Bella and the Chamber (Book Two)

Chapter Three

Nothing more was said until all the plate were clear, which surprisingly didn't take a long time.

"Blimey, I'm tired," yawned Fred, setting down his knife and fork at last. "I think I'll go to bed and-"

"You will not," Molly snapped. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me, they're getting completely out of hand again"

"Oh, mum-"

"And you two," she said, glaring at Ron and George. "You can go to bed, dear," she added to Harry. "You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car"

"I'll help Ron, I've never seen a de-gnoming-" Harry said quickly.

"It's nothing special," I muttered having seen it yesterday.

"That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work," Molly said. "Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject"

"Who's Lockhart?" Harry whispered to me and I shrugged, beats me. 

Molly pulled out a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece. George groaned.

"Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden"

I reached over and looked at the cover of Molly's book. Harry did the same. Written across it in fancy gold letters were the words: Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who I supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at us all. Molly beamed down at him.

"What's so special about him?" I ask. "He looks like a big-headed fraud"

"Fraud! Big-headed!" Molly exclaimed. "Oh, no dear, he is marvellous. He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book..."

Mum fancies him," Fred said, in a very audible whisper.

"Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," Molly said, her cheeks rather pink. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."

Yawning and grumbling, the Weasleys slouched outside with Harry behind them. I thanked Molly for the breakfast, ran upstairs and changed into a simple jeans and T-shirt and put my hair in a messy bun. After brushing my teeth, I bumped into a very flustered Ginny and I fought the urge to glare at her before I ran back downstairs and out into the garden with the boys. 

The garden was large, and in my eyes, it's exactly how a garden should be. My adoptive parents wouldn't have liked it- there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting - but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants I had never seen before spilling from every flowerbed and a big green pond full of frogs.

"...Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know," I heard Harry tell Ron whilst walking across the lawn. I ran and caught up with them. 

"Yep, they do," I said out of breath from running. "Man...I need to workout"

Harry glanced at me and it was like he was in awe of something. But what?

"Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes," Ron said, bent double with his head in a peony bush. "Like fat little Father Christmases with fishing rods..."

"They're so cute" I gushed. "But they can also be creepy...depends on where you get them from- what the hell is that?"

There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered and Ron straightened up. "This s a gnome," he said grimly.