Butterfly Effect ; H. Potter

45. the final task.

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

Everything Harry and Antheia had seen in the Pensieve, nearly everything Dumbledore had told and shown them afterwards - except the information they had learnt about Neville, they had now shared with Ron and Hermione - and, of course, with Sirius, to whom Harry had sent an owl the moment he had left Dumbledore's office. The four of them sat up late in the common room once again that night, talking it all over until their minds were reeling, until Antheia understood what Dumbledore had meant about a head becoming so full of thoughts that it would have been a relief to siphon them off.

Ron stared into the common-room fire. Antheia thought she saw Ron shiver slightly, even though the evening was warm.

"And he trusts Snape?" Ron said. "He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"

"Yes," said Harry.

"I don't know why but," said Antheia, racking her brain, "if Dumbledore believes so, he must have some kind of evidence, right?"

Hermione had not spoken for ten minutes. She was sitting with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees. Antheia 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 in disbelief.

"I'm not worrying about her," Hermione said to her knees. "I'm just thinking ... remember what she said to Antheia 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?"

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 -"

"But it makes sense that she wouldn't," said Antheia simply. "She's seen what happened to Hagrid when Rita Skeeter found out about his mother."

Hermione looked at her watch.

"We haven't done any practicing!" 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."

Antheia and Hermione wished Harry and Ron a good night and went upstairs to their dormitory. Falling into her four-poster bed, Antheia thought of Neville. As Dumbledore had said, she and Harry had not told Ron and Hermione about Neville's parents. She wondered what it would be like to have parents who are unable to recognize you and felt a rush of anger towards the people who had tortured Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom as well as left her without a mother to grow up with.

It was Voldemort who was responsible for all this, Antheia thought. All the families ripped apart ... all the lives ruined came back to Voldemort.

─ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─

Antheia, Ron, 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.