AUTHORS NOTE! :P

Sup people!

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Now I shall answer some reviews!

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Now, on with the story!

Enjoy!

-Rach ;)


Max's POV

I paced up and down the kitchen floor, biting anxiously on my fingernails. It had been four days since we fought against the Erasers and Harry was attacked by Dementors. For the last four days, the flock had been kept busy with extra cleaning as punishment for sneaking out. But that didn't stop me from worrying about Harry.

I stared at the marks on my knuckles, left there by Hedwig when she got here a few days ago. She wouldn't stop pecking out hands, and nearly everyone in the house had similar marks on their hands. I had a feeling Harry told her not to leave until he got decent answers.

After dinner, eight members from the Order of the Phoenix (including Lupin, Moody and Tonks) had left to go take Harry away from Privet Drive and bring him here. That was almost half an hour ago, and I was running out of fingernail to bite on.

"Max, sweetheart, you need to calm down," Mrs Weasley said from where she was making tea and watching the dishes from dinner wash themselves. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

I stopped pacing and looked around the kitchen. Mr Weasley was sitting at the table, with a newspaper propped in front of him, but his eyes weren't moving. The flock were either sitting down or standing up, watching me pace up and down. Fred and George had disappeared into their room after dinner, and Hermione, Ron and Ginny were upstairs, waiting for us to join them. And Sirius... Well he hadn't been seen since that afternoon, when Dumbledore announced who would go to bring Harry back to Headquarters. I heard Sirius begging to be allowed go for nearly forty minutes. After that, he disappeared somewhere in the house. He didn't even come down for dinner.

Suddenly, I got an idea. "I'm going to find Sirius and bring him some dinner," I said, walking over to where the leftovers were. Piling bits of everything onto a clean plate, I turned to leave the kitchen, the flock following me.

"We'll be with in our room," Fang said on the first floor landing before walking into the room he shared with Iggy and Ron.

I checked the dining room, a few of the spare bedrooms (won't go into detail about what I saw in them) and even checked in the room Buckbeak stayed in. But no sign of Sirius.

Finally, I got to the top floor, where I hadn't been before. I passed a few closed doors, one of which had a plaque, but it was too dusty to read what it said. It looked like initials though. I kept going, and eventually I saw what seemed to be the cleanest door on the whole floor. Written on the door was Sirius.

I knocked hesitantly on the door, and heard a quiet "Come in."

I opened the door with my right hand, balancing the tray of food with my left. I peered into the room, and saw my father sitting against the carved headboard of a huge bed. The room had a tall window with long velvet curtains, and there was a candle chandelier. There were so many pictures and posters covering the wall I could hardly make out the wallpaper. The whole room was decorated with Gryffindor banners and Gryffindor colours.

Looking closer at the pictures, I saw a few Muggle posters of girls in bikini's on motorbikes. I noticed the majority of the pictures were of the Marauders, either all four of them together or just two or three of them together. The one's closer to the bed and desk were all of Sirius and my mum, or just my mum on her own.

I looked back at my father, who was staring at me curiously.

I lifted the tray higher and said, "I brought you food."

Sirius smirked. "I can see that." He patted on the bed beside him, and I sat down, leaving the tray on his lap.

"Permanent Sticking Charm?" I guessed, pointing to the posters, pictures and banners.

Sirius nodded, swallowing his chicken. "Drove my mother mad. She never stopped trying to pull them all down, bless her." We were silent for a few more minutes while Sirius ate.

"Why have you been up here all day?" I asked.

Sirius shoved his empty plate away from him. "I just wanted some space. I suppose I was a bit... annoyed that I couldn't be part of Harry's Guard."

"Well you can't be sulking up here when they get back. They should be here soon enough. Plus, there's an Order meeting in half an hour." I said.

"I know, I know..."

For the next twenty minutes, we stayed in my dad's room, talking about nothing important. Mostly about superheroes.

"Batman would so be able to kick Superman's butt!" I argued.

"But Batman doesn't have any actual superpowers. Superman could just pick him up and throw him into a wall. End of," Sirius said, grinning.

I huffed, crossing my arms."Batman doesn't need superpowers to beat Superman. All he needs to do is get a bit of Kryptonite and Superman is out of commission!"

"Yeah okay, but Superman would never let Batman get close enough to him to use the Kryptonite."

"But Batman is freaking Batman. No more argument needed."

Sirius sighed, holding back a laugh. "Okay, okay, fine. You win. Batman would win against Superman."

I nodded, laughing. "Damn right."

Then for no reason at all, we both burst into massive fits of laughter, and just couldn't stop. Five minutes later, we managed to regain control of ourselves. I sat up, wiping tears from my eyes. "That was random," I said, nearly setting us off again.

"Come on, kiddo. I have an Order meeting to attend," Sirius said, and he pulled me up from the bed. As we were walking from the room, I saw a picture of my parents, both of them smiling happily, with Sirius resting his hands on Grace's very pregnant belly.

"Sirius? Can I ask you something?" I said.

Sirius turned around and saw where I was looking. He swallowed, but nodded anyway. "Yeah, of course."

I hesitated, not wanting to make him upset again. "How long... after I was taken to the School... how long after I was taken did she die?"

Sirius's face turned pale. "She was killed a few weeks after Harry was born. Your mother and I were being trained as Aurors at the time, with James and Lily being permanent members of the Order. After Grace died... I spent the majority of my time over at James and Lily's, or with Remus. I suppose I didn't want to be on my own. Grace got to spent more time with Harry than she did with you, which clearly isn't fair. But she loved him. She spoiled him rotten. I suppose we all had a reputation of sorts. One night, I was over a James', and Voldemort showed up at our house while Grace was on her own, and... well, you know the rest."

"You don't blame yourself, do you?"

Sirius avoided looking me in the eyes. "I shouldn't of left her on her own. It had been barely a month after we lost you, and we were both coping our own ways, I guess. But I still should of made sure she wasn't on her own."

"It wasn't your fault, Dad. There was nothing you could of done," I said.

Sirius finally looked up. "I could of kept my head. After you, and Grace... Then Lily and James were killed, and Harry was taken off to the Dursley's... I snapped after that. Went straight after Pettigrew without thinking. And you know what happened next..."

"None of that stuff was your fault. I know that, Harry knows that. No one blames you for any of that," I said, stepping closer to him.

Sirius looked at me and smiled. "Thanks, kiddo," he said, wrapping his arms around me in a brief hug. "Come on. I'm going to be late."

We left the room, and headed downstairs. I stopped on the first floor landing, and Sirius kept going down the stairs. I stayed outside the door to the boys room, going through everything I had just learned, trying to clear my mind so I wouldn't be dwelling on any of it. When my mind was finally clear, I opened the door to the boy's bedroom, and walked in to see that only Hermione, Ron, Iggy and Fang were in there. Freedom, Hedwig, Grenade, Stygian and Pig were all sleeping on top of the wardrobe.

"Hey guys," I said. "Where is everyone?"

Ron shrugged. "Everyone's doing their own thing. Where were you?"

"With Sirius," I said. "How long until Harry get's here?"

"Dunno," Iggy said, stretching out on one of the beds. "He'll get here when he get's here."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Ig. Very helpful."

Iggy grinned impishly. "Always here to provide assistance."

We stayed up there for nearly forty minutes, waiting around, making occasional conversation to hide how tense we all were.

I had just gone back to pacing and biting my non-existent fingernails when I heard the front door opening, and voices coming from downstairs. "They're back," I said, going to the bedroom door.

"Max, wait," Hermione said. "The meeting isn't over yet. They'll have to send Harry up here. Let's just wait for him to come up. We shouldn't overwhelm him, especially after how little we've been writing to him."

I started to argue, but stopped myself. Hermione was right. Of course she was.

I huffed and started pacing again. Then, just over two minutes later, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Five seconds later, the door opened, and in came Harry Potter. His jet black hair was just as messy as ever, and his bright green eyes were confused under his round glasses. I went to go hug him, but Hermione bet me to it.

"HARRY! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Oh, you must be so angry with us. I know, our letters have been useless- but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us all swear we wouldn't tell you too much. Oh, we've all got so much to tell you, and you've got things to tell us- the Dementors! And the Ministry Hearing, the whole thing is completely outrageous. I've looked it up, they can't expel you for defending yourself. There's provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-"

"Let him breathe, Hermione," Ron said, grinning. At this stage, we were all standing up around Harry, grinning at him.

Beaming, Hermione let go of Harry and took a step back, but before another word could be said there was a soft whooshing sound, and Hedwig flew down from the wardrobe and landed on Harry's shoulder.

"Hedwig!" Harry said, looking the happiest since got into the room.

The snowy owl hooted softly and nibbled his ear affectionately.

"She's been in a right state," Iggy said. "Pecked us all half to death when she came with your last letters, see-"

We all showed Harry the different marks we had on hands and fingers.

"Oh, yeah," Harry said. "Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know-"

"We wanted to give them to you, mate," Fang said. "But Dumbledore made us-"

"-swear not to tell me, yeah I know," Harry said.

There was a strained silence, eventually broken by Hermione. "He seemed to think it was best," she said breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Right," Harry said.

"I think he probably thought you were safest with the Muggles-" Ron started.

"Oh, yeah?" Harry said, raising his eyebrows. "Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?"

I looked at him, and spoke for the first time since he came in the room. "No," I said. "We haven't. But the flock were attacked by Erasers the same night you got attacked by Dementors."

Harry opened his mouth to retort, but then closed it again. "Wait, what? What happened?"

Started to feel annoyed, I glared at him. "The flock and I sneaked out of the house and went flying. We got attacked by Erasers. We fought them and won. That's it."

All of a sudden, Harry's concerned look vanished. "Well, at least none of you are facing expulsion. None of you were being followed around all summer. Which, obviously didn't work that well seeing as I had to look after myself in the end."

"He was so angry," Hermione said quietly as I turned my back on Harry, trying to push down the irritation I was feeling. "Dumbledore. We could hear him. When he found out Mundungus had left before he was meant to. It was terrifying."

Harry scoffed. "Well, I'm glad he left," Harry said coldly. "If he hadn't, I'd probably still be stuck in Privet Drive for the rest of the summer."

I turned around again, frowning at Harry. "Aren't you worried about the hearing?"

"No," Harry said. It was obvious he was lying, but I decided not to call him out on it.

"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" he asked. "Did any of you- er- bother to ask him?"

"We told Dumbledore loads of times we wanted to tell you what was happening," Iggy said. "We really did, mate. But he's really busy right now, we've only seen him about twice or three times since we got here, he just made us swear not to tell you anything important when we wrote to you. He said the owls could be intercepted."

"He still could've kept me informed if he wanted to," Harry said. "You're not telling me that he hasn't come up with a way to send messages without owls. Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted."

I almost laughed. "Don't be an idiot, Harry."

"Or maybe he thinks I can't be trusted."

"Of course he doesn't think that!" Hermione said anxiously.

"So how come I've had to stay at the Dursleys' with all of you got to join in everything that's happening here?" Harry said, his voice growing louder with every word. "How come you're all allowed know everything that's going on?"

"We're not," Fang said. "We aren't allowed in the meetings, they said we're too young."

Then, Harry started shouting.

"SO WHAT? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, WHO CARES? YOU'RE STILL HERE, AREN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A BLOODY MONTH!AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THINGS THAN YOU LOT HAVE AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT- WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED YOU FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

I was about to start yelling right back at him, but I never got the chance. Hedwig have a frightened hoot and flew from his shoulder back to the wardrobe.

"WHO HAD TO GET PAST THE DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER TERRIBLE THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"

Ron and Iggy were standing with their mouths half-open, speechless, Fang looked slightly annoyed, Hermione was on the verge of tears, and I was just plain furious.

"BUT WHY THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?"

"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we did-" Hermione began.

"CAN'T HAVE WANTED THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU WOULD HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT NO, DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR-"

"Well, he did-"

"FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, STEALING NEWSPAPERS OUT OF BINS, TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING."

"We wanted to-"

"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE ALL BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HERE TOGETHER-"

"HARRY, SHUT UP FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE I HIT YOU!" I shouted.

Harry glared at me.

"Are you forgetting that we helped you to do all those things? Are you forgetting that you guys never would have found the Chamber if it wasn't for Hermione? Or that we wouldn't have been able to conjure a true Patronus without Lupin's help? Are you forgetting how much we helped you prepare for the all the tasks last year? And I'm pretty sure you forgot that I was in the graveyard with you as well. I saw him come back, and I fought against him too. So why don't you shut up and stop being sorry for yourself!" I snapped, my voice getting louder with each word.

Harry stared at me, breathing deeply. He started pacing up and down the room. "What is this place, anyway?"

"Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix," Ron said.

"And what is the Order of the Phoenix?"

"It's a secret society," Hermione said quickly. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it when You-Know-Who first came into power. They started it back up again at the start of the holidays. It's all the people who fought against him last time, and some new people as well."

"Who's in it?" Harry said, his hands in his pockets.

"A few people-"

"We've met about twenty of them," Iggy said. "But we've pretty sure there are loads more."

Harry glared at us.

"Well?" he snapped.

"What?" I said.

"Voldemort!" Harry said angrily. Ron and Hermione winced. "What's happening? Where is he? What's he been doing? How are we going to stop him?"

"We've already told you, we're not allowed into the Order meetings," I said impatiently. "We don't know the proper details. But we have a general idea."

"Fred and George have these Extendable Ears," Ron said. "They're really useful."

"Extendable-"

"Ears, yeah. We've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went mental. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum throwing them all out. But we got a good use out of them before Mum realised what we were doing. We know some of the Order are trailing known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them-"

"Other's are out recruiting more people for the Order," Hermione said.

"And others are guarding something," I said. "They were always going on about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry said sarcastically.

I shrugged. "Maybe. But I doubt it. The way they spoke about it, it sounds like they're guarding an object. But they never went into too much detail about it."

"So if you haven't been allowed into the meeting, what have you been doing? You said you've been `busy'."

"We have," Fang said. "We've been decontaminating the house."

"It's been empty for years and stuff has been breeding in here," Hermione said. "We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms and I think we're doing the dining room tomo- AARGH!"

With two load cracks, Fred and George, showed up out of the thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and sat beside Hedwig on the wardrobe.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins.

"Hey, Harry," George said, smiling at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry. Best to let it all out," Fred said, beaming happily. "There's a possibility that the people fifty miles away didn't hear you."

"You two passed your Apparation tests then?" Harry said grumpily.

"With distinction," Fred said, holding a a piece of long, flesh-coloured string.

"You know, it would of taken you a whole thirty seconds longer to actually walk down the stairs," I said.

"Time is Galleons, little sister," George said. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears," he added, holding up the flesh coloured string. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You should be careful," Ron said. "If Mum catches you with them again..."

"This is definitely worth the risk. Major meeting they're having."

The door opened and Ginny, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel came in.

"Oh, hi Harry!" Ginny said brightly. "I thought I heard your voice."

"Hey Harry!" Angel said happily, running up and wrapping her little arms around Harry's legs. Harry hugged her back, giving her a small grin.

Ginny turned to Fred and George and said, "It's a no-go with the Extendable Ears. She's gone and put an Imperturable Charm on the door."

"How'd you know?" George said, looking crestfallen.

"Tonks told me how to figure it out," Ginny said. "You just throw stuff at the door, and if it can't make contact, the doors been Imperturabed. We've been flicking Dungbombs at the kitchen door from the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will get in under the door."

Fred sighed. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape!" Harry said quickly. "He's here?"

"Yeah," George said, closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds. The other's followed. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," Iggy said.

"He's on our side now," Hermione said.

Ron snorted. "That doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us here."

"Bill doesn't like him either," Ginny said.

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt?"

"He applied for a desk job so he can be home and work for the Order," Fred explained. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked, "there are compensations."

"What d'you mean?"

I rolled my eyes. "Remember Fleur Delacour? She got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeengish-"

"Bill's been giving here loads of private lessons," Fred snickered.

"Charlie's in the Order too," George said, "but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked.

The Weasley's, the flock and Hermione all shared dark looks.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front Mr and Mrs Weasley," Iggy said.

"Why not?"

"Because every time his name is mentioned, Dad drops whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying," Fred said.

"It's awful," Ginny said sadly.

"I think we're well shot of him," George said.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Percy and Dad had a fight," Fred said. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that before. It's normally Mum who shouts."

"It was the first week back after term ended," Ron said. "We were just about to leave to come here when Percy comes home and tells us he's been promoted."

"You're kidding?" Harry said.

"Yeah, we were all surprised," George said. "Percy got into loads of trouble about Crouch. They said Percy should of noticed that Crouch was off his rocker earlier."

"So why was he promoted?"

"That's what we wondered," Ron said. "He came home all pleased with himself, saying he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. Junior Assistant to the Minister or something like that."

"Dad wasn't impressed. Fudge has been going around the Ministry making sure no one's had any contact with Dumbledore," Fred said.

"Dumbledore's name is basically mud in the Ministry these days," George said. "They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back."

"Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone in league with Dumbledore can clear their desks," Fred said. "Fudge already suspects Dad, he knows he friendly with Dumbledore, and he's already thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession."

"What does any of that have to do with Percy?" Harry asked.

"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family- and Dumbleore."

Harry gave a low whistle. "Bet Percy loved that."

Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way. "He went berserk. He said- well, he said loads of really terrible stuff. Like, how he's been having to struggle against Dad's bad reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that's Dad's got no ambition and that's the reason we've always been- well, you know- not had a lot of money, I mean-"

"What?" Harry said in disbelief. Nudge made a noise like an angry cat.

"Yeah," Iggy said, "It get's worse. He called Dad an idiot for running around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him and he- Percy- knew where his loyalties lay and it was with the Ministry. He packed his bags that night and left. Said if Mum and Dad were going to be traitors to the Ministry than he was going to make sure everyone knew that he didn't belong to our family any more. I think he's living here in London now."

Harry swore under his breath.

"Mums been in a right state," Fred said dully. "You know- crying and stuff. She went to Percy's apartment and tried to talk to him but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he sees Dad at work- ignores him, I suppose."

"But Percy must be smart enough to know that Voldemort is back," Harry said. "He must know your parents wouldn't just risk everything without any proof."

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," Ron said. "Percy said the only evidence was your word, and Max's. Apparently, that wasn't good enough for him."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," Hermione said.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

I cursed under my breath. I hoped we would avoid this.

"Haven't- haven't you been reading the Daily Prophet?"

"Yeah," Harry said.

"Have you been reading it thoroughly?"

"Not cover to cover," Harry said defensively. "If anyone was going to be in the paper about Voldemort, it would be on the front page, right?"

"You'd need to read it cover to cover to notice it," I said. "But they- um- mention us a few time a week."

"I'd have seen-"

"Not if you were only reading the front page," I said. "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip us in, like some joke."

"What d'you-?"

"It's quite nasty, actually," Hermione said. "They're just building on all of Rita's stuff."

"But she isn't writing for them anyone, right?"

"Oh no, she kept her promise. Not that she has much choice," Hermione said with satisfaction. "But she laid the foundation for what they're writing now."

"Which is what?"

"Okay, so you know she wrote that piece about you and Max collapsing all the time, and you saying your scar hurt all the time?"

"Yeah," Harry said.

"Well, they're writing that the two of you- more you, Harry, than Max- as if you're these deluded, attention-seeking teenagers. They keep slipping in snide comments. If there's some far-fetched story, they'd say something like `A tale worthy of Harry Potter', or if there's something about a strange or weird person, they'll say `Let's hope this one doesn't have wings.' And if someone has a funny accident or anything, it's `Let's hope this one doesn't have a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him too.'"

"I don't want anyone to worship-"

"We know that, Harry," I said. "It's just what the Prophet's been saying. I stopped reading last month. Don't really see the point any more. But don't you see what they're doing? They're turning us into people that no one will believe. I bet anything that Fudge is behind it."

"Max is right, Harry," Hermione said. "They're trying to make you both seem like stupid little kids that tell ridiculous stories because they love being famous and want to keep all the attention."

"I didn't ask- I didn't want- Voldemort killed my parents! Max has wings because she grew up in a lab! Who wants to be famous that?"

"We know, Harry," Ginny said gently.

"And of course, there wasn't a word about the Dementors attacking you, or the Erasers attacking the flock," Hermione said. "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should have been a really big story, out-of-control Dementors, and Erasers in Britain. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statue of Secrecy. We thought they would, it would fit in so well with this image that you are some stupid show-off. We think they're bidding their time until you're expelled- I mean, if you're expelled, obviously. You really shouldn't be, not if they abide to their own laws. There really is no case against you."

There were footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Uh oh."

Fred gave the Extendable Ears a tug; there was another loud crack and Fred and George disappeared. Seconds later, Mrs Weasley appeared in the doorway.

"The meeting's over, you can come down to dinner now. Everyone is dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks," Ginny said unblushingly. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh," Mrs Weasley said while Fang smirked at Ginny. "I thought it might have been Kreacher. He's always doing strange things like that. Now, don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go wash them before dinner, please."

Ginny grimaced at us before following her mother out of the room, Nudge, Angel and Gazzy leaving as well, leaving just me, Fang, Iggy, Ron, Hermione and Harry.

Harry looked at us for a minute, then started to look ashamed. "Look..." he muttered, but Ron shook his head and Hermione said, "We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you. But you've got to understand, we did try to persuade Dumbledore-"

"Yeah, I know," Harry said. "Who's Kreacher?" he asked.

"The house-elf that lives here," Iggy said. "He's a nutter. Never met one like him."

Hermione frowned at Iggy. "He's not a nutter, Iggy."

"His life ambition is to get his head chopped off and stuck up on the wall with his ancestors," Iggy said. "Is that normal?"

"Well... well if he's a bit strange, it's not his fault."

Ron rolled his eyes. "She still hasn't given up on spew," he told Harry.

"It's not spew!" Hermione said heatedly. "It's the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare. And it isn't just me. Dumbledore think you should be nicer to Kreacher."

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Come on. I'm starving."

We went onto the landing, and we were just about to descend the stairs-

"Hold it!" Ron said from the front, throwing his arm back to stop us walking any further. "They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something."

The six of us looked cautiously over the banister. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all the people that went to get Harry. Everyone down there were whispering excitedly together. In the middle of the group, I saw the dark, greasy-haired head of Professor Snape.

A thin piece of flesh-coloured string descended in front of my eyes. I looked up at saw Fred and George on the landing above, lowering an Extendable Ear. A moment later though, everyone started to move towards the front door and out of sight.

"Dammit," Fred whispered and he hoisted the Extendable Ear back up again.

I heard the front door open, then close.

"Snape never actually eats here," Iggy told Harry. "Thank God. C'mon."

"Don't forget to keep your voices down in the hallway," Hermione whispered.

As we passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall, we saw Mrs Weasley, Lupin and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing it's many locks (some only put in recently in light of the flock sneaking out) and bolts behind those who left.

"We're eating down in the kitchen," Mrs Weasley whispered. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hallway, it's just through that door there-"

CRASH.

"Tonks!" Mrs Weasley cried.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks wailed, who was lying flat on the floor after tripping over the troll leg umbrella stand.

"You know, I think that thing should be moved someone else where people aren't constantly falling-" I started, but the rest of my sentence was drowned out by a horrible, ear-splitting shriek.

Once again, the moth eating curtains flew open, and Harry took a step back from the portrait of my grandmother. The other portraits started waking up as well.

Lupin and Mrs Weasley darted forward and tried to close the curtains, but they wouldn't budge.

"Filth! Blood-traitors! Freaks and mutants! Mudbloods! Begone from my home! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"

Mrs Weasley went off to Stun the other portraits, and Sirius came bursting out from the kitchen, much like he did our first night, and started shouting at the portrait. Together, him and Lupin managed to get the curtains closed, and the shouting and screaming stopped.

"Harry," I said, "you just met my grandmother."

"Your what?"


Sorry for the long wait, but life has been busy.

Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Things will be starting to pick up soon enough.

As always, if you've enjoyed reading this and want cookies and butterbeer, you need to...

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-Rach ;)