"Remus?" Tonks dropped the oyster shell in her hand and stood up in surprise.
"You're just in time." Sirius did not notice his friend's tone. He had not even finished swallowing the oyster meat in his mouth, and was holding up an oyster as he mumbled, "Want some?"
"You..." Remus Lupin stared blankly at the room, at the crowd far larger than he had imagined. "You all..."
Allen held back Anka, who had fluffed up in fright and was preparing to attack. He was rather bewildered himself. "Remus? What's wrong?"
Behind Lupin, Harry, Ginny, and Ron also appeared at the doorway, panting. They saw everyone in the room, the table piled high with oyster shells, and the House-elf tilting its head as it looked curiously at these intruders...
"Don't you know how to knock? I said we should have had people guarding the door..." Penelope was very displeased with the way they had barged in so roughly, feeling that it had made the Harrises lose face.
"Slurp." Luna, paying no attention to what had happened, continued eating.
Realizing they had made a complete blunder, misunderstood Sirius and Tonks, and even misled Tonks's husband, Lupin, the three Gryffindors who had just come in froze on the spot. Harry's swelling rage vanished instantly like a punctured balloon. He stood there blankly, looking somewhat at a loss. Ginny's face flushed all the way to her ears, so embarrassed that she did not dare raise her head. Ron stood there as if there were words he could not get out, tugging constantly at his ear with his left hand, his face turning the color of liver.
Looking back at the little Gryffindor lions who had just described things to him so vividly, Lupin shuddered as he realized he had been tricked. On top of