PRIORI INCANTATEM by Arianna Waters (christmas read aloud TXT) 📕

“Let’s go downstairs. You must be famished,” Cedric said.

Harry followed him to the living room where the Marauders were having a good laugh over something.

The Weasleys, minus Charlie and Percy, arrived the next morning.

Lily gave directions to everyone the moment they arrived. “Arthur, Molly — take the bedroom on the right, first floor . . . Ron — put your stuff in Harry’s room . . . Bill — you’re going to stay with Cedric . . . Ginny — top floor, left . . . Fred and George — same on the right!”

“Go now and put your stuff in your rooms, settle down and come back for lunch,” yelled Molly Weasley, though the second half of her sentence was drowned by the screeches of Mrs. Black.

“BLOODY HELL!” said Ron. “What exactly is that?” he asked Harry.

“Nothing . . . Just my god-grandmother,” Harry replied, grinning. This was the best summer he had in years, one of the major reasons — it being Dursley free.

Ron was appreciating the cheerfulness of the room he and Harry were sharing (note the sarcasm) with Ron’s owl Pigwidgeon zooming over their heads in circles, making excited noises, as Hedwig glared at it from the top of a dark wardrobe where she was perched upon.

With two loud cracks, Fred and George, Ron’s elder twin brothers materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.

“Stop doing that!” Ron said grumpily.

“You two passed your Apparation tests, then?” asked Harry grinning at the twins.

“With distinction,” said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-colored string.

“It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs,” said Ron, as Ginny entered the room.

“Time is Galleons, little brother,” said Fred. “Extendable Ears,” he added in response to Harry’s raised eyebrows, holding up the string.

“Why is Bill here?” Harry asked. “I thought he was working in Egypt.”

“He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order,” said Fred. “He says he misses the tombs, but,” he smirked, “there are compensations. . . .”

“What d’you mean?”

“Remember old Fleur Delacour?” said George. “She’s got a job at Gringotts to eemprove ’er Eeenglish —”

“— and Bill’s been giving her a lot of private lessons,” sniggered Fred.

“Charlie’s in the Order too,” said George, “but he’s still in Romania, Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie’s trying to make contacts on his days off.”

“Couldn’t Percy do that?” Harry asked. The last he had heard, the third Weasley brother was working in the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry of Magic.

At these words all the Weasleys exchanged darkly significant looks.

“Whatever you do, don’t mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad,” Ron told Harry in a tense voice.

“Why not?”

“Because every time Percy’s name is mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he’s holding and Mum starts crying,” Ginny said.

“What’s happened?” Harry said.

“Percy and Dad had a row yesterday,” said Fred. “I’ve never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It’s normally Mum who shouts. . . .”

“We were packing for coming here” said Ron. “Percy came home and told us he’d been promoted.”

“You’re kidding?” said Harry.

Though he knew perfectly well that Percy was highly ambitious, Harry’s impression was that Percy had not made a great success of his first job at the Ministry of Magic. Percy had committed the fairly large oversight of failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by Lord Voldemort (not that the Ministry had believed that — they all thought that Mr. Crouch had gone mad).

“Yeah, we were all surprised,” said George, “because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn’t going to complain. . . .”

“So how come they promoted him?”

“That’s exactly what we wondered,” said Ron. “He came home really pleased with himself — even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that — and told Dad he’d been offered a position in Fudge’s own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts — Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think.”

“Only Dad wasn’t,” said Fred grimly.

“Why not?” said Harry.

“Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody’s having any contact with Dumbledore,” said George.

“Dumbledore’s name’s mud with the Ministry these days, Dad told us,” said Fred. “They all think he’s just making trouble saying You-Know-Who’s back.”

“Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who’s in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks,” said George.

“Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he’s friendly with Dumbledore, and he’s always thought Dad’s a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession —”

“But what’s this got to do with Percy?” asked Harry, confused.

“I’m coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family — and Dumbledore.”

Harry let out a low whistle.

“Bet Percy loved that.”

Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way.

“He went completely berserk. He said — well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he’s been having to struggle against Dad’s lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad’s got no ambition and that’s why we’ve always been — you know — not had a lot of money, I mean —”

“What?” said Harry in disbelief, as Ginny made a noise like an angry cat.

“I know,” said Ron in a low voice. “And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he — Percy — knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn’t belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags at night and left. He’s living here in London now.”

Harry swore under his breath. He had always liked Percy least of Ron’s brothers, but he had never imagined he would say such things to Mr. Weasley.

The door to their room opened. It was Lily. She said, “The dinner’s ready kids. We’re eating in the kitchen, Harry will lead you there. Others are going to join us shortly, so be quick.”

“We’ll be down in a minute, Mrs. Potter,” Ginny spoke.

“Oi! I’m Lily . . . don’t call me Mrs. Potter, or I’m going to hex you,” she said giving her a fake frown before going back downstairs.

“Yeah, she’s a Marauder’s girl!” James winked at Ginny from the door.

“What do you mean?” asked Fred.

“The Marauders —” said George.

“—as in THE Marauders?” Fred asked.

“As in — Moony, Wormtail —”

“— Padfoot and Prongs?”

“Yeah, I’m Prongs,” James said casually, as he sat beside Harry.

“Are you serious?” the Twins asked in unison.

“No, Sirius’ Padfoot,” James grinned.

“And Moony is our good old Professor Lupin,” Ron said.

“You knew —?” George yelled at Ron.

“— and you didn’t tell us!” Fred said.

“We worship the Marauders —” George said.

“— and son of a Marauder is our brother’s best friend!” Fred cried.

“This is an outrage —” George yelled.

“— a scandal‼” Fred spoke.

“Whoa!” James said, grinning at the twins. “Calm down, guys.” Ron, Harry and Ginny were laughing hysterically.

“You’re our idols!” Fred and George said.

“Remember dad?” Harry spoke. “I told you something about Hogwarts pranksters . . . meet the two and only — most popular — the Weasley Twins!”

Fred and George gave James a low bow.

“Ah,” said James. “I, along with Sirius and Remus, will give you personal pranking lessons if you come down right now for dinner, or Lily will kill me.”

The twins stood up on their feet with an impossible speed. “It’s a deal,” they shouted and disapparated at once.

“Their way of saving time,” Ginny said, shaking her head.

James exchanged a look with Harry, who mouthed ‘Told you, dad’.

Dinner was fun for the residents of Grimmauld place that night. Harry and the Weasley kids were introduced to young Nymphadora Tonks (who preferred to be called Tonks), the real Mad-Eye Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and other members of the Order who were staying for dinner.

Tonks was a metamorphagus, and was entertaining Ginny and the rest by changing her looks, especially making funny noses. The best thing Harry liked about her so far was how she greeted him, saying “Wotcher, Harry!” Also, she was dead clumsy for an Auror.

Fred and George were laughing with Mundungus Fletcher as he was telling them jokes about his business.

Cedric was talking to James and Remus about Auror training.

Suddenly, Kingsley spoke up. “You’re in Fifth year, aren’t you?” He looked at Harry and Ron.

Both of them nodded.

“So, the Prefects will be made this year?”

Harry hadn’t thought about it yet. What was he expecting? Will he be made a Prefect?

“I think that Hermione is definitely going to be a Prefect,” said Ron.

“And Harry!” added Cedric.

“Oi! I’m going to disown you if you become a Prefect,” James shouted from across the table, getting a smack on his head from Lily.

“Yeah,” said Sirius. “No godson of mine should become a boring Prefect.”

“So, you weren’t a Prefect, dad?” Harry asked, genuinely interested.

“Nah! Too much of a troublemaker for being a Prefect,” his father said. “The good boy Remus got the badge.” He got a fierce glare from Remus, which he daftly ignored.

“Your mother was a Prefect though,” said Remus.

“I’m sure Lily Jr. will definitely get the badge,” James said.

“Who?” asked Kingsley.

“Hermione!” Harry said, choking on his pumpkin juice. He decided he did not want to become a Prefect. He already had much on his plate. But if he became one . . . he will see then, he decided. He had better things to concentrate on, like the treacle tart Lily had made for him.

Next few days proved tiring for Harry and the other teenagers. As the house hadn’t been lived in for more than a decade, and the pathetic house-elf Kreacher was no good what-so-ever, the group, along with Lily, Molly, James and Sirius had been busy cleaning it to make inhabitable. The elders had regular Order meetings to cope with as well, at which none of them, except Cedric Diggory was allowed.

A week later, Harry got up to find a pleasant surprise, as he heard a far too well-known voice in his room.

“Hermione!” he shouted over to her, as he wore his glasses, waking Ron up in the process.

The bushy haired girl hugged him and Ron, the latter doing so a bit embarrassed.

“I just got here,” said Hermione. “So, what have you been doing all this time?” she asked.

“Cleaning!” both Harry and Ron responded, offended.

“Cool!” she said.

“Cool?” cried Fred, as he and George apparated in the room, causing Hermione to fall back in shock. “Let’s see if you can survive one day under the directions of mum and Lily!”

“Do they do that often?” asked Hermione, in reference to their apparation.

“Oh, don’t ask,” said Ron at the same time when Harry said, “All the time!”

The twins went back with another loud CRACK. Ron and Harry filled in Hermione about the little bits they knew due to James and Sirius’ liberty — that the Order was trying to inconspicuously make people believe that Voldemort had returned, and the members were guarding some sort of weapon which Voldemort did not have the last time. Harry, Ron and the twins had spent a lot of time trying to get to know what that weapon was, but with no luck. Meanwhile, the Ministry was going all against Dumbledore and Harry — which was immediately judged as foolhardy and completely ignored