Half Lives – Chapter Five
When Harry woke the next morning, it was to see his two best friends sitting on Ron's bed, surrounded by books and essays.
"Finally awake then?" Hermione asked archly.
"Err...yeah. What time is it?" Harry asked, hurriedly pushing himself upright and shoving his glasses on.
"Half eleven mate." Ron grinned. "Never seen you sleep this late outside of the Infirmary."
Hermione smiled too. "Come on, wake up properly and you can help us."
"Help...?" Harry asked, rubbing his eyes before clambering over to the other bed.
"We're reading up on the Veil in the Ministry. But there's been disappointingly little, so we've broadened out into, well, pretty much everything."
"She's even got me checking old essays." Ron said reproachfully.
"You never know Ron. Besides, it's good revision. Best start early." So saying she handed him a pile of essays that looked suspiciously like Harry's own. "And you want to work out what that Veil did to Harry, don't you?"
Suddenly not interested, Harry got up abruptly and, grabbing his dressing gown, and headed for the door. "Hey! Where are you going?" Ron asked as he looked up.
Harry stared at him for a second, having no idea how to answer. He couldn't very well say 'anywhere but here'. "Breakfast." He said finally. "Or lunch. Whichever."
"We'll go down soon." Hermione assured Ron, who looked like he wanted to follow Harry.
Not waiting to listen to Ron's response, Harry let the door shut with a bang as he left. And almost ran straight into a Weasley. He couldn't tell which, red hair obscured his vision.
The red-head took a step back, and promptly turned as red as the hair that identified them.
"Ginny!" Harry exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing?"
Ginny shook herself out and composed herself. "You're up to something." She announced shrewdly. "Hermione's been holed up in there with you two for hours. She took all her books in this morning. And before you say it," she said suddenly, "it is not homework; no matter how many times my brother may parrot it."
Harry shrugged. "I only just woke up." He half-lied. "Going to get food."
"Hm." She didn't seem to quite believe this. "I thought that maybe after the Ministry, you would at least let me know what you're doing. You're always scuttling off somewhere, whispering things to each other, getting into things that are far too big for you. And then you end up fighting for your life." She stared him down.
Harry quailed under her blazing look. "I'm going to get food." He repeated dumbly.
"I'd be careful." Ginny called after his retreating back. "The adults are arguing."
Harry felt the tension long before he had walked into the kitchen. Mr Weasley, Moody and Mundungus were standing about looking shifty, but Mrs Weasley seemed set to go all day, and lastly, Sirius was gloomily sifting through some papers at the table. As Harry slid into his seat, none of the adults acknowledged him, bar the latter. Sirius caught his eye with a wry smile and rolled his eyes in the direction of the arguing adults.
"What's going on?" Harry asked. Apparently they were going to ignore the previous night.
"Bill's moving to England, permanently." Sirius said quietly. "He's affianced. French girl."
With perfect timing, as though to answer his question, the argument broke through Harry and Sirius' quiet chat forcefully. "And you!" Mrs Weasley rounded on Mad-Eye, a rather brave thing to do, Harry thought. "Just rolled right over didn't you? She hasn't even been here five minutes and you're already extolling her grace with a wand. I thought you with your 'constant vigilance' would have been made of sterner stuff. You disappoint me." Harry began to have the feeling that it was Mrs Weasley against the entire male collective in this house. He was starting to wish he hadn't left his room. "And I saw that necklace you gave her, Mundungnus." She said sharply.
The grubby man cowered slightly. "It wus justa pretty bauble, tha's all." He mumbled.
"It wasn't even yours! You stole it!"
"Leave it, Molly." Sirius said tiredly, entering the fray.
"What!" Harry exclaimed. "It was yours?" He looked at Sirius in askance.
"I said leave it, its fine." Sirius dumped a sheaf of parchment on the ever growing 'useless' pile as he spoke.
"But he can't just take your stuff." Harry continued regardless, slightly aware that his current vitriol was at least partially fuelled by his recent desire to know his godfather better.
"If it was a Black heirloom, it'll find its way back here. They always do." Sirius said gloomily.
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Mrs Weasley muttered to herself, the quiet voice picked out easily in the argument that had continued on without Harry or Sirius. "But you men ought to behave more like Sirius." That made everyone look up. "He hasn't been confounded by a supercilious little girl. He just greeted her and continued working, helping the Order. That's more than any of you can claim right now!" Harry raised his eyebrows at Sirius. The man ducked his head and muttered something. "And Arthur," Molly continued, "Fleur's you son's fiancé for Morgana's sake-"
"Did I 'ear my name?"
Everyone stopped and looked to the doorway, where a young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow "I 'ave brought ze children down for lunch." She announced. "But I could not find – 'Arry!" She said in a throaty voice. "There you ar're! Eet 'as been too long!" As she swept over the threshold towards him, Hermione and Ginny were revealed, looking rather cross, and Ron too, who merely looked confunded.
"There was need to need to fetch them, I was just about to do it myself!" Molly protested.
"Eet was no trouble," said Fleur, swooping to kiss Harry on each cheek; he felt the places where her mouth had touched him burn. Sirius sniggered. "I 'ave been longing to see 'im. You remember my seester, Gabrielle? She never stops talking about 'Arry Potter. She will be delighted to see you again."
"Oh...is she here too?" Harry croaked.
"No, no, silly boy," said Fleur with a tinkling laugh, "I mean next summer, when we – but do you not know?"
"Sirius told me." Harry said hurriedly. He could not help noticing how Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Ginny were all avoiding each other's gaze and how the chastised men had slipped out the room, despite the promise of lunch. "Er – congratulations!"
Fleur swooped down upon him and kissed him again. "Bill is very busy at ze moment, working very 'ard, and I only work part-time at Gringotts for my Eenglish, so he brought me 'ere for a while to get to know 'is family properly. I was so pleased to 'ear you would be coming – zere isn't much to do 'ere, unless you like cooking and cleaning! Now – enjoy your lunch 'Arry, I must go meet Bill for ours." With those words she turned gracefully and seemed to float out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
Mrs Weasley made a noise that sounded like 'tchah!'
Harry would never understand women.
Lunch was a tense affair, revolving mostly around the recent addition to the Weasley family. From what Harry gathered the girls thought she was judgemental and patronising, and Mrs Weasley felt it was all a bit too soon for her eldest, despite Ginny's sly comment that Mr and Mrs Weasley were amongst the last war's many elopers. Even more amusingly, Ginny had also taken to calling her prospective sister-in-law 'Phlegm'. When Hermione turned on Ron for being slightly empty headed around 'Phlegm', Harry wisely stopped speaking. He risked a look sideways, to where he was expecting to see Sirius laughing at them, but the man was paused in eating his lunch, instead considering the adult's conversation earnestly.
They were talking about Tonks, and with a start, Harry realised he hadn't seen or heard of her since Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore had arrived at the Dursleys'. As it was a weekend, several Order members were present. During the week just four Weasleys, Hermione, Harry, Sirius and Remus stayed in Number Twelve. Bill and Fleur had their own flat, but they popped in and out as fancy took them.
"If only Tonks would visit more." Mrs Weasley said mournfully.
"You're just trying to set her up." Hestia Jones, a merry black haired witch, said shrewdly from the far side of Mad-Eye Moody.
"Won't work." Moody added gruffly.
"Yeah, Tonksy's alright, she is." Dung said, surfacing from his plate, "she's a smart gal, and a Metamorph to boot, but she ain't no 'Fleur Delacour'." His voice took on a flowery tone as he said her name.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Mrs Weasley said archly. "I just wanted to cheer her up a bit, that's all. She's been so down lately, I'm sure you've noticed. She's looked nearly identical every time we've seen her this past fortnight. If her metamorphosing's being affected..." She flustered under the sharp looks of half the table. "It might cheer her up..."
"Give it up Molly," Hestia said. "I was in training with her – you will never get her to do something she doesn't want to do." Sirius just grinned, and resumed eating.
On Harry's other side the conversation had come round to the absent Weasley members.
"Is the twin's shop doing alright then?" Harry asked, butting in somewhat.
"That's an understatement!" said Ron. "They're raking in the galleons! I can't wait to see the place. We haven't been to Diagon Alley yet, because Mum says Dad's got to be there for extra security and he's been really busy at work, but it sounds excellent."
"And what about Percy?" asked Harry. "Is he talking to your mum and dad again?"
"Nope." said Ron.
"But he knows your dad was right all along about Voldemort being back-"
"Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive people for being wrong than being right," said Hermione. "I wonder when he'll be sending our OWL results out."
Something clicked in Harry's mind. "Hang on," he said; remembering his conversation with the Headmaster, "I think Dumbledore said our results will be arriving today."
"Today?" shrieked Hermione. "Today? But why didn't you – oh my– you should have said-" She leapt up. The entire table turned to look at her. "I'm going to check for owls..." And she dashed out the room, presumably to check the drawing room, where the owl hatch was.
Hermione re-enetered the room at much the same veloicity that she had left it with. She handed Harry and Ron an envelope each with a shaking hand. No one in the kitchen spoke. Harry slit the parchment open quickly and unfolded the parchment inside. He read it through several times, before he became aware of someone standing very close behind him.
"Alright?" Sirius asked awkwardly.
It was alright. He knew he'd fail Divination, and given that he'd collapsed halfway through History, that would have taken a miracle to pass, but, everything else... Exceeded Expectations in Potions! Outstanding in Defence! He related this to Sirius in a low, disbelieving voice that did not carry to the rest of the room. Sirius hesitated, and seemed to fight some sort of internal battle, before finally clapping on hand on Harry's shoulder and squeezing gently.
Sirius led Harry back to his seat and sat down next to him again. Harry realised he was shaking slightly. Hermione and the Weasley's were all talking rather loudly and excitedly about the OWLs, Mrs Weasley especially, ruffling Ron's hair and exclaiming over his seven OWLs, more than the twins' scores put together apparently. Hermione on the other hand, was looking fairly disappointed, and Ginny was consoling her about the offending mark – a mere Exceeds Expectations in Defence. Harry could sympathise. His own 'E' was likewise unwanted. Snape didn't take NEWT students with less than an 'O'. And Harry needed Potions to become an Auror. Upon Sirius' concerned enquiry (he seemed to think Harry should be downright chuffed with his results) Harry explained about the inadequate 'E'.
His godfather tried to smile reassuringly, however. "Cheer up, Harry." He said. "You should be pleased to have an 'E' in your worst subject."
"But...Snape-" Harry began.
"But Snape nothing." Sirius said stubbornly. "Despite what he may think, he is not the be all and end all of Potions education. He can't see beyond the end of his own overly-large nose." Seeing that his hard words had little effect, he thought about what Arthur would say to one of the boys in such a situation. He chose his words carefully, but they still came out rough. "We will talk to Minerva when she is next here. You improved a lot in a little time. They will see you've got potential. We'll force them to take you. Besides," Sirius smirked, "it's just Snivillus. He'll roll over as soon as Dumbledore bats an eyelid." Harry smiled, but he couldn't help feeling that he didn't want to get into the NEWT, and ultimately become an Auror, all because of connections and emotional blackmail. "Don't worry Harry, I'll see you right."
"I was surprised to get an E in my own worst OWL. I spent the exam perfecting a little charm to make Betram Aubry inhale his own snot. He went a really funny shade of purple. And your father was so annoyed at his low Runes mark he covered the professor's house with Runes that he designed himself." The memory made Sirius smile – he looked a bit scary. "There must have been a lot of ambient magic around, because the family's food was animated for a month after that. Kept trying to eat the family. It was brilliant, they had to live off nutrition potions until someone managed to untangle James' work – I don't think he crafted it with any great finesse. Your grandparents made James work in a kitchen for the homeless every holiday for two years after that."
Harry smiled tightly. He didn't think it sounded that hilarious, nearly suffocating a classmate and starving your teacher through menace food just because you hadn't done well on the exam. But he didn't dare say so.
"And then Remus was penalised in Defence for writing some home truths about werewolves. Bureaucracy can never face the truth. We staged a protest outside the education minister's office. We had placards. I was told that our efforts actually had some benefit too..."