A large piece of parchment which was as blank as hospital walls was placed in front of me. I studied it carefully before turning my head over my shoulder and looking at Narcissa in mild confusion.

She kept quiet. She turned to the paper and tapped her wand on its surface twice, softly whispering, "Reveal."

Before me I saw ink etching itself into every nook and cranny of the parchment before it eventually made up a crisp, colourless image of the Great Hall. As the drawing finally stopped appearing, I noticed initials of students' and teachers' names above their heads. Severus was stood at the front of the Hall.

As if by magic - well, of course it was - the paper began to repeat his words as he spoke, almost as if it was a recording device.

"I'll leave you to it," Narcissa smiled gingerly, "You know what to do, yes?"

I nodded vigorously, my gaze instantly trailing back to the sheet laid on the dark, creaking desk.

"I will be your Headmaster this year," he said dully, his eyes rolling over each and every student, "And as you can see, quite a few of them have not bothered to turn up. Do not bother to miss them in this case."

I sighed. From what I could see, he was speaking about Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, whose initials did not appear on the paper.

"Have a good year."

Of course, he didn't mean those words. They were lacking all emotion; cold and uninterested.

Students began to panic over their food, arms and surprisingly, other limbs flying across the long tables to grab what they wanted. The most furious was Gryffindor, who I heard burst into conversation about the whereabouts of the Golden Trio.

I zoned out for a few minutes, before tapping my own wand against the page and muttering, "Reveal."

I thought it might've worked, but it didn't. So after a few minutes of pondering possible words to close the device of sorts and trying a few out loud, I finally breathed out, "Eliminate."

I felt a wave of relief come over me as the noise of about a two-hundred students faded gradually and the ink seemed to be sucked out of the page.

"Thank god for that," I sighed, stroking my fingers across the material of the parchment before moving to the other side of the room and looking over Severus' collection of books.

Among them, I saw a book of Advanced Potion Making. Opening the cover, I prayed that it was what I wanted it to be, and sure enough it was.

The words "Property of the Half-Blood Prince" were printed neatly in black ink on the cover. I skimmed over a few pages before remembering what Severus had said to me once,

"I do not know how that book got into Potter's hands. However, I am sure that it is no longer a part of his possessions and it is mostly likely destroyed."

I smiled to myself, thinking that many good things come back to good people at some point.