Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

able to Apparate in here, not in the castle …’
    ‘Not the point, is it? Everyone would know I could Apparate if I wanted.’
    Ron was not the only one to be excited at the prospect of Apparition. All that day there was much talk about the forthcoming lessons; a great deal of store was set by being able to vanish and reappear at will.
    ‘How cool will it be when we can just –’ Seamus clicked his fingers to indicate disappearance. ‘Me cousin Fergus does it just to annoy me, you wait till I can do it back … he’ll never have another peaceful moment …’
    Lost in visions of this happy prospect, he flicked his wand a little too enthusiastically, so that instead of producing the fountain of pure water that was the object of that day’s Charms lesson, he let out a hoselike jet that ricocheted off the ceiling and knocked Professor Flitwick flat on his face.
    ‘Harry’s already Apparated,’ Ron told a slightly abashed Seamus, after Professor Flitwick had dried himself off with a wave of his wand and set Seamus lines (‘ I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick’ ). ‘Dum— er – someone took him. Side-Along-Apparition, you know.’
    ‘Whoa!’ whispered Seamus, and he, Dean and Neville put their heads a little closer to hear what Apparition felt like. For the rest of the day, Harry was besieged with requests from the other sixth-years to describe the sensation of Apparition. All of them seemed awed, rather than put off, when he told them how uncomfortable it was, and he was still answering detailed questions at ten to eight that evening, when he was forced to lie and say that he needed to return a book to the library, so as to escape in time for his lesson with Dumbledore.
    The lamps in Dumbledore’s office were lit, the portraits of previous headmasters were snoring gently in their frames and the Pensieve was ready upon the desk once more. Dumbledore’s hands lay either side of it, the right one as blackened and burned-looking as ever. It did not seem to have healed at all and Harry wondered, for perhaps the hundredth time, what had caused such a distinctive injury, but did not ask; Dumbledore had said that he would know eventually and there was, in any case, another subject he wanted to discuss. But before Harry could say anything about Snape and Malfoy, Dumbledore spoke.
    ‘I hear that you met the Minister for Magic over Christmas?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Harry. ‘He’s not very happy with me.’
    ‘No,’ sighed Dumbledore. ‘He is not very happy with me, either. We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on.’
    Harry grinned.
    ‘He wanted me to tell the wizarding community that the Ministry’s doing a wonderful job.’
    Dumbledore smiled.
    ‘It was Fudge’s idea originally, you know. During his last days in office, when he was trying desperately to cling to his post, he sought a meeting with you, hoping that you would give him your support –’
    ‘After everything Fudge did last year?’ said Harry angrily. ‘After Umbridge ?’
    ‘I told Cornelius there was no chance of it, but the idea did not die when he left office. Within hours of Scrimgeour’s appointment we met and he demanded that I arrange a meeting with you –’
    ‘So that’s why you argued!’ Harry blurted out. ‘It was in the Daily Prophet .’
    ‘The Prophet is bound to report the truth occasionally,’ said Dumbledore, ‘if only accidentally. Yes, that was why we argued. Well, it appears that Rufus found a way to corner you at last.’
    ‘He accused me of being “Dumbledore’s man through and through”.’
    ‘How very rude of him.’
    ‘I told him I was.’
    Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Behind Harry, Fawkes the phoenix let out a low, soft, musical cry. To Harry’s intense embarrassment, he suddenly realised that Dumbledore’s bright blue eyes looked rather watery, and stared hastily at his own knees. When Dumbledore spoke, however, his voice was quite steady.
    ‘I am very touched, Harry.’
    ‘Scrimgeour wanted to know where you go when you’re not at Hogwarts,’ said Harry, still looking fixedly at his knees.
    ‘Yes, he is very nosy about that,’ said Dumbledore, now sounding cheerful, and Harry thought it safe to look up again. ‘He has even attempted to have me followed. Amusing, really. He set Dawlish to tail me. It wasn’t kind. I have already been forced to jinx Dawlish once; I did it again with the greatest regret.’
    ‘So