Ron turned his back on the Burrow.

“Let’s try up here,” he said, leading the way over the top of the hill.

They walked for a few hours, Harry, at Hermione’s insistence, hidden beneath the

Invisibility Cloak. The cluster of low hills appeared to be uninhabited apart from one

Small cottage, which seemed deserted.

“Do you think it’s theirs, and they’ve gone away for Christmas?” said Hermione,

Peering through the window at a neat little kitchen with geraniums on the windowsill.

Ron snorted.

“Listen, I’ve got a feeling you’d be able to tell who lived there if you looked

through the Lovegoods’ window. Let’s try the next lot of hills.”

So they Disapparated a few miles farther north.

“Aha!” shouted Ron, as the wind whipped their hair and clothes. Ron was

Pointing upward, toward the top of the hill on which they had appeared, where a most

Strange-looking house rose vertically against the sky, a great black cylinder with a

ghostly moon hanging behind it in the afternoon sky. “That’s got to be Luna’s house,

who else would live in a place like that? It looks like a giant rook!”

“It’s nothing like a bird,” said Hermione, frowning at the tower.

“I was talking about a chess rook,” said Ron. “A castle to you.”

Ron’s legs were the longest and he reached the top of the hill first. When Harry

And Hermione caught up with him, panting and clutching stitches in their sides, they

Found him grinning broadly.

“It’s theirs,” said Ron. “Look.”

Three hand-painted signs had been tacked to a broke-down gate. The first read,

THE QUIBBLER. EDITOR, X. LOVEGOOD

The second,

PICK YOUR OWN MISTLETOE

The third,

KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS

The gate creaked as they opened it. The zigzagging path leading to the front door

Was overgrown with a variety of odd plants, including a bush covered in orange

Radishlike fruit Luna sometimes wore as earrings. Harry thought he recognized a

Snargaluff and gave the wizened stump a wide berth. Two aged crab apple trees, bent

With the wind, stripped of leaves but still heavy with berry-sized red fruits and bushy

Crowns of white beaded mistletoe, stood sentinel on either side of the front door. A little

Owl with a slightly flattened hawklike head peered down at them from one of the

Branches.

“You’d better take off the Invisibility Cloak, Harry,” said Hermione. “It’s you Mr.

Lovegood wants to help, not us.”

He did as she suggested, handing her the Cloak to stow in the beaded bag. She

Then rapped three times on the thick black door, which was studded with iron nails and

Bore a knocker shaped like an eagle.

Barely ten seconds passed, then the door was flung open and there stood

Xenophilius Lovegood, barefoot and wearing what appeared to be a stained

Nightshirt. His long white candyfloss hair was dirty and unkempt. Xenophilius

had been positively dapper at Bill and Fleur's wedding by comparison.

"What? What is it? Who are you? What do you want?" he cried in a

High-pitched, querulous voice, looking first at Hermione, then at Ron, and

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 943