Rosabella Black |Daughter of Sirius Black| (Book 6)

The Unknowable Room

Rosabella's Point of View:
Harry and I wracked our brains over the next week as to how Harry was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brain wave occurred. Slughorn still had his guard up so there was no way I'd get a chance to get him drunk and persuade him to give us the memory. Harry was reduced to doing what he did increasingly these days when at a loss, poring over his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as he had done so many times before.
   "You won't find anything in there." Hermione said firmly, late on Sunday evening.
    "Don't start, Hermione. If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now." Harry said.
    "He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year." Hermione sa8d dismissively.
Harry ignored her. 

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 their 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.

Ron had panicked on reading this notice. He had still not managed to Apparate and feared he would not be ready for the test. Hermione, who had now achieved Apparition twice, was a little more confident. Harry and I, who would not be seventeen for another three and four months, could not take the test whether ready or not. I had Apparated successfully twice.
   "At least you can Apparate, though!You'll have no trouble come July!" Ron said tensely.
   "I've only done it once." Harry reminded him.
Harry had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during our previous lesson.

Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, Ron was now struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry, Hermione and I had already completed. Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle Dementors, but he did not care. Slughorn's memory was the most important thing to him now.

I helped Ron as much as I could without being obvious in the essay while Harry flipped through his Potions book.
   "I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry! There's only one way to force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal -" Hermione said, more loudly.
   "Yeah, I know that, thanks. 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. . ."  Harry said, not looking up from the book.
   "You're going about it the wrong way. 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 -" Hermione said.
   "How do you spell 'belligerent'? It can't be B - U - M -" Ron said, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment.
   "No, it isn't. And 'augury' doesn't begin O - R - G either. What kind of quill are you using?" I said, pulling Ron's essay toward me.
   "It's one of Fred and George's Spell - Checking ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off." Ron said.
   "Yes, it must, 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." I said, pointing at the title of his essay.
   "Ah no! Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!" Ron said, staring horror-struck at the parchment.
   "It's okay, we can fix it." Hermione said, pulling the essay toward her and taking out her wand.
    "I love you, Hermione." Ron said, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily.
Hermione turned faintly pink and I smirked at her.
    "Don't let Lavender hear you saying that." Hermione merely said.
   "I won't. Or maybe I will, then she'll ditch me." Ron said into his hands.
    "Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?" Harry asked.
   "You haven't ever chucked anyone, have you? You and Ro are practically married." Ron said.
Harry and I couldn't help but smile a little at each other.