The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.62 | Destiny & Choice

An hour later, Margaret had twiced used the nonverbal Refilling Charm to refill the bottles of wine that Slughorn had brought, unnoticed by everyone other than Harry.

Both of them were smart enough not to consume alcohol tonight, for they had important matters to deal with. Not to mention, Harry was underage and Margaret had shot him a look of warning when Slughorn poured him a tall glass. He had raised his hands in surrender and had been taking the tiniest of sips since.

On the other hand, Hagrid and Slughorn were both becoming expansive under the influence of the drinks, beginning making extravagant toasts to Hogwarts, to Dumbledore, to elf-made wine, and to:

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

"Yes, indeed," cries Slughorn a little thickly, "Parry Otter, the Chosen Boy Who- well, something of the sort," he mumbles, and drained his mug too.

Not long after this, Hagrid became tearful again and pressed the valuable unicorn tail hair 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 the Hero'.

"Aaargh, the good die young," mutters 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, Harry..." Great fat tears oozed out of the corners of Hagrid's crinkled eyes again; he grasped Harry's arm and shook it. "Bes' wiz and witchard o' their age I never knew... terrible thing... terrible thing...."

"And Odo the hero, they bore him back home. To the place that he'd known as a lad," Slughorn was singing plaintively. "They laid him to rest with his hat inside out. And his wand snapped in two, which was sad."

"...terrible," Hagrid grunts, and his great shaggy head rolled sideways onto his arms and he fell asleep, snoring deeply.

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

"Hagrid wasn't talking about your singing," says Harry quietly. "He was talking about my mum and dad dying."

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

It truly was. Margaret had heard Sirius talk about Lily and James before, but she had never heard anyone mention their deaths. It remained as an unspoken topic; a fact that existed, yet not acknowledged.

Slughorn, too, looked quite at a loss for what to say, and resorted to refilling their mugs even though Hagrid was now fast asleep.

"I don't- don't suppose you remember it, Harry?" he asms awkwardly.

"No, well, I was only one when they died," sags 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," says Slughorn in a hushed voice.

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

Margaret shivered involuntarily; for the first time that night, she felt close to tears.

Slughorn had shuddered greatly, 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," says Harry remorselessly, as though disconnected from himself. "He told me she needn't have died. He only wanted me. She could have run."