White Heather for Protection

Between the Shadow and the Soul

Slughorn visibly relaxed at that line of questioning. "Oh, I did, but then, most of the school did by the time he was a third year. News like that goes around Hogwarts fast."

"And that he's actually a halfblood? Why do so many Pureblood fanatics follow him?" Heather took a casual sip of her tea, but kept looking at him over the rim of her cup.

"He was powerful enough that his peers at the time feared and idolised him in turn. Most of his followers today, however, have merely forgotten that You-Know-Who was once Tom Riddle."

"What about Voldemort's horcruxes, do you know anything about them?" Heather asked, finally getting to the point.

Slughorn paled dramatically. "W-what? Where did you hear about those abominations?"

Hadrian shrugged. "From Headmaster Dumbledore. We need to know as much as possible about Voldemort so we can defeat him once and for all."

"There are some things you are better off not knowing!" Slughorn insisted, almost slamming his cup on the table.

"Horace, do you really think ignorance is bliss, in this case? Yes, we know horcruxes are absolutely disgusting," well, according to his reaction to them, "and we will never try to dabble in them. However, without knowing about them, how will be ever get rid of Voldemort?" She was pretty much lying through her teeth. She had no clue what horcruxes were at all, but Slughorn seemed pretty disgusted by them.

"Professor Slughorn, please," Hadrian pleaded, widening his eyes and leaning forward, "if you know anything about this, it would really help us. We just want to seek justice for our parents. Wizarding Britain is in danger every second Voldemort is out there, wreaking havoc!"

Slughorn was wavering, she could see it. Just one more thing to tip him over the edge.

"Please, Horace. Voldemort has it out for Hadrian. I shudder to think of what would happen to Rian if that monster got his hands on him. I can't lose my brother, he's the only family I have left!" She let the tears building behind her eyes spill without resistance, knowing her mother's green eyes would make the sight even more heartrending.

Looking distressed now, Slughorn's hand fluttered about uselessly as he tried to comfort her. "Oh, no, don't cry now dear girl! I'll tell you all I know. I'm sure you'll find a way to stop that fiend!"

"Really?" she asked in a small voice, visibly trying to compose herself. She accepted a handkerchief from the man, leaning against Hadrian as she dried her tears. She took several moments to stop sniffling, during which Slughorn seemed to firm up his conviction.

"As you mentioned, I do know something about h-horcruxes," he choked out. "Riddle came to me one day and asked me about them. I think it's best you just see what happened." Reluctantly, he put his wand to his temple and extracted a wispy strand of memory. Transfiguring on of his teacups into a phial, he put the memory in and stoppered it.

Hadrian accepted it sombrely. "Thank you, Professor. We really appreciate this."

"Just don't think too poorly of me when you see what happened," Slughorn said, shamefaced.

"Never," Heather said, more fiercely than she expected, "Whatever happened, you aren't to blame for anything that Voldemort did."

He smiled at her gratefully, then patted each of them on the shoulder and dismissed them politely.

~~~

As Heather made notations in red ink on the second years' essays, half her mind lingered on the recent exchange she'd had with Slughorn. She was still vaguely discomfited by the level of distress he had been in. That wasn't enough to make her regret her manipulations, of course. It wasn't like what she'd said wasn't true.