The Half Blood Prince Revealed

Summary :

Harry's summer before sixth year is no different from the others. Around every corner surprises, good and bad, and adventure of all kind await. And it looks like the gods have finally granted Harry a possibility for a nicer life. What will this mean for his 6th year at Hogwarts ?

General Disclaimer :

I am just playing in the sand of JKRowling's literary produced beach and am attempting to build my own sandcastle for others to enjoy.

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36 The end of first week

Thursday evening was quite enjoyable as Harry had decided that with his luxury of a complete day available for study the next day, he'd spend his time once again entertaining not only Ron, but also several of the first years by talking Quidditch – or better said – letting Ron do all the enthusiastic talking as he answered questions from both Harry and several first years. The group was quickly joined by quite a few of the older students and Harry enjoyed the carefree time.

Friday morning dawned bright and early for Harry and he had already finished his Ancient Runes pre-class work by the time he joined the others for breakfast. Looking at all the plates with hearty breakfast dishes, he asked no one in particular, as he took a good portion of cereals.

"Don't you guys ever miss the fruit salads we had for breakfast this summer ?"

The others didn't get a chance to reply as the owls had arrived with the mail, a letter for Harry, one for Neville and two for Seamus, who was sitting close by, and the Daily Prophet for Hermione. The headlines drew quite some attention, and Harry wasn't surprised as he caught sight of them. Hermione, who had finished her breakfast, read out the article to them.

Death Eater Escape Foiled

By R.E. Porter

A daring plan that involved multiple diversionary attacks on families of several first year muggle born Hogwarts students and a simultaneous attempt to free the soon-to-be-on-trial death eaters who were involved in and apprehended during the fight in June in the Ministry of Magic has thankfully been unsuccessful. Instead of yet another break out, aurors have confirmed that no fewer than 30 additional death eaters have been apprehended and will soon be facing their trial.

None of the muggle families were harmed. In fact apart from two families who were warned by their burglar alarm – a nifty device that warns them for intruders – none of the families were even aware they'd been in danger.

Head of the DMLE, Madame Bones, has confirmed that these culprits have been apprehended and have now taken up residence, along with all prisoners formerly detained in the Ministry holding cells and Azkaban prison, in the new Hell Prison. Even with very little lead time, the DMLE have been able to round the operation with near 100 percent success rate. The residence of one student wasn't approached at all, but the DMLE intelligence spoke of the fact that the death eaters obtained the addresses several weeks ago, and said family had moved since.

It certainly looks to this reporter that the free license the DMLE have received earlier this summer from the Wizengamot is paying itself tenfold. Since the Wizengamot has given the Head of DMLE more freedom and more importantly – more means – the amount of arrests and successful interventions at attempts of Death Eater attacks have risen. Isn't it high time to look for the significance in that ?

"Wow, that's so subtle … not!" said Ginny, "but why now, and so openly, too? It's as much as saying 'Fudge, we're on to you!'. It'll give him the chance to hide or destroy evidence of all his wrong-doings."

Ron and Neville had to agree with Ginny but Hermione, although not completely sure, said it must be some kind of set-up.

"It probably means they've gathered all the evidence already, but the timing isn't quite right to start up a case against him." added Harry to the conversation.

"What do you know, Harry, that we don't ?" came from Neville.

"Well, when Paul first let me know about the Skeeter article he mentioned Robert and his frustration at being prevented to report the truth and having to cover up so many things. My thoughts are that Robert probably kept a good look out and maybe even did some digging already back then.

With the addition of the information from Gringotts that Paul has been given, I'm sure a lot of things suddenly added up a lot better than before. Not to mention that with all the death eaters now safely in Hell Prison, the DMLE have an additional source of information. Everything the death eaters have ever done wrong, including bribing a certain minister, would be there for all to see.

But the death eater trials are on in a little over a week, and maybe they want to wait until those are over before destabilising the ministry." And after a little pause, he continued. "And if Fudge does try to get rid of certain evidence, or even tries to flee, you know, they can add those crimes to his list!"

"That certainly makes sense," said Neville, "and it'll be funny to watch how Fudge reacts to this. Knowing him, he might even try to take credit for the free DMLE license."

The idea was preposterous but Harry had a feeling Fudge might just be daft enough to try that and laughed right along with the others.

As he was finishing his breakfast his friends started leaving for their classes. Ron was off for Care of Magical Creatures, Hermione had Ancient Runes and Neville headed for Advanced Healing. Harry joined Ginny as she returned to Gryffindor Tower where she'd be doing her Charms homework before she too was off for a second period session of History. Once back in his trunk study he took his letter and recognising Remus' handwriting eagerly opened it.

Dear Harry

The past few days - since you and your friends have returned to Hogwarts - everyone in the household has been trying to cope with the sudden changes your departure has brought.

The house elves have been paying Mrs Weasley, Mrs Tonks and even Mrs Thornby several visits, officially to have a look around, but the three ladies have confirmed to have quite a few chores less to do since. The young order members have also noticed the increase in amounts of dishes and quantities of foods prepared for them and several of the married members have admitted to take food home for their other halves. Another remarkable change is the amount of flowers that have suddenly invaded Grimmauld Place - which is now anything but grim or old ...

I myself seem to have established some kind of routine already - predictable, aren't I ? - of mornings spent reading at Black Manor - where Mr Black is always eagerly awaiting my arrival. We were talking about reading for fun and I mentioned my modest collection of muggle novels. The result is that Mr Black is very happily occupied reading through a whole new set of books (to him anyway) and I cannot bring them fast enough. I think I've unleashed a book-monster !

In the afternoon Dobby and I spend time at Gringotts to clear out the Black vault of Dark Arts artefacts. It's been slow going so far on my part, as I've hit a lot of stuff belonging to Sirius and that always brings (mostly good) memories of our youth. Dobby is most patient with me as I believe it would go tens of times faster if I'd let him do the sorting. As soon as we've been digging for a while and are hitting upon the older things in there I guess the work will pick up speed.

As I've taken up residence at Grimmauld Place I plan to spend the later parts of the evenings there but so far that hasn't really happened. I've been to visit Elijah, Luke, Joe and David at their home and stayed later than expected, spent time with Paul and then ended up at Paul's with the four others talking shop about Werewolf Lair, resulting in a visit to Marauderville and its first occupants.

I can hear you all the way from Hogwarts to London asking "Marauderville, where's that ?" Well, the short of it is we're looking for a good name for the new village, but so far suggestions were either Potterville or Blackville, and I didn't think either was appropriate. Marauderville seemed the most suited for now at least. We could hardly keep calling it Town-without-Name.

As to the rest of Wolf Lair Project, we've agreed to meet every Friday morning for the time being so that Paul or Elijah can give you the report on Saturday. In the mean time the werewolf population has been informed through its own channels, rather than through the media, so we can slowly build up the capacity rather than being flooded with takers when we cannot yet supply the required amount of potion. Elijah and Greg are looking for ways to make the potion on a larger scale so they can provide for more people but with their first priority on delivering properly brewed potion they are very careful in their execution of those plans. This month they still plan to make the single batch only so Greg can actually learn and observe.

Anyway, that's about all the news from this end. How has your first week gone ? Is your schedule a bit to your liking ?

Take good care, enjoy yourself and talk to you soon.

From all of us here.

Love

Remus

Harry happily reread the letter at a more leisurely pace, grinning again when reading about the house elves and their not-so-secret helping out, Mr Black's hunger for new books and Remus' own comments about his predictablility and about Marauderville. There were several comments already forming in Harry's mind, but he decided he'd wait with writing until Sunday afternoon so he could look back at his entire first week. He was sure Remus would't mind the extra wait all that much.

Returning to the more mundane tasks of the day, he next made a start on his DADA work by going through both the lists Tonks had handed out. Much to his surprise he learned that not only did he really know all the things required for the OWLs, but he'd already made quite a considerable dent in the curriculum for the NEWTs too.

Reading about the first subject on their curriculum in his two course books and several of the additional references showed Harry that indeed things had changed. Gone was the material that had been pre-digested for the students, instead there were texts and theories that differed sometimes slightly, sometimes heavily from one book to the other, and it had him take copious notes and jot down several questions. And as he was having several of his course books now open in front of him he suddenly was very happy his desk that had seemed so ridiculously large at first was indeed the size it had, as he was able to work comfortably.

After spending a bit more time than expected on DADA Harry turned to Transfiguration next and managed to read all the required texts, take plenty of notes and make a summary and a cheat sheet, as Ginny called them, which would be helpful when he had a go at the spells in the practice room.

Following the same method Harry was able to go through his Charms reading and pre-class work to end up with another cheat sheet to take to the practice rooms. As it was well after eleven Harry didn't have enough time to tackle another subject, so he decided on the spur of the moment to head over to Black Manor for a swim and ask for Mr Black's help with Arithmancy for after lunch. He made his way over without a problem and found the study in the Manor to be empty. Assuming that Mr Black might well be in the library reading one of Remus' books, he went straight for the swimming pool room to change and happily spent the next twenty or so minutes tracking from one end of the pool to the other, glad to be exercising even just a little.

Blythe appeared by the pool side just as Harry had started on his last lap and she was full of apologies for not being ready and able to give her Harry a decent lunch and it took a lot of fast talking to keep her from crying.

Dried and dressed again he made his way to the library where he found Mr Black deeply entranced by a book by Agatha Christie.

The ghost looked up reluctantly and sheepishly lifted the book and said:

"This Hercule Poirot was quite a character. I love his sense of humour."

Harry confessed to not knowing about Mr Poirot but that he looked forward to reading all about him later and then queried about Mr Black's willingness to help him out later that afternoon with Arithmancy. The ghost readily agreed and Harry happily made his way back to Hogwarts to have lunch.

It was to be a bit of a hurried affair as the three sixth years all had classes again at one, and with a three hour lunch break between classes Ginny opted to get some work done.

After lunch Harry reread the first chapters on Arithmancy one more time, hoping against all odds that just maybe he'd understand now what they were on about, but he quickly gave up and made his way over to Black Manor once again. This time he found Mr Black in his study, and that man, after one look at his unexpected heir, asked about Harry's first week.

Harry gladly told the ghost of the latest news of classes, subjects and unsuccessful break-outs. When he mentioned his conversation with Madame Pomfrey regarding the time-freezing spell, Mr Black reminisced about days gone by, when he himself had been a fit young man and the spell saved many a friend. When Harry asked after it, Mr Black was quick to tell Harry all about it, the incantation, aevum temporalis clinica, the "right swing and hard jab" motion you needed to make while casting it, which Harry found out was harder to do as the jabbing motion almost instinctively made you put the emphasis in the words you spoke in the wrong place. Mr Black confirmed that the timing in the two was of the outmost importance and that before you had it right, you'd be wrong many a times. Mr Black even handed Harry a very old book. It was handwritten and, unlike the Black Book, not translated to modern English which made reading it very slow going. But even after a few paragraphs Harry realised this was a veritable treasure trove of information. Not only did the author give plenty of details about the spell itself, tips on how to get the combo of speech and motion right, and the explicit warning to practice the spell well before trying it on a real patient, but it also listed the two spells that were not under any circumstance to be used in conjunction with the time freezing spell. It listed the results if you did, explained the reason why they didn't mix and only for one of the two, a counter spell that had to be used if someone had been bespelled by both at the same time.

When Harry then ended up perusing the rest of the large tome, Mr Black offered to make him a list of all the old spells to be found in the book and Harry gladly accepted.

Happy to have had a good excuse to stay clear away from what was quickly becoming a frustrating subject Harry did then ask Mr Black for any insight in the art of basic Arithmancy. As he tried to explain what the problem was Mr Black suggested to try another book and handed over a thin book. The next 15 minutes or so they just sat and read and when Harry finished Mr Black asked :

"Does what you've read make more sense than before, Harry ?"

"It does make more sense to me, but to fully understand it I think I'll need a reread. And I believe the Encyclopedia makes a further reference to some of this theoretical explanation. I think it's a good start anyway. Thanks for your help."

"Don't mention it, Harry. You'll actually find that many people have had a similar problem to yours. They are either good at working through the theory of it all but find it hard applying their knowledge or like you, they don't 'get' the theory as such but almost instinctively they apply it. In most cases like yours you'll find that the harder it gets the better you'll be at it. It has something to do with perception, I believe. "

After some further explanation from Mr Black they parted company, Harry to continue his studying, Mr Black to find out what outrageous conclusion Mr Poirot would come up with next.

Harry was able to finish nearly all his preparatory work for next week's lessons. Only his Wizarding Society and Arithmancy he would have to have a look at on Saturday afternoon.

When he emerged from his study it was to find all but Ginny had returned from their classes and other than Ron they were all hard at work. The two of them went off for another fly around the Hogwarts grounds and only returned to the castle when their stomachs started protesting.

Harry learned that Ron did realise that this year would be a lot of work but he'd promised the twins he wouldn't turn into another Percy so therefore wanted to wait until the second week before making a headway on his work. And he'd done quite a bit of preparatory work on Quidditch this week so it wasn't a complete loss. Harry had to smile at that reasoning, as if Ron could ever get as bad as Percy had been.

After dinner Ron and Harry had a few games of chess, and after being beaten again by Ron, Harry gladly gave his seat up to a first year who proceeded to beat Ron with very little effort, or so it seemed. Their second and third game however things had fallen back into the earlier routine with Ron winning each game, and it wasn't until they were getting ready for bed in their dormitory that Ron admitted he'd seriously underestimated the kid on the first game and had had to work harder than with most of his earlier opponents in the following games.

With breakfast starting an hour later on weekends Harry and his friends had agreed to meet up to go and see the Potions classroom before they ate on Saturday morning. So Harry took them down to the ground floor where they met up with Luna and then continued on through the Entry Hall and taking the hall leading by Firenze's classroom. Once arrived, he introduced his friends to the people in the portrait and told them the password so they could all enter. The others were equally as impressed with their surroundings as Harry had been.

They agreed on the seating arrangements by the work stations and Harry explained about the study that came with the suite. With each of the six students free to come and go as they wished in the suite, they agreed to follow the same rules as in Black Manor - if the door was open you were free to visit.

It was only just gone 8 o'clock when they made it to the Great Hall for breakfast and that room was still rather bare of students, most of which opted to sleep in. The handful that had made it down were all NEWT students, which was only to be expected.

As they took their seats the usual breakfast time magic took place. Plates, cutlery and goblets appeared moments before the usual array of breakfast dishes took up the space between their settings. Much to Harry's joy he spotted a bowl of fresh fruit salad on offer and he gladly partook in the feast.

At a quarter to nine they made their way back to the Entry Hall where Harry was going to wait for Elijah to arrive. At first the whole group had wanted to wait there with him, but although the tutoring was not to be kept secret from the other students neither did Harry want to flaunt it. With more and more students arriving down for breakfast he and his friends would be drawing too much attention.

But Harry discovered that waiting in the Entry Hall on his own was no guarantee that he would not draw attention. On the contrary it seemed, as every DA member said their hello from amidst his or her group of friends and even several first years from the different houses were giving him a tentative 'good morning Harry'. Harry Weedon and a few of the other Gryffindor firsties weren't quite so shy and even came to have a chat with Harry before moving on to breakfast.

As he answered young Harry's question about magic, it was that young man's sudden lack of attention that alerted Harry to the fact someone was standing behind him. He finished his sentence as he turned around to see a smiling Elijah standing there.

"I'm sorry, Professor Teague, I didn't hear you arrive."

"Not a problem, Mr Potter, I only just arrived, and the conversation was interesting anyway. I never looked at feeling my magic at work in quite that way before."

"I couldn't think of any other way to explain it to a muggle-raised wizard like me, sir. Please may I introduce Mr Harry Weedon, he's a first year Gryffindor, and if my recollection serves me right, most likely even more confused about magic now than when he first arrived."

Young Harry nodded his smiling agreement, as Harry introduced Elijah to the youngster.

"Professor Teague is here to teach me quite a few things that aren't on the regular curriculum."

The two shook hands and when young Harry was about to ask a question, Harry intervened and promised him he'd explain after his class was finished. The young Gryffindor nodded and wished them a good class before disappearing into the Great Hall.

Elijah then turned and headed towards the suite they'd be using and although Harry was puzzled at first, he suddenly realised that Elijah would already know where the classroom was, as Professor Dumbledore had mentioned him visiting during the summer.

Other than getting used to their new surroundings their potions class with Elijah was still as good as those during summer, and Harry felt almost sorry when Elijah called it finished for the day.

The assignment he gave out on the other hand was not to be laughed at: from a list of potion ingredients, but no measurements or specific adding order, they were to theorize about as many combinations as possible and the effects these combinations would have. Elijah was quick to stress the theorizing aspect, mentioning the sometimes dangerous situations that could arise from experimenting with potions. This assignment too was due by Christmas break.

It was only when they'd all cleared away and packed up their things that Elijah produced a satchel that he handed over to Harry saying it was from Charlotte and to read the letter first before opening the packages.

Harry decided to wait with reading the letter until after lunch, so the group accompanied Elijah to the main door. They said their goodbyes and then Harry and Ron gladly demonstrated their newfound knowledge of the storing opportunities in the Entry Hall before heading for another wonderful Hogwarts lunch.

They lingered over lunch and followed that up with a nice walk around Hogwarts' grounds before they each returned to their respective study places with Hermione scheduled to visit Harry's library a little while later. Before starting on his last subject of the week – Wizarding Society – Harry eagerly opened up the satchel Elijah had handed him. Out came two packages and a letter that he opened first as instructed.

Hello Harry

Wow! You weren't joking when you said it would be a lot of work.

It's pretty hectic now as we're not only trying to find some familiarity with the work but also establishing some routine to our jobs. Once we've done that, and Karen has left her current position so she can be here full time, it will be a lot better.

So where do I start with all the news and information I have for you ? Well, maybe your mail first.

When the first of your new mail was delivered to the office, in those few days alone nearly five hundred letters had accumulated. That was only to be expected after the publication of your mail-story, but I must admit being surprised at the sheer number of letters. Even now we receive on average some 50 letters a day but the numbers are going down again.

True to your words in the paper we're sending each and everyone who sends in a note or letter a little note of acknowledgement, something simple to tell them the letter has arrived and that they will hear from you, only not right at the moment. Karen and I have come up with some sort of automatic response, so that when an owl arrives to drop of a letter, it can immediately take the note back. The system seems to work well now we've worked out the original problems of mail-owls who'd only been paid a one-way fair. We've purchased Romeo, who will be delivering all our own correspondence so you'll see him on a regular basis, but for the initial fan-mail-replying the Diagon Alley Owl Post Office will be doing splendid trade for us.

Professor Flitwick is of course correct in thinking I cannot give you the spells to sort out your notes, but I've sent along the next best thing which is a Personal Notes Book.

There are two types of the Personal Notes Book: the first is the simplest version and they would simply hold all your notes sorted per title or date, depending on how it's set up. In the package neatly labelled "Package One" that Elijah has given you you'll find a perfect example. Rather than sending back and forth all the minutes of the Wolf Lair Meetings, I've arranged for them to be copied in two Meetings Books, one of which is your copy, the other is here in the office. If you take a look now, you'll see several entries already listed, sorted per date. With the help of Paul, the Waverley brothers and Elijah, Mrs Figg and Griphook, we managed to come up with everything that was discussed from the very start of the project so this book will be a nice record for future generations doing research into the 'birth' of Wolf Lair.

Anyway, the Parchment Pad that goes with these Meetings Books is here, as I'll need them each week to add the latest minutes to the book. A Parchment Pad looks very much like a regular muggle legal pad. Only the quality of the paper is different, and, of course, they can be used over and over.

The notes you make on them will automatically transfer to whatever Book they were assigned for (and that's part of the trade spells). These Parchment Pads can be used for about 2500 Notes - to the average user that should be worth about 6 months of note taking. As a student however I would assume you'll 'run out' after about two months.

The second type of Personal Notes Book is simply a more advanced version. These can be 'programmed' to make a more intense sorting. You can pre-define a maximum of 20 subjects. Per subject you need to give a sorting code of up to six characters which you will then need to use on all the Parchment Pad entries.

In Package Two you'll find your nearly-ready-to-use Personal Notes Book and three matching sets of Parchment Pads.

When you open the Personal Notes Book you'll find a numbered empty list. All you need to do is to write the code you want to use, followed by the title you want the subject to have. eg 1 DADA Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Then, when taking notes, you need to use the appropriate code in the designated area of the Parchment Pads along with the date and paper title. Once finished with the notes they will be automatically transferred into your Personal Notes Book.

Don't worry if this sounds complicated now : I've added the easy-to-follow instructions within the package and the Parchment Pads are pretty self-explanatory. Once your Pad is all used up, the parchments will loosen from their fastening. When you start on the last Pad just let me know and I'll arrange for more to be delivered.

That's about it for now. Don't hesitate to contact us if there's anything else we can do for you. By next week we should be ready to give you an overview of the type of letters you've received over the years, along with an inventory of all the presents that were sent.

Kindest regards

Charlotte

PS What a lovely surprise it was to have Winky and Blythe over for a visit. They introduced themselves and told me to call on them if I'm ever in need of their help. When they were gone I noticed that quite a few household chores had been done. I do wonder that if this was but a visit, what would it be like if they actually came to help?

Harry had dutifully opened up the packages as and when Charlotte had suggested but now he'd finished reading the letter he looked over the Wolf Lair Meetings Book with more attention.

It looked very much like a muggle photo album but for the glossy image of several wolves on the otherwise black front cover to distinguish this book from his Personal Notes Book. As he opened it up he saw a short list of entries, sorted per date and all called "Wolf Lair Meeting".

The first meeting report was, much to his surprise, an account of his first conversation with Joe and David Waverley in the Black Manor garden when he'd told them about the Moony Memorial Fund and his question to use the LeBon potion. It went on with their later conversation on the day before the full moon and the conversations that the werewolves had had with Griphook and Schmegg that lead to the purchase of Marauderville. Harry found it was actually quite interesting to read about all the going-ons that lead up to the project being as it stood now.

The instructions for his Personal Notes Book on the other hand made a lot more sense now he was able to actually see what it was all about. As an afterthought Charlotte had also included the way to copy his already made notes into his Personal Notes Book without having to rewrite them and added several more suggestions for the best way to make the distinction between his notes.

After some thought he set up his Notes Book and immediately tested it out with his notes on Wizarding Society. He ended up spending the better part of what remained of Saturday afternoon on copying his earlier notes and he was well chuffed at the result.

Sunday Harry spent a lot of the morning in the Hogwarts library looking through the Mastery Notes to get some idea of what exactly they were, met up with the others for another long lunch and followed that up again with walk outside. The rest of the day was filled up with writing a long letter to Remus, telling him all about his first week, followed by a leisurely stroll from and to the owlery.

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Author's Note :

Hello everybody,

My working schedule has not yet changed, I'm still very busy (on a happier note I'm at least still earning some needed cash !) which still leaves me with little time to write – hence the delay in posting this chapter. Hope you enjoy it though.

Thanks by the way to all of you anonymous readers who took the time to read my story and find it enjoyable enough to recommend it to others, put it on your update alert list or fav story list or even mark me as your fav writer. Those notices gave me a much needed morale boost.

Anyway, I would love some feedback from you. If you have any questions about the story, please don't hesitate. For a little extra info and pictures I can recommend my yahoo group (for link see profile page).

cheers

kadedeetje