Was originally written for the Honeydukes Competition by owluvr. XD

Heh heh. I don't usually write fanfics based on the movie, because I genuinely believe the books are better. But, I was watching the full Harry Potter set today with my family, and I got this idea while watching Harry trying to retrieve the horcrux memory from Professor Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He was talking about his pet fish, Frances, and how he got him. This is set in sixth year.

Sorry for the ridiculously long Author's Note.

Enjoy!

It was peaceful in the castle. No shouting students in the courtyard, no lessons to plan for ages yet. Professor Horace Slughorn was enjoying a nice little lie-in. He intended to stay in bed for as long as possible, but when he finally could not bear his bad breath for another minute longer, he got up.

When he headed back from the bathroom, he saw a rather peculiar sight. On his desk, he noticed as he passed his office, was a bowl of water. Slughorn walked on, not properly seeing the bowl. Suddenly he froze, and turned his head to the bowl to stare at it.

In the bowl, was a single lily pad. Before his very eyes, it began sank, to the very bottom of the bowl. Horace stared at it, flabbergasted, as the lily pad transformed into a fish, similarly to the changing of a boggart. A single, graceful, goldfish.

Slughorn's jaw dropped, but he quickly pulled himself together. He remembered the form the goldfish was before it transformed. A lily pad. A lily pad.

Picking the bowl up carefully, he placed it on his desk, smiling to himself. Living in a muggle neighborhood really had taken a toll on him. He'd completely forgotten that Transfiguration even existed. Chuckling to himself slightly, he headed off to the bathroom, to brush his teeth.

"Miss Evans! Well done! Full marks, again!" Slughorn boomed across the classroom on seeing Lily's perfect potion. Lily beamed.

"Thank you, Sir!"

The bell rang. A wave of chatter broke over the classroom, as they automatically began pouring samples of their potions into phials. They knew Slughorn hadn't seen all the potions yet, and guessed that he would be wanting the samples. They were correct.

The class streamed out, still chattering noisily, as they headed off to Charms. James Potter and Lily Evans were the last.

"I just want to speak to you, Miss Evans," Slughorn said, smiling jovially. Lily smiled back, then turned to James.

"You go on," she said, kissing his cheek. James grinned, blushing slightly, and headed out of the door, racing after his friends.

"Thank you for the fish, a beautiful example of timed transfiguration. But I'd expect nothing less of someone who is probably the cleverest witch of her age!" he chuckled.

"You flatter me, Sir!" Lily laughed. "Have you named him?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact! His new name is Frances."

"That's a beautiful name," Lily replied dreamily. Slughorn chuckled again.

"Well, off you go, you don't want to be late for Charms!"

Horace was heart-broken. Sweet Marlene McKinnon was dead, along with vivacious Alice Prew - err... Longbottom.

And, of course, lovely Lily Evans. It was like a part of him had been taken away... Tears silently streaming down his cheeks, he headed off to feed his fish, Frances, to get his mind off the First War. A distraction was what he needed. This didn't help, however, because Frances simply reminded him of who had given it to him, Lily.

However, he noticed something odd the moment he stepped into the room. The soft sounds of bubbles being bubbled about in water was... gone! Frances had disappeared!

Horace Slughorn sobbed.

So much for a distraction.

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