After breakfast, Chris, Colin, Luna, Ron and Hermione left for Hogsade. Ginny went with Dean and Harry with Padma.
Filch was standing at the oak front doors as usual, checking off the nas of people who had permission to go into Hogsade. The process took even longer than normal as Filch was triple-checking everybody with his Secrecy Sensor.
"What does it matter if we're smuggling Dark stuff OUT?" demanded Ron, eyeing the long thin Secrecy Sensor with apprehension. "Surely you ought to be checking what we bring back IN?"
His cheek earned him a few extra jabs with the Sensor, and he was still wincing as they stepped out into the wind and sleet.
The walk into Hogsade was not enjoyable. Chris wrapped her scarf over her lower face; the exposed part soon felt both raw and numb. The road to the village was full of students bent double against the bitter wind. More than once Chris wondered whether they might not have had a better ti in the warm common room, and when they finally reached Hogsade and saw that Zonko's Joke Shop had been boarded up, Chris took it as confirmation that this trip was not destined to be fun. Ron pointed, with a thickly gloved hand, toward Honeydukes, which was rcifully open, and Chris, Hermione, Luna and Colin staggered in his wake into the crowded shop.
"Thank God," shivered Ron as they were enveloped by warm, toffee-scented air. "Let's stay here all afternoon."
"Good idea," said Colin. "What do want to eat Luna? Deluxe sugar quills?"
They got busy testing different kind of toffees. Colin and Luna started to laugh as they tried the sweets together; Hermione and Ron started to bicker over sothing and Chris found herself watching the people around the shop and saw Slughorn talking to Harry in a corner. After a mont, Slughorn left and Padma fed Harry a sweet, he smiled and Padma happily kissed him. Chris hastily turned away and collided with a hard chest.
"Ooof," Chris rubbed her forehead and looked up to see the owner of the hard chest.
"Careful there, Miss Norton," Adrian smiled down at her.
"Adrian, hi," said Chris backing away from him a bit. "And please call Chris, I have told you many tis."
"Yes but Miss Norton sounds more like a gentleman thing, don't you think?" Adrian smirked.
"No, Mr Rivers, it doesn't," chuckled Chris.
"Well, then it's Chris."
"Thank you."
"Hey Adrian," Hermione appeared over Chris' shoulder.
"Hello Hermione," Adrian flashed a charming smile of his. Hermione bead at him.
In the last few weeks, Adrian had beco a friend of Chris and Hermione in Slughorn's parties. He was really funny and charming most of the tis which made Chris amused rather than uncomfortable.
"We are thinking of going to the Three Broomsticks," said Hermione turning to Chris.
"Great, let's go," said Chris.
"Adrian, are you alone?" said Hermione. "I an if you want you can join us."
"Oh, that will be great," said Adrian at once. "I ca with my two friends but I don't think they will mind." he glanced back over his shoulder and glanced at a couple kissing in a corner. "They are busy and I can't deny the most beautiful ladies, can I?"
Hermione blushed lightly and Chris rolled her eyes smiling.
"Flattery won't get you anywhere Mister; in fact, it will make cancel your invitation," said Chris.
"Alright," chuckled Adrian. "As you wish."
"Good, now c'mon," said Chris.
She, Hermione and Adrian joined Ron, Colin and Luna.
"You are Adrian Rivers," said Luna before Chris or Hermione could introduce him.
"Yeah and you are Miss Luna Lovegood," said Adrian with a smile.
"You stopped a few girls in our dorm when they were bullying ," said Luna smiling.
"What? When?" asked Colin.
"In our second year, Colin," said Luna.
"Anyway, I think Three Broomsticks will be warr than here. Let's go," said Hermione.
They bundled their scarves back over their faces and left the sweetshop. The bitter wind was like knives on their faces after the sugary warmth of Honeydukes. The street was not very busy; nobody was lingering to chat, just hurrying toward their destinations.
"I hate this new normal," said Chris.
"Honestly? too," said Adrian seriously. "My father was barely at ho over the sumr. The bad news he brought every ti. . . Horrible, just horrible."
They entered the crowded buzzing pub Three Broomsticks. Ron and Chris went to bring Butterbeers. Chris saw in a corner Ginny and Dean were talking holding hands. Smiling to herself, Chris went back to her friends with Butterbeers. They talked, laughed and drank two more glasses of Butterbeers as the day wore on. After leaving the shop as they started to walk back to the school Chris felt soone was watching her. She quickly turned hoping to see so random boy from school but there was no one.
After dinner, Chris went to Room of Requirent but found it locked. Rolling her eyes angrily she pulled out the Ti-Turner hanging around her neck and turned the hourglass over ten tis.
The surroundings dissolved. Chris had the sensation that she was flying very fast, backward. A blur of colours and shapes rushed past her, her ears were pounding —
And then she felt solid ground beneath her feet, and everything ca into focus again —
Chris was standing outside the Gryffindor tower, the Fat lady looked down at her.
"Where did you co from?" she asked.
"Never mind," Chris said running away, checking her watch. As soon as she turned the corner she saw herself coming back from the forest trip, holding the book of Half-Blood Prince. As the 'past Chris' entered the Gryffindor tower ignoring the Fat Lady's annoying looks, Chris walked to the Room of Requirent chuckling as she realised why the Fat Lady had given her annoyed look that morning. She reached the Room of Requirent and found it still locked. Groaning she walked back to the Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. There she began experinting a potion using the notes from the Prince's book and she was very surprised by the results. It was clear that the Prince knew what he was doing.
*****
The next day, Chris, Ginny, Harry and Hermione got Slughorn's rolled parchnts with purple ribbon when they all were lounging in the common room after dinner.
"Another party tomorrow evening?" sighed Chris. "Kill ."
"They are not that bad, you know," said Hermione.
"We have to go, don't we?" said Ginny turning to Harry. "You can't schedule a practice in this weather."
There was a thunderstorm outside.
"Yeah, but I don't," said Harry smiling. "I have a eting with Dumbledore tomorrow evening."
"Of course, you do," said Chris looking at Harry's smiling face.
"Do you know where he is going, though?" asked Colin.
"No, but I think, I will ask him," said Harry.
"Don't push your luck much," warned Chris opening the potion book by the Half-Blood Prince.
"So I shouldn't ask?" said Harry surprised.
"Yes, you can ask. I'm just saying, look curious but not too curious," said Chris flipping the pages of the Advanced Potion-Making. The more she had read, she had realized that there wasn't just only short cuts of potions making but also the imaginative little jinxes and hexes scribbled in the margins, which Chris was sure, judging by the crossings-out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself.
"Are you reading that book again?" asked Hermione sternly.
"Yeah," said Chris casually. "It's really fun. The spells are really useful which Prince created himself."
"Or herself," said Hermione irritably. "It might have been a girl. I think the handwriting looks more like a girl's than a boy's."
"The Half-Blood Prince, he was called," Harry said. "How many girls have been Princes?"
Hermione seed to have no answer to this. Chris hid her smile. Hermione rely scowled and twitched her essay on The Principles of Rematerialization away from Ron, who was trying to read it upside down.
______________________________
To be continued. . .
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