The First Year

Take a Right Turn

Teddy's stuffed dragon sailed across the sitting room. Harry sighed, and lowered himself to his stomach, reaching under the sofa with one hand, sweeping from one side to the other, searching for the soft plush. His fingers brushed across something squashy and closed on the edge and instead of Teddy's stuffed Welsh Common Green, Harry pulled out a dusty parcel, wrapped in red-and-white striped paper. Frowning, he set it on the sofa and flopped back to the floor, wriggling a little, so he was wedged under the sofa a bit. The dragon was just beyond his reach. Grunting, Harry managed to extricate himself from under the sofa, and pulled his wand from his pocket. 'Accio,' he muttered, and the dragon flew into his hand. He flicked his wand over the dragon, cleaning a few smudges of dust off and handed it to Teddy. He turned his attention back to the dusty parcel and thumbed the tag open. It was for him, but was unsigned. Harry glanced up as Molly walked into the sitting room. 'Molly, what's this?' he asked, holding up the parcel.

'Hmm. Not sure.' She held out a hand and Harry passed the parcel to her. 'Oh, I remember what this is... It's your Christmas jumper,' she said, with a slight hitch. She handed it back to Harry. 'From last Christmas. Ginny made it. She insisted on it, actually. I think she kept hoping the three of you would somehow manage to show up Christmas Day.'

Harry fingered the brightly-colored paper thoughtfully. 'We were here,' he admitted. 'Not Christmas Day, though. But a couple of days later.'

'Where did you find that?' Molly asked. 'I could have sworn we put Ron's, Hermione's and yours away after Christmas.'

'Under the sofa,' Harry said, gesturing with the gift.

'Well, why don't you open it?' Molly suggested. 'It's a lovely jumper. Ginny did a good job with it.'

'If you think it's all right...'

Molly jabbed her wand toward a corner of the sitting room, Summoning Teddy's dragon back to the blanket spread on the floor where Teddy sat. 'Yes. I do.'

Harry turned the package over in his hands a few times before carefully tearing a strip away. Handfuls of soft blue wool spilled into his hands. He shook it out, revealing a jumper the limpid blue of midsummer skies, with deep green bands around the cuffs and neck. 'It is nice,' he murmured.

'You ought to wear it on Saturday,' Molly said. She ran a hand over Harry's hair. 'You should let me give your hair a bit of a trim,' she said.

Harry laughed. 'I owe Ron five Sickles. We've been wondering when you were going to mention my hair.'

'It's so long, dear. It's disgraceful.'

Harry ran his fingers through his hair, letting it fall against the back of his neck and over his collar. 'Can you cut it for me after dinner?' he finally asked.

'Of course I can.' Molly Summoned Teddy's dragon once more, and gave it to Teddy.

'You're really good at that,' Harry commented. 'The endless throwing and fetching makes me want to grind my teeth into nubs.'

'After a while, it's something you don't even think about. I learned to do it without even thinking about it by the time Charlie got to that stage.'

Harry made a moue of distaste. 'That's how long it takes?'

'Only because Bill didn't do this,' Molly replied, flicking her wand at the dragon yet again. 'Not this much. Charlie, on the other hand, had a fascination with making things fly. Even if he had to throw them to make it happen. He constantly threw anything he could get his hands on out of his cot, and if you didn't put it back in a timely manner, he'd make such a fuss. Ron seemed to learn that if he voluntarily let go of something, he'd probably never get it back. George and... Fred would commandeer it.'