Hey, you’re back! Congratulations again on the graduate work! I hope everything is going well, and that your workload isn’t TOO stressful!

JUSTICE FOR HERMIONE! Yes! Good for her to get back in her own dorm room. Even better to see Lavender lose her prefect badge; even putting aside her personal problems with Hermione, Lavender is just too dedicated to the Pureblood stuff to serve as an unbiased authority figure. I was lot less excited when I read about Draco being forced to return to the Slytherin dorms, because I didn’t trust Severina to actually do much to dissuade the other students there. But later in the chapter, I saw that Sev has pretty much the same Unbreakable Vow as Severus did, so I guess she actually HAS to do everything in her power to make the other Slytherin students leave Draco alone! Yay!

Boy, the Slug Club social is a whirlwind of interesting details! (Just as Slughorn likes it, I’m sure.) Somebody has Burke tracking down the Deathly Hallows, which certainly won’t ened well, especially since it’s probably Gaunt. The Resurrection Stone doesn’t get mentioned, but Gaunt probably already has it anyway. Nobody, including Harry, realizes his Invisibility Cloak is the one from the legend, and the Elder Wand . . . okay, I’m honestly kind of forgetting the canon shenanigans around the wand. Assuming its history isn’t changed from canon, it should still belong to Dumbledore in this world, right? That leaves both the Hallows Gaunt doesn’t already have in the hands of his primary antagonists; nice. I just have to hope the Elder Wand’s loyalty doesn’t go screwy at the end of this year, like it did in Half-Blood Prince. Oh, and speaking of Borgin and Burke’s, someone with a feminine voice is planning a poisoning, probably to make up for Severina’s failed attempt on Lily, in which case it’s probably Bellatrix. I would love for it to actually be Narcissa getting ready to poison Bellatrix, but I’m not sure she could bring herself to go that far against her own sister. Plus, we’ve already seen Narcissa can’t really go shopping without Bellatrix’s supervision, so . . . alas.

Anyway, back to the Slug Club: I’m legitimately glad Lady Avery is having a good time now that her Bond brainwashing has faded. I like to think she and her daughter are having a grand old time with the house all to themselves! (I must say, though, Lady Avery saying, “She tells me I’d be better suited to the job, but I’d much rather just host parties and chat . . .” sounds an awful lot like the “lol I’m just a girl, I can’t do math” jokes that have been on the rise in the last few years . . .) Next, um. Professor Babbling is Nicholas Flamel’s daughter?! Is that what you’re telling me?!??! So I’m guessing the reason for the cloak, and the dark classroom, is that she looks rather withered and old, like Flamel was portrayed in that one movie I haven’t seen?

Lastly, I don’t know Tarot at all, but am I reading it right to think that Trelawney misread the Fool? Her explanation feels like it would be a reading of a proper, right-side up Fool, rather than the reversed version Harry got? I also can’t help but notice that the illustration of the Fool sounds an awful lot like Draco pre-haircut. Hopefully, this isn’t foreshadowing that he’s going to try something Foolish to rescue his family . . . Then again, it’s a REVERSED Fool, so maybe Draco will do something wise instead!

—doctorlit, glad Lily (the author) is doing well in life, and is still finding the time to write!