The Other Black Book 5

Chapter 22 - Christmas on the Closed Ward

Harry was quite silent after that. Fred and George quickly gathered up the Extendable Ears and hid them as Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, and Moody left the ward and shuttled everyone back towards the train. Harry hardly said a word.

"Are you all right, Harry, dear?" whispered Mrs. Weasley, leaning across Ginny to speak to him as the train rattled along through its dark tunnel. "You don't look very well. Are you feeling sick?"

They were all watching him. He shook his head violently and stared up at an advertisement for home insurance.

"Harry, dear, are you sure you're all right?" said Mrs. Weasley in a worried voice, as they walked around the unkempt patch of grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place. "You look ever so pale. . . . Are you sure you slept this morning? You go upstairs to bed right now, and you can have a couple of hours' sleep before dinner, all right?"

He nodded. When she opened the front door he proceeded straight past the troll's leg umbrella stand and up the stairs and hurried up towards his and Ron's bedroom.

Later, during dinner, where Harry had yet to return, Sirius asked Moody again: Can Aurora's Muggle parents come for Christmas?

The question, while making sense in the various conversations, was also a bit sudden. Moody looked around, everyone who knew were now staring at him, his magical eye jumping between Aurora and Sirius. Maybe it was because Aurora was standing there, silently pleading that he'd say yes, maybe it was because of the way Sirius was staring him down, maybe it was because Christmas was so soon and Aurora had yet to have spent a Christmas with her parents, or maybe it was because he was actually concerned about them, but after several minutes' silence, Moody nodded.

Aurora had never felt happier. Her wizard family (well, only the wizard family she really cared for) and her Muggle family, would be together, under one roof, for Christmas. She was quite happy when she went up to bed while Mrs. Weasley was working out the details of getting Olvia and Taylor to Grimmauld Place, able to slightly hear some of it, which all seemed very promising. She was certain she went to bed with a smile on her face and woke up with it still there the next morning.

Everybody spent the following morning putting up Christmas decorations except Harry, who refused to leave the drawing room. Aurora could not remember Sirius ever being in such a good mood; he was actually singing carols, apparently delighted that he was to have company over Christmas. Maybe it was also because he would finally get to meet the couple that had been taking care of his niece for the past many years. Around lunch time, Mrs. Weasley tried to call him down, but he didn't come.

"What is wrong with him?" Mrs. Weasley asked when she came back to the lunch table. "What... what happened? He saved Arthur's life! He should be happy!"

Aurora looked at Ginny, Fred, and George, silently wondering if they tell Mrs. Weasley. None of them seemed to want to meet her eye, as if none of them wanted to be the one to admit it.

It was around six o'clock in the evening that the doorbell rang and Mrs. Black started screaming again. Hermione came in, and after giving Ron and Aurora a story as to why she was with the Order not her parents skiing, Aurora offered to go with her to find Harry. They knocked on the door of Buckbeak's room.

"I know you're in there," said Hermione's voice. "Will you please come out? I want to talk to you."

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked her, pulling open the door, as Buckbeak was scratching at the straw-strewn floor for any fragments of rat he might have dropped. "I thought you were skiing with your mum and dad."

"Well, to tell the truth, skiing's not really my thing," said Hermione. "So I've come for Christmas." There was snow in her hair and her face was pink with cold. "But don't tell Ron that, I told him it's really good because he kept laughing so much. Anyway, Mum and Dad are a bit disappointed, but I've told them that everyone who's serious about the exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they'll understand. Anyway," she said briskly, "let's go to your bedroom, Ron's mum's lit a fire in there and she's sent up sandwiches."