Out of Time

Chapter 31

It seems preordained that the bulk of the delivery lands right in front of Harry, courtesy of the phoenix in question. It all happens rather fast. The drop nearly skewers the formal display of flatware and decorative presentation on Molly's birthday-party table. But a side owl drops a small parcel right on top of Hermione's lap. It nearly slides off her knee and she startles to attention just in time to grab it before it hits the grass at her feet.

Hermione knows a book when she feels one, and this is a book. With her inherent need to preserve books/gifts/et al, she only tears away a careful corner of it to find an old, beaten hardback cover resting in her hands. Slightly more reveals the title of 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard,' which baffles her so entirely that she stares across the table at Harry instead of ripping off the rest of the paper.

He gawps into his lap. Ron, to his right, lifts a golden snitch into the air and squints at it with one eye closed, as if needing to discern something mysterious about it. "What the bloody hell -"

"Language," Molly Weasley hisses at her youngest son, looking just as disturbed by his dinner table vocabulary in front of their guests as by the arrival of the presents. Are they presents? If they are, why did Hermione get one? It's Harry's birthday.

Hermione thinks if they were mere presents, they wouldn't have been delivered by Fawkes, but Molly's likely never seen Dumbledore's pet in person before.

"What's the big one?" Fred butts in, trying to lean over the table and nearly knocking over his water glass. Molly swats at him with her napkin. Bill leverages his additional height (without interfering with the glassware, to Fred's immense annoyance) to do the same.

"Is that -" his reddish-brown eyebrows shoot up and his clear blue eyes nearly pop from his skull, "- the sword -"

He's incapable of finishing it, which is unfortunate (for Molly) as everybody else leaps up to gather round. Chairs tip backwards, the tablecloth is pulled askew, and various water glasses sacrifice structural stability.

"If you please -" begins Molly stridently, but all is lost. Fleur is peering around Bill's shoulder, and the twins are veritably racing one another around the table. George gets there first and raises the sword in his hands.

In a booming voice, he hollers, "I declare thee -"

Gabrielle Delacour giggles and Fleur shushes her while trying to hide her own smile. Mr Delacour looks delighted by the whole thing, but he's had the same expression across his reddish cheeks since he and his family walked through the garden gate. Ginny's practically quivering with curiosity but stays in her seat. Hermione's not sure if it's her mother's wrath she fears or Harry's possible rejection.

Fred grabs the silver, bejewelled hilt from his twin and they begin to wrestle. Arthur releases a whistle comparable to Mad-Eye's at Privet Drive only days earlier and everybody quiets. Fred takes advantage and yanks the sword from George, who thumps him on the back of the head. Fred scowls but Mr Weasley's is worse. Both twins reduce to elbowing one another in relative quiet scuffling, Fred keeping the sword out of reach.

Harry's been ignoring these theatrics, reading a folded piece of parchment with flowery script dancing across it.

"What is it, Harry? What does it say?" Arthur asks, making a valiant attempt to regain solid control of this cluster.

For several extended seconds, Harry doesn't answer. When he does, he looks right across the table at Hermione with piercing green eyes. Even though his father asked the question, Ron follows Harry's gaze, bewildered.

"It's the sword of Gryffindor and a snitch. The snitch is the first one I ever caught. He says it's a reminder of 'perseverance and skill,' whatever that means. The sword has no note at all."