The Half-Blood Princess

The Journals

Careers advice was about to begin for the fifth years. Two days after Harry was being treated for fainting during the Quidditch match, the older students had to go to their Head Of House to get evaluated for what kind of career they wanted once they'd left Hogwarts. The list of interview times was posted on the Gryffindor bulletin board.

"Um...why am I not listed?" Harley asked. She wondered if perhaps Dumbledore or McGonagall thought she was too inexperienced?

"This is yours," George said, passing her a black envelope with her name written in a metallic green quill ink.

She took it and opened it up, reading the rushed, cramped hand.

"Miss Torrance, your Head of House and I decided that your area of expertise would fall more within my wheelhouse, so your careers meeting is with me, on Saturday at 5PM, in my office. Do not be late.

"From the desk of Professor S. Snape."

Relieved, she pocketed the note and sat down, wondering what kind of job she could possibly have in the real world. She hadn't thought much of what would happen to her when she graduated Hogwarts. She's just been so pleased to be at this place, she had not stopped to wonder about her impending adult life as a witch.

At least the meeting would mean she didn't have to attend another Quidditch match. Aside from the excitement when the Dementors had appeared on the field, she had been extraordinarily bored the entire time.

That evening, as she was leaving Astronomy (which she did not plan to take up after her OWLs had been taken), Professor Snape found her, carrying a box that looked worn and old, big enough to contain a few books.

"Miss Torrance, I was looking for you," he said.

"Can I help you, sir?" She asked, shifting her bag from one hand to another. Was this about their upcoming meeting?

"I realise that no one has been very helpful in assisting you with finding more information about your family, and I would like to be of some small assistance." He handed her the box, which was heavier than it looked. "When your mother and stepfather were found, the Ministry came in and took wizarding items so that Muggles did not discover them, They left things that were harmless, such as these. Open the box."

She did, and saw that there were ten bound journals with dates on the side. A journal per year from the time the writer was eleven until they were twenty-one, judging by the numbers.

"Those were your mother's," Snape said, surprising her. "I did not want them falling into the wrong hands or being destroyed, so I took them from the house and brought them to Hogwarts for safekeeping. I thought that those might be of assistance to you. If you do not get important information, then you at least will have gotten some insight into who your mother was. She was a wonderful woman, and it is a shame you could not get to know her when she was alive."

Surprised and pleased, she said, "Thank you, Professor. That means a lot, that you thought of me and that you kept these all these years. ...May I ask...why did you not give them to Harry when he arrived at Hogwarts?"

Snape's thin mouth turned down in distaste. "Potter would not have appreciated their value. He is ignorant in the face of the subtle, and cannot comprehend the beautiful."

She nodded, feeling that Snape was correct about her half-brother. "Have you read them yourself, sir?"

"Oh, no. Those were not mine to peruse," he replied. "I do not know what kind of information you will find in there. I hope that they help you. While I can't say any of us want you knowing more about your father while you are still so young and impressionable, it is a risk I am willing to take by giving these to you."