What are those? Hagrid? Harry tried to make his question sound more interesting than disgusting, but he put the crust cake down anyway. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"It's a giant maggot," Hagrid said.

"...... they're going to be?" Ron looked worried.

"Nothing will grow," Hagrid said. "I'm going to use them to feed Aragog." Without warning, he burst into tears.

"Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed, and she walked around to Hagrid's side and patted Hagrid's trembling shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Yes...... It ......" Hagrid whimpered, wiping his face with his apron, his eyes as black as a beetle filled with tears. "Yes...... Alagog ...... I think it's dying...... It had been sick all summer and I don't think it would get better...... I don't know what to do if it ...... If it ...... We've been together for so long......"

Hermione patted Hagrid on the shoulder, looking completely unsure of what to say.

Harry knew how she felt.

He remembered that Hagrid had given a teddy bear to his ferocious little dragon, that he had tended to a pack of large scorpions with suckers and stingers, and that he had tried to communicate with his murderous giant brother, but that was perhaps the most incomprehensible of his hobby of raising monsters: the talking giant spider Aragog, who inhabited the depths of the Forbidden Forest from which Harry and Ron had to die four years earlier.

"Is there a ...... Is there anything we can do to help? Hermione asked, ignoring Ron's frantic wink and shaking his head.

"I don't think so, Hermione," Hagrid said, choking up, struggling to hold back tears. "You see, the rest of the clan ...... Aragog's Family ...... When it gets sick, they're all a little weird...... It's a bit restless......"

"yes, I think we've seen them like that, too," Ron whispered.

“…… I don't think it's safe for anyone to go there at this time except me. Hagrid finished speaking, blew his nose vigorously with his apron, and then looked up. But thank you for your concern, Hermione...... It's important...... The atmosphere in the room was much lighter, and although neither Harry nor Ron showed any interest in meeting a ferocious giant spider and feeding it giant maggots, Hagrid assumed that they would do it, and he regained himself.

"Ah, actually, I knew it would be hard for you to cram me into your timetable anymore," he said gruffly, adding some tea to them. "Even if I apply for a time converter—"

"We can't use it," Hermione said. "Last summer we smashed all of the Ministry's inventory of time-turners. It was reported in the Daily Prophet. "Ah, well," Hagrid said. You can't do it...... I'm sorry that I'm -- you know -- I'm worried about Aragog...... And I'm thinking, maybe if Professor Grapeland taught you—"

The three of them had a clear conscience and told Hagrid that Professor Graplan, who had given him a few substitutes, was terrible, and he seemed quite happy when they said goodbye to Hagrid's cottage in the twilight.

"I'm starving," said Harry as soon as the door closed behind him, as they hurried through the dark, uninhabited playground; The rock loaf nearly lost a few of his molars, so he gave up. "I'm going to Snape's for confinement tonight, I don't have time to eat......"

When they entered the castle, they found Cormac McLagan walking into the Great Hall, and he tried twice when he entered; The first time I was bounced back by the door frame. Ron just smirked and followed him into the auditorium. Harry grabbed Hermione by the arm and pulled her back.

"What's wrong?" Hermione said alarmedly.

"In my opinion," Harry said calmly, "McLagan seems to have fallen under the Confusion Charm. He was facing where you were sitting. Hermione blushed.

"Oh, well, I did it." She whispered. "But you should also hear what he said to Ron and Ginny! Either way, he's got a bad temper and you can see how he reacted when he lost - you don't want someone like that on the team. ”

"No," Harry said. "No, it does. But isn't that cheating, Hermione? I mean, you're a prefect, aren't you? ”

"Oh, don't laugh," Hermione snapped.

"What are you two doing?" Ron reappeared at the auditorium door, looking at both of them suspiciously.

"Nothing," Harry and Hermione said at the same time, as they hurried after Ron. The smell of roasted meat made Harry feel a stomachache from hunger. But they had only taken three steps to the Gryffindor table when Professor Slavhorn appeared in front of them, blocking their way.

"Harry, Harry, I'll be waiting to see you!" He cried out merrily, his huge belly bulging as he twisted the end of his walrus mustache. "I was hoping to bump into you before dinner! How about coming to my room for a bite to eat tonight? We're going to have a little party, so we've got a couple of of you hopefuls -- I've called McLagan, and Shabini and the charming Melinda Burbin -- I wonder if you know her? Her family had been pharmacists for generations—and, of course, I would have liked Miss Granger to do the same. ”

Slavhorn bowed slightly to Hermione. As if Ron didn't exist; Slavhorn didn't even look at him.

"I can't go, Professor." Harry said immediately. "I'm going to have to go to Professor Snape and be locked up."

"Oh my God!" Slahhorn's face pulled down comically. "Honey, dear, I'm counting on you, Harry! So, now I'm going to talk to Severus and explain the situation to him. I promise to convince him to postpone your confinement. Yes, see you later! He hurried out of the auditorium.

"There's no way he's going to convince Snape." As soon as Slavhorn was gone, Harry said. "This confinement has already been postponed once; Dumbledore put it off, but he wouldn't listen to anyone else. ”

"Oh, I wish you could go, I don't want to be there alone!" Hermione said worriedly; Harry knew she remembered McLagan.

"I doubt you'll be there alone, and Ginny may well have been invited," Ron exclaimed, seemingly unable to accept Slahhorn's neglect of him.

After dinner, they returned to the Gryffindor Tower. The common room was lively as most people had finished their dinner, but they still found an empty table to sit at; Ron had been in a bad mood since he had met Slavhorn before, and he crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the ceiling with a frown. Hermione reached for a copy of the Evening Prophet that someone else had thrown on her chair.

"Anything new?" Harry said.

"It's not a ......," Hermione opened the newspaper and scanned the pages. Oh, behold, your dad is up there, and Ron - he's fine! Hermione added quickly, as Ron was turning his head in panic. The newspaper only said that he had gone to the Malfoy house again. A second search of the Death Eater's residence appeared to have yielded no results, with Arthur Weasley of the Office of Detection and Seizure of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Items saying his team had received a secret tip-off before proceeding with the operation. ’”

"Yes, it's me!" Harry said. "I told him about Malfoy and the thing he told Borgin to fix at King's Cross! Well, if it wasn't in their house, whatever it was, it must have been brought to Hogwarts by him—"

"But how did he do it, Harry?" Hermione put down the newspaper in surprise. "We've all been searched when we arrived, haven't we?"

"You've been searched?" Harry was taken aback. "I didn't!"

"Oh, of course you didn't, I forgot you were late...... Well, Filch had already checked everyone with a probe by the time we entered the foyer, any dark magic items would have been detected, and I knew that Crabbe's shrinking head had been confiscated. You see, there's no way Malfoy could have brought anything dangerous in! ”

Harry was momentarily speechless, he turned to look at Ginny Weasley, who was teasing the dwarf Velvet Arnold, and came up with a way around the obstacles.

"Then someone probably sent it to him with an owl," he said. "His mom or something." "All owls are to be examined, too," Hermione said, "Filch said when he stabbed the spies all over us. ”

This time Harry was really stumped, he had nothing more to say. It seems that Malfoy can't possibly bring any dangerous goods and dark magic items into the school. He looked at Ron hopefully, and he was staring at Lavender Brown with his chest crossed.

"Can you think of Malfoy's—?"

"Oh, forget it, Harry," Ron said.

"Listen, it's not my fault that Slavhorn invited me and Hermione to his stupid party, neither of us wants to go, you know!" Harry was furious.

"Well, since I haven't been invited to any party," Ron stood up again, "I think it's time for me to go to bed." ”

He stamped his feet to the door of the boys' dorm, Harry and Hermione watching his back.

"Harry?" New chaser Demelza Robbins suddenly appears next to Harry. "I have a message for you."

"Professor Slavhorn's?" Harry sat up hopefully.

"It's not...... It's Professor Snape," Demelza said. Harry's heart sank. "He said you had to go to his office at half past eight tonight and shut it down -- uh -- no matter how many party invitations you received. He wants you to know that you'll have to pick out the rotting Flober caterpillars tonight to make potions, and - he says you don't need to wear protective gloves. ”

"Good," Harry said gloomily. "Thank you, Demelza."

In the evening, Harry was punctual to go to confinement.

Hermione couldn't help it, so she staggered towards the room that Horace had said, but when she entered, she found that Duten was actually sitting there.

"Du, Duteng, how are you ......?"

"It's very simple, I've been invited!"

Du Ten winked at her, and Hermione's mood suddenly became happy, and this kind of party didn't seem to be as unacceptable as before.

……

Where did Dumbledore go and what was he doing? Over the next few weeks, Harry had only seen the Headmaster twice. He barely showed up at mealtime. Harry believed it, too, and as Hermione had said, he was gone for days. Did Dumbledore forget to teach Harry a lesson? Dumbledore had said that his lessons were related to prophecy; Harry had been encouraged and comforted by this, but now he felt a little abandoned.

Mid-October was the first weekend in Hogsmeade for the semester. Harry wondered why they were allowed to go to Hogsmeade now, which undoubtedly made the security around the school tighter, but he was glad to go; After all, it's still a pleasure to get out of the castle for a few hours.

Harry woke up early on the day he went to Hogsmeade, and it was stormy outside, so Harry had to watch Advanced Potions Preparation to pass the time before breakfast. He doesn't usually lie in bed and read; That kind of behavior was considered normal by Ron only if it happened to Hermione, because she was so weird in the first place. But then again, Harry didn't think the Half-Blood Prince's Advanced Potions Preparation was a good textbook either.

The more Harry delved into the book, the more he discovered that there were so many things hidden inside, not only the potion-making tips and handy shortcuts that had earned him a reputation at Slahhorn, but also the many small inventions that had been scribbled in the margins of the book, which Harry was sure had been invented by the prince himself, as there were many deletions on it.

Harry had already experimented with spells invented by several princes. There was a spell that made toenails grow surprisingly fast, and he had tried it on Crabbe, and the results were very interesting; There was also a spell that stuck his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and he had twice used it on the unsuspecting Filch, to everyone's applause; There's also perhaps the most useful mantra – whispering, which fills the ears of anyone nearby with an unrecognizable buzzing sound, so that you can chat for long periods of time in class without being heard.

The only one who wasn't interested was Hermione, who kept her expression of resolute disapproval throughout, and refused to talk to Harry if he used the Whispering Charm on the people around her.

Harry sat on the bed and turned the book around in order to take a closer look at the book's scribbled spell description, which seemed to be bothering the prince. It was deleted and changed many times, but in the end, a few scribbled words were barely cramped into the corner of the page: Light Floating Shadow (silent).

The wind and rain outside were knocking relentlessly on the window, Neville was snoring loudly, and Harry was staring at the words in parentheses.

Voiceless...... That must have meant a silent spell. Harry was skeptical that he would be able to master the spell; He was currently having some difficulties with silent spells, and Snape was speaking too quickly in every Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. On the other hand, as things stand, the prince has proven himself to be a better teacher than Snape. He flicked his wand aimlessly upwards and said in his head, 'Light Shadow!' ’。

In the next second, Ron, who was still asleep, let out a frightened scream.