Harry and Ron ultimately failed to get the gossip they wanted out of Hermione, even though her face was already brimming with it.
After they chatted a little longer, the trolley arrived. Harry bought a huge pile of snacks and took them to Qiu's compartment. When he returned, he looked around, shut the door, then quietly put up a simple, low-level magical barrier.
Seeing Harry do this, Ron and Hermione knew he had something important to say.
"I had another dream last night," Harry said.
"Harry, you..." Hermione immediately frowned. Several members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Dumbledore, had already told Harry that he had to maintain his Occlumency for long periods to prevent Voldemort from peering into his mind.
Although that was unlikely, safety still came first.
Yet the fact that Harry had dreamed again meant he certainly had not done as Dumbledore and the others had instructed.
"Hey, hey, I really didn't mean to." Harry hastily raised his hands in surrender. "Ron and I spent all day yesterday catching up on homework. I was just too tired."
Far from appeasing Hermione, however, his words only made her expression darken.
"You finished some of your homework before the holidays, and you still left that little bit remaining until the very last day? The moment I stop keeping an eye on you, this is how you fool around?"
"Hey, let's get to the point, the point." Ron hurriedly glossed over it, while Lavender pressed her lips together beside him to stifle a laugh.
At first, she had not been too happy about Hermione telling Harry and Ron off, but she gradually got used to it. She even teased the two of them for acting as though they had run into a professor whenever they saw Hermione.
Harry also