Eservanix

Chapter Six: The News

It was almost the end of the term. We would be going home shortly for the holidays. After Parvati's death, there had been no more premonitions. I finally felt that it was over.

Ron, Hermione and Harry certainly felt that way. Everything seemed back to normal.

Professor Umbridge passed all kind of decrees, including one to ban Harry from Quidditch for life. He was furious about this. Ron and Ginny, Ron's sister, had joined the Quidditch team. While they went to practice, Harry, Hermione and I went to the library or stayed in the common room. I could see Harry was trying to be cheerful, but knew it deeply upset him not to be playing. He was a great Seeker. Then Professor Umbridge tried to fire Professor Trelawney. That was a huge strike further against her. Not one student liked Umbridge, perhaps with the exception of the Slytherins. Harry and Ron had dreamy expressions on their faces in Potions. I bet they were thinking of ways to torture Snape as well. To me, Snape was a fluff compared to Umbridge. That's just how I felt. I didn't know about Ron, Hermione or Harry. But when Harry ended up serving detention with Umbridge, and came out of the classes with cuts on his hand, we knew Umbridge had gone too far. Fred and George left school in such a spectacular way that we were sure they were going to become legends. Truthfully, I didn't blame them one bit. I was even at the point of leaving if this Umbridge wasn't taken care of soon. She was making the entire last weeks of the term unbearable. I wanted to skive off her class, but decided not to. We all sat, silently seething and probably thinking of ways to knock her off. We visited Mr. Weasley in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and ended up bumping into Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. We learned that Neville's parents were in there and didn't recognize Neville. That was incredibly sad. I felt so sorry for him. He is such a nice person.

Sam came on the following morning when we returned to school with a note from Dad asking me if I was okay after Dumbledore told him what had happened. Apparently, Dumbledore had filled Dad in with what had been going on here. I assured him that I was all right, and so were Ron, Harry and Hermione. The most puzzling thing was, we still didn't know why only the kids in the front were killed, when Harry and I had been in the engine.

Harry and I grew closer. We were dating. Ron and Hermione seemed to grow closer as well. They had been made Prefects. The end-of-term exams were nasty, but we managed to pass them, including the O.W.Ls. Hermione got an O, I got an E, Harry got a P and so did Ron. Christmas was a few days away. Snow had started falling, blanketing the grounds, and it looked almost like a Christmas card. Snow stuck to the windows and the branches of the Whomping Willow.

The castle was decorated in garlands, red and green. Mistletoe and holly hung. The Great Hall looked absolutely gorgeous. Ron reminded Harry of spending Christmas with him at his home. Hermione would be also.

I sat in the Great Hall, just reading at the Gryffindor table. A lot of the students had gone home and the castle seemed almost deserted.

"I'd love to, Ron," said Harry eagerly.

Then, he turned to me.

"What are you doing for the holiday, Holly?"

I looked up from the book.

"Probably not budging from the school. I don't really have anyone to share the holidays with," I said, shrugging. "My Dad works a second muggle job, besides Quidditch, and doesn't really get home until late."

Harry broke out into a grin.

"Well, you do now."

I looked at him, startled and confused.

Hermione was sitting, working on an essay across from Ron.

"Ron, how would your mum feel about another guest?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes off of me.

"Mum would probably be overwhelmed," Ron said, grinning.

"Oh. Then I wouldn't want to intrude," I said.

"No. Overwhelmed with joy," Ron said. "I've told her about you in a letter. She was positively gushing with joy. She asked me, how could a sweet girl like you not have many friends? I told her because those people are gits who don't know a good thing when they see it."

I blushed deep. Harry was still grinning.

"It's settled then. We're all going to spend the holidays at the Burrow."

"The Burrow?" I asked, tilting my head.

"My home," Ron said.

"Oh," I said, smiling.

Ron winked and started talking to Hermione. I stood up and stretched. Harry stood up also.

"I'm just going to put this in my dorm," I said, waving the book in the air.

"I'll come," Harry offered.

I nodded and we started walking out of the Great Hall, when Harry gently grabbed my arm, just above the elbow and slowly turned me around.

"What?" I asked.

He pointed upwards. I looked up. Mistletoe.

I smiled and lowered my eyes to his. He gently put a hand on the side of my face, then brought his face closer until our lips met. He kissed me gently and softly. I returned the kisses just as soft and gentle.

Then, he hugged me. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my chin on top of his shoulder.

"I love you," he whispered into my ear.

I smiled and shut my eyes, as pure happiness swelled in my chest.

"I love you too," I whispered back.

We released each other and headed up to the Gryffindor common room. He waited in the common room while I went into the girl's dorm. I dropped the book onto the edge of my bed and then turned to walk back out when I bumped into Lavender Brown.

"Sorry. Are you all right?" I asked, worriedly.

Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked extremely pale.

"No. I don't feel well," she said, hugging herself.

She was shivering violently too. She lay down on her bed in a fetal position.

"Should I go get Madam Pomfrey?" I asked, tentatively.

Lavender coughed and then leaned over the edge of the bed and vomited up blood. Panicked, I turned and ran from the dorm.

"Quick! We need to get Madam Pomfrey! Lavender's sick!" I said to Harry.

He nodded and we went to find Madam Pomfrey. We told her and she went up to the girl's dorm.

I returned to the girl's dorm with Hermione later on that evening to pack. We would be leaving the next morning to go to the Burrow with Ron. Lavender was not there, and the place where she had vomited was cleaned up.

We packed.

I told Hermione what had happened.

"Wow. You know, now that you mention it, she was looking sick a few days ago as well. It's probably just a bug. Madam Pomfrey'll clean her up as good as new," Hermione said.

I nodded.

Once we were all packed, we went to bed. I was excited about visiting the Burrow.

The next morning, we boarded the Hogwarts Express to take us back to King's Cross station. Ginny had joined us also. Still no horrible premonitions. I was happy and joking around with Ron, who was doing an imitation of Snape in the bathroom.

"Can't...go... must...use...wand...to...loosen..." Ron said, in a voice that matched Snape's. He screwed up his face up to look like he was constipated.

I burst out laughing. Hermione was also laughing. So was Harry. We had a compartment to ourselves.

"That sounds just like him!" I giggled.

"Blimey...I wonder what he would do if he really was constipated?" Ron mused.

"I don't want to know!" Harry said, laughing.

"Neither do I," I giggled again.

When we pulled into King's Cross Station, I saw a plump woman with red hair, waving energetically as the train slowly came to a stop, the pistons pumping. I gathered up my luggage. We all stood up and began exiting the train, along with the other students who had decided to come home for the holidays.

We stepped off the train.

"Over here, Ron!" cried the woman.

We made our way over to her.

"Hi, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, kindly.

"Hello, Hermione dear....Harry! How are you?" said the woman brightly as she hugged Ron, then Harry, then Hermione.

"Fine, Mrs. Weasley," Harry grinned.

The woman's eyes moved onto me.

"Mum, this is Holly. She doesn't have anyone to stay with for the holiday," Ron said, tentatively.

Mrs. Weasley's expression changed.

"Oh! You poor thing! You will stay with us! We've got plenty of room!" she said, giving me a hug.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief and grinned.

Harry turned his face away to keep from laughing.

"Thank you," I said, blushing as she pulled away.

Then, she studied me carefully.

"Good heavens! You're Casey Maxwell's daughter!"

Ron goggled at his mother.

"How'd you know that?"

"I've seen pictures of Casey at competitions. She was with her father at one. She looked about six, but I still recognize her," said Mrs. Weasley.

I smiled.

"Yes. The Ireland International. I was there,"

"Pretty thing you are. Well, let's get home," Mrs. Weasley said, cheerfully.

She helped carry our luggage outside the station.

"Mum, I have a tiny question," Ginny said slowly.

"Yes dear?"

"How are we getting home if we don't have a car?" Ginny finished.

Mrs. Weasley grinned, but then shook her head.

"A friend of your father's lent him his car. Your father was positively thrilled and spent half the night studying it."

"You mean someone at the Ministry has a muggle car?" Ron asked, surprised.

"Yes," Mrs. Weasley said. "They have both muggle and magical objects. It's like they lead two lives. Oh well. It did come in handy."

We trooped into the parking lot until we came across a black van, which I recognized as a Ford Windstar.

We carefully put all our luggage into the back cargo area, and Ginny studied the van to see how to get in.

"Here," I said, smiling, as I reached forward and grabbed the door handle and slid the sliding door open.

"Wow," Ginny said, eyeing the van with great interest.

Ginny, Hermione and I sat in the middle bench seats, while Harry and Ron had the seats just behind us. I slid the door closed. Mrs. Weasley was in the driver's seat. She started the car and we began heading home.

"How'd you know about that door?" Ron asked, leaning forward.

"We have a car ourselves," I replied. "It's the only muggle object we have."

Ron nodded and sat back, and began talking to Harry about Quidditch.

"Holly, what position is your father? Is he a Seeker? Beater? Chaser? And if he's a Seeker, has he ever used the Starfish and Stick movements? Or the Wronski Feint?" Ron asked, eagerly.

I turned around.

"Sometimes he uses the Wronski Feint. He's the Seeker on the Irish Team. I forgot to tell you," I said, blushing.

Harry grinned.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it."

I nodded.

"Has he ever crashed? Or caused the opposing team Seeker to crash?" Ron continued.

I frowned thoughtfully.

"Actually, he did crash once. Broke his nose and arm, but that's about it."

Harry winced.

"Ouch."

Hermione turned around now.

"Are you bothering her?" she asked, frowning.

"No," Ron said, indignantly.

"It's okay, Hermione," I said, reassuringly.

Hermione turned back around to talk to Ginny.

"What type of broom does your dad have?" Harry asked.

"A Falcon 345," I replied.

Ron and Harry were goggling and looking at each other.

"A Falcon 345? Wow! That's supposed to go from zero to 200 in like three seconds!" Ron gasped.

I nodded.

They fell silent in awe.

"That's terrific," said Harry.

Just then, Mrs. Weasley suddenly jerked the steering wheel to the left hard. I was thrown into Hermione, Hermione was thrown into Ginny and Ginny was thrown into the side near the window. We screamed. Harry and Ron were thrown to the floor. Hedwig, Pig and Sam hooted in their cages. Pig was going mad in his cage, zooming around. Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, hissed as his wicker basket slid off the luggage. The car tires were screeching as Mrs. Weasley got the van under control. She pulled over and put the car in park.

"Are you all right?" she asked, worriedly as she turned around in her seat to look at us.

We slowly nodded and sat up straighter. Ron and Harry climbed back onto their seat.

"What happened, mum?" Ron asked.

"Some moron cut me off," Mrs. Weasley said. "No wonder muggles end up having road rage."

"Muggles should use brooms," Ron said.

We finally managed to get to the Burrow. It was a large house with a small paddock in front. A chimney was emitting smoke. It looked shabby, but welcoming just the same.

Mrs. Weasley, with a flick of her wand, magicked the luggage to float ahead of us and into the house. We entered the kitchen. A clock with hands pointing to oval-shaped pictures of the family pointed to "Home". Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Ginny, and Ron were all under that.

"Arthur! We're home!" Mrs. Weasley called.

A slightly balding man emerged from the living room. He was dressed in a dark green robe.

"Harry! Hermione!" the man said brightly, shaking Harry and Hermione's hands. Ron plopped down at the kitchen table, along with Ginny. I sat beside Ginny uncertainly.

"That's my dad," Ginny whispered.

I nodded.

Harry and Hermione sat down across from us at the table.

The man's eyes landed on me.

"Who's this lovely lady?"

I blushed.

"A friend of theirs. She had no one to spend the holidays with. Her name's Holly Maxwell," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Maxwell? Oh! Hi!" Mr. Weasley said brightly as he shook my hand.

"Hello," I said, shyly.

"Mum!" a boy's voice called from the living room also. Two boys entered the kitchen. They were twins.

"Fred and George. Were you two up to anything?" Mrs. Weasley asked shrewdly.

They just gave her blank innocent stares. Ginny giggled.

Just then, there was a pecking noise. We all turned. There was a large tawny owl carrying a parchment. Mr. Weasley hurriedly opened the window. The owl landed on the table and extended its leg out. Mr. Weasley untied the letter and gave the owl a Galleon. It extended its wings and took flight again. He unfolded the letter and read it.

His face drained of all color.

"What's wrong, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley asked, anxiously.

"It's from Albus Dumbledore," he said slowly.

We waited anxiously for him to continue.

"He says Hogwarts is under quarantine by St. Mungo's Hospital of Magical Maladies and Injuries. There's some kind of virus there."