𝐎, 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 ⎥ "He wants a fight with
a God? I'll give him one."
﹙ from stardust we came, to stardust we return ﹚
Prisoner of Azkaban - Deathly Hollows
...
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HARRY SPENT THE next week obsessing over how he was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory. He was reduced to doing what he did increasingly these days when at a loss: poring over his Potions book, something Hermione (and a little bit Elara) absolutely hated.
"You won't find anything in there," said Hermione firmly, late on Sunday evening.
"Don't start, Hermione," said Harry. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now."
"Excuse you," said Elara dismissively, "I thought of the bezoar because of what Snape said first year."
Instead of responding, Harry 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 Elara and Harry, who would not be seventeen for another three or four months, could not take the test whether ready or not.
"At least you can Apparate, though!" said Ron tensely. "You'll have no trouble come June and July!"
"I've only done it once," Elara reminded him; she had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside her 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 Elara, Harry, and Hermione had already completed.
"I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry!" said Hermione, 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," said Harry, 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. . . ."
