Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Harry and Ron reached the Gryffindor common room the next morning just as Hermione and Ginny came down the girls staircase followed by a large group of girls, all of whom seemed to be pestering Ginny about Bill.

"He was a Seeker for Gryffindor, wasn't he?"

"That was Charlie" said Ginny

"Didn't he work in Cornelius Fudge's office last year?" asked a first year.

"No that was Percy"

"Hey, Ginny!"

Dean Thomas had just come downstairs. Ron glared at him.

"Hi, Dean" said Ginny brightly.

"Want to go and get breakfast?" asked Dean.

"Yes please"

Ginny and Dean walked out of the portrait hole holding hands. The Gryffindors around them were still asking questions about Bill.

"Let's get breakfast" said Ron "before they all start badgering me instead".

Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way out of the common room. It seemed that the girls who had been pestering Ginny had noticed that there was another Weasley in the common room because someone called out to Ron just as he, Harry and Hermione reached the end of the fat lady's corridor.

"Ron, wait a minute!"

"What?" said Ron slightly aggressively as he turned around "Oh hi, Katie"

It was Katie Bell a seventh year who played Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Hi, Katie" said Harry.

"Hi, Harry. Hi, Hermione" said Katie. "Ron, could I have a word please?"

"Alright then" said Ron. "You two go on. I'll catch up".

"Is anyone reading this bit?" asked Harry when he and Hermione had gone down one floor.

Hermione nodded.

"I imagine there's quite a few people who want to know if you'll be playing Quidditch this year" she said.

"Quidditch! Oh yeah! I'm going to go ask McGonagall if I'm allowed to play again!" said Harry excitedly.

"I'm afraid not, Potter" said Professor McGonagall when Harry reached her office and asked if he could be reinstated to the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Why not?"

"Because the muggles are already complaining that Ms Rowling is taking too long to write this book and adding detailed accounts of Gryffindor's Quidditch matches would take even more time" said Professor McGonagall.

"Can't it be called off" suggested Harry. The thought of the Quidditch tournament taking place without him in it was torture.

"Do use your common sense, Potter" said Professor McGonagall "we can't have basilisks attacking students or the Triwizard Tournament every year.

"I s'pose not" said Harry.

"You had better hurry up and have some breakfast before your classes start" said Professor McGonagall.

Harry found Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall. Ron was looking just as disgruntled as Harry felt.

"What's up with you, Ron?" asked Harry sitting down opposite him and helping himself to a piece of toast.

"Katie's kicked me off the Quidditch team" said Ron resentfully "I reckon she's had a grudge against me ever since I hit her in the face with the Quaffle last year"

"I'm not allowed to play either" said Harry "McGonagall said it would make the book too long"

But Ron wasn't listening.

"Should've hit Angelina instead" he was saying "Then she could have kicked me off the team. Then Malfoy wouldn't have sung that song, and you and –ow! What, Hermione?"

Hermione had just nudged Ron very painfully in the ribs.

"This book is going to be long enough without you recounting everything that happened last year, Ron. And we've got our timetables" said Hermione.

Harry's and Ron's moods did not improve when they saw that they had double potions first thing followed by Care of Magical Creatures.

"Great all morning with the Slytherins" muttered Ron.

"I have absolutely no desire to be teaching any of you" said Snape when they entered the dungeon.

"What about me, sir?" interrupted Malfoy "I've always been your favourite"

"Only because Ms Rowling says so" spat Snape "Now as I was saying, I don't wish to teach any of you this year. However, the headmaster now wishes that all students study potions during every year that they are here"

"Why?" asked Seamus Finnigan.

"I am not the one writing this story, Finnigan" said Snape bitterly. "If I was, I would have given myself the job teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts."

Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. They knew that Snape had been applying for the Defence Against The Dark Arts job ever since he had become a teacher.

"You will be making Polyjuice potion" Snape was saying. "I am going to put you into pairs"

Harry closed his eyes and muttered under his breath "not Malfoy, not Malfoy"

Next to Harry, Ron groaned loudly. Harry opened his eyes and saw that the pairs had appeared on the blackboard. Ron was paired with Goyle.

"Oh no. I've got Longbottom" complained Malfoy.

Neville gulped.

"Hurry up, find your partners" called Snape.

Harry found his name on the board and saw that he had been paired with Theodore Nott. People were gathering up their books and searching for their partners. Most of the class was complaining, but none so much as Ron who had turned a shade of purple that Uncle Vernon could not have managed.

A weedy looking boy dropped his books onto the bench next to Harry just as Snape called out "The ingredients and method are on the board"

Harry and Nott went to the store cupboard to collect their ingredients. Harry got back to the bench first and tipped leeches and lacewing flies into the cauldron. Nott came back about a minute later with Boomslang skin and Bicorn horn.

"I'll get these ready and you can keep going with that stuff" he suggested.

"OK" said Harry.

They didn't speak to each other very much except to check ingredients.

"Reckon that's powdered enough" asked Nott showing Harry the Bicorn horn after about ten minutes.

"Yes"

Nott tipped the powdered Bicorn horn into a small jar and labelled it.

"I know we don't need it yet. But I like to have everything ready" he said "Have you done everything here?"

"Yes" said Harry. He knew it was right because he had helped make Polyjuice Potion illegally in his second year.

On the other side of the dungeon, Malfoy was criticising Neville in a loud, carrying voice so the entire class could hear. Just behind them Ron and Goyle weren't speaking at all.

"What a nightmare!" said Ron as they walked across the entrance hall an hour later.

The front doors opened and a group of first years came in. Harry clearly heard one of them say to his friends; "That's Harry Potter" and a few of them stood on tiptoe to get a better look at him.

"Why couldn't we have skipped that?" said Ron angrily when they had gone outside.

"I suppose it will be important later on" said Hermione.

"What about this? Now?" asked Harry "We're just walking across the grounds. Why would anyone read that?"

"Because people want to know who we think the Half Blood Prince is" said Hermione. "It's none of us obviously. Ron, you're Pure Blood. And I'm Muggle born. And I'm a girl. And it can't be Harry"

"Why not?" asked Ron "Harry is Half Blood"

"That would be like calling the book 'Harry Potter and Harry Potter'" said Hermione "And that just sounds stupid"