Mayhem at the Ministry & Quidditch in the Orchard

"I'm mentioned," said Mr. Weasley, his eyes widening behind his glasses as he reached the bottom of the Daily Prophet article.

"Where?" spluttered Mrs. Weasley, choking on her tea and whiskey. "If I'd seen that, I'd have known you were alive!"

"Not by name," said Mr. Weasley. "Listen to this: 'If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen.' Oh really," said Mr. Weasley in exasperation, handing the paper to Percy. "Nobody was hurt. What was I supposed to say? Rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods...well, there certainly will be rumors now she's printed that."

He heaved a deep sigh. "Molly, I'm going to have to go into the office; this is going to take some smoothing over."

"I'll come with you, Father," said Percy importantly. "Mr. Crouch will need all hands on deck. And I can give him my cauldron report in person."

He bustled out of the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley looked most upset.

"Arthur, you're supposed to be on holiday! This hasn't got anything to do with your office; surely they can handle this without you?"

"I've got to go, Molly," said Mr. Weasley. "I've make things worse. I'll just change my robes and I'll be off..."

"Mrs. Weasley," said Harry suddenly, unable to contain himself, "Hedwig hasn't arrived with a letter for me, has she?"

"Hedwig, dear?" said Mrs. Weasley distractedly. "No...no, there hasn't been any post at all."

Ron and Hermione looked curiously at Harry. With a meaningful look at both of them he said, "All right if I go and dump my stuff in your room, Ron?"

"Yeah...think I will too," said Ron at once. "Hermione?"

"Yes," she said after a quick glance at Fred and George, and the three of them marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Wonder what that's about," said George curiously.

Fred only shrugged. "Probably off to talk about the Cup, most likely." Although he didn't quite believe himself, he was almost instantly reabsorbed into the previous conversation happening in the kitchen.

"What's up, Harry?" said Ron, the moment they had closed the door of the attic room behind them.

"There's something I haven't told you," Harry said. "On Saturday morning, I woke up with my scar hurting again."

Hermione gasped and started making suggestions at once, mentioning a number of reference books, and everybody from Albus Dumbledore to Madam Pomfrey, the Hogwarts nurse. Ron simply looked dumbstruck.

"But - he wasn't there, was he? You-Know-Who? I mean - last time your scar kept hurting, he was at Hogwarts, wasn't he?"

"I'm sure he wasn't on Privet Drive," said Harry. "But I was dreaming about him...him and Peter - you know, Wormtail. I can't remember all of it now, but they were plotting to kill...someone."

"It was only a dream," said Ron bracingly. "Just a nightmare."

"Yeah, but was it, though?" said Harry, turning to look out of the window at the brightening sky. "It's weird, isn't it?...My scar hurts, and three days later the Death Eaters are on the march, and Voldemort's sign's up in the sky again."

"Don't - say - his - name!" Ron hissed through gritted teeth.

"And remember what Professor Trelawney said?" Harry went on, ignoring Ron. "At the end of last year?"

Professor Trelawney was their Divination teacher at Hogwarts. Hermione's terrified look vanished as she let out a derisive snort.

"Oh Harry, you aren't going to pay attention to anything that old fraud says?"

"You weren't there," said Harry. "You didn't hear her. This time was different. I told you, she went into a trance - a real one. And she said the Dark Lord would rise again...greater and more terrible than ever before...and he'd manage it because his servant was going to go back to him...and that night Wormtail escaped."

There was a silence in which Ron fidgeted absentmindedly with a hole in his Chudley Cannons bedspread.

"Why were you asking if Hedwig had come, Harry?" Hermione asked. "Are you expecting a letter?"

"I told Sirius about my scar," said Harry, shrugging. "I'm waiting for his answer."

"Good thinking!" said Ron, his expression clearing. "I bet Sirius will know what to do!"

"I hoped he'd get back to me quickly," said Harry.

"But we don't know where Sirius is...he could be in Africa or somewhere, couldn't he?" said Hermione reasonably. "Hedwig's not going to manage that journey in a few days."

"Yeah, I know," said Harry as he looked out of the window at the Hedwig-free sky.

"Come and have a game of Quidditch in the orchard, Harry" said Ron. "Come on-three on three, Bill and Charlie and Fred and George will play... You can try out the Wronski Feint..."

"Ron," said Hermione, in an I-don't-think-you're-being-very-sensitive sort of voice, "Harry doesn't want to play Quidditch right now... He's worried, and he's tired... We all need to go to bed..."

"Yeah, I want to play Quidditch," said Harry suddenly. "Hang on, I'll get my Firebolt."

Hermione left the room, muttering something that sounded very much like "Boys."

As Hermione made her way downstairs, she thought about what Harry had said about his scar and how he had written to Sirius. She planned on making her way out to the orchard to wait for Ron and Harry, but she figured she would inform the other players about their spontaneous game. Luckily, they were all sitting in the living room where she could make a general announcement.

"Hello everyone," she started, and the Weasley children all looked up at her. "Harry and Ron are going to play some Quidditch out in the orchard if anyone wants to play."

Percy, who had been reading, pursed his lips and returned to his book. Both Bill and Charlie, though, jumped up at the mention of Quidditch, with Fred and George following suit.

"I can never pass up an opportunity for Quidditch," Bill said excitedly. "I never seem to have much time for it in Egypt. Want to be on my team then, Charlie?"

"Of course!" Charlie started to walk a little faster than Bill. "Race you to the shed!"

The two oldest raced out of the house, leaving the Twins and Ginny left to move. Hermione looked at them expectantly, not sure if they would play or not. "I suppose we should practice a bit before school, eh George?" Fred looked at his brother. "We need to make sure we maintain our positions as 'Supreme Beaters'."

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows. "That's not a real thing."

"Oh yeah?" George asked.

Ginny nodded sternly.

"Well, we just made it up, but that doesn't mean it's not real to us!" He answered with a fake sniffle. "Come on, Freddie, let's go play some Quidditch!" George led the way out of the house, making sure to make the exit as dramatic as possible, stomping all the way.

And then there were two.

Hermione walked over to Ginny. "Come on, Gin, you have to play; I'm not going to."

Ginny just shook her head.

"Ginny, get up!" Hermione stressed as she tried to hoist the youngest Weasley out of the sunken armchair. "Don't make me call your brothers!" Ginny released all the muscular tension she was holding and let her whole body go lax.

Hermione had no choice.

"Fred! George!" She called over her shoulder. The two Weasleys popped their heads inside the door at the summons.

"Yes, dear?" George answered first.

"Your sister won't move, and I've told her that she must play Quidditch!" Hermione said, exasperated.

The twins seemed to know what to do without even sharing a word or a glance with one another. The two boys walked to each side of their sister, grabbed her by the arms, and hoisted her up between them, Ginny kicking and thrashing all the while.

"Hermione!" Ginny screamed. "They don't know!"

Hermione was slightly taken aback. They don't know? Know what?

And then it hit her-the rest of the family didn't know that Ginny could actually play Quidditch. Only Hermione knew that for the past few months, Ginny had been breaking into the family shed, where the brooms are kept, and was practicing when the boys weren't around. "Wait!" Hermione yelled suddenly, "Wait, she can't play!"

The boys stopped. "Why not?" asked George.

"Because," Hermione tried to quickly come up with a tale, "she sprained her ankle, I just now remembered." She hoped that this lie would satisfy the boys enough to let her down.

"Well, she can still play then!" Fred said. "You only need your ankles to help you push off the ground at the beginning."

Hermione needed to try again. "She also…well, I don't really think you want to know…she has very bad aches, you see. That's why she's been eating so much this week, to try and subdue them, but it hasn't worked well. Really, they're quite painful, so she shouldn't play at all this week."

The Twins put Ginny down and surveyed at her with undefined looks. George spoke, "Well, if that's it, Gin, you could've said. We do know some things, you know."

Ginny only harrumphed and glared at Hermione; she knew Ginny would probably hex her later.

"Oh well, you can still watch." Fred said as he waited for the girls to follow. "We need a few people to critique us on our flying."

"Why would you ask the girl who knows nothing about Quidditch for pointers?" Hermione laughed and shook her head.

Fred shrugged. "Well, sometimes the best people for the job are the people that don't know what to correct, so they just watch and enjoy the game." George nodded in agreement.

"Well…I suppose," Hermione walked out with Ginny in front of the boys to the back orchard. The girls waited by a young apple tree as the players got their equipment and established teams.

"Alright," Bill started, "I call Charlie and Harry."

"That's no fair!" Fred and George exclaimed. "Harry's one of the best on the team!"

"Exactly," said Bill.

"Well, that means that you have three players on your team, and we only have two!" Fred pointed out. "It needs to be fair, Bill."

Bill thought about it for a minute, turned to the girls and said, "Alright, which one of you fine maidens is going to be on our team? I'll sit out the first round, to make it fair, and then we'll swap from there."

Hermione's eyes widened with fright and she turned to Ginny. "Gin…"

"Don't look at me," Ginny chided. "I can't play, remember? My abdomen's hurting me something awful."

She bent over double as she clutched her sides in fake agony. She smirked at Hermione as she stood back up again.

"Fine," Hermione said curtly. "I'll play. But you owe me."

Ginny stared back at her. "Consider us even."

Hermione turned to walk to her team and took a deep breath. She had never even attempted to play Quidditch, and now she had to play with some of the best players from Hogwarts. She knew she was going to fail, and fail miserably. Merlin help her.

Slowly, she approached Charlie and Harry, the latter handing her a broom. Harry placed both hands on her shoulders; he probably could feel her shaking.

"Ready?"

March is truly an awful month.

Not only is it basketball 'March Madness', but it's when all of the fine arts programs at my school have their contests, competitions, trips, etc.

And, you know, my birthday, which just gets in the way.

Hopefully I'll start on the next chapter soon!

Bundles of love,

B