“AHEM!”
Dudley and Mafalda stood just outside the playground clearly perplexed by the scene that lay before them. Harry and Ginny were engaged in some sort of dispute. Ginny froze halfway through the process of rubbing dirt into Harry’s hair. He in turn had his back to her and was digging a hole in the ground to bury her shoes, or so it seemed. The awkward silence was suddenly broken when a shoeless Ginny tittered, lost her balance in the sand, and fell onto Harry. Unable to contain his amusement any longer Harry laughed, flicking the dirt he’d been digging in her general direction. He was met by a piercing stare worthy of Mrs. Weasley as Ginny engaged him in a struggle finally managing to snatch her shoes away. As Ginny beat her heels together, he ventured a glance over his shoulder at Mafalda. With her arms crossed and eyebrows raised she bore a peculiar resemblance to Aunt Petunia. At that moment she was tapping away with one foot on the sandy playground floor as if to say ‘explain.’ Dudley, on the other hand, wore an incredulous look on his face; he seemed to have lost the ability to speak.
“Mum says dessert’s ready.”
“Best not to keep her waiting than,” Ginny replied nonchalantly.
She clearly did not feel the need to explain their behavior to Mafalda. Throwing a wary glance at Ginny, Mafalda signaled to Dudley that they should be off. Meanwhile Harry gave his head a violent shake in a hopeless attempt to rid his hair of dirt. Ginny, however, had quickly placed her heels on and was swiftly walking after Dudley and Mafalda. Once she was a fair distance from Harry, her playful mood got the better of her. She glanced subtly over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him. He grinned; a mischievous urge sprang up within him. Slyly, so as not to be caught, he made his way to her and gentlemanly offered her his arm. Although her eyes narrowed in suspicion she made to reach out to him. Just than, he bumped her shoulder casually causing her to go tumbling into a neighbors raised bush. Running seemed the smartest thing to do at that point, so he took off. Not until he reached the Prewetts’ did he stop for air. Chancing a quick glimpse he surmised that Ginny was in hot pursuit, so he slid as silently as possible into the house.
“Hello Harry dear,” Mrs. Prewett startled him, “I was just coming to see what the hold up was.”
Harry tried his best to look innocent and said a quick prayer that all the dirt was now out of his hair. The door opened behind him as Mafalda, Dudley, and Ginny filed in.
“Oh good you’re all here. I thought you might like to have dessert in the den. We have a lovely fireplace down there.” Mrs. Prewett told them pointedly as she hurried them to a small staircase.
As Ginny passed Harry to lead the way down into the den he noted a maniacal glint in her eye. His sense of self-preservation had him hesitating in following her down the stairs. At Mrs. Prewetts' concerned gaze as she took in his disheveled appearance he decided it was better to face Ginny's anger than the well-intentioned coddling of a stranger. The den was quite cozy with a roaring fire and a comfy couch set. In front of the fire a short table had a game of wizards chess set up on it.
“Let’s see if you’ve got any smarts about you?” Mafalda mocked Dudley as she poked him in the tummy.
Ginny and Harry set about devouring the dessert tray Mrs. Prewett had thoughtfully brought down for them before settling into the couch to watch the game. They were well rewarded by Dudley’s reaction to the pieces moving by themselves. Nothing beat the abject horror that ran across his face when Mafalda’s knight viciously attacked his pawn. As he looked over at the fireplace his eye’s widened, his jaw grew slack, and a whimper escaped him.
“I’m looking, I’m looking! Give me a moment why don’t you?” said Ronald Weasley in an irritated voice.
“Hello Mafalda, having a game of wizard chess are you?”
“RON!” shouted Harry clamoring towards the fireplace.
“Harry! Mum, Harry’s there! Good to see you mate! We were really beginning to worry…Yes Hermione I know that…just give me a moment and I’ll get to it! Harry how have the muggles been treating you? Yes mum, he looks like he’s been fed. I don’t know if you give me a moment I’ll ask! Harry, I’ve been coming by Mafalda’s all summer to see you…OUCH! Hermione watch it! No I don’t know where your cat is! Can’t you see I’m trying to have a conversation here? Move over a bit would you Harry?”
Harry moved just in time as an exasperated Ron suddenly appeared in the fireplace and scrambled to get out.
Looking around he spotted Ginny, “You’d better go let mum know you’re alright,” he told her in a gruff voice.
“Right,” Ginny said throwing floo powder into the fireplace and bounding in. They could just hear her say ‘the burrow’ as she whirled out of sight.
“Better move your bishop before she takes it,” Ron advised Dudley who looked thunderstruck by the sight of someone crawling out of a fireplace. Not that this was the first time he ever witnessed it before.
Mafalda gave Ron an evil scowl for ruining her next move and kicked Dudley in the shin attempting to return his attention to the game.
Harry signaled to Ron and they moved into a corner of the den to talk.
“Hermione should be along any minute now. That is, if she decides to come, might be too busy with the rest of them. They’re barking mad!”
Harry couldn’t decide if Ron was talking to him or simply ranting.
“Who’s barking mad?” he inquired.
“All of them!”
He thought it best to let Ron get it out when he heard Dudley whimper again. Hermione emerged from the fireplace patting the dust from her sweater while Mafalda took a cushion from the couch and hit Dudley squarely over the head.
Clearly Hermione was not keen on Mafalda sending her a rather forced hello before strolling over to Ron and Harry.
“Harry it’s so good to see you, I was beginning to worry!”
“So you’ve decided to grace us with your company have you?” Ron sneered at her.
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand civilized behavior,” she shot back.
It was clear to Harry that they were going to resume their argument.
“Civilized??? You call that lot civilized?” Ron cried out gesturing madly at some unknown culprits.
“That was rude Ronald! Your behavior was ghastly!”
“Harry, they burst into the burrow,” he began to paradigm of the offending situation in question, “her father tried to hex my dad…”
“Ron you’re being unfair!”
“Her mum’s just standing there looking down her nose at us like we were dung beetles…”
“Now really, you’re getting carried away!”
“And that ghoulish sister of hers was touching everything. Mind you, everything she touched broke!”
“That does not give you the right to insult them, their daughter, their country…”
“Then she throws a fit because she wanted bouillabaisse, honestly you call that rubbish food!?”
“…OR THEIR FOOD!”
Harry noticed Dudley once again looking wearily at the fireplace. Yet in fear of Mafalda's wrath, he managed to keep from whimpering. Pity, Harry thought to himself just as Ginny jumped out the fireplace accidentally causing the wizard’s chess to go tumbling off the table. Mafalda who was becoming increasingly annoyed by all the interruptions grabbed Dudley, as much of the game as she could salvage, and went bounding up the stairs. She was loudly telling him that they would continue the game in the study where there was less noise. Ginny barely spared the pair a glance as she walked swiftly to Harry, taking a moment to smirk at Ron and Hermione who were still in the troughs of battle. With a flourish she handed him a beautifully embossed parchment that was addressed to him. Curious, he opened it. Doves were holding up a banner that was intoned with roses, it read:
This day
I promise to love, honor, and cherish
This day
I commit my life to love
This day
Is a fresh new day
And it is ours
A day
Of happy beginnings
Mr. and Mrs. Anastasius Delacour
Request the honor of your presence
At the marriage of their daughter
Fluer Isabeau
To
William Arthur Weasley
On Sunday, the seventeenth of August
At three o’clock
Delacour Demeure Maison
Speechless, Harry looked to Ginny for confirmation.
Grinning from ear to ear she announced, “Bill’s getting married…isn’t it wonderful?”
He looked back down at the parchment in his hand; August 17th that was only a month away.
Ron suddenly pulled the parchment out of Harry’s hand. He stared open-mouthed at the invitation shaking his head. Hermione sensing his distress helped him to a chair.
“So they’ve gone and made it official… God help us all!”
“Bit of a drama queen,” Ginny said jerking her head towards Ron, “nasty shock really, finding out Bill was going to marry his old crush,” she winked at Harry.
“I don’t know if you could call it a crush? After all, she did turn out to be part veela,” Hermione interjected.
Ginny shrugged as if to say that she did not find the topic particularly interesting.
“Any how,” she gave Harry a meaningful look, “do you think you could handle going to Grimmauld Place?”
Ron fell out of his seat, “Way to ease into it Ginny!”
She ignored her brother continuing to give Harry a scrutinizing stare. His throat constricted at the thought of Sirius, out the corner of his eye he could just make out Ron and Hermione casting him looks of pity. He nodded his answer, grateful at Ginny’s direct approach. She walked back to the fire where the heads of Fred and George were waiting for her.
“You heard him,” she called into the fire, “go about your business.”
Two popping sounds followed that and they were gone.
“So Harry,” Hermione took a cautious tone glancing at Ron for help, “how are you feeling?”
He simply shook his head.
“Best to let it out,” Ron who was now standing next to Hermione added just as cautiously.
A familiar ache squeezed at his heart, unexpectedly he felt a pang of guilt for the laughing and joking “ for the fun he’d had that day. Perhaps the pain he felt showed in his eyes because Ron and Hermione were looking sympathetically at him.
“Talking about it will help,” Hermione was insisting.
They just didn’t understand that the more they persisted, the harder it became for him to talk. Echoes of Sirius’ voice mocking Bellatrix Lestrange played in his head. He didn’t want to think about it, not now, but he couldn’t get his mouth open to stop them.
“We’re here for you…” Ron began.
“How about a game of exploding snap,” Ginny’s voice seemed to come from nowhere; the deck of cards she took out of her pocket began shuffling themselves.
“Have you gone mad?” Ron looked appalled at her, but Harry swept by him, he sat on the ground next to Ginny.
He could feel the eye’s of his best friends on his back. He ignored them. For some reason Ginny alone seemed to understand that he was not unwilling, but unable to talk about Sirius. They were building the fifth story of their card structure when the card Harry had just set down blew up in his face. Ginny keeled over a fit of laughter escaping her.
“Now you’ve got dirt on your face to match the dirt in your hair!”
A small grin graced his face as he thought ‘at least Ginny’s enjoying herself’.
There was a loud sound of glass crashing upstairs.
Shortly thereafter, Fred and George descended into the den carrying Harry’s trunk between them.
“Hello Harry!”
“We’d better be off…”
“What have you done?” Hermione asked as thrashing sounds continued upstairs.
“Done?”
“What?”
Hermione glowered at them.
“Gave Mafalda a bit of a present…”
“Knew she’d put it to good use!”
“What present?” Ron asked.
“A Ditzy Blitz of course!”
“To share with a friend…”
“WHAT!” Hermione roared.
“I’ll just get going,” with a POP George apparated.
Hermione rounded on Fred, with her hands on her hips like that she looked a lot like Professor McGonagall.
“Well he’s already tried Ton-Tongue Toffee and Canary Crème…Just thought this would be a nice change!”
With that parting thought, Fred heaved Harry’s trunk into the fireplace and was off. Hermione jumped in after him, no doubt going to report their actions to Mrs. Weasley. Ron rolled his eyes at Harry before going in after her.
“Thank you,” Harry said catching Ginny off guard.
“For what?” she asked.
“For getting them off my back earlier,” he replied casting his eyes into the fire.
“Fred and George are taking your trunk to Grimmauld Place,” she informed him.
It seemed very off topic but he nodded to let her know he heard.
“But for now, we’re off to the Burrow,” she continued.
He was confused, why didn’t she want him to talk about Sirius?
“Fred should have left a note on your bed for the Dursley’s to find, if he did his job that is…” she jumped into the fireplace, “Remember Harry, we’re going to the Burrow…”
Before he could blink, she was gone. He scrambled in after her, tucking his elbows in tight the familiar feelings of nausea rolled over him, he hated traveling by floo powder. Loudly he said, “The Burrow.”