A/N: Okay so this is my first time venturing into the world of Harry Potter and I would really appreciate it if you guys could tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is very welcome.
Disclaimer; I don't own Harry Potter and I'm making nothing from this.
Alexander Black had not been having the best summer of his life. He'd barely spent a week of it at his own home when he and his family had been whisked away to the secret headquarters of the Order Of the Phoenix. And whilst in theory that sounds pretty damn awesome, he found that it wasn't living up to his expectations. At all.
His first, and most pressing problem was the fact that he was now under the same roof as his biological father; Sirius Black, and the father that had raised him; Arthur Weasley. Three days into his stay he'd casually asked, "Dad, can you pass the bacon?" Two sets of hands had reached for it. How was he supposed to deal with that? Never had any event in his life prepared him for such a thing. And ok, maybe he was making it out to be a bigger deal than it was, but he was seriously stressed out at the moment. A boy he knew had died last month, and he thought he might be developing feelings for one of his best friends; which was weird, and now, to top it all off, he was stuck living in his creepy 'ancestral' house with two dads and he couldn't even write to one of his other best friends to tell him about it. It was slowly but surely driving him crazy; he was not made to be cooped up for weeks at a time.
"I can't take this much longer." Alex stated, pacing back and forward. "I'm about this close to going up to Dumbledore and demanding he go fetch Harry." He stopped and held his finger and thumb up and inch apart to emphasise his point. He wouldn't of course, but it was nice to imagine.
"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione replied from where she was perched at the edge of his bed as he continued to pace, "we all want Harry here, but if Dumbledore says we have to wait then I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for it."
"And as much as I'd love to see you try to demand anything from Dumbledore," Ron piped up from where he was laying on his own bed; his back was against the wall and his feet were hanging over the edge, "I'm pretty sure mum would kill you for even thinking it."
That did sound like something she would do. She'd at least hit him over the head with something hard: repeatedly.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake Alex." Hermione cried "Stop pacing!"
"Yeah, you're making me dizzy." Ron complained as he threw a pair of his dirty socks at Alex's head.
His reflexes being what they where, Alex easily caught the socks, and just as easily dropped them; they where moist. His head shot up to Ron in disgust.
Strangely though, it did calm him down. Harry would be with them soon enough; his anger wouldn't help anyone. He sighed and went over and sat beside Hermione on his bed. "Sorry." He said sheepishly. "I'm just frustrated with a lot of things at the moment. I'll try not to be such a prat in future."
"Don't worry about it." Ron said, "Besides, he won't be with those Muggles much longer."
I didn't sit well with any of them; they had essentially abandoned Harry at his relatives for the summer and had been unable to tell him anything about what had been going on; despite the fact that it was Harry who had witnessed Voldermort's return in the first place. Dumbledore apparently wanted to keep Harry in the dark for as long as possible. The most he had been told was an, I expect we'll be seeing you quite soon from Hermione.
"And at least he'll have his birthday gifts in the meantime." Ron continued. That was true; he'd have massive amounts of Honey Duke's chocolate heading his way soon; to compensate for the lack of sugary foods available at his Aunt and Uncles. Though he would not be getting the secret letter Alex had hidden in one of the chocolate boxes; it had been genius. Hermione though had eyes like a Hippogriff and she strongly disagreed with him trying to go around Dumbledore's orders. What could he do though? Dumbledore was a cool wizard and everything, but Harry was his bro, and no decent wizard would ever think of abandoning their bro.
"He'll be here soon enough and then we'll be able to tell him everything we know." Hermione replied; scooting back on the bed and mirroring Ron's position.
"Which isn't much mind you." said Ron, stretching out on his bed and kicking a pile of dirty clothes onto the floor of the gloomy, high-ceilinged bedroom he and Alex shared. His father, the biological one that is, had insisted that Alex get a room of his own, but Alex had been reluctant. He had shared a room with Ron since he was a baby, and he wasn't about to change that now. Or at least, that was what he had claimed. The truth was that the house creeped him out more than he had thought possible, and he had absolutely no intention of staying on his own; childish though it seemed.
"It's more than he knows now though isn't it." Alex replied, "I mean he's going to be so angry with us when he gets here. He's the one who had to watch Cedric die and then he gets dumped with those awful Muggles, whilst we've all been together here. I don't see why he couldn't have just come here instead." So maybe that wasn't the only reason Alex wanted Harry here; it would be nice if Sirius had someone else to focus his attention on.
"You did ask mate, but Dumbledore said he had to stay with his family." Ron said as he now lay fully sprawled out on the bed.
"I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid." Hermione fretted, "He isn't exactly known to act rationally when he's frustrated."
The door opened, interrupting their conversation, and the long mane of red hair belonging to the youngest Weasley appeared.
"Mum's been looking for you Alex," Ginny said in way of greeting, "She wants to talk to you about sorting the room out for Harry."
Alex looked at her indignantly in return; he really didn't want to get up. "It's Ron's room too. Why can't he sort it out?"
"Well firstly, Ron's a lazy git who's more than happy to live in squalor." She replied, looking pointedly at his sprawled form, "And secondly, because Tonks has managed to yet again trip over Mr Pablington and she's taken refuge under the dresser in the kitchen. I thought you might like to try and get her out because she keeps scratching Tonks when she tries."
Mr Pablington, or Pablo as he liked to call her, was in fact Alex's small black and white, female cat, which he had gotten in third year (a gift from Sirius he later found out). She had a very bad habit of scratching Tonks at every given opportunity. Though, this could be due to Tonk's equally bad habit of tripping over her whenever they appeared in the same room.
Ron looked as though he was about to argue, but then thought better of it and shrugged as if to say, What can you do?
"Ugh, fine." Alex said reluctantly as he stood. Pablo hated Ron anyway. "Best get to it then. I'll see you two later." Ron and Hermione bade their own goodbyes and he and Ginny made their way down the stairs, past the beheaded elves.
"Did she seem terribly upset when you saw her?" he whispered to Ginny as they tiptoed past the moth-eaten velvet curtains that covered his Grandmothers portrait. He wouldn't put it past Pablo to give him a few scratches as well.
"Well I'm not an expert at reading cat expressions," she replied dryly, "but she had just been stood on so I'm going to say she wasn't pleased."
They entered the basement kitchen to see Mrs Weasley and the eldest Weasley child Bill sitting at the table. Bill had somehow managed to keep Mrs Weasley from cutting his long ginger hair, or he had just regrown it again, and he had it up in a loose ponytail. They were both drinking coffee and looking rather amused as Tonks, bent on all fours, tried to coax the irate cat out from under the dresser. Pablo though was having none of it and swept a clawed paw out when her nemesis ventured too close.
"Why must you continue to traumatise my cat?" Alex asked with a soft smile as he joined her on the floor. Tonks had her hair short, spiky and a vivid blue today. It went nicely with her Wicked Sisters t-shirt and ripped jeans. She looked up at him stricken.
He knew it wasn't her fault. Tonks was just accident prone; a fact which usually brought him great amusement.
"I'm sorry!" wailed Tonk's from her position on the floor. "She always just appears under my foot, and I never see her until I'm flat on my ass."
Alex shared a chuckle with Bill and Ginny, who were both seated at the table, and took one last look under the dresser. Pablo did not look amused. "She's not coming out without a fight Tonks, so I suggest we just leave her." He said as he stood up and offered his hand to his blue haired cousin. "It's much safer this way." He pulled her up easily and they both took a seat at the table; him next to Mrs Weasley and her between Bill and Ginny.
"Oh, Tonks dear, let me take a look at your hand." Mrs Weasley said as she leaned further over the table to take a look at it. It had several deep scratches and was slowly dripping blood.
"Don't worry about it Molly."Tonks replied as she conjured a small cloth; hissing as she applied pressure to her wounds. "I've had worse." Of that Alex had no doubt. It was only yesterday when she tripped over the umbrella stand and ended up concussed. Ginny apparently remembered as well; she was discretely smirking into her hand and looking anywhere but at Tonks.
"If you're sure dear." Mrs Weasley replied evenly before turning her attention to Alex. "Now, I'm going to need you and Ron up bright and early tomorrow morning to clean your room. Harry will be coming in a couple of days and we need to get a bed in there."
"I'm pretty sure that we're capable of cleaning the room at any time during the day, so there's really no need to get us up." Alex replied with a cheeky smile. "And if worse comes to worse, we can always just push a bed through the crap on the floor. I'm sure Harry won't notice." He managed to make the others around the table smile but Mrs Weasley was having none of it.
"Don't you give me that young man. You and Ronald are as bad as one another, I swear. You will be up bright and early, if I have to..."
He was listening to his reprimand when he saw something enter from the corner of his eye.
It was a house elf; naked except for the filthy rag tied like a loincloth around its middle. It looked very old. Its skin seemed several times too big for it and, though it was bald like all house-elves, there was a quantity of white hair growing out of its large batlike ears. Its eyes were a bloodshot and watery grey and its fleshy nose was large and rather snoutlike. And Kreacher, like always, was muttering under his breath in his hoarse voice.
And Alex, like always, was trying to ignore what Kreacher was saying; but he was also trying to ignore what Mrs Weasley was saying as well so it was proving quite difficult.
He wasn't trying to be rude, towards Mrs Weasley anyway, but every time he was forced to clean in this house something bit him. And he was really sick of being bitten. Maybe he could just order Kreacher to clean his room for him; when Hermione wasn't around of course. He may have been raised by the Weasleys but he was still a Black and as such Kreacher had to do what he told him.
His mother, Marlene Dovay, had been Mrs Weasley's best friend and she had been killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in a duel three weeks before the Potters died. So when his father had been arrested he had been taken in by his only remaining God Parent; Mrs Weasley. The Weasleys had raised him as their own; family in all but blood.
"- live like that. And tomorrow we're going to clean out the last bedroom on the third floor so you'll have to help with that as well." Mrs Weasley finished, daring him to argue.
"Oh yeah, of course. Looking forward to it." he replied in a dreary voice, sharing a grimace with Ginny. He may not have heard all of what Mrs Weasley was saying, but he got the general gist of it. Bill gave a soft smile and grabbed the Daily Prophet that was sitting on the table. Tonks however looked quiet smug. Bill would be working tomorrow but he knew Tonks had the day off.
"And you Tonks. Will you be joining in on our day of fun?"He asked, glaring at her suspiciously. Tonks gave out a dramatic sigh, "I would, believe me, but unfortunately I'll be gone most of tomorrow." She answered in a downtrodden voice; which was completely ruined by her smirk. "Order Business." She finished with a wink.
"Don't worry dear, we'll manage." Mrs Weasley reassured as she stood up from her chair; presumably off to start the evening meal.
"Are we actually ever going to find out what this Order Business is?" Ginny asked huffily. Tonks had only helped clean out the kitchen when they first arrived. After that she seemed to always be busy when they asked for her help.
"You know we can't tell you that Gin." Bill said, looking up from his paper and reaching for his cup of coffee. "It's top sec-AARGH"
With two loud cracks, Fred and George had materialised out of thin air in the middle of the room causing Bill to jump violently and spill his coffee over himself and Tonks; to the great amusement of Alex and Ginny.
The twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slightly shorter, looked completely unperturbed by the death glares they were receiving from the two coffee soaked individuals.
"You're a might bit jumpy today," Fred said casually. "You should probably get that checked out."
"Yeah, you could have an underlying twitch and go your whole life without knowing it." said George, also quiet casually.
"You could have used the stairs." Tonks said stonily, as Bill used his wand to clean them off. "It wouldn't have taken you more than a minute." Alex secretly agreed with Tonks. The twins had been apparating all over the house the past month and it was getting on everyone's nerves. However, he found the current situation far too amusing to voice any objections.
"But think of all the wonderful things we could be doing in that minute." Fred replied, smiling unrepentant.
"We could write a poem." George added.
"Or draw a picture."
"Or invent a spell."
"Or make a sandwich."
Turning to Fred and George, Alex cut them off before they could continue: forcing Tonks to kill them."Is there something in particular you two wanted?"
They both turned to him with identical smiles "You actually." Fred replied "Hermione told us you'd be here."
"We found ourselves with some free time on our hands so we wanted to talk to you about that thing from earlier." George added innocently, ignoring the suspicious look from Tonks. "Remember? The thing."
No, he didn't. And now George was squinting at him funnily. What thing?
"Oh, yeah" Alex said finally understanding what they were talking about. He had taken to helping them with their products for their future joke shop "Yeah, that thing. Gotcha, be right with you." He turned and sighed dramatically to Ginny. "I know you wouldn't understand Gin, but sometimes it's hard being this popular."
He laughed and jumped up as she swatted playfully at his head. "I'll catch you three later. Try not to miss me too much in the meantime."
"Relax Tonks," he continued as he saw her glare as he walked towards the doorway; the twins hot at his heels. "George just has a guy problem that he needs my help with."
"What! No I –" George sputtered indignantly before Fred pushed him through the doorway into the hall. They could hear Ginny and Bill laughing at their brother's expense in the kitchen.
"Smooth George." Alex said, turning to him with a teasing smile, only for George to narrow his eyes playfully. "I suppose we'll be having another go at fixing the puking pastels then?" He really wasn't looking forward to it. It always consisted of the three of them taking turns at biting the orange half of the chew causing them to be violently sick while the other two tried to shove the purple antidote part down their throat. It was a process of trial and error; they were slowly tweaking out the problems. It wasn't nearly as bad as it was in the beginning when Fred had managed to puke violently enough that he'd passed out by the time they'd managed to get the purple half in him; it had led to the development of Fainting Fancies.
"Right you are my friend." Fred said with false cheer as the climbed the staircase. "Puke buckets are standing by."
"All we need now is our willing victim. I mean...participant." George added with a sheepish look.
"That I take it would be me?" Alex asked with a resignated sigh.
"Yes" the twins answered in unison.
"Great. The next thing we make though, we're naming it after me."
A/N: This chapter was really just to introduce some of the relationships between Alex and the other characters and to explain some of the things that had been happening whilst Harry was at his Uncles. Harry will be coming in during the next chapter as will a physical description of Alex.
04/09/2012 So yeah, I'm finally back. Decided to finally continue this story but I just wasn't happy with the first chapter, so I've gone over it and hopefully it's a lot better now. Next stage is to go over the second chapter and then hopefully fire out a third. So, if you would be so kind, leave a review. Let me know what you think!
-Lieutenant Sarcasm