Harry tore apart a piece of bread as he glanced toward the other side of the dormitory, where Seamus, Neville, and the others had already gone quiet. He lowered his voice. "Don't keep acting like that. We promised McGonagall we wouldn't let anyone know Vaughn was hurt."
"I didn't say anything!"
"You didn't, but anyone who sees that expression will know something's on your mind. And it looks like this week's Dueling Club event won't be happening. Once everyone connects that to how strange you've been acting today, all sorts of rumors might start spreading."
Harry complained, but he was also rather curious. "I always thought you didn't like Vaughn. I didn't expect you actually cared about him so much!"
Ron stiffened at that and scratched his cheek. "Who cares about him? I'm just afraid Mum will be sad. Hmph, she spoils Vaughn the most."
Heh, still talking tough!
For the sake of their friendship, Harry did not expose him. Instead, he casually brought up Vaughn's injury. "I heard Nicolas Flamel and McGonagall both say Vaughn's mind-body was injured. What's a mind-body?"
If it had been anything else, Ron, being such a poor student, might not have been able to answer.
But this was alchemy—Fred and George were quite skilled in that area. When they had first begun practicing alchemy several years ago, ten-year-old Ron had served as their guinea pig for a few months.
Although he had no talent for alchemy and understood little of it, he still knew some basic concepts.
Ron gave Harry a brief explanation of the mind-body.
As Harry listened to his friend rattle off terms like primary consciousness, surface consciousness, and subconsciousness, he felt as though he had returned to last term, studying Occlumency under Vaughn.
His head hurt!
So he went straight to