"He's gone!" Molly shouted after Scrimgeour left.

"What did he want?" Arthur asked, looking around at Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Molly came hurrying back to them.

"To give us what Dumbledore left us," said Harry. "They've only just released the contents of his will."

Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword, but none of them could offer any suggestions. Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch. Arthur examined the Deluminator for the third or fourth time.

Molly tentatively said, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry, we didn't like to start without you. Shall I serve dinner now?"

They all ate rather hurriedly and then, after a hasty chorus of "Happy Birthday" and eating a lot of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighboring field.

"Meet us upstairs and bring the girls," Harry whispered to Hermione, while they helped Arthur restore the garden to its normal state. "After everyone's gone to bed."

Up in the attic room, Ron examined his Deluminator and Hagrid's moleskin purse that was filled with those he most prized. Some of them were the Marauder's Map, the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror, and R.A.B.'s locket. He pulled the strings tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly. At last, Hermione tapped on the door and tiptoed inside.

"Muffiato," she whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs.

"Thought you didn't approve of that spell," Ron said.

"Times change," she replied. "Now, show us that Deluminator."

Ron obliged at once. Holding it up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once.

"The thing is," Hermione whispered in the dark, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."

There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more.

"Still, it's cool," Ron defensively said. "And from what I know, Dumbledore invented it himself!"

"I know, but surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Well, maybe it holds some bigger purpose. The Sorting Hat had Godric's sword in it and we probably never would have known if it weren't for Dumbledore," Sally said.

"D'you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he left us?" Harry asked.

"Definitely," Hermione said. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that still doesn't explain..."

"Why couldn't he give us a hint when he was alive?" Ron asked.

"Maybe, he knew someone would pry it out of us," Kimberly quietly suggested. "Or not, that sounds stupid."

"No-no, it's not - it's not stupid," Ron immediately said. "You're being very reasonable and smart."

Kimberly and Ron both shared a quick glance, their cheeks blazing hot, before looking away. Hermione and Sally looked at each other as if to communicate nonverbally.

"Well, if these things are important enough to pass on under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have let us know why - unless he thought it was obvious?" Hermione asked.

"Who in their right mind would think it was that obvious? I don't think anything is quite obvious with Dumbledore," Sally said.

"I always said he mental," Ron added. "Brilliant and everything, but cracked. Leaving Harry an old snitch - what the hell was that about?"

"I agree," Kimberly said.

He sent her a smile, to which she blushed at.

"When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Yeah, well," said Harry, raising the snitch in his fingers. "I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour, was I?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" Harry asked. "Don't you remember?"

Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again until he found his voice.

"That was the one you nearly swallowed!" Ron exclaimed.

Sally and Kimberly started giggling underneath their breath.

"Exactly," Harry said.

He pressed his mouth to the snitch. It did not open. Frustration and bitter disappointment welled up inside him. He lowered the golden sphere, but then Hermione cried out.

"Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!" she exclaimed.

Harry nearly dropped the snitch in surprise and excitement. Hermione was quite right. Engraved upon the smooth golden surface where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanting handwriting that Harry recognized as Dumbledore's.

I open at the close.

Harry had barely read them when the words vanished again. "I open at the close... What's that supposed to mean?"

They all shook their heads, looking blank.

"I open at the close at the close... I open at the close..."

But no matter how often they repeated the words, with many different inflections, they were unable to wring any more meaning from them.

"And the sword," Ron said, when they abandoned their attempts to divine meaning in the snitch's inscription. "Why did he want Harry to have the sword?"

"And why couldn't he just have told me?" Harry asked. "It was there - it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"

He felt as though he were sitting in an examination with a question he ought to have been able to answer in front of him.

"And as for this book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard... I've never even heard of them!" Hermione exclaimed.

"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" said Ron incredulously. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not! Do you know them then?" she asked.

"Most people, most of them Muggle-Born, wouldn't know of it," Kimberly said. "Don't forget I'm Muggle-Born as well."

"I didn't mean it like that," said Ron. "Muggle-Born or not, you're incredibly intelligent, Kim. It's lovely having you around - "

Sally chuckled quietly, leaning onto Hermione. "To think they're technically dating, but have not shown much sign of it."

"Well, they don't have to show it, don't they? What if... What if two people are meant to be together, but they won't get together?" Hermione curiously asked, peeking at Sally though the corner of her eye.

Sally cleared her throat. "Oh, I see. Um - they should likely talk about it. It would clear any misunderstandings and hopefully bring them together."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, that sounds correct."

Something creaked downstairs.

"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow air," Ron said nervously.

"All the same, we should get to bed," whispered Hermione. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow."

"No," Ron agreed. "A brutal quintet murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of a damper on the wedding. I'll get the lights. Um - good night, Kim."

She smiled at him as the girls left the room. He clicked the Deluminator as Hermione shut the door to the room.

"Merlin," Ron whispered to Harry in the dark. "I'm completely in love with her."