Ch 38:- Bluff

In the kitchen, a cheerful looking Mrs. Weasley was ladling out breakfast to Ron, Fred, and George. Mr Weasley was just sitting down, bleary eyed but still cheerful. Fred and George were wearing matching woolly green sweaters with WWW on the front and looking slightly sheepish.

Harry wondered if Ron's parents had opened their presents yet, but decided probably not.

'Morning, Harry.' boomed Mr Weasley. 'Happy Christmas!'

Various 'Happy Christmasses' were said, and Harry sat down at the table.

'Breakfast Dear?' inquired Mrs.Weasley.

Harry looked up. He was suddenly aware of her glance at the ring on his finger and tried to cover it with his other hand.

'Yes, please, - Thanks.' he murmured, hoping no one had noticed.

Too late.

'Nice ring that, Harry,' drawled George.

'Yeah – nice!' added Fred.

Mrs. Weasley leant over from the kitchen range. 'That is nice! Did Hermione give it to you?'

Harry swallowed convulsively.

'Er - no. It was - ' He stopped, floundering for something to say.

'Ginny.' piped up Ron.

Thanks, Pal. thought Harry. He shot a dagger-like glare at his friend.

'Yeah, we know.' added Fred. 'I had to get it from Diagon Alley and send it up to Hogwarts'

Harry turned and glared at Fred as well.

'Actually I thought she got it for - ' George seemed to change his mind. 'er – no, couldn't have been - never mind, just forget I said anything.' he muttered.

Harry's heart sank for a second before his brain pointed out that, who ever it had originally been for, Ginny had given it to him. He noticed Mr and Mrs. Weasley were staring at the ring now.

'Well, I didn't realise Ginny had so much spare money.' said Mrs Weasley. 'I wonder where she got it from?'

George smirked. 'The fruits of her labours, Mother Dear'

'I meant the ring, George, but since you seem to know so much you can elaborate on that statement!' The sudden edge on Molly Weasleys voice would have cut diamond.

Damn, thought Harry; no blackmail.

'Development work on some of our merchandise.' explained Fred, cautiously. 'She's really good with those tricky enlivening charms...'

'WHAT? Your sister is supposed to be working for her OWLS at Hogwarts, not helping you with some two knut practical jokes! Your Father slaves away at the Ministry to pay for Ginny's schooling...'

But Arthur's ears had picked up at the mention of enlivening charms. So had Harry's - that was more than just tricky magic!

'Molly,' murmured Arthur, 'I really would like to hear about this.'

'Later, Arthur, after breakfast - and after I've given these two idiots a good talking to!'

Arthur Weasley sighed, but he was saved from having to hear his wife berating Fred and George by the appearance on the stairs of Ginny herself. As she stepped into the kitchen, Harry could see she was wearing the present he had taken so much trouble to find.

Mrs. Weasley was the first to speak.

'Oh that really is nice, Dear. Who gave you that?'

Fred and George were equally complementary.

'Pretty cool, Sis!'

'Yeah!'

Ron just looked on silently.

Ginny seemed to ignore her mother's question as she demurely sat down at the table, but Harry just caught a hint of a glance at him from beneath her lowered eyelashes.

Molly Weasley was looking closely at the necklace Ginny was wearing. It was made of delicate crystal, and there was a blue and silver snowflake hanging from it that twinkled in the lights of the kitchen.

'Is that a necklace from The Glass Menagerie?' she enquired.

Ginny nodded.

'Well, whoever chose it has good taste - almost as good as your taste in rings, dear.'

Now Ginny was blushing. She kept her head down.

'Who did you say gave you that, Gin?' asked Fred with a leer.

'I didn't' she replied.

'Come on girl, give.' added George, I thought you broke up with Dean.'

'Who's Dean?' asked Molly, with a brittle smile.

'Never mind, Mum!' snapped Ginny. 'It wasn't Dean, anyway.'

'Well, if you're not going to tell us, you're not.' huffed Molly, turning away.

'I bet it was Harry.' stated Ron, with a degree of relish. 'Hermione told me he'd been looking at the Glass Menagerie catalogue.

Harry shot another dagger like glare at Ron, though in truth he was rather relieved he didn't have to admit it himself. Everyone turned to look at him.

He blushed. 'Erm - it was a thank you for helping me out of those two sticky situations at Hogwarts.' he gabbled.

He smiled manically at the circle of faces.

Ginny frowned momentarily, but then smiled almost as madly.

'And the ring was a thank you for getting me out of Slytherin before that toad Snape handed me over to Malfoy.' she said in a rush.

Harry grinned at her, trying to keep up an appearance of nonchalance for the benefit of the others.

'Thanks Gin, it's a really lovely present.'

'Glad you like it,' she replied, touching the necklace gently and smiling back at Harry, 'and I adore this necklace, but I wouldn't go through all that again for half a dozen of them.'

Everyone else had listened to this exchange with looks varying from incomprehension to downright disbelief, but further comment was forestalled by the arrival downstairs of Charlie and Dora, followed shortly by Bill and Fleur, all showing off new clothes and jewelry and flinging Happy Christmasses at all and sundry. In the confusion, Fred, George and Arthur managed to escape, whilst Harry and Ron grabbed their breakfasts and sneaked off to the living room to eat. As they left, Dora and Fleur were cooing over Ginny's necklace.

Harry hoped Ginny would have more luck convincing them, or he was in for some heavy interrogation.

- o -

In the end, it was Arthur Weasley who got the most excited about presents. Opening the one from Harry, he became more and more expectant as the wrappings fell away, finally crowing with delight when he saw what it was. 'You found one! Brilliant, Harry! It's just what I - we need!'

Ginny looked up from the book she was reading and gasped. She jumped up and hurried over.

'Harry! Where did you get it? Does it work?' she said quickly. She was reaching out to touch it as she spoke.

He chuckled at her eagerness. 'Whoa, Gin.' he laughed, 'I got it in a muggle junk shop - and I've no idea if it works…D'you really think it's good idea to try it?'

Ginny grinned ruefully. 'Perhaps not, but it's not much good to Dad if it doesn't work.'

Arthur Weasley settled the question. He was holding a small matt black metal box up against the artifact. A dial on the box was fluctuating from side to side. 'The core is still in place.' he said. 'It's still live.'

'What do you need it for, Dad?' asked Ron. He'd been reading the quidditch book Harry had given him.

Arthur Weasley looked slightly shifty. He checked to make sure if his wife was out of earshot. 'It's for the thing we've been looking at in the Ministry' he whispered. 'It needs a sort of trigger, Harry, and the sort of emotion emitter Ginny broke at your house might just be what we need.'

Ginny sighed and her shoulders slumped.

'Not your fault, girl,' added Arthur. 'If you hadn't started it, we wouldn't have known what it did at all.'

'Can't you just use a spell to start your weapon?' asked Harry.

Arthur Weasley seemed to suddenly clam up at the word weapon. 'Sorry, Harry, I've told you too much already,' he admitted. 'Tell you what though, when we get it working, you'll be the first to know.'

Harry considered that final comment for some while.

Strangely, it was not reassuring.

- o -

After a pretty enormous lunch, Arthur Weasley dragged most of the family out for a breath of air. Fred and George feigned deafness and unconsciousness to get out of it, but the rest of them straggled out into the garden under a sky that had cleared to blue during the morning but was now afflicted with the high cloud that presaged another bout of bad weather. Arthur led them through the garden and started along the driveway beside the stream that fed the lake.

The hills on each side of the little valley were only small, but they gave The Burrow its sense of isolation from the world, both muggle and magical. Trees lined the tops of the hills, increasing the enclosed feeling of the valley, although few evergreens were to be seen and most of the trees were leafless skeletons moving gently in the cold breeze. Arthur seemed to be leading them towards two trees, larger than any of the others, that dominated a small bluff on the other side of the valley. The stream had meandered over to one side and cut a pair of low cliffs into the hillside, which had partially eroded, leaving the bluff exposed. Eventually the stream would move again and the bluff would be gone but, until then, it looked to be a good vantage point. A path crossed a small bridge over the stream then meandered up the slope to the prominence, where bushes and brambles formed a small clearing.

Sweating and puffing, and with rather soggy shoes, they reached the clearing and looked about them. Up the valley, the track from the Burrow snaked over a shoulder of the opposite hill, heading for the village of Ottery St Catchpole. Across the valley the trees hid the gently rolling hills that stretched into the distance and down the valley the Burrow basked in the last rays of the sun before it hid behind the thickening cloud to the west. Behind them, thickets of bramble and various unidentified bushes led back to the gloom of a more dense area of woodland.

Harry stood silently taking in the view over the low bushes on the edge of the bluff and marvelling at the strange architecture of the Burrow, as it climbed from the valley floor in a jumble of styles and shapes. He mentally captured the view of the house as the last gleam of the sinking sun managed to struggle past the gathering clouds and turned the windows to molten gold.

'Beautiful, isn't it?' murmured Dora, appearing at his side.

He looked round at her rapt face, and was about to agree, when a sharp crack echoed up the valley.

Everyone twitched and their eyes flicked in the direction of the sound.

A puff of smoke was drifting over the Burrow.

Another crack - another puff of smoke.

They all stared down at the house, wondering what on earth was going on.

A third crack, and red and gold smoke billowed out, just above the house, to form a familiar shape - a Phoenix.

Dumbledore.

Amidst shouts and cheers, most of the group hurried off down the path towards the house. Two figures could be seen, one tall and obviously Dumbledore, the other smaller, dressed in Muggle clothes and waving madly.

'That's Hermione!' Ron yelled, and he was suddenly in the lead and charging down the hill and across the bridge.

Harry was still standing on the top of the bluff. He suddenly felt cold and miserable. He shivered and looked round, his eyes finally drawn to the two trees that dominated the bluff from their places at the back of the clearing. They stood like guardians of the woods behind them, branches intertwined and leaning slightly towards each other. Two old soldiers keeping each other upright as they waited down the years.

He shivered again.

A figure came back through the bushes.

'Harry?'

It was Ginny.

'Aren't you coming down?' she asked. There was a note of concern in her voice.

Harry turned and looked out across the valley again. 'Yeah. I'll be right down, you go on.'

Ginny half turned, but stopped and looked back.

'Harry, - ' she faltered, 'Fred told me George thought for while that I got that ring for someone else. - It wasn't for Dean.'

Slowly Harry turned away from the view over valley to look at her properly.

'It's okay Gin,' he said gently. 'Really. Things don't always work out - I know that. It's a great present - thank you.'

She was silent for a few seconds, fingering her snowflake.

'Was this necklace for - well - for - ' she was almost pleading.

Harry hesitated. What to say?

'It wasn't for Dora.' he finally managed.

She looked up at him and smiled. He could see a tear on her cheek.

'Lets go down, hmm?' he said gently.

She touched his arm, but then let her hand fall to her side.

'Yeah, lets go down.'

- o -

By the time Harry and Ginny reached the Burrow, the dusk was upon them and the others had already gone inside. Harry stopped at the garden gate and looked up at the flickering lights covering the house, visible in the rapidly gathering darkness.

'Your Dad doesn't do things by halves does he?'

Ginny chuckled. 'You should have heard the argument he had with Mum about all that lot.'

'Bad?'

'Worse than the argument over me being suspended.'

'Bad!'

'Yep. – I'm going in, you coming?

Harry hesitated. 'In a minute.'

'Okay.'

Harry stood and looked around the horizon. Westwards, the sky should have been lighter as the sun sank beneath the curve of the earth, but it wasn't. Darkness was brooding on the horizon, from the southwest, all the way round to the North.

A storm.

Harry headed indoors.

- o -

In the kitchen, Ron and Hermione were the centre of attention. They had finally exchanged Christmas presents; rings, gold and unadorned, but worn on the third fingers of their right hands. The rings seemed like a declaration of intent, if ever Harry had seen one. Everyone else was making a fuss of the two of them and it was relatively easy for Harry to sneak into the house without being noticed by all but Albus Dumbledore.

The Professor followed Harry into the living room.

'So, Harry, all is calm?' he enquired.

Harry wondered what the Headmaster was referring to. 'Yes, Professor, though I think we're in for some heavy weather tonight.'

Dumbldore smiled. 'I was not really referring to the weather, Harry. More to the magical continuum.'

Harry was nonplussed. 'Er – I think so, Professor.'

'No dreams?'

The question sounded loaded. Harry wondered if telling of his dream of the previous morning would mean that he would have to leave the Burrow. There was nothing for it though, he'd got in sufficient trouble last time for failing to mention dreams.

'There was one, Professor...'

- o -

After Harry detailed his peculiar dream, the Headmaster stared into the fire for several minutes. His only question had been as to whether Harry's scar had hurt. Finally he stirred himself.

'Very well, Harry.' he said softly 'That sounds more like your unconscious mind trying to make sense of what Lord Voldemort has been doing than any sort of connection between you. – You remember your Occlumency procedures every night?'

Harry nodded.

'Very well, but be extra vigilant. Something is stirring, somewhere – '

Dumbledore was interrupted by Ron and Hermione charging into the room.

'There you are!' giggled Hermione, hugging Harry. 'Happy Christmas, Harry! – Well? Lets see this ring then!'

Harry held out his hand.

'Very nice, and I like your taste in necklaces too, almost as much as Ginny does.'

Harry smiled wryly. 'Thanks Hermione, but I reckon yours are a bit more significant.'

Hermione blushed and was about to say something, but she was silenced by a sudden exclamation from Dumbledore.

'Where did this come from?'

He was holding the strange artifact of metal strips.

Eventually, Harry and Arthur Weasley managed to provide sufficient information to satisfy the Headmaster, who then made ready to take his leave. Copious wishes of Happy Christmas followed him out of the kitchen door, but once outside, he suddenly turned and beckoned to Harry. Harry stepped outside into the kitchen garden, whereupon Dumbledore guided him out of earshot of those inside.

'Harry,' said the Headmaster urgently, 'Remember, in the event of an attack, go to Grimmauld Place; you cannot be followed.'

'You think an attack is possible, Professor?'

'Anything is possible, Harry.' Dumbledore looked around and almost seemed to sniff the air. 'A storm, - a heavy one, - and yet – ' He shook his great mane of white hair. 'No matter, I must go...Remember, Constant Vigilance!'

Harry took one last look round at the dark sky, and at the madly flashing lights all over the house, then went back inside. It was beginning to spit with rain.

- o -

The evening passed in games and laughter and companionship. The firewhiskey stayed in the cupboard, but the butterbeer flowed freely and they were all quite happy by the time they went to bed. Ginny had even managed not to completely ignore Harry. Unfortunately for him, the attention she did pay him consisted of several games of Chess; she won almost all of them.

Harry decided Ron must have been coaching her.

As the evening went on, the sound of wind, and then rain, grew to a constant background hiss. Harry had looked out once to see the raindrops falling almost horizontally in the grip of the wind, glittering in the lights of the decorations. He had shuddered slightly and let the curtain fall back, grateful to be in the warm haven of The Burrow.

By bedtime, the noise had ceased; Harry peered through the curtains again. It was sleeting, and as he watched, the sleet began to turn to snow.

'I hope you've got plenty of supplies in, Mr. Weasley?' he joked.

Arthur looked up from studying his Christmas present from Harry. He looked like he was just itching to try it out. 'Why d'you say that, Harry,' he asked.

'It's snowing, hard.'

The girls all rushed to the windows to look. Hermione Fleur and Ginny seemed entranced, but Dora looked thoughtful.

'Snow after rain?' she said, cryptically. 'It should clear soon then, for a while.'

Arthur also had a slightly worried look on his face. 'We do get snowed in sometimes. Still, most of us can disapparate to Diagon Alley if that happens – and I'm sure we can make a portkey for those of us who can't apparate – or at least, not legally.'

Dora looked at Arthur, and a mental message seemed to pass between them. They turned away from the window and muttered to each other. Eventually both sighed, shrugged their shoulders and headed upstairs with their respective partners, leaving Harry staring out at the snow. It was beginning to settle.

When he finally went upstairs to bed, Harry found Ron was fast asleep. Instead of getting into bed, he spent another half an hour looking out of the window, mesmerised by the snow flying past.

- o -

The butterbeers woke Harry long before dawn. He struggled out of bed and wandered to the toilet and back, and was just getting into bed when he realised the wind had dropped. He poked a curtain aside and peered out.

The snow was still falling rapidly, fine and powdery now as the temperature dropped. Harry could feel the cold radiating from the glass. He wondered anew at the rapid change in temperature, but eventually his warm bed called him back. He returned to its embrace and to sleep.

- o -

A white world, frozen beneath grey clouds. Trees like sugar frosted skeletons pointing bony fingers at the sky. A house on a hill, dark and silent, windows like eyesockets, capped with snow like an old man's white hair…

A voice keening in the distance...

Harry snapped wide awake.

Silence, except for Ron's steady breathing. A dull light behind the curtains suggested dawn had arrived.

Harry turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but found his eyes opening of their own accord. He wondered what time it was and hunted down his watch, which had managed to find its way almost under the bed. It was half past seven. Why was no one awake? Granted, everyone had been late to bed and sunrise came late this time of year, but...

Harry climbed out of bed and struggled into some clothes. He didn't want to wake Ron, after all this could be normal for the day after Christmas, and he also didn't want to upset Molly and Arthur after all they'd done to get him out of Grimmauld place. Quietly, he left the bedroom and started down the stairs. He shivered, though the house was warm enough.

Lights lit themselves on the landings and on the stairs as he approached, but as he reached the first floor he could see a flickering light playing on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. It almost seemed as if some of the Christmas lights from outside the house were now inside.

Harry shivered again. The eerie light was making his skin crawl and he could feel the hair on his scalp begin to rise. For some reason, he felt the need to pull his wand from his pocket before he continued down, crouching to see further before he reached the ground floor.

At last, Harry reached the bottom of the stairs and the source of the light was visible. In the lounge area, the strange artefact he had found in the junk shop was glowing with a multicoloured light whilst the metal strips seemed to move through each other as they rotated round the egg. A complex and mesmerising pattern of light and shadow was flickering through the room.

A feeling of calm slowly permeated Harry's being as he stood there, but beneath the calm, his mind was still searching for answers.

Who had started the machine?

Why had they started it?

He thought everyone had decided to stay strictly away from the artefact. Had Ginny, or even Arthur, been tempted to come down to try their luck?

Slowly, Harry worked his way over to a window. Calm or not, he wanted to see how much snow there was and whether The Burrow was snowed in.

The calming effect of the artefact waned sharply as he reached the window and Harry felt the hairs on the nape of his neck rise once more. He eased the curtain aside and peered out.

The snow had stopped at last, though the light was now good enough to see that a gentle breeze was raising will o' the wisps of powder snow in the garden. The clouds were still low, cloaking the sky, but they looked lighter somehow, as if their burden was eased and they could disperse satisfied in the knowledge of a job well done.

Something fluttered just beneath the cloud base…

It was gone.

Harry blinked the sleep from is eyes

Again, something fluttered - and moved an appreciable distance before vanishing back into the clouds.

It could have been a bird – a big one – but Harry's blood ran cold. He'd never seen a bird like that before.

He dropped the curtain across the window again and hurried up the stairs, Arthur and Molly slept on the second floor. They'd hate being woken, but Harry decided that was possibly going to be the least of their troubles.

- o -

Arthur and Molly took being woken with the news that a strange machine had turned itself on and that something ragged and black was scud running over their house with a calmness Harry couldn't believe they really felt. Once in his dressing gown, Arthur had very carefully eased a corner of the curtains back and peered out.

'Nothing there, Harry. Are you sure?'

Yeah, I'm sure, it could well have been a dementor. There's the machine working downstairs too.'

Could Ginny have - ?' asked Molly, also in a dressing gown.

'Doubt it. Look what happened last time.' argued Harry.

Arthur thought for a second or so.

'Right!' He said decisively. 'Harry, Molly, go and wake up the house. No fuss; no lights; no throwing back the curtains. If anyone's waiting out there, we don't want them to be forced to jump into action before we're ready. I'm going to contact Dumbledore than get dressed.'

It took two minutes to wake everyone and would have taken another five minutes for them all to get dressed and downstairs. It was a pity that, five minutes after Arthur made his decision, all the windows turned to a glittering silica dust.

The curtains of the landing window next to Harry blew outwards for a few seconds before a storm of curses blasted in through the opening, ripping the curtains to tatters and burned holes in the plaster. Harry threw himself sideways away from the window, swearing at his protection spell for not warning him. It took several more spells before Harry realised that since the curses were just being aimed through the windows and not at him personally, his protection charm wouldn't pick them up.

Arthur Weasley's voice reverberated through the house from somewhere above.

'EVERYONE KEEP AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS AND STAY DOWN'

It seemed as if he'd used some sort of Sonorus charm on himself, to over come the noise of curses landing either on or in the Burrow. The occasional howl of the Wheel of death curse could be heard, with an accompanying shudder from the structure of the house as the curse hit home. It seemed like the house was surrounded.

Arthur's voice rang out again. 'HARRY, GET OUT OF HERE!'

Harry suddenly didn't want to go, he didn't want to leave the Weasleys to defend themselves. He didn't want to leave Ginny - he didn't want to leave any of his friends, but his intellect was hacking away at his misplaced chivalry and he knew he had no choice. Quickly he made ready to leave; just as quickly, he had to postpone his departure.

He was still forming the mental picture of the study of Number 12 in his mind when Ron, Hermione and Ginny tumbled down the stairs and fell in a heap on the landing, just below a section of wall that had taken several hits and was beginning to smoulder. The mental picture was gone in a flash and Harry darted forward, crouched down, to haul the three of them into the safety of the next stairway section with its thicker walls. All three of them looked shocked and white faced; Ron had a burn on one arm and Ginny had a cut on her forehead which was dribbling blood into her left eye.

'For Merlin's sake, Harry, get out of here!' urged Ron. 'You know what Dumbledore said!'

'Yeah, I know!' retorted Harry. He could see the fear and surprise on the faces of the two girls. He had to explain, he just couldn't run out on them like that without telling them why.

'Dumbledore reckoned if there was an attack that they'll quit once I'm gone!'

Ginny nodded once, a surge of hope in her eyes; Hermione still didn't seem to understand.

'Dumbledore told me to go if there was an attack, Hermione!' repeated Harry

'Never mind!' interrupted Ron. 'Just get out, I'll explain! Now move!'

Harry quickly swept his gaze over their anxious faces then closed his eyes, concentrated - and disapparated to Grimmauld place.

- o -

Author's note:- The description of the snowflake necklace and naming the makers 'The Glass Menagerie' are a homage to a short fanfic by Harmony Slytherin, posted last November. It was so sweet.