Chapter 17:

Normal Pov

Harry and Ron met Hermione in the common room before breakfast next morning. Hoping for some support in his theory, Harry lost no time in telling Hermione what he had overheard Malfoy saying on the Hogwarts Express.

"But he was obviously showing off for Juliunna, wasn't he?" interjected Ron quickly, before Hermione could say anything.

"Well," she said uncertainly, "I don't know. ... It would be like Malfoy make himself seem more important than he is ... but that's a big lie to tell. . . ."

"Exactly," said Harry, but he could nor press the point, because so many people were trying to listen in to his conversation, not to mention staring at him and whispering behind their hands.

"It's rude to point," Ron snapped at a particularly minuscule first-year boy as they joined the queue to climb out of the portrait hole. The boy, who had been muttering something about Harry behind his hand to his friend, promptly turned scarlet and toppled out of the hole in alarm. Ron sniggered. "I love being a sixth year. And were going to be getting free time this year. Whole periods when we can just sit up here and relax."

"We're going to need that time for studying, Ron!" said Hermione, as they set off down the corridor.

"Yeah, but not today," said Ron. "Today's going to be a real doss, I reckon."

…

Juliunna greeted the Golden Trio with a tight hug in the Great Hall.. "How are you guys doing?" She asked, her voice light and cheerful. Harry laughed as they all sat down at the Gryffindor Table. "Glad to see your in a good mood. So anyway, yeah, we're fine. Though we are a little worried about Hagrid." Harry said, and in low murmur, told her about how Hagrid was going to be crushed when he realized that they weren't taking his class.

"What if no one does?" Hermione said.

"I am." Juliunna said, and took out her N.E.W.T Papers. "Father told Snape to sign me up for the classes he approved. You know, the ones worth while. I've got Hagrid's class, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, I bet he's gonna be taking me on his missions when I'm ready, as some sort of father and daughter bonding thing. It'll probably be dangerous. So yeah, Defense Against the Dark, Arithmacy, and Ancient Runes. Potions is going to be a right wreck. It's bad enough I have to look at him during the day." Juliunna huffed.

"Oh yeah, you were asleep. Snape's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Slughorn's got potions.

"Oh… Oh." She sighed. "Anyway, did you know that it's only been our first day, and Snape says that I've got thirty two sign ups for Quidditch. Are you kidding me?!" She sighed.

"Heh, is Quidditch really that popular?" Harry asked. Juliunna sighed and leaned her head on her hand.

"Pansy let it slip that I'm the Dark Lord's Daughter because she got jealous, and now everyone wants a chance to get close to me over there. That's why I'm not sitting with them." Juliunna explained grimly.

"How'd she know?" Hermione asked.

"Draco told her. And Crabbe and Goyle, and Blaise." Juliunna sighed. Draco swears that he thought Pansy would keep the secret, but I know better." Juliunna snarled.

"I don't think he's good for you." Ron said. Harry remembered what Draco and her were arguing about on the train.

"Juliunna… Did you really kiss Ron?" Harry asked. Hermione turned to Ron, her eyes wide and her jaw slackened. "Well?" Hermione laughed. But it was cold and not at all friendly.

"Oh Harry, I was teaching him how to kiss out of pity." Juliunna said with a shrug. Ron, who was staring at the table, stopped eating.

An hour later they reluctantly left the sunlit common room for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom four floors below. Hermione and Juliunna were already queuing outside, each carrying an armful of heavy books and looking put-upon.

"We got so much homework for Runes," Juliunna said anxiously when Harry and Ron joined her. "A fifteen-inch essay, two translations, and we've got to read these by Wednesday!"

"Shame," yawned Ron.

"You wait," Hermione said resentfully. "I bet Snape gives us loads."

The classroom door opened as she spoke, and Snape stepped into the corridor, his sallow face framed as ever by two curtains of greasy black hair. Silence fell over the queue immediately.

"Inside," he said.

Harry looked around as they entered. Snape had imposed his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier than usual, as curtains had been drawn over the windows, and was lit by candlelight. New pictures adorned the walls, many of them showing people who appeared to be in pain, sporting grisly injuries or strangely contorted body parts. Nobody spoke as they settled down, looking around at the shadowy, gruesome pictures.

"I have not asked you to take out your books," said Snape, closing the door and moving to face the class from behind his desk; Hermione hastily dropped her copy of Confronting the Faceless back into her bag and stowed it under her chair. "I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention."

His black eyes roved over their upturned faces, lingering for a fraction of a second longer on Harry's than anyone else's.

"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe."

You believe . . . like you haven't watched them all come and go, hoping you'd be next, thought Harry scathingly.

Naturally, these teachers will all have had their own methods and priorities. Given this confusion I am surprised so many of you scraped an . in this subject. I shall be even more surprised if all of you manage to keep up with the N.E.W.T. work, which will be more advanced."

Snape set off around the edge of the room, speaking now in a lower voice; the class craned their necks to keep him in view. The Dark Arts," said Snape, "are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible."

Harry stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice?

"Your defenses," said Snape, a little louder, "must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo. These pictures - he indicated a few of them as he swept past - Give a fair representation of what happens to those who suffer, for instance, the Cruciatus Curse" - he waved a hand toward a witch who was clearly shrieking in agony - "feel the Dementor's Kiss" - a wizard lying huddled and blank-eyed, slumped against a wall - "or provoke the aggression of the Inferius" - a bloody mass upon ground.

"Has an Inferius been seen, then?" said Parvati Patil in a high pitched voice. "Is it definite, is he using them?"

"The Dark Lord has used Inferi in the past," said Snape, "which means you would be well-advised to assume he might use them again. Now. . . "

"No." Juliunna said, and Snape and everyone else turned to her. "Anything you'd like to add on the subject, Miss Riddle?" He said lightly, his lips curling.

"I don't believe my father will use the Inferi. He has multiple forms of alliances, both human and non human, to near human intelligence, and to those of animal like brains, and I know for sure that he wouldn't like to be relying on corpses that could be taken down with the simple power of fire. I know for a fact that mere first years could conjure fire. He wouldn' go for that. I do however believe," Juliunna said leaning forward. "That he would use them as one of many different forms to guard something. He's killed enough to make an army, but their weakness is simple. I feel he regrets using them. Their so weak, and easy to get by." Juliunna smirked as she talked, her own lip curling. Snape smirked.

"Well looks like you have the Dark Lord all figured out."

"I don't pretend to know that I know everything about him, but I do know that." Juliunna scoffed. Harry looked around. The Slytherins were staring at her in inspirational awe.

"Miss Riddle, I suggest that you shut your mouth. We already have a Know it all in this class, we don't need two. Isn't that right Mrs. Granger?" Snape said, his eyes flickering over Hermione, who scowled.

"You know, your constant habit of picking on the Gryffindors makes me think that this is rooted deeper." Juliunna said, and Snape turned to her. He seemed to be daring her to continue speaking. "I bet your taking it out on us because of what happened all those years ago, back when you were in school. You bully us, because you yourself was on the receiving end-!"

Harry clamped his hand over Juliunna's mouth, but it was too late.

"Get. Out." Snape said.

"Oh, have I touched a nerve?" Juliunna said. She didn't smirk, and she didn't gloat. Her eyes were glittering with malice, her voice completely serious and dead. Draco Malfoy had never been more attracted to her then at this moment.

"One week. Detention." Snape snarled at her. Juliunna smirked. "Whatever Snape a doodle." She shrugged. She stood up, grabbed her books, and promptly walked out of the class.

Later on at Dinner

"Harry! Hey, Harry!"

Harry looked around; Jack Sloper, one of the Beaters on last year's Gryffindor Quidditch team, was hurrying toward him holding a roll of parchment.

"For you," panted Sloper. "Listen, I heard you're the new Captain. When're you holding trials?"

"I'm not sure yet," said Harry, thinking privately that Sloper would be very lucky to get back on the team. "I'll let you know."

"Oh, right. I was hoping it'd be this weekend -"

But Harry was not listening; he had just recognized the thin, slanting writing on the parchment. Leaving Sloper in mid-sentence, he hurried away with Ron and Hermione, unrolling the parchment as he went.

Dear Harry,

I would like to start our private lessons this Saturday. Kindly come along to my office at 8 P.M. I hope you are enjoying your first day back at school.

Yours sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

P.S. I enjoy Acid Pops.

"He enjoys Acid Pops?" said Ron, who had read the message over Harry's shoulder and was looking perplexed.

"It's the password to get past the gargoyle outside his study," said Juliunna in a low voice, appearing over Hermione's shoulder..

"Ha! Snape's not going to be pleased. . . . I won't be able to do his detention!" Harry chuckled. When Juliunna raised an eyebrow, Harry explained that he was given detention from Snape for sheer cheek.

He, Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione sent the whole of break speculating on what Dumbledore would teach Harry. Ron thought it most likely to be spectacular jinxes and hexes of the type the Death Eaters would not know. Hermione said such things were illegal, and thought it much more likely that Dumbledore wanted to teach Harry advanced Defensive magic. After break, she and Juliunna went off to Arithmacy while Harry and Ron returned to the common room where they grudgingly started Snape's homework. This turned out to be so complex that they still had not finished when Hermione joined them for their after-lunch free period (though she considerably speeded up the process). They had only just finished when the bell rang for the afternoon's double Potions and they beat the familiar path down to the dungeon classroom that had, for so long, been Snape's.

When they arrived in the corridor and stood next to Juliunna, they saw that there were only a dozen people progressing to N.E.W.T. level. Crabbe and Goyle had evidently failed to achieve the required O.W.L. grade, but four Slytherins had made it through, including Malfoy. Four Ravenclaw were there, and one Hufflepuff, Ernie Macmillan, whom Harry liked despite his rather pompous manner.

"Harry," Ernie said portentously, holding out his hand as Harry approached, "Didn't get a chance to speak in Defense Against The Dark Arts this morning. Good lesson, I thought, but Shield Charms are old hat, of course, for us old D.A. lags . . . And how are you, Ron, new girl, Hermione?"

Before they could say more than "fine," the dungeon door opened and Slughorn's belly preceded him out of the door. As they filed into the room, his great walrus mustache curved above his beaming mouth, and he greeted Harry and Zabini with particular enthusiasm.

"Hmm." Juliunna said, staring around at the room. "I like it here now." She said with a smile. "I didn't like it back then, though." She laughed softly.

"With Snape?" Both Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ernie said.

"Yep." She smirked, rolling her eyes.

The dungeon was, most unusually, already full of vapors and odd smells. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sniffed interestedly as they passed large, bubbling cauldrons. Juliunna and the three Slytherins took a table together, as did the four Ravenclaw. This left Harry, Ron, and Hermione to share a table with Ernie. They chose the one nearest a gold-colored cauldron that was emitting one of the most seductive scents Harry had ever inhaled: Somehow it reminded him simultaneously of treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow. He found that he was breathing very slowly and deeply and that the potion's fumes seemed to be filling him up like drink. A great contentment stole over him; he grinned across at Ron, who grinned back lazily.

"Now then, now then, now then," said Slughorn, whose massive outline was quivering through the many shimmering vapors. "Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don't forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making. . . ."

"Sir?" said Harry, raising his hand.

"Harry, m'boy?"

"I haven't got a book or scales or anything - nor's Ron - we didn't realize we'd be able to do the N.E.W.T., you see -"

"Ah, yes, Professor McGonagall did mention . . . not to worry, my dear boy, not to worry at all. You can use ingredients from the store cupboard today, and I'm sure we can lend you some scales, and we've got a small stock of old books here, they'll do until you can write to Flourish and Blotts. . . ."

Slughorn strode over to a corner cupboard and, after a moment's foraging, emerged with two very battered-looking copies of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage, which he gave to Harry and Ron along with two sets of tarnished scales.

"Now then," said Slughorn, returning to the front of the class and inflating his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?"

He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table. Harry raised himself slightly in his seat and saw what looked like plain water boiling away inside it.

Hermione's well-practiced hand hit the air before anybody else's; Slughorn pointed at her.

"It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the, drinker to tell the truth," said Hermione.

"Very good, very good!" said Slughorn happily. "Now," he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest the Ravenclaw table, "this one here is pretty well known. . . . Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too . . . Who can - ?"

Hermione's hand was fastest once more.

"it's Polyjuice Potion, sir," she said.

Harry too had recognized the slow-bubbling, mud like substance the second cauldron, but did not resent Hermione getting the credit for answering the question; she, after all, was the one who had succeeded in making it, back in their second year. "Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here . . . yes, you dear?" said Slughorn, looking over to Juliunna, who had managed to punch her hand into the air before Hermione.

"It is Amortentia."

"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask," said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, "but I assume you know what it does?"

It's the most powerful love potion in the world!" said Hermione, bursting out. "Yes, yes it is Hermione." Juliunna chuckled. "But of course, it doesn't produce actual love. It is impossible to create genuine love from a potion or magic itself. No, but it will create a powerful infatuation, or obsession. It's probably the most dangerous potion in here." Juliunna said with a smirk.

"Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," said Juliunna dull. "And it's supposed to smell differently to each of according to what attracts us. Hermione darling, what do you smell?" Juliunna asked dully, turning around.

" I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and -" Hermione shut her mouth instantly.

'May I ask your name, my dears?" Professor Slughorn asked.

"Juliunna, and Hermione Granger." Juliunna said, jetting her head towards Hermione, who was still pink. "Really sir, you have to give her half the credit, I believe Hermione taught me everything I knew about it mere weeks ago. We're study partners you see." Juliunna smirked.

"Ah, a modest Slytherin, you don't see many of those. Wait, Granger? Granger? Can you possibly be related to Hector Dagworth-Granger, who founded the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers?"

"No. I don't think so, sir. I'm Muggle-born, you see."

Harry saw Malfoy lean close to Nott and whisper something; both of them sniggered, but Slughorn showed no dismay; on the contrary, he beamed and looked from Hermione to Harry, who was sitting next to her.

"Oho! 'One of my best friends is Muggle-born, and she's the best in our year!' I'm assuming this is the very friend of whom you spoke, Harry?"

"Yes, sir," said Harry.

"Well, well, take twenty well-earned points for Gryffindor, Miss Granger, and twenty points to Slytherin for explaining that potion for me," said Slughorn genially. Harry turned to Juliunna just as Slughorn did. "And you, do you have any relatives that are well known? You sort of remind me of someone I knew, someone who I can't think about right now. It's curious. I'm wondering where you got your talent of intelligence from."

"Well you see Professor, it's kind of complicated. Yes I do have a wildly known ancestor, he's kind of a Dark Lord?"

"Kind of?" Draco muttered in her ear.

"It's Lord Voldemort. He's my father. I actually met him over the summer." Juliunna said with a smile. "He was pretty nice. Fixed up some classes for me. I'm far from poor."

"You Know Who?" Slughorn gasped, and Harry noticed that the other three Slytherins, including Malfoy, were leaning into her side as if she herself was Amortentia.

"Eh? Um, yes. I was kidnapped from the safe house Dumbledore put me in. Bellatrix Lestrange and her friends, including a werewolf grabbed me from the Weasley's house. But it was an unauthorized order, and he sent me back. He said he'll have time to be a father when he takes over the Ministry." Juliunna said. "Sometime next summer, he said."

"Oh my." Slughorn said, clutching his chest. "And he sent you back, you said?"

"Yes."

"You were face to face with Bellatrix Lestrange, Death Eaters, and Werewolves … Did you talk to the Ministry about this?"

"No, but Dumbledore took care of it." Juliunna said, and Slughorn exhaled. She smiled. "Well, if Dumbledore isn't worried, it's fine. Weasleys. Do you know my good student, Ginny Weasley?'

"Ginerva? Well I suppose so. We shared a room almost all Summer."

"That's her real name?"

"Yes, but her mother only calls her that when she's being strict." Juliunna laughed.

"You know, Miss Riddle, maybe, just maybe, you'd like to come to the Slug Club?" Slughorn smiled. Juliunna frowned.

"I'm sorry but no. I don't like to touch them. I'm very easily grossed out by slugs-!"

"Oh dear you are a card! No, my name is Slughorn, and I hold a club for the most talented students in the school." He laughed.

"Oh, well that seems okay." Juliunna shrugged. Next to her, Draco scowled.

"I won't take no for an answer. Oh, do you know Mr. Potter and Miss Granger as much as you know Miss Weasley?"

"Yes. We spent the summer in the same house, and a two weeks in Hogwarts together. We're quite well friends, I say." Juliunna smiled.

"Oh, you'll do well in the Slug club. Now, everyone, onto work."

…

"Congratulations Harry." Juliunna said genuinely, much to Harry's shock. He thought if anyone, Juliunna would have been the most annoyed. Instead, she seemed the happiest. Hermione was continuing to blast him off every chance she got.

"How'd you do it?" Hermione grumbled.

The Half Blood Prince. He thought to himself. "I tell you in the common room." Harry whispered to Hermione.

"But I want to know too." Juliunna said. Harry sighed and he, Hermione, Juliunna, and Ron walked a little way back and leaned against a corner.

"Make it quick, Draco's waiting for me." Juliunna noted. Draco was leaning against the potions room door, looking at her suspiciously. She nodded at him, and then turned to Harry.

"The book Slughorn gave to me. It's filled with new revisions. Hand written stuff, you know."

"Bloody brilliant." Juliunna smirked, tapping him on the shoulder.

"They weren't official instructions." Hermione grumbled. "It could have ended very badly."

"Oh Hermione, don't be such a nark. Harry took a chance and it turned out great." Juliunna said with a smile.

…

It was after his meeting with Dumbledore, that Harry got back to the Gryffindor Common Room. He told Hermione and Ron everything. About how he was delving into Lord Voldemort's pass.

"Should we keep it from-!"

"Dumbledore said I could tell her." Harry said with a shrug, silencing Hermione.

As Hermione had predicted not too long ago, the sixth years' many free periods were not the hours of blissful relaxation Ron had anticipated, but times in which to attempt to keep up with the vast amount of homework they were being set. Not only were they studying as though they had exams every day, but the lessons them-selves had become more demanding than ever before. Harry barely understood half of what Professor McGonagall said to them these days; even Hermione had had to ask her to repeat instructions once or twice. Incredibly, and to Hermione's increasing resentment, Harry's best subject had suddenly become Potions, thanks to the Half-Blood Prince.

Nonverbal spells were now expected, not only in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but in Charms and Transfiguration too. Harry frequently looked over at his classmates in the common room or at mealtimes to see them purple in the face and straining as though they had overdosed on U-No-Poo; but he knew that they were really struggling to make spells work without saying incantations aloud. It was a relief to get outside into the greenhouses; they were dealing with more dangerous plants than ever in Herbology, but at least they were still allowed to swear loudly if the Venomous Tentacula seized them unexpectedly from behind.

One result of their enormous workload and the frantic hours of practicing nonverbal spells was that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had so far been unable to find time to go and visit Hagrid. He had stopped coming to meals at the staff table, an ominous sign, and on the few occasions when they had passed him in the corridors or out in the grounds, he had mysteriously failed to notice them or hear their greetings.

"He's sad." Juliunna explained to Harry one sunny afternoon. The front of her robes were ripped. She had explained that Hagrid had her feeding Witherwings as warm up, and Buckbeak got carried away when she got the dead rat stuck on her shirt.

"He hates us now, doesn't he?" Harry sighed.

"No. I really wish you guys would have joined in, at least for the sake of your friend. He doesn't even think of it as a class. Since its only me, he takes me into the Forbidden Forest like its an Apprentices job. Showing me the creatures and the sights, like we're the best of friends. He's got a map of creatures and their habitats littered all over the forest! I heard him muttering to himself that as an end of the year exam he might make me go into the Forbidden Forest and find as much as I could!" Juliunna squeaked.

"Now you get why we don't take the class?" Ron smirked, and Hermione jetted him in the stomach with her elbow. Hagrid had just walked by. "Hello Juliunna." He said with a smile. He threw a cold look at the Golden Trio, and continued on. "Hi Hagrid! Nice class today!" Juliunna waved.

Harry sighed and plucked a piece of dead rat out of Juliunna's hair.

…

For or the rest of the week's Potions lessons Harry continued to follow the Half-Blood Prince's instructions wherever they deviated from Libatius Borage's, with the result that by their fourth lesson Slughorn was raving about Harry's abilities, saying that he had rarely taught anyone so talented. Neither Ron nor Hermione was delighted by this. Although Harry had offered to share his book with both of them, Ron had more difficulty deciphering the handwriting than Harry did, and could not keep asking Harry to read aloud or it might look suspicious. Hermione, meanwhile, was resolutely plowing on with what she called the 'Official' instructions, but becoming increasingly bad-tempered as they yielded poorer results than the Prince's.

"We've got to go and explain," said Hermione, looking up at Hagrid's huge empty chair at the staff table the following Saturday at breakfast.

"We've got Quidditch tryouts this morning!" said Ron. "And we're supposed to be practicing that Augimenti Charm from Flitwick! Anyway, explain what? How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject?"

"We didn't hate it!" said Hermione.

"Speak for yourself, I haven't forgotten the skrewts," said Ron darkly. "And I'm telling you now, we've had a narrow escape. You didn't hear him going on about his gormless brother — we'd have been teaching Grawp how to tie his shoelaces if we'd stayed."

"I hate not talking to Hagrid," said Hermione, looking upset.

"We'll go down after Quidditch," Harry assured her. He too was missing Hagrid, although like Ron he thought that they were better off without Grawp in their lives. "But trials might take all morning, the number of people who have applied." He felt slightly nervous at confronting the first hurdle of his Captaincy. "I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden."

Dinner Time

"Ah." Juliunna moaned, clutching her head. "What's wrong?" Ron said as he, Harry, and Hermione took a seat next to her at the Gryffindor Table.

"I don't want to be Slytherin anymore! They keep coming up to me and dropping subtle hints about Quidditch. And they give me gifts and act all nice, trying to guilt me into accepting them into the team. It gets terribly exhausting." Juliunna groaned. "I'm terribly tired guys. It's going to be completely crazy having to manage fifthy people." She yawned, grabbing a slice of marmalade toast.

"Fifthy?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow. "Yes! Fifthy." Juliunna sighed. "I put up the Quidditch Notice in the common room yesterday, and Professor Snape put up the Quidditch sign up sheet in the common room too. And there are exactly fifthy people signed up, as of this morning." Juliunna sighed.

"Well we'll be there. Besides, its good to spy on your moves at earliness, so we know what we're dealing with." Ron chuckled. Hermione elbowed him again. Slughorn was heading over to the table.

"Harry, Harry, just the man I was hoping to see!" He boomed genially, twiddling the ends of his walrus mustache and puffing out his enormous belly, "I was hoping to catch you before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my room instead? We're having a little party, just a few rising stars, I've got McLaggen coming and Zabini, the charming Melinda Bobbin — I don't know whether you know her? Her family owns a large chain of apothecaries — and, of course, I hope very much that Miss Granger will favor me by coming too. Miss Riddle, you'll be there." He smiled.

Slughorn made Hermione and Juliunna a little bow as he finished speaking. It was as though Ron was not present; Slughorn did not so much as look at him.

"I can't come, Professor," said Harry at once. "I've got a detention with Professor Snape."

"Oh dear!" said Slughorn, his face falling comically. "Dear, dear, I was counting on you, Harry! Well, now, I'll just have to have a word with Severus and explain the situation. I'm sure I'll be able to persuade him to postpone your detention. Yes, I'll see you three later!" He bustled away out of the Hall.

"He's got no chance of persuading Snape," said Harry, the moment Slughorn was out of earshot. "This detentions already been postponed once; Snape did it for Dumbledore, but he won't do it for anyone else."

"Oh, I wish you could come, I don't want to go on my own!" said Hermione anxiously; Harry knew that she was thinking about McLaggen.

"I know." Juliunna said, rolling her eyes.

"I doubt you'll be alone, Ginny'll probably be invited," snapped Ron, who did not seem to have taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn.

"Hogsmead Weekend coming up." Juliunna said with a smile.

"Want to join us there?" Ron yawned.

"Yes." She nodded lightly.

"Oy!" Malfoy snapped. Harry's hand had been trekking along Juliunna's shoulder, trying to pick out a glowing blue reside. It looked like spilt, glowing glitter.

"What?!" Harry snapped, taking it out of Juliunna's hair.

"Forest again?"

"Yeah, what's that?! Did you just pull that out of my hair?!" Juliunna snapped. Harry was holding a miniscule Cornish pixie in his hand. "Yep." He said with a smile.

Draco appeared over at the table and pulled her over to the Slytherin side, scowling widely.

After dinner Ron, Harry, and Hermione made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. The common room was very crowded, as most people had finished dinner by now, but they managed to find a free table and sat down; Ron, who had been in a bad mood ever since the encounter with Slughorn, folded his arms and frowned at the ceiling. Hermione reached out for a copy of the Evening Prophet, which somebody had left abandoned on a chair.

"Anything new?" said Harry.

"Not really. . ." Hermione had opened the newspaper and was scanning the inside pages. "Oh, look, your dad's in here, Ron — he's all right!" she added quickly, for Ron had looked around in alarm. "It just says he's been to visit the Malfoys' house. 'This second search of the Death Eaters residence does not seem to have yielded any results. Arthur Weasley of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects said that his team had been acting upon a confidential tip-off.'"

"Yeah, mine!" said Harry. "I told him at Kings Cross about Malfoy and that thing he was trying to get Borgin to fix! Well, if it's not at their house, he must have brought whatever it is to Hogwarts with him —"

"But how can he have done, Harry?" said Hermione, putting down the newspaper with a surprised look. "We were all searched when we arrived, weren't we?"

"Were you?" said Harry, taken aback. "I wasn't!"

"Oh no, of course you weren't, I forgot you were late. Well, Filch ran over all of us with Secrecy Sensors when we got into the entrance hall. Any Dark object would have been found, I know for a fact Crabbe had a shrunken head confiscated. So you see, Malfoy can't have brought in anything dangerous!"

Momentarily stymied, Harry watched Ginny Weasley playing with Arnold the Pygmy Puff for a while before seeing a way around this objection.

"Someone's sent it to him by owl, then," he said. "His mother or someone."

"All the owls are being checked too," said Hermione. "Filch told us so when he was jabbing those Secrecy Sensors everywhere he could reach."

Really stumped this time, Harry found nothing else to say. There did not seem to be any way Malfoy could have brought a dangerous or Dark object into the school. He looked hopefully at Ron, who was sitting with his arms folded, staring over at Lavender Brown.

"Can you think of any way Malfoy — ?"

"Oh, drop it, Harry," said Ron.

"Listen, it's not my fault Slughorn invited Hermione and me to his stupid party, neither of us wanted to go, you know!" said Harry, firing up.

"Well, as I'm not invited to any parties," said Ron, getting to his feet again, "I think I'll go to bed."

He stomped off toward the door to the boys' dormitories, leaving Harry and Hermione staring after him.

"Harry?" said the new Chaser, Demelza Robins, appearing suddenly at his shoulder. "I've got a message for you."

"From Professor Slughorn?" asked Harry, sitting up hopefully.

"No .. . from Professor Snape," said Demelza. Harry's heart sank. "He says you're to come to his office at half past eight tonight to do your detention — er — no matter how many party invitations you've received. And he wanted you to know you'll be sorting out rotten flobberworms from good ones, to use in Potions and — and he says there's no need to bring protective gloves."

"Right," said Harry grimly. "Thanks a lot, Demelza."

…

Filch was standing at the oak front doors as usual, checking off the names of people who had permission to go into Hogsmeade. The process took even longer than normal as Filch was triple-checking everybody with his Secrecy Sensor.

"What does it matter if we're smuggling Dark stuff OUT?" Demanded Ron, eyeing the long thin Secrecy Sensor with apprehension. "Surely you ought to be checking what we bring back IN?"

His cheek earned him a few extra jabs with the Sensor, and he was still wincing as they stepped out into the wind and sleet.

…

The walk into Hogsmeade was not enjoyable. Harry wrapped his scarf over his lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. Juliunna looked as if she was striding through a marathon in the middle of a twister. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once Harry wondered whether they might not have had a better time in the warm common room, and when they finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Harry took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. Ron pointed, with a thickly gloved hand, toward Honeydukes, which was mercifully open, and Harry, Juliunna, and Hermione staggered in his wake into the crowded shop.

"Thank God," shivered Ron as they were enveloped by warm, toffee-scented air. "Let's stay here all afternoon."

"Harry, m'boy!" said a booming voice from behind them.

"Oh no," muttered Harry. The three of them turned to see Professor Slughorn, who was wearing an enormous furry hat and an overcoat with matching fur collar, clutching a large bag of crystallized pineapple, and occupying at least a quarter of the shop.

"Harry, that's three of my little suppers you've missed now!" said Slughorn, poking him genially in the chest. "It won't do, m'boy, I'm determined to have you! Miss Granger and Juliunna loves them, don't you?"

"Yes," said Hermione helplessly, "they're really —"

"So why don't you come along, Harry?" demanded Slughorn.

"Well, I've had Quidditch practice, Professor," said Harry, who had indeed been scheduling practices every time Slughorn had sent him a little, violet ribbon-adorned invitation. This strategy meant that Ron was not left out, and they usually had a laugh with Ginny, imagining Hermione shut up with McLaggen and Zabini.

"Well, I certainly expect you to win your first match after all the, hard work!" said Slughorn. "But a little recreation never hurt any body. Now, how about Monday night, you can't possibly want to practice in this weather..."

"I can't, Professor, I've got — er — an appointment with Professor Dumbledore that evening."

"Unlucky again!" cried Slughorn dramatically. "Ah, well . . . you can't evade me forever, Harry! Goodbye Juliunna, you too Miss Granger."

And with a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop, taking as little notice of Ron as though he had been a display of Cockroach Clusters.

"I can't believe you've wriggled out of another one," said Hermione, shaking her head. "They're not that bad, you know. . . They're even quite fun sometimes. . . ." But then she caught sight of Ron's expression. "Oh, look — they've got deluxe sugar quills — those would last hours!"

"Harry, could you spot me a gallon? Mrs. Weasley forgot to mail me my money. I promise I'll pay you back."
"Don't, you don't need to." He said. He bought her two boxes of extra large sugar quills, and told her to shut up when she insisted to that she wanted to pay him.

Glad that Hermione and Juliunna had changed the subject, Harry showed much more interest in the new extra-large sugar quills than he would normally have done, but Ron continued to look moody and merely shrugged when Hermione asked him where he wanted to go next.

"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," said Harry. "It'll be warm."

They bundled their scarves back over their faces and left the sweetshop. The bitter wind was like knives on their faces after the sugary warmth of Honeydukes. The street was not very busy; no body was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations. The exceptions were two men a little ahead of them, standing just outside the Three Broomsticks. One was very tall and thin; squinting through his rain-washed glasses. Harry recognized the barman who worked in the other Hogsmeade pub, the Hog's Head. As Harry, Juliunna, Ron, and Hermione drew closer, the barman drew his cloak more tightly around his neck and walked away, leaving the shorter man to fumble with something in his arms. They were barely feet from him when Harry realized who the man was.

"Mundungus!"

The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair jumped and dropped an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window.

"Oh, 'ello, 'Arry," said Mundungus Fletcher, with a most unconvincing stab at airiness. "Well, don't let me keep ya."

And he began scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase with every appearance of a man eager to be gone. Juliunna took a sugar quill out of one of the box and popped the large stick in her mouth. "These are pretty good. And I can still write with ink?"

"Yep." Hermione said, nodding.

"Are you selling this stuff?" asked Harry, watching Mundungus grab an assortment of grubby-looking objects from the ground.

"Oh, well, gotta scrape a living," said Mundungus. "Gimme that!"

Ron had stooped down and picked up something silver.

"Hang on," Ron said slowly. "This looks familiar —"

"Thank you!" said Mundungus, snatching the goblet out of Ron's hand and stuffing it back into the case. "Well, I'll see you all-! OUCH!"

Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.

"Harry!" squealed Hermione. Juliunna nearly choked on the sugar quill.

"You took that from Sinus's house," said Harry, who was almost nose to nose with Mundungus and was breathing in an unpleasant smell of old tobacco and spirits. "That had the Black family crest on it."

"I — no — what — ?" spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple.

"What did you do, go back the night he died and strip the place?" snarled Harry.

"I — no — "

"Give it to me!"

"Harry, you mustn't!" shrieked Hermione, as Mundungus started to turn blue.

There was a bang, and Harry felt his hands fly off Mundungus's throat. Gasping and spluttering, Mundungus seized his fallen case, then — CRACK— he Disapparated.

Harry swore at the top of his voice, spinning on the spot to see where Mundungus had gone.

"COME BACK, YOU THIEVING — !"

"There's no point, Harry." Tonks had appeared out of nowhere, her mousy hair wet with sleet.

"Mundungus will probably be in London by now. There's no point yelling."

"He's nicked Sirius's stuff! Nicked it!"

"Yes, but still," said Tonks, who seemed perfectly untroubled by this piece of information. "You should get out of the cold."

She watched them go through the door of the Three Broom-sticks. The moment he was inside, Harry burst out, "He was nicking Sirius's stuff!"

"I know, Harry, but please don't shout, people are staring," Whispered Hermione. "Go and sit down, I'll get you a drink."

Harry was still fuming when Hermione returned to their table a few minutes later holding four bottles of butterbeer.

"Can't the Order control Mundungus?" Harry demanded of the other three in a furious whisper. "Can't they at least stop him stealing everything that's not fixed down when he's at headquarters?"

"Shh!" said Juliunna desperately, looking around to make sure nobody was listening; there were a couple of warlocks sitting close by who were staring at Harry with great interest, and Zabini was lolling against a pillar not far away. "Harry, I'd be annoyed too, I know it's your things he's stealing —"

Harry gagged on his butterbeer; he had momentarily forgotten that he owned number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

"Yeah, it's my stuff!" he said. "No wonder he wasn't pleased to see me! Well, I'm going to tell Dumbledore what's going on, he's the only one who scares Mundungus."

"Good idea," whispered Hermione, clearly pleased that Harry was calming down. "Ron, what are you staring at?"

"Nothing," said Ron, hastily looking away from the bar, but Harry knew he was trying to catch the eye of the curvy and attractive bar-maid, Madam Rosmerta, for whom he had long nursed a soft spot.

"I expect 'nothing's' in the back getting more Firewhisky," said Hermione waspishly. Juliunna snickered.

Ron ignored this jibe, sipping his drink in what he evidently considered to be a dignified silence. Harry was thinking about Sirius, and how he had hated those silver goblets anyway. Hermione drummed her fingers on the table, her eyes flickering between Ron and the bar.

"So… I wonder if dipping my sugar quill in this thing would make it taste even better. Hermione," Juliunna said, tipping her quill into the glass. "Have you see that McLadden bloke lately? While he may be cute, he's a little off lately. Like he's been confunded." Juliunna said, spinning the quill inside her drink. Harry and Ron rolled their eyes, but Hermione answered, quickly pinking.

"Well, he's been put in the Hospital Wing yesterday for minor spell damage. He was confunded. "

"By a death eater?" Ron asked.

"No." Harry said quickly. "it was just a prank." He said. Hermione was glad when Harry entered Juliunna in a conversation of History.

The moment Harry drained the last drops in his bottle Juliunna said, "Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?"

The other three nodded; it had not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse the longer they stayed. Once again they drew their cloaks tightly around them, rearranged their scarves, pulled on their gloves, then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street.

Harry's thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush. They had not met up with her, undoubtedly, thought Harry, because she and Dean were cozily closeted in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, that haunt of happy couples. Scowling, he bowed his head against the swirling sleet and trudged on.

It was a little while before Harry became aware that the voices of Katie Bell and her friend, which were being carried back to him on the wind, had become shriller and louder. Harry squinted at their indistinct figures. The two girls were having an argument about something Katie was holding in her hand. "It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" Harry heard Katie say.

They rounded a corner in the lane, sleet coming thick and fast, blurring Harry's glasses. Just as he raised a gloved hand to wipe them, Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.

At once, Katie rose into the air gracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she was about to fly. Yet there was something wrong, something eerie.

Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression. Harry, Ron, Juliunna, Hermione, and Leanne had all halted in their tracks, watching.

Then, six feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream.