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“Why, where are they?”
“Oh, they’re in Diagon Alley, sleeping in the little flat over their joke shop as they’re so busy,” said Mrs. Weasley. “I must say, I didn’t approve at first, but they do seem to have a bit of a flair for business! Come on, dear, your trunks already up there.”
“‘Night, Mr. Weasley,” said Harry, pushing back his chair. Crookshanks leapt lightly from his lap and slunk out of the room.
“G’night, Harry,” said Mr. Weasley.
Harry saw Mrs. Weasley glance at the clock in the washing basket as they left the kitchen. All the hands were once again at “mortal peril.”
Fred and George’s bedroom was on the second floor. Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at a lamp on the bedside table and it ignited at once, bathing the room in a pleasant golden glow. Though a large vase of flowers had been placed on a desk in front of the small window, their perfume could not disguise the lingering smell of what Harry thought was gunpowder. A considerable amount of floor space was devoted to a vast number of unmarked, sealed cardboard boxes, amongst which stood Harry’s school trunk. The room looked as though it was being used as a temporary warehouse.
Hedwig hooted happily at Harry from her perch on top of a large wardrobe, then took off through the window; Harry knew she had been waiting to see him before going hunting. Harry bade Mrs. Weasley good night, put on pajamas, and got into one of the beds. There was something hard inside the pillowcase. He groped inside it and pulled out a sticky purple-and-orange sweet, which he recognized as a Puking Pastille. Smiling to himself, he rolled over and was instantly asleep.
Seconds later, or so it seemed to Harry, he was awakened by what sounded like ca
“Wuzzgoinon?”
“We didn’t know you were here already!” said a loud and excited voice, and he received a sharp blow to the top of the head.
“Ron, don’t hit him!” said a girl’s voice reproachfully.
Harry’s hand found his glasses and he shoved them on, though I he light was so bright he could hardly see anyway. A long, looming shadow quivered in front of him for a moment; he blinked and Ron Weasley came into focus, gri
“All right?”
“Never been better,” said Harry, rubbing the top of his head and slumping back onto his pillows. “You?”
“Not bad,” said Ron, pulling over a cardboard box and sitting on it. “When did you get here? Mum’s only just told us!”
“About one o’clock this morning.”
“Were the Muggles all right? Did they treat you okay?”
“Same as usual,” said Harry, as Hermione perched herself on the edge of his bed, “they didn’t talk to me much, but I like it better that way. How’re you, Hermione?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” said Hermione, who was scrutinizing Harry as though he was sickening for something. He thought he knew what was behind this, and as he had no wish to discuss Sirius’s death or any other miserable subject at the moment, he said, “What’s the time? Have I missed breakfast?”
“Don’t worry about that, Mum’s bringing you up a tray; she reckons you look underfed,” said Ron, rolling his eyes. “So, what’s been going on?”
“Nothing much, I’ve just been stuck at my aunt and uncle’s, haven’t I?”
“Come off it!” said Ron. “You’ve been off with Dumbledore!”
“It wasn’t that exciting. He just wanted me to help him persuade this old teacher to come out of retirement. His name’s Horace Slughorn.”
“Oh,” said Ron, looking disappointed. “We thought…”
Hermione flashed a warning look at Ron, and Ron changed tack at top speed.
“…we thought it’d be something like that.”
“You did?” said Harry, amused.
“Yeah… yeah, now Umbridge has left, obviously we need a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, don’t we? So, er, what’s he like?”
“He looks a bit like a walrus, and he used to be Head of Slytherin,” said Harry. “Something wrong, Hermione?”
She was watching him as though expecting strange symptoms to manifest themselves at any moment. She rearranged her features hastily in an unconvincing smile.
“No, of course not! So, um, did Slughorn seem like he’ll be a good teacher?”
“Du
“I know someone who’s worse than Umbridge,” said a voice from the doorway. Ron’s younger sister slouched into the room, looking irritable. “Hi, Harry.”
“What’s up with you?” Ron asked.
“It’s her,” said Gi
“What’s she done now?” asked Hermione sympathetically.
“It’s the way she talks to me… you’d think I was about three!”
“I know,” said Hermione, dropping her voice. “She’s so full of herself.”
Harry was astonished to hear Hermione talking about Mrs. Weasley like this and could not blame Ron for saying angrily, “Can’t you two lay off her for five seconds?”
“Oh, that’s right, defend her,” snapped Gi
This seemed an odd comment to make about Ron’s mother. Starting to feel that he was missing something, Harry said, “Who are you… ?”
But his question was answered before he could finish it. The bedroom door flew open again, and Harry instinctively yanked the bedcovers up to his chin so hard that Hermione and Gi
A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray.
“‘Arry,” she said in a throaty voice. “Eet ’as been too long!”
As she swept over the threshold toward him, Mrs. Weasley was revealed, bobbing along in her wake, looking rather cross.
“There was no need to bring up the tray, I was just about to do it myself!”
“Eet was no trouble,” said Fleur Delacour, setting the tray across Harry’s knees and then swooping to kiss him on each cheek: He felt the places where her mouth had touched him burn. “I ‘ave been longing to see ’im. You remember my seester, Gabrielle? She never stops talking about ‘Arry Potter. She will be delighted to see you again.”
“Oh… is she here too?” Harry croaked.
“No, no, silly boy,” said Fleur with a tinkling laugh, “I mean next summer, when we… but do you not know?”
Her great blue eyes widened and she looked reproachfully at Mrs. Weasley, who said, “We hadn’t got around to telling him yet.”
Fleur turned back to Harry, swinging her silvery sheet of hair so that it whipped Mrs. Weasley across the face.
“Bill and I are going to be married!”
“Oh,” said Harry blankly. He could not help noticing how Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and Gi
She swooped down upon him and kissed him again.
“Bill is very busy at ze moment, working very ‘ard, and I only work part-time at Gringotts for my Eenglish, so he brought me ’ere for a few days to get to know ‘is family properly. I was so pleased to ’ear you would be coming… zere isn’t much to do ‘ere, unless you like cooking and chickens! Well… enjoy your breakfast, ’Arry!”
With these words she turned gracefully and seemed to float out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
Mrs. Weasley made a noise that sounded like, “tchah!”
“Mum hates her,” said Gi
“I do not hate her!” said Mrs. Weasley in a cross whisper. “I just think they’ve hurried into this engagement, that’s all!”
“They’ve known each other a year,” said Ron, who looked oddly groggy and was staring at the closed door.
“Well, that’s not very long! I know why it’s happened, of course. Its all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they’re rushing all sorts of decisions they’d normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left, right, and center…”
“Including you and Dad,” said Gi
“Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?” said Mrs. Weasley. “Whereas Bill and Fleur… well… what have they really got in common? He’s a hardworking, down-to-earth sort of person, whereas she’s…”
“A cow,” said Gi
“Stop calling her that, Gi
Looking careworn, she left the room. Ron still seemed slightly punch-drunk; he was shaking his head experimentally like a dog trying to rid its ears of water.
“Don’t you get used to her if she’s staying in the same house?” Harry asked.
“Well, you do,” said Ron, “but if she jumps out at you unexpectedly, like then…”
“It’s pathetic,” said Hermione furiously, striding away from Ron as far as she could go and turning to face him with her arms folded once she had reached the wall.
“You don’t really want her around forever?” Gi
“How’s she going to manage that?” asked Harry.
“She keeps trying to get Tonks round for di
“Yeah, that’ll work,” said Ron sarcastically. “Listen, no bloke in his right mind’s going to fancy Tonks when Fleur’s around. I mean, Tonks is okay-looking when she isn’t doing stupid things to her hair and her nose, but…”
“She’s a damn sight nicer than Phlegm? said Gi
“And she’s more intelligent, she’s an Auror!” said Hermione from the corner.
“Fleur’s not stupid, she was good enough to enter the Triwizard Tournament,” said Harry.