Harry Potter and the Thunderstruck Muggles

Christmas morning in The Burrow found the Weasley family - plus adopted enhancement - sitting around the breakfast table. Actually it was pretty late for breakfast, and still the family members presented themselves in all shades of dressing, from little more than pyjamas to a full set of clothes suited for this particular morning.

Even ignoring the dresses, every spectator would have chuckled expectantly, because all faces were grinning madly, perfectly matching the occasion. Well, with one exception: Ma Weasley.

She was furious. At Harry.

Yes, right - impossible as it sounded. Because Harry had broken the agreement, according to Ma Weasley's opinion, and that was unforgivable. Regardless of the intention, which didn't count here, quite the opposite. Regardless of the fact that Mrs Weasley found herself alone with this opinion while everybody else - her husband, Ron, Ginny, and of course Harry himself - looked extremely pleased.

Two things had made the Weasley mother furious. Either of them had been acceptable - coming alone, that was. Only, for bad measure, they had come together - not surprisingly so, since both of them counted as Christmas presents. And in some way, this was exactly the problem.

One corpus delicti stood in the entrance of The Burrow. This particular one was the reason why Arthur Weasley, former head of the former Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, new head of the new Department of Muggle Cooperation, looked like a ten-year-old, barely mustering the patience to have breakfast before storming out to play with his new toy.

A Volvo estate.

After months of arguing, and after Arthur Weasley's new position had given him a better argument than ever, a long fight in The Burrow had ended with a compromise. The family would not have presents for each other - okay, except for something small, very small, mind, and except for some items necessary anyway, like shirts, pyjamas, underwear. In exchange, Ma Weasley had come to live with the idea of a new family car.

This was the agreement, and so far, the Volve estate would not have raised trouble.

But half an hour before, a delivery service had arrived, depositing a very large box, requesting not more than a signature in return, and confirming that yes, this was the right address, madam, no doubt about that. And while Ma Weasley was still demanding to know what this meant, Harry had arrived from upstairs, to sign the paper, to move the box into the family room, and to take out the items, arranging them as well as possible in this room which was already crowded with furniture and seemingly too small for the large globe.

A spector.

Within seconds, the family had gathered, staring in awe at the globe, the control panel - latest technology, fast-forward, standstill picture, zoom, and their growing excitement struck Harry as the best he'd encountered in a while.

Well - if not for this little barrier that still prevented him from feeling undiluted joy.

Just now, said barrier grumbled, "We've been very clear, haven't we? The car's our only real present at Christmas, right? And then" - Ma Weasley glared at Harry - "just when the car's there, bought and all, you come - you, the last from whom I'd have expected this! Such a - "

Ron, feeling safe not being the culprit, grinned. "Harry isn't made for rules, Mum, everybody knows that."

Mrs Weasley shot around and changed tack. "Ron Weasley, you're not made to interrupt your mother." And back. "Harry - you'll take that out. Period."

Carefully balancing concern with glee in his voice, Harry explained, "Sorry, Ma, but they won't take it again. It's been ordered, it's working, so they have no reason."

"Then I'll sell it personally - ten percent under list price - "

Next second, Molly Weasley looked genuinely trapped. Yes, she was serious, no doubt about that - only in this case, she would have to ask her adopted son for the price, and this thought seemed still more dreadful than accepting his present.

And of course, the other genuine Weasleys had registered the trap at the same moment, reason enough for them to look triumphant, and expectant to see how Ma Weasley was going to lose a battle.

---

Harry, in contrast and due to his role in this plot, was searching for golden bridges.

"Ma, it's just a player, nothing else. There's no camera, you can't do a recording - "

With some bitterness, obviously from anticipating the inevitable result, Mrs Weasley complained, "As if that's a comfort! As if that would make a difference ..."

Oh, it would, definitely. A recorder was about ten times as expensive. Only Harry didn't feel like expressing this argument aloud.

"... we had an agreement, remember, young man? And you couldn't await to break it, to come with that spector!"

Ginny smiled sweetly. "But Mum, Harry was upstairs when it came."

"Watch your language, young lady! Making fun of your old mother who's trying to get a hold on this treacherous gang that counts for a family!"

With some effort mustering a serious expression, Ron said, "But Mum - for Harry, with his connection to Groucho Spectors, that's not a breach of agreement, is it?"

This was the first argument to come through. Ma Weasley thought for a moment, then said, "Only if he's got it for free. I'll ask Cho about the regulations."

Uh-oh ... Harry decided to keep to the truth, and to take all the heat at once.

"Erm - that might be difficult."

A suspicious stare. "Why? Won't she tell me?"

"She wouldn't know what you're talking about, Ma. This is no Groucho model, and Cho won't come because - um, between her and me ... er - right now ..."

For a moment, Harry as well as Ron were preparing themselves for a new explosion, about this case of broken agreement and attempted deception, then the second message had reached Ma Weasley's mind. "What's between you and her? Trouble?"

"Yes."

Seeing Harry's face, Ma Weasley was lost, was melting away, everybody but herself registering the change with relief, amusement, or envy, depending on the individual perspective. She said, "I'm sorry to hear that ... Is it serious?"

"Yes, Ma."

"How serious?"

"I wish I knew ... No, that hasn't changed, I still ... But for the time being, we're pretty incommunicado, so to speak."

Ma Weasley looked very sorry to hear this, lighted up considerably when realizing that, as a consequence, Harry would be with the Weasleys at New Year. The expected competition, the traditional dinner party in the Chang house, would be out of the question under these circumstances. And all this, somehow, had moved a broken agreement to a remote corner of Ma Weasley's mind.

After breakfast, Ron grinned at Harry, but kept his voice low. "You and rules ... Harry, I wish I had such a luck. Just when I thought she's caught you once, you slip away again."

"Yeah, but for what price?"

They went upstairs to resume the task that had been interrupted by the arrival of the spector - opening their presents. Maybe the pile looked really a bit smaller than in previous years, though not much. Yes, the Weasley parents had kept to the agreement, there was no major present, but they had found quite a lot of minor things. And for Ron, Ginny, and Harry the agreement didn't count between each other - why, it had been just a strategy to squeeze a Yes out of Ma Weasley for the Volvo. While otherwise, the next year would start soon, and one of its first days would provide another five grand from a certain sponsor.

So far, Harry had managed to open the presents from the Weasley parents - well, most of them, finding a hand-knitted sweater, among other clothes. The sweater was dark blue, with a white pattern at the chest that looked like two Go stones on connecting lines.

He was probably the only one with this special type of present, because Ma Weasley's own children couldn't appreciate it as he could, and Harry felt very proud of that.

---

There was still another small box of which he didn't know the origin, so this could only be another one of these minor items. Opening it, Harry had to grin. Minor items, huh? Well, Ma Weasley had her own technique to bend rules beyond measure.

An alarm clock. A magical one. The alarm time had to be set with a command, rather than with some button. Then the clock asked, "Are you serious, pal?"

If the answer was, "Yes", a bell would chime at the proper time. Five minutes later, a song would start playing for another five minutes, at the end of which a voice like that of a drill seargent would start shouting, "Get up, you lazybag!"

If the answer was, "Very serious," the bell would chime for just one minute, to be followed by the drill seargent's voice immediately.

If the answer was, "My God, no, it's just a good intention," the bell would chime every ten minutes for a full hour, before songs would fill the next hour. At the end, of course, came the drill seargent - after all, this was an alarm clock.

And in addition, you could set any other interval. An answer like, "Yes, give or take twenty minutes," meant the clock would give twenty minutes.

Well, then, what next? There - Rahewa's present.

Inside, Harry found what he had expected, judging by the shape of the flat box. A combat knife, twin blade of six inches, shimmering, razor-sharp, in a leather sheat with straps, and a description how to sharpen the blade after every usage.

No card - not from Rahewa, not with a present which by itself already said more than what could be written. There was little doubt, this knife had to be exactly the same model as Rahewa's own, the one which had tasted Voldemort's blood almost a year ago.

Harry became aware - at this time of the day, Rahewa would have read his own letter. The Magical Menagerie would be open again day after tomorrow; he would use his new alarm clock to wake earlier than usual during vacation, and would tell it yes, he was serious. It gave him a feeling of joy and expectation.

He grabbed the next box - Hermione's present. Had to be a book, by tradition as well as by its shape. And right he was. Explosives: Demolition at a Glance, the Fireworker's Quick Reference Handbook, by Aldron Blackencorner. Scanning through, Harry realized immediately that the author was a wizard, writing about Muggle chemicals.

Where had Hermione found such a rare bird? Then Harry saw the card, lying inside.

Harry almost gasped. Such a gentle message, together with another apology, from Hermione! He felt a hotness in his eyes, grateful for being alone at this moment.

His own present for Hermione was a multi-calibration scale, the hottest item in the scientific world, according to the descriptions. A combination of Muggle technology and magical power, could be scaled in a range from five grams to the weight of a human body - well, maybe not covering Madame Dussolier, but even so beyond anything the Muggles could manufacture without magical help. And Harry's own card had been a nice one too, speaking about touchy items.

The door opened, presenting a grinning younger sister. Ginny kept her voice low. "Harry - you won't believe what's happening downstairs. Mum's sitting in the family room, watching a spector cassette."

Harry glanced up, hoping he might look normal again. "Er - which one?"

"The dance course." Ginny's expression showed an interesting mix of emotions, leaving it to everybody's guess which were the ingredients - her mother's surrender, the dancing figure of Marie-Christine, or the fact that Harry's eyes were still blinking a bit.

Harry asked, "Does she follow the steps?"

"Not yet, but I won't be surprised. Could be, Dad's in for a surprise."

---

After a moment's hesitation, Harry reached for Hermione's card and offered it to Ginny. "Here, read this - I think it tells you something, too."

With some astonishment, Ginny took the card. A second later, a smile started spreading her face. Then she looked up. "That's kind of her, really! Well, sometimes I wonder how you and Ron could come up with something like her, and then ..."

Ginny read the card again. "Clever girl - placing herself on top, quite voluntarily, and then claiming the order's not by explosive force - ha! Yes, of course she wouldn't rank on top, but - " Ginny stopped herself, blushing. "I'm sorry - that was very tactless of me."

Harry's smile lacked confidence, though not his voice. "No, there's no question who ranks on top, and I shouldn't hang around blocking every wisecrack in my presence ... It's better that way, believe me."

"Is it?" Ginny stepped closer, determination in her face. "Harry, tell me - am I one of the reasons for - for this trouble?"

Harry, not famous for lies anyway, was prepared for this question since the Christmas Ball.

"From her side, yes. From my side, no."

Ginny swallowed. "That's what I thought ... I'll write her a letter, and give it to Almyra. I'll tell her what he did to me. And I'll tell her how scared I was, and ... how it was, and that it's over since then."

Harry felt startled. "No, Ginny, you don't have to fight my own fight, especially not with this!"

"Didn't you say I'll overcome it the better the more I can talk about it? Well, that's what I'm doing - and besides, there's a freedom of letters, remember?"

Due to a recently developed allergy to the word freedom, Harry had to suppress an initial impulse. Instead, he asked, "Are you strong enough?"

"Yes, I am - although, honestly, she's the real stress test - er, I mean - "

Harry grinned. "Yes, certainly. But if you're strong enough for that, then you're strong enough for another story."

Ginny looked first blank, then suspicious. "Which one?"

"A story about what happened to a very popular talkmaster."

A gasp. "Did you ..." A moment of uncertainty, then a stronger force had gripped her: curiosity. "Tell me, what was it? When was it?"

"My own part was the smallest. You should ask those who did the most work."

"Other people??" After a second, the blank terror faded. "Okay - who?"

"In the sequence of appearance - Rahewa, Ron, myself, Myrtle. And Sirius, except he doesn't know about the background, so I think I should tell his part."

"Whew ..." Ginny seemed to encourage herself. "Well, then ... But with Rahewa, I'd have to wait till Hogwarts."

"No." Harry beamed. "I invited her, and I'm pretty sure it will be more than one afternoon."

"Yes, right, then we can ..." With some effort, Ginny remembered that it was Christmas. "Well, I guess we can talk about that later - I'll let you open your presents, and maybe Ron's done already, and maybe I don't care if the story doesn't come in the proper sequence." Showing remarkable excitement, Ginny left the room.

Harry knew what she meant - her present from him, something to which he was looking forward almost more than to his own presents. But there was time enough; this Christmas break would not contain any schedule in some other family, and therefore, the longer it took, the better.

---

Next box - the heavy piece from Almyra, so much bigger than Harry's present for her: a GALA card - empty, of course, had to be filled and sealed at the next Gringotts residence. Would have been an expensive present - from Almyra's side, while for himself, the monetary aspect didn't exist. Gringotts refused to charge him for a GALA card, even though it wasn't for himself. Nice people, those Goblins.

Another book, and what a volume! The Dragon Encyclopedia, from Caliban Crippleneck. Now that was an author with short titles, while his book looked anything but short. History - biology - races - myths - magical power. Well, thought Harry, this might be his first entrance - if he had to read the book before trying his first transition, then he was in trouble; the rest of the school year seemed hardly enough.

And there was still another box. Opening it, Harry giggled - small dragon figures, moving ones, apparently one for each race, and they could even breathe a coloured smoke. The tiny clouds faded quickly, not leaving a trace in the air, thank God - Ma Weasley would have told him some stories about smoking in The Burrow.

For the next minutes, Harry felt six years old - according to his guess, because at the age of six, he hadn't possessed such beautiful toys. The small dragons did not really fly, he had to hold a figure in two fingers and move it a bit through the air, then the toy dragon spread its wings and performed a pseudo flight. Didn't matter - they were perfect to study the bodies, the shapes, the movements.

Harry came awake from an antediluvian world, or maybe early Trias, or Pre-Cambrium - whatever, a world ruled by dragons, probably shortly after the dinosaurs. Then he saw the card.

So Harry wasn't the only one falling back to childish habits at the sight of these wonderfully detailed dragon figures. Would be interesting to see if he and Almyra could resist when he brought the figures into her office - and still more interesting would be the expression of another visitor, coming to see them playing with mini dragons ...

There was one box left, which meant that Ron and Ginny had worked together, unless one of them had something special in mind. Opening the box, Harry found the card, saw his assumption confirmed, except that Ron and Ginny had joined with two other people:

Toward Harry, the text looked a bit mysterious - until he had the flat board in his hands. Moments later, he felt truly speechless.

A map - the map of all maps, no less. In idle state, the board showed a world map. Touching any spot presented a new map - a zoom into this particular area, which could be zoomed again, and again, and again ... Using Ottery St. Watchpole as the test target, Harry zoomed down until he saw the board presenting a street map of this little town. Then he did the same for Santa Monica, then for Rex' dragon camp near Ellesmere. The map never failed.

And for any scale below world level, pressing an edge of the board moved the map toward the respective direction. A small spot in the legend box at the lower right zoomed one level out, another spot returned to the world map.

This was like the pocket version of what they had seen in a travelling services office of Magical Tours, just before Harry's trip to Japan. Remembering the scene, still more this trip, Harry did another downzooming until the small Japanese island Iki filled the display.

Had been a mistake - identifying the location of Matsuo Shigura's house reminded Harry of Tamiko, which in turn reminded him of Cho ... He quickly stepped back to world map level.

---

To push off these thoughts, Harry did one more zoom - toward Plana Cays, the two small Caribbean islands where his last encounter with Voldemort had taken place. While inspecting other spots in the legend, suddenly Harry became aware that the map offered more than just zooms. Pressing a clock symbol showed the time zones of the world, a character symbol stood for a world map of languages, and a church symbol for a map of religions.

When pressing another spot in the legend, the map changed into mark mode - then, a touch marked the respective area in a different colour, one of four that could be selected from the legend. At world map level, a touch marked an entire country. At lower levels, it marked a city, or a highway, or a mountain. At street map level, it marked a single street. Touching the fifth colour spot in the legend cleared all markings.

Harry gasped at trying to guess what these four people had paid - probably a small fortune.

He rose to find the others, for expressing his thanks as much as for collecting his own feedback. Voices from Ron's room told him the proper direction. When he knocked, the voices fell silent.

Harry opened the door. "It's me - no need to worry." The two faces, still on full alert, told him enough about the interrupted topic. He grinned. "If Ma Weasley would see you like that, you'd have trouble giving an unsuspicious explanation why you're looking so terrified."

Ron snorted. "But she's watching a certain dancer - er, her steps, I mean." Now he looked innocent. "Wouldn't know what else could be so fascinating - would you?"

"No, why?" Harry could play the game not quite as well as Ron, though clearly better than Ginny - this alone reason enough to change the issue quickly. "If you're done - I came to say ... You're really mental, you two - I mean, thank you." He hugged first Ginny, then Ron.

His brother smiled. "Well, you know, with the prospect of some fresh supply, we didn't think more than twice ... And then, honestly, one of us had to have that thing. Harry, to tell you the truth, I spent already more than an hour playing with the map."

"I hope my present isn't too boring, compared to that."

Ron beamed. "What do you think - for me? Harry, it's cool - super - mega - ultra - cool. I didn't even know there's something like that available."

Harry laughed. "Of course not, otherwise I'd have been too late, right?"

His present for Ron was a pen - looking quite modern, and very simple on the surface. Except that the piece used magic through and through. For starters, the pen had an ink cartridge, definitely unspectacular from a Muggle perspective, but the ink was a very special one.

A ring at the upper end showed five differently coloured sections. When turning the ring, the ink changed colour - instantly, in the middle of a word. To be fully precise, this wasn't really ink, because then the fluid in the tip would not have changed its colour. The cartridge contained a magical potion to change the colour of the target matter - paper, parchment, wood, whatever.

The first four colours presented exactly the collection you might expect - black, blue, green, red. The clou was the fifth.

At writing, the words appeared in an iridescent mix of gold and light blue. After a minute or so, they disappeard.

None of the common magical methods would make them appear again. Only a certain charm would show the writing for another minute, and this charm had to be specified by the pen owner. For this purpose, the pen needed a branding similar to that of the Steel Wings.

However, the branding just established the master charm. In addition, every individual document could be protected separately. For this purpose, the author had to write down the selected charming word first, typically on top of the paper or parchment. It was important to have all letters in the word connected to each other, further, the text had to be surrounded by a circle - a line drawn from the beginning of the first letter to the end of the last letter. Then, the included text would appear either with the specific charm or with the master charm.

A perfect tool for love letters - provided the lovers agreed upon a common secret word.

And for more mundane purposes, the pen had a second ring - used to scale the line width from extremely thin to the thickness of a marker pen.

---

Harry said, "The only problem left - how to pass the keyword to Janine?"

Ron beamed. "Don't you worry - we'll manage. And besides, I know enough things to write for myself, and with that I can be absolutely sure that nobody will read them, no matter where I left my parchments - "

Ginny showed a face of disbelief. "Don't tell me you write poetry."

A pair of flushed cheeks made both Ginny and Harry stop their laughter. Harry recovered first.

"Hey, Ron, we had no idea ... When will you show us something?"

"Erm - when I'm satisfied enough with my own attempt ... But only if you keep your mouths shut, of course."

"We promise." Ginny looked at Harry. "Look there - Ron the poet." She turned to Harry. "Did you ever try that?"

"Only haikus." Then Harry had to explain what a haiku was.

Ron said. "Harry, I think it's clear what that means, isn't it?"

"You mean you'll show me your poetry only if I show you mine?"

"Exactly."

"That's unfair! What about Ginny - she doesn't offer anything in return."

Ron smiled. "Well - sisters get a special bonus." Which was reason for a certain sister to look extremely pleased.

Harry thought for a moment. "Might be I'll back out - I just wrote three, and all three of them are a bit - er, special."

Ginny said, "What - in seventeen syllables? Harry, you must be an artist."

Joining their laughter, Harry felt certain - maybe not today, but some day he would find the right moment to present his haikus to these two redheads who, about seven years ago, had stepped into his life.

Then Ginny said, "Harry, your present ... Really, at the first moment I thought, didn't he find anything better? A board game? For me?"

"And now?"

"I looked inside and read a bit about how it's played, and I saw the figures. Now I'm dying to find out what I should think. I mean - can we play?"

Harry nodded. "Fine with me. Ron, what about you?"

"What is it?"

"The Wheel of Fortune."

A sparkling appeared in Ron's eyes. "I heard about that. They say it's addictive."

Harry looked expectant. "Really? The shoplady said something in that direction - I thought it was the usual crap." Then he glanced from one to the other. "And she said, the more players, the better. I'd know another player - if that's okay with you."

Ron looked blank, but Ginny smiled. "Go and fetch her. But hurry up, we're waiting."

Moments later, Harry was walking toward Hogwarts.

He found his candidate in Gryffindor Tower, reading and, by the looks of it, totally caught up by her literature. He reached her unnoticed. "Happy Christmas, Rahewa."

There was a fleeting instant of disbelief, followed by a beaming flash, then, to Harry's total surprise, Rahewa flushed and quickly closed the book, hiding the cover.

Harry grinned. "Honestly - if I didn't know for sure there's nothing like that in the library, I'd think you're caught with a porn magazine."

Rahewa giggled, then relaxed. "No - erm, it's ..." With some effort, she turned the book around.

Harry read, Pets for Pleasure, Friends for Fun. How to find your pet animal - a guide for the thoughtful wizard, by Kitty Leech-Tailbone.

"Yes, of course." He looked up. "First thing day after tomorrow, when the Magical Menagerie's open - my alarm clock's already set."

Rahewa beamed. "Thank you! And ..."

Although the question didn't finish, Harry had no trouble guessing. "It looks wonderful, Rahewa - same as yours, right? ... Yes, I was sure of that, and you must show me how to sharpen it, seems not to be that easy, without hurting the blade."

Oh yes, she'd do that - any time ...

"But the reason for my coming, Ginny's got a game for Christmas, and we want to play it, only we're a player short. So, what do you think?"

For a split second, Harry felt sure next moment Rahewa would hang around his neck - without a knife. Then she just nodded, to get up, to race toward the door, to be back quickly afterwards, ready to travel.

---

It turned out a memorable journey, giving proof that Harry still had work to do with his portkey programming - first, because he couldn't master yet the direct distance from Hogwarts to The Burrow, second, because his skill in one-time portkeys was lacking accuracy.

At the Hogwarts Express platform, he prepared a bench and let Rahewa jump to the Hogsmeade linkport. Testing the bench, he found himself also in the linkport, so he had to apparate back to clear the spell that had been planned as a one-timer.

With the help of a generous tip, the gate to London Linkport was ready within five minutes.

In London Linkport, Harry's attempt to program a waste basket for The Burrow failed - still too far. So he let Rahewa jump to the outskirts of London, and from there to The Burrow, in both cases following via apparition after clearing the portkey.

Reaching the entrance, Harry had to push a bit before Rahewa found the courage to enter, and had to suppress a grin: this girl scared? Of Ma Weasley?

However, it took Mrs Weasley just one of her usual welcomings until a beaming twelve-year-old, bursting of expectation, was storming upstairs, to be greeted by Ginny and Ron.

They decided to take the twins' old room - the family room was nearly full with the new globe alone, and this game would need some space.

Pretty soon, they realized that it would also take some time.

Wheel of Fortune was a game about families and tribes, about alliances and conflicts, about money, fame, and happiness. Each player started with two figures - a couple, man and woman. If everything went well, this couple would have children, these children would grow, marry the children of other parents, forming tribes, always fighting for their money, fame, and happiness.

The player had to select a role for his man figure - farmer, fisherman, or miner. Because of these three roles, six players were the optimal team, while a three-player game had a tendency to keep static, too balanced.

Rahewa said, "Cree are farmers, there's no question about that."

Ron said, "Harry's the only one who ever saw a pit from inside - I'd say that's a clear case, isn't it?"

Ginny said, "All right, okay - I'm the only one who ever saw a boat from inside, that's what none of you dared to say, right?"

They stared at her, somewhat perplexed. Ginny's grin looked a bit stiff.

"Okay," said Ron, "I'll go for farming too."

The game was played in rounds. The families could harvest in each round, with varying success, of course, and with the luck heavily unbalanced between farmers, fishermen, and miners - in a single round, that was. A central market served as the place to sell their goods.

They quickly realized what made the game so attractive, and so time-consuming. This central market paid poorly for wheat, fish, or metal - it was significantly more profitable to trade between each other.

Next, they learned that it was necessary to maintain friendship with another family, to close alliances.

Of course, Harry and Rahewa planned an alliance, same as Ron and Ginny. But trying so, they learned another important factor in the game. These figures - magical ones, of course - had thoughts of their own. Farmers didn't go well with miners - actually, they didn't go well with fishermen either, were a pretty stubborn people. Although other farmers were their closest competition, persuading the figure to such an alliance turned out easier.

So Harry the miner allied with Ginny the fisherwoman, against the farmers' union of Ron and Rahewa.

Raising children was a difficult task. These children grew pretty quickly, could marry after sixteen rounds or so. But first they had to be there ...

If a family didn't collected enough happiness, children would not come. If there wasn't enough money, the children had a tendency to die - not exactly from starvation, but from diseases. If there was too much money, the families had a tendency to raise just one child, two at the most. If there was too much fame, the children had trouble finding a partner.

At some point, Harry said, "By the way, Ginny - this is the adult version of the game."

After a quick glance to the youngest player in the round, Ginny asked, "And what - er, does that mean?"

"Well - the figures can commit adultery, and that's of course reason enough for a lot of trouble."

---

Oh yes, the figures could, and did ... Worse, each figure had certain preferences, and dislikes. There were twelve male and twelve female figures, named - and designed - after famous persons, no matter if Muggle or wizard. Cleopatra, the wife in Ginny's couple, proved herself as a troublemaker par excellence, attracted by other men like a moth by the flame. Caesar, the husband in Ron's couple, couldn't hold his money together, always looking for fame, and Ron had a hard job sending him to the places he considered promising.

Then Ma Weasley came to ask if they had lost all interest in food, especially on such a day.

The Weasley-Potter gang might have opted for skipping the lunch, in favour of the running game and after such a late breakfast, but a look at a skinny twelve-year-old was enough for Mrs Weasley to order them downstairs - all of them.

Sitting around the table, it was obvious that the breakfast in Hogwarts had been earlier. Rahewa was busy chewing and answering questions in-between. And she answered them without hesitation - that her mother, whom she had seen just yesterday, was deadly sick, that her father was happier in a tavern than at home, and that she didn't know what would be - afterwards.

Ma Weasley's face showed consternation.

She recovered when her smiling daughter explained that Harry already took care, that he was covering the costs for the hospital, and that he probably had some idea what to do - er, afterwards. However, hearing this news, Ma Weasley looked very thoughtful.

After lunch, returning to their game, Ginny suggested to start over again - now that they had found how the game worked.

"Fine with me," replied Harry. "I guess you shouldn't have separated Cleopatra from Caeser - look at mine, they work better." He had selected Odysseus, however by completely ignoring Penelope and instead marrying him with Circe. While this couple seemed better suited for the role of fishermen, his Odysseus kept mining without moaning.

"No," said Ron, "that's not necessarily the only problem. Look at Rahewa's couple."

Rahewa had married Lord Nelson with the Spanish queen Isabella, to great success.

At any rate - everybody saw mistakes to be corrected, and besides, wasn't it Ginny's present? So they started again, this time with Hannibal and Joan of Arc as Ginny's couple.

The alliances were the same as before, and with them, each tribe was able to balance out times of bad luck. Then, just before supper, the two farmer tribes of Ron and Rahewa started a feud against each other - apparently, a marriage between some grand-grandchildren had resulted in deeply hurt feelings, might have been a problem with the dowry.

Ginny's suggestion to have a few plates with sandwiches found little sympathy from Ma Weasley. Sandwiches yes - downstairs, of course. So they had another break to discuss strategies.

Then, when the united forces of miners and fishermen were about to steamroll the countrypeople, Harry's figures opened a gold mine. What could have been the cornerstone for an easy winning turned out a disaster - suddenly, the miners looked with detest at their allies, started rows within their own tribe, and more than one murder for the greed of gold was decimating their number.

Harry threatened to flood the gold mine, and to punish them with a few water balls - of the size used for the gnomes, waving off Ginny's protest that this was her game and not necessarily waterproof.

The miners obeyed - or so it seemed, only that now Harry was taught a lesson in civil guerilla tactics, directed against his other commands.

Slowly, but steadily, the farmers recovered.

Then, with a jump, Rahewa came up. "Harry - when's the last gate to Hogwarts?"

Harry checked his watch, quite as if he didn't know already for some time. "Oops - that's been an hour ago ... Rahewa, you have to stay with us overnight."

Ginny, barely able to keep her face steady, could convince a startled girl that yes, there were some - er, necessary items available, and a room, and a bed, and such.

The game ended with a stalemate. True, the alliance of miners and fishermen was a few points in the lead, but within the next twenty minutes would ... Except if ... But in this case ... After a short discussion, the four tribes agreed that they had won all together.

Ma Weasley busied herself to guide a skinny girl, looking tired as death while otherwise quite happy, through the sleeping time chores in The Burrow, then she caught Harry in a quiet corner, out of earshot from the rest of the family.

"Harry, is it true what Ginny said?"

"Yes, Ma Weasley - of course, did you think she'd be joking about that?"

"No, certainly not, it's just ... Er, do you know already whom ... I mean ..."

Harry beamed at her. "I have a few candidates, and there's one I didn't ask yet. Now guess who might that be?"

Ma Weasley gasped a bit, flushed a bit, smiled. "That's very kind of you." Then she turned serious. "But I have to think it over, Harry, and talk with Arthur, and with my other children. That's nothing to be taken easily - although, she's such a sweet girl ..."

Harry laughed. "Sweet? Don't get confused, Ma - she has quite some ants in her pants. She carries a twin-bladed knife all the time; her present for me was just such a knife. But then, there's no doubt - you two would get along well."

Ma Weasley seemed to think the same. "How much time is it still?"

"As if anybody knew ... But no more than a few months, that's pretty sure."

"Terrible ..." Ma Weasley looked at him, looked away. "And the other candidates?"

Harry shook his head. "Sorry, Ma - no comment, that's what I said to all of them when the question came up."

"Yes - yes, you're right, I shouldn't have asked." Mrs Weasley looked appreciating. "I'm proud of you, Harry ... Say, is the hospital very expensive?"

"Yes it is, but it doesn't matter - there's enough, and besides ... Erm - compared to that, some other things are almost for free."

Yes, Ma Weasley got his drift, was smiling more.

Harry went for the opportunity. "I'm glad you like it ... And this cassette seems quite fascinating for you - what do you think? Would a dance course be to your taste?"

Ma Weasley laughed. "Me? In my age? And ..." The unfinished sentence might have referred to her body, which could be called plump, or a bit more than that.

Harry protested vigorously. "Nonsense! Ask Fleur - she'll tell you, all that matters is the rhythm and the movement. I can show you - want to give it a try?"

Ma Weasley almost giggled. "Not today ... Let me watch it still a while - you might be right, this woman's by far not as thin as Fleur, but she moves very gracefully. It's a pleasure to watch her."

Yes it was. Or had been - depending on the perspective.