"J. K. Rowling - 6 - Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince(1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

“Alright then,” said Dumbledore, shaking his head. “Anyway, down to business. I have another item here that was left to you.”
“From my father?” asked Harry. Dumbledore shook his head.
“No, not this. This item is from your godfather.”
“Sirius?”
“Yes, he is giving it to you to keep the Ministry of Magic from finding,” explained Dumbledore, opening one of his other drawers, reaching inside, and taking out a small package. He walked over to Harry and handed it to him. Harry took it, and opened it up. Inside, there was a ring… not at all like his skull one, but a clear ring that had a face carved on the translucent Stone: half human on one side, half lion on the other.
“What is it?” asked Harry.
“It is an Animagus Invisibility Ring,” said Dumbledore, sitting down in the chair before his desk. “It acts just like your Invisibility Cloak. Only now, whenever you transform, you will become invisible if you want to. A very handy thing to have…. Though I see that you already have a ring….”
With that, he jumped up and walked slowly in front of Harry. He bent over slightly, and gazed at the skull ring, as if he was entranced by it somehow.
“Oh yeah…” said Harry quietly, putting his new ring on his middle finger. He could barely even see it was there, it was so clear. Dumbledore, however, seemed more interested in Harry’s skull ring than his new one. It was odd… very odd in fact. Dumbledore was just standing there, looming over Harry and gazing at his ring, wide-eyed and practically drooling.
“Uh… I have to go now,” said Harry awkwardly. Dumbledore immediately shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times, leaving his catatonic state.
“Oh- oh yes!” he said, sitting back down, but not taking his eyes off of Harry. “Go along now, I’m sure you have more important things to do than talk to an old geezer like me.”
Harry smiled at Dumbledore and walked out of the room, wondering what had made him act that way. All the way back to his common room, he went over in his mind what could have happened in Dumbledore’s office with the blue watch… what was with the map and everything? He almost walked right into the portrait of the Fat Lady, not thinking. He gave her the password, and had to work his way through a cloud of students, who Harry supposed was just gathered there to talk excitedly and anxiously about the upcoming year. When he saw what the real cause was, though, he felt a little disgusted.
“Now what cards would you like?” asked Aylar behind a table that was covered several inches high in sickles and knuts. “Any card you want, I can give it to you.”
“I’d like a Merlin,” squeaked the kid, who looked like he was a third year.
“Coming right up!” smirked Aylar, waving his wand and causing the card to appear out of thin air, right onto the surface of the table. “That will be… seven sickles please.” The kid quickly reached into his pocket and threw the money out on the table, walking away in a blissful state. “Next!”
“Aylar!” yelled Harry. “What are you doing?”
“Oh hello Harry,” smiled Aylar as his next customer approached. “Just giving these kids a few cards that they have trouble getting their hands on if they only buy packs.”
“But Aylar… that’s counterfeiting!”
“I guess so… but who can tell the difference?” he shrugged, creating four phoenixes for his customer. Harry grabbed one from the air, and took a spare card out from his pocket, to compare them. After a quick glance, Harry saw a big difference.
“Sorry Aylar,” grinned Harry, showing him the two cards side by side. “But, in the bottom left hand corner of the real card, there’s a ‘T’. On yours, there’s an ‘A’.” Aylar snatched the cards out of his hand, and looked them over quickly, his eyes darting from side to side.
“I guess the first letter of the name of the person that made the card is put there,” said Aylar quietly, not wanting that little thing to get out.
“But look!” exclaimed Aylar’s customer who was waiting for the phoenix that Harry took, and had overheard them. He took out a werewolf card from his pocket.
“Yeah… so?”
“This one’s got a ‘V’ in the corner,” he said. Then, taking out another card. “And this one’s got an ‘A’ too!” Aylar folded his arms and put a smug look on his face.
“So, three different people make the cards, and one of their name’s starts with ‘A’, same as mine. There’s no way anyone will be able to tell the difference! Next!” Aylar gave his previous customer his phoenix, and a new student came up.
“Four Sorceror’s Stones,” he demanded, causing Harry to sigh and walk up to his dormitory. How could Aylar do something like that? Counterfeiting cards just to make a little money. Harry opened the door to his room, and saw the three boys, Seamus, Dean, and Ak, playing Wizard Duel on the floor. Harry groaned at the sight of more cards.
“Yes! I win again!” yelled Ak, throwing his hands into the air.
“That’s the sixth time in a row!” sighed Seamus, Dean, and Ron together.
“Hey Harry!” said Ak, turning around. “Your deck’s not bad!”
“Thanks, but isn’t that enough for tonight?” suggested Harry.
“Nah,” the four of them said together.
“But we could use another player…” said Dean.
“You’re right. Hey Neville!” called Seamus. Neville was back in a corner of the room, reading a book. Seamus held up his deck for him to see. “You play?”
Neville looked up, and Harry scanned him over. He appeared completely different from last year. If Harry didn’t know Neville was his name, he would have thought they were two totally different people. Now, instead of being slightly on the large side, Neville looked stronger than the four of them put together. His hair was different too… extremely pointy. He looked more like a character from an anime cartoon than a human.
“No,” he said with a tone of superiority in his voice. “I have… things to do.”
Harry frowned at him and winced an eye. He knew that Neville was probably studying the latest Dark Curses. Ever since halfway through the last year, Neville had been a Death Eater, and his new look was probably a gift from Voldemort.
“Fine,” said Seamus, shrugging and returning to the game.
They played another round, and Ak won, of course. Ron, Seamus and Dean decided that they’d been slaughtered enough for one day, and all of them chose to stop for the night, and go to bed.
Harry laid there, still slightly awake, with ideas buzzing in his head.
“Could this field trip be the same field trip that Jamie got lost on…? What was the deal with the map thing in Dumbledore’s office…? What was Dobby trying to warn me about…?” After a while, however, Harry finally drifted off into a deep sleep.
“Harry…” came a voice, as if from far away.
“Mmmm…” he groaned back.
“Harry Potter…” it came again, louder.
“Yeah, what?” asked Harry groggily, opening his eyes. He was very surprised to see that he was not in bed, but rather standing up in the middle of the Gryffindor Common room. His glasses weren’t on, so he couldn’t see a thing, but luckily he felt them in his hand. Harry quickly put them on.
“Harry Potter,” hissed the voice again. This time, it was much closer, and sounded almost inhuman. Suddenly, Harry could make out where the voice was coming from, and even worse, whose it was. Right before him, in the middle of the common room, was Voldemort himself.
Chapter 6- New Classes
“Hello… Harry Potter,” hissed Voldemort again, caressing himself with his spider-like fingers. Unlike his followers, Voldemort looked no different than when Harry had met him last. Pale and skeleton-like skinny all over, with snake eyes and a long, flowing, black robe and cape.
Harry didn’t have time to scream or yell. He just reached into his pocket for his wand. He quickly pulled it right out, and pointed it straight at Voldemort.
“Stupefy!” he yelled. The beam shot right out from the tip of his wand… but it just passed right through Voldemort, as if he were a ghost. Voldemort gave a short laugh.
“Oh Harry,” he chortled, “don’t you think I’m smarter than that? Even though my powers are great, I still wouldn’t risk coming into Hogwarts in my actual form… yet anyways.”