meant to be (2)

12

"YOU HAVE WHAT-!?" Ron almost shouted after I've told my friends about Dumbledore and my conversation.

"Shush! Keep your voice down!" I said, looking around the Great Hall anxiously, almost dropping my spoon. "I just told you, you're the only ones I'm allowed to tell."

"Sorry" he mumbled.

"But what does that mean?" Hermione asked, looking up from her book ('Voyages with Vampires') "Why do you have it?"

"Don't know." I said miserably. "He wouldn't tell me, said it was for an unknown reason."

"Post's due any minute - I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot" Neville said, oblivious to our conversation. I had only just started my porridge when, sure enough, there was a rushing sound overhead and a hundred or so owls streamed in, circling the Hall and dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd.

A big, lumpy parcel bounced off Nevilles head, and a second later, something large and grey fell into Hermione's jug, spraying us all with milk and feathers.

"Errol" said Ron, pulling the bedraggled owl out by the feet, while I looked at a letter in front of me, which was from my parents. Errol slumped, unconscious, onto the table, his legs in the air and a damp red envelope in his beak.

"Oh no-" Ron gasped.

"It's all right, he's still alive" said Hermione, prodding Errol gently with the tip of her finger.

"It's not that - it's that."

Ron was pointing at the red envelope. Oh no.

"What's the matter?" asked Harry.

"She's - she's sent me a Howler" said Ron faintly.

"You'd better open it, Ron" said Neville, in a timid whisper. "It'll be worse if you don't. My Gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and-" he gulped, "it was horrible"

"What's a Howler?" Harry asked again.

But Ron's whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners.

"Open it" Neville urged. "It'll all be over in a few minutes..."

Ron stretched out a shaking hand, eased the envelope from Errol's beak and slit it open. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears. I thought for amoment it had exploded; a roar of sound filed the huge hall

"..STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDNT HAVE BEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU HAVE TO GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT HAD GONE..!"

Mrs Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the Hall were swieling around to see who had received the Howler and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen.

"...LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU, JULIE AND HARRY COULD HAVE DIED..."

I had been wondering when my name was going to crop up. I tried very hard to look as though he couldn't hear the voice that was making my eardrums throb and was debating whether to read my letter right now or not.

"...ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED, YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME"

A ringing silence fell. The red envelope, which had dropped from Ron's hand, burst into flames and curled into ashes. We sat stunned, as though a tidal wave had just passed over us. A few people laughed and, gradually, a babble of talk broke out again. Hermione closed Voyages with Vampirs and looked down at Ron's head.