Megan Potter - A Saga of the Heart - Book 6 - Dark Temptation-

Chapter 4 - Horace Slughorn

 "Evening Albus... as astute as ever. What gave me away?"

"If Death Eaters had really come, the Dark Mark would have appeared above your house."

"Blast it, I knew I had forgotten something. But I only just had time to finish my upholstery before you arrived."

"Some assistance, perhaps, to tidy up?"

"Please."

Soon, everything was back in its proper place. Then, the round man's eyes fell upon Megan.

"And who might – Oh... yes..."

"Megan, meet Horace Slughorn. Horace, this is Megan Potter."

"If that's your way of trying to persuade me, it won't work, Albus. It's still a no. I'm old, and I've earned the right to a quiet life."

"Yet, you prepared quite a few precautions against intrusion. For the Death Eaters' benefit, I suppose?"

"What would Death Eaters want with an old codger like me?"

"Why, use your talents for their advantage." Dumbledore said serenely. "Are you really telling me no one's come recruiting, yet?"

Slughorn eyed them for a moment.

"Haven't given them the chance. Been on the move for a year, now." He said. "Never stay put longer than a week. I move from Muggle house to Muggle house. Easy once you've got the rhythm."

"Ingenious, certainly." Dumbledore said. "But it does seem a little hectic for someone who wants a quiet life. If you were to return to Hogwarts..."

"If you're saying I'll be more at peace in that old castle, you can save your breath." Slughorn said gruffly. "I've heard rumours since Umbridge left! If that's how you treat your staff..."

"I'm sure you would have more sense than to march into a forest full of centaurs and call them "half breeds"," Dumbledore said.

"She did, did she? Stupid woman. Never liked her."

Megan couldn't agree more. She had made the students' life miserable the whole time she was at the school. She and Cedric couldn't even hold hands when she was around!

"Horace, might I use the bathroom?"

"Second on the right," he said.

Dumbledore got up and left the living room. Megan, who found it quite comical to imagine Dumbledore using the toilet, glanced around trying not to picture it.

"Don't think I don't know why he brought you, young lady."

Megan stared at him.

"You're a lot like your mother," he noted.

"So I'm told," Megan said.

"One shouldn't have favourites among their students, of course, but she was one of mine."

"You taught my mother?" she asked.

"I did, in fact. One of the brightest I ever taught. I used to tell her she'd have been better in my house. She had very cheeky answers every time, too."

"What house was that?"

"Slytherin." he said. "Oh, come, now, don't look at me like that! Slytherin's not as bad as it's believed to be. You'll be in Gryffindor, too, I suppose?"

Megan nodded, still not over the fact he had told her mother to go to Slytherin. Or close enough. She had been told the same thing by the Sorting Hat the day she'd first come to the castle. It was a bit of a relief to think it might not just have been Voldemort in her that had made the hat think she might belong in Slytherin. Maybe it was truly something of her own. But either way, she would never be a Slytherin.