Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Chapter Twenty-One: Lord Voldemort's Request

Dumbledore heaved a deep sigh, then said, 'But never mind my staffing problems. We have much more important matters to discuss. Firstly—have you managed the task I set you at the end of our previous lesson?'

'Ah,' said Harry, brought up short. What with Apparition lessons and Quidditch practice and Tracey being poisoned and the Quidditch match, his developing relationship with Allison, and his determination to find out what Draco Malfoy was up to, Harry had almost forgotten about the memory Dumbledore had asked him to extract from Professor Slughorn. 'Well, I asked Professor Slughorn about it at the end of Potions, sir, but, er, he wouldn't give it to me.'

There was a little silence.

'I see,' said Dumbledore eventually, peering at Harry over the top of his half-moon spectacles and giving Harry the usual sensation that he was being X-rayed. 'And you feel that you have exerted your very best efforts in this matter, do you? That you have exercised all of your considerable ingenuity? That you have left no depth of cunning unplumbed in your quest to retrieve the memory?'

'Well,' Harry stalled, at a loss for what to say next. His single attempt to get hold of the memory suddenly seemed embarrassingly feeble. 'Well...the day Tracey swallowed love potion by mistake I took her to Professor Slughorn. I thought maybe if I got Professor Slughorn in a good enough mood—'

'And did that work?' asked Dumbledore.

'Well, no, sir, because Tracey got poisoned—'

'—which, naturally, made you forget all about trying to retrieve the memory; I would have expected nothing else, while one of your closest friends was in danger. Once it became clear that Miss Davis was going to make a full recovery, however, I would have hoped that you returned to the task I set you. I thought I made it clear to you how very important that memory is. Indeed, I did my best to impress upon you that it is the most crucial memory of all and that we will be wasting our time without it. And yet I hear you've been going on dates, following Mr Malfoy when I told you to drop that matter, and I've received word from a reliable source that a young man with your glasses and complexion was in Hogsmeade a little over a month ago with only a single Auror's protection.

A hot, prickly feeling of shame spread from the top of Harry's head all the way down his body. Dumbledore had not raised his voice, he did not even sound angry, but Harry would have preferred him to yell; this cold disappointment was worse than anything.

'Sir,' he said, a little desperately, 'it isn't that I wasn't bothered or anything, I've just had other—other things...'

'Other things on your mind,' Dumbledore finished the sentence for him. 'I see.'

Silence fell between them again, the most uncomfortable silence Harry had ever experienced with Dumbledore; it seemed to go on and on, punctuated only by the little grunting snores of the portrait of Armando Dippet over Dumbledore's head. Harry felt strangely diminished, as though he had shrunk a little since he had entered the room. When he could stand it no longer he said, 'Professor Dumbledore, I'm really sorry. I should have done more...I should have realized you wouldn't have asked me to do it if it wasn't really important.'

'Thank you for saying that, Harry,' said Dumbledore quietly. 'May I hope, then, that you will give this matter higher priority from now on? There will be little point in our meeting after tonight unless we have that memory.'

'I'll do it, sir, I'll get it from him,' he said earnestly.

'Then we shall say no more about it just now,' said Dumbledore more kindly, 'but continue with our story where we left off. You remember where that was?'

'Yes, sir,' said Harry quickly. 'Voldemort killed his father and his grandparents and made it look as though his Uncle Morfin did it. Then he went back to Hogwarts and he asked...he asked Professor Slughorn about Horcruxes,' he mumbled shamefacedly.