Harry's POV

"So...parchment, grass and what was the mystery thing?" Ron asked Hermione curiously.

"None of your business Ronald." Hermione replied.

"Grass because Quidditch and Y/N, parchment because she and Y/N spent a lot of time studying together and the last thing was probably just something to do with Y/N." I said, as Hermione gave me a glare.

Ron had a disappointed look on his face but quickly hid it by stuffing his face with chocolates nearby.

Hermione then looked at me. "Now who's this Half-Blood Prince that's giving you tips on Potions?"

I looked at Hermione dumbly. "If I knew I would tell you wouldn't I?"

"So can we find out who he is?" asked Ron.

"Or her," 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," I said, "how many girls have been Princes?"

Hermione seemed to have no answer to this.

The following Potion lessons, Slughorn seemed to be very impressed with my abilities. It was lucky that I had the help of the Half-Blood Prince otherwise I would be failing miserably. Unfortunately, Y/N was also very good at Potions and even without the help of my book, he was still performing quite well.

I didn't know how I felt about Y/N. On one hand, he wasn't the one who injured me on the compartment and his F/N Malfoy act was really all an act to help Dumbledore out. But part of me felt like that there was a possibility that he was going to get dragged into the dark side to the point where he couldn't get out.

It was really a game of chance. Would Y/N turn evil? Would he not?

"Hermione, will you let me copy off your Charms homework?" Ron pleaded, as we were sitting around a table in the Common Room. I was sitting on one side of the table and Ron and Hermione were sitting on the other side...closer than usual.

"No Ron, you can do it yourself." Hermione replied.

"But you're just so smart and it'll help me a lot." Ron said, with a pathetic attempt of a charming smile.

Was I missing out on something? Since when did Ron like to be nice to Hermione...

Humming to myself, I flipped through the pages of the Half-Blood Prince's book, hoping to find something that revealed his identity, but I couldn't.

"Harry mate, when are tryouts again?" Ron asked me.

Ginny appeared from nowhere. "Oh yeah, when are they Harry?"

I hadn't really thought that far into the future. "Next week I s'pose, I'll let you know."

Ginny nodded. "Now who's this Half-Blood Prince Hermione's been telling me about."

I shot Hermione a furious glare and she quickly started scribbling on her parchment.

"Are you sure it's not dangerous? After everything I went through in my second year, I don't think you should really trust it." Ginny advised.

"It's fine," I told her, "there's nothing wrong with it, it's just helping me become better at Potions."

Letting out an annoyed huff, Ginny walked out the Common Room.

Quidditch tryouts finally happened and apart from a few inconveniences, I managed to select what I thought was quite a solid team. The only issue was when Cormac McLaggen wasn't selected instead of Ron. To be honest, Ron managed to save all five shots but Cormac only saved four.

"His sister was probably going easy on him." Cormac complained once I told who had made it as keeper.

"Sorry mate, you saved four and he saved five." I told him plainly.

"C'mon Harry, surely you can make an exception for me, since we're both pals of old Sluggy." he pleaded.

Sluggy? Pals? Was this boy okay? He was really trying to get himself onto the team because we both were in Slughorn's compartment on the train. It wasn't even my choice, it's not like I wanted to be friends with Slughorn, he just liked me because of what the Daily Prophet and everyone was saying.

"McLaggen can you shut your bloody mouth please," a voice shouted from across the pitch, "I've got tryouts to hold and I want you and your big head out of here."

I turned and saw Y/N, in Slytherin Quidditch robes, striding towards where we were, broomstick in hand.

Cormac looked at Y/N bitterly.

"Go on then, remove yourself McLaggen." Y/N said with a smirk. He then walked past me and gave me a wink before starting his own Slytherin tryouts. It was a funny thing seeing him as a Quidditch captain. Under normal circumstances, he would've captained Gryffindor and I wouldn't of been captain, but these weren't normal circumstances.

I was still confused to why I was captain. I wasn't on the team before. I suppose I could play as seeker a bit but Y/N was a lot better. The only time I had really ever played was when me, Y/N and Ron were messing around. I had my own broom, it was a Nimbus but I rarely had to use it.

It was like history almost repeating itself. I had heard from Y/N's father, Steven, that my father beat him to the seeker spot when they were trying out and now, years later, Y/N beat me to the seeker spot.

I didn't even get to try out.

Ron did urge me to try out in my second year, but I refused. I was more than happy to watch from the stands. But now, my opportunity to play had arisen and I was going to take it.

Leaving the field with Ron and Hermione, we decided that it was time for lunch. Whilst we were walking to the Great Hall, we were stopped by none other than Professor Slughorn himself.

"Harry, Harry, just the man I was hoping to see!" he boomed genially. "I was hoping to catch you before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my room instead? We're having a little party, just a few rising stars, I've got McLaggen coming as well as Zabini and Malfoy. I hope very much that Miss Granger will favour me by coming too."

"I can't come, Professor," I said at once, "I've got a detention with Professor Snape."

I was quite thankful that I had detention because I really did not fancy going to a Slughorn dinner.

"Oh dear!" said Slughorn, his face falling comically. "Dear, dear, I was counting on you, Harry! Well, now, I'll just have to have a word with Severus and explain the situation. I'm sure I'll be able to persuade him to postpone your detention. Yes, I'll see you both later!"

And he bustled away out of the Hall.

"He's got no chance of persuading Snape," I said, "it's quite funny that Slughorn thinks that he'll be able to change Snape's mind."

"But I don't want to be on my own!" said Hermione anxiously.

"I doubt you'll be alone, Ginny'll probably be invited," snapped Ron, who did not seem to have taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn.

The three of us sat down for lunch and luckily for us, the Gryffindor table was quite vacant.

"Anything new?" I asked Hermione as she picked up a copy of the Prophet.

"Not really..." Hermione had opened the newspaper and was scanning the inside pages, "oh, look, your dad's in here, Ron."

"Why?" questioned Ron.

"It just says he's been to visit the Malfoys' house. 'This second search of the Death Eaters residence does not seem to have yielded any results. Arthur Weasley of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects said that his team had been acting upon a confidential tip-off.'"

"Yeah, mine!" I informed them. "I told him at King's Cross about Draco and that thing he was trying to get Borgin to fix! Well, if it's not at their house, he must have brought whatever it is to Hogwarts with him-"

"But how can he have done, Harry?" said Hermione, putting down the newspaper with a surprised look. "We were all searched when we arrived, weren't we?"

"I wasn't." I said glumly.

"Well, if Draco wanted to bring anything in he would've been picked up by the Secrecy Sensors." Hermione told us.

"It's got to be here somewhere...I know he's up to something. D'you reckon F/N will tell us?" I asked, thinking about whether Y/N would tell us or not.

"Why would that stupid Malfoy tell you what his plans are?" Ron replied, hatred prominent in his voice.

"Oh don't be so jealous Ronald." Hermione sighed.

Ron shook his head. "I'm not jealous."

"Yeah," I said, "you are. The amount of times you've complained about him even though he's never really done anything wrong to you."

"Wrong?" Ron exploded. "May I remind you of all of last year where he was being a prick and what happened at Diagon Alley this summer!"

"Jealousy is not a good look on you Ron." Hermione tutted.

"I don't get what you saw in him anyways, he was a stupid good-for-nothing Malfoy prick." Ron complained before muttering so quietly that I was only just able to pick it up. "I could do a lot better..."

Was there something Ron wasn't telling us? Surely he wouldn't like Hermione in that way. Or maybe he could...maybe his feelings were always hidden because of Y/N but now that he thought that Y/N was supposedly out the picture...

And to think all this time Y/N was worried about me stealing Hermione from him. Funny.

"Harry?" said the new Chaser, Demelza Robins, appearing suddenly at my shoulder. "I've got a message for you."

"From Professor Slughorn?" I asked, curious to whether Slughorn actually persuaded Snape or not.

"No...from Professor Snape," said Demelza, "he says you're to come to his office at half past eight tonight to do your detention...er...no matter how many party invitations you've received. And he wanted you to know you'll be sorting out rotten flobberworms from good ones, to use in Potions and he says there's no need to bring protective gloves."

Well, can't say I'm not surprised.

"Right," I said grimly, "thanks a lot, Demelza."