Chapter 7
For or the rest of the week's Potions lessons Harry continued to follow the Half-Blood Prince's instructions wherever they deviated from Libatius Borage's, with the result that by their fourth lesson Slughorn was raving about Harry's abilities, saying that he had rarely taught anyone so talented. Neither Ron nor Hermione was delighted by this. Hermione because he was consistently doing better than her. Ron, well, Harry thinks Ron is just jealous again, he could also tell that they were frustrated in their efforts to report something useful to the Headmaster. Harry ordered a book called Potion Ingredients and Why They React The Way They Do, he didn't want his knowledge on the subject to be fake.
Glad that the weekend was here, Harry made his way to the Headmasters office for his first lesson.
"Acid Pops," said Harry, and the gargoyle leaped aside; the wall behind it slid apart, and a moving spiral stone staircase was revealed, onto which Harry stepped, so that he was carried in smooth circles up to the door with the brass knocker that led to Dumbledore's Office.
"Come in," said Dumbledore's voice after he knocked.
"Good morning, Professor," Harry said, walking into the Headmasters office.
"Ah, good morning, Harry, takes a seat," Dumbledore said, smiling. "I hope you've had an enjoyable first week back at school?"
"Yes, thanks, sir," Harry said.
"Your marks have gone up in potions," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, I guess you could say that I and Professor Slughorn are a good match for potions, though I do have to admit that Snape teaches Defense fairly well," Harry said. All of that was the truth even though he left out the Half-Blood-Princes book.
"Yes, Well, I suppose we should start the lesson now. From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork." Dumbledore said.
Dumbledore got to his feet and walked around the desk, bent over the cabinet beside the door. When Dumbledore straightened up, he was holding a familiar shallow stone basin etched with odd markings around its rim. He placed the Pensieve on the desk in front of Harry.
"We are going for a trip down Bob Ogden's memory lane," said Dumbledore, pulling from his pocket a crystal bottle containing a swirling silvery-white substance. Harry didn't know who Bob Ogden was but he assumed he would find out.
Dumbledore tipped the silvery contents of the bottle into the Pensieve, where they swirled and shimmered, neither liquid nor gas. "After you," said Dumbledore, gesturing toward the bowl.
Harry bent forward, took a deep breath, and plunged his face into the silvery substance. He felt his feet leave the office floor; he was falling, falling through whirling darkness and then, quite suddenly, he was blinking in dazzling sunlight. Before his eyes had adjusted, Dumbledore landed beside him.
Some ten feet in front of them stood a short, plump man wearing enormously thick glasses that reduced his eyes to mole-like specks. He was reading a wooden signpost that was sticking out of the brambles on the left-hand side of the road. Harry knew this must be Ogden. Bob set off in a brisk walk down the lane.
They followed Bob to a building half-hidden amongst the tangle of trunks. It seemed to him a very strange location to choose for a house, or else an odd decision to leave the trees growing nearby, blocking all light and the view of the valley below.
"Er-good morning. I'm from the Ministry of Magic -"
"You're not welcome."
"Er-I'm sorry... I don't understand you," said Ogden nervously.
That confused Harry, the man was being very clear in his opinion, with the wand brandished in his left hand and a knife in the other, then Harry looked at the snake nailed to the door and realized the man was speaking parseltongue.
Finally making it inside the house after the little confrontation. The house seemed to contain three tiny rooms. Two doors led off the main room, which served as kitchen and living room combined. Morfin was sitting in a filthy armchair beside the smoking fire, twisting a live adder between his thick fingers and crooning softly at it in Parseltongue:
Hissy, hissy, little snakey,
Slither on the floor
You be good to Morfin
Or he'll nail you to the door.
After telling Mr. Gaunt that his son received a summons from the ministry to stand trial the situation got worse. Mr. Gaunt advanced on Bob, shoving his dirty long pointer fingernail into his chest.
"Do you know who you're speaking to?!" He bellowed, waving his hand in front of Bob's face so he could see the ring on it. "See this? See this? Know what it is? Know where it came from? Centuries it's been in our family, that's how far back we go, and pure-blood all the way! Know how much I've been offered for this, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved on the stone?"
At that Harry perked up, he heard the name Peverell before, he moved forward to get a closer look. The Peverell coat of arms was a triangle with a circle inside it and a line going from the bottom of the triangle, through the circle, and to the tip of the triangle. Seemed like a plain coat of arms to Harry, it must mean something.
"I've really no idea," said Ogden, blinking as the ring sailed within an inch of his nose, "and it's quite beside the point, Mr. Gaunt. Your son has committed -"
With a howl of rage, Gaunt ran toward his daughter. For a split second, Harry thought he was going to throttle her as his hand flew to her throat; next moment, he was dragging her toward Ogden by a gold chain around her neck.
"See this?" he bellowed at Ogden, shaking a heavy gold locket at him, while Merope spluttered and gasped for breath.
"I see it, I see it!" said Ogden hastily.
"Slytherins!" yelled Gaunt. "Salazar Slytherin's! We're his last living descendants, what do you say to that, eh?"
"Mr. Gaunt," said Ogden doggedly, "I am afraid that neither your ancestors nor mine have anything to do with the matter in hand. I am here because of Morfin, Morfin and the Muggle he accosted late last night. Our information"-he glanced down at his scroll of parchment-"is that Morfin performed a jinx or hex on the said Muggle, causing him to erupt in highly painful hives."
Then after the fiasco of Gaunt finding out that Merpop liked looking at the muggle named Tom, he ran at his daughter and grabbed her by her throat screaming about blood traitors. Bob fired a spell that knocked Gaunt over but Morfin got mad and started firing hexes at Bob, who ran for his life. They followed Bob out of the house and watched as he collided with a horse ridden by the handsome muggle.
"That'll do Harry, Ogden Apparated back to the Ministry and returned with reinforcements within fifteen minutes. Morfin and his father attempted to fight, but both were overpowered, removed from the cottage, and subsequently convicted by the Wizengamot. Morfin, who already had a record of Muggle attacks, was sentenced to three years in Azkaban. Marvolo, who had injured several Ministry employees in addition to Ogden, received six months."
"Marvolo?" Harry repeated wonderingly. "He was Voldemort's grandfather? So Merpop was Voldemort mother"
"Yes and I believe we got a glimpse of his father too," Dumbledore said.
"It was the muggle Merpop looks at, wasn't it," Harry said to which Dumbledore nodded. Harry laughed, the leader of pureblood supremacy was the son of a muggle and a witch on the power scale of something a bit more than a squib.
"Judging by your laugh you realized the hypocrisy in Voldemort," Dumbledore said. They disused multiple things about the Gaunts and how Merpop got Tom Riddle and that it was very important to know Voldemort's past. Now that Harry was thinking of it wouldn't this be the perfect way to figure out what Voldemort used to create Horcruxes? Harry thought about this for a while before this lesson was a thing and concluded that Voldemort must have more than one and that he was an accidental Horcrux
"Sir," said Harry, staring at it. "That ring-"
"Yes?" said Dumbledore.
"You were wearing it when we visited Professor Slughorn that night."
"So I was," Dumbledore agreed.
"But isn't it... sir, isn't it the same ring Marvolo Gaunt showed Ogden?"
Dumbledore bowed his head. "The very same."
"But how come... have you always had it?"
"No, I acquired it very recently," said Dumbledore. "A few days before I came to fetch you from your aunt and uncle's."
"That would be around the time you injured your hand, then, sir?"
"Around that time, yes, Harry."
Harry hesitated. Dumbledore was smiling.
"Sir, how exactly-?"
"You shall hear the story another time. Have a good day Harry"
"You too, sir."
Harry left Dumbeldore's office thinking about Horcruxes. It was obvious now that the ring was a Horcrux, that locket must be one too. How many would Voldemort make though? Harry thought about what Voldemort was obsessed with and the answer became clear, Magic, Voldemort was obsessed with magic and the number seven was a lucky number in magic, Voldemort must have tried creating seven Horcruxes.
I still don't know how many he has though, Dumbledore at least has a guess and is on his way on finding out exactly, maybe I can tolerate being in the same room with Dumbledore for these lessons, Harry thought.
Now Harry has to go to the Quidditch pitch to hold the trials for his team, and then he has that party Slughorn invited him to in the evening. Harry stopped by the Great Hall for lunch then he went to the Quidditch pitch, he showed up a bit late and saw everyone in their gear waiting for him, mingling about with each other.
"Alright, listen up," Harry shouted once within their hearing range. "Sorry I'm late, the appointment with Dumbledore took longer than expected."
"A little bit? It was ten minutes. Some people left because you took so long." Someone said from the back of the large group.
"Splendid. If they couldn't wait ten minutes they don't have what it takes. Now every one from first year, leave unless you have explicit permission from Professor McGonagall" Harry said and watched as ten first years left.
"Everybody, take a lap around the pitch," Harry said, half the people couldn't fly so Harry sent them back to the school.
"Now that we have a quarter of the amount we started with we can do a scrimmage," Harry said and then divided the group in half, threw the quaffle in the air and watched them play.
"Chasers are Katie Bell, Demelza Robins, and Ginny Weasley. Beaters are Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote. Keeper is Ron Weasley. Have a good rest of your day everyone. Cormac stays behind please." Harry said.
Harry waited for everyone to leave before turning to McLaggen.
"Look, McLaggen, you both would have saved all ten shots if it wasn't for Hermione how confounded you. Ron has performance issues and if he played terribly in his first game I'll give him half of the second game to pull it together. If he doesn't pull it together, you're on the team. That is all I can do." Harry said, making Cormac surprised.
"Thanks, Harry. That's not what I was expecting at all. See you at Slughorn's party." Cormac said and then started walking back to the castle.
Harry sighed, the lesson with Dumbledore took up his morning, Quidditch tryouts took up his afternoon and now he has a party to go to soon. Harry didn't bother changing out of his Quidditch robes, instead, he went to dinner with them on, not caring if he smelt like sweat. He finished dinner, stood up and left the table without saying anything, Harry went to the prefect's bathroom to get all the sweat from Quidditch off.
Slipping into the warm water, Harry let out a relaxed sigh. Sinking deeper into the water, Harry used this time to think. He keeps surprising himself with the fact that he hasn't blown up on Dumbledore or Ron and Hermione, all three of them deserved it, maybe he should talk to Dumbledore and tell him that he knows about the Horcrux inside him, more thinking on that should give him his answer.
Gareth hasn't contacted him so Harry is assuming that he is fine, he needs to find Gareth's daughters though, so he could give them the message Gareth wanted him to. Maybe he'll see them at Slughorn's party.
Harry was wearing a vintage tweed three-piece smokey grey suit, a white button-up shirt and a slim knitted black tie with a gold tie clip, black dress shoes, and a long overcoat with red lining. All of it slim fit and made only for him, he didn't know why he went all out on this outfit, he just had a feeling and he let that feeling do the work for him, the same thing he did with his hair cut, which everyone has commented, telling him it was different but looked good.
He made his way to Slughorn's office, where the party was, Harry assumed that there would be an expansion charm put on the room for tonight as it was the entire Slug Club and their guests going to the party.
Harry knocked on Slughorn's office door and it opened almost immediately, revealing Slughorn, who beamed when he saw it was Harry.
"Harry, my boy, how are you? Come in, come in." Slughorn said and slung his arm around Harry's shoulders and led him to a less populated side of the conjured bar.
The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald and silver hangings so that it looked as though they were all inside a vast tent. The room was crowded and stuffy and bathed in the faint white light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the center of the ceiling in which real fairies were fluttering, each a brilliant speck of light. Loud singing accompanied by what sounded like mandolins issued from a distant corner; a haze of pipe smoke hung over several elderly warlocks deep in conversation, and several house-elves were negotiating their way squeakily through the forest of knees, obscured by the heavy silver platters of food they were carrying, so that they looked like little roving tables.
"What do you want? You can have anything tonight, on me, only don't tell anyone." Slughorn said with a wink. Maybe this won't be too bad after all, Harry thought.
"I'll take a glass of Firewhiskey," Harry said with a grin.
"Oho, a favorite of yours? Mine too." Slughorn said and waved the barman over and gave him the order. Soon Harry had a full glass of Firewhiskey in his hand.
"Make sure to steer away from the teachers while you have this," Slughorn said. "Oh, this will give free drinks, without restriction, just show it to the barman."
Slughorn handed him a card that Harry stuffed into his pocket without looking at it.
"Do you happen to know if one or both of the Greengrass sisters are here?" Harry asked. Slughorn grinned and pointed to a corner across the room where two girls were sitting at a table, talking. Harry made his way through the crowd, taking treats off platers as he went, he got to the table and sat down, causing both girls to raise their eyebrows.
"What do you want, Potter." said one of the girls, looking somewhat annoyed, she had black hair, ice-blue eyes, and high cheekbones. The voice lacked the venom he usually heard from the Slytherins.
"Are both of you Greengrass?" Harry asked.
"No, that's Tracy Davis. I'm Daphne Greengrass, my sister Astoria couldn't make it tonight." Said the black-haired girl.
"Do you trust her?" Harry asked, indicating to Tracy, a dirty blond, brown-eyed girl with less delicate facial features as Daphne.
"With my life," Daphne said, making Tracy's eyes go wide. Harry leaned forward across the table, adding to the suspense.
"I've been in contact with your father," Harry whispered to Daphne, making her eyes widen and Tracy gasp.
"How?" Daphne said harshly, now leaning across the table too.
"Did you hear about the attack on Castle Combe?" Harry asked, now leaning back and both girls nodded. "That was where your dad was hiding and Voldemort tracked him there, the Order of The Phoenix went to stop the attack. I, uh, found my way there and heard a noise coming from a house way away from the battle, it was your dad and two Death Eaters, he downed one and I got the other, after talking for a bit he gave me Firewhiskey and then left. Three weeks after that I met him at the Leaky Cauldron and filled him in on what was going on. He wanted me to tell you and your sister that he was alright."
Daphne let out a long breath and leaned back in her seat.
"Wow," Tracy said.
"Do you know why he's on the run?" Daphne asked.
"He knows something Voldemort doesn't want other people knowing," Harry said. "I have an idea of what it is too."
"Tell me," Daphne demanded.
"No, your father wouldn't want you to know what is making Voldemort go after him and it's not something people should know about in the first place," Harry said Daphne looked surprised at that. Shit bit her lip and appeared to be deep in thought.
"Fine," Daphne said after a little bit, confusing Harry.
"You're just accepting all that?" Harry asked to which Daphne nodded. "I'm impressed."
"That's because you hang out with immature people," Daphne said, then waited a second before continuing. "You know, I'm impressed too, Potter. You've finally found out what clothes were, I was beginning to think you were content in those rags."
Complementing him by insulting him, very Slytherin. "Mmm, you noticed. I was waiting for someone to compliment me on my new look." Harry said with a grin.
"You could say a new look again, that's for sure," Tracy said.
"What made you want to get rid of the mop that was on your head?" Daphne asked.
"I figured I would be more appealing to the opposite sex this way," Harry said. Tracy nodded and Daphne rolled her eyes.
"Say, where did you get that Firewhiskey?" Daphne asked as Harry finished his glass.
"Slughorn is a very generous person," Harry said, making them laugh.
"Could we get some?" Tracy asked. Daphne looked interested as well.
"Yeah, sure. I'll go get you some." Harry said. Halfway to the bar, Harry was stopped by Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville.
"Why are you with those snakes?" Ron asked harshly.
"Why not?" Harry said causing Ron to sputter like a fish out of water.
"Because they're snakes!" Ron said after regaining his composer.
"So the only thing you have against them is their house? Pathetic," said Harry.
"Harry, Ron is just looking out for you, you don't need to be mean. Ron is right, we can't trust them. You're being influenced, can't you see? Ginny told me about you practicing Dark Magic! We all wondered how that tree branch fell off, she thought we knew what you were doing so she didn't say anything." Hermione said.
Neville looked shocked and then looked at Harry as if he betrayed him somehow. Harry looked around and realized they started attracting the attention of other people. He cast the muffliato charm he found in the Half-Blood Princes book. It causes an unidentifiable buzz in the ears of anyone near the caster so that conversation isn't overheard.
"Hermione," Harry whispered harshly. "You're making a scene."
"I don't care. I can't believe that you use Dark Magic. I need to tell Dumbledore before you hurt yourself." She said.
"Shows what kind of friends you are," Harry said.
"You can't deflect the fact-" She suddenly stopped talking, everyone was confused until they realized Harry's outstretched hand.
"What did you do to her?!" Ron yelled.
"She was starting to annoy me," Harry said. Ron's face went purple in rage and he charged at him. Harry quickly dropped the silencing charm on Hermione and grabbed Ron's head and head but him. Ron's nose cracked and he stumbled back, blood pouring out of his nose, eyes watering.
"Get the fuck out of here," Harry said in a deathly calm voice. All four of them quickly left and the people at the party were still looking at Harry, even though they couldn't hear what was happening. He rolled his eyes and finally got to the bar.
"Three glasses of Firewhiskey, please," Harry said to the barman, showing him the card Slughorn gave him. The three glasses were in front of him right away, Harry downed his immediately and asked for another. He took the three glasses over to the table Daphne and Tracy were at and sat down, they took their drinks with thank you.
"What held you up?" Daphne asked, eyeing the blood on his face.
"Ran into a quartet of annoyances," Harry said.
"Is that why there's blood on your face," Daphne asked after taking a sip.
"Blood? Oh, that must be from when I head but Ron." Harry said.
"Why would you head but your best friend?" Tracy asked.
"I made him mad by putting a silencing charm on Hermione, he charged towards me, so I head but him," Harry said.
"Why did you put a silencing charm on Granger?" Asked Tracy.
"She was getting on my nerves," Harry said. "By the way, about what you said earlier, I don't hang out with them anymore."
