After lunch, Mrs Weasley got them back to work and they started to clean the cabinets
"Hey, have you heard from Rowan recently?" Amethyst asked Neville as she struggled to remove a vase that seemed to have stuck itself.
"Um, I got a few letters from her at the start of the holidays but she stopped sending them after a while," Neville replied sniffing at some strange powder that was in a glass container and then retched at the smell.
"Same, she just stopped replying. You don't think she's in trouble, do you?" Amethyst finally managed to loosen the vases grip on the cabinet and she flipped it around to realize that it had little claw feet. She placed it into the box next to her where it sunk its claws into the cardboard.
"I dunno, her parents are really strict. Maybe they're just not letting her write to us," Neville replied. "They're not really our biggest fans,"
"They've never been our biggest fan but Rowan has always been able to write to us. I've continued to write to her but she's just not answering," said Amethyst. She bit her thumbnail in worry, a habit that she had never been able to grow out of.
"I guess... Bloody hell, now you've made me worry about her and stop biting your nails," Neville said, pushing Amethyst's hand away from her mouth, a habit he had started when he realized how often she bit her nails.
"Sorry, you know I do it when I'm anxious and I'm basically always anxious," Amethyst grabbed the little jar from his hands and placed it into the box. "I mean, Rowan's tough; she files her nails until they're really pointy and I feel like it would hurt if she scratched,"
"It does, she once poked me," Neville replied.
"You know what? I'm just going to leave it. With everything going on, maybe her parents are just restricting her. She'll be alright," Amethyst said, reassuring herself.
"You're still going to write more letters to her, aren't you?" Neville said.
"Yeah, you're right. I'm totally going to write to her again. I can't help it, I need answers," Amethyst picked up a silver music box and wound it up. She opened it up to and heard and tinkling song.
The tune made her incredibly dizzy. All the talking around her was blocked out and the only thing she could hear was the music box.
"Amethyst, what are you staring at?" Hermione asked, looking over her shoulder at the music box. Amethyst did not answer for she was still enchanted by the music box. Soon everyone was crowding around Amethyst while the music made them feel like drifting to sleep.
Suddenly, Ginny slammed the lid of the music box shut. They all shook their heads and snapped out of their trance.
"Thank you, Ginny. Who knows what would've happened if we had continued to listen to that box," said Mrs Weasley.
"What was that?" asked Amethyst, still holding the closed music box.
"It seems to be some sort of box that makes you drowsy. I'll take it," said Sirius, grabbing the music box from Amethyst's hands. "Merlin knows what my mother used this for,"
After the music box incident, they all went back to cleaning the cabinet.
"Amethyst, Amethyst, is it true? Do you and Neville actually know about the Order stuff?" Hermione whispered, making sure that Mrs Weasley couldn't hear them.
"Yeah it is, how do you know?" Amethyst asked.
"Ginny told me. She's still mad that no one's told her anything," replied Hermione.
"Yeah, I know. She tried to get me to tell her about it earlier," said Amethyst.
"Did she really? Are you going to tell her?" Hermione inquired.
"No, of course not. We've been sworn to secrecy," replied Amethyst.
A few days and a few unanswered letters to Rowan passed and it was the day of Harry's hearing.
"Has Harry already left?" Neville asked when Tonks dropped them off at Grimmauld place.
"Yeah, he left about an hour ago," Tonks yawned, pushing her currently blonde hair out of her eyes. "Don't worry 'bout him; he'll be fine,"
Mrs Weasley soon set them all to work to busy themselves from thinking about how Harry's fate was currently being decided. Mrs Weasley had split them all up and spread them around the house. Fred and George were clearing out a bedroom, Ron, Hermione and Neville were in the living room exterminating chizpurfles (small crab-like that feed off magic) and to Amethyst's despair, she and Ginny were in the attic removing the all the antiques and knick-knacks. She had been able to avoid the girl for the past few days but she felt if she spent too much time around Ginny then she would crack and tell her everything.
"Are you excited to go back to Hogwarts?" asked Ginny when they were in the attic. Amethyst knew that Ginny was just warming her up and then she would begin the interrogation.
"Uh, yeah, I guess. I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and there's always Quidditch but after the Triwizard Tournament I feel like it's going to be different," replied Amethyst.
"Same, with everything that the Daily Prophet's been saying, there are probably going to be some idiots that don't believe Harry and Dumbledore," said Ginny, placing what looked like a stuffed bear but with pointy teeth into a box.
"Yeah, you're right about that. God knows what sort of things people will be saying," Amethyst grabbed a glass flask filled with some sort of blue liquid and squinted into the glass.
"Speaking of You-Know-Who and what's been going on, why don't you tell me what you got to find out a few nights ago,"
"We weren't even talking about You-Know-Who!"
"Well, we were talking about Harry, Dumbledore and what happened last year and you can't really talk about all those without thinking of You-Know-Who," Ginny stated, shrugging her shoulders.
"Oh, that's not true," Amethyst tried to deny it but it was true. Nowadays, when Harry's name was mentioned all everyone could think was the alleged return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
"It is true and you know it is. And what I need to know is what is going on," insisted Ginny.
"I can't tell you, Ginny. I've promised not to tell anyone," replied Amethyst, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Amethyst, you know what that man did to me during my first year. He used me and caused me so much pain. Now's he's back and I have the right to know what's going on," Ginny pleaded.
"Bloody hell, why does that have to be such a good reason?" Amethyst muttered to herself. "I can't believe you're using that against me. You know I still feel bad for telling you that you should start writing in a diary,"
"Please, Amethyst,"
"Why can't you guilt trip someone else into telling you?" Amethyst begged.
"Mum is watching me like a hawk. She's making sure that the others have no chance of telling me anything. That's why I'm in the attic with you and not Ron or Hermione. She doesn't know that you know. She thinks that you haven't been told so you can't tell me anything. But you have been told and you can tell me." Ginny said.
"Fine, I'll tell you," Amethyst finally gave in.
"I really owe you one. Thank you so much, Amethyst," Ginny bounded over to the girl and hugged her.
"You can tell anyone or else Nymph will kill me and then your mum will kill Nymph," Amethyst told Ginny.
"I can imagine her now," Ginny said. "How dare you tell those two! I thought it would just be Harry and the others. Now they've gone and told Ginny. Soon every student of Hogwarts will know!" Ginny did a scarily good impression of Mrs Weasley as Amethyst laughed.
"Okay, all Nevs and I learnt is that this place is the headquarters of a secret society called the Order of the Phoenix. It was created during the First Wizarding War and it's been brought back together because of what Harry saw in the graveyard. Everyone in it is trying to spread the word about You-Know-Who's return and prepare people for the worst. They're hoping to recruit more people for the Order. And they're also trying to protect some sort of weapon that You-Know-Who wants but didn't have last time," Amethyst informed Ginny.
"What sort of weapon?" asked Ginny.
"Dunno, we weren't told,"
Ginny muttered furiously under her breath. "We already got most of that from what we've overheard. Apart from that weapon part of it. Maybe I could try figure out what that is,"
Soon the hours past and all the talk about the Order was put to rest and the girls began to talk about more trivial things such as Quidditch and classes. Despite neither of them being particularly crazy about them the girls even found themselves talking about boys.
"So are you Michael Corner a thing?" asked Amethyst, placing a music box into a box, wisely choosing not wind it up considering what happened last time.
"I guess you could say that," Ginny said coyly. "What about you? Anything interesting happening in your romance life?"
"My romance life is nonexistent," replied Amethyst, smiling.
"Really? What about Neville?" questioned Ginny, looking confused.
"What about him?" Amethyst looked even more confused.
"The two of you are dating!"
"Dating? Why would you think that?"
"At the Yule Ball, when your date ditched you and you were sitting alone, I persuaded Neville to leave me and be with you. That's when I met Michael!"
"From what I heard, you actually threatened to hex him if he didn't go," Amethyst interrupted the girl.
"Persuaded, threatened; same thing. But whatever, the both of you danced and were two of the last to leave that night. I remember you coming into the common room and the both of you smiling and laughing with your arms linked together. I just assumed that you two were an item,"
"Oh Ginny, you've got it all wrong. My date never ditched me. He felt ill so he I let him go and get some rest and I decided to just stay back and watch. We only danced as friends and nothing more," said Amethyst.
"Ginny! Amethyst! Time for lunch!" Mrs Weasley's voice called from downstairs. The two girls rushed down the stairs and into the dining room and saw the others already sitting down at the table. "Ginny, come and help me in the kitchen," After Ginny had told her that Mrs Weasley was keeping a close eye on her, Amethyst knew that the only reason Mrs Weasley was getting Ginny to help was to keep her away from the others.
"So how did it go with Ginny?" Hermione asked as Amethyst took a seat next to Neville.
"Yeah, did she threaten to hex you? That's what she did when I wouldn't stop asking her questions about Hermione's date to the Yule Ball," said Ron.
"You thoroughly deserved that, though," replied Hermione.
"She didn't threaten to hex me. She asked a few times if I could tell her but I said no. I didn't tell her anything," Amethyst lied, pretending to scratch her nose so that the others would not see it scrunching up. They all stared at her trying to see if she was lying. A few moments of silence passed and Amethyst finally broke. "Okay, okay, I did tell her. She used what happened to her with the diary against me and I felt bad for her. And she's really persuasive,"
"She is quite persuasive," Neville said, coming to Amethyst's defence before anyone could say anything.
"Ah we knew you'd crack eventually," George said.
"Me? I'm blaming the both of you for this one," said Amethyst, pointing to Fred and George. "You've corrupted her somehow. She used to be so sweet and innocent,"
"Sweet and innocent? Have you ever met our sister?" George asked incredulously.
"She once locked us in the broom shed for THREE hours because we wouldn't let her play Quidditch. She was eight!" added Fred. Then, they heard a knock on the door.
"I'll get it," Amethyst said, getting up and walking to the door. She opened it to see Harry and Mr Weasley, who were both smiling. "How did it go at the Ministry?" she asked once they went back to the kitchen.
"Er, it well really well. I was cleared of all charges," Harry replied.
"I knew it! You always get away with stuff!" roared Ron, engulfing his best friend in a hug. Everyone was rather pleased with the news that Harry would be able to return to Hogwarts that year despite the fact that they all said that they knew he would be cleared. Hermione had stopped looking so sickly with worry and Ginny and the twins were dancing to some sort of war cry.
"HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF!" the three of them were jumping and dancing around the dining table.
"Harry, dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast," Mrs Weasley said, laying out food on the table. They all took a seat back at the table and tucked into the spread around them.
Suddenly, a large brown owl came swooping through the window and into the dining room with an envelope tied to its leg. It landed right in front Amethyst, nearly landing on her plate of mashed potatoes.
"Is that for you?" Harry asked.
"Yes, yes, it is," replied Amethyst, reading the name on the front of the envelope. She tore it open and read the letter.
Don't write. Don't worry.
Rowan Avery
At the end of the very short letter, Rowan's signature was scrawled.
"Neville, Neville, take a look at this," Amethyst nudged the boy and gave him the letter to read.
When he finished reading it, he turned to Amethyst and they both looked at each other with worry.