Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 75 - Draco Malfoy's Secret

I rushed to the hospital wing first thing the following morning. I ran straight into Harry's arms once I saw that he was up and back to normal again.

"Don't mind me," Ron said awkwardly as Harry began to kiss me.

"Oh, so you and Lav-Lav can snog all you want but Harry and I can't?" I asked jokingly, but Ron seemed embarrassed all of a sudden. I did not have time to question him on that, though, as Hermione came rushing in and hugged both Harry and Ron, to the surprise of the three of us.

Despite the fact that both Ron and Harry had suffered grave injuries, we all seemed happier than we had been in a while and that was simply because we could now hang out together again. We were heading to the Great Hall for breakfast when we heard a voice calling us from behind.

"Hi, Luna," we all said as we turned around to face her.

"I went to the hospital wing to find you," said Luna, rummaging in her bag. "But they said you'd left. . . . I've been told to give you this," she said as she handed Harry a piece of parchment.

"Tonight," Harry said simply, and I understood that it was a message from Dumbledore.

"Nice commentary last match!" Ron said.

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?" she said. "Everyone saysI was dreadful."

"No, I'm serious!" He said. "I can't remember enjoying commentary more!"

She smiled brightly at him before walking away.

"You know, she's grown on me, Luna," Ron said as we set off for the Great Hall again. "I know she's insane, but it's in a good —"

He stopped talking suddenly and I turned to see Lavender standing in front of us.

"Hi," Ron said nervously.

"Why didn't you tell me you were getting out today? And why was she with you?" She said as we stood there, dumbfounded.

"C' mon," Harry whispered as he pulled Hermione and me away.

Ron and Lavender appeared in the Great Hall about half an hour later, both of them extremely quiet. Hermione was acting as though she was oblivious to this, but I kept seeing her smirk for no reason at all, which caused Harry and me to exchange a look. When we went back to the common room, we saw that a new sign on the notice board announcing that those turning seventeen on or before the twenty-first of April could take their Apparition test on that date. This meant Hermione and I would be able to take the test as we had turned 17 in September. Ron would also be able to take the test. However, Harry was only turning seventeen in July, so he would not be able to take the test yet. Ron was very nervous at the prospect of having to Apparate so soon as he had still not managed to do it. Both Hermione had already succeeded twice, so we were slightly less nervous than he was.

As Ron was yet again worrying over Apparition, I noticed Harry flipping through the Prince's Potions book again.

"You won't find anything in there, Harry," I said. "There's only one way to force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal —"

"Yeah, I know that, thanks," Harry said without looking up from his book. "That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be somethingelse, a potion or a spell. . . ."

"You're going about it the wrong way," Hermione said. "Onlyyou can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean youcan persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a questionof slipping him a potion, anyone could do that —"