Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

6

Chapter 6—The Ghoul in Pajamas

Summary

Everyone is still in shock over Moody’s death, and Harry is determined to leave faster as a way of assuaging the guilt he feels over it. Ron continues to point out that he can’t leave before the Trace on him is broken, but it’s only in four days. Ron further insists that they must stay for the wedding, which is the day after. He tells Harry that Mrs. Weasley has been trying to get information out of him and Hermione, to figure out what they’re planning. Lupin and Mr. Weasley asked too, but when they told them that Dumbledore told Harry to confide in only them, they stopped badgering. True to form, Molly corners Harry a few hours later, asking Harry why the three of them are abandoning their educations. When Harry won’t tell her what they’re going to be up to, she insists that she has a right to know, and so do Hermione’s parents. Harry explains that they don’t have to come with him, but they’ve decided to, at which point Mrs. Weasley tells Harry that he likely misunderstood Dumbledore, and that there’s no way he specifically has to do the task Dumbledore set. Harry tells her calmly that she’s wrong, so Molly’s next plan of attack is to keep the trio fretfully busy in the preparations for the wedding. It works well to keep the three of them apart, preventing them from talking.

Ginny admits to Harry that Molly’s tactic is an attempt to delay their departure. Harry gives an aside about the idea of someone else killing Voldemort, tipping his hand to Ginny. Before they can talk, a few Order members pour in. The Burrow has been acting as HQ since Grimmauld Place’s Fidelius Charm was been weakened; with the death of Dumbledore, the Secret-Keeping duties passed to all twenty people whom Dumbledore had given the location to, which gave too many opportunities for Death Eaters to get it out of someone. Harry points out that Snape probably would have told them by now, but Arthur tells him that Moody left some curses about in case Snape showed up. At dinner, they discuss the state of the news—no one has reported on Alastor’s death and they couldn’t find his body so there was no funeral. Harry points out that no hearing has been called about all the underage magic he used in escaping the Death Eaters, and Arthur suggests that it’s because the Ministry doesn’t want people to know that Voldemort attacked Harry. Ron can’t understand why no one at the Ministry will stand up to him, but Arthur tells him that everyone is terrified that they’ll put themselves and their families in danger. He doesn’t believe that the Hogwarts Muggle Studies teacher has resigned, and hopes that Scrimgeour is spending all that time locked up in his office thinking of a plan.

Fleur points out that they have to disguise Harry for the wedding to be certain that no one will slip and say something about him. Molly asks if Ron has cleaned his room, which leads to a tiff, and when Harry volunteers to help, Molly tells him that she’d rather he helped Arthur muck out the chickens, and assigned Hermione to sheet-changing duty. It turns out that Arthur is using the coop to house the remnants of Sirius’ motorbike, which Ted Tonks sent along. So he sends Harry back to the house, where Ron and Hermione are hanging out in the still-dirty bedroom. (Molly forgot that she had already asked Hermione to change the sheets the day before.) Ron is theorizing that Moody could have survived, but Hermione keeps bogging him down with facts. Harry suggests that the Death Eaters probably dealt with his body similarly to how they dealt with Barty Crouch, which gets Hermione crying. Before Harry can apologize, Ron has bounded out of bed to comfort Hermione, using magic to pull the grease from his cleaning handkerchief and offering it up. Ron points out that Moody would want them to learn from his death, and that he’s never trusting Mundungus again.

Hermione is trying to sort their books, which ones they should take and which ones they can leave behind. Harry again tries to tell them hat they don’t need to accompany him, and they both tell him to shut up. When he persists, Hermione explains all the preparations she’s been doing; packing for days, smuggling Polyjuice Potion, and modifying her own parent’s memories so they move to Australia and don’t remember they have a daughter. Ron again comforts Hermione, looking reproachful at Harry, which is a first. Harry apologizes, and Hermione assures him that they both know the risks of accompanying him perfectly well. Ron opens a hatch in his ceiling and shows Harry up to where the ghoul in their house sleeps. He’s dressed in pajamas and has red hair now. Ron takes Harry back down to his room and explains that if anyone comes looking for him when he doesn’t show up to school, his family will be able to show them the ghoul and tell them that Ron has spattergroit, a highly contagious disease that prevents you from talking. His father and the twins transformed the ghoul for that purpose, and Hermione hopes that people will assume that, as a muggle-born, she’s simply fled the country with her parents. Harry finally understands that they’re coming with him, and is overcome.