"J. K. Rowling - 6 - Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince(1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

“Well I’m not exactly sure, but I do have an idea! Let’s go downstairs!” Ron jumped up from his bed, causing most of his cards to fall on the floor. He ran over to the door, and shouted down with his friend.
“Alright! I’ll be down in a second! Just let me write a note to Dudley telling him where I am!” Harry scanned Ron’s extremely cluttered desk for a quill and a spare piece of parchment. He found a tattered pigeon feather under a pile of books, and ripped out a sheet of parchment from one of Ron’s old books. He quickly scribbled down a note to Dudley, telling him he had some ‘business’ with Ron, and had to leave abruptly, but he should be back later.
Harry folded the letter up, and walked over to Ron’s tiny owl, Pigwidgeon, who was fluttering about in his small cage, looking extremely excited at the hope of sending a letter.
“I need you to send this to Dudley,” said Harry, opening the door to the cage, and attaching the letter to Pigwidgeon’s small leg. “He’s a Muggle that lives in Surrey. You shouldn’t have too much trouble finding him, just look for the most normal-looking house you can see and that’s it.” Pigwidgeon puffed his feathers out, and gave a funny sort of salute. Harry burst out laughing; he looked like a small and extremely fluffy kid who had his cheeks puffed out. A second later, though, Pigwidgeon was out the window and on his way.
Harry, upon seeing that his letter was okay, began walking downstairs to meet Ron. He ran down, as fast as he could, eager to see what Ron had found. When he got downstairs, Harry saw him sitting in a giant red chair in a corner of the house Harry had never really taken any notice of before. Around the chair were two massive shelves, each filled to the point of overflowing with books, like a mini-library. Ron was engaged in reading a particularly large one at the moment, and was flipping through it very quickly.
“What are you reading?” asked Harry, walking over to the chair.
“Reading? No, I’m looking,” said Ron, keeping his head down. “This is a picture album; this entire library is filled with picture albums.”
“Ohh,” said Harry, eyeing the shelves and wondering how many thousands of pictures there were.
“Here, grab one and look for some cards,” said Ron, blindly taking a book down and throwing it to Harry. “I know they’re in one of these.” Harry walked over and cracked open the book. Revealed inside was a single, full page that was like a miniature television screen. Like most wizard pictures, the people and things inside were moving. This picture showed a scene of a young Ron running around in the yard in his diaper, chasing after Fred and George, squealing the entire time.
“Aw, you were such a cute baby!” said Harry sarcastically. Ron peered over and sighed at the sight himself of the picture.
“Keep looking,” he said sternly, turning the page for Harry and putting his own album away and getting a new one. Harry laughed and looked at the next sheet. This time, instead of there being one giant image taking up the entire page, there were nine smaller pictures, each depicting a different event.
“Wow,” said Harry, gazing at each of the photos. He put his fingers out at the top middle one, a picture of two small boys, with red hair of course, playing on a swing set. Harry had no idea who they were, it could be any of the six Weasley boys. But, as Harry looked closer, he saw in the bottom right corner of the picture a girl with red hair, and she looked older than the other two in the picture. As Harry looked even closer, he saw that the girl was writing something in the sand… a single word: “Jamie”.Harry put his hand over the picture, and swung the book over, to try and ask Ron who the boys and the girl were in the picture. But, just as the album was going through the air, the picture that Harry had his hand on fell out.
“Oh Harry!” said Ron, sounding annoyed. “Try not to make any pictures fall out!”
“Sorry,” apologized Harry, bending over to pick them up. “Wait a minute….” Where Harry had thought only one picture had fallen out, there were actually two now. Harry picked them up, and looked at them; one of the images was the one he had looked at before, the picture of the two boys and the girl, but the other one was completely different. It was a photo of a much younger Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry guessed at least ten or fifteen years, with a single, small girl in front of both of them. Who was she?
“Hey Ron,” said Harry, still looking at the picture. “Who is this?” Ron looked up from his album, and glanced at the picture.
“Oh that’s… wait a second,” said Ron, looking surprised. He dropped his book, and walked over to Harry, still looking at the picture. He took the image into his hand, and examined it up close. “Hmm, I’ve never seen this picture before.”
“Well, isn’t it just one of Bill or Charlie?” asked Harry. It was hard to tell the gender of a baby at that age, it could have been a boy. But, Ron shook his head, and showed him the picture, pointing to a calendar in the background.
“No. Bill was born in 1975, and Charlie was born in 1977. The calendar in the back here says the year is 1974. Neither of them were alive at that time.”
There was a few seconds of an awkward silence.
“So… who is that girl?” asked Harry. “I mean, she’s definitely a Weasley.”
“Yeah, just look at that hair! But I have no idea who he is…. The only girl in this family is Ginny.”
“Well, why don’t you just ask your mom?”
“Good idea,” said Ron, sounding serious and standing up. The two of them, with Ron carrying the picture, walked over to Mrs. Weasley who was cooking something for dinner.
“What can I help you with boys?” she asked, stirring something in a pot.
“Mom, who is this?” asked Ron, showing her the picture. “That is, the girl in this picture?” Mrs. Weasley lazily looked over, and turned around, with her pot in her hand. But, when her eyes met the photo, she dropped the container, causing whatever was inside to fall to the floor with a gigantic crash. Her eyes grew wide, and she snatched the photo out of Ron’s hand.
“Mom, are you going to do something about the-” Ron was cut off.
“Where did you get this?” she demanded, not looking at all her normally kind self. Her face was all scrunched up and red, and reminded Harry more of an angry rhino than a loving mother.
“It… it was in the photo album….” stuttered Ron.
“I thought I told Arthur to hide this.…” fumed Mrs. Weasley quietly to herself.
“Hide… what, mom?” asked Ron.
“Nothing! Nothing at all!” she said, trying to look cheerful again. She tapped the spill on the floor with her wand, and it magically cleaned itself up. She stood back before her stove, and inconspicuously crumpled up the picture in her hand. “Nothing at all dears, now go run along and-”
“No mom,” said Ron, cutting her off. “Who is the girl in that picture?”
“Oh my! Look at the time!” gasped Mrs. Weasley, looking at a non-existent watch on her wrist. “I had better go do… something.” She began shuffling off, but Ron looked as though he was not going to take no for an answer. He reached into his pocket, and took out his wand.
“Locomotor Mortis!” he yelled, pointing his wand at his mother. Immediately, her legs magically fused together, and she stopped dead in her tracks.
“Thank goodness Dumbledore is letting us use magic at home now,” whispered Ron to Harry. Mrs. Weasley, however, was not looking nearly as happy.
“Ronald Weasley!” she yelled, looking furious. “You had better take this spell off of me before I-”
“No! I want you to tell us who this girl is in the picture!” yelled Ron, unfolding the crumpled image, and pointing to the unknown child. “Evidently, it’s someone important, or you would have told us by now!”
“Ron, take this spell off of me and-”
“Don’t make me go and get the Veritaserum,” said Ron, pointing his wand at his mother. Harry didn’t know how to feel, he was trying to keep quiet. It was very exciting and horrible at the same time what was going on. Mrs. Weasley gave a loud sigh.
“I knew someone would find out eventually,” she said quietly.
“Find out? About what?” asked Ron, looking curious.
“Ron,” said Mrs. Weasley slowly, “there’s something I’ve both wanted and not wanted to tell you for the past sixteen years. I’ve wanted to tell the entire family, actually, but I just… couldn’t.”
“Tell me what? What is it?”
“It is the only secret this family has. The only thing that has ever made this family, at one point, feel weak. It is the greatest loss we had ever faced.”
“What is it already? And what does this have to do with the picture?”
“Ron…” said Mrs. Weasley slowly, “you have another sister.”
Chapter 3- Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, Inc.
Ron’s mouth practically fell to the floor, along with his wand. Harry as well felt a wave of disbelief and shock come over him. There was another Weasley girl? How could this possibly be?
“But…” stuttered Ron, “I thought there was just me, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, and Ginny. Who else is there?”
“First off,” said Mrs. Weasley with a great sigh, “will you please take this ridiculous curse off of me?”