Harry and Dumbledore approached the back door of the Burrow, which was surrounded by the familiar litter of old Wellington boots and rusty cauldrons; Harry could hear the soft clucking of sleepy chickens coming from a distant shed. Dumbledore knocked three times and Harry saw sudden movement behind the kitchen window. "Who~s there?" said a nervous voice he recognized as Mrs. Weasley~s. "Declare yourself!" "It is I, Dumbledore, bringing Harry." The door opened at once. There stood Mrs. Weasley, short, plump, and wearing an old green dressing gown. "Harry, dear! Gracious, Albus, you gave me a fright, you said not to expect you before morning!" "We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harry over the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harry~s doing, of course. Ah, hello, Nymphadora!" Harry looked around and saw that Mrs. Weasley was not alone, despite the lateness of the hour. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands. "Hello, Professor," she said. " Wotcher, Harry." "Hi, Tonks." Harry thought she looked drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her smile. Certainly her appearance was less colorful than usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink hair. "I~d better be off," she said quickly, standing up and pulling her cloak around her shoulders. "Thanks for the tea and sympathy, Molly" "Please don~t leave on my account," said Dumbledore courteously, "I cannot stay, I have urgent matters to discuss with Rufus Scrimgeour." "No, no, I need to get going," said Tonks, not meeting Dumbledore~s eyes. " ~Night." "Dear, why not come to dinner at the weekend, Remus and Mad-Eye are coming." "No, really, Molly. . . thanks anyway. . . Good night, everyone." Tonks hurried past Dumbledore and Harry into the yard; a few paces beyond the doorstep, she turned on the spot and vanished into thin air. Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley looked troubled. "Well, I shall see you at Hogwarts, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Take care of yourself. Molly, your servant." He made Mrs. Weasley a bow and followed Tonks, vanishing at precisely the same spot. Mrs. Weasley closed the door on the empty yard and then steered Harry by the shoulders into the full glow of lighted lantern on the table to examine his appearance. "You~re like Ron," she sighed, looking him up and down. "Both of you look as though you~ve had
Stretching jinxes put on you. I know Ron~s grown four inches since I last bought him school robes. Are you hungry, Harry?" "Yeah, I am," said Harry, suddenly realizing just how hungry he was, "Sit down, dear, I~ll knock something up." As Harry sat down, a furry ginger cat with a squashed face lumped onto his knees and settled there, purring. "So Hermione~s here?" he asked happily as he tickled Crookshanks behind the ears. "Oh yes, she arrived the day before yesterday," said Mrs. Weasley, rapping a large iron pot with her wand. It bounced onto the stove with a loud clang and began to bubble at once. "Everyone~s in bed, of course, we didn~t expect you for hours. Here you are." She tapped the pot again; it rose into the air, flew toward Harry, and tipped over; Mrs. Weasley slid a bowl nearly beneath it just in lime to catch the stream of thick, steaming onion soup. "Bread, dear?" "Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." She waved her wand over her shoulder; a loaf of bread and a knife soared gracefully onto the table; as the loaf sliced itself and the soup pot dropped back onto the stove, Mrs. Weasley sat down opposite him. "So you persuaded Horace Slughorn to take the job?" Harry nodded, his mouth so full of hot soup that he could not speak. "He taught Arthur and me," said Mrs. Weasley. "He was at Hogwarts for ages, started around the same time as Dumbledore, I think. Did you like him?" His mouth now full of bread, Harry shrugged and gave a noncommittal jerk of the head. "I know what you mean," said Mrs. Weasley, nodding wisely. "Of course he can be charming when he wants to be, but Arthur~s never liked him much. The Ministry~s littered with Slughorn~s old favorites, he was always good at giving leg ups, but he never had much time for Arthur, didn~t seem to think he was enough of a highflier. Well, that just shows you, even Slughorn makes mistakes. I don~t know whether Ron~s told you in any of his letters. It’s only just happened, but Arthur~s been promoted!" It could not have been clearer that Mrs. Weasley had been bursting to say this. Harry swallowed a large amount of very hot soup and thought he could feel his throat blistering. "That~s great!" he gasped. "You are sweet," beamed Mrs. Weasley, possibly taking his watering eyes for emotion at the news. "Yes, Rufus Scrimgeour has set up several new offices in response to the present situation, and Arthur~s heading the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. It~s a big job, he~s got ten people reporting to him now!" "What exactly?" "Well, you see, in all the panic about You-Know-Who, odd things have been cropping up for sale everywhere, things that are supposed to guard against You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters. You can imagine the kind of thing, so-called protective potions that are really gravy with a bit of bubotuber pus added, or instructions for defensive jinxes that actually make your ears fall off. . . . Well, in the main the perpetrators are just people like Mundungus Hotelier, who~ve never done an honest day~s work in their lives and are taking advantage of how frightened everybody is, but every now and then something really nasty turns up. The other day Arthur confiscated a box of cursed Sneakoscopes that were almost certainly planted by a Death Eater. So you see, it~s a very important job, and I tell him it~s just silly to miss dealing with spark plugs and loasters and all the rest of that Muggle rubbish." Mrs. Weasley ended her speech with a stern look, as if it had been Harry suggesting that it was natural to miss spark plugs. "Is Mr. Weasley still at work?" Harry asked. "Yes, he is. As a matter of fact, he~s a tiny bit late. ... He said he~d be back around midnight. . . ." She turned to look at a large clock that was perched awkwardly on top of a pile of sheets in the washing basket at the end of the table. Harry recognized it at once: It had nine hands, each inscribed with the name of a family member, and usually hung on the Weasleys~ sitting room wall, though its current position suggested that Mrs. Weasley had taken to carrying it around the house with her. Every single one of its nine hands was now pointing at "mortal peril." "It~s been like that for a while now," said Mrs. Weasley, in an unconvincingly casual voice, "ever since You-Know-Who came back into the open. I suppose everybody~s in mortal danger now. ... I don~t think it can be just our family . . . but I don~t know anyone else who~s got a clock like this, so I can~t check. Oh!" With a sudden exclamation she pointed at the clock~s face. Mr. Weasley~s hand had switched to "traveling." "He~s coming!" And sure enough, a moment later there was a knock on the back door. Mrs. Weasley jumped up and hurried to it; with one hand on the doorknob and her face pressed against the wood she called softly, "Arthur, is that you?" "Yes," came Mr. Weasley~s weary voice. "But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!" "Oh, honestly..." "Molly!" "All right, all right. . . What is your dearest ambition?" "To find out how airplanes stay up." Mrs. Weasley nodded and turned the doorknob, but apparently Mr. Weasley was holding tight to it on the other side, because the door remained firmly shut. "Molly! I~ve got to ask you your question first!" "Arthur, really, this is just silly. ..." "What do you like me to call you when we~re alone together?" Even by the dim light of the lantern Harry could tell that Mrs. Weasley had turned bright red; he himself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering his spoon as loudly as he could against the bowl. "Mollywobbles," whispered a mortified Mrs. Weasley into the crack at the edge of the door. "Correct," said Mr. Weasley. "Now you can let me in." Mrs. Weasley opened the door to reveal her husband, a thin, balding, red-haired wizard wearing horn-rimmed spectacles and a long and dusty traveling cloak. "I still don~t see why we have to go through that every time you come home," said Mrs. Weasley, still pink in the face as she helped her husband out of his cloak. "I mean, a Death Eater might have forced the answer out of you before impersonating you!" "I know, dear, but it~s Ministry procedure, and I have to set an example. Something smells good, onion soup?" Mr. Weasley turned hopefully in the direction of the table. "Harry! We didn~t expect you until morning!" They shook hands, and Mr. Weasley dropped into the chair beside Harry as Mrs. Weasley set a bowl of soup in front of him too. "Thanks, Molly. It~s been a tough night. Some idiot~s started selling Metamorph-Medals. Just sling them around your neck and you~ll be able to change your appearance at will. A hundred thousand disguises, all for ten Galleons!" "And what really happens when you put them on?" "Mostly you just turn a fairly unpleasant orange color, but a couple of people have also sprouted tentacle like warts all over their bodies. As if St. Mungo~s didn~t have enough to do already!" "It sounds like the sort of thing Fred and George would find funny," said Mrs. Weasley hesitantly. "Are you sure?" "Of course I am!" said Mr. Weasley. "The boys wouldn~t do anything like that now, not when people are desperate for protection!" "So is that why you~re late, Metamorph-Medals?" "No, we got wind of a nasty backfiring jinx down in Elephant and Castle, but luckily the Magical Law Enforcement Squad had sorted it out by the time we got there. ..." Harry stifled a yawn behind his hand. "Bed," said an undeceived Mrs. Weasley at once. "I~ve got Fred and George~s room all ready for you, you~ll have it to yourself." "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 cannon fire as the door burst open. Sitting bolt upright, he heard the rasp of the curtains being pulled back: The dazzling sunlight seemed to poke him hard in both eyes. Shielding them with one hand, he groped hopelessly for his glasses with the other. "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 the 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, grinning down at him. "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?"

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