Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince - Rowling Joanne Kathleen. Страница 66

‘Step one: fix your mind firmly upon the desired destination,’ said Twycross. ‘In this case, the interior of your hoop. Kindly concentrate upon that destination now.’

Everybody looked around furtively, to check that everyone else was staring into their hoop, then hastily did as they were told. Harry gazed at the circular patch of dusty floor enclosed by his hoop and tried hard to think of nothing else. This proved impossible, as he couldn’t stop puzzling over what Malfoy was doing that needed lookouts.

“Step two,‘ said Twycross, ’focus your determination to occupy the visualised space! Let your yearning to enter it flood from your mind to every particle of your body!‘

Harry glanced around surreptitiously. A little way to his left, Ernie Macmillan was contemplating his hoop so hard that his face had turned pink; it looked as though he was straining to lay a Quaffle-sized egg. Harry bit back a laugh and hastily returned his gaze to his own hoop.

‘Step three,’ called Twycross, ‘and only when I give the command… lum on the spot, feeiing your way into nothingness, moving with deliberation 1. On my command, now… one— 1

Harry glanced around again; lots of people were looking positively alarmed at being asked to Apparate so quickly.

Harry tried to fix his thoughts on his hoop again; he had already forgotten what the three Ds stood for.

: — THREE!‘

Harry spun on the spot, lost his balance and nearly fell over. He was not the only one. The whole Hall was suddenly full of staggering people; Neville was flat on his back; Ernie Macmillan, on the other hand, had done a kind of pirouetting leap into his hoop and looked momentarily thrilled, until he caught sight of Dean Thomas roaring with laughter at him.

‘Never mind, never mind,’ said Twycross dryly, who did not seem to have expected anything better. ‘Adjust your hoops, please, and back to your original positions…’

The second atlem.pt was no better than the first. The third was just as bad. Not until the fourth did anything exciting happen. There was a horrible screech of pain and everybody looked around, terrified, to see Susan Bones of Hufflepuff wobbling in her hoop with her left leg still standing five feet away where she had started.

The Heads of House converged on her; there was a great bang and a puff of purple smoke, which cleared to reveal Susan sobbing, reunited with her leg but looking horrified.

‘Sph’nching, or the separation of random body parts,’ said Wilkie Twycross dispassionately, ‘occurs when the mind is insufficiently determined. You must concentrate continually upon your destination, and move, without hasie, but with deliberation… thus.’

Twycross stepped forwards, turned gracefully on the spot with his arms outstretched and vanished in a swirl of robes, reappearing at the back of the Hall. ‘Remember the three Ds,’ he said, ‘and try again… one -two — three -’

But an hour later, Susan’s Splinching was still ihe most interesting thing that had happened. Twycross did not seem discouraged. Fastening his cloak at his neck, he merely said, ‘Until next Saturday, everybody, and do not forget: Destination. Determination. Deliberation.’

With that, he waved his wand, Vanishing the hoops, and walked out of the Hall accompanied by Professor McGonagall. Talk broke out at once as people began moving towards the Entrance Hall.

‘How did you do?’ asked Ron, hurrying towards Harry. ‘I think I felt something the last time I tried — a kind of tingling in my feet.’

‘I expect your trainers are too small, Won-Won,’ said a voice behind them, and Hermione stalked past, smirking.

‘I didn’t feel anything,’ said Harry, ignoring this interruption. “But I don’t care about that now-‘

‘What d’you mean, you don’t care… don’t you want to leam to Apparate?’ said Ron incredulously.

‘I’m not fussed, really. I prefer flying,’ said Harry, glancing over his shoulder to see where Malfoy was, and speeding up as they came into the Entrance Hall. ‘Look, hurry up, will you, there’s something I want to do…’

Perplexed, Ron followed Harry back to Gryffindor Tower at a run. They were temporarily detained by Peeves, who had jammed a door on the fourth floor shut and was refusing to let anyone pass until they set fire to their own pants, but Harry and Ron simply turned back and took one of their trusted short cuts. Within five minutes, they were climbing through the portrait hole.

‘Are you going to tell me what we’re doing, then?’ asked Ron, panting slightly.

‘Up here,’ said Harry, and he crossed the common room and led the way through the door to the boys’ staircase.

Their dormitory was, as Ham‘ had hoped, empty. He flung open his trunk and began to rummage in it, while Ron watched impatiently.

‘Harry…’

‘Malfoy’s using Crabbe and Goyle as lookouts. He was arguing with Crabbe just now. I want to know… aha.’

He had found it, a folded square of apparently blank parchment, which he now smoothed out and tapped with [he tip of his wand.

‘I solemn!)’ swear that I am up to no good… or Malfoy is, At once, the Marauder’s Map appeared on the parchment’s surface. Here was a detailed plan of every one of the castle’s floors and, moving around it, the tiny, labelled black dots that signified each of the castle’s occupants.

‘Help me find Malfoy,’ said Harry urgently.

He laid the map upon his bed and he and Ron leaned over it, searching.

‘There!’ said Ron, after a minute or so. ‘He’s in the Slytherin common room, look… with Parkinson and Zabini and Crabbe and Goyle…“

Harry looked down at the map, disappointed, but rallied almost at once.

‘Well, I’m keeping an eye on him from now on,’ he said firmly. ‘And the moment I see him lurking somewhere with Crabbe and Goyle keeping watch outside, it’ll be on with the old Invisibility Cloak and off to find out what he’s-’

He broke off as Neville entered the dormitory, bringing with him a strong smell of singed material, and began rummaging in his trunk for a fresh pair of pants.

Despite his determination 10 catch Malfoy out, Harry had no luck at all over the next couple of weeks. Although he consulted the map as often as he could, sometimes making unnecessary visits to the bathroom between lessons to search it, he did not once see Malfoy anywhere suspicious. Admittedly, he spotted Crabbe and Goyle moving around the castle on their own more often than usual, sometimes remaining stationary in deserted corridors, but at these times Malfoy was not only nowhere near them, but impossible to locate on the map at all. This was most mysterious. Harry toyed with the possibility that Malfoy was actually leaving the school grounds, but could not see how he could be doing it, given the very high leve! of security now operating within the castle. He could only suppose ihat he was missing Malfoy amongst the hundreds of tiny black dots upon the map. As for the fact that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle appeared to be going their different ways when they were usually inseparable, these things happened as people got older — Ron and Hermione, Harry reflected sadly, were living proof.

February moved towards March with no change in the weather except that it became windy as well as wet. To general indignation, a sign went up on all common-room noticeboards that the next trip into Hogsmeade had been cancelled. Ron was furious.

‘It was on my birthday!’ he said, ‘i was looking forward to that!’

‘Not a big surprise, though, is it?’ said Harry. ‘Not after what happened to Katie.’

She had still not returned from Si Mungo’s. What was more, further disappearances had been reported in the Daily Prophet, including several relatives of students at Hogwarts.

‘But now all I’ve got to look forward to is stupid Apparition!’ said Ron grumpily. ‘Big birthday treat…’

Three lessons on, Apparition was proving as difficult as ever, though a few more people had managed to Splinch themselves. Frustration was running high and there was a certain amount of ill-feeling towards Wilkie Twycross and his three Ds, which had inspired a number of nicknames for him, the politest of which were Dog-breath and Dung-head.

‘Happy birthday, Ron,’ said Harry, when they were woken on the first of March by Seamus and Dean leaving noisily for breakfast. ‘Have a present.’

He threw the package across on to Ron’s bed, where it joined a small pile of them that must, Harry assumed, have been delivered by house-elves in the night.

‘Cheers,’ said Ron drowsily, and as he ripped off the paper Harry got out of bed, opened his own crunk and began rummaging in it for the Marauder’s Map, which he hid after every use. He turfed out half the contents of his trunk before he found it hiding beneath the rolled-up socks in which he was still keeping his bottle of lucky potion, Felix Felicis.

‘Right,’ he murmured, taking it back to bed with him, tapping it quietly and murmuring, ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,’ so that Neville, who was passing the foot of his bed at the time, would not hear.

‘Nice one, Harry!’ said Ron enthusiastically, waving the new pair of Quidditch Keeper’s gloves Harry had given him.

‘No problem,’ said Harry absent-mindedly, as he searched the Slytherin dormitory closely for Malfoy. ‘Hey… I don’t think he’s in his bed…’

Ron did not answer; he was too busy unwrapping presents, every now and then letting out an exclamation of pleasure.

‘Seriously good haul this year!’ he announced, holding up a heavy gold watch with odd symbols around the edge and tiny moving stars instead of hands. ‘See what Mum and Dad got me? Blimey, I think I’ll come of age next year too…

‘Cool,’ muttered Harry, sparing the watch a glance before peering more closely at the map. Where was Malfoy? He did not seem to be at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, eating breakfast… he was nowhere near Snape, who was sitting in his study… he wasn’t in any of the bathrooms or in the hospital wing…

‘Want one? I said Ron thickly, holding out a box of Chocolate Cauldrons.

‘No thanks,’ said Harry, looking up. ‘Malfoy’s gone again!’

‘Can’t have done,’ said Ron, stuffing a second Cauldron into his mouth as he slid out of bed to get dressed. ‘Come on. if you don’t hurry up you’ll have to Apparate on an empty-stomach… might make it easier, I suppose…“

Ron looked thoughtfully ai the box of Chocolate Cauldrons, then shrugged and helped himself to a third.

Harry tapped the map with his wand, muttered, ‘Mischief managed,’ though it hadn’t been, and got dressed, thinking hard. There had to be an explanation for Malfoy’s periodic disappearances, but he simply could not think what it could be. The best way of finding out would be to tail him, bur even with the Invisibility Cloak this was an impractical idea; he had lessons, Quidditch practice, homework and Apparition; he could not follow Malfoy around school all day wilhout his absence being remarked upon, ‘Ready?’ he said to Ron.