Hey my wonderful readers. Here is today's selection for Potter's Army BOOK EXCERPT! Now remember all the rights go to Joanne Rowling, and Scholastic Inc. I am not trying to copy, just trying to provide you, my readers, with a daily selection from the books that we all love. I hope that you will enjoy today's selection.
Today's selection comes from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on Chapter 27. As I said I hope you enjoy the selection from within Chapter 27 (It does not start right at the beginning of the Chapter.) Remember if you do not want the story to be spoiled, and you have not read this book yet (or watch the movie) DO NOT READ CONTAINS MANY SPOILERS!!!!
BOOK EXCERPT:
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
CHAPTER 27
THE LIGHTING STRUCK THE TOWER (starts on page 584, top of page)
Harry hurried over to the door leading to the spiral staircase, but his hand had only just closed upon the iron ring of the door when he heard running footsteps on the other side. He looked around at Dumbledore, who gestured him to retreat. Harry backed away, drawing his wand as he did so.
The door burst open and somebody erupted through it and shouted, "EXPELLIARMUS!"
Harry's body became instantly rigid and immobile, and he felt himself fall back against the tower wall, propped like an unsteady statue, unable to move or speak. He could not understand how it had happened----Expelliarmus was not a Freezing Charm----
Then, by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore's wand flying like in an arc over the edge of the ramparts and understood. . . . Dumbledore wordlessly immobilized Harry, and the second he had taken to perform the spell had cost him the chance of defending himself.
Standing against the ramparts, very white in the face, Dumbledore still showed no sign or panic or distress. He merely looked across at his disarmer and said, "Good evening, Draco."
Malfoy stepped forward, glancing around quickly to check that he and Dumbledore were alone. His eyes fell upon the second broom.
'Who else is here?"
"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"
Harry saw Malfoy's pale eyes shift back to Dumbledore in the greenish glare of the Mark.
"No," he said. "I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."
"Well, well," said Dumbledore, as though Malfoy was showing him an ambitious homework project. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"
"yeah," said Malfoy, who was panting. "Right under your nose and you never realized!"
"Ingenious," said Dumbledore. "Yet. . . forgive me. . . . where are they now? You seem unsupported."
"They met some of your guards. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long. . . . i came on ahead. I---I've got a job to do."
"Well, then you must get on and do it, my dear boy," said Dumbledore softly.
There was silence. Harry stood imprisoned within his own invisible, paralysed body, staring at the two of them, his ears straining to hear sounds of the Death Eaters' distant fight, and in front of him, Draco Malfoy did nothing but stare at Albus Dumbledore, who, incredibly, smiled.
"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."
"How do you know?" said Malfoy at once.
He seemed to realise how childish the words had sounded; Harry saw him flush in the Mark's greenish light.
"You don't know what I am capable of," said Malfoy more forcefully. "You don't know what I've done!"
"Oh yes, I do," said Dumbledore mildly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts. . . . So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder wether your heart has been really in it."
"It has been in it!" said Malfoy vehemently. "I've been working on it all year, and tonight---"
Somewhere in the depths of the castle below Harry heard a muffled yell. Malfoy stiffened and glanced over his shoulder.
"Somebody is putting up a good fight," said Dumbledore conversationally. "But you were saying. . . yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school, which I admit, I thought impossible. . . . How did you do it?"
But Malfoy said nothing: He was still listening to whatever was happening below and seemed almost paralyzed as Harry was.
"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," suggested Dumbledore. "What if your backup has been thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realised, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight too. And after all, you don't really need help. . . . I have no wand at the moment . . . . I cannot defend myself."
Malfoy merely stared at him.
"I see," said Dumbledore kindly, when Malfoy neither moved nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until they join you."
"I'm not afraid!" snarled Malfoy, though he still made no move to hurt Dumbledore. "It's you who should be scared!"
"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe. . . . So tell me, while we wait for your friends. . . how did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken a long time to work out how to do it."
Malfoy looked as though he was fighting down the urge to shout, or to vomit. He gulped and took several deep breaths, glaring at Dumbledore, his wand pointing directly at the latter's heart. Then, as though he could not help himself, he said, "I have to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years. The one Montague got lost in last year."
"Aaaah." Dumbledore's sigh was half a groan. He closed his eyes for a moment. "That was clever. . . . There is a pair, I take it?"
Well there is today's selection from Half-Blood Prince! I hope you enjoyed today's selection! Remember to tune in way later tonight for the very first MOVIE TALK! :D Dunno what movie yet? I will find out soon though! :D Thanks again for reading my wonderful readers.
Hpfan7
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment