It Could Have Gone That Way; A Harmione Fanfiction

Chapter 65: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry shuddered at the thought of what had happened the previous week after he had cursed Malfoy. Snape had sent him to get all of his schoolbooks, so Harry had quickly swapped his copy of Advanced Potion Making with Ron's. Having forgotten about Ron's spell-checking quill, Harry had shown Snape the book, and hastily tried to explain that 'Roonil Wazlib' was his nickname. Snape - obviously - hadn't believed him and Harry now had at least twelve hours worth of Saturday detentions ahead of him. Brilliant.

In better news, Ron, Harry and Hermione had figured out a way of getting Slughorn to give Harry the memory: with Felix Felicis. Their plan was for Harry to drink the bottle and go to Slughorn's office and ask for the memory. It didn't, however, go quite that smoothly in the end.

"Harry," Hermione said slowly, holding up the vial of Liquid Luck,"are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, Hermione!"

"Okay, I'm sorry." She fumbled with the stopper,"I'm just making sure."

Ron frowned,"Harry can take the cork out of the bottle himself, Hermione."

"All right, fine." Hermione thrust Harry the vial irritably.

Pulling at the stopper, Harry clenched his teeth. It wouldn't budge. "Er..." He could feel himself going red.

"Let me try." Ron said quickly. He pulled and pulled, but he couldn't open it either.

Hermione snatched the vial back,"I told you! Here." She pulled out her wand and levitated the cork, handing the now open vial to Harry. "One last time," she said,"are you completely certain about this?"

"Yes!" Harry downed half of the potion in one gulp.

"How do you feel?" Hermione took the rest of the potion from him anxiously.

Harry did not answer for a moment. Then, slowly but surely, an exhilarating sense of infinite opportunity stole through him; he felt as though he could have done anything, anything at all, and getting the memory from Slughorn seemed suddenly not only possible, but positively easy. He smiled,"Excellent! I'm going to Hagrid's."

"What?" Ron and Hermione said together, looking aghast.

"It's Aragog's burial, isn't it?" Harry said simply,"I'm going to Hagrid's. I've got a good feeling about Hagrid's." 

Ron looked at him, face twisted with incredulously,"You've got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?"

"Yeah." Harry grinned, pulling his invisibility cloak around him,"I feel like it's the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?"

"No!" Ron and Hermione chorused looked alarmed.

"Well, trust me. I know what I'm doing...or at least," he strolled confidently to the door,"Felix does."

"Bloody hell." Harry heard Ron say behind him,"He's gone mental!"

***********

"What time do you call this?" The Fat Lady demanded furiously as Harry got back to the common room at half-past one the following morning.

"Sorry." Harry said,"I had to go out for something important."

The Fat Lady smirked gleefully,"Well, the password changed at midnight, so you'll just have to sleep out here."