Our time •|Harry Potters Twin Sister|• {book two}

Chapter 14

The days passed quickly and soon Christmas Eve was upon us.

We were sitting in the living room, which Ginny had decorated so lavishly that it was rather like sitting in a paper-chain explosion. Fred, George, Harry, Ron and I were the only ones who knew that the angel on top of the tree was actually a garden gnome that had bitten Fred on the ankle as he pulled up carrots for Christmas dinner. Stupefied, painted gold, stuffed into a miniature tutu and with small wings glued to his back, it glowered down at them all, the ugliest angel I had ever seen, with a large bald head like a potato and rather hairy feet.

We were all supposed to be listening to a Christmas broadcast by Mrs. Weasley's favorite singer, Celestina Warbeck, whose voice was warbling out of the large wooden wireless set. Fleur, who seemed to find Celestina very dull, was talking so loudly in the corner that a scowling Mrs. Weasley kept pointing her wand at the volume control, so that Celestina grew louder and louder.

Under cover of a particularly jazzy number called "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love," Fred and George started a game of Exploding Snap with Ginny.

Ron kept shooting Bill and Fleur covert looks, as though hoping to pick up tips.

Meanwhile, Remus Lupin, who was thinner and more ragged-looking than ever, was sitting beside the fire, staring into its depths as though he could not hear Celestina's voice.

"Oh, come and stir my cauldron,

And if you do it right

I'll boil you up some hot, strong love

To keep you warm tonight. "

"We danced to this when we were eighteen!" said Mrs. Weasley, wiping her eyes on her knitting. "Do you remember, Arthur?"

"Mphf?" said Mr. Weasley, whose head had been nodding over the satsuma he was peeling. "Oh yes . . . marvelous tune. . . "

With an effort, he sat up a little straighter and looked around at Harry and I , who were sitting next to him.

"Sorry about this," he said, jerking his head toward the wireless as Celestina broke into the chorus. "Be over soon. "

"No problem," said Harry, grinning. "Has it been busy at the Ministry?"

"Very," said Mr. Weasley. "I wouldn't mind if we were getting anywhere, but of the three arrests we've made in the last couple of months, I doubt that one of them is a genuine Death Eater--only don't repeat that," he added quickly, looking much more awake all of a sudden.

"They're not still holding Stan Shunpike, are they?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so," said Mr. Weasley. "I know Dumbledore's tried appealing directly to Scrimgeour about Stan. . . I mean, anybody who has actually interviewed him agrees that he's about as much a Death Eater as this satsuma. . . but the top levels want to look as though they're making some progress, and 'three arrests' sounds better than 'three mistaken arrests and releases'. . . but again, this is all top secret. . . "

"We won't say anything," said Harry. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, which made me frown at him. As he was pondering whatever he was about to say, Celestina Warbeck began a ballad called "You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me. "

Mr. Weasley, you know what I told you at the station when we were setting off for school?"

"I checked, Harry," said Mr. Weasley at once. "I went and searched the Malfoys' house. There was nothing, either broken or whole, that shouldn't have been there."

I huffed, rolling my eyes at Harry.

"Yeah, I know, I saw in the Prophet that you'd looked . . . but this is something different. . . . Well, something more ..."