Prologue
The weak spring sun washed a watery glow over the stiff Georgian grandeur of Grimmauld place; softening the edges of discarded fast food boxes and blending the image of rotten rubbish into a warm oil painting. At the early hour all was unusually quiet in the square, which so often was filled with the heavy, thumping bass of music or the grating screech of a car alarm. A smooth blanket of calm had been draped over the imposing buildings, the only sound being the whispering rustle of the blooming flowers of the cherry blossom trees in the centre of the square.
Yet beneath this splendid image hidden in the dark, brooding halls of the unknown and unseen Number Twelve a symphony of noise and an explosion of activity had boomed into life at the break of day. For the Order of the Phoenix were spring cleaning. One would expect such a prestigious group of the most talented and courageous witches and wizards of the age to be embroiled in more heroic pursuits such as duelling hordes of Death Eaters or spying in enemy ranks. But here they were, armed with doxy spray and several copies of 'Gilderoy Lockheart's Guide to Household Pests' about to take on one of the most ambitious and undoutetdly dangerous missions of their life: making the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black fit for human habitation.
Until several weeks ago the house had been empty for over a decade, save a saggy and sly house elf by the name of Kreacher who had never so much as dusted a candlestick since his mistress' demise some years before. Now it was home to a myriad of people making up the group that aimed to fight in the face of evil and overthrow He Who Must Not Be Named.
Several members of this group were at present stood in the sitting room on the second of Number Twelve's many halls being addressed by Molly Weasley- the leader of this dangerous operation. "Right. Well we're all here now so I think the best thing to do is just get stuck in," she surveyed them all with a grim smile "I thought we'd start on this floor because the rooms seem the most safe and also we should be far enough from that silly portrait to be setting it of every ten seconds". At this Sirius Black, who had been lounging aristocratically in the door way scowled over his shoulder as if his mother's portrait could feel his glare through her thick velvet curtains.
Mrs Weasley continued "Remus, Tonks and Sirius will tackle this room," Sirius' scowl deepened as Tonks beamed and Lupin smiled vaguely in ascent. "Ginny and I will take the bathroom" this statement earned a near inaudible groan form the youngest Weasley who seemed evidently irritated by her job allocation. Her mother ignored her and moved on "and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George you can take the bedroom across the hall. There shouldn't be anything dangerous in there dears but if there is you're to call one of us immediately. Understood?" She punctuated her question with a pointed glare at her twin sons who smiled innocently back, immediately winking once their mother had turned to chastise Ginny's cheek.
With a clap of her hands Mrs Weasley had set them all to work, in the bedroom the teenagers decided to start by gathering up all the objects and possessions and sorting through which ones were useful and could be kept and which were dangerous and needed to be removed immediately. This proved t be a fairly easy process as several minutes in Sirius wandered through the door took one look at what they were doing and snapped "There's nothing worth anything there, just bin the lot."
"But some of this stuff looks really valuable!"Ron exclaimed in slight awe to which Sirius frowned "Yeah but it all comes from blood money, it isn't worth the dust it's covered in." Seeing his disgusted expression they made no argument and began tossing the objects into the bag, only pausing to questions Sirius, who seemed to have excused himself from the task of cleaning, what certain objects were.
A small phial filled with suspiciously crimson liquid was identified as a souvenir of one of the great Goblin battles of the 16th century which Sirius' great great grandfather had won for his slaughter of over one hundred goblins. A small box that Hermione had picked up and which had released several tiny spikes into her hand was explained as a test of pure blood, Sirius demonstrated by picking up the object which did not harm him in any way then passing it back to Hermione whom it spiked again before she threw it with irritation into the bag.
After many more minutes interestedly examining and discarding various objects the crowd was assembled back in the old sitting room for a tea break. Here Lupin and Tonks had made significant progress without Sirius, who Tonks clarified had been ordered to leave due to his incessant complaining, and had cleared out two of the old dark oak cabinets on one side of the room. All that remained was one smaller cupboard which seemed suspiciously clean in comparison with the rest of the furniture and which had stubbornly refused to open despite Lupin's extensive charms and Tonks' muggle lock picking set. "We thought maybe it required a Black touch." Lupin said hoarsely to Sirius who grimaced at the reminder of his family name.
However after inspecting the cabinet for a few seconds his face split into a look of surprised recognition. "I don't know what this is doing here!"
"What do you mean Sirius?"enquired Lupin in a politely puzzled voice. Sirius looked up to him from his kneeling position next to the cupboard "Don't you remember it Remus?"
"Should I?"
"Yes you bloody well should." exclaimed Sirius frankly, ignoring the disapproving look Mrs Weasley sent his way. "This cabinet used to sit at the back of the meeting room in the old Order headquarters back in the first war. You must remember, Marlene was always bumping into it and berating Mad Eye about rearranging the room." Lupin's eyes flashed with realisation followed by curiosity. "My, my of course. Well we must get into it, it may still have some of the information from the first war that could be invaluable for our recent plans."
By now the children had gathered around, eager to see anything from the first war of which they had heard only a few stories, most people didn't like to talk of the sadness those years brought, and also to learn more of the plans Lupin had mentioned. Lupin had now crouched on the opposite side to Sirius and they had their wands placed at the seal of the door and were muttering under their breath. Fred went to ask them what they were doing but was stopped by a whisper from Tonks "Don't interrupt them this is complicated magic"
"There must be something really serious in there!" murmured Ginny in wonder. Each teenager was now imaging the various wonders which could be revealed, weapons, important sheets of information, trophies of victorious battles all sprung to mind.
They were therefore disappointed when the two men rose and watched the heavy wooden door creak open on its hinges to reveal a rack of dusty crystal phials, all apparently filled with a thick translucent vapour After several seconds looking at the rack Tonks addressed the older men "Alright, what is it?" Lupin replied calmly and quietly but his voice carried in the stillness of the room. "Memories"
"Memories? You mean like of duels?" questioned George eagerly."Battles?" chipped in Fred. Sirius answered slowly "Yes... and no. There's other things too, just everyday occurrences at headquarters and meetings." Answering their silent question Lupin explained "At that time we were all ordered to keep our memories of everyday life, rather like a diary, that way if something happened near us or we were accused of anything we could simply look into the memory to find the truth. It was extremely important in a time where you couldn't trust anyone and everyone seemed to be spying on someone." The deeper, personal meaning of these words resonated around the room and the faces of Ron, Harry and Hermione became darker whilst Sirius looked almost murderous.
"Well what do we do with them?" questioned Mrs Weasley quickly in an attempt to smoothly change the subject. Lupin sighed and then spoke "We should probably take them to Dumbledore. After being left so long it isn't wise to open them here, they're probably harmless but we must be sure. In any case, Dumbledore can surely use the information better than we could." The children looked crestfallen that they weren't going to be able to learn any more about the first war and even Sirius seemed a little down-heartened "It could've been nice to see some of those memories again" he breathed and was only answered with a comforting hand on his shoulder from Lupin and an understanding smile.
Tonks strode forward decisively and removed the rack of phials from the cupboard before spinning on the spot and making for the door. Yet half way there the buckle of one of her heavy biker boots caught itself in a frayed edge of the musty emerald green carpet and she crashed to the floor, limbs flailing helplessly. In her far from graceful descent her hand had found a hold on the front of Lupin's robes, he having moved forward quickly in an attempt to catch her, resulting in him following her to the floor with a yelp and a thud. A heavy cloud of dust swirled up around them and once cleared they could be seen in a heap of limbs, tattered robes and pink hair. Lupin stood hurriedly, blushing at the young girl beneath him and offering her a gentlemanly hand which she accepted her face glowing. Sirius guffawed in the background and Mrs Weasley, Ginny and Hermione gave them knowing looks. The boys meanwhile remained oblivious, all four far more concerned about the shattered glass decorating the floor and the unnerving white misty smoke that was curling lazily upwards around their shins. Tonks apologised profusely and only stopped when she registered the snaking mist around her hips, "Erm, they don't really teach you how to combat mist at Auror training. What do we do?"
"These memories have been left for years, Merlin knows what will happen" Sirius answered attempting to beat the smoke away from his neck. Mrs Weasley let out a worried gasp "It isn't dangerous is it?" Only Lupin's calm voice seemed to appease her "Of course not Molly, no matter how long they've been left I highly doubt they could every become volatile" Yet he had a slightly worried crease around his mouth as his attempts to wave the smoke away with his wand had no effect.
"Yes but what do we do?" squeaked Hermione, her eyes crossing as the tendrils crept into her hair. To her left Fred and George were miming snake charmers controlling the smoke that was currently poking into Ron's nose. Harry's glasses fogged up and he felt the silky mist caress his eyes softly more liquid than gas. His wand was drawn, as were all others, yet he felt reluctant to use it for some reason.
Quickly, before any of them had concocted a reasonable enough plan of attack the mist began to swirl rapidly around them creating a hurricane of grey cloud, yet no wind rustled their hair or clothes. The fog was moving at a dizzying speed, swishing around them and squashing them into an ever tighter group, compressing them so that they had to close their eyes from the tight pressure. It sped faster and faster crushing the breath from their lungs with a similar sensation to apparition until reaching its peak speed the twister began to slow and fade and then quite suddenly it dissolved all together.
After several seconds they dared open their eyes and breathed a sigh. Ron grinned "Hey, we're all right! What was that about if nothing happened?"
"Oh honestly Ronald!" snapped Hermione irritably "Are you that unobservant that you haven't noticed we've moved?" And indeed they had, the bare wooden floor and dank mouldy walls of Grimmauld Place had been replaced by rows of red-brick terraced houses and the glaring orange haze of lamp posts.
Ron scowled at her and then turned to Lupin to ask him what was going on. His question died on his lips, however when he saw that the Lupin he had been stood next to in the sitting room seemed to have been replaced with an exact copy of the man, only about 15 years younger. He had a tall, lean stature and was strikingly similar to Lupin but with unmistakably less grey hair and a far less weathered appearance, yet he still had a weariness about him that did not suit an eighteen year old's form. The real Lupin was stood across from him slightly ahead of Sirius and Tonks with a look of sad recognition on his usually straight face. "What's happened?" whispered Ginny looking disbelievingly between the two Lupins, the younger of which didn't seem aware of their presence at all and appeared to be looking through them to the end of the road they were stood on. Sirius' reply was quiet with wonder, incredulity and the slight hint of excitement "We've fallen into the memories."