Chapter 47: Checkmate
The next morning at breakfast was uncomfortable for Harry. As an after-effect of Valentine’s Day, Ron and Hermione had again allowed themselves to be enveloped in their own little romantic world away from all distraction, while Harry kept shooting nervous glances to Katie’s end of the table, but she seemed to be ignoring him. Ginny kept nervously looking over to the group that was Dean, Lavender, Seamus, Parvati, Neville, and Susan Bones, until eventually she heaved a sad sigh and moved over to the Ravenclaw table to sit with Luna.
When Harry finished his toast he turned to Ron and Hermione, coughing loudly to shake them from their quiet conversation.
“You want to head down to Hagrid’s now?” he asked.
They had made plans the night before to take advantage of the free-Saturday morning to ask Hagrid if he knew anything about Ophelia Cunningham and any connection she may have had with Tom Riddle. Ginny had opted not to go, as she had so much homework due to her O.W.L.’s
Ron and Hermione nodded eagerly and frighteningly in unison and stood up to leave the Great Hall with Harry; Harry threw one more glance at Katie, who was now immersed in writing an essay, before leaving with them.
“Why haven’t you apologized to Katie yet?” Hermione said as they crossed the grounds to Hagrid’s hut. “I mean, now that you know it’s not her fault…”
Hermione drifted off warily as Harry shot a glare at Ron.
“You weren’t supposed to tell her,” he hissed.
Ron’s ears tinged pink and he looked sheepishly at the ground.
“I thought it would be okay “ now that you know it had nothing to do with her, I thought you’d go back to normal and it wouldn’t matter if Hermione knew…” he muttered shamefully.
“And I kind of forced it out of him,” Hermione added quickly.
Harry remained silently indignant as they reached Hagrid’s hut. Hermione knocked loudly while Harry threw another vicious look at Ron.
Hagrid opened the door sleepily.
“Mornin’,” he said smiling at them. “Yeh’s must want somethin’ teh be here this early…”
Harry put his anger at Ron away for a moment to shoot Hagrid a mischevious grin.
“Yeah, actually Hagrid “ there is something we want.”
“What can I do yeh fer?” Hagrid said as he poured himself a cup of tea and put it down on his table next to a huge bowl that must have contained at least a gallon of porridge.
“We want information,” Hermione stated matter-of-factedly.
“Abou’ what?” Hagrid asked, eyeing the three of them with interest.
“We want to know if you knew Ophelia Cunningham while you were at Hogwarts,” Ron said.
Hagrid eyed them all again, suspiciously this time.
“Yeh’s aren’t meddlin’ again, are yeh?” he asked accusingly.
“No,” Harry said simply. “This has something to do with Voldemort. It’s important “ I need to know if he knew Ophelia when he was at Hogwarts…”
Hagrid was hesitant at first, but then let out a sigh of resignation.
“Alright, there doesn’t seem to be any harm in it “ and it’s not as if you’re not goin’ to figure it out anyways…” he said. “I knew Ophelia when I was at Hogwarts. We were in Gryffindor together, though she was a few years ahead o’ me. Lovely girl, she was. Real nice “ after Tom got me expelled, she went right down teh th’ Headmaster an’ told ‘im it wasn’t me who’d gotten Myrtle killed. O’course, she hadn’t any proof, so nothin’ could have bin done… but she still supported me. I saw her around while I was helpin’ Ogg with the groundskeepin’ “ was still always very friendly, even when every one else was scared o’ me, or thought me a monster…”
“So, she knew Tom Riddle, then?” Harry asked. “She must have if he was the one who got you expelled…”
“Yeah “ she knew him alright. Don’ really know if they got on at all, though. Or if they’d ever had anythin’ teh say teh eachother… but they were in the same year, both Prefects as well…”
“But surely if she thought you were innocent, she would have blamed Tom…” Hermione started.
“Ophelia was never quick teh judge anyone, Hermione. She probably thought tha’ he had everyone’s best interests at heart…” Hagrid said, cutting her off.
“Doesn’t sound like a very good judge of character,” Ron scoffed.
“Well, she knew tha’ I was innocent,” Hagrid replied.
“Oh “ yeah… well she was right there, of course,” Ron said, his cheeks slightly pink.
“So, is that all you knew about her?” Harry asked.
“Yeah “ sorry I can’ be anymore help…” Hagrid said.
“No, no “ it’s fine. It was plenty,” Harry said.
“Alrigh’ well, if there are no mor’ questions, would yeh like some tea and rock cakes, and stay around to chat fer a bit?” Hagrid asked enthusiastically.
They accepted the tea and conversation, but politely declined the rock cakes on the excuse that they’d already eaten breakfast.
---
“Well, that was bloody useless…” Ron said a couple of hours later as they returned to the castle.
“No it wasn’t Ron, we learned plenty…” Hermione said.
“Why don’t we just skip the bit where I don’t listen properly, and you go ahead and tell us what exactly you picked up on that we didn’t,” Ron said.
“All right then “ we can assume from what Hagrid told us that Ophelia, despite what you think, was a good judge of character. She was the only one, besides Dumbledore of course, who believed Hagrid was innocent. It also seems that, despite the fact he got Hagrid expelled, Ophelia didn’t place the blame on Tom, either…”
“Well, maybe she was just naïve…” Ron said.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Harry suddenly. “The woman I saw facing Voldemort didn’t seem naïve at all…”
“Precisely, Harry “ meaning she probably had a good idea of what Tom was up to, just as Dumbledore did, but maybe she was willing to give him a chance. There’s a reason Voldemort felt sad before he killed her.”
“Maybe he was remembering a game of chess he’d lost earlier that day…” Ron said.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
“Whatever you say Ronald,” she replied loftily. “But I think there is more to the story, and I plan on finding out just what happened between Ophelia Cunningham and Tom Riddle.”
She began to climb the marble staircase and Ron called off to her.
“Where are you going?”
“To the library,” she replied, still walking away from them.
Ron turned to Harry and rolled his eyes, before heading into the Great Hall to wait for lunch.
---
Hermione spent the rest of the day in the library, only leaving once when Ron dragged her to dinner. When Harry got up the next morning, he entered the common room to find Ron massacring Neville in a game of wizard’s chess. Hermione was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Hermione?” Harry asked.
“Library again…” Ron said. “Knight to E5.”
“What exactly is she expecting to find in the library?” Harry asked.
“I don’t know, school records, I guess…Queen to F7. Checkmate.”
Neville groaned in defeat.
“Plus, she’s switching between her research and her essay for Alchemina,” Ron continued, clearing the board of his pieces, as Neville scraped up his own pieces forlornly. “Tough luck, Neville, but there’s always the next game…”
“Oh, yeah “forgot about that thing,” Harry said. “Neville, have you finished it yet?”
“Oh, no… I’m going to meet Susan in the library today “ she’s going to help me with it…” he said, his cheeks flushing slightly.
“Susan, eh?” Ron asked, his interest peaking. “Been hanging around her a lot lately, have you?”
“Well, yeah,” Neville responded flustered. “Gran knows Amelia Bones and they “ well, kind of “ set us up… over Christmas. Embarrassing really, but “ well she’s nice…”
“She’s quite a catch, too,” Ron continued. “Niece to the Minister of Magic and all…”
Neville gave a shy smile, as Harry opened his mouth, but stopped when he saw Katie walk by without looking at him.
“I can’t stand this anymore,” he said quietly to himself, and he leaped of the arm of the chair he had been leaning against and followed her, reaching out to grab her hand.
“Katie, we need to talk,” he said breathlessly.
Katie turned to him and he felt the slight instinct to back away, but he stood his ground.
“About what?” she asked coolly, her eyebrows raised.
Clearly it had been a rhetorical question, because the moment Harry opened his mouth to speak, she answered for him.
“About how you just decided to shut me out without giving me any reason? Or perhaps about ditching me on Valentine’s Day? Or maybe it’s about telling me you love me, than turning around and proving that it was never true?”
Her eyes burned into him, and he could almost see fire blazing from them, but Harry could hear the hurt in her voice, because it trembled with each accusation.
“Katie… please let me explain “”
“I don’t hear you denying anything.”
“Okay “ yes, I shut you out, I gave you no reason. And yes, I ditched you on Valentine’s day “ but I love you. Katie I promise, I thought I was doing the right thing…” Harry said nervously.
Katie stared at him incredulously; clearly his words hadn’t come out as smoothly as he’d planned.
“Harry, I’m sick of hearing you’re excuses. I’m sick of being so forgiving. I can understand that your life is difficult, but there’s no reason to continue to shut out the people you supposedly love “ I would have thought you’d learned from your mistakes by now.”
Harry knew she was right “ but she didn’t know. She didn’t know that this time he’d shut her out to save her, to save everyone. He had to make her understand.
“Katie, please “ ”
“I don’t have time for this right now, Harry. I have other things to do, and honestly I don’t have the energy to deal with you at the moment,” she said sadly as she strode away from him, out through the portrait hole.
Harry swallowed hard and he turned to find Neville and Ron gaping at him.
“Tough luck, mate,” Ron said.
Harry didn’t respond, he just collapsed into the armchair, afraid that he may have lost Katie forever.