There were a few more cries of shock as a shower of arrows soared through the air, but they fell far short of the crowd. It was, Harry knew, the centaurs’ tribute: he saw them turn tail and disappear back into the cool trees. Likewise the merpeople sank slowly back into the green water and were lost from view.
Harry looked at Ginny, Ron and Hermione: Ron’s face was screwed up as though the sunlight was blinding him. Hermione’s face was glazed with tears, but Ginny was no longer crying. She met Harry’s gaze with the same hard, blazing look that he had seen when she had hugged him after winning the Quidditch Cup in his absence, and he knew that at that moment they understood each other perfectly, and that when he told her what he was going to do now, she would not say ‘Be careful’, or ‘Don’t do it’, but accept his decision, because she would not have expected anything less of him. And so he steeled himself to say what he had known he must say ever since Dumbledore had died.
‘Ginny, listen …’ he said very quietly, as the buzz of conversation grew louder around them and people began to get to their feet. ‘I can’t be involved with you any more. We’ve got to stop seeing each other. We can’t be together.’
She said, with an oddly twisted smile, ‘It’s for some stupid, noble reason, isn’t it?’
‘It’s been like … like something out of someone else’s life, these last few weeks with you,’ said Harry. ‘But I can’t … we can’t … I’ve got things to do alone now.’
She did not cry, she simply looked at him.
‘Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He’s already used you as bait once, and that was just because you’re my best friend’s sister. Think how much danger you’ll be in if we keep this up. He’ll know, he’ll find out. He’ll try and get to me through you.’
‘What if I don’t care?’ said Ginny fiercely.
‘I care,’ said Harry. ‘How do you think I’d feel if this was your funeral … and it was my fault …’
She looked away from him, over the lake.
‘I never really gave up on you,’ she said. ‘Not really. I always hoped … Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more – myself.’
‘Smart girl, that Hermione,’ said Harry, trying to smile. ‘I just wish I’d asked you sooner. We could’ve had ages … months … years maybe …’
‘But you’ve been too busy saving the wizarding world,’ said Ginny, half-laughing. ‘Well … I can’t say I’m surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn’t be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.’
Harry could not bear to hear these things, nor did he think his resolution would hold if he remained sitting beside her. Ron, he saw, was now holding Hermione and stroking her hair while she sobbed into his shoulder, tears dripping from the end of his own long nose. With a miserable gesture, Harry got up, turned his back on Ginny and on Dumbledore’s tomb and walked away around the lake. Moving felt much more bearable than sitting still: just as setting out as soon as possible to track down the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort would feel better than waiting to do it …
‘Harry!’
He turned. Rufus Scrimgeour was limping rapidly towards him around the bank, leaning on his walking stick.
‘I’ve been hoping to have a word … do you mind if I walk a little way with you?’
‘No,’ said Harry indifferently, and set off again.
‘Harry, this was a dreadful tragedy,’ said Scrimgeour quietly, ‘I cannot tell you how appalled I was to hear of it. Dumbledore was a very great wizard. We had our disagreements, as you know, but no one knows better than I –’
‘What do you want?’ asked Harry flatly.
Scrimgeour looked annoyed but, as before, hastily modified his expression to one of sorrowful understanding.
‘You are, of course, devastated,’ he said. ‘I know that you were very close to Dumbledore. I think you may have been his favourite ever pupil. The bond between the two of you –’
‘What do you want?’ Harry repeated, coming to a halt.
Scrimgeour stopped too, leaned on his stick and stared at Harry, his expression shrewd now.
‘The word is that you were with him when he left the school the night that he died.’
‘Whose word?’ said Harry.
‘Somebody Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the Tower after Dumbledore died. There were also two broomsticks up there. The Ministry can add two and two, Harry.’
‘Glad to hear it,’ said Harry. ‘Well, where I went with Dumbledore and what we did is my business. He didn’t want people to know.’
‘Such loyalty is admirable, of course,’ said Scrimgeour, who seemed to be restraining his irritation with difficulty, ‘but Dumbledore is gone, Harry. He’s gone.’
‘He will only be gone from the school when none here are loyal to him,’ said Harry, smiling in spite of himself.
‘My dear boy … even Dumbledore cannot return from the –’
‘I am not saying he can. You wouldn’t understand. But I’ve got nothing to tell you.’
Scrimgeour hesitated, then said, in what was evidently supposed to be a tone of delicacy, ‘The Ministry can offer you all sorts of protection, you know, Harry. I would be delighted to place a couple of my Aurors at your service –’
Harry laughed.
‘Voldemort wants to kill me himself and Aurors won’t stop him. So thanks for the offer, but no thanks.’
‘So,’ said Scrimgeour, his voice cold now, ‘the request I made of you at Christmas –’
‘What request? Oh yeah … the one where I tell the world what a great job you’re doing in exchange for –’
‘– for raising everyone’s morale!’ snapped Scrimgeour.
Harry considered him for a moment.
‘Released Stan Shunpike yet?’
Scrimgeour turned a nasty purple colour highly reminiscent of Uncle Vernon.
‘I see you are –’
‘Dumbledore’s man through and through,’ said Harry. ‘That’s right.’
Scrimgeour glared at him for another moment, then turned and limped away without another word. Harry could see Percy and the rest of the Ministry delegation waiting for him, casting nervous glances at the sobbing Hagrid and Grawp, who were still in their seats. Ron and Hermione were hurrying towards Harry, passing Scrimgeour going in the opposite direction; Harry turned and walked slowly on, waiting for them to catch up, which they finally did in the shade of a beech tree under which they had sat in happier times.
‘What did Scrimgeour want?’ Hermione whispered.
‘Same as he wanted at Christmas,’ shrugged Harry. ‘Wanted me to give him inside information on Dumbledore and be the Ministry’s new poster boy.’
Ron seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, then he said loudly to Hermione, ‘Look, let me go back and hit Percy!’
‘No,’ she said firmly, grabbing his arm.
‘It’ll make me feel better!’
Harry laughed. Even Hermione grinned a little, though her smile faded as she looked up at the castle.
‘I can’t bear the idea that we might never come back,’ she said softly. ‘How can Hogwarts close?’
‘Maybe it won’t,’ said Ron. ‘We’re not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Everywhere’s the same now. I’d even say Hogwarts is safer, there are more wizards inside to defend the place. What d’you reckon, Harry?’
‘I’m not coming back even if it does reopen,’ said Harry.
Ron gaped at him, but Hermione said sadly, ‘I knew you were going to say that. But then what will you do?’
‘I’m going back to the Dursleys’ once more, because Dumbledore wanted me to,’ said Harry. ‘But it’ll be a short visit, and then I’ll be gone for good.’
‘But where will you go if you don’t com
e back to school?’
‘I thought I might go back to Godric’s Hollow,’ Harry muttered. He had had the idea in his head ever since the night of Dumbledore’s death. ‘For me, it started there, all of it. I’ve just got a feeling I need to go there. And I can visit my parents’ graves, I’d like that.’
‘And then what?’ said Ron.
‘Then I’ve got to track down the rest of the Horcruxes, haven’t I?’ said Harry, his eyes upon Dumbledore’s white tomb, reflected in the water on the other side of the lake. ‘That’s what he wanted me to do, that’s why he told me all about them. If Dumbledore was right – and I’m sure he was – there are still four of them out there. I’ve got to find them and destroy them and then I’ve got to go after the seventh bit of Voldemort’s soul, the bit that’s still in his body, and I’m the one who’s going to kill him. And if I meet Severus Snape along the way,’ he added, ‘so much the better for me, so much the worse for him.’
There was a long silence. The crowd had almost dispersed now, the stragglers giving the monumental figure of Grawp a wide berth as he cuddled Hagrid, whose howls of grief were still echoing across the water.
‘We’ll be there, Harry,’ said Ron.
‘What?’
‘At your aunt and uncle’s house,’ said Ron. ‘And then we’ll go with you, wherever you’re going.’
‘No –’ said Harry quickly; he had not counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone.
‘You said to us once before,’ said Hermione quietly, ‘that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We’ve had time, haven’t we?’
‘We’re with you whatever happens,’ said Ron. ‘But, mate, you’re going to have to come round my mum and dad’s house before we do anything else, even Godric’s Hollow.’
‘Why?’
‘Bill and Fleur’s wedding, remember?’
Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.
‘Yeah, we shouldn’t miss that,’ he said finally.
His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.
Titles available in the Harry Potter series (in reading order):
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Other titles available:
Quidditch Through the Ages
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Read on for the first chapter of the next book in the Harry Potter series...
HARRY
POTTER
and the Deathly Hallows
J.K. ROWLING
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher
This digital edition first published by Pottermore Limited in 2012
First published in print in Great Britain in 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © J. K. Rowling 2007
Cover illustrations by Claire Melinsky copyright © J.K. Rowling 2010
Harry Potter characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Ent.
J.K. Rowling has asserted her moral rights
The extract from The Libation Bearers is taken from the Penguin Classics edition of The Oresteia, translated by Robert Fagles, copyright © Robert Fagles, 1966, 1967, 1975, 1977
The extract from More Fruits of Solitude is taken from More Fruits of Solitude by William Penn, first included in Everyman's Library, 1915
A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78110-013-4
www.pottermore.com
by J.K. Rowling
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The
dedication
of this book
is split
seven ways:
to Neil,
to Jessica,
to David,
to Kenzie,
to Di,
to Anne,
and to you,
if you have
stuck
with Harry
until the
very
end.
Oh, the torment bred in the race,
the grinding scream of death
and the stroke that hits the vein,
the hemorrhage none can staunch, the grief,
the curse no man can bear.
But there is a cure in the house,
and not outside it, no,
not from others but from them,
their bloody strife. We sing to you,
dark gods beneath the earth.
Now hear, you blissful powers underground —
answer the call, send help.
Bless the children, give them triumph now.
Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers
Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.
William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude
CONTENTS
ONE
The Dark Lord Ascending
TWO
In Memoriam
THREE
The Dursleys Departing
FOUR
The Seven Potters
FIVE
Fallen Warrior
SIX
The Ghoul in Pyjamas
SEVEN
The Will of Albus Dumbledore
EIGHT
The Wedding
NINE
A Place to Hide
TEN
Kreacher’s Tale
ELEVEN
The Bribe
TWELVE
Magic is Might
THIRTEEN
The Muggle-Born Registration Commission
FOURTEEN
The Thief
FIFTEEN
The Goblin’s Revenge
SIXTEEN
Godric’s Hollow
SEVENTEEN
Bathilda’s Secret
EIGHTEEN
The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore
NINETEEN
The Silver Doe
TWENTY
Xenophilius Lovegood
TWENTY-ONE
The Tale of the Three Brothers
TWENTY-TWO
The Deathly Hallows
TWENTY-THREE
Malfoy Manor
TWENTY-FOUR
The Wandmaker
TWENTY-FIVE
Shell Cottage
TWENTY-SIX
Gringotts
TWENTY-SEVEN
The Final Hiding Place
TWENTY-EIGHT
The Missing Mirror
TWENTY-NINE
The Lost Diadem
THIRTY
The Sacking of Severus Snape
/> THIRTY-ONE
The Battle of Hogwarts
THIRTY-TWO
The Elder Wand
THIRTY-THREE
The Prince’s Tale
THIRTY-FOUR
The Forest Again
THIRTY-FIVE
King’s Cross
THIRTY-SIX
The Flaw in the Plan
EPILOGUE
Nineteen Years Later
— CHAPTER ONE —
The Dark Lord Ascending
The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other’s chests; then, recognising each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.
‘News?’ asked the taller of the two.
‘The best,’ replied Severus Snape.
The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men’s long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.
‘Thought I might be late,’ said Yaxley, his blunt features sliding in and out of sight as the branches of overhanging trees broke the moonlight. ‘It was a little trickier than I expected. But I hope he will be satisfied. You sound confident that your reception will be good?’
The Half-Blood Prince Page 56
