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

be Head of Slytherin,’ said Harry. ‘Something wrong, Hermione?’
    She was watching him as though expecting strange symptoms to manifest themselves at any moment. She rearranged her features hastily in an unconvincing smile.
    ‘No, of course not! So, um, did Slughorn seem like he’ll be a good teacher?’
    ‘Dunno,’ said Harry. ‘He can’t be worse than Umbridge, can he?’
    ‘I know someone who’s worse than Umbridge,’ said a voice from the doorway. Ron’s younger sister slouched into the room, looking irritable. ‘Hi, Harry.’
    ‘What’s up with you?’ Ron asked.
    ‘It’s her ,’ said Ginny, plonking herself down on Harry’s bed. ‘She’s driving me mad.’
    ‘What’s she done now?’ asked Hermione sympathetically.
    ‘It’s the way she talks to me – you’d think I was about three!’
    ‘I know,’ said Hermione, dropping her voice. ‘She’s so full of herself.’
    Harry was astonished to hear Hermione talking about Mrs Weasley like this and could not blame Ron for saying angrily, ‘Can’t you two lay off her for five seconds?’
    ‘Oh, that’s right, defend her,’ snapped Ginny. ‘We all know you can’t get enough of her.’
    This seemed an odd comment to make about Ron’s mother; starting to feel that he was missing something, Harry said, ‘Who are you –?’
    But his question was answered before he could finish it. The bedroom door flew open again and Harry instinctively yanked the bedcovers up to his chin so hard that Hermione and Ginny slid off the bed on to the floor.
    A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray.
    ‘’Arry,’ she said in a throaty voice. ‘Eet ’as been too long!’
    As she swept over the threshold towards him, Mrs Weasley was revealed, bobbing along in her wake, looking rather cross.
    ‘There was no need to bring up the tray, I was just about to do it myself!’
    ‘Eet was no trouble,’ said Fleur Delacour, setting the tray across Harry’s knees and then swooping to kiss him on each cheek: he felt the places where her mouth had touched him burn. ‘I ’ave been longing to see ’im. You remember my seester, Gabrielle? She never stops talking about ’Arry Potter. She will be delighted to see you again.’
    ‘Oh … is she here too?’ Harry croaked.
    ‘No, no, silly boy,’ said Fleur with a tinkling laugh, ‘I mean next summer, when we – but do you not know?’
    Her great blue eyes widened and she looked reproachfully at Mrs Weasley, who said, ‘We hadn’t got around to telling him yet.’
    Fleur turned back to Harry, swinging her silvery sheet of hair so that it whipped Mrs Weasley across the face.
    ‘Bill and I are going to be married!’
    ‘Oh,’ said Harry blankly. He could not help noticing how Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Ginny were all determinedly avoiding each other’s gaze. ‘Wow. Er – congratulations!’
    She swooped down upon him and kissed him again.
    ‘Bill is very busy at ze moment, working very ’ard, and I only work part-time at Gringotts for my Eenglish, so he brought me ’ere for a few days to get to know ’is family properly. I was so pleased to ’ear you would be coming – zere isn’t much to do ’ere, unless you like cooking and chickens! Well – enjoy your breakfast, ’Arry!’
    With these words she turned gracefully and seemed to float out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
    Mrs Weasley made a noise that sounded like ‘tchah!’
    ‘Mum hates her,’ said Ginny quietly.
    ‘I do not hate her!’ said Mrs Weasley in a cross whisper. ‘I just think they’ve hurried into this engagement, that’s all!’
    ‘They’ve known each other a year,’ said Ron, who looked oddly groggy and was staring at the closed door.
    ‘Well, that’s not very long! I know why it’s happened, of course. It’s all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they’re rushing all sorts of decisions they’d normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left right and centre –’
    ‘Including you and Dad,’ said Ginny slyly.
    ‘Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?’ said Mrs Weasley.