Regulus Black the Potions Master

Capítulo 33

With that settled, he had a new thing to concentrate on, at the end of next week there would be the Gryffindor Quidditch match against Hufflepuff and Wood was insisting on practicing every night, as if none of the other players had spent all day in class and had homework to do. At least the practices have become more lenient.

The night before the match, Harry put away his broom feeling that Gryffindor had a good chance of finally winning the Quidditch Cup. But his happy anticipation ended when he returned to his dormitory to find Neville very agitated.

His trunk had been overturned and everything was scattered all over the mattress. Neither Harry nor his roommates seemed to know what had happened there; Neville, the first to arrive that night, found everything like this.

Harry rummaged through his belongings until he realized something was missing.

Riddle's diary was missing.

[...]

Harry would have liked to say that he paid more attention to the invasion of his dormitory, or the disappearance of Riddle's diary, but the truth was that he was very tired from training and the next day there was the match, so he left that subject for when he had more free time.

Then the day of the match arrived, and after lunch, he went down to the Quidditch pitch with the other players a little before the other students. He said goodbye to Ron, since Hermione had disappeared shortly after breakfast, and went to get ready for the match.

The day seemed perfect, neither too hot nor too cold. The clouds in the sky were sparse and white with no sign of a storm ahead. Everything was going to work out, it was going to be a perfect day.

Just as they were leaving the locker room to go onto the pitch, all excited for the game, Professor McGonagall appeared.

"The game has been canceled."

"You can't cancel the game!"

The scolding look McGonagall threw at Wood made even Harry startle, as she ordered him to be quiet.

"You and your friends are going back to the common," she said, pointing at the team before looking directly at Harry, "Mr. Potter, come with me."

They all nodded in obedience to the teacher.

Harry followed her to where the students were coming down from the stands, where they waited for a few minutes until Ron appeared. He looked as confused as the other students who were heading back to school.

"Teacher?" the redhead said confusedly.

"There's something you two need to see."

She was more serious than usual, which was strange in itself. They followed her quietly back to school.

Harry didn't know what had happened, but his stomach churned and clenched with nervous energy, much like it did before a match, but a sense of dread lurked in the back of his mind, after all, what could have happened to caused the match to be canceled and everyone to be sent to the commons?

Ron looked equally worried. They walked quickly, and when they passed the school entrance, they turned down the corridor to the infirmary.

A shiver ran through Harry's body when they reached the infirmary door, his mind searching for an answer as to why they were there. Then, like in one of those cartoons, a light bulb went on in his mind and he turned to Ron. The redhead's eyes were wide as if he had realized the same thing as Harry.

Where's Hermione?

He didn't ask the question out loud, he didn't need to, the door opened and he could see his best friend in a distant bed. Petrified.

They approached slowly. Harry is still trying to understand how this happened. His friend, his best friend, looks like a frightening hyper-realistic statue, one hand raised as if she were holding something, the other at her side almost closed.

"Hermione," Ron's voice came out tearful.

"She was found in the library," Professor McGonagall said from the other side of the bed, picking something up from the bedside table "Next to this."

Harry glanced at the round-hand mirror before looking back at Hermione.

How could this happen?

"Does it mean anything to you?" the teacher asked.

They just nodded in denial.

Harry touched the girl's raised hand, it was as cold as a marble statue.

"I thought she was with you," Harry said, still in shock.

"She said she was going to the library before the match," replied Ron, equally shocked, "I thought she was just late. The library should be safe."

"The school should be safe," Harry replied more loudly, drawing McGonagall's attention.

This couldn't be happening, not to her best friend.

[...]

People stopped whispering about him and stopped accusing him, and that should have made Harry at least a little happier, but he had won his innocence in the eyes of others at the cost of his friend. He wasn't happy and relieved.

Harry felt worried, angry, and sad, all at the same time like a pressure cooker on fire for too long, he wanted to do something, he needed to do something to fix it.

But he didn't have time to plan anything, even with Ron also determined, and scared, by his side. Not with the curfew and the new rules.

They always went to and from class accompanied by a teacher and had to be back on the common by 6 pm. There was no room for anything.

And most worryingly, if the culprit wasn't caught, the school would close.

"It's not like last year," Ron said exasperated "It's not like when we suspected Quirrell of working for You-Know-Who."

"I thought you didn't think Hagrid was guilty," the brunette wrapped himself in his invisibility cloak.

He waited for two days when he finally had a chance to sneak out of bed for the night.

"I didn't say that, I thought the story was strange. But if he goes, and we confront him, he might just send his monster after us."

"He wouldn't do that to us."

"But he would with Hermione, you saw her."

"I don't think he's to blame," Harry's voice dropped, "but he probably knows something. And there's no adult in this school who would tell us the truth."

"It's more like letting the truth slip out."