𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 harry potter.

𝟒.𝟐𝟎 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤

'Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well?' Ron whispered.

Everything Harry had seen in the Pensieve, nearly everything Dumbledore had told and shown him afterwards, he had now shared with Ron, Y/n, and Hermione and, of course, with Sirius, to whom Y/n had sent an owl the moment Harry had told her everything.

 Harry, Ron , Y/n, and Hermione sat up late in the common room once again that night, talking it all over until Harry's mind was reeling, until he understood what Dumbledore had meant about a head becoming so full of thoughts that it would have been a relief to siphon them off.

Y/n stared into the common-room fire. Harry thought he saw Y/n shiver slightly, even though the evening was warm.

'And he trusts Snape?' Y/n said. 'He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?'

'Yes,' said Harry.

Hermione had not spoken for ten minutes. She was sitting with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees. Harry thought she, too, looked as though she could have done with a Pensieve.

'Rita Skeeter,' she muttered finally.

'How can you be worrying about her now?' said Ron, indisbelief.

'I'm not worrying about her,' Hermione said to her knees.

'I'm just thinking ... remember what she said to us in the Three Broomsticks? "I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl." This is what she meant, isn't it? She reported his trial, she knew he'd passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky, too, remember ... "Mr Bagman is a bad wizard." Mr Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home.'

'Yeah, but Bagman didn't pass information on purpose, did he?' Y/n asked.

Hermione shrugged.

'And Fudge reckons Madame Maxime attacked Crouch?' Ron said, turning back to Harry.

'Yeah,' said Harry, 'but he's only saying that because Crouch disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage.'

'We never thought of her, did we?' said Ron, slowly. 'Mind you, she's definitely got giant blood, and she doesn't want to admit it –'

'Of course she doesn't,' said Hermione sharply, looking up. 'Look what happened to Hagrid when Rita found out about his mother. Look at Fudge, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she's part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I'd probably say I had big bones if I knew that's what I'd get for telling the truth.'

Hermione looked at her watch.

'We haven't done any practising!' she said, looking shocked. 'We were going to do the Impediment Jinx! We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on, Harry, you need to get some sleep.'

....

Ron, Y/n, and Hermione were supposed to be revising for their exams, which would finish on the day of the third task, but they were putting most of their efforts into helping Harry prepare.

'Don't worry about it,' Y/n said shortly, when Harry pointed this out to them, and said he didn't mind practising on his own for a while. 'At least we'll get top marks in Defence Against the Dark Arts, we'd never have found out about all these hexes in class.'

'Good training for when we're all Aurors,' said Ron excitedly, attempting the Impediment Jinx on a wasp that had buzzed into the room, and making it stop dead in mid-air.