Harry Potter 06 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

She had disappeared from Slughorn’s party before he returned to it, or so he had been informed by an irate McLaggen, and she had already gone to bed by the time he returned to the common room. As he and Ron had left for The Burrow early the next day, he had barely had time to wish her a Happy Christmas and to tell her that he had some very important news when they got back from the holidays. He was not entirely sure that she had heard him, though; Ron and Lavender had been saying a thoroughly non-verbal goodbye just behind him at the time.
    Still, even Hermione would not be able to deny one thing: Malfoy was definitely up to something, and Snape knew it, so Harry felt fully justified in saying ‘I told you so’, which he had done several times to Ron already.
    Harry did not get the chance to speak to Mr Weasley, who was working very long hours at the Ministry, until Christmas Eve night. The Weasleys and their guests 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 and Ron 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 its back, it glowered down at them all, the ugliest angel Harry had ever seen, with a large bald head like a potato and rather hairy feet.
    They were all supposed to be listening to a Christmas broadcast by Mrs Weasley’s favourite singer, Celestina Warbeck, whose voice was warbling out of the large wooden wireless. 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 … marvellous tune …’
    With an effort he sat up a little straighter and looked round at Harry, who was sitting next to him.
    ‘Sorry about this,’ he said, jerking his head towards 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, Harry,’ he added quickly, looking much more awake all of a sudden.
    ‘They’re not still holding Stan Shunpike, are they?’ asked Harry.
    ‘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 …’
    ‘I won’t say anything,’ said Harry. He hesitated for a moment, wondering how best to embark on what he wanted to say; as he marshalled his thoughts, 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.’
    ‘Yeah, I know, I saw in the Prophet that you’d looked … but this is something different … well, something more …’
    And he told Mr Weasley everything he had overheard between Malfoy