Chapter Twenty-Two
With the beginning of May came Hermione’s insistence on studying for the finals that would be taking place at the end of June. Harry tried to say that as a Champion he didn’t have to take the finals, but Hermione glared at him until Harry claimed that he was just joking and of course he was going to take the finals. If nothing else, the fourth year finals would be a good measurement of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses as we went into our OWL year.
“I’ve been considering which classes I want to keep after I complete my OWLs,” Hermione said.
“That seems a little early. Shouldn’t you wait until you get your OWL results to decide?” Ron asked.
“It’s Hermione. She’s going to get Os on everything. Zo probably will too,” Harry said.
“I was thinking about Defense, History, Runes, Potions, Transfiguration and Charms,” I said, looking up from the History essay I was writing on Merlinian times.
“Taking six NEWT classes is crazy,” Ron said.
“Seems reasonable for the most part. Are you sure about History though?” Hermione asked.
“History has become one of my favorite subjects now that Lupin is teaching. You need a History NEWT in order to even be considered for a History Mastery Apprenticeship and the History of Magic Apprenticeships are very wide ranging and include the ones that cover stuff like politics and law which I want to do,” I explained.
“That makes sense. Perhaps I’ll do History as well. I want to keep Arithmancy, but Runes might be better,” Hermione mused.
“Or you do Arithmancy, I do Runes and we each give each other the overview and notes from the other class. Fred and George are doing something similar with each of the subjects they are taking,” I proposed.
“Sounds good. What about you two?” Hermione asked.
“Defense, obviously. Potions is actually quite enjoyable with Slughorn so I’ll do that, and then Transfiguration and Charms as well. Maybe a fifth as well,” Harry said.
“Somebody should probably do Herbology, and maybe Care as well to spread out our strengths. Those are my worst two subjects, so you two can do those,” I said.
“You do realize that we are going to end up having this entire conversation again when it comes time to register for classes, so I really don’t see the point in discussing it now when we could be talking about the Tournament or whatever Zo is up to. Aren’t you trying to get some prostitutes to spy for you?” Ron asked.
Nymphadora had recently set up a meeting with her friend Jennifer, who worked as a prostitute. Jennifer was more than willing to pass along any relevant information she got from her clients, especially when I offered to pay. Apparently prostitutes did not get paid very well, even in the high end brothels. I gave Jennifer one of my spy message boxes to communicate.
She had also said she would discreetly ask some of her friends, especially those in other brothels, whether they would be interested in spying for me. Two of Jennifer’s friends, Olive and Maryan, had already agreed to spy.
“Yeah, so far I’ve got a lot of useless gossip, but they have mentioned which Death Eaters frequent which brothels. Apparently Malfoy doesn’t, probably because Lady Malfoy is so terrifying, which is rather inconvenient for us,” I said.
“Well so far, we’re just waiting for Voldemort to come back so it makes sense that you haven’t heard much yet,” Hermione reasoned.
“Yeah, I suppose. Harry, how is training for the Tournament coming along?” I asked.
“I hate it,” Harry joked.
In the Hogwarts Army meetings, we had pairs or groups of people, depending on their skill level, face off against Harry to both test their duelling skills, Harry’s duelling skills and Harry’s endurance in fighting for an entire hour. Harry hated it, but he was making a rapid improvement. Training with Moody was also becoming any more intense. The four of us were able to defeat him together around half of the time, which Moody said was good progress.
“The Quidditch Pitch is closed off. I think they are building the maze,” Ron said.
“Probably. I think it’s around halfway built by the end of May and fully built by June. They should summon the Champions to tell them about the maze soon,” I said.
“Can we… just sneak in on a broom and map out the maze so we can figure out how it works?” Harry asked.
“It’s a good idea, but I think the maze will move so it might not be worth much,” I said.
“We should still do it,” Ron said.
“Definitely, it should be at nightfall. We can dig out the old Gaze Goggles from second year so that you can see even though its dark and draw out the maze on a piece of parchment,” Hermione said.
“Taking pictures with a camera and then drawing it out on paper later would be a lot easier then trying to draw a maze on a broom a hundred feet in the air,” I pointed out.
“Fair enough. Colin will probably lend us his camera if Harry asks,” Hermione said.
“Ron and I can do that. No offense, but you two aren’t the best at flying,” Harry said.
“No offense taken. We should be studying anyway,” Hermione said.
“Hey, can’t we use Zoogle for studying? I mean, Zo said that the twins can’t make it publicly available because of the ‘groundbreaking technology potentially falling into enemy hands’, but we can use it right?” Ron asked.
“No Ron, that’s cheating,” Hermione said.
“But don’t they have an electric version in the future that Zo said people used?” Harry asked.
“Honestly, reviewing notes is the best way to study. If you forget something and need to look it up, that’s what Zoogle would be for,” I said.
“Alright,” Ron grumbled.
“Maybe logic games would help Harry navigate through the maze during the Third Task,” I said thoughtfully.
Harry groaned dramatically.