Summer was finally starting to peak it's way into the Hogwarts grounds--blue patches of sky and bright white clouds frequented the sky. But this made my mood the complete opposite--we still hadn't got the memory from Slughorn, Malfoy's actions were still unknown to me, Arthur and I were awkward with each other, and Sam was avoiding me.

It was all because of a stupid slip-up on my part. She'd been avoiding us all to begin with, but when she finally came to sit with us at breakfast, Cole said to her: 'It's like you've been away forever.' And without thinking I added on 'Yeah, it's like you died.'

And of course, Sam took that as me trying to get her to confess to the others about her poisoning not me being the sarcastic shit I really was. So she had now avoided me for the last week and a half, leaving me even more worried in case her hallucinations got really bad and she did something stupid.

But I had to push all of this aside when I went into potions. It was practically empty--only Ernie Macmillian, Harry, Gennie, Malfoy and I were in the class. Everybody else was in the apparation test--except Arthur, who claimed to be ill.

While we were on an unofficial break, his wise idea had left us both awkward with each other. We'd kiss each other when we left each other and still made the same stupid references, but something seemed almost hesitant about all our interactions.

It was making me regret our relationship a bit. Not in the sense of it wasn't working out, but that I got feelings for him so quickly and we started dating almost immeadiatley after--and it'd started to go in the direction of driving a sports car into a brick wall.

I hoped things would get back to normal with us soon, and that in time, I could love him. I mean, I did love him. He was one of the best friends I'd had, and gave me the strength to save myself from destructive behaviour. But in the romantic sense--I wasn't quite there yet.

Because the metaphorical brick wall stopping me from saying those words was stood opposite me. Since there were only five of us, Slughorn encouraged us to all work on the same desk.

"All too young to Apparate just yet?" said Slughorh genially, "Not turned seventeen yet?"

We shook our heads.

"Ah well," said Slughorn cheerily, "as we're so few, we'll do something fun. I want you all to brew me up something amusing!"

"That sounds good, sir," said Ernie with a large grin, rubbing his hands together. Malfoy, on the other hand, did not crack a smile.

"What do you mean, 'something amusing'?" he said irritably.

"Oh, surprise me," said Slughorn airily.

"I'd be surprised if he cracked a smile." Gennie muttered to me, and I couldn't help but agree.

I couldn't help glance over at my ex-boyfriend as he flipped irritably through his potions book. With a fustrated expression on his face with his light hair in his eye he looked restless at still being here. I wondered if he was longing for the room of requirement with Sam to do death eater activities.

But as his head shook as he examined the potions in the book, I couldn't help but see how prominent his cheekbones were, they painfully stuck out. He looked so small and thin that he looked like you'd get a papercut if you hugged him.

But then he caught me staring. "What do you want, Potter?" he snapped, but he sounded tired instead of angry.

To know what you're doing in the room of requirement. I thought, looking at his tired grey eyes. "Nothing with you." I snorted, and then asked Ernie for an ingredient I didn't even need.

As I found a potion to make--a elixr to make euphoria--I noticed a grey-tinge to his skin, no superiority or smugness in his expression. He looked empty, a shell of the bully he once was. 

Two terrible thoughts struck me. Was his mission with Sam for Voldemort going badly? And even more startingly--was he depressed, the very condition he didn't understand in me almost two years ago?

Stupidly worried for the boy who broke me, I carried on with the potion, to only positive that maybe the potion would put Slughorn in a good mood to give us the memory.

"Wonderful, wonderful, Aurora." Slughorn said almost two hours later as he looked into my cauldron. Harry and I had decided that for once he should mess up a potion--as Slughorn might respond better to me asking for the memory. "A sprig of peppermint... Genius! Where do you get the brains from?"

"Not from my brother." I smirked, as this potion was entirely of my own skills--and it was proof that my excellent potions were often underlooked compared to Harry's Half-Blood Prince potions.

"It's just your mother's genes coming out in you!" Slughorn grinned.

"Yeah, I guess so." I smiled into my hands.

The bell rang and both Ernie and Malfoy left at once. "Good luck," Gennie hissed, leaving the room so just Harry and I were left.

"Sir..." I began, but Slughorn began packing up quick when he saw the three of us were the only ones in the room. 

"Professor--Professor, don't you want to taste her po--?" called Harry desperately.

But Slughorn had gone. "Great idea, Harry. Totally worked out." I snorted, disapointed.

"Yeah, well we'll go with the back-up plan of using liquid luck." Harry said carelessly.

"Harry, a lot could go wrong--"

"It'll be fine, don't worry..."

"Harry the last time you said that I faced a dragon and almost got my face burned off."

"Yeah but you lived." Harry said with a cocky grin.

"Fine." I snapped. "Ugh, I hate you."

Ron, Cole and Hermione returned in the late afternoon.

"Harry!" cried Hermione as she climbed through the portrait hole. "Harry, I passed!"

"Gen! Rory! Hareh!" Cole cried, bursting through the potrait hole with a leap. "I passed! I freaking passed!"

"Congrats!" I gave Cole a quick hug before he picked Gennie up and span her around. It all looked cliche and cute as hell until Cole tripped over his shoelace and the two of them fell in a heap on the floor.

"You two are couple goals," I sighed, lightly jealous of how simple Cole and Gennie made love seem.

"Yeah we're cute as shit, not to mention punk rock so bow down bitches." Cole grinned.

I rolled my eyes, and Harry snorted before saying, "Well well done to you both. What about Ron?"

"He--he just failed," whispered Hermione, as Ron came slouching into the room looking most morose. "It was really unlucky, a tiny thing, the examiner just spotted that he'd left half an eyebrow behind... how did it go with Slughorn?"

"Rubbish," I sighed, slouching on the sofa as both Cole and Gennie tried to squish beside me on the sofa. "But I guess we can take the test together, don't be too bummed out."

"Yeah, I s'pose," said Ron grumpily. "But half an eyebrow! Like that matters!"

"I know," said Hermione soothingly, "it does seem really harsh..."

They spent most of their dinner bad mouthing the Apparition examiner, and Ron looked fractionally more cheerful by the time they set off back to the common room, now discussing the continuing problem of Slughorn and the memory.

"So you're really using liquid luck?" Gennie said, raising an eyebrow.

"If it all goes wrong, I'm blaming Harry." I glared at my sheepish brother. "But we won't need all of it, just a couple drops. We need to save this stuff."

"It's a great feeling when you take it," said Ron reminiscently. "Like you can't do anything wrong."

"You haven't taken any, you noob." Cole pointed out.

"Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. "Same difference really ..."

Once we were sure Slughorn would be finishing off his food in the hall, Harry and I headed up to the boy's dorm to sort out the liquid luck distribution. "Here goes nothing." Harry said, carefully dropping three drops into my mouth.

"Ugh, I hate you." I said, and dropped a couple drops into my mouth.

"What's it like?" Cole said curiously, looking really excited.

Quickly and all at once a sense of infinte oppurtunity went through me. I had confidence. I could do anything, say anything, be anything. And now, well it was simple to get the memory.

Harry pulled me up by his hand and we both grinned at each other.

"You know where we have to go?" Harry grinned, and I nodded.

Simultaniously we said, "Hagrid's.

"Excuse me?" Ron, Hermione, Cole and Gennie said at once.

"No, Harry, Rory--you've got to go and see Slughorn, remember?" said Hermione.

"No," said Harry confidently. "We're going to Hagrid's, I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's."

"You've got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?" asked Gennie. "I didn't know you were attatched to the thing that tried to kill us in second year."

"I feel like it's the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?" I told them, grabbing the cloak from under Harry's pillow.

"No," said Ron and Hermione together, both looking oddly alarmed now.

"This is Felix Felicis, I suppose?" said Hermione anxiously, holding up the bottle to the light. "You haven't got another little bottle full of-- I don't know --"

"Essence of Insanity?" suggested Cole, as Harry swung his cloak over our shoulders.

I giggled. That made my friends look even more oddly at me. "We're know what we're doing--well the potion does." I paused. "Oh and Cole, speak to Alia. She's not acepting herself entirely--well you don't know about that, but the potion says I should tell you this."

"What even." Cole muttered, as Harry pulled the cloak over the two of us.

 At the foot of the stairs, Harry slid us through the open door.

"What were you doing up there with her!" shrieked Lavender Brown, staring right through Harry at Ron and Hermione emerging together from the boys' dormitories. Because Cole and Gennie were still up there, it was obvious what it looked like.

Getting us through the portrait hole was simple; as we approached it, Ginny and Dean came through it, and Harry was able to slip us between them. As he did so, I shoved Harry so he brushed accidentally against Ginny.

"Don't push me, please, Dean," she said, sounding annoyed. "You're always doing that, I can get through perfectly well on my own..."

The portrait swung closed behind us, but not before he had heard Dean make an angry retort... Harry looked so happy, he was even whistling quietly. We didn't have to creep along, nobody was in our way. But this was our lucky night.

As we reached the entrance hall, I spotted Malfoy sulking around. Patting Harry's arm, I quickly slipped off the cloak. 

"Malfoy!" I shouted, and he turned around with a scowl that slipped away when he saw me.

"What?"

"Don't let the bad thoughts get you down, I know they can be quite a bitch." I said solemly. "And don't forget to eat or sleep. It makes the thoughts and voices get darker and louder."

"How did you...?" He spluttered.

"It's like I was looking right at me from a year ago, and that wasn't  a pretty sight. And even though you always hated me, I know you, I can tell when you're hurting." I said with a half smile. "Remember to lock the doors, Malfoy. Keeps the demons out."

And then I slipped around the corner and back under the cloak before Malfoy could reply. Satisfied with what I'd told him, Harry and I left the castle, since Filch had conviently forgotten to lock the door.

"It'd be nice to pass through the vegtable patch, right?" Harry said, and I nodded enthusiastically.

I was pleased and surprised to see Slughorn with Professor Sprout in the vegtable patch. We lurked behind a wall, listening to them.

"... I do thank you for taking the time, Pomona," Slughorn was saying courteously. "Most authorities agree that they are at their most efficacious if picked at twilight."

"Oh, I quite agree," said Professor Sprout warmly. "That enough for you?"

"Plenty, plenty," said Slughorn, who, was carrying an armful of leafy plants. "This should allow for a few leaves for each of my third-years, and some to spare if anybody over-stews them... well, good evening to you, and many thanks again!"

Professor Sprout headed off into the gathering darkness in the direction of her greenhouses and Harry nudged me to throw the cloak off us. "Evening Professor." Harry said cheerily.

"Merlin's beard, Harry, Aurora you made me jump," said Slughorn, stopping dead in his tracks and looking wary. "How did you get out of the castle?"

"I think Filch must've forgotten to lock the doors," I said innocently.

"I'll be reporting that man, he's more concerned about litter than proper security if you ask me... but why are you both out?"

"Well, sir, it's Hagrid," said Harry. "He's pretty upset... but you won't tell anyone, Professor? I don't want trouble for him..."

"Well, I can't promise that," he said gruffly. "But I know that Dumbledore trusts Hagrid to the hilt, so I'm sure he can't be up to anything very dreadful..."

"Well, it's this giant spider, he's had it for years... it lived in the forest... it could talk and everything--" I began, despite never seeing the spider.

"I heard rumors there were Acromantula in the forest," said Slughorn softly, looking over at the mass of black trees. "It's true, then?"

"Yes," said Harry. "But this one, Aragog, the first one Hagrid ever got, it died last night. He's devastated. He wants company while he buries it and I said I'd go."

"Touching, touching. But Acromantula venom is very valuable... if the beast only just died it might not yet have dried out... of course, I wouldn't want to do anything insensitive if Hagrid is upset... but if there was any way to procure some..."

"Well," I said slowly. "well, if you wanted to come, Professor, Hagrid would probably be really pleased... give Aragog a better send-off, you know ..."

"Yes, of course," said Slughorn, his eyes now gleaming with enthusiasm. "I tell you what, Harry, I'll meet you down there with a bottle or two... we'll drink to the poor beast's once it's  buried. And I'll change my tie, this one is a little exuberant for the occasion..."

He went off into the castle and Harry gave me a high-five, knowing we were finally getting somewhere.

"Yeh both came," croaked Hagrid, when he opened the door.

"Yeah-the others couldn't, though," said Harry. "They're really sorry."

"Don'--don' matter... He'd've bin touched yeh're botth here, though..."

Hagrid gave a great sob.  Harry patted him consolingly on the elbow, which was the highest point of Hagrid he could easily reach.

"Where are we burying him?" he asked. "The forest?"

"Blimey, no," said Hagrid, wiping his streaming eyes on the bottom of his shirt. "The other spiders won' let me anywhere near their webs now Aragog's gone. Turns out it was only on his orders they didn' eat me! Can yeh believe that?"

The honest answer was yes, but I wasn't going to say that. I glanced out of the back window, only to see the giant spider corpse outside, legs curled up. It looked like Ron's greatest nightmare come to life.

"Are we going to bury him here, Hagrid, in your garden?" I asked curiously.

"Jus' beyond the pumpkin patch, I thought," said Hagrid in a choked voice. "I've already dug the -- yeh know--grave. Jus' thought we'd say a few nice things over him--happy memories, yeh know --"

The door knocked, and Slughorn appeared.  "Hagrid," he said, in a deep, grave voice. "So very sorry to hear of your loss."

"Tha's very nice of yeh," said Hagrid. "Thanks a lot. An' thanks fer not givin Harry or Rory detention neither..."

"Wouldn't have dreamed of it," said Slughorn. "Sad night, sad night... where is the poor creature?"

"Out here," said Hagrid in a shaking voice. "Shall we--shall we do it, then?"

The four of us stepped out into the back garden, the moon hanging high over the pumpkin patch.

"Magnificent," said Slughorn, approaching the spider's head.

"It's not ev'ryone appreciates how beau'iful they are, I didn' know yeh were interested in creatures like Aragog,"

"Interested? My dear Hagrid, I revere them," said Slughorn, stepping back from the body. I saw the glint of a bottle disappear beneath his cloak, though Hagrid, mopping his eyes once more, noticed nothing. "Now... shall we proceed to the burial?"

Hagrid nodded and he heaved the gigantic spider into his arms and, with an enormous grunt, rolled it into the dark pit. It hit the bottom with a rather horrible, crunchy thud. Hagrid started to cry again.

"Of course, it's difficult for you, who knew him best," said Slughorn, who patted his elbow."Why don't I say a few words?"

He smirked, clearly pleased at the venom he'd gotten. "Farewell, Aragog, king of arachnids, whose long and faithful friendship those who knew you won't forget! Though your body will decay, your spirit lingers on in the quiet, web-spun places of your forest home."

"Tha wa... tha wa... beau'iful!" howled Hagrid, and he collapsed onto the compost heap, crying harder than ever.

"There, there," said Slughorn, waving his wand so that the huge pile of earth rose up and then fell, with a muffled sort of crash, onto the dead spider, forming a smooth mound. "Lets get inside and have a drink."

We put Hagrid in a chair, and we sat on chairs around him, Fang putting his head onto my lap with a heavy dog sigh. I massaged his floppy ears as Slughorn uncorked a bottle of wine.

"I have had it all tested for poison," he assured us, pouring most of the first bottle into one of Hagrid's bucket-sized mugs and handing it to Hagrid. "Had a house-elf taste every bottle after what happened to your poor friend Rupert."

I frowned, wondering if Hermione knew about this.

Harry passed me a glass, and all four of us lifted our glasses up. "To Aragog," I said quietly.

"Aragog," everyone repeated.

Slughorn and Hagrid drank deeply, but I knew not to drink anything as it would take away our true intention of coming here.

"I had him from an egg, yeh know," said Hagrid morosely. "'Tiny little thing he was when he hatched. 'Bout the size of a Pekingese"

"Sweet," said Slughorn.

"Used ter keep him in a cupboard up at the school until... well..."

Harry nudged me, showing the bottles were almost empty. I nodded, and with the flick of my wand under the table the bottles re-filled at once. 

After an hour or so, Hagrid and Slughorn began making extravagant toasts: to Hogwarts, to Dumbledore, to elf-made wine, and to--

"Harry and Aurora Potter!" bellowed Hagrid, slopping some of his fourteenth bucket of wine down his chin as he drained it.

"Yes, indeed," cried Slughorn a little thickly, "Parry Otter and Purora Otter the Chosen ones who--well -- something of that sort," he mumbled, and drained his mug too.

Not long after this, Hagrid became tearful again and pressed the whole unicorn tail upon Slughorn, who pocketed it with cries of, "To friendship! To generosity! To ten Galleons a hair!"

And for a while after that, Hagrid and Slughorn were sitting side by side, arms around each other, singing a slow sad song about a dying wizard called Odo.

"Aaargh, the good die young," muttered Hagrid, slumping low onto the table, a little cross-eyed, while Slughorn continued to warble the refrain. "Me dad was no age ter go ... nor were yer mum' an' dad, or Jenna Oswin...."

With a heavy lump in my throat I nodded, reminded again of all the parents I'd lost. I bit down on my lip, wondering why Mark had to ruin our lives so much.

"Bes' wiz and witchard o' their age I never knew... terrible thing... terrible thing..." Harid sniffed. "Terrible..." And then he rolled his head on the table and fell asleep.

"Sorry," said Slughorn with a hiccup. "Can't carry a tune to save my life."

"Hagrid wasn't talking about your singing," I whispered. "He was talking about our mum and dad dying."

"Oh," said Slughorn, repressing a large belch. "Oh dear. Yes, that was--was terrible indeed. Terrible... terrible..."

"I don't--don't suppose you remember it?" he asked awkwardly.

"The irony." I said dryly, and without thinking knocked back a glass of firewhisky on the table. I tried not to think about my parents often, as I couldn't remember them if I tried. And while I did have pictures and the locket, well.... They were ghosts to me. Just the people who created me. Strangers. But when I did think of them, a deep sadness passed over me for all that I'd missed out.

"No--well, I was only one when they died," said Harry, his eyes on the flame of the candle flickering in Hagrid's heavy snores. "But I've found out pretty much what happened since. My dad died first. Did you know that?"

"I--I didn't," said Slughorn in a hushed voice.

"Yeah... Voldemort murdered him and then stepped over his body toward my mum," said Harry.

Slughorn gave a great shudder, but he did not seem able to tear his horrified gaze away from Harry's face.

"He told her to get out of the way," said Harry remorselessly. "He told me she needn't have died. He only wanted us. She could have run."

"Oh dear," breathed Slughorn. "She could have... she needn't... that's awful..."

"It is, isn't it?" I whispered, my voice croaky. "But she didn't move. Dad was already dead, but she didn't want us to go too. She tried to plead with Voldemort... but he just laughed...."

"That's enough!" said Slughorn suddenly, raising a shaking hand. "Really, my dear children, enough... I'm an old man... I don't need to hear... I don't want to hear..."

"You liked her, didn't you?" Harry said.

"Liked her?" said Slughorn, his eyes brimming with tears once more. "I don't imagine anyone who met her wouldn't have liked her... very brave... very funny... it was the most horrible thing..."

"But you won't help her children," I hissed "She gave us her life, took my memories to protect me but you won't give us a memory."

"Don't say that," he whispered. "It isn't a question... if it were to help you, of course... but no purpose can be serve..."

"It can," said Harry clearly. "Dumbledore needs information. We need information."

Harry leaned forward. "I am the Chosen One. I have to kill him. I need that memory. Rory needs to help me do that, with her final choice. It can only be us to do this."

"You are the Chosen Ones?"

"Of course." I whispered confidently.

"But the... my dear children... you're asking a great deal... you're asking me, in fact, to aid you in your attempt to destroy--"

"You don't want to get rid of the wizard who killed Lily Evans?"

"Harry, Harry, of course I do, but --"

"You're scared he'll find out you helped us?" I guessed.

Slughorn said nothing; he looked terrified.

"Be brave like our mother, Professor..."

"I am not proud..." he whispered through his fingers. "I am ashamed of what--of what that memory shows... I think I may have done great damage that day..."

"You'd cancel out anything you did by giving us the memory," said Harry. "It would be a very brave and noble thing to do."

Very slowly, Slughorn pressed his wand to his head, the silver strands pouring out. He poured them into a bottle, passing the bottle to Harry hesitantly.

"Thank you very much, Professor." I gave him a small smile.

"You're good children," said Professor Slughorn, tears trickling down his fat cheeks into his walrus mustache. "And you've both got her eyes... just don't think too badly of me once you've seen it..."

 - - - - - - - - 

A/N So this was sort of filler, but there was some Dory interaction which I enjoyed writing. Next chapter will be the horcrux explanation with Rory finally going into the meetings.

Then---everything changes and gets very exciting with the sectumsempra scene in the bathroom with Harry and Rory present.

Watch this space.