The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|107| Information

"How are we going to get the memory?" I whispered to Harry.

"I don't know," he responded.

Harry opened his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would help him, and flipped through the pages.

"You won't find anything in there," said Hermione firmly.

"Don't start, Hermione," said Harry. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now."

"He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year," said Hermione dismissively.

"You just made up with Ron, don't have a go at Harry now, too," I said, petting Gydion softly.

Harry ignored us and turned to the book. After a few moments, he tugged on my robes and brought my attention to the book.

"What do you think this means?" he whispered to me.

Looking at to where he was pointing to, I saw a little scribble of an incantation that read "Sectumsempra" above the words "For Enemies."

"Well, sectum- means cut," I whispered, "I reckon its a hex."

Harry shrugged his shoulders and folded down the corner of the page.

We 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 we had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the notice board that announced the date for our 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 Harry and I, who would not be seventeen for another four months, could not take the test whether ready or not.

"At least you can Apparate, though! Done it every time we've tried!" said Ron tensely. "You'll have no trouble come July!"

"You'll be fine Ron," I rolled my eyes.

Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, Ron was now struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry, Hermione, and I had already completed.

"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 —"

"Hermione, I'm pretty sure Harry knows it's illegal," I looked up from my paper.

"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."

"Harry, it's not something you can find a potion or spell for," I laughed.

"Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says," Hermione reminded him. "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 —"

"How d'you spell 'belligerent'?" said Ron, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment. "It can't be B — U — M —"

"Ron," I laugh, looking over to his essay. "Oh no! And 'augury' doesn't start with O— R— G, it's A— U— G— U— R— Y."

"What kind of quill are you using?" said Hermione, pulling Ron's essay toward her.

"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Check ones, but I think the charm must be wearing off!"