Harry Potter and the Medallion of Knowledge
Chapter 3- Coming of Age
'Ok take a deep breath Harry and get out of your bed and go to breakfast!' Ever since Harry arrived at the Burrow it took just about all of his energy to walk into the common areas of the house in fear that Ginny might be there. It wasn't that he didn't want to see her, but he didn't want to be around her. 'Oh bullocks, I'm not making any sense again.' With that final thought Harry got out of bed to face the day. After washing up he headed downstairs for a good Weasley home cooked meal. When Harry reached the bottom of the landing he saw that Fred and George had stopped over, as usual, for a bite to eat and Hermione and Ginny were already sitting at the table. Mrs. Weasley was over the stove finishing up what looked to be sausages. 'Good morning,' Harry said as he sat down next to Hermione, which Harry also noticed was across from Ginny. Mumblings of welcome were heard, mostly mumbled due to the fact food was in their mouths. Ginny, Harry noticed, gave him a small smile. Harry's heart melted. 'Harry, it's settled, you're the biggest prat that ever existed.' Harry continued thinking sullen thoughts like this throughout the meal.
It wasn't until Harry was cleaning his plate that his best mate decided to show his presence. By that time Fred and George had already apparated out to open their shop. Ron had gotten himself a fairly large serving of eggs and was happily eating them, oblivious to the fact Ginny and Hermione were giving him disgusted looks.
"Ron, Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley started, "Tomorrow you two are heading over to the Ministry to take your apparation tests, your father will take you as he heads over to the office." Harry and Ron nodded in response. "I hope," she continued, "that both of you will be able to apparate home, so your father won't have to take any time off work." At the comment, Ron's ears turned red and Ginny laughed into her blouse. Harry and Hermione shared grins. "Don't worry Mum," Ginny said, "I told Ron I'd shave his eyebrows tonight so there will be no chance of failure." At that comment Harry almost spit out his pumpkin juice to keep in his laughter. Ron scowled. Mrs. Weasley tried to hide her grin, "Alright, clean up your plates, The Delacours will be coming over shortly to go over floral arrangements and Ginny, you need to get a final fitting." Ginny nodded, and stood up from the table with her plates in her hands. Harry and Hermione followed suit, heading over the sink. Ron on the other hand was trying to get a last few bites of bacon before Mrs. Weasley threatened to hex him away.
The rest of the day was pretty boring; Hermione and Ginny stayed in the house to help the Delacours with final arrangements, while Harry and Ron on the other hand degnomed the garden. Harry's birthday was only a day away and the wedding only five. Ron, kept rubbing this fact in Harry's face; while Harry who still had to manually throw the gnomes over the garden wall, Ron was sending the gnomes flying over with a flick of his wand. Harry eventually gave up, while Ron started flinging the gnomes over in groups of three of four.
Harry and Ron did not see the girls until dinner time, and then afterwards Ginny and Gabrielle had to help Fleur with some type of ribbon crisis that left Ron and Harry with confused looks on their faces. Hermione, who was standing beside them suggested that they should head upstairs and out of the way. The boys agreed.
While sitting in Ron's room, Ron kept saying how lucky he was to be a groomsman. "All I have to do is wear nice robes, hold Gabrielle's arm and walk down the aisle. Ginny who hates Fleur has to be at her beck and call, I don't understand women sometimes." Hermione looked up from her book, "well Ron, maybe when it's your wedding day you might want to put a little more effort into it." Hermione returned to her book, while Ron reached under his bed for his wizard's chess set. Harry and Ron played several rounds, all which Harry lost, until Mrs. Weasley yelled at them to go to bed because of the early hour they would be waking up in the morning.
Harry had a hard time sleeping, not so much that he was concerned about his apparation test, but he was thinking of the last time he apparated. He knew he would be able to pass, because he apparated while carrying Dumbledore, but the thought of that brought back those horrid memories of that day. Even though Harry had over a month to grieve, thanks to the school year ending early, the thought of Dumbledore still made his heart ache. Harry turned over to look at Ron in his bed, he was tossing quite a bit signifying a nightmare, which Harry discovered from Ron's mumblings, was about his last experience taking his apparition test. "'ts ust ha'f an eyebrow" were the last words Harry heard before he drifted off to sleep.
Before Harry knew it, it was early morning. Harry got up groggily and slowly made his way to the bathroom. When Harry was all showered and dressed, Ron was just getting out of bed, eyes still half closed.
It was about eight o'clock when Harry, Ron and Mr. Weasley flooed into the Ministry. After signing into security, and checking in their wands, Harry and the Weasleys headed over to the lift. Harry's stomach sank slightly. The last and only two times that Harry had been to the Ministry of Magic were not for the best of reasons. First off was when he was almost expelled from Hogwarts and introduced to Dolores Umbridge. The second, well the second time truly made Harry's stomach sink to his toes. Sirius was last seen alive here, 'level nine' Harry thought to himself. The three men, walked into the lift and Mr. Weasley pressed the number 6 button. "Level six, Department of Magical Transport, incorporating the Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office, and Apparation Test Center" the unknown voice boomed above. They stepped off the lift. Ron and Mr. Weasley already seemed to know where they were going so Harry trailed behind a few steps. The Floo Network Authority was a room full of grates with brass nameplates on their mantles. Titles such as 'Leeds Administrative Offices' and 'Wales Floo Network' could be seen. Broom Regulatory control wasn't as interesting as Harry thought it would be, outside these rooms were posters stating the rules of using brooms around muggles. The Portkey Office looked to be what Harry thought a muggle travel agency would look like, except all the posters of exotic places were animated. At the end of the hallway was a large wooden door with the words 'Apparation Testing Center, no underage wizards permitted' engraved upon it. "Here we go boys, this is where I leave you. Good Luck." With that Mr. Weasley clamped a hand on each of the younger boy's shoulders and walked off. "Come on mate," Ron said, "let's get this over with."
The doors led to small waiting room where only about three other young wizards and another older wizard were waiting to be called. Ron and Harry went to the desk and put their names down, the receptionist seemed to busy to notice that one of the most famous wizards of their time was standing right in front of her. The three younger wizards, one which Harry recognized to be a now 6th year Hufflepuff, looked very nervous. The older, grayed wizard looked mostly mad to be here. Harry heard him mumble from time to time stating things such as "I am 120 years old; I've been apparating for over 100 years. I make one mistake and apparate on top of a Ministry official and now they make me retake this bloody test…" Slowly the few people waiting before Harry were called into the testing area. Then Ron's name was called. "Good luck" Harry said as Ron walked through the doors. Ron gave a nervous smile and closed the door behind him.
"Harry Potter," the receptionist called out. Harry got up and walked through the doors. On the other side was a large hilly landscape. The temperature was much less humid than it had been when he walked in this morning, and the sky was quite blue, and not the usual overcast associated with London. "Hello," said a small blonde woman, who reminded Harry somewhat of Professor Sprout. "I am Natalie Smith, your test administrator" she looked down at her clipboard, "and you are—Harry Potter," she looked up in shock. "Well it's an honor to meet you, well if you would step under that green orb over there we can begin." Harry looked up slightly and noticed that there were about five different orbs floating above him, all a different color. Following the woman's orders he walked over to the green orb. "Ok, well you see that other green orb at the top of that hill over there?" she pointed towards the hills before them. Harry nodded. "Good, your first test will be to apparate as close as you can to the other green orb. If you are more than two meters off either way you fail and cannot move on to take the next test." Harry nodded again and took out his wand. With a crack, the small woman disappeared, but then reappeared in the distance, just under the green orb. Harry took a deep breath and apparated away.
Later that morning, Harry and Ron both successfully apparated back to the Burrow, ready to begin Harry's birthday celebrations.
a/n- Ok I know this story is pretty boring. Next chapter up will be the wedding, and then the real adventure can begin! Review please!