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

J.K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
BIRTHDAY SURPRISES
The next day Harry confided in both Ron and Hermione the task that
Dumbledore had set him, though separately, for Hermione still refused to
remain in Ron’s presence longer than it took to give him a contemptuous
look.
Ron thought that Harry was unlikely to have any trouble with Slughorn
at all.
“He loves you,” he said over breakfast, waving an airy forkful of fried
egg. “Won’t refuse you anything, will he? Not his little Potions Prince. Just
hang back after class this afternoon and ask him.”
Hermione, however, took a gloomier view. “He must be determined to
hide what really happened if Dumbledore couldn’t get it out of him,” she
said in a low voice, as they stood in the deserted, snowy courtyard at break.
“Horcruxes... Horcruxes... I’ve never even heard of them.”
“You haven’t?” Harry was disappointed; he had hoped that Hermione
might have been able to give him a clue as to what Horcruxes were.
“They must be really advanced Dark Magic, or why would Voldemort
have wanted to know about them? I think it’s going to be difficult to get the
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