A Deal

For the latter half of Charms, Hermione did not say another word to Silvan, sitting there and sulking by herself.

Silvan did not understand why she was angry either, but it did not matter. Class was almost over anyway.

After Charms came Transfiguration. To avoid another incident like that, Silvan deliberately sat behind and to the right of Hermione. That way, even if they were divided into groups again, he would not have to worry about being paired with her.

"Nicely done." Ron suddenly turned around and gave Silvan a thumbs-up.

"What?" Silvan did not understand.

"I mean what happened in Charms," Ron said quietly. "That Hermione Granger always acts so stuck-up. She even thinks Harry should not be allowed to join the Gryffindor team because Harry broke the school rules!"

Though he had deliberately lowered his voice, the classroom was large and no one was sitting particularly far apart. There was no way Hermione had not heard at least some of it.

Her expression grew even uglier.

"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Weasley. I nearly forgot that Mr. Potter broke the school rules as well." McGonagall had appeared beside them at some point, her lips pressed tightly together.

Ron whipped around, so startled that he nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Allowing him to join the team was a special exception I made, but that does not erase the punishment for breaking school rules." McGonagall continued, looking at Harry. "Disrupting class, unauthorized flying, detention... Come to my office next Wednesday at eight in the evening. You and Mr. Malfoy."

"I understand, McGonagall," Harry answered with a miserable expression.

"When did she get here?" Ron's face was pale, clearly still not over the fright he had just received.

"I don't know," Silvan said. "Cats usually make no sound when they walk, unless you can see them. It seems McGonagall is the same."

"I'll remember that." Harry looked gloomily at Ron. "Why did you have to say that extra sentence?"

Ron looked rather embarrassed, his face swiftly changing from pale to flushed red. "I-I didn't know..."

"Forget it." Harry sighed. "Detention itself isn't a big deal, but with Malfoy... It's practically a nightmare."

Ron's face reddened even further, matching his hair.

"Oh, there is something I need to correct." Silvan seemed to have suddenly remembered something and said, "I wasn't targeting Hermione in Charms. It's a good thing that she was willing to teach Neville. Why would I target her?"

Ron looked as though he had been struck by lightning, staring at Silvan as if he had been betrayed.

"But you two... you obviously argued. She won't even talk to you anymore."

"We just have different ideas." Silvan shrugged. "Muggle-born students all have similar issues. They have only been exposed to magic for a short time, so there are some things she cannot understand yet. In a few more years, she'll be more or less fine."

"All right, stop talking." Harry cut off their conversation.

He had originally wanted to tell Ron not to talk about Hermione like that, because he had also noticed that Hermione was the only one willing to tirelessly teach Neville.

But now, he could not bring himself to say it. Somehow, throughout this entire affair, he had become the only one who got hurt.

Who would understand? He had suddenly gained a detention for no reason at all, and with Malfoy, no less.

Harry regretted not pinching Ron's mouth shut when he had the chance.

The atmosphere in this Transfiguration class was strange.

Harry and Ron sat through the entire lesson in low spirits, while Hermione's expression was also odd. She kept her head down, looking distracted.

She poked two of the beetles being used as teaching aids to death, something that would have been absolutely impossible before.

Watching from the side, Silvan suddenly wondered whether the trio would fall apart over this.

But after observing them for a while, he realized it was unlikely, at least for Ron and Harry.

Although Ron had earned Harry a detention, Harry showed no sign of distancing himself from him. Whether during or after class, they were still inseparable.

They had even convinced themselves that it was not a loss, since Malfoy had gotten a detention too.

It was rather surprising.

As for Hermione, she ran off as soon as class ended. She remained silent throughout the afternoon classes as well, all the way until every lesson was over.

Everyone headed toward the Great Hall together for the Halloween eve feast.

The Great Hall had already been decorated with dazzling Halloween ornaments. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of enormous pumpkins had been hollowed out and carved into all sorts of shapes, floating in midair.

The moment Harry saw this, he completely forgot about his detention.

Silvan walked with them, then suddenly stopped before entering the Great Hall.

"Oh, you go on ahead. I think I dropped something."

"What did you drop? Where did you drop it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, maybe somewhere along the way here," Silvan said casually.

"I'll help you look." Harry immediately started to turn back.

"It's fine, it isn't anything important." Silvan reached out to stop him. "You go in first. I'll look around a bit. It doesn't matter if I can't find it."

Hearing that it was not important, Harry said nothing more. At Silvan's urging, he entered the Great Hall with the others.

Silvan found the Weasley brothers waiting off to the side.

"Well? Where's what I asked for?" he asked in a low voice.

"When we handle something, you can rest assured." Fred put on a stern face. "We got it."

"And our payment?" George stepped forward.

"Here." Silvan pulled a handful of silver Sickles from his pocket. "I wouldn't shortchange you."

"Six Sickles in total, that's right." Fred counted them, then handed Silvan a bulging kraft paper bag.

"Pleasure doing business. Remember to come to us again next time you need something."

"We'll see." Silvan felt a little pained. "Your errand fee is too expensive. The thing I wanted only cost three Sickles."

"That's not how you should look at it." George wagged a finger. "If it were Hogsmeade week, we'd have no problem buying things for you for free. But it is class time now, and students are forbidden from leaving the school. Only we have a way to get to Hogsmeade."

"We took quite a risk on this trip. This price is actually very reasonable."

"All right." Silvan said, "Thanks for the trouble."

"It won't be trouble if you give our business more support," George said with a grin. "Regular customers get discounts."

"If I need anything."

"You definitely will." Fred raised an eyebrow. "We can tell that you're not a rule-abiding little wizard."

"We're sure to have plenty to talk about in the future."

Silvan shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"To show our sincerity, we've decided to give you a little gift." Fred suddenly leaned closer and pulled out a piece of parchment.

"What is this?"

"A map," George said.

Silvan suddenly became a little excited. Parchment, a map... could it be...

"A map of the secret passages on the fourth floor of the school."

All right, it really was not the Marauder's Map.

Silvan's heart, which had just risen, settled again.

"We drew it ourselves," Fred continued. "If you run into a professor there again next time, it should help you avoid getting caught."

"But Filch knows about these passages too."

"Use it carefully."