We all turned in our seats to look out of the window. Even I had jolted from my chair, in spite of the fact that I already knew what was going to happen.
There, sure enough, was Percy Weasley, striding across the snowy yard with the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, right by his side.
Before anyone could say a word, the back door opened and Percy walked inside wordlessly, the Minister following him right behind. A painful silence fell across the place as all eyes were fixed on the two newcomers.
But at last Percy said rather stiffly, "Merry Christmas, Mother."
"Oh, Percy!" said Mrs. Weasley, walking toward him and throwing herself into his arms.
"You must forgive this intrusion," said Rufus Scrimgeour, pausing by the doorway when Mrs. Weasley looked around at him, beaming and wiping her eyes. "Percy and I were in the vicinity — working, you know — and he couldn't resist dropping in and seeing you all."
But Percy showed no sign of wanting to greet any of the rest of the family. Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George were all staring at him, stony-faced, and you could easily cut the tension with a knife.
"Please, come in, sit down, Minister!" fluttered Mrs. Weasley, straightening her hat. "Have a little purkey, or some tooding... I mean —"
"No, no," said Scrimgeour. "I don't want to intrude, wouldn't be here at all if Percy hadn't wanted to see you all so badly..."
"Oh, Perce!" said Mrs. Weasley tearfully, reaching up to kiss him.
"Git," I muttered under my breath.
"... We've only looked in for five minutes, so I'll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don't want to butt in!" said the Minister, waving an airy hand. "Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden... Ah, that young man's finished with his food, why doesn't he take a stroll with me?"
He pointed at Harry and immediately by those words, the atmosphere in the room changed for the worse as everybody looked between Scrimgeour and Harry.
I knew he obviously wasn't there so Percy could see his family, and from Harry's face I could tell that he wasn't fooled either.
But what he didn't know was that the Minister wanted to talk with him and convince him to help them out by telling the Wizarding community that the Ministry was doing a great job at controlling things.
As I already knew, their argument of course wasn't going to last long. But Harry, who was clueless, was still curious to know what he wanted.
"Yeah, all right," said Harry into the silence, making a move to stand up.
"Many others have finished with their plates already, in case you didn't notice, Minister," said Sirius grimly, standing up only to place a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Why don't you take them?"
"It's fine," Harry said quietly, giving him a reassuring look.
Sirius knew he couldn't protest any further, so he removed his hand from Harry, yet remained on the spot, glaring at the Minister.
"Fine," Harry added, as Mr. Weasley opened his mouth to speak.
"Wonderful!" said Scrimgeour, ignoring Sirius's deadly look and standing back to let Harry pass by and leave the house.
But even when they left, the deadly silence remained among us. While Mr. Weasley, Lupin, and Sirius were gazing outside to keep an eye on Harry, Ginny, Fred, and George were busy glaring at Percy.
Long minutes had passed, yet Mrs. Weasley was still gushing all over him with hugs and kisses, mumbling how grateful she was that he had showed up. And all I could even think about was that I wanted to punch the glass off his face.
I knew Harry's conversation with the Minister was not going to last much longer and that he was going to storm back inside, but my attention was soon caught by Fred when he suddenly said,
"Still not planning on apologizing yet, then?"
"Oh, don't worry about it —" Mrs. Weasley was saying, but she was cut off by Percy when he turned his cold gaze on his brother.
"I just came here to see mother," he said tonelessly.
"Oh, please!" George scoffed angrily. "As if we don't know you just came here so your boss could get a chance to talk to Harry!"
"Now, George, let's not say tha —"
"Yeah!" Ginny said loudly, breaking Mrs. Weasley off again. "You don't give a crap about any us!"
Percy opened his mouth to retort, but he was cut short when the back door opened once more and Harry walked furiously inside.
"Come on, Percy," said the Minister, appearing by the door moments later, glaring at the back of Harry's head. "We're leaving."
With one last cold glance at his siblings, Percy cleared his throat and straightened his cloak, ready to leave.
I didn't see who started it, but before he could even turn on the spot, Fred, George, and Ginny immediately jumped to their feet, grabbing fistfuls of mashed parsnip, throwing them at Percy's face.
So with his glasses splattered, Percy stormed out of the house along with Rufus Scrimgeour, Disapparating soon after.
After that day, it wasn't hard to set Mrs. Weasley off and get her sobbing, so we all had to be extra careful with our words and it had become taboo to even mention Percy's name in front of her.
But that didn't stop the Weasley children to curse his name whenever she wasn't in sight to hear them.
"That little dickhead," Fred grumbled as the two of us were in his and George's old bedroom.
It was the last night of our Christmas break, and so Fred had taken an hour off work to come and say goodbye. But he just kept pacing around the room, mumbling to himself grumpily.
"He's the biggest prat in the world, that's what he is," he said angrily. "Next time I see him, I would throw a punch at his face instead of mashed parsnip."
I giggles as I was sitting on the bed, looking up at him amusingly.
"Why are you giving me that look?" he questioned, raising a brow at me.
"What look?"
"You're all — smiley," he said, still looking at me curiously.
But I only chuckled and got up from the bed, moving toward him and wrapping my arms around him.
"I just think you look extra handsome when you're all serious," I said cheekily, grinning up at him.
"Oh, put it back in your pants, woman," he said in mock sternness, making me laugh.
I then smiled at him. "You may be mad at him now... but you'll forgive him when the time comes."
"I highly doubt that will ever happen," he said moodily and so I said nothing more on the matter.
But my smile faded when I remembered that at that time, they would be at the Battle of Hogwarts. I knew that his last words were said to Percy...
"You okay?" Fred asked, dragging me out of my thoughts before my sight could become blurred by tears again.
I nodded and forced a smile, but couldn't manage to say the words. He didn't press the matter either, and so he just pulled me into a warm embrace, holding me in the silence of the room.
"You know that I love you, don't you?" he whispered against my ear.
I chuckled, pulling slightly away. "I love you too, you idiot."
"Ah," he sighed dramatically, "a man always dreams about hearing that flattering word."
I laughed again, shaking my head at him in disbelief before pecking him softly on the lips, hugging him again.
Although as he wrapped his arms around me again, all I could think about was what was going to happen next year,
But I tried to shake the thought away. I'm not going to let it happen, I promised myself. I can't lose him. I just can't.