Slughorn Begins to Waver

Rosmerta, who was under the Imperius Curse, had actually wanted to kill Harry Potter, but had accidentally sold him that bottle of mead instead?

An hour earlier, Slughorn had heard the same thing, but he had assumed Silvan had misheard.

Harry Potter was still underage. Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks would never have sold him mead.

But now, Dumbledore had repeated such an obvious and clumsy lie.

"That's impossible, Albus." The smile vanished from Slughorn's face. "Harry Potter can't buy mead."

"Of course, Horace, you're right." Dumbledore's expression did not change. "But what none of us expected was that the Death Eater controlling Madam Rosmerta was rather unprofessional. He mixed up the mead and the Butterbeer—

You know, their colors are actually quite similar."

Slughorn instinctively wanted to argue.

In his view, although mead and Butterbeer were both yellow, one was clear and the other cloudy. They looked nothing alike.

But before he could say anything, Dumbledore spoke again. "I know it sounds incredible, but these are the results of Alastor's investigation—sorry, I have some other matters to attend to. Shall we have a drink together tonight?"

Slughorn said nothing and merely shook his head.

"What a pity," Dumbledore said. Then he strode away, leaving Slughorn standing there alone, lost in thought.

Meanwhile, Silvan, Harry, and the others had arrived at the Potions classroom early.

They had not needed to come so soon, but Harry was now determined to make a good impression on Slughorn. With twenty minutes still left before class, he could not wait to get there.

He wanted Slughorn to see him as diligent and eager to learn. Besides doing well in class, being the first to arrive could also improve his standing.

What Harry had not expected, however, was that although he really had been the