Chapter 43:
Alicia had not gone back to Slughorn after her conversation with him. He'd avoided her for a few of the first potions classes, and always held a guilty look on his face. He'd eyed Harry a few times and Alicia had indeed caught him watching her and Harry when they spoke. Harry however had had a few conversations but none seemed to lead to Slughorn handing over the memory he had apparently suppressed for decades.
Of course his mind was also still on Malfoy, as he had not been able to get into the Room of Requirement and find out what Malfoy was doing.
"For the last time, just forget about Malfoy," Hermione told Harry firmly.
They were sitting with Ron in a sunny corner of the courtyard after lunch. Hermione and Ron were both clutching a Ministry of Magic leaflet — Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them — for they were taking their tests that very afternoon, but by and large the leaflets had not proved soothing to the nerves.
Ron gave a start and tried to hide behind Hermione as a girl came around the corner.
"It isn't Lavender," said Hermione wearily.
"Oh, good," said Ron, relaxing.
"Harry Potter?" said the girl. "I was asked to give you this."
"Thanks…"
Harry's heart sank as he took the small scroll of parchment. Alicia stared at it horrified and like it might bite.
Once the girl was out of earshot Harry said, "Dumbledore said we wouldn't be having any more lessons until I got the memory!"
"I don't want to face his disappointment again, especially as I'd been so close."
"Maybe he wants to check on how you're doing?" suggested Hermione, as Harry unrolled the parchment. He read through it and Alicia saw his expression contort.
"Look at this," said Harry, handing the note to Alicia.
Dear, Harry, Ron, Alicia and Hermione.
Aragog died last night. Harry, Alicia and Ron, you met him, and you know how special he was. Hermione, I know you'd have liked him. It would mean a lot to me if you'd nip down for the burial later this evening. I'm planning on doing it round dusk, that was his favourite time of day. I know you're not supposed to be out that late, but you can use the cloak. Wouldn't ask, but I can't face it alone.
Hagrid.
Alicia took a deep breath. The words were difficult to make out as they were covered in large blotches, clearly Hagrid's tears, and caused the ink to run slightly.
She handed it to Hermione without a word.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," she said, scanning it quickly and passing it to Ron, who read it through looking increasingly incredulous.
"He's mental!" he said furiously. "That thing told its mates to eat Alicia, Harry and me! Told them to help themselves! And now Hagrid expects us to go down there and cry over its horrible hairy body!"
"It's not just that," said Hermione. "He's asking us to leave the castle at night and he knows security's a million times tighter and how much trouble we'd be in if we were caught."
"We've been down to see him by night before," said Harry.
"Yes, but for something like this?" said Hermione. "We've risked a lot to help Hagrid out, but after all — Aragog's dead. If it were a question of saving him —"
"— I'd want to go even less," said Ron firmly. "You didn't meet him, Hermione. Believe me, being dead will have improved him a lot."
"But this isn't anything to do with Aragog." Alicia said and they turned to her "This is about us comforting Hagrid after he lost a long time friend, it doesn't matter how we feel about said friend or what he did to us, it's about Hagrid. I for one and prepared to take that risk." Alicia said and the three looked at her astonished.
"Alicia! You'll get caught."
"Hard to with the cloak and the map." she sad "I'll be having it back Harry." she said to him. Harry was looking down at the letter again.
"Harry, you can't be thinking of going," said Hermione. "It's such a pointless thing to get detention for." she shot Alicia a look who shrugged.
"It's only detention." she said "It's hardly something that's gonna stab at me."
Harry sighed. "Yeah, I know," he said.
"How selfish you all are." Alicia said rolling her eyes.
"It's not what's important Alicia!" Hermione said "Look, Potions will be almost empty this afternoon, with us all off doing our tests… Try and soften Slughorn up a bit then!"
"I'm not going to soften him I'm going to demand." Alicia said "Softening isn't working, it seems batting his conscience has gotten us much closer."
"Fifty-seventh time lucky, you think?" said Harry bitterly.
"Lucky," said Ron suddenly. "Harry, that's it — get lucky!" Alicia blinked at him.
"Huh."
"What d'you mean?"
"Use your lucky potion!"
"Ron, that's — that's it!" said Hermione, sounding stunned. "Of course! Why didn't I think of it?"
"Cause we forgot he had it." Alicia shrugged
Harry stared at them all. "Felix Felicis?" he said. "I dunno… I was sort of saving it…"
"What for?" demanded Ron incredulously.
"What on earth is more important than this memory, Harry?" asked Hermione.
Alicia eyed her brother as he didn't answer and seemed to gaze off. Hermione and Ron looked at him and then at Alicia as he watched her.
I don't think you need Felix Felicis for that. Harry looked up at her as she smirked slightly. He'd been thinking, slightly, about using the potion to split up Ginny and Dean so he could be with her and have Ron happy about it. They're already on their way to a break up after all it seems. He seemed to lighten up at this. As for Ron, you're his best mate so you should be the best pick. "Harry? Are you still with us?" asked Hermione.
"Wha—? Yeah, of course," he said, pulling himself together, glancing at Alicia. "Well… okay. If I can't get Slughorn to talk this afternoon, I'll take some Felix and have another go this evening."
"That's decided, then," said Hermione briskly.
"And I'll go see Hagrid." Alicia grinned earning a stern look from Hermione and a roll of the eyes from the two boys.
Hermione simply got to her feet and performing a graceful pirouette. "Destination… determination… deliberation…" she murmured.
"Oh, stop that," Ron begged her, "I feel sick enough as it is — quick, hide me!"
"It isn't Lavender!" said Hermione impatiently, as another couple of girls appeared in the courtyard and Ron dived behind her.
"Cool," said Ron, peering over Hermione's shoulder to check. "Blimey, they don't look happy, do they?"
"They're the Montgomery sisters and of course they don't look happy, didn't you hear what happened to their little brother?" said Hermione.
"I'm losing track of what's happening to everyone's relatives, to be honest," said Ron.
"Well, their brother was attacked by a werewolf. The rumour is that their mother refused to help the Death Eaters. Anyway, the boy was only five and he died in St. Mungo's, they couldn't save him."
"He died?" repeated Harry, shocked. "But surely werewolves don't kill, they just turn you into one of them?"
"They sometimes kill," said Ron, who looked unusually grave now. "I've heard of it happening when the werewolf gets carried away."
"Remember, werewolves aren't really in control of themselves." Alicia murmured.
"What was the werewolf 's name?" said Harry quickly.
"Well, the rumour is that it was that Fenrir Greyback," said Hermione.
"I knew it — the maniac who likes attacking kids, the one Lupin told me about!" said Harry angrily.
Hermione looked at him bleakly.
"It's also Voldemort's fault." Alicia added and Hermione nodded.
"Harry, you've got to get that memory," she said. "It's all about stopping Voldemort, isn't it? These dreadful things that are happening are all down to him…"
Alicia looked at Harry. You can have Ginny afterwards, I'll even help if you'd like. She grinned and Harry shot her a look. The bell rang overhead in the castle and both Hermione and Ron jumped to their feet, looking terrified.
"You'll do fine," Harry told them both, as they headed toward the entrance hall to meet the rest of the people taking their Apparition Test.
"Yeah I bet you both pass." Alicia grinned.
"Good luck." the twins chorused.
"And you too!" said Hermione with a significant look, as Harry headed off to the dungeons with his sister.
"Seriously, just let me weigh him down," Alicia said to Harry. "You can watch as I tell him off and if it doesn't work you can butter him up after me." she shrugged.
There were only four of them in Potions that afternoon: Alicia, Harry, Ernie, and Draco Malfoy.
"All too young to Apparate just yet?" said Slughorn genially. "Not turned seventeen yet?"
They shook their heads.
"Ah well," said Slughorn cheerily, "as we're so few, we'll do something fun. I want you all to brew me up something amusing!"
"That sounds good, sir," said Ernie sycophantically, rubbing his hands together. Malfoy, on the other hand, did not crack a smile.
"What do you mean, 'something amusing'?" he said irritably.
"Oh, surprise me," said Slughorn airily.
"Oh this'll be fun." Alicia grinned "Let's look in your copy, I wanna try something interesting." she said to Harry and they both bent over Harry's Advanced Potion-Making book. Alicia moved through the pages as Harry peered over his at Malfoy, not paying attention to Alicia. She moved to her book and found a piece of parchment. When she found a potion she liked the sound off she copied down the Prince's annotations and allowed Harry to look instead, beginning her potion making.
Alicia hummed away at her potion as she made it, A Memory Potion, designed to enhance a persons memory. It was ironic and to Alicia amusing. Harry it seemed stopped at "An Elixir to Induce Euphoria", also amusing.
The two twins moved through the potions and half an hour later Slughorn was over looking into Harry's cauldron, which was a sunshine yellow.
"Well, now, this looks absolutely wonderful," said Slughorn, clapping his hands together "Euphoria, I take it? And what's that I smell? Mmmm… you've added just a sprig of peppermint, haven't you? Unorthodox, but what a stroke of inspiration, Harry, of course, that would tend to counterbalance the occasional side effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking… I really don't know where you get these brain waves, my boy… unless —"
Harry pushed the Half-Blood Prince's book deeper into his bag with his foot.
"— it's just your mother's genes coming out in you!"
"Oh… yeah, maybe," said Harry, relieved.
Ernie was looking rather grumpy; determined to outshine Harry for once, he had most rashly invented his own potion, which had curdled and formed a kind of purple dumpling at the bottom of his cauldron. Malfoy was already packing up, sour-faced; Slughorn had pronounced his Hiccuping Solution merely "passable."
He came to Alicia and looked at it before his expression looked scared. Alicia stared at him and waited but Slughorn merely ran off to his desk.
"What did you do?" Harry whispered
"It's a memory potion." she said simply as she bottled some up. She did the same with Harry's and he eyed her. "Best not to waste it, who knows what'll happen to that book and some of these could be mighty useful if we can get the ingredients." she said.
The bell rang and both Ernie and Malfoy left at once.
"Sir," Harry began, but Slughorn immediately glanced over his shoulder; when he saw that the room was empty but for himself, Alicia and Harry, he hurried away as fast as he could.
"Professor — Professor, don't you want to taste my po — ?" called Harry desperately.
"You selfish coward!" Alicia shouted cutting Harry off as Slughorn disappeared out the door.
Alicia huffed as the two cleaned up and then moved back to the common room, Alicia annoyed.
"You are taking that damn luck potion." she said to Harry. "With the Prince we can always make more if you're really desperate." she said.
Ron and Hermione returned in the late afternoon.
"Harry!" cried Hermione as she climbed through the portrait hole. "Alicia, I passed!"
"See, all those nerves for no reason." Alicia grinned
"Well done!" he said. "And Ron?"
"He — he just failed," whispered Hermione, as Ron came slouching into the room looking most morose. "It was really unlucky, a tiny thing, the examiner just spotted that he'd left half an eyebrow behind… How did it go with Slughorn?"
"No joy," said Harry, as Ron joined them. "Bad luck, mate, but you'll pass next time — we can take it together."
"You'll be an expert by then." Alicia grinned.
"Yeah, I s'pose," said Ron grumpily. "But half an eyebrow! Like that matters!"
"I know," said Hermione soothingly, "it does seem really harsh…"
"Probably only worries you'd do it with some other boy part. Imagine a finger." Alicia mumbled looking at it.
They spent most of their dinner roundly abusing the Apparition examiner, and Ron looked fractionally more cheerful by the time they set off back to the common room, now discussing the continuing problem of Slughorn and the memory.
"So, Harry — you going to use the Felix Felicis or what?" Ron demanded.
"Yeah, I s'pose I'd better," said Harry. "I don't reckon I'll need all of it, not twelve hours' worth, it can't take all night… I'll just take a mouthful. Two or three hours should do it."
"And Alicia you'd best go with him." Hermione said sternly
"You just don't want me going to Hagrid's." Alicia rolled her eyes.
"It's a great feeling when you take it," said Ron reminiscently. "Like you can't do anything wrong."
"What are you talking about?" said Hermione, laughing. "You've never taken any!"
"Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. "Same difference really…"
As they had only just seen Slughorn enter the Great Hall and knew that he liked to take time over meals, they lingered for a while in the common room, the plan being that Harry should go to
Slughorn's office once the teacher had had time to get back there. When the sun had sunk to the level of the treetops in the Forbidden Forest, they decided the moment had come, and after checking carefully that Neville, Dean, and Seamus were all in the common room, sneaked up to the boys' dormitory.
Harry took out the rolled-up socks at the bottom of his trunk and extracted the tiny, gleaming bottle.
"Well, here goes," said Harry, and he raised the little bottle and took a carefully measured gulp.
"What does it feel like?" whispered Hermione.
He didn't answer immediately. Alicia watched him before she felt it, the exhilarating sense of infinite opportunity. Even she felt like getting the memory from Slughorn would be positively easy all go a sudden.
"Woah." she mumbled and Hermione and Ron looked at her.
Harry got to his feet, smiling, brimming with confidence.
"Excellent," he said. "Really excellent. Right… I'm going down to Hagrid's."
"What?" said Ron and Hermione together, looking aghast as Alicia cocked her head to the side.
"No, Harry — you've got to go and see Slughorn, remember?" said Hermione.
"No," said Harry confidently. "I'm going to Hagrid's, I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's."
"You've got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?" asked Ron, looking stunned.
"Yeah," said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag. "I feel like it's the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?"
"No," said Ron and Hermione together, both looking positively alarmed now.
"Well I don't see an issue with it." Alicia grinned standing up. She moved over to Harry's trunk before turning back to them.
"Alicia?"
"What, he's lucky, bet you he'll bump into Slughorn on his way and we'll get to help Hagrid and gain the memory." she shrugged
"Yeah." Harry grinned "You're coming right Alicia?" he said
"You're lucky, I'd come even if I didn't want to." she rolled her eyes.
"This is Felix Felicis, I suppose?" said Hermione anxiously, holding up the bottle to the light. "You haven't got another little bottle full of— I don't know —"
"Essence of Insanity?" suggested Ron, as Harry swung his cloak over his shoulders, pulling Alicia into him to do the same to her.
Harry laughed, and Ron and Hermione looked even more alarmed. Alicia rose an eyebrow.
"Actually sounds possible, but he's got too much confidence to loose so." Alicia shrugged.
"Trust me," Harry said. "I know what I'm doing… or at least" — he strolled confidently to the door, Alicia with him. — "Felix does."
Alicia's head was covered by the cloak by Harry and moved down the stairs, Ron and Hermione behind them. Harry slid through the door at the bottom with Alicia, only to come face to face with Lavender, who couldn't see Alicia and Harry, only Ron and Hermione.
"What were you doing up there with her?" shrieked Lavender.
Alicia and Harry only hurried off, leaving Ron as he spluttered for an answer. The porthole opened as they reached it and Ginny and Dean stood there. Alicia guess Harry had knocked one of them cause Ginny spoke up annoyed.
"Don't push me, please, Dean. You're always doing that, I can get through perfectly well on my own…"
Alicia giggled as the door swung closed behind them, only just allowing them to hear Dean's angry retort.
"Well, guess that's an endeavour successful." she said quietly as Harry's elation increased.
Alicia didn't activate the map, they just strolled along, counting on Harry's luck. As it was, they met no one.
