Harry had three helpings of every thing. Even Aunt Petunia was now sitting back in her chair for air. She normally had the appetite of a sparrow but dropped all pretenses at the sight of such a scrumptious meal, rivaling Uncle Vernon in her appetite.
“Vernon, how’s about you join me in the old study for a cigar? Got them imported fresh you know,” Mr. Prewett offered.
“You do that!” Aunt Petunia encouraged them, “Give Ophelia and I a chance to clear up…”
“Oh, no don’t you touch that Ginny! You kids go outside for a walk, get some air, and make room for dessert!” Mrs. Prewett chimed in.
The four of them filed out of the house into the night air. Dudley pulled Mafalda to the side and began to talk to her under his breath throwing suspicious glances at Harry.
“We’ll just be off for a walk then,” Harry said surprising Ginny as he half-dragged her from the front lawn.
“Harry! You’re hurting me!” Ginny complained.
He instantly let go of her hand apologizing. As she rubbed her hand they continued to walk in silence.
“Not very talkative now are you?” she said churlishly.
“What are you doing here?” he finally managed to ask.
“Visiting family,” she responded offhandedly.
“Ginny…” he said warningly.
“I’m visiting family,” she persisted, “Not a crime, is it?”
“Did you get my owl?” he asked, looking for another topic.
“Sure did,” she replied.
He stopped walking and gave her a penetrating stare, “And…” he prompted her.
“And…I figured I could address your fears in person as opposed to writing a note.”
Sighing, the worry that had plagued him for the previous days came over him in a rush; he looked up at her almost pleading for her cooperation.
“Mafalda is my cousin. Her father is a stockbroker, he’s related to my mum. He’s a squib and his wife is a muggle. You were right, Mafalda is a witch. She is in her fourth year at Hogwarts.”
“How can that possibly be? I’ve never heard Ron, or any of you for that matter say that your cousin was in Hogwarts!” he argued heatedly.
“Oh we don’t talk about her. Uncle Joe preferred to enter into muggle life instead of staying in the magical world. He was shocked when Mafalda got her acceptance letter from Hogwarts. He tried to pawn her off on us but mum wouldn’t have it. Told him to fess up to Aunt Ophelia about the magical world and get Mafalda her school books straight away. Her mother was actually happy, probably because she wouldn’t have to deal with her for months. Horrible, Mafalda is! Fred and George, well they prank people for fun, but she’s got a mean streak in her, got an odd sense of humor.”
“That still doesn’t explain why I’ve never heard about her.”
“Yes, well…she’s not pleasant. Not someone we’d admit being related to anyhow. She’s in Slytherin.”
“WHAT?” Harry exclaimed.
“He’s not really my Uncle, more distant relation than that, but we still call him…”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE’S IN SLYTHERIN?”
“Oh, that…happens to the best of families doesn’t it? We’re pure blood and all. She fancies power, really ambitious. Smart too, as clever as Hermione was at her age.”
Harry started to walk again, this time much faster. Ginny had to work to keep up with him but he didn’t care. How could Ron neglect to mention that he had a family member in Slytherin? The house that turned out more dark witches and wizards than all others combined.
“Why did they move across the street from me,” he asked remembering what was in the letter he sent Ginny.
“Actually, that was a surprise. It was really just a coincidence, Uncle Joe got promoted and had to move. Nothing to worry about, he knows who you are of course, but he respects you, wouldn’t ever hurt you. It’s really good because Dumbledore’s got him looking out for you. He convinced him that he can help out the order even if he is a squib.”
“So now Slytherin’s can join the order?” Harry asked incensed.
Ginny grabbed the back of his jacket finally managing to slow him down. “They’ve always been able to join the order, remember Snape? Whoever can help us is welcome alright!” she let go of him as though he were something foul.
“How do you know she won’t go to the dark side?” he asked exasperated by Ginny’s attitude.
“Father’s a squib and mother’s a muggle. Yep! Sounds just like a pure-blood death eater to me!”
“Oh.” Comprehension dawned on Harry.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Ginny said agitated.
Harry had enough grace to feel embarrassed by his foolishness. Mrs. Weasley certainly would not send her daughter to dinner with death eaters, even if they were family. Still, Mafalda being a Slytherin unsettled him. Somehow, he wasn’t satisfied with Ginny’s explanation.
“Honestly, I’m not trying to be repetitive, but what are you doing here?”
“Well we’ve all been coming here. Dad had Uncle Joe’s fireplace connected to the floo network. Everyone has been by at least once, we kept sending Mafalda out to get you, but you’ve been quite the recluse now haven’t you? Dumbledore told us not to arouse suspicion.”
Harry understood it would be strange if people kept appearing and disappearing from Privet Drive without any noticeable means of transportation.
“Speaking of Dumbledore, I got a letter from Ron and Hermione saying he’s given the go ahead for me to come to the burrow.”
“We figured we would take you from Uncle Joe’s fireplace. We never thought you’d lock yourself up with the Dursley’s.”
Harry had always assumed Mafalda was hanging about the Dursley’s to see Dudley, not him.
“You could have sent me an owl to let me know.”
“No we couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Looks like our cousins are…getting along rather well, wouldn’t you say?”
“So?”
“So if we told you Mafalda was one of us you might have told your family. We couldn’t risk you breaching the secrecy laws and ending back in front of the Ministry of Magic.”
“But Dudley knows that she’s a witch and I haven’t got an official warning.”
“Well he worked it out for himself, didn’t he? Giving him that canary cream was Fred’s idea, he figured you’d come over to confront her or something. Really Harry, you’ve been just like a hermit. Honestly, Fred and George even did blatant magic when they were toying with your cousin, Fred used a severing charm to cut that bag of manure open and George charmed the sprinklers into working, even that didn’t take you out of your trance. Mum’s been really worried.”
“That was Fred and George! Now that you mention it…it seems so obvious.”
“None of them thought you’d come with the Dursley’s for dinner tonight.”
“In that case, why did you come?”
She smiled mischievously, “I got a letter from you about Mafalda. I knew that you had worked out what she was in your head. I just came here, straight away, and there you were!”
“I sent Hedwig to you ages ago!”
“Poor Hedwig, I’ve been traveling the floo network so often the poor thing got confused. I was never in one spot long enough for her to find me.”
Harry smiled. They had reached the park that he had frequented the previous summer. He sat on one of the swings and Ginny followed suit sitting to his right. The odd occurrences on Privet Drive finally made sense. It was as though the blocks were falling into place.
“Didn’t anyone else want to come with you? When you figured that I’d be there?”
“Well Hedwig only just managed to get to me. So I didn’t have time to share your note with the rest. I just came straight away.”
Surprised, Harry asked, “Didn’t you leave a note for you mum about where you would be?”
Ginny squirmed in her swing before she answered, “Really there was just no point in doing that…”
“With everything that’s happened right now you didn’t think Mrs. Weasley would worry if you just turned up missing!?”
Harry couldn’t really believe that Ginny could be so thoughtless. Mrs. Weasley was probably having a fit right now.
“They wouldn’t notice if I was gone anyways.”
Now he was livid, “Not notice you were gone!”
Ginny looked abashed, “I didn’t exactly come from the burrow…”
“Where did you come from?” he asked when he realized she was not going to continue.
“Dean sort of invited me for the weekend. When it was time for me to leave, I decided to come here instead of going back to the burrow. I expect they still think I’m at Dean’s place.”
Harry was dumbfounded; she had been with Dean all weekend?
“So your mum let you stay with Dean all alone?”
“No, it’s nothing like that! Seamus and Lavender were there as well. Dean’s mum is really nice, took us to see all the sights. It’s the first time I’ve ever visited the palace.”
He furrowed his eyebrows. Dean was alright, but it seemed irresponsible to leave Ginny with a boy she liked for an entire weekend, especially when no qualified witch or wizard would be present to protect them in the face of danger.
“And Ron was okay with this?”
“Really Harry, we were connected to the floo network. Ron and Hermione even came for lunch one day. Besides, even underage witches can do magic if their life is threatened.”
She was right, he conceded. The hackles that rose in the back of his neck when she talked about Dean were simply due to his protective instinct he reassured himself. Ginny was just like a sister to him. When he found out she no longer liked him, he had felt a giant sense of relief. So why was he suddenly irritated by the casual way she was treating him?
“How is the order, what’s going on now?” he grasped for anything that would get them off the topic of Dean.
Ginny had let her head rest against one side of the swing and was looking imploringly at him.
“How are you doing?”
The question seemed to hang in the air between them. He knew she was referring to Sirius. A slow wind rustled the trees around them and he felt calm. He held her gaze for a moment before digging his foot into the ground, swinging gently back and forth. He wracked his mind for a response, but could find no answer. After several minutes his swing was once again immobile. He looked into her eyes and swallowing hard simply shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. It was as though he was willing her to understand, despite his inability to explain, the overwhelming pain that had caused him to fall into this state of numbness. She nodded at him, somehow he knew she understood. Suddenly she stood up and began to twirl the swing.
Her bizarre behavior shocked him but he watched silently as she continued to twirl. Just as suddenly as she started, she stopped. The two chains that held her swing up were now coiled together and the seat of the swing was at the small of her back. She gave Harry a quick smile before jumping into the air. He registered her landing on the seat of the swing before the swing began to uncoil itself, spinning her faster and faster, mirth of laughter escaping her, her hair flying around glimmering in the dying light of the sun. When the swing finally came to a halt she smiled over at him with childlike innocence. She raised her eyebrow at him, challenging him. He kicked off from the dirt getting a head start. She quickly was level with him, soon overtaking him, the ring of her laughter filling his ears. He couldn’t remember ever acting this childish, even as a child.