Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 9
The four of us stared at the Prime Minister for a moment while we comprehended what he was saying. It wasn't exactly a surprise that Dumbledore had a will to begin with, but we figured that the time had passed since his possessions had been distributed. After all, it had been a month since his death and we hadn't exactly expected anything from him afterwards.
"You seem surprised," Scrimgeour observed as he looked around at all of us.
"Passing over your completely unnecessary observation, I want to know why this is the first we're hearing about his will," I said quickly.
The Minister of Magic gave me a cryptic smile and sat back in his chair without actually answering the question. Before he had the chance to tell me that it was none of my concern, Hermione spoke up next to me.
"They were obviously going through his possessions to see if they wanted to take anything for themselves," Hermione said in disgust. "Which, may I point out, is completely illegal. When searching through a will, the Ministry is only permitted to do so if they believe that an object that has been tampered with Dark Magic is going to be passed on. You couldn't have thought that Dumbledore would have done such a thing."
Scrimgeour looked through Hermione like she hadn't spoken a word and turned to someone else in the group as he began to speak. Rather than address anything that had just been said, the Minister changed the subject to something that wouldn't keep him on the spot.
"Mr. Ronald Weasley," he said, making Ron sit up a bit in his chair. "Would you say that you were a close friend of Dumbledore's?"
"Well…er…no," Ron said honestly.
"Then why did your previous headmaster leave you on his will?" he asked.
Ron started to say something, but fell short due to a lack of answer. To be honest, I couldn't even imagine what Dumbledore would have left me and I had a fairly good relationship with him. While he obviously didn't hate Ron in any way, I couldn't understand what he would have wanted to leave him either considering the lack of conversation between the two. However, Scrimgeour was in no place to make his own inquiries.
"I'm sorry, what does the reasoning have to do with anything?" I asked with some irritation. "I thought that you came here to read off Dumbledore's will – not question his motives."
This clearly struck a nerve, because the Minister's eyes narrowed again in my direction and he pulled up the will and read off the contents of which he had left to Ron.
"'To Ronald Bilius Weasley,'" Scrimgeour read off. "'I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it.'"
From a bag that he brought with him, Scrimgeour pulled out an object that looked very familiar in shape. While the Deluminator had the appearance of a silver cigarette lighter, I knew enough about it that it was used to capture and release the surrounding light from the inside.
"Wow, this is incredible," said Ron as he took it from the minister's hands.
"So you recognize this artifact?" he asked.
"I've seen it before, I suppose," Ron shrugged.
"Do you understand how unique of an object this is?" he asked. "There must be some reason that he singled this object out to you."
"I guess he figured that I'd want some light now and then," Ron suggested.
"So he never discussed giving this to you?" the minister inquired further.
Ron shook his head and continued to look down at the Deluminator. None of these answers seemed to please Scrimgeour and it was becoming increasingly obvious that he was only there to see if we would tell him what Dumbledore was trying to suggest by giving these gifts to us. While part of me felt like there might be some hidden reason that he would hand these over to us to help us on our mission for him, I couldn't imagine that he would have made it obvious enough that anyone else would understand but us. However, I wasn't too sure that he had made it that easy for us to figure out either.
Seeing that he wasn't going to be getting any more answers from Ron, Scrimgeour decided to move on to the next object on the list.
"'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 leaned down and pulled out a small, old book that I had never heard of before in my life. As he handed it over to Hermione, I noticed that her eyes were starting to water as she held the book in her hands.
"Do you know why he left you this book?" the minister asked.
Hermione shrugged as she started to flip through the many pages of the book with a look of confusion and admiration. It was obvious that she didn't understand why she had the book either, but she must have been touched that she had been thought of before Dumbledore's death.
"No idea at all?" Scrimgeour continued.
"He knows that she likes to read," Harry spoke up. "He probably just left her the book because he thought she would like it."
Scrimgeour, while seeming a bit crestfallen by the lack of information that he was getting from this object, moved quickly onto the next object. Hermione continued to casually flip through her book as mine was being read, something that didn't seem to go unnoticed by Scrimgeour.
"'To Harry James Potter,'" he read, and Harry's insides contracted with a sudden excitement, "'I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill.'"
This time, Scrimgeour seemed to pay careful attention to the golden Snitch that he held in his hand as he passed it off to Harry. Each one of us stared at the object as it dropped into Harry's hand with extreme purpose. When it connected with Harry's hand, the ball suddenly made the movement of letting its wings out. Just as we all took in a breath, probably expecting something extraordinary, the wings merely fluttered and then fell still once more.
"Well, that was a bit pathetic," I muttered.
Scrimgeour seemed to be the most disappointed of all of us as he looked toward my brother. While I understood that this object was symbolic, I expected a little more to come of this possession considering the mission that we were about to start. Regardless of this, I couldn't help but feel that we were missing something.
"Did you expect something more?" Scrimgeour asked me.
"Well…no," I said honestly. "It just looked sad…like it died, I don't know."
"We suspected that the Snitch might contain something inside of it," the Minister said as he sat back in his chair. "It is a very convenient place to hide something that you don't want others to find. Do you have any idea of what this could be?"
"I would imagine that you all would have found what's inside of it if something was there," I said as I looked down at the Snitch in Harry's hand.
"It would only open at Harry's touch," Hermione spoke up. "Snitch's have flesh memories of the people who first touch them."
It took me a moment to register what my friend had said. While I recognized that Hermione was generally a genius when it came to everything, I hadn't considered that she would have any knowledge about the game of Quidditch. However, I couldn't be but so surprised that she knew more about it than I did.
Finally, Scrimgeour picked up the will of Dumbledore one more time and was looking to me as he read off the last of us on the list.
"'To Emily Lily Potter,'" he read. "'I leave you a pendant that I hope will guide you back to the right path when you find yourself astray.'"
From the bag, Scrimgeour pulled out a small box and removed a metallic pendant that was in the shape of a circle. In the middle of this small circle, there was a blue stone that was shining in an unnatural way as it hung from the minister's hands.
As I took it in my own, the glow from the diamond suddenly faded and gave off the appearance of water flowing in a circle inside of the stone.
"Why is it doing that?" I asked.
"It's a rather unique artifact," Scrimgeour admitted. "Only a limited amount of them are still around these days and they are fairly hard to come by. These particular pendants are known to help people make decisions. Apparently if the owner is where they are supposed to be, they appear as yours is. However, if the owner is headed in a path that is not suited for what their destiny is, it glows blue and becomes cold as it was before."
For a moment, I began to wonder whether or not this object would be able to lead us toward the Horcruxes, but I genuinely doubted that it would be that specific toward the owner's preferences.
As I looked at it, I was suddenly reminded of an artifact that Tonks had given me a couple of years ago. Unlike this one, the one Tonks had given me came in a pair that allowed the twin pair to recognize when the other was in any sort of danger. I began to feel that this was similar to that one because this may help to make sure that we weren't headed into a dangerous path. I had taken it off before due to the constant burning that it was giving us both after Voldemort had attacked us in the Ministry of Magic in our fifth year at school.
When I flipped over the pendant, I was surprised to see that there was an inscription that was written along the metallic, circular surface that encircled the stone. It was written:
'Trust your instincts, for they have never misguided you. Do not allow the hatred you harbor to enclose you in the darkness.'
"Do you have any idea why Dumbledore would feel the need to give you such a unique object like this?" Scrimgeour asked attentively. "And why the inscription? Does he fear that you will find yourself misguided?"
"I'm not sure," I said. "Dumbledore must have figured that I am a very indecisive person and thought that I would need some guidance now that he's gone."
With this, I could hear Hermione trying to hold back her tears next to me. I hadn't intended for what I said to come out as so corny, but it was too late to change anything at this point. Besides, it was the best thing I could say with Scrimgeour sitting right in front of us.
At this point, the minister didn't seem all that surprised by the fact that he wasn't getting the information that he wanted. I couldn't imagine how he thought that we would suddenly begin to cooperate with what he was up to by just barging through the door and demanding answers. I wouldn't give him the information that he wanted for anything in the world.
"Well, there was one final artifact that Dumbledore wished to bestow on you two," Scrimgeour said while indicating Harry and me.
There was a pause after this sentence and I suddenly began to wonder if he was going to make us force the words out of his mouth. It felt like an eternity before he uttered the next words…
"It was in his will that the sword of Godric Gryffindor be given to you both," he said without expression.
My body seemed to go into shock when I realized what it was that he just said. There was a moment of silence after he said this where all of us just sat there and tried to comprehend what he just told us: Dumbledore wanted to give us the sword of Gryffindor?
"Where is it?" Hermione asked.
"Despite Dumbledore's wishes, we will not be granting this item to you," he said coolly. "It is an object of high importance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is therefore not a possession in which Dumbledore can give – "
"It's in his will!" Ron said. "The sword belongs to them!"
"It was never Dumbledore's to give!" Scrimgeour insisted. "Why on earth do you think that he would want to bestow such an object on the two of you?"
"Maybe because it goes great with this pendant he gave me," I said sarcastically.
"Or it would be a wonderful decoration for our house," Harry spat.
"This is a serious matter!" Scrimgeour said angrily.
"This is a serious matter?" I said in disbelief. "Of all the things that are happening in the world right now, you rate this as a top priority?"
"I'm just surprised that the Ministry had time to pull their heads out of their own asses to even look at Dumbledore's will – " Harry started.
"How dare you?" Scrimgeour shouted as he stood up out of his chair.
"How dare you!" I shouted back as I stood up. "There are people dying out there and you're biggest worry is whether or not Dumbledore's possessions are valuable to you! Maybe if you had been doing your damn job, Dumbledore wouldn't have been murdered!"
"Don't try to pin his death on me!" Scrimgeour said.
"Then whose death would you like us to blame you for, huh?" Harry said as he stood next to me. "There's a whole boatload of people that we can choose from – take your pick!"
At this point, Scrimgeour was standing right in front of us and glaring down at us as though he wanted to end our lives right on the spot. While it was an attempt to make myself more intimidating by standing up to him, I realized that I didn't come as much of a threat due to the fact that I was significantly shorter than the Minister and could hardly get into his face as I had intended.
When the door to the room flung open, Scrimgeour lost his chance to come back with any kind of retort now that other people in the house saw him. All of our heads immediately turned to see who it was, and I wasn't that shocked to see the worried looks of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as they looked between the minister and the children that she had helped raise.
"Is everything all right?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"We heard shouting…" Mrs. Weasley said as she continued to look between us.
"I was just leaving," Scrimgeour snarled.
With that, he charged out of the room without another word to anyone on the premises. For a moment, there was consideration of whether or not he would try to arrest us simply because of the fact that we weren't cooperating. However, this thought passed as soon as I realized that I don't care what the minister does with his time.
Aggravated, I left the room just as Ron's parents asked why the minister had come in the first place. Mrs. Weasley watched me as I went with a clear look of concern in her eyes, but did not follow me as I walked outside to try to avoid the topic of what had just happened in the other room. Once I was outside, I noticed that everyone was just sitting around and casually talking. My appearance didn't seem to surprise them too much and they continued to talk without collectively taking note of my sudden appearance.
As I sat down next to Neville on the ground, I noticed that I had been gripping the pendant that Dumbledore had given me very tightly in my hand and decided that it would be best if I just put it around my neck to avoid cutting off circulation in my hand.
"What is that?" Neville asked as I swiftly put the necklace around my head.
"Dumbledore gave it to me in his will," I explained quickly.
The subject quickly died out as Mrs. Weasley stepped out of the house to tell everyone that we could continue celebrating birthdays as we had been doing before the minister had arrived. For a moment, I became confused because I had forgotten what it was that we had been doing before Scrimgeour's unwelcomed visit to the Burrow.
After the celebrations were over, which didn't last that long considering how quiet everyone had become, I met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione back in Ron's room as we had been doing since we've been here. When I got there, they were already discussing the contents of the will and what they possibly could have meant. To avoid being overheard, Hermione quickly put up a silencing charm.
"Scrimgeour definitely knows that we're up to something," Harry said as he sat his back up against Ron's bed on the floor. "And he knows that it was Dumbledore that put us up to it."
"Well, I don't know what he could have been trying to tell me with this," Ron said as he flicked open the Deluminator and looked closely at it. "
"The most useful thing that I've seen so far is that thing that he gave Emily," Harry said. "Do you think it'll help lead us to the Horcruxes?"
"I thought about that," I said as I looked down at the pendant on my neck. "I'm not too sure if that's its full purpose…I mean, it's not really leading us anywhere right now."
"That's a good point," Hermione said. "You would think that if it were leading us to Horcruxes that it would be glowing right now since we aren't headed toward any."
"Unless there is one nearby," Ron said cryptically.
"Yes, obviously there's a Horcrux in your house," I said with a short laugh. "That's exactly where I would think he would hide one."
"I don't know his life," Ron said with a smirk.
My attention was then returned to the Snitch that Harry was holding in his hands. While all of our gifts were slightly ambiguous, his seemed pretty curious as to what its purpose could be.
"Do you think there's something in there?" I asked him.
"It didn't open when he touched it," Hermione said. "I really expected something more to happen once he touched it in the room with Scrimgeour."
"Well, I didn't really," said Harry.
The rest of us looked at each other in confusion as Harry smirked at us all as if he were waiting for us to suddenly understand what he was talking about.
"Snitch's have flesh memories," Harry said. "But I didn't catch this Snitch with my hands."
Sudden flashbacks to our first year of school flew through my head and I suddenly understood what he was talking about. This particular Snitch was the one that Harry had practically swallowed after falling off of his broom during that game of Quidditch. Everyone else seemed to understand as well as Harry began to put the Snitch up to his mouth. We all watched in anticipation, but nothing seemed to happen.
"There's something written on it…" Harry murmured as he looked closely at his side of the Snitch.
"What does it say?" Hermione asked.
As he was turning it toward us, the words slowly began to fade, but stayed there long enough that we were able to read what it said:
I open at the close.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"I have no clue," Harry admitted.
For a second, we all started to contemplate what this could have meant, but it was to no avail – it made about as much sense as everything else that we had: none.
"What about that book of Hermione's?" I asked. "What is it even about?"
"It's The Tales of Beedle the Bard," Ron said. "I don't know what Dumbledore was trying to say giving those stories to Hermione."
"What are they?" Harry asked.
Ron sat in bewilderment as he looked around at all of us. It was as if we had said something completely ridiculous and he couldn't believe that we were being serious about it.
"You've honestly never heard of them?" Ron asked.
"No," we said collectively.
"What did Muggles even do with their time?" Ron sighed. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard are children's stories – Mum used to read them to us as kids."
"Why would Dumbledore want to give them to me?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe he wanted to educate you on the ways of the wizard child," Ron shrugged.
"I'm sure that's it," she replied with an eye roll and a smile.
Just as we began to wrap up the conversation saying that we would probably never figure out what Dumbledore was trying to tell us with these gifts, we heard a knock on the door that told us that we were finished with the conversation now. Hermione quickly waved off the silencing charm that she had created in the room and spoke up.
"Come in!" she said.
Fred and George stepped through the door and looked at all of us with curiosity.
"So, what's new with this crew?" Fred asked as he elbowed his brother. "Think they're up here scheming."
"No, just talking about how ridiculous your face looks," snickered Ron.
"Don't be jealous that you didn't get the looks of the family," Fred said as he dramatically posed in front of us all.
"Don't try and act like you're the best looking one," George said. "Because it's clearly me."
"Keep believing that, your Holeyness," Fred said.
"So what are you two doing up here?" Hermione asked.
"Just talking to our best pals," Fred said with a fake smile.
"And avoiding our mother," George said. "She's acting a bit crazy now that the wedding's tomorrow. I reckon that Dad's trying to get her to go to bed right now."
When I looked at the clock that was sitting on Ron's bedside table, I noticed that it was already midnight. Knowing that we were going to have to be getting up fairly early in the morning, I figured that Mrs. Weasley wasn't the only one that needed to go to sleep now.
"Well, we should probably be going to bed ourselves," I said as I stood up off of the ground of Ron's bedroom. "Tomorrow is going to be hell."
"It's just a wedding," Hermione said.
"Need I repeat myself?" I said.
"Oh, come on," George said. "Wedding's aren't that bad."
"At least you can show your face," I said. "We can't even attend the thing without changing ourselves."
"That's because they don't want anyone prettier than the bride to be there," George said while winking in my direction.
"Could you not?" Ron asked with a grimace.
"You were talking about me being beautiful, right?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"Obviously," he said as he put his arm around my brother. "You are the fairest of them all."
"I don't want to intrude on this moment that the two of you are having," Hermione said as she looked at George and Harry with amusement. "So I think I'll be off to bed."
We all said our quick goodnights and decided to all depart so we could be as rested as possible for this event tomorrow. Between being constantly surrounded by a large group of people that I didn't really know and having to portray someone that wasn't really myself, I could see myself needing to get a fairly good sleep to help prepare myself as much as possible for anything that could happen tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!