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"Gits," said Ron darkly, watching Fred and George setting off across the snowy yard.
"Would've only taken them ten seconds and then we could've gone too." "I couldn't," said Harry. "I promised Dumbledore I wouldn't wander off while I'm staying here." "Oh yeah," said Ron. He peeled a few more sprouts and then said, "Are you going to tell Dumbledore what you heard Snape and Malfoy saying to each other." "Yep," said Harry. "I'm going to tell anyone who can put a stop to it, and Dumbledore’s top of the list. I might have another word with your dad too." "Pity you didn't hear what Malfoy’s actually doing, though." "I couldn't have done, could I. That was the whole point, he was refusing to tell Snape." There was silence for a moment or two, then Ron said, " 'Course, you know what they'll all say. Dad and Dumbledore and all of them. They'll say Snape isn't really trying to help Malfoy, he was just trying to find out what Malfoy's up to." "They didn't hear him," said Harry flatly. "No one's that good an actor, not even Snape." "Yeah . . . I'm just saying, though/' said Ron.
Harry turned to face him, frowning. "You think I'm right, though." , "Yeah, I do!" said Ron hastily. "Seriously, I do! But they're all convinced Snape's in the Order, aren't they." Harry said nothing. It had already occurred to him that this would be the most likely objection to his new evidence; he could hear Hermione now: Obviously, Harry, he was pretending to offer help so he could trick Malfoy into telling him what he's doing. . . .
This was pure imagination, however, as he had had no opportunity to tell Hermione what he had overheard. She had disappeared from Slughorn's party before he returned to it, or so he had been informed by an irate McLaggen, and she had already gone to bed by the time he returned to the common room. As he and Ron had left for the Burrow early the next day, he had barely had time to wish her a happy Christmas and to tell her that he had some very important news when they got back from the holidays. He was not entirely sure that she had heard him, though; Ron and Lavender had been saying a thoroughly nonverbal good-bye just behind him at the time.
Still, even Hermione would not be able to deny one thing: Malfoy was definitely up to something, and Snape knew it, so Harry felt fully justified in saying "I told you so," which he had done several times to Ron already.
Harry did not get the chance to speak to Mr. Weasley, who was working very long hours at the Ministry, until Christmas Eve night. The Weasleys and their guests were sitting in the living room, which Ginny had decorated so lavishly that it was rather like sitting in a paper-chain explosion. Fred, George, Harry, and Ron were the only ones who knew that the angel on top of the tree was actually a garden gnome that had bitten
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