(Y/N)'s POV

I regretted not inviting Ron to the Slug Club. That way he could suffer through this with us. Everyone in the room, barring me, Hermione, Ginny and Neville and Melinda Bobbin where insufferable in one way or another.

I found myself saying "at least the food is good" every five minutes, unable to think of anything productive to say. Some of the Slug Club were nice, if a little smug.

The Carrow twins creeped me out, they muttered amongst themselves and kept giving me odd looks from across the table and made me very worried every time I took a sip of my drink.

Blaise Zabini was looking down his nose at me as always and only communicating with grunts and mumbles that were becoming harder and harder to decipher as he made no effort to talk to anyone who wasn't a Slytherin.

The most irksome was of course McLaggen, he was so was so infuriating, he spent the whole dinner trying to make comments to Hermione from across the table, leaning on his chair to flirt with her and then smirking at me.

After fifteen minutes of this, Hermione was getting increasingly uncomfortable and I was having trouble restraining myself, muttering death threats at McLaggen whenever he looked in our direction.

I wanted nothing more then to get up and power-bomb him through the dining table, the only reason I hadn't was Hermione herself. She sat beside me and calmed me down as we continued to be forced into awkward small talk. Slughorns humble bragging didn't help much either.

Hermione had to confiscate my wand halfway through the night after I glued McLaggen's tongue to the roof of his mouth. That didn't stop him for long, after a blissful five minutes of relative quiet he just kept going.

At this point, the whole table was uncomfortable with McLaggen, even the politer members of the Slug Club were starting to take notice. Slughorn seemed to find the whole situation very entertaining.

After Slughorn turned his back to me so he could talk to Belby the evening finally culminated in me standing up harshly and throwing a spoon at McLaggen so hard that when it hit him he lost balance on his chair and collapsed to the floor.

Even the ever stoic Blaise Zabini smirked at the sight of Mclaggen whimpering on the floor, Hermione was not pleased, but a smile was still fighting to creep onto her face. "I think you hit him in the eye!" scolded Hermione as we left, "Good" I said, grinning from ear to ear. By the end of the night we were all physically and emotionally drained.

I said goodnight to Hermione with a kiss as we headed off to bed, lamenting about my waste of an evening. It was fair to say I went to bed in a very bad mood. This happened every few weeks, each one worse than the last.

Halfway through October came our first trip of the term to Hogsmeade. It was always good to get out of the castle grounds for a few hours. I woke early on the morning of the trip, which was proving stormy.

I sat up in bed groggily, barely recovered from my rude awakening earlier, I went to pet Bones only to find her fur was shaggier then normal, looking down I found Crookshanks curled up in the bed next to her. I sighed deeply, "Crookshanks...we've talked about this!"

At the sound of his name, his head lifted, and he darted off the bed in a flash before I could reach for my wand, "Scram you ginger git!" I bellowed. "If you so much as look in her direction, I'm cursing you!"

Ron darted awake again, looking at me terrified as I held my wand aloft. He shrieked an "I'm sorry! She's just..." in panic, then caught himself, I sighed, "Not you" he seemed to calm down, he chuckled nervously "yeah...right..." and he collapsed back into bed.

I laid back down in my bed, as I did black fur obscured my vision, Bones had clawed up to me, looking very unhappy, she was eye level to me, her eyes squinted into a glare.

"What?" I said grumpily, she hissed and bopped my nose, "I warned him princess, it's his fault" after she stalked her way out the door I got up and ready and headed down to breakfast, only to find the two cats were already back together.

I sighed, realising how pointless my efforts are. "Is this what having a daughter feels like?" "Oh god, I owe Mr. Granger an apology" I thought. Hermione was in a terrible mood after that incident in the morning, she was scolding me the entire time I was eating.

I just smirked at her and warned Crookshanks that I was keeping an eye on him. I watched as Harry revelled in the Half Blood Prince's book and the new arsenal of spells it showed him.

The only person who did not find these charms amusing was Hermione, who maintained a rigidly disapproving expression throughout and refused to talk at all if Harry had used the Muffliato spell on anyone in the vicinity, she's so stubborn sometimes, I love it.

Although, recent incidents had changed how I felt about some of the spells this Prince bloke had written down. Like what had happened early in the morning that day. Waking me from a dream about playing exploding snap with Norberta and Aragog.

There was a flash of light and the room was full of voices. I was woken up as Ron had let out a yell. Harry sent Advanced Potion-Making flying in panic; looking around groggily I saw Ron was dangling upside down in mid-air as though an invisible hook had hoisted him up by the ankle.

"Sorry!" yelled Harry, as Dean and Seamus roared with laughter, and Neville picked himself up from the floor, having fallen out of bed. I found it very funny at first, laughing along with them until I saw the panic on Ron's face, as did Harry and he quickly dispelled his charm.

"Hang on — I'll let you down —" He groped for the potion book and riffled through it in a panic, trying to find the right page. There was another flash of light, and Ron fell in a heap onto his mattress.

"Sorry," repeated Harry weakly, while Dean and Seamus continued to roar with laughter. "Tomorrow," said Ron in a muffled voice, "I'd rather you set the alarm clock."

By the time we had got dressed, Ron's shock had subsided and he had decided that Harry's new spell was highly amusing; so amusing, in fact, that he lost no time in regaling Hermione with the story after she lectured me.

"...and then there was another flash, of light and I landed on the bed again!" Ron grinned, helping himself to sausages. Hermione had not cracked a smile during this anecdote, and now turned an expression of wintry disapproval upon Harry.

She glanced to me, I shrugged, "Was this spell, by any chance, another one from that potion book of yours?" she asked. Harry frowned at her. "Always jump to the worst conclusion, don't you?" "Was it?"

"Well...yeah, it was, but so what?" "So you just decided to try out an unknown, handwritten incantation and see what would happen?" "Why does it matter if it's handwritten?" said Harry, preferring not to answer the rest of the question.

"Because it's probably not Ministry of Magic approved," said Hermione. I snorted, she gave me a glare "And also," she added, "because I'm starting to think this Prince character was a bit dodgy." Both Harry and Ron shouted her down at once.

"It was a laugh!" said Ron, upending a ketchup bottle over his sausages. "Just a laugh, Hermione, that's all!" "Dangling people upside down by the ankle?" said Hermione. "Who puts their time and energy into making up spells like that?"

"Fred and George," said Ron, shrugging, "it's their kind of thing. And, er —" "My dad," said Harry. In an odd tone of voice, "What?" said Ron and Hermione together. "My dad used this spell," said Harry. "I — Lupin told me."

"Maybe your dad did use it, Harry," said Hermione, "but he's not the only one. We've seen a whole bunch of people use it, in case you've forgotten. Dangling people in the air. Making them float along, asleep, helpless." Harry stared at her.

I got a shiver down my spine at the thought, I tried my best not to remember much about the World Cup, so my brain didn't even make the connection. "Yeah, speaking from experience, it's not a funny joke."

"That was different," Ron said robustly. "They were abusing it. Harry and his dad were just having a laugh. You don't like the Prince, Hermione," "because he's better than you at Potions —" "It's got nothing to do with that!" said Hermione, her cheeks reddening.

"I just think it's very irresponsible to start performing spells when you don't even know what they're for, and stop talking about 'the Prince' as if it's his title, I bet it's just a stupid nickname, and it doesn't seem as though he was a very nice person to me!"

"She's got a point." "For all we know the Half-Blood Prince could be one of snakeface's mates. Or knowing our luck, the Dark Lord back when he was just a Dark Prince" I shrugged, "It's a bit shifty"

"I don't see where you get that from," said Harry heatedly. "If he'd been a budding Death Eater he wouldn't have been boasting about being 'half-blood,' would he?"

"Well, he was a student, I doubt it mattered much in the early years, while snakeface was building up followers" Hermione made a "Hah" noise and quickly rounded on Harry, feeling confident with my support probably.

"The Death Eaters can't all be pure-blood, there aren't enough pure-blood wizards left," said Hermione stubbornly. "I expect most of them are half-bloods pretending to be pure. It's only Muggle-borns they hate, they'd be quite happy to let you, (Y/N), and Ron join up."

"There is no way they'd let me be a Death Eater!" said Ron indignantly, "Yeah, it's a commonly known fact Voldemort hates gingers" I smirked. Harry let out a snorting laugh but Ron was too busy stuffing his face and countered. "My whole family are blood traitors! That's as bad as Muggle-borns to Death Eaters!"

I nodded, "Yeah, pretty sure my whole family's on the no-no list too, Aurors aren't exactly welcomed into the Death Eaters." "And they'd love to have me," said Harry sarcastically. "We'd be best pals if they didn't keep trying to do me in." This made Ron laugh; even Hermione gave a grudging smile.

As we trudged out of the castle Ginny was walking along the path in front of us, Harry approached her, "Want to join us in Hogsmeade, Ginny?" he asked. "I'm going with Dean — might see you there," she replied, waving at them as she left.

The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. When we finally reached Hogsmeade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, "NOOOOO!" I declared into the skies above.

Falling to my knees dramatically and then instantly regretting it as the snow sent a chill up my body. Where was I going to get joke items without the guilt of the twins paying for it now?

After a while of wallowing in disappointment Ron pointed, with a thickly gloved hand, toward Honeydukes, which was mercifully open "Thank God," shivered Ron as they were enveloped by warm, toffee-scented air. "Let's stay here all afternoon." "Let's live here" I added, my teeth chattering.

"Harry, m'boy!" said a booming voice from behind us. "Oh no," muttered Harry. Professor Slughorn, who was wearing an enormous furry hat and an overcoat with matching fur collar, clutching a large bag of crystalized pineapple, and occupying at least a quarter of the shop.

"Harry, that's three of my little suppers you've missed now!" said Slughorn, poking him genially in the chest. "It won't do, m'boy, I'm determined to have you! Miss Granger loves them, don't you?" "Yes," said Hermione helplessly, "they're really —" "Informative" I finished

"So why don't you come along, Harry?" demanded Slughorn. "Well, I've had Quidditch practice, Professor," said Harry, who had indeed been scheduling practices every time Slughorn had sent him a little, violet ribbon-adorned invitation.  Not that that helped me much, seeing as I wasn't technically part of the team.

"Well, I certainly expect you to win your first match after all the hard work!" said Slughorn. "But a little recreation never hurt any body. Now, how about Monday night, you can't possibly want to practice in this weather..." "I can't, Professor, I've got — er — an appointment with Professor Dumbledore that evening."

"Unlucky again!" cried Slughorn dramatically. "Ah, well...you can't evade me forever, Harry!" And with a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop, taking as little notice of Ron as though he had been a display of Cockroach Clusters.

"I can't believe you've wriggled out of another one," said Hermione, shaking her head. "They're not that bad, you know...They're even quite fun sometimes..." "The food is good." I said on reflex.

"And if you come, you might finally see me snap and throttle McLaggen" I smiled, imagining it in my head happily. "Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," said Harry. "It'll be warm." Not long after we ordered Harry called out. "Mundungus!"

The squat, bandy-legged man with long, straggly, ginger hair jumped and dropped an ancient suitcase, which burst open, releasing what looked like the entire contents of a junk shop window. "Oh, 'ello, 'Arry," said Mundungus Fletcher, with a most unconvincing stab at airiness.

"Well, don't let me keep ya." And he began scrabbling on the ground to retrieve the contents of his suitcase. "What's the hurry Fletcher?" I said, bending down to his level, his eyes widened. "Nothin' just busy is all" I nodded.

"Are you selling this stuff?" asked Harry, watching Mundungus grab an assortment of grubby looking objects from the ground. "Oh, well, gotta scrape a living," said Mundungus. "Gimme that!" Ron had stooped down and picked up something silver. "Hang on," Ron said slowly. "This looks familiar —"

"Thank you!" said Mundungus, snatching the goblet out of Ron's hand and stuffing it back into the case. "Well, I'll see you all — OUCH!" Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat.

Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand, I did the same, trusting his judgement more then I'd ever trust Dung. "Harry!" squealed Hermione. "You took that from Sirius's house," said Harry, who was almost nose to nose with Mundungus. "That had the Black family crest on it."

"I — no — what —?" spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple. "What did you do, go back the night he died and strip the place?" snarled Harry. "I — no —" "Give it to me!" "Harry, you mustn't!" shrieked Hermione, as Mundungus started to turn blue.

"Dung, you've outdone yourself, you're an even worse scumbag then I thought" I said angrily, pointing my wand at his forehead. As I looked to Harry for a plan going forward there was a bang, Harry hands flew off Mundungus's throat.

I stumbled back from the force and landed harshly on my backside. Gasping and spluttering, Mundungus seized his fallen case, I managed to get off one spell, the first thing I thought of "Reducto!"

"CRACK" At first, I thought I had reduced him to ash, which would have been very disturbing, but then I saw the gash in the stone on the back of the pub wall. I cursed at myself for letting him get away. He Disapparated.

Harry swore at the top of his voice, "COME BACK, YOU THIEVING —!" "There's no point, Harry." Tonks had appeared out of nowhere, her mousy hair wet with sleet. "Mundungus will probably be in London by now. There's no point yelling."

"The next time I see him he's dead!" I groaned, Tonks scoffed, "You sound like your mum" she smiled. "He's nicked Sirius's stuff! Nicked it!" Harry yelled.

"Yes, but still," said Tonks, who seemed perfectly untroubled by this piece of information. "You should get out of the cold." She watched the others go through the door of the Three Broomsticks.

She then caught my arm as I was about to enter and said "Can I have a word?" shivering, I said, "Cold" she sighed and pulled me in the back alley again. Hermione saw this and said "Go on, I'll get you a drink."

After I was pulled in the alley, Tonks basically gave me a pat down and was checking me for any injuries, asking me about school, "Are you eating enough?" I sighed and chuckled, "I live in Hogwarts, of course I am."

She nodded but squinted at me and started looking at my face as if she had never met me. I sighed having enough of standing in the cold "T, I'm fine, promise. You don't have to check up on me all the time" she frowned.

"Have you been getting into trouble? You better not lie, I'll ask Dumbledore" she said half sternly. I thought for a second, "Shockingly, not really" she frowned at me again, "How are you handling N.E.W.T.? If you need help just ask-" she rambled, getting closer to me.

As she did I squished her face in my now frozen hand, cutting her off "I'm. Fine." She pulled away, her cheeks puffing up quite literally, like a puffer fish. Then she nodded, "Then my job here is done."

I nodded and asked, "How's it going with Professor Lupin" she made an unpleasant face, "Professor..." she said the word as if it tasted terrible in her mouth. "I didn't peg you as a teachers pet T" I smirked, she turned crimson, again, quite literally, and playfully shoved me.

Once she had composed herself she turned, "Well then, guess I'll be off." I pulled her into a hug quickly, "Just because Mum is gone doesn't mean I can't take care of myself. I'm a big boy, no matter what Moody thinks."

"But I do appreciate this, I'm sure she does as well," I added, releasing my hug, "Tell Remus I said hello" I said, chuckling and emphasising the name. Tonks nodded and darted off down the road. With a final shudder of cold I made my way inside.

The first thing I saw was Harry was still fuming as Hermione returned to the table holding three bottles of butterbeer and a pumpkin juice. "Can't the Order control Mundungus?" Harry demanded in a furious whisper.

"Can't they at least stop him stealing everything that's not nailed down when he's at headquarters?" "Personally, I don't think Dung would be held back by some nails" I said, joining them at the table

"Shh!" said Hermione desperately, looking around to make sure nobody was listening; there were a couple of warlocks sitting close by who were staring at Harry with great interest, and Zabini was lolling against a pillar not far away.

"Harry, I'd be annoyed too, I know it's your things he's stealing —" "Yeah, it's my stuff!" he said. "No wonder he wasn't pleased to see me! Well, I'm going to tell Dumbledore what's going on, he's the only one who scares Mundungus."

"Good idea," whispered Hermione, clearly pleased that Harry was calming down. "Ron, what are you staring at?" "Nothing," said Ron, hastily looking away from the bar, "I expect 'nothing's' in the back getting more firewhisky," said Hermione

"Ron, you should really focus on people your own age" I nudged him towards a frozen looking Lavender Brown in the corner of the pub. He ignored me. He turned to me instead, "What did Tonks want?"

I shrugged, "Nothing too important, Tonks, Moody and Shacklebolt have made a habit of checking up on me every couple of weeks to make sure I haven't burnt the school down" He seemed to catch on and nodded.

The moment Harry drained the last drops in his bottle I said, "Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?" We nodded; it had not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse the longer we stayed.

Once again, we drew our cloaks tightly around us, rearranged our scarves and pulled on our gloves, we followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street.

I spent the next few minutes having a snowball fight with Hermione. It took a while to goad her into it, but after a well-placed snowball to the back of her neck, she smirked and started giggling evilly, using her wand to bombard me with a barrage of perfectly formed snowballs.

"That's cheating! Guys help!" I pleaded to Harry and Ron, they nodded and I had a glimpse of hope, then I saw the look on their faces and realised my mistake.

Suddenly I was nearly buried in snow as the others pelted me and laughed their heads off. "I'll get you for this!" I promised through chattering teeth as my vision was obscured by snow.

After I checked myself for frostbite I noticed the two girls were having an argument about something Katie was holding in her hand. "It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.

To my horror, Katie rose into the air, not as Ron had done, suspended comically by the ankle, but gracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she was about to fly. If I couldn't see her face, I would have said it was impressive, but something was wrong...something eerie.

Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed, and her face was quite empty of expression. The four of us and Leanne had all halted in our tracks, watching. Then, six feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream.

Her eyes flew open but whatever she could see, or whatever she was feeling, was clearly causing her terrible anguish. She screamed and screamed; Leanne started to scream too and seized Katie's ankles, trying to tug her back to the ground.

I froze up. Despite the sane and courageous part of my brain telling me that she needed my help, that I was tall enough to reach her, I was rooted to the spot, a half formed snowball still stuck to my partially outstretched hand, my heartbeat thumping in my ears. Much to my relief, the others were not quite as shaken.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed forward to help, my own stupor ending as I saw them go forward, we grabbed Katie's legs, she fell on top of us; Me, Harry and Ron managed to catch her, but she was writhing so much we could hardly hold her.

We lowered her to the ground where she thrashed and screamed, I drew my wand and tried to heal her, but there was nothing to heal, she wasn't injured, she was just in a horrible agony. "Finite Incantatum!" I tried hopefully, there was no change.

The others rushed to action too, Harry looked around "Stay there!" he shouted over the howling wind. "I'm going for help!" He began to sprint toward the school. Half a minute later a booming voice cut through the harsh wind "Get back!" shouted Hagrid. "Lemme see her!"

"Something's happened to her!" sobbed Leanne. "I don't know what —" Hagrid stared at Katie for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, Katie's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.

Hermione hurried over to Katie's wailing friend and put an arm around her. "It's Leanne, isn't it?" The girl nodded. "Did it just happen all of a sudden, or —?"

"It was when that package tore," sobbed Leanne, pointing at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glitter, I recognised it. Ron bent down, his hand out-stretched, but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back. "Don't touch it!"

An ornate opal necklace was visible, poking out of the paper. "I've seen that before," said Harry, staring at the thing. "Borgin and Burkes" I said in understanding, it was cursed. "Katie must have touched it." He looked up at Leanne, who had started to shake uncontrollably.

"How did Katie get hold of this?" "Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it."

"She looked all funny when she said it...Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realise!" Leanne shook with renewed sobs. Hermione patted her shoulder gently."She didn't say who'd given it to her, Leanne?"

"No...she wouldn't tell me...and I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to school, but she just wouldn't listen and...and then I tried to grab it from her...and — and —" Leanne let out a wail of despair. Like Hermione, I bent down to Leanne's level, giving her a small smile.

"Look at me, you couldn't have known, don't blame yourself, she's going to be fine and your going to laugh about this when it's over" I widened my smile and helped her to her to her feet.

Admittedly, there was a hint of magic in my words, nothing invasive or too powerful, just some feelings to put her at ease. She tearfully nodded.

"We'd better get up to school," said Hermione, her arm still around Leanne. "We'll be able to find out how she is. Come on..." Harry hesitated for a moment, then pulled his scarf from around his face and, ignoring Ron's gasp, carefully covered the necklace in it and picked it up.

"We'll need to show this to Madam Pomfrey," he said. "Don't hold it idiot!" I said, using my wand to levitate it in front of us, to avoid contact with it at all costs. They had just entered the grounds when Harry was back on his conspiracy stories.

"Malfoy knows about this necklace. It was in a case at Borgin and Burkes four years ago, I saw him having a good look at it while I was hiding from him and his dad. This is what he was buying that day when we followed him! He remembered it and he went back for it!"

"You know about it too, by that logic, you gave it to her Harry" "I — I dunno, Harry," said Ron hesitantly. "Loads of people go to Borgin and Burkes...and didn't that girl say Katie got it in the girls' bathroom?"

"She said she came back from the bathroom with it, she didn't necessarily get it in the bathroom itself —" "McGonagall!" said Ron warningly. Sure enough, Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet them. "Hagrid says you five saw what happened to Katie Bell — upstairs to my office at once, please! What's that you have (L/N)?"

"It's the thing she touched," said Harry. "Good lord," said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace. "No, no, Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily, as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft.

"Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf!" We followed Professor McGonagall upstairs and into her office. The sleet spattered windows were rattling in their frames, and the room was chilly despite the fire crackling in the grate.

Professor McGonagall closed the door and swept around her desk to face me, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the still sobbing Leanne. "Well?" she said sharply. "What happened?"

Leanne told Professor McGonagall everything, going into such vivid detail it finally hit me that Katie might die from this. At this point, Leanne was so overcome, there was no getting another word out of her.

"All right," said Professor McGonagall, not unkindly, "go up to the hospital wing, please, Leanne, and get Madam Pomfrey to give you something for shock." When she had left the room, Professor McGonagall turned back to us.

She sighed heavily, looking between us, "Why is it whenever there is trouble... it's always you four...?" I barely held in a smirk despite the seriousness of the situation, Ron spoke first, "Believe me Professor. I've been asking myself the same question for six years." This thought broke me, and I half stifled a very inappropriate and nervous chuckle.

"What happened when Katie touched the necklace?" "She rose up in the air," said Harry, before we could speak, "and then began to scream, and collapsed. Professor, can I see Professor Dumbledore, please?" "The headmaster is away until Monday, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, looking surprised.

"Away?" Harry repeated angrily. "Yes, Potter, away!" said Professor McGonagall tartly. "But anything you have to say about this horrible business can be said to me, I'm sure!" For a split second, Harry hesitated. "I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor."

I sighed deeply almost cringing really. "That is a very serious accusation, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, after a shocked pause. "Do you have any proof?" "No," said Harry, "but..." and he told her about following Malfoy to Borgin and Burkes "Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"

"No, Professor, he just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something, he didn't have it with him. But that's not the point, the thing is that he bought something at the same time, and I think it was that necklace —" "You saw Malfoy leaving the shop with a similar package?" "No, Professor, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him —"

"But Harry," Hermione interrupted, "Borgin asked him if he wanted to take it with him, and Malfoy said no —" "Because he didn't want to touch it, obviously!" said Harry angrily. "What he actually said was, 'How would I look carrying that down the street?'" said Hermione.

"Well, he would look a bit of a prat carrying a necklace," interjected Ron. "She means it was wrapped up genius, he didn't have to wear it!" I snapped, more frustrated with Harry then Ron.

She nodded "I asked Borgin about the necklace, don't you remember? When I went in to try and find out what Malfoy had asked him to keep, I saw it there. And Borgin just told me the price, he didn't say it was already sold or anything —"

"Well, you were being really obvious, he realised what you were up to within about five seconds, of course he wasn't going to tell you — anyway, Malfoy could've sent off for it since—"

"That's enough!" said Professor McGonagall, as Hermione opened her mouth to retort, looking furious. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people-" Harry opened his mouth to argue.

"— and what is more," said Professor McGonagall, with an air of awful finality, "Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today." Harry gaped at her, deflating. "How do you know, Professor?" "Because he was doing detention with me. He has now failed to complete his Transfiguration homework twice in a row."

"So, thank you for telling me your suspicions, Potter," she said as she marched past them, "but I need to go up to the hospital wing now to check on Katie Bell. Good day to you all." She held open her office door.

I sighed internally, "Me and my big mouth" I muttered, realising I had jinxed myself earlier when I was talking to Tonks. "See you the next time something mental happens professor," I waved as we left.