Discovery

78.

After reconciling with my parents, I packed my bag and Flooed to the Burrow, where we would be spending Christmas. Mum and Sirius stayed behind, promising to come on Christmas Day.

"The Weasley Burrow!" I shouted, throwing the Floo Powder at my feet. Suddenly, I shot through the fireplace, hitting my feet on the leg of a table.

"Ella!" Ron said, looking down at me. "Didn't know you were coming!"

"Yeah, yeah. Want to give me a hand?"

"Oh, right!" Ron offered his hand and pulled me to my feet, then returned to the sink where him and Harry had been standing. "We're peeling sprouts for Mum, if you want to help."

"Sure," I walked over to the sink and grabbed a sprout and a knife.

"So are you sure?" Ron asked Harry.

"If you ask that once more," said Harry, "I'm going to stick this sprout —"

"I'm only checking!" said Ron.

"What's all this about?" I asked.

"Snape was offering to help Malfoy!" said Harry. "He said he'd promised Malfoy's mother to protect him, that he'd made an Unbreakable Oath or something —"

"When did you hear this?" I questioned.

"I was walking back from Slughorn's party. Followed him and Snape into a corridor. Snape said something about the Unbreakable thing..."

"An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned. "Nah, he can't have. . . . Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?"

"Well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow. . . ." I said.

"I'd worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?" Harry asked.

"You die," said Ron simply. "Fred and George tried to get me to make one when I was about five. I nearly did too, I was holding hands with Fred and everything when Dad found us. He went mental," he said, with a reminiscent gleam in his eyes. "Only time I've ever seen Dad as angry as Mum. Fred reckons his left buttock has never been the same since."

"Yeah, well, passing over Fred's left buttock —"

"I beg your pardon?" said Fred's voice as the twins entered the kitchen.

"Aaah, George, look at this. They're using knives and everything. Bless them." Fred came up behind me and patted my head.

"Oh shut up," I groaned.

"I'll be seventeen in two and a bit months' time," said Ron grumpily, "and then I'll be able to do it by magic!"

"But meanwhile," said George, sitting down at the kitchen table and putting his feet up on it, "we can enjoy watching you demonstrate the correct use of a — whoops-a-daisy!"

Ron missed the sprout and cut down on his thumb, causing drops of blood to fall onto the counter.

"You made me do that!" said Ron angrily, sucking his cut thumb. "You wait, when I'm seventeen —"