Harry Potter and the Time of Shadows

- Chapter Fifteen-

Christmas at the Burrow

As usual, Professor McGonagall came around at the beginning of December to take down the names of everyone staying at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays.

"Shall I assume that you are staying here Potter?" she asked him. "Or are you going to be with your family ?"

"No," Harry replied. "I'm not going to the Dursleys', but Ron's family have invited me to stay there for the holidays."

Professor McGonagall looked at Harry for a while, as though trying to figure him out. "I do not know if you would be permitted to leave Hogwarts to go anywhere but your relatives' home. You should speak to Professor Dumbledore."

"Yes, I was going to," said Harry. "I'll do it now." And he set off in the direction of Dumbledore's office.

When he reached it, he gave the password to the stone gargoyle, and got onto the moving staircase. He hoped very much that he would be allowed to leave the castle, he thought it would do him good to have a change of scenery.

When he reached the door he heard voices from inside the room. Harry pressed his ear against the door, listening to the conversation.

"With all due respect Albus," said Snape in a slightly oily voice. "Going there is suicide. I do not know what you wish to accomplish."

"Only the truth," said Dumbledore. "That is all I seek."

"Albus, you are a very great wizard, but it does not mean that you cannot be fooled by another person. I think you are being tricked.

"Tricked? It was my idea Severus. I hardly think I am being tricked. I also I think that I can take care of myself."

"Maybe, but you are too trusting of people, although that is one of the greatest things about you, it could also be used as a weakness."

Fawkes began to screech. Harry remembered that Fawkes knew when Harry was nearby. Dumbledore would undoubtedly realize that he was standing outside and would be hearing everything. Harry sighed, because he assumed they'd stop their conversation and he was very interested to know what they were talking about.

"I appreciate your concern Severus, but I know what I am doing. I hope that you will trust my judgement."

"Of course, although I may not agree with it."

"That is all I ask. Also, I hope you will respect my wish for this information to stay between us. Do not tell anyone, not even the other Professors. Anyone else who knew could be in serious danger."

Harry held his hand to his mouth to stop himself from saying anything. What was going on? he wondered.

"Very well," said Snape. "I only hope that you know what you're doing. Because without you Albus, we are lost."

"I admire your loyalty Severus, and I feel that I can trust you more than the others. Whatever the people out there think if you, I know what you are really like. You have proven yourself time and time again. You are one of our most valuable weapons. Without you, we are lost."

"Thank you Albus," said Snape. "That means a great deal to me."

Harry sensed that the conversation was over, and that meant that Snape would be leaving. He thought of hiding, as he had when Fudge was in Dumbledore's office. But before he could, Snape opened the door.

"Potter!" he screamed. "What were you doing there? Were you? -- You were -- how long -- why did you --"

Snape was so angry he could not put a sentence together. Spit was flying from his mouth, and Harry's heart began to race.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor!" he managed to say, before he rushed down the stairs.

"Professor?" Harry called through the door.

"Harry?" Dumbledore said. He opened the door to let Harry in, and Harry noticed that Fawkes had quietened down.

"I thought you knew I was there," said Harry. "Fawkes was --"

"I did not notice. I was wrapped up in my conversation with Professor Snape, which I am guessing, you heard."

"Only a little bit," Harry defended.

"I am not accusing you Harry, although I would like to know how much you heard."

"Erm, I heard you talking about how important Snape was, and you were doing something that he thought you shouldn't be."

Dumbledore paused. "All right then Harry, and even though you have not heard anything important, I hope that you will keep the little you do know to yourself."

Harry nodded.

"Well then Harry," Dumbledore continued. "I take it you came up here for a reason."

"Oh, yeah." After hearing what he had just heard, Harry had almost forgotten about his Christmas plans. "The Weasleys invited me to spend the holidays with them, and I was wondering if it would be all right."

Dumbledore did not say anything. He paced the room for a minute, and finally looked back at Harry.

"I'm sorry, I cannot allow it. It is far too risky to have you away from Hogwarts."

"But no one would know where I was, they would just think I was here, wouldn't they?"

"Harry, Lord Voldemort has ways of finding things out, I thought you would have realised that by now. For instance, if you were to leave for Christmas, other students would hear about it. If a person who was the son or daughter of a Death Eater heard, there would be nothing to stop them giving up the information."

"Yeah, I guess. Some evil Slytherin would be sure to find out --"

"Slytherin?" said Dumbledore bemusedly. "Do you think that only Slytherins become Death Eaters? Do you not think that even a little prejudice?"

"Well, it's just that the Slytherins are all so nasty that they seem --"

"Do not generalise people by the house they are in. I happen to know of several Dark Wizards who were not Slytherins. Barty Crouch Junior was a Ravenclaw, Professor Quirrell was a Hufflepuff, Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor. And I happen to know of many Slytherins who were perfectly decent people. You cannot judge a group of people based on the worst if them. Remember Harry, when the Sorting Hat sings its song every year, it never once says the word 'evil'."

Harry had never thought of that before. Not all Dark wizards were Slytherins, and some Slytherins were good. Harry had never met a decent Slytherin himself, but he was sure that some must have existed.

"OK Professor," Harry said.

"But you see why I cannot allow you to spend the entire holidays with the Weasleys."

An idea suddenly occurred to Harry.

"What if it wasn't for the whole holiday?" he said. "What if it was just on Christmas Day?"

Dumbledore thought again. "Well, if you did not spend the night there, merely the day, we may be able to work something out."

"Really?" said Harry excited.

"You would need an escort of course," said Dumbledore. "Someone capable of defending you if they needed to."

"So I can go?" Harry asked. "For the day?"

"If I can arrange the escort. And he will have to stay with you the whole time, so I would write to Mrs Weasley and tell her to set an extra place at the table."

Harry turned to leave, when Dumbledore stopped him.

"Harry," he said. "Excellent suggestion of a compromise. It showed good judgement. Fifty points to Gryffindor."

Harry realised; that balanced the points that Snape had just taken away. When Harry was leaving the office, he thought about what Dumbledore had said about prejudice. And he asked himself, would Dumbledore have done the same thing if the points had been taken from a Slytherin?

*

"Really? You can come?" said Ron in the common room after Harry had given him the good news

"Yes, but only for the day," Harry replied. "And we'll have to tell your mum that someone else is coming."

"Who?" Ron asked, going over some last minute History of Magic homework.

"I have no idea, but he's going to protect me if something happens, and keep me safe."

"Like at your birthday," Ron said. "Maybe it'll be Lupin!"

"Maybe," said Harry slowly, wondering if Lupin had a family to spend the holidays with.

"That sounds great," said Hermione, who had been silent so far. "I wish I could be there."

"Oh, I forgot," said Ron. "You're invited too of course. And that reminds me, I have to tell Fred, George and Charlie."

"Well," said Hermione. "Thanks for inviting me, but I can't come."

"What?" said Ron. "But what about just now, I thought you were angling for an invite."

"No, I was saying literally: 'I wish I could be there'. Do you think I would just try to get myself invited like that?"

Ron stayed silent and Hermione hit him in the arm and marched up to her dormitory.

"What happened in Hogsmeade with you two?" Harry asked. "You didn't tell her you loved her again did you?"

"No," said Ron. "But apparently you did."

"What?" said Harry.

"Hermione said that you told her I loved her. She was acting distant the whole time, she couldn't even look me in the eye. I finally asked her why she was acting that way, and she told me what you said, and then she hit me."

"She hit you?" Harry repeated. "Why?"

"No idea," Ron said.

"Sorry Ron, she was crying, and she kept saying how useless she was and how nobody loved her. I had to say something."

"It's OK Harry," Ron said. "You meant well, it's just that we had got over all of that stuff, and now it's weird again."

"Did you get over it, or did you just not talk about it?" Harry pointed out. He had sensed them acting distant with each other for months. It was true that they had not been too obvious for a while, and Harry was probably the only one who noticed it.

"You want me to talk to her about it? I tried that on Hallowe'en, you remember how that turned out."

"Well yes, but you can't keep on like this. You have to do something," said Harry.

"I know," said Ron. "But what?"

*

While Fred, George and Ginny had all agreed to going back to the Burrow for Christmas, they could not find Charlie to ask him. It was the last day before the holidays started, so they did not have any Care of Magical Creatures lessons to talk to him in. Also, the only meal left was supper, where everyone came down whenever they felt like it, and according to Lee Jordan, Charlie had already gone.

"Well where would he be now?" Harry asked him.

"I don't know," Lee replied. "Maybe the staff room, and if not there, the staff quarters."

"Where are the staff quarters?" Harry asked, remembering Charlie saying something about them after their first class with him.

"No idea," answered Lee. "Ask Fred or George, they've gone back up to the common room."

"OK," said Ron, and they both hurried out of the Great Hall, towards Gryffindor Tower.

"Jupiter's Moon!" Harry shouted at the sleeping Fat Lady, who opened up to let them in.

"Hi guys," said Fred when they rushed in. "What can we do for you? You want some Super-Spicy Ice, we just invented it."

"We need to know how to get into the staff quarters, d'you know how?" Ron asked them.

"Oh," said George. "Our brother's first break-in!"

"This is such a proud day for us!" Fred added.

"We're not breaking in!" said Ron hotly. "We just want to tell Charlie about going home for Christmas!"

"Oh, you got us really excited there," said Fred. "But we can help you anyway."

"Yeah, the Professors sleep in a tower above the staff room," George explained. "Go in there, and find a picture of an owl. Touch its left eye with your wand, then the right one. The owl will fly away and there'll be a switch there. It'll get you in."

"Thanks guys," said Harry.

"Anyway," said Ron. "This Super-Spicy Ice, just how spicy are we talking about?" Then Harry dragged him away out of the portrait hole.

They left to go to the staff room, which was completely empty. They walked to the back wall, where there was a small painting of a barn owl. It was moving around a little, but generally staying the same place. Harry took out his wand and tapped the eyes.

Instantly, the owl flew away past the frame of the picture, and Harry saw that there was a small brass switch behind it. Harry flicked it upwards, and the bricks of the wall started to move away, like the ones in the entrance to Diagon Alley.

Beyond the large gap in the wall, there was a tower with stairs going up it. It was well lit by torches mounted to the walls. Harry and Ron moved up it, seeing doors on the outside edge of the staircase.

The first door had a sign saying 'Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, Professor of Transfiguration, Head of Gryffindor House'. The next said: 'Severus Snape, Professor of Potions, Head of Slytherin House'. That was followed by: 'Filius Flitwick, Professor of Charms, Head of Ravenclaw House'.

The doors continued, past 'Candida Sprout', 'Sevena Vector' and 'Sybill Trelawny' before they found the one labelled 'Charles Weasley, Professor of Magical Creatures'. There were more doors after it, and Harry resisted the temptation to find out any of the other teachers' strange first names.

Ron knocked on the door. He heard Charlie say "Who is it?" in a pleasant voice.

"Ron and Harry," Harry called through the door.

Charlie opened the door, and they walked in. His room was quite small and very cramped. It was definitely not what Harry would have expected for a Hogwarts professor. A lot of the room was taken up by Charlie's bed, and a desk in the corner meant that there was almost no floor space. Around the room, he had many miniature models of animals, which moved around like they were, even flying in some cases. Harry recognised a minute Norwegian Ridgeback dragon, a tiny Hippogriff, and a microscopic Demiguise, which would disappear every few seconds. There were several other creatures that Harry knew of, such as a unicorn, a centaur, and a sphinx. Most of the models, he did not know the names of.

"Er, nice place," Ron commented lamely.

"Are you busy?" Harry asked. "Only your mum wanted us to ask you something."

"Of course not," Charlie said. "But how did you get in here? I didn't think the students were told where it was."

"Uh," said Ron, shifting his eyes around the room. "We would rather not reveal our sources."

"So Fred and George, in other words," Charlie laughed. "How the hell they find these things out is beyond me."

Harry laughed, wondering if they had ever told anyone about the Marauder's Map.

"What did you want to ask me?" Charlie said.

"It's about Christmas," Ron explained. "Now that you and Bill are back in the country, we're all going home this time. Mum wants to know if you're coming."

"Sure," said Charlie. "Count me in. Are Bill and Percy coming too?"

"Yeah, they'll both be there. It was Percy's idea actually," said Ron, nervously avoiding Charlie's model of a giant spider (although the term 'giant' would not exactly fit the model, which was about three inches tall).

"Well all right then," Charlie said, clapping his hands together. "I'll be riding the Hogwarts Express with you tomorrow Ron. Are you coming Harry?"

"I'll be there on Christmas Day," Harry told him. "But I have to stay here for the rest of the time."

"Oh, well I suppose that's for the best," Charlie commented. "You can't be too careful, especially these days."

Harry nodded. They stayed in Charlie's room for a while, discussing Christmas at the Burrow, until it was time for Harry and Ron to go back to Gryffindor Tower to sleep.

*

The next day, the Christmas holidays began. Hermione was leaving to go back to spend Christmas with her parents.

"Well, I've missed the last three Christmases, they just want to have me home again I guess," she had told them when they asked why.

More children than usual were staying at Hogwarts this year. From what Harry had heard, half of the parents wanted their children home to keep them safe, while the other half thought that Hogwarts was the safest place for them.

Harry agreed with the second point of view. He knew that there was no safer place in the wizarding world than Hogwarts, under the guard of Dumbledore. After all, Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort was ever afraid of.

Ron and Hermione both went off on the Hogwarts Express. Neville, Seamus and Lavender were staying, so Harry was not completely alone. He spent a lot of time in the half empty common room, playing chess or Exploding Snap.

On Christmas Eve, Harry went down to dinner to find someone sitting at the staff table who he was definitely not expecting to see:

"Moody!" Harry gasped, walking up to the front of the Great Hall. "What are you doing here?"

"'Lo Potter," Moody growled. "Dumbledore asked me to come. He said he was sorry about me being locked up for months last year, and I should spend Christmas with other people. To tell you the truth, I've never been a real sociable guy. I was goin' to spend Christmas alone, it's nice to go somewhere to see new people."

"Don't you have any family?" Harry asked.

"Nah, my mum and dad died years ago. I didn't have any brothers or sisters, and I never got married or had kids. It's a lonely life, being an Auror. Of course, some of us manage to settle down with someone."

"Like Frank Longbottom?" Harry said, looking behind him at Neville at the Gryffindor table.

"Yeah, he had a real nice girl, Aimee. They even had a son together, I think."

"Yes, his son, Neville, is here. He's in my house."

"He ain't!" Moody said. "Is he here? I'd really like to meet him. His dad was a really great guy."

"Er," said Harry. "Yeah, he's here. Come with me." Harry felt that Neville should deserve to know what kind of man his dad was. He knew that he was grateful to Sirius for telling him stories about his dad. Of course, that was before Sirius was sent away to Azkaban.

He walked Moody to the Gryffindor table. Neville was eating his food, admiring the decorations, which were as spectacular as ever. The twelve trees were placed all around the room, and there were dozens of fairies dancing around the ceiling.

"Longbottom?" Moody said to Neville when Harry pointed him out. "Are you Neville Longbottom?"

"Yes Professor Moody," Neville said, looking shocked that Moody did not remember him.

"I wasn't your Professor," Moody said. "I thought you kids knew about that. It was an impostor, pretending to be me."

"Oh yeah," Neville realised. "Harry told us about that. It was Crouch, right?" He took another mouthful of shepherd's pie.

"Yes, well I wanted to talk to you Neville. You see, I was an old friend of your father."

"What?" Neville gasped, almost choking on the food. "You knew my dad?"

"Yeah, we were both Aurors. I was so sorry to hear about what happened to him and your mother."

The other people at the table, who had previously not been listening to the conversation, lifted their heads at the mention of Neville's parents. Even some people at the nearby tables were tilting their ears in Moody's direction.

"Thank you," said Neville, who seemed completely unaware of everyone else's sudden interest.

"Sometimes it just makes me so mad to know what Dark wizards are capable of. To think that someone would torture a person until they went insane. How could they do that to another human being?"

The tables were suddenly buzzing with talk. It seemed that everyone had heard, and had not known that before. A few Slytherins seemed unaffected by the news, and Harry wondered if their parents had told them that.

Neville had gone bright red, whether it was from anger or embarrassment, Harry was not sure. He looked at Moody, then at the others. Then he got up from the table, and ran out of the door, his knife and fork making loud clangs as they fell to the floor.

Moody's scarred mouth opened wide with shock. He looked in the direction Neville had disappeared, then looked at Harry.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I thought you all knew. I didn't mean for it to come out like that. Didn't he ever tell anyone?"

"No," Harry replied. "I found out, but Dumbledore made me promise not to tell anyone. He said that Neville would tell people when he was ready."

"Oh," said Moody, his regret obvious even under the rough face. His eye swung upwards, and slowly around to the left.

"He's going back up to Gryffindor Tower. You should go after him Potter. You know him better than I do."

Harry nodded, and ran out of the Great Hall, following him. He reached Neville in front of the Fat Lady. His face was buried in his hands, and he was shaking.

"Neville!" Harry called to him. He lifted his head, and Harry saw tears in his eyes.

"Go away Harry!" he cried. "Jupiter's Moon!" he yelled up at the Fat Lady. She shook her head sympathetically, then opened up. Neville jumped up through the hole, and Harry rushed after him.

"I said go away Harry!" Neville screamed, running through the common room, and up the stairs to the dormitory.

Harry climbed the stairs three at a time to catch him again. He opened the door to their room, to find Neville curled up in a ball, weeping on his bed.

"Neville," Harry said again, feeling a great rush of pity towards this boy that he had never really known, not even after four years. "I already knew. I found out by accident, I told Dumbledore I wouldn't tell anyone."

Neville sobbed loudly, "You could have told me."

"I didn't want you to be uncomfortable," Harry reasoned. "I thought you might get upset if you knew anyone else had found out."

"Oh, and I'm just fine with it now!" Neville whined. "Moody shouldn't have opened his big mouth! It shouldn't've come out!"

"No, it shouldn't have, but it did. You can't control what happens to you Neville, you can only control what you do about it."

"Well that's very wise Harry, but it doesn't really help me. Everyone knows that my parents are insane!"

"That is nothing to be ashamed of!" Harry said, determined to help the boy. "Death Eaters put the Cruciatus Curse on them, they were trying to get information. They could have told them what they wanted to hear, but they didn't! I've suffered Cruciatus, you know that." Neville nodded. "It is more pain than you will ever feel in your life! Most people would crumble after ten seconds of it, but they didn't! Your parents stayed quiet, because if they did tell the Death Eaters anything, well you can bet that Voldemort would have come back straight away! They gave themselves, to help the world. They gave themselves to help you."

Neville stopped crying. He was still sobbing quietly, but he sat up straight. He wiped his face, and looked Harry dead in the eye.

"You're right. They were heroes, that's something to be proud of. They didn't give in. They fought to the end."

Harry nodded sympathetically to him, "I'll leave you alone now."

Harry walked away, and heard Neville say behind him "Thanks Harry."

*

Harry was woken up early on Christmas morning by a loud rustling by his bed. He opened his eyes to see Neville at the foot of his bed, sitting in front of his open trunk.

"Neville!" he said, his voice still groggy. "What are you doing in my trunk?"

"Merry Christmas Harry!" Neville said brightly. "Well, this morning I had the urge to do something nice. I saw all of yours and Seamus's stuff all over the floor, so I thought I would clean it up. But your trunk is so messy! I decided to organise it for you."

"Thanks Neville," he said, forgetting about the small pile of presents by the foot of his bed. "How have you organised everything?"

"Well, robes are on the left, your dress robes are on the bottom. Your cauldron is there in the middle, most of your casual clothes are in it. Your books are in that corner, the text books on top, the other books on the bottom. Your broomstick servicing kit--"

"Neville!" Harry interrupted. "Are you OK?"

"Of course I'm OK Harry," Neville answered. "Like you said, I've got nothing to be ashamed of. At least it's out in the open now, I don't have to keep making excuses for them."

"Well not everyone knows," Harry pointed out. "Only the people that are here."

"Oh please," Neville laughed. "You can't keep a secret 'round here. News spreads, that's just what happens. Lavender for one, she won't be able to keep quiet about this."

That was true, Harry thought. She was a terrible gossip.

"I tell you, two days after everyone gets back, the whole school'll know. And I don't mind, it's better this way."

Harry was surprised by the mature attitude Neville was taking at everyone finding out his deepest secret. He did not expect it from the boy that was in hysterics the day before.

A stir from the next bed told them that Seamus was awake, and after a loud "Merry Christmas!", Neville started to tell him what he had done with all of his stuff. While he was talking, Harry decided to open his presents.

The Dursleys had sent him a rubber from the end of a pencil. Harry sighed, and threw the tiny thing out of the window. Mrs Weasley had sent him a large Christmas pudding, and a deep purple sweater, with a picture of what looked like himself, riding a broomstick, with a Snitch in his hand. Harry appreciated the effort, but thought that walking around in a jumper that had his face on it seemed a tad big-headed. Hermione had sent him the biggest bag of Chocolate Frogs he had ever seen. He suspected that she had not told her parents about it.

Dobby had sent him a present. By the size of the package, it was either the world's largest pair of socks, or something completely different. He was pleasantly surprised to unwrap a long black cloak with golden trimmings. Harry felt that Dobby's sewing skills had taken a dramatic turn for the better.

Harry had a lot fewer presents than usual. He supposed that Ron would give him his present later in the day, after all, he still had the gift that he was going to give to Ron with him.

Also, he did not have a present from Hagrid, nor one from Sirius. He missed them both very much, and the holidays were not the same without them. He raided his trunk for the jar of sweets that Hagrid had given him for his birthday. He emptied some out, and shared them with Neville and Seamus. They talked about the gifts they had got, and the ones that they had bought for other people, until they decided to go to eat.

After breakfast, Dumbledore came up to the Gryffindor table to talk to Harry. He told him that he must wait in the Entrance Hall for his escort. He did so, and was waiting for almost half an hour before anyone showed up in the hall. Moody came in and approached Harry.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what happened yesterday," he said. It suddenly occurred to Harry that Moody was a much gentler person than Crouch had been when he was impersonating him. Whether that was because he had not acted the part well enough, or because Moody had mellowed out since being locked in his trunk, Harry was not sure.

"It's fine," Harry reassured him. "Neville and I had a good talk, he's all right with it now. He thinks it's better that it's out in the open."

"Oh," said Moody. "Good, so he's not upset anymore? Because he seemed pretty bad when he ran out yesterday."

"Well like I said, we had a good talk."

"Wow Potter," Moody growled. "I'm impressed. What did you say to him that changed his mind?"

"I just told him that he shouldn't be ashamed of his parents. He should be proud that they took the pain and didn't tell the Death Eaters anything."

Moody nodded his head thoughtfully. "Well done Potter. Have you ever thought about becoming an Auror?"

Harry laughed. "Crouch said that to me last year."

Moody nodded again. "I think you should really consider it. Because fighting Darkness is about more than knowing a lot of powerful curses. You also have to want to do some good in the world. You need a strong heart, as well as a strong wand. And I think you've got a heart of gold in there."

He placed his index finger close to Harry's chest, and Harry smiled. He looked up at Moody's face, and saw his magical eye looking through the castle doors.

"After all," he said. "If all you wanted to do was curse somebody, there would be nothing separating us from the Death Eaters."

Harry felt very proud of himself for what Moody had just said. He wondered if he should seriously become an Auror when he was older.

"Anyway," Moody said, taking his gnarled finger away and standing up straight. "Our carriage is here, shall we go?"

"What?" said Harry. "You're my escort? I thought you wanted to spend Christmas with other people."

"And you don't call the Weasleys people?" Moody chuckled. "They don't mind, I've sent them an owl, they know I'm coming."

They went out of the double doors and got into a carriage. They left the Hogwarts grounds (passing the Dementors at the gates) and arrived at Hogsmeade station.

Harry checked the time. It was just gone ten o'clock. If they took the train to King's Cross, then went to the Burrow from there, it would be past suppertime before they got there.

"Are we going all the way by train?" Harry asked Moody. "Wouldn't it take us too long?"

"No, we're not going to the Weasleys by train. We're going to my house. Then we'll Floo there."

"Your house?" said Harry. "Where's your house?"

"It's just off this rail line. Do you remember when we were last on this train? When we came to watch your godfather's trial. It stopped just outside of my house."

After about an hour, the train came to a stop, and they got out. They were on the same small platform where Moody had been on the day of the trial. Beyond it, there was nothing but a few large bushes. It was very cold, and Harry hugged his cloak around him. He had decided to wear his new cloak from Dobby, as well as the sweater Mrs Weasley had made him the year before, which was green and had a dragon on it.

"Um, where's your house?" Harry asked again.

"It's here, but it's hidden," Moody replied.

"Oh, I didn't know that you could hide things from other wizards, I just thought you could only hide things from Muggles." He thought of the stadium for the Quidditch World Cup, no Muggles could go near it.

"You know Potter, magic isn't the 'be all and end all'," Moody said wisely. "There are ways of doing things that have nothing to do with magic, sometimes they're even more effective."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I mean this," Moody said. He grabbed a large branch that was sticking out of the bush, and pulled it back. A huge chunk of leaves came away, revealing a door handle and a keyhole. Moody took a key out of his pocket and unlocked it, then pulled the handle, and a door in the bush swung open. It had been entirely covered by leaves, but now there was a large gap, big enough to walk through.

Moody walked through the door, and motioned for Harry to follow.

"You know Potter," he said as they went in. "If you're ever gonna be a great Auror, you're gonna have to learn to expand your mind."

Harry smiled, and entered the Auror's house. The whole place was covered with Moody's Dark detectors. Harry saw the Secrecy Sensor, which was silent, meaning that nobody nearby was lying. The Foe-Glass was next to the door, and all of the figures in it were mercifully out of focus.

Moody walked through a door, and Harry went after him. They seemed to be in the living room. There was a couch, and a matching chair, as well as a grandfather clock, a table, and even a piano. Harry briefly wondered if Moody could play it, but saw that he was lighting the fire.

"Incendio!" he roared, and giant flames rose up in the fireplace. He took some glittering Floo powder from a glass container on the mantelpiece, and threw it into the fire. The flames rose up even higher, and turned green.

"You go first Potter," Moody said. "I don't know what to say."

Harry nodded. He stepped into the flames and yelled "The Burrow!"

He spun faster and faster, watching all of the fireplaces around him. He kept his elbows tucked tightly in, and started to slow down. He shoved his hands out in front of him as he was thrown out into the Weasleys' kitchen.

Bill, Charlie, Fred and George were sitting at the table. They all looked at Harry and smiled.

"You made it OK then?" Charlie said. "I thought you'd be a lot later. It's only half eleven."

Harry looked at his watch to confirm that, and heard a rushing sound behind him. He looked and saw Moody, spinning very fast, emerging from the fireplace, and barrelled straight into Harry. He fell over, as did Moody. They landed in a crumpled heap, and Harry had a nasty suspicion that he was laying on Moody's wooden leg.

"Careful Potter," Moody growled as they both got to their feet. Fred and George were laughing themselves silly.

"Nice one Harry!" Fred managed to say through his laughter.

"And our old Professor!" George added.

Harry laughed with them, then walked past them into the dining room. Ron and Ginny were sitting in the table in there, both wearing their Weasley jumpers. Ron's was maroon, and Ginny's was green.

Harry and Moody were greeted with a loud chorus of greetings for a Merry Christmas from the Weasleys. Everyone went into the living room, and sat by the twelve-foot high tree. They all opened their presents, and then Harry noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Percy?" he asked, wondering why he had the idea to get them all together, but didn't come. "Oh, they'll be here soon," Mr Weasley replied.

"They?"

"Oh," said Mr Weasley. "We didn't tell you did we? Percy's bringing his girlfriend around today."

"His girlfriend?" Harry said.

"Yeah, you remember Harry," said Ron. "Penelope Clearwater, that Ravenclaw Prefect who got attacked by the Basilisk."

"Oh her, they're still together?" Harry said. "He hasn't mentioned her in a while, has he?"

"Well they didn't see each other as much last year, since they'd left school and were starting work. They were still together though, and they've started seeing each other more again," Mr Weasley explained.

Mrs Weasley made a disapproving noise about Percy's relationship. It seemed that she was still protective of her nineteen year old son.

Harry and Ron start a game of chess, which Ginny watched. Fred and George complained that it was snowing too hard to play a game of Quidditch. It was just as Ron had taken Harry's second knight that there was a knock on the door. Harry listened as Mrs Weasley went to answer the door.

"Hi mum," Percy's voice said cheerfully as soon as the door was opened. There was a brief silence as Harry used his queen to take Ron's pawn, falling into a trap and his queen was taken by a bishop.

"Hello Percy," Mrs Weasley said monotonously.

"Merry Christmas, Mrs Weasley," Harry heard a female voice that must have been Penelope said in a distinctly insecure tone.

"Penelope," Mrs Weasley acknowledged her son's girlfriend sternly.

The three of them entered the living room, and Harry noticed that Penelope and Percy were both looking quite awkward at Mrs Weasley's reaction.

They all sat together making conversation before dinner. There was much discussion of work that Harry managed to tune out and concentrate on his chess game, which he was losing spectacularly at.

"So Harry," he heard Mrs Weasley say, breaking his focus. "How nice, you're wearing the jumper I made from last year. Did the new one not fit you?"

"Er," Harry said uncomfortably, not wanting to admit that he didn't really like his new jumper. "No, I just thought I would wear this one."

"Hmm," Mrs Weasley said tensely. There was an awful silence around the room while Harry struggled to think of anything to say to make the situation any more complacent.

Finally the hush was broken by Ron's declaration of "Check mate."

*

They all ate their dinner while talking, only Moody seemed to keep to himself. Percy told them about his work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which sounded a great deal more exciting than his old job. Harry was reminded of Sirius's trial again, so he tried to change the subject.

"So Bill, Charlie, how do you like living in Britain?" he asked.

"It's great," Charlie answered. "I never thought I would ever get to teach at Hogwarts, and Care of Magical Creatures was always my best subject."

"And you Bill?"

"Well England's all right, but I miss certain things about Egypt."

"Like the girl you left behind?" Fred said cheekily.

"Oh yes," said George. "The lovely Nila."

"Shut it you two. She isn't the only thing I miss. I prefer the Egyptian weather to what it's like here --"

"Girl?" said Mrs Weasley. "You never told me you had a girlfriend over there."

"Well I did mum," said Bill, shooting the twins an angry look for bringing it up. "Her name was Nila and she was a curse breaker for Gringotts too."

Harry remembered the pretty girl in the picture in Bill's house.

Percy and Penelope had both finished their meals, and went into the kitchen with their plates.

"We weren't really that serious, we were together for about six months," Bill was telling his mother.

Harry finished his dinner, and he and Ron went to put their plates in the kitchen as well, glad to get away from the discussion of Bill's girlfriend. When they got to the kitchen door, they heard a loud voice coming from it.

"I don't care Percy!" Penelope yelled. "I know your mum can be over protective, but you can't just hide it forever!"

"Please I'll tell them in my own time," Percy said calmly. "I just don't want to rush into it."

"You said that a month ago! The whole reason you called the whole family together today was to finally tell them!"

"Fine, I'll tell them now."

There was silence, broken only by the clattering of plates. When they heard them moving toward the door, Harry and Ron both hid in a cupboard to the left.

"What was that about?" Ron whispered.

"Well from the sound of it," Harry whispered back. "We'll know soon enough."

They got out of the cupboard, realising they had taken their dirty plates in with them, and went back into the dining room to hear Percy's announcement.

Penelope seemed to have calmed down, she had her arm around Percy's waist, and he had his around her shoulders.

"Mum, dad, everyone," Percy said. "I've got -- we've got something to tell you."

"What is it?" Mrs Weasley asked, looking very alert and sober.

"We're getting married."

All eyes immediately turned to Mrs Weasley, who so far had been nothing but disapproving of her son's relationship. She rose out of her seat, as everyone awaited her reaction.

"Welcome to the family," she said, and gave Penelope a hug. Harry thought it strange that her attitude would change as soon as marriage was involved.

This seemed to instantly give the rest of the family permission to be happy for Percy .

"Way to go Perce!" Fred yelled while George whistled.

"Good for you!" Bill said.

"The first one of us to get hitched!" Charlie laughed.

"Congratulations!" Ron howled.

Mr Weasley smiled as Penelope showed off her ring. Mrs Weasley got out of her seat, and Harry was not sure what she would do.

They started to discuss their marriage plans. When the children got fed up of the endless talk of bridesmaid dresses, fabric colours and china patterns, they went upstairs together.

"She wants to marry Percy?" said Fred as they climbed the stairs. "What d'you think's wrong with her?"