Love's Flame,
Chapter One- The Order of the Phoenix
The appartment- it was small, yet it held a bunch of different things. There was a little hallway leading off of the family room, half of which served as a dining room, and there was a little room on either side of the hallway, with a bathroom at the end of the hall and a closet to the left of it.
The dining set was small; a card table served as the dining table that the occupants would eat upon, and there were two white vynal lawn chairs, one at the head of the card table, one at the rear of the card table.
It was separated from the kitchen by a little island that served as another table if guests came to call; the dining room table had a blue and yellow rug underneath, which clashed horribly with the emerald green carpet in the family room.
The kitchen was the littlest room of the whole house; it was what was known as a 'space saver' kitchen. One wall was covered in cabinets that held such things as food and dining ware. The afore mentioned island was attached to the kitchen wall and also served as a place to prepare foods; underneath the island was yet more cabinets that held the 'seasonal' decorations, or in other words, the holiday decorations; to the right side of that and atop the island was the sink that was piled high with dirty dishes. To the right of that about two cabinet spaces was the stove and about one more cabinet space after that was the refridgerator.
It was decorated rather oddly. The carpet was emerald green and the walls were a bright canary yellow, while the ceiling was textured white. The couch was a black leather and it clashed loudly with the carpet and the walls.
But, however oddly this house was decorated, it suited the two occupants that lived within it.
Pretty soon an alarm could be heard throughout the little house.
There was two simultanious groans as each stumbled out of their beds.
"Morning, Nym," yawned a blond, stretching and running a hand through her dishelved blond hair.
The one known as 'Nym' smiled and replied. "G'morning, Sere."
The one known as 'Sere' stumbled into the kitchen to make some breakfast for the two. She pulled out her wand, pointed it at the dishes and made an upward flick motion with it and they started cleaning themselves. She then put it on the counter and turned to get some pancake mix out of the cabinets.
Nym was in the bathroom, brushing her hair. She examined herself for a moment, before screwing her face up and her hair was suddenly changed into a shoulder length bob that was bubblegum pink. She smiled, then went into the kitchen, her stomach rumbling after she had smelled the pancakes Sere was making.
Sere was just putting out the butter on the table when Nym came in. "Ah, these look wonderful." she replied, sinking her fork into the fluffy chocolate chip pancakes.
"Wh d'ou ink i'll e ike?" asked Nym with her mouth full.
Sere looked at her with her eye brows raised. "Translation?" she asked as Nym swallowed her food.
"What d'you think it'll be like?" asked Nym, taking a huge gulp of orange juice.
Sere shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "I guess we'll just have to find out."
Nym nodded. "You'd better get ready to go, Sere. We don't want to be late for our first meeting."
Sere nodded and got up to get dressed.
Sere and Nym raised their eye brows as a door and then a house suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. They shared a look of interest before they knocked on the door.
A second later a plump red haired woman answered the door. "Why, hello. I suppose you two are the two Auror's that Professor Dumbledore was talking about?"
Sere nodded. "Yes, we are. I-"
"Come in, come in." said the lady, ushering the two young ladies into the house. She turned to them and smiled at them. "I'm Molly Weasely, by the way."
Nym smiled and introduce her and Sere. "It's nice to meet you, Molly. This is my friend and fellow Auror, Serena Tuskino, and I'm Nymphadora Tonks, although I prefer being called by my surname." she said.
Molly smiled, and ushered them on. "Come on, follow me." she said, ushering them down into the kitchen.
Nymphadora and Serena looked around at everybody with interest as they took their seats in two empty chairs.
Serena caught a glimpse of some random person, then had to do a double take. She then turned to whisper in Tonks's ear. "That's Sirius Black,"
Tonks, trying to be somewhat discreet, waited for a moment before glancing over to where Serena had indicated with the rolling of her eyes. "Gollie gee Wilikers, you're right." she whispered back sarcastically. "You got that letter from Dumbledore that Kingsley dropped off, didn't you?"
Serena looked at Tonks. "Nymphadora Tonks, did you forget to show me the letter that Albus sent?" she whispered sharply.
Tonks looked at her for a moment before glowing a bright pink color. "I knew I forgot something," she squeaked. "Whoops."
"Honestly, it's a miracle you made it through the Auror program, Nym." sighed Serena in exasperation.
Tonks glared at her and was about to reply something scathing when suddenly the doors to the kitchen swung open and in walked Professor Albus Dumbledore. The two sat up a little strighter.
"Good afternoon," said Dumbledore, smiling around at everybody. "Welcome. As I am sure you are all very well aware by now, this house is going to be headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, donated so graciously by Sirius."
Dumbledore's eyes were sparkling, but he wore a serious expression as he continued. "As you all will be coming and going throughout the months I find it highly important for everybody to get to know each other and very much encourage you to do so; it is very important to forge great friendships in such a perilous time of war, and I expect everybody to get to know each other better by the end of this meeting.
"Now, on to different matters. First of all, I need volunteers to go and fetch Harry Potter from Little Whinning. Who would be interested n doing so?"
Serena and Tonks looked around and, after the first hand went up, theirs instantly followed.
Dumbledore's eyes flickered towards them and he chuckled lightly. "Yes, I expected that you two would volunteer." he said.
Serena and Tonks both grinned. "Well, surely you can't've expected us to miss a chance to meet the infamous Harry Potter, now can you, Albus?" said Serena.
Dumbledore remained smiling but the two could swear they had seen him rolling his eyes; they chuckled to one another.
Tonks looked around to see who all had volunteered to go. Naturally Kingsley would... and, was the Emmeline Vance over there?
Serena also looked around with interest and was surprised to see just how many people had volunteered. But, she noticed with some discomfort, the look on Sirius Black's face. Gulping quietly to herself, she looked away and around at all the others.
Dumbledore counted everybody, his smile growing each time he counted a person. "Excellent, excellent!" he beamed. "Well, then, I can rest easy now that that's taken care of. Pressing on to different matters, however."
Then the old wizard got serious. He looked around at everybody once again, his blue eyes doing their usual piercing. "Before we continue, I need to know... Does everybody in this room believe that Lord Voldemort has returned?"
Tonks and Serena both noticed some people shifting uncomfortably in their chairs; whether it was because of hearing the most evil wizard of all time's name spoken so bluntly, or if they did not in fact believe that he was back, the two didn't know. All they knew is that THEY believed that Voldemort was back, and that they would support Dumbledore until their dying day, even if that day was to be soon.
"Of course we all believe you, Albus," replied Sirius, glancing at the headmaster. "And if there is any in here that don't, well, they can be taken care of."
Dumbledore smiled faintly. "Yes, yes, thank you Sirius, but I do not think it wise to start scaring people just yet." he replied, then glanced over and noticed Tonks and Serena caressing their wands rather lovingly.
Then, "I repeat, is there a person in here who does not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned?"
Serena and Tonks looked around once again to see if there was any more fidgeting, but there wasn't. These people seemed to have grown a back bone after all.
"Good," replied Dumbledore, still smiling. "That makes things easier."
Then, Dumbledore went on to talk to the people about many, many different things concerning the Order of the Phoenix, and the things that they would have to do and such.
After the meeting, Dumbledore turned to them once again. "Now, I need those who have volunteered to go and get Harry to file out of the kitchen for a moment, there are a few instructions I need to give you." he said.
Tonks looked at Serena. "Well, are you coming?" she asked her companion, who had a faraway look in her eyes.
Serena nodded, standing from her seat. "Yeah, but I need a word with Albus, first." she said.
Tonks nodded and filed out of the room as the old wizard had instructed.
Serena walked over to where the old wizard was standing, talking to Mrs. Weasely. She waited for a moment before he turned his eyes on her. He sighed. "What is it that you need, Serenity?" he asked, looking into her bright blue eyes for a moment.
Serena scowled. "Oh, come on, Albus, it's Serena, not Serenity. Too formal. Anyway, I was just wondering whether...er..." she looked around for a moment before continuing. "whether Severus will be joining us here."
Dumbledore smiled faintly. "Certainly he will be. However, that is not what you were wondering, is it, Serenity?" he replied, smiling at the look on the young blond's face.
"Not entirely, no." she replied. "I was wondering whether my, uh, family history, might be a problem?"
Dumbledore thought this over for a moment. "Certainly not," he replied slowly. "As you do not seem too keen to join them, I do not see where it would be a problem. However," the old wizard grew stern. "be careful of whom you choose to tell; not everybody will be as open minded about it as I have been, or as Nymphadora has been."
Serena nodded, her heart sinking with the magnitude of her situation. "Thank you, Albus. That puts me at ease, for now, at least." she replied, turning and going out to meet Tonks in the hall.
Mrs. Weasely ushered the two into the kitchen for dinner after everything was settled. She offered Dumbledore some dinner, also, but he politely declined. There was some place else he needed to be.
Tonks took a seat next to Serena, who was looking around at everybody with interest, then at Tonks and jumped.
"What was all that about?" asked Tonks, raising an eye brow.
Serena shook her head, grinning. "You just startled me, that's all. All this talk about Voldemort makes me kinda edgy," she said, then, "What's your favorite type of jam?"
Tonks rolled her eyes. "Dang, Serenity," she said, laughing as Serena cringed. "Everything makes you edgy. Missing an episode of Charmed or I Love Lucy makes you edgy. Not having clean socks makes you edgy; not listening to the Beatles makes you edgy. So, naturally, talking about Voldemort would make you edgy."
Serena scowled. "Well, Nyphadora," she said, laughing just as spitefully as Tonks did. "All those things makes ME edgy, but we're not even going to go into what makes YOU edgy."
"Excuse me, you two," said Molly, looking at them. "but I think everybody here would be more comfortable if you said 'You-Know-Who' instead of his name."
Tonks looked at her for a moment. "But Dumbledore said his name," she said politely.
"Dumbledore is a very powerful wizard and has earned the right to feel comfortable saying his name," replied Molly.
Serena shook her head. "Albus is for sure a very powerful wizard, which brings me to my point; while we are under his protection, we are safe. For, while Voldemort is a really powerful Dark wizard, he is very afraid of Albus. And I really don't think there are any Death Eaters in here to tattle to Voldemort, I think we are just fine." she said, smiling pleasantly.
Tonks rolled her eyes. Just like Serena to get all scholarly on everybody. She turned to Serena and whispered sharply to her. "You're a dork,"
Serena grinned and looked at Tonks. "Thank you," she replied.
Okay, review and tell me what ya'll think. Like, hate, love, can't get enough of? Okay, yeah, I'm getting cocky. Anyway, tell me what you think. I hope ya'll enjoyed it.
