The Twin: a Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 22

We went to Hagrid's hut. Slughorn and Hagrid pulled out some fire whiskey and drank it while Harry and I sat in a giant chair.

An hour later Slughorn and Hagrid were singing. Once they were done Harry and I clapped. They laughed hilariously.

"I had him from an egg, you know," Hagrid said sluggishly. "Puny little thing, when he hatched. No bigger than a pekinese. A pekinese!"

"So sweet. I once had a fish, Francis. Very dear to me," Slughorn said. "Then one afternoon I came downstairs and it vanished. Poof. But that's life! I suppose. You go along, then suddenly, poof."

"Poof," Hagrid said.

"Poof," Harry said. Hagrid leaned his head back and fell asleep.

"It was a student who gave me Francis," Slughorn said. "One spring afternoon I discovered a bowl on my desk. Just a few inches of clear water. Floating in the surface was a flower petal. As I watched it sank, just before it reached the bottom it transformed, to a wee fish. It was beautiful magic. Wondrous to behold. The flower petal had came from a Lily. Your mother. The day I came downstairs, the day the bowl was empty, was the day your mother passed. I know why you two are here. But I can't help you. It would ruin me."

"Do you know how we survived? The night we got our scars?" I asked. "Because of her. Because she sacrificed herself, she refused to step aside. Because her love was stronger than Voldemort."

"Don't say his name," Slughorn said.

"We aren't afraid to say his name, professor," Harry said.

"We are going to tell you something, something others already guessed at," I said.

"It's true, we are the chosen ones," Harry said.

"Only we can destroy him, and in order to do so we need to know what Tom Riddle asked you all those years in your office, we need to know what you told him." I told Slughorn. Slughorn shook his head.

"Be brave professor," Harry said. "be brave like our mother. Otherwise, you disgrace her memory. Otherwise she died for nothing. Otherwise the bowl will remain empty. Forever."

"Please, don't think badly of me when you see it," Slughorn asked. "you have no idea what he was like, even then." He touched his wand to his head. When he pulled back his wand had a shiny tip. He brought out a vile, his hand shaking. I put my hands to his, steadying it.

"You have your mother's personality, Hallie," Slughorn said.

"Thank you," I said.

We ran back to Dumbledores office.

"Professor Dumbledore, we got the memory," I said, handing him the vial. He took the vial and poured it in. We stuck our heads in it.

It was the same office we were in the last time.

"I was in the library the other night, in the restricted section, and I read something rather odd about a rare piece if magic. It's called, as I understand it, a horcrux," Tom Riddle said.

"I beg your pardon," Slughorn said.

"Horcrux. I came across it in my reading and I didn't fully understand it," Tom Riddle told him.

"I'm not sure what you are reading Tom, but this is very dark stuff, very dark indeed," Slughorn said.

"Which is why I came to you, sir," Tom Riddle said.

"A horcrux is an object where a person can conceal part of their soul," Slughorn explained.

"But I don't understand how that works," Tom Riddle said.

"It' splits one soul, and hides part of it inside of an object. By doing so you are protected from being attacked and your body destroyed," Slughorn told Tom Riddle.

"Protected?" Tom Riddle asked.

"Part of your soul is hidden and it lives on," Slughorn explained. "in other words you cannot die."

"And how does one split his soul, sir?" Tom Riddle asked.

"I think you already know the answer to that Tom," Slughorn said.

"Murder?" Tom Riddle asked.

"Yes, killing rips the soul apart. It is a violation against nature," Slughorn told Tom Riddle.

"Can you only split the soul once? For instance 7?" Tom Riddle asked.

"7? Merlin's beard Tom! Isn't it bad enough to kill one person? To rip the soul into 7 pieces. This is all hypothetical to academic purposes?" Slughorn asked.

"Of course, sir," Tom Riddle said. "It will be our little secret." Then the memory ended.