It was accompanied by symptoms such as mumbling under her breath and poking her fingers in the air constantly.

“You’re not Luna in disguise, are you?” Harry looked at Hermione suspiciously.

“What? Of course not!” Hermione impatiently said, “I’m just studying in my mind.”

In the last class before the exams, Felix explained to the students what to expect.

“The Ancient Rune exam is scheduled on Friday, with a written test in the morning and a practical in the afternoon.” Felix said, “I personally participated in the questions’ formulation for the practical exam, and all the questions are within the scope of our review, so you can put your hearts and minds at ease.”

“Also, I assume you are aware that cheating is forbidden in exams.”

The faces of the students under the podium were tightly tensed, and Felix wasn’t sure what they were really thinking unless he tried to use Legilimency or some kind of mind magic.

“The examiners are highly experienced, and they can easily spot any cheating tricks. It might be a bit abstract when you put it that way, so I will give you an example – the Head Examiner, Professor Griselda Marchbanks, has invigilated Headmaster Dumbledore’s N.E.W.Ts examination, which would imply that she has invigilated nearly a hundred of such examinations from her youth till now, so try to imagine what it would signify.”

Harry inhaled softly, he had never thought about it in that context before. He looked around the room and the others had pretty much the same look on their faces when Professor Hap used an example that is too unreal to be true and showed them how difficult it would be to cheat.

“… Things like Auto-Answer Quills, Remembrall, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink, all sorts of Potions … These things are all banned, I spent two days at the Wizard Examination Authority, and believe me, figuring out anti-cheating magic is just an all-too-common part of their daily routine, and the variety of weird and bizarre trinkets I saw in those two days was breathtaking …”

“My personal advice for you is to ask Madam Pomfrey for some Sleeping Draught, to get plenty of sleep, plus chew a couple of mint leaves to refresh yourself before you go into the exam room – yes, mint leaves are allowed.”

…

At breakfast on Sunday, Seamus stumbled into the great hall and shouted, “The examiners are here!” The original buzz instantly reduced to a low point as a Year 7 girl suddenly bawled her eyes out and a circle of people around her reached out to comfort her.

Harry had one eye on the suddenly hysterical girl and the other on the entrance to the great hall, trying to spot the examiners and nearly ending up with food lodged into his nose. Just as he was in the process of coughing down, he heard a neat intake of breath from his left and right, and he jerked his head up to see Dumbledore assisting an older woman walk through the entrance.

“It’s Professor Marchbanks!” Hermione sounded out of character.

“I heard she and Neville’s grandmother are good friends, do you think we could-” Ron mumbled hopefully, then he saw the stiff expression on Neville’s face and sighed, “Alas, it seems not. ”

On the other side–

“Dumbledore?” Professor Marchbanks said in a loud voice at the side, followed by a silent Professor McGonagall and Snape behind her and Dumbledore, “Dorothea told me you haven’t bothered to get a checkup-”

“There’s an excellent healer at this school,” Dumbledore said calmly, “she can fix those headaches of mine with ease.”

The last night before his exams, Harry lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

He felt his mind is particularly active tonight; he thought of Sirius’ encouragement to him during the day, the feeling of holding the Quidditch trophy in his hands after a year of absence, and he even thought of Voldemort, who hadn’t appeared in his dreams for a long time, and it seemed that Professor Hap and Headmaster Dumbledore’s suspicions are right – Voldemort had used Occlumency very tightly to prevent his intrusion.

That explained why his scar had never hurt for a long time.

Harry rose from the bed and fumbled around in the darkness for a while, eventually managing to rummage through the Christmas sock Dobby had given him to find a small vial of Sleeping Draught, which he unscrewed and took a small sip of.

“Give me some too, Harry.” Ron chimed in.

Harry handed the open glass vial to Ron and their hands bumped against each other as the vial transferred smoothly in the air. Then came the sound of gulping, and Ron smacked his lips in satisfaction. At that moment, another voice was heard next to him –

“Any more?” Neville asked in a whisper. He wasn’t asleep either.

“There’s more than plenty.” Ron said, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, from different spots in the dorm room came the voices of Seamus and Dean, “Great! Do you mind sharing me a little-” “Um … thanks?”

The vial rotated in a circle and was empty by the time it returned to Harry’s hand.

Sleep hit him and Harry haphazardly placed the vial on the bedside table and took off his glasses to lie on his pillow, ” Shouldn’t we set an alarm?” He asked vaguely.

“What?”

“I said-ha-ah-” Harry yawned widely and fell asleep.

…

Meanwhile, Bellatrix awoke from her coffin, sitting up blankly, her hands still clutching the golden cup with a death grip.

Voldemort was very pleased with her attitude.

Bellatrix bowed her head respectfully, the inexplicable zealousness once again surfaced on her face.

“Click, click, click.”

Bellatrix shook her stiff neck, she seemed to have been asleep for a long time, her arms and legs were incoherent as she crawled out of the coffin, and just as she was about to crash down to the ground, Voldemort snapped his fingers lazily, and she was immediately pulled upright by an invisible force.

“Thank you, My Lord. I, I-” Bellatrix stared at her hands, which seemed to have lost the appearance of what normal skin should look like, becoming wrinkled and pale as if they were covered in some sort of fine scales, her eyes widening as she touched her face in panic.

Then there was an audible, bone-seeping scream.

“Don’t worry, my dear Bella, it’s only temporary.” Voldemort surveyed his ‘work’ with satisfaction, “Your body has undergone some minor alterations in your sleep and will need some time to recover.” He took Bellatrix’s hand.

With Voldemort’s help, Bellatrix stumbled out of the coffin. Surrounded by the gloomy crumbling graveyard, with wild grasses making a grimy sound and a wind that seemed to scrape into her skin which caused her to shiver with cold.

A few minutes later, slightly more mobile, Bellatrix followed behind Voldemort.

“During the time you were asleep, there was a great change outside.”

“The Aurors of the Ministry of Magic have shattered my loyal followers to pieces with the help of two traitors’ identification … Bella, you are one of the few who still remain loyal to me.”

“Dark Lord!” Bellatrix said gratefully, “Thank you for being magnanimous and not taking my sister and brother-in-law into account-” Voldemort’s eyes cast two dangerous red lights, and she snapped her mouth shut as the air fell into dead silence.

After a long moment-

“Not accounting?” Voldemort asked softly and Bellatrix bowed her head as Voldemort walked around in front of her, “What makes you think I would forgive the betrayal of anyone? Lucius … Selwyn … and perhaps others, the Ministry of Magic’s intelligence was closed to me, and I am now like a blind man who can only learn about the trial from the newspapers.”

“Since when does my name not seem to hold up the weight as it used to be, do you know what is now being discussed in the newspapers?” Voldemort asked, and without waiting for Bellatrix to answer, he muttered to himself, “Dumbledore, Hap, Potter, and even that woman … Amelia Bones.”

The wind was chilly.

“They’re talking about the Dark Lord’s nemesis, and there’s more than one!” Voldemort raised his voice and Bellatrix’s body shook as if she had been whipped in the face, and she fell to her knees, Voldemort ignored this, his mouth twisted with an evil grin, “I seem to be nothing but a clown to all these people.”

“My Lord, you are the most supreme Dark Lord.” Bellatrix wailed, seemingly saddened by this dwindling honour, “Things aren’t nearly that bad-”

Voldemort sneered twice.

“Of course, things are not that bad.” He said coldly, “But it has reached a critical moment, so my mind became sensitive. My duel with that old man Dumbledore is almost at hand, and my greatest fear is about that Felix Hap fishing in the muddy water-”

“Is this a trap?” Bellatrix asked, holding her breath.

“No, Dumbledore wouldn’t dare lie to me, he can’t afford to do that.” Voldemort said in an icy tone, Bellatrix fully grasped the blood and gruesomeness in those words.

“The location of our duel is a secret, and I will also place Intruder Charm on the surrounding perimeter …”

“It’s something else I’m worried about – he’ll come after you.”

“Me?” Bellatrix muttered, both surprised and thrilled.

Voldemort stared at her pale face, making Bellatrix nervous as she became more and more careful and reverent.

“Bella,” Voldemort said softly, “you have been loyal to me, and now it is time for me to reward you in kind,” he said as he took Bellatrix’s hand and with a gentle touch of his long, pale fingers, he picked the golden cup from her hand and examined it carefully for a moment.

“I will share the secret of my immortality with you.”

————

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