Chapter 284 - 284
The first Sunday of the new school year began with pouring rain and a grim sky, thick with leaden clouds. Doing my physical exercises in such conditions wasn't especially pleasant, but I applied a particular "technique" — deceive yourself. I simply recalled various pleasant moments of life associated with rain, savoured that thoroughly distinctive moisture in the air, the changed scents of forest, earth and grass, and even the sight of Hogwarts, hidden behind a wall of rain, was interesting and captivating in its own way.
The morning bustle with the first-years, breakfast in the Great Hall, and afterwards — sessions in the common room, rare of late, in the company of classmates. And, of course, the classic doing of homework, all of it that currently existed — no getting around that.
"Susan," Hannah addressed her slightly agitated friend. "Has something happened?"
"Well, you could say that," Susan set her quill on the table and began fiddling with her braid of ginger hair. "My aunt has left the post of Head of the DMLE."
"Well now," Zacharias and Ernie said in surprise, speaking simultaneously.
"I thought," I continued twirling a pencil in my hands, thinking along the way about the correct rune scheme for homework, "your aunt loved her job very much, and wouldn't leave the post while the Dark Lord's alive. You both have reasons to hate him, as far as I know."
"Yes, that's true…" Susan nodded. "My aunt said her transfer request was approved. Suddenly. She'd been writing them once every six months, and it was always refused."
"Transfer? Where to?"
"I don't know," Susan shook her head. "My aunt never said where. She probably won't say now either. Maybe the Department of Mysteries?"
"Who can say, who can say," Ernie mused, turning a page of his textbook. "By all accounts, it's some department with high secrecy. So high it doesn't disclose its staff. Most of the Department of Mysteries is like that. They say there are a couple more departments like it, but that's not certain."
"My aunt was always a brilliant analyst. And she always complained that as Head of the DMLE she'd never get either revenge or justice. You-Know-Who and his followers just aren't DMLE's level, after all."
Which was, in fact, true. The DMLE handled magical law enforcement proper. Every conceivable offence in magical England passed through the DMLE and its sub-departments. Anything large and serious was sent on to the Auror Office, who might make use of the DMLE's services — for analysis or data-gathering, say — or might not. The DMLE didn't even have anything resembling a SWAT team, or any other special forces unit.
"So, some secret department where there's an opportunity to take revenge directly on the Dark Lord and his followers. The biggest fish, not the small fry," I summed up. "And in that department, a wizard apparently has their hands fairly… untied. Now that's interesting."
"The only shame," Hannah nodded, "is that we'll never find out what department it is, what exactly it does, and generally… Don't take this as an insult, Susan, but now it's completely unclear what your aunt's status is, or her standing in society."
"No offence taken," the redhead smiled, continuing to fidget with her braid. "I'm not a child any more, I understand the value of connections."
"Aren't you curious who's been appointed the new Head of the DMLE?" Zacharias looked at everyone in surprise. "Isn't that interesting?"
"What difference does it make?" Hannah waved it off. "There's unlikely to be any significant change to the DMLE's work or structure."
"Agreed," Susan nodded, leaving her braid in peace. "The DMLE's structure is very complex and refined by decades of work. You could add some sub-department, some small office, create or reform a division, but wholesale change… unlikely. Especially since major structural changes to departments need approval from the Wizengamot and the Minister. My aunt complained more than once about the practically total lack of ability to change anything in the DMLE."
"So it doesn't matter for now who's there or what they'll do," I summed up the conversation again. "Right, let's talk about something pleasant."
"I've got something pleasant," Zacharias smiled. "I've been writing to Justin."
"Yeah?" the others perked up. "And? How?"
"Well, he said he won't be able to get away to see us on the first Hogsmeade visit, but in November — easily."
The conversation turned to how things were going for Justin and other everyday trivialities.
After a couple of hours of such sitting about, I left the company and headed to my room — artefacts don't make themselves.
As so many times before, I produced blanks for various artefacts on an industrial scale — some defensive ones for the Ministry, since the contract wasn't with Bones but the Ministry itself, and others for the twins to sell. Then I simply took the hammer, fitted the required attachment, powered it with energy, and struck, struck at the blanks. Strike — artefact, strike — artefact. Simple, tedious, rather dull, really, since it's a kind of assembly line, no variety at all. Still, it's money. Every swing of the hammer literally brought me a handful of Galleons.
Having finished part of the work a little after lunchtime, I headed to the Great Hall for a bite and to meet Daphne — she was there just then, if the sense from the pendant was anything to go by. Yes, of course, I can sense the pendant's location when needed — how else would I be able to teleport to it, should the need arise?
In the Great Hall, as always on a Sunday, many students were bustling about their business. Usually on Sundays the students prefer to spend time outdoors or elsewhere, but right now it was pouring buckets outside, so perhaps a third of all the students were hanging about in the Great Hall — there was food, tables, company, games to play, chess or something more unusual, or simply a chance to chat.
I spotted Daphne almost at once — she was standing by the Slytherin table in the company of girls from her House, discussing something with dignity. A sort of club of young ladies had formed. Though this club rather openly irritated many girls from other Houses, who'd say things like "They're behaving far too haughtily," and so on. Though in truth they were simply playing at a deliberately exaggerated aristocratic manner purely for laughs. Well, everyone amuses themselves as best they can.
"Ladies," I addressed them in an equally slightly affected and theatrical manner. "Permit me to steal this fine lady away from you."
And I glanced at Daphne.
"Certainly, sir," one of the girls replied, keeping up the spirit of their game. "I do hope you'll return her to us intact?"
"Without fail, indeed."
Daphne and I set off towards my House's table.
"Hello," we only exchanged greetings now.
"Hello."
"Have you had lunch already?"
"Yes, I managed to eat. But I'm certainly not against keeping you company."
The moment we sat down at the table, an already-plated hearty lunch appeared before me, and a glass of juice before Daphne.
"How did yesterday's training go?" Daphne watched as I tucked into my lunch with appetite.
"Hm, not bad," I answered once I'd swallowed. "Smethwyck dragged me off to a night shift at Mungo's. Only we ended up getting pulled into a combat zone."
"Nothing serious, I hope?" Daphne made no attempt to hide her concern.
"Speaking of us, the healers' group, everything's fine. But the DMLE and the Aurors took a beating. I don't know the details, but it seems they were fighting Death Eaters and werewolves. Maybe someone else too."
"And yet there's not a word in this morning's papers," Daphne mused. "And the other Slytherins are quiet too."
"Perhaps it's all being kept quiet for now? We're schoolchildren, after all. Adult wizards aren't obliged to inform children about absolutely everything, especially something like this."
"You're right, but it's odd when something happens and nobody knows anything. Usually at least someone knows at least something."
"What can you do," I shrugged. "Anyway. I wanted to suggest we go out for a walk today."
"The weather's not inviting," Daphne shook her head with a smile. "But I'd be glad to spend more time with you. Pansy, incidentally, keeps pressing me about how little time you and I spend together."
"I must say, sometimes it seems that way to me too."
"I hear a distinct 'but' in your words."
"But if a delicacy can be had always, everywhere, in any weather, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it stops being a delicacy — it even stops being tasty."
"Not a very poetic comparison," Daphne smiled, "but a very accessible one."
"You'd compare it to food yourself, wouldn't you."
"It's strange and pleasant all the same, being understood without needing to finish a sentence," Daphne said, smiling, taking a sip of juice, holding the glass with both hands as though hiding that smile.
Glancing at the windows of the Great Hall, I saw the same rain, the same overcast sky.
"But one can go for a walk beyond the grounds of Hogwarts, you know," now it was my turn to smile at Daphne conspiratorially.
"Oh, has the prefect — and one of the more authoritative students, no less — decided to grossly break Hogwarts rules?"
Ernie and Hannah were passing by just then, and of course they couldn't ignore the two of us sitting there, smiling at each other slyly, cunningly even, I'd say.
"Plotting something?" Hannah nodded at us.
"How could we not," I shrugged, and the two of them walked on, while I looked back at Daphne. "Precisely. The anti-Apparition barrier isn't an obstacle. So, what do you say?"
"Of course I agree. Only…"
"There's a 'but'?"
"Not quite. Let's visit a certain little restaurant. A Muggle one, in the town near our house."
"A bit unexpected," I said, mildly surprised.
"Yes, I know. My godfather used to take us there. As he always used to say, there's barely a dozen purely magical streets in England. And the ones you could take children to — a couple, if that."
"Well, in that case, genuinely interesting outings with new impressions would run out after a couple of years at most."
"Exactly," Daphne nodded and finished her juice. "So my godfather would take Astoria and me out to quiet, pleasant, but ordinary places. Afterwards even the magical streets play with colour again. But these last few years we haven't gone there at all."
"Why not, then. It's surely a lovely place."
"Yes. Quiet, peaceful, family-run. And quite beautiful. Plenty of pleasant memories are tied to that little restaurant. I want one of them to be our date."
Though Daphne controlled her expression perfectly well, I'd long since learned to read the small nuances — she'd grown a little flustered at the word "date," as well as at the very thought of bringing me to that restaurant. By all appearances, she genuinely wanted to tie that place to memories of us together.
"Shall we set off now, then?"
"You've only just eaten… Though that's hardly likely to stop you, is it."
"Lunch was tasty, but not large."
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