Snape's reaction to the "little present" was very strange. Harry had expected the Terror of the Dungeons to destroy him as soon as he found it. However, at lunch he did not happen to see either the ferret or his Head of House, which, however, could quite well be explained by his and Flamia's late arrival. Walking around the castle was still permitted for the time being, and when you are doing something pleasant, you do not notice how time flies. But what alarmed Harry was that the rubies in the Gryffindor hourglass remained untouched. It was impossible to understand how Snape could have missed the chance to empty the enemy's reserves. Dinner, however, made the Boy-Who-Lived doubt his own mental health altogether… If the appearance of a battered Malfoy was not strange — Severus Snape would revive anyone short of the dead — then the former Potions Master's behavior was a surprise to him. Snape pretended that he did not notice Potter at all, but at the same time he had put up such a deafening block that Voldemort would have envied him.
Returning to his room, Harry discovered another surprise. Near his bed lay a box of chocolate Cauldron Cakes with a gift ribbon on top. Flamia reacted first:
"Harry, it looks like Snape decided that not giving you anything would be ugly! I wonder what nasty thing he poured into them?"
"We'll find out now! Specialis Revelio!.. WOW!"
"Is that what I thought it was???"
"If the textbook isn't lying, then only Amortentia gives off that pink shade… I wonder whose little piece he added in there? I hope not his own?"
"What difference does it make! Throw it away and forget it…"
"In my opinion, it might come in handy! If only we could find out whose little piece is in there…"
"Later…"
"We need to get into Snape's head…"
"Later!" and Flamia used the proven method of interrupting a verbal stream with the help of a kiss…
The week before New Year passed calmly. The ferret practically did not leave the dungeons, because now he was somewhat afraid of a clash with Harry. No wonder — Draco's emotions were so strong that they spilled out past his constant block. On THAT day at dinner, the image of what had happened could be clearly seen in his thoughts: Potter's lunge — blackout — Snape's office… And from inside the box, at that! Apparently, his Head of House had immediately brought his student back to consciousness, without troubling himself to extract the latter from the packaging… Still, one had to give Malfoy credit — he immediately hid his conversation with the Terror of the Dungeons. So that source of information was closed. By the way, pulling information about the Room of Requirement from him also did not seem possible, so Harry gladly spent more time alone with Flamia. But one should not think that apart from Flamia he devoted no time to anything else. Firstly, they immediately distributed the homework over the allotted days, especially since doing it together was no burden. Secondly, Harry took out Hermione's book on Legilimency and practiced on the students remaining in the castle, since, apart from himself and the Ferret, no one studied Occlumency.
But the morning of January 1 brought bad news to Hogwarts. Old Voldy decided that it had been ugly of him not to congratulate anyone at Christmas, and so he prepared an entire festive program for the New Year. It included the following points:
—a festive banquet for werewolves in settlements where Muggle-borns lived;
—dementors for Muggle-lovers;
—a visit from Death Eaters to the most zealous Aurors of the Ministry.
Fortunately, the Dark Lord's plans were disrupted. Among the magical population, casualties were almost avoided, although many were wounded during the fight with the werewolves, and the dementors drove many to nervous breakdowns. By the way, the latter completely got out of control, scattered around the area, and attacked everyone, first of all the Death Eaters themselves, who had been trying to steer them in the right direction. And the idea with the Death Eaters' visits generally looked more like a punishment for guilty servants, since the recruits had no chance at all against the Aurors (and most of the "veterans" were sitting in Azkaban). By the way, although Azkaban had been abandoned by the dementors, the prisoners who had still preserved their sanity were in no hurry to leave the fortress. In particular, Lucius Malfoy begged the Ministry employees who arrived to provide guards for the island. Of course. considering the Death Eaters' failure in the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort was unlikely to resist the temptation to practice the Cruciatus Curse…
In connection with these events, the students urgently returned to the castle with the help of Portkeys. In addition, security measures were strengthened, namely: trips to Hogsmeade were stopped, movement around the Hogwarts grounds was allowed only when accompanied by teachers, the castle was locked at night, and all secret passages leading outside were also closed. Although Harry did have his father's rebellious spirit in him, his understanding of the seriousness of what was happening forced him to help with the last measure. And, of course, new protective charms were added.
Hermione was clearly impressed by what had happened, which allowed the Best Couple to hope for at least a couple of quiet days.
But Ron, although he was walking around pale as a ghost (of course — the dementor invasion had taken place in the immediate vicinity of the Burrow), immediately approached Harry to tell him how Christmas had gone. Perhaps it was easier for him to return to a normal state that way. He said that Bill and Fleur were going to get married, and in light of recent events, they had decided to hold the ceremony in the spring rather than in the summer, as had been planned earlier. For once, Ron had enough sense to do something tactfully: he waited until Hermione disappeared from sight before passing Harry and Flamia the invitations. Yes, yes, exactly so. After all, Ginny had also already come to her senses and had even decided to get to know Flamia better.
But a peaceful life was clearly not expected. Not only had the teachers in all classes brought the topics as close as possible to defending one's life, which led to a sharp increase in injuries among the students, but on Friday mandatory Apparition lessons were announced for all sixth-year students. The Ministry decided that this skill was simply necessary in the current situation, and therefore the traditionally optional paid lessons became compulsory and were paid for by the Ministry. Harry, who was aware of Scrimgeour's policies, in particular his unlawful arrests of innocent people and his attempts to use the Boy-Who-Keeps-On-Surviving for self-promotion, quickly figured out that this political move was necessary for the Minister to keep his position.
So, on Friday after the main classes, all four Houses gathered in the Great Hall under the guidance of their Heads. The students lined up along the walls of the room, from which the usual tables and benches had been removed. in front of each of them, a hoop lay on the floor. When the Heads of House had brought their charges to order (and in McGonagall's or Snape's case, a stern look was enough), a Ministry wizard of a rather fragile build stepped onto the platform opposite the entrance to the Hall:
"Good evening. My name is Wilkie Twycross, and I will be teaching you the art of Apparition. In view of the present situation, it is very important to be able to move instantly to a relatively safe place. Of course, you will not be able to do this within Hogwarts, and I also do not advise you to try Apparating directly into the castle from somewhere else. At best, you will end up in Hogsmeade and get off with a couple of bruises. But do not worry, within this hall spatial movements are possible, and therefore we will be practicing here. So, let us begin!
"To start with, remember the three main principles of Apparition: Destination, Determination, and Deliberation. Only by observing them will you achieve success. In today's lesson, your goal is to move inside the hoop lying directly in front of you. You must think only of it! Determinedly imagine yourself standing inside the hoop, focus on the final goal, and then deliberately turn around your axis, striving through space and time… Something like this!"
Here Twycross took a step forward, elegantly turned on his heel and disappeared, immediately appearing in the hoop in the center of the Hall. Returning to his place, he proclaimed:
"And now let us begin training! On the count of three: one, two, three!"
The first time, of course, no one succeeded. Several students, in their eagerness to move, performed ballet steps, landing in their hoops, but there was no real movement or even a hint of it. On the second attempt, Hermione managed to move, which surprised no one — surely she had learned everything in advance in this area as well. Although Harry decided that since Miss Know-It-All had managed it, then he had to do it too… Harry concentrated, even closed his eyes, clearly imagined the hoop to himself, prepared, waited for the shout of "three" and turned around his axis… It worked! It definitely worked! Before he had even opened his eyes, he felt that he had moved through space. It was as if he had been pulled through a pipe, and he had arrived at another point in space… Only why was everyone laughing? And everyone except him… and someone who was standing in HIS hoop! His eyes opened to find out the reason for the laughter, and immediately met Flamia's eyes right in front of him. Of course! As if the Boy-Who-Always-Stands-Out would not pull something like that… Harry's thoughts were interrupted by the cold voice of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher:
"I see nothing surprising in Miss Nightfolk ending up in the same hoop as Potter. Their hoops are standing very close together, and due to inexperience Miss Nightfolk shifted from her intended trajectory. However, I suggest switching Potter's place with someone else to prove the groundlessness of the students' mockery."
A chill ran down Harry's back. Snape clearly, if he did not know, then suspected that what had happened was no accident. But Harry had to obediently switch places with Seamus. As expected, the story repeated itself, only this time Snape gloated:
"Well, it seems I was mistaken. Potter is so famous that our new student cannot think of anything else except how to get closer to him!"
But the gloating of the Terror of the Dungeons played into the hands of his hated student. Harry had long wanted to test his new Legilimency skills on someone who could hold a strong block, and he slipped unnoticed into the professor's thoughts. There he saw another memory from Severus's school life, painfully reminiscent of young Malfoy's memories. Only in Harry's place stood James, and the packaging was opened by Slughorn, who greeted his student with a good-natured smirk. At that moment Snape realized that someone was rummaging around in his thoughts, and then understood WHO, after which the following mental conversation took place:
"censor POTTER?! censor!.. Well, then, you are not entirely hopeless… At least one thing is pleasing — my efforts were not wasted! And now explain, puppy, what the censor you forgot in my head?"
"I apologize, Professor, but I did not understand your reaction to my Christmas present, as a result of which I risked checking everything myself"
"Since when have you not tried to lie?.. Well, I will answer, so be it… You have already seen the memory, you little censor, and therefore you should understand that I did NOT like such a present. But Malfoy disappointed me, so I did not feel like punishing you. But know this: if before I considered you a copy of your father, now I understand: you are merely a pathetic imitation. You try to behave like him, only you do not have the guts to pull a prank worthy of a Marauder, and then announce it to everyone besides. And now get out of my thoughts, brat, before I arrange something for you!!!"
After that, Harry could hardly wait to talk to Flamia. As soon as the lesson ended, he rushed to the room for Bruce the Unsociable.
"Harry! Did you find something out?" Flamia could always recognize her beloved's mood.
"Well, yes. I had a mental chat with Snape, learned a lot of new things about myself… By the way, I replenished my stock of swear words."
"And what did you learn?"
"Well, it turned out that I am not a copy of my father, but merely a pathetic imitation. I will not list the epithets. But on top of that, Snape dared to accuse me of cowardice! As if I do not have enough courage to act like a Marauder… I'll show him yet!"
"What about his gift?"
"Nothing! It clearly wasn't from him! He would not have been able to resist a comment like 'well, at last you have started watching what and from whom you accept things!'"
"Wait… Listen, I know who it was! Romilda!"
"What makes you think so?"
"I was wondering why she was displeased when she arrived! She hadn't been affected at all!"
"Well then, it seems I know how to arrange an unforgettable Valentine's Day in the spirit of the Marauders!"
Hermione was once again shocked by Gryffindor's Best Couple. No, well, if something had been wrong with Harry, that would have been one thing! But Flamia… And how had she not noticed before that Flamia never lingered anywhere, not even to gossip? But… Could Harry really be capable of that?..
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