Chapter 9:
The two newcomers marched across the yard toward the garden and the lantern-lit table, where everybody sat in silence, watching them draw closer. As Scrimgeour came within range of the lantern light, he looked much older than the last time he'd been seen, scraggy and grim.
Alicia and Harry shared a look.
"Sorry to intrude," said Scrimgeour, as he limped to a halt before the table. "Especially as I can see that I am gate-crashing a party."
His eyes lingered for a moment on the giant Snitch cake. "Many happy returns."
"Thanks," said Harry. Alicia didn't say anything, slightly too surprised.
"I require a private word with you," Scrimgeour went on. "Also with Miss Potter, Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger."
"Us?" said Ron, sounding surprised. "Why us?"
"I shall tell you that when we are somewhere more private," said Scrimgeour. "Is there such a place?" he demanded of Mr. Weasley.
"Yes, of course," said Mr. Weasley, who looked nervous. "The, er, sitting room, why don't you use that?"
"You can lead the way," Scrimgeour said to Ron. "There will be no need for you to accompany us, Arthur."
Fred seemed inclined to hold onto Alicia as she stood up but she batted his hand away, gave him her tiny owl, and followed, curious and intrigued but also surprised. Usually Scrimgeour beat around the bush but today he seemed all business. Perhaps he didn't want anything then? What could then be the purpose of his visit?
"Don't worry." Alicia said to Fred before she moved with Hermione, Ron and Harry with the man following.
Mr and Mrs Weasley exchanged a worried look as they four went back to the house with the Minister following. Alicia had a fleeting instance of Scrimgeour knowing what they were doing and Harry instantly asked her the silent question too.
He can't have… and if he did, wouldn't he have said it when he approached you at Dumbledore's funeral? Alicia asked Unless the Order's been blabbing and I doubt that cause it'd tell Voldemort about it… then we'd really be in trouble.
Scrimgeour did not speak as they all passed through the messy kitchen and into the Burrow's sitting room. Although the garden had been full of soft golden evening light, it was already dark in here: Harry flicked his wand at the oil lamps as he entered and they illuminated the shabby but cozy room. Scrimgeour sat himself in the sagging armchair that Mr. Weasley normally occupied, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione to squeeze side by side onto the sofa. Alicia simply sat on it's arm at one end. Once they had done so, Scrimgeour spoke.
"I have some questions for the three of you, and I think it will be best if we do it individually. If you three" — he pointed at Harry, Alicia and Hermione — "can wait upstairs, I will start with Ronald."
"I don't see any need for that." Alicia said watching him. "The four of us hide very little from one another and we'd just tell each other what you spoke about anyway." the other three had looked at her as Scrimgeour had and Harry was in full agreement.
"We're not going anywhere," said Harry, while Hermione nodded vigorously. "You can speak to us together, or not at all."
Scrimgeour gave Harry a cold, appraising look. The Minister seemed to be debating whether it was worthwhile opening hostilities this early.
"Very well then, together," he said, shrugging. He cleared his throat. "I am here, as I'm sure you know, because of Albus Dumbledore's will."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another and then to Alicia as if expected her to know but she looked alarmed as well as she stared at Scrimgeour. It vanished soon… because perhaps he had made arrangements for something to help them out in their journey, after all, he's left them little when she thought about it.
"A surprise, apparently! You were not aware then that Dumbledore had left you anything?"
"A-all of us?" said Ron. "Me and Hermione too?"
"Yes, all of —"
But Harry interrupted.
"Dumbledore died over a month ago. Why has it taken this long to give us what he left us?"
"Isn't it obvious?" said Hermione, before Scrimgeour could answer. "They wanted to examine whatever he's left us. You had no right to do that!" she said, and her voice trembled slightly.
"I had every right," said Scrimgeour dismissively. "The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation gives the Ministry the power to confiscate the contents of a will —"
"I'm sorry did you have evidence that we were being passed dark and dangerous objects?" Alicia demanded instantly, cutting him off and Hermione nodded in agreement.
"That law was created to stop wizards passing on Dark artefacts," said Hermione, "and the Ministry is supposed to have powerful evidence that the deceased's possessions are illegal before seizing them! Are you telling me that you thought Dumbledore was trying to pass us something cursed?"
"Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.
"No, I'm not," retorted Hermione. "I'm hoping to do some good in the world!"
Ron laughed. Scrimgeour's eyes flickered toward him and away again as Harry spoke.
"So why have you decided to let us have our things now? Can't think of a pretext to keep them?"
"No, it'll be because the thirty-one days are up," said Hermione at once. "They can't keep the objects longer than that unless they can prove they're dangerous. Right?"
"Dumbledore is obviously not going to leave four seventeen year olds anything deadly. Honestly." Alicia said annoyed.
"Would you say you were close to Dumbledore, Ronald?" asked Scrimgeour, ignoring Alicia and Hermione. Ron looked startled.
"Me? Not — not really… It was always Harry and Alicia who…"
Ron looked around at the other three and both girls were giving him a look that said he needed to shut up. Unfortunately though, the damage was done: Scrimgeour looked as though he had heard exactly what he had expected, and wanted, to hear. He swooped like a bird of prey upon Ron's answer.
"If you were not very close to Dumbledore, how do you account for the fact that he remembered you in his will? He made exceptionally few personal bequests. The vast majority of his possessions — his private library, his magical instruments, and other personal effects — were left to Hogwarts. Why do you think you were singled out?"
"I… dunno," said Ron. "I… when I say we weren't close… I mean, I think he liked me…"
"You're being modest, Ron," said Hermione. "Dumbledore was very fond of you."
"Dumbledore trusted Ron." Alicia said "He believed him reliable, trustworthy and a rather good example of everything Dumbledore himself stood for." Scrimgeour looked at her "And such a relationship is none of your business." she hissed acidly "It doesn't matter why Dumbledore left Ron anything, you will pass over what is rightfully his!"
Harry, Hermione and Ron looked at her surprised for both her words and her hostility, but Alicia's tolerance was very low for the man before them and he was pressing her kindness.
Scrimgeour said nothing in return.
He put his hand inside his cloak and drew out a drawstring pouch much larger than the one Hagrid had given Harry. From it, he removed a scroll of parchment which he unrolled and read aloud.
"'The Last Will and Testament of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore'… Yes, here we are… 'To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it.' "
Scrimgeour took from the bag an object that looked something like a silver cigarette lighter, but it had the power to suck all light from a place, and restore it, with a simple click. Scrimgeour leaned forward and passed the Deluminator to Ron, who took it and turned it over in his fingers, looking stunned.
"That is a valuable object," said Scrimgeour, watching Ron. "It may even be unique. Certainly it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you an item so rare?"
Ron shook his head, looking bewildered.
"Dumbledore must have taught thousands of students," Scrimgeour persevered. "Yet the only ones he remembered in his will are you four. Why is that? To what use did he think you would put his Deluminator, Mr. Weasley?"
"Put out lights, I s'pose," mumbled Ron. "What else could I do with it?"
Evidently Scrimgeour had no suggestions. After squinting at Ron for a moment or two, he turned back to Dumbledore's will.
" 'To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive.' "
Scrimgeour now pulled out of the bag a small book that looked as ancient as the copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art upstairs. Its binding was stained and peeling in places. Hermione took it from Scrimgeour without a word. She held the book in her lap and gazed at it. The cover held the title in which was written in runes. Hermione let a tear fall onto the symbols as she looked at it.
"Why do you think Dumbledore left you that book, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.
"He… he knew I liked books," said Hermione in a thick voice, mopping her eyes with her sleeve.
"But why that particular book?"
"I don't know. He must have thought I'd enjoy it."
"Did you ever discuss codes, or any means of passing secret messages, with Dumbledore?"
"Oh for god's sake." Alicia snapped
"No, I didn't," said Hermione, still wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "And if the Ministry hasn't found any hidden codes in this book in thirty-one days, I doubt that I will."
She suppressed a sob. They were wedged together so tightly that Ron had difficulty extracting his arm to put it around Hermione's shoulders. Scrimgeour turned back to the will.
" 'To Alicia Lily Potter,' " Alicia looked at him waiting " 'I leave an object in which she had taken much fascination to and believed would be useful for her needs. I leave it to her for when she needs to look back upon what is important, and hope the past may guide her for the future. Her own Pensieve.' " Alicia stared with absolute overwhelming excitement and shock as Scrimgeour, much more gently than with the other two gifts, pulled out a stone basin with a glass top in order to hold in the silver, smoky liquid that was swirling within it. It held runes all along the basin and was smaller than the one Dumbledore had in his office, in which Harry and Alicia dove into so many times last year alone.
Alicia took it from the Minister with the utmost care as she looked down at it, the other three were also looking with amazement.
"Why would he—"
"He already expressed why he left it to me." Alicia cut him off "But if you must know, in our forth year when I'd first seen of the pensieve Dumbledore had, I had deeply expressed how I'd like one. He told me he used it for when he had too many thoughts and memories crammed into his mind. I to experience such things and last year told him again how I'd rather think one would be useful." She looked at him. "He gave it to me, cause I wanted one." she said in simpler terms as if talking to a baby who didn't understand, leaning slightly forwards before she straightened up, glaring at the minister.
This seemed enough for the grizzly maned man for he turned back to the will.
" 'To Harry James Potter,' " he read, " 'I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill.' "
As Scrimgeour pulled out the tiny, walnut-sized golden ball, its silver wings fluttered rather feebly
"Why did Dumbledore leave you this Snitch?" asked Scrimgeour.
"No idea," said Harry. "For the reasons you just read out, I suppose… to remind me what you can get if you… persevere and whatever it was."
"You think this a mere symbolic keepsake, then?"
"I suppose so," said Harry. "What else could it be?"
"I'm asking the questions," said Scrimgeour, shifting his chair a little closer to the sofa. Dusk was really falling outside now; the marquee beyond the windows towered ghostly white over the hedge.
"I notice that your birthday cake is in the shape of a Snitch," Scrimgeour said to Harry. "Why is that?"
Hermione laughed derisively while Alicia looked at Scrimgeour like he was stupid, which she increasingly believed he was.
"Why on earth are you Minister of Magic?" she questioned, earning a startled look from Ron at the question.
Hermione spoke to cover up her insult however.
"Oh, it can't be a reference to the fact Harry's a great Seeker, that's way too obvious," she said. "There must be a secret message from Dumbledore hidden in the icing!"
"I don't think there's anything hidden in the icing," said Scrimgeour, "but a Snitch would be a very good hiding place for a small object. You know why, I'm sure?"
Harry shrugged.
"Right because of their flesh memories." Alicia said with a roll of her eyes.
It seemed Harry and Ron had not at all understood what she'd said.
"What?" said Harry and Ron together.
"Correct," said Scrimgeour. "A Snitch is not touched by bare skin before it is released, not even by the maker, who wears gloves. It carries an enchantment by which it can identify the first human to lay hands upon it, in case of a disputed capture. This Snitch" — he held up the tiny golden ball — "will remember your touch, Potter. It occurs to me that Dumbledore, who had prodigious magical skill, whatever his other faults, might have enchanted this Snitch so that it will open only for you."
Alicia rose an eyebrow… Dumbledore likely knew this would happen to the belongings in his will, and if that was the case, he wouldn't want it opening in front of the Minister of Magic, who he did not like the ideals of…
"You don't say anything," said Scrimgeour. "Perhaps you already know what the Snitch contains?"
"No," said Harry.
Take it. Alicia instructed and Harry turned his chin ever so slightly towards her before catching himself.
I don't want to in front of him.
But Dumbledore would have guessed this would happen, he'll have been cleaver about it. I don't think it'll open when you first touch it, as it would have been given to you by a Ministry offical. she explained confidently. Besides, you didn't touch your first snitch with your fingers. she said, licking her lips to hold back her grin.
And so, Harry held out his hand and Scrimgeour leaned forward again and placed the Snitch, slowly and deliberately, into Harry's palm.
Nothing happened. As Harry's fingers closed around the Snitch, its tired wings fluttered and were still. Scrimgeour, Ron, and Hermione continued to gaze avidly at the now partially concealed ball, as if still hoping it might transform in some way.
"That was dramatic," said Harry coolly. Both Ron and Hermione laughed.
"Show's how well you know Dumbledore I guess." Alicia smiled. "He wouldn't have done as you believe, hidden something in it for Harry to open, just so you could see it when he first touched it. It's likely just a reminder, a symbolic keepsake." she said to Scrimgeour.
"That's all, then, is it?" asked Hermione, making to prise herself off the sofa.
"Not quite," said Scrimgeour, who looked bad-tempered now. "Dumbledore left you a second bequest, Potter."
"What is it?" asked Harry, excitement rekindling. Scrimgeour did not bother to read from the will this time.
"The sword of Godric Gryffindor," he said.
Hermione and Ron both stiffened and Alicia looked confused. Why on earth, would he have left Harry a sword? How could that have helped in the slightest?
Harry, it seemed, was looking around to try and find the ruby encrusted sword, waiting to be given it.
"So where is it?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Unfortunately," said Scrimgeour, "that sword was not Dumbledore's to give away."
In which case the four of us only have to be worthy and it'll show up. Alicia believed. Whether Scrimgeour gave it to them or not.
"The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an important historical artefact, and as such, belongs —"
"It belongs to Harry!" said Hermione hotly. "It chose him, he was the one who found it, it came to him out of the Sorting Hat —"
"According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor," said Scrimgeour. "That does not make it the exclusive property of Mr. Potter, whatever Dumbledore may have decided." Scrimgeour scratched his badly shaven cheek, scrutinising Harry. "Why do you think — ?"
"— Dumbledore wanted to give me the sword?" said Harry, struggling to keep his temper. "Maybe he thought it would look nice on my wall."
"This is not a joke, Potter!" growled Scrimgeour. "Was it because Dumbledore believed that only the sword of Godric Gryffindor could defeat the Heir of Slytherin? Did he wish to give you that sword, Potter, because he believed, as do many, that you are the one destined to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"
Alicia burst out laughing and everyone turned to her.
"You really are stupid. A sword, defeat Voldemort? What? Did someone give you that idea or did you make it up yourself?" she said through her laughs. "It doesn't matter how historical it is, the sword is just a sword and cannot go up against a wizard, it'd be like a human running at him."
"I dunno Alicia, maybe the Ministry should put some people onto that, instead of wasting their time stripping down Deluminators or covering up breakouts from Azkaban." Harry turned back to the Minister. "So is this what you've been doing, Minister, shut up in your office, trying to break open a Snitch? People are dying — I was nearly one of them — Voldemort chased me across three counties, he killed Mad-Eye Moody, but there's been no word about any of that from the Ministry, has there? And you still expect us to cooperate with you!"
"You go too far!" shouted Scrimgeour, standing up; Harry jumped to his feet too. Scrimgeour limped toward Harry and jabbed him hard in the chest with the point of his wand: It singed a hole in Harry's T-shirt like a lit cigarette.
"Oi!" said Ron, jumping up and raising his own wand, but Harry said,
"No! D'you want to give him an excuse to arrest us?"
"I'm thinking about it." Alicia said, still in her seat. "At this moment however Harry you have three witnesses of the Minister of Magic threatening a seventeen year old. Because of a few words he spoke. I think that'd classify as unprovoked, don't you Hermione?" Alicia said.
The Minister looked at her while Hermione looked worried.
"You can't just get detention Minister, you'll loose your job for threatening The Chosen One." Alicia said, looking up at him. He turned from her to Harry and Alicia stood up beside Ron, pushing his wand down to his side.
"You may wear that scar like a crown, Potter, but it is not up to a seventeen-year-old boy to tell me how to do my job! It's time you learned some respect!" Scrimgeour said.
"It's time you earned it," said Harry.
"You need to get your nose out of other people's business, and deal with the real crisis on hand." Alicia said "Maybe then, no one would be able to criticise you. It seems, Harry isn't the only one who doubts you, for you have seriously just overreacted. Minister." he stared at her as he breathed hard as did Hermione, Harry and Ron.
The floor trembled; there was a sound of running footsteps, then the door to the sitting room burst open and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley ran in.
"We — we thought we heard —" began Mr. Weasley, looking thoroughly alarmed at the sight of Harry and the Minister virtually nose to nose, Scrimgeour's wand still pointing at Harry's chest.
"— raised voices," panted Mrs. Weasley.
Scrimgeour lowered his wand took a couple of steps back from Harry, glancing at the hole he had made in Harry's T-shirt. He seemed to regret his loss of temper.
"It — it was nothing," he growled. "I… regret your attitude," he said, looking Harry full in the face once more. "You seem to think that the Ministry does not desire what you — what Dumbledore — desired. We ought to be working together."
"I don't like your methods, Minister," said Harry. "Remember?"
For the second time, he raised his right fist and displayed to Scrimgeour the scars that still showed white on the back of it, spelling I must not tell lies.
"Perhaps when you learn to listen to others instead of inflating your own head with the belief you don't need any advice from anyone, that'll change." Alicia said, her own hand itching at the reminder that sat there.
Scrimgeour's expression hardened. He turned away without another word and limped from the room. Mrs. Weasley hurried after him; Harry heard her stop at the back door. After a minute or so she called, "He's gone!"
"What did he want?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking around at Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione as Mrs. Weasley came hurrying back to them.
"To give us what Dumbledore left us," said Harry. "They've only just released the contents of his will."
Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given Harry, Hermione and Ron were passed from hand to hand. Alicia had put her Pensieve upstairs and carefully into her bag, not allowing it to be passed around the table like everything else, though the twins had tried to convince her.
"Do you have any idea how fragile, rare and important it is to me?" she'd responded with.
No one argued after that.
Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch.
As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third or fourth time, Mrs. Weasley said tentatively, "Harry, dear, Alicia, everyone's awfully hungry, we didn't like to start without you… Shall I serve dinner now?"
"Oh absolutely." Alicia said surprised.
They all ate rather hurriedly and then, after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighbouring field.
"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Hermione and Alicia, while they helped Mrs. Weasley restore the garden to its normal state. "After everyone's gone to bed."
Alicia and Hermione went to bed with Ginny and waited round for a while until she dozed off. They moved upstairs, both holding their small bags that contained way too much then they should be able to hold, , Alicia's little owl on her shoulder again, and to Ron's room. They arrived to find Ron examining his Deluminator and Harry lying down watching his the old Snitch, its wings flutter feebly.
"Muffliato," Hermione whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs.
"Thought you didn't approve of that spell?" said Ron.
"Times change," said Hermione. "Now, show us that Deluminator."
Ron obliged at once. Holding it up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once.
"The thing is," whispered Hermione through the dark, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."
"Yeah, but that runs out, this doesn't." Alicia pointed out.
There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more.
"Still, it's cool," said Ron, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"
"I know, but surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!"
"D'you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he'd left us?" asked Harry.
"Definitely," said the two girls.
"Just like he'd know not to make the Snitch open to your fingertips." Alicia said thinking.
"He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that still doesn't explain…"
"…why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" asked Ron.
"Well, exactly," said Hermione, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have let us know why… unless he thought it was obvious?"
"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. The only easy one is Alicia's." she rose an eyebrow at him.
"Well we all know how you are with pricing information together." Ron said
"So I'm supposed to know something I haven't figured out yet that's supposed to help?" Alicia said "Sounds very easy." she nodded before rolling her eyes. "Honestly, I think Dumbledore knew I was gonna take these." she reached into her bag and pulled out another, in it were a heap of phials, all tied together.
"What are those?" Harry asked
"All the memories of Voldemort Dumbledore showed us." Alicia said watching them twinkle in the low light.
"Alicia summoned them after I summoned the Horcrux books." Hermione admitted as the boys looked at her shocked.
"He collected them all back up again. Honestly I thought it rather pointless, we couldn't watch them after all. But at the same time I believed we shouldn't leave them lying around for someone else to watch and therefore work out what's happening, especially as Hogwarts is not as safe. It was more a precaution than informative." she said. She grinned brightly "Now it's both!"
"See, your gift's easy." Ron said "But leaving Harry an old Snitch — what the hell was that about?"
"I've no idea," said Hermione. "When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!"
"Yeah, well," said Harry, his pulse quickening as he raised the Snitch in his fingers. "I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour, was I?"
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.
"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" said Harry. "Don't you remember?"
"He didn't catch it with his hand." Alicia smiled.
Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.
"That was the one you nearly swallowed!"
"Exactly," said Harry, and with his heart beating fast, he pressed his mouth to the Snitch.
It did not open. He lowered the golden sphere looking frustrated and disappointed but in the dim light Alicia and Hermione had spotted something.
"Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!" Hermione cried out.
Harry nearly dropped the Snitch in surprise and excitement. Hermione was quite right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanting handwriting of Dumbledore:
I open at the close.
He had barely read them when the words vanished again.
" 'I open at the close…' What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione and Ron shook their heads, looking blank.
"I open at the close… at the close… I open at the close…"
Alicia watched as the three repeated it a few times.
"Well it all depends on what the close is." she said and they looked at her. "A close is like the end right?" she said "So it could be the end of the horcruxes, or the end of Voldemort…" she paused and a sad look appeared on her face as she thought about the end of Voldemort. "The very end…" she mumbled, Hermione watched her but the boys didn't seem to register her words.
"And the sword," said Ron finally, when they had at last abandoned their attempts to divine meaning in the Snitch's inscription. "Why did he want Harry to have the sword?"
"And why couldn't he just have told me?" Harry said quietly. "It was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"
"And how would you look walking about with the sword of Gryffindor, and how would you get out of the castle with it?" Alicia asked annoyed. "He couldn't just give it to you, any more than he could just tell us what all the gifts are about."
"Well Alicia, why'd he leave me the sword?" Harry asked her, slightly annoyed she was right.
"I dunno yet." she said curiously with little frustration. "But I can look back and not over look anything, so I'll work it out." she grinned.
"You're the only one so ecstatic about their gift." Ron said
"You said the Deluminator was cool?" Alicia reminded him
"Well it is… but, still confusing." Alicia rolled her eyes.
"And as for this book," said Hermione, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard… I've never even heard of them!"
"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" said Ron incredulously. "You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not!" said Hermione in surprise. "Do you know them, then?"
"Well, of course I do!"
"You've read a book we haven't?" Alicia asked him looking surprised. Ron, however, looked bemused by their surprise.
"Oh come on! All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's, aren't they? 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune'…'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot'… 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'…"
"Excuse me?" said Hermione, giggling. "What was that last one?
"Wait, they're kids's stories?" Alicia asked looking at Ron. "Well no wonder we haven't read it, we always went more advanced than that." she said to Hermione who giggled again.
"Come off it!" said Ron, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. "You must've heard of Babbitty Rabbitty —"
"Ron, you know full well Harry, Alicia and I were brought up by Muggles!" said Hermione. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'Cinderella' —"
"What's that, an illness?" asked Ron.
"Most of them are princess stories." Alicia admitted "Personally I always liked 'The Tales of Peter Rabbit'." she smiled
"So these are children's stories?" asked Hermione, bending again over the runes.
"Yeah," said Ron uncertainly, "I mean, that's just what you hear, you know, that all these old stories came from Beedle. I dunno what they're like in the original versions."
"But I wonder why Dumbledore thought I should read them?"
Something creaked downstairs.
"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow his hair," said Ron nervously.
Alicia snickered. "Your mum'll kill him."
"All the same, we should get to bed," whispered Hermione. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow."
"No," agreed Ron. "A brutal quadruple murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of a damper on the wedding. I'll get the lights."
And he clicked the Deluminator once more as Alicia and Hermione left the room.