Part III: Revelation
Chapter IV: In Which Ron Becomes Interesting
The next morning, a large sign was posted overnight alerting sixth years that apparition lessons were going to be taking place over the next few months. Corinna eagerly signed up after Harry, but they had scurried off when Lavender started talking to 'Won-Won.' In a surprise move, Ron had managed to get away from Lavender and met them in the portrait hole, causing Hermione to rush ahead of them.
"So, Apparition," said Ron. "Should be a laugh, eh?"
"I dunno," said Harry. "Maybe it's better when you do it yourself. I didn't enjoy it much when Dumbledore took me along for the ride."
"You get used to," said Corinna with a shrug. "It's how Dora got me back and forth."
"You both have already done it?" Ron suddenly looked anxious. "I'd better pass my test first time. Fred and George did."
Corinna tuned out of the conversation as she noticed more glares and whispers than usual, all of them from girls around her age. She had to keep reminding herself that she knew what she was getting into, and she was happy.
"Hey, you alright?" asked Harry as they took seats in the Great Hall. They were surrounded by their fellow sixth years who were all excitedly talking about apparition.
"Yeah, brilliant," said Corinna as she poured herself some tea. They were both in their own little world, reading over the Prophet when Corinna's copy arrived when they were dragged back into the fray.
"Harry and Corinna have already done it—side-along Apparition, you know," Ron bragged to Seamus and the others, and they were suddenly bombarded with questions about it. Even during their lessons, they were constantly asked to describe it, and no one was deterred by how it felt like being squeezed through a tube.
They were sitting in the common room later than evening. Corinna was getting annoyed with everyone bugging them as she just wanted to get some homework done. She was surprised when Harry suddenly stood up and said that he needed to return a book to the library. Corinna offered to go with him, but he took her hand and whispered in her ear that he had to go meet Dumbledore.
So, she sat back down on the couch. There were a couple of stragglers who asked a few more questions, but the crowd eventually dissipated. It was a relief as she still had half of her Herbology essay to write. But, it seemed that Morgana has cursed her as none other than Romilda Vane sat down across from Corinna.
"Why did he pick you?" She spat out the last word as if it tasted bitter.
"Gee, I don't know," said Corinna, not looking up from her textbook where she was trying to find information to pad out her essay, "maybe it's because I treat him like a human being and not like a commodity."
"You must have given him a strong love potion in order to get him to fall for someone like you. You can't even cover up your acne correctly. It just looks blotchy."
"At least I can cover up my acne. There's nothing you can do about your personality."
Vane's lip quivered. "We'll see who wins him in the end, Crouch."
"Probably me since I don't see his affections as a prize to be won."
"Why, you—" Before Vane could pull her wand out, Corinna had hers leveled. "Flipendo!" she said, causing the couch to flip over and Vane to tumble to the ground.
She scrambled to her feet, her perfectly styled hair falling in front of her face. "You're dead, Crouch!"
"Not yet." Corinna slammed her book shut, grabbed her bag, and made her way to the dormitory. She did her best to ignore all the stares and whispers being thrown her way.
The next morning during breakfast, Harry was confiding in Ron and Corinna what Dumbledore had shown him the night before (as Harry had to spend the time getting down to breakfast catching Corinna up to speed on what Dumbledore had been showing him all year). Hermione, of course, was sitting away from Ron as far away as possible. But before Corinna could share her thoughts on how Harry should go about extracting the real memory from Slughorn, McGonagall was trudging down the lane between the two long tables, making a beeline for Corinna.
"Oh, damn," she said under her breath.
Harry looked confused as McGonagall stopped right behind them. "Crouch, come with me to my office."
She gave Harry an apologetic look but dared not say anything as she stood and followed McGonagall to her office. Once she saw a teary-eyed Romilda Vane sitting in front of the desk, she knew what this was all about.
"Do you care to explain to me what happened last night?" McGonagall demanded as she sat down behind her desk and curtly pointed to the vacant for Corinna to sit.
Corinna gave one last glare to Vane, but she kept up the show with a loud sniffle. "Professor, I was sitting there in the common room, minding my own business and writing my charms essay, when Vane came over and started accusing me of stealing Harry out from under her." Under her breath, she added, "As if she ever had a chance."
"What was that, Miss Crouch?"
"As if she had any chance, Professor. She was trying to sneak him a love potion, last I heard."
"Is that true, Miss Vane?"
"I only gave him some cauldron cakes for Christmas," said Vane, in a small voice. The innocent act was honestly so pathetic. "The only thing they have in them is fire whiskey, but the alcohol would be cooked out."
Corinna would eat her left arm if it wasn't laced with something else.
"I should hope so as love potions have some very, very nasty side effects and are, as I am sure you are well aware, banned within Hogwarts."
"Of course, Professor." Vane seemed to be struggling to not smirk.
McGonagall gave her a look and turned back to Corinna. "What happened after that?"
"Vane was about to pull out her wand—"
"No, I wasn't!" Vane was quick to defend, moving to the edge of her seat. "Corinna must have misinterpreted my movement."
"Then why did I see your wand in your hand?"
"Ladies!" McGonagall gave the floor back to Corinna to finish her side of the story.
"So, I used the knockback jinx. The only thing I did wrong was be a better duelist than Vane, Professor."
"That's for me to decide," said McGonagall. "Miss Vane, go to class."
Vane nodded as her lip quivered, but Corinna knew it wasn't from being upset. She collected her bag and shuffled out of the office. Once the door closed, McGonagall turned back to Corinna.
"I will see you tomorrow night in my office for detention," McGonagall said she sat started to write.
"But, Professor—"
"It is prohibited to attack a student, whether it was provoked or not. As you were the only one who cast a spell and the rest is she said, she said, I have to give you detention. Tomorrow night, my office at eight o'clock. You are dismissed."
Corinna's jaw clenched as she grabbed her bag and angry tears threatened her eyes. She stormed out of the office with her fists clutched to her side. Vane was standing off to the side, grinning. She made some snarky comment but Corinna didn't hear. She made her way to the library to meet up with Terry during their free period. She told him what happened last night in the common room.
"What a prat!" said Terry. "And you were the one who got detention?"
"I had gone five-and-a-half years at this stupid school without getting detention!" muttered Corinna, thankful that Pince was busy on the other side of the library. "Now that Vane girl has gone and ruined it."
"You seriously never got detention before this?"
"There was a time I used to keep my nose clean."
"And what does Potter think of you defending his honor?"
"I didn't defend anything," said Corinna as she rubbed her temples at the mounting headache building there. "Vane's just a spoilt brat who thinks she can get whatever she wants by any means necessary. And I didn't even mention this to him. I didn't think Vane would go crying to McGonagall over something as stupid and petty as this."
"She's trying to get under your skin," said Terry and they made to grab their books when Pince glanced their way, but neither of them had any intention on getting work done. "I would be careful if I were you."
"I am not threatened by her," said Corinna as she stared at her unfinished Herbology essay. "I am not about to let the likes of her ruin this for me."
She met Harry, Ron, and Hermione in potions and broke away from Terry as he went to the Ravenclaw table. Hermione took the seat next to Ernie that Corinna usually occupied and, by the looks the three of them sported, she didn't think Hermione was being nice by letting her sit next to Harry. Before they could get a chance to talk, Slughorn called attention. He talked of Golpalott's Third Law about antidotes and blended poisons. Even Corinna had a hard time following along about what was said, and she could only hope that she even got the gist as they were sent to take a vial of poison and create an antidote. She had followed Hermione up to his desk and grabbed a vial at random before everyone else got the cue that they were also supposed to grab a vial.
"It's a shame that the Prince won't be able to help you much with this, Harry," said Hermione when the other three came back with their vials. "You have to understand the principles involved this time. No short cuts or cheats!"
"What is she talking about?" asked Corinna, looking at Harry who seemed at an utter loss.
"It's nothing," muttered Harry, and Corinna couldn't help but be miffed that she was being shut out like this. Hermione gave another indignant "humph" and focused on her work.
Corinna decided to do the same. She dumped the contents of her vial into the cauldron. "Specialis revelio," she muttered and separated each of the separate ingredients. At least she managed to get a poison without too many components as it seemed like she was having a hard time identifying them and looking up the possible antidotes for each. She had barely just began making her antidote when Slughorn called time being up.
Slughorn went around the room, looking at everyone's disappointing attempts at the antidotes. Hermione's was the farthest one along, but it seemed that Harry was somehow the best despite the fact that he didn't even manage to start an antidote.
"You've got a nerve, boy!" said Slughorn after a roar of laughter. "Oh, you're like your mother. I can't fault you as a bezoar would certainly act as an antidote to all these poisons!"
Corinna wasn't sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, she was annoyed that Harry was continuing to be the star of Potions class, but she certainly wasn't angry as Hermione who looked like she was about to have a cow. The bell rang and they packed away. Harry seemed to be taking his time and he shook his head. It seemed he was going to use Slughorn's good mood to get the memory for Dumbledore. She wished him a quick good luck before following the rest of the class out of the room.
They met up in the common room after dinner. It seemed that both Ron and Hermione were annoyed at Harry for different reasons. She sat on one of the couches with Corinna leaning into Harry. They had their homework out, but neither of them were paying attention to what they were doing.
"What's this I hear you jinxed Romilda Vane?" asked Harry.
Corinna rolled her eyes. She told Harry what happened the night before and of what happened in McGonagall's office. She did take a leaflet from Terry's book and exaggerated just how much Vane was laying it on.
"She gave you detention for defending yourself?"
"It's McGonagall. I'm sure all I have to do is write lines, and not with my own blood." She couldn't help but look at Harry's hand where the words 'I must not tell lies' were white marks scarring his skin. "Although there goes my record of never having detention."
"You've never had detention before this?"
"Merlin, I need to sit you and Terry down and remind you of my obnoxiously boring history."
"I doubt it is as boring as you make it seem," said Harry.
"So, who's this Prince Hermione referred to earlier?" asked Corinna, abruptly changing the subject from herself.
"It's nothing," said Harry, looking down at his textbook.
"As you said earlier," said Corinna. She glanced up at Harry, his messy hair covering the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. As interesting as the history behind the scar is, she was more interested in Harry's deep green eyes. "But it's obviously not nothing and I will keep bugging you until you tell me."
Harry seemed to hesitate a moment before pulling his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. "Just…have a look," he said.
Corinna set her own book aside and took Harry's. She opened it to one of the first few pages and stared at all the writing in the margins. "Holy shite," she said, and continued to flip through it. She saw that whoever owned this book before had written alternatives to certain steps. Although some were contradictory, something clicked within Corinna.
"This is how you have been suddenly so good at potions," accused Corinna as she sat up straighter so she could fully face Harry. "You weren't suddenly good because you have a competent teacher. It's…it's whoever wrote all this."
"He called himself 'The Half-Blood Prince,'" Harry explained.
Corinna snorted. "Quite pretentious."
She continued to look through the book and saw that it wasn't just notes about various potions. There were also spells and other notes within the margins. The cramped handwriting made it hard to read, but it was fascinating all the same. Pretentious or not, she would love to meet someone who had this level of knowledge about potions. But, as she read on, her jaw clenched and her eyes burned.
"Are you angry?"
"Yeah, I'm angry," said Corinna as she slammed the book shut. "You didn't get all that praise on your own merit. You were copying someone else's work."
"Well, it turns out I needed to get into Slughorn's good graces since it's going to be harder than I expected to get that memory."
"You were already in his good graces," she pointed out. "And you didn't know you needed the memory until last night." She slammed the book shut and shoved it back at Harry. "I'm going to bed."
"Wait, Corinna!" But she didn't hear what she said as she grabbed her bag and stomped up the stairs.
What annoyed Corinna most about this whole thing was the fact that she had detention because of that cheater.
It wasn't lines like she assumed. She helped McGonagall organized student files. "But if you open any of them, I'll hex your fingers off." She wasn't certain if that was an empty threat, so she dared not so much as let a piece of paper shift into view. Since not much thinking was involved, she thought over what had happened last night now that she was no longer angry. In reality, she could not blame Harry for following this Prince's instructions. If she was being honest with herself, she probably would have done the same thing if she had come across a book of that nature. She admitted so much to Harry when she came back from detention with all her limbs still attached.
"You know, I didn't think we would get our first fight over with in the first forty-eight hours of dating," said Corinna to help lighten the mood, and it seemed that Harry needed it as he was barely talking with Ron and Hermione. "That has got to be a record."
Corinna and Harry spent most of their evenings together, at least the ones that Harry didn't have quidditch practice. He invited Corinna to tag along, but she told him she would once it quit being so damn cold out. She would much rather sit by the fire and wait for him to get back inside. And then force him to go take a shower since, despite the cold, he still got sweaty and sometimes did not smell the most pleasant.
He also decided to lull Slughorn into a false sense of security by keeping up with being his favorite little potion maker. That was the only reason why Corinna hadn't asked him to let her have some information as to what the Prince suggested to do. If this memory was so important to stopping You-Know-Who, it was more important than her final potion grade. He was also hoping to use the Slug Club as a way to get him to talk, but it seemed that no one had received an invitation. Slughorn did not want to give Harry an opportunity to corner him, especially with alcohol being involved.
Even the library failed Hermione. She wasn't able to find a single thing about Horcruxes, the subject of the missing memory. "I've been right through the restricted section and even in the most horrible books, where they tell you how to brew the most gruesome potions. Nothing! All I could find was this, in the introduction to Magick Moste Evile. 'Of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction…' Why mention it, then?" She looked between Corinna and Terry who were sitting in the library doing their homework. "Could you let Harry know, thanks?"
"What's a horcrux?" asked Terry, "and why does Harry need to know?"
"No idea. He mentioned something about extra work with Slughorn." The lie rolled off Corinna's lips. Some things just weren't going to change.
"'Course," said Terry, in which he launched into another tirade about how Harry was suddenly so good at potions. Corinna couldn't blame him because that was how she acted their first day of classes when Harry had won the Felix Felicis from under her. Instead, she just tuned him out and focused on the text she was supposed to read by next Defense class. She was glad when Seamus came by to distract Terry.
January faded into February without much applause as it just left the snow behind and left mud in its wake. She was still getting jeers in the hallways, but it wasn't as bad as in the beginning. No one, at the very least, decided to try to provoke an attack, but Harry still showed Corinna some of the hidden passageways through school so she could avoid the one who hasn't given up: Romilda Vane.
At least the mark of February meant that sixth years could start apparition lessons every Saturday morning. Harry, Hermione, and Corinna went into the Great Hall where all the tables had disappeared. They gathered towards where the staff table would normally be in front of a wispy wizard. He introduced himself as Wilkie Twycross and he was to be their Ministry Apparition Instructor for the next twelve weeks.
"I hope to be able to prepare you for your Apparition test in this time—"
"Malfoy, be quiet and pay attention!" barked McGonagall. Everyone looked around to where Malfoy was standing and he flushed to a dull pink. He angrily stepped away from Crabbe and acted as if he was never called out in the first place.
Even Twycross continued as if he wasn't interrupted, as if he has been saying the same speech over and over again for decades. "by which time, many of you may be ready to take your test."
"As you may know, it is usually impossible to Apparate and Disapparate within Hogwarts. The Headmaster has lifted this enchantment, purely with the Great Hall, for one hour, so as to enable you to practice. May I emphasise that you will not be able to Apparate outside the walls of this Hall, and that you would be unwise to try.
"I would like each of you to place yourselves now so that you have a clear five feet of space in front of you."
People were jostling around to get into position, and Corinna broke away from Harry and Hermione to find a spot by the wall, but it seemed that Harry had other plans. He was rushing off to where the Slytherins were mostly gathering. With a huff of annoyance, she followed after him. "Harry?"
He turned and gave Corinna a look and she immediately clamped her mouth shut. They managed to find spots behind Malfoy and Crabbe.
"I don't know how much longer all right?" It seemed that Malfoy was using the chaos to continue his conversation that McGonagall called him out on. "It's taking longer than I thought it would." There was an exchange of looks that Corinna couldn't see from her position. "Look, it's none of your business what I'm doing, Crabbe, you and Goyle just do as you're told and keep a lookout!"
"I tell my friends what I'm up to, if I want them to keep a lookout for me."
Corinna glanced over at Harry and gave him a look that told him he would make a terrible spy. But he was defiantly watching Malfoy's reaction, who was about to pull his wand from his robes when the Heads called for attention. Everyone in the hall turned back to Twycross. After a gracious thank you, he pulled his wand out and caused old-fashioned wooden hoops to instantly appear in front of every student.
"The important things to remember when Apparating are the three D's: destination, determination, deliberation. Step one: fix your mind firmly upon the desired destination. In this case, the interior of your hoop. Kindly concentrate upon that destination now."
There was some shuffling and murmuring coming from the students as they were sent to task. Corinna stared down at the interior of her hoop. She stared until she went cross-eyed and realized just how much she wasn't paying attention to it, just telling herself to pay attention to it. She didn't think that was good enough.
"Step two: focus your determination to occupy the visualized space. Let your yearning to entire it flood from your mind to every particle of your body."
Corinna heard Harry bite back a laugh and she quickly shot him a look. But pointed to Ernie, whose face was so red he looked like he was trying to, as Harry would say later, a quaffle-sized egg.
"Step three," Twycross's call brought them back to reality and they focused on their hoods, "only when I give the command…turn on the spot, feeling your way into nothingness, moving with deliberation. On my command, now…one—"
There were some murmurs around them as people were surprised that they were already being asked to apparate. Corinna knew for a fact that she was not ready.
"—two—"
Corinna could feel a bead of sweat falling down her neck and pool on the collar of her robes. She was concentrating on that more than she was concentrating on her hoop.
"—THREE!"
Corinna spun on the spot, and nearly toppled over. She stumbled into her hoop, and would have fallen on her face if Harry hadn't regained his balance first and caught her. At least she wasn't the only one. She saw a few of her classmates on their back, and Ernie gave an elegant pirouetting leap into his hoop.
"Never mind, never mind," said Twycross, who seemed to not have expected much better from the students. "Adjust your hoops, please, and back to your original positions."
The next few attempts were only good in Corinna's eyes because she didn't need help preventing her from landing on her face. On the fourth attempt, she thought she felt something tugging in her gut, but it immediately disappeared when she heard a blood curdling scream coming from the middle where a few Hufflepuffs were. Much to everyone's horror, Susan Bones was wobbling in her hoop, but had left one of her legs back outside the hoop. Prepared for something like this, the various heads of houses converged onto Susan and, within moments, he leg was reattached to where it belonged.
"Splinching, or the separation of random body parts," said Twycross as if this were a teachable moment and not a scarring one, "occurs when the mind is insufficiently determined. You must concentrate continually upon your destination, and move, without haste, but with deliberation. Thus," he stepped forward, turned gracefully, and disappeared in a flutter of robes. "Remember the three D's," he said at the back of the hall, "and try again…one—two—three."
The hour seemed to melt away with only Susan's splinching being the most interesting thing to occur. Twycross made the hoops vanished and told them to think on the three D's and to see them next Saturday.
"How did you do?" asked Ron, hurrying towards Harry as people started filtering back out to the Entrance Hall. "I think I felt something the last time I tried—a kind of tingling in my feet."
"I expect your trainers are too small, Won-Won," said Hermione from behind. She stalked passed them, smirking.
"I didn't feel anything," said Harry. "But I don't care about that now—"
"What do you mean? Don't you want to learn to Apparate?"
"I'm not fussed, really. I prefer flying." He glanced back behind and then started pushing Ron and Corinna towards the stairs. "Look, hurry up, will you, there's something I want to do."
Ron and Corinna gave each other a look before chasing after Harry. They were detained in the fourth floor by Peeves who would only allow you to pass if you set fire to your trousers, but they backtracked and used one of the handy shortcuts. It was only a few minutes later that they were climbing through the portrait hole. Harry made a beeline for the boy's dormitory and, not knowing the rule that allowed girls to go up, she hung back while they did whatever they needed to do.
When Harry came back down to the common room just a couple minutes after Neville had rushed up smelling singed, all he said was that he needed to keep an eye on Malfoy. Corinna just rolled her eyes but didn't press. What they heard during Slughorn's party and at Apparition lessons were suspect, but she didn't think it was worth bringing the funny map Harry had of Hogwarts that showed where students were.
February sluggishly turned towards March without much change. There were fewer girls glaring at her, so she was glad she listened to Uncle Ted's advice and just focused on her happiness. Everything else faded—quite literally—into the background.
Apparition lessons weren't going well for Corinna. During the third lesson, she had splinched her wand arm. It was grotesque to see ones limb just laying there, but the Heads, much like they did for Susan, had converged on Corinna and righted her with an odd-looking potion. Instead of looking like a cleaver was taken to her shoulder, she was just left with angry scars that, McGonagall reassured, will fade in time.
After that, Corinna was not interested in continuing lessons, but felt like she had to since she already spent the twelve galleons and Dora said in her letter that she'll make arrangements with the Ministry so Corinna's test would be held when she got back after summer term.
Much to the chagrin of everyone, a noticed went up on all the notice boards that the March first Hogsmeade trip was canceled. Ron was especially vocal about it as it was scheduled for his birthday. But, it came at no surprise as Katie was still at St. Mungo's. Even Aunt Andromeda quit mentioning her in her letters as one can only write, "Still no change," so many times. She was at least thankful for the occasional letter as it reassured Corinna that they were still safe. It was an almost daily occurrence to see a familiar name.
Thankfully, there was still time to get Ron's present snuck into the castle. Dora was, surprisingly, thrilled to help with such a thing. They weren't trying to sneak anything into the castle that was technically illegal, they probably would not allow such a thing to go through the normal owl post, however. It took some communicating through patronus (which Corinna learned the theory and put it to practice by sending Terry messages while he was in the Ravenclaw common room), but Dora was able to make the excuse of needing to check the various wards around the perimeter and was able to hand the present off to Corinna while Harry and Ron were at quidditch practice.
"He's Harry's best mate," Corinna reminded. "Plus, maybe he'll be nice and let us have some."
Dora rolled her eyes. "I can't say much. That's precisely what I would have done. Tell Ron 'Happy Birthday' from me, will yah?"
"Yeah," said Corinna. "Bye, Dora."
She trudged back up to the castle with the present tucked safely into her bag. She went up to her dormitory and hid it in her trunk in her dress robe. She found a spot in the common room and camped out there until Harry got back. It was awhile later that Harry and Ron trudged into the common room. Since he wasn't covered in mud and smelled like whatever musky soap he used, she guessed they had stopped by the Prefect's Bathroom before coming up.
"So," said Harry as he sat down next to Corinna on the couch. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she set her book aside. "I swore I saw you outside, by the gates."
Since Ron was busy with Lavender, she thought she was safe to talk about it. "I was," she said easily. "I was meeting Dora to get Ron's present. Nothing illegal, but something that wouldn't have gotten through owl screening."
"Do I want to know?" asked Harry, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair that had escaped from Corinna's plait behind her ear.
"You'll just have to find out tomorrow," said Corinna. "We'll try to give him a good birthday even if we can't go to Hogsmeade."
Harry sighed softly. "I just wish Ron and Hermione would make up by now. It's been months at this point."
"I know." She reached up and ran her thumb over Harry's temple to get rid of the worry lines. "You can't force it. They have to work this out on their own when they are ready."
"I know," said Harry, leaning into Corinna's hand. "Just wish there was something to help push things along."
Corinna lowered her hand and glanced over to the corner where Ron and Lavender were going at it. It was impossible to tell which limb belonged to who. One would think that, after doing this for a few months, they would make it look more like snogging rather than wrestling. "I have a few ideas."
"To get Ron and Hermione to make up, or for what we could be doing?"
"Hey, you were the one who suggested it," she reminded as she turned back to Harry and draped her legs over his lap. "But I do like the sound of that."
That morning, Corinna waited in the common room for Harry and Ron to get down. Hermione had rushed to breakfast with only enough words to say that she was going to be in the library all day. Unfortunately, she was joined by Lavender, who had a package in her hands as she waited for Won-Won. Corinna forgot that this day would also entail Lavender, but at least her gift would help deal with that.
Much later than expected, Harry was leading Ron down from the boy's dormitory. Lavender immediate sprung up telling Ron that he was late. He didn't even look over at Lavender when he said, "Leave me alone, Harry's going to introduce me to Romilda Vane."
Corinna caught Harry's eye and she let them be. He also gave Lavender an amused look, and she turned even more indignant as the portrait hole swung closed.
"Romilda Vane!" Lavender shrieked, causing the few people who were meandering in the common room to look over. "What does she have that I don't?"
"Love potion," Corinna muttered under her breath. She didn't know exactly what happened, but she highly doubted that Ron had suddenly grown an infatuation with Vane overnight. And he had the telltale signs Corinna remembered reading about.
Lavender did not hear Corinna, thankfully, as she rushed into their dormitory. With a sigh, Corinna put the bag over her shoulder and trudged down to the Great Hall alone. She was certain that whoever Harry turned to would be able to fix Ron right up before apparition lessons. It would be something they would laugh about that afternoon.
Corinna was picking at her porridge when she saw a red-faced Slughorn running as fast as he could manage down the hall to the staff table. He beckoned to McGonagall and Pomfrey and talked to them in a low, rush voice. Without hesitation, they followed Slughorn back the way they came.
"What do you think that's about?" Seamus asked.
Corinna had a bad feeling about it. She stood up from the bench and went into the Entrance Hall. She went up the stairs and froze when a stretcher came into view, holding a body that was as white as a sheet. McGonagall had her wand trained on the stretcher as they made their way over to the Hospital Wing. Pomfrey was in tow, looking over the student as they went. She looked over at Harry, who had emerged from Slughorn's office looking white and shaken as well.
"What happened?" she asked as they followed after them. Harry didn't speak until he got to the Hospital Wing, but McGonagall firmly closed the door behind her so they could not enter.
In short, panicky statements, Harry explained how he had taken Ron to Slughorn to get the antidote for the love potion. Slughorn, upon hearing that it was Ron's birthday, had produced a bottle of mead that was intended for Dumbledore as a Christmas gift. Ron took a sip and started frothing at the mouth and convulsing. Harry was lucky to have found a bezoar in Slughorn's potions kit or else…
"Don't think about that," said Corinna, wrapping her arm around Harry's waist. They heard footsteps and Dumbledore and Slughorn appeared. She awkwardly stepped away, keeping her arms to her side. Harry recounted what happened to Dumbledore when Slughorn went into the Hospital Wing. Once Harry was done, Dumbledore went into the Hospital Wing as well. It almost became a game on who would come in and out. They sat down on the bench outside of the Hospital Wing, Corinna holding Harry's hand so it would shake so much.
After explaining to McGonagall, she rushed off to alert Ginny as well as send a fast owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Eventually, Ginny came down with Hermione in tow. As they demanded what happened, Harry recounted the events. Corinna heard the story so much that she almost felt like she was there. It turned into a discussion about how Ron had been poisoned that carried the discussion. Hermione was uncharacteristically quiet after demanding Harry what had happened. She sat on the opposite bench, looking lost.
Finally, at eight o'clock, they were allowed in to visit him. Madam Pomfrey told them that he was to stay a week or so to keep taking essence of rue. But they hardly paid attention as they rushed over to Ron's bed. He was the only one who occupied one in the hospital wing, and he still looked at white as the sheets around him, his hair looking almost black in comparison. As they were out in the hall, they didn't realize that the sky outside had grown dark.
They were all silent for a few minutes until Fred and George came in.
"So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?" said Fred as they pulled up chairs to join the vigil.
"This isn't how we imagined handing over our present," said George grimly. He placed the package on the bedside table.
"Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious."
"There we were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him—"
"You were in Hogsmeade?" asked Ginny.
"We were thinking of buying Zonko's," said Fred. "A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a fat lot of good it'll do us if you lot aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff anymore. But never mind that now. How exactly did it happen, Harry?"
Harry grudgingly repeated the story. His voice was almost monotone with how often he had to recount the events.
"Blimey, it was lucky you thought of a bezoar," said George.
"Lucky there was one in the room." Knowing it made his tense up whenever he thought about how one false move from Harry would have ended in Ron's death, Corinna reached over to took his hand again. She'd like to think she was helping.
They launched into asking questions about the poison, something Harry, Ginny, and Corinna already discussed at length. They had came to the conclusion that the poison was intended for Dumbledore and they were using Slughorn as a means to an end.
"Then the poisoner didn't know Slughorn very well," said Hermione. She spoke for the first time in hours. "Anyone who knew Slughorn would have known there was a good chance he'd keep something that tasty for himself."
"Er-my-nee," croaked Ron from the bed. He hadn't moved except to say that and everyone was waiting with bated breath for him to move or say something else. But, it seemed that was all he had in him because he remained still.
The doors burst open and everyone turned to see Hagrid coming in, leaving large, muddy footprints in his wake. But nothing compared to him holding the crossbow.
"Bin in the forest all day! Aragog's worse, I bin readin' to him—didn' get up toer dinner till jus' now an' then Professor Sprout told me abou' Ron! How is he?"
"Not bad," said Harry. "They say he'll be okay."
"I don' believe this," said Hagrid hoarsely. "Jus' don' believe it….Look at him lyin' there…Who'd want ter hurt him, eh?"
"That's just what we were discussing," said Corinna. "We don't know."
Hagrid had suggested it was Quidditch related, but it seemed much bigger than that. But Corinna had to agree that Oliver Wood, the Quidditch captain until their third year, would have done it to the Slytherins if he would have guaranteed to get away with it.
"Well, I don't think it's Quidditch, but I think there's a connection between the attacks," said Hermione. When Fred asked how she figured that, she continued. "Well, for one thing, they both ought to have been fatal and weren't, although that was pure luck. And for another, neither the poison nor the necklace seems to have reached the person who was supposed to be killed. Of course, that makes the person behind this even more dangerous in a way, because they don't seem to care how many people they finish off before they actually reach their victim."
Before anyone could comment on that ominous note, the doors opened again and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came bustling down the ward. They had made sure that Ron was okay before Mrs. Weasley seized Harry and hugged him very tightly.
"Dumbledore's told us how you saved him with the bezoar," she sobbed. "Oh, Harry, what can we say? You save Ginny, you saved Arthur, now you've saved Ron."
Harry tried to get a word in edgewise, but his mouth was pressed to Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, so it just came out as muffled garble.
"Half our family does seem to owe you their lives, now I stop and think about it," said Mr. Weasley. "Well, all I can say is that it was a lucky day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit in your compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Harry."
Harry seemed to be at a loss for words, so it almost came as a relief to him when Madam Pomfrey came in saying that only six people were allowed to visit at once. Harry, Hermione, and Corinna both stood up to leave, but Hagrid joined them so to leave the family alone.
"It's terrible," said Hagrid as the four of them headed for the marble staircase. "All this new security, an' kids are still getting' hurt. Dumbledore's worried sick. He don' say much, but I can tell."
"Hasn't he got any ideas, Hagrid?" asked Hermione.
"I 'spect he got hundreds of ideas, brain like his. But he doesn' know who sent that necklace nor put poison in that wine, or they'd've bin caught, wouldn' they? Wha' worries me is how long Hogwarts can stay open if kids are bein' attacked. Chamber o' Secrets all over again, isn' it? There'll be panic, more parents takin' their kids outta school, an nex' thing yeh know the board o' governors'll be talkin' about shuttin' us up fer good." He shook his head when Hermione voiced her descent. "Gotta see it from their point o' view. I mean, it's always bin a bit of a risk sendin' a kid ter Hogwarts, hasn' it? Yer expect accidents, don' yeh, wit hundreds of underage wizards all locked up tergether, but attempted murder, tha's diff'rent. S'no wonder Dumbledore's angry with Sn—"
Hagrid tried to stop himself from saying too much, but it was too late. "What?" said Harry. "Dumbledore's angry with Snape?"
"I never said tha'," said Hagrid. "Look at the time, it's getting' on fer midnight, I need ter—"
"Hagrid, why is Dumbledore angry with Snape?"
"Don' shout stuff like that, Harry, d'yeh wan' me ter lose me job? Mind, I don' suppose yeh'd care, would yeh, not now yeh've given up Care of Mag—"
"Don't try to make me feel guilty it won't work! What's Snape done?"
"I dunno, Harry, I shouldn'ta heard it at all! I was comin' outta the forest the other evenin' an' I overheard 'em talking—well, arguin'. Didn't like ter draw attention to meself, so I sorta skulked an' tried not ter listen, but it was a—well, a heated discussion an' it wasn' easy to block it out. Well—I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an maybe he—Snape—didn' wan' ter do it anymore—"
"Do what?"
"I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin' a bit overworked, tha's all—anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out he'd agreed ter do it an' that was all there was to it Pretty firm with him. An' then he said summat abou' Snape makin' investigations in his House, in Slytherin. Well, there's nothin' strange abou' that! All the Heads o' Houses were asked ter look inter that necklace business—"
"Yeah, but Dumbledore's not having rows with the rest of them, is he?" said Harry.
"Look, I know what yeh're like abou' Snape, Harry, an' I don' want yeh ter go readin' more inter this than there is."
"Look out," said Hermione.
They turned just in time to see Argus Filch round the corner. "Oho! Out of bed so late, this'll mean detention!"
"No, it won', Filch. They're with me, aren' they?"
"And what difference does that make?"
"I'm a ruddy teacher, aren' I, yeh sneakin' Squib!" When Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, arrived around his ankles and hissing, he called back to the group. "Get goin'!"
They did not need to be told twice. Harry, Hermione, and Corinna hurried off back to Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady was annoyed to be woken at such an hour, but let them go inside once they gave the password. Hermione bade them goodnight as she headed for the girl's dormitory. There was no one seating around the common room and Harry wordlessly made his way over to the dying fire. He sat down on the edge of the chair and Corinna was uncertain if he wanted company or not. With a sigh, she followed after him and sat down in the chair next to his. He stared at the embers, looking lost in thought. His brows were furrowed as his mind seemed to move a mile a minute. She propped her head up, her elbow braced against the armrest. She, too, stared at the fire, but she felt herself drifting off more than she was thinking about…whatever it was that was going through Harry's head. She knew it had to do with what Hagrid told them, but it didn't seem to surprise Corinna one bit. Dumbledore probably set Snape up to talk to Malfoy about whatever it is that they suspect he's doing, because he's up to something. Snape may be a git, but he was still in the Order and Dumbledore trusted him…
"There you are, Potter!"
They were both immediately on their feet, the thought of sleep gone from Corinna's mind. They both had their wands trained on Cormac McLaggen, who was sitting up by one of the chairs in the back.
"I've been waiting for you to come back. Must've fallen asleep. Look, I saw them taking Weasley up to the hospital wing earlier. Didn't look like he'll be fit for next week's match."
"Oh, right, Quidditch. Yeah, he might not make it."
They pocketed their wands as McLaggen said, "Well, then I'll be playing Keeper, won't I?"
"Yeah, I suppose so…"
"Excellent. So when's practice?"
"What? Oh, there's one tomorrow evening."
"Good. Listen, Potter, we should have a talk beforehand. I've got some ideas on strategy you might find useful."
"Right. Well, I'll hear them tomorrow, then. I'm pretty tired now…see you…"
McLaggen bade Harry a good night, and Corinna was convinced that he didn't even know she was there. She turned to Harry and gave him a look.
"I just made a mistake, didn't I?"
"Let me just put it this way," said Corinna. "I think you were better off asking me or Hermione to join the team."