FELIX FELICIS-067
After spending a day in the infirmary, Diana was sitting in the common room with her brother, Harry, and Hermione. She didn't tell her family that she had talked with Draco when they had asked, only telling them the same she said before. He was hard to pin down.
Harry had explained that he needed a bit of luck to talk to Slughorn as he uncorked the vail of Liquid Luck and drank it.
"Well?" Hermione asked. "How do you feel?"
Harry grinned. "Excellent. Really excellent." A wide grin was set on his face.
"Remember, Har, Sluggy usually eats early, takes a walk, and then returns to his office," Diana told her boyfriend, finding him to a hot while on Liquid Luck.
"Right," Harry said, breathing heavily. "I'm going down to Hagrid's."
"What?" She said as her boyfriend started to walk out of the room. "I'll go with him to keep from doing anything stupid." She followed after him, entwining their hands. "Harry, you have to talk to Slughorn. We have a plan."
"I know, but I've got a really good feeling about Hadrid's. I feel it's...it's the place to be tonight. Do you know what I mean?"
Diana stares at him for a moment. "No. No, I don't."
"Love, you have to trust me. I know what I'm doing or Felix does." Harry said, pulling her down the corridor.
The couple walked towards Hagrid's and passed Slughorn, who was in the window of the greenhouse.
"Harry, look." Diana pointed toward the old man. "You need to talk to him."
Harry nodded and walked over to the Professor. "Hi!"
Diana facepalmed. "Merlin,"
Slughorn jumped."Huh! Merlin's beard, Harry!"
"Oh, sorry, sir," Harry said. "You probably feared I was Professor Sprout."
"Yes, I did, actually." Slughorn nodded. "What makes you think that?"
"Oh, well, just the general behavior, sir. The sneaking around, the jumping when you saw me. Are those Tentacula leaves, sir?" Harry rambled, fastly. "They are very valuable, aren't they?"
"Ten gallons a leaf to the right buyer. Not that I'm familiar with any such back alley transactions. But one does hear rumors. My own interests are purely academic, of course." Slughorn explained.
"I mean, personally, these plants always kind of freaked me out," Harry said, before turning to leave.
"Exactly, how did you get it out of the castle, Harry, Miss Black?" Slughorn asked the couple.
"The front door, sir!" Diana called back to him. "Off to Hagrid's."
Slughorn followed after them as Harry explained. "He's a very friend of ours and we just fancied paying him a visit."
"Harry!" Slughorn said in disbelief.
Harry stopped and turned toward him. "Sir?"
"It's nearly nightfall. Surly you realize I can't allow you two to go roaming the grounds by yourselves."
"Well then, by all means, come along, sir," Harry said as he started walking again.
Halfway to Hagrid's, Slughorn called out to the couple. "Harry! I must insist you two accompany me back to the castle, immediately!"
"That would be counterproductive, sir," Harry replied.
"What makes you say that?" Slughorn asked.
Diana glanced at her boyfriend as he said. "No idea."
"Holy shit." Diana breathed as she saw the giant ass spider laying dead on the ground.
"Merlin's beard. Is that an actual Acroantula?" Slughorn asked.
"A dead one, I think, sir," Harry replied, grinning.
"Good god. My dear fellow, however, did you manage to kill it?" Slughorn asked.
"Kill it? Me oldest friend, he was." Hagrid said.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't—"
"Ah don't worry yourself, you're not alone. Seriously misunderstood creatures, spiders are." Hagrid told them. "It's eyes, I reckon. They unnerve some folk."
"Not to mention the pincers," Harry added while making a motion and received an odd look from his girlfriend and Hagrid.
"Yeah, I reckon that too," Hagrid replied, side-eying the boy.
"Hagrid. The last thing I wish to be is Indelicate but the Acromantula venom is uncommonly rare. Would you allow me to extract a vial or two? Surely for academic purposes, you understand?" Slughorn asked.
Hagrid sniffed. "Well I don't suppose it's going to do him much good now, isn't it?"
"Oh, my thoughts exactly. Always have an ampoule or two on my person just on such occasions as this. Old potion master habits, you know?"
" I wish you could've seen him in his prime. Magnificent, he was. Just magnificent." Hagrid sniffed as Diana patted him on the arm in comfort.
"Would you like me to say a few words?" Slughorn asked Hagrid.
"Yes."
"He had a family, I trust?"
Harry and Diana nodded with grins. "Oh yeah."
After Slughorn said a few words to Aragog, the four of them went to Hagrid's hut for a drink. Diana sat on Harry's lap as they listened to Hagrid and Slughorn drunkenly sing.
"I had him from an egg, you know." Tiny little thing he was when hatched. No bigger than a Pekinese. A Pekinese, mind you." Hagrid said.
"Oh, how sweet. I once had a fish." Slughorn said. "Francis. He was very dear to me. One afternoon, I came downstairs and he vanished. Poof."
"That's very odd, isn't it?"
"Isn't it? But that's life... I suppose. You, you go along and then s-s-suddenly. . . Poof!" Slughorn explained.
"Poof!" Hagrid cheered.
"Poof," Harry muttered.
Hagrid leaned back and fell asleep, making Diana and Harry chuckle.
"It was a student who gave me Francis. One spring afternoon, I discovered a bowl on my desk, with just a few inches of clear water in it. And floating on the surface was a flower petal. As I watched, it sank. Just before it reached the bottom, it transformed into a wee fish. It was beautiful magic. Wondrous to behold. The flower petal had come from a lily. Your mother. The day I came downstairs, the day the bowl was empty was the day your mother. . . I know why you're here. But I can't help you. It would ruin me." Slughorn told them.
"Do you know why I survived, Professor? The night I got this?" Harry pointed to his scar. "Because of her. Because she sacrificed herself. Because she refused to step aside. Because her love was more powerful than Voldemort."
"Don't say his name." Slughorn shook his head.
"I'm not afraid of the name, Professor." Harry gently nudged his girlfriend from his lap and walked closer to the old man.
"I'm going to tell you something. Something others have only guessed at. It's true. I am the chosen one. Only I can destroy him, but in order to do so, I need to know what Tom Riddle asked you all those years ago in your office. And I need to know what you told him. Be brave, Professor. Be brave like my mother. Otherwise, you disgrace her. Otherwise, she died for nothing. Otherwise, the bowl will remain empty, forever."
Diana smiled proudly from behind her boyfriend as Slughorn pulled out a vail and his wand.
"Please, don't think badly of me when you see it. You've no idea what he was like, even then." Slughorn explained.
The old man tapped his forehead and a white wisp came out. He shakily placed the wisp in the vail and handed it to Harry.
The couple headed back to the castle, leaving a sobbing Slughorn behind. Diana kissed Harry, before saying. "Go to Dumbledore. I will see you in the common room."