Harry's expression fell and he looked with longing at the broom. He turned back to Hermione's stormy expression. He glanced at Shiva who just looked pained. Harry turned back to the beautiful broom sitting before him and drew his hand back sighing. "I hate when you make sense like that."
This was too much for Ron apparently. "You can't be serious! That's a FIREBOLT! What if they dismantle it?! What if they break it?! What if they can't put it back together?! Do you know how expensive those are?! Who cares who sent it?! It's a Firebolt!"
"We prefer Harry alive, Ronald," Luna commented not even bothering to look up from her pudding. "This is very good. You should have some pudding."
"Nobody asked you what you think Loo – " Ron was hit by a silencing spell before he could finish the sentence.
Ginny lowered her wand, stood up and cuffed her brother on the back of the head. "Do you ever learn? Sorry about that, Harry, Luna. I'll take the git upstairs so you don't have to hurt him."
McGonagall and Flitwick who had wandered up behind during Ron's episode nodded approvingly. "Miss Weasley," McGonagall said, "very good foresight. Five points to Gryffindor."
"I assure you, Mr. Potter," Flitwick said, "we will be exceedingly careful not to damage or degrade your gift in any fashion. I would expect you to have it back in a week assuming no complications. Two tops."
Harry just nodded glumly. The professors levitated the box with the broom out of the room with Harry staring after it. Shiva clapped him on the shoulder. "Cheer up, kid. Best case scenario, you get it back in a week and can lord your epic broom over your rivals. Worst case scenario, it's trapped meaning you can properly thank Hermione for saving your life. I can point you to a few unused broom closets on the fourth floor or if you need more light for the expressions of gratitude there are some excellent empty classrooms up on the sixth." Shiva smirked down at her ward as she walked back to the staff table.
Harry and Hermione on the other hand were both blazing red. Luna happily hummed away, glad that Professor Babbling had managed to firmly get Harry's mind off the broom.
The Firebolt examination was completed in five days. Flitwick had apparently fallen in love with the broom and between him and McGonagall's efforts, they worked round the clock to lovingly check over every inch of the beautiful thing. No unsavory charms, runes, traps, enchants or potions were found. It was entirely mundane.
If a thousand galleon present from a mysterious benefactor could be considered mundane.
Harry and his friends had gathered to discuss this and the Sirius Black problem. There had been frustratingly little actual progress on that front. So far the only thing that they had confirmed was that literally everyone was amazed that Sirius Black had betrayed the Potters. Hagrid, McGonagall, Flitwick, Tonks, Andromeda Tonks, Amelia Bones, Augusta Longbottom, Xenophilius Lovegood, the late Pandora Lovegood (according to Xenophilius), Celeste Greengrass (Daphne's mother), Madam Rosemerta, the owner of Zonko's Joke Shop…Even Filch had admitted to being surprised when the news had first broken.
"And we're sure he couldn't have been under an Imperius curse?" Harry asked after they had checked everything again.
Daphne shook her head. "The Blacks specialized in mind magics. There is no way any child of House Black would fall to Imperius."
"And even if he had," Tracey said banging her head on the table, "laughing afterward wouldn't have happened."
"We're going around in circles." Neville shook his head and leaned back staring at the ceiling of the library.
"Let's focus on something else," Hermione said. "Instead of looking at why, let's look at how and backtrack. Does anyone know of any charms or curses that could cause an explosion like was described?"
"I could make a feedback cluster that could do that. It'd be really dangerous though," Harry commented with a shrug. The group ignored him.
"I…" Daphne tapped the table for a bit before shaking her head. "Father has knowledge of many borderline spells but as far as I know there is nothing that could do quite the amount of damage all at once as was discovered. At least, nothing that would still leave Black and the rest of the street alive and somewhat intact."
"Why was Peter Pettigrew's finger recovered?" Luna asked her eyes narrowing in what Harry was quickly coming to find meant the girl was following an idea down the rabbit hole. She might reach different conclusions than the rest of them but she was startlingly insightful when her threads panned out.
"Well obviously if the street exploded centered on him there wouldn't be much left," Tracey said with a snort.
"But there should be something." Luna twisted her gaze from Tracey onto Hermione.
"There was. There was a finger," Tracey replied. Hermione's eyes though had narrowed in thought and she nodded at Luna.
The little blonde continued, "Was the finger mangled? Bloody? Was the base clean or ragged?"
Harry perked up starting to see where his friend was going with this line and not at all liking the conclusions that were starting to form in his head. He shuffled through their notes until he found the initial report from one of the first Auror responders. "According to this, Peter Pettigrew's finger was nearly entirely unmarred with a clean cut at the base…"
Hermione slowly nodded. "Which shouldn't be possible. Not in an explosion. And even if by some miraculous coincidence it had happened, where were more pieces of his body? I think you're right Luna…god, do you know what this means?"
"You guys have lost me," Neville glanced over at Tracey and Daphne who were looking just as confused. "Help a friend out?"
"One moment, Neville," Hermione said waving him off. "Daphne, Tracey, you two conducted many of the interviews. Did anyone mention anything about Peter Pettigrew's character? Specifically their reactions to finding out he had gone after Sirius."
"Yeah, to a man they were incredibly surprised by it," Daphne said. "Everyone said he was generally the squirrely one. The first to run or cower if things got tough. The first to look for help. The last to agree to the insane schemes of his friends. They were extraordinarily impressed that he had…gone after…oh Merlin…you don't think…?" Daphne's face morphed into a horrified grimace.
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