The next morning was the first morning of classes. I decided to go see Servers to see what he knew about Horcruxes before class. I slipped out of the Gryffindor common room and down the stairs to the dungeon well before anyone else would even begin to get up.
I knocked on the door to his private quarters knowing full well that he was up already, since he's always been an early riser, "Good morning JEss," he greeted.
"Hello, I just wanted to talk to you about something that happened in our meeting yesterday with Dumbledore. We saw a few memories about Voldemort, and now he wants Harry to get the rest of one of them from Professor Slughorn. I think it's about Horcruxes, so I haven't ever heard of them, so I figured I'd ask you about them."
His face looked stricken when I said the word Horcruxes, andI briefly wondered about why everyone was so horrified by them, "If I am to tell you what they are you have to promise me you won't tell any of the other kids. I understand you tell them most things, but this you can't under any circumstances tell them. It would be extremely dangerous, and they will learn in due time."
I nodded and scrunched my eyebrows in confusion, "I won't tell them if it's that dangerous then. But then what are they? And why is everyone so skeeved out by them?"
He sighed and began to explain, "A Horcrux is a particularly bad bit of the Dark Arts. It can be any sort of old object. A person ties their soul to that object, by splitting their soul into tiny little bits and placing them protected in that object."
"How do you split your soul though?" I questioned,
"By killing," Severus replied, "You have to kill in order to split your soul into pieces. In theory you could continue to live even if it appears as though you've been killed."
"So Dumbledore thinks that VOldemort did this?"
Severus shrugged, "If he's asking Harry to get the memory regarding Horcruxes then I'd assume he believes that the Dark Lord did something like this if not this."
"So could you split your soul into several pieces?" I asked, "It would be kinda cool if you could. You'd become nearly immortal."
"I suppose in theory you could split your soul several times. It does sound good on the surface until you realize to do that, you would have to kill that many people."
I shrugged, "Yeah that's true I suppose. The concept itself is cool though."
"I don't think it's for us humans to try to deny death's grasp."
I paused to consider his words. I supposed he had a point, but I'm not sure I'd ever be ready to stop living. If I could live life more, I was sure I would want to.
I thanked him for explaining the concept to me and went up to the Gryffindor common room where I knew my friends would be.
Harry, Hermione and ROn were sitting on the couch when I walked through the portal door, "Neville and Ginny are still sleeping," Hermione explained as I approached them as way of explaining the rest of my friend's disappearance.
"We were talking about what Dumbledore said about Horcruxes. Hermione doesn't know what they are either, and if both of you don't know, then I don't know where to find out what they are and Dumbledore didn't seem to be in a rush to tell us about it."
"I guess we could try the Library," I said hesitantly, "I'm sure if it's that dark the regular section of the library won't have any information on it but we can definitely look."
"Maybe we could get a pass to the Restricted Section too," Ron suggested.
"You'll have to be careful about talking to Slughorn," Hermione told Harry, "If it's that bad of a memory for him to alter it, then he's going to be really dcey about talking about it."
"He loves you though mate, you're the best option to talk to him for sure," Ron said, "You can do it. I mean Dumbledore needs you to do it."
That day following Potions class Harry dawdled behind to talk to Slughorn alone. Hermione, Ron, and myself waited outside the room for him to come out. Harry had once again gotten help from the Half-Blood Prince and excelled in class again. Hermione was annoyed, because once again she had followed the directions perfectly and still produced a potion that was subpar to Harry's. I had made a potion that was as good, if not slightly better than Harry's, but it was difficult to compete with a teenage version of my father.
When we heard Slughorn shouting, "I don't know anything!" and a door slamming after Harry ran out of the room we knew it hadn't gone so well.
"I don't know why you thought this was going to work Harry, he's not going to want to just talk to you," Hermione said huffily.
Harry let the question sit for nearly a week. Slughorn seems happy to forget the whole thing ever happened, and merely went on loving Harry. Harry was hoping for an invitation to another SLug Club dinner but no such invitation came.
Hermione came into the common room one night when we were all sitting around eating sweet and threw up her hands, "I can't find anything on Horcruxes in the library! The closest I found was a book that mentioned them and then said they weren't going to discuss them, what help is that?"
I had to smirk at her frazzled state, she had never thought the library could fail her.
"Oh cheer up babe, our first apparation class is tonight, soon we will be able to do it by ourselves."
This did seem to make Hermione's mood a bit lighter but I could see see the wheels turning in her mind trying to figure out a way to find out about Horcruxes.
Our apparation class proved to be nothing short of hysterical.
Together Ron, Harry, Hermione, Neville and I went down to the Great Hall for our first lesson as Ginny looked at us leave with a scowl. Being the youngest in a group is never a fun time, and I pitied her slightly. I hated Side-by-Side Apparation, but she would have to deal with it for another year until she too could take the apparation class.
We got there and a rather small bespectacled man stood at the front of the room and addressed the crowd in a monotonous voice that held no passion for the subject he was instructing us on, "Your Heads of House will arrange you into lines and you will be given a hoola hoop. We will begin once this is set up."
Sure enough McGonagall came around and got us all into a straight line as Flitwick, Severus, and Sprout did the same. I smiled at Severus as he passed by us and he returned this with a nod of his head.
Once the room was arranged the man told us, "Picture the spot in the hoola hoop and will yourself to be in that place, then perform the correct incantation. On my count you will begin your first attempt."
As I looked around I nearly laughed at the students around me. They all looked positively alarmed at the prospect of attempting to apparate so soon into the lesson.
On the count of one students all around the room tried to apparate into the hoola hoop. Having done this before I made it in on my first attempt. As I looked around the room I realized I was the only one. Neville had fallen on his behind. Harry had just stumbled back. Hermione had apparated but was all the way on the other side of the room. Ron hadn't moved one bit. Susan Bones had moved about three feet from where she was but she was missing one of her legs, and promptly fell down.
A pink mist erupted around her and her leg was secured back in place but she was left crying and staring down at her leg. I smirked at the sight. I had forgotten splinching was a thing that happened.
Following the lesson no one had done anything, aside from me, "I think I felt some tingling in my feet," Ron said, "Is that what I'm supposed to feel Jess?"
I shrugged, "I guess so. I dunno, I just do it I suppose. My first time apparating I apparated clear across the country so I've never done it this way to start."
"What do you think Harry?" Ron asked him noticing he seemed distracted.
"I dunno," he answered though I was certain he hadn't really heard the question, "Come on, I want to see something."
Confused, we followed Harry quickly up to the Gryffindor common room before any other students could get up there. Harry quickly ran up to his room and came back to the common room with a piece of parchment in his hand. I recognized it as the Marauder's Map.
He laid it out in front of us and started peering over it, "He's having Crabbe and Goyle guard something while he does something, I heard them talking at the lesson. Where is he?"
I started to panic on the inside. Harry couldn't figure out what Draco was doing, "He's in the common room right there," Ron said pointing at the map.
Harry's face fell and I felt immense relief, "Well I'll keep an eye on him. He's up to something. And I know what you're going to say Jessica, and he's an alright guy to hang out with sometimes, and I know you're friends with him, but he's definitely doing something."
I was happy when, several weeks later, Harry still haven't found anything out about Draco. I had told Severus to warn him to be more careful, that Harry was watching out for him so I hoped he was taking my advice. I hadn't been able to slip away long enough to talk to Draco myself, and I didn't want Harry to see me talking with Draco alone on his map.