Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Unknowable Room

Harry wracked his brains over the next week as to how he was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brain wave occurred and he 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.

'I doubt there is a "compel you to give up your memory to me" potion in there,' said Theodore when he saw Harry flipping through the book once more late on Sunday evening.

'Very funny, Theo,' said Harry. 'If it hadn't been for the Prince, Tracey wouldn't be sitting here now.'

'If you remember what Professor Snape taught us in our very first lesson with him she would,' replied Theodore.

Harry ignored this comeback. He had just found an incantation ("Sectumsempra!") scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words:

"For Enemies"

And was itching to try it out, but thought it best not to in front of the others. Instead, he surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page.

They were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only other people awake were other sixth-years as well as a couple seventh-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when they 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.

Allison's seventeenth birthday had just passed, and Theodore had been seventeen for months, so of their group Tracey would have to wait for the final test slot in June before the school year ended while Harry would have to book his test through the Ministry to take his test at the end of July or wait until April twentieth of the following year.

Allison was a little nervous as she had yet to successfully Apparate and wasn't sure if she'd be ready in less than a month's time for the test. Theodore, on the other hand, was gaining confidence as in the last lesson he partially succeeded in apparating (he had splinched his left hand), then after he was whole again he managed to do a full successful apparition.

Harry still felt bummed out that he wouldn't get to take the test with any of his friends though.

'Well, when you do get to take your test you'll do great,' encouraged Allison. 'All those side-along apparitions seemed to have helped you.'

'I've only done it on my own once,' Harry reminded her; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during their previous lesson.

'That's one more than me,' said Allison stoically with a shrug.

'You'll do great, beautiful,' said Harry. He had been experimenting with terms of endearment.

What the others were working on was a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry 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.

'Harry, Theodore is right,' said Tracey when she saw Harry was still nose deep into the book, 'if the book is over fifty years old and the Prince created a spell or potion to control people I think we'd have heard about it. Right now the only way to force someone to do something they don't want to do is the Imperius Curse, but it is illegal—'

'Yeah, I know that, thanks,' said Harry, not looking up from the book. 'That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, maybe not a persuasion spell but something we aren't thinking of that can get us what we need.'