Chapter 1 - Ron's Present
It was a cold and lonely day. No it wasn't! Or WAS it...? Harry awoke from his dreams to find that his letter had reached Ron, and Hedwig was hooting happily on the end of his bed with a package gripped tightly in her talons.
Hey Harry, [said the letter attached to the package] How's things in the Muggle-house? Hope you can get out soon... I got this really odd letter from Tonks and Moody the other day... They said not to write to Hermione. Have you gotten a letter with anything like that in it? I hope she's alright... Well, Happy Birthday! Don't open your present until you are positive that nobody else is in the room. The present cost me a heap of money but I managed to scab some off of Fred and George, you won't believe how arrogantly rich they've become! They were like 'nah, you don't have to return the money, we're giving it to you out of the love and respect for our brother...' I'll eat my hat if they've ever had a speck of respect for me. They are pretty generous though, as long as I spread the word about their new Joke Shop.
Ron
Harry looked thoughtfully at Hedwig before sending her outside so he could open his present with nobody in the room as Ron had requested. What could the pacage be? He ripped off the wrapping, and gasped in surprise. It was a minature arch with a veil, just like the one he had seen in the Department of Mysteries! He glanced at the note on it.
Harry, This is now officially yours. If anyone had looked at it before you did, it would have been theirs instead. I had a hard time wrapping it without looking at it. There is a manual that goes with it, I read some of it and it looks really complicated (it looks like a book Hermione would be interested in, to put it gently) but I suppose you might be able to do some interesting things with it... Ron
Harry stared at the arch. What could it possibly mean? He remembered that behind the huge arch and veil in the Department of Mysteries, he could hear voices of the dead. He put the arch up to his ear, but he couldn't hear anything. He wrapped up the arch and veil with the manual, let Hedwig back inside, then began to write a reply letter to Ron.
Ron, Thanks heaps for the present, but it just brings back too many painful memories for me to try and use right now. I may look at it in the future. I haven't heard from Tonks OR Moody lately... I heard from Lupin though, something about a secret mission - Do you know what it is? I'm going to write a letter to Hermione right now, after all, they never told ME I couldn't write to her. So is there anything you'd like me to tell her? I wonder what's behind all this, and yeah, I hope Hermione is alright. Harry.
He folded the scrap of parchment and gave it to Hedwig. Then Harry leaned back in his bed, grabbed another piece of parchment, and started writing a letter to Hermione, asking her what was going on. Next, he wrote a similar but perhaps sligltly more crass letter to Moody and Tonks, asking them what was happening and demanding to know why he hadn't heard from them in over a week. He gave these letters to Hedwig also, and knowing her to be a smart owl, he knew she wouldn't get confused with the letters, and he sent her on her way.
Then he heard a knock on his frail bedroom door, and the door burst open a second later with the large frame of Uncle Vernon standing there, looking as furious as humanly possible.
It was a cold and lonely day. No it wasn't! Or WAS it...? Harry awoke from his dreams to find that his letter had reached Ron, and Hedwig was hooting happily on the end of his bed with a package gripped tightly in her talons.
Hey Harry, [said the letter attached to the package] How's things in the Muggle-house? Hope you can get out soon... I got this really odd letter from Tonks and Moody the other day... They said not to write to Hermione. Have you gotten a letter with anything like that in it? I hope she's alright... Well, Happy Birthday! Don't open your present until you are positive that nobody else is in the room. The present cost me a heap of money but I managed to scab some off of Fred and George, you won't believe how arrogantly rich they've become! They were like 'nah, you don't have to return the money, we're giving it to you out of the love and respect for our brother...' I'll eat my hat if they've ever had a speck of respect for me. They are pretty generous though, as long as I spread the word about their new Joke Shop.
Ron
Harry looked thoughtfully at Hedwig before sending her outside so he could open his present with nobody in the room as Ron had requested. What could the pacage be? He ripped off the wrapping, and gasped in surprise. It was a minature arch with a veil, just like the one he had seen in the Department of Mysteries! He glanced at the note on it.
Harry, This is now officially yours. If anyone had looked at it before you did, it would have been theirs instead. I had a hard time wrapping it without looking at it. There is a manual that goes with it, I read some of it and it looks really complicated (it looks like a book Hermione would be interested in, to put it gently) but I suppose you might be able to do some interesting things with it... Ron
Harry stared at the arch. What could it possibly mean? He remembered that behind the huge arch and veil in the Department of Mysteries, he could hear voices of the dead. He put the arch up to his ear, but he couldn't hear anything. He wrapped up the arch and veil with the manual, let Hedwig back inside, then began to write a reply letter to Ron.
Ron, Thanks heaps for the present, but it just brings back too many painful memories for me to try and use right now. I may look at it in the future. I haven't heard from Tonks OR Moody lately... I heard from Lupin though, something about a secret mission - Do you know what it is? I'm going to write a letter to Hermione right now, after all, they never told ME I couldn't write to her. So is there anything you'd like me to tell her? I wonder what's behind all this, and yeah, I hope Hermione is alright. Harry.
He folded the scrap of parchment and gave it to Hedwig. Then Harry leaned back in his bed, grabbed another piece of parchment, and started writing a letter to Hermione, asking her what was going on. Next, he wrote a similar but perhaps sligltly more crass letter to Moody and Tonks, asking them what was happening and demanding to know why he hadn't heard from them in over a week. He gave these letters to Hedwig also, and knowing her to be a smart owl, he knew she wouldn't get confused with the letters, and he sent her on her way.
Then he heard a knock on his frail bedroom door, and the door burst open a second later with the large frame of Uncle Vernon standing there, looking as furious as humanly possible.