The Potions Master's Daughter (Book Five)

Chapter 35

Harry tried his hardest to come up with ways to trick SLughorn into telling us about the memory but none of the ideas he ran past us were going to work. He had poured over my father's old potions book trying to find the answer but I knew that wasn't going to be of any help.

One night we were sitting in front of the fire late at night trying to finish a long essay for Charms, "This is impossible," Ron muttered.

The common room cleared out by midnight and soon we were the only people left in front of the fire when suddenly there was a loud pop, "Kreacher!" Harry exclaimed.

"Master Potter made Kreacher give him updates about Mister Malfoy."

Another loud pop and Dobby appeared, "Dobby also has information for Master Potter! Kreacher should've told Dobby when he was going to see Master Potter so we could go to tell him our findings together!"

"OUt with it then," Harry said eagerly.

"Malfoy seems to be doing nothing wrong, he eats in the Great Hall, and sleeps in his dormitory. The only thing Dobby was able to find out of the ordinary is that he spends a lot of time on the seventh floor while some of his other friends stand around."

I exchanged a knowing glance with my friend and Harry exclaimed, "The Room of Requirement of course! That's why it seems like he disappears off the map too."

"If the room is meant to be unplottable I suppose that makes sense," Hermione mused, "It doesn't give us any insight about what he's been doing once he's in the room though, and that's what we really care about."

"You've done well Dobby, thank you," Harry told the beaming elf.

"You too Kreacher," Hermione added.

Kreacher merely looked at her distastefully and said, "The Mudblood is speaking to Kreacher, please don't make Kreacher do this Master Potter."

"Get out," Harry told his harshly sending a sympathetic look toward Hermione.

Once the house elves had disappeared off, Harry said, "isn't this great, we know where Malfoy goes now."

"Just great," Ron said glumly, "We can't even find out what he's doing or anything."

We all went to bed, and I spent a while seated in my bed coming up with ways to stop Malfoy unseemingly. I still didn't know what Severus and Dumbledore were going to do about Draco bringing Death Eaters into the castle, so for now I needed to find a way to stop it in the first place.

At breakfast the next morning Harry leaned in and whispered, "I'm going to go to the Room of Requirement to see if it'll show me the room Draco uses on my free period. It has to work, we need to work on finding out what he's up to in there."

"I don't think that will work Harry," Hermione said quietly, glancing around, "You'd need to know what the room he's' using is."

SUre enough that night Harry came in and plopped down on the couch, "I tried again tonight to see if I could do it. It still wouldn't appear just like it didn't during my free period."

"You had to know that wasn't going to work Harry, you really need to focus on getting Slughorn's memory," Hermione told him.

"I am!" he said harshly, "It's not my fault the only interesting thing that happened tonight was I ran Into Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom. All she did was tell me that some boy has been hanging out in the bathroom a lot, and crying. How pathetic is that?"

"Hey Harry," I started, "Do you know if Dobby saw anything odd Severus was doing?"

"He didn't mention it, so I'd assume not," Harry told me, "I'm sure it's nothing Jessica, he'd tell you if something was up wouldn't he?"

I scowled, "Right now, I don't know if he'd tell me anything. He seems to not trust me anymore, he's up to something and he wouldn't tell me. I need o know what he's doing."

"We will figure it out, I'm sure," Harry told me with a pat on the arm.

"Are you guys ready for your apparition test?" Ginny said sitting down beside Harry, ""I'm still jealous of all you guys."

"Don't be jealous of me and jessica," Harry told her, "We aren't even eligible for this upcoming test, we won't be old enough."

"Yeah but Jessica does it anyways, and you'll be able to do it this summer. That's still a full ear before I'm going to be allowed to."

I laughed, "it'll come before you know it. I still can't believe they want us to start deciding on careers soon, as if I know what I want to be doing for my whole life right now. As if I don't have anything else to think about right now!"

"Oh I know," Neville said looking downtrodden, "I can't even think about what I ant to do long enough to decide while I'm trying to do all my work from all my classes."

"I'll figure it out down the road," I said waving my hands dismissively, "For now the plan is to not get killed."

The moon fell immediately, "You can't say that!" yelled Hermione.

I just laughed, "It's fine. And besides, it's true, that's my one plan right now."

"Oh gosh," laughed Harry, "Just make sure that happens then I suppose."

A few nights passed and Harry was still struggling with pulling the memory from Slughorn as he divulged to us one evening, "I don't know what else to try," he sighed, "I've stayed after every day to try and talk to him yet I'm getting nowhere."

"You need to try something else. You can't keep trying the same thing and expect it to work."'

"Oh yeah Hermione? And what's your brilliant plan then huh?" after a pause, "Yeah I didn't think so, so why don't you shut up for once. I'm trying the best I can."

"No need to take your anger at failing out on me," Hermione said with a scowl.

Their argument was cut off, luckily, by a small boy coming up and handing Harry a note.

He looked down at it confused, "Dumbledore said we weren't going to have a meeting until I got that memory," he unraveled the note, "It's from Hagrid!"

We peered over his shoulder and Hermione, being the fastest reader out of all of us gasped and said, "Aragog's dead!"

"We have to go make sure he's okay and go to the funeral," Harry said.

"We mustn't Harry! Security has been tighter than ever."

"I don't want to go, that thing tried to kill me!" Ron exclaimed.

"We owe it to him, I'm going to go," Harry stated, "I've got an idea. If I take a shot of Felix Felicis then I'll have good luck, probably enough to sneak right out of the school and down to see Hagrid."

"I don't know if it'll work," Hermione said nervously, "Take the cloak too at least. And try to soften Slughorn up tomorrow during class too, we will all be gone to take our test, It'll basically just be you and Jessica in class."

He nodded, "Yes Mum."