Chapter 178: Helping Hands

On Sunday evening, Hermione and I sat with Harry trying to help him come up with a way to get Slughorn's memory. Harry thought he could get some help from the Prince, so he looked at page after page, coming up with nothing.

"You won't find anything in there," said Hermione firmly.

"Don't start, Hermione," said Harry. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now."

"He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year," said Hermione dismissively.

She had a point. Harry ignored her and continued looking through her book.

We were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only other people awake were fellow sixth-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when we had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the notice board that announced the date for our Apparition Test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the twenty-first of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Hogsmeade.

I panicked on reading this notice; I had still not managed to Apparate and feared I would not be ready for the test. Hermione, who had now achieved Apparition twice, was a little more confident, but Harry, who would not be seventeen for another four months, could not take the test whether ready or not.

"At least you can Apparate, though!" I said tensely. "You'll have no trouble come July!"

"I've only done it once," Harry reminded me; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during our previous lesson.

Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, I was struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry and Hermione had already completed. I tried hard not to ask Hermione for help. I wanted to do this on my own.

"I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry!" said Hermione, more loudly. "There's only one way to force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal -"

"Yeah, I know that, thanks," said Harry, not looking up from the book. "That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, a potion or a spell."

"You're going about it the wrong way," said Hermione. "Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that -"

"How do you spell 'belligerent'?" I said shaking my quill very hard while staring at my parchment. "It can't be B-U-M -"

"No, it isn't," said Hermione, pulling my essay toward her. "And 'augury' doesn't begin O-R-G either. What kind of quill are you using?"

"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Checking ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off."

"Yes, it must," said Hermione, pointing at the title of my essay, "because we were asked how we'd deal with Dementors, not 'Dugbogs', and I don't remember you changing your name to 'Roonil Wazlib' either."

"Ah fuck!" I said, staring horror-struck at the parchment. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!"

"It's okay, we can fix it," said Hermione, pulling the essay toward her and taking out her wand.

"I love you, Hermione," I said, sinking back in my chair, rubbing my eyes wearily. I tried to keep that position. I hadn't meant for that to slip out. It wasn't as if I didn't mean it. I hadn't want to say it like that. I hoped that Hermione didn't take it as such.

"Don't let Lavender hear you saying that." I heard her say with a chuckle.

"I won't," I said into my hands. "Or maybe I will, then she'll ditch me."

"Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?" asked Harry.

"You haven't ever chucked anyone, have you? You and Cho just -"

"Sort of fell apart, yeah," said Harry.

"Wish that would happen with me and Lavender," I said gloomily as I watched Hermione silently tapping each of my misspelled words with the end of her wand, so that they corrected themselves on the page. "But the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It's like going out with the giant squid."

It was true. Ever since the first night she tried to have sex with me, it was getting harder and harder to tell her that I wanted to end it. I would start the conversation out, and then she would either say something to make me feel sorry for her, or she would simply start crying and declaring her love for me. She had even tried the sex angle two more times, but I did not give in.

"There," said Hermione, some twenty minutes later, handing back my essay.

"Thanks a million," I said. "Can I borrow your quill for the conclusion?"

Hermione handed me her quill and I began to write out my conclusion. I was usually great at those, as it was closing out something that I already did not want to do.

Crack.

Hermione let out a little shriek; I ended up spilling ink all over my freshly completed essay, and Harry said, "Kreacher!"

The house-elf bowed low and addressed his own gnarled toes. "Master said he wanted regular reports on what the Malfoy boy is doing, so Kreacher has come to give-"

Crack.

Dobby appeared alongside Kreacher, his tea-cozy hat askew.

"Dobby has been helping too, Harry Potter!" he squeaked, casting Kreacher a resentful look. "And Kreacher ought to tell Dobby when he is coming to see Harry Potter so they can make their reports together!"

"What is this?" asked Hermione, still looking shocked by these sudden appearances. "What's going on, Harry?"

Harry hesitated before answering, because he had not told Hermione about setting Kreacher and Dobby to tail Malfoy; house-elves were always such a touchy subject with her.

"Well... they've been following Malfoy for me," he said.

"Night and day," croaked Kreacher.

"Dobby has not slept for a week, Harry Potter!" said Dobby proudly, swaying where he stood.

Hermione looked shocked. I sat back and watched, knowing that I had zero to do with this plan.

"You haven't slept, Dobby? But surely, Harry, you didn't tell him not to-"

"No, of course I didn't," said Harry quickly. "Dobby, you can sleep, all right? But has either of you found out anything?"

"Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood," croaked Kreacher, sounding like an obsessed groupie. "His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of-"

"Draco Malfoy is a bad boy!" squeaked Dobby angrily. "A bad boy who-who -"

He shuddered from the tassel of his tea cozy to the toes of his socks and then ran at the fire, as though about to dive into it. Harry caught him around the middle and held him fast. For a few seconds Dobby struggled, then went limp.

"Thank you, Harry Potter," he panted. "Dobby still finds it difficult to speak ill of his old masters."

Harry released him; Dobby straightened his tea cozy and said defiantly to Kreacher, "But Kreacher should know that Draco Malfoy is not a good master to a house-elf!"

"Yeah, we don't need to hear about you being in love with Malfoy," Harry told Kreacher. "Let's fast forward to where he's actually been going."

Kreacher bowed again, looking furious, and then said, "Master Malfoy eats in the Great Hall, he sleeps in a dormitory in the dungeons, he attends his classes in a variety of-"

"Dobby, you tell me," said Harry, cutting across Kreacher. "Has he been going anywhere he shouldn't have?"

"Harry Potter, sir," squeaked Dobby, "the Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover, but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for him while he enters-"

"The Room of Requirement!" said Harry, smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. Hermione and I stared at him. "That's where he's been sneaking off to! That's where he's doing... whatever he's doing! And I bet that's why he's been disappearing off the map-come to think of it, I've never seen the Room of Requirement on there!"

"Maybe the Marauders never knew the room was there," I suggested.

"I think it'll be part of the magic of the room," said Hermione. "If you need it to be unplottable, it will be."

"Dobby, have you managed to get in to have a look at what Malfoy's doing?" said Harry eagerly.

"No, Harry Potter, that is impossible," said Dobby.

"No, it's not," said Harry at once. "Malfoy got into our headquarters there last year, so I'll be able to get in and spy on him, no problem."

"But I don't think you will, Harry," said Hermione slowly. "Malfoy already knew exactly how we were using the room, didn't he, because that stupid Marietta had blabbed. He needed the room to become the headquarters of the D.A., so it did. But you don't know what the room becomes when Malfoy goes in there, so you don't know what to ask it to transform into."

"There'll be a way around that," said Harry dismissively. "You've done brilliantly, Dobby."

"Kreacher's done well too," said Hermione kindly, but Kreacher averted his huge, bloodshot eyes and croaked at the ceiling, "The Mudblood is speaking to Kreacher, Kreacher will pretend he cannot hear -"

"STOP CALLING HER THAT!"

"Get out of it," Harry snapped at him, and Kreacher made one last deep bow and Disapparated. "You'd better go and get some sleep too, Dobby."

"Thank you, Harry Potter, sir!" squeaked Dobby happily, and he too vanished.

"How good is this?" said Harry enthusiastically, turning to Hermione and I the moment the room was elf-free again. "We know where Malfoy's going! We've got him cornered now!"

"Yeah, it's great," I said glumly as I attempted to mop up the ink that had recently been an almost completed essay. Hermione pulled it toward her and began siphoning the ink off with her wand.

"My angel." I said.

"But what's all this about him going up there with a 'variety of students'?" said Hermione. "How many people are in on it? You wouldn't think he'd trust lots of them to know what he's doing..."

"Yeah, that is weird," said Harry, frowning. "I heard him telling Crabbe it wasn't Crabbe's business what he was doing... so what's he telling all these... all these..."

Harry's face lit up. "God, I've been stupid," he said quietly. "It's obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon... he could've nicked some any time during that lesson..."

"Nicked what?"

"Polyjuice Potion. He stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson... There aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy... it's just Crabbe and Goyle as usual... yeah, it all fits!" said Harry, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if he won't tell them what he's up to ... but he doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he's got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people... those two girls I saw him with when he missed Quidditch-ha! Crabbe and Goyle!"

"Do you mean to say," said Hermione in a hushed voice, "that that little girl whose scales I repaired -?"

"Yeah, of course!" said Harry loudly, staring at her. "Of course! Malfoy must've been inside the room at the time, so she-what am I talking about?-he dropped the scales to tell Malfoy not to come out, because there was someone there! And there was that girl who dropped the toad spawn too! We've been walking past him all the time and not realizing it!"

"He's got Crabbe and Goyle transforming into girls?" I said, busting out in laughter. "Blimey... no wonder they don't look too happy these days. I'm surprised they don't tell him to stuff it."

"Well, they wouldn't, would they, if he's shown them his Dark Mark?" said Harry.

"Hmmm... the Dark Mark we don't know exists," said Hermione skeptically, rolling up my dried essay before it could come to any more harm and handing it to me.

"We'll see," said Harry confidently.

"Yes, we will," Hermione said, getting to her feet and stretching. "But, Harry, before you get all excited, I still don't think you'll be able to get into the Room of Requirement without knowing what's there first. And I don't think you should forget," she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and gave him a very serious look, "that what you're supposed to be concentrating on is getting that memory from Slughorn. Goodnight."

Harry watched her go. Once the door to the girls' dorms had closed behind her he rounded on me.

"What d'you think?"

"Wish I could Disapparate like a house-elf," I said, staring at the spot where Dobby had vanished. "I'd have that Apparition Test in the bag."

The next morning at breakfast, Harry told us how he was going to use his free period to see about getting into the Room of Requirement. Hermione was showing no interest in his whispered plans for forcing entry into the room.

"Look," Harry said quietly, leaning forward and putting a hand on the Daily Prophet, which she had just removed from a post owl, to stop her from opening it and vanishing behind it. "I haven't forgotten about Slughorn, but I haven't got a clue how to get that memory off him, and until I get a brain wave why shouldn't I find out what Malfoy's doing?"

"I've already told you, you need to persuade Slughorn," said Hermione. "It's not a question of tricking him or bewitching him, or Dumbledore could have done it in a second. Instead of messing around outside the Room of Requirement," she jerked the Prophet out from under Harry's hand and unfolded it to look at the front page," you should go and find Slughorn and start appealing to his better nature."

"Anyone we know-?" I asked, as Hermione scanned the headlines.

"Yes!" said Hermione, causing both Harry and I to gag on their breakfast. "But it's all right, he's not dead-it's Mundungus, he's been arrested and sent to Azkaban! Something to do with impersonating an Inferius during an attempted burglary ... and someone called Octavius Pepper has vanished ... oh, and how horrible, a nine-year-old boy has been arrested for trying to kill his grandparents, they think he was under the Imperius Curse."

We finished our breakfast in silence. Hermione set off immediately for Ancient Runes; and I for the common room, where I still had to finish my conclusion on Snape's Dementor essay, and Harry set off for the corridor on the seventh floor.

I finished my conclusion and decided to write Fred instead of Bill. I knew that I was risking getting the mickey taken out, but something inside of me felt like I could trust him this time. However, I still wanted Bill to know, so I made it so Fred would know to let him read it.

Hey Fred (show Bill as well),

So I have to tell you what has happened since the poisoning. Hermione and I are back to being best mates again, but things feel a bit different, and not in a bad way. We have been kinder to each other, even a bit flirty, and I kind of slipped up and told her I loved her the other day, although I don't think she took it in that way.

I really want to try and be with her. I finally see that she is everything I want and need (I know you're laughing at that right now, but I don't care), but there is just one problem.

Lavender.

I really don't know how to get shot of her. I have tried to drop hints, and I feel like she knows, but she starts crying and saying how much she loves me, and making me feel like an asshole. On top of that, she has tries to get me to have sex with her at last four times, despite me telling her no. She's even wore those sexy lace bras. Very tempting, but all I've done and have been doing before was touch her breasts through it.

What do I do? How can I get rid of her without hurting her feelings?

Help me Fred. And Bill. I feel like I'm going to fuck something up.

Love,

Ron.

I packed up my stuff and made a beeline for the owlery, getting Pig to send off the letter. I then made my way begrudgingly to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

When I got there, Harry was nowhere to be seen. I sat down at the table with Hermione.

"Where's Harry?" I mouthed to her. She simply shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

A few seconds after the bell had rung, Harry came through the door.

"Late again, Potter," said Snape coldly."Ten points from Gryffindor."

Harry scowled at Snape as he flung himself into the seat beside me. Half the class were still on their feet, taking out books and organizing their things, so he really wasn't that late at all. Not ten points worth.

"Before we start, I want your Dementor essays," said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. "And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open your books to page-what is it, Mr. Finnigan?"

"Sir," said Seamus, "I've been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the Prophet about an Inferius -"

"No, there wasn't," said Snape in a bored voice.

"But sir, I heard people talking -"

"If you had actually read the article in question, Mr. Finnigan, you would have known that the so-called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak thief by the name of Mundungus Fletcher."

"I thought Snape and Mundungus were on the same side," muttered Harry to Hermione and I. "Shouldn't he be upset Mundungus has been arrest -"

"But Potter seems to have a lot to say on the subject," said Snape, pointing suddenly at the back of the room, his black eyes fixed on Harry. "Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost."

The whole class looked around at Harry, who looked like he wanted to disappear.

"Er-well-ghosts are transparent -" he said.

"Oh, very good," interrupted Snape, his lip curling. "Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. Ghosts are transparent."

Pansy let out a high-pitched giggle. Several other people were smirking. Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though he looked as if his insides were boiling, "Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren't they? So they'd be solid -"

"A five-year-old could have told us as much," sneered Snape. "The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard's spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard's bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth ... and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent. "

"Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we're trying to tell them apart!" I spoke up. "When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we're going to be having a look to see if it's solid, aren't we, we're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"

There was a ripple of laughter, instantly quelled by the look Snape gave the class.

"Another ten points from Gryffindor," said Snape. "I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room."

"No!" I heard Hermione whisper and she grabbed Harry's arm as he opened his mouth furiously. "There's no point, you'll just end up in detention again, leave it!"

"Now open your books to page two hundred and thirteen," said Snape, smirking a little, "and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse."

I stayed quiet all through the rest of class. He had a point. I was complete rubbish. How the bloody hell could I not apparate? Shit, even Neville was getting the hang of it.

When the bell sounded at the end of the lesson, Lavender caught up with Harry and I(Hermione mysteriously melted out of sight as she approached) and abused Snape hotly for his jibe about my Apparition, but instead of making me feel better, it only made me even more irritated, and I got rid of her by making a detour into the boys' bathroom with Harry.

"Snape's right, though, isn't he?" I said, after staring into a cracked mirror for a minute or two. "I dunno whether it's worth me taking the test. I just can't get the hang of Apparition."

"You might as well do the extra practice sessions in Hogsmeade and see where they get you," said Harry reasonably. "It'll be more interesting than trying to get into a stupid hoop anyway. Then, if you're still not-you know-as good as you'd like to be, you can postpone the test, do it with me over the summer-Myrtle, this is the boys' bathroom!"

The ghost of a girl had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind them and was now floating in midair, staring at them through thick, white, round glasses.

"Oh," she said glumly. "It's you two."

"Who were you expecting?" I asked, looking at her in the mirror.

"Nobody," said Myrtle, picking moodily at a spot on her chin. "He said he'd come back and see me, but then you said you'd pop in and visit me too and I haven't seen you for months and months. I've learned not to expect too much from boys."

"I thought you lived in that girls' bathroom?" said Harry.

"I do," she said, with a sulky little shrug, "but that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you in your bath once, remember?"

"Vividly," said Harry as I snickered.

"But I thought he liked me," she said plaintively. "Maybe if you two left, he'd come back again. We had lots in common. I'm sure he felt it."

And she looked hopefully toward the door.

"When you say you had lots in common, d'you mean he lives in an S-bend too?" I joked.

"No," said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. "I mean he's sensitive, people bully him too, and he feels lonely and hasn't got anybody to talk to, and he's not afraid to show his feelings and cry!"

"There's been a boy in here crying?" said Harry curiously. "A young boy?"

"Never you mind!" said Myrtle, her small, leaky eyes fixed on me as I couldn't hide my growing amusement. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I'll take his secret to the -"

"- not the grave, surely?" I said with a snort. "The sewers, maybe."

Myrtle gave a howl of rage and dived back into the toilet, causing water to slop over the sides and onto the floor. I felt a little better.

"You're right," I said, swinging my school bag back over my shoulder, "I'll do the practice sessions in Hogsmeade before I decide about taking the test."