Harry wracked his brains over the next week as to how he was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brain wave occurred and he was reduced to doing what he did increasingly a lot of these days when at a loss, poring over his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as he had done so many times before.
"You won't find anything in there." said Hermione firmly, late on Sunday evening.
"Don't start, Hermione." said Harry. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron and Y/n wouldn't be sitting here now."
"They would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year." said Hermione dismissively.
Harry ignored her. He had just found an incantation 'Sectumsempra!' scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words 'For enemies.' and was itching to try it out, but thought it best not to in front of Hermione. Instead, he surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page.
They were sitting beside the fire in the common room, the only other people awake were fellow sixth-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when they had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the notice board that announced the date for their Apparition Test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the twenty-first of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Hogsmeade.
Ron had panicked on reading this notice, he had still not managed to Apparate and feared he would not be ready for the test. Hermione, who had now achieved Apparition twice, was a little more confident, but Y/n and Harry, who would not be seventeen for another few months, could not take the test whether ready or not.
"At least you can Apparate, though!" said Ron tensely. "You'll both have no trouble when it's your turn!"
"I still will need to concentrate when the test comes along Ron." Y/n said.
"And I've only done it once." Harry reminded him, he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during their previous lesson.
Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, Ron was now struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry, Y/n and Hermione had already completed. Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle Dementors, but he did not care, Slughorn's memory was the most important thing to him now.
"I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry!" said Hermione, more loudly. "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." said Harry, not looking up from the book. "That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, a potion or a spell..."
"You're going about it the wrong way." said Hermione. "Only you can get the memory Harry, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that..."
Y/n had been wondering what exactly Dumbledore had been expecting them to do. For Hermione was right this was a matter that fell outside of Spells and potions
"How do you spell 'belligerent'?" said Ron, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment. "It can't be B...U...M..."
"No, it is not." said Y/n, pulling Ron's essay toward him. "And 'augury' does not begin O.R.G either."
"What kind of quill are you using?" Hermione asked Ron hearing this.
"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Checking ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off." Ron said.
"Yes, it must." said Hermione leaning over to Y/n and pointing at the title of Ron's essay. "Because we were asked how we'd deal with Dementors, not 'Dugbogs', and I don't remember you changing your name to 'Roonil Wazlib' either."
"Ah no!" said Ron, staring horror-struck at the parchment. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!"
"It's okay, we can fix it." said Hermione, pulling the essay toward her now and taking out her wand.
"I have not seen you with Miss Brown the last few days?" Y/n said to Ron.
"Yeah...I'm sorting of hoping she'll ditch me." Ron said scratching his head.
"I thought you liked her?" Y/n asked.
"I did...but she's intense and suffocating..." Ron said.
"Why don't you ditch her if you want to finish it?" asked Harry.
"You two haven't ever chucked anyone, have you?" said Ron. "Y/n and Hermione are still together and you and Cho just..."
"Sort of fell apart, yeah." said Harry.
"Wish that would happen with me and Lavender." said Ron gloomily, while Y/n watched Hermione silently tapping each of his misspelled words with the end of her wand, so that they corrected themselves on the page.
"You should be honest about your intentions with her Ron. It is cruel to let it continue." Y/n told him.
"I've tried but the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It's like going out with the giant squid." Ron complained.
"There." said Hermione, some twenty minutes later, handing back Ron's essay.
"Thanks a million." said Ron. "Can I borrow one of your quills for the conclusion?"
Harry, who had found nothing useful in the Half-Blood Prince's notes so far, looked around, the four of them were now the only ones left in the common room, Seamus having just gone up to bed cursing Snape and his essay. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Ron scratching out one last paragraph on dementors using Y/n's quill. Harry had just closed the Half-Blood Prince's book, yawning, when...
Crack.
Hermione let out a little shriek grabbing Y/n's arm, Ron spilled ink all over his freshly completed essay, and Harry said. "Kreacher!"
The house-elf bowed low and addressed his own gnarled toes. "Master said he wanted regular reports on what the Malfoy boy is doing, so Kreacher has come to give..."
Crack.
Dobby appeared alongside Kreacher, his tea-cozy hat askew.
"Dobby has been helping too, Harry Potter!" he squeaked, casting Kreacher a resentful look. "And Kreacher ought to tell Dobby when he is coming to see Harry Potter so they can make their reports together!"
"What is this?" asked Hermione, still looking shocked by these sudden appearances. "What's going on, Harry?"
Harry hesitated before answering, because he had not told Hermione about setting Kreacher and Dobby to tail Malfoy, house-elves were always such a touchy subject with her.
"Well...they've been following Malfoy for me." he said.
"Night and day." croaked Kreacher.
"Dobby has not slept for a week, Harry Potter!" said Dobby proudly, swaying where he stood.
Hermione looked indignant. "You haven't slept, Dobby? But surely, Harry, you didn't tell him not to..."
"No, of course I didn't." said Harry quickly. "Dobby, you can sleep, all right? But has either of you found out anything?" he hastened to ask, before Hermione could intervene again.
"Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood." croaked Kreacher at once. "His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of..."
"Draco Malfoy is a bad boy!" squeaked Dobby angrily. "A bad boy who...who..."
He shuddered from the tassel of his tea cozy to the toes of his socks and then ran at the fire, as though about to dive into it. Harry, to whom this was not entirely unexpected, caught him around the middle and held him fast. For a few seconds Dobby struggled, then went limp.
"Thank you, Harry Potter." he panted. "Dobby still finds it difficult to speak ill of his old masters."
Harry released him, Dobby straightened his tea cozy and said defiantly to Kreacher. "But Kreacher should know that Draco Malfoy is not a good master to a house-elf!"
"Yeah, we don't need to hear about you being in love with Malfoy." Harry told Kreacher. "Let's fast forward to where he's actually been going."
Kreacher bowed again, looking furious, and then said. "Master Malfoy eats in the Great Hall, he sleeps in a dormitory in the dungeons, he attends his classes in a variety of..."
"Dobby." Y/n said cutting across Kreacher. "Has Draco been going anywhere he should not have?"
"Y/n Grindelwald, sir." squeaked Dobby, his great orblike eyes shining in the firelight. "The Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover, but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for him while he enters..."
"The Room of Requirement..." said Y/n.
"Of course!" Harry said smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion-Making. Hermione and Ron stared at him. "That's where he's been sneaking off to! That's where he's doing...whatever he's doing! And I bet that's why he's been disappearing off the map, come to think of it, I've never seen the Room of Requirement on there!"
"Maybe the Marauders never knew the room was there." said Ron.
"I think it'll be part of the magic of the room." said Hermione. "If you need it to be unplottable, it will be. "
"Or unopenable..." She heard Y/n quietly say and she quickly shot him a look.
"Dobby, have you managed to get in to have a look at what Malfoy's doing?" said Harry eagerly.
"No, Harry Potter, that is impossible," said Dobby.
"No, it's not," said Harry at once. "Malfoy got into our headquarters there last year, so I'll be able to get in and spy on him, no problem."
"But I don't think you will, Harry." said Hermione slowly thinking about her own time spent with Y/n in the room. "Malfoy already knew exactly how we were using the room, didn't he, because that stupid Marietta had blabbed. He needed the room to become the headquarters of the D. A. , so it did. But you don't know what the room becomes when Malfoy goes in there, so you don't know what to ask it to transform into."
"There'll be a way around that." said Harry dismissively. "You've done brilliantly, Dobby."
"Kreacher's done well too." said Hermione kindly, but far from looking grateful Kreacher averted his huge, bloodshot eyes and croaked at the ceiling. "The Mudblood is speaking to Kreacher, Kreacher will pretend he cannot hear..."
"That is enough Kreacher!" Y/n snapped at him.
"Go back to the Kitchens Kreacher." Harry said and Kreacher made one last deep bow and Disapparated. "You'd better go and get some sleep too, Dobby."
"Thank you, Harry Potter, sir!" squeaked Dobby happily, and he too vanished.
"How good is this?" said Harry enthusiastically, turning to Ron, Y/n and Hermione the moment the room was elf-free again. "We know where Malfoy's going! We've got him cornered now!"
"Yeah, it's great." said Ron glumly, who was attempting to mop up the sodden mass of ink that had recently been an almost completed essay. Y/n pulled it toward him and began siphoning the ink off with his wand.
"But what's all this about him going up there with a 'variety of students'?" said Hermione. "How many people are in on it? You wouldn't think he'd trust lots of them to know what he's doing..."
"Yeah, that is weird." said Harry, frowning. "I heard him telling Crabbe it wasn't Crabbe's business what he was doing...so what's he telling all these...all these..."
Harry's voice tailed away, he was staring at the fire. "God, I've been stupid." he said quietly. "It's obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon...he could've nicked some any time during that lesson..."
"Nicked what?" said Ron.
"Polyjuice Potion. He stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson. There aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy, it's just Crabbe and Goyle as usual...yeah, it all fits!" said Harry, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if he won't tell them what he's up to but he doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he's got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people, those two girls I saw him with when he missed Quidditch...ha! Crabbe and Goyle!"
"Do you mean to say." said Hermione in a hushed voice. "That little girl whose scales I repaired..."
"Yeah, of course!" said Harry loudly, staring at her. "Of course! Malfoy must've been inside the room at the time, so she...what am I talking about?...he dropped the scales to tell Malfoy not to come out, because there was someone there! And there was that girl who dropped the toadspawn too! We've been walking past him all the time and not realizing it!"
"He's got Crabbe and Goyle transforming into girls?" guffawed Ron. "Blimey...no wonder they don't look too happy these days. I'm surprised they don't tell him to stuff it.."
"Well, they wouldn't, would they, if he's shown them his Dark Mark?" said Harry.
"Hmmm...the Dark Mark we don't know exists." said Hermione skeptically.
"We'll see." said Harry confidently.
"Yes, we will." Hermione said. "But, Harry, before you get all excited, I still don't think you'll be able to get into the Room of Requirement without knowing what's there first. And I don't think you should forget." she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and gave him a very serious look. "That's what you're supposed to be concentrating on, getting that memory from Slughorn."
"She makes a fair point, Dumbledore stressed that the memory is crucial and we are no closer to obtaining it." Y/n said handing Ron back his essay now.
"I'm going to bed." Hermione said giving Y/n a quick kiss before getting up. "Goodnight."
Harry watched her go, feeling slightly disgruntled. Once the door to the girls' dormitories had closed behind her he rounded on Ron.
"What d'you think?"
"Wish I could Disapparate like a house-elf." said Ron, staring at the spot where Dobby had vanished. "I'd have that Apparition Test in the bag."
Y/n could see Harry was in a state of great anticipation over breakfast the following morning, he had a free period before Defense Against the Dark Arts and was determined to spend it trying to get into the Room of Requirement. Hermione was rather ostentatiously showing no interest in his whispered plans for forcing entry into the room, which irritated Harry, because he thought she might be a lot of help if she wanted to.
"Look." he said quietly, leaning forward and putting a hand on the Daily Prophet, which she had just removed from a post owl, to stop her from opening it and vanishing behind it. "I haven't forgotten about Slughorn, but I haven't got a clue how to get that memory off him, and until I get a brain wave why shouldn't I find out what Malfoy's doing?"
"I've already told you, you need to persuade Slughorn." said Hermione. "It's not a question of tricking him or bewitching him, or Dumbledore could have done it in a second. Instead of messing around outside the Room of Requirement." she jerked the Prophet out from under Harry's hand and unfolded it to look at the front page. "You should go and find Slughorn and start appealing to his better nature."
"Anyone we know?" asked Ron, as Hermione scanned the headlines.
"Yes!" said Hermione, causing both Harry, Y/n and Ron to gag on their breakfast. "But it's all right, he's not dead...it's Mundungus, he's been arrested and sent to Azkaban! Something to do with impersonating an Inferius during an attempted burglary... and someone called Octavius Pepper has vanished...oh, and how horrible, a nine-year-old boy has been arrested for trying to kill his grandparents, they think he was under the Imperius Curse..."
"That will be Ivan and Priscilla..." Y/n said grimly.
"You're par..." But Ron stopped himself before he finished.
"Yes...my parents. Voldemort is known for favoring the killing curse." Y/n started ignoring Ron's yelp at the name. "Bellatrix famously loves the Cruciatus curse." Harry's hands tightened into fists at the mention of her. "Ivan and Priscilla have a disgusting love of the Imperius curse, with it they have tortured hundreds of people to death, rarely ever dirtying their own hands."
"But the imperious curse is mind control?" Ron said.
"The pair are cruel and would often use the curse on their chosen victims to make them kill their closest friends and family. Once they have...the curse is removed for the victim to see what they have done. It is then, that they suggest the victim would be best in ending their own life to pay for their guilt... Stating 'If they had been stronger they could have broken free from the curse. That their loved ones deaths were really their own fault...'"
"That's disgusting." Hermione said feeling sick at the thought.
Y/n could only nod in agreement.
They finished their breakfast in silence. Hermione set off immediately for Ancient Runes, Y/n and Ron left for the common room, where Y/n was beginning to study for his N.E.W.Ts and Ron still had to finish his conclusion on Snape's Dementor essay and Harry set off for the corridor on the seventh floor.
Y/n, Hermione and Ron were sat down in Defence against the Dark Arts when Harry hurried into the candlelit classroom.
"Late again, Potter...Ten points from Gryffindor." Snape said.
Harry scowled at Snape as he flung himself into the seat beside Ron.
"Before we start, I want your Dementor essays." said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk. "And I hope for your sakes they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperius Curse. Now, if you will all open your books to page...what is it, Mr. Finnigan?"
"Sir." said Seamus, "I've been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the Prophet about an Inferius..."
"No, there wasn't." said Snape in a bored voice.
"But sir, I heard people talking..."
"If you had actually read the article in question, Mr. Finnigan, you would have known that the so-called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak thief by the name of Mundungus Fletcher."
"I thought Snape and Mundungus were on the same side." muttered Harry to Ron, Y/n and Hermione. "Shouldn't he be upset Mundungus has been arrest..."
"But Potter seems to have a lot to say on the subject." said Snape, pointing suddenly at the back of the room, his black eyes fixed on Harry. "Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost."
The whole class looked around at Harry, who hastily tried to recall what Dumbledore had told him the night that they had gone to visit Slughorn.
"Er...well...ghosts are transparent..." he said.
"Oh, very good." interrupted Snape, his lip curling. "Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. Ghosts are transparent."
Pansy Parkinson let out a high-pitched giggle. Several other people were smirking. Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though his insides were boiling, "Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren't they? So they'd be solid ..."
"A five-year-old could have told us as much," sneered Snape. "The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard's spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard's bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth...and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent."
"Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we're trying to tell them apart!" said Ron. "When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we're going to be having a look to see if it's solid, aren't we, we're not going to be asking. 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"
There was a ripple of laughter, instantly quelled by the look Snape gave the class.
"Another ten points from Gryffindor." said Snape. "I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room."
"No!" whispered Hermione, grabbing Y/n's arm as he opened his mouth furiously. "There's no point, you'll just end up in detention, leave it!"
"Now open your books to page two hundred and thirteen," said Snape, smirking a little, "and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse. "
Ron was very subdued all through the class. When the bell sounded at the end of the lesson, Lavender caught up with Ron, Harry, Y/n and Hermione and abused Snape hotly for his jibe about Ron's Apparition, but this seemed to merely irritate Ron, and he shook her off by making a detour into the boys' bathroom with Y/n and Harry.
"Snape's right, though, isn't he?" said Ron, after staring into a cracked mirror for a minute or two. "I dunno whether it's worth me taking the test. I just can't get the hang of Apparition."
"Do the extra practice sessions in Hogsmeade and see where they get you." said Y/n reasonably.
"It'll be more interesting than trying to get into a stupid hoop anyway." Harry said. "Then, if you're still not...you know...as good as you'd like to be, you can postpone the test, do it with me and Y/n over the summer...Myrtle, this is the boys' bathroom!"
The ghost of a girl had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind them and was now floating in midair, staring at them through thick, white, round glasses.
"Oh." she said glumly. "It's you three."
"Who were you expecting?" said Ron, looking at her in the mirror.
"Nobody." said Myrtle, picking moodily at a spot on her chin. "He said he'd come back and see me, but then you said you'd pop in and visit me too..." she gave Harry and Y/n a reproachful look "...and I haven't seen you for months and months. I've learned not to expect too much from boys."
"I thought you lived in that girls' bathroom?" said Harry, who had been careful to give the place a wide berth for some years now.
"I do." she said, with a sulky little shrug, "But that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you and Y/n in your bath once, remember?"
"How could we forget..." said Y/n shuddering.
"But I thought he liked me." she said plaintively. "Maybe if you three left, he'd come back again. We had lots in common. I'm sure he felt it."
And she looked hopefully toward the door.
"When you say you had lots in common." said Ron, sounding rather amused now. "D'you mean he lives in an S-bend too?"
"No." said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. "I mean he's sensitive, people bully him too, and he feels lonely and hasn't got anybody to talk to, and he's not afraid to show his feelings and cry!"
"There has been a boy in here crying?" said Y/n curiously. "A young boy?"
"Never you mind!" said Myrtle, her small, leaky eyes fixed on Ron, who was now definitely grinning. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I'll take his secret to the..."
"Not the grave, surely?" said Ron with a snort. "The sewers, maybe."
Myrtle gave a howl of rage and dived back into the toilet, causing water to slop over the sides and onto the floor. Goading Myrtle seemed to have put fresh heart into Ron.
"You're right Y/n." he said, swinging his schoolbag back over his shoulder, "I'll do the practice sessions in Hogsmeade before I decide about taking the test."
And so the following weekend, Ron joined Hermione and the rest of the sixth years who would turn seventeen in time to take the test in a fortnight. Y/n felt rather jealous watching them all get ready to go into the village, he missed making trips there with Hermione, and it was a particularly fine spring day, one of the first clear skies they had seen in a long time. However, he had decided to use the time to revise for his upcoming N.E.W.T.S while Harry would most likely attempt another assault on the Room of Requirement.
"You'd do better." said Hermione, when Harry did indeed suggest this plan to Ron, Y/n and her in the entrance hall. "To go straight to Slughorn's office and try and get that memory from him."
"I've been trying!" said Harry crossly, which was perfectly true. He had lagged behind after every Potions lesson that week in an attempt to corner Slughorn, but the Potions master always left the dungeon so fast that Harry had not been able to catch him. Twice, Y/n had gone with Harry to his office and knocked, but received no reply, though on the second occasion, he was sure they had heard the quickly stifled sounds of an old gramophone.
"He doesn't want to talk to me, Hermione! He can tell I've been trying to get him on his own again, and he's not going to let it happen!"
"Well, you've just got to keep at it, haven't you?"
The short queue of people waiting to file past Filch, who was doing his usual prodding act with the Secrecy Sensor, moved forward a few steps and Harry did not answer in case he was overheard by the caretaker.
Y/n and Harry wished Ron and Hermione both luck, then Harry turned and climbed the marble staircase again, While Y/n headed back to the Gryffindor common room.
When Y/n arrived in the Great hall a little later on he found Harry already there with Ron and Hermione, who were already halfway through an early lunch.
"I did it...well, kind of!" Ron told Y/n enthusiastically when he caught sight of him approaching.
Hermione looked up now. "I was just about to come up the common room and see if you wanted a break from Studying." She said.
"Seems I have saved you the time." Y/n smiled and he sat down beside her. "How did it go then Ron?"
"Well I was supposed to be Apparating to outside Madam Puddifoots' Tea Shop and I overshot it a bit, ended up near Scrivenshafts, but at least I moved!"
"Good one." said Harry.
"How did you do Hermione?" Y/n asked.
"Oh, she was perfect, obviously just like you...in fact Twycross seemed disappointed you weren't there." said Ron, before Hermione could answer. "He was happy with Hermione's efforts though, Perfect deliberation, divination, and desperation or whatever the hell it is...we all went for a quick drink in the Three Broomsticks after and you should've heard Twycross going on about her."
"And what about you?" asked Hermione, ignoring Ron. "Have you been up at the Room of Requirement all this time?"
"Yep." said Harry. "And guess who I ran into up there? Tonks!"
"Tonks?" repeated Ron, Y/n and Hermione together, looking surprised.
"Yeah, she said she'd come to visit Dumbledore." Harry said.
"If you ask me." said Ron once Harry had finished describing his conversation with Tonks. "She's cracking up a bit. Losing her nerve after what happened at the Ministry."
Y/n just sighed and shook his head.
"It's a bit odd." said Hermione, who for some reason looked very concerned. "She's supposed to be guarding the school, why is she suddenly abandoning her post to come and see Dumbledore when he's not even here?"
"I had a thought." said Harry tentatively. "You don't think she can have been...you know...in love with Sirius?"
Y/n and Hermione stared at him.
"What on earth makes you say that?" Hermione asked.
"I dunno." said Harry, shrugging. "But she was nearly crying when I mentioned his name...and her Patronus is a big four-legged thing now...I wondered whether it hadn't become...you know... him. "
"Four legged..." Y/n quietly repeated to himself thinking about this.
"It's a thought." said Hermione slowly. "But I still don't know why she'd be bursting into the castle to see Dumbledore, if that's really why she was here."
"Goes back to what I said, doesn't it?" said Ron, who was now shoveling mashed potato into his mouth. "She's gone a bit funny. Lost her nerve. Women." he said wisely to Harry and Y/n "They're easily upset."
"And yet." said Hermione, coming out of her reverie, "I doubt you'd find a woman who sulked for half an hour because Madam Rosmerta didn't laugh at their joke about the hag, the Healer, and the Mimbulus mimbletonia."
This caused Y/n to laugh while Ron scowled.