Chapter 9

Where was Dumbledore, and what was he doing? Harry caught sight of the Headmaster only twice over the next few weeks. He rarely appeared for meals anymore and Harry was pretty sure that Dumbledore was leaving the school to find Horcruxes.

Halfway through October came their first Hogsmead trip, Harry had wondered whether these trips would still be allowed, given the increasingly tight security measures around the school, but was pleased to know that they were going ahead; it was always good to get out of the castle grounds for a few hours.

Harry woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy, and whiled away the time until breakfast by reading his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. He did not usually lie in bed reading his textbooks; It was weird, as his dorm mates made clear. Harry felt, however, that the Half-Blood Princes copy of Advanced Potion-Making hardly qualified as a textbook. The more Harry pored over the book, the more he realized how much was in there, not only the handy hints and shortcuts on potions that were earning him such a glowing reputation with Slughorn, but also the imaginative little jinxes and hexes scribbled in the margins, which Harry was sure, judging by the crossings-out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself.

Harry had already attempted a few of the Prince's self-invented spells. There had been a hex that caused toenails to grow alarmingly fast (he had tried this on Crabbe in the corridor, with very entertaining results); a jinx that glued the tongue to the roof of the mouth (which he had twice used, to general applause, on an unsuspecting Argus Filch); and, perhaps most useful of all, Muffliato, a spell that filled the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing, so that lengthy conversations could be held in class without being overheard(he had used this on the people around Harry and Hermione when she was saying things he didn't hear).

Sitting up in bed, Harry turned the book sideways to examine more closely the scribbled instructions for a spell that seemed to have caused the Prince some trouble. There were many crossings-out and alterations, but finally, crammed into a corner of the page, the scribble:

Levicorpus (nvbl)

Nvlb must mean Nonverbal. That didn't faze Harry one bit, while most people struggled with nonverbal spells, Harry had an affinity for them and planned to find out what this spell did today. Harry looked for the counter-jinx, Liberacorpus, that's the counter-jinx. Satisfied, Harry closed the book and put it under his mattress while making sure to not wake anyone up.

By the time Harry had gotten dressed in a soft shirt, a nice sweater, a scarf, the overcoat he wore to Slughorn's party, and some leather gloves his dorm mates started waking up. Harry left the dorm room without saying a word to them and made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, Ron and Neville told them what happened and what was said at Slughorn's party so they stopped talking to Harry, not like they talked much anyway. Harry was content with the silence that is now accustomed to their dorm and didn't want that to change.

As Harry was filling his plate someone tapped his shoulder, he had to stop himself from jumping in surprise and cursed himself for not being aware. Harry turned to see Ginny standing there holding a scroll of parchment out to him.

"You know, for people who think I'm being influenced by Voldemort, you're doing a very poor job at showing compassion," Harry said and grabbed the scroll before continuing. "Don't get me wrong, I don't want your compassion. I just wanted to know your line of thought on the matter."

Harry turned back to his plate and started eating, she stood there for a minute but then walked away, it was clear Harry had made her think hard about how they confronted him. He looked at the scroll of parchment with Harry's name written upon it in familiar thin, slanting writing. Harry pulled open the parchment and quickly read-ing its contents. It was another lesson Dumbledore scheduled as Harry expected, on Monday evening. The old man finally found something.

Filch was standing at the oak front doors, as usual, checking off the names of people who had permission to go into Hogsmeade. The process took even longer than normal as Filch was triple-checking everybody with his Secrecy Sensor. Harry still felt the jabs of the sensor as he stepped out into the wind and sleet.

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Harry wrapped his scarf over his lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once Harry wondered whether they might not have had a better time in the warm common room, and when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. He stopped at Honeydukes to get a bag of sweets and then went to the Three Broomsticks.

The street was not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations. The exceptions were two men a little ahead of them, standing just outside the Three Broomsticks. One was very tall and thin; squinting through his rain-washed glasses Harry recognized the barman who worked in the other Hogsmeade pub, the Hog's Head. As Harry drew closer, the barman drew his cloak more tightly around his neck and walked away, leaving the shorter man to fumble with something in his arms. They were barely feet from him when Harry realized who the man was.

"Mundungus!"

The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair jumped and dropped an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window.

"Oh, 'hello, 'Arry," said Mundungus Fletcher, with a most unconvincing stab at airiness. "Well, don't let me keep ya."

"Are you selling this stuff?" asked Harry, watching Mundungus grab an assortment of grubby-looking objects from the ground.

"Oh, well, gotta scrape a living," said Mundungus. "Gimme that!"

"Hang on," Harry said slowly. "This looks familiar -" He stooped down and picked up a silver goblet.

"Thank you!" said Mundungus, snatching the goblet out of Harry's hand and stuffing it back into the case. "Well, I'll see you all _ OUCH!"

Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.

"Harry!" A voice shouted, Harry barely registered it and applied more pressure to Mundungus' throat.

"You took that from Sinus's house," said Harry, who was almost nose to nose with Mundungus. "That had the Black family crest on it."

"I - no - what - ?" spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple.

"What did you do, go back the night he died and strip the place?" snarled Harry.

"I - no - "

"Is that all of it or did you take more, and this case is just the stuff you're pawning off to other bastards like yourself," Harry said. Mundungus made a pitiful noise and someone shouted at him as Mundungus was now purple. Harry put his wand away and patted Mundungus down with his free hand and felt something in his coat pocket, he grabbed it and when he looked at it he was suddenly filled with images in his mind and stopped as quickly as they came, it was the locket from the memories Dumbledore showed him, he quickly stuffed it in his pocket angrier all of a sudden.

"You're gonna regret this you thieving bastard," Harry said in a whisper and just as Mundungus started to lose consciousness there was a bang and Harry felt his hand fly off of Mundungus' throat and with another bang Harry was sent stumbling back a few paces. Mundungus had dropped to the ground wheezing and holding his throat, Harry walked towards Mundungus who hastily grabbed his fallen case, then- CRACK- he Disapparated.

Harry looked to the sky and screamed in anger. He whirled around to see who let him escape and saw Tonks standing there with her wand still out.

"Why the fuck would you let him go!" He shouted at her. Hermione and Ron were standing there watching the events unfold.

"Because you were hurting him," Tonks said.

"I don't give a fuck if I hurt him. He stole Sirius' things." Harry said, taking a few steps towards Tonks who tightened her fingers around her wand.

"Still got the wand out, hey. Don't worry, as long as no one has wronged me no one is gonna get hurt. Mundungus stole Sirius' things which are now mine so I choked him out." Harry said.

"You can't go around choking people against walls just because of they-." Tonks started.

"Fuck off," Harry said, cutting her off and dismissively waving his hand at her. He turned and went into the pub quickly. He paid extra for a room farther into the pub so when people came in he didn't get hit with a gust of cold wind. Sitting at the only table that didn't have anyone at it, Harry poured whiskey into his glass, whiskey, that took a while to convince Rosmerta to give him.

Harry spaced out and sipped on his whiskey until the door to the less populated room opened, he looked up and Daphne and Tracy walked in, holding a Butterbeer each. They spotted him and walked over to his table and sat down.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Daphne asked.

"Nope, I'm here by myself," Harry said. This obviously surprised and intrigued them, most people who are out alone look uncomfortably tense.

"I hear you choked out some old sod just outside this place," Daphne said.

"Rumors travel quickly," Harry said, mostly to himself. "It's true. The bastard stole from me. A stupid Auror had to let him go."

Harry got a pair of smiles at that.

"I didn't expect that to come from Harry Potter's mouth," Daphne said.

"You're acting more like a Pureblood every day," Tracy said.

"No, I'm just sticking up for myself and making my own decisions, while not giving a shit what other people think. Something I should have been doing a long time ago." Harry said, finishing his glass of whiskey.

"You sure like your whiskey," Daphne noted, just to break the slightly tense silence.

"Yeah. I have your dad to thank for that." Harry said.

"My dad?" She said, confused.

"Yeah, when I met him in Castle Combe he told me where his firewhiskey was when he was leaving so I took it upon myself to take the full bottle back home," Harry said.

"I've been trying to get him to give me some for a year and you knew him for five minutes and he gave you a whole bottle. Ridiculous." Daphne said, crossing her arms.

"Well, I'm gonna head back before the weather gets even worse," Harry said and stuffed the bottle of firewhiskey into his Honeydukes bag.

"How do you expect to get that inside the castle?" Tracy said.

"Secret passage," Harry said with a wink and left them sitting at the table.

Harry was making his way to Honeydukes to use the secret passage in the cellar when he heard a scream in the distance. He ran quickly in the direction of the scream and arrived in time to see Katie Bell floating in the air as if she had been crucified, still screaming. She fell to the ground where she thrashed and screamed thrashed and screamed. Harry ran up to them and saw Ron, Hermione, and Leanne just standing there doing nothing.

"Fools! Don't just stand there." Harry shouted. He took his wand out and sent multiple red sparks into the air before looking around, he saw a necklace, one he recognized from Borgin and Burkes. It has a sign saying it killed nineteen muggles. Ron noticed it too and bent down to pick it up, Harry leaped at him and pushed him before he could touch the necklace.

"What was that for," Ron said angrily.

"Are you fucking stupid? Katie has obviously been cursed by this necklace. Leanne, don't touch her!" Harry said and wrapped the necklace in his scarf.

"What happened here?" The gruff voice of Hagrid shouted as he lumbered toward them.

"She's been cursed by this necklace. She must have only brushed against it because if she didn't she would have died instantly." Harry said.

Hagrid stared at Katie for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, Katie's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.

Hermione hurried over to Katie's wailing friend and put an arm around her.

"It's Leanne, isn't it?"

The girl nodded.

"Did it just happen all of a sudden, or - ?"

"It was when that package tore," sobbed Leanne, pointing at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open. Nothing was in it as Harry had it in his hand, wrapped in his scarf.

He looked up at Leanne, who had started to shake uncontrollably. "How did Katie get hold of this?"

"Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked all funny when she said it. … Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!"

Leanne shook with renewed sobs. Hermione patted her shoulder gently.

"She didn't say who'd given it to her, Leanne?"

"No . . . she wouldn't tell me . . . and I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to school, but she just wouldn't listen and . . . and then I tried to grab it from her . . . and - and -" Leanne let out a wail of despair.

"We'd better get up to school," said Hermione, her arm still around Leanne. "We'll be able to find out how she is. Come on. . . ."

"I need to get this to Pomfrey or Snape," Harry said and ran ahead of them.

Harry looked up and Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet them.

"Hagrid says you and four others saw what happened to Katie Bell - upstairs to my office at once, please! What's that you're holding, Potter?"

"It's the thing she touched," said Harry.

"Good lord," said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Harry. "No, no, Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily, as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft. "Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf!"

Harry followed Professor McGonagall upstairs and into her office. The sleet-spattered windows were rattling in their frames, and the room was chilly despite the fire crackling in the grate. Professor McGonagall left Harry sitting there to go get Ron, Hermione, and Leanne who would be here by now. She brought them in a minute later and closed the door and swept around her desk to face them.

"Well?" she said sharply. "What happened?"

Haltingly, and with many pauses while she attempted to control her crying, Leanne told Professor McGonagall how Katie had gone to the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks and returned holding the unmarked package, how Katie had seemed a little odd, and how they had argued about the advisability of agreeing to deliver unknown objects, the argument culminating in the tussle over the parcel, which tore open. At this point, Leanne was so overcome, there was no getting another word out of her.

"All right," said Professor McGonagall, not unkindly, "go up to the hospital wing, please, Leanne, and get Madam Pomfrey to give you something for the shock."

When she had left the room, Professor McGonagall turned back to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"What happened when Katie touched the necklace?"

"She rose in the air," said Harry, before either Ron or Hermione could speak, "and then began to scream, and collapsed."

"I think it was Draco Malfoy," Ron said, causing Hermione to put her face in her hands.

"That is a serious accusation, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said and continued before Ron could say anything else. "One that is false because Mr. Malfoy was in detention with me."

"If that is all you may leave now."

Ron and Hermione left the room but Harry stayed put, causing McGonagall to raise her eyebrow.

"Not that I'm agreeing with Ron's accusation, I just think it would be foolish to not consider all possibilities. We are surrounded by magic and almost anything is possible. Draco could have got a friend to polyjuice as him to serve the detention so he could go to Hogsmead or he could have put the Imperius curse on someone in Hogsmeade and made them put the Imperius curse on Katie to get her to take the package into Hogwarts."

"And who would the package be for?" McGonagall asked. Harry wasn't sure if she was actually entertaining his line of thought or is just finding it amusing.

"I thought it would be obvious, Professor. The Headmaster is the only person Voldemort ever feared. You aren't a fool, Professor and you are an Order member, and you know that Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater. Some people would say that Voldemort would never use children and that confuses me. Voldemort doesn't care for other people's lives. If Draco was willing to take his father's place while he is still in prison then he would be perfect for getting rid of Dumbledore." Harry said.

"Leave that line of thought to the Aurors," McGonagall said, clearly thinking deeply.

"Then I pray competent Aurors are put on this case. Good day to you, Professor." Harry said and left her office.

He made his way to the Gryffindor tower and came face to face with the Fat Lady.

"Dilligrout," Harry said and the portrait swung open to admit him to the common room.

Harry changed into dry clothes once he got to his dorm room and laid on his bed to practice Occlumency.