分节阅读170

  fortable d archair his office, his feet restg upon a velvet pouffe, a sall gss of e one hand, the other ruagg a box of crystallized peapple and there were the half dozen teena boys sittg around sghorn with to riddle the idst of the, arvolo39s gold-and-bck rg gleag on his fr
  dubledore nded beside harry jt as riddle asked, ”sir is it true that profesr rrythought is retirg?”
  ”to, to, if i knew i uldn39t tell you,” said sghorn, wag-gg his fr reprovgly at riddle, though kg at the sa ti ”i t say, i39d like to know where you t your ration, boy, ore knowledable than half the staff, you are”
  riddle siled the other boys ughed and cast hi adirg looks
  ”what with your uncanny ability to know thgs you shouldn39t, and your careful fttery of the people who atter — thank you for the peapple, by the way, you39re ite right, it is y favorite —” several of the boys tittered aga ”— i nfidently expect you to rise to ister of agic with enty years fifteen, if you keep sendg peapple, i have ex-cellent ntacts at the istry”
  to riddle rely siled as the others ughed aga harry noticed that he was by no ans the eldest of the group of boys, but that they all seed to look to hi as their leader
  ”i don39t know that politics would suit , sir,” he said when the ughter had died away ”i don39t have the right kd of background, for one thg”
  a uple of the boys around hi sirked at each other harry was sure they were enjoyg a private joke, undoubtedly about what they knew, or spected, regardg their gang leader39s fao ancestor
  ”nonsense,” said sghorn
  iskly, ”uldn39t be per you e fro decent wizardg stock, abilities like yours no, you39ll go far, to, i39ve never been wrong about a student yet”
  the sall golden clock standg upon sghorn39s desk chid eleven o39clock behd hi and he looked around
  ”good gracio, is it that ti already? you39d better t gog boys, or we39ll all be trouble lestran, i want your essay by orrow or it39s detention sa goes for you, avery”
  one by one, the boys filed out of the roo sghorn heaved hiself out of his archair and carried his epty gss over to his desk a ovent behd hi ade hi look around riddle was still standg there
  ”look shar
  p, to, you don39t want to be caught out of bed out of hours, and you a prefect ”
  ”sir, i wanted to ask you thg” -39 ”ask away, then, 39boy, ask away  ”
  ”sir, i wondered what you know about  about horcruxes?39
  sghorn stared at hi, his thick rrs absentdedly cg the ste of his e gss
  ”project for defense agast the dark arts, is it?”
  but harry uld tell that sghorn knew perfectly well that this was not schoolwork
  ”not exactly, sir,” said riddle ”i ca across the ter while readg and i didn39t fully understand it”
  ”no  well  you39d be hard-phed to fd a book at hogwarts that39ll give you details on horcruxes, to, that39s very dark stuff, very dark deed,” said sghorn
  ”but you obvioly know all about the, sir? i an, a wizard like you — rry, i an, if you can39t tell , obvioly — i jt knew if anyone uld tell , you uld — i jt thought i39d –“
  it was very well done, thought harry, the hesitancy, the casual tone, the careful fttery, none of it overdone he, harry, had had too uch experience of tryg to wheedle ration out of re-ctant people not to regnize a aster at work he uld tell that riddle wanted the ration very, very uch perhaps had been workg toward this ont for weeks
  ”well,” said sghorn, not lookg at riddle, but fiddlg with the ribbon on of his box of crystallized peapple, ”well, it can39t hurt to give you an overview, of urse jt that you understand t he ter a horcrux is the word ed for an object which a per-n has ncealed part of their ul”
  ”i don39t ite understand how that works, though, sir,” said riddle
  his voice was carefully ntrolled, but harry uld sense his excitent
  ”well, you split your ul, you see,” said sghorn, ”and hide part of it an object outside the body then, even if one39s body is attacked or des