Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Sixty-Eight

There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January. Harry suggested we all go together as we hung out in the common room together. Hermione was very surprised that he wanted to go.

"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being quiet," she said. "Really get to work on that egg."

"Oh I — I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now," Harry said.

A cold tingle ran up my spine. Lie. I raised an eyebrow at Harry from where I was sitting on the other side of Hermione.

"Have you really?" said Hermione, looking impressed. "Well done!"

I narrowed my eyes at Harry as Hermione looked back down at her book; the boy gave a guilty squirm.

"Look," He told me later, "I still have five weeks to work out that egg clue, after all, and that's ages. "Besides, if I go into Hogsmeade, I might run into Hagrid, and get a chance to persuade him to come back."

"It's your choice, Harry," I said, shrugging. "But I think you'll regret procrastinating on it later. You really can't afford to be the only person who doesn't know what you're supposed to be doing."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luke, and I left the castle together on Saturday and set off through the cold, wet grounds toward the gates. As we passed the Durmstrang ship moored in the lake, we saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. He was very skinny, but apparently a lot tougher than he looked, because he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms, and dived, right into the lake.

"Ohhhhkay," I said, shivering just at the thought of doing such a thing.

"He's mad!" said Harry, staring at Krum's dark head as it bobbed out into the middle of the lake. "It must be freezing, it's January!"

"It's a lot colder where he comes from," said Hermione. "I suppose it feels quite warm to him."

"I could never," Luke insisted. "Even at in the winter Chiron does this spell on the camp to make it nice and warm and sunny."

"It never snows there?"

"Nope," I said. "No rain, no snow, no weather, not unless Chiron decides he wants it to happen." I looked at Krum. "Seriously, this guy, though!"

"Not to mention the giant squid," said Ron. He didn't sound anxious — if anything, he sounded hopeful. Hermione noticed his tone of voice and frowned.

"He's really nice, you know," she said. "He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me."

Ron said nothing. He hadn't mentioned Viktor Krum since the ball, and honestly as long as he didn't blow up at Hermione about it again, I was fine with it.

Harry kept a lookout for a sign of Hagrid all the way down the slushy High Street and suggested a visit to the Three Broomsticks once he'd determined that Hagrid was not in any of the shops.

The pub was as crowded as ever, but one quick look around at all the tables told me that Hagrid wasn't there. I noticed Harry slump in disappointment and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find him later," I assured him, speaking over the buzz of chatter in the pub.

We went up to the bar with Ron, Luke, and Hermione, then ordered five butterbeers from Madam Rosmerta.

"Might just as well have stayed behind and listened to the egg wailing after all," I heard Harry mutter to himself.

"We'll find him, Harry, and he'll be glad that someone cares about him in the middle of all of this," I said.