The Sorcery Trials

Chapter Eleven: Fake It Till You Make It

—chapter eleven: fake it till you make it

     February arrived faster than Hermione would have liked. No progress had been made with the mission because Tom seemed to have lost interest in all three of them. Hermione found it strange since she was so certain that Tom would want to recruit Draco for his name but apparently not. That being said, their mission wasn't something that could be completed overnight, so the trio formulated Plan A: Steal the Diary.

     "Why did we agree to that name again?" Draco asked.

     "Because it's simple and direct," said Hermione.

     "It's boring. Can we call it something else?"

     "Like what, ferret?" Harry said, tired with his antics.

     "Horcrux Heist?"

     "But we're only stealing one horcrux in this plan. What will you call our next plan about stealing the second horcrux?" Hermioned argued.

     "Horcrux Heist Part Two."

     "No," Harry and Hermione said in unison.

     Draco grumbled. "You two are lame."

     Plan A: Steal the Diary was going to be set in motion during the Gryffindor versus Slytherin practice match on Saturday afternoon—tomorrow. Quidditch matches were more popular than ever at Hogwarts in the fourties, which was the result of a suspecting Wizarding War on the horizon. So nowadays, practice matches happened the day before the real match. It gave students and staff something to keep their minds off the feeling of impending doom, and allowed them to live freely for a weekend.

     The trio recently discovered that Tom was the Slytherin Seeker, so he would be busy on the Quidditch pitch while Draco and Hermione snuck into his dormitory. Harry would go to the match to keep an eye on Tom because he was the better dueller of the three. Worst case scenario, Harry would have to fight Tom to prevent him from seeing Hermione or Draco stealing his diary.

Beyond this, if successful, they would have to figure out how to destroy the horcrux. However, they were still unsure how to do that. And even when they did figure it out, they wondered if it would be wise to destroy one without also obtaining the other. But if they waited too long before destroying the diary, Tom might go on a rampage looking for it. Who knows what he would do to get it back?

     In other news, four more contestants for the Sorcery Trials had been selected. Sadie Weasley from Gryffindor, Demetrius Dolohov from Slytherin, Euphemia Braithewaite from Hufflepuff, and Amari Johnson from Ravenclaw. Amari was in the foulest mood for days.

     Harry, Hermione and Draco found it in the best interest of Hogwarts if one of them were able to get selected as a contestant for the Sorcery Trials. And with eight spots already filled, they were growing restless trying to stand out for Runcorn. They heavily suspected Tom would use the Trials as an opportunity to acquire victims for more horcruxes, so one of them needed to be there to protect the others.

     "Do you two find it strange that every chosen contestant for the Trials is a friend of ours?" Hermione noted.

"It's not on purpose, Hermione. They were all selected for catching Runcorn's eye," Harry reminded her.