Phoenix

Unlikely Information

"My mother," said Ron one night, as they sat in the tent on a riverbank in Wales, "can make good food appear out of thin air."

He prodded moodily at the lumps of charred, grey fish on his plate. I glanced automatically at Ron's neck and saw, as I had expected, the golden chain of the Horcrux glinting there.

"Your mother can't produce food out of thin air," said Hermione. "No one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfigur—"

"Oh, speak English, can't you?" Ron said, prising a fishbone out from between his teeth.

"Don't talk to her like that!" I snapped without looking up from my food.

"It's impossible to make good food out of nothing! You can Summon it if you know where it is, you can transform it, you can increase the quantity if you've already got some –"

"– well, don't bother increasing this, it's disgusting," said Ron.

"Kendra caught the fish and I did my best with it! I notice Kendra and I are always the one who ends up sorting out the food; because we're girls, I suppose!"

"No, it's because Kendra's supposed to be the best at hunting and you're supposed to be the best at magic!" shot back Ron.

Hermione jumped up and bits of roast pike slid off her tin plate on to the floor.

"You can do the cooking tomorrow, Ron, you can find the ingredients and try and charm them into something worth eating, and I'll sit here and pull faces and moan and you can see how you –"

I would have applauded her if I hadn't heard voices far off.

"Shut up!" said Harry, leaping to his feet and holding up both hands. "Shut up now!"

Hermione looked outraged.

"How can you side with him, he hardly ever does the cook—"

"Hermione, be quiet, I can hear someone!" I said.

I was listening hard, Harry's  hands still raised, warning them not to talk. Then, over the rush and gush of the dark river beside them, I heard voices again. I looked round at the Sneakoscope. It was not moving.

"You cast the Muffliato charm over us, right?" Harry whispered to Hermione.

"I did everything,"she whispered back, "Muffliato, Muggle- Repelling and Disillusionment Charms, all of it. They shouldn't be able to hear us, whoever they are."

The enchantments we had cast around ourselves should be sufficient, in the near total darkness, to shield us from the notice of Muggles and normal witches and wizards. If these were Death Eaters, then our defenses were about to be tested by Dark Magic for the first time.

The voices became louder but no more intelligible as the group of men reached the bank. I estimated that their owners were less than twenty feet away, but the cascading river made it impossible to tell for sure. Hermione snatched up the beaded bag and started to rummage; after a moment she drew out three Extendable Ears and threw one each to Harry, Ron, and I, whom hastily inserted the ends of the flesh-coloured strings into their ears and fed the other ends out of the tent entrance.

Within seconds I heard a weary, male voice.
"There ought to be a few salmon in here, or d'you reckon it's too early in the season? Accio salmon!"

There were several distinct splashes and then the slapping sounds of fish against flesh. Somebody grunted appreciatively. Over the murmur of the river I could make out more voices. After a few moments I realized that they were goblins.