Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Twenty Portkeys, Arguments and Defence

Considering how badly things started going later in the week, Harry was glad that the evening meal was, for the most part, quiet. Everyone was still in shock over the losses that Lord Voldemort had inflicted or, Harry thought, nervous about gloating too much given the strongly enforced rules about hurling insults. However, it quickly became clear that although it would be hard, Defence Against the Dark Arts would be good this year. Professor Veridian continued to espouse a philosophy that included some of Alastor Moody's 'Constant Vigilance' with a good deal of "what comes around goes around," and "you make your own luck" to keep things interesting.

Professor Binns' class on Wednesday was far more interesting than History of Magic had ever been, largely because it was dominated by a large group of Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs who were not afraid to debate points with their ghostly professor. It certainly didn't hurt that although there was a lot of history in what they were learning, there was also a lot of relevance to current events which helped keep Harry, Ron and Seamus interested.

Things could have gone very differently in Magical Law if Padma Patil and Susan Bones hadn't demanded that the Professor explain the rise of the Wizarding Council, which many felt would soon be meeting to pick a new Minister of Magic. After the losses at Azkaban, everything that Cornelius Fudge told the British Wizarding community was greeted with increasing derision as people couldn't believe that he had anything intelligent to say.

Harry learned that, as Fred and George had said earlier, the old families were all guaranteed seats when the minister was elected. Muggleborn witches and wizards would have to elect representatives as would members of the wizarding community who couldn't claim membership in one of the families that had been signatories of the Wizarding codicils of the Magna Carta.

Hermione gave Harry a speculative look when Professor Binns said this but with everything else that was going on she seemed to have forgotten about whatever she wanted to say for the time being.

Working with Professor Dumbledore on Friday mornings was a continuation of their summer practice. The Headmaster told Harry that they would have to wait to start Apparition until after Hermione's seventeenth birthday. Seamus was planning a huge party for her but Harry was sure that she would like being let in on this part of his training with the Headmaster more than the party or any of the presents that people were buying for her.

His first Friday morning also saw him duel with Fleur. He beat her easily but there wasn't enough time for Professor Dumbledore to have a go at "the champion" which Harry thought was a very good thing since he knew that the Headmaster would beat him as badly as he'd defeated Fleur.

He walked to lunch with Fleur, talking as comfortably as they had during much of their time at Grimmauld Place.

"I would be embarassed at 'aving been beaten if I 'adn't known zat 'U 'ave good reflexes," she said graciously.

"Well," Harry said, embarassed, "you still know a lot more spells than I do."

"Possibly," Fleur said thoughtfully, "but 'U 'ave 'ad to work very 'ard to get your friends ready in the defence club. Would eet be OK if I joined zis year?"

"Sure!" Harry said, happily. "After all you've done for me I'd be a git if I kept you out and it'll help to have someone to referee and come up with real wizarding locations for the Room of Requirement to copy so that people can get practice fighting in the kinds of places where they might have to. After all, I've not been in a lot of wizarding places and I don't know the kinds of things that they'll have to deal with if they have to fight someone."

"'Opefully zey won't 'ave to fight but ze first place 'U should 'ave zem practice in is 'Ogwarts."

Harry stopped, staring at Fleur in horror.

"Hogwarts?" he asked, breathlessly. "You really think he'd take on Dumbledore here?"

"I 'ope not but sooner or later zere will be real trouble between 'is 'elpers and everyone else. 'Aving your members ready to defend zemselves will 'elp protect ze school and also zair lives."

"Right," Harry said with a sigh, knowing that Fleur was right. The ban on the use of terms like "Mudblood" was effective at keeping insults down but it also meant that people had to hold themselves back from saying whatever might be on their minds. Doing so kept the number of fights down but also prevented the arguments that would have told everyone what a lot of people were thinking about the war and the place that they might have in it.

*-*-*-

Bill Weasley's Saturday morning Curse Breaking class quickly became another of Harry's favourites. For one thing, it was taught by a wizard who had an inestimable sense of "cool". For another, that wizard was Bill Weasley who disliked Malfoy and his cronies almost as much as Harry did, and who had the power to bring them down when they caused trouble.

At first, it looked like Malfoy and his cronies wouldn't even come for a class that almost every other student at Hogwarts seemed to be interested in. Harry suspected that some of the girls were in it for Bill rather than to learn about how to deal with cursed items but even so, even Lavender and Pavarti were attentive enough.

Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and about twenty other Slytherins weren't present when the bell sounded and hadn't turned up fifteen minutes into the class either. Just as Harry was sure that they wouldn't come at all, the whole lot came down the Castle steps and began walking across the lawn making as much noise as they possibly could.

Bill seemed unaware of the boisterous mob that was approaching and continued to lecture on ways to determine whether an object had been cursed. He was in the middle of explaining that advanced students would be able to learn when any magical modifications had been made when Malfoy's drawling voice cut across his lecture.

"What I don't understand," Malfoy said, voice dripping with contempt, "is why you're trying to teach these... people... to protect themselves against tricks that the Dark Lord is too powerful to need."

Bill, who still seemed ignorant of Malfoy's presence, continued to discuss the intricacies of monitoring for magical modification.

"What a waste of time," Malfoy said after pausing to test the effect of his words. Harry saw that though Bill remained unimpressed, several of the younger students were getting nervous.

Malfoy, who obviously saw it too, grinned maliciously and turned to his followers.

"I say we go and learn some real defence. We won't learn anything useful here."

"Right," Crabbe, Goyle and many of the others said, turning their backs on Bill.

"Oh, Mister Malfoy," Bill said, interrupting himself.

"What?" Malfoy said, refusing to turn around.

"Catch," Bill said, flicking something toward the blond Slytherin.

Malfoy didn't grab for it but Crabbe did, disappearing moments later.

"What did you to him?" Malfoy demanded, wand drawn.

"Sent him to Professor Dumbledore's office. Can't have students who have signed up for a class disrupting it now, can I?"

"Can't do much else either, or so it seems," Malfoy said, nastily.

"Oh, I'll take care of points at the end of the lesson but since the lot of you are leaving I suppose that I should tell you that you've lost ten points apiece and each of you has picked up a detention. You're certainly welcome to leave but if you do I'd plan on not coming back, and of course, not learning how to detect objects that have been made into Portkeys."

"As I don't need protection I'll be glad to leave, thanks," Malfoy said before walking away.

"Good riddance," Ron crowed with a laugh, hand flicking as if he wanted to clap Bill on the shoulder.

"Now, now, Ron," Bill said softly. "Do have respect for your fellow students, no matter how hard it may be to give it to them."

"Right," Ron said, disgusted. "You sound like Percy."

"Say that again," Bill said harshly, "and I'll take some points from you too."

Ron gave Bill and angry glare but seemed to know that it wouldn't do any good to pursue the matter with his brother until after class.

After class was over, Bill waved Ron to him and began talking with him at high speed as they walked toward the castle. Although Harry wanted to stick close to his best mate to see what was happening, Hermione held him back from doing so and after a moment's anger at her he realized that she was right, Ron would have to come to an agreement with Bill about how they would interacted when he was teaching and they would have to do so on their own.

Ron never told them what the agreement was and after some curiosity about it, Harry decided that since there were no further flare-ups in Bill's special classes, the combination of a few co-operative Slytherins and the conversation between his best mate and the oldest of the Weasley children must have been enough for Ron and Bill's purposes.

*-*-*-

With extra classes and planning for the D.A., Harry was very glad that he wasn't Quidditch captain. Professor McGonagall was getting her students ready to conjure things and Professor Flitwick was cramming the sixth year curriculum's Household Maintenance Charms into a single term so that there would be more time for Defensive magic.

With all of the work that he had in Charms, Transfiguration, Governance and Potions, keeping up with Occlumency was almost too much. Fortunately, Professor Dumbledore continued to be a far more engaging teacher than Professor Snape had been and Harry was glad that the Headmaster seemed to think that he was still making progress.

Lord Voldemort's assault on Muggleborns and the Azkaban fortress was still having effects on wizarding Britain. There were many calls for the resignation of the current ministry. Fred and George said that Diagon Alley was covered in leaflets demanding an early session of the Wizarding Council. Their package also included fifty mirrors that could be used for communication with members of the D.A., the Order and "anyone that you can get to sell our Wheezes for us."

The Daily Prophet seemed to be unsure how to respond to everything that was going on. On some days it was harshly critical of Minister Fudge but on others it was as determined not to print news on the Muggle baiting and other attacks that were happening almost every day.

News of these attacks drove Harry to work harder than he ever had and though she was obviously surprised by his newfound studiousness, Hermione didn't have any complaints. Ron, on the other hand, did.

"What is it with you, mate?" he demanded at the beginning of their second week of classes.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, still concentrating on the chapter of 'Protecting Yourself And Your Neighbourhood Against Pain And Pillage' that he was reading.

"You've been working like, well, Hermione, since you got back and haven't said anything to me about getting the postings up for Quidditch yet."

"I thought that since you're captain, you'd be on that," Harry said, peevishly. "After all, I've got a lot of other stuff to think about and unless you don't want me as Seeker, I didn't think that I needed to do more than show up to help with Tryouts," he said, turning back to reading about the uses of Charms and Transfiguration in self defence that he'd been reading before Ron interrupted him.

"Well, sure," Ron said, ears going red. "But I figured that you'd want to help organize and stuff."

"Sorry, can't," Harry said, trying to find the place that Ron's questions kept forcing him to lose.

"Why the hell not?" Ron demanded, angrily.

"Because I've got to get ready for the D.A., and Dumbledore's assigned me lots of work that I need to have revised when I see him on Friday. In case you'd forgotten, I'm the only one working with him so I can't take a flutter on the chance that I won't get called on this week."

"I don't know, Harry," Ron said, shooting to his feet. "You're not nearly as fun to be around this year."

"Wonder why that might be," Harry said, also jumping to his feet.

"Nothing happened to you that didn't happen to the rest of us," Ron shot back, face flushing.

"Right!" Harry exploded, fists clenching. "It's not like your only remaining family got killed or anything. Or that you were trapped into setting it up by some crazy dark wizard who spends his life trying to finish you off every chance he gets."

"Shut up, both of you!" Neville's voice cracked across the now silent common room.

Shock at Neville's outburst silenced both boys, though Harry was sure that Ron was as ready to resume their fight as he was.

Neville, Hermione and Ginny were quickly on the scene, eyes blazing.

"Neville's right," Hermione said, while Ginny and Neville moved to march Harry and Ron toward the portrait hole. "The Common Room's certainly not the place for talking about any of this."

"Right!" Harry said, jerking his arm away from Ginny but happy to lead the way out of Gryffindor tower.

Minutes later they were walking down the seventh floor corridor, heading toward the Room of Requirement. Though he couldn't explain why, Harry wasn't surprised to see Luna walking toward them from the opposite direction, huge silvery eyes as guileless as always.

"What are you doing here?" Ron demanded, nastily.

"I don't know," Luna said, voice deeper and breathier than Harry remembered.

"Well go away," Ron said, turning his back on the sixth member of the group that had fought at the Ministry of Magic.

"Ron!" Ginny, Neville and Hermione said together.

"That's no way to talk to someone who probably saved your life," Ginny said, after glancing at Hermione.

Harry, who was ready to hear Ron say that nothing of the sort had happened, was shocked to see his best mate's face go very red, and hear him apologize to Luna, left foot scuffing the corridor floor while he tried to look her in the face.

"It's nothing," Luna said, goggling at Ron. "I wouldn't expect you to be very polite, as angry as all of you seem to be at each other!"

Harry was momentarily stunned by her observation, but after thinking about it, he realized that it would be pretty obvious that something was wrong given the profound silence amongst people who usually talked freely amongst themselves.

"It's not been a very good day," Ginny sighed, waving for Luna to follow them into the Room of Requirement - whose door hadn't been there when the confrontation between Luna and Ron began.

Whereas the Room of Requirement usually configured itself as a dojo where people would have the space needed to cast spells, whoever had set the parameters this time seemed to see a need to talk. The room contained a fireplace and several squashy armchairs spread around in a pattern much like the Gryffindor common room, but the colours were the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw.

"Weird," was Ron's comment on seeing the Gryffindor common room in another house's colours.

"Not really," Luna said, serenely settling into a chair at one end of the room. "Most of us are Gryffindors but I'm a Ravenclaw, so the person who configured the room tried to make it comfortable for all of us."

"Well, yes, but who did it?" Hermione asked, voicing a question that wasn't very important to Harry but which he knew would bother her if she didn't get an answer.

"I did," Neville said, determinedly. "You were all busy fighting so I took care of it."

"Yes," Luna said, silvery eyes focused on Neville. "You didn't notice much the last few minutes. If we were in Defence class Professor Veridian could have beaten all of you quite easily I think."

Even Ron didn't have much to say to this and so Hermione took direction of the conversation as she so often did.

"I don't know what's wrong with the two of you," she said, glaring at Harry and Ron. "But whatever it is, you were behaving awfully to each other."

"She's right," Neville said, his eyes locked on both of them. "You almost let slip stuff that I don't think you want spread around," he said to Harry, reminding him that everyone didn't know about his connection to Voldemort.

"And you don't have much of a right to tell Harry how to spend his time, either," he said, glaring up at Ron.

"The hell I don't," Ron shot back, angrily. "He's been studying harder than Hermione this year and that can't be good for him."

"Maybe, maybe not," Ginny said. "But Harry does have more to do than any of us this year and the fight at the Ministry was worse for him than it was for the rest of us."

"I didn't mean that it wasn't," Ron shot back, ears turning red.

"Yes, you did," Luna said, airily.

"How would you know?" Ron demanded. "You weren't there."

"Maybe she wasn't," Ginny said, "but it doesn't take much to figure out what happened from what we've been talking about."

"Good thing," Ron mumbled, "since she isn't usually paying enough attention to know what's going on."

The shocked silence that followed this pronouncement was broken by Ginny's fist which struck Ron in the stomach hard enough to send him staggering.

"That's nice," Ginny snarled, "since it was Luna who saved both of us in June. You're an even bigger prat than I thought if you can't admit that you were the first of us to get hexed and the one that Luna had to work the hardest to save."

Disgusted, Ginny turned away from Ron who was still rubbing his middle, a look of mixed embarrassment and pain on his face.

"Look," Harry said, deciding to try to stop several arguments at once. "After Sirius died, I realized that whether it's my fault or not, Voldemort's going to come after me. Why he's so determined to get me I don't know," he said, insides squirming at the lie, "but he's going to keep doing it.

"Dumbledore thinks so too and wanted me to get a lot of special practice this summer. Your mum didn't want you around for that and I got used to working really hard. With the D.A., Potions and Dumbledore I just don't have much time for all the stuff that we used to do."

"So you're saying that you don't have time for your friends anymore?" Ron demanded, angrily.

"No!" Harry cried, furious that his best mate didn't understand. "I'm saying that I've got more work this year and a lot of it is stuff that I have to do by myself. I can't copy Hermione's homework, I have to work with Dumbledore on Occlumency and loads of other stuff and I just don't have time to mess around like we used to. It doesn't mean that I don't want to do that stuff any more, it just means that I can't do it and have any kind of chance at all to have time for Quidditch. Even Dumbledore thought that I needed to keep that up."

"So you only listen to Dumbledore now?" Ron demanded, furiously.

"No," Harry snapped. "But with all that's happening, I'd be an even bigger git than I was last year if I didn't see that he's right about my schedule, even if I think he's barking to trust Snape."

"Harry," Hermione said, patronizingly.

"Just leave it, will you?" Harry said, glaring at her.

"Oh, all right," she sighed.

"Look," Ron said, making an obvious effort to regain control of his temper. "I just don't like it that things are different. It seems like everything's changing and I still feel like I don't know what's going on."

"You don't," Harry said, surprised that he felt the need to be honest about something that was so sensitive. "Your Mum's told Dumbledore that she doesn't want you involved with a lot of the stuff that he's doing with me this year. He's got the final word. He did say that once Hermione and I start learning how to Apparate we can teach that to you and Neville so long as we don't tell him that we're doing it. But the stuff he's telling me about the Order can't get out to anyone because if it does people like Snape could get killed. Snape's a sneaky rotten greasy git but he is passing on a lot of information that Dumbledore says is good so I agreed not to talk about it."

"I wouldn't tell," Ron cried, arms flailing.

"Oh yeah?" Neville said, standing so that Ron had to stop pacing. "You saw what happened to Crabbe on Saturday, imagine if that was you and they took you to Voldemort instead of Dumbledore's office."

"I'd never say anything," Ron repeated, stoutly.

"I don't think that you'd be able to keep from saying everything," Hermione said softly. "With Veritaserum and the Cruciatus curse it wouldn't be hard for him to get what he wanted out of you, or me, or anyone..."

"She's right," Neville said, shivering. "You haven't had the Cruciatus put on you. Bellatrix Lestrange did it to me for just a few seconds and I hope I never have to feel it again."

"Maybe so," Ron said, "but I don't like being kept out of stuff."

"Neither do I," Ginny said "but if Dumbledore says that we shouldn't know and Harry agrees, maybe we have to trust them."

"Maybe," Ron said, seemingly aware that he wasn't going to get what he wanted.

*-*-*-

Although everyone seemed willing to lay their arguments aside for the time being, Harry had the feeling that his friendships were changing too fast for his comfort. Ron continued to be a little cool toward him for the next several days and although he knew she understood the secrecy, Harry knew that Hermione didn't like it either.

Fortunately, their first D.A. meeting was scheduled for that Friday and Quidditch Tryouts were to be on Saturday. Happily for Harry, Potions was going well, Daphne helping him quietly when he had trouble with the tasks that Professor Snape set them. He didn't need help much and wondered whether the discipline that he'd learned that summer was helping him with the incredibly detailed instructions that he had to follow.

Before he knew it, Friday evening had arrived and the students who wanted to be part of the D.A. were pouring into the Room of Requirement.

One of the things that had occupied Harry and Hermione over the last few days was the need to decide how many students the class should have and which spells they would teach. Hermione was forced to try to balance objectives that seemed completely opposed to each other. On one hand, Professor Dumbledore's requirement that anyone should be able to learn what they wanted, but on the other hand, Harry's resolve that the class should not become too big and his determination to know how the knowledge that he offered was being used.

Hermione disappeared into the library on Tuesday and didn't eat any meals with the Gryffindors until Thursday at dinner when she appeared, face wreathed in a smile, a long roll of parchment clutched in her hand.

"What is it?" Harry asked before Ron could swallow.

"I'll show you tomorrow," she said, grinning.

As it turned out, her idea was both simple and complex. It required every student to touch their wand to a roll of parchment which would then record the spells cast by it for a day before wiping itself clear. Professor Veridian agreed to keep the parchment in her office where it could be retrieved by order of the Headmaster if adjudication was needed.

Since Harry was an Assistant Teacher, he decided that anyone who took his class would have to register their wand with the parchment. This announcement brought a good deal of grumbling from a few students, with Zacharias Smith raising the loudest objections.

"I don't see that you have the right to make us register our wands like this. After all, you're not the Ministry of Magic."

"No," Harry said, "but I am the teacher and since this class is intended to teach you how to defend yourself, it seems fair to be sure that you're not here to learn how to hurt other people. We're going to focus on stuff that Death Eaters could use against us if they wanted to."

"Like what?" Smith demanded.

"Sorry," Harry said with a nasty smile, "you'll have to register first before I tell you what you're going to learn."

It didn't pass Harry's notice that Zacharias chose not to register.

However, he was equally interested in the willingness of a few Slytherins to register their wands. Daphne was one of them. While doing so, the cold-eyed Slytherin gave the smallest of smiles to Hermione in apparent response to the surprise that Hermione couldn't quite contain at the willingness of a witch whose reputation was distinctly... dodgy... to allow herself to be monitored in such a way.

"Some people benefit from their reputations more than others, Granger!" she said before returning to her lonely seat near the door.

Harry and his friends weren't sure how big a group he could manage. After consulting the Headmaster and Professor Veridian they decided to keep the class to thirty students.

As five people had graduated and two, Marietta and Zacharias, had chosen not to return, there were seventeen people who already had places. Although Ron objected bitterly, Hermione insisted that five places be opened to Slytherins. As only three showed interest; Daphne and two fourth years named Julia Meadowcroft and Laurel Stonewright, there were ten places to fill and sixteen people who were interested. Although it made him nervous to do so Harry decided to take the lot and do his best.

Several Hufflepuffs complained about allowing Cho Chang back into the group and Harry quickly saw that people from other houses agreed with them.

"But she supported that back-stabbing b..."

"Ernie!" Hermione barked.

"Well, she did!" Ernie said, glaring.

"Maybe so," Harry said. "But my friends have backed me up on some pretty stupid things and you don't see anyone saying that they were wrong to do it."

"That's different."

"Not really," Harry said. "They went with me to the Ministry even though I told them not to and Marietta ratted on us. Since Cho didn't get spots on her face I'm assuming that she didn't go with Marietta when she told Umbridge, did you?"

Cho shook her head.

"So far as I'm concerned, she's OK. You can leave if you've got a problem with it."

Ernie stayed, as did the rest of the students who had objected to letting Cho back into the D.A.

Glad that this problem was solved, for the moment at least, Harry turned to other business.

"You probably know from everything that's been in the Daily Prophet that Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny and me fought a bunch of Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic in June. We learned that simple spells are often enough to protect you against someone who knows a lot more than you do and I want to work on helping you find ways to use them if you have to fight. You need to know some new things like the Shield Charm because it really helped me a lot last June. No one else used it and although it's pretty hard I think that you should be able to learn it. We're going to work on the Patronus too, but most of the time we'll create places that you might have to fight in and you'll go in by yourself and in teams to fight either me or other people."

"How big should the teams be?" asked Lavender who was staring at Harry as avidly as she normally focused on Professor Trelawney.

"No more than four people and you can't work with more than one other person from your House. Since there are loads of fourth and fifth years, you will need to have at least one of them on your team."

"Why do we have to have people that we don't know on our teams?" asked Michael Corner.

"Well," Harry said, "I talked to Professor Veridian and some of the Aurors who helped at the ministry and they said that although you'll probably be with your friends if something happens, there will be times when you get separated from them or aren't with them at all and you need to know what to do when you're with people that you don't know so well."

"The Sorting Hat said that it's important to unite the Houses and Harry's right to make us work with people that we don't know so well," Hermione said, smiling encouragement to Harry.

"Right," Harry said, having forgotten that this was one of Professor Dumbledore's arguments for setting up the teams. "If you want to work with your housemates outside of our meetings you know where this place is and I can tell you how to set things up. If you do come here outside practice times, you need to have someone who can go for help if one of you gets hurt."

Nods greeted Harry's instructions.

"Let's get teams picked tonight and we'll get to work next Tuesday."

"Who should be the captains?" asked a fourth year from Hufflepuff that Harry didn't know at all well.

"We'll rotate all that but for this term let's have everyone who went with me to the Ministry; then Fleur, Daphne and...Hannah Abbott

A number of nervous glances shot about the room at the news that a Slytherin would be team captain but as Harry and Hermione glared the doubters into submission, no-one raised an objection.

Harry, who had decided that he needed not to be a team leader, so he could be as fair to everyone as he could, was curious to see who would be chosen. Fleur picked Justin Finch-Fletchley and the two Slytherin fourth years. Daphne took two Ravenclaw fourth-years and Ernie Macmillan.

Hermione took a fourth year from Ravenclaw, Padma Patil and, not without some disgust, Lavender. Ron took Susan Bones, Pavarti Patil and a Ravenclaw fifth year named Phoebe Atwell, whose curves couldn't be concealed even by the loosest of Hogwarts robes.

The other teams worked themselves out and Harry was glad to see that Dennis Creevey and the Hufflepuffs chosen by Luna seemed willing to follow her lead.

"OK," he said. I think that's enough for today, we'll have regular meetings on Tuesday and Friday nights so Quidditch will have to be scheduled around them."

Ron eyed him coolly but didn't raise an objection to his pronouncements.

"Anything else?" he asked, suddenly glad that the meeting was coming to an end.

"Yes," Hermione said, "we need to distribute the mirrors."

"Oh yeah," Harry said, embarassed that he'd forgotten to distribute their communications devices.

"Last year we used Galleons to communicate times and places for our meetings. This year, we're using mirrors because our meetings will happen at the same time but teams will need to work together and this way we can send word to all of you in case something happens. You can activate your mirror by holding it, then saying "Connecto" and the name of the person that you want to talk to. When you're done, say "Disconnecto".

"I have a mirror that can communicate to everyone at once if I need to and Professor Dumbledore will have one too. Hermione's got the mirrors and will set the charms that you need on them as you leave. One will keep anyone else from using your mirror and the other will make the connection between your mirror and mine."

"Any questions?"

"What about the Galleons?" Ginny asked.

"Give them back to Hermione."

Ginny nodded.

"Anything else?"

As no-one raised their hands, Harry waved them out so that they could get their mirrors and return to their Common Rooms before curfew.