Silver Hourglass

Dumbledore's Army Chapter 44

"Why aren't we going to the Three Broomsticks?" Harry asked as he and Draco passed Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade.

"Well it's always packed and noisy," Draco said. "And Granger had told everyone to meet at the Hog's Head, the one off the main road. It's a bit dodgy, but the students don't normally go there. I guess Granger thinks we'll won't be overheard."

The turned up a side street at the top of which stood a small inn. A battered wooden sign hung from a rusty bracket over the door, with a picture upon it of a wild boar's severed head leaking blood onto the white cloth around it. The sign creaked in the wind as they approached. The couple hesitated outside the door for a moment before heading inside. It was not at all like the Tree Broomsticks, whose large bar gave an impression of gleaming warmth and cleanliness. The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats.

The barman sidled toward them out of a back room. He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long gray hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry.

"What?" he grunted.

"Two butterbeers," Draco said. Harry looked around and found Hermione and Ron in the back, both looking a tad uncomfortable. The man reached beneath the counter and pulled up two very dusty, very dirty bottles, which he slammed on the bar.

"Four Sickles," he said.

"I got them," Harry said quickly, passing over the silver. The barman's eyes traveled over harry, resting for a fraction of a second on his scar. Then he turned away and deposited Harry's money in an ancient wooden till whose drawer slid open automatically to receive it. Harry and Draco walked to Ron and Hermione, who looked up. Harry saw that Blaise and Theo were also there, sitting next to Ron and Hermione at the small table. Just as Harry and Draco sat down, the door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlight split the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by the incoming rush of a crowd of people.

First came Neville with Dean, Seamus and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho and one of her usually giggling girlfriends, then came Ginny with a girl who had a dreamy look about her, then the Gryffindor Quidditch team came, followed by Colin and Dennis Creevey, (who both waved enthusiastically when they saw the Slytherin), Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, and a Hufflepuff girl with a long plait down her back whose name Harry didn't know; three Ravenclaw boys he was pretty sure called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot; a tall skinny blond boy with an upturned nose whom Harry recognized vaguely as being a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, and bringing up the rear, Fred and George Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko's merchandise.

"A couple of people?" the Slytherin said hoarsely to Hermione. "A couple of people?"

"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," Hermione said happily. "Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs? Blaise—you should help too."

The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly he had never seen his pub so full.

"Hi," Fred said, reaching the bar first, and counting his companions quickly. "Could we have ...twenty-five butterbeers, please?"

The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing down his rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something very important, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under the bar.

"Cheers," Fred said, handing them out. "Cough up everyone. I haven't got enough gold for all of these. ... 'cept for Colin and his little brother! Everyone else, cough up!"