171[@more@]exactly have you come here, Mr. Potter?"
"We need some help," said Harry, before Hermione could start again.
"Ah," said Xenophilius, "Help, Hmm."
His good eye moved again to Harry's scar. He seemed simultaneously
terrified and mesmerized.
"Yes. The thing is ... helping Harry Potter ... rather dangerous..."
"Aren't you the one who keeps telling everyone it's their first duty to
help Harry?" said Ron. "In that magazine of yours?"
Xenophilius glanced behind him at the concealed printing press, still
banging and clattering beneath the tablecloth.
"Er - yes, I have expressed that view. however -"
"That's for everyone else to do, not you personally?" said Ron.
Xenophilius did not answer. He kept swallowing, his eyes darting between
the three of them. Harry had the impression that he was undergoing some
painful internal struggle.
"Where's Luna?" asked Hermione. "Let's see what she thinks."
Xenophilius gulped. He seemed to be steeling himself. Finally he said in
a shaky voice difficult to hear over the noise of the printing press, "Luna is down at the stream, fishing for Freshwater Plimpies. She...she will like to see you. I'll go and call her and then - yes, very well. I shall try to
help you."
He disappeared down the spiral staircase and they heard the front open
and close. They looked at each other.
"Cowardly old wart," said Ron. "Luna's got ten times his guts."
"He's probably worried about what'll happen to them if the Death Eaters
find out I was here" said Harry.
"Well, I agree with Ron, " said Hermione, "Awful old hypocrite, telling
everyone else to help you and trying to worm our of it himself. And for
heaven's sake keep away from that horn."
Harry crossed to the window on the far side of the room. He could see a
stream, a thin, glittering ribbon lying far below them at the base of the
hill. They were very high up; a bird fluttered past the window as he stared in the direction of the Burrow, now invisible beyond another line of hills. Ginny was over there somewhere. They were closer to each other today than
they had been since Bill and Fleur's wedding, but she could have no idea he was gazing toward her now, thinking of her. He suppose he ought to be glad
of it; anyone he came into contact with was in danger, Xenophilius's attitude proved that.
he turned away from the windows and his gaze fell upon another peculiar
object standing upon the cluttered, curved slide board; a stone but of a
beautiful but austere-looking witch wearing a most bizarre-looking
headdress. Two objects that resembled golden ear trumpets curved out from
the sides. A tiny pair of glittering blue wing was stuck to a leather strap that ran over the top of her head, while one of the orange radishes had been stuck to a second strap around her forehead.
"Look at this," said Harry.
"Fetching," said Ron. "Surprised he didn't hear that to the wedding."
They heard the front door close, and a moment later Xenophilius climbed
back up the spiral staircase into the room, his thin legs now encase in
Wellington boots, bearing a tray of ill-assorted teacups and a steaming
teapot.
"Ah, you have spotted my pet invention," he said, shoving the tray into
Hermione's arms and joining Harry at the statue's side.
"Modeled, fittingly enough, upon the head of the beautiful Rowens Ravenclaw, 'Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure!'"
He indicated the objects like ear trumpets.
"These are the Wrackpurt siphons - to remove all sources of distraction
from the thinker's immediate area. Here, "he pointed out the tiny wings, "a billywig propeller, to induce an elevated frame of mind. Finally, "he
pointed to the orange radish, "the dirigible Plum, so as to enhance the
ability to accept the extraordinary."
Xenophilius strode back to the tea tray, which Hermione had managed to
balance precariously on one of the cluttered side tables.
"May I offer you all an infusion of Gurdyroots?" said Xenophilius. "We
make it ourselves." As he started to pour out the drink, which was as deeply purple as beetroot juice, he added, "Luna is down beyond Bottom Bridge, she is most excited that you are here She ought not to be too long, she has
caught nearly enough Plumpies to make soup for all of us. Do sit down and
help yourselves to sugar.
"Now," he remove a tottering pile of papers from an armchair and sat
down, his Wellingtoned legs crossed, "how may I help you, Mr. Potter?"
"Well," said Harry, glancing at Hermione, who nodded encouragingly,
"it's about that symbol you were wearing around your neck at Bill and
Fleur's wedding, Mr. Lovegood. We wondered what it meant."
Xenophilius raised his eyebrows.
"Are you referring to the sign of the Deathly Hallows?"
Chapter Twenty-One
The Tale of the Three Brothers
Harry turned to look at Ron and Hermione. Neither of them seemed to have
understood what Xenophilius had said either.
"The Deathly Hallows?"
"That's right," said Xenophilius. "You haven't heard of them? I'm not surprised. Very, very few wizards believe. Witness that knuckle-headed young man at your brother's wedding," he nodded at Ron, "who attacked me for sporting the symbol of a well-known Dark wizard! Such ignorance. There is nothing Dark about the Hallows – at least not in that crude sense. One simply uses the symbol to reveal oneself to other believers, in the hope that they might help one with the Quest."
He stirred several lumps of sugar into his Gurdyroot infusion and drank some. "I'm sorry," said Harry, "I still don't really understand."
To be polite, he took a sip from his cup too, and almost gagged: The stuff was quite disgusting, as though someone had liquidized bogey-flavored Every Flavor Beans. "Well, you see, believers seek the Deathly Hallows," said Xenophilius, smacking his lips in apparent appreciation of the Gurdyroot infusion.
"But what are the Deathly Hallows?" asked Hermione.
Xenophilius set aside his empty teacup.
"I assume that you are familiar with 'The Tale of the Three Brothers'?"
Harry said, "No," but Ron and Hermione both said, "Yes." Xenophilius nodded gravely.
"Well, well, Mr. Potter, the whole thing starts with 'The Tale of the Three Brothers' . . . I have a copy somewhere . . ."