her hands over her mouth.
"Hagrid what happened to you?" Ginny was just as shocked as Hermione.
Hagrid was emaciated and his eyes were empty. They had lost all shine and he didn't even smile.
"Hello you four!", Hagrid today as if he had a big cold, "I'm sorry, but I don't have time right now." And whoosh, Hagrid slammed the door again.
The four teenagers stood there and looked at the door, totally perplexed.
Harry had already suspected something like that, but rather he thought Hagrid was completely upset. But somehow he was totally relaxed and so rough.
"What do we do now? It doesn't exist!" Ron was totally stunned.
"We'd better go back to the castle. There is nothing we can do at the moment." So Harry turned his back on Hagrid's hut and went back.
Harry still had time until he should be with Dumbledore and sat down with the others in front of the fireplace.
Nobody said a word and Harry wondered how he could help Hagrid.After all, Hagrid kept helping him and encouraging him.

"Harry, do you still want to send the Half-Blood Prince an owl?" Ginny startled Harry from his thoughts.
"Yeah, I think so. I don't think Dumbledore will tell me the truth. Knowing him, I'll have to find out for myself."
"But what if this is all a trick and he's really bad?" Ron was worried.
I'm going to see Dumbledore first and you should go to dinner. Don't worry, we can handle it. "
With that, Harry stood up and kissed Ginny. Then he made his way to Dumbledore's former office.

Just before six o'clock, Harry was standing in front of the gargoyle that hides the path to Dunbledore's office. McGonagall had already given him the password (eagle). Still, he was a little hesitant about it.
But there was no other way. He took another deep breath and said the password and already brought him up the stairs to the office.He knocked and entered. The office hadn't changed much, the only thing missing was the pole that Fawkes always sat on.

"Harry, good to see you safe and sound again!"
Harry jumped three feet into the air and looked for the speaker. And there he was, Albus Dumbledore smiled at him from a portrait.
"Pro… Pro… Professor! Nice to see you again. How are you?" Harry still had to recover from the shock. And yet the warmth that he always felt when he was in Dumbledore's presence spread inside him.
"Well, I'm fine so far. Apart from the fact that I can only see Hogwarts through the portraits." Dumbledore sat down in his chair and watched Harry closely.
"Sorry, that was inappropriate of me. I wasn't thinking," Harry mumbled, his head bowed.
"Harry, look at me please!"
Harry looked straight into Dumbledore's Blue Eyes and there it was again, that aura that always surrounded his former Headmaster.How was that possible? Harry couldn't figure it out, and neither did he have the time, because Dumbledore started talking.
"Well, now listen carefully. What happened, happened. And you can't change it. I couldn't have helped you any more. The main thing is that you're healthy!" This saying was typical of Dumbledore.
"But why Snape of all people? I thought he enjoyed your complete trust ?! Why did he do this to you?" Harry got straight to the point, he finally wanted clarity. And yet he struggled with tears.
"Harry calm down first!" Dumbledore didn't think his protégé would be so upset.
"I still trust Snape. He has reasons for you to find out for yourself."
But, but ... how is that supposed to work? Snape hates me and he's gone! "Harry didn't want to mention anything about the letter, yet.
"Well Harry, I know he sent you a letter so we can assume he doesn't hate you.""How do you know about the letter?" Harry was impressed with Dumbledore as always.
"That's my little secret. But about something else. How far are you with the Horcruxes? Do you have any ideas?" Even Dumbledore can be curious.
"Well, I talked to Remus about it and he wanted to talk to you again." Harry wanted to run away because he knows what's coming.
"Good. Did you destroy the locket or should Remus help you with it?" The only question Harry is afraid of.
How should he explain to Dumbledore what happened? He had to go through that now and there was no turning back.
"So, the locket ..." Harry took another deep breath. "It ... it ... it was a fake. Someone beat us up and left a message for Voldemort. The note was signed R.A.B.! I'm sorry."
Dumbledore was a bit shocked, but he quickly recovered.
"What are you supposed to be sorry for? After all, nobody could have guessed that anyone else knew Voldemort's secret.Unfortunately, I have to admit that the initials R.A.B. don't say much. "
"We haven't found out anything about him either. But we assume that this R.A.B. is already dead. We can only hope that he destroyed the locket."
Dumbledore noticed how seriously Harry was taking the whole thing. He was very satisfied with the development of his protégé.
"Well, we have to assume that. Next we should think about where he hid the other Horcruxes." Dumbledore sat down in his chair and looked at Harry expectantly.
"I was thinking that he might use the Riddles' house for that. It would suit them." Harry grew quieter with each word.
"Hmm ... yes of course! Harry that's awesome!" Dumbledore was proud of his protégé.
"Thanks!" and Harry tried not to look too honored.
They speculated for a while about the whereabouts and they also talked about other things.
Harry told Dumbledore about his new things to buy, about his new home and about Scrimgeour."Yes Harry. As I can see I can rely on you, but watch out this Scrimgeour will keep trying. I'm very happy to see you so happy!" Dumbledore sat very relaxed in his armchair and listened to Harry.
"Thank you sir. Yes, I'm happy. I couldn't be better!" Harry smiled.
"That's nice. But I think we should stop, it's already ... oh my goodness, it's already after midnight. Ms. Granger, Ms. Weasley and Mr. Weasley are sure to be waiting for you and want to know everything." Dumbledore winked .
"Oh, ok. Well then, good night sir!" Harry was about to turn around ...
"Wait, there is one more thing.", Dumbledore stood up and looked Harry in the eye, "I want you and your three friends to take some real Occlumency lessons. So that Voldemort doesn't even have the opportunity to share your thoughts and secrets to use against you. "
Harry saw how serious Dumbledore was and he was right too."Of course, but who is going to teach us that?" Harry didn't know anyone who could teach them that.
"Professor Lupine will instruct you in everything. I will talk to him shortly. He will then let you know.
So now march to bed. Tomorrow is school and you don't want to miss it! "So Dumbledore ended the conversation.
"Of course not sir! Good night. I hope we can talk again!" With these words Harry left.
Dumbledore sat back in the chair and considered Harry's last words. He smiled and fell asleep.

Harry has made it back to the common room and it was just as Dumbledore said. His two best friends and his girlfriend were sitting in front of the fireplace and immediately looked up when the portrait hole opened.
Harry had to grin. He went over to them immediately and began to talk straight away. It took two hours before he had resumed the conversation with Dumbledore and the discussion started."But why does Dumbledore still trust Snape?" Ron is skeptical as always.
"Well, because he knows more than we do!", Hermione has to answer a little more flippantly.
"That means Snape is the only one who can help us?" and Ginny got back to the heart of the matter.
"First we have to learn this spell, then we can write to your mum and then we'll see." Harry didn't really know if it was such a good idea to write to Snape.
"And teaching Occlumency? What do we need for?" Ron thought of Harry's Occlumency lessons.
"Voldemort can read our minds so to speak and Dumbledore is of the opinion that we have to face him at some point and so we can protect ourselves. Otherwise he has power over us." Harry didn't even want to think about what could happen.
"It doesn't matter now. It's already six thirty! We should freshen up and go for breakfast." Hermione suppressed a yawn.The others agreed and they went to the baths.
After half an hour, the four teenagers met in the common room and went to breakfast together in the Great Hall.

All four were exhausted and dog-tired. But for Harry, Ron and Hermione there was a ray of hope ... they had after Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Wizardry and were able to sleep for 2 hours.
Unfortunately, Ginny wasn't that lucky. Today she has no compartment in which she could sleep. But now she had to go through as an amphibian if she wanted to become a frog!
At breakfast everyone was very taciturn, they had the greatest effort not to fall asleep over their toast. After breakfast, Harry, Ron and Hermione said goodbye to Ginny and went to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Good morning and a warm welcome!", Lupine beamed at them all and yet he looked as if he could have needed more sleep as well. "This is her final year at this school and I am supposed to prepare her for her Defense Against the Dark Arts exams.The UTZe are the highest honors Hogwarts has to award. ", Lupine held his talk about NEWTs and the upcoming exams for a quarter of an hour. That was soooo boring !!!
"So good now. Today we're going to do a practical lesson! I want to know how far you are and what we still have to do." When Lupine was done, everyone got up and with a wave of his wand the table stood at the Wall.
The next two hours went by in a flash. Lupine had divided them into groups and watched and examined them. In the end he was very pleasantly surprised at how good they all were.

The rest of the day was very uneventful. Until they could really entertain our four teenagers again at dinner.

“Have you noticed how many students are missing?” At Hermione's words, the