The students filed out of the castle and headed for the village of Hogsmeade. It was the first weekend that students in third year and above were allowed to leave Hogwarts to visit the local village. Harry walked with Ron, Hermione and Ginny down the path, their spirits high and their smiles wide. After the initial reaction to the incident at the Quidditch match yesterday had worn off, the castle was filled with hearty cheers for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry and Ginny got the largest portion of them. People kept coming up to Ginny asking if she had gotten back at that git who had knocked her off her broom. Harry had received congratulations for his spectacular save of Ginny and his magnificent capture of the Snitch a moment later.
When they finally reached the village, they took an immediate turn towards Zonko’s joke shop. Ron and Ginny made the comment that, without Fred and George around, it was up to the remaining Weasley students to cause a little ruckus at the school. Hermione tried to discourage this, but they told her they were only kidding around. Behind her back, Ron winked at Harry.
Zonko’s was always filled with students eager to buy the latest joke item. Harry had a hard time moving in between the different bins, but somehow managed to make it out with a few Dungbombs, some Fizzing Whizzbees, and some trick ink that had been sent from Fred and George’s shop in Diagon Alley. Whoever used this ink would have whatever they wrote down mixed up on the parchment. Ron had the idea of somehow slipping it into Malfoy’s bag.
After Zonko’s, they headed for Honeydukes. This sweetshop was famous for the variety of candies and chocolates. Ginny bought a large bar of chocolate in addition to some fruit flavored hard candy. Hermione discouraged buying too much since Professor Dumbledore had said last night that tonight’s feast would be particularly extravagant. There was some big announcement that he was going to make.
Of course, no trip to Hogsmeade would be complete without a stop in The Three Broomsticks. The pub was more crowded then Harry had seen it in a long time. While the four of them looked around for a table, a man was waving at them from across the room. It was a Ministry wizard. He showed them to a table in a corner. “I saw the four of you looking for a place to sit,” the wizard said. “Of course there was no way you could have seen the table from all the way over there.”
They took seats around the table. “Thank you very much,” Hermione said. “It was very kind of you to save this table for us.”
The wizard bowed to them. “It was my pleasure. My name is Raven, and it was my honor to be able to help you. I must confess though, that the true reason I did this was so that I might meet the famous Harry Potter.” He extended his hand to Harry. “It is a privilege to be able meet you face to face, Mr. Potter.”
Harry shook Raven’s hand, blushing a bit. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“May I buy you all a round of drinks?” Raven asked. They nodded and he headed off towards the bar.
Harry leaned in to the others. “That makes the fourth Ministry wizard that’s seemed to go out of his way to meet me.”
“Who were the others?” Hermione asked.
Harry leaned back. “The first was on the platform when we arrived on the train. Ginny and I bumped into a wizard called Sylvain. He seemed eager to meet me and even was excited to meet Ginny. The second time was before out first Muggle History class. This time a wizard named Dragair was helping a student that had dropped her books. He kept me a little longer then I had hoped. And then there was the prat I met during the Halloween Ball, Griff. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs where…” He didn’t want to finish that thought. “Well, he heard something I would rather he didn’t.” Raven came back with four butterbeers. He bowed to the students and left the pub. “I know that I’m famous and everything, but I thought that these wizards were here to protect the school. I just get an odd feeling from them.”
“Don’t dwell on it, mate,” Ron said. “Just be glad that you know some more Aurors in the Ministry if you decide to go that route.”
“Yeah, I guess,” he answered. Looking across the table, Harry saw Hermione’s eyes looking beyond him. He turned around, saw nothing and turned back to him. “Hermione, what’s wrong?”
“I just thought of something,” she said. “Griff, Raven, Dragair, and Sylvain. Something about those names sounds familiar.” She drained her tankard of butterbeer and got up. “I’ll see the rest of you at the castle. I have to look up something.”
As she ran out of the pub, Ron stood up. “I better see what she’s up to. God only knows what book she might have her nose in until next week.” He chased after Hermione.
Ginny and Harry were left alone at the table. They kept avoiding each other’s eyes, until Harry finally spoke. “Ginny, can we talk?”
She looked up at him. “I guess. About what?”
“About us.”
Ginny shook her head. “Harry, there is no us. I thought I made that clear.”
“But you’ve stopped avoiding me and yelling at me.”
Ginny smiled. “Yeah, I did stop that, because you’re my friend Harry. You always were and always will be. Honestly though, I can’t see how you can be anything else, when I know that I was your second choice and Cho was your first.”
“But she wasn’t…” Harry started to say. A group of students close to them suddenly laughed so loud that Harry’s words were drowned out. “Let’s go outside.” He reached over, took her hand and led her out of the pub. They walked to a secluded street. “What I was trying to say is that she wasn’t my first choice. I thought you were seeing Dean Thomas at the time.”
“And when did I say that?” Ginny asked, a bit amazed at what he just said.
“On the train ride home last year,” he said. “You said you had chosen Dean after you left Michael Corner.”
Ginny thought for a moment. “Oh, that.” She started to giggle. “That was just to get a rise out of Ron. He’s never been too fond of any guy that’s shown too much interest in me.” Her smile faded and she looked straight in his eyes. “But the truth is, Harry, that you never came to talk to me about it. Even if I were seeing someone else, I still would want to talk about this.”
“So there’s no way we can make this work?”
She shook her head. “Not right now, Harry. I can’t deal with this.” Ginny turned on her heels and headed back for the castle.
Harry kept walking along the streets of Hogsmeade. Ginny’s last words to him set a tone of finality to his feelings for her. She didn’t want to have anything serious between them, but she still wanted to be his friend. As he walked among the shops, he noticed a shop that had just recently opened. He looked inside the window and an idea struck him. It would take a while for him to see if his instincts were right, but he could wait.
************************************************
That night at dinner, Hermione disclosed her findings to the others. Ron had tried to help her in the library, but she had quickly pushed him away. “I found out why the Sorting Hat referred to dragons when it talked about Hufflepuff. It’s because the dragon is the animal of Hufflepuff house.”
“I thought the badger was Hufflepuff’s animal,” Harry said.
“It is now,” Hermione replied. “But back when Hogwarts was founded, a dragon inhabited this land. No one could get near this area, until Helga Hufflepuff used her mastery of mind persuasion to convince the dragon to leave. Only a select few witches and wizards have been able to do this over the centuries.”
“So why then did they change it to a badger?”
“Because around 500 years ago, the Hogwarts headmaster decided to hold a special ceremony for students leaving Hogwarts and entering the workforce. During this ceremony, the house animals were brought in for the celebration. They managed to secure an adolescent dragon, but it still got out of control. After that, Hufflepuff changed their animal to the badger. Eventually though, the ceremony stopped being held, but they never changed the animal back to what it originally was.”
Ron rolled his eyes. “And this has to do with…what?”
Hermione glared over at him. “Think about it, Ron. Griff, Raven, Dragair, Sylvain. All of those names sound like either the house names or the house animals. It takes a little imagination with Sylvain, though. If you take the first three letters, ‘S-Y-L’, it sounds a bit like ‘sly’, or Slytherin. This can’t be a coincidence.” She leaned back a bit. “I only can’t believe that this sort of information wasn’t in Hogwarts: A History. It would have saved me a lot of time and research.”
“Come to think of it,” Harry said. “Kevin was a bit anxious when I told him I met Griff, and then the next day we were all locked up in our dormitories. But there Ministry wizards, they can’t be involved anything bad or they wouldn’t be here.” Surely neither Kevin nor Dumbledore would let someone involved with Voldemort into the castle. “What do think we should do? Should we go to Dumbledore?”
Harry never got a response to his question. Professor Dumbledore had just entered the hall, followed closely by Kevin and Sara. The couple was smiling brightly and holding onto one another. When they reached the head table, Dumbledore raised his hands to quiet the hall. “Students, if I may have your attention for a moment. I have some wonderful news concerning two of our professors. Kevin and Sara Hall have just told me that they are expecting their first child.”
The Great Hall erupted with applause and cheers. Kevin put an arm around his wife and pulled her in close. He placed a kiss on her cheek. Harry stood up to applaud and soon the whole hall was to its feet; even a good portion of the Slytherin table was standing. Hermione, forgetting for the moment that she was a prefect and had to set an example, left her seat and ran up to Sara. She threw her arms around Sara’s neck. Sara returned the embrace. Ginny and a few other girls followed Hermione’s lead and went up the head table to offer congratulations. The boys walked over to Kevin and offered handshakes and pats on his back.
Professor Dumbledore let the students come forward for a bit, then gestured for them to take their seats. “Yes, we are all very happy for both of them. Do not fear though, neither of them have any plans to leave Hogwarts anytime soon. However, this is not the only piece of good news that I have. The fall term will end in a bit more then a month. Before you will have the option to go home for the holidays, we will be holding our second ball of the year on December the twentieth. Our first ball was very successful and encouraging to some of our students who had begun to feel the pressures of the school year. So, you may all consider this a present from the Hogwarts staff.”
The hall cheered once again at the announcement of another ball, this one just in time for Christmas. Harry applauded along with everyone else, but as he looked across the table, he knew that the one person he would want to spend the evening with had made it clear that she wanted only to be his friend.
Author’s note: Soon my pets. Soon!