Author: Muduoduomu

The original story page: http/onebook.php?novelid=3415654

Chapter 55. The vanishing food

Della dashed back home, went upstairs, closed the door, and hid at the corner between the head of the bed and the wardrobe.

She heard Lucy knocking at the door and Mrs. Weasley was with her. Then both of them went down.

The Weasleys and the Bush, were there talking in the kitchen. She heard Dick's voice saying: "she said she didn't want to get married!"

Lucy: "Dick!! Stop! That' not she meant..."

She heard Fred's footsteps. He went upstairs, came to her door, stopped for a long time, then he went down without knocking.

Then they went back through the fireplace.

The subdued talk in the kitchen faded down.

The sun outside the window gradually moved from the east to the west, and finally went down.

Mr. Bush came back, his voice showed his excitement: "how's it?"

Then she heard Lucy walking towards him quickly, the sound of the kitchen suddenly faded away.

After a while, Mr. Bush came up and knocked on the door gently, and coaxed his little girl, "Della, you must want to have it! Mom mad Chinese spring rolls today! Don't you want to come down join us? Come on, sweetie!"

She didn't move.

Mr. Bush, Jack slowly went downstairs. He caught all the sights when he appeared at the kitchen door, they were expecting to see someone behind him.

"She didn't go out." Jack sighed and sat down, "we'd better leave her alone."

Hannah felt sad for her: "Della must be very upset. She may be crying!"

Dick rolled his eyes, "it's she who dumped Fred! She won't!"

"She must be crying," Hannah screamed, "Dick, you don't understand woman at all!" Dick flicked her forehead. "Are you a woman? Little girl."

Lucy: "Baldy!"

Dick screamed: "Mom!! We agreed not to call me this!"

Lucy apologized behind her hand, "sorry, my bad. But you can't tease your sister."

Hannah said to Dick in silence: "Baldy."

Dick pretended to smack her, but the whole family were staring at him, especially dad. He had to put his hand down and said, "Let's see! When you go to Hogwarts..."

Hannah swayed her legs back and forth, "I don't care! I have Della, you don't dare bully me." She had mouth words "Baldy".

When it was time for dessert, the Hufflepuffs at the table remembered there was a thing remained to be done.

Lucy despaired of knowing the reason from Dick, "do you know why? I mean, last year, did you find them have quarrels at school?" Dick recalled it for a moment and affirmed, "many times, I think! They've been having quarrels, it's always been the case."

"Then, it's the same as before." Lucy wondered, and looked at her husband, hoped that he would give an answer, "why on earth?"

Mr. Bush had to turn his puzzled eyes to his eldest son. "Hans, do you know anything?" Hans was at a loss, "well, I certainly..." He spread out his hand, "how could I know?" He shrugged. "She didn't tell me anything... I'm not a reliable brother, I think." He was upset and bummed.

Lucy: "Oh, Hans!"

Jack hugged him: "it's not what we mean! You're a good brother, aren't you? Dick, Hannah?" Hannah laughed and responded: "Yes, Hans is a good brother!" Dick: "Ah, who are you talking about?" His words caught the glares of his parents. "Well, well, of course, he's a good brother. Never mind my own business, I mean, at least he didn't pick on me for brushing my teeth every night."

The topic of the Bush family turned to Hans's coming wedding.

When it was time for bed, Lucy specially placed a plate of chocolate brownie she made on the table, and carefully covered it with a cover.

Mr. Bush came over and called his wife for bed. He was surprised, "oh, Brownie!" He immediately took a piece, and said, "are you worried about Della's hunger at night?"

Lucy nodded and pushed Mr. Bush back to the room.

Early the next morning, Lucy came to the kitchen and was glad to see an empty milk cup on the table, and two pieces of brownie was missing.

Mr. Bush came over and gave her a kiss, seeing the cake plate, he said delightedly, "seems our little girl didn't get hungry."

He took a piece, "it's good for breakfast. Don't put it away, I think she will miss breakfast again."

Lucy nodded. She began to prepare breakfast and feed her family. Then she continued to write to relatives and send messages through the fireplace.

She purposely changed to the living room and left the kitchen to another person.

At about nine o'clock, she heard a very light footstep. She peeked out of the living room and saw Della darting into the kitchen. Soon she went upstairs with an apple in her mouth, a large pot of black tea she had just brewed, and a plate full of milk cookies in the other hand.

At lunch, as expected, there was a person missing from the table.

Dick began to worry. "Della must want to lose weight. She's going to be a pig." he said.

Hannah said to him, "you must not dare to say that in front of her."

After lunch, Hannah wanted to help Mrs. Bush for the afternoon tea. She asked Lucy, "mom, I'd like to have apple tea today." She opened the cupboard. "Where's the teapot?"

Lucy quickly took out another one from the cupboard. "We'll use this today."

Then she made four plates of biscuits and two kinds of nougat, one with peanuts and almonds, the other with raisins.

The three children of the family enjoyed a rich tea, so that they didn't want to have dinner.

But before dinner, Dick ran into the kitchen to get more butter biscuits, only to find that all them were gone!

He rushed to the living room and asked Hans and Hannah, "you stole the butter biscuits!" Hans: "Me? No, I didn't."

Hannah: "I didn't neither! Only you would steal it!"

Dick: "It must be you! At the end of the tea, there were still thirty-four!"

Hannah: "I saw you sneaking into the kitchen just now."

Dick: "I didn't! Come on, one of you must have taken it! Admit it!"

"Guys," Before they figured out who stole the biscuits, Lucy came out of the kitchen, "who help me with the plates? We have chocolate and strawberry ice cream today. I made it in the morning, and now you can taste it! Maybe you'd like to try it before dad comes back."

The three helped Lucy set out the plates, knives, forks and napkins, and each of them was given a ball of ice cream.

The next morning, Dick found that a third of the chocolate ice cream left last night was gone again!

What's more, every day after that, the food in the kitchen disappeared!

Yummy ice cream, delicious biscuits and cakes, and cherries, pineapples, oranges...

"It must be a ghoul!" Dick believed that there was a thief in the kitchen!

Hans had already knew, but he thought it was necessary to keep the secret for Della. She was a very sensitive girl, now that she wanted to hide from everyone, dad and mom were keeping her secret, he could not expose her.

"We don't have ghouls in our house," Hannah said, "I think it's elves. They'll help up clean up. I also found my socks yesterday."

Dick: You idiot! We don't have a house elf in our house."

Lucy: "Baldy! Don't made fun of your sister!" Dick: "Mom! We had a deal!"

Mr. Bush came in from outside with a pile of newspapers and letters, interrupting the argument: "we have some letters. Oh, here's Della's transcript."

"Give me!" Dick grabbed it, ripped open it, and was about to read it out when the letter flew up behind him.

"Hey!" Dick turned around in his chair and saw Della holding the letter, he gaped at her, "your nonverbal spells..."

He knew her was practicing the nonverbal spells at the end of the semester in the common room, but he didn't expect her to succeed so soon.

Lucy jumped up from the table. "Della! Dear!" She grabbed her daughter, pushed her to the table and sat down. Hans brought her the plate. Hannah handed her the bread. "Della, are you hungry?"

Della sat down, ruffled Hannah's hair and gave a look at Dick, which could be seemed as a greeting to her siblings.

She opened the letter, found it was her marks, which was not too bad. She got four Os and three Es.

Both Potions and Astronomy was "Acceptable", better than she thought. The History of Magic was "Poor", she did have never reviewed it.

"Outstanding" were Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures and Divination.

Better than she expected.

Mr. Bush kept passed letters, "Della, you have another one." He handed it over, "oh, this is a big shot!"

Della took over, it's from Goshawk Miranda, a famous master of spells and the author of the series of "The Standard Book of Spells". It's their textbook from the beginning.

She wrote that she hoped to be approved to use "the speedy painless and harmless Hair-Removal Charm", and compiled it in the book of "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5".

If she approved, Della was required to write her a paper to explain and expound of this charm. Of course, it's paid, and Della would be correspondingly paid.

Dick's eyes widened. "You'd better not agree! Think about it, it means you have one more spell when you take the exam yourself!"

This was surprisingly persuasive!

Della did hesitate for a second — she could promise it after her graduation!

Mr. Bush took a third letter to Della: "here, this is yours, too."

Della took it, read the letter out, "this is for all of us. Harry Potter invited us, including Hans, me, Dick and Hannah, to his godfather's house for his birthday party, on July 31st, we can arrive on the 30th."

Everyone in this room was shocked.

Expect Della, Hans and Dick didn't know Harry at all.

Hans stretched out his head and read the letter, "oh, it's real. Why did he invite me? I have hardly spoken to him, and I have graduated."

Dick stood on his chair and looked into her hand. "Are we doing to Potter's?" Della read the end of the letter, "nope, it's the Black's, his godfather's house."

Dick hissed, "black wizard!"

Della: "So you're not coming?" She shook the letter.

"Of course I will!" Dick said proudly, "I can go back and tell them I went to the black wizard's house during the summer vacation."

Lucy reminded him, "you need a birthday present, Dick! You all need it, if you want to go. It's a courtesy."

She said to Della, "honey, you should go and have a rest."

Della took the letter and nodded, "okay, I will."

She needed some advice from other people.

Hermione, she must be at the Black house that day.