Ok, so here it is; my first story that I have ever posted to .
I hope you like it, but if you don't, please tell me – and also if you do like it (like I hope and prey) click that little Review-button. Thanks.
Oh, and please note that English is not my native language. I hope there is not too many mistakes, but if there are, they are all mine – I don't have beta. Jet.
I do not and never will own any characters that you recognize. They all belong to J. K. Rowling.
CHAPTER 1 – From Rock Bottom to The Order
1st July, 1995 – a week after the third task of TriWizard tournament and Lord Voldemort's rise
Her heart is broken – broken like the empty Fire whiskey bottle she threw violently to the wall just a heartbeat ago. Broken with a loud crash and faint cling's as the pieces fell all around the place.
She always knew her heart would be broken at some point of her life; maybe when a lover would leave her, a friend would abandon her – maybe when her parents would die to the old age.
This alternative never even occurred to her;
the death of her brother.
He was so young – 15 years her junior, a mere child still... Had been. Only 17 years old, not even out of school jet...
Her eyes trailed over the glass shatters on the floor, up the wall and to the mark the bottle had left to the wallpaper. A trail of amber liquid dripped down the wallpaper, leaving a visible trail.
She sniffed, feeling the tears that were welling to her eyes and the lump that was rising in her throat.
And then she cried, cried, cried... Like she couldn't stop, like every bloody dam in her body had overflowed – finally.
"Cedric..." She whispered, her knuckles turning white as he clenched her fingers around the framed picture of her brother.
It was her favorite picture – quite old one, taken when Cedric was 13 years old, riding a broomstick that she had put together for him and wearing the Quidditch uniform of Hufflepuff team, and the biggest smile she had ever seen... It was snapped only moments after he had won he's first quidditch mach as the seeker of the Hufflepuff team.
And then an other picture of her brother rose to her mind – a picture of he's lifeless body lying in a mahogany coffin, a plate on the side that said: 'Cedric John Diggory', a memory from earlier today... From her baby brothers funeral.
The woman was Andrea Diggory, 31 years old broomstick engineer, thou she preferred to be called Andy. Andrea was just so complicated – fancy, even; Andy fit better to her happy-go-lucky attitude and tomboy appearance. It was simple, and she liked things simple...
Something they were not when she woke up the next morning from her living room couch, still wearing the black clothes she had worn in the funeral, only dramatically more wrinkled now, and her dark, short curls all around the place.
The head-splitting head egg and the nausea didn't help much, either.
"Oh bloody mother of Merlin!"
Her voice was hoarse, unfamiliar even to herself.
Crying, drinking and not-speaking can do that to you.
Rock bottom; reached.
10 minutes later, when she was done throwing up to the toilet, she dragged herself to the sink and looked her image from the mirror hanging above it.
She looked bloody pathetic.
She had never considered herself anything more than maybe pretty, but right now she looked horrific. Her short, dark and curly hair was standing up to every direction, looking matted and thin, her face pale and almost gray, eyes sunken and lips tightly pressed together. Her eyes – gray, like her brother's had been – were bloodshot and had dark circles around them. Her solders were hunched, and thou she straitened her posture and pulled not-quite-a-smile to her face, she could see why children would run to the opposite way should they meet her in a dark alley.
She looked like walking dead...
Death. Cedric. Funeral. Drinking.
A sob ran past her lips, but she swallowed the rest one that were rising to her throat. She turned the tab on and washed her teeth and face, even run her wet hands throw her hair to get it settle for a bit. It didn't really help. She still had that look in her eyes...
It took an hour, maybe, before the doorbell rang.
Her mother had always insisted her to take that 'ridiculous muggle buzzer-thing' off, mostly because of the frustration over the fact that she had no idea how the thing worked.
Andrea quite liked it, however, and liked to guess which of her wizard and witch visitors would use it and which would just knock – mostly, people knocked.
When the bell rang for the fourth time, Andrea finally gathered enough willpower to rise from the couch she had been sitting for the past hour, just staring ahead.
After the fifth ring, she pulled the door open.
She knew she should have been surprised to see the person standing behind the door, but she really wasn't. She didn't care enough to be surprised; she only took in the old, tall frame of Albus Dumbledore and he's long silvery beard before stepping away from the doorway to allow the old man inside.
Neither of them spoke.
She walked throw the living room and to the kitchen, rather feeling than hearing that her old headmaster was following her.
They came to the kitchen, only an isle of counters separating it from the living room, but Andrea figured it was better than the messy space coated with glass shatters.
"Please sit, professor." Andrea said, her voice still hoarse, and motioned a chair behind the isel.
"Would you like some tea?" She asked before even thinking – it was automatic, something one would ask from a visitor.
"I would love a cup, thank you."
Andrea's feet carried her to the stove, and she busied herself with the pot for a minute. Some water, flick of a wand and the tea was ready – camomile, she noted from the smell. She hadn't even realized what she was making.
She carried the ceramic pot, decorated with small flowers, to the counter and levitated two cups and the sugar bowl to them before taking a seat on the other side of the counter. Another flick of her Maidenhair-tree wand with a Demiguise's hair as heart, and the pot poured tea to the both cups and settled to the counter again.
Again, silence fell between the two people.
Andrea lowered her eyes to her hands that were around her tea-cup, seemingly very fascinated of the muggle cartoon character on the side of it.
"I am very sorry for your brother."
Her eyes glanced to the old man's face before she nodded and looked down again. Not shyly, but rather in tired manner.
"I know this comes in difficult time for you, my dear... But I do think you deserve to hear the truth."
Now the woman lifted her eyes to the man in front of her, nodding slowly. "I need to know... Fudge-" her tone was full of anger when he said the name, "-he tried to 'explain the situation' but all he got out was some mindless babble..."
"Minister Fudge and I disagree in this matter." Dumbledore said, "He thinks that I and Harry Potter are laying – I am sure you have heard the rumors, it's all over the prophet after all – he thinks I want more power, to become the minister..." The headmaster trailed off, and after a brief silence he begun to tell the story, began from the escape of Barty Crouch Jr. and how he kidnapped Mad-eye Moody, all the way to the fourth task of TriWizard tournament and to the murder of Andrea's brother.
When Albus came to the part of the graveyard, her hands clenched tightly around the tea cup and teeth were bitten together.
After he finished, she fell silent again. For along time, Andrea stared to her teacup, like trying to see the answers from the leafs on the bottom.
She had never been much of a seer, thou, and after some time she looked to her old head master's eyes, the clear, blue pools that seemed to know so much...
"What do you want me to do? That is what you came here for, right? Because you are doing something to prevent him from rising again?"
"Yes, Andrea. You are in a position that can make a difference... And frankly, we need all allies that we can get..."
"We?"
"The Order Of Phoenix; I have started to re-form it again, and If you would do the honor of joining-"
"Yes." Andrea spoke with determination lacing her voice and her eyes, "I want to join."
"This is not a decision that is made hastily, Andrea; It will be dangerous."
"I know. I'm aware of the risks, Albus. I want to help, want to do what I can."
Albus nodded slowly, reading the unvoiced thought from her eyes;
Besides, what do I have to lose?
"Very well. I will contact you with more information later." Albus stood, glancing at the woman with worry some eyes.
"I'll be waiting."
4th July, 1995
Tree days later Andrea followed Albus throw a gate of deserted park where they had just appeared side-along, and to a street with rows of brick houses on both sides. Grimmauld road, she read from a plate on the side of one building. The number 10. She saw 11, 13, 14-
"Were going to 12?" i asked quietly, and Albus turned to give her a brief smile and a nod.
"So... Fidelius Charm?"
"A true Ravenclaw," Albus smiled to her, and she smiled back, briefly. It felt odd; like she hadn't used those muscles in ages... Like she hadn't smiled in-
Since 24th of June.
She shook her head, forcing the thoughts to the back of her head.
Not now. This wasn't the time to think about it...
Albus stopped between two houses, and Andrea stepped to he's right side.
"The headquarters of the Order of Phoenix is situated in number 12 Grimmauld Place."
Andrea looked, fascinated, as the building started to grow between the two houses in front of them.
"I have never seen Fidelius Charm before," She spoke in conversational manner, "It's quite impressive, I have to admit."
"Thank you, dear." Albus smiled. The house settled to it's full form.
"I have to warn you, Andrea. There will be a person in there who you wont expect to be. I ask you not to do anything – rash."
Andrea looked at the old wizard questioningly.
"You will know who I meant. Now, shall we go inside?"
"Yes, we shall."
So, how did you like? There's more coming, hopefully soon (I've already written the next chapter, so I just have to make some corrections...). If any of you would be willing to beta for me, PM me – thanks.