Rosabella Black |Daughter of Sirius Black| (Book 6)

After The Burial

The bell rang overhead in the castle and both Hermione and Ron jumped to their feet, looking terrified.
   "You'll do fine." Harry told them both, as we headed toward the entrance hall to meet the rest of the people taking their Apparition Test.
   "Good luck." I said as I hugged Hermione.
    "And you too!" Hermione said with a significant look, as Harry and I headed off to the dungeons.

There were only four of us in Potions that afternoon. Harry, Ernie, Draco Malfoy and me.
    "All too young to Apparate just yet?Not turned seventeen yet?" Slughorn said genially
We shook our heads.
    "Ah well, as we're so few, we'll do something fun. I want you all to brew me up something amusing!" Slughorn said cheerily.
   "That sounds good, sir." Ernie said sycophantically, rubbing his hands together.
Malfoy, on the other hand, did not crack a smile.
    "What do you mean, 'something amusing'?" Malfoy said irritably.
  "Oh, surprise me." Slughorn said airily.
Malfoy opened his copy of Advanced Potion - Making with a sulky expression. It could not have been plainer that he thought this lesson was a waste of time.
I decided to make an Elixer to Induce Euphoria.

    "Well, now, theselooks absolutely wonderful." Slughorn said an hour and a half later, clapping his hands together as he stared down into the sunshine yellow contents of Harry's and mine's cauldron.
    "Euphoria, I take it? And what's that I smell? Mmmm. . . is that rose?" Slughorn said to me.
I grinned.
     "My speciality. Why be named after a flower if you don't embrace it?" I said with a light laugh.
Slughorn chuckled merrily.
    "Indeed. Indeed. Rosalie was very much the same and Lily too. Anytime they could add a rose or a Lily they would. Now, Harry, you've added just a sprig of peppermint, haven't you? Unorthodox, but what a stroke of inspiration, Harry, of course, that would tend to counterbalance the occasional side effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking. . . I really don't know where you get these brain waves, my boy . . . unless -" Slughorn said.
I saw Harry pushed the Half-Blood Prince's book deeper into his bag with his foot.
   "- it's just your mother's genes coming out in you!" Slughorh finished.
    "Oh . . . yeah, maybe." Harry said, sounding relieved.
Ernie was looking rather grumpy; determined to outshine Harry for once, he had most rashly invented his own potion, which had curdled and formed a kind of purple dumpling at the bottom of his cauldron. Malfoy was already packing up, sour - faced. Slughorn had pronounced his Hiccuping Solution merely "passable."

The bell rang and both Ernie and Malfoy left at once.
   "Sir." Harry began, but Slughorn immediately glanced over his shoulder. When he saw that the room was empty but for himself, Harry and I, he hurried away as fast as he could.
   "Professor - Professor, don't you want to taste my po -?" Harry called desperately.
But Slughorn had gone. Disappointed, Harry and I emptied our cauldrons, packed up our things, left the dungeon, and walked slowly back upstairs to the common room. We walked hand in hand with Winter walking next to me.

Ron and Hermione returned in the late afternoon.
   "Harry! Ro! I passed!" Hermione cried as she climbed through the portrait hole.
    "Well done!" I said, eagerly.
    "Good one! And Ron?" Harry said.
    "He - he just failed. It was really unlucky, a tiny thing, the examiner just spotted that he'd left half an eyebrow behind . . . how did it go with Slughorn?" Hermione whispered, as Ron came slouching into the room looking most morose.
   "No joy." Harry said, as Ron joined us.
   "Bad luck, mate, but you'll pass next time - we can take it together along with Ro."
   "Yeah, I s'pose." Ron said grumpily.
   "Half an eyebrow? That's really harsh." I said as I brushed Winters fur.
Winter practically purred as the brush moved through her soft fur. I make sure to brush her once a week.
    "Thankyou! It was half an eyebrow! Like that matters!" Ron said.
    "I know, it does seem really harsh. . ." Hermione said soothingly.

We spent most of our dinner roundly abusing the Apparition examiner, and Ron looked fractionally more cheerful by the time we set off back to the common room, now discussing the continuing problem of Slughorn and the memory.
   "So, Harry - you going to use the Felix Felicis or what?" Ron demanded.
   "Yeah, I s'pose I'd better. I don't reckon I'll need all of it, not twenty-four hours' worth, it can't take all night. . . I'll just take a mouthful. Two or three hours should do it." Harry said as we walked backroom common room, his arm around my shoulder.
    "It's a great feeling when you take it. Like you can't do anything wrong." Ron said reminiscently.
   "What are you talking about?" Hermione said, laughing.
    "You've never taken any!" I said also laughing as I entwined my fingers with Harry's fingers of the arm he had around me.
    "Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I? Same difference really . . ." Ron said, as though explaining the obvious.