Sirius's son

Apparition test

Rigel's seventeenth birthday came and it was the best one he had ever had. Remus, Mrs. Weasley, Andromeda, and his friends had made four birthday cakes and Rigel ate one of them as breakfast. He also got some really nice presents also. Andromeda got him a gold watch, a crate of his favorite of Ogden's Firewhiskey from Tonks (He ended up drunk) a very large basket of chocolate from Remus, and a basket of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes products.

With the Apparition test approaching on the weekend, Ron, Rigel, and Hermione with the rest of the sixth year who would turn seventeen in time to take the test in a fortnight. Harry thought, has a different plan on his mind, as he decided to use the time to attempt another assault on the Room of Requirement.

"You'd do better," said Hermione, when he confided this plan to Ron, Rigel, and her in the entrance hall, "to go straight to Slughorn's office and try and get that memory from him."

"I've been trying!" said Harry crossly. "He doesn't want to talk to me, Hermione! He can tell I've been trying to get him on his own again, and he's not going to let it happen!"

"Well, you've just got to keep at it, haven't you?"

The short queue of people waiting to file past Filch, who was doing his usual prodding act with the Secrecy Sensor, moved forward a few steps. Harry wished Ron, Rigel, and Hermione good luck on their practice session before turning and climbing the marble staircase again. Not before long when Filch finished inspecting and let them head to Hogsmeade. The session occurred only for about two hours that Sunday morning, but they did fairly before heading to the Three Broomstick for a quick drink and returning to Hogwarts for an early lunch.

"I did it well, kind of!" Ron told Harry enthusiastically when he caught sight of him. "I was supposed to be Apparating to outside Madam Puddifoots' Tea Shop and I overshot it a bit, ended up near Scrivenshafts, but at least I moved!"

"Good one," said Harry. "How about you two? How'd you do?"

"They did perfect obviously," said Ron. "Perfect deliberation, divination, and desperation or whatever the hell it is-we all went for a quick drink in the Three Broomsticks after and you should've heard Twycross going on about them-"

"And what about you?" asked Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Have you been up at the Room of Requirement all this time?"

"Yep," said Harry. "And guess who I ran into up there? Tonks!"

"Tonks?" repeated Ron, Rigel, Eliza, and Hermione together, looking surprised.

"Yeah, she said she'd come to visit Dumbledore."

"It's a bit odd," said Hermione, who for some reason looked very concerned. "She's supposed to be guarding the school, why did she suddenly abandons her post to come and see Dumbledore when he's not even here?"

"I'll tell why it's a bit odd," said Ron, who shoveling mashed potato into his mouth. "She's gone a bit funny. Lost her nerve after what happened at the Ministry. Women," he said wisely to Harry and Rigel. "they're easily upset."

"And yet," said Hermione, coming out of her reverie, "I doubt you'd find a woman who sulked for half an hour because Madam Rosmerta didn't laugh at their joke about the hag, the Healer, and the Mimbulus mimbletonia."

Ron scowled. A smile appeared on Rigel's face.

Patches of bright blue sky were beginning to appear over the castle turrets, but these signs of approaching summer did not lift Rigel's, his Apparition test was also on the horizon, plus the constant bickering between Harry and Eliza about how to get Slughorn's memory.

"For the last time, just forget about Malfoy," Eliza told Harry firmly.

They were sitting in a sunny corner of the courtyard after lunch. Rigel was supposed to head back to the common room to look through some more books but Hermione had dragged him outside instead, saying he needs to relax or he's gonna end up once again in the Hospital Wings. Hermione and Ron were both clutching a Ministry of Magic leaflet: Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. The three would take their test that very afternoon and Hermione was reading the leaflet to Rigel with a soothing voice.