Chapter 44:

Coming to the front door, the Potter twins found that it was left unlocked, clearly Filch had forgotten and the two grinned, Harry beaming, as he threw it open.

They walked down the front steps before Harry grabbed Alicia's hand.

"Let's go by the vegetable patch." he said

"It's not really on the way?" she said quizzically but amused.

"It'll be nice." he said. Alicia chuckled and followed him, trusting in Felix.

They moved towards the vegetable patch only to find Professor Sprout in a conversation with none other than Professor Slughorn.

Alicia let Harry lead the way, as he moved to lurk behind the low stone wall.

"I do thank you for taking the time, Pomona," Slughorn was saying courteously, "most authorities agree that they are at their most efficacious if picked at twilight."

"Oh, I quite agree," said Professor Sprout warmly. "That enough for you?"

"Plenty, plenty," said Slughorn, who was carrying an armful of leafy plants. "This should allow for a few leaves for each of my third years, and some to spare if anybody over-stews them… Well, good evening to you, and many thanks again!"

Professor Sprout headed off into the gathering darkness in the direction of her greenhouses, and Slughorn directed his steps to the spot where Harry stood, invisible.

Alicia watched Harry, waiting to see what happened next before he suddenly pulled off the invisibility cloak.

"Good evening, Professor."

"Merlin's beard, Harry, you made me jump," said Slughorn, stopping dead in his tracks and looking wary. Alicia was laughing. "How did you two get out of the castle?"

"I think Filch must've forgotten to lock the doors," said Harry cheerfully, and was delighted to see Slughorn scowl.

"I'll be reporting that man, he's more concerned about litter than proper security if you ask me… But why are you out here, Alicia, Harry?"

"Oh we're off to see Hagrid." Alicia smiled.

"Hagrid?" Slughorn repeated.

"Well, sir, he's pretty upset… But you won't tell anyone, Professor? I don't want trouble for him…" Harry said as Alicia snickered ever so slightly.

Slughorn's curiosity was evidently aroused. "Well, I can't promise that," he said gruffly. "But I know that Dumbledore trusts Hagrid to the hilt, so I'm sure he can't be up to anything very dreadful" …

"Well, it's this giant spider, he's had it for years… It lived in the forest… It could talk and everything —"

"I heard rumours there were acromantulas in the forest," said Slughorn softly, looking over at the mass of black trees. "It's true, then?"

"Yes," said Harry as Alicia went "Oh yes."

"Harry, Ron and I almost got eaten by them all in our second year." Alicia said frowning slightly.

"But this one, Aragog, the first one Hagrid ever got, it died last night."

"It was the leader of the acromantulas," Alicia sighed and Harry nodded.

"He's devastated. He wants company while he buries it and I said I'd go."

"Touching, touching," said Slughorn absentmindedly, his large droopy eyes fixed upon the distant lights of Hagrid's cabin. "But acromantula venom is very valuable… If the beast only just died it might not yet have dried out… Of course, I wouldn't want to do anything insensitive if Hagrid is upset… but if there was any way to procure some… I mean, it's almost impossible to get venom from an acromantula while it's alive…"

Slughorn seemed to be talking more to himself than Harry now. Alicia and Harry shared a look, even without the luck potion in her system too, Alicia knew they were thinking the same thing.

"… seems an awful waste not to collect it… might get a hundred Galleons a pint… To be frank, my salary is not large…"

"Well," Harry said as Alicia looked at him. "well, if you wanted to come, Professor, Hagrid would probably be really pleased… Give Aragog a better send-off, you know…"

"After all, the more support the better." Alicia encouraged.

"Yes, of course," said Slughorn, his eyes now gleaming with enthusiasm. "I tell you what, Harry, I'll meet you down there with a bottle or two… We'll drink the poor beast's — well — not health — but we'll send it off in style, anyway, once it's buried. And I'll change my tie, this one is a little exuberant for the occasion…"

He bustled back into the castle, and Alicia and Harry shared a high five before the pulled the cloak back on and sped off to Hagrid's.

"Yeh came," croaked Hagrid, when he opened the door and saw Harry and Alicia emerging from the Invisibility Cloak in front of him.

"Yeah — Ron and Hermione couldn't, though," said Harry. "They're really sorry."

"Don' — don' matter… He'd've bin touched yeh're here, though, Harry…"

Alicia kept her witty comment to herself as Hagrid gave a great sob. He had made himself a black armband out of what looked like a rag dipped in boot polish, and his eyes were puffy, red, and swollen. Harry patted him consolingly on the elbow, which was the highest point of Hagrid he could easily reach.

"Where are we burying him?" he asked. "The forest?"

"Blimey, no," said Hagrid, wiping his streaming eyes on the bot- tom of his shirt. "The other spiders won' let me anywhere near their webs now Aragog's gone. Turns out it was on'y on his orders they didn' eat me! Can yeh believe that?"

Alicia and Harry shared a look. They in fact did know this as Aragog had said it straight to their face.

Let's not say anything. Alicia decided.

"Never bin an area o' the forest I couldn' go before!" said Hagrid, shaking his head. "It wasn' easy, gettin' Aragog's body out o' there, I can tell yeh — they usually eat their dead, see… But I wanted ter give 'im a nice burial… a proper send-off…"

He broke into sobs again and Alicia sighed and patted his arm comfortingly.

"Professor Slughorn met me coming down here, Hagrid." Alicia glanced at Harry slightly but didn't say anything about this confession.

"Not in trouble, are yeh?" said Hagrid, looking up, alarmed as he looked at the twins.

"Harry? In trouble?" Alicia asked snickering. It was both ironic because that's all the twins got into and funny because of the luck potion.

"Yeh shouldn' be outta the castle in the evenin', I know it, it's my fault —"

"No, no, when he heard what I was doing he said he'd like to come and pay his last respects to Aragog too," said Harry. "He's gone to change into something more suitable, I think… and he said he'd bring some bottles so we can drink to Aragog's memory…" Harry said

"He was awfully insistent about coming along." Alicia nodded.

"Did he?" said Hagrid, looking both astonished and touched. "Tha's — tha's righ' nice of him, that is, an' not turnin' yeh both in either. I've never really had a lot ter do with Horace Slughorn before… Comin' ter see old Aragog off, though, eh? Well… he'd've liked that, Aragog would…"

Or to eat him. Alicia added and she saw Harry's mouth curve as he pressed his lips together to hide the smile.

Harry moved off to the rear window as if to hide his silent laughter and looked out it.

"Are we going to bury him here, Hagrid, in your garden?" Harry asked. Alicia looked up at him and he motioned to the window. She glanced out it to see an enormous dead spider, on it's back, with it's legs curled in and all tangled up.

She grimaced.

"Jus' beyond the pumpkin patch, I thought," said Hagrid in a choked voice. "I've already dug the — yeh know — grave. Jus' thought we'd say a few nice things over him — happy memories, yeh know —"

His voice quivered and broke. There was a knock on the door, and he turned to answer it, blowing his nose on his great spotted handkerchief as he did so. Slughorn hurried over the threshold, several bottles in his arms, and wearing a somber black cravat.

"Hagrid," he said, in a deep, grave voice. "So very sorry to hear of your loss."

"Tha's very nice of yeh," said Hagrid. "Thanks a lot. An' thanks fer not givin' Harry and Alicia detention neither…"

"Wouldn't have dreamed of it," said Slughorn. "Sad night, sad night… Where is the poor creature?"

"Out here," said Hagrid in a shaking voice. "Shall we — shall we do it, then?"

The four of them stepped out into the back garden. The moon was glistening palely through the trees now, and its rays mingled with the light spilling from Hagrid's window to illuminate Aragog's body lying on the edge of a massive pit beside a ten-foot-high mound of freshly dug earth.

"Magnificent," said Slughorn, approaching the spider's head, where eight milky eyes stared blankly at the sky and two huge, curved pincers shone, motionless, in the moonlight. Slughorn bent over the pincers, apparently examining the enormous hairy head as Alicia highly suspected he was going to take the venom that was within them.

"It's not ev'ryone appreciates how beau'iful they are," said Hagrid to Slughorn's back, tears leaking from the corners of his crinkled eyes. "I didn' know yeh were int'rested in creatures like Aragog, Horace."

"Interested? My dear Hagrid, I revere them," said Slughorn, stepping back from the body. Both twins noticed the glint of a bottle disappear beneath his cloak, though Hagrid, mopping his eyes once more, noticed nothing. "Now… shall we proceed to the burial?"

Hagrid nodded and moved forward. He heaved the gigantic spider into his arms and, with an enormous grunt, rolled it into the dark pit. It hit the bottom with a rather horrible, crunchy thud. Hagrid started to cry again.

"Of course, it's difficult for you, who knew him best," said Slughorn, who like Harry could reach no higher than Hagrid's elbow, but patted it all the same. "Why don't I say a few words?"

Slughorn had a satisfied smirk on his face as he stepped to the rim of the pit, probably from the money he'd make off Aragog's venom. His voice proceeded, slow and impressive. "Farewell, Aragog, king of arachnids, whose long and faithful friendship those who knew you won't forget! Though your body will decay, your spirit lingers on in the quiet, web-spun places of your forest home. May your many-eyed descendants ever flourish and your human friends find solace for the loss they have sustained."

Alicia was impressed by the professor, that was very well done she believed.

"Tha' was… tha' was… beau'iful!" howled Hagrid, and he collapsed onto the compost heap, crying harder than ever.

"There, there," said Slughorn, waving his wand so that the huge pile of earth rose up and then fell, with a muffled sort of crash, onto the dead spider, forming a smooth mound. "Let's get inside and have a drink. Get on his other side, Harry, Alicia… That's it… Up you come, Hagrid… Well done…"

They deposited Hagrid in a chair at the table. Fang, who had been skulking in his basket during the burial, now came padding softly across to them and put his heavy head into Harry's lap as usual. Slughorn uncorked one of the bottles of wine he had brought.

"I have had it all tested for poison," he assured Harry and Alicia, pouring most of the first bottle into one of Hagrid's bucket-sized mugs and handing it to Hagrid. "Had a house-elf taste every bottle after what happened to your poor friend Rupert."

Alicia rose an eyebrow and both of them thought of how Hermione would react if she'd heard such a thing. She looked at Harry and he shook his head, a silent agreement they'd never tell her.

"One for Harry…" said Slughorn, dividing a second bottle between two mugs, "… One for Alicia…" he uncorked another bottle "…and one for me. Well" — he raised his mug high — "to Aragog."

"Aragog," said Alicia, Harry and Hagrid together.

Both Slughorn and Hagrid drank deeply. Alicia took a sip of her's before putting it down, deciding it best she didn't over indulge in the wine. She'd rather be awake and alert instead of drunk and disoriented. Harry, however, pretended to take a gulp and then set the mug back on the table before him.

"I had him from an egg, yeh know," said Hagrid morosely. "Tiny little thing he was when he hatched. 'Bout the size of a Pekingese."

"Sweet," said Slughorn.

"Used ter keep him in a cupboard up at the school until… well…"

Hagrid's face darkened and the twins knew why. Tom Riddle had contrived to have Hagrid thrown out of school, blamed for opening the Chamber of Secrets. Slughorn, however, did not seem to be listening; he was looking up at the ceiling, from which a number of brass pots hung, and also a long, silky skein of bright white hair.

"That's never unicorn hair, Hagrid?"

"Oh, yeah," said Hagrid indifferently. "Gets pulled out of their tails, they catch it on branches an' stuff in the forest, yeh know…"

"But my dear chap, do you know how much that's worth?"

"I use it fer bindin' on bandages an' stuff if a creature gets injured," said Hagrid, shrugging. "It's dead useful… very strong, see."

He likes his valuables from magic creatures doesn't he. Alicia thought and Harry nodded slightly beside her.

Slughorn took another deep draught from his mug, his eyes moving carefully around the cabin now, looking for more treasures that he might be able to convert into a plentiful supply of oak-matured mead, crystallised pineapple, and velvet smoking jackets. He refilled Hagrid's mug and his own, and questioned him about the creatures that lived in the forest these days and how Hagrid was able to look after them all. Hagrid, becoming expansive under the influence of the drink and Slughorn's flattering interest, stopped mopping his eyes and entered happily into a long explanation of bowtruckle husbandry.

Harry nudged Alicia beside her and she glanced at him.

Can you refill the bottles? he asked.

You think Felix doesn't have the power to let you do it. Try. she responded with a grin.

Harry looked thoughtful as he pulled out his wand under the table and, unnoticed by either Hagrid or Slughorn (now swapping tales of the illegal trade in dragon eggs) with a point of his wand, the emptying bottles were immediately refilled.

After an hour or so, Hagrid and Slughorn began making extravagant toasts: to Hogwarts, to Dumbledore, to elf-made wine, and to —

"Harry Potter!" bellowed Hagrid, slopping some of his fourteenth bucket of wine down his chin as he drained it.

"Yes, indeed, and Alicia Potter!" cried Slughorn a little thickly, "Parry Otter, the Chosen Boy Who — well — something of that sort," he mumbled, and drained his mug too.

Alicia chuckled at their antics, quite enjoying the scene before them.

Not long after this, Hagrid became tearful again and pressed the whole unicorn tail upon Slughorn, who pocketed it with cries of, "To friendship! To generosity! To ten Galleons a hair!"

And for a while after that, Hagrid and Slughorn were sitting side by side, arms around each other, singing a slow sad song about a dying wizard called Odo.

"Aaargh, the good die young," muttered Hagrid, slumping low onto the table, a little cross-eyed, while Slughorn continued to warble the refrain. "Me dad was no age ter go… nor were yer mum an' dad, Harry, Alicia…"

Great fat tears oozed out of the corners of Hagrid's crinkled eyes again; he grasped Harry's arm and shook it.

"Bes' wiz and witchard o' their age I never knew… terrible thing… terrible thing…"

"Seems to be the way when you defy Voldemort." Alicia mumbled, staring at the table at the prospect, Harry glancing at her.

"And Odo the hero, they bore him back home To the place that he'd known as a lad," sang Slughorn plaintively. "They laid him to rest with his hat inside out And his wand snapped in two, which was sad."

"… terrible," Hagrid grunted, and his great shaggy head rolled sideways onto his arms and he fell asleep, snoring deeply.

"Sorry," said Slughorn with a hiccup. "Can't carry a tune to save my life."

"Hagrid wasn't talking about your singing," said Harry quietly. "He was talking about our mum and dad dying." Alicia nodding, her eyes still transfixed as though looking eons away from the hut.

"Oh," said Slughorn, repressing a large belch. "Oh dear. Yes, that was — was terrible indeed. Terrible… terrible…"

He looked quite at a loss for what to say, and resorted to refilling their mugs.

"I don't — don't suppose either of you remember it?" he asked awkwardly.

"No — well, Alicia and I were only one when they died," said Harry, his eyes on the flame of the candle flickering in Hagrid's heavy snores. "But I've found out pretty much what happened since. My dad died first. Did you know that?"

"I — I didn't," said Slughorn in a hushed voice.

"He tried to protect us and our mum." Alicia said

"Yeah… Voldemort murdered him and then stepped over his body toward my mum," said Harry.

Slughorn gave a great shudder, but he did not seem able to tear his horrified gaze away from Harry's face.

"He told her to get out of the way," said Harry remorselessly. "He told me she needn't have died. He only wanted me. She could have run."

"He offered her a chance to live, something he didn't give our father." Alicia mumbled, her eyebrows creasing slightly at that truth.

"Oh dear," breathed Slughorn. "She could have… she needn't… That's awful…"

"It is, isn't it?" said Harry, in a voice barely more than a whisper.

"DIdn't care about herself, only cared about us." Alicia mumbled.

"But she didn't move. Dad was already dead, but she didn't want me to go too. She tried to plead with Voldemort… but he just laughed…"

"That's enough!" said Slughorn suddenly, raising a shaking hand. "Really, my dear boy, enough… I'm an old man… I don't need to hear… I don't want to hear…"

"I forgot," lied Harry "You liked her, didn't you?"

"Liked her?" said Slughorn, his eyes brimming with tears once more. "I don't imagine anyone who met her wouldn't have liked her… Very brave… Very funny… So much like you dear Alicia, It was the most horrible thing…"

"I'm sure I can think of some people who don't like me." Alicia smirked slightly. "Voldemort for example, who'll kill me when I try to get in the way of him and Harry." she said "Just like my mother."

"My dear girl…"

"Say what you will but I will do it!" Alicia said and she looked at him strongly "And it seems I have no other option, because of you." Slughorn looked at her through his tear filled eyes.

"You won't help her son," said Harry. "She gave me her life, but you won't give me a memory."

Hagrid's rumbling snores filled the cabin. Harry looked steadily into Slughorn's tear-filled eyes. The Potions master seemed unable to look away.

"Don't say that," he whispered. "It isn't a question… If it were to help you, of course… but no purpose can be served…"

"It can," said Harry clearly. "Dumbledore needs information. I need information."

"It can save us." Alicia said "It can save Harry. It's the least piece of the puzzle, to ending these dark days of war."

"I am the Chosen One. I have to kill him. I need that memory." Alicia said nothing more, letting Harry be guided by Felix.

Slughorn turned paler than ever; his shiny forehead gleamed with sweat.

"You are the Chosen One?"

"Of course I am," said Harry calmly.

"But then… my dear boy… you're asking a great deal… you're asking me, in fact, to aid you in your attempt to destroy —"

"You don't want to get rid of the wizard who killed Lily Evans?"

"Harry, Harry, of course I do, but —"

"You're scared he'll find out you helped me?"

Slughorn said nothing; he looked terrified. Alicia pursed her lips and watched them. She felt like snapping at him for being selfish, but she couldn't be angry that someone was scared of the unknown.

"Be brave like my mother, Professor…"

Slughorn raised a pudgy hand and pressed his shaking fingers to his mouth; he looked for a moment like an enormously overgrown baby.

"I am not proud…" he whispered through his fingers. "I am ashamed of what — of what that memory shows… I think I may have done great damage that day…"

"But it can be fixed." Alicia said softly, smiling gently at him and he looked at her. "If you think you made a mistake, we can help mend it."

"You'd cancel out anything you did by giving me the memory," said Harry. "It would be a very brave and noble thing to do."

There was silence as Slughorn looked at the twins and neither broke turned away from Slughorn, neither lowered their gaze or softened it. Neither spoke either, letting Slughorn come to terms on his own as he contemplated.

Then, very slowly, Slughorn put his hand in his pocket and pulled out his wand. He put his other hand inside his cloak and took out a small, empty bottle. Slughorn touched the tip of his wand to his temple and withdrew it, so that a long, silver thread of memory came away too, clinging to the wand tip. Longer and longer the memory stretched until it broke and swung, silvery bright, from the wand. Slughorn lowered it into the bottle where it coiled, then spread, swirling like gas. He corked the bottle with a trembling hand and then passed it across the table to Harry.

"Thank you very much, Professor."

"You're a good boy," said Professor Slughorn, tears trickling down his fat cheeks into his walrus moustache. "And you've got her eyes… Just don't think too badly of me once you've seen it…"

"We wont Professor." Alicia whispered to him "How could you have known?" he looked at her deeply. "He fooled you professor, that is nothing you have to be ashamed of." He smiled at her

"Just like your mother."

And he too put his head on his arms, gave a deep sigh, and fell asleep.