Harry Potter
And The
Tapestry of Fate
CHAPTER 3
Surprises
Harry gaped. A sleek, shiny, red convertible was waiting for him on the curb, and he saw five red heads in it. A few more gifts fell from Harry's arms.
Percy was sitting in the driver's seat, looking very stern, especially towards Fred and George. They were blasting rock music from the stereo, though they were sitting in the back, and looking furious. Ron was there too, looking happy and bitter at the same time. Ginny just looked annoyed, with her arms crossed.
Harry hopped inside the back, next to Ron. It was rather crowded, since no one wanted to sit next to Percy. In the end, Ginny hopped up front.
"So where did this come from?" Harry asked. It was common knowledge that the Weasleys were extremely poor.
"You know how Mum found the money?" Ron whispered. "They used it to buy Percy a new car because of his promotion to the Head of the Department of International whatever."
"The Department of International Magical Cooperation!" he corrected sternly. "As you know, Mr. Crouch retired."
"No, he died, you don't have to lie. We all know his son killed him." Ron said, as Percy revved up the engine to drown out his words. He was clearly ignoring Ron, because he knew his idol had been murdered. He began to drive, very slowly and carefully.
"Go faster!" Ginny insisted.
"I have to stay under the speed limit, I don't want to get a ticket," Percy told her smartly. A few Muggle kids on bicycles passed them by. Soon, he was going so under the speed limit in a pleasant neighborhood that an elderly man walking on the sidewalk with a seeing eye dog went past them.
"This is ridiculous," George said furiously. "Take our money, buy our least favorite brother a great, new car, he drives 5 miles an hour, and we don't even get to drive it."
"You don't have a license anyway!" Percy said angrily. "Now be quiet and turn off that blasted music, I'm trying to drive here!"
Fred turned the volume up instead, and the bass was so high that the ground shook. The rest of the ride went along that way, and Harry was very glad to get to their destination.
But was it really? Percy pulled up in front of a large teetering house, it was definitely the Burrow, but it was different somehow. There had been some add-ons to it, a few new rooms, and it didn't look all shabby like it normally was.
Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George hopped out of the car and ran up to the house. Harry went to join them, but Percy stopped him. "Harry, can I have a word?"
"Sure." He felt uncertain, but he agreed. Why would Percy want to talk to him?
"Can I ask you a question? Ron wanted to know, so he's supposed to ask you this, but he chickened out, and came to me, for some reason –"
Ron had never hidden anything from him before. "What is it?"
"Ummm…Oh, he wants to know if you like Hermione," Percy said uncomfortably. "Yeah, I know, it's stupid, but Ron –"
"Do I like Hermione? You mean as a friend? Or do I like like Hermione?" Percy nodded, looking even more embarrassed than ever. "Well, obviously not! I thought Ron had known that, of all people. He isn't starting to believe Rita Skeeter's articles, is he?" asked Harry incredulously.
"I think Ron's just – you know, checking to see if he has to compete with you for her affections." Percy was very red by now. "Since he has to fight to keep anything himself. He thinks that you always get everything, and if you got Hermione too – Let's go inside, shall we?" he asked, changing the subject abruptly.
Harry nodded, very confused. He noted that Percy was checking his watch. "All right." They walked inside the improved house. Percy opened the door, and went inside. He followed him in, but it was pitch-black. Percy had disappeared, and he couldn't see a foot in front of his face. "What's going on?" The door slammed behind him, a light flicked on.
"SURPRISE!!!" a large group of people shouted happily. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY!"
Harry looked around in shock. His first surprise party, his first birthday party! There were banners and decorations all over the living room of the Weasley's house. In the group, he saw a whole bunch of familiar faces: the Weasleys, all his fellow Gryffindor 5th year friends, the Quidditch team, and a whole bunch of other Hogwarts people he knew.
"I forgot it was my birthday," he admitted, flushed with happiness.
"We were hoping for that," Percy said, actually grinning, coming from behind him.
Suddenly, someone came running for him. All Harry saw was a bushy, brown head before a pair of arms flung around his neck, and he nearly suffocated.
"Harry!" his best friend, Hermione Granger, said happily. "You're safe!" She held tightly onto him, and buried her face in his shoulder.
Harry knew she had burst into tears. "Come on, why are you crying now? It's my birthday!"
"I know," she said, sniffling. "I'm crying out of happiness. Harry – do you have any idea how worried I was when I heard what had happened to you? Ron owled me, and I was so upset that I couldn't visit you. I thought something horrible had happened –"
"Why couldn't you visit?" Harry asked curiously.
"She was visiting Vicky-Poo in Bulgaria," Ron said, sounding irritated. He looked slightly jealous, and he glared at Hermione, whose arms were still tightly around Harry.
"I was not! And don't call him that!" she said furiously. "If you must know, I was visiting my grandmother…at her funeral." She burst into tears again, and it was definitely not of happiness.
Ron looked down. "I'm sorry."
Hermione clung to Harry for a while longer, wetting his shirt, and then she left go and sniffled. "Anyway, we should be happy, right? Harry, I want you to meet my cousin, Gretchen." She beckoned to someone, and a little girl appeared.
She looked very different from the way Hermione had looked when she was eleven. Her light brown hair was long and straight, and her eyes were shockingly azure. The one trait she had of Hermione's was that she had oversized front teeth, though Hermione didn't have hers any more. She stood uncomfortably, looking very shy.
"Gretchen, this is Harry Potter. Remember?"
"Of course," the girl said nervously, in an unusually high-pitched voice, twisting her fingers. "You told me tons about him, how could I forget?"
"I was wrong when I said no one in my family was magic at all, because Gretchen was just accepted into Hogwarts!" Hermione beamed at her young cousin, who looked away.
"Now that you're done with your hellos, can we go and join the party now?" Ron asked, a bit rudely. He stalked off to the backyard. Gretchen trotted away too.
"What on earth is his problem?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"I have no idea," Harry said, as they walked outside.
"HARRY!" a loud voice boomed. It was the caretaker and teacher of Care for Magical Creatures at Hogwarts, the half-giant Hagrid. He came up to Harry, beaming. He seemed to already have had a couple drinks, and he swayed a bit as he walked. He cuffed Harry very hard on the shoulder, and he fell over.
"Hello – hello Hagrid," he said, pushing his glasses back onto his nose. Ron helped him get up off the ground.
Hagrid looked at him curiously. "So why did yeh pass out and have to go to St. Mungo's?"
"I don't really remember. Mr. Weasley said something about my scar changing? And then I know I woke up at one in the morning because of a dream I had." Harry expected Hermione to make some comment about how she read about those before, or it sounded familiar and she'd check it out in a book. She remained silent, as though calculating something in her head. "Hey, what's up?" he asked her. "Got any ideas?"
She still gave no reply, staring off into space with her eyes glazed over.
"Ummm…Hermione?" Harry asked, waving a hand in front of her face. Behind her back, Ron was pretending to stab her, faking strangling her, and putting bunny ears behind her head. Hagrid looked at her curiously, but she didn't react or even flinch at all.
Harry took her by the shoulders and started shaking her, but her expression didn't change at all. Still dazed, she just was limp; moving the way Harry shook her. Suddenly, she gave a tiny scream and started shaking like she was having a seizure. Finally, she passed out cold in his arms.
* * *
Harry looked around the room. Ron was pacing nervously back and forth, Gretchen was sitting next to Hermione expressionless, and the other Weasleys and people were staring at Hermione. She had been passed out for a while, with no signs of getting up.
"Forget this," a few of the Hogwarts students said and walked back to the backyard.
Harry stared at Hermione. "Is this how I looked when I was in a coma?"
"Kind of," Mr. Weasley said. "Actually, you looked exactly like that."
"So she's in a coma too?" Ron asked softly. He had never seemed so emotional, when not out of anger, except for the time in their second year when he thought Ginny was dead.
"Who's next?" George asked. "Ronnie-kins, you better watch out."
"Shut up, this isn't funny," he said crossing his arms and gazing at Hermione. She looked peacefully asleep actually.
Half an hour later, everyone was gone but Harry and Ron. And Gretchen, who was asleep on the sofa by Hermione.
"Come on," Harry said, "she'll wake up soon. We can go back to my party for now."
"Don't say that!" Ron said. "I'm going to stay by her side until she wakes up."
"All right," Harry said. He took one last look at Hermione. "Wake up soon," he said, kneeling by her and brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.
And then she blinked. "Harry?" she murmured slowly, as he got up.
"Hermione!" Ron said happily. "You're all right!"
"Of course I am," she said. "What happened anyway?"
"Not this again," Ron said angrily. "What is with you two?"
"I think we saw something," Harry explained. "And somehow it made us pass out. It's really weird."
Hermione nodded and slowly got up from her spot. "Ron, do you think you could leave for a while? I need to talk to Harry about something."
His eyebrows furrowed, but he agreed and left.
"What is his problem?" Hermione said. "Geez, you'd think he was jealous of something."
Percy's words came into Harry's head at once. I think Ron's just – you know, checking to see if he has to compete with you for her affections. Since he has to fight to keep anything himself. He thinks that you always get everything, and if you got Hermione too – No, that couldn't be it. "So what do you need to talk to me about?" he wondered.
"I was lying to Ron. I do remember what happened in my vision or whatever you want to call it. Harry, in my vision…" She gulped. "You died."
* * *
See, what did I say about the cliffhangers? It's become an insane obsession, taking over my writing style! Someone, anyone with this problem, please help me! Please, this is serious! E-mail or IM me at SmileyLizL@aol.com or review or something, just help me!
Yeah, I had to replace the one I posted. Katie Bell reminded my stupid self that Crouch died. I forgot all about GoF, schoolwork is really getting to me.
Anyway, it wasn't supposed to be like this AT ALL. I even had an outline all planned out, and look what happened! Anyway, this title doesn't need work, because it's based on something that'll happen later on in this story. Right now, all this stuff is fluff. Sorry it took so long to post, I was seriously reevaluating if I should continue it or not. Even though no one is reading it, I'll finish it anyway because I'm so bored.
Disclaimers: Harry and the gang are property of J.K. Rowling, not me. I made up Gretchen Granger (wow, what a horrible name).