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  dear tonks to e along today,” said rs weasley, settg down the carrots with unnecessary force and grg at fleur ”but she wouldn39t e have you spoken to her tely, re?”
  ”no, i haven39t been ntact with anybody very uch,” said p ”but tonks has got her own faily to go to, hasn39t she?”
  ”h,” said rs weasley ”aybe i got the ipression she was pnng to spend christas alone, actually”
  she gave p an annoyed look, as though it was all his fault she was ttg fleur for a daughter--w stead of tonks, but harry, gncg across at fleur, who was now feedg bill bits of turkey off her own fork, thought that rs weasley was fightg a long-lost battle he was, however, reded of a estion he had with regard to tonks, and who better to ask than p, the an who knew all about patrones?
  ”tonks39s patron has chand its for,” he told hi ”snape said anyway i didn39t know that uld happen why would your patron chan?”
  p took his ti cheg his turkey and swallog before sayg slowly, ”tis a great shock an eotional up-heaval ”
  ”it looked big, and it had four legs,” said harry, struck by a sud-den thought and lowerg his voice ”hey it uldn39t be — ?”
  ”arthur!” said rs weasley suddenly she had risen fro her chair her hand was pressed over her heart and she was starg out of the kitchen dow ”arthur — it39s percy!”
  ”what?”
  r weasley looked around everybody looked ickly at the dow gny stood up for a better look there, sure enough, was percy weasley, stridg across the snowy yard, his horn-rid gsses gltg the sunlight he was not, however, alone
  ”arthur, he39s — he39s with the ister!”
  and sure enough, the an harry had seen the daily prophet was follog along percy39s wake, lipg slightly, his ane of grayg hair and his bck cloak flecked with snow before any of , the uld say anythg, before r and rs weasley uld do : ore than exchan stunned looks, the back door opened and there stood percy
  there was a ont39s paful silence then percy said rather stiffly, ”rry christas, other”
  ”oh, percy!” said rs weasley, and she threw herself to his ars
  ruf scriour paed the doorway, leang on his walk-g stick and silg as he observed this affectg scene
  ”you t five this trion,” he said, when rs weasley looked around at hi, beag and wipg her eyes ”percy and i were the vicity — workg, you know — and he uldn39t re-sist droppg and seeg you all”
  but percy showed no sign of wantg to greet any of the rest of the faily he stood, poker-straight and awkward-lookg, and stared over everybody else39s heads r weasley, fred, and e were all observg hi, stony-faced
  ”please, e , sit down, ister!” fttered rs weasley, straighteng her hat have a little purkey, or toodg 1 39 an —”
  ”no, no, y dear olly,” said scriour harry guessed that he had checked her na with percy before they entered the hoe ”i don39t want to trude, wouldn39t be here at all if percy hadn39t wanted to see you all badly  ”
  ”oh, perce!” said rs weasley tearfully, reachg up to kiss hi
  ” , we39ve only looked for five utes, i39ll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with percy no, no, i assure you i don39t want to butt ! well, if anybody cared to show your charg garden  ah, that young an39s fished, why doesn39t he take a stroll with ?”
  the atosphere around the table chand perceptibly every-body looked fro scriour to harry nobody seed to fd scriour39s pretense that he did not know harry39s na nvcg, or fd it natural that he should be chosen to aopany the ister around the garden when gny, fleur, and e al had clean ptes
  ”yeah, all right,” said harry to the silence
  he was not fooled for all scriour39s talk that they had jt been the area, that percy wanted to look up his faily, this t be the real rean that they had e, that scriour uld speak to harry alone
  ”it39s fe,” he said ietly, as he passed p, who had half risen fro his chair ”fe,” he added, as r weasley opened his outh to speak
  ”wonderful!” said scriour, standg back to let harry pass
  through the door ahead of hi ”we39ll jt take a turn around the garden, and percy a