For or the rest of the week's Potions lessons, Harry and Johnny 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 their 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 like he was doing with Johnny, Ron had more difficulty deciphering the handwriting than Harry or Johnny did, and couldn't keep asking them 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.

Johnny wondered vaguely who the Half-Blood Prince had been. Harry was convinced it was a guy.

"Or herself," said Hermione irritably, overhearing Harry pointing some of these out to Ron and Johnny. "It might have been a girl. I think the handwriting looks more like a girl's than a boy's."

"The Half-Blood Prince, he was called," Harry said. "How many girls have been princes?"

Hermione seemed to have no answer to this. She merely scowled and twitched her essay on "The Principles of Rematerialization" away from Ron, who was trying to read it upside down.

Harry looked at his watch and hurriedly put the old copy of Advanced Potion-Making back into his bag. He glanced at Harry and motioned towards the door.

"It's five to eight, we'd better go, we'll be late for Dumbledore."

"Ooooh!" gasped Hermione, looking up at once. She kissed Johnny hurriedly. "Good luck! We'll wait up, we want to hear what he teaches you!"

"Hope it goes okay," said Ron, and the pair of them watched Harry and Johnny leave through the portrait hole.

Harry and Johnny proceeded through deserted corridors, though they had to step hastily behind a statue when Professor Trelawney appeared around a corner, muttering to herself as she shuffled a pack of dirty-looking playing cards, reading them as she walked.

"Two of spades: conflict," she murmured, as she passed the place where Harry and Johnny were hidden. "Seven of spades: an ill omen. Ten of spades: violence. Knave of spades: a dark young man, possibly troubled, one who dislikes the questioner --"

She stopped dead, right on the other side of the statue.

"Well, that can't be right," she said, annoyed, and Johnny heard her reshuffling vigorously as she set off again, leaving nothing but a whiff of cooking sherry behind her. The two boys waited until they were quite sure she had gone, then hurried off again until they reached the spot in the seventh-floor corridor where a single gargoyle stood against the wall.

"She's bloody mental," Johnny huffed, causing Harry to nod. "Acid Pops."

The gargoyle leapt aside; the wall behind it slid apart, and a moving spiral stone staircase was revealed, onto which Harry and Johnny stepped, so that they was carried in smooth circles up to the door with the brass knocker that led to Dumbledore's Office.

Harry knocked.

"Come in," said Dumbledore's voice.

"Good evening, sir," said Harry, walking into the Headmaster's office.

"Evening," Johnny muttered bitterly.

"Ah, good evening, boys. Sit down," said Dumbledore, smiling. "I hope you've had an enjoyable first week back at school?"

"It's been okay, sir," said Johnny.

"Yes, thanks, sir," said Harry.

"Harry must have been busy, a detention under your belt already!"

"Er," began Harry awkwardly, but Dumbledore didn't look too stern.

"I have arranged with Professor Snape that you will do your detention next Saturday instead."

"Right," said Harry.

Johnny looked around the office for some indication of what Dumbledore was planning to do with them this evening. The circular office looked just as it always did; the delicate silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, puffing smoke and whirring; portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses dozed in their frames, and Dumbledore's magnificent phoenix, Fawkes, stood on his perch behind the door, watching Harry and Johnny with bright interest. It didn't even look as though Dumbledore had cleared a space for dueling practice.

"So, boys," said Dumbledore, in a businesslike voice. "You have been wondering, I am sure, what I have planned for you during these--for want of a better word -- lessons?"

"Yes, sir," said Harry and Johnny in unison.

"Well, I have decided that it is time, now that you both know what prompted Lord Voldemort to try and kill you the two of you fifteen years ago, for the both of you to be given certain information," there was a pause.

"You said, at the end of last term, you were going to tell us everything," said Harry. It was hard to keep a note of accusation from his voice. "Sir," he added.

"And so I did," said Dumbledore placidly. "I told you everything I know-"

"Woah, wait a minute!" Said Johnny angrily, sitting straighter in his seat. "I know absolutely nothing about why Voldemort is after me."

"Right," muttered Dumbledore. "Well, Johnny, seventeen years ago, there was a prophecy made about two boys who would bring the downfall of Voldemort, however, the prophecy never stated when his downfall would be, leading me to believe when the Killing Curse ricocheted off of Harry, weakening Voldemort, that wasn't the downfall stated."

"So-"

"Please, let me finish," said Dumbledore, holding up a hand. "Voldemort did come to find you in West London, but you was not home at the time, for Mr. Scaletta had taken a two year old you, and a five year old Caterina out on a nighttime stroll. Adya was killed that night, but authorities and Mr. Scaletta believed she had died of cardiac arrest."

Harry looked at Johnny sadly. His cousin looked like he was reliving something in his mind.

"Mamma," Johnny whimpered, his eyes opening wide to show a grey blank stare. "Per favore, svegliati, Mamma! (Please wake up, Mamma!)"

"Let Johnny get his closure, Harry," said Dumbledore, stopping the raven haired boy from shaking Johnny out of his trance. Johnny's flashback seemed to go on for hours, when in reality it was ten minutes. Ten minutes of a pained voice switching between Italian and English. When Johnny snapped out of it, his eyes turned ocean blue once more as he took in many deep breaths.

"May I continue?" Dumbledore asked, causing Johnny to nod, still taking in deep breaths. "From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork. From here on in, boys, I may be as woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher, who believed the time was ripe for a cheese cauldron."

"B-but you t-think you're right?" said Johnny.

"Naturally I do, but as I have already proven to you, I make mistakes like the next man. In fact, being -- forgive me--rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger."

"Sir," said Johnny tentatively, "does what you're going to tell Harry and I have anything to do with the prophecy? Will it help us... survive?"

"It has a very great deal to do with the prophecy," said Dumbledore, as casually as if Johnny had asked him about the next day's weather, "and I certainly hope that it will help you both to survive."

Dumbledore got to his feet and walked around the desk, past Harry and Johnny, who turned in their seat to watch Dumbledore bending over the cabinet beside the door. When Dumbledore straightened up, he was holding a shallow stone basin etched with odd markings around its rim. He placed the Pensieve on the desk in front of them.

"Johnny, you look worried."

Johnny had indeed been eyeing the Pensieve with some apprehension.

"This time, you enter the Pensieve with me... and, even more unusually, with permission."

"Where are we going, sir?" Harry asked, noting his cousins silence.

"For a trip down Bob Ogden's memory lane," said Dumbledore, pulling from his pocket a crystal bottle containing a swirling silvery-white substance.

"Who was Bob Ogden?"

"He was employed by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," said Dumbledore. "He died some time ago, but not before I had tracked him down and persuaded him to confide these recollections to me. We are about to accompany him on a visit he made in the course of his duties. If you will stand..."

But Dumbledore was having difficulty pulling out the stopper of the crystal bottle: his injured hand seemed stiff and painful.

"Shall --shall I, sir?"

"No matter, Harry --"

Dumbledore pointed his wand at the bottle and the cork flew out.

"Sir--how did you injure your hand?" Johnny asked again, looking at the blackened fingers with a mixture of revulsion and pity.

"Now is not the moment for that story, Johnny. Not yet. We have an appointment with Bob Ogden."

Dumbledore tipped the silvery contents of the bottle into the Pensieve, where they swirled and shimmered, neither liquid nor gas. "After you," said Dumbledore, gesturing toward the bowl. Harry nodded for Johnny to go first. Johnny bent forward, took a deep breath, and plunged his face into the silvery substance. He felt his feet leave the office floor; he was falling, falling through whirling darkness and then, quite suddenly, he was blinking in dazzling sunlight. Before his eyes had adjusted, Dumbledore and Harry landed beside him.

They were standing in a country lane bordered by high, tangled hedgerows, beneath a summer sky as bright and blue as a forget-me-not. Some ten feet in front of them stood a short, plump man wearing enormously thick glasses that reduced his eyes to molelike specks. He was reading a wooden signpost that was sticking out of the brambles on the left-hand side of the road. Johnny knew this must be Ogden; he was the only person in sight, and he was also wearing the strange assortment of clothes so often chosen by inexperienced wizards trying to look like Muggles: in this case, a frock coat and spats over a striped one-piece bathing costume. Before Johnny had time to do more than register his bizarre appearance, however, Ogden had set off at a brisk walk down the lane.

Johnny, Dumbledore and Harry followed. As they passed the wooden sign, Johnny looked up at its two arms. The one pointing back the way they had come read: "Great Hangleton, 5 miles". The arm pointing after Ogden said "Little Hangleton, 1 mile".

They walked a short way with nothing to see but the hedgerows, the wide blue sky overhead and the swishing, frock-coated figure ahead. Then the lane curved to the left and fell away, sloping steeply down a hillside, so that they had a sudden, unexpected view of a whole valley laid out in front of them. Johnny could see a village, undoubtedly Little Hangleton, nestled between two steep hills, its church and graveyard clearly visible. Across the valley, set on the opposite hillside, was a handsome manor house surrounded by a wide expanse of velvety green lawn.

"I think I know where we are," said Johnny lowly to Harry, who nodded.

Ogden had broken into a reluctant trot due to the steep downward slope. Dumbledore lengthened his stride, and Harry and Johnny hurried to keep up. Johnny soon discovered that he was mistaken in thinking that they were going to the village, however. The lane curved to the right and when they rounded the corner, it was to see the very edge of Ogden's frock coat vanishing through a gap in the hedge.

Johnny, Dumbledore and Harry followed him onto a narrow dirt track bordered by higher and wilder hedgerows than those they had left behind. The path was crooked, rocky, and potholed, sloping downhill like the last one, and it seemed to be heading for a patch of dark trees a little below them. Sure enough, the track soon opened up at the copse, and Johnny, Dumbledore and Harry came to a halt behind Ogden, who had stopped and drawn his wand.

Despite the cloudless sky, the old trees ahead cast deep, dark, cool shadows, and it was a few seconds before Johnny's eyes discerned the building half-hidden amongst the tangle of trunks. It seemed a very strange location to choose for a house, or else an odd decision to leave the trees growing nearby, blocking all light and the view of the valley below. Johnny wondered whether it was inhabited; its walls were mossy and so many tiles had fallen off the roof that the rafters were visible in places. Nettles grew all around it, their tips reaching the windows, which were tiny and thick with grime. Just as he had concluded that nobody could possibly live there, however, one of the windows was thrown open with a clatter, and a thin trickle of steam or smoke issued from it, as though somebody was cooking.

Ogden moved forward quietly and it seemed rather cautiously. As the dark shadows of the trees slid over him, he stopped again, staring at the front door, to which somebody had nailed a dead snake.

Then there was a rustle and a crack, and a man in rags dropped from the nearest tree, landing on his feet right in front of Ogden, who leapt backward so fast he stood on the tails of his frock coat and stumbled.

The man hissed something.

The man standing before them had thick hair so matted with dirt it could have been any color. Several of his teeth were missing. His eyes were small and dark and stared in opposite directions. He might have looked comical, but he didn't; the effect was frightening, and Johnny couldn't blame Ogden for backing away several more paces before he spoke.

"Er--good morning. I'm from the Ministry of Magic--"

"You're not welcome," said the man in Parstletongue. Johnny didn't understand, however Harry did.

"Er--I'm sorry... I don't understand you," said Ogden nervously.

"You understand him, I'm sure, Harry?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Yes, of course," said Harry, slightly nonplussed. "Why can't Ogden--?"

But as his eyes found the dead snake on the door again, he suddenly understood.

"He's speaking Parseltongue?"

"Very good," said Dumbledore, nodding and smiling.

The man in rags was now advancing on Ogden, knife in one hand, wand in the other.

"Now, look--" Ogden began, but too late: there was a bang, and Ogden was on the ground, clutching his nose, while a nasty yellowish goo squirted from between his fingers.

"Morfin!" said a loud voice.

An elderly man had come hurrying out of the cottage, banging the door behind him so that the dead snake swung pathetically. This man was shorter than the first, and oddly proportioned; his shoulders were very broad and his arms overlong, which, with his bright brown eyes, short scrubby hair, and wrinkled face, gave him the look of a powerful, aged monkey. He came to a halt beside the man with the knife, who was now cackling with laughter at the sight of Ogden on the ground.

"Ministry, is it?" said the older man, looking down at Ogden.

"Correct!" said Ogden angrily, dabbing his face. "And you, I take it, are Mr. Gaunt?"

"'S right," said Gaunt. "Got you in the face, did he?"

"Yes, he did!" snapped Ogden.

"Should've made your presence known, shouldn't you?" said Gaunt aggressively. "This is private property. Can't just walk in here and not expect my son to defend himself."

"Defend himself against what, man?" said Ogden, clambering back to his feet.

"Busybodies. Intruders. Muggles and filth."

Harry and Johnny glanced at each other.

Ogden pointed his wand at his own nose, which was still issuing large amounts of what looked like yellow pus, and the flow stopped at once. Mr. Gaunt spoke out of the corner of his mouth to Morfin.

Gaunt hissed once more. Morfin seemed to be on the point of disagreeing, but when his father cast him a threatening look he changed his mind, lumbering away to the cottage with an odd rolling gait and slamming the front door behind him, so that the snake swung sadly again.

"It's your son I'm here to see, Mr. Gaunt," said Ogden, as he mopped the last of the pus from the front of his coat. "That was Morfin, wasn't it?"

"Ar, that was Morfin," said the old man indifferently. "Are you Pureblood?" he asked, suddenly aggressive.

"That's neither here nor there," said Ogden coldly, and Johnny felt his respect for Ogden rise.

Apparently Gaunt felt rather differently. He squinted into Ogden's face and muttered, in what was clearly supposed to be an offensive tone, "Now I come to think about it, I've seen noses like yours down in the village."

"I don't doubt it, if your son's been let loose on them," said Ogden. "Perhaps we could continue this discussion inside?"

"Inside?"

"Yes, Mr. Gaunt. I've already told you. I'm here about Morfin. We sent an owl --"

"I've no use for owls," said Gaunt. "I don't open letters."

"Then you can hardly complain that you get no warning of visitors," said Ogden tartly. "I am here following a serious breach of Wizarding law, which occurred here in the early hours of this morning --"

"All right, all right, all right!" bellowed Gaunt. "Come in the bleeding house, then, and much good it'll do you!"

The house seemed to contain three tiny rooms. Two doors led off the main room, which served as kitchen and living room combined. Morfin was sitting in a filthy armchair beside the smoking fire, twisting a live adder between his thick fingers and crooning softly at it in Parseltongue.

"What's he saying?" Johnny asked Harry quietly, gripping onto Harry's elbow.

"He's... singing to it?" Harry said, staring at Morfin confused.

There was a scuffling noise in the corner beside the open window, and Johnny realised that there was somebody else in the room, a girl whose ragged gray dress was the exact color of the dirty stone wall behind her. She was standing beside a steaming pot on a grimy black stove, and was fiddling around with the shelf of squalid-looking pots and pans above it. Her hair was lank and dull and she had a plain, pale, rather heavy face. Her eyes, like her brother's, stared in opposite directions. She looked a little cleaner than the two men, but Johnny thought he had never seen a more defeated-looking person.

"M'daughter, Merope," said Gaunt grudgingly, as Ogden looked inquiringly toward her.

"Good morning," said Ogden.

She didn't answer, but with a frightened glance at her father turned her back on the room and continued shifting the pots on the shelf behind her.

"Well, Mr. Gaunt," said Ogden, "to get straight to the point, we have reason to believe that your son, Morfin, performed magic in front of a Muggle late last night."

There was a deafening clang. Merope had dropped one of the pots.

"Pick it up!" Gaunt bellowed at her. "That's it, grub on the floor like some filthy Muggle, what's your wand for, you useless sack of muck?"

"Mr. Gaunt, please!" said Ogden in a shocked voice, as Merope, who had already picked up the pot, flushed blotchily scarlet, lost her grip on the pot again, drew her wand shakily from her pocket, pointed it at the pot, and muttered a hasty, inaudible spell that caused the pot to shoot across the floor away from her, hit the opposite wall, and crack in two.

Morfin let out a mad cackle of laughter. Gaunt screamed, "Mend it, you pointless lump, mend it!"

Merope stumbled across the room, but before she had time to raise her wand, Ogden had lifted his own and said firmly, "Reparo." The pot mended itself instantly.

Gaunt looked for a moment as though he was going to shout at Ogden, but seemed to think better of it: instead, he jeered at his daughter, "Lucky the nice man from the Ministry's here, isn't it? Perhaps he'll take you off my hands, perhaps he doesn't mind dirty Squibs..."

Without looking at anybody or thanking Ogden, Merope picked up the pot and returned it, hands trembling, to its shelf. She then stood quite still, her back against the wall between the filthy window and the stove, as though she wished for nothing more than to sink into the stone and vanish.

"Mr. Gaunt," Ogden began again, "as I've said: the reason for my visit --"

"I heard you the first time!" snapped Gaunt. "And so what? Morfin gave a Muggle a bit of what was coming to him--what about it, then?"

"Morfin has broken Wizarding law," said Ogden sternly.

"'Morfin has broken Wizarding law,'" Gaunt imitated Ogden's voice, making it pompous and singsong. Morfin cackled again. "He taught a filthy Muggle a lesson, that's illegal now, is it?"

"Calm down, Johnny," Harry muttered softly, watching as Johnny's eyes inflamed.

"Yes," said Ogden. "I'm afraid it is."

He pulled from an inside pocket a small scroll of parchment and unrolled it.

"What's that, then, his sentence?" said Gaunt, his voice rising angrily.

"It is a summons to the Ministry for a hearing --"

"Summons! Summons? Who do you think you are, summoning my son anywhere?"

"I'm Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad," said Ogden.

"And you think we're scum, do you?" screamed Gaunt, advancing on Ogden now, with a dirty yellow-nailed finger pointing at his chest. "Scum who'll come running when the Ministry tells 'em to? Do you know who you're talking to, you filthy little Mudblood, do you?"

"Johnny, it's not like you can hurt him," Harry muttered, gripping Johnny's tightly.

"I was under the impression that I was speaking to Mr. Gaunt," said Ogden, looking wary, but standing his ground.

"That's right!" roared Gaunt. For a moment, Johnny thought Gaunt was making an obscene hand gesture, but then realised that he was showing Ogden the ugly, black-stoned ring he was wearing on his middle finger, waving it before Ogden's eyes. "See this? See this? Know what it is? Know where it came from? Centuries it's been in our family, that's how far back we go, and Pureblood all the way! Know how much I've been offered for this, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved on the stone?"

"I've really no idea," said Ogden, blinking as the ring sailed within an inch of his nose, "and it's quite beside the point, Mr. Gaunt. Your son has committed --"

With a howl of rage, Gaunt ran toward his daughter. For a split second, Johnny thought he was going to throttle her as his hand flew to her throat; next moment, he was dragging her toward Ogden by a gold chain around her neck.

"See this?" he bellowed at Ogden, shaking a heavy gold locket at him, while Merope spluttered and gasped for breath.

"I see it, I see it!" said Ogden hastily.

"Slytherins!" yelled Gaunt. "Salazar Slytherin's! We're his last living descendants, what do you say to that, eh?"

"Mr. Gaunt, your daughter!" said Ogden in alarm, but Gaunt had already released Merope; she staggered away from him, back to her corner, massaging her neck and gulping for air.

"So!" said Gaunt triumphantly, as though he had just proved a complicated point beyond all possible dispute. "Don't you go talking to us as if we're dirt on your shoes! Generations of pure-bloods, wizards all--more than you can say, I don't doubt!"

And he spat on the floor at Ogden's feet. Morfin cackled again. Merope, huddled beside the window, her head bowed and her face hidden by her lank hair, said nothing.

"Mr. Gaunt," said Ogden doggedly, "I am afraid that neither your ancestors nor mine have anything to do with the matter in hand. I am here because of Morfin, Morfin and the Muggle he accosted late last night. Our information"--he glanced down at his scroll of parchment--"is that Morfin performed a jinx or hex on the said Muggle, causing him to erupt in highly painful hives."

Morfin giggled.

Gaunt snarled in Parseltongue, and Morfin fell silent again.

"And so what if he did, then?" Gaunt said defiantly to Ogden, "I expect you've wiped the Muggle's filthy face clean for him, and his memory to boot--"

"That's hardly the point, is it, Mr. Gaunt?" said Ogden. "This was an unprovoked attack on a defenseless --"

"Ar, I had you marked out as a Muggle-lover the moment I saw you," sneered Gaunt, and he spat on the floor again.

"This discussion is getting us nowhere," said Ogden firmly. "It is clear from your son's attitude that he feels no remorse for his actions." He glanced down at his scroll of parchment again. "Morfin will attend a hearing on the fourteenth of September to answer the charges of using magic in front of a Muggle and causing harm and distress to that same Mugg --"

Ogden broke off. The jingling, clopping sounds of horses and loud, laughing voices were drifting in through the open window. Apparently the winding lane to the village passed very close to the copse where the house stood. Gaunt froze, listening, his eyes wide. Morfin hissed and turned his face toward the sounds, his expression hungry. Merope raised her head. Her face, Johnny saw, was starkly white.

"My God, what an eyesore!" rang out a girl's voice, as clearly audible through the open window as if she had stood in the room beside them. "Couldn't your father have that hovel cleared away, Tom?"

"It's not ours," said a young man's voice. "Everything on the other side of the valley belongs to us, but that cottage belongs to an old tramp called Gaunt, and his children. The son's quite mad, you should hear some of the stories they tell in the village--"

The girl laughed. The jingling, clopping noises were growing louder and louder. Morfin made to get out of his armchair.

Gaunt said something in Parseltongue.

"Tom," said the girl's voice again, now so close they were clearly right beside the house, "I might be wrong--but has somebody nailed a snake to that door?"

"Good lord, you're right!" said the man's voice. "That'll be the son, I told you he's not right in the head. Don't look at it, Cecilia, darling."

The jingling and clopping sounds were now growing fainter again.

"'Darling,'" whispered Morfin, looking at his sister. "'Darling, he called her. So he wouldn't have you anyway."

Merope was so white Johnny felt sure she was going to faint.

"What's that?" said Gaunt sharply, looking from his son to his daughter. "What did you say, Morfin?"

"She likes looking at that Muggle," said Morfin, a vicious expression on his face as he stared at his sister, who now looked terrified. "Always in the garden when he passes, peering through the hedge at him, isn't she? And last night--"

Merope shook her head jerkily, imploringly, but Morfin went on ruthlessly, "Hanging out of the window waiting for him to ride home, wasn't she?"

"Hanging out of the window to look at a Muggle?" said Gaunt quietly.

All three of the Gaunts seemed to have forgotten Ogden, who was looking both bewildered and irritated.

"Is it true?" said Gaunt in a deadly voice, advancing a step or two toward the terrified girl. "My daughter--Pureblooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin--hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle?"

Merope shook her head frantically, pressing herself into the wall, apparently unable to speak.

"But I got him, Father!" cackled Morfin. "I got him as he went by and he didn't look so pretty with hives all over him, did he, Merope?"

"You disgusting little Squib, you filthy little Blood Traitor!" roared Gaunt, losing control, and his hands closed around his daughter's throat.

Both Johnny and Ogden yelled "No!" at the same time; Ogden raised his wand and cried, "Relaskio!"

Gaunt was thrown backward, away from his daughter; he tripped over a chair and fell flat on his back. With a roar of rage, Morfin leapt out of his chair and ran at Ogden, brandishing his bloody knife and firing hexes indiscriminately from his wand.

Ogden ran for his life. Dumbledore indicated that they ought to follow and Harry and Johnny obeyed, Merope's screams echoing in their ears.

Ogden hurtled up the path and erupted onto the main lane, his arms over his head, where he collided with the glossy chestnut horse ridden by a very handsome, dark-haired young man. Both he and the pretty girl riding beside him on a gray horse roared with laughter at the sight of Ogden, who bounced off the horse's flank and set off again, his frock coat flying, covered from head to foot in dust, running pell-mell up the lane.

"I think that will do, boys," said Dumbledore. He took Harry and Johnny by the elbows and tugged. Next moment, they were soaring weightlessly through darkness, until they landed squarely on their feet, back in Dumbledore's now twilit office.

"What happened to the girl in the cottage?" said Johnny at once, as Dumbledore lit extra lamps with a flick of his wand. "Merope, or whatever her name was?"

"Oh, she survived," said Dumbledore, reseating himself behind his desk and indicating that Harry and Johnny should sit down too. "Ogden Apparated back to the Ministry and returned with reinforcements within fifteen minutes. Morfin and his father attempted to fight, but both were overpowered, removed from the cottage, and subsequently convicted by the Wizengamot. Morfin, who already had a record of Muggle attacks, was sentenced to three years in Azkaban. Marvolo, who had injured several Ministry employees in addition to Ogden, received six months."

"Marvolo?" Harry and Johnny repeated wonderingly in unison.

"That's right," said Dumbledore, smiling in approval. "I am glad to see you're both keeping up."

"That old man was--?"

"Voldemort's grandfather, yes," said Dumbledore. "Marvolo, his son, Morfin, and his daughter, Merope, were the last of the Gaunts, a very ancient Wizarding family noted for a vein of instability and violence that flourished through the generations due to their habit of marrying their own cousins. Lack of sense coupled with a great liking for grandeur meant that the family gold was squandered several generations before Marvolo was born. He, as you saw, was left in squalor and poverty, with a very nasty temper, a fantastic amount of arrogance and pride, and a couple of family heirlooms that he treasured just as much as his son, and rather more than his daughter."

"So Merope," said Johnny, leaning forward in his chair and staring at Dumbledore, before running a hand over his face, "so Merope was ... Sir, does that mean she was... Voldemort's mother?"

"It does," said Dumbledore. "And it so happens that we also had a glimpse of Voldemort's father. I wonder whether you noticed?"

"The Muggle Morfin attacked? The man on the horse?" said Harry,

"Very good indeed," said Dumbledore, beaming. "Yes, that was Tom Riddle senior, the handsome Muggle who used to go riding past the Gaunt cottage and for whom Merope Gaunt cherished a secret, burning passion."

"And they ended up married?" Harry said in disbelief, unable to imagine two people less likely to fall in love.

"I think you are forgetting," said Dumbledore, "that Merope was a witch. I do not believe that her magical powers appeared to their best advantage when she was being terrorised by her father. Once Marvolo and Morfin were safely in Azkaban, once she was alone and free for the first time in her life, then, I am sure, she was able to give full rein to her abilities and to plot her escape from the desperate life she had led for eighteen years. Can you not think of any measure Merope could have taken to make Tom Riddle forget his Muggle companion, and fall in love with her instead?"

"The Imperius Curse?" Suggested Harry.

"A  love potion?" Johnny suggested.

"Very good. Personally, I am inclined to think that she used a love potion. I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her, and I do not think it would have been very difficult, some hot day, when Riddle was riding alone, to persuade him to take a drink of water. In any case, within a few months of the scene we have just witnessed, the village of Little Hangleton enjoyed a tremendous scandal. You can imagine the gossip it caused when the squire's son ran off with the tramp's daughter, Merope, but the villagers' shock was nothing to Marvolo's. He returned from Azkaban, expecting to find his daughter dutifully awaiting his return with a hot meal ready on his table. Instead, he found a clear inch of dust and her note of farewell, explaining what she had done. From all that I have been able to discover, he never mentioned her name or existence from that time forth. The shock of her desertion may have contributed to his early death--or perhaps he had simply never learned to feed himself. Azkaban had greatly weakened Marvolo, and he did not live to see Morfin return to the cottage."

"And Merope? She... she died, didn't she? Wasn't Voldemort brought up in an orphanage?" said Johnny.

"Yes, indeed," said Dumbledore. "We must do a certain amount of guessing here, although I do not think it is difficult to deduce what happened. You see, within a few months of their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumor flew around the neighborhood that he was talking of being 'hoodwinked' and 'taken in.' What he meant, I am sure, is that he had been under an enchantment that had now lifted, though I daresay he did not dare use those precise words for fear of being thought insane. When they heard what he was saying, however, the villagers guessed that Merope had lied to Tom Riddle, pretending that she was going to have his baby, and that he had married her for this reason."

"But she did have his baby," said Harry, utterly confused.

"But not until a year after they were married. Tom Riddle left her while she was still pregnant."

"What went wrong?" asked Harry. "Why did the love potion stop working?"

"Again, this is guesswork," said Dumbledore, "but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby's sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son."

"Gesù Cristo (Jesus Christ)," Johnny muttered, leaning back in his seat and running a hand through his hair. He took in a lot of information tonight.

The sky outside was inky black and the lamps in Dumbledore's office seemed to glow more brightly than before.

"I think that will do for tonight, boys," said Dumbledore after a moment or two.

Both boys got to their feet, but didn't leave.

"Sir... is it important to know all this about Voldemort's past?" asked Johnny.

"Very important, I think," said Dumbledore.

"And it... it's got something to do with the prophecy?"

"It has everything to do with the prophecy."

"Right," said Johnny, a little confused, but reassured all the same.

They turned to go, and Harry turned back again. "Sir, are Johnny and I allowed to tell Ron and Hermione everything you've told us?"

Dumbledore considered him for a moment, then said, "Yes, I think Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have proved themselves trustworthy. But boys, I am going to ask you to ask them not to repeat any of this to anybody else. It would not be a good idea if word got around how much I know, or suspect, about Lord Voldemort's secrets."

"No, sir, we'll make sure it's just Ron and Hermione. Goodnight."

They turned away again, and was almost at the door when Johnny saw it. Sitting on one of the little spindle-legged tables that supported so many frail-looking silver instruments, was an ugly gold ring set with a large, cracked, black stone.

"Sir," said Johnny, staring at it. "That ring--"

"Yes?" said Dumbledore.

"You were wearing it when we visited Professor Slughorn that night."

"So I was," Dumbledore agreed.

"But isn't it... sir, isn't it the same ring Marvolo Gaunt showed Ogden?" said Harry in realisation.

Dumbledore bowed his head. "The very same."

"But how come... have you always had it?"

"No, I acquired it very recently," said Dumbledore. "A few days before I came to fetch you from Potter Manor, in fact."

"That would be around the time you injured your hand, then, sir?" Johnny asked.

"Around that time, yes, Johnny."

They hesitated. Dumbledore was smiling. In unison, both boys went to ask something, but was cut off by Dumbledore. "Too late, boys! You shall hear the story another time. Goodnight."

As Hermione had predicted, the sixth-years' 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 themselves had become more demanding than ever before. Johnny 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.

Non-verbal spells were now expected, not only in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but in Charms and Transfiguration too. Johnny 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 non-verbal spells was that Johnny, 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.

"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 Aguamenti Charm from Flitwick! Anyway, explain what? How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject?"

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

"Speak for yourself, I haven't forgotten the Skrewts," said Ron darkly. "And I'm telling you now, we've had a narrow escape. Johnny, you haven't even met the bitch! You didn't hear Hagrid 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 the Gryffindor Quidditch trials," Johnny assured her, taking her hand in his and placing a delicate kiss to her knuckles.

"But trials might take all morning, the number of people who have applied," Harry felt slightly nervous at confronting the first hurdle of his Captaincy.

"The trick is to assert your dominance and earn their," Johnny said, shovelling a piece of bacon in his mouth. "Ask myself, Mia, Axel, Oliver Wood, any Quidditch Captain. Without the teams respect, it'll crumble."

Harry nodded smiling thankfully at the advice.

"I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden," muttered Harry.

"Oh, come on, Harry," said Hermione, suddenly impatient. "It's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting, and frankly, you've never been more fanciable."

Johnny gagged on a large piece of toast. Hermione spared him one look of disdain before turning back to Harry.

"Don't get jealous, darling, it's still only you," Hermione reassured Johnny, kissing his cheek. "Everyone knows Harry has been telling the truth now, don't they? The whole Wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back and that you and Johnny really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now they're calling the two you 'the Chosen Ones'--well, come on, can't you see why people are fascinated by you?"

Johnny was finding the Great Hall very hot all of a sudden, even though the ceiling still looked cold and rainy.

"And you've been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they were trying to make out you were unstable and a liar. Johnny still has his prison tattoo and the mental scars from Azkaban, you still have the scars from that evil woman..."

Johnny pulled down the collar of his white shirt, showing a tattoo of his Azkaban Prisoner number.

A/n: It translates to NH93

"You can still see where those brains got hold of me in the Ministry, look," said Ron, shaking back his sleeves.

The post owls arrived, swooping down through rain-flecked windows, scattering everyone with droplets of water. Most people were receiving more post than usual; anxious parents were keen to hear from their children and to reassure them, in turn, that all was well at home. Evelyn's owl landed in front of Johnny.

Dear Johnny and Harry,
                                              I hope you're both okay? And that your lessons going okay? Dumbledore has written to explaining to me the lessons he gives you during the evenings, and I hope you're both not overworking yourself.

I am okay here at home, a bit lonely but Tonks pops are with her new boyfriend Lucas when she can, and Remus with Dani pops around everyday. Dani has been brought home from France and is now being home schooled by Remus, Sirius's Death really shook the both of them hard. So I do my bit to help them and make sure they're eating properly.

The new Quidditch season is approaching! Good luck!

Lots of love,
Evelyn Potter

Johnny read aloud to Harry;

"Ha!" said Harry, unwrapping the parcel to reveal a new copy of Advanced Potion-Making, fresh from Flourish and Blotts.

"Oh good," said Hermione, delighted. "Now you can give that graffitied copy back."

"Are you mad?" said Harry. "I'm keeping it! Look, I've thought it out --"

He pulled the old copy of Advanced Potion-Making out of his bag and tapped the cover with his wand, muttering, "Diffindo!" The cover fell off. He did the same thing with the brand-new book (Hermione looked scandalised). He then swapped the covers, tapped each, and said, "Reparo!"

There sat the Prince's copy, disguised as a new book, and there sat the fresh copy from Flourish and Blotts, looking thoroughly second-hand.

"I'll give Slughorn back the new one, he can't complain, it cost nine Galleons."

Hermione pressed her lips together, looking angry and disapproving, but was distracted by a third owl landing in front of her carrying that day's copy of the Daily Prophet. She unfolded it hastily and scanned the front page.

"Anyone we know dead?" asked Ron in a determinedly casual voice; he posed the same question every time Hermione opened her paper.

"No, but there have been more dementor attacks," said Hermione. "And an arrest."

"Excellent, who?" said Johnny, thinking of Jakob.

"Stan Shunpike," said Hermione. "The Knight Bus Conductor."

"What?" said Harry, startled.

"'Stanley Shunpike, conductor on the popular Wizarding conveyance the Knight Bus, has been arrested on suspicion of Death Eater activity. Mr. Shunpike, 21, was taken into custody late last night after a raid on his Clapham home...'"

"Stan Shunpike, a Death Eater?" said Johnny, remembering the spotty youth he and Hermione had first met two years before. "No way!"

"He might have been put under the Imperius Curse," said Ron reasonably. "You never can tell."

"It doesn't look like it," said Hermione, who was still reading. "It says here he was arrested after he was overheard talking about the Death Eaters' secret plans in a pub." She looked up with a troubled expression on her face. "If he was under the Imperius Curse, he'd hardly stand around gossiping about their plans, would he?"

"It sounds like he was trying to make out he knew more than he did," said Ron. "Isn't he the one who claimed he was going to become Minister of Magic when he was trying to chat up those Veela?"

"Yeah, that's him," said Harry. "I dunno what they're playing at, taking Stan seriously."

"They probably want to look as though they're doing something," said Hermione, frowning. "People are terrified--you know the Patil twins' parents want them to go home? And Eloise Midgen has already been withdrawn. Her father picked her up last night."

"What!" said Johnny, goggling at Hermione. "But Hogwarts is safer than their homes, bound to be! We've got Aurors, and all those extra protective spells, and we've got Dumbledore!"

"I don't think we've got him all the time," said Hermione very quietly, glancing toward the staff table over the top of the Prophet. "Haven't you noticed? His seat's been empty as often as Hagrid's this past week."

Johnny, Harry and Ron looked up at the staff table. The Headmaster's chair was indeed empty. Now Johnny came to think of it, he hadn't seen Dumbledore since their private lesson a week ago.

"I think he's left the school to do something with the Order," said Hermione in a low voice. "I mean... it's all looking serious, isn't it?"

Johnny, Harry and Ron didn't answer, but Johnny knew that they were all thinking the same thing. There had been a horrible incident the day before, when Hannah Abbott had been taken out of Herbology to be told her mother had been found dead. They hadn't seen Hannah since.

"Are you coming to watch Tryouts?" Hermione asked Johnny, watching Harry and Ron leave.

"Can't, can I?" said Johnny, taking another big of toast. "I'm their bitter rival."

Hermione hummed, before wrapping her Gryffindor scarf around Johnny's neck and placing her Gryffindor beanie on his head. She grinned giving Johnny a quick kiss.

"And now they'll think you're a Gryffindor," Hermione whispered, the mischievous grin never leaving her face.

"Are you sure you're not a Slytherin?" Johnny joked, causing Hermione to giggle and kiss him once more.

Once Hermione and Johnny caught up with Harry and Ron (who didn't notice Johnny), they passed Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Remembering what Hermione had said about the Patil twins' parents wanting them to leave Hogwarts, Johnny was unsurprised to see that the two best friends were whispering together, looking distressed. What did surprise him was that when Ron drew level with them, Parvati suddenly nudged Lavender, who looked around and gave Ron a wide smile. Ron blinked at her, then returned the smile uncertainly. His walk instantly became something more like a strut. Johnny resisted the temptation to laugh,.

As Harry had expected, the trials took most of the morning. Half of Gryffindor House seemed to have turned up, from first years who were nervously clutching a selection of the dreadful old school brooms, to seventh years who towered over the rest, looking coolly intimidating. The latter included a slim, dark-haired girl Johnny recognised immediately from the Hogwarts Express.

"Aw fuck," Johnny muttered, sinking lower in his seat to avoid Charlotte McLaggen noticing him.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, glancing down at Johnny who was practically led down.

"That girl talking to Harry," Johnny whispered, pointing in there direction. "She was in Slughorn's compartment that day on the train, she wouldn't stop flirting with me."

Hermione's eyes flashed purple and her jaw clenched as she glared at Charlotte who was boasting about something to the other potential Keepers, Ron among them looking quite uncomfortable.

Those who managed to enter the team made their way to the stands. Kieran and Jimmy Peaks made the Gryffindor team as Beaters, while Nick, Katie and Ginny made the team as Chasers. Johnny knew that Harry had deliberately left the trial of the Keepers until last, hoping for an emptier stadium and less pressure on all concerned. Unfortunately, however, all the rejected players and a number of people who had come down to watch after a lengthy breakfast had joined the crowd by now, so that it was larger than ever. As each Keeper flew up to the goal hoops, the crowd roared and jeered in equal measure.

Charlotte so far had saved four out of penalties.

"Confundus," Hermione whispered, discretely pointing her wand at Charlotte, but Johnny heard her. Charlotte shot off in completely the wrong direction; the crowd laughed and booed and McLaggen returned to the ground grinding her teeth.

"Did you just-?" Johnny asked, completely gobsmacked. Hermione grinned cheekily, kissing Johnny's cheek.

"No one flirts with my mate and gets away with it," Hermione muttered back.

Ron looked ready to pass out as he mounted his Cleansweep Eleven.

"Good luck!" cried a voice from the stands. Johnny and Hermione looked around to see Lavender Brown. They glanced back at each other and shrugged.

"Ron really has the girls after him this year," said Hermione, resting her chin on her palm. "I heard Padma Patil was thinking of asking him out too."

Ron saved one, two, three, four, five penalties in a row. Delighted, Johnny took off Hermione's Gryffindor scarf and hat, replaced them with his Slytherin attire, and made his way down to the field to offer some friendly banter

"His sister didn't really try," said Charlotte menacingly. There was a vein pulsing in her temple like the one Johnny had once admired in Uncle Vernon's. "She gave him an easy save."

"Rubbish," said Harry coldly. "That was the one he nearly missed."

Charlotte took a step nearer Harry, who stood his ground this time.

"Give me another go."

"He doesn't have to," said Johnny, pushing the two away from each . "You've had your go. You saved four. Ron saved five. Ron's Keeper, he won it fair and square. Get out of the way."

Johnny thought for a moment that Charlotte might punch him, but she sent Johnny a flirty smile, run her hand up his arm, and said in the most seductive voice Johnny had ever heard, "hmm, I do love a man who takes control."

After that she turned and walked away, leaving a shocked Harry and Johnny staring at each other with confused glances. Harry cleared his throat and turned around to find his new team beaming at him.

"Well done," he croaked. "You flew really well--"

"Still no match for my group of unruly serpents," Johnny joked, causing the Gryffindor team to snicker. Hermione joined them, beaming at Ron.

"You did brilliantly, Ron!"

Hermione smiled and thanked Hermione.

After fixing the time of their first full practice for the following Thursday, Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione bid goodbye to the rest of the Gryffindor team and headed off toward Hagrid's. A watery sun was trying to break through the clouds now and it had stopped drizzling at last. Johnny felt extremely hungry; he hoped there would be something to eat at Hagrid's.

"I thought I was going to miss that fourth penalty," Ron was saying happily. "Tricky shot from Demelza, did you see, had a bit of spin on it --"

"Yes, yes, you were magnificent," said Harry, looking amused.

"I was better than that McLaggen anyway," said Ron in a highly satisfied voice. "Did you see her lumbering off in the wrong direction on her fifth? Looked like he'd been Confunded..."

Johnny and Hermione bit their lips to quieten their giggles. Ron noticed nothing; he was too busy describing each of his other penalties in loving detail, however, Harry noticed and looked at the couple confused.

The great gray hippogriff, Buckbeak, was tethered in front of Hagrid's cabin. He clicked his razor-sharp beak at their approach and turned his huge head toward them.

"Oh dear," said Hermione nervously. "He's still a bit scary, isn't he?"

"Come off it, you've ridden him, haven't you?" said Ron. Johnny stepped forward and bowed low to the hippogriff without breaking eye contact or blinking. After a few seconds, Buckbeak sank into a bow too.

"How are you?" Johnny asked him in a low voice, moving forward to stroke the feathery head. "You're okay here with Hagrid, aren't you?"

"Oi!" said a loud voice.

Hagrid had come striding around the corner of his cabin wearing a large flowery apron and carrying a sack of potatoes. His enormous boarhound, Fang, was at his heels; Fang gave a booming bark and bounded forward.

"Git away from him! He'll have yer fingers--oh. It's yeh lot."

Fang was jumping up at Harry, Hermione and Ron, attempting to lick their ears. Hagrid stood and looked at them all for a split second, then turned and strode into his cabin, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh dear!" said Hermione, looking stricken.

"Don't worry about it," said Harry grimly. He walked over to the door and knocked loudly.

"Hagrid! Open up, we want to talk to you!"

There was no sound from within.

"If you don't open the door, we'll blast it open!" Harry said, pulling out his wand.

"Harry!" said Hermione, sounding shocked. "You can't possibly --"

"Yeah, I can!" said Harry. "Stand back --"

But before he could say anything else, the door flew open again as Harry had known it would, and there stood Hagrid, glowering down at him and looking, despite the flowery apron, positively alarming.

"I'm a teacher!" he roared at Harry. "A teacher, Potter! How dare yeh threaten ter break down my door!"

"I'm sorry, sir," said Harry, emphasising the last word as he stowed his wand inside his robes.

Hagrid looked stunned. "Since when have yeh called me 'sir'?"

"Since when have you called me 'Potter'?"

"Oh, very clever," growled Hagrid. "Very amusin'. That's me outsmarted, innit? All righ', come in then, yeh ungrateful little..."

Mumbling darkly, he stood back to let them pass. Hermione scurried in after Harry, looking rather frightened.

"Well?" said Hagrid grumpily, as Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down around his enormous wooden table, Fang laying his head immediately upon Johnny's knee and drooling all over his robes. "What's this? Feelin' sorry for me? Reckon I'm lonely or summat?"

"No," said Johnny at once. "We wanted to see you."

"We've missed you!" said Hermione tremulously.

"Missed me, have yeh?" snorted Hagrid. "Yeah. Righ'."

He stomped around, brewing up tea in his enormous copper kettle, muttering all the while. Finally he slammed down four bucket-sized mugs of mahogany-brown tea in front of them and a plate of his rock cakes. Johnny was hungry enough even for Hagrid's cooking, and took one at once.

"Hagrid," said Hermione timidly, when he joined them at the table and started peeling his potatoes with a brutality that suggested that each tuber had done him a great personal wrong, "we really wanted to carry on with Care of Magical Creatures, you know." Hagrid gave another great snort. Johnny rather thought some bogeys landed on the potatoes, and was inwardly thankful that they were not staying for dinner.

"We did!" said Hermione. "But none of us could fit it into our schedules!"

"Yeah. Righ'," said Hagrid again.

There was a funny squelching sound and they all looked around: Hermione let out a tiny shriek, and Ron leapt out of his seat and hurried around the table away from the large barrel standing in the corner that they had only just noticed. It was full of what looked like foot-long maggots, slimy, white, and writhing.

"What are they, Hagrid?" asked Johnny, trying to sound interested rather than revolted, but putting down his rock cake all the same.

"Jus' giant grubs," said Hagrid.

"And they grow into...?" said Ron, looking apprehensive.

"They won' grow inter nuthin'," said Hagrid. "I got 'em ter feed ter Aragog."

And without warning, he burst into tears.

"Hagrid!" cried Hermione, leaping up, hurrying around the table the long way to avoid the barrel of maggots, and putting an arm around his shaking shoulders. "What is it?"

"It's... him..." gulped Hagrid, his beetle-black eyes streaming as he mopped his face with his apron. "It's... Aragog... I think he's dyin'... He got ill over the summer an' he's not gettin' better... I don' know what I'll do if he... if he... We've bin tergether so long..."

"Oh thank fuck he is," muttered Johnny and Ron in unison, remembering there incident with the giant spider four years ago.

Hermione patted Hagrid's shoulder, looking at a complete loss for anything to say.

"Is there--is there anything we can do?" Hermione asked, ignoring Johnny's and Ron's frantic grimaces and head-shakings.

"I don' think there is, Hermione," choked Hagrid, attempting to stem the flood of his tears. "See, the rest o' the tribe ... Aragog's family... they're gettin' a bit funny now he's ill... bit restive..."

"Yeah, I think we saw a bit of that side of them," said Ron in an undertone. Johnny nodded, fist bumping Ron.

"...I don' reckon it'd be safe fer anyone but me ter go near the colony at the mo'," Hagrid finished, blowing his nose hard on his apron and looking up. "But thanks fer offerin', Hermione... It means a lot."

After that, the atmosphere lightened considerably, for although neither Johnny, Harry nor Ron had shown any inclination to go and feed giant grubs to a murderous, gargantuan spider, Hagrid seemed to take it for granted that they would have liked to have done and became his usual self once more.

"Ar, I always knew yeh'd find it hard ter squeeze me inter yer timetables," he said gruffly, pouring them more tea. "Even if yeh applied fer Time-Turners --"

"We couldn't have done," said Hermione. "We smashed the entire stock of Ministry Time-Turners when we were there last summer. It was in the Daily Prophet."

"Ar, well then," said Hagrid. "There's no way yeh could've done it... I'm sorry I've bin--yeh know--I've jus' bin worried about Aragog... an I did wonder whether, if Professor Grubbly-Plank had bin teachin' yeh --"

At which all four of them stated categorically and untruthfully that Professor Grubbly-Plank, who had substituted for Hagrid a few times, was a dreadful teacher, with the result that by the time Hagrid waved them off the premises at dusk, he looked quite cheerful.

"I'm starving," said Johnny, once the door had closed behind them and they were hurrying through the dark and deserted grounds; he had abandoned the rock cake after an ominous cracking noise from one of his back teeth.

"So am I, and I've got that detention with Snape tonight, I haven't got much time for dinner," said Harry bitterly.

As they came into the castle they spotted Charlotte McLaggen entering the Great Hall. It took her two attempts to get through the doors; she ricocheted off the frame on the first attempt. Ron merely guffawed gloatingly and strode off into the Hall after him, but Harry caught Johnny and Hermione's arm and held them back.

"Don't touch me," said Johnny defensively.

"What?" said Hermione defensively.

"If you ask me," said Harry quietly, "McLaggen looks like she was Confunded this morning. And she was standing right in front of where you were sitting."

Hermione and Johnny tried to suppress their identical grins.

"Oh, all right then, I did it," Hermione whispered. "She was flirting with my boyfriend! Anyway, she's got a nasty temper, you saw how she reacted when she didn't get in--you wouldn't have wanted someone like that on the team."

"No," said Harry. "No, I suppose that's true. But wasn't that dishonest, Hermione? I mean, you're a prefect, aren't you?"

"Oh, be quiet," she snapped, as Johnny smirked.

"What are you two doing?" demanded Ron, reappearing in the doorway to the Great Hall and looking suspicious.

Johnny opened his mouth for a dirty retort, and almost as if they knew what he was going to say, Harry and Hermione clamped their hands over Johnny's mouth, who huffed.

"Nothing," said Harry and Hermione together, and the three hurried after Ron. The smell of roast beef made Johnny's stomach ache with hunger, but they had barely taken three steps toward the Gryffindor table when Professor Slughorn appeared in front of them, blocking their path.

"Harry, Johnny, just the strapping young men 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 both before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my rooms 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."

Slughorn made Hermione a little bow as he finished speaking. It was as though Ron was not present; Slughorn didn't 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 detention's already been postponed once; Snape did it for Dumbledore, but he won't do it for anyone else."

"I don't want to be there!" said Johnny anxiously; Harry and Hermione knew that he was thinking about McLaggen.

"Ginny'll probably be invited," snapped Ron, who didn't seem to have taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn.

After dinner they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower, Johnny trailing along after being invited. 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, who had made herself comfortable on Johnny's lap, reached out for a copy of the Evening Prophet, which somebody had left abandoned on a chair.

"Anything new?" said Johnny, reading little snippets over Hermione's shoulder.

"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!"

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

"All the owls are being checked too," said Hermione. "I overheard McGonagall telling Padma."

Really stumped this time, Harry found nothing else to say. Johnny looked hopefully at Ron, who was sitting with his arms folded, staring over at Lavender Brown.

"Can you think of any way Malfoy-- ?" Harry went to ask him.

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

"Listen, it's not my fault Slughorn invited Johnny, Hermione and me to his stupid party, none 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 Johnny, Harry and Hermione staring after him.

"Bitter little thing, isn't he?" Said Johnny, looking rather amused.

"Harry?" said 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. "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."