Harry was striding rapidly toward his room. He hoped that Flamia would think to wait for him there. Thank Merlin, the jubilant crowd of Gryffindors had already passed along with the hero of the match, and after today's game they were unlikely to remember him, Harry, anyway... Though, at the moment, Quidditch was the last thing on his mind. His friends had quarreled again! And not least because of a flaw in his plan...
Flamia was very surprised when she saw Harry practically burst into the room. She had expected to see joy from victory on his face, triumph over a plan that had worked perfectly, or, in the worst case, sadness over parting with a once-beloved game... But his expression was almost the same as after that memorable evening in the Great Hall...
"Again, the Red-Haired Misunderstanding?" she asked cautiously while Harry took off his Quidditch uniform.
"If only... You know, I had a better opinion of Hermione..."
"But what could have happened? You didn't do anything illegal."
"That's exactly the point—I didn't! And Miss Know-It-All immediately tried to accuse me of every mortal sin... And it would be one thing if she'd said it to me in private, but no, she had to say it in front of Ron, who still hadn't completely forgiven her for last time... And then she insulted him too, making a false conclusion about his success!"
"So how did the Redhead react?"
"And that's another problem... I'm afraid Ron will do something stupid in the heat of the moment that he'll regret later..."
"And we only wanted what was best..."
Harry had already changed clothes, but he clearly didn't want to go anywhere. Flamia could understand that, and so she simply decided to keep the conversation going:
"So what did you do with that blond ferret? He hasn't shown up anywhere, and he's not in the hospital wing either..."
"What? Malfoy's missing? We need to check..."
But studying the Marauder's Map led to unexpected results. Hermione was in one of the abandoned classrooms, clearly not wanting to see anyone. And heading toward that very classroom was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in the company of Lavender Brown...
"Oh no! How did that even occur to him..."
Judging by the speed at which the dot labeled "Lavender" was moving away, the Gryffindor prefects were resolving their disagreements through open combat operations. Most likely, however, it was simply a brutal execution of the foolish hero of the match...
"What do you think, should we explain to him what he did wrong?"
"I don't think so, Harry... The Redhead needs his brains knocked back into place, if he has any, but advice won't help here..."
"All right, let it be. Though I don't feel like leaving here today, skipping lunch would be unwise."
Flamia suggested taking the direct route, since she thought their relationship was easier not to hide, but Harry insisted on taking a longer path. Whatever the case, among other things, he didn't like the prospect of discussing today's match with anyone else. He decided to go through the staircase at the other end of the seventh floor, passing through the corridor near the Room of Requirement. But then a strange sight met his eyes: a younger Slytherin girl was standing directly opposite the place where the door usually appeared. Moreover, as soon as she noticed Harry and Flamia, she dropped her bag with a loud crash. When Flamia decided to help, the girl hastily gathered her belongings and ran away. Such behavior could not help but be surprising. However, lunch was already in full swing, and there was simply no time to think about such trifles.
When Harry entered the Hall, the first thing he did was make sure the captain was still alive and that his plan had not gone completely to waste. Fortunately, Ron had not yet joined the ranks of the ghosts, though his battered appearance suggested that the assumptions about a beating were not unfounded. Hermione was nowhere to be seen, though approaching her in the near future seemed reckless.
Malfoy was not at the Slytherin table. This gave rise to certain suspicions in Harry's mind, but he was immediately distracted from his thoughts by the click of a camera. At first he didn't understand what had attracted attention to his person, considering the outcome of today's game, but in the very next moment Harry realized that he had been standing at the entrance embracing Flamia for several minutes already... It seemed that the biggest news of the day would now be the personal life of the Boy-Who-Had-Survived-More-Than-Once...
"COLIN! Who asked you to do that..."
"Smile! And now a photo with a kiss..."
Such audacity was too much even for Flamia. Pulling out her wand, she first accelerated Colin down the aisle, and then enlarged his nose with a spell to such an extent that Pinocchio would look modest by comparison... However, she immediately regretted that decision. Before, only a few people had noticed the entering couple, but now nearly the entire Great Hall was staring at them.
"Well then, Flamia, you wanted to tell everyone about our relationship... Now all that's left is for Colin to send his photos to the Prophet!"
"Harry!"
"What? All right, people are staring at us, let's sit down already..."
Judging by the indignant exclamations from all sides, many people clearly did not approve of this turn of events. Strangely enough, there were especially many dissatisfied faces at the Gryffindor table. And three stood out the most: Ginny Weasley, who had completely stopped reacting to Dean Thomas, and McLaggen with Romilda Vane, whose expressions clearly showed a desire to tear their rivals into tiny pieces... The only consolation was that Ron, still not fully recovered from his punishment, did not react to this development at all. Flamia clearly had not expected this, especially since she believed she had already prepared the ground for the public to accept such news. Harry, however, no longer cared and began eating lunch as if nothing had happened. Since Hermione's seat was empty, he and Flamia sat near Ron, who, to everyone's surprise, was absentmindedly picking at the food on his plate. The captain's condition would have been the main topic of discussion among Gryffindor players and supporters if not for the "news of the day"...
When lunch ended, the Best Couple of Gryffindor (as Colin had already dubbed them) went for a walk by the lake. At first, Flamia wanted to persuade Harry to return to their room, but he presented a convincing argument against it in the form of Colin Creevey, who continued photographing them. They had to, so to speak, perform for the public, or more precisely, convince everyone that things had gone no further than kissing. Besides, their absence after the match had not gone unnoticed—the same Creevey, being one of the greatest fans of the Boy-Who-Survived-Against-All-Reason, could not fail to notice that his idol had never entered the common room. Besides, going to the lake was pleasant in itself—the sun was shining, and a light breeze was blowing... Harry diligently pretended that he was interested only in walking with his beloved girl, but in reality something else concerned him. Malfoy had not appeared for lunch at all. Of course, there was a chance that he was simply ill but did not want to go to the hospital wing, yet the presence of that Slytherin girl near the Room of Requirement worried Harry greatly. Apart from the former Inquisitorial Squad and D.A., very few people knew of its existence. At first he even wanted to follow the ferret, but what about Flamia? Gradually, however, nature took its course, and Harry Potter truly began to enjoy life. And the old Headmaster, watching the lake from his office, smiled...
Hermione appeared at dinner as well. She demonstratively sat as far away as possible from the "insensitive brainless blockhead," as she had recently called Ron Weasley. Strangely enough, it did not occur to her to attack Flamia when she entered the Hall arm in arm with Harry. Considering their conversation after the match, however, that was to be expected. Colin Creevey, apparently, had decided to exhaust a year's supply of film, never stopping photographing his idol and his girlfriend. True, when he unwisely sat within Ginny's reach, she put an end to the existence of his camera. Since Ron was now more or less sane again, Harry informed him of his decision to leave the team, which was received calmly by everyone—apparently, the plan had indeed worked successfully. Moreover, Ron took Harry and Flamia's relationship quite calmly (especially since he knew no more than anyone else), primarily because his meeting with Lavender had, in fact, taken place...
To avoid raising unnecessary suspicions, the Best Couple went to the common room together with the other Gryffindors. There they occupied a niche by the window so they could talk privately without attracting undue attention. Harry shared his concerns about Draco Malfoy and the Room of Requirement, though he emphasized that it was too early to accuse him of anything... Yet only that summer he would certainly have followed Malfoy himself, forgetting about everything else! To make sure his assumptions were correct, Harry took out the Marauder's Map. The ferret was not on it... But then Hermione approached them. She looked at them cautiously and just as cautiously asked Flamia:
"So you've been dating since the summer?"
"Yes... We expected that you might figure it out. We wanted to let everyone know gradually, but..."
Seeing that she had been treated quite calmly, Hermione decided to continue:
"Harry... I'm really sorry about today... and Hogsmeade... and everything..."
"Well, if you won't behave like that anymore... As I understand it, Ron got what was coming to him?"
"It was his own fault! He shouldn't have..."
"Come into a classroom you like to visit with Lavender... Sorry, we wanted to find out where Malfoy was, and we accidentally saw that situation. Honestly, I don't feel sorry for Ron right now. He behaved unbelievably stupidly..."
"You said something about Malfoy?"
"Yes, he keeps disappearing somewhere, and I have serious reason to believe it's to the Room of Requirement..."
"We need to find out what he's doing there!"
"And how exactly are you going to get in?"
At that moment, Flamia unexpectedly joined the conversation:
"Legilimency!"
"WHAT?"
"Legilimency will allow us to get into his mind and find out where he keeps disappearing to and what he's doing..."
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