said Ginny. ‘You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can’t make contact the door’s been Imperturbed. I’ve been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there’s no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap.’
Fred heaved a deep sigh.
‘Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape’s been up to.’
‘Snape!’ said Harry quickly. ‘Is he here?’
‘Yeah,’ said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. ‘Giving a report. Top secret.’
‘Git,’ said Fred idly.
‘He’s on our side now,’ said Hermione reprovingly.
Ron snorted. ‘Doesn’t stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us.’
‘Bill doesn’t like him, either,’ said Ginny, as though that settled the matter.
Harry was not sure his anger had abated yet; but his thirst for information was now overcoming his urge to keep shouting. He sank on to the bed opposite the others.
‘Is Bill here?’ he 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 Co-operation at the Ministry of Magic.
At Harry’s words, all the Weasleys and Hermione 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’s mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he’s holding and Mum starts crying,’ Fred said.
‘It’s been awful,’ said Ginny sadly.
‘I think we’re well shot of him,’ said George, with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.
‘What’s happened?’ Harry said.
‘Percy and Dad had a row,’ said Fred. ‘I’ve never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It’s normally Mum who shouts.’
‘It was the first week back after term ended,’ said Ron. ‘We were about to come and join the Order. 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 it – they all thought 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 realised 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, who seemed very keen to keep normal conversation going now that Harry had stopped yelling. ‘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 is mud with the Ministry these days, see,’ 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 that 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 any more. And he packed his bags the same 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.
‘Mum’s been in a right state,’ said Ron. ‘You know – crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work – ignores him, I s’pose.’
‘But Percy must know Voldemort’s back,’ said Harry slowly. ‘He’s not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn’t risk everything without proof.’
‘Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row,’ said
