Guesswork

Dumbledore and the others had barely left when Madam Pomfrey chased Silvan and Harry out of the Hospital Wing, on the grounds that their five minutes of visiting time were up and staying any longer would disturb the patient's rest.

Although Silvan felt that Slughorn did not look particularly eager to rest—after all, he seemed more interested in talking to Harry, and had been boasting ever since about how he had spotted that something was wrong with the mead at once.

Madam Pomfrey did not care about that, however, and mercilessly sent Silvan and Harry away all the same.

"Do you think this might have been Malfoy's plan?" Harry asked as soon as they left the Hospital Wing. "Maybe Voldemort was afraid he'd reveal the secret of the Horcrux, so he had them kill Slughorn at school—"

"But that doesn't make sense." Before Silvan could speak, Harry overturned his own guess. "Professor Slughorn said that bottle of oak-matured mead had been meant as a gift for Dumbledore. He only decided to drink it himself after changing his mind. Malfoy couldn't have known that, right?"

"Maybe they were trying to kill Dumbledore in the first place?" Silvan said.

Harry stopped walking without thinking and stared at Silvan in disbelief.

Kill Dumbledore—who, Malfoy?

Had he eaten too many Dungbombs?

Harry thought that was probably the funniest joke he had heard all year.

"That's impossible, Silvan. Even Voldemort is afraid of Dumbledore. No matter what, Malfoy could never kill him."

Of course Harry did not believe it, and Silvan said nothing more. Forget Harry—no one would believe Malfoy would dare poison Dumbledore.

"Harry, Silvan, you finally came out."

At that moment, Ron and Hermione ran over from a corner. After Madam Pomfrey had stopped them, they had been waiting there the whole time.