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”the sewers, aybe” yrtle gave a howl of ra and dived back to the toilet, ca-g water to slop over the sides and onto the floor goadg yrtle seed to have put fresh heart to ron ”you39re right,” he said, sgg his schoolbag back over his shoulder, ”i39ll do the practice sessions hogsade before i de-cide about takg the test”
and the follog weekend, ron joed herione and the rest of the sixth years who would turn seventeen ti to take the test a fortnight harry felt rather jealo watchg the all t ready to go to the vil he issed akg trips there, and it was a particurly fe sprg day, one of the first clear skies they had seen a long ti however, he had decided to e the ti to attept another assault on the roo of reirent
”you39d do better,” said herione, when he nfided this pn to ron and her the entrance hall, ”to go straight to sghorn39s of-fice and try and t that ory fro hi”
”i39ve been tryg!” said harry crossly, which was perfectly true he had ed behd after every potions lesn that week an at-tept to rner sghorn, but the potions aster always left the dunon fast that harry had not been able to catch hi ice, harry had gone to his office and knocked, but received no reply, though on the send oasion he was sure he had heard the ickly stifled unds of an old graophone
”he doesn39t want to talk to , herione! he can tell i39ve been tryg to t hi on his own aga, and he39s not gog to let it happen!”
”well, you39ve jt got to keep at it, haven39t you?”
the short eue of people waitg to file past filch, who was do-g his ual proddg act with the secrecy senr, oved forward a few steps and harry did not answer case he was overheard by the caretaker he wished ron and herione both ck, then turned and clibed the arble staircase aga, detered, whatever her-ione said, to devote an hour or o to the roo of reirent
once out of sight of the entrance hall, harry pulled the a-rauder39s ap and his visibility cloak fro his bag havg ncealed hiself, he tapped the ap, urured, ”i lenly swear that i a up to no good,” and scanned it carefully
as it was sunday orng, nearly all the students were side their vario on roos, the gryffdors one tower, the ravencws another, the slythers the dunons, and the hufflepuffs the basent near the kitchens here and there a stray pern andered around the li
ary or up a rridor there were a few people out the grounds, and there, alone the seventh-floor rridor, was gregory goyle there was no sign of the roo of reirent, but harry was not worried about that if goyle was standg guard outside it, the roo was open, whether the ap was aware of it or not he therefore sprted up the stairs, slog down only when he reached the rner to the rridor, when he began to creep, very slowly, toward the very sa little girl, ctchg her heavy
ass scales, that herione had kdly helped a fortnight before he waited until he was right be-hd her before bendg very low and whisperg, ”hello…you39re very pretty, aren39t you?”
goyle gave a high-pitched screa of terror, threw the scales up to the air, and sprted away, vanishg fro sight long before the und of the scales sashg had sped echog around the rri-dor ughg, harry turned to ntepte the bnk wall behd which, he was sure, dra alfoy was now standg frozen, aware that one unwele was out there, but not darg to ake an appearance it gave harry a ost agreeable feelg of power as he tried to reber what for of words he had not yet tried
yet this hopeful ood did not st long half an hour ter, hav-g tried any ore variations of his reest to see what alfoy was up to, the wall was jt as doorless as ever harry felt frtrated beyond belief-=alfoy ight be jt feet away fro hi, and there was still not the tiest shred of evidence as to what he was dog there losg his patience pletely, harry ran at the wall and kicked it
”ouch!”
he thought he ight have
oken his toe as he ctched it and hopped on one foot, the visibility cloak slipped off hi
”harry?”
he spun around, one-ed, and pled over there, to his utter astonishnt, was tonks, walkg toward hi as though she freently strolled up this rridor
”what’re you dog here?” he said, scrablg to his feet aga why did she always have to fd hi lyg on the floor?