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If you look at the local witches in terms of beauty, there are many beautiful ones. Seriously, there are a lot of them. At one time, I have come across such opuses about the connection between the British's appearance and the fact that in the Middle Ages, they themselves eradicated all beauty, burning "witches" at the stake of the Inquisition. And the fact of living on an island could not but affect, like, closed society and everything. However, when it comes to wizards, we should not forget that it is extremely difficult to drive one of us to the bonfire. Even a simple accidental wandless magic under the influence of strong emotions can radically change the situation in favor of the wizard. There have been cases, for sure. There were also cases of "betrayal" by Muggle-borns that left after Hogwarts in the church's bosom. Closely related marriages - is also the one more story. First of all, many pure-blood families didn't originate in England. Malfoy, Rosier, Fawley, Greengrass, Crouch, Shafiq, and that's just of the sacred twenty-eight. There aren't that many truly "insular" ones. Black and Weasley are among them, by the way.

The second important factor is magic. Take at least the ritual that Malfoy performed. I'm not sure what other adjustments wizards can make because I haven't studied everything yet, and the library at Grimmauld has only been explored at the public section level, and there's nothing of value there.

Damn, the twins are assholes! They brought up a topic that I hadn't thought about at all.

"What?" Hermione looked at me. She will definitely grow up beautiful.

" Well, I think I'm in trouble."

"What's wrong?"

"The twins prompted different thoughts."

"What kind of thoughts?"

"Different..." I waved my hand in the air.

"That's it..."

The face is kept normal, occlumency helps, but the blush betrays me. I feel like saying something in a Ron Weasley style from the canon: "That's Hermione! Our friend!"

The conversation stalled on its own.

"And what do you think of their sudden line about us?"

"What do I think? Well, we came to Hogwarts to study... And you yourself said that you wanted to take full advantage of these seven years in order to leave Hogwarts not as a mediocre one but as a wizard whose opinion would be listened to. And you recommended me to do the same."

"Um..." I was stunned by this. "Did you just quote me?"

"Yes."

"Okaaay. So, what do you think? Ah, now let's check it out in a radical but harmless way."

Quickly turning my back on Hermione and simply lying down, resting my head at her feet.

"Max!" with a mixture of embarrassment and righteous indignation, Hermione looked down at me.

"It's a science experiment!" I raised my finger to the sky. "If you don't know what to think, provoke those thoughts."

"Provoke the thoughts, so..."

"Yeah. What do you think?"

"That I want to put my arms around your neck and strangle," Hermione really pulled her hands to my neck but stopped halfway. "Or bang you with something heavy."

"Now, I'll just cover my eyes..."

And I did. And I wasn't even hit. Without waiting for the reprisal, I settled my head more comfortably, and with a wave of my wand, I changed the muffling spells slightly. Now the sounds of merriment outside seemed clearer, but as if farther away, creating just a quiet background. Eh, what am I doing? In exactly two weeks, my life could change drastically into "before" and "after." I have to study books, learn and understand a mountain of material, do calculations, and me? I'm just wasting my time. Hermione said it right, reminding me of my own words - I need to take full advantage of my time to get out of Hogwarts... To at least just get out of Hogwarts.

The sudden and unexpected sensation of a stranger's hand in my hair was unusual and unaccustomed. The last time I'd felt something like this was in a previous life.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked quietly. "And don't say nothing. It's written all over your face."

I just took a deep breath.

"You don't trust me?" the annoyance in her words was literally palpable.

"I trust you."

"But you won't tell."

Without opening my eyes, I spoke quietly:

"We are in a world of magic. Here you can read minds, force people with a spell or a potion, or even that Veritaserum. My secrets can hurt you. I've just invented a perfectly legal way to get any information out of a person. Amortentia."

"What? Amortentia? How?" even the head stroking stopped for a moment, immediately becoming a little more animated. Talk about knowledge and information - Hermione would immediately become more active.

"You give a person Amortentia on yourself. Then he loses his head, as he should. And you're like, 'My dear, you will fulfill my request, won't you?' And the victim will comply consciously. Everything, for "love." Creepy stuff, and totally legitimate. Good thing it's not permanent and passes quickly."

"You think I don't recognize Amortentia? If orange juice suddenly starts to smell like ye... Something else, that's a reason to think."

"Mione. My secrets are dangerous. They're not Potter's secrets, the worst of which is that he's unhappy with his relatives and that he has holes in all his socks."

The girl giggled quietly.

"It's serious here. By burdening you with a load of secrets, I will only expose you to danger, albeit ephemeral. Why do you need extra worries?"

"What if I can help? Understand, I'm worried about you."

"I am flattered, of course, but..." here I thought again about who I could ask for help, and the image of Lady Walburga's portrait kept coming up before my closed eyes. I'll send a letter to Kreacher to tell the portrait about the problem, and maybe she'll send me a book or some advice.