CHAPTER FIVE
An Invitation to Dinner and Marital Disunity
Mr Weasley and the twins were already in position around the table by the time Harry, Ron and Ginny reached the patio.
"Fred! Mind your manners!" scolded Mrs Weasley, as Fred stretched a hand out towards one of the platters on the tablecloth. "We've got a guest with us tonight."
"Mum, Harry's practically family!" cried George. "And he doesn't mind, do you, Harry?"
"Of course, Harry is part of the family," agreed Mrs Weasley, laying a steaming roast goose in the very centre of the dishes and plates. "I mean we have another guest."
"Ooooooooh, who?" asked Ron, clambering over the bench.
"Percy's brought one of his colleagues from the Ministry to dinner, and I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you all behaved yourself!"
"A girl?" exclaimed Fred, nearly knocking over his pumpkin juice.
"Fred!" hissed Mr Weasley, warningly.
"A young lady, yes," replied Mrs Weasley with a frown. "And you're to act like the gentlemen I know you can be when you put your mind to it, and don't show Percy up, or your father and I."
"Does Penny know?" inquired George, innocently.
"Of course she knows. She was helping me in the kitchen when Percy and his friend Apparated."
"Aye aye," murmured Fred, nudging George in the ribs. "There'll be fireworks tonight, I'll bet!"
"That's better than - the other thing," said Ron, suppressing a shudder.
"Who is she, Mum?" Ginny asked, helping herself to some juice.
"Didn't quite catch the name. Fleur something. French, I think."
The table went deadly quiet, except for the clang as Ron's fork hit his plate.
"D - D - Delacour?" he volunteered.
"Yes, that was it! It rang a bell with me too, but I can't think why."
"Triwizard Competition two years ago at Hogwarts," said Ginny, very entertained by the expression on Ron's face.
"Oh yes, of course!" cried Mrs Weasley. "I kept thinking of Hogwarts."
Amid the sniggers of the twins and Ginny, Mrs Weasley took off her apron and went inside to bring out the others.
"Merlin, Harry!" whispered Ron, frantically. "What's old Perce doing bringing her back here? She'll die of shock!"
"She wouldn't have agreed to come if she didn't want to," Harry replied. "Remember what she was like? She'd have told Percy where to get off."
"She must be under some delusional misapprehension," remarked Fred, taking the opportunity while Mrs Weasley's back was turned to pinch an olive from one of the dishes.
The kitchen door swung open, and all heads turned to watch the entry of the visitor. Ron's fork hit his plate again, and he blushed the colour of his hair. Even Harry's eyebrows rose.
"Good afternoon, everyone," she said, smiling at everyone around the table. Her voice was quite low and velvety, sounding even more sweet in the early evening air.
"Ah, Mademoiselle Delacour!" cried Mr Weasley, jumping to his feet. "Please, please sit down! You're very welcome, I assure you."
Fleur elegantly glided into the chair he was holding out for her. "Why, thankyou! I'm delighted to be 'ere."
"Really?" Ron found himself saying.
Fleur looked at him in surprise. "Why, of course! You are Ron, yes? I remember you from 'Ogwarts. Ah! And 'Arry Potter! Goodness, what memories!"
"How's your sister?" Harry asked, wondering why he was making the sort of polite dinner conversation usually to be heard at one of Aunt Petunia's soirées.
"She is very well, thankyou," laughed Fleur. "I am surprised you remember."
Harry fell silent. That Triwizard Tournament was engraved in his memory for the rest of his living days. Nothing would ever wipe it away, no matter how hard he tried to forget. The culmination of the Third Task would haunt his dreams for many more years to come, and he had resigned himself to the inevitable.
He caught Ginny's eye across the table. She was twirling a breadstick in her fingers, and laughing at one of Fred's witticisms. Harry's breath caught in his throat. That had been happening for a while now. Ginny Weasley seemed to have the unique power to guide him out of his more morbid musings just by being near him. Strange, that.
Mrs Weasley bustled in then, carrying a huge treacle pudding in an absolutely vast dish. "Since it's a special occasion," she said, with a smile at Fleur, "I thought I'd make my piéce de resistance!"
Since Fleur's entrance, nobody had really taken much notice of Percy and Penny, sitting at opposite ends of the table. Harry stole a glance at them now, while Mrs Weasley moved some of the plates to make room for the pudding. Percy was frowning, and his ears had turned red, like Ron's did when he was embarrassed or angry. Penny sat very straight in her chair, delicately sipping her drink, looking distinctly peeved. Harry nudged Ron.
"Oh dear," he whispered, nodding towards Penny surreptitiously. Ron merely rolled his eyes and continued attacking his goose.
"Vive la France," George said, stupidly, lifting his glass in a dramatic gesture.
Fleur smiled enchantingly at him, showing no sign of the superciliousness or disdain Ron and Harry remembered at the start of the Triwizard Tournament. Although there was a glint in her eye that betokened either amusement or naivety. This environment was plainly new to her. Harry thought. It was unlikely that she'd ever experienced anything like this lifestyle before, being of the elegant, refined society of Beauxbatons. Visions of luxury penthouse apartments and walk-in wardrobes full of designer garments filled Harry's imagination, along with the faintly amusing scene of Fleur lying on a couch beside an enormous swimming pool being fanned by two muscular slaves.
"How do you like the goose?" asked Mrs Weasley, hopefully.
"C'est parfait, Madame!" replied Fleur, laughing her charming laugh again. "It is all so lovely. And the view is incroyable!"
Mrs Weasley nodded slowly, evidently unsure of how to respond.
"It means beautiful, Mum," Ginny whispered as Fleur returned to her meal.
"Yes, it's a pretty spot just here," agreed Mr Weasley. "Not many places like this in England, that's for sure." He gazed fondly out across the fields to the valley beyond, where the river ran like a glassy ribbon through the trees.
"Pretty?" repeated Fleur. "So much more than pretty! I 'ave never seen anything like it."
"I'll bet you haven't," muttered Ron, with a frown. Luckily only Harry heard him.
"Do you live in the country, Miss Delacour?" Mr Weasley was asking.
"Sometimes," she replied. "Although I 'ave an apartment in London at the moment. My parents 'ave a small chateau on the Loire, but they spend more time in Paris nowadays. My father is an investor with Gringotts Paris, you see."
"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs Weasley. "Then I'm astonished you haven't met my oldest son Bill! He works for Gringotts. He goes all over the world for them. He's definitely been to Paris once or twice."
"I'm sure I would 'ave remembered him if we had met," said Fleur, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
"He's coming back next week as a matter of fact," Mrs Weasley remarked. "He's got the rest of the summer off. You ought to come back one day and meet him. I'm sure the pair of you would have lots to talk about. Paris and so on."
Whatever Fleur might have been about to reply was lost in the uproar of the sudden pandemonium that erupted. Ginny screamed so loudly that even the house elves at Hogwarts must have heard her.
"WHAT IS THAT DOING HERE?" she yelled, pushing her chair back and moving several steps away from the table, spilling the jug of pumpkin juice all over the tablecloth. A small green toad was sitting in a platter with the remains of Mrs Weasley's roast goose, staring lazily at the faces peering down at it.
"OH, by all the stars!" Mrs Weasley shrieked. "HOW did that get in there?"
Fred and George folded their hands in their laps and stared up into the sky, innocently.
"FRED! GEORGE! WHAT did I tell you this morning?"
The twins didn't wait to be reminded. They dashed off at the speed of light down towards the river, cackling with insane laughter.
"You can't hide forever!" Mrs Weasley bellowed after them, hands planted firmly on her hips. The very earth seemed to quiver in terror.
Fleur took her napkin and began delicately mopping up the spilled juice that was spreading along the tablecloth. Mr Weasley had leaned back in his chair, covering his eyes with one of his hands.
"What can I say, Miss Delacour? I'm so terribly, terribly sorry," he said, agonisingly. "My sons are a disaster on four legs."
"Oh, no, Monsieur, they are lively."
"Too lively by half," Mrs Weasley muttered.
Percy's face had turned a very deep scarlet. No doubt he was resisting the impulse to Apparate to the other side of the world. "Fleur, I'm so sorry," he began.
Fleur held up a perfectly manicured hand. "Please, I am not offended at all. In fact, I am 'aving a wonderful time!"
Harry and Ron looked at each other, hardly believing what they were hearing. Fleur, Fleur Delacour, Mademoiselle patronising, haughty Delacour, was actually enjoying herself? Could two years have changed her so much?
But then, Harry thought, she had been very generous and kind at the end of the Tournament. Ever since he had brought her sister Gabrielle up from the lake at Hogwarts, in fact. He had started to quite like her during the last few weeks of the year.
***
The sun had almost disappeared by the time Mrs Weasley, Penny and Ginny had cleared away the dinner things and joined the boys and Fleur outside on the patio. A bottle or two of Mrs Weasley's home-made elderflower wine had been tapped, although Ron resolutely refused to touch it.
"No thankyou," he said, firmly. "I'll stick to the old pumpkin juice."
"Coward," Harry muttered, with a grin, accepting a glass.
Ginny and Fleur were discussing something about French fashion designers with great vehemence while Mrs Weasley passed the wine round.
"I hope you like it, Fleur," she said. "It's only my own recipe, nothing grand."
"Minus the Weasley Special this time, hopefully," muttered Ron, bitterly.
The evening wound leisurely on until the stars were out, and Mrs Weasley's elderflower wine was severely diminished.
"They've bonded," Ron observed, nodding his head towards Ginny and Fleur, now in the throes of discussing what Ginny should wear to the Yule Ball next year.
"Per'aps something gold," Fleur was saying, studying Ginny's colouring and height. "Or a dark wine red, something to bring out the auburn in your 'air. We should go shopping in London one day this summer!"
"Oh, I'd love that! Are you sure?"
"Of course! I would love it too! I know a little place - "
Ron rolled his eyes. "Women," he murmured, disparagingly. "And it'll be ten times worse when Hermione gets here on Friday."
"Don't you think it might be a bit lonely for Ginny and your mum in a house full of blokes?" suggested Harry.
Ron shrugged. "They lived with it up until last month when Penny moved in."
"Talking of Penny," said Harry, suddenly. "Where is she?"
***
"Oh, so it's MY fault, is it?"
"Yes, it is. What made you do it?"
"I was just trying to be friendly!"
"Oh yes?"
"Not in THAT way, for goodness' sake!"
"Well, what was it then? You'd never even SEEN her before today!"
"I had, as a matter of fact. At Hogwarts."
"Two years ago, Perce. You've been lusting after her all this time, have you?"
"Don't be like that, Penny. You know it wasn't like that at all."
"All I know is you left this morning a faithful husband and you come home this afternoon with - with - your scarlet woman!"
"How DARE you?"
"How dare I? Excuse me, Percy, but it's you who's stepped over the line, not me! I didn't invite a beautiful, rich, intelligent, half Veela to dinner tonight!"
"Is that what this is all about? The fact that she's beautiful and intelligent?"
"And rich."
"And rich, then. Are you jealous of all that or jealous of what you think is going on with me and her?"
"JEALOUS? Don't I have a RIGHT to expect the fidelity of my husband?"
"I AM faithful, Penny!"
"Oh, don't bother."
"What are you doing?"
"Leaving."
"WHAT?"
"I need to be alone. I'm going to my mother's."
"Penny!"
"Just forget it, Perce. I don't need this right now."
"Well, when are you coming back?"
"When I can be completely sure that you're the right man for me."
"And when will that be?"
"I don't know. Perhaps never."