Chapter 29
Chapter 29
“SUER BONES!”
Madam Hooch’s shriek rang across the lawn.
“GET DOWN HERE!”
Suer was not actually flying very high–only about four and a half metres above the ground. But Madam Hooch’s nerves were stretched too tight for such distinctions. She watched the students’ every movement, and the slightest mistake made her explode.
As it had now.
Suer obediently climbed down from his broom. He tucked in his neck, lowered his head, and endured Madam Hooch’s furious spray of spittle.
He had simply been too excited. The problem that had tormented him for a week was about to be solved.
It was not as though he had never asked Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore for help. Both professors, however, were veteran speakers of riddles.
“It is a most remarkable sensation. Feel it with your heart, Mr. Bones.”
Their precise words differed, but the meaning was always the same.
“Ten points from Hufflepuff!” Madam Hooch’s lips trembled. Suer’s sincere attitude spared him the other sentence on her tongue: that he would never be allowed to attend another flying lesson.
Suer had no objection to losing points. It was only ten. The ever-helpful Professor Filius Flitwick surely would not mind giving them back to him. Failing that, there was always Professor Sprout.
“I’m sorry, Professor. I’ll do it again.”
“Mm.” Madam Hooch nodded and finally stopped berating him.
She turned toward the other students. Halfway there, she stopped.
Wait. Had something about that apology been wrong?
After class, Suer could not wait to tell Hermione about his discovery. But he waited throughout lunch without seeing her.
He found it a little odd, though he did not dwell on it. Only after Charms that afternoon, when he encountered Neville on the way to the Great Hall, did he learn that Hermione had missed the afternoon’s lessons as well.
In a single afternoon, the Great Hall had been completely transformed. Dazzling Halloween decorations hung from the walls. Thousands of bats circled overhead like low banks of black cloud. Candles enclosed in pumpkins floated above the tables.
The entire Hall was saturated with the atmosphere of Halloween.
Only then did Suer realise the date.
Halloween had already arrived.
Hermione was still absent. Harry and Ron, the two protagonists of the original story, stood with their mouths hanging open, gazing stupidly in every direction.
Surely not…
A bad feeling rose inside Suer.
“Excuse me?”
He stopped a girl he remembered sharing Hermione’s dormitory.
“Can I help you?” Parvati Patil looked rather surprised to be stopped by a handsome boy she did not know.
“Do you know where Hermione is?” Suer asked politely.
“You mean Granger?” Parvati tilted her head. “I saw her in the girls’ bathroom.”
His bad feeling came true.
“Thank you.”
Suer hurriedly thanked her, turned at once, and ran from the Great Hall.
“Wait.” Parvati opened her mouth and watched his retreating back. “I hadn’t finished. I saw Granger on my way here just now.”
The lively atmosphere in the Hall soon distracted Parvati. The handsome young wizard would be back soon enough.
What danger could there possibly be in Hogwarts Castle?
Suer hurried against the stream of people, weaving through the corridors. His destination was clear: the bathroom beside the classrooms in the basement.
According to the portion of the story he had “foreseen,” Hermione had to be there.
He did not notice a curious gaze follow him from the crowd.
“Hm?”
“Hermione, are you in there?”
Suer hurried to the bathroom and called softly from the entrance. The room was silent. There was no response at all.
“Hermione isn’t here?” he murmured.
He was still uneasy. Never mind. He would go inside and check.
But it was the girls’ bathroom.
Suer looked at the skirted symbol beside the door, gritted his teeth, and stepped inside.
He completely failed to notice the shocked eyes behind him. A young witch emerged from the shadows.
It was Hermione–the very person Suer was looking for.
She had seen his anxious face among the crowd near the Great Hall. Just as she was about to call out to him, curiosity took hold, and she followed instead.
Suer was in such a hurry to come here?
But this was the girls’ bathroom.
Hermione was shocked for the next ten thousand years.
She stood outside, hesitating between leaving and going in. Then Suer emerged and came face to face with her.
“Hermione?” He stared in confusion, then breathed a sigh of relief. “So you are here.”
“You…” Hermione looked as though she had a great deal to say. Her eyes drifted awkwardly toward the female symbol above the door.
“I came to find you.” Suppressing his burning embarrassment, Suer adopted a perfectly serious expression. There was no time to wonder why Hermione had not been in the bathroom as she had been in the film he watched in his previous life.
“Your roommate told me you were here. I called for you several times from the entrance, but no one answered, so…”
“You were looking for me?” Hermione asked. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter now.” Suer stepped forward and caught her wrist. “The feast is about to begin. We’d better hurry.”
Hermione looked thoroughly bewildered as he dragged her into a run.
“Wait… wait…”
Suer hurried onward with his head down. At the turn of a staircase, he spotted an alarmed Voldemort Quirinus Quirrell heading upward.
He stopped short and pulled Hermione into the shadows.
“What’s wrong?” Unable to brake in time, Hermione collided with Suer’s chest.
“Shh. Someone’s there.” Suer pressed one finger to his lips and lowered his voice.
Hermione peered around the corner. She could see only a hurrying figure from behind, but that silhouette was unique in Hogwarts Castle.
“Is that Professor Quirrell?”
Quirrell alone wore an enormous turban inside the castle.
“Why is he down here?” Hermione looked up at Suer and saw the gravity on his face.
A faint stench drifted through the air.
“Can you smell something?” Suer asked.
Puzzled, Hermione sniffed hard. Her face turned green.
“Ugh… It does smell.”
Then they heard a low muttering and the sound of something enormous dragging across the floor.
“W-what is that?” Hermione’s face went white.
“A troll,” Suer said grimly. “Look over there.”
Moonlight fell across the floor where they stood. The hulking creature’s shadow was thrown clearly down the corridor. It grew steadily larger, and the footsteps became heavier.
The troll was coming toward them.
Suer clapped one hand over Hermione’s open mouth.
“Shh. Don’t speak. We can’t attract its attention.”
Hermione nodded frantically. Terror filled her eyes, and she placed both small hands over Suer’s. Together, they shrank deeper into the shadows, held their breath, and stared at the silhouette in the moonlight.