"I can't believe you actually said that!"
After class, Hermione went straight to her hopeless "son."
Harry stiffened his neck and said, "I wasn't wrong."
"You brought up Heinrich Edgar's death in front of John!" Hermione scolded angrily. "You know he's grieving!"
"He's grieving?" Harry retorted. "I didn't see it. If he really was, he wouldn't have just let Umbridge talk like that without saying a word."
Even Ron thought Harry had gone off the rails. He quickly looked around and hissed, "Don't say stuff like that!"
"I'm not saying anything wrong!" Harry was getting more fired up. "He didn't do anything, did he?"
"Harry, something's really off with you." Hermione frowned. She could tell something wasn't right with him and said seriously, "You should go see Dumbledore."
"He doesn't want to see me," Harry said strangely, then walked off in frustration.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other.
"Is he still angry?" Ron asked in confusion, thinking Harry was mad about being kept in the dark about the Order of the Phoenix.
Hermione stared at Harry's back, clearly feeling something was wrong.
After walking some distance, Harry felt increasingly irritable and his head throbbed.
And just then, Peeves the Poltergeist showed up to sing a mocking tune about him.
Irritated. Frustrated. Annoyed!
Harry clenched his fists, burning with anger.
He didn't notice that, not far away, John was holding a sword in his hand.
As he looked at the red glow on the blade, a flicker of emotion passed through John's eyes.
He put the Sword back into his small satchel and turned his gaze to Harry, who was swinging his fists at the air.
"The effect of the Horcrux."
Casting one last glance at Harry, John turned and walked away.
He stopped Malfoy, who looked like he was about to march over and punch Harry, and calmly said, "Draco, do something for me."
Malfoy's face was gloomy. When John saw Neville coming after them, he took both of them away with him.
...
In the library.
John picked a seat at random and sat down.
Not long after, Hermione arrived.
When she saw John, she let out a nearly imperceptible sigh of relief.
"John," she greeted, walking over to sit down.
She caught a glimpse of the black leather book with gold embossing on the table.
"You're reading fairy tales?" Hermione sounded surprised — it was rare to see John reading those kinds of books.
John calmly closed the book and said lightly, "Some stories contain different kinds of insights."
He looked at Hermione and chuckled softly. "Here for Harry?"
Hermione looked a little embarrassed but nodded. "Harry wasn't like this before, but lately he's been..."
"Hermione," John said calmly, "I don't care what's going on with him."
"..Alright," Hermione replied, a bit disappointed.
Tom slipped into the library from outside. Everyone seemed used to it by now.
She trotted over and, seeing Hermione, happily stuck out her tongue.
Hermione felt a bit better, but then suddenly remembered Tom's infamous rabid bite and froze as she was about to pet her.
"What's going on with Tom's teeth?" she asked.
John replied casually, "Maybe she ate something she shouldn't have."
Tom let out a wronged little whine, clearly protesting that she hadn't eaten anything weird.
It was rare for Hermione to sit down and talk with John like this — it felt like they were back in their first year.
"You've changed a lot," she said, watching him from the side.
John had gotten taller with a perfectly well-shaped body like a Muggle model from those Muggle magazines, but his face looked thinner.
His cheeks had also sunken in at some point, Hermione noticed.
She remembered John used to eat quite a lot.
"You haven't been eating properly?" she asked.
John flipped through his book. His fingers paused slightly, and for a moment, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
It was like an illusion—when Hermione looked again, John was calm as ever.
"Just some changes," he said with a faint smile. "You've changed too, haven't you?"
"Me?" Hermione was puzzled.
"Of course," John said matter-of-factly. "Your hair used to be a mess."
"Shut up. Don't bring that up," Hermione snapped. The moment she thought of her frizzy hair from the past, her face flushed. "I still remember when we first met, you said my teeth were huge."
She had fixed her teeth now, but she clearly hadn't forgotten that.
John smiled gently. "Yeah… who would've thought? Time really flies."
From when they first stepped onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters to now, in their fifth year.
The two of them had gone from always sitting together at the library to barely seeing each other these days.
"John, just what exactly is going on with you..." Hermione hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and asked, "Dumbledore and Snape's attitude toward you seems... a bit strange."
She was a clever witch—always quick to notice things.
Like the odd way members of the Order of the Phoenix, Snape and Lupin especially, treated John. And Dumbledore as well.
Back in their third year, they had gone to see Dumbledore together.
Dumbledore's attitude toward John had been strange.
For instance… the Time-Turner.
Why hadn't Dumbledore given one to John?
She had a feeling there was more than one available. Just a girl's intuition—but she trusted it.
And then there was the Sorting Hat's song at the start of term.
Could it have been hinting at something?
Nearly Headless Nick had mentioned once that the Sorting Hat might have overheard something in the Headmaster's office.
What exactly was going on between them?
Hermione was uneasy. She didn't want some terrible scenario to be unfolding.
Not with Harry, and not with John either.
They were both her friends.
And being caught in the middle was the hardest position to be in.
John set down his book and looked Hermione straight in the eye.
"Hermione, if one day you had to choose between me and Harry… what would you do?"
The question made Hermione's heart tremble.
She struggled to speak. "That won't happen—I mean, something like that won't happen, right?"
She wanted John to tell her it was a joke.
Even though she had already noticed John's change in attitude toward Harry and Ron, Hermione still wanted to be willful just this once.
But all she got in response was John's calm and serious expression.
For no reason, Hermione felt a deep unease.
She forced a smile. "Something like that won't happen, right? You wouldn't hurt Harry."
As she said it, John replied, "What if Harry hurts me?"
"No—he would never. Harry would never do that." Hermione shook her head again and again.
"John." She called his name—her very first close friend.
"I promise you—It is not me who'll hurt Harry." John slipped his hand into his small pouch and began rummaging through it.
After a moment, he pulled out a ring and a Whomping Willow-shaped protective charm.
"What's this?" Hermione asked.
"Your birthday present."
As if their earlier conversation hadn't happened, John handed her the items, speaking lightly, "Some magical tools. They can protect you when it matters."
"All right, I like them a lot."
Hermione pressed her lips together and accepted the gifts.
Looking at the valuable ring in her hand, she felt an inexplicable hollowness inside.
She hesitated and asked, "You're not going to…"
"I won't hurt Harry." John's gaze locked onto hers, reaching deep into her heart.
"I promise," John said seriously.
Hermione nodded to show she believed him and turned to leave the library.
Once she was gone, John reopened the storybook in front of him.
"Hmm..."
His eyes were unfocused—he wasn't really reading a single word.
He twirled a card between his fingers.
On the card was a symbol of a single eye, with a faint phosphorescent glow shimmering across it.
It was a card Trelawney had given him in third year—an ancient magical card imbued with the power to assist in a single prophecy.
The Celestial Eye card.
John's fingers brushed across the words in the storybook, finally stopping on the term "Death".
"...The Deathly Hallows."
His gaze deepened as he stared, fingers rubbing back and forth over the page as if he could pull something out from within.
...
Malfoy and Neville were walking together—Malfoy had finally cooled down.
He glanced at his right hand, smugly casting a look at Neville.
Neville looked exasperated. In his hands, he was holding a long, cloth-wrapped item, gripping the end marked with a cross.
He used it like a walking stick, occasionally lowering his head to check if the exposed red gem had started glowing.
The two wandered all over Hogwarts, drawing curious stares from students who found the pair to be a rather strange combination.
When Harry returned to the common room, he saw the Weasley twins preparing to send off a large box of something.
"What's that?" Harry asked, eyeing the box.
One of the Weasley twins, said, "Just some sweets—we're sending them out for testing." Maybe George?
Another added, "We were originally going to ask some lower-year students to try them out, but Silver Hand Angel Investments has more professional testers." This was probably Fred.
George and Fred already had their future well planned out.
Once they graduated, they would head straight to Diagon Alley to become the owners of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
As their financial backer, Silverhand Angel Investments needed to verify the quality.
They'd once mentioned that without human testing, the results might vary.
But the person in charge had simply smiled mysteriously and told them not to worry.
Silverhand Angel Investments had their own personal guinea pig.
__________
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