Chapter 12
Closing our eyes, taking a deep breath in and out so as not to say anything unnecessary in the heat of the moment, we finally looked at our now definitely faithful friend.
- So you mean to say that you already knew this secret?
"Everyone knows about it," she answered simply.
- Where from! - we exclaimed in shock, unable to contain ourselves.
- The Weasley twins are the same, aren't they? They said themselves that they had one mind between the two of them, and although it seemed like a joke to me at first, now that I draw an analogy, it seems true. - Hermione explained.
- ... Ha... Ha-ha... ha-ha-ha. Our secret was found out because of a simple joke? - we laughed slightly detachedly. As if our life itself was nothing more than a joke, especially funny now against the background of the conversation with Dumbledore, who certainly knows what the students are chatting about and, unlike the Weasley twins, whose synchronicity is clearly feigned, we are the exact opposite, if you know what to look at, it will become obvious that for us, it is the synchronicity of actions that is natural, and not the other way around.
- What are you talking about? It's not such an important secret, right? - the girl was confused.
- You just don't understand. - We shook our heads. - Our case is truly unique, Professor Dumbledore confirmed it, our souls merged into one at birth, and the Weasley twins are the most ordinary wizards. They have different personalities and minds. They just poked their finger into the sky as a joke and guessed our secret. It's... just unfair.
- Oh, - Hermione finally realized the essence of the problem, which made her feel a little awkward.
- Well, maybe it's not that bad? Everyone probably thinks it's a joke. And you yourself can disprove it.
"You can't," we answered immediately.
"Why?" she asked, slightly confused.
- If we start actively denying this, we will get the opposite effect. - We sighed, coming to humility.
"We'll just ignore everything about it and hope that it's forgotten or remembered purely as a weird joke between the twins," Regulus said.
- And you will need to work more on separate interactions with others, - Andromeda continued.
"So, Professor Dumbledore called you because of this secret?" Hermione asked after a short silence, slightly hesitantly, unable to contain her curiosity.
"No," Regilus replied.
- More precisely, it was not the main reason, - Andromeda added. - Let's sit down and we'll tell you everything.
10 minutes later.
- So Harry will be with us? I wonder what spell he likes the most? - the girl took the information that we would have to help the local chosen one fill his head with knowledge, and not with useless crap, with surprising enthusiasm, she even ignored the fact that Dumbledore promised to give us advice on magic.
- By the way, did you know that his father was also on the Gryffindor team? You could say it's in his blood.
- Do you like him? - we suddenly asked, as a stream of information about Potter poured out of her. Of course, from the books and films it seemed that her attitude towards Harry was quite special, which is why it seemed strange that she suddenly switched her interest to Ron, which is where many theories about a potion or magic being used on her came from. But isn't there too much interest in Potter at that age?
- Well... he's just like the main character of a fairy tale, only in real life. - the girl admitted with embarrassment.
- Ooo. - We literally gaped. Did she just break the 4th wall like that? Harry really is the main character of the fairy tale!
- Actually, you yourself not so long ago, you turned Malfoy into an icicle when he laughed at Harry thinking that he would be expelled. - She pointed at us accusingly.
- Pfft, we just needed a reason to give him a hard time. Our families have had a very deep blood feud recently. Although that's also an excuse. Malfoy's just a jerk and we wanted to teach him a lesson. - we snorted.
- Of course. - Hermione rolled her eyes, but didn't continue the topic, and instead, after some thought, asked uncertainly. - Are we sure we'll be able to persuade him to study with us? At first, he also seemed to go to the library and was more interested in magic, but now in his free time he mostly hangs out with other boys.
- We understand your doubts, but you know, it didn't happen because he's stupid or because he's not interested in magic. - We nodded and decided to explain Potter's situation a little. - It's just that as far as we know, before Hogwarts and the moment he learned about the world of magic, his life was unenviable. He knew essentially nothing about his parents, only a huge number of insults from relatives and that they died, his guardians treated him with fear and possibly contempt, demonstratively giving all the best to their own son, and giving him rags while using him like a servant. He was also unlucky at school, he was bullied there due to his cousin's teasing, and as soon as he had magical emissions under the influence of emotions, he was punished at home. He never had a sense of security and comfort in his life. And once in the world of magic…
- He got everything he dreamed of and relaxed. - Hermione finished for us, who was a little shocked by the short retelling of the life of the chosen one, which she hastened to share. - But why did he live in such conditions? He is the hero of magical England!
- That's something you should ask Professor Dumbledore. We can only speculate on this, which could lead to completely different conclusions, including the absurdity that our headmaster is actually a dark lord. And such accusations cannot be made purely on speculation. What is needed here are the bare facts and an understanding of the motives of the characters.
To such an answer, Hermione could only sigh helplessly, because she understood that it was definitely not for her to try to interrogate a wizard like Dumbledore, and she did not believe that he could be bad. It was Dumbledore after all!
- By the way, returning to the question of the difficulty of drawing Harry into studying. - We returned to the reason why we started talking about his past. - We don't think it will be difficult, we should let him understand that if he doesn't try to become stronger, he will lose everything he has gained... Perhaps he will start to bite into the granite of science even more than we do.
"Then let's go look for him?" Hermione suggested.
- Nope.
- Huh? But I thought...
- We spent so much money on brooms, so naturally we want to ride too, the whole world doesn't revolve around Potter. - We chuckled, while at the same time planning to check if we, as newbies, could gain an advantage over the players from the Gryffindor team by focusing on only one body, while the other would just rest in the stands.
10 minutes later
Quidditch pitch.
The Quidditch pitch was especially noisy today, unlike a normal weekend. Almost all of Gryffindor was there to see the new Nimbus 2000, and there were also many who hoped that they would be allowed to ride it, for the same reason there were also some students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and even Slytherin was not without them, in the Tribune you could see a gloomy senior student, whose face looked as if he had trolls in his family or his ancestors did not know the necessary spells to get rid of plugs in incestuous marriages and he was very unhappy with what he saw.
The Weasley brothers, who used to fly on their home brooms, which were not much better than the school ones, did various tricks for the amusement of the crowd, the captain of the Gryffindor team, Olliver Wood, stood on the rings, while the huntresses tried to score a goal. But he was simply inspired by the luck that had turned up for him. Not only had they recently received a genius seeker, who also turned out to be that very Harry Potter, but now their team had better brooms than other teams, even better than Slytherin! This was literally a ticket to his dream of getting the Quidditch Cup, before graduation. Against the background of these emotions, he hit such balls that it even seemed to him that he could compete with the best goalkeepers in the world.
But the field was especially noisy when we arrived.
- And here come our main heroes! - immediately noticing us, the Weasley brothers shouted, after which the entire team came down to us at once, and then we were surrounded by a crowd of Gryffindors. And the first to rush to us was Booth, who immediately grabbed Regulus' hand and began to shake it vigorously.
- Black, you are simply the best! With these brooms we will definitely not lose to anyone now! - he was about to shake Andromeda's hand in the same way, but she stepped back a little with an apologetic face, avoiding such a display of gratitude. While he was shaking Regulus' hand, it felt like he almost tore her away from her enthusiasm and we did not want to repeat such an experience through Andromeda.
- Of course you will win, - Rugulus spoke to Andromeda, with a friendly smile on his face. - After all, the best deserve the best brooms, right?
- You better watch out, Booth might fall in love, - joked one of the Weasley twins, to which Booth exclaimed indignantly, and the Gryffindors laughed together, even Hermione, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but giggle.
- Look, I'd like to try playing as a hunter with you today, would you mind? It would be a shame to buy so many brooms and not even go for a ride. - Rugulus said.
- Of course, it's not even worth discussing. - Wood agreed without a shadow of a doubt. - And what position does your sister want to be in?
"I'd rather just watch from the stands," Andromeda replied.
"As you wish," Wood shrugged and began to decide what the division would be.
In the end it was decided that since in such a mini game the seeker would not be interesting. So Harry offered to lend his Nimbus to Booth, while I borrowed from him. We were divided into teams of 2 chasers and 1 beater, while we played with one goal, which Booth had to defend, which as he put it would be just perfect training for him. We all took to the air, and Andromeda and Hermione in the meantime were finally able to break away from the crowd and sit in the stands.
To be honest, it was quite exciting. Flying on a Nimbus was very different from a school broom, and when we concentrated all our thoughts on the game and finally the start signal sounded, then even before the others had time to move, we rushed towards the quaffle thrown between the teams, which in our perception seemed to move in slow motion, as, in fact, the sounds from which they seemed somehow muffled. At the same time, we accelerated the broom so that our movements, even with such a perception, seemed fast, but enough for control, and then everything went even too easily. Calmly flying by, I picked up the quaffle and pressed it to my chest, and then without stopping, I headed towards the rings, with my peripheral vision I saw a bludger that was aimed straight at my torso, I swerved down, dodging the projectile, already finding myself not far from the middle ring, I slow down, seeing how Booth is trying to predict where the quaffle will be thrown, I lightly throw it to the left side of the ring so that it does not gain too much speed, from which the goalkeeper immediately reacted by moving in that direction, and then immediately accelerated even more and, picking up the ball with his hand, redirected it to the opposite edge. It was a goal, and we allowed ourselves to relax, and the noise of applause immediately flooded our ears.
- Merlin! I thought Potter was a bird in the sky on a broom, but you, you're something else! - Booth praised before asking with a slightly strange smile. - Can you repeat that?
"Yes," Regulus nodded.
"Then let's go!" Booth shouted enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, on the podium.
"How did he fly so fast?" Hermione asked Andromeda.
- Nimbus 2000 can go up to 150 miles per hour, normal school children can't navigate at that speed so they fly at much lower speeds, that's why it seems like an absurd speed, - we explained through Andromeda before the game continued. - Sorry, we're busy right now.
Maybe it's wrong, because we essentially cheated, but damn, it was so nice to feel so much better than others. Even when they had more or less mastered our speed and started trying to block us, even eventually becoming the whole team against one Rugulus, simply due to superior reaction speed and flight speed, they ultimately had no chance. And Hermione, right, having compared Andromeda's detached state during the game, guessed what was going on.
- That's not fair, - the girl was indignant when the players started to descend, and we were no longer focused only on Regulus.
- Why? – we asked her.
"It's like outside help or doping," she tried to formulate what seemed unfair to her.
- But we didn't use any magic or potions and, in fact, it was just one person. When we were alone against the whole team, that wasn't fair either.
"Yes, but…" We will never know what Hermione wanted to answer, because she was interrupted by Booth's insulted cry.
- Why?! Why do you refuse to join, you are literally made for Quidditch!
- Here are the consequences, - we expressed our dissatisfaction through Andromeda, while through Regulus we had to smile soothingly to defuse the situation.
- Booth, I certainly enjoyed playing with you, but even if we put aside the fact that I am primarily interested in magic, they have already made an exception for Gryffindor this year, allowing Potter to be accepted, if this happens again, the other faculties will be unhappy.
- What do I care if they're happy or not? With you and Potter, we'll have the strongest team in the last 100 years, if not in the entire history of Hogwarts!
- But you already have a full team.
- We can…
- Stop! - I interrupted him before he could offend anyone and the current composition. - Don't you dare say something you'll regret.
- ...Well, at least as a replacement, will you agree to stand up? - Oliver asked with a heavy sigh.
- Okay, - we gave in before adding a condition. - But, although I can take on any role, I will not waste time on training, my studies are more important to me.
- Sure! No problem! - Booth quickly agreed, before adding with diminished enthusiasm, - though maybe you'll come over sometimes?