Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [7]

⚡️ Chapter 8 ⚡️

Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword to Vega, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch.

"Are you okay?" Fred muttered into Vega's ear as the younger female sat down on the chair next to him, and Vega nodded as she felt his hand on her knee.

"I'm alright," Vega assured him quietly. "Let's talk later tonight... how about one?" She glanced around the table. "Be careful when sneaking past your parents,"

As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third of fourth time, Mrs. Weasley turned to look at Harry and asked tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry we didn't like to start without you... shall I serve dinner now?"

They all ate rather hurriedly and then after a hasty chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighbouring field. Vega wanted to go help but she couldn't leave the vicinity.

"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Vega and Hermione, while they helped Mrs. Weasley restore the garden to its normal state. "After everyone's gone to bed,"

Vega and Hermione managed to get through their duties quickly and joined Ron and Harry in the attic room, where Ron was examining his Deluminator, and Harry filled Hagrid's mokeskin purse, not with gold, but with those items he most prized, apparently worthless though some of them were the Marauder's Map and the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror.

Harry pulled the string tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old Snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly.

"Muffiato," Hermione whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs before entering the room behind Vega.

"Thought you didn't approve of that spell?" Ron said.

"Times change," Hermione replied. "Now, show us that Deluminator,"

Ron obliged at once. Holding it up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once, leaving them in total darkness.

"The thing is," Hermione whispered through the dark. "We could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder,"

There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more. Vega turned to look at the Deluminator.

"Still, it's cool," Ron responded, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"

"I know but, surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!" Hermione said.

"Well, there must be something else about the Deluminator," Vega pointed out. "I believe that there was a reason we were left these things. There must be something hidden in them. And those things may only manifest when we need it. He must've known about the Ministry,"

"So, you really think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will," Harry spoke up as he looked at her. "And examine everything he'd left us?"

"That has to be it," Vega replied. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that will doesn't explain..."

"... why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" Ron asked.

"Well, exactly," Hermione said, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have left us know why... unless he thought it was obvious?"