(A/N I finally got myself a new copy! I'm so sorry it took horrendously long. Thank you for the continued support even while I was MIA. I shall now definitely be updating at least once a week. Keep reviewing it makes my day.

Fangsanddaggers: I hope you didn't make too big a hole in the carpet from all your pacing :) )

Chapter 23: Slughorn's memory

Once everyone had calmed down all the teachers except for Dumbledore returned to the school, promising to return once they had checked everything.

"As Christmas came closer, I overheard loads of girls trying to get Harry to take them to Slughorn's party. They were planning on slipping him love potion." Hermione told them all.

"Wow, my son is so popular." James grinned smugly.

"Almost as famous as me." Sirius puffed out his chest.

"You sound like Lockhart." Lily shot at him. HIs face fell and he turned to Hermione.

"I don't sound like him."

"Yeah...you kinda do." She told him. He pouted.

"I'm not that bad." He muttered.

"A girl called Romilda Vane gave him some chocolate cauldrons, which he stashed in his trunk and hid. He ended up inviting Luna Lovegood to go as friends."

"Lovegood? Could do worse son." James mused.

"Then I admitted to Harry and Parvati at the Gryffindor table that I was going with Cormac McLaggen."

"The guy you called an arrogant idiot not so long ago?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrow. Hermione looked faintly embarrassed.

"I was trying to annoy Ron the most. He was a self-obsessed idiot too so I ditched him as soon as I could."

"Self-obsessed idiot? Now who does that remind you of Padfoot?" Remus asked with a grin.

"James." Sirius answered quickly. Lily laughed.

"Oi, Padfoot, I think he meant you." James told him.

"Part way through the party, Flich dragged Malfoy in saying he caught him lurking in a corridor upstairs apparently saying he was invited to the party. Slughorn let him stay but Snape took him out and Harry followed them under the cloak."

"Of course he did." Lily rolled her eyes.

"He is learning, keep it with you at all times. And the map." James said seriously.

"Took him a while to learn though, must take after his father." Sirius laughed. James threw a cushion at him.

"He overheard Snape offering to help Malfoy with a task that his master had given him. Snape also said he had made the unbreakable vow to Narcissa to protect Malfoy."

"He did what?" Lily gasped.

"Malfoy's master? That has to be Voldemort. Snape is obviously a Death Eater." James scowled. McGonagall and Dumbledore exchanged worried glances.

"So there is a Death Eater teaching DADA at Hogwarts?" Remus asked, his face pale.

"I'm sure I would not have appointed him to the position if I felt he would be a danger to the students." Dumbledore told them firmly.

"Harry and Ron went back to the Burrow for Christmas. He told Ron what had happened and he still didn't believe that Malfoy was working for Voldemort. Then he mentioned it to Mr Weasley and Remus. Neither of whom thought it was much to worry about either. Remus said that if Professor Dumbledore trusted Snape then that was good enough for him."

"Thank you Mr Lupin." Dumbledore smiled at him.

"Harry asked him if he knew who the Half-Blood Prince was, but Remus didn't. During Christmas dinner the Minister for Magic dropped by under the pretence Percy wanted to visit his family. He asked Harry to walk with him around the Burrow grounds while Percy said hello."

"I very much doubt Percy wanted to be there at all." Sirius snorted.

"It's obviously an excuse to talk to Harry." Lily sighed.

"It was. He wanted Harry to be a poster boy for the Ministry. Be seen supporting them to raise morale."

"After everything the Ministry did to Harry the year before?" Remus asked incredulously. Hermione nodded.

"Bet Harry didn't like that." James snorted.

"He didn't. Harry said he disagreed with most of what the Ministry was doing and he refused the proposal.

"Scrimgeour also wanted to know where Professor Dumbledore was going when he left the school. Harry told him he didn't know and that, even if he did, he wouldn't say. He accused Harry of being 'Dumbledore's man through and through'. Harry said he was." Dumbledore smiled over at Hermione with a tear in his eye.

"Good for Harry." James cheered. McGonagall was also smiling rather proudly.

"When we came back, Harry told me what Malfoy and Snape had said and I agreed with Ron. We found out that we could take apparition lessons that term."

"Ooh, those are great." James beamed.

"Only if you manage it first time." Remus grumbled.

"Oh yeah, you managed to splinch yourself didn't you Moony?" Sirius chuckled.

"Then Harry had his next meeting with Professor Dumbledore. The first memory he showed him was of Morfin Gaunt."

"Voldemort's uncle?" Lily frowned, trying to remember. Hermione nodded.

"He had been released from Azkaban by then but Marvolo Gaunt had died. Anyway, Voldemort returned to his old home when he was sixteen. He found his uncle there and spoke to him in parseltongue. He told Voldemort about his father, the muggle Tom Riddle, who lived with his parents in the village. Morfin told him about Merope running off with Riddle Snr and then him coming back."

"I'm guessing he didn't like that. His father being a muggle and leaving his mother." James frowned.

"Nope. The memory ended because Morfin had his memory modified by Voldemort. Voldemort killed his father and grandparents, then modified Morfin's memory so that Morfin thought he had killed them."

"He murdered his own family, at sixteen?" Lily gasped, her hands flying to her mouth in horror. Hermione nodded gravely.

"He also stole Morfin's ring which was a family heirloom."

"Well, if he did that at sixteen, there is more proof that he would have use for kids that age, like Malfoy." James pointed out.

"We hadn't thought about it like that." Hermione admitted. "The next memory he showed Harry was one of Riddle back in school. He was at a slug club meeting."

"Voldemort was one of Slughorn's favourites?" Sirius looked appalled.

"He was powerful, manipulative and cunning. Of course he was a favourite." Lily looked disgusted.

"Well, he asked Slughorn about Horcruxes." Sirius gasped and Dumbledore's mouth twisted into a grimace and a look of understanding passed over his face.

"What's a horcrux?" James asked.

"Some of the darkest magic you will ever find." Sirius told them.

"How do you know?" Lily asked him.

"Please, my house was the epitome of dark magic, there are books in there on every piece of dark magic you can think of." He snarled. "If we had visitors over, Reg and I had to go to the library and read up on stuff to keep us out of the way."

"Grimmauld Place, of course. I never thought to look there." Hermione clapped a hand to her forehead.

"You wouldn't want to 'Mione."

"Well, when Harry told us about the memory, there was nothing about them in the library." She explained.

"I should think not." Dumbledore said sharply.

"Well, they saw that the memory had been tampered with. It showed Slughorn yelling at Voldemort saying he knew nothing about horcruxes but in a white mist. Professor Dumbledore asked Harry to try and get the real memory out of him."

"Nothing like an easy task, eh Dumbledore." Sirius said sarcastically.

"It is important or I wouldn't have asked Harry to do it." Dumbledore told them.

"Why Harry?" Remus asked.

"Because Harry is one of his favourites, he needs to use his exceptional charm, that he got from me, and trick him into giving up the memory." James stated. Lily rolled her eyes but agreed.

"I did tell him to think up a strategy but he decided on Ron's idea of just hanging back after class and asking for it. We were making antidotes using Golpalott's Third Law which neither of them understood. Harry just grabbed a bezoar."

"Genius." James laughed.

"But he didn't actually do any work." Lily frowned.

"Well he just told Harry he had nerve and was just like his mother." Hermione gave a small smile, which Lily returned.

"Slughorn saw right through his attempt and refused him the memory. He decided to not say anything again for a while, trying to make him forget or think Harry had given up."

"If he thinks Harry is anything like Lily he will know that isn't the end of it." James laughed.

"Or you." Sirius put it. "It takes quite some persistence to ask the same girl out every day for four years."

"It was worth it." James smiled over at Lily.

"Meanwhile we started apparition lessons although for a while nothing happened except somebody splinched." Hermione continued.

"Ouch." Remus flinched slightly.

"During that lesson Harry overheard Malfoy talking to Crabbe and Goyle, saying that something was taking longer than he thought and he needed them to keep lookout."

"So he really is up to something suspicious?" Lily breathed.

"But yet again, nobody believes Harry." Remus sighed.

"On Ron's birthday Harry was still trying to stalk Malfoy and find out what he was up to. While he was searching his trunk for something he threw out the chocolate cauldrons Romilda had given him. They accidentally got thrown onto Ron's bed and he thought they were another present. So he ate three and soon found that he was obsessively in love with Romilda."

"She tried to feed Harry love potion?" James laughed.

"Like father, like son." Sirius chuckled. "How many love potions did people try and slip you?"

"I lost count." James grinned.

"Why, was it over five? I wasn't sure you could count that high anyway." Lily grinned slyly. James scowled.

"Definitely over five. Especially after the Quidditch cup win in sixth year.." He told her.

"So Harry decided to take Ron down to Slughorn for a cure. They managed to cure him and then Slughorn gave out some mead as a birthday drink. However Ron was poisoned. Slughorn seemed to be paralysed so Harry searched the drawers and found the bezoar from our previous lesson and saved him."

"Quick thinking son." James smiled proudly.

"Definitely. But why would Slughorn try to poison Ron?" Lily asked.

"Well Slughorn said it was supposed to be a present for Dumbledore but being himself, he opened it anyway." Hermione informed them.

"Wait, the girl with the necklace, she was supposed to give it to someone at the castle wasn't she? And now Slughorn has a poisoned bottle of mead for Professor Dumbledore, what if Malfoy is trying to kill Dumbledore." Remus breathed. Everybody stared at him in shock.

"No way would Voldemort think Malfoy was capable of killing Dumbledore." Sirius scoffed.

"Harry thinks Malfoy is up to something, and hearing about this I'm inclined to agree with him. Surely he wouldn't need lookouts unless it was something he definitely shouldn't be doing. The two attempts were both unlikely to reach the intended target and so are evidently not the work of a trained killer." James argued.

"Also, still being at Hogwarts actually makes him the perfect age for the task." Lily put in. They all sat in silence before Hermione decided to carry on.

"While Ron was in the hospital wing Harry and the Weasleys were discussing what happened and why Ron ended up being poisoned. Hagrid accidentally let slip that Dumbledore was angry with Snape. Snape seemed to think Dumbledore took too much for granted and that he might not want to do it anymore."

"Do what?" Sirius asked.

"Hagrid didn't hear what it was. When we finally got back to the common room, I went to bed and Harry got cornered by McLaggen. Ron wouldn't be fit for the Quidditch match coming up so he would be playing keeper."

"This should be interesting." Remus grinned.

"On the way to the match, he saw Malfoy with a couple of girls and Harry was annoyed he couldn't follow him. At the match McLaggen got so busy yelling at Ginny for losing the Quaffle that he didn't notice Hufflepuff score."

"He what?" James gaped. "Noooo, bring Ron back!"

"He's poisoned." Lily pointed out.

"He would still be better." James crossed his arms stubbornly.

"I agree with James on that one. Later McLaggen actually grabbed one of the beater's bats and tried to show him how to hit a Bludger properly. He ended up hitting Harry and knocking him out."

"That idiot. No wonder he never made the team before. I thought James was arrogant, but even he wasn't that bad." Lily fumed.

"In the hospital wing he pondered over Malfoy again. Then he decided to ask Kreacher to follow him and find out what he was up to."

"Great idea." Remus said.

"He'd better close up every loophole or he will tell Malfoy." Sirius sighed.

"He did. Dobby also decided to help because he loved Harry so much. Dumbledore summoned Harry for another lesson and was disappointed that he didn't have the memory yet. He did show Harry another two memories."

"You have an awful lot of memories about Voldemort." Lily commented.

"It is important to know such things." Dumbledore said.

"First of all he told Harry that after he left Hogwarts he asked for a teaching job at Hogwarts. He wanted the DADA job but Professor Dippet told him he was too young. Then he went to work at Borgin and Burkes."

"Lord Voldemort worked at Borgin and Burkes?" James asked incredulously.

"The first memory was that of a House-Elf who worked for Hepzibah Smith. He was on business buying trinkets for the shop and she was apparently quite a collector. While he was there she showed him Hufflepuff's cup and Slytherin's locket. The equivalent of Gryffindor's sword." Hermione said.

"She showed those to Voldemort? Bad idea." Remus sighed.

"Two of the most ancient and powerful artifacts in one place." Sirius and James looked awed.

"Two days after the memory Hepzibah was found dead. Apparently the House-Elf, Hokey, had poisoned her. Both trinkets were gone and Voldemort had resigned from the shop."

"So he killed her, modified Hokey's memory like he did his uncle, and vanished." Sirius concluded. Hermione was pleased he had been paying attention.

"The next memory was Professor Dumbledore's. It took place ten years after that event. It was Tom Riddle asking for a job at Hogwarts again. He was denied again and no teacher has ever stayed more than one year since he didn't get it."

"He cursed the post?" Remus asked in astonishment. Hermione nodded.

"Dumbledore thought he was also after something else, but told Harry he would tell him once he had Slughorn's memory. Now I think it's time for bed. We can continue this and start our next year tomorrow. Hopefully we can be finished the day after and then we can plot how to end this." Hermione smiled. Everyone nodded. Professor Dumbledore returned to the school. Remus flooed back to his apartment and Sirius kissed Hermione on the cheek before leaving too.

"Night 'Mione." James called, heading up the stairs.

"Night James, night Lily." Hermione called back. She went to her room and changed into her pajamas quickly. Then she lay back on her bed, her head buzzing with everything left to tell. She would have to tell them that Dumbledore died. A single tear trickled down her cheek before she brushed it away and rolled over, falling fast asleep.

"I can't believe all of this." James told Lily as they lay in bed cuddling.

"I want to know what this Malfoy kid is planning." Lily sighed. "It's obviously not good, and if he is supposed to be killing Albus…" Her voice trailed off.

"He is a sixteen year old kid. He won't be able to kill the professor." James told her confidently. SHe tried to take comfort in his words and they both went to sleep.