Vagary

Chapter 15 There is No Forgiveness Harry

Harry's mind became a battleground of thoughts and emotions in the week that followed, consumed by his relentless pondering of Ophelia. It was as if he had been transported back to his fifth year, plagued by the ceaseless obsession of whether or not Ophelia Malfoy was thinking of him as well. He was well aware that he shouldn't entertain such thoughts, especially after all that had transpired between them. But what was worse was Ophelia's persistent avoidance, a painful dance of evasion that unfolded every time he approached her, watching her swiftly change course, as if desperate to distance herself from his presence.

The conversation they had shared left an indelible mark on Harry's heart, a profound shift in his emotions. The anger that once consumed him now gave way to a complex tapestry of sadness and yearning. Yet, something within Harry restrained him from revealing these newly awakened sentiments to anyone, as if an invisible barrier stood between his inner turmoil and the outside world. So he was reduced to doing what he did increasingly these days when at a loss: pouring over his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as he had done so many times before.

"You won't find anything in there," Hermione said firmly, late on Sunday evening.

"What?" Harry said caught off guard.

"With Slughorn," Hermione said.

Harry hadn't forgotten the task Dumbledore had set for him. To get the lost memory from him.

"Don't start, Hermione," Harry said. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now."

"He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year," Hermione said dismissively.

Harry ignored her. He had just found an incantation (Sectumsempra!) scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words "For enemies," and was itching to try it out, but thought it best not to in front of Hermione. Instead, he surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page.

They were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only other people awake were fellow sixth-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when they had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the notice board that announced the date for their Apparition Test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the twenty-first of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Hogsmeade.

Ron had panicked on reading this notice; he had still not managed to Apparate and feared he would not be ready for the test. Hermione, who had now achieved Apparition twice, was a little more confident, but Harry, who would not be seventeen for another four months, could not take the test whether ready or not.

"At least you can Apparate, though!" Ron said tensely. "You'll have no trouble come July!"

"I've only done it once," Harry reminded him; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize 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!" Hermione said, 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," Harry said, 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..."