Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Harry wracked his brains over the next week as to how he was to persuade Slughorn to hand over the true memory, but nothing in the nature of a brain wave occurred and he was reduced to doing what he did increasingly these days when at a loss: poring over his Potions book, hoping that the Prince would have scribbled something useful in a margin, as he had done so many times before.

‘I doubt there is a “compel you to give up your memory to me” potion in there,’ said Theodore when he saw Harry flipping through the book once more late on Sunday evening.

‘Very funny, Theo,’ said Harry. ‘If it hadn’t been for the Prince, Tracey wouldn’t be sitting here now.’

‘If you remember what Professor Snape taught us in our very first lesson with him she would,’ replied Theodore.

Harry ignored this comeback. He had just found an incantation (“Sectumsempra!”) scrawled in a margin above the intriguing words:

“For Enemies”

And was itching to try it out, but thought it best not to in front of the others. Instead, he surreptitiously folded down the corner of the page.

They were sitting beside the fire in the common room; the only other people awake were other sixth-years as well as a couple seventh-years. There had been a certain amount of excitement earlier when they had come back from dinner to find a new sign on the notice board that announced the date for their Apparition Test. Those who would be seventeen on or before the first test date, the nineteenth of April, had the option of signing up for additional practice sessions, which would take place (heavily supervised) in Hogsmeade.

Allison’s seventeenth birthday had just passed, and Theodore had been seventeen for months, so of their group Tracey would have to wait for the final test slot in June before the school year ended while Harry would have to book his test through the Ministry to take his test at the end of July or wait until April eighteenth of the following year.

Allison was a little nervous as she had yet to successfully Apparate and wasn’t sure if she’d be ready in less than a month’s time for the test. Theodore, on the other hand, was gaining confidence as in the last lesson he partially succeeded in apparating (he had splinched his left hand), then after he was whole again he managed to do a full successful apparition.

Harry still felt bummed out that he wouldn’t get to take the test with any of his friends though.

‘Well, when you do get to take your test you’ll do great,’ encouraged Allison. ‘All those side-along apparitions seemed to have helped you.’

‘I’ve only done it on my own once,’ Harry reminded her; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during their previous lesson.

‘That’s one more than me,’ said Allison stoically with a shrug.

‘You’ll do great, beautiful,’ said Harry. He had been experimenting with terms of endearment.

What the others were working on was a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry had already completed. Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle dementors, but he did not care: Slughorn’s memory was the most important thing to him now.

'Harry, Theodore is right,' said Tracey when she saw Harry was still nose deep into the book, 'if the book is over fifty years old and the Prince created a spell or potion to control people I think we'd have heard about it. Right now the only way to force someone to do something they don't want to do is the Imperius Curse, but it is illegal—'

'Yeah, I know that, thanks,' said Harry, not looking up from the book. 'That’s why I’m looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won’t do it, but there might be something else, maybe not a persuasion spell but something we aren't thinking of that can get us what we need.'

'Maybe Tracey and Theo are right though, Harry,' said Allison. 'If the answer was magic Dumbledore would have done it himself. He thinks only you can get the memory. So there has got to be something you can do or say that will make him willingly give up the correct memory.'

Harry knew they all were probably right, but Theodore had said there wouldn’t be anything in the book about curing multiple poisons at once and he had been wrong so Harry thought reading through the book once more was at least worth a shot. After another hour though, Harry, who had found nothing useful in the Half-Blood Prince’s notes so far, looked around; the four of them were now the only ones left in the common room, Blaise having gone up to get his beauty sleep and Draco being absent in the evenings as always. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and his three friends scratching out the last of their Defence Against the Dark Arts essays on dementors. Harry had just closed the Half-Blood Prince’s book, yawning, when—

Crack.

Tracey let out a little shriek; Theodore accidentally spilled ink all over him and Allison, and Harry said, ‘Kreacher!’

The house-elf bowed low and addressed his own gnarled toes.

‘Master said he wanted regular reports on what the Malfoy boy is doing, so Kreacher has come to give—‘

Crack.

Dobby appeared alongside Kreacher, his tea-cozy hat askew.

‘Dobby has been helping too, Harry Potter!’ he squeaked, casting Kreacher a resentful look. ‘And Kreacher ought to tell Dobby when he is coming to see Harry Potter so they can make their reports together!’

‘What’s going on?’ asked Tracey, still looking shocked by these sudden appearances. ‘You did what, Harry?’

Harry hesitated before answering, because he had not told his friends about setting Kreacher and Dobby to tail Malfoy; he knew they’d once again accuse him of being obsessed.

‘Well…they’ve been following Malfoy for me,’ he said.

‘Night and day,’ croaked Kreacher.

‘Dobby has not slept for a week, Harry Potter!’ said Dobby

proudly, swaying where he stood.

Tracey looked indignant.

‘What do you mean you haven’t slept, Dobby? Harry couldn’t have asked that of you—‘

‘No, of course I didn’t,’ said Harry quickly. ‘Dobby, you and Kreacher can eat and sleep, all right? But has either of you found out anything?’ he hastened to ask, before anyone could intervene again.

'Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood, unlike this blood traitor,' croaked Kreacher at once, glaring at Theodore. 'Master Malfoy features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of—'

'Draco Malfoy is a bad boy!' squeaked Dobby angrily. 'A bad boy who—who—'

He shuddered from the tassel of his tea cozy to the toes of his socks and then ran at the fire, as though about to dive into it; Harry, to whom this was not entirely unexpected, caught him around the middle and held him fast. For a few seconds Dobby struggled, then went limp.

'Thank you, Harry Potter,' he panted. 'Dobby still finds it difficult to speak ill of his old masters...'

Harry released him; Dobby straightened his tea cozy and said defiantly to Kreacher, 'But Kreacher should know that Draco Malfoy is not a good master to a house-elf!'

'Yeah, we don’t need to hear about you being in love with Malfoy,' Harry told Kreacher. 'Let’s fast forward to where he’s actually been going.'

Kreacher bowed again, looking furious, and then said, 'Master Malfoy eats in the Great Hall, he mostly sleeps in his dormitory in this very dungeon, he attends his classes in a variety of—'

'Dobby, you tell me,' said Harry, cutting across Kreacher. 'Has he been going anywhere he shouldn’t have?'

‘Harry Potter, sir,’ squeaked Dobby, his great orblike eyes shining in the firelight, ‘the Malfoy boy is breaking no rules that Dobby can discover, but he is still keen to avoid detection. He has been making regular visits to the seventh floor with a variety of other students, who keep watch for him while he enters—‘

‘The Room of Requirement!’ said Harry, smacking himself hard on the forehead with Advanced Potion Making. Allison, Tracey, and Theodore stared at him. ‘That’s where he’s been sneaking off to! That’s where he’s doing…whatever he’s doing! And I bet that’s why he’s been disappearing off the map—come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Room of Requirement on there!’

‘It is possible this is one of Hogwarts’ secrets the Marauders never physically found and therefore couldn’t be put on the map,’ suggested Allison.

‘It could also be the effects of the room’s magic,’ said Theodore. ‘If Malfoy requires it to be Unplottable then it and its inhabitants won’t show up on maps.’

‘Dobby, have you managed to get in to have a look at what Malfoy’s doing?’ said Harry eagerly.

‘No, Harry Potter, that is impossible,’ said Dobby.

‘No, it’s not,’ said Harry at once. ‘Malfoy got into our headquarters there last year, so I’ll be able to get in and spy on him, no problem.’

‘I’m not so sure, Harry,’ said Tracey slowly. ‘The I.S. managed to get in because we were all inside and had no look out. Draco does have a look out that will prevent you from entering, and when Draco and his guard leave you might not be able to get in as you won’t know what function Draco uses it for and therefore won’t know what the room needs to be to help you.’

‘There’ll be a way around that,’ said Harry dismissively. ‘You’ve done brilliantly, Dobby.’

‘Kreacher did his job as well,’ Tracey reminded; but far from looking grateful, Kreacher averted his huge, bloodshot eyes and croaked at the ceiling.

‘The Half-Blood is speaking to Kreacher, Kreacher will pretend he cannot hear—‘

‘Get out of it,’ Harry snapped at him, and Kreacher made one last deep bow and Disapparated. ‘You’d better go and get some sleep too, Dobby.’

‘Thank you, Harry Potter, sir!’ squeaked Dobby happily, and he too vanished.

‘How good’s this?’ said Harry enthusiastically, turning to his friends the moment the room was elf-free again. ‘We know where Malfoy’s going! We’ve got him cornered now!’

‘I just don’t understand how he’s getting all these young girls help to guard?’ asked Theodore, scratching his head. ‘Is he paying them or something, then paying them more to stay quiet?’

‘Yeah, that is weird,’ said Harry, frowning. ‘I heard him telling Crabbe it wasn’t Crabbe’s business what he was doing…so what’s he telling all these…all these…’

Harry’s voice tailed away; he was staring at the fire.

‘God, I’ve been stupid,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon…He could’ve nicked some any time during that lesson…’

‘Nicked what?’ asked Tracey.

‘Polyjuice Potion. He stole some of the Polyjuice Potion Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson…There aren’t a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy…it’s just Goyle as usual, maybe Blaise or Crabbe as well…Yeah, it all fits!’ said Harry, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. ‘They’re stupid enough to do what they’re told even if he won’t tell them what he’s up to…but he doesn’t want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he’s got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people…That girl I saw him with when he missed Quidditch—ha! Goyle!’

‘Wait?’ said Tracey suddenly looking disgusted with herself, ‘are you saying the little girl who broke her scale’s and I fixed them was—‘

‘Ha! You helped Goyle!’ laughed Allison.

‘Yes, that was probably him!’ said Harry loudly, staring at her. ‘Of course! Malfoy must’ve been inside the room at the time, so she—what am I talking about?—he dropped the scales to tell Malfoy not to come out, because there was someone there! We’ve been walking past him all the time and not realizing it!’

'That also explains why Goyle's been in such a fowl mood all year,' said Theodore. 'Probably bruises his masculine ego to have to wear pigtails. I bet he's regretting rejoining Draco's group now.'

'I bet the only reason he's still helping Malfoy at this point is because he's loyal to Death Eaters like him,' said Harry.

'Harry, we agree with you that Malfoy is up to something, working on something in the Room of Requirement, his argument with Snape, spending most evenings out of the dormitory and three nights so far since Christmas he hasn't returned at all, but none of that has yet to prove he is now a Death Eater,' explained Theodore.

'We’ll see,' said Harry confidently.

'I guess we will,' Theodore said, getting to his feet and stretching. 'I just don't want you to forget, Harry, that you aren't supposed to be putting all your effort into getting into the Room of Requirement, you are supposed to be focusing on having Slughorn willingly give you his memory. Anyway, its really late, I need to get some sleep, have a goodnight everyone.'

Harry watched him go, feeling slightly disgruntled. Once Theodore was up the staircase to the boy's he rounded on Allison and Tracey.

'What d’you think?'

‘I think both you and Theo are right,’ said Allison, ‘Malfoy is up to something and it is nothing good, but we don’t have the proof that he is doing anything truly wicked. In my opinion if we believe anything other than the facts then we may miss what’s truly going on.’

Harry was hoping for a better response from his girlfriend, but he had to admit she was probably right. Not that he’d say that out loud at this moment.

‘And you, Tracey?’ he asked her. Tracey looked quite sleepy.

‘All I can think about right now is I wish I could Apparate like a house-elf.’

Harry did not sleep well that night. He lay awake for what felt like hours, wondering how Malfoy was using the Room of Requirement and what he, Harry, would see when he went in there the following day, for whatever Theodore said, Harry was sure that if Malfoy had been able to see the headquarters of the D.A., he would be able to see Malfoy’s…what could it be? A meeting place? A hideout? A store-room? A workshop? Harry’s mind worked feverishly and his dreams, when he finally fell asleep, were broken and disturbed by images of Malfoy, who turned into Slughorn, who turned into Snape…

Harry was in a state of great anticipation over breakfast the following morning; he had a free period before Defense Against the Dark Arts and was determined to spend it trying to get into the Room of Requirement. Allison had Study of Ancient Runes during that period while Tracey had Ancient Studies and Theodore would be attending Alchemy so Harry was mostly sharing his plan just so he could vocalize his thoughts. Theodore didn’t protest to the plan, but he was more focus on reading the morning post with Colin who was sitting next to him.

To try and get back on Theodore’s good side he tried to say what he thought sounded reasonable.

‘Look,’ he said quietly, ‘I haven’t forgotten about Slughorn, but I haven’t got a clue how to get that memory off him, and until I get a brain wave why shouldn’t I find out what Malfoy’s doing?’

‘Do what you want Harry, I just think you shouldn’t pursue Malfoy at all and should put all your efforts into Slughorn,’ said Theodore, still not looking up from him and Colin’s paper. ‘Stop trying to find a way jinx the memory out of him and start thinking up things to say to make him do the right thing.’

Tracey decided to change the subject, ‘Is there anyone we know in the news today?’ as Theodore continued to scan the pages.

‘There is,’ said Theodore, causing Harry, Tracey, and Allison to gag on their breakfast. ‘Don’t worry, he’s not dead, just got what he deserved—it’s Mundungus, he’s finally been caught and sent to Azkaban! Apparently he tried to impersonate an Inferius during an attempted burglary. The rest of the people in the paper I don’t think we know. Someone named Octavius Pepper has vanished, and…oh dear, a nine-year-old boy is being detained as he tried to murder his grandparents, they believe he is under the effects of think the Imperius Curse. The grandparents have written an open letter begging the dark magic user responsible to release him from their control so they can have their child back…’

They finished their breakfast in silence. The others set off immediately for each of their classes, and Harry for the corridor on the seventh floor and the stretch of wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls to do ballet.

Harry slipped on his Invisibility Cloak once he had found an empty passage, but he need not have bothered. When he reached his destination he found it deserted. Harry was not sure whether his chances of getting inside the room were better with Malfoy inside it or out, but at least his first attempt was not going to be complicated by the presence of Goyle pretending to be an eleven-year-old girl.

He closed his eyes as he approached the place where the Room of Requirement’s door was concealed. He knew what he had to do; he had become most accomplished at it last year.

Concentrating with all his might he thought, “I need to see what Malfoy’s doing in here…I need to see what Malfoy’s doing in here…I need to see what Malfoy’s doing in here…”

Three times he walked past the door; then, his heart pounding with excitement, he opened his eyes and faced it—

But he was still looking at a stretch of mundanely blank wall.

He moved forward and gave it an experimental push. The stone remained solid and unyielding.

‘Okay,’ said Harry aloud. ‘Okay…I thought the wrong thing…’

He pondered for a moment then set off again, eyes closed, concentrating as hard as he could.

“I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming secretly…I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming secretly…”

After three walks past, he opened his eyes expectantly.

There was no door.

‘Oh, come off it,’ he told the wall irritably. ‘That was a clear instruction…Fine…’

He thought hard for several minutes before striding off once more.

“I need you to become the place you become for Draco Malfoy…”

He did not immediately open his eyes when he had finished his patrolling; he was listening hard, as though he might hear the door pop into existence. He heard nothing, however, except the distant twittering of birds outside. He opened his eyes.

There was still no door.

Harry swore. Someone screamed.

He looked around to see a gaggle of first years running back around the corner, apparently under the impression that they had just encountered a particularly foulmouthed ghost.

Harry tried every variation of “I need to see what Draco Malfoy is doing inside you” that he could think of for a whole hour, at the end of which he was forced to concede that Tracey might have had a point: The room simply did not want to open for him.

Frustrated and annoyed, he set off for Defense Against the Dark Arts, pulling off his Invisibility Cloak and stuffing it into his bag as he went.