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

detected him doing anything out of the ordinary. And still there were those inexplicable times when Malfoy simply vanished from the map …
    But Harry did not get a lot of time to consider the problem, what with Quidditch practice, homework, and the fact that he was now being dogged wherever he went by Cormac McLaggen and Lavender Brown.
    He could not decide which of them was more annoying. McLaggen kept up a constant stream of hints that he would make a better permanent Keeper for the team than Ron, and that now Harry was seeing him play regularly he would surely come around to this way of thinking, too; he was also keen to criticise the other players and provide Harry with detailed training schemes, so that more than once Harry was forced to remind him who was Captain.
    Meanwhile, Lavender kept sidling up to Harry to discuss Ron, which Harry found almost more wearing than McLaggen’s Quidditch lectures. At first, Lavender had been very annoyed that nobody had thought to tell her that Ron was in the hospital wing – ‘I mean, I am his girlfriend!’ – but unfortunately she had now decided to forgive Harry this lapse of memory and was keen to have lots of in-depth chats with him about Ron’s feelings, a most uncomfortable experience that Harry would have happily forgone.
    ‘Look, why don’t you talk to Ron about all this?’ Harry asked, after a particularly long interrogation from Lavender that took in everything from precisely what Ron had said about her new dress robes to whether or not Harry thought that Ron considered his relationship with Lavender to be ‘serious’.
    ‘Well, I would, but he’s always asleep when I go and see him!’ said Lavender fretfully.
    ‘Is he?’ said Harry, surprised, for he had found Ron perfectly alert every time he had been up to the hospital wing, both highly interested in the news of Dumbledore and Snape’s row and keen to abuse McLaggen as much as possible.
    ‘Is Hermione Granger still visiting him?’ Lavender demanded suddenly.
    ‘Yeah, I think so. Well, they’re friends, aren’t they?’ said Harry uncomfortably.
    ‘Friends, don’t make me laugh,’ said Lavender scornfully. ‘She didn’t talk to him for weeks after he started going out with me! But I suppose she wants to make up with him now he’s all interesting … ’
    ‘Would you call getting poisoned being interesting?’ asked Harry. ‘Anyway – sorry, got to go – there’s McLaggen coming for a talk about Quidditch,’ said Harry hurriedly, and he dashed sideways through a door pretending to be solid wall and sprinted down the short cut that would take him off to Potions where, thankfully, neither Lavender nor McLaggen could follow him.
    On the morning of the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff Harry dropped in on the hospital wing before heading down to the pitch. Ron was very agitated; Madam Pomfrey would not let him go down to watch the match, feeling it would overexcite him.
    ‘So how’s McLaggen shaping up?’ he asked Harry nervously, apparently forgetting that he had already asked the same question twice.
    ‘I’ve told you,’ said Harry patiently, ‘he could be world class and I wouldn’t want to keep him. He keeps trying to tell everyone what to do, he thinks he could play every position better than the rest of us. I can’t wait to be shot of him. And speaking of getting shot of people,’ Harry added, getting to his feet and picking up his Firebolt, ‘will you stop pretending to be asleep when Lavender comes to see you? She’s driving me mad as well.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Ron, looking sheepish. ‘Yeah. All right.’
    ‘If you don’t want to go out with her any more, just tell her,’ said Harry.
    ‘Yeah … well … it’s not that easy, is it?’ said Ron. He paused. ‘Hermione going to look in before the match?’ he added casually.
    ‘No, she’s already gone down to the pitch with Ginny.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Ron, looking rather glum. ‘Right. Well, good luck. Hope you hammer McLag— I mean, Smith.’
    ‘I’ll try,’ said Harry, shouldering his broom. ‘See you after the match.’
    He hurried down through the deserted corridors; the whole school was outside, either already seated in the stadium or heading down towards it. He was looking out of the windows he passed, trying to gauge how much wind they were facing, when a noise ahead made him glance up and he saw Malfoy walking towards him, accompanied by two girls, both of whom looked sulky and resentful.
    Malfoy