(Y/N)'s POV

Patches of bright blue sky were beginning to appear over the castle turrets, but these signs of approaching summer did not lift Harry's mood. He was still determined to catch Malfoy but had given no indication of a change in his plan other then asking the door extra nicely.

He had been thwarted, both in his attempts to find out what Malfoy was doing, and in his efforts to start a conversation with Slughorn that might lead, somehow, to Slughorn handing over the memory he had apparently suppressed for decades.

"For the last time, just forget about Malfoy," Hermione told Harry firmly. We were sitting with Ron in a sunny corner of the courtyard after lunch. Hermione and Ron were both clutching a Ministry of Magic leaflet called 'Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.'

They were pretty self explanatory if you ask me, don't fidget, keep yourself from getting distracted, make sure you clearly envision your desired location, stuff like that. But I suppose if it made them feel a little better it couldn't hurt.

We were taking our tests this very afternoon, but by and large the leaflets had not proved soothing to the nerves. At least not mine anyway, so much so I let Bones use it as a fort at first, then a pillow and then a fun toy to shred afterwards.

I was just going over the three D's with Ron when a small girl jogged up to us, looking very out of breath and flustered. "Harry Potter?" said the girl. "I was asked to give you this." "Thanks..." said Harry as he took the small scroll of parchment.

"Which d'you reckon that one was, Crabbe or Goyle?" I chuckled to Harry. Once the girl was out of earshot he said, "Dumbledore said we wouldn't be having any more lessons until I got the memory!"

"Maybe he wants to check on how you're doing?" suggested Hermione, "Ohhh, someone's in trouble" I snickered as Harry unrolled the parchment. Harry read it quickly, let out a sigh and said "Look at this," handing the note to Hermione.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," she said, scanning it quickly and passing it to Ron, who read it through looking increasingly incredulous. "He's mental!" he said furiously. He passed it to me and I read it.

Taking note of the tears on the paper, I already had a feeling what it was going to be based on context but my suspicions were confirmed as I tried to decipher Hagrid's handwriting.

"Dear Harry, Ron, (Y/N) and Hermione! Aragog died last night. Harry, (Y/N) and Ron, you met him and you know how special he was. Hermione, I know you'd have liked him. It would mean a lot to me if you'd nip down for the burial later this evening."

"I'm planning on doing it round dusk, that was his favourite time of day. I know you're not supposed to be out that late, but you can use the cloak. Wouldn't ask, but I can't face it alone. Hagrid"

Ron was clearly not impressed and made no attempt to hide the fact he would rather get splinched then go down to Hagrid's hut that evening. I don't blame him, I didn't exactly have the fondest memories of Aragog from my childhood.

"That thing told its mates to eat us! Told them to help themselves! And now Hagrid expects us to go down there and cry over its horrible hairy body!" "It's not just that," said Hermione. "He's asking us to leave the castle at night and he knows security's a million times tighter and how much trouble we'd be in if we were caught."

They were both very valid points and admittedly the thought of not going did sound tempting, but still part of me felt wrong. I remember how upset Hagrid was when nobody came to Care of Magical Creatures.

I couldn't imagine how upset he'd be having to go through this alone, I know I couldn't have gone through what I did without Dad, so before I could talk myself out of it I said. "I'm going," I held up a hand to Hermione as she started to protest.

"I'm going, Hagrid's done a lot for me, he's my teacher and my friend, I'm doing this for him, not Aragog" "We've been down to see him by night before," reasoned Harry. "Yes, but for something like this?" said Hermione.

"We've risked a lot to help Hagrid out, but after all, Aragog's dead. If it were a question of saving him-" "- I'd want to go even less," said Ron firmly. "Hermione, this is Binky all over again, just because it's not important to you doesn't mean it's not important."

She frowned at me, she always hated when I brought up the rabbit. She pouted and said "I suppose you're right" But Ron was just not having it, his arachnophobia was blatantly obvious. "You didn't meet him, Hermione. Believe me, being dead will have improved him a lot."

"It's such a pointless thing to get detention for." said Hermione. "As opposed to all the other pointless stuff I get detentions for, funerals aren't pointless." I said finally. Harry sighed, part of him clearly wanted to agree with her.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "I s'pose Hagrid'll have to bury Aragog without us." "Yes, he will," said Hermione, looking relieved. "Wow, real nice guys, now I really look forward to my own funeral, I'm sure Neville will show up at least, If I'm lucky and he's got nothing going on" I said glumly.

They had already moved on to a different topic. "Look, Potions will be almost empty this afternoon, with us all off doing our tests...Try and soften Slughorn up a bit then!" "Fifty-seventh time lucky, you think?" said Harry bitterly.

"Lucky," said Ron suddenly. "Harry, that's it, get lucky!" "What d'you mean?" "Use your lucky potion!" "Ron, that's...that's it!" said Hermione, sounding stunned. "Ron, you never cease to amaze me!" I said, forgetting about Hagrid in my excitement.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of it?" Harry stared at them both. "Felix Felicis?" he said. "I dunno...I was sort of saving it..." He averted his eyes as if this meant that his argument for saving it was sound.

"What for?" demanded Ron incredulously. "What on earth is more important than this memory, Harry?" asked Hermione. Harry did not answer. But we all knew it was Draco Malfoy. He must have started daydreaming about catching him, because he stared at us blankly for five seconds at least.

"Harry? Are you still with us?" asked Hermione. "Wha —? Yeah, of course," he said, pulling himself together. "Well...okay. If I can't get Slughorn to talk this afternoon, I'll take some Felix and have another go this evening."

"That's decided, then," said Hermione briskly, getting to her feet and performing a graceful pirouette. I gave her a small round of applause. "Destination...determination...deliberation..." she murmured. "Oh, stop that," Ron begged her, "I feel sick enough as it is"

"You'll do fine, you've improved loads" I tried to comfort him. I tried to do a similar pirouette, it didn't go well and I landed harshly on my backside. This cheered Ron up quite a bit. "You're so graceful (Y/N)" he said through heaving laughs, "And don't you ever forget it" I laughed with him.

We were all in high spirits until Ron saw two girls crying off to the left of us. "Blimey, they don't look happy, do they?" "They're the Montgomery sisters and of course they don't look happy, didn't you hear what happened to their little brother?" said Hermione.

"Oh," was all I managed to choke out, recalling the rumour that was circling Hogwarts earlier this week. "I'm losing track of what's happening to everyone's relatives, to be honest," said Ron. "Well, their brother was attacked by a werewolf."

"The rumour is that their mother refused to help the Death Eaters. Anyway, the boy was only five and he died in St. Mungos, they couldn't save him." "Guys can we stop talking about this ple-" I started before Harry spoke over me, not hearing my plea.

"He died?" repeated Harry, shocked. "But surely werewolves don't kill, they just turn you into one of them?" "They sometimes kill," said Ron, who looked unusually grave now. "I've heard of it happening when the werewolf gets carried away."

"Most of the time it's an accident" I defended, thinking of Lupin. "But yeah, it happens." "What was the werewolf's name?" said Harry quickly. "Well, the rumour is that it was that Fenrir Greyback," said Hermione.

"I knew it, the maniac who likes attacking kids, the one Lupin told me about!" said Harry angrily. I wanted nothing more then to go over and try and help them, to offer sympathies and a shoulder to cry on, but I knew it wouldn't help, strangers offering sympathies could never help as much as I hoped it would.

Instead, I tried to help in a different way, to ease their pain a bit, I made a mental connection with the both of them, presenting them with happier memories of their brother, something they could hold onto, remembering the good times.

I don't know how much it would ease their pain, but It helped me with Mum and (B/N) so I had hopes of helping them. I didn't realise I was crying until Hermione looked at me in a panic, "What's wrong!"

I couldn't speak, so I just held out my hand as a way of saying I was fine, she took it and turned to Harry. Hermione looked at him bleakly. "Harry, you've got to get that memory," she said. "It's all about stopping Voldemort, isn't it? These dreadful things that are happening are all down to him..."

The bell rang overhead in the castle and both Hermione and Ron jumped to their feet, looking terrified. I was pretty nervous too, I'd had dreams of the instructors laughing at me when I apparate out of my clothes, then I run into the bathroom out of embarrassment and get eaten by a dragon.

But if that happened during the test, I'm pretty sure it'd be a write off. I was lucky I had Hermione with me, she calmed my nerves exponentially. Even Ron being here helped, it was a good way of tricking my nerves and just acting as if it was any other day with Apparition in the afternoon.

"You'll do fine," Harry told us, as we headed toward the entrance hall to meet the rest of the people taking their Apparition Test. "Good luck." "And you too!" said Hermione with a significant look, as Harry headed off to the dungeons.

Upon entering there was a man with a clipboard who went down the line of participants and said, "Name, house, date of birth?" It was only when he got to me and I had to pass him my certificate that I realised I hadn't told the others that I was of age yet.

"Interesting..." he gave it a once over and said "You may proceed" Ron harshly elbowed me when he was out of our earshot, sending me a look that clearly said "What was that about?" I shook my head as if to say i'd tell him later.

The test itself was pretty simple and I realised I needn't have worried. Twycross was here, overlooking us, and when It was my turn I started mouthing the three D's to myself, regardless of the fact I had apparated flawlessly in almost every other instance I've had to.

The examiner called out, "On my whistle, you are to do a full body apparition to this specified position, clear?" I nodded, looking at my destination, I closed my eyes and waited until I heard the sharp blow of the whistle.

Upon hearing it, I apparated to that spot, opening my eyes. I looked down at myself and went to celebrate the fact I looked entirely intact but that was when I was rushed by several examiners.

I was expecting to be missing a body part...again, but instead they took turns looking me over for any hidden injuries and then all clapped me on the back and congratulated me for perfect form, It was odd, I didn't even know there was a form I was meant to follow.

After an anxious few minutes of waiting Hermione came out of her test beaming and hopping up and down happily, "Perfect they said, flying colours!" "That's brilliant!" I said, pulling her into a cuddle.

We celebrated happily until Ron came out of his looking absolutely livid and missing half an eyebrow, we had to hide our excitement out of pity for him, but I was buzzing on the inside.

Ron angrily demanded an explanation as to what happened earlier, figuring it was not a good time to upset him, I showed him a certificate and explained what Moody had done for me.

Hermione had an eyebrow raised, but was smirking, which knowing her, meant she was proud of herself for deducing the truth in her head. But both of hem continued to guilt me for not telling them.

We returned in the late afternoon. "Harry!" cried Hermione as she climbed through the portrait hole. "Harry, I passed!" He looked to me "Crushed it" I smiled. "Well done!" he said. "And Ron?" "He...he just failed," whispered Hermione, as Ron came slouching into the room looking most morose.

"He was this close" I said, almost connecting my thumb and forefinger. "It was really unlucky, a tiny thing, the examiner just spotted that he'd left half an eyebrow behind...How did it go with Slughorn?"

"No joy," said Harry, as Ron joined us. "Bad luck, mate, but you'll pass next time, we can take it together." "Yeah, I s'pose," said Ron grumpily. "But half an eyebrow, like that matters!"

"They're just being safe" I reasoned, probably not helping his mood, but thinking logically, "half an eyebrow today could be half an eye next time, or half a throat, You need to be as safe as possible so they don't pass you if you splinch anything."

"I know," said Hermione, "But it does seem really harsh..." We spent most of dinner roundly abusing the Apparition examiner, and Ron looked fractionally more cheerful by the time they set off back to the common room,

"I think (Y/N) has some news for you Harry" Hermione prompted, I sighed, "I'm pregnant. It's yours." He didn't seem impressed, "Fine, I'm lying...IT'S HERMIONE'S!" she slapped the back of my head.

"He's come of age and didn't think to mention it." She explained, "I was getting there! You kept interrupting my process" I sulked. "What..." Harry said dumbfounded, doing the maths in his head, I passed him my certificate, figuring it would be a better explanation.

"Why didn't you say!" he demanded, "Didn't think it was that big a deal." He stuttered "But you could have...I mean you might have..." he started and stopped, "Exactly, what could I do in Hogwarts I couldn't already do?"

"Since when?" he asked, "Few weeks ago" I shrugged. He sighed, rubbing his face and just moved on, passing my certificate back. For now he more focused on discussing the continuing problem of Slughorn and the memory.

Which surprisingly he had put off until today, the exact day of Aragog's funeral, strange. "So, Harry, you going to use the Felix Felicis or what?" Ron demanded. "Yeah, I s'pose I'd better," said Harry.

"I don't reckon I'll need all of it, not twelve hours' worth, it can't take all night...I'll just take a mouthful. Two or three hours should do it." "It's a great feeling when you take it," said Ron reminiscently."Like you can't do anything wrong."

"What are you talking about?" said Hermione, laughing. "You've never taken any!" "Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. "Same difference really..." I shook my head, "Ron, you're delusional, just go to bed now."

We lingered for a while in the common room, the plan being that Harry should go to Slughorns office once the teacher had had time to get back there. When the sun had sunk to the level of the treetops in the Forbidden Forest, we decided the moment had come.

"Well, here goes," said Harry, and he raised the little bottle and look a carefully measured gulp. "What does it feel like?" whispered Hermione. Harry did not answer for a moment.

"Excellent," he said. "Really excellent. Right...I'm going down to Hagrid's." He said, reminding me of my obligation to do the same. "What?" said Ron and Hermione together, looking aghast. "No, Harry — you've got to go and see Slughorn, remember?" said Hermione.

"No," said Harry confidently. "I'm going to Hagrid's, I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's." "You've got a good feeling about burying a giant spider?" asked Ron, looking stunned.

"Yeah," said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag. "I feel like it's the place to be tonight, you know what I mean?" "No," said Ron and Hermione together, both looking positively alarmed now.

"This is Felix Felicis, I suppose?" said Hermione anxiously, holding up the bottle to the light. "You haven't got another little bottle full of — I don't know —" "Essence of Insanity?" suggested Ron, as Harry swung his cloak over his shoulders. "Does Felix ever go off?" I wondered

Harry laughed, and Ron and Hermione looked even more alarmed. "Trust me," he said. "I know what I'm doing...or at least" he strolled confidently to the door "Felix does." He pulled the Invisibility Cloak over his head and set off down the stairs.

Getting through the portrait hole was simple; as he approached it, Ginny and Dean came through it, and Harry was able to slip between them. As he did so, he brushed accidentally against Ginny. "Don't push me, please, Dean," she said, sounding annoyed.

"You're always doing that, I can get through perfectly well on my own..." The portrait swung closed behind Harry as he strode off through the castle.

"Well, guess that really is lucky, I'm off too then" I said, pulling on the jacket of my best robes so I could go down to see Aragog myself. "What're you getting dressed up for" said Ron, "It's a funeral" I reasoned, feeling like I was stating the obvious.

"For a poxy spider" he argued back. "For a friend that Hagrid has known all its life and something he has a deep emotional connection with...who was also a spider" He just shrugged and went off to find Lavender.

"See you later" I kissed Hermione, then used a charm to make sure my clothes were all black. A spell I hadn't used since the last funeral I attended. Hermione was pacing already, I rubbed her cheek gently "Don't worry, I'll watch him, that memory is as good as ours. I'm just gonna pay my respects and I'll head right back."

I used the disillusionment charm on myself and was actually very impressed at the results, I guess I was getting stronger because I was next to invisible. I could only see the faintest of shimmers when I looked at my hands, after a few seconds of praising myself, I made my way down to Hagrids hut.

I overheard Harry's arrival as I made my way down the grounds "Yeh came," croaked Hagrid, when he opened the door and saw Harry emerging from the Invisibility Cloak in front of him. "Yeah, Ron and Hermione couldn't, though," said Harry. "They're really sorry."

"Don...don matter...Hed've bin touched yeh're here, though, Harry..." Hagrid gave a great sob. "(Y/N)'s here too," said Harry, somehow turning to the exact spot I was stood in at that moment.

"I'm sorry for your loss Hagrid, I know he meant a lot to you" I said as my spell faded. He sobbed openly but nodded, pulling us both into a hug. He had made himself a black armband out of what looked like a rag dipped in boot polish, and his eyes were puffy, red, and swollen.

Harry patted him consolingly on the elbow, which was the highest point of Hagrid he could easily reach. I settled for the forearm. "Where are we burying him?" Harry asked. "The forest?" "Blimey, no," said Hagrid, wiping his streaming eyes on the bottom of his shirt.

"The other spiders won' let me anywhere near their webs now Aragog's gone. Turns out it was only on his orders they didn' eat me! Can yeh believe that?" The honest answer was "yes" but out of politeness both me and Harry acted shocked at this revelation.

"Really, wow, what's the world come to nowadays?" I said rigidly. They had been quite clear that Aragog was the only thing that stopped them from eating Hagrid. "Never bin an area o' the forest I couldn' go before!" said Hagrid, shaking his head.

"It wasn' easy, gettin' Aragog's body out o' there, I can tell yeh, they usually eat their dead, see...But I wanted ter give 'im a nice burial...a proper send-off..." I nodded, "I'm sure he would have appreciated it Hagrid."

He broke into sobs again and Harry resumed the patting of his elbow, saying as he did so "Professor Slughorn met me coming down here, Hagrid." "Not in trouble, are yeh?" said Hagrid, looking up, alarmed.

"Yeh shouldn' be outta the castle in the evenin', I know it, it's my fault-" "No, no, when he heard what I was doing he said he'd like to come and pay his last respects to Aragog too," said Harry.

"He's gone to change into something more suitable, I think...and he said he'd bring some bottles so we can drink to Aragog's memory..." "Did he?" said Hagrid, looking both astonished and touched.

"Tha's...tha's righ' nice of him, that is, an' not turnin' yeh in either. I've never really had a lot ter do with Horace Slughorn before...Comin' ter see old Aragog off, though, eh? Well...he'd've liked that, Aragog would..."

"Giving more alcohol to students, because it went so well last time" I muttered under my breath as we were led to the rear window of Hagrid's hut.

There, was the rather horrible sight of the enormous dead spider lying on its back outside, its legs curled and tangled. "Are we going to bury him here, Hagrid, in your garden?"

"Jus' beyond the pumpkin patch, I thought," said Hagrid in a choked voice. "I've already dug the, yeh know, grave. Jus' thought we'd say a few nice things over him...happy memories, yeh know" His voice quivered and broke, I pat him on the back.

"Just let it out mate...It's what he would have wanted" I said vaguely, not knowing what Aragog would really want other then to eat most of the people in attendance, speaking of which.

There was a knock on the door, and Slughorn hurried over the threshold, several bottles in his arms, and wearing a sombre black cravat. But something in his eyes was oddly gleeful, as if he was expecting something good to come of this funeral.

"Hagrid," he said, in a deep, grave voice. "So very sorry to hear of your loss." "Tha's very nice of yeh," said Hagrid. "Thanks a lot. An' thanks fer not givin Harry an' (Y/N) detention neither..."

Slughorn seemed surprised to see me but got over his shock quickly "Wouldn't have dreamed of it," said Slughorn. "Sad night, sad night...Where is the poor creature?"

"Out here," said Hagrid in a shaking voice. "Shall we...shall we do it, then?" The three of them stepped out into the back garden and I followed as Fang nipped at my heels sadly. "See ya in a bit you dope" I said, scratching his ears quickly.

The moon was glistening palely through the trees now, and its rays mingled with the light spilling from Hagrid's window to illuminate Aragogs body lying on the edge of a massive pit beside a ten-foot- high mound of freshly dug earth.

"Magnificent," said Slughorn, approaching the spiders head, where eight milky eyes stared blankly at the sky and two huge, curved pincers shone, motionless, in the moonlight.

Despite knowing he was dead, seeing him still kind of made me want to run away and creeped me out more then a little. Memories from my second year of a hungry mass of spiders that I had tried to forget suddenly rushing to the forefront of my mind.

Slughorn bent over the pincers, apparently examining the enormous hairy head. "Its not ev'ryone appreciates how beau'iful they are' said Hagrid to Slughorn's back, tears leaking from the corners of his crinkled eyes.

"Seriously misunderstood creatures, spiders are" he explained, not knowing what to do, I just nodded. "I's the eyes I reckon' they unnerve some folk." said Hagrid truthfully, "And the way they move" I muttered, trying my best to avoid shuddering.

"Not to mention the pincers" tacked on Harry, making motions and clicking sounds with his fingers sounding as if he had already started drinking.

"Yeah, I reckon that too." said Hagrid didn't seem to either notice or care about Harry's strange behaviour. "I didn' know yeh were interested in creatures like Aragog, Horace."

"Interested? My dear Hagrid, I revere them," said Slughorn, stepping back from the body. "Now...shall we proceed to the burial?" Hagrid nodded and moved forward.

He heaved the gigantic spider into his arms and, with an enormous grunt, rolled it into the dark pit. It hit the bottom with a rather horrible, crunchy thud. Hagrid started to cry again.

"Of course, it's difficult for you, who knew him best," said Slughorn, who like Harry could reach no higher than Hagrid's elbow, but patted it all the same.

"Why don't I say a few words?" He seemed oddly chipper for a funeral, he wore a satisfied smirk as he stepped up to the rim of the pit and said, in a slow, impressive voice.

"Farewell, Aragog, king of arachnids, whose long and faithful friendship those who knew you won't forget! Though your body will decay, your spirit lingers on in the quiet, web-spun places of your forest home. May your many-eyed descendants ever flourish and your human friends find solace for the loss they have sustained."

"Tha was...tha was...beau'iful!" howled Hagrid, and he collapsed onto the compost heap, crying harder than ever. "There, there," said Slughorn, waving his wand so that the huge pile of earth rose up and then fell, with a muffled sort of crash, onto the dead spider, forming a smooth mound.

"Lets get inside and have a drink. Get on his other side, Harry...That's it...Up you come, Hagrid...Well done..." "Cmon mate, up you get" I said, seizing Hagrid under the arms and directing him towards the hut, we deposited Hagrid in a chair at the table.

Fang, who had been skulking in his basket during the burial, now came padding softly across to us and put his heavy head into my lap as usual. Slughorn uncorked one of the bottles of wine he had brought.

"I have had it all tested for poison," he assured Harry, pouring most of the first bottle into one of Hagrid's bucket-sized mugs and handing it to Hagrid. "Had a house-elf taste every bottle after what happened to your poor friend Rupert."

"Sorry, what was that!" I said spitefully, trying to remain somewhat calm due to the circumstances but failing because I was absolutely livid. "I...I had the antidotes at hand of course" he stuttered, "Yes, I'm sure you did."

"One for Harry... One for (Y/N)" said Slughorn, dividing a second bottle between two mugs and pressing mine into me before I could protest, "...and one for me. Well"— he raised his mug high — "to Aragog."

"Aragog," said Harry, Hagrid and I together. Both Slughorn and Hagrid drank deeply. I pretended to take a mouthful and then poured my drink into Hagrids mug as he dabbed his eyes with his tablecloth sized handkerchief "I had him from an egg, yeh know," said Hagrid morosely.

"'Tiny little thing he was when he hatched. 'Bout the size of a Pekingese" "Sweet," said Slughorn. "Used ter keep him in a cupboard up at the school until...well..."

"Sweet. I once had a fish. Francis. Lovely little thing. One day I came downstairs and he'd vanished. Poof." A drunk Hagrid seemed immensely perplexed by this, knitting his eyebrows together, "Tha's odd."

"Isn't it? That's life, I suppose. One goes along and then... poof." said Slughorn sadly, reminiscing about Francis, "Poof." said Hagrid sadly, "Poof." nodded Harry, who seemed intent to just watch. They all nodded, looking for a second, as if they were stone cold sober.

Personally, I was more concerned with the image of a dog sized spider. I frowned at Harry, who nodded, remembering our very eventful trip into Aragog's hollow.

Slughorn, however, did not seem to be listening; he was looking up at the ceiling, from which a number of brass pots hung, and also a long, silky skein of bright white hair.

"That's not unicorn hair, Hagrid?" "Oh, yeah," said Hagrid indifferently. "Gets pulled out of their tails, they catch it on branches an' stuff in the forest, yeh know..."

"But my dear chap, do you know how much that's worth?" "I use it fer bindin' on bandages an' stuff if a creature gets injured," said Hagrid, shrugging. "It's dead useful...very strong." Slughorn just nodded into his mug.

He refilled Hagrid's mug and his own, and questioned him about the creatures that lived in the forest these days and how Hagrid was able to look after them all.

Hagrid, becoming expansive under the influence of the drink and Slughorn's flattering interest, stopped mopping his eyes and entered happily into a long explanation of bowtruckle husbandry that was honestly quite interesting when he didn't drunkenly slur his words.

Throughout the night, I'd noticed that the cups that they both took increasingly messy swigs from never seemed to have an end, as well as the bottles they poured from.

At first I thought this was something of Slughorns design, until I found Harry waving his wand at the bottles covertly every so often and I realised this was part of his plan.

After an hour or so, Hagrid and Slughorn began making extravagant toasts: to Hogwarts, to Dumbledore, to elf-made wine, and to..."Harry Potter!" bellowed Hagrid, slopping some of his fourteenth bucket of wine down his chin as he drained it.

"Yes, indeed," cried Slughorn a little thickly, "Parry Otter, the Chosen Boy Who...well... something of that sort," he mumbled, and drained his mug too.

Not long after this, Hagrid became tearful again and pressed the whole unicorn tail upon Slughorn, who pocketed it with cries of, "To friendship! To generosity! To ten Galleons a hair!"

And for a while after that, Hagrid and Slughorn were sitting side by side, arms around each other, singing a slow sad song about a dying wizard called Odo.

"Aaargh, the good die young," muttered Hagrid, slumping low onto the table, a little cross-eyed, while Slughorn continued to warble the refrain.

"Me dad was no age ter go...nor were yer mum' an' dad, Harry..." Great fat tears oozed out of the corners of Hagrid's crinkled eyes again; he grasped Harry's arm and shook it

"Bes' wiz and witchard o' their age...I never knew...terrible thing...terrible thing..." "And Odo the hero, they bore him back home To the place that he'd known as a lad," sang Slughorn plaintively.

They laid him to rest with his hat inside out. And his wand snapped in two, which was sad. "...terrible," Hagrid grunted, and his great shaggy head rolled sideways onto his arms and he fell asleep, snoring deeply.

"Sorry," said Slughorn with a hiccup. "Can't carry a tune to save my life." "Hagrid wasn't talking about your singing," said Harry quietly. "He was talking about my mum and dad dying."

"Oh," said Slughorn, repressing a large belch. "Oh dear. Yes, that was — was terrible indeed. Terrible...terrible..." He looked quite at a loss for what to say, and resorted to refilling our mugs. But seemingly not content with silence, he began speaking sadly again.

"It was a student who gave me Francis. One spring afternoon I discovered a bowl upon my desk with a few inches of clear water. There was a flower petal floating upon the surface." he said with wonder as if he was watching the scene unfold in front of him again.

"As I watched, the petal sank, but just before it touched bottom... it transformed. Into a wee fish. It was beautiful magic, wondrous to behold. The petal had come from a lily."

Upon hearing this word Harry looked up, suddenly more interested in the conversation then ever. "Your mother. The day I came downstairs, the day I found the bowl empty... was the day she..."

Slughorn faltered, pain etched onto his face. "I know what you want. But I can't give it to you. It will ruin me..." "I don't — don't suppose you remember it, Harry?" he asked awkwardly. "No — well, I was only one when they died," said Harry.

"But I've found out pretty much what happened since. My dad died first. Did you know that?" "I — I didn't," said Slughorn in a hushed voice. "Yeah...Voldemort murdered him and then stepped over his body toward my mum," said Harry.

Slughorn gave a great shudder, but he did not seem able to tear his horrified gaze away from Harry's face. "He told her to get out of the way," said Harry remorselessly. "He told me she needn't have died. He only wanted me. She could have run."

"Oh dear," breathed Slughorn. "She could have...she needn't...That's awful..." "It is, isn't it?" said Harry, in a voice barely more than a whisper. "But do you know why I survived? The night I got this." Harry asked, pointing to his scar.

"Because of her. Because she sacrificed herself. Because she refused to step aside. Because her love was more powerful than Voldemort." "Please don't say his-" "I'm not afraid of the name, Professor!"

Slughorn gazed into the guttering candle before him. "Professor. I'm going to tell you something, something others have only guessed at. It's true. I am the Chosen One." Slughorn looks up. Harry nods.

"Only I can kill him. But in order to do so, I need to know what Tom Riddle asked you that night in your office all those years ago. And I need to know what you told him." Slughorn's eyes welled with tears, his hands trembled.

"Be brave, Professor. Be brave like my mother. Otherwise you disgrace her. Otherwise she died for nothing. Otherwise, the bowl remains empty forever."

Slughorn shakes his head, staring into the candle. Finally, slowly, he removes his wand. "Don't think too badly of me once you've seen it. You don't know what he was like... even then."

He put his other hand inside his cloak and took out a small, empty bottle. Still looking into Harry's eyes, Slughorn touched the tip of his wand to his temple and withdrew it.

A long, silver thread of memory came away too, clinging to the wand tip. Longer and longer the memory stretched until it broke and swung, silvery bright, from the wand.

Slughorn lowered it into the bottle where it coiled, then spread, swirling like gas. He corked the bottle with a trembling hand and then passed it across the table to Harry. "Thank you very much, Professor."

"You're a good boy," said Professor Slughorn, tears trickling down his fat cheeks into his walrus moustache. And he too put his head on his arms, gave a deep sigh, and fell asleep.

"Right. I'm taking this to Dumbledore right away, I'll meet you in the common room after?" I nodded, looking to a passed out Slughorn, "Yeah, guess I'll drag him back to the castle while I'm going."

Harry did not wait for me to say goodbye, he dashed out the door as fast as he could. Sighing, I cleaned up Hagrids hut, made sure Fang was tended to as well as Buckbeak.

Then, I grasped a still paralytic Slughorn, swung an arm over my shoulder, nearly lifting him off the ground, and headed into the castle.

Supporting someone of Slughorns...dimensions was no easy feat, even for me, so I had to take it slow. Made worse by the fact he seemed unable to support his own weight long enough to move in anything resembling a vaguely straight line.

But this was the best I could do, I was next to useless in getting the memory and spent half of the night stunned into silence. We were halfway there when I heard a voice call out to me, but it wasn't Filch like I expected.

"What are you doing out of bed (L/N)?" squealed Pansy Parkinson, just about the last person I'd expected to see here. I turned to her out of frustration, still holding Slughorn. "Baking a cake...What does it look like I'm bloody doing Parkinson?"

She scowled at me, "What are you  doing out of bed?" I asked. She flushed for a second and stuttered out "I'm a prefect! I was patrolling the grounds!" I was confused, are they even allowed to do that? I thought they had areas near their dorms to patrol, I made a mental note to ask Hermione later.

"On the sixth floor?" I said, "At...one o'clock in the morning?" I said, glancing at my watch. Curious as to her real intentions, I read her surface level thoughts, the most prominent being how much she wanted 'to see what Draco was up to.'

And suddenly everything made sense, she was being a nosy cow and trying to snoop around to see what Malfoy was up to. I realised it was the pot calling the kettle black judging her for it, so I just sighed.

"If you're going to give me a detention just do it so I can leave." I said. She did, but then she led the way for me by wandlight to Slughorns office, surprisingly enough, though I had a sneaking suspicion it was so I didn't tell Draco what she was doing.

Once I entered Slughorns office I put him into an armchair, figuring to be at least marginally more comfortable then Hagrids dining table, and surprisingly found myself saying, "Have a good night's sleep Professor, cheers."

Parkinson found that very amusing but I didn't care, I wanted nothing more then to curl up and go to sleep. "Night Parkinson" I said, making my way tiredly towards my common room. "Night loser" she said before she paced off quickly clearly still embarrassed about being caught.

This evening had been very eye opening for me, even if I was next to useless in acquiring the memory. I didn't really know why but the thought of Lily and James Potter giving there lives hit my heart like it never had before.

Of course I always knew the story, but I had never really grasped it, the impact of a parents love for their child. I made a promise to myself upon hearing it. I was going to complete my charm soon.

So nobody would ever have to suffer like that again, so nobody would have to be without a loved one because of the Killing Curse. I guess in a way, Voldemort was right. I promised myself I'd be a shield.

But not just for Harry, for everyone that I could. I was going to stop people like Voldemort and Dolohov. I was going to protect people. People like Mum, like the Potters, like Cedric Diggory. So despite how much I hated that label at first, now, that doesn't sound too bad to me.