He began to spoon soup into his mouthThe quality...
He began to spoon soup into his mouthThe quality of Kreacher's cooking had improved dramatically ever since he had been given Regulus's locket: Today's French onion was as good as Harry had ever tasted
"There are still a load of Death Eaters watching this house," he told Ron as he ate, "more than usualIt's like they're hoping we'll march out carrying our school trunks and head off for the Hogwarts Express
Ron glanced at his watch
"I've been thinking about that all dayIt left nearly six hours agoWeird, not being on it, isn't it?"
In his mind's eye Harry seemed to see the scarlet steam engine as he and Ron had once followed it by air, shimmering between fields and hills, a rippling scarlet caterpillarHe was sure Ginny, Neville, and Luna were sitting together at this moment, perhaps wondering where he, Ron, and Hermione were, or debating how best to undermine Snape's new regime
"They nearly saw me coming back in just now," Harry said, "I landed badly on the top step, and the Cloak slipped
"I do that every timeOh, here she is," Ron added, craning around in his seat to watch Hermione reentering the kitchen"And what in the name of Merlin's most baggy Y Fronts was that about?"
"I remembered this," Hermione panted
She was carrying a large, framed picture, which she now lowered to the floor before seizing her small, beaded bag from the kitchen sideboardOpening it, she proceeded to force the painting inside and despite the fact that it was patently too large to fit inside the tiny bag, within a few seconds it had vanished, like so much ease, into the bag's capacious depths
"Phineas Nigellus," Hermione explained as she threw the bag onto the kitchen table with the usual sonorous, clanking crash
"Sorry?" said Ron, mens cartier watch but Harry understoodThe painted image of Phineas Nigellus Black was able to travel between his portrait in Grimmauld Place and the one that hung in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts: the circular cower-top room where Snape was no doubt sitting right now, in triumphant possession of Dumbledore's collection of delicate, silver magical instruments, the stone Pensieve, the Sorting Hat and, unless it ad been moved elsewhere, the sword of Gryffindor
"Snape could send Phineas Nigellus to look inside this house for him," Hermione explained to Ron as she resumed her seat"But let him try it now, all Phineas Nigellus will be able to see is the inside of my handbag
"Good thinking!" said Ron, looking impressed
"Thank you," smiled Hermione, pulling her soup toward her"So, Harry, what else happened today?"
"Nothing," said Harry"Watched the Ministry entrance for seven hoursSaw your dad though, Ron
Ron nodded his appreciation of this newsThe had agreed that it was far too dangerous to try and communicate with MrWeasley while he walked in and out of the Ministry, because he was always surrounded by other Ministry workersIt was, however, reassuring to catch these glimpses of him, even if he did look very strained and anxious
"Dad always told us most Ministry people use the Floo Network to get to work," Ron said"That's why we haven't seen Umbridge, she'd never walk, she'd think she's too important
"And what about that funny old witch and that little wizard in the navy robes?" Hermione asked
"Oh yeah, the bloke from Magical Maintenance," said Ron
"How do you know he works for Magical Maintenance?" Hermione asked, her soupspoon suspended in midair
"Dad said everyone from Magical Maintenance wears navy blue robes
"But you omega chronograph watches never told us that!"
Hermione dropped her spoon and pulled toward her the sheaf of notes and maps that she and Ron had been examining when Harry had entered the kitchen
"There's nothing in here about navy blue robes, nothing!" she said, flipping feverishly through the pages
"Well, dies it really matter?"
"Ron, it \iall\i matters! If we're going to get into the Ministry and not give ourselves away when they're \ibound\i to be on the lookout for intruders, every little detail matters! We've been over and over this, I mean, what's the point of all these reconnaissance trips if you aren't even bothering to tell us -"
"Blimey, Hermione, I forget one little thing - "
"You do realize, don't you, that there's probably no more dangerous place in the whole world for us to be right now than the Ministry of -"
"I think we should do it tomorrow," said Harry
Hermione stopped dead, her jaw hanging; Ron choked a little over his soup
"Tomorrow?" repeated Hermione"You aren't serious, Harry?"
"I am," said Harry"I don't think we're going to be much better prepared than we are now even if we skulk around the Ministry entrance for another monthThe longer we put it off, the farther away that locket could beThere's already a good chance Umbridge has chucked it away; the thing doesn't open
"Unless," said Ron, "she's found a way of opening it and she's now possessed
"Wouldn't make any difference to her, she was so evil in the first place," Harry shrugged
Hermione was biting her lip, deep in thought
"We know everything important," Harry went on, addressing Hermione"We know they've stopped Apparition in and out of the Ministry; We know only the most senior Ministry members are allowed to connect their homes to the Floo Network fendi spy now, because Ron heard those two Unspeakables complaining about itAnd we know roughly where Umbridge's office is, because of what you heard the bearded bloke saying to his mate -"
"'\iI'll be up on level one, Dolores wants to see me\i,'" Hermione recited immediately
"Exactly," said Harry"And we know you get in using those funny coins, or tokens, or whatever they are, because I saw that witch borrowing one from her friend - "
"But we haven't got any!"
"If the plan works, we will have," Harry continued calmly
"I don't know, Harry, I don't know \a133 There are an awful lot of things that could go wrong, so much relies on chance \a133 "
That'll be true even if we spend another three months preparing," said Harry
He could tell from Ron's and Hermione's faces that they were scared; he was not particularly confident himself, and yet he was sure the time had come to put their plan into operation
They had spent the previous four weeks taking it in turns to don the Invisibility Cloak and spy on the official entrance to the Ministry, which Ron, thanks to MrWeasley, had known since childhoodThey had tailed Ministry workers on their way in, eavesdropped on their conversations, and learned by careful observation which of them could be relied upon to appear, alone, at the same time every dayOccasionally there had been a chance to sneak a \iDaily Prophet\i out of somebody's briefcaseSlowly they had built up the sketchy maps and notes now stacked in front of Hermione
"All right," said Ron slowly, "let's say we go for it tomorrow \a133 I think it should just be me and Harry
"Oh, don't start that again!" sighed Hermione"I thought we'd settled this
"It's one thing hanging around the entrances under the Cloak, but this is mens cartier watches roadster differentHermione," Ron jabbed a finger at a copy of the \iDaily Prophet\i dated ten days previously"You're on the list of Muggle-borns who didn't present themselves for interrogation!"
"And you're supposed to be dying of spattergroit at the Burrow! If anyone shouldn't go, it's Harry, he's got a ten-thousand-Galleon price on his head - "
"Fine, I'll stay here," said Harry"Let me know if you ever defeat Voldemort, won't you?"
As Ron and Hermione laughed, pain shot through the scar on Harry's foreheadHis hand jumped to itHe saw Hermione's eyes narrow, and he tried to pass off the movement by brushing his hair out of his eyes
"Well, if all three of us go we'll have to Disapparate separately," Ron was saying"We can't all fit under the Cloak anymore
Harry's scar was becoming more and more painfulAt once, Kreacher hurried forward
"Master has not finished his soup, would master prefer the savory stew, or else the treacle tart to which Master is so partial?"
"Thanks, Kreacher, but I'll be back in a minute - er - bathroom
Aware that Hermione was watching him suspiciously, Harry hurried up the stairs to the hall and then to the first landing, where he dashed into the bathroom and bolted the door againGrunting with pain, he slumped over the black basin with its taps in the form of open-mouthed serpents and closed his eyes \a133
He was gliding along a twilit streetThe buildings on either side of him had high, timbered gables; they looked like gingerbread housesHe approached one of them, then saw the whiteness of his own long-fingered hand against the doorHe felt a mounting excitement \a133
The door opened: A laughing woman stood thereHer face fell as she looked into Harry's face: humor gone, terror replacing it cheap chanel knock off bags \a133