The Half-Blood Prince Read online

  ‘Nothing,’ said Ron, hastily looking away from the bar, but Harry knew he was trying to catch the eye of the curvy and attractive barmaid, Madam Rosmerta, for whom he had long nursed a soft spot.

  ‘I expect “nothing”’s in the back getting more Firewhisky,’ said Hermione waspishly.

  Ron ignored this jibe, sipping his drink in what he evidently considered to be a dignified silence. Harry was thinking about Sirius, and how he had hated those silver goblets anyway. Hermione drummed her fingers on the table, her eyes flickering between Ron and the bar.

  The moment Harry drained the last drops in his bottle she said, ‘Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?’

  The other two nodded; it had not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse the longer they stayed. Once again they drew their cloaks tightly around them, rearranged their scarves, pulled on their gloves; then followed Katie Bell and a friend out of the pub and back up the High Street. Harry’s thoughts strayed to Ginny as they trudged up the road to Hogwarts through the frozen slush. They had not met up with her, undoubtedly, thought Harry, because she and Dean were cosily closeted in Madam Puddifoot’s teashop, that haunt of happy couples. Scowling, he bowed his head against the swirling sleet and trudged on.

  It was a little while before Harry became aware that the voices of Katie Bell and her friend, which were being carried back to him on the wind, had become shriller and louder. Harry squinted at their indistinct figures. The two girls were having an argument about something Katie was holding in her hand.

  ‘It’s nothing to do with you, Leanne!’ Harry heard Katie say.

  They rounded a corner in the lane, sleet coming thick and fast, blurring Harry’s glasses. Just as he raised a gloved hand to wipe them, Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.

  At once, Katie rose into the air, not as Ron had done, suspended comically by the ankle, but gracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she were about to fly. Yet there was something 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. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Leanne had all halted in their 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. Harry, Ron and Hermione rushed forwards to help, but even as they grabbed Katie’s legs, she fell on top of them; Harry and Ron managed to catch her but she was writhing so much they could hardly hold her. Instead they lowered her to the ground where she thrashed and screamed, apparently unable to recognise any of them.

  Harry looked around; the landscape seemed deserted.

  ‘Stay there!’ he shouted at the others over the howling wind. ‘I’m going for help!’

  He began to sprint towards the school; he had never seen anyone behave as Katie had just done and could not think what had caused it; he hurtled round a bend in the lane and collided with what seemed to be an enormous bear on its hind legs.

  ‘Hagrid!’ he panted, disentangling himself from the hedgerow into which he had fallen.

  ‘Harry!’ said Hagrid, who had sleet trapped in his eyebrows and beard, and was wearing his great, shaggy beaverskin coat. ‘Jus’ bin visitin’ Grawp, he’s comin’ on so well yeh wouldn’ –’

  ‘Hagrid, someone’s hurt back there, or cursed, or something –’

  ‘Wha’?’ said Hagrid, bending lower to hear what Harry was saying over the raging wind.

  ‘Someone’s been cursed!’ bellowed Harry.

  ‘Cursed? Who’s bin cursed – not Ron? Hermione?’

  ‘No, it’s not them, it’s Katie Bell – this way …’

  Together they ran back along the lane. It took them no time to find the little group of people around Katie, who was still writhing and screaming on the ground; Ron, Hermione and Leanne were all trying to quieten her.

  ‘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 towards 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. Ron bent down, his hand outstretched, but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back.

  ‘Don’t touch it!’

  He crouched down. An ornate opal necklace was visible, poking out of the paper.

  ‘I’ve seen that before,’ said Harry, staring at the thing. ‘It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said 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.

  ‘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.

  As they followed Hermione and Leanne up the road, Harry was thinking furiously. They had just entered the grounds when he spoke, unable to keep his thoughts to himself any longer.

  ‘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!’

  ‘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.

  Harry looked up. Sure enough, Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet them.

  ‘Hagrid says you four saw what happened to Katie Bell – upstairs to my office at once, please! What’s that you’re holding, Potter?’

  ‘It’s the thing she touched,’ said Harry.

  ‘Good Lord,’ said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Harry. ‘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!’

  Harry and the others 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 McGona
gall closed the door and swept round her desk to face Harry, Ron, Hermione and the still-sobbing Leanne.

  ‘Well?’ she said sharply. ‘What happened?’

  Haltingly, and with many pauses while she attempted to control her crying, Leanne told Professor McGonagall how Katie had gone to the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks and returned holding the unmarked package, how Katie had seemed a little odd and how they had argued about the advisability of agreeing to deliver unknown objects, the argument culminating in the tussle over the parcel, which tore open. 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 Harry, Ron and Hermione.

  ‘What happened when Katie touched the necklace?’

  ‘She rose up in the air,’ said Harry, before either Ron or Hermione 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. Professor McGonagall did not invite confidences; Dumbledore, though in many ways more intimidating, still seemed less likely to scorn a theory, however wild. This was a life and death matter, though, and no moment to worry about being laughed at.

  ‘I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor.’

  On one side of him, Ron rubbed his nose in apparent embarrassment; on the other, Hermione shuffled her feet as though quite keen to put a bit of distance between herself and Harry.

  ‘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 and the conversation they had overheard between him and Borgin.

  When he had finished speaking, Professor McGonagall looked slightly confused.

  ‘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.

  ‘Oh, Ron,’ said Hermione despairingly, ‘it would be all wrapped up, so he wouldn’t have to touch it, and quite easy to hide inside a cloak, so nobody would see it! I think whatever he reserved at Borgin and Burkes was noisy or bulky; something he knew would draw attention to him if he carried it down the street – and in any case,’ she pressed on loudly, before Harry could interrupt, ‘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 –’

  ‘– that’s what I said –’ muttered Ron.

  ‘– and in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year, I do not believe that necklace can possibly have entered this school without our knowledge –’

  ‘– but –’

  ‘– 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. They had no choice but to file past her without another word.

  Harry was angry with the other two for siding with McGonagall; nevertheless, he felt compelled to join in once they started discussing what had happened.

  ‘So who do you reckon Katie was supposed to give the necklace to?’ asked Ron, as they climbed the stairs to the common room.

  ‘Goodness only knows,’ said Hermione. ‘But whoever it was has had a narrow escape. No one could have opened that package without touching the necklace.’

  ‘It could’ve been meant for loads of people,’ said Harry. ‘Dumbledore – the Death Eaters would love to get rid of him, he must be one of their top targets. Or Slughorn – Dumbledore reckons Voldemort really wanted him and they can’t be pleased that he’s sided with Dumbledore. Or –’

  ‘Or you,’ said Hermione, looking troubled.

  ‘Couldn’t have been,’ said Harry, ‘or Katie would’ve just turned round in the lane and given it to me, wouldn’t she? I was behind her all the way out of the Three Broomsticks. It would have made much more sense to deliver the parcel outside Hogwarts, what with Filch searching everyone who goes in and out. I wonder why Malfoy told her to take it into the castle?’

  ‘Harry, Malfoy wasn’t in Hogsmeade!’ said Hermione, actually stamping her foot in frustration.

  ‘He must have used an accomplice, then,’ said Harry. ‘Crabbe or Goyle – or, come to think of it, another Death Eater, he’ll have loads better cronies than Crabbe and Goyle now he’s joined up –’

  Ron and Hermione exchanged looks that plainly said ‘there’s no point arguing with him’.

  ‘Dilligrout,’ said Hermione firmly, as they reached the Fat Lady.

  The portrait swung open to admit them to the common room. It was quite full and smelled of damp clothing; many people seemed to have returned from Hogsmeade early because of the bad weather. There was no buzz of fear or speculation, however: clearly, the news of Katie’s fate had not yet spread.

  ‘It wasn’t a very slick attack, really, when you stop and think about it,’ said Ron, casually turfing a first-year out of one of the good armchairs by the fire, so that he could sit down. ‘The curse didn’t even make it into the castle. Not what you’d call foolproof.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Hermione, prodding Ron out of the chair with her foot and offering it to the first-year again. ‘It wasn’t very well-thought-out at all.’

  ‘But since when has Malfoy been one of the world’s great thinkers?’ asked Harry.

  Neither Ron nor Hermione answered him.

  — CHAPTER THIRTEEN —

  The Secret Riddle

  Katie was removed to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries the following day, by which time the news that she had been cursed had spread all over the school, though the details were confused and nobody other than Harry, Ron, Hermione and Leanne seemed to know that Katie herself had not been t
he intended target.

  ‘Oh, and Malfoy knows, of course,’ said Harry to Ron and Hermione, who continued their new policy of feigning deafness whenever Harry mentioned his Malfoy-is-a-Death-Eater theory.

  Harry had wondered whether Dumbledore would return from wherever he had been in time for Monday night’s lesson, but having had no word to the contrary, he presented himself outside Dumbledore’s office at eight o’clock, knocked, and was told to enter. There sat Dumbledore, looking unusually tired; his hand was as black and burned as ever, but he smiled when he gestured to Harry to sit down. The Pensieve was sitting on the desk again, casting silvery specks of light over the ceiling.

  ‘You have had a busy time while I have been away,’ Dumbledore said. ‘I believe you witnessed Katie’s accident.’

  ‘Yes, sir. How is she?’

  ‘Still very unwell, although she was relatively lucky. She appears to have brushed the necklace with the smallest possible amount of skin: there was a tiny hole in her glove. Had she put it on, had she even held it in her ungloved hand, she would have died, perhaps instantly. Luckily Professor Snape was able to do enough to prevent a rapid spread of the curse –’

  ‘Why him?’ asked Harry quickly. ‘Why not Madam Pomfrey?’

  ‘Impertinent,’ said a soft voice from one of the portraits on the wall, and Phineas Nigellus Black, Sirius’s great-great-grandfather, raised his head from his arms where he had appeared to be sleeping. ‘I would not have permitted a student to question the way Hogwarts operated in my day.’

  ‘Yes, thank you, Phineas,’ said Dumbledore quellingly. ‘Professor Snape knows much more about the Dark Arts than Madam Pomfrey, Harry. Anyway, the St Mungo’s staff are sending me hourly reports and I am hopeful that Katie will make a full recovery in time.’

  ‘Where were you this weekend, sir?’ Harry asked, disregarding a strong feeling that he might be pushing his luck, a feeling apparently shared by Phineas Nigellus, who hissed softly.

  ‘I would rather not say just now,’ said Dumbledore. ‘However, I shall tell you in due course.’

  ‘You will?’ said Harry, startled.