Words under his breath. He threw Hermione many covert glances, plainly

Fearing an angry outburst, but for all the notice she took of him he might

Not have been there. For ten minutes or so Ron tapped and muttered, Hermione

Turned the pages of her book, and Harry continued to practice with the

Blackthorn wand.

Finally Hermione climbed down from her bunk. Ron ceased his tapping at once.

"If it's annoying you, I'll stop!" he told Hermione nervously.

Hermione did not deign to respond, but approached Harry.

"We need to talk," she said.

He looked at the book still clutched in her hand. It was * The Life and Lies

of Albus Dumbledore.*

"What?" he said apprehensively. It flew through his mind that there was a

chapter on him in there; he was not sure he felt up to hearing Rita's

version of his relationship with Dumbledore. Hermione's answer however, was

Completely unexpected.

"I want to go and see Xenophilius Lovegood."

He stared at her.

"Sorry?"

“Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna’s father. I want to go and talk to him!”

“er – why?”

She took a deep breath, as though bracing herself, and said, “It’s that mark, the

mark in Beedle the Bard. Look at this!”

She thrust The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore under Harry’s unwilling eyes

And saw a photograph of the original letter that Dumbledore had written Grindelwald,

with Dumbledore’s familiar thin, slanting handwriting. He hated seeing absolute proof

that Dumbledore really had written those words, that they had not been Rita’s invention.

“The signature,” said Hermione. “Look at the signature, Harry!”

He obeyed. For a moment he had no idea what she was talking about, but, looking

More closely with the aid of his lit wand, he saw that Dumbledore had replaced the A of

Albus with a tiny version of the same triangular mark inscribed upon The Tales of Beedle

The Bard.

“Er – what are you -- ?” said Ron tentatively, but Hermione quelled him with a

Look and turned back to Harry.

“It keeps cropping up, doesn’t it?” she said. “I know Viktor said it was

Grindelwald’s mark, but it was definitely on that old grave in Godric’s Hollow, and the

dates on the headstone were long before Grindelwald came along! And now this! Well,

we can’t ask Dumbledore or Grindelwald what it means – I don’t even know whether

Grindelwald’s still alive – but we can ask Mr. Lovegood. He was wearing the symbol at

the wedding. I’m sure this is important, Harry!”

Harry did not answer immediately. He looked into her intense, eager face and

then out into the surrounding darkness, thinking. After a long pause he said, “Hermione,

we don’t need another Godric’s Hollow. We talked ourselves into going there, and –”

“But it keeps appearing, Harry! Dumbledore left me The Tales of Beedle the Bard,

how do you know we’re not supposed to find out about the sign?”

“Here we go again!” Harry felt slightly exasperated. “We keep trying to convince

ourselves Dumbledore left us secret signs and clues –“

“The Deluminator turned out to be pretty useful,” piped up Ron. “I think

Hermione’s right, I think we ought to go and see Lovegood.”

Harry threw him a dark look. He was quite sure that Ron’s support of Hermione

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1295