Chapter 21: Half-Blood Prince
After they had all finished eating, everyone turned back to Hermione.
"Are we going to start sixth year tonight?" Lily asked.
"Yes. We need to press on." Hermione said. "Well, it started with Harry at the Dursley's. Fudge had resigned as Minister for Magic and was replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour."
"He taught us one year, remember?" Sirius said, looking over at James.
"Yeah. Really knew his stuff." James agreed.
"The Prophet was back to claiming Harry was the chosen one, not a lunatic they had portrayed him as for the last year. They were also sending out leaflets on safety recommendations such as security questions and not leaving the house alone."
"Only a year too late." James sighed.
"Harry had a letter from Professor Dumbledore, saying that he would be coming to Privet Drive to escort him to the Burrow. He also said that he needed Harry's help for something."
"You're not putting him in more danger already?" Lily cried in outrage.
"I highly doubt he will be in danger if he is with me Mrs Potter." Dumbledore smiled slightly.
"Harry decided it was probably too good to be true that he was leaving after only a fortnight there so he didn't bother packing."
"Poor boy." Remus frowned.
"He had also forgotten to warn the Dursleys." Hermione added. There were sniggers around the room as everyone pictured their expressions at a wizard turning up on their doorstep with no warning.
"Professor Dumbledore enjoyed himself rather too much at the Dursley's by all accounts." Hermione grinned. "He conjured drinks for everyone and when they Dursley's didn't drink them, the glasses kept hitting them on the head."
"Brilliant." James and Sirius grinned.
"Professor Dumbledore also wanted to go over Sirius' will." The atmosphere in the room deflated immediately. "He had left Harry Grimmauld Place."
"Oh, I'm sorry kid. Don't feel obliged to live there." Sirius frowned, looking over at Harry.
"The Order had to vacate in case the house was charmed so only a pureblood could own it. They weren't sure that Harry could as he wasn't even a Black."
"Lucky him." Sirius scowled. "Wish I wasn't."
"You're an honorary Potter." James told him, clapping him on the back. Sirius smiled at his best friend.
"To test it, Dumbledore summoned Kreacher. If Harry got the house, he also got Kreacher."
"Oh good lord. I am sorry Harry. But he knows too much to get passed to anyone else." SIrius sighed.
"He is the reason you died. I highly doubt Harry wants anything to do with him." Remus pointed out with a scowl.
"As Mr Black said, Kreacher lived with the Order for over a year, he will know things we cannot afford Lord Voldemort to know." Dumbledore said.
"It worked and Harry could order Kreacher around. So he ordered him to go and work at Hogwarts. That way he wouldn't have to see him."
"Good plan." Lily smiled.
"Professor Dumbledore then told the Dursley's Harry would come of age at 17 and asked that he could return one last time at the end of the year until his 17th birthday to ensure his protection for as long as possible."
"At least Petunia is keeping Harry protected, even if it is unwillingly." James comforted Lily. She gave him a small smile but said nothing.
"Harry then quickly ran upstairs to pack and then he left with Professor Dumbledore. He took Harry with Side along apparition to a muggle village."
"Yuck. I remember being take for side along apparition. It's awful." Sirius shuddered.
"It's not that bad." James smirked.
"You didn't get taken by Moony and get splinched." Sirius scowled. James and Remus laughed.
"I'm not even going to ask." Lily rolled her eyes.
"They went to an old muggle house that looked like there had been an attack. It turned out Horace Slughorn was there and he had made the scene to make it look like he had already left."
"Old Sluggy!" Sirius grinned.
"I miss him already." Lily smiled fondly, remembering her favourite teacher.
"Well, Professor Dumbledore wanted him to teach at Hogwarts again."
"Oh. So that's why Harry is going? Don't you think he has enough people trying to use him for his fame?" Lily frowned at Dumbledore.
"He does Mrs Potter. It must be very important for Horace to come back to Hogwarts." Dumbledore told her gravely.
"They stayed for a drink and then Professor Dumbledore excused himself to go to the loo. Slughorn mentioned Lily, saying she was one of his absolute favourites."
Lily blushed. "I like him too."
"Then he started talking about all his other famous contacts. He seemed to think that teaching would declare his support for the Order. Harry pointed out that most aren't in it and that it was probably safer for him there than constantly on the run."
"Atta boy Harry." James grinned. "His father's powers of persuasion."
"He isn't trying to win a girl James. That's the only thing your powers work on." Remus grinned.
"He is obviously using his mother's brains." Flitwick smiled over at Lily.
"As they were leaving, Slughorn agreed to teach. Professor Dumbledore took Harry to the Burrow and told him he wished to give him private lessons that year."
"Wow." Sirius breathed, looking awed. Dumbledore was looking eager.
"When they arrived, Tonks was just leaving. Mrs Weasley made Harry some soup. Mr Weasley had recently been promoted and was working late."
"Good. Arthur deserves it." Lily said firmly. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"It turned out that the twins were now living in a flat above their joke shop, so Harry stayed in their room."
"They finally got it up and running?" James asked eagerly.
"Brilliant!" Sirius beamed, bouncing up and down in his seat. "I can't wait to see it and help them set it up of course."
"Next morning Ron and I woke him up and he told us about Slughorn. Then Ginny came in followed by Fleur Delacour."
"The Beauxbatons champion from the triwizard tournament?" Lily asked. Hermione nodded.
"Why is she there?" Asked Remus.
"She was engaged to Bill Weasley. Ginny and Mrs Weasley weren't really big fans of her. Nor was I to be honest. She was very full of herself."
"Yet you like Sirius?" Lily questioned. Hermione blushed.
"She and I became friends in the end." Hermione said. James chuckled.
"Yeah, you get used to Padfoot in the end too."
"She really liked Harry ever since he rescued her sister in the lake task, so she was bringing him breakfast in bed."
"While engaged. Honestly." Remus frowned.
"Go son. Got the ladies flocking." James smirked. Lily hit him over the head. "Ow! Don't do that Lilykins."
"She didn't like him romantically." Hermione clarified. "Then we started talking about how they would prefer Tonks in the family instead of Fleur."
"Ok, talking about my little cousin dating is just weird." Sirius complained. Hermione smirked to herself, taking a sneak peak over at Remus who was too busy laughing at Sirius to notice.
"Harry finally mentioned he was getting private lessons and we speculated what they might be about for a while. I was looking at some of the twins' stuff and got hit with a punching telescope."
James snorted and Sirius was torn between laughing and concern.
"You were ok, right?" He asked.
"Fine. The twins got rid of it soon enough." She smiled sadly, thinking about Fred. "That morning our OWL Results arrived."
"Ooohh, how did Harry do?" James asked eagerly.
"How did you do? All O's?" Sirius asked her.
"I got O's in everything except DADA. I got an E in that. Harry got an D in History of Magic, but he did have the vision of Sirius in that exam."
"Yeah. That would put you off an already dull subject." James agreed to lighten the mood.
"He got a P in Divination."
"Oh well. It's not like he actually tried." Sirius smiled.
"That doesn't make it ok." Lily snapped.
"He got an A in Astronomy, even though Umbridge tried to get rid of Hagrid during our exam and we saw that. He got E's in Care of Magical Creatures, Charms," Flitwick beamed proudly, "Herbology, Potions and Transfiguration." McGonagall also smiled warmly.
"What about DADA?" James asked.
"He got an O."
"Well done son!" James cheered. Remus smiled, feeling rather proud as well.
"Not a bad set of grades." Lily smiled. "Well done Harry."
"Ron got pretty much the same but he got an E in DADA. Harry also got made Quidditch captain."
"YES!" James yelled. "THAT'S MY BOY!" He did a jig around the room and was still bouncing up and down when Lily finally pulled him back to his chair. "Just like his daddy."
"Soon we got to go to Diagon Alley. We saw Malfoy in Madam Malkin's. He got really angry when she touched his left arm. His mother was with him and Harry almost started a fight in the shop. The Malfoys left and we quickly bought our robes."
"You shoulda got a couple of good shots in." Sirius said.
"Then we went to get our books. Finally we went to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."
"About time too." James said indignantly.
"They had Skiving snackboxes, magical quills for self inking and spell checking. They also had Daydream charms, love potions, edible dark marks, shield clothing such as hats, gloves and cloaks."
"That is incredible magic." McGonagall said looking slightly proud and worried at the same time. James and Sirius looked like they were in heaven.
"They said that, as Harry helped them start up, he could have whatever he liked for free." Hermione grinned.
"Oh my god. There aren't words for how jealous I am of my own son." James said, open mouthed and practically drooling.
"Hey, Prongs, if we help them start up, we could help run it and use all that stuff too." Sirius grinned evilly.
"No." Lily said firmly.
"Yeah, and we can give loads of stuff to Harry for school." James laughed.
"No!" McGonagall cried.
"While we were there, Harry saw Draco Malfoy slipping off on his own towards Knockturn Alley. So we put the cloak on and followed him. He went to Borgin and Burkes. Using extendable ears, we overheard him wanting something fixed. He also wanted another one kept safe. It sounded like there was a pair. Malfoy had a broken one and the other was in the shop."
"It can't be good whatever it is." Sirius said darkly. "Nothing is in that shop."
"Harry thought that Malfoy had been made a Death eater to replace his father."
"At sixteen? Unlikely." Remus frowned.
"Not if he wanted a spy at Hogwarts." Sirius replied.
"Well Ron and I didn't think it was very likely." Hermione didn't add how much she regretted not listening more carefully to Harry. "We thought that he just wanted to act tough or something. On the Platform, Harry did try to tell Mr Weasley about his suspicions but he said that they had already raided Malfoy Manor and taken all dark objects."
"Maybe he isn't keeping it there." Lily argued.
"Well Harry thought they must have missed it or something."
"He has good instincts. It couldn't hurt to check it out." James said.
"Ron and I had prefect duty so Harry sat with Luna and Neville. He had decided not to continue the DA this year as Umbridge was gone. During the journey he got an invitation to see Horace Slughorn in his compartment for lunch."
"No. Get out while you can." James groaned.
"They weren't that bad." Lily disagreed. Sirius snorted.
"I went as a plus one to Gwenog Jones once. It was the most awful party ever." He said.
"Anyway. Neville also had an invitation so they went along together. Once they got there they found that Ginny had also been invited."
"Ginny Weasley? What was her invite for?" Lily asked curiously.
"On the way to lunch, Slughorn saw her cast a bat bogey hex on an annoying Hufflepuff boy in our year. That hex is her speciality." Hermione explained. James and Sirius sniggered.
"A redhead and good with hexes. That's a good girl right there Harry." James smiled.
"Slughorn kept going on about the Ministry and what happened that summer. Once it was over, Harry used to cloak to follow a sixth year Slytherin back to his compartment and listen in on Draco Malfoy."
"Good plan." Sirius grinned approvingly.
"Malfoy said he might not be at Hogwarts for his seventh year, he might have moved on. Then he said that maybe the job he had been given didn't require NEWTs to do."
"So Harry was right and he is an official Death Eater?" James asked.
"Or, he is just showing off in front of his friends." Remus said slowly.
"Either way, Malfoy had seen Harry's foot as he tried to hide in the compartment and when the train stopped, he hexed Harry. He broke his nose and then left him on the train under the cloak." McGonagall and Dumbledore exchanged worried glances.
"I'm gonna kill that slimeball." Sirius growled.
"Thankfully Tonks had been stationed at Hogsmeade as extra protection. She realised Harry hadn't gotten off the train and found him in time."
"Go Nymphadora." Sirius smiled.
"She will kill you if you call her that." Hermione laughed. "It's Tonks."
"I don't blame her." James chuckled.
"Tonks fixed his nose and took him back to school. Snape collected him from the gate." There was a chorus of groans from the Marauders. "He took points for being late and not in his wouldn't let Harry get changed before going into the Great Hall."
"Urgh. I'm just so sick of Snivellus." James fumed. "It's not as if he did it on purpose. And by the sound of it, it should be obvious Harry isn't me and doesn't want the attention."
"Yeah well, Snivellus called us cowards for picking on him in a group. Now he is taking it out on a kid when he is in a position of power. If that don't make him a coward I don't know what does." Sirius snarled.
"I cleaned the blood off his face and we found out the Slughorn would be teaching us potions that year. Snape would be teaching DADA."
"Just great. This gets better and better." Remus said sarcastically.
"Well, as he knows so much about the Dark Arts he should be able to teach better than most the defenses against it." Lily pointed out.
"After dinner, Harry told us what happened on the train. Ron and I thought Malfoy was just showing off." Remus smiled at her. "We also met Hagrid. We failed to mention that none of us were taking Care of Magical Creatures that year."
"Poor Hagrid." Lily frowned sadly.