Chapter One
Number 12, Grimauld Place
Night had fallen at number 12, Grimauld Place, where an anxious silence echoed throughout the house. Old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered quietly all along the walls, casting a flickering, insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper. Also visible, but just barely, was the threadbare carpet that lined the long, gloomy hallways which branched off into unused rooms reeking of mildew. In them, age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls and cobwebby chandeliers glimmered distantly overhead.
Suddenly, the aged door in the main hallway creaked open to let in a motley assortment. The large group that had just stepped over the chipped threshold was comprised of several quirky characters. One of these people was a young woman with a pale heart-shaped face and short, spiky hair that was a violent shade of bright bubble-gum pink. The second person that attracted the most attention was the grizzled old man with a large chunk missing from his nose that followed her. Compared to his acquaintances, the next person that walked into the derelict building did not seem particularly remarkable at all.
He was a skinny, black-haired boy whose startling green eyes looked at the world from behind a pair of very battered glasses. The one thing that Harry Potter could not hide was indeed quite interesting. He had a curiously shaped cut in the middle of his forehead, like a bolt of lightning. The scar was, for the most part, entirely unnoticeable unless someone looked for it. Unfortunately for Harry, almost everyone did.
A moment after the door swung slowly shut, a plump, red-haired woman came bustling out of the kitchen to greet them.
"Oh, Harry, it's so lovely to see you again!" Mrs. Weasley pulled him into a bone-cracking hug, then held him at arm's length to examine him. "My, my, you're looking peaky. Those Muggles haven't been feeding you good. I'll fix you right up as soon as the kitchen's free again." She gestured to the door that she had just come through, which the new arrivals were filing through. "The meeting's just started. No, not you, dear," she added briskly as Harry made to follow them. "Order members only."
He opened his mouth to object, but she raised a hand to stop him from interrupting her. "Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you can wait with them until the meeting's over, and then we'll all have dinner. And keep your voice down as long as you're in the hall." She added in an urgent whisper.
"Why?"
"We mustn't wake anything up."
"What would –"
"I'll explain everything later, I'm supposed to be at the meeting – I'll just show you where you're sleeping."