WE'LL TAKE ON THE WORLD ; h.j.p.

5 | Prefect Badges

"I knew it!" Ron yelled, punching the air. "You always get away with stuff!"

"You just had to, or we would have hidden you in one of our trunks," said Allie, grinning brightly from her seat on top of the table (Mrs. Weasley was too busy wiping her face on her apron to notice). If she was honest with herself, she had been worrying all day and now that it was clear that Harry would come with them to Hogwarts, she was more than relieved.

"They were bound to clear you," said Hermione, who had looked positively faint with anxiety when Harry had entered the kitchen and was now holding a shaking hand over her eyes. "There was no case against you, none at all..."

"Everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering they all knew I'd get off," said Harry, smiling.

Fred, George, and Ginny were doing a kind of war dance to a chant that went "He got off, he got off, he got off -"

"That's enough, settle down!" Mr. Weasley shouted, though he too was smiling. "Listen, Sirius, Lucius Malfoy was at the Ministry -"

"What?" said Sirius sharply.

"He got off, he got off, he got off -"

"Be quiet, you three! Yes, we saw him talking to Fudge on level nine, then they went up to Fudge's office together. Dumbledore ought to know."

"Absolutely," Sirius said. "We'll tell him, don't worry."

"Well, I'd better get going, there's a vomiting toilet in Bethnal Green waiting for me. Molly, I'll be late, I'm covering for Tonks, but Kingsley might be dropping in for dinner -"

"He got off, he got off, he got off -"

"That's enough - Fred - George - Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley said, as Mr. Weasley left the kitchen. "Harry dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast. Allison, get off the table, will you?"

Allison scooted off the table into the seat next to Harry, while Ron and Hermione sat themselves down opposite them looking just as happy as Allison did.

"'Course, once Dumbledore turned up on your side, there was no way they were going to convict you," said Ron happily, now dishing great mounds of mashed potatoes onto everyone's plates.

"Yeah, he swung it for me," Harry said. Just as the last word had left his lips, he clenched his eyes tightly together and clapped his hand to his forehead.

"Is it hurting?" asked Allison, eyeing his forehead.

"Yes," Harry mumbled. "But it's nothing...It happens all the time now..."

No one else had noticed a thing; all of them were now helping themselves to food while gloating over Harry's narrow escape; Fred, George, and Ginny were still singing. Before Allison could ask if he had told anyone else about his hurting scar, Ron said happily, "I bet Dumbledore turns up this evening to celebrate with us, you know."

"I don't think he'll be able to, Ron," Mrs. Weasley said, setting a huge plate of roast chicken down in front of Harry. "He's really very busy at the moment."

"HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF -"

"SHUT UP!" roared Mrs. Weasley.

Everyone who came to Grimmauld Place in the next few days expressed their happiness that Harry would be returning to Hogwarts, Allison's mother even brought some cake on her way from work. The only one who did not enjoy the good news was Sirius: After putting on a happy face when he had first heard about Harry's clearing, he was moodier and surlier than before, talking less to everybody, and spending increasing amounts of time shut up in his mother's room with Buckbeak.