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

“Dudley sent me a letter!” he cried in surprise.
“Yes, that’s why I wanted to bring it to you personally,” continued Professor McGonagall. “It was probably important.”
“Thanks professor,” said Harry, continuing on his walk back up the castle and shaking the envelope. From the sound of it, there was definitely something inside… but what could Dudley have sent him?
“Anytime,” she called to him, sounding a little breathless. She began walking back as well. Harry and Ron ran all the way to the Gryffindor Common Room, unable to wait much longer to see what was inside. What could Dudley have possibly sent him? When the two of them arrived in the common room, they walked over to a corner, and opened it up.
“What’s that?” asked Hermione, coming over to them.
“Something from Dudley,” said Harry, trying to shake whatever was inside it out. Hermione made a face of surprise.
“What’s he doing sending you stuff?”
“I dunno, but it must be imp-” Harry stopped there, and it seemed as if the whole world froze. When he saw what had fallen out of the bag and onto the floor, someone could have knocked him over with a feather, and he probably would have turned to dust from the impact. Right there, before the three of them, was a Sorceror’s Stone.
Chapter 8- The First Match
It looked exactly like the one Harry had found in his first year at school. It was a transparent gold all over with a shiny, red center. Harry’s eyes widened and he began to drool from looking at it. With this, he could have all the money he’d ever wanted, and live forever….
“Oh… my… god….” gasped Ron, not blinking.
“What is Dudley doing?” said Hermione softly, not taking her gaze off of it either. “Does he have a collection of these at home or what? Where did he get that from!?”
“I… don’t know,” said Harry, doing the same as the other two, standing there, transfixed onto it.
“Well didn’t a note come with it or something?” asked Hermione, still not raising the volume of her voice in the least. Harry dug into the beg and felt a small sheet of parchment. He quickly ripped it out, and read it aloud softly to the two of them. He didn’t want anyone else in the room to hear.
Dear Harry,
Remember how we went to see that lady in the funeral home that day during the summer? Well, as it turns out, she was actually someone very important… in your world that is. I think her name was Perenelle Flamel. Does that name ring a bell? Oh well.
Anyway, it seems as though this Stone was her most prized possession and she decided to leave it to whoever bothered to show up at her funeral. Seems as though she’s not very popular with the rest of her family… it said in the will that the funeral home sent me that she wouldn’t share her Stone with the rest of her family, trying to keep some sort of ‘immortality spell’ as she called it off of them. Said she’d give it to whoever went through the little trouble of finding where her funeral was. Weird, huh?
Anyway, I hope this letter gets to you. I had to steal this owl from the biology room at my school and I think I told it to deliver it to you. Oh, by the way, try to send him back as soon as possible, so I don’t get in trouble and because we need owl pellets for a test on Wednesday.
Dudley
“That lady was Nicholas Flamel’s wife!” said Harry, lowering his voice from a yell to a whisper, realizing how loud he was talking before.
“She has her own Sorcerer’s Stone?” asked Ron.
“And Dumbledore didn’t destroy it?” gasped Hermione.
“Maybe she hid it,” guessed Ron “No wonder she stayed alive longer than her husband; he died last year.”
“Speaking of Dumbledore,” said Harry, “we have to give this to him.”
Ron and Hermione looked up at him.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Couldn’t we just make a little gold?” begged Ron.
“No way!” said Harry, snatching it from off the ground. “If we do that-” Suddenly, the same holographic map shot out of Harry’s ring and into the air. It was massive, depicting the entire world, and someone could see it!
“Get down!” yelled Harry, pushing Ron and Hermione’s heads to the ground, and shining the map onto the floor. He looked up for a second… no one had seen it. He breathed a quick sigh of relief.
“What is that?” asked Ron and Hermione together, gazing at the map.
“I- I’m not sure,” said Harry, looking at it too.
“What are those?” asked Ron, pointing to the four colored dots.
“Like I said… I don’t know yet,” said Harry, trying to keep his voice down.
“You mean, you’ve seen this map before?” asked Hermione.
Harry swallowed hard
“Yes. Once before, in Dumbledore’s office.”
“His office? Why there? What triggered it?”
“I don’t know,” said Harry, letting go of the Stone, “I just touched this watch and-” Harry suddenly noticed that the map had disappeared.
“Harry… touch the Stone again…” said Hermione quietly. Slowly, Harry reached his finger out, until it touched the Stone. The closer it got, the more Harry’s finger burned, and the brighter it shone green. The instant Harry touched it, the map appeared again. He took his finger off, it disappeared, touched it, it reappeared, let go, it went away.
“So the Stone is what triggers it,” said Ron.
“No,” said Harry, standing up and putting the Stone in his pocket. “I didn’t touch a Stone in Dumbledore’s office. It was a watch.”
“Maybe it was made out of tiny Sorcerer’s Stones,” suggested Ron.
“Ron,” said Hermione exasperantly, “how many Sorceror’s Stones so you think there are in the world?”
Ron shrugged.
“A lot?”
“No,” said Hermione. “This one isn’t even supposed to be here. There’s certainly not enough to make a watch out of. What I’d like to know is… what is that map?”
“And what the dots are for,” added Ron.
“Well, we can ask Dumbledore all about that when we see him in the office,” said Harry. “Let’s go. We may still be able to make the Wizard Duel meeting is we leave now.” Hermione rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, I agree with Harry,” said Ron, suddenly interested upon hearing that Wizard Duel was involved. “Let’s go!” The three of them walked to Dumbledore’s office, their heads buzzing and on the verge of explosion. How were the Stone and the ring linked? What was that map? What did it show the locations of? Suddenly, when they were walking down a hallway, Ak jumped out in front of them.
“Harry! Ron!” he yelled. “Get in here! You’re going to miss the meeting!”