The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.44 | Calm Before the Storm

Percy Weasley was striding across the snowy yard, his horn-rimmed glasses glinting in the sunlight. He was, however, not alone.

"Arthur, he's- he's with the Minister!" exclaims Mrs Weasley, suddenly breathless.

Before any of them could do anything other than exchange stunned glances, Percy stood in the backdoor with a black leather folder tucked under his arm.

There was a moment's of painful silence. Then Percy spoke rather stiffly.

"Merry Christmas, Mother."

"Oh, Percy!" cries Mrs Weasley, throwing herself into his arms.

Rufus Scrimgeour paused in the doorway, leaning on his walking stick and smiling at the scene.

"You must forgive this intrusion," he says when Mrs Weasley looked around at him, beaming and wiping her eyes. "Percy and I were in the vicinity for work, you know, and he couldn't resist dropping in and seeing you all."

But Percy showed no sign of wanting to greet any of the rest of the family. He stood with a poker-straight face and stared over everybody else's heads at Margaret, much to her chagrin.

Mr Weasley, Fred, and George were all observing him, stony-faced, while Bill heaved a sigh at his family's antics.

"Please, come in, sit down, Minister!" insists Mrs Weasley, straightening her hat. "Have a little purkey, or some tooding- I mean-"

"No, no, my dear Molly," says Scrimgeour. He must have checked her name with Percy before they entered the house. "I don't want to intrude, wouldn't be here at all if Percy hadn't wanted to see you all so badly..."

"Oh, Perce!" says Mrs Weasley tearfully, reaching up to kiss his cheeks.

"We've only looked in for five minutes, so I'll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don't want to butt in! Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden... Ah, that young man's finished, why doesn't he take a stroll with me?"

The atmosphere around the table changed noticeably.

Everybody looked from Scrimgeour to Harry. Nobody seemed to believe that Scrimgeour did not know Harry's name, or find it natural that he should be chosen to accompany the Minister around the garden when Ginny, Fleur, and George also had clean plates.

"Yeah, all right," says Harry into the silence.

Nobody was fooled; for all Scrimgeour's talk that they had just been in the area, that Percy wanted to visit his family, this must be the real reason that they had come - so that Scrimgeour could speak to Harry alone.

"It's fine," Harry says quietly as he passes Lupin, who had half risen from his chair. "Fine," he adds as Mr. Weasley opens his mouth to speak.

"Wonderful!" says Scrimgeour, standing back to let Harry pass through the door ahead of him. "We'll just take a turn around the garden, and Percy and I'll be off. Carry on, everyone!"

As the two walked out, leaving a tensed scene behind, Mrs Weasley looked around to find an empty chair before offering Percy her own.

"Why don't you sit down, Perce?" says Mrs Weasley, patting his shoulder. "We were just about to have-"

"No, thanks, Mother," says Percy quickly, tapping the folder. "Ministry business. I was told Margaret Xenakis is here?"

The question seemed useless to Margaret, on whom Percy's eyes had settled on the moment he had walked in. They already knew each other, but none of the others knew that.