Friendless » Fred Weasley

clxxxii. the reunion

There was something was clearly going on with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Anyone could figure that out by the third day of staying a Shell Cottage. Nobody asked questions.

Tensions also started to rise the longer they spent. Griphook ate only grudgingly with the rest of them. Even after his legs had mended, he continued to request trays of food in his room, like the still-frail Ollivander, until Bill (following an angry outburst from Fleur) went upstairs to tell him that the arrangement could not continue. Thereafter Griphook joined them at the overcrowded table, although he refused to eat the same food, insisting, instead, on lumps of raw meat, roots, and various fungi.

Tori knew Harry felt responsible: It was, after all, he who had insisted that the goblin remains at Shell Cottage so that he could question him; his fault that the whole Weasley family had been driven into hiding, that Bill, Fred, George, and Mr. Weasley could no longer work.

"I'm sorry," Harry told Fleur, one blustery April evening as he helped her and Tori prepare dinner. "I never meant you to have to deal with all of this."

Fleur had just set some knives to work, chipping up steaks for Griphook and Bill, who had preferred his meat bloody ever since he had been attacked by Greyback. Tori followed her lead, chopping the meat evenly. While the knives sliced behind her, her somewhat irritable expression softened.

"'Arry, you saved my sister's life, I do not forget."

This was not, strictly speaking, true, but Harry decided against reminding her that Gabrielle had never been in real danger.

"Anyway," Fleur went on, pointing her want at a pot of sauce on the stove, which began to bubble at once, "Mr. Ollivander and Tori leave for Muriel's zis evening. Zat will make zings easier. Ze goblin," she scowled a little at the mention of him, "Can move downstairs, and you, Ron, and Dean can take zat room."

"We don't mind sleeping in the living room," said Harry, "Don't worry about us." And when she tried to protest he went on, "We'll be off your hands soon too, Ron, Hermione, and I. We won't need to be here much longer."

"But, what do you mean?" She said, frowning at him, her wand pointing at the casserole dish now suspended in midair. "Of course you must not leave, you are safe 'ere!"

She looked rather like Molly as she said it, and Tori was glad that the back door opened at that moment. Luna and Dean entered, their hair damp from the rain outside and their arms full of driftwood.

"... and tiny little ears," Luna was saying, "a bit like hippo's, Daddy says, only purple and hairy. And if you want to call them, you have to hum; they prefer a waltz, nothing too fast...."

Looking uncomfortable, Dean shrugged at Harry and Tori as he passed, following Luna into the combined dining and sitting room where Ron and Hermione were laying the dinner table.

Seizing the chance to escape Fleur's questions, Harry grabbed two jugs of pumpkin juice and followed them. Fleur sighed, looking at Tori. "Bill should be down 'ere soon. You should go."