Read Online Harry Potter 03 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by authors_sort - Free Book Online Page A

all the fun out of life.’
    Ginny giggled.
    ‘You want to set a better example to your sister!’ snapped Mrs Weasley.
    ‘Ginny’s got other brothers to set her an example, Mother,’ said Percy loftily. ‘I’m going up to change for dinner …’
    He disappeared and George heaved a sigh.
    ‘We tried to shut him in a pyramid,’ he told Harry. ‘But Mum spotted us.’
    *
    Dinner that night was a very enjoyable affair. Tom the innkeeper put three tables together in the parlour and the seven Weasleys, Harry and Hermione ate their way through five delicious courses.
    ‘How’re we getting to King’s Cross tomorrow, Dad?’ asked Fred, as they tucked into a sumptuous chocolate pudding.
    ‘The Ministry’s providing a couple of cars,’ said Mr Weasley.
    Everyone looked up at him.
    ‘Why?’ said Percy curiously.
    ‘It’s because of you, Perce,’ said George seriously. ‘And there’ll be little flags on the bonnets, with HB on them –’
    ‘– for Humungous Bighead,’ said Fred.
    Everyone except Percy and Mrs Weasley snorted into their pudding.
    ‘Why are the Ministry providing cars, Father?’ Percy asked again, in a dignified voice.
    ‘Well, as we haven’t got one any more,’ said Mr Weasley, ‘and as I work there, they’re doing me a favour …’
    His voice was casual, but Harry couldn’t help noticing that Mr Weasley’s ears had gone red, just like Ron’s did when he was under pressure.
    ‘Good job, too,’ said Mrs Weasley briskly. ‘Do you realise how much luggage you’ve all got between you? A nice sight you’d be on the Muggle Underground … You are all packed, aren’t you?’
    ‘Ron hasn’t put all his new things in his trunk yet,’ said Percy, in a long-suffering voice. ‘He’s dumped them on my bed.’
    ‘You’d better go and pack properly, Ron, because we won’t have much time in the morning,’ Mrs Weasley called down the table. Ron scowled at Percy.
    After dinner everyone felt very full and sleepy. One by one they made their way upstairs to their rooms to check their things for the next day. Ron and Percy were next door to Harry. He had just closed and locked his own trunk when he heard angry voices through the wall, and went to see what was going on.
    The door of number twelve was ajar and Percy was shouting.
    ‘It was here, on the bedside table, I took it off for polishing –’
    ‘I haven’t touched it, all right?’ Ron roared back.
    ‘What’s up?’ said Harry.
    ‘My Head Boy badge has gone,’ said Percy, rounding on Harry.
    ‘So’s Scabbers’s Rat Tonic,’ said Ron, throwing things out of his trunk to look. ‘I think I might’ve left it in the bar –’
    ‘You’re not going anywhere till you’ve found my badge!’ yelled Percy.
    ‘I’ll get Scabbers’s stuff, I’m packed,’ Harry said to Ron, and he went downstairs.
    Harry was halfway along the passage to the bar, which was now very dark, when he heard another pair of angry voices coming from the parlour. A second later, he recognised them as Mr and Mrs Weasley’s. He hesitated, not wanting them to know he’d heard them rowing, when the sound of his own name made him stop, then move closer to the parlour door.
    ‘… makes no sense not to tell him,’ Mr Weasley was saying heatedly. ‘Harry’s got a right to know. I’ve tried to tell Fudge, but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He’s thirteen years old and –’
    ‘Arthur, the truth would terrify him!’ said Mrs Weasley shrilly. ‘Do you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over him? For heaven’s sake, he’s happy not knowing!’
    ‘I don’t want to make him miserable, I want to put him on his guard!’ retorted Mr Weasley. ‘You know what Harry and Ron are like, wandering off by themselves – they’ve even ended up in the Forbidden Forest! But Harry mustn’t do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night he ran away from home! If the Knight Bus hadn’t picked him