Chapter 14
"Tell me, Harry, what exactly is the function of a rubber ducky?"
"A rubber ducky, sir?" Arthur's silence invites him to continue. "It's a toy; Muggles use it while bathing their children."
"A toy?" The man smiles and casts a glance at his wife. Molly is still angry with the twins and Ron, but the light in her eyes betrays a certain nostalgia. "You have to know, Harry, that it's much more than a toy to me."
"For me, too." The witch adds, wiping her hands in her apron.
The Chosen One shifts his gaze from one to the other, waiting to know what the hell wizards are doing with rubber duckies. Instead they keep quiet. "Oh, Harry dear, you'll find the proper utility of a rubber duck too, you'll see!"
Hermione ventures to lean her head against Fred's shoulder. "You know," he tells her, "maybe I won't write you letters after all."
"No?"
"Instead of the sofa, I think I'll buy two rubber ducks: one I'll take away and the other I'll leave to you." He takes her hand and strokes her back. "It shouldn't be that hard to connect them so we can talk, like that thing you Muggles have in the house."
"The phone?" She helps him, and her heart fills with a feeling she has yet to name. "I can do some research in the Library." Hermione continues, closing her eyes and breathing in Fred's scent.
The twin smiles and leaves a kiss on her hair, "I'll come and bother you then."
"Did you mean you'll come and help me?"
"Absolutely not."
Harry lands on the lake shore and reaches Ginny, already sitting on a rock with her broom at her side. The sunset mingles with the reddish color of the witch's hair, creating a marvelous sight-has he told her that at that time of day she is breathtaking?
"I got you something." He searches the cloak for a small green box and hands it to her, "Hermione helped me find the spell, however I ended up turning it myself."
Ginny unwraps the gift and finds a small rubber ducky inside, "Harry?"
"It's a candy dish."
She smiles and clasps the gift in her palm, "I really like it, thank you." After a second of silence, Ginny opens the duck's beak and pops out two Fizzing Whizzbees, "You filled it with my favorites. Would you like one?"
"Lovegood?" Draco watches with some irritation as the Ravenclaw companion does not allow him to cross the corridor.
"I found a Nargle," she tells him, fumbling in her pocket and pulling out a small rubber ducky.
"This is a Nargle?"
"I always told you they existed." Luna smiles and the hallway catches the light. Draco lowers his gaze, a little afraid: how long has she been doing that to him? "Take it, I'll give it to you. I'm working with the Weasley twins on a spell to make them move and I have a hundred of them in my trunk."
The Slytherin does not venture to take it. "Draco, I want you to have it."
"If you insist, Luna."
George takes a spoonful of porridge and casts his eyes to Lee, sitting next to him at breakfast. "Hermione and Fred are working on some kind of phone-duck."
"Yes, I know, your copy won't shut up about it."
George's lips turn into a line as he mulls over the rest he wants to tell him. "I asked him to make two for us, too." Us.
Lee, with the glass of pumpkin juice in his hand, turns to look at him and stands still for a moment. Then he brings the drink to his lips and smiles, sending it down. "Don't swap them, I wouldn't want to tell Fred how nice his--"
"Lee!" George laughs and sticks his spoon into the porridge, "Look it's more or less the same in the end, and besides, a compliment is always a compliment."
Pansy listens with little interest to the talk her housemates are carrying on. She shifts her gaze to the greenhouses and spots the figure of Neville Longbottom among the plants. "Go, I'll catch up with you later."
She knocks on a window and catches the eye of the Gryffindor, who lays a strange duck-shaped watering can on the ground. "What is it?" he asks her, tilting the glass.
Pansy leans on the windowsill with her elbows and slips under the window. "I come in peace, Longbottom," she hastens to say, "what are you doing?"
Neville looks at her and finds her beautiful, wonders if she still has the same lavender scent on her skin that he smelled a few days earlier. "I give the plants a drink, I like to do it without magic, I have the feeling of being closer to them."
"With that?" Pansy points to the watering can and holds back laughter.
"It was a rubber ducky." Longbottom shakes his head, but all in all smiles, "Do you want to try it? It makes water come out of its beak."
Ron has not yet found a use for it, in truth. However, he keeps a small rubber duck on the nightstand in his room and sometimes looks at it and imagines: he likes his father's idea so much. He likes that a duck is a way to say I love you to his soul mate.
"Will I find her?" he asks Lavender, who is still looking into the crystal ball.
"Your soul mate?" She smiles, patting the red tablecloth on the small table on which they are seated. "Maybe she's a lot closer than you think."