Hi! This is my first story. I've aged everyone an extra two years. I just feel it is more realistic with Harry being 17. Inspired by the exceptional story "The Half-Blood Romantic".

PS I don't own anything. Any advice would be useful, thanks for it.

Harry was tired. He had spent most of the day cleaning 12 Grimmauld Place. The dank, dark corners of the venerable home had resisted most of their efforts, and were still resisting with steadfast determination. Some mold that had been scrubbed off the walls would grow back just a few seconds later. Chairs would refuse to move until spelled to do so, wardrobes would send out periodic creaks and occasionally would slam their doors when they approached. However, with tenacity and with the iron will of the young men and women who had nothing else to do during their summer, they gained ground. It was an odyssey, a journey from the old into the new.

However, Sirius had unexpectedly – to what Harry had supposed he would have done – refused to throw away a lot of the things. He had said they needed "sorting" and "restoration to their previous state" before the last half-century of neglect. Even when his mother had been alive, the house was not all it had been in the past. Things had been left to slide, small repairs ignored, and dangerous but powerful items not properly stored. It had not all been bad in the House of Black. All the heirlooms and paraphernalia of the Black family were currently laid in a corner of the living room, which had been cleaned first. Everyone knew not to approach that corner, due to the risk of inattendant strangulation. They had asked Mad-Eye Moody to take a look and advise them on how to store the items and whether he knew what some of them were used for. He hadn't had time to go through them yet though.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione. They were in an upstairs guest bedroom, and were examining the wardrobe. It seemed to have been last used in the 19th century. Ron had been sulking throughout the day, as he had heard that Hermione was still exchanging letters with Krum, however he looked a bit more cheerful now. Hermione saw Harry looking at her.

"We're almost done here, Harry" she said with an earnest face.

Ron and Hermione had apologised to Harry for keeping him out of the loop. Harry's anger was still simmering though. What was he to do though, they had done what they had been told was best.

"Yeah, we can go downstairs soon and have a nice dinner" he replied.

However, Harry thought he would have to influence them to be more independent in the future. They were growing up still, they were 17 years old, so there was still hope for them, he thought to himself.

"I'm starving, mate" Ron said.

"You always are, Ron, it seems you always are" Harry said in a wry voice. Steps echoed outside the door.

"You must be tired, dears", the motherly voice of Molly Weasley cooed from outside.

"Yes, Mrs Weasley", Harry and Hermione said. Ron just grunted, struggling with an oak secretaire that groaned ominously while he was trying to open a drawer.

"You've done enough for today, it's time to get downstairs. Food's almost ready."

"Thanks!" Harry turned to the others.

"Shall we go guys?"

"Finally" Ron said, and looked the most cheerful he had ever been that day.

They scampered down the stairs, avoiding the noisiest parts of the ancient wooden floor, and made it to the kitchen.

"Hi there" a world-weary tone, fitting for a man of such misfortune, greeted them.

"Hi Professor Lupin" Hermione said.

"Hi Remus" Harry said just afterwards, being more familiar with Lupin, having been taught by him in third year privately.

"Please Hermione, don't call me professor, just Remus is fine." Lupin replied.

They sat down at the edge of the table next to Lupin, and looked at him expectantly. It was unusual to see him hanging around the kitchen, although he had previously said to them, it wasn't due to lack of desire. It was just because Dumbledore had directed him to make preliminary contacts with the werewolves, which was taking most of his days and nights. However, Harry had a soft spot for Remus.

"How are things going? You know…" Harry asked him hesitantly.

"Well, I've made a tiny bit of progress. However, it's best if we talk about it later. After dinner."

"Do you think, Prof.. – Remus, that there's a chance they won't join Voldemort?"Hermione asked.

Lupin smiled. "Later, Hermione. We have time after the meal."

They were quiet for a bit. Harry got lost in his thoughts, and the feeling of exhaustion after a day of physical work, wrestling with curtains and powder boxes.

The wireless was playing Celestina Warbeck's "Love in a Magical Place", a tale of a Hogwarts student that had a tryst with another for one night, and was reminiscing about it.

"Not that song again" Ron said, looking around to locate the wireless.

The door opened and the person who walked in had heard Ron's comment.

"Why Ron? Anything we should know in particular?" Tonks said with a sly smile.

"No" Ron replied in a grimace, and a pained expression.

Tonks sat down near the group and said cheerfully "Wotcher Harry".

Harry was startled from his reverie and replied "Hi Tonks. Nice to see you!"

She was dressed in Auror robes and her hair was her usual bright pink. She greeted Harry cheerfully and then started chatting with Hermione while Harry just sat back and took in the scene. He felt quite warm and content. The people that were around him, school friends and adults, felt like his family to him. He could almost forgive them for not contacting him during most of the summer.

Upstairs, a bruit ceased. Harry looked up in expectation. Sirius had been feeding Buckbeak and was about to come back downstairs. He assumed the lack of noise signalled the end of Buckbeak's meal. Sirius walked in the kitchen with a weary look, a haunted look He was shortly followed by Ginny Weasley, who had been in her room. Harry was happy to see his godfather, even if said godfather was adjusting badly to being in Grimmauld Place again. Everyone was assembling for dinner, it seemed.

Sirius sat down with a thud and opened a butterbeer that had been on the wooden kitchen table. He grinned impishly at Harry. Ginny went to sit next to Hermione and joined her conversation with Tonks. Tonks changed her nose to a dog's one when they saw Sirius. It was the same as his Animagus form. Ron laughed. Sirius saw it and shook his head, yet there was the hint of a smile breaking through.

"How are you pup?"

"Doing well, Sirius. Sorting out the house is progressing along." Harry sighed contentedly.

"Do we need any more cleaning materials? Perhaps we could…" Sirius seemed pleased at the prospect of finding an excuse to leave the house. Although Harry knew he was clever enough to know he wasn't supposed to do it. Harry thought that he did it mostly to annoy Mrs Weasley. Living in enclosed spaces with the same people tended to do that. Create patterns of behaviour. And indeed, the voice of Molly Weasley interrupted him.

"Sirius! Aren't you forgetting something?" She glared at him.

"Am I?" He looked at her quizzically.

"Today is the day, Sirius. I can't believe you've forgotten."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked askance at them. They were curious; they hadn't heard of anything happening that night.

"Dumbledore is coming here with his offer. Remember?" Molly said in a curt voice. Harry thought to himself, that the rumor that her parents had named her after the verb mollycoddle, did have some basis in fact.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other. Wordless communication passed between them, but it was mostly one of confusion. Hermione shook her head at them. Harry and Ron stayed silent, hoping Sirius would shed some light.

"Yes, thank you Molly." Sirius did not seem abashed at all, however their hopes were dashed. Harry decided to speak up.

"Sirius, what is this about?" Ron and Hermione looked on expectantly.

"Yeah, do you know what's the offer?" Hermione said, her eyes twinkling with curiosity.

Sirius took some seconds to reply, although whether that was due to tiredness or not, it was hard to tell. He rested his palms on the mahogany table. Tonks and Ginny stopped talking between them, and looked on as well. Lupin who had been calmly reading a periodical on recent advances in spellwork paused his reading and looked up.

"There has been some disagreement about this among the ranks of the Order. Some people are vehemently opposed to the offer Dumbledore will make to you. However, I am in agreement with him" Him glancing at Molly Weasley left no doubt as to who he was referring to.

"However Dumbledore asked us to let him explain himself. He should be coming in about half an hour. So don't worry, all will be explained soon." Molly said. That seemed to be the end of the discussion. Lupin went back to his book. Ginny and Tonks started chatting again, about the boys at Hogwarts, Harry thought, from the snippets he overheard.

The food was ready, and they ate some mashed potato and a hot pot of beef stew. They ate slowly. There wasn't much talking during the meal. The heat from the fireplace suffused the room with warm inertia. Harry lost himself watching the flames for some time. Harry felt indolent, and a bit sleepy.

After about half hour, a great number of people drifted in. Familiar faces, all of them. Fred and George had been outdoors, doing some shopping for who knows what. Harry looked to see evidence of what they bought, but someone who he was pretty sure was Fred just winked at him. Professor McGonagall arrived and sat straight-backed in one of the Louis XV chairs around the table. He had greeted McGonagall with a wave and she loosened her normally stern visage to flash him a rare smile. Emmeline Vance, Elphias Doge, Kingsley Shacklebolt, who he had met recently, all came in dribs and drabs. Snape, dressed in all black, as was his wont, arrived, glared at Harry and took up a seat slightly removed from the table. Mundungus Fletcher slouched in, collapsed on a chair near Ginny and Hermione and immediately started smoking on a pipe. Tonks showed them how to perform the Bubblehead charm and soon all three were encased in translucent bubbles. Everyone else endured the smoke. Finally, a clanking sound on the wooden floor, coming ever nearer, announced Mad-Eye Moody's arrival. They had seen him once before, after he had recovered from his ordeal. Harry was curious to meet the real Mad-Eye. He was a man of great experience and quite shrewd.