We will now be following Altaira in this chapter for a change, yay!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for Miss Altaira.
After the pulling sensation had stopped, Altaira felt her feet against the ground. She opened her eyes to see a line of houses in front of her, majority of which were kept in poor conditions. She then looked around her and noticed that the three of them were hidden in the shadows with no way for the midday sunlight to find them. No way for anyone to see them.
"Where…?" Altaira breathed. She needn't finish her sentence because then her cousin whispered into her ear.
"Do you remember what Professor Lupin said right before we left? Think about it." And she thought about it. 12 Grimmauld Place. She looked at the houses from left to right, reading the numbers on the homes, and noticed that number 12 was nowhere to be seen. Startled, she counted again. After reaching number 11, she read the next house, expecting it to skip to 13 when she read 12.
Altaira's eyes turned wide. "What? A… charm?"
With this confirmation that she could see the building, Lupin said, "I think it will be best if we went inside one after another. 10-15 minutes between each other." He looked to Hermione. "I think it's best if you go in first and tell the others about Altaira here."
Hermione nodded as she gathered up her suitcase. She turned to leave the two but not before saying, "I'll catch you up to speed, Altaira," and she went to enter the house. Altaira immediately noticed that the other people that were on the street or were looking out the window saw Hermione enter number 12. She watched their expressions change into bewilderment then back to normal as if not having seen Hermione at all.
"The.. charm?" Altaira whispered questioningly to which Lupin muttered, "Yes."
Minutes passed before Altaira felt a tap on her shoulder, followed by Lupin's voice. "Your turn." At this, Altaira picked up luggage. Before leaving the depths of the shadows, she looked back at Lupin, who gave her an encouraging small, letting her know that it's safe.
Altaira stepped out of the shadows and began making her trek across the street and up the stairs, taking note of some broken windows and the smell of rubbish emitting from who knows where. Once she reached the landing of the front door, she began to reach for the doorknob but stopped, unsure if she should knock or just step inside.
Luckily she didn't need to think more about this when the door opened and revealed Hermione, who was waiting for her.
"Altaira," Hermione sighed, ushering her inside and closing the door as she reached for her hand. "Come and meet the others," she said as she began to pull Altaira down the dark hall, a complete contrast to the outside world.
As Altaira was being pulled, she took a look at her surroundings. The wallpaper was peeling, and there were cobwebs covering what could have been a beautiful chandelier, which was shaped like a serpent. There were old portraits that hanged on the wall rather crookedly, lamps on the walls that flickered constantly, and the carpet barely had any threads left.
They had barely gotten to the end of the hall when a plump redheaded woman came through the kitchen. "Ah, so this must be Altaira," the woman greeted warmly as she offered Altaira her hand, which she shook. "My name is Molly Weasley, but Mrs. Weasley will do just fine."
Altaira laughed nervously at the sudden greeting before replying, "Altaira Granger. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"What a dear you are." Mrs. Weasley smiled. "Now come have some lunch. You can meet everybody else in the kitchen. Leave your suitcase by the stairs, dear. I'll have one of my sons help you with it later." Mrs. Weasley said this as she ushered both girls through the kitchen door.
Upon entering, Altaira was immediately met with a room full of redheads and one lone black haired man amongst the group. Hermione, having already moved to sit down with the group next to who looked to be the youngest son, waved her over and pointed to the seat in front of her.
"Guys," Hermione began as she gestured to her cousin. "This is my cousin, Altaira."
"Altaira Granger," she added, greeting everyone with a smile. "I'm Hermione's adopted cousin."
"Adopted?"
The outburst was followed by a loud smack and cry of pain. "Ow, Mum!"
"That was quite rude, Ron," Mrs. Weasley scolded the boy who sat next to Hermione.
Ron, who was still rubbing his head, looked at her with irritation before it faded into curiosity. "It's just that I heard about you when Hermione told us about her vacations," he said, looking to Altaira. "Except she's never mentioned that you were adopted."
At this, somebody had let out a loud sigh. "Please excuse my rude, idiotic brother," a redheaded girl spoke up. There was a loud outcry from Ron, which the girl ignored. "My name's Ginny, by the way."
"It's nice to meet you," Altaira said with a smile, and Ginny returned it with one of her own.
Ginny then led her around the room to each person as she introduced the others. "This is Fred and George."
"Nice to meet you, Altaira!" Fred piped, shaking her hand.
"And welcome to the family." George finished, taking her hand in his.
She looked at them questioningly. "Family?"
"Why, of course!" George exclaimed. "Hermione's a part of our family, and you're a part of her family."
"Which makes us," Fred gestured at Altaira and himself. "Family!"
Altaira laughed at their explanation and found herself grinning at them, immediately finding herself at home.
Ginny then introduced her to her dad, Arthur Weasley, who greeted her warmly and openly welcomed her, and then to the lone, black haired man.
"Sirius Black," the man introduced, offering her his hand.
Altaira looked at him with curiosity but took his hand in hers nevertheless. She glanced around the room before looking back at him, who looked at her with a questioning gaze, but the question that was behind her lips was lost when she found herself staring into grey eyes.
"Grey eyes," she found herself mumbling.
At this, Sirius looked at her with interest, realizing that he was also looking into grey eyes. They broke eye contact, however, when someone called out to Altaira.
She looked over to the owner of the voice and saw that it was Ron again. Once having her attention, he said, "You must be magic, right? Because Hermione wouldn't have brought just anyone with her." And everybody else in the room knew this because if she wasn't, Hermione would have just left Altaira with her parents back home.
Altaira nodded. "When I was living in the States, I had gone to the sister school of Hogwarts, Libertine, located in the midwest."
"How did you come to be here?" This time the question came from Ginny, everybody all curious to know the reason.
Altaira looked to Hermione, who gave her an encouraging smile, both girls knowing that the whole story was going to come out.
"It's a bit of long story but," Altaira slowly said as Fred and George shifted over a seat to make room for her. "I- My adopted parents passed away this July. In the city that we were living in, Chicago, there were major heat waves, and a lot of people passed away. A lot from heat stroke. My parents were just one of the many." George placed a hand on her shoulder for comfort, and she gave him a smile in thanks before continuing. "Before that, I was in an orphanage here in London. My mother had died giving birth to me, and my father… Well, no one knows the reason."
"Oh, dear." Mrs. Weasley moved over to her, wrapping her into a tight hug. "It must've been hard for you."
Altaira leaned into her embrace and replied, "I've been coping." She then looked up to Hermione, who had unshed tears in her eyes, and saw that Ron had placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Hermione and I have," Altaira said. "My adopted parents were Hermione's aunt and uncle." This only made Mrs. Weasley hug her even tighter as she began to rock Altaira from side to side.
At this time, there was a sound of movement at the kitchen entrance, and the group looked to see Lupin, who was leaning on the doorframe, with a look of sorrow.
"My dear," Lupin spoke as he moved towards the group. "We've all faced some form of hardships. We will help you get through it. You and Hermione." He looked from both Altaira and Hermione, who gave him thankful smiles to which he smiled in return.
After a moment, his features changed to a troubled expression. Lupin's eyes swept across the room before they settled on Sirius.
"Tonight, we're getting Harry."
The sun was slowly setting, and everyone was busy cleaning the house. As they were cleaning, Hermione had told Altaira everything that she knew - the Order, Dumbledore, Voldemort's return. Of course Altaira was aware of the situation in Wizarding London when she was living in the States thanks to the international newsletter she was subscribed to, but she never knew that Hermione was this involved with everything. Just the other night after dinner at her cousin's house when they had talked about their school year, Hermione had told her about the Triwizard Tournament and the return of Voldemort. She had thought the return of the dark wizard to be a hoax when reading it in the international newsletter, but for the news to be real! And now she's pretty much tied to the situation because of her relation with her cousin.
There was tapping on one of the bedroom windows on the second floor, and Ron, who was closest to the sound, went into the room. After a few moments of mumbled conversation between those who were still cleaning, there was a shout from the room Ron was in, which was followed by a loud, shrill voice that drowned out Ron's cries.
"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers!"
Altaira jumped at the sudden shriek, instantly covering her ears when other voices began to cry out after the shrill voice. She looked to the others to see that they were doing the same, but they had only looked annoyed, signaling Altaira that this has happened more than once.
"Who did it?" Mrs. Weasley yelled over the many voices. She had pulled out her wand, and Altaira saw that she began to stun the portraits, which were the ones who were yelling.
"Ron," came Ginny's yelled reply. "Something happened to him upstairs and he yelled." The yelling had slowly decreased as Mrs. Weasley continued to stun the portraits, allowing the others to uncover their ears.
"I'll go check on him," Hermione said before Mrs. Weasley started her tirade, and she headed upstairs and into the room Ron was in, closing the door behind her.
By now, almost all of the portraits had been quieted except for one life sized portrait in the hall, which was still yelling curses throughout the place.
"Oh, shut up, you." Mrs. Weasley mumbled as she pulled the moth eaten curtains that were hanging on either side of the portrait over it, and the curses had slowly came to a stop. It seems to that the curtains had flown open to reveal the screaming lady because Altaira never noticed the portrait before having thought that the curtains were covering some windows.
"Lovely lady, isn't she?" George said sarcastically as he came up beside her.
Altaira laughed. "Not quite sure about lovely. Who was she anyways?"
"That would be my mother," came a voice behind them, and they turned to see Sirius walking up to them.
Altaira's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Sirius continued, "Along with many other of my relatives, she was very particular about Pureblood superiority, hence her rather lovely nature."
"Ah…" With this information, Altaira put the pieces together and then asked, "You're a pureblood," she blankly stated, and Sirius nodded. "You're not like all your relatives."
Sirius noted that she was quick in her thinking as he chuckled. "I went against everything they believed in."
"And that makes him the best of the Black family," came Fred's voice as he joined them. "Tell me, Sirius. What was it like when your mother kicked you out of the house?"
Hearing this, Mrs. Weasley turned to face him and began to chase after him as he dodged her swings. "You get back to cleaning before I kick you out myself!"
At this time, there was a thud and a muffled cry that came from the second floor again followed by the sound of a door opening. Ron popped his head out of the room and said, "It's Hedwig. She won't stop pecking at our fingers. I bet Harry told her to do this to get us to write."
At the sound of the owl's name, Sirius rushed up the stairs, followed by Mrs. Weasley and everybody else. Once again confused, Altaira was the last to ascend the staircase and followed everybody into the room. Upon entering, she immediately noticed a beautiful, white owl perched on top of the wardrobe who had it's gaze fixed on Ron and Hermione.
Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Well, it won't take too long for it to heal," she said as she looked over Ron and Hermione's injuries.
"What did Harry say in the letter?" Sirius asked, who was staring at Hedwig.
"He's been wanting to know what's going on, and why we haven't sent him a proper reply," Hermione responded, sounding a bit dejected. "He also wrote a letter for you," and she reached over for a letter that was on the desk and held it out to him.
At this, Sirius broke away from Hedwig's eye contact and walked towards her, opening the letter and reading through it. He sighed.
"What did he say?" Ron asked.
"Basically the same thing," Sirius replied although he sounded downcast.
Everybody noticed this, which led to Altaira asking, "What's wrong?"
He shook his head. "I just feel like I failed him," and with that, he began moving towards the door before pausing at the threshold. "I'll alert the other members about Hedwig." Then he left.
I had described Sirius to have black hair because in the book, it describes him as such, therefore.. yeahh. He has black hair here instead of the brown hair he's portrayed with in the movie. Also, you guys have probably noticed by now that the timing of everything is different from the book/movie (i.e. the time of day Harry actually sends Hedwig). These few things I've changed for my benefit… and the fact that I didn't research these details properly.. Heheh. Then in the case of Mary Sue, which an anon had speedily spied, I'd say that Mary Sue appears in a lot of OC/_ pairings. However, there is one specification that I didn't properly include in this story's search content in the beginning because I felt that it would reveal a lot of my planning... I just now added "Adventure" despite the fact that I'm leaning towards something else, but it's still pretty much adventure, heheh. But yeah, Altaira is a bit of a Mary Sue, but not in full blood.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, especially after getting to know Altaira a bit more. Leave a review and tell me what you think. See you soon in the next chapter!
