章節 339: The Hog's Head Inn

Oleandra sneezed the instant she set foot inside the Hog's Head Inn. Dust particles floated conspicuously in the dim morning light wherever it penetrated into the establishment, making it look as though it was snowing indoors. Although, the windows were so encrusted with grime that barely any sunlight made it inside in the first place; meaning that the dust wasn't really noticeable, unless you happened to be looking at the front door at the same time someone walked in.

As she navigated her way towards the Gryffindor Trio, who were sitting at a table in a corner of the room nursing some Butterbeers, Oleandra found that there wasn't even a single inch of the place that wasn't covered in either dust or dirt; she even spotted what looked like a puddle of ectoplasm. The place also smelled vaguely of goat dung; the odour seemed to be emanating from the barman's direction.

Eugh.

"Who's this?" Harry asked shortly, referring to the boy who was trailing behind Oleandra and Tracey.

"Hermione said I could try to invite Slytherins, so I got Theo to come," Oleandra explained. "Theodore Nott, Harry—"

"I know who he is," Theo said, cutting her off. "I don't think there's a single person who doesn't, at this point."

Well, this was off to a great start. And Harry seemed to have recognized Theo as one of Draco's friends, because he frowned deeply.

"Nott… I know that name," he said slowly, as he racked his brains to remember where he had heard the name. And then, it came to him. "Hang on… Nott, his father's a Death Eater! He was there when Voldemort came back to life!"

Theo flinched a little upon hearing the Dark Lord's name; the others had grown used to hearing it by this point, so they barely reacted.

"You didn't tell me your dad's a Death Eater," Oleandra told him, putting her hands on her hips in a reproachful manner. "I shook his hand, for goodness' sake."

Incidentally, the only reason Oleandra had brought Theo along in the first place was because she hadn't wanted the Gryffindors to think that she didn't have any friends other than Tracey to invite…

"It's not something you'd usually cry from the rooftops," said Theo irritably. "Oleandra, you told me this was a study group for Defence Against the Dark Arts, so what's with the Gryffindors?"

Ron bristled at Theo's less than respectful tone; he stood up from his seat abruptly, but Hermione spoke up before he could say anything rude.

"Hang on, let's not rush to any premature judgments," she said quickly. "Theodore, what do you think of Umbridge?"

"She's boring," he said, sounding rather bored himself. "She and her class are a colossal waste of my time." He then turned to Oleandra, saying, "If we're done here, I'd rather get back to my research, now…"

Harry, Ron and Hermione shared a meaningful glance at each other. Theo hadn't said anything rude about Hermione's Muggle parentage, and really, anyone who didn't like Umbridge couldn't be that bad of a person, in their books. As far as Slytherins went, they weren't finding this one too egregiously bad…

However, before they could say anything, the rest of the party that Hermione had invited came in through the inn's front door. First came Neville Longbottom along with Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown, followed by both of the Patil twins, who were accompanied by Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe.

At some point, Luna Lovegood wandered into the room from the street outside and spent an awfully long time looking at the stuffed boar's head mounted above the bar. If it hadn't been for the fact that she eventually walked over to their group, Oleandra would have thought that she had got lost and arrived here by accident.

Arriving in quick succession a minute later were Gryffindor's three female Chasers, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, followed by Colin Creevey and his younger brother (at least, that's what Oleandra gathered, as she had never seen him before). Then came the Hufflepuff Duo, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Susan bones (it had used to be a trio, but Hannah Abott had mysteriously never come home from school after her fourth year), followed by the Ravenclaw Trio of three boys that Oleandra really couldn't care less about.

Then came Oleandra's little sister Astoria, Zacharias Smith of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and finally, Fred and George Weasley, with their best friend Lee Jordan.

"A couple of people?" Oleandra heard Harry hiss to Hermione. "That's what you call a couple of people?"

Oleandra was rather happy with the turnout. If all went well, then these people would be her future army. Probably. Okay, maybe not all of them. …A few?

"So, is this what Professor Greengrass does with her free time?" Fred Weasley said, putting his left arm around Oleandra's shoulders, much to Tracey's displeasure. "Hanging around seedy bars? Isn't that a waste of your new lease on life?"

"Too busy drinking to help us with our business venture, I suppose?" George added from her other side, putting his right arm around her shoulders. "But I suppose it's all good, if you'll finally teach us how to get runes to work!"

Before Oleandra could say anything, they slipped away from her and headed straight towards the barman, who was busy dirtying a clean glass with a filthy rag. After a quick headcount, the Weasley twins ordered twenty-seven Butterbeers and distributed them to the group.

"You know, I've been wondering," Oleandra told Hermione, as she cast a suspicious look into her rusty tankard of Butterbeer, before passing two Silver Sickles to George in payment. "Why'd you pick the Hog's Head? The Three Broomsticks is much cleaner."

"To be discreet," she replied, taking a small sip of her drink. "Anyone could overhear us talking over there, but this place is always empty."

"That's exactly the point I'm trying to make," Oleandra said meaningfully. "The Hog's Head Inn is always empty, which makes us particularly conspicuous. Yes, we might be overheard at the Three Broomsticks, but who'd care enough to eavesdrop?"

"Oh," said Hermione in a small voice. "I suppose I didn't think about that… But it's too late now, I suppose…"

More and more people began sitting at the table, each one of them looking rather curiously at Harry and Oleandra. They were no doubt expecting a speech of some kind, but since Hermione had been the one to get them to come, Oleandra decided to let her speak first.