𝐎, 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 ⎥ "He wants a fight with
a God? I'll give him one."
﹙ from stardust we came, to stardust we return ﹚
Prisoner of Azkaban - Deathly Hollows
...
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* * *
THE NEXT DAY Elara and Harry confided in both Ron and Hermione the task that Dumbledore had set Harry, though separately, for Hermione still refused to remain in Ron's presence longer than it took to give him a contemptuous look. Ron thought that Harry was unlikely to have any trouble with Slughorn at all.
"He loves you," he said over breakfast, waving an airy forkful of fried egg. "Won't refuse you anything, will he? Not his little Potions Prince. Just hang back after class this afternoon and ask him."
Hermione, however, took a gloomier view.
"He must be determined to hide what really happened if Dumbledore couldn't get it out of him," she said in a low voice, as they stood in the deserted, snowy courtyard at break. "Horcruxes . . . Horcruxes . . . I've never even heard of them. . . ."
"You haven't?" said Elara, disappointed.
"They must be really advanced Dark Magic, or why would Voldemort have wanted to know about them? I think it's going to be difficult to get the information, Harry, you'll have to be very careful about how you approach Slughorn, think out a strategy. . . ."
"Ron reckons I should just hang back after Potions this afternoon. . . ." said Harry.
"Oh, well, if Won-Won thinks that, you'd better do it," she said, flaring up at once. "After all, when has Won-Won's judgment everbeen faulty?"
"Hermione, can't you — ?"
"No!" she said angrily, and stormed away, leaving Elara and Harry behind and ankle-deep in snow.
Potions lessons were uncomfortable enough these days, seeing as Elara, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to share a desk. Today, Hermione moved her cauldron around the table so that she was close to Ernie, and ignored both Harry and Ron, and most hurtfully, Elara.
"Settle down, settle down, please! Quickly, now, lots of work to get through this afternoon! Golpalott's Third Law . . . who can tell me — ? But Miss Granger can, of course!"
Hermione recited at top speed: "Golpalott's-Third-Law-states-that-the-antidote-for-a-blended-poison-will-be-equal-to-more-than-the-sum-of-the-antidotes-for-each-of-the-separate-components."
