Chapter 1: The Rescue

As Sirius paced the kitchen back and forth, Ali thrashed Kat at yet another game of wizard's chess. The rest of the Order sat around the kitchen apart from the five that had gone to rescue Harry from his aunt and uncle's house. Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Fred and George had been banned from the kitchen until the meeting was over. Kat sighed as Ali repaired all the broken chess pieces.

"Sirius, please stop pacing. They'll get Harry out ok, you know they will. Nothing is going to get past Alastor"

Ali jumped in as well.

"Remus is there too Sirius and he cares for Harry as well. Nothing will happen to Harry, not on Remus' watch"

Sirius smiled. The girls had actually managed to cheer him up and he sat on the chair next to Kat and nuzzled his nose in her hair. Kat smiled but it was short lived and she swore under her breath as Ali's queen beheaded her knight. Sirius laughed.

"Kitten, you're doing it wrong. Come here, I'll help"

With Sirius' help, Kat actually managed to beat Ali for once and they were celebrating when the front door swung open and Alastor Moody walked in, followed by Tonks, Kingsley, Harry, Remus and five other people. Ali jumped up immediately and gave Remus a hug. Everyone else sat down around the table but Mrs Weasley pulled the door shut and directed Harry upstairs before rejoining the meeting. Ali was sat on Remus' lap and Kat was sitting next to Sirius with his arm wrapped around her. An hour later, Harry and the others came in and sat down for dinner.

Soon, a series of knives were chopping meat and vegetables, watched over carefully by Mr Weasley while Mrs Weasley stirred a cauldron and the others began to clear and set the table. Harry was left sitting with Sirius and Mundungus at the table.

"How was your summer Harry?" Sirius asked, absent-mindedly scratching the head of Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.

"Lousy. How was yours?"

"Oh, I've had worse" Sirius said, casually darting his look as Kat who had her back turned sorting out cutlery. She turned and caught his stare, blushing slightly as she smiled and turned to talk to Ali. He laughed gently.

"FRED, GEORGE, JUST CARRY THEM!" Mrs Weasley suddenly shrieked. Harry, Sirius and Mundungus looked around and dived away from the table as a cauldron, a flagon of Butter beer and a bread board along with a knife came flying towards them, the cauldron skidding along the table, leaving black scorch marks on the surface, the flagon of Butter beer fell onto the floor and smashed, the contents spilling everywhere and the breadboard landed on the table with a large thump, the knife sticking in the table exactly where Sirius' hand had just been. Kat had screamed, Ali was suppressing giggles and everyone else jumped out of their seats to clear up. George yanked the knife out of the table, him and Fred laughing as well as Sirius and Harry.

"Sorry Sirius, didn't mean to, um"

"No harm done, but your mum's not too happy" Sirius said under his breath. He was right; Mrs Weasley was glaring at her two sons.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR WANDS FOR EVERY LITTLE THING! YOUR BROTHERS WERE NEVER LIKE THIS!"

Mr Weasley lifted the cauldron back into the middle of the table and sighed.

"Boys, your mother's right, you need to show a bit more responsibility now you're of age"

"Why don't we eat?" said Bill and everyone sat down at the table and for a while there was only the sound of knives and forks chinking. Bill, Remus and Mr Weasley were talking about goblins, Kat and Tonks were taking turns in entertaining Ginny, Ali and Hermione by transforming their noses into different ones. Suddenly, a gale of laughter came from the other end of the table. Everyone turned to see Fred, George, Ron and Mundungus in fits of laughter as Mundungus told a 'hilarious' tale about how he stole some toads off a guy and then managed to get him to buy them back for a lot more than he originally did.

"I think that's enough of your tales Mundungus" Mrs Weasley said through clenched teeth.

"Molly doesn't really approve of Mundungus but Dumbledore asked him to be in the Order because he hears things we don't, knows all the crooks, etc" Sirius said to Harry under his breath.

After dinner, everyone was feeling a little drowsy. Kat was resting her head on Sirius' shoulder as he lazily drew circles on the back of her hand. Ali was curled up on the sofa, Remus next to her, his hand entwined with hers. Mrs Weasley yawned and looked around the room.

"I think it's nearly time for bed"

"Oh, no just yet Molly," Sirius said, pushing his plate away and turning to Harry.

"You know, I'm surprised. I'd have thought you would be asking all sorts of questions the moment you got here"

The atmosphere around the room changed so suddenly that it seemed almost unreal. Kat lifted up her head slowly and gave a warning look at Sirius and everyone else was watching intensely to see where the conversation would go.