Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
CHAPTER NINE
THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
Harry and Ron met Hermione in the common room before breakfast
next morning. Hoping for some support for his theory, Harry lost no time in
telling Hermione what he had overheard Malfoy saying on the Hogwarts
Express.
“But he was obviously showing off for Parkinson, wasn’t he?” interjected
Ron quickly, before Hermione could say anything.
“Well,” she said uncertainly, “I don’t know... It would be like Malfoy to
make himself seem more important than he is... but that’s a big lie to tell...”
“Exactly,” said Harry, but he could not press the point, because so many
people were trying to listen in to his conversation, not to mention staring at
him and whispering behind their hands.
“It’s rude to point,” Ron snapped at a particularly minuscule first-year
boy as they joined the queue to climb out of the portrait hole. The boy, who
had been muttering something about Harry behind his hand to his friend,
promptly turned scarlet and toppled out of the hole in alarm. Ron sniggered.
“I love being a sixth year. And we’re going to be getting free time this
year. Whole periods when we can just sit up here and relax.”
“We’re going to need that time for studying, Ron!” said Hermione, as
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