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I went to class with Hermione. Just out of boredom. I needed a break from exhaustion training, even if I was weakening myself to a girl's level.

The last thing on the schedule was the potions class. As soon as our House reached the dungeon classrooms, where the Slytherins were already waiting to begin, the unforgettable Draco and his comrades turned their attention to Hermione and me.

"Oh, look, our lovebirds are coming!" he smiled slyly, and the others immediately laughed obsequiously.

"Are you jealous?"

"Haha, no. Here, read this."

Malfoy casually threw a magazine at me, and I telekinetically intercepted it in flight. Without any hands or wands or anything. I held it up to me under the astonished stares of the others, ran my palm over it, checking it with my magic. Clear. I continued to hold the magazine in the air with his telekinesis, and with the same telekinesis, I began to flip through it quickly. Hermione came closer and, taking my hand under hers, began to look carefully for something that might attract Malfoy's attention. We found the right article.

"What does it say?" came Seamus and Dean.

"They say that unassuming Muggleborn Granger has poisoned me with Amortentia."

"Why not Imperio?" wondered Hermione. "Because Amortentia only works for twenty-four hours."

"Who knows," I shrugged, and to the laughter of our comrades and the not-so-joyful looks of the Slytherins, got a slight poke in the side with an elbow. "It's not over yet."

"I see," Hermione nodded with a smile. "Nice and pleasant fourth-year Pansy says Granger is ugly."

Hermione looked at Pansy.

"You should say, 'I don't find her attractive.' Otherwise, when readers see the pictures from the ball, of which there are many, they will have a reasonable question: 'Isn't that Parkinson a liar?'"

The office door opened, revealing Snape.

"Come on in," he said briefly, and all the students quickly took their seats.

We took the first desk, as we always did, and put the magazine aside. Toward the middle of class, Hermione decided to continue talking about the journal.

"I wonder how Skeeter finds out everything? I know for a fact that the headmaster has forbidden her to come here."

"I think she does it the same way Black did in his time."

" What do you mean?"

"Animagi. If her form is small enough, she could easily get in."

We were talking in whispers and without distraction from the potion, and the professor was walking an inaudible shadow somewhere near the back rows, waiting for Potter or Weasley to make a mistake.

"It's worth considering."

"I could put the whole castle under the right security spell, but it takes time."

"I can do that, too. The question is another. Why didn't the teachers do it?"

Snape's quiet voice echoed behind us.

"Don't get distracted."

He didn't take the points off.

In the common room that evening, sitting on the couch and once again resting my head on Hermione's lap while the rest of the newly formed company diligently did their homework at the table next to me, I quietly told the girl an idea of mine.

"I want to follow Potter and Weasley tomorrow."

"What for?" the girl reacted without removing her hands from my hair and not being distracted from reading her own notes in a notebook.

"Well, you know we're related."

"I know. Your mother's maiden name was Black."

"Yeah. I want to see what he's like now. I mean, he's a fugitive, all that. Yeah, and I need an easy adventure."

"An adventure, huh? I'm with you."

"Where would I be without you," I made myself even more comfortable with a smile.

***

On Saturday morning, I bought a small bag from the seniors for a couple of sickles and charmed it with an invisible extension. I got dressed for the walk in black pants and a turtleneck and went into the common room. Hermione was already there waiting for me in her casual street clothes - jeans, boots, and a yellow windbreaker. Noticing me and my glance at the jeans, the girl smiled.

"Good morning. I don't think this day is going to be without a run through the local ravines, and past experience with such things suggests that skirts are uncomfortable."

"Makes sense, I don't argue."

We spent half the day doing various things that weren't particularly important. We were in the kitchen, where I collected a large package for Sirius. Why? Out of the goodness of my heart. We visited Professor Flitwick and shared our new calculations and conclusions. The professor, too, did not remain in debt and gave us a rare book he obtained about various magical schemes for applying to materials. We'll study it later.

Closer to lunch, we returned to the Gryffindor's common room, and after putting on all concealing spells imaginable and unimaginable, we began to wait for Ron and Harry to come out.