The Sleeping Princess

6- The Old Wizard

The ride back to the house was a quiet one. Ron sat there looking at the rolling dark hills as the sun stretch across the sky, not bothering to speak as he thought everything over. Was this how the world had become since the curse was placed? If so, then maybe they were better off asleep.

"I don't like it," he said to no one in particular.

"None of us do," Hermione admitted, thinking he was speaking to her. "But if we try to fight back, we could end up getting innocent people killed. You have to be careful. The last thing that we want is to get killed on the spot."

"But surely there has to be someone to keep them in line?" Ron asked almost desperately.

"Not since the curse was placed on the castle," Harry said calmly. "The royalty there kept the nobles in line. But that's all history now."

"Look," Hermione said trying to change the subject, "How about a feast tonight? We got everything at such a good price, right?"

The boys nodded, but they didn't say anything else for the rest of the ride. However, once they arrived at the farm, they saw something that drove everything else out of their minds. There was a buggy by the gate, and the door was left open. As soon as they approached, a woman with long, red hair stuck her head out.

"Mum!" Harry shouted happily and he jumped down from the cart so that he could go running to the house. Ron looked up to get a better look at Harry's mother, Lily… Harry talked a lot about her and he could see that she was indeed, very pretty. She had bright green eyes like her son, and hair a dark shade of red that fell about her shoulders in gentle curls. She beamed as her son came up and hugged her tightly.

Just at that moment, several other people appeared as well and as soon as they reached the gate, Hermione jumped down to run over to her parents as well. Ron felt a little out of place as he slowly walked over to see them.

Harry's father had just come out, and he was the spitting image of his son aside from the different eye color and a little bit of facial features… as for Hermione's parents she looked like both of them with her father's brown hair, and her mother's kind face and warm brown eyes… they were both smiling and hugging their daughter tightly.

Once they were done saying hello, Harry beckoned Ron to come closer. "This is Ron," he introduced him to everyone else. Ron just nodded, seeing his friend's parents made him miss his own badly. "He's been here for about a month now and helping us take care of the farm."

Lily looked him up and down for a moment before she smiled warmly at him. "Well, Ron. It's nice to meet you. Now why don't you all come inside?" Lily gestured them to come inside.

"You were all gone for a long time," Hermione told her father as they also entered.

"We know, and we're sorry," he answered her as he kissed the top of her head. "But it wasn't an easy trip. The ship we took got in a bad storm, and the damage was extensive. Luckily no one was hurt. Once the repairs were done, we headed straight for the market and stayed there for about two weeks until it was over. We've brought you both something."

"Really?" she asked excitedly. "What?"

"You can see later," James laughed. "Oh, and by the way, we have another guest with us. We ran into him at an inn on our way back."

As soon into the kitchen, Ron saw that there was a very old man sitting there waiting for them. He had a very thin body and was sporting a long beard and glasses. He beamed at the sight of Harry and Hermione and got up from the table so that he could give them both a hug. Ron briefly wondered if this was a grandfather when Hermione said respectfully, "Dumbledore, Sir."