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

reminded him; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialise 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 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, 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 –’
    ‘How d’you spell “belligerent”?’ said Ron, shaking his quill very hard while staring at his parchment. ‘It can’t be B – U – M –’
    ‘No, it isn’t,’ said Hermione, pulling Ron’s essay towards her. ‘And “augury” doesn’t begin O – R – G either. What kind of quill are you using?’
    ‘It’s one of Fred and George’s Spell-Checking ones … but I think the charm must be wearing off …’
    ‘Yes, it must,’ said Hermione, pointing at the title of his 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 OK, we can fix it,’ said Hermione, pulling the essay towards her and taking out her wand.
    ‘I love you, Hermione,’ said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily.
    Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, ‘Don’t let Lavender hear you saying that.’
    ‘I won’t,’ said Ron into his hands. ‘Or maybe I will … then she’ll ditch me …’
    ‘Why don’t you ditch her if you want to finish it?’ asked Harry.
    ‘You haven’t ever chucked anyone, have you?’ said Ron. ‘You and Cho just –’
    ‘Sort of fell apart, yeah,’ said Harry.
    ‘Wish that would happen with me and Lavender,’ said Ron gloomily, watching Hermione silently tapping each of his misspelled words with the end of her wand, so that they corrected themselves on the page. ‘But the more I hint I want to finish it, the tighter she holds on. It’s like going out with the Giant Squid.’
    ‘There,’ said Hermione, some twenty minutes later, handing back Ron’s essay.
    ‘Thanks a million,’ said Ron. ‘Can I borrow your quill for the conclusion?’
    Harry, who had found nothing useful in the Half-Blood Prince’s notes so far, looked around; the three 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 Hermione’s quill. Harry had just closed the Half-Blood Prince’s book, yawning, when –
    Crack.
    Hermione let out a little shriek; Ron spilled ink all over his 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-cosy 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