Slytherin Weasley

Chapter 40

Hon​ey​dukes was so crowd​ed with    Hog​warts stu​dents that it was almost impossible to move. I edged amongst them, look​ing around, trying to spot Ron and Hermione.

There were shelves up​on shelves of the most suc​cu​lent-​look​ing sweets         imag​in​able. Creamy chunks of nougat,       shim​mer​ing pink squares of co​conut ice, fat, hon​ey-​coloured tof​fees; hun​dreds of dif​fer​ent kinds of choco​late in neat rows; there was a large bar​rel of Ev​ery Flavour Beans, and an​oth​er of Fizzing Whizzbees, and lev​itat​ing    sher​bert balls; along yet an​oth​er wall were 'Spe​cial Ef​fects' sweets: Droobles Best Blow​ing Gum (which filled a room with blue​bell-​ coloured bub​bles that   re​fused to pop for days), the strange, splin​tery Tooth​floss​ing String​mints, tiny black Pep​per Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chat​ter and squeak!'), pep​per​mint creams shaped like toads ('hop             re​al​is​ti​cal​ly in the stom​ach!'), frag​ile sug​ar-​spun quills and ex​plod​ing bon​bons.

I squeezed through a crowd of sixth-​years and saw a sign hang​ing in the.   fur​thest cor​ner of the shop ('Un​usu​al Tastes'). Harry, Ron and Hermione were stand​ing un​der​neath it, ex​am​in​ing a tray of blood-​flavoured   lol​lipops. I pushed through the crowd, toward them.

'Wow!' said Ron, look​ing very im-​pressed. 'You've learned to Ap​pa​rate!'
''Course I haven't,' said Har​ry. He dropped his voice so that none of the sixth-​years could hear
him and told them all about the          Ma​raud​er's Map.

'How come Fred and George nev​er gave it to me!' said Ron, out​raged. 'I'm their broth​er!'

'But Har​ry isn't go​ing to keep it!' said Hermione, as though the idea was.       lu​di​crous. 'He's go​ing to
hand it in to Pro​fes​sor McG​ona​gall, aren't you, Har​ry?'

'No, He's not!' I said.

'Are you mad?' said Fred, gi​ggling at Hermione. 'Hand in some​thing that good?'

'If I hand it in, I'll have to say where I got it! Filch would know that they nicked it!' Gesturing to us.

"And I'm afraid we'd have to kill you Harry" George said, "If you wasted all our hard work like that."

'But what about Sir​ius Black?' Hermione hissed. 'He could be us​ing one of the pas​sages on that
map to get in​to the cas​tle! The teach​ers have got to know!'

'He can't be get​ting in through a pas​sage,' said Har​ry quick​ly. 'There are   sev​en se​cret tun​nels on
the map, right?"

We nodded.

"Fred and George reck​on Filch al​ready knows about four of them. And the.    oth​er three – one of them's caved in, so no one can get through it. One of them's got the Whomp​ing Wil​low plant​ed over the en​trance, so you can't get out of it. And the one I just came through – well – it's re​al​ly hard to see the en​trance to it down in the cel​lar – so un​less he knew it was there –'

Har​ry hes​itat​ed.

"Harry he doesn't, don't be silly" I said.

Ron, how​ev​er, cleared his throat sig​nif​icant​ly, and point​ed to a no​tice past​ed on the in​side of the sweet​shop door.

BY OR​DER OF THE MIN​ISTRY OF MAG​IC
Cus​tomers are re​mind​ed that un​til.    fur​ther no​tice, De​men​tors will be pa​trolling the streets of Hogsmeade ev​ery night af​ter sun​down. This mea​sure has been put in place for the safe​ty of Hogsmeade res​idents and will be lift​ed up​on the re​cap​ture of Sir​ius Black. It is there​fore ad​vis​able
that you com​plete your shop​ping well be​fore night​fall.
Mer​ry Christ​mas!

"See?' said Ron qui​et​ly. 'I'd like to see Black try and break in​to Hon​ey​dukes with De​men​tors swarm​ing all over the vil​lage. Any​way, Hermione, the Hon​ey​dukes own​ers would hear a break in, wouldn't they? They live over the shop!'

"Yes, but – but –' Hermione seemed to be strug​gling to find an​oth​er prob​lem. 'Look, Har​ry still shouldn't be com​ing in​to Hogsmeade, he hasn't got a signed form! If any​one finds out, he'll be in so much trou​ble! And it's not night​fall yet – what if Sir​ius Black turns up to​day? Now?'

'He'd have a job spot​ting Har​ry in this,' said Ron, nod​ding through the mul​lioned win​dows at the thick, swirling snow.

'Come on, Hermione, it's Christ​mas, Har​ry de​serves a break.' Hermione bit her lip, look​ing ex​treme​ly wor​ried.
'Are you go​ing to re​port me?' Har​ry asked her, grin​ning.

'Oh – of course not – but hon​est​ly, Har​ry –'

'Seen the Fizzing Whizzbees, Har​ry?' said Ron, grab​bing him and lead​ing him over to their bar​rel. 'And the Jel​ly Slugs? And the Acid Pops? Fred gave me one of those when I was sev​en – it burnt a hole right through my tongue. I re​mem​ber Mum wal​lop​ing him with her broom​stick.' Ron stared brood​ing​ly in​to the Acid Pop box. 'Reck​on Fred'd take a bit of Cock​roach Clus​ter if I told him they were peanuts?'

"Absolutely not!" Fred said as he finally pushed his way through the crowd as I snickered.

"Ron, Mum sent me this and told me to split it with you" I said, holding out my hand. He held his up and and dropped two bronze knuts into his hand. "Spend it wisely" I said with a wink.

When Fred and George had paid for all their sweets, the three of us left Hon​ey​dukes for the bliz​zard out​side.

Hogsmeade looked like a Christ​mas card; the lit​tle thatched cot​tages and shops were all cov​ered in a lay​er of crisp snow; there were hol​ly wreaths on the doors and strings of en​chant​ed can​dles hang​- ing in the trees.

I shiv​ered as we head​ed up the street, heads bowed against the wind, Fred and George shout​ing through their scarves.
'Post Of​fice anybody?'

'Zonko's?'

"We could go up to the Shriek​ing Shack –'

'Tell you what,' I said my teeth chat​ter​ing, 'shall we go for a But​ter​beer in the Three Broom​-
sticks?"
They were both more than will​ing; the wind was fierce and our hands were freez​ing, so we crossed
the road, and in a few min​utes were   en​ter​ing the tiny inn.

It was ex​treme​ly crowd​ed, noisy, warm and smoky. A curvy sort of wom​an with a pret​ty face was serv​ing a bunch of row​dy war​locks up at the bar.

"Oh Rosmerta" Fred called with a wink and cheeky wave. She turned her head and rolled her eyes, finishing what she was doing before walking over to us.

"Three butter beers if you don't mind" Fred said,

"Coming right up" she said, reached below the bar to grab three bottles. She pushed them across the bar as George handed over 2 sickles.

"Thank you lovely" He said, and she smiled. We turned away from the bar, scanning the crowd to find a table.

Daph and Addy were sat at a table in the corner, furiously waving to get my attention. They called us over and we slid into the booth, slumping heavily on the seat.

"Where have you been?" Daph exclaimed, poking my shoulder.

"Doing.... Stuff" I said, "I did tell you not to wait for me,"

She rolled her eyes and took a sip of her butter beer. "We went to Scrivenshafts and Glad Rags"

"We went to honey dukes before freezing our arse cheeks off" Fred said,

"Don't even!" Addy said, "It's too cold for this."

"Soooooo common room?" I said and they all nodded so quickly, I was scared their heads would fall off.

We wrapped up tightly in our scarves, gloves and hats bracing ourselves to head out into the snow and back to the castle, completely unaware of the floating Christmas tree slowing creeping to the left to hide my mischievous little brother and his friends from view.