Remus and I spent our days at the Burrow with Bill and Fleur, and sometimes Fred and George when they weren't at work. Harry and Ron were usually together stuck up in the attic. Soon, Christmas Eve arrived and we were all sitting in the Living Rom after dinner. Ginny had decorated so lavishly that it was rather like sitting in a paper-chain explosion.
We were all listening to a Christmas Broadcast by Mrs. Weasley's favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck, who I was trying not to fall asleep too. I always found her dull. Apparently, Fleur found her dull as well because she kept talking very loudly, which resulted in Mrs. Weasley making the stereo louder too. Fred and George started a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny. Ron kept shooting Bill and Fleur covert looks, as though hoping to pick up tips and I rolled my eyes at him. Tonks and Ollie were curled together, watching the twins and Ginny play their game, while Remus was staring into the fireplace. He tended to do that a lot. I was curled up next to him, with my head on his shoulder, and my shoes very slightly over his legs, and one of his hands on my knees, absent mindedly drawing circles.
"We danced to this when we were eighteen!" said Mrs. Weasley, wiping her eyes on her knitting, listening to the song. "Do you remember, Arthur?"
"Mphf?" said Mr. Weasley, who was sitting on the sofa across from us and whose head had been nodding over the satsuma he was peeling. "Oh yes ...marvellous tune ...
With an effort he sat up a little straighter and looked round at Harry, who was sitting next to him. "Sorry about this," he said, jerking his head towards the wireless as Celestina broke into the chorus. "Be over soon."
I couldn't help but chuckle.
"No problem," said Harry, grinning. "Has it been busy at the Ministry?"
"Very." said Mr. Weasley. "I wouldn't mind if we were getting anywhere, but of the three arrests we've made in the last couple of months, I doubt that one of them is a genuine Death Eater – only don't repeat that, Harry," he added quickly, looking much more awake all of a sudden.
Harry stayed silent for a few moments. "Mr. Weasley, you know what I told you at the station when we were setting off for school?"
"I checked, Harry," said Mr. Weasley at once. "I went and searched the Malfoys' house. There was nothing, either broken or whole, that shouldn't have been there."
I turned my head fully towards them.
"Yeah, I know, I saw in the Prophet that you'd looked ... but this is something different ... well, something more ..." said Harry.
Remus, now out of his daze, turned a little towards Harry and Mr. Weasley too while Harry launched into his story again about what he heard between Snape and Malfoy.
"Has it occurred to you, Harry," said Mr. Weasley, "that Snape was simply pretending –"
"Pretending to offer help, so that he could find out what Malfoy's up to?" said Harry quickly. "Yeah, I thought you'd say that. Sara said so too. But how do we know?"
"It isn't our business to know," said Remus. He had turned his back on the fire now, and faced Harry across Mr. Weasley, shifting me slightly so that now my legs were fully over his lap now. "It's Dumbledore's business. Dumbledore trusts Severus, and that ought to be good enough for all of us."
"But," said Harry, "just say – just say Dumbledore's wrong about Snape –"
"People have said it, many times. It comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore's judgement. I do; therefore, I trust Severus."
"But Dumbledore can make mistakes," argued Harry. "He says it himself. And you –" He looked Remus straight in the eye."– do you honestly like Snape?"
"I neither like nor dislike Severus," said Remus. "No, Harry, I am speaking the truth," he added, as Harry pulled a skeptical expression. "We shall never be bosom friends, perhaps; after all that happened between James and Sirius and Severus, there is too much bitterness there. But I do not forget that during the year I taught at Hogwarts, Severus made the Wolfsbane Potion for me every month, made it perfectly, so that I did not have to suffer as I usually do at the full moon."
"But he 'accidentally' let it slip that you're a werewolf, so you had to leave!" said Harry angrily
Remus shrugged. "The news would have leaked out anyway. We both know he wanted my job, but he could have wreaked much worse damage on me by tampering with the Potion. He kept me healthy. I must be grateful."
I stayed quiet as I listened.
"Maybe he didn't dare mess with the Potion with Dumbledore watching him!" said Harry
"You are determined to hate him, Harry," said Remus with a faint smile. "And I understand; with James as your father, with Sirius as your godfather, you have inherited an old prejudice. By all means tell Dumbledore what you have told Arthur, Sara and I, but do not expect him to share your view of the matter; do not even expect him to be surprised by what you tell him. It might have been on Dumbledore's orders that Severus questioned Draco."
Celestina ended her song on a very long, high-pitched note and loud applause issued out of the wireless, which Mrs. Weasley joined in with enthusiastically.
"Eez eet over?" said Fleur loudly. "Thank goodness, what an 'orrible –"
"Shall we have a nightcap, then?" asked Mr. Weasley loudly, leaping to his feet. "Who wants egg-nog?"
Mr. Weasley came around handing us Egg-nog.
"Have you ever heard of someone called the Half-Blood Prince?" he asked Remus.
"The Half-Blood what?"
"Prince," said Harry
"There are no wizarding princes," said Remus, now smiling. "Is this a title you're thinking of adopting? I should have thought being the 'Chosen One' would be enough."
"Please do not call yourself that Harry." I said, sipping my egg-nog. "I swear to Merlin I will come to Hogwarts and smack the living hell out of you if you do that."
"It's nothing to do with me!" said Harry indignantly. "The Half-Blood Prince is someone who used to go to Hogwarts, I've got his old Potions book. He wrote spells all over it, spells he invented. One of them was Levicorpus –"
"Oh, that one had a great vogue during my time at Hogwarts," said Remus reminiscently. "There were a few months in my fifth year when you couldn't move for being hoisted into the air by your ankle."
I giggled slightly. "I should've used that on the Slytherins if I had known about it earlier."
"Sara." Remus shook his head with a smile.
'My dad used it,' said Harry. 'I saw him in the Pensieve, he used it on Snape.'
"Yes." Remus said, "but he wasn't the only one. As I say, it was very popular ... you know how these spells come and go ..."
"But it sounds like it was invented while you were at school," Harry persisted.
"Not necessarily," said Remus. "Jinxes go in and out of fashion like everything else." He looked into Harry's face and then said quietly, "James was a pure-blood, Harry, and I promise you, he never asked us to call him 'Prince.'
"And it wasn't Sirius? Or you?"
"Definitely not."
"Oh." Harry stared into the fire. "I just thought – well, he's helped me out a lot in Potions classes, the Prince has."
"How old is this book, Harry?"
"I dunno, I've never checked."
"Well, perhaps that will give you some clue as to when the Prince was at Hogwarts," said Remus.
"I suppose."
Soon, Mrs. Weasley made us retire to bed after Fleur started imitating Celleste's singing.
Remus and I went up to Bill's old room, where we were spending our time here at the Burrow. We scrawled into bed after changing and I sighed. "I'm worried for Harry. He's got his mind wrapped around things that he shouldn't be focusing on."
"I know." Remus wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer to his body. "I'm sure Dumbledore will get Harry to stop thinking about it."
"I sure hope so." I closed my eyes, snuggling against Remus.
"Goodnight darling."