Chapter 155: 3-1
While everyone else was in class—that was Maria Potter’s time to take on her challenge. She had brought in as many books as she could. Pushing the piles of junk and someone’s forgotten treasures into a corner, she stood before her target.
To tell the truth, I desperately wanted the help of our resident brain, Hermione. I wanted her to unleash that proud wealth of knowledge of hers, and I wanted to rely on it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I wanted her to tilt her chin up smugly and laugh, saying, "Just watch." I wanted her to flick her wand lightly, showing me how simple it all was. But—because I am Maria, I have to accomplish this on my own.
"...I guess doing this without a wand really is tough, huh?"
Looking at the door and the floor that refused to budge or react again today, I sighed. It had already been three months since returning to Hogwarts—and results were nowhere in sight.
Even so, giving up was not an option.
"Mistress Maria."
I smiled and offered my thanks to Kreacher, who stood waiting with lunch in hand.
"Duck sandwiches today? ...Mmm, delicious. As expected of you, Kreacher."
"You are too kind, Mistress. Furthermore, I have replenished the Potion ingredients."
"Ah, right. I was thinking we'd run low soon. Thank you as always, it really helps. ...Isn't Snape's private stash about to run empty by now, though?"
When I inquired with a playful grin, Kreacher kept a somber face and pursed his wrinkled mouth.
"──No. Professor Severus Snape always maintains a full stock of all materials at a precise quantity."
"…………"
I felt like shrugging—it was so typical of his meticulous nature. Not that I had any right to talk, considering I was benefiting from it... but he really ought to loosen up a bit. ...Then again, expecting that from a man who constantly deceives his master on the front lines of death was asking the impossible.
"Mistress Maria, it is time."
"Huh? ──Ah!"
Seeing the moving dot on the map held up by Kreacher, I stood up. Ginny Weasley was heading up the stairs to the eighth floor. ─I had to change the room before she arrived.
After making sure no one was in the corridor, I stepped out of the room and gripped the doorknob again. The next room to open would be the D.A. Headquarters classroom.
"Maria, there's something I want to ask you."
Brushing her rich red hair off her shoulders, Ginny approached me without even a proper greeting as I sat casually inside the room. Her brown eyes flicked over to Kreacher.
"Is there another house-elf at the House of Black besides Kreacher? And did you invite him?"
"Eh? ...Ah! Yes, that's right. He's someone you know well, too."
"Kreacher does not approve. Entrusting the precious house to such a young whelp..."
Kreacher muttered under his breath, only tolerating it because it was my command. I gave a wry smile. Sure, Dobby could be clumsy, and to Kreacher, he was probably just a youngster... but he was Harry's friend. Even Hermione liked him.
"I see... Got it. I'll pass that on to Dad."
"To Uncle Arthur?"
"Yes. Dad asked McGonagall if there was anyone who could check with Maria. So McGonagall passed the request along to me."
I nodded, understanding now. I had wondered what this was about out of nowhere—someone from the Order must have gone to the Black house. The most likely candidate was Professor Lupin. People with jobs were essentially living under 24/7 surveillance, and teachers working at Hogwarts were completely out of the question. In a sense, the person with the most freedom right now was the unemployed Remus Lupin. What a dark irony.
Professor Lupin (most likely) had seen Dobby and reported his presence to Uncle Arthur.
"And... about this... to be honest, I kind of don't want to tell you, Maria. But that would be cowardly of me."
Ginny disguised her hesitation with a small cough and looked up at me with her pretty brown eyes.
"That girl you were worried about—Astoria Greengrass—she's not at Hogwarts."
"────"
The blood drained from my face.
"Her older sister... um, I don't remember her name, but anyway, the older sister is here. But nobody seems to have seen the younger sister, Astoria. Not even inside Slytherin House."
"...Who said that?"
"Pansy Parkinson. When she grabbed my arm in the corridor, I was positive she was picking a fight. Using me as a mere messenger girl... she's going to pay for that."
Forgetting to tease Ginny, who acted arrogant to cover her embarrassment, I sank deep into thought.
Daphne is attending school, but Astoria was exempted...? Even though Voldemort himself made it mandatory for all wizarding children except Muggle-borns to attend Hogwarts. Why wouldn't he enforce that rule on the age-eligible child of the Greengrasses, whom he had brought under his control—a conclusion safe to make given the circumstances? And why Astoria...?
Between Daphne and Astoria, frankly, Daphne should be the one of higher value. Yet why is Voldemort’s faction placing such importance on a girl who even considers herself defective? She wasn't treated like this during 'the last time.' Even Theodore didn't seem to harbor any genuine affection for Astoria herself.
"...Maria, you have a troubled look on your face."
"Ah... sorry for making such a gloomy face while I'm with you."
"No, it's fine. I knew you would. I knew it... but I felt I had to tell you."
Her fingertips took hold of my hand. It was different from my hands, which were spent shut away mixing potions. Hers were proud hands, fighting out there even at this very moment. We let our warmth merge together.
"Don't go far away... not yet."
It was a quiet, delicate voice.
"Yeah. I won't."
...Not yet.
They were running. Deep inside a forest. The fog was thick and freezing, as if chilling their lungs from within.
"Why..."
Finally coming to a halt, Harry dropped the rucksack he had narrowly managed to grab during their escape to his feet, heaving for breath.
"Why... how did they find out?!"
When she appeared at the manor, she had headed straight for Harry. She reached out her hand. Only Harry, who had survived countless near-death encounters, could have reacted in time. In that respect, perhaps they should consider it lucky that the enemy's target had been solely Harry. ──And then, there was Dobby.
If he had been caught by those small hands, he would have been abducted along with her to parts unknown.
"It’s a betrayal. Someone leaked the exact address of Grimmauld Place. Now that Dumbledore, our Secret-Keeper, is dead, everyone among us who knows the address has become a Secret-Keeper."
"There's only one candidate. That bastard Mundungus."
"Or Snape."
Echoing Ron's spat words, Harry—who was casting protective enchantments around the perimeter with Hermione—muttered the name venomously. A dark hatred flickered in his green eyes.
Why now, of all times...? If it were Snape, it wouldn't have been surprising if he had sold the information the moment he killed Dumbledore.
"Anyway, we’ve lost our headquarters now. That girl may have been given the address without being a Secret-Keeper herself—but she might know magic we aren't aware of. It's best if we don't encounter her."
"From now on, we'll be camping out on the run. Let's make sure to wear the Horcrux around our necks so we never lose it. ...Oh no, we were in such a hurry that we only have preserved rations!"
Hermione lamented, plunging her arm shoulder-deep into her beaded bag. Ron casually asked what kind of preserved rations they had.
"It's fine. Let's look at this as a good opportunity. Honestly, we were starting to get soft and complacent under a roof. From here on, we'll gather information on the Cup while moving."
Having pitched the tent retrieved from Hermione's beaded bag, Harry glanced up at him. Hermione looked as well. ──Could there possibly be a face less suited to the word 'camping out in the wild'?
"Can you handle this... Draco?"
Draco, who had been uneasily scanning the forest that strikingly resembled the Forbidden Forest, somehow managed his usual smirk at Harry’s question.
"──Within expectations."
Even the other three could tell that this, of all things, was just a bluff. Because deep down... he was actually a coward.
Their pampered lifestyle, which had relied entirely on the hospitality of house-elves, abruptly shifted into a nomadic journey for the four of them. Though they took turns taking charge of the Horcrux to mitigate its mind-corroding effects, frustration steadily built up among the three younger ones. Visiting the ruins of the orphanage where Voldemort grew up, eavesdropping on rumors of people on the run—despite making plausible efforts to investigate, they yielded no tangible results. Such fruitless time left the four disappointed and exhausted.
Ron was the first to reach his breaking point. He began complaining about the bad food and the inability to get decent rest. Even understanding that it was the Horcrux's influence, his outbursts stirred tension among the three of them.
"To be honest, Harry, I didn't think you'd be this reckless and unplanned."
"I told you from the start. I shared everything Dumbledore left behind with you guys, and this journey—"
"And that very Dumbledore kept so much hidden from you! Look, enduring hardship right now is fine. But humans aren't built to endure when there's no light at the end of the tunnel."
"That's just you. I've been enduring blind terror all my life, and I've fought even when I couldn't see what was ahead!"
"Oh, is that so? As expected of The Chosen One, speaking from such noble heights! An ordinary bloke like me could never understand."
"Enough of this—"
"Stop it, both of you! In-fighting is the absolute last thing we need right now!"
Hermione, on the verge of tears, tried desperately to mediate between the two heated best friends, but pitifully, it only poured oil on the fire.
"You're thinking it too, aren't you, Hermione? That it's a shame a useless guy like me is here instead—that it should have been her!"
"What are you talking about..."
"──Maria!"
Her eyes widened in realization. The boy, who had lived with an inferiority complex for so long, took her reaction as confirmation.
"If it were Maria, she would've just laughed off all of Harry's reckless nonsense. After all, she's our Lady Maria. She's got more nerve than me, and she isn't sensitive like you. ...Honestly, why on earth am I even here?"
"Then go home! Go cry your eyes out into your mum's cooking!"
"Yeah, I will!"
"No, Ron! Come back!"
Flinging the locket around his neck at Harry, Ron began walking out beyond the protective wards Hermione had cast. Harry did not stop him, leaving only Hermione, frantically wringing her hands, to look at Draco in desperate hope.
"──This time, I think I'll side with Ron."
"Draco?"
"Because the one he cares about is over on that side."
Taking only the essentials, Draco slipped past the barrier as well. Once they stepped outside, Harry and Hermione, hidden under Disillusionment, became completely invisible to them from the other side.
Hermione could only stand there in utter shock, watching their retreating backs without a word. In Harry's hand, the Horcrux that had driven them apart throbbed as if laughing at them.
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