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We were silent for a while.

"That's terrible. That's why I want to find a way to extract the Horcrux. Nasty magic, though. Okay, unpleasant conversations aside, here are the books for you."

Delphine pushed a stack of books with a couple of handwritten notebooks toward me.

"Take some time in my absence to study them."

"Okay."

"Well, you can rest today too. I'm sure you'll have a party in the common room."

"You'll be there again, won't you?"

"Maybe," Delphine shrugged. "That's fun."

"See you soon, then."

Taking the books, I headed into the common room to put them in my bag. It wasn't often that I left it in our room, but I didn't have to worry - Weasley had learned his lesson and no longer reached for it.

I changed into a school uniform so as not to sit idly by, and attended a couple of classes, which surprised my classmates - everyone was used to the fact that I was studying somewhere on my own, and the only places where they could find me were in the Great Hall and at potions class.

And then, in the evening, we actually had a party in the common room. There was, as always, weak alcohol, tea, juices, snacks, pies, and cakes. The atmosphere was noisy and cheerful, but if Harry and Ron enjoyed the attention of everyone, Hermione and I sat peacefully on our couch, drawing schemes or discussing urgent issues of transfiguration. By the way, two more couches and a table had moved into our corner that evening, where Seamus and Dean were playing chess and Lavender and Parvati were discussing the next issue of Witch Weekly with keen interest.

"It seems," Hermione looked around at the assembled company. "We're starting to make friends."

"I've noticed."

"Ha!" Dean leaned back in his chair. "Check."

"In your dreams," Seamus responded immediately, and the figure of his horse reared up, impaling the artistically collapsed Dean's officer."

"I don't know how, but you're cheating."

"I'm not."

Hermione nudged me a little with her shoulder, making herself comfortable.

"Tell me, why did you start communicating with me?"

"Oh, hello, women's questions."

"Seriously."

"You were just capable of forming meaningful sentences of more than five words."

"Hey!" Seamus turned to me with mock indignation. "Now that was hurtful."

Dean tossed a wrapper crumpled into a ball at his friend.

"There's nothing to be offended about. All you did back then was blow things up and kept repeating "Hey." Not much has changed, though."

"Oh, yeah?" grinned Seamus. "Troops! Let's defeat the Black Wizard! Fight!"

His white chess pieces let out a battle cry and simply swept away Dean's black pieces in one wave.

"There you go, ha ha!"

Surprisingly, this simple scene made us all laugh. But despite the fun, I began to ponder what to do in the third task, how to prepare, and what the hell is the name of that damned cemetery? We ... No, I need a plan.

***

The official start of spring had not changed the weather at all. The coniferous forests around Hogwarts were still dark, and the understory plants and grasses were in no hurry to reach for the sky. As always, only ferns and various frost-resistant plants here and there tried to make their way. And, of course, not without moss. March, however, made a difference in my daily routine. With the departure of Lady Greengrass, my training with Hermione took on a more familiar pace and form - physical training, work in the Restricted Section, homework, and practicing charms and spells both according to the program and just various useful in all the different aspects of life, from everyday life to combat. Yes, we practiced harder, like we did at the beginning of the year, not shying away from inflicting minor injuries on each other, well, if we set ourselves up. A couple of times, I honestly tried not to hit a girl, to give some kind of discount, but not because she was a girl, but just not wanting to do any harm, but I got reprimanded.

"Don't even think about feeling sorry for me," Hermione insisted. "Otherwise, none of this makes sense. The harm is light, unpleasant, it hurts, yes, but it's not like we're throwing killing spells at each other. And not even serious curses. There are dummies for those."

Yes, Delphine left us her self-restoring golems. It was hard for them, and this was without any dark magic - we reasonably refuse to use it, although there is knowledge. But then again, that knowledge is based on countering dark magic and curing curses. Neither Hermione nor I think our psyches are mature enough to deal with dark magic. Why do I think that about myself, too? I still don't know the extent of the body's influence on the mind, which means that until a certain age, I will by default consider myself an organism that is forming in all plans - it is better to play it safe than to go crazy later.

Ron and Harry still drew the attention of many Gryffindors, and if Potter was a little embarrassed by it, Ron was happy to talk about his adventures. He did not even notice that they were listening to him not out of reverence for the drowned hero but for the sake of laughter. His tall tales were simply absurd, and everyone had already seen the events of the tour. But it seems that he learned to tell stories from Malfoy... It's funny how similar they are in their behavior, Ron and Draco.