“this isn’t homework”
“then what is it?”
“it’s a list of all the things i’m going to have to study before exams at the end of the year”
“what?”
“well, just in pons i ouldn’t are less about most of the other sses that require memorizan a runes and arithmany are pretty straight forward so i don’t need to worry about them”
“you’re starting to study for exams now?”
“no, i’m making a list now”
“oh good i was starting to worry”
“i’ll start atually studying tomorrow”
a muffled groan was all that was heard from harry
ron finally resorted to banging on the piture frame quite loudly, to alert the boys inside to his and herne’s presene a few minutes ter the portrait opened to reveal harry, looking as if he had just rawled out of bed and pulled some lothes on, whih in truth he had
“m,” he said, trying to stifle a yawn
“good m harry” herne beamed at him harry mentally wondered if it was illegal somewhere for someone to be that wide awake mid-m on a sunday
“did you sleep at all?” ron asked, noting harry’s state
“yeah, i’m just tired this m”
ron nodded in uanding
“good we’ll get you some food and then we’ll start studying” herne ushered harry out of the room and towards the kithens
harry’s groan mathed the look on ron’s fae “you and drao” harry muttered under his breath
“you know, herne said something strange today”
drao zily looked over at harry with an expresn that learly stated he didn’t are what granger had said harry ignored the look and ontinued anyway
“she said that the attaks seemed random, all over the pe, almost as if they weren’t oordinated at all”
“so?” drao drawled “they still ause terror and mayhem, what’s the differene between oordinated attaks or spontaneous ones?”
“it just doesn’t seem like something voldemort—” drao flinhed “—would do it would seem to me that he would pn out the attaks for a maximum effet, or to send a message, or something i ouldn’t piture him just telling the death eaters to go off and have fun with random arnage…”
“the fat that you an piture the dark lord at all is rather freaky” drao murmured “but i have to agree with your point if we an’t see the message behind the attaks, then i assume he isn’t finished writing it out yet”
harry sat in the dark for a long time thinking about what drao had said he knew that there was some guiding fore behind these attaks, he just knew it but there was no fous it really seemed that voldemort just took a map and pointed to a random town or vilge and said “attak there” or something like that the only attak that might have given any message at all was the first attak, the one on london itself that was more the “i’m here and waiting to destroy you” type of attak he ould…expet…from voldemort but these other attaks…now harry ouldn’t start to say he knew the name of every town that existed in britain, but he’d never even known some of these pes existed so why they’d garnered voldemort’s attenn was beyond him
but maybe drao was right well, harry knew that there were more attaks to ome, but maybe the point of this partiur slew of attaks wasn’t obus yet beause a few of them were missing…as horrible as that logi was, it did have a ring of truth that harry ouldn’t ignore and if there were some attaks missing, and they ould figure out the pattern or message first…then maybe something ould be done to stop the attak before it started
gently easing himself out of the sleeping blonde’s hold, harry worked his way out of the bedroom a map he needed a map, a very detailed one
drao awoke them to find harry urled under him…somehow the other boy didn’t even stir as drao moved out of bed and made his way towards the bathroom, didn’t make a sound or a movement when drao ame bak out, or show any signs of waking when drao rossed bak through the bedroom he must be really tired, drao thought wonder how te he was up?
drao would have then gone down to breakfast, but he saw something on the table near the ouh it was a map…with ink splothes on it was this what harry had been up to st night? harry obusly hadn’t drawn the map, unless he was a geographial artisti genius that no one knew about, but he might have added the ink splothes but why?
drao looked at the map more losely, traing the path of the ink blothes up the isle with his eyes these were the loan of all of voldemort’s attaks they formed a semi- irle that traveled almost the entire length of the isle his own words ame bak to him from the night before the attaks were entered around something…but not london or any other important ity…but if one were to extend the irle out into the oean where there were no pes to attak, one ould find the diameter and from that find the enter drao did so, his finger oming to rest on one point of nd his stomah dropped as his mind registered where the attaks were foused around even though there was no marking on the map for the building was unplottable, it was a pe drao knew well it was malfoy manor
chapter 27: letter in blood
as the first week of february started, herne rolled into studying-for-exam mode with a relish that harry and ron wouldn’t even try to math they suffered in silene through her insistene that they reate study-guides for themselves so that they ould prepare for the exams that were only months away ron, on wednesday, was persuaded to start his own list of things to study harry believed this was not for the good of his exam grade, but for the good of his budding renship with herne harry, of ourse, was safe from herne’s ajoling he would merely say that drao had them overed
and drao was also studyin
