Chapter 473: The Irritable Tonks
Chapter 473: The Irritable Tonks
The next morning, everyone gathered at the entrance of their humble residence, ready to depart for King's Cross Station.
Soon, a blue car approached from a distance.
Normally, cars from the Ministry would be in high demand at this time. But upon learning that Harry was also leaving, Fudge had ordered the best car to be sent over.
This was perhaps a reciprocal gesture for Harry's help.
After their return from the Ministry, Harry had remained in their residence, not revealing anything about the assassination attempt. This had spared the Ministry a lot of trouble.
In return, lending a car to get to the station was the least Fudge could do, and he had no reason to refuse.
Additionally, it was safer this way.
They had confirmed that the Ministry official who had tried to assassinate Harry was indeed under the Imperius Curse. To prevent any further incidents before Harry returned to Hogwarts, Fudge had even assigned an Auror as the driver.
And this was where things became unreliable.
Tonks, with her fiery red hair, was evidently in a foul mood. Throughout the journey, she didn't stop complaining—cursing at people and the car, and even lashing out at Bill, who was sitting next to her, for not joining in on her tirade against a jaywalker.
Ginny, sitting behind her, hugged her arms and trembled, afraid to breathe a word, lest Tonks include her in her rant.
The start of a new term was never a cheerful occasion, and with such a temperamental driver, the usually boisterous group remained uncharacteristically silent during the ride, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Fortunately, after half an hour, they finally arrived at King's Cross Station.
Tonks was the first to get out of the car, and as she opened the door, her hair changed from red to a vibrant bubblegum pink.
"We're here," she said, patting the car door. "Time to get out, everyone. Remember to grab your luggage and make sure you don't forget anything."
Without a word, everyone got out, retrieved their belongings from the trunk, and quickly made their way into the station.
Not a single person spoke along the way, including Fred and George, who were usually full of mischief and noise.
It wasn't until they had passed through the wall and entered Platform Nine that Fred heaved a sigh of relief and exclaimed, "Merlin's beard, I swear I will never, ever ride in Tonks' car again!"
"If there's a next time, I'd rather walk from home!" George added.
The others nodded in agreement.
"Alright, let's go," Mrs. Weasley said. "Tonks is a good person... as long as she's not driving," she added silently to herself.
This was the first time Mrs. Weasley had experienced Tonks' road rage, and it was like dealing with a completely different person.
There had been several moments during the ride when she had wanted to remind Tonks to mind her language and behavior, but she never found an opportunity to interject. And when she finally did, Tonks, in her furious state, didn't even hear her.
In the end, Mrs. Weasley could only sigh and pretend she hadn't heard anything either.
On the platform, the Hogwarts Express was already waiting, its deep red carriages gleaming.
"Ah, I wish I could go back to Hogwarts this year," Bill said, a hint of melancholy in his voice as he gazed at the train with his hands in his pockets.
"Why..." George asked.
"You lot will have a very interesting year," Bill said, a spark of excitement in his eyes. "I might even take some time off to watch part of it..."
"Part of what..." Fred said, growing impatient.
This had been the case since the start of the holidays—Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Percy had all been acting mysterious and secretive.
But no matter how much Fred pestered Bill, he would only smile and remain tight-lipped.
Kyle knew that this was just another example of the wizards' peculiar sense of humor, similar to the Sorting of the first-years… a so-called surprise.
He rolled his eyes. "It's just the Triwizard Tournament, no big deal..." And when George looked at him expectantly, he shrugged and said, "Don't look at me, I have no idea either.
"Thank you for letting us stay, Mrs. Weasley!" Qiu waved and said.
"Oh, I'm happy to, dear." Mrs. Weasley said, "I would like to invite you to our house for Christmas, but... I guess you won't want to because of... one reason or another."
Ron wanted to ask more, but the train had started moving, and his words were drowned out by the whistle.
Mrs. Weasley waved at them with a smile, and then, before the train turned the corner, she and Bill disapparated.
Back in their compartment, Fred and George grumbled about how everyone had kept them in the dark.
Cedric twitched his lips, suppressing a smile as he turned his face away. Clearly, he was also in on the secret but had no intention of enlightening them.
In fact, seeing Fred and George like this was quite amusing.
After the train had traveled a distance, it started raining again, the dense raindrops tapping rhythmically on the glass windows, making it difficult to see the scenery outside.
"Where's Connor?"
At that moment, Qiu suddenly asked, "Didn't she get on the train?"
"I think she's in another compartment." Cedric said, looking at Kyle, "Go ahead and bring her out. We should get going too."
"Bring out what..." Fred asked subconsciously.
Then he saw Kyle take out an envelope from his pocket.
"Ding!"
As Kyle opened the envelope, a round object fell onto the tabletop.
"Oh, damn!" Fred and George's faces turned even more unsightly, as if they had eaten a mouthful of bovine-liver-flavored Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
They were all too familiar with this object, as Percy had flaunted it countless times over the past two years.
A Prefect badge!
"Oh, it's so nice to have another Prefect among us..." George drawled.
"No, make that two." Qiu said with a smile, pinning the Prefect badge to his robe.
Fred and George's faces turned liver-colored.
The two had always believed, and firmly so, that they would never want to be Prefects in their lifetimes, but now that belief was wavering.
Who would have thought that everyone in the group, except for the two of them, would be a Prefect?
This was a bit too much. Would they even be able to hang out together going forward?
However, there was more. Kyle and the others seemed to deliberately show off their badges in front of them, lingering as if they didn't intend to leave.
Infuriated, Fred and George grabbed their luggage and pushed open the compartment door to find Lee Jordan.
How great were Prefects, huh? Were they not allowed to leave?
The compartment then burst into cheerful laughter.
"Are we being a bit too much?" Qiu, the honest one, asked softly.
"Don't worry, they don't have such small hearts." Kyle said, patting his trunk, "Besides, I have a way to make them forget today's unhappiness and willingly call us Prefects."
The three of them laughed and left the compartment, heading towards the front-most compartment reserved for Prefects.
Connor was indeed there, and upon seeing Kyle and Qiu, her initially tense expression relaxed a lot.
"What took you so long?" she asked.
"Of course, it's to give Fred and George a surprise." Kyle said, "You really should have come with us. It would have been more complete."
"What?" Connor didn't understand.
Qiu walked up to her and whispered something that soon had Connor bursting into laughter as well.
"Aren't you afraid they'll change your badge to 'Big Head Boy' too?" Connor asked, "Like what they did to Percy?"
"Not afraid." Kyle confidently waved his hand, "They won't have the chance."
...
(End of Chapter)
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