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

J.K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
own the mead into his mouth and swallowed it.
There was one second, hardly more than a heartbeat, in which Harry
knew there was something terribly wrong and Slughorn, it seemed, did not.
“— and may you have many more —”
“Ron!”
Ron had dropped his glass; he half-rose from his chair and then crumpled,
his extremities jerking uncontrollably. Foam was dribbling from his mouth,
and his eyes were bulging from their sockets.
“Professor!” Harry bellowed. “Do something!”
But Slughorn seemed paralyzed by shock. Ron twitched and choked: His
skin was turning blue.
“What — but —” spluttered Slughorn.
Harry leapt over a low table and sprinted toward Slughorn’s open potion
kit, pulling out jars and pouches, while the terrible sound of Ron’s gargling
breath filled the room. Then he found it — the shriveled kidneylike stone
Slughorn had taken from him in Potions.
He hurtled back to Ron’s side, wrenched open his jaw, and thrust the
bezoar into his mouth. Ron gave a great shudder, a rattling gasp, and his
body became limp and still.
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