Year 6, Chapter 5, Settling In – Classes and Quidditch

Dear Hermione,

Well, we had our first Defense class today. It was nearly worthless. After his usual introductory rant about how mysterious and challenging the subject was (Dark Arts this time, instead of Potions) and how unlikely it was that students as worthless as us would be able to succeed in his class, Snape promptly assigned us to cast jinxes and shields nonverbally. Of course, no one could do it, so we spent the entire rest of the period waving our wands at each other like idiots.

It gets worse. After taunting us for a while he decided to demonstrate a nonverbal jinx on, who else, me. I wasn’t going to stand there and just let him jinx me, so I automatically cast a Shield Charm. And as you might expect, since I didn’t do it nonverbally I got a detention.

So, if that’s any indication of how his class is going to be, we will definitely continue the DA. Katie came up to me after class and we talked about it. She’s in her NEWT year, of course, and she’s going to come up with a list of what she thinks they’ll need to know, and we’ll use that as a basis.

She also said something about quidditch tryouts – she thinks everyone should have to earn their spot again, even her. Ron’s not too keen about that idea, but he won the keeper spot in tryouts last year, so he should be able to do it again.

I decided to take Care of Magical Creatures, and then discovered there wasn’t anyone else in the NEWT class. I’m the only one. None of the other Gryffindors signed up for it, the Ravenclaws think it’s worthless, and the Slytherins won’t touch it. Susan says some Hufflepuffs would take it but are turned off by Hagrid’s dangerous creatures. She told me Sprout complained to Dumbledore about that, but he didn’t do anything. Hagrid was pretty shook up about the situation, but said he’d just give me private lessons.

I told Ron, Neville, and Susan about the Prophecy. Ron just sat there with his mouth open, Neville turned pale, and Susan cried and gave me a hug. Then I explained to the other two about how it could have been Neville. That got him a hug from Susan too, but I noticed that his hug was a little tighter and lasted longer than my hug. Do you know if there’s something going on between those two? They all promised to help me in any way they could. Neville was almost scary, with the determined look he got. It’s a personal fight for him, now more than ever. It is for the others too, of course, because of Susan’s aunt and the way the Weasleys are so involved. I think even Ron is going to start taking his studies more seriously.

The reason the four of us were together in the first place, in fact, is that we’ve been studying together. Ron and I really miss you (not only for that, of course) in that area. We only now realize just how much we depended on you to make us get our homework done (and, I have to admit, do it for us sometimes). Neville’s the expert on Herbology, of course, and Susan’s good at keeping us on task. Ron says she nags us almost as much as you did. I’d never say that, of course. You encouraged us.

Just writing about this is making me even lonelier. I knew it was going to be hard here without you this year, but there are so many things that remind me of you. I’ll be going along and then something will happen or I’ll think of something to say to you and I’ll turn to my side and you aren’t there. Then it hits me all over again and I get this empty aching feeling inside.

I better stop now before I start to cry.

I really miss you.

Love,

#### Henry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Oh, the end of your letter just made me want to cry, too. I know exactly how you feel. It doesn’t happen so often for me here, since it’s so new, but there will still be times when I want to say something to you or show you something and I can’t. We just need to hold on until this year is over and I’ll be back where I belong – by your side.

I talked to our Defense instructor, M. Béliveau, about non-verbal spells. He says that they are rare – only a few wizards master them, and that they are usually weaker than spoken spells, which is why they are seldom used. I’ve only ever seen Dumbledore and Moody (and of course Dolohov) perform one, and now Snape makes four. Of course, it’s very lucky for me that they are weaker than normal spells. I don’t know what to tell you to do. Snape is correct in that it would be a useful skill, but it’s unreasonable to expect students to master them.

Here’s something else I discovered. At Beauxbatons some of the spells we learn are different. For example for a blasting hex at Hogwarts we learned Reducto, but here they teach Confringo. I will keep track of all of these and teach the alternatives to you when I see you again. I think they may come in useful, because it would be more difficult for an enemy to block a hex he isn’t familiar with.

It sounds like Katie has some good ideas, both with the defense study group and the quidditch tryouts. Let me know how that goes this weekend.

Yes, there is something going on between Neville and Susan. She’s been writing me too. They’re both pretty shy, of course, so don’t expect to see them snogging in public any time soon. I think they’re at about the same place in their relationship that we were a year ago. How about Ron? Has any girl caught his eye this year? I got the impression at the end of last year that he was starting to warm up to Luna, but things were pretty hectic and I might have been reading more into it than was there.

It’s nothing for you to concern yourself with, but guys here are still asking me out on occasion. I’m pretty sure it’s a combination of the ‘new girl’ and ‘foreign girl’ allure. They see me as a challenge. I always decline and say I have a boyfriend back home, and Michelle, Brigitte, Thérèse, or Sally-Anne backs me up. If they persist Gabrielle kicks them in the shins.

I hope you got a laugh out of that last line. It’s really funny to see her step in to ‘protect’ me. Of course no one can protect me like you can.

Other than that, things are going OK here. Somehow things just aren’t as exciting here as they have been at Hogwarts. I think you might be a big reason for that.

I miss you.

All my love,

Hermione

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

I have some news for you today. First, quidditch tryouts were this morning. As Katie suggested, I announced that all positions were open. It was crazy – it seemed like there were a hundred people there to try out. Then I found out that more than half of them weren’t even from Gryffindor! After I sorted that out and I sent all the spectators to the stands, things were more manageable. There were a lot of Gryffindors there just to watch, like Neville, Lavender, and Parvati, and some friends from other houses, like Susan and Luna, but there were also a bunch of ‘Potter fans’. (That’s what Susan called them.) It was really annoying.

Anyway, Katie easily made the team again as Chaser, as did Ginny. Both of them were really good, and worked well together. The third Chaser is a girl I hadn’t known before, but who could fly really well – Demelza Robins. She wasn’t as good as Katie or Ginny at passing, but they both thought they could work with her. Dean and Seamus both tried out too, and were a bit miffed that they didn’t make the team, but neither of them claimed that they were better than any of the three girls. So, for at least one more year Gryffindor will have an all-female Chaser line.

We have two new Beaters this year – third years named Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote. They’re not Fred and George, but they’re at least better than Sloper and Kirke were last year. Both of them tried out as well, but they admitted that these new guys were better, so things turned out OK there too.

That brings us to Keeper. CormacMcLaggen, who I mentioned was part of Slughorn’s ‘group’, was among those trying out. It turned out he was pretty good, partly because he’s so big he could block one hoop without even moving. This of course made Ron really nervous. He managed to control it, though, and it soon came down to the two of them.

Well, McLaggen saved five shots from Katie, and Ron saved five shots from Ginny. Then McLaggen complained that Ginny was going easy on Ron because he was her brother. That was definitely the wrong thing to say, and besides, anyone who knows them knows how competitive they are. She’d never go easy on him. So I had them switch and Katie shot at Ron while Ginny shot at McLaggen. I don’t think Katie went easy on Ron, although by that time it was clear who everyone wanted to be on the team, since McLaggen was being so obnoxious, but he saved all five of her shots. And to top it off McLaggen complained loudly the whole time.

By this time Ginny was so angry at McLaggen that he didn’t have a chance. He saved her first two shots, but he barely got a hand on the third one, as she flew at top speed one way then switched hands and flipped the quaffle back the opposite way at the far ring. For the fourth one she pulled off a move I’ve never seen before. I’m still not sure how she did it, but she somehow stalled her broom, dropped about ten feet, then shot up to the right, flipped upside down and reversed direction. McLaggen ended up wrapping himself around the center goal as she pulled to a stop in front of the left hoop and dropped the quaffle through while she gave him a sarcastic wink.

The crowd in the stands went crazy while he swore and started after her, threatening to break her in half. Of course, there’s no way he could catch Ginny, but I flew in front of him with my wand out and shouted that I’d blast the broom out from under him if he moved another inch. Neville later told me the look on my face was the scariest thing he’d ever seen. (I’m sure he was having me on – I mean, he faced Bellatrix at the Department of Mysteries, right?) In any case, McLaggen backed off and flew down to the ground, cursing the whole time. I told Ginny she’d better watch her back, but she just flipped her hair back and said she wasn’t worried. Then Dean piped up that he’d be watching her back, and she smirked and wiggled her bum a bit. That, of course, set Ron off, but everyone was in too good of a mood for there to be any trouble. We had a party in the common room afterward, and as you might expect McLaggen didn’t show.

The other piece of news is that last night I had my first private lesson with Dumbledore. I suppose you’d consider this to be the more important item, and are wondering why I didn’t mention it first, but the truth is that it was something of a let down.

I thought I’d get some training in advanced spells or something, or at least more Occlumency lessons, but instead all we did was watch pensieve memories for two hours. That’s it – nothing more. They were memories of Voldemort’s parents and the circumstances leading up to his birth. His mother’s last name was Gaunt, and they were descendents of Slytherin. And that’s all they had, they were a poor family with nothing else to their name but some Slytherin heirlooms. One was a ring and the other a locket. Voldemort’s grandfather seemed to think that his being a pureblood descendent of Slytherin was all that mattered.

Now that I think about it, he said the locket was from Slytherin, but I’m not sure about the ring.

At any rate, his son, Voldemort’s uncle, was rather dimwitted, and his daughter, Voldemort’s mother, had a crush on a rich local muggle who’d ride past their house every day. In the memory we watched, the head of the DMLE came and arrested the grandfather and his son for jinxing a local muggle. Evidently, after they were both out of the house, the daughter used a love potion on the rich muggle and eventually had his baby. Dumbledore thinks he got free of the potion and left her, and she died either in childbirth or shortly after. She named her son Tom Marvolo Riddle, after his father (Tom Riddle) and his grandfather (Marvolo Gaunt), and he grew up in an orphanage.

Here’s the weird part. Dumbledore now has the ring. And I think it has something to do with why his hand is injured. Remember how it was all black and dead looking? It hasn’t healed at all since we saw him this summer. He said in that indirect way he has that he acquired the ring at the same time he injured his hand. Then I asked him exactly how he injured his hand but he said we were out of time. So he’s back to his old habit of keeping information from me.

This is where I’d normally sit down with you and Ron and we’d talk about it and you’d help me figure things out. Sigh. So writing this down for you is the best I can do. I hope I haven’t left out anything important.

As far as everything else is concerned, classes are going OK, with the exception of Defense, where we continue to waste time on nonverbal spells. Studying without you is still a struggle. Potions continues to go well, though. I used that spell you suggested on the book, and nothing happened. It’s basically a regular book with some of the instructions crossed out and new ones written in the margin. I’ve been very careful just like you asked. Oh, and here’s a clue as to who may have written all these things. Inside the back cover it says ‘This Book is the Property of the Half Blood Prince’. Sounds like the guy had a real ego, doesn’t it? I assume it means he must have been a half blood instead of a pureblood or a muggleborn.

We made a decision about the DA. We’re going to get together at least once a week and review stuff for NEWTs. I also came up with a plan on nonverbal spells. I asked Flitwick about them, and he said you have to be really proficient at a spell in order to cast it silently. So I had each member decide which was their best spell, then focus on it. The idea is to get so that they can cast it without even having to think about it. Then we’ll work on saying it softly, then whispered, and finally silently, just thinking the incantation. We spend about a third of our time each meeting on that, and the rest on learning NEWT material (or OWL material in some cases – Ginny, Colin, and Luna).

As far as who’s involved, we have all the Gryffindors in our year again, plus Katie from seventh year and Ginny and Colin from fifth year. We have four Hufflepuffs – Susan, Hannah, Ernie, and Justin. Luna and Cho are the only two Ravenclaws. The Ravenclaw guys were mostly there last year because Michael was dating Ginny. Parvati says Padma might start coming too, especially if Snape continues to not teach us anything. We’re meeting in an empty classroom about halfway between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff common rooms. That’s also where Susan, Neville, Ron, and I meet to study. Hannah joins us sometimes too now, since she’s Susan’s best friend. Although from the looks I’ve noticed her and Ron shooting at each other, there may be another reason she wants to study with us.

Of course, what I really need is my best friend, but she’s not here. So I do the next best thing and think about her every night when I go to bed while I hold my book pendant. The nice part is that the pendant is always warm. It really helps knowing that you’re thinking of me too.

I miss you.

Love,

Henry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Well, that certainly was some interesting news. I must confess that I’m as puzzled as you are about your training with Dumbledore. Perhaps he’s just laying some groundwork, so you can understand Voldemort better. Know your enemy and all that. Make sure you follow up about that ring. I agree that it’s significant that Dumbledore has it in his office now.

It sounds like you have a good plan for the DA. Making it a mix of studying and perfecting spells, and throwing in some practice on nonverbal spellcasting is an excellent plan. I am surprised to hear that Cho joined the group again after last year’s unpleasantness. Are you still using the charmed Galleons? It doesn’t seem like you need them any more.

I’m so glad to hear that everything turned out so well in your quidditch tryouts. You’re going to be a great captain. Now, guess who else is on a quidditch team? Me! Quidditch is a lot different at Beauxbatons than at Hogwarts. There are lots more teams here; since there are no houses students get together on their own. There are two leagues, one competitive and one recreational. Some of my study group decided to form a team – Brigitte and Jean-Claude are the real quidditch enthusiasts – and asked if I wanted to join. I just hope they aren’t expecting me to be as good as you. Brigitte is the Seeker and Jean-Claude is the Keeper. I’m playing Chaser and the other two are Antoine and Sylvie. Our Beaters are Lucia and Isabelle. Thankfully, we’re in the recreational league. So far I just fly up and down the pitch and try to stay out of the way. Sometimes the opponents forget about me and I can intercept a pass, and then I get rid of the quaffle to Antoine or Sylvie as soon as I can. I’m having fun though, even if I doubt I’ll ever score a goal.

I’m also taking a cooking class. Don’t laugh! I know my cooking skills haven’t been one of my strengths, but the French and Italians take their cooking very seriously, and they offer extracurricular instruction in it. So I thought, why not? After all, it won’t be long before I’m out of school and will have to cook for myself. Actually, I’m hoping it won’t be just for myself – there’s a certain other someone that might be sharing my meals with me. And hopefully the kitchen duties as well.

We are learning both regular cooking techniques and magical shortcuts. The French think that the English overcook everything! For them it’s more of an art form. Presentation is nearly as important as the food itself. I hope you’re ready for a high-class culinary experience, because I’m planning to practice on you.

Got to go study my sauces now.

I miss you.

All my love,

Hermione

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – September 19

I’m now an adult in the wizarding world. I don’t really feel any different than I did yesterday, but today I am officially of age. The most significant change is that I can do magic outside of school. But then, Harry’s figured out that wasn’t as forbidden as we thought it was.

I wonder what I will do next year? Perhaps rent a room in Hogsmeade so I can be near Harry? I’m sure he would offer to pay for it. Then I guess I’d be a ‘kept woman’. I can just imagine the look on his face when I tease him with that one.

Harry got me an amazing birthday present. It’s one of Fred and George’s Daydream Charms, but he had them customize it so that the daydream has him in it. He picked out a beach scene. I’m going to wait until I have some privacy before I activate it. If it’s anything like the daydreams I already have about him and me on the beach it will be quite a sensual experience. He mentioned that the twins are pushing him to allow them to mass market it. No way! Under no circumstances do I want anything to help other girls daydreaming about Harry.

My dormmates got together on a birthday present also – fancy lingerie. Much smaller knickers than I usually wear, including some thong bottoms. Also skimpier bras – some demicup ones that barely cover anything and one padded push-up one. All of them very frilly and lacy. The whole lot of them came into my room and made me try them on. I was blushing so much! I have no idea how I should tell Harry about them, or even more so if/when I should show them to him!

Harry had a bit more news. The Ravenclaws in DADA evidently complained to Flitwick about Snape spending all his time on casting nonverbally, so he and McGonagall went to Dumbledore and got him to force Snape to move on to something else.

Here’s something that worries me a little. Harry’s still studying with Ron, Neville, and Susan, but Cho has joined them. He says she’s been a godsend since she’s a seventh year and had all the material they’re learning now last year. I wanted to write him back and ask why he didn’t study with Katie instead, but that would just be betraying my insecurities. Susan wrote to me too, and reassured me that Cho isn’t being flirty or anything, just really nice and helpful. That worries me anyway, since Harry’s not likely to have his defenses up. Susan says that Marietta is now a pariah since her mum’s conviction this summer, so Cho isn’t hanging out with her any more. Harry probably felt sorry for Cho since she’s lonely.

On the bright side, Susan says it is helping keep other girls away from Harry. With Cho in their group she has effectively staked her claim on him among the Ravenclaws, and none of them dare cross her. Susan’s presence keeps the Hufflepuffs at bay, and with one or two exceptions the Gryffindor girls are leaving him be out of respect for me. I guess I should be happy about that at least.

Later –

Oh my! I tried out the Daydream Charm this evening. It’s a good thing I did it in private and used a silencing charm. That was intense! We absolutely can not let the twins sell that to anyone else. In my daydream Harry and I both ended up without any clothes on and I … well … we were touching each other everywhere. It was a real cardiovascular workout! I woke up with my hand inside my knickers and my heart was still pounding.

It’s going to be very difficult to resist viewing that every day.

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

We had our first Hogsmeade weekend today. Ron, Neville, Susan, and I went together. There’s not much to tell you about though. We did see Dung and he was certainly up to no good. I swear, I wanted to kill him. He was fencing stolen merchandise from an old abandoned house that some bird club used to use.

Remus and Tonks say hi. We met them in town and had lunch with them. They seemed rather cozy together. Tonks has been a bit down whenever I’ve encountered her lately, but she perked right up when Remus joined us. You don’t suppose she fancies him, do you?

I guess that’s all for now.

Love,

Henry

It took Hermione no time at all to pull out her wand and tap the parchment while reciting, ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good’, and the rest of the letter appeared.

OK, this is serious. Ginny almost died today! Here’s what happened.

On the way back to the castle, Ginny started acting odd. She had left the table she was at for a few minutes, and when she returned she just walked out to the carriages without saying anything to Dean or anyone else. By the time we got back to Hogwarts Dean was still unable to get any response out of her, and out of frustration he grabbed her arms to try to shake her. When Ron saw this he went spare, and lunged at Dean, but then Ginny pulled out a dagger!

She screamed out some strange sounding curse. From the look in her eyes it seemed like she was possessed or something. She looked around, then started toward me. I hit her with Expeliarmus to knock the dagger away – I wasn’t sure who she was going to attack with it but didn’t want to take any chances – then she passed out. Ron picked her up and ran all the way to the Infirmary. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so shook up.

It turns out the dagger was cursed. I levitated it into the air and Susan wrapped a scarf around it, then we took it to McGonagall (Dumbledore’s not here right now). She sent for Snape and he examined it too. It was an assassin’s blade, which takes control of a person and forces them to kill someone. Then they die too. Since Ginny was wearing gloves and didn’t have it in her bare hand they say she’ll probably survive, but they took her to St. Mungo’s. Ron never left her side.

Neville, Susan, and I huddled together afterward and tried to figure out what had happened.

We came up with a lot of questions, but not many answers. Susan wrote them down so we could send them to you.

Who was the target? Ginny walked toward me but that could be just a coincidence. She could have come after me while we were still in the Three Broomsticks. Was it someone in the castle? Hard to see how she could have got to them, since everyone is checked for dark objects by Filch as we enter.

Was Ginny selected randomly or on purpose? I may be paranoid but it seems too much of a coincidence to me to think it was random. We think she was put under Imperius because of the strange way she was acting even before she pulled the dagger out of whatever she was carrying it in, but that could have been the dagger affecting her even then.

Did Malfoy have something to do with it? If so, Ginny could have been targeted in retaliation for her snooping around at Borgin and Burkes. But Malfoy didn’t go to Hogsmeade today – he has an ironclad alibi. But of course, if he was involved he’d be sure to have one as well.

How would he have gotten to Hogsmeade in order to set it up in advance? Does he know about the tunnels? We should ask Fred and George just how many students know about them. Come to think of it, Pettigrew certainly would have, so we can assume any Death Eater who needed to know about them would be told.

Another possibility – Cho mentioned that she had seen Malfoy in the Three Broomsticks before school started, flirting with Madame Rosmerta. (She joined us at our table while we were there, after Tonks and Remus left. We were telling her about his suspicious behavior and she agreed that he’d seemed different to her too.)

Even if it wasn’t Malfoy, someone was trying to kill someone at Hogwarts. Or make it look like they were? What would be the purpose of that?

That’s all we’ve come up with so far. I think the professors are even more stumped than we are.

As you can see, Remus taught me the charm to disguise this letter. I’ll show it to you at Christmas time.

That’s all the news for now. We’re pretty shook up about Ginny.

I miss you.

Love,

Harry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Oh my goodness, that was just awful news! Have you heard any more about Ginny? I do hope she’s going to be all right.

As far as who the target was, the most obvious ones are you and Dumbledore. But you said Dumbledore wasn’t even in the castle, and you already pointed out why it probably wasn’t you. I think it’s quite possible that there wasn’t a specific target, but rather that the Death Eaters are just trying to terrorize people in general. Any death of a student at Hogwarts is certain to shake people up. For that matter, even an unsuccessful attempt will have nearly the same effect.

I’m not willing to rule out Malfoy’s involvement either. Even if he didn’t do it directly, he could have been involved in the planning. That’s actually more like him, to get someone else to do the dirty work and then stand back acting all innocent.

That’s a good point about Death Eaters knowing about the secret passageways in and out of Hogwarts. Have you mentioned that to Dumbledore? With all the other security precautions you’ve described, I hope they haven’t overlooked those. He can probably ward them in some way.

But the most important thing is that you be as careful as possible and stay safe. I’m so worried about you. I think I’d die if anything happened to you. Please take care of yourself!

Not much to report on about Beauxbatons. Things are pretty much the same. No trolls in girls’ bathrooms or basilisks crawling around in the pipes. The biggest excitement recently is that we’ve switched from our summer robes to our autumn ones. I wish you were here to liven things up. 53 days down, 250 to go.

I miss you.

All my love,

Hermione

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

We had our first quidditch match today, against Slytherin, and we won. It was almost embarrassing, though. Everyone did their jobs except me! Ron was great in goal (ask him sometime about how ‘lucky’ he was – it’s a pretty good story), the Chasers did fine even without Ginny, and the Beaters managed to keep the bludgers pretty much under control. But I was paying so much attention to everything that was going on that I forgot about looking for the snitch. The Slytherin Seeker spotted it first but fortunately I managed to beat him to it. I managed to distract him at a critical moment. (I haven’t been playing quidditch all these years without learning a few tricks!) I think perhaps having the Seeker be the captain isn’t that great of an idea.

Did you notice anything unusual about what I just told you? It was the part where I mentioned the Slytherin Seeker. It was a new kid I’d never seen before. In other words – not Malfoy. He’s given up quidditch this year. Pretty suspicious, don’t you think? Ron’s finally convinced now.

Here are some other things I’ve noticed. I’ve been trying to keep an eye on Malfoy with the Marauder’s Map, and he keeps disappearing. Do you think it’s possible that he’s sneaking off the school grounds? I can’t figure out where he might be going, though.

I almost never see Dumbledore, so I mentioned the tunnel problem to Tonks the last time I saw her and she said it’s being taken care of. I assume that means he’s not leaving the castle that way, although it’s possible he did at the beginning of the term.

Another possibility is that he’s discovered how to use the Room of Requirement. You remember he was there last year when Umbridge caught us (and you put on such a convincing show!). I’ve never seen him near it so far this year, but I’m going to start watching it more closely.

Ginny’s going to be OK, but she’s still really weak and it’s going to take a while to get the poison out of her system. So they’re going to keep her at St. Mungo’s until the end of the month and then she’ll recover the rest of the way at home. They figure she’ll be able to come back to Hogwarts next term.

I had another ‘lesson’ with Dumbledore last night. The term’s half over and we’ve had a grand total of two. And we spent the whole time looking at pensieve memories again. No training at all. This is getting frustrating. I mean, one of the reasons I stayed at Hogwarts instead of going to Beauxbatons with you was so I could take these lessons from Dumbledore. I asked him if we could meet more often and he just said there were lots of things going on and that we were making good progress. So I asked him what sorts of things those were and what progress was being made but he just peered at me over his glasses and said ‘All in good time’. I almost got up and walked out right then, but realized that wouldn’t help anything.

So, here’s what I learned. Voldemort was a real jerk as a boy. Big surprise there, eh? Let’s see, first we saw that his mum pawned the Slytherin locket at Borgin and Burkes, then that she died shortly after he was born, so he was raised at an orphanage. Dumbledore visited him there with his Hogwarts letter, and found that he was a bully. Also suspicious and cocky. Oh, and he didn’t like the name Tom. (Maybe I should start calling him that. I noticed that Dumbledore called him Tom when they fought each other at the Ministry, and it ticked him off.) Then Dumbledore told him he was a wizard, and he got excited. He’d already been doing magic and used it to control animals and hurt people who annoyed him. Those were his exact words.

With that attitude I wonder why Dumbledore accepted him, or at least why he didn’t keep better control of him while he was at Hogwarts? Of course, I do remember the Tom in the diary complaining that Dumbledore was always suspicious of him, so I guess he did what he could. But it seems obvious that he was a right evil git all along.

I’m trying to figure out why Dumbledore showed me this. So Tom Riddle was an orphan, and brought up alone and without any friends, and he didn’t learn about magic until he got his Hogwarts letter. In other words, just like me. Is Dumbledore trying to show me how similar we are? Is that supposed to reinforce this connection we have? Except we were different too. He was way more powerful than me, and could control his magic, even before he started Hogwarts.

And Dumbledore made the point that Tom Riddle never had any friends, even after he came here, and never wanted any, and is still that way. That’s a lot different than me. I always wanted friends, even when I didn’t have any, and now I have great ones, especially you.

One other point he made that I didn’t understand why it was so important. Tom Riddle liked to collect things. For some reason that reminded me of the ring again, and I asked Dumbledore about it. He said its importance would be revealed at our next meeting.

I have a couple other things I wanted to mention before I close this letter. I discovered some spells written in my Potions book, and some of them are specifically designed to be nonverbal. (Yes, I’m being very careful when I try them out. So far they’re harmless.) I’ll show them to you at Christmas.

Speaking of potions, Slughorn’s finally roped me into going to one of his parties. He practically scheduled it around me. It’s a Christmas party, and I need a date. Neville and Susan are going together, so I’m going to take Cho. She has been so unbelievably helpful to me this term, so I reckon it’s a way of repaying her. I made it clear to her that it’s just on a friendly basis. By deciding early, I also managed to avoid being swarmed by other girls who found out I needed a date to the party and were eager to volunteer. There’s a girl in Gryffindor named Romilda Vane who’s being especially aggressive about it.

Of course, I really wish I were going with you. I know I’d enjoy the party loads more if you were there with me. And I wouldn’t have to avoid any mistletoe they might have up. But I’ll make it up to you when I see you at Christmas.

I miss you.

Love,

Henry

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – November 4

I feel so helpless. I need to be at Hogwarts – Harry needs me. There are so many things I should be doing for him, helping him with. And that’s not even including our personal feelings, which are also driving me mad. I miss him so much! I just feel like I’m trapped here at Beauxbatons. I mean, it’s not a bad place. It’s just that I’m not with Harry. Truth be told, if I’d been given the choice between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons and known what each of them were like in advance, I’d probably have chosen Beauxbatons. I mean, a lot of the things that have happened to me at Hogwarts haven’t exactly been pleasant. Except for the friends. Harry, Ron, and the others have made it all worthwhile.

It makes me wonder how things would have turned out differently, if I’d never gone to Hogwarts and met Harry and Ron. I’m sure he’d say he would have died or flunked out by now. But how would he have made it to the Stone in first year without me? Or figured out about the basilisk second year? Would Ginny have died and Tom Riddle lived? It’s frightening to think about. And what would have happened with Sirius and the Dementors third year without my time turner? And I think I was pretty instrumental in getting him through the tournament in fourth year.

Enough of that. It’s just impossible for me to imagine my life without Harry Potter in it. Back to what’s going on now.

I should be helping Harry prepare to face Voldemort, and discussing his lessons with Dumbledore with him, trying to figure out what they mean.

I should be helping him figure out what’s going on with Malfoy, and what happened to Ginny.

I should be going over his Potions book and checking it out, and helping him figure out who wrote it.

I should be helping him lead the DA, mastering spells, learning nonverbal spellcasting.

I should be helping him study instead of Cho.

I should be going with him to Slughorn’s party, not her!

I still don’t trust her. Harry is just too trusting of people sometimes and too ready to forgive, especially those he considers his friends. He’s certainly not at all like Voldemort in that sense. Or any other sense, really. I honestly don’t know see how Dumbledore could have been trying to make that point.

Susan has reassured me that there’s nothing going on between the two of them. I’m certain that’s the case from Harry’s point of view, but I’m not at all sure about Cho. I have a bad feeling about this.

I miss him so much. I can’t wait for Christmas to get here.

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-