you a ’pology,’ grunted a voice from the middle of the smelly cloud.
‘For the last time, Mundungus,’ called Mrs Weasley, ‘will you please not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially not when we’re about to eat!’
‘Ah,’ said Mundungus. ‘Right. Sorry, Molly.’
The cloud of smoke vanished as Mundungus stowed his pipe back in his pocket, but an acrid smell of burning socks lingered.
‘And if you want dinner before midnight I’ll need a hand,’ Mrs Weasley said to the room at large. ‘No, you can stay where you are, Harry dear, you’ve had a long journey.’
‘What can I do, Molly?’ said Tonks enthusiastically, bounding forwards.
Mrs Weasley hesitated, looking apprehensive.
‘Er – no, it’s all right, Tonks, you have a rest too, you’ve done enough today.’
‘No, no, I want to help!’ said Tonks brightly, knocking over a chair as she hurried towards the dresser, from which Ginny was collecting cutlery.
Soon, a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables of their own accord, supervised by Mr Weasley, while Mrs Weasley stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire and the others took out plates, more goblets and food from the pantry. Harry was left at the table with Sirius and Mundungus, who was still blinking at him mournfully.
‘Seen old Figgy since?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said Harry, ‘I haven’t seen anyone.’
‘See, I wouldn’t ’ave left,’ said Mundungus, leaning forward, a pleading note in his voice, ‘but I ’ad a business opportunity —’
Harry felt something brush against his knees and started, but it was only Crookshanks, Hermione’s bandy-legged ginger cat, who wound himself once around Harry’s legs, purring, then jumped on to Sirius’s lap and curled up. Sirius scratched him absent-mindedly behind the ears as he turned, still grim-faced, to Harry.
‘Had a good summer so far?’
‘No, it’s been lousy,’ said Harry.
For the first time, something like a grin flitted across Sirius’s face.
‘Don’t know what you’re complaining about, myself.’
‘What?’ said Harry incredulously.
‘Personally, I’d have welcomed a Dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. You think you’ve had it bad, at least you’ve been able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few fights … I’ve been stuck inside for a month.’
‘How come?’ asked Harry, frowning.
‘Because the Ministry of Magic’s still after me, and Voldemort will know all about me being an Animagus by now, Wormtail will have told him, so my big disguise is useless. There’s not much I can do for the Order of the Phoenix … or so Dumbledore feels.’
There was something about the slightly flattened tone of voice in which Sirius uttered Dumbledore’s name that told Harry that Sirius, too, was not very happy with the Headmaster. Harry felt a sudden upsurge of affection for his godfather.
‘At least you’ve known what’s been going on,’ he said bracingly.
‘Oh yeah,’ said Sirius sarcastically. ‘Listening to Snape’s reports, having to take all his snide hints that he’s out there risking his life while I’m sat on my backside here having a nice comfortable time … asking me how the cleaning’s going —’
‘What cleaning?’ asked Harry.
‘Trying to make this place fit for human habitation,’ said Sirius, waving a hand around the dismal kitchen. ‘No one’s lived here for ten years, not since my dear mother died, unless you count her old house-elf, and he’s gone round the twist – hasn’t cleaned anything in ages.’
‘Sirius,’ said Mundungus, who did not appear to have paid any attention to the conversation, but had been minutely examining an empty goblet. ‘This solid silver, mate?’
‘Yes,’ said Sirius, surveying it with distaste. ‘Finest fifteenth-century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the Black family crest.’
‘That’d come orf, though,’ muttered Mundungus, polishing it with his cuff.
‘Fred – George – NO, JUST CARRY THEM!’ Mrs Weasley shrieked.
Harry, Sirius and Mundungus looked round and, within a split second, they had dived away from the table. Fred and George had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of Butterbeer and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, to hurtle through the air towards them. The stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface; the flagon of Butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere; the bread knife slipped off the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius’s right hand had been seconds before.
‘FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!’ screamed Mrs Weasley. ‘THERE WAS NO NEED – I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS – JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW, YOU DON’T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!’
‘We were just trying to save a bit of time!’ said Fred, hurrying forward to wrench the bread knife out of the table. ‘Sorry, Sirius, mate – didn’t mean to —’
Harry and Sirius were both laughing; Mundungus, who had toppled backwards off his chair, was swearing as he got to his feet; Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, from where his large yellow eyes glowed in the darkness.
‘Boys,’ Mr Weasley said, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, ‘your mother’s right, you’re supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you’ve come of age —’
‘None of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!’ Mrs Weasley raged at the twins as she slammed a fresh flagon of Butterbeer on to the table, and spilling almost as much again. ‘Bill didn’t feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn’t charm everything he met! Percy —’
She stopped dead, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden.
‘Let’s eat,’ said Bill quickly.
‘It looks wonderful, Molly,’ said Lupin, ladling stew on to a plate for her and handing it across the table.
For a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food. Then Mrs Weasley turned to Sirius.
‘I’ve been meaning to tell you, Sirius, there’s something trapped in that writing desk in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a Boggart, but I thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it before we let it out.’
‘Whatever you like,’ said Sirius indifferently.
‘The curtains in there are full of Doxys, too,’ Mrs Weasley went on. ‘I thought we might try and tackle them tomorrow.’
‘I
