Lumos
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything you recognise.
Chapter One: Confidential Affiliations
"It smells musky Tonks," I muttered, placing my suitcase on the dust covered table, "It is in dire need of a clean up."
"Trust me," said my older sister, Nymphadora, "I know."
"As if the order doesn't have nicer places to set up their secret get togethers," I pressed.
"Stop it Liv," replied Nymph, "It's quiet, out of harms way, and under the radar."
"I guess so," I said.
"Nymphadora, Olivia, is that you?" called Molly Weasley.
"Heh, yeah Nymphadora," I smirked.
My sister hated being called by her full name; if anyone asked her what her name was, it was just simply Tonks. It was all fun and games, until the two of us were together, as we both naturally responded to Tonks.
"Shut up," she muttered, as Molly Weasley entered the room, embracing both of us, one in each arm, around our shoulders.
"How have you been Mrs Weasley?" I asked, pulling out a chair and slumping down in it.
A pleasant aroma met my nose, Mrs Weaselys' cooking was always amazing, Nymphs' not so much, my own? pitiful. So a delectable meal would be much appreciated.
"Alright my dear," she said, "alright."
I only had a handful of interactions with Mrs Weasley since being initiated into the Order of the Phoenix. The order was a group of witches and wizards who had come together to attempt to figure out what the Dark Lord was doing; as Fudge was in clear denial of the return of him. I was delighted when Dumbledore asked me to join the order, apparently it was due to my refined knowledge, I didn't know what made me so special, although the gesture gave me a sense of achievement either way.
"Well that's good," I said, running a hand through my dark hair, in attempt to flatten it. "Thank you for letting us stay."
"It's not a problem deary," she said, "It's best were all together. I heard about how you have been appointed the female prefect for Hufflepuff, good work."
"Yes, I'm quite excited," I replied.
"So you girls will be bunking together, unless you want to bunk with Charlie that is," said Mrs Weasley.
"Is Charlie here?" I asked, "Speaking of which, where is everyone?"
"Ooo goodness, who knows, Harry, Hermione and Ron were here a second ago, Sirius, Lupin, Moody and Arthur are out, Fred and Geor-" replied Mrs Weasley.
CRACK!
The Weasley twins appareated on either side of Mrs Weasely, giving her a fright.
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU" yelled Mrs Weasley, "Just because you're allowed to use magic, doesn't mean you should be using it for every twist and turn."
"Olive!" The twins cheered in unison, completely ignoring their mother's scolding.
"How are my favourite Weasleys?" I asked, hugging the both of them, an unmovable grin plastered across my face.
"Excellent," said Fred.
"Awesome," replied George.
After being in all my school classes with Fred and George, it was very easy for me to tell them apart. They were probably my closest friends at school, besides Tasmin Applebee, my best friend in my house.
"So as I was saying," began Mrs Weasely, "Olive, you can bunk with Charlie if you like, and Tonks, you can be with Ginny and Hermione. Charlie is just picking up Newt."
"Newt?" I asked unsurely, my eyebrows furrowing.
"Hes taking over Professor Sprouts and Hargrid's position," said Mrs Weasley in a matter-o-factly fashion.
"Hold up, what am I missing?" I asked.
"No need to worry yourself dear, all will be explained later," said Mrs Weasley. "How about you go up and unpack."
Number twelve Grimmauld Place, in lack of a better word, was uncared for. The carpet had worn thin, and the wallpaper was peeling. The chandelier hung lowly in the corridor leading to the stairs, enveloped by many years of hard working spiders' webs. I had only visited the place a handful of times before, but the house elf heads mounted on plaques that lined the stairwell still creeped me out. Who thought to themselves, When house elves pass, lets behead them and use them as decoration. Weird Slytherins. Not that I should speak, Nymph and my mother was in Slyhterin, a Black, hence why we knew Sirius.
I reached my room, Tonks was engaged in conversation with Harry and the others, the floor below. It was a small, messy room, with creaking floorboards, and two clumsily iron made bed heads, with off white mattresses and sheets on them.
Grasping my wand, and standing up on the little stool beside the door, I began to swish, flick and mutter spells under my breath. The sheets turned several shades whiter, and the iron into wood. The floorboards, now gleamed, and the reminiscence of spiders webs, and other creatures feces no longer on the premises. What seemed to be old blood stains, spluttering the wall, was now covered in a delicate love-me-lots pink; I'm sure that Charlie wouldn't argue with the feminine hue. The last thing to enchant were the paisley themed curtains; changing them back to their original colour.
The room instantly smelt more fresh, as I pulled open the double doored windows, to allow in some air.
"Mum says you'll be on this side," said Charlie, from behind the door.
"Thank you, your mum is very hospitable, she hasn't changed a bit," said an unrecognizable mans voice.
"Charlie!" I said loudly, letting him know I was in the room, incase he wanted to engage in secret confidential affiliations with this stranger.
"Olive, is that you?" he called, swinging the door open.
"Charlie!" I exclaimed, leaping into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist.
Charlie by far, was my favourite Weasley offspring. I didn't get to see him very often due to his study of dragons in Romania. I think he was quite good looking for a red head, although I agreed with Molly that his piercings and dragon hide attire wasn't particularly to my liking. I thought it was strange that we got along so well, Nymph and he graduated school together, therefore he was five years older then me; but together, we were the dynamic duo, or as Nymph had so rudely anointed our friendship; dumb and dumber.
"This is Newton Scamander," said Charlie, diverting my attention to the man next to him, "He was expelled the same year as Tonks and I graduated, try to keep that under the carpet; he will be your Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and temporarily reliving Sprout as head of Hufflepuff."
Newton Scamander was a few inches taller then Charlie, with reddish brown messy hair, and day old stubble across his gently freckled skin. A slight smile danced across his thin lips, as he held my eye contact for a moment, only to break it seconds later.
"Hello," he said, half waving with his hand.
"Hi there," I said brightly, "It's a pleasure."
"Are you still taking Care of Magical creatures Olive?" asked Charlie, breaking the slight awkward silence.
"Yes," I said, "although I'm failing miserably."
"That's a lie and you know it," said Charlie, poking my side.
"That along with Potions, not my greatest subjects," I said sighing.
"Surely not, you're apart of the order," said Newt unsurely.
"Olive is just being modest," said Charlie, pulling me close to him with his arm around my shoulder. "Come on, mum said dinner will be ready soon."
We walked down to the dining room, Charlie and Newt chattered amungst each other, about their research and different dragons and creatures that they had encountered. I listened on quietly. Although creatures were interestingsih, Transfiguration was my favourite class. The sheer ability to change the molecular structure of an object, to morph it into another; fantastic.
"Ah, there you three are," said Sirius, nodding as we entered the room.
"Dinner smells wonderful Mrs Weasely," as I took my usual seat next to Charlie, Newt sat down in the empty chair across from me.
"Thank you darling, now dig in before it gets cold," she said, bustling around, loading up everyones' plates with delicious goods.
"So for those who don't know Hagrid and Professor Sprout will not be joining us for the commencing of the school year, until further notice," said Charlie, "This is my very good friend, Newt Scamander, who will be the head of the Hufflepuff house, and your Care of Magical Creatures professor."
"What happened to Hagrid?" asked Harry.
"It's a long story," said Sirius, "but I can reassure you that he is perfectly safe."
"Also, there is an order meeting after dinner, Olive, that includes you," said Lupin.
"What?!" exclaimed Ginny. "Why is she a part of the order. She is a student, remember?"
"She had a name Ginny," said Charlie firmly, "and I'm sure that Dumbledore has his reasons to appoint Olivia onto the order."
"Whatever," she huffed.
I placed a hand under the table, onto Charlie's knee, silently thanking him got standing up for me. I caught Newt's eye, he raised an eyebrow; quickly, I moved my hand away, and tinged red, looking down, as though I had done something unspeakable.
"Yeah well then," started Mr Weasley, "about your hearing Harry, it's to be held in front of the whole ministry."
"Is that weird?" asked Harry.
"Eh well, you see the ministry aren't particularly fond of you at the moment," replied Mr Weasley.
"Why does the ministry have anything against me?" asked Harry.
"Tell him, he'll find out soon enough," said Moody from the corner, leaning on his wooden skull stick.
From the dresser, which featured lines and lines of the Black's china, Sirius pulled out the daily prophet. On the front of it was an image of Harry after the Triwizard Tournament, with a heading reading The Boy Who Lies?
"Clearly Fudge's denial hasn't dissolved at all," I said.
I could feel Newt's gaze on me, but I refused to return it, rather continued to concentrate on Sirius.
"Apparently not," added Nymph.
"But Voldermort is back," stressed Harry.
"Don't worry, Dumbledore has been under attack as well," said Lupin, "Fudge has been using his power, including his influence on the Daily Prophet to eliminate any rumours regarding the Dark Lord returning."
"But why?" asked Harry.
"Because Fudge believes that Dumbledore is after his job," said Lupin.
"But that's insane," said Harry.
"That is insane, but Fudge isn't in his right mind Harry, he has been cultured by fear, and fear distorts the sight of things," replied Lupin. "The minister will do almost anything to avoid facing that terrifying truth."
"We believe Voldermort wants to build up his army again," said Sirius, no one in the room dared to move. "Fourteen years ago he had huge numbers at his command, not just witches and wizards, but all different dark creatures, he's been recruiting heavily, and we've attempted to do the same. However, gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in, we believe that Voldermort might be after something..."
"Sirius..." said Moody, trying to change the topic of conversation, or at least warn him that he was giving out too much information.
"Something he didn't have last time," continued Sirius.
"He needs to stop talking," I said, soft enough for only Charlie to hear.
"I know," he said.
"Like a weapon or...?" asked Harry.
"Nope! That's enough, he's just a boy," said Charlie. "You say much more, you might as well induct him into the order straight away."
"Good, if Voldermort is raising an army, then I want to fight," said Harry.
"There's a lot of things you don't know Harry," I said.
"And you do?" snapped Ginny, "Just because you're in the order doesn't mean you're any better then any of us."
"Calm down Ginny, or you can go straight to your room!" said Mrs Weasley sternly.
"I know you've been through a lot Harry, but there's so much more out there, for you to learn," I said, "If you want to fight Voldermort, by all means, but at least equipt yourself with the right tools to do so."
"I just feel like we are fish in a barrel, waiting to be shot," said Hermione.
"The order is working on it," said Mrs Weasley. "We are bringing together some of the brightest witches and wizards. Enough on order business, who would like dessert?"
The order meeting was bland, they were arguing on whether to ask the Diggorys' to join, as they were both of magical blood, and very good at what they did.
"How about going undercover?" I asked out of nowhere.
"What do you mean?" asked Moody.
"Well polyjuice potion is too obvious, especially after what happened last year, but Tonks is a metamorphmagus, couldn't we capture a death eater, and put Tonks in instead?" I asked; the room went quiet.
"It's an idea," said Sirius.
"No!" said Lupin, "do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"I want to do it," said Nymph.
"No, they'll smell you for a mile away," said Moody, "Good work Tonks on the line of thought though, thats' the angle we should be taking."
"It's late, and we've been recycling the same topics for hours," said Lupin, I think it's time to call it a night.
Only now had I noticed that Charlie had fallen asleep on the table next to me, poor soul.
"What's that levitation charm?" I asked Newt. "Oh wait, I got it."
I flicked my wand, and Charlie was levitating in the air, in a fetal position, still sound asleep. I excused myself from the table, Newt hot on my heels; the ancient grandfather clock had just struck one. Newt flung open my bedroom door, I gently placed Charlie on-top of the quilt.
"Good night Olive," said Newt.
"Night," I said, grasping his upper arm with my hand, standing up on my toes to kiss him on the cheek.
Again, he refused to make eye contact with me, but the half smile he couldn't contain; his eyes lasering the floor as he exited the room.
As usual, lots of love;
onefrozenheart