~ The Magic of Snow ~
~ Chapter 4 -The Gift ~
"Ouch, dang!" came Ron's voice. "What the heck is this doing here?" Ron continued, apparently talking to himself as he looked at the trunk that was blocking the doorway. He had walked right into it and had nearly fallen flat on his face.
"What, you don't like how I rearranged the furniture?" Harry said quietly to Ron, who looked as though he had almost suffered a heart attack, "Where were you?"
"Oh, Harry," said Ron, "you scared me."
"Where were you?" Harry repeated, smiling.
"Where do you think I was?" said Ron, returning the same kind of face which Lavender had given him that morning.
"Well, wherever you were, I hope you had my cloak," Harry said, holding out his hand.
"Yep! Thanks a bundle, Harry. Lavender loves the cloak and the excitement and freedom that comes with it," said Ron, his smile widening, "And so do I." Ron threw him the cloak.
"Well gosh, it's two thirty. What were you doing?"
"I took Lavender to the Shrieking Shack. Then we stopped at Honeydukes and got loads of sweets," Ron said, showing Harry his pocket-loads of candy. "Oh, and you know how Fred and George were going to start that joke shop?"
"Yea," answered Harry.
"And they wouldn't tell us where they were opening?"
"Yea," Harry answered again more impatiently.
"Well they've got a shop in Hogsmead right were Zonko's used to be."
"What? You're joking!" Harry said, sitting up.
"No, I'm not," Ron said smiling, "We got there at about ten o'clock and Fred and George showed us around. They gave us all sorts of stuff including this catalog," he said, brandishing a shiny catalog with the words Weasly Wizard Wheezes written across the top in luminous letters. The text was obviously bewitched to be flashing different colors and font styles every few seconds.
"It's brilliant, it is! They have everything from those fake wands to canary creams to a parchment that makes comments about the people who address it." Ron began piling numerous things of the sort onto Harry's bed.
"What are those?" Harry asked, pointing at a pair of glasses.
"Ooh, those are Decopto-specs," Ron answered.
"Decep-what?" Harry said, picking them up.
"Decepto-specs," Ron repeated, "they make everything you see off-center a bit so that when you're walking down the hall, you may walk into people, while you're seeing them three feet to the right of where they really are. Or you're in a hurry to class and when you try to enter the classroom, you run right into the wall," Ron continued as Harry took off his own glasses and put on the ones in his hand.
"Cool," Harry said in amazement.
"And these are a real item, they are," Ron said, holding a few pieces of brightly wrapped sticks of gum in his hand. Harry set the glasses down and instead focused on the gum.
"Ditto chew- it lets you record a few moments of a person's voice and then if you chew it whatever you say will sound exactly like them. The effect will wear off when you stop chewing it, but it will work if you put it back in your mouth. But wait, you can check it out for yourself tomorrow; let me get back to my story. Since there is not much to do in Hogsmead at 11:30, we had come back through the Shrieking Shack and at this time, we once again noticed that it was snowing," Ron said, sitting down on his bed and taking off his shoes.
"Let's see, that leaves… three hours. It couldn't possibly have taken you more than ten minutes to get here. So I repeat, what were you doing?" Harry said as he came to this logical conclusion.
Tap, tap, tap
The boys looked up to see Hedwig tapping impatiently at the window. Harry quickly got up and opened it, which let in a snowy owl whose feathers were partially frozen, and a blast of cold, night air. She landed on Harry's bed and held out her leg so that the large letter tied to it might be removed. Harry did so carefully, and Hedwig affectionately nipped his finger in thanks, ruffled her feathers, and flew over to the fire.
"Who's it from?" Ron asked.
"Dunno. There's no writing on the front," Harry said, opening the letter. "Wait, there's a paw print; it's from Snuffles," He explained; he had almost said it was from Sirius Black, which it was, but he had been convicted of murder, and escaped from Azkaban. Although he was innocent, only five people knew this besides himself and believed it: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and his "victim", Peter Pettigrew who was still alive because he had faked his own death. Harry read:
"Harry,
How are you? Hope you're getting along well at school. Congratulations about Hermione. You two will make a good couple. Have you been keeping up on your work like you promised? I have some news for you! First, Remus Lupin is coming back as your Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Second, and I think you might find this more intriguing, I'm giving you the key to Gringotts' vault # 714." -Harry paused to notice the key Sirius mentioned- "It contains something of your mother's that I was to give you when you started at Hogwarts, but certain things, dementors mainly, prevented me from doing so until now. You can get permission from Dumbledore to travel by floo powder to Diagon Alley to pick it up this weekend. Hope you like it; it should come in very useful. Buckbeak says hello.
Your Godfather,
Snuffles"
Harry, the letter still clutched in his hand, looked up at Ron who had been reading over his shoulder.
"You seem to get cool, new stuff all the time, Harry. What do you suppose it is? If it's another invisibility cloak, can I have it?" Ron said hopefully.
"I doubt it is, but sure," Harry replied.
"Well, since you already know where we've been, why don't you tell me where you went?" Ron said.
"Because I didn't come in at 2:30 in the morning!" Harry said sarcastically. But then he proceeded to explain, in far more detail that Ron had needed or wanted, what he did with Hermione that night.
"Have I told you that you two make a cute couple?" Ron inquired.
"Yea, now shut up so I can get some sleep. I want an early start at Hogsmeade tomorrow. Good night," Harry said as a yawn and stretch took over his body.
"See you tomorrow," Ron answered, Harry's yawn becoming contagious. Ron climbed into his four-poster and fell fast asleep.