THE MOST FAITHFUL

HORCRUX

They were all gathered in the living room of the Burrow, in order to listen to the radio program of Mrs Weasly's favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck, whose voice warbled out of the Weaslys' wooden radio set. Fleur, who seemed to find Celestina very dull, spoke loudly in the corner where Mrs. Weasly frowned at her and pointed her wand at the volume control, so that Celestina's voice grew louder and louder. With the background of a particular jazz piece entitled.
«A cauldron full of hot, strong love» Fred and George started a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny, Ron continued to cast secret glances towards Fleur and Bill, surely trying to get some advice.
Meanwhile, Remus Lupin, who was more disheveled and tired than ever, sat in front of the fire, so lost in thought that he couldn't hear Celestina's voice.
"So Harry, how's school going?" Lupin asked him unexpectedly.
"Oh, good, sort of, the lessons are tough" he replied, turning to him.
Lupin nodded «All non-verbal spells if I'm not mistaken»
"Yeah" Harry commented, looking at the creased jacket.
"But I hear you're doing well in potions." Lupin gladly accepted the cup of eggnog offered to him by Mr. Weasley and thanked him.
Harry, in the meantime, felt a little more excited, he could finally ask Lupin what had been on his mind for months.
"Have you ever heard of anyone calling themselves The Half-Blood Prince?"
"The half-bood what?"
"Prince" Harry repeated, looking closely at him for any sign of recognition.
"There are no wizard princes," said Lupin, smiling, "is that a title you plan to adopt? I thought The Chosen One was enough."
«It has nothing to do with me» said Harry indignantly «The Half-Blood Prince was someone who attended Hogwarts, I have his old potions book. He wrote on it a lot of notes and spells that he invented. One of those is Levicorpus...»
"Oh, that was quite successful in my day" said Lupin, remembering. "There was a time during my fifth year when you couldn't go anywhere without being dangled in the air by your ankle."
"Byron told me he knows who the Prince is, that he was a boy who went to school with him and that I know him, but he won't tell me who he is." He tried to sound casual, as if the comment didn't matter, but he wasn't sure it would have the intended effect.
"One you know..." repeated Lupin thoughtfully "was he in the same year as us?"
«I don't know, he told me he went to school with him and well with you, Sirius and my father»
"He doesn't narrow it down much, unless he was... no I don't think I've ever heard anyone call themselves the Half-Blood Prince."
Harry looked down at the carpet in disappointment. Shortly afterwards, Fleur decided to imitate Celestina in a performance of 'A cauldron full of hot, strong love' which was blocked by the entire group, once they saw Mrs Weasly's expression, which clearly said it was time for bed , Harry and Ron hurried up the room leading to Ron's attic where a camp bed had been added for Harry. Ron fell asleep almost immediately and dug into his luggage and pulled out his copy of Advanced Potions and took it to bed. He turned pages and pages observing the slanted and thin handwriting, there was something strangely familiar about it. The angular t, the drawn out r... he must have already seen that writing, but the more he thought about it, the less he could think of who it might belong to. Perhaps he had seen her in some memory of Dumbledore? Snape's? He hadn't seen many memories other than his own, maybe just... Tom Riddle? Could it be him? He pushed that idea away forcefully, Riddle already had a name that he used at school, he would never boast of being a Mudblood.

Irritatedly, he put the book back, turned off the lamp, and turned over in bed, thinking of Snape, of Stanley Shunpike wrongly arrested by the Ministry, and of the Half-Blood Prince, and finally fell into a strange sleep, full of crackling shadows and cries of children...

Late in the afternoon, a few days after the New Year, Harry, Ron, and Ginny settled down by the fireplace to return to Hogwarts. The Ministry had prepared this unique connection for the Floo to get students back to school quickly and safely. Only Mrs. Weasley was there to say hello, as Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur were all at work. Mrs Weasley burst into tears as they left.