-1I stood awkwardly on a dark, rundown street in London. There was a little piece of paper in my hand reading 'Number 12, Grimmauld Place'. I wondered what I was supposed to do with this little piece of paper. There were no instructions written on it. I looked around warily. It was quite a dodgy little place. I could hear a couple brawling inside their house, and it made me cringe. There were no streetlights here. Suddenly, I had a thought. What if this isn't from Albus? What if someone is just trying to get me here, alone? It did make sense. If someone were to attack me, nobody would think any different of my screams of protest. In a neighbourhood such as this one, it was probably all too common.
There was a scuffling at the end of the street. A man wearing hooded robes was walking down the street. He stopped, though, when he saw me. I didn't make a move. Instead, I gripped my wand tightly and drew it out of my robes. If it was a witch or wizard, they would be able to see the threat. If it was a Muggle, they probably wouldn't have noticed and they certainly wouldn't have been impressed by something that looked like no more than a stick to them. "Can I help you?" the figure asked when she was close enough. I noted that the voice was female. I didn't know whether to trust this person or not, until she whispered "lumos" and pointed her wand at my face. There was a gasp and her hood fell back. I recognized the face of one of the old Order members, Emmeline Vance.
She was older, of course. Her real shock probably stemmed form the fact that the girl she used to know was standing in front of her, still looking like she hadn't even graduated from school yet. The second she had taken me all in, we both pointed our wands at each other, in the stance for a duel. She looked torn between confusion and anger. "Death Eater!" she cried uncertainly. I shook my head quickly.
"I'm not a Death Eater, Emli!" I shouted, using my old nickname for her. Her eyes widened even more and she slowly lowered her wand. She had more wrinkles, but still had the same dignified posture. Her usually stern expression was replaced by bewilderment and fear. The fighting from the house had stopped, and I approached Emmeline cautiously. I didn't want her deciding that I was lying and hexing me into oblivion. She had a mean Jelly Legs Jinx that didn't go away for days. I handed her the paper and said, "I think Albus sent it to me. I don't know where it is." She seemed relieved when she saw the paper. I raised my eyebrows.
"Only members of the Order can use it. Just say the words out loud." I repeated the words on the piece of paper, and before my eyes, the houses labeled "11" and "13" respectively began to move apart to reveal a larger, and even dirtier and more depressed looking, looking town home. "Welcome back," she smiled, as the paper in my hand burst into flames. I flicked my wand at my trunk and carry along packs, all of which followed me as I walked through the door. Inside, it was warmer in temperature, but still dank and musty. It was altogether obviously a home that used to belong to dark wizards, judging by the troll leg umbrella holder in the hallway.
The second I walked in I felt a body barrel right into me. From my place on the floor, I could see a worried red haired boy, asking if I was okay. I nodded and he helped me up, then grinned. "Sorry 'bout that." There was a furious scream, and into the hall walked a very pretty red haired girl. The two were obviously related.
"Fred, give it back!" she yelled, stamping her foot and pulling out her wand. Fred just grinned and Disapparated. "Mum!" the girl screamed angrily, running back into whichever room she had walked out from. I laughed and Emmeline led me through to a dining room and past the dining room to the kitchen. Fixing what I assumed was dinner was a plump, red haired woman with a pleasant face and the pouting red-haired girl. Trying to help was a pretty woman in purple robes and long, platinum blonde hair. The plump woman warded her off in the nicest way possible. All conversation stopped when I walked in.
"Newest member," she told the red haired woman. The woman, when she heard me referred to as a member, looked like she might have a stroke.
"B-but she-she's just-" Emmeline interrupted her disjointed protests.
"This is Ana Tchaikovsky. She was an original member of the Order." Emmeline's tone was final and she bid me farewell. I waved and heard the door shut, leaving me alone with the woman and two girls. The red haired woman smiled and introduced herself as Molly Weasley and the younger girl as Ginny.
"Ginny is in her fourth year at Hogwarts. What year are you in dear?" I smiled at her.
"Oh I'm long out of school Miss. Weasley," I laughed. She looked very taken aback by that information, and it took her a little while to respond, "Just call me Molly, dear." I was also introduced to the blonde witch, Nymphadora Tonks.
"Just call me Tonks. I swear, my mother must have been absolutely barking to have named me Nymphadora," she said, rolling her eyes. I grinned, already liking this woman.
"I think Nymphadora is a very pretty name. Are you still in school too?" Tonks looked as though she had eaten an Acid Pop and shook her head.
"Heavens, no. Just got done with my Auror training." I nodded, and then I did a double take at her hair. It had been blonde, but slowly changed to a chestnut color while I had been talking to her. She realized what had startled me and laughed.
"Tonks is a Metamorphmagus," Ginny told me, giggling. I was still in awe, as Metamorphmagi were very rare. "But I didn't know that they had found another." I was about to argue, but then stopped. Obviously, they had assumed the reason I looked so young was because I was a Metamorphmagus. I decided that until the meeting, I would let them think that. I just shrugged and smiled at the three. Ginny begged me to do a trick for her, but I was saved my Molly, who told Ginny that I was too tired for such things and that the meeting would be starting soon, anyways. Ginny led the way to my room, and sat on my bed while I unpacked.
"It's great that you're here. Besides mum, you and Tonks and I are the only girls in the house." She clapped her hands together excitedly.
"Right. Um, so, how do you like Hogwarts? Who are your teachers?" She shrugged and tilted her head to the side, eyeing the top I was holding in my hands. She told me, and I stopped her when she said the Potions professor's name.
"Severus Snap?" I asked slowly. She nodded. "But he's a Death Eater!" I blurted. She grinned wryly and leaned over towards me conspiratorially, her fiery red hair falling over her shoulders.
"Haven't you heard? He's on our side now," she said sarcastically. I highly doubted that and I knew that it showed on my face. She giggled and stood to help me unpack the rest of my things. We chatted about Hogwarts and I told her a bit about my days there. Of course, I had to fudge it by about 50 years. As we chatted, there was a knock on the door and I turned to see Molly in the doorway. I headed down to the meeting with her and Ginny, to her own dismay, was banished to her bedroom. There was a knock on the door, and someone shouted for us to come in. I went in and molly stood outside to put charms on the door so her kids wouldn't eavesdrop. When I walked in, nearly all conversation stopped. I didn't mind, seeing as I was too shocked myself to say anything.
"What- How- Why- WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON? WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?" I yelled, pointing at Sirius Black. He had changed for the worse. His face was gaunt and pale, and there was a deadness in his black eyes. Well, being sent to Azkaban for murder would do that to you! a tiny voice screamed inside my head. Of course, he looked just as shocked as I did. Albus was calmly sitting in a chair at the head of the long table. His hair was white, his beard was longer, and he had more wrinkles, but other than that, he hadn't changed.
I pointed at Albus. "You!" I yelled accusingly, and then pointed a finger at Sirius, "And you!" Also sitting around the table were two red haired men, one older and the other in his early 20's, an older, excitable little man, Hestia Jones, a tall black man in colorful robes, Emmeline, a smelly bundle of robes (which I didn't even have the brain capacity to try to explain at that moment)Alastor Moody, Severus Snape, and Remus Lupin. There were others, but at those two, my eyes stopped and I stopped pointing at Sirius and Albus to point at Severus and Remus. "And you two!" I was so utterly confused I couldn't take it all in. The rest of the people in the room were watching us, looking almost as confused as I felt. Albus stood up slowly and held his wand in his hand.
"Ana, it is not what you think," he said slowly.
"No! I want to know what is going on! He killed Peter! And he might as well have killed James and Lily!" I cried, jerking my head towards Sirius. "And he," I emphasized in the direction of Severus, who sat completely still and expressionless, "is a Death Eater. So I want to know what is going on." Remus stood up and glared at me.
"And I want to know who you are because the last time I checked, Alana Tchaikovsky was 32 years old, not 17!" he snapped. Albus cleared his throat and everyone looked at him. His blue eyes twinkled and he had to fight to keep back his laughter.
"Actually, that is quite interesting, as I happen to know that this is indeed Ana Tchaikovsky, not Alana, and Ana is 69 years old, not 32." I don't think the room could have gotten any quieter. Sirius and Remus had paled to the point where it was almost comical and neither could get any words out. Severus twitched and glared at me. I put my hands over my face and shook my head.
"Why Albus! Why?" I groaned. And then I snapped my head back up. "Wait a minute, my age is not the important thing here. He's a murder and he's a Death Eater! Am I the only one that is concerned by this?" Albus took my arm and literallyu forced me to sit down. I tried to fight against him, but the man was older than me and still ten times stronger. Between Sirius, Severus, Remus, and Albus, I couldn't decide who to direct my glaring at. I settled for just loking down at the table and clicking my teeth annoyingly. Albus cleared his throat again and conjured tea for all of us. I refused to touch mine.
"Now Ana. Sirius did not kill lily or james or peter. You know Sirius was tehe Potter's Secret Keeper. He convinced them to change their minds and give it to peter. He knew the Dark Lord would come after him or Remus for information before they thought of Peter. They did. Unfortunatly, Peter was the one who had been feeding the Dark Lord information about the Order and he todl them where Lily and James were. To make himself look innocent, Peter found Sirius the night that Lily and james died and in front of all of those people, said that Sirius had killed Lily and James. Sirius tried to curse him, but Peter cut off his own finger, belw smoke out of his wand, and Dissapparated in an explosion that left 13 Muggles dead and many more injured." There was growling and I saw both Sirius and Remus fighting not to start screaming and cursing out of anger. Albus continued.
"Sirius broke out of Azkaban using his Animagus form and found Peter, but he escaped before we could bring him to justice. The minister refused to believe that peter was alive and wouldn't pardon Sirius, so Harry and his friend, Hermione, helped Sirius escape. He moved back ehre at the beginning of the summer and has given us his home to use at headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix." I sat back anad took it all in, seeing Sirius in a new light.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered. Sirius smiled at me.
"It's alright. Remus here thought I'd done it, too. I admit, Peter was pretty convincing." He said this last part bitterly, the smile completely gone. Remus nodded his head, still too distracted with his general questions about me to give much thought to what Sirius had said.
Albus continued with a nod in Severus' direction. "Severus is in my employment, and I trust him completely. Please do not question this, because to question his loyalty is to question my judgement." The subject of Severus was closed. I could tell.
"But what about Ana?" Remus asked, his eyes still on me. I grinned sheepishly.
"I'm Ana Tchaikovsky. I was born in 1928. I graduated at Hogwarts in 1935. But everything else I've told you is true! I promise," I said earnestly to Remus and Sirius.
"That's not what we want to know! What are you?" asked Sirius. It was torture when I was trying to think of the answer. Dumbledore saved me.
"That is partly why I wanted to call this meeting. Ana went to school with Tom Riddle. She was friends with him, and he took advantage of this, for we know that Tom Riddle does not have friends. He forced her to test a spell for him, one that was undoubtedly for the purpose of living forever. As of now, we still do not know what spell this is and Ana's memories are a bit scrambled at the moment, so I would think that it will be quite a while before we know what exactly was done to preserve Ana in her 14 year old body."
"Yeah, but, I mean, she always looked young, but she never looked 14. I mean, she looks younger than she did the last time I saw her," Sirius sputtered, trying to reason everything out.
"I was taking special potions. Horace Slughorn brewed me a new potion once a month and gave me the vial. I drank a bit every day. It helped me look at least a few years older so you all would not notice that I don't age," I muttered softly. Remus and Sirius looked affronted, as if I had wanted to lie to them.
"But why didn't you tell us?" Remus pleaded. I gaped at him.
"How do you tell your best friends that you can live forever, and the person responsible for it was the enemy of the wizarding world, who at one point was your best friend? And it doesn't help that my so-called best friend turned on me just so he could have immortality. Oh, and thanks to me, it obviously worked, and he has most likely achieved it!" Remus and Sirius had the decency to look slightly ashamed. The younger red haired guy raised his hand and stood up.
"Well, I have a question. Who in the hell is Tom Riddle?" Albus told him, and the boy flinched and sat down. At the last the room was silent. Albus sipped his tea and held up a hand.
"Now. The question that I'm sure you all are wondering: What can this woman do for us? Well, we all know who the new Defense teacher is this year. Dolores Umbridge is playing spy for the Ministry and will try to turn the students against me. She will succeed with quite a few of them. We also need our own spies. Severus Snape is a Potions master. Ana, you will be the Potions apprentice. You will tell anyone that asks that Severus is renowned for his Potions making skill, and that as a training Potions master you have been sent to observe him in his profession." There was no room for argument.
I sulked for the rest of the meeting, wanting nothing more than to go back to my little cottage in Godrics Hollow and play a game with my bewitched chess set. I couldn't believe that I had been stupid enough to let Albus drag me back into his mess. They spoke of certain missions, and of a secret weapon, something they were using against Voldemort.
"But Albus, Harry is just a boy." My attention was now strictly riveted on the conversation.
"Ah, but there is a very good chance that we could use him to our advantage. Harry is the thing that Voldemort wants now. You see, I believe that because there is a part of Harry that is connected to Lord Voldemort, Harry might have a connection with him. The moments when Harry has felt his scar blazing is when Voldemort is near. Harry can sense him, and this is quite perfect." I stood up angrily.
"All right. I have so many questions that I don't even know where to begin. Obviously, I have been out of the loop for some time now, but I can say one thing. If you care about that poor boy at all, then how can you talk about him as if he's just a part of a puzzle that you feel the compulsive need to solve? He's not a pawn in your game, Albus!" I saw the warning look on everyone's faces. Albus sighed and looked down. His eyes weren't twinkling anymore, always a bad sign. He tried to ignore my outburst and continued.
"I'm afraid that we are running out of time. The last time we met, we decided that the guard would be compromised of: Elphias, Hestia, Kingsley, Tonks, Emmeline, Dedalus, Remus, Alastor. I suppose you will be wanting to join them?" Dumbledore asked me quietly. I was still so outraged that I realized I had forgotten to breath. I managed to sit back down and asked what the guard was.
"We will be rescuing Harry Potter from his aunt and uncle's house. There were a couple of dementors that attacked Harry and his cousin, and the ministry is trying to put him away. They've even got a trial date scheduled for him," Hestia said bitterly. There was more growling from Sirius and Remus, only broken by Sirius literally begging to come. Albus shook his head.
"I am afraid not Sirius. You would be much too easy to recognize, even by Muggles. We cannot take that chance. So Ana, you will be joining?" I nodded my head in agreement. Honestly, I wasn't even entirely there. I was too busy thinking about what Harry looked like. If he still had Lily's eyes. I hoped that they hadn't changed, like babies' eyes usually do as they get older. The meeting was adjourned, and a few of the witches and wizards stood to leave. Among them was Severus Snape, who did not even look back. Albus decided that it would be best not to say anything to me and he also left without a word. Molly called for dinner, and Tonks and I ran to help her.
While in the grimy kitchen, as we were gathering silverware and plates, I moved over to Molly. She smiled at me and patted my shoulder.
"I'm very sorry dear. I know it must have seemed a shock for Albus to talk like that, but he really does have the boy's best interests at heart." I smiled at her, then worked up the courage to ask her my burning question.
"Molly, have you seen Harry? I don't mean this summer. I mean, have you ever met him?" She laughed and flicked her wand at a roast on the opposite side of the kitchen.
"Of course. Him and my youngest son, Ron, have been best friends since first year. Such a darling boy, too. So humble, and grateful for every little thing. It's no wonder either, with those relatives of his," she added sourly. I chuckled a bit, then took a deep breath.
"What colour are his eyes?" I asked, my voice trembling a little. Her face immediately filled with pity and her eyes softened.
"Green." I smiled and she squeezed my shoulder again. We made our way outside, where the table was once again full. The chairs that had been emptied by the few people that hadn't stayed for dinner had been replaced by two red haired twins, one of whom grimaced when he saw me enter, Ginny, another young red- haired boy, and a girl with bushy brown hair and a pretty smile. As I sat down, I was introduced to the two red haired men, Bill, Molly's eldest son, and Arthur, Molly's husband. The twins, I found out, were Fred and George, the younger red haired boy was Ron, and the girl was Hermione, Ron and Harry's best friend.
Dinner was delicious. I spent time catching up with Sirius and Remus. Sirius complained bitterly about having to be cooped up in his old home, and Remus rolled his eyes at every snide remark.
"Well, looks like you haven't changed too much," I said to Sirius, laughing. He flashed me a grin, very much like the one he used to have, making me smile even harder. Remus shook his head.
"Do you still live in Godrics Hollow?" Remus inquired. I nodded.
"Yup. Still in the same cottage. It's actually quite nice still. I don't go out much, but when I do, everyone assumes I'm just a relative and that Ana Tchaikovsky is senile and doesn't like to go out much. Much less work to remain anonymous than I thought it would be. Sirius, someone bought out your flat ages ago. A nice Muggle family. It's still quiet as ever, except for the yearly celebration of…" I let my voice trail off and Sirius and Remus looked down at their hands, kind of pained. We didn't speak for a bit.
"So, a celebration, huh? She would have had a fit. She was always so modest." I smiled at Sirius.
"Yeah, but James would have loved it. People coming from all over just to celebrate him. Would have been a field day for the guy." Sirius laughed and banged his hand down on the table. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hermione and Ron tense up. They weren't looking at us, but they weren't talking. Obviously, they recognized who we were talking about. "But it does get quite noisy. People still shouting at three in the morning. Quite ridiculous. Of course, I join in every once in a while. But I prefer to pay my respects in private, at the graveyard. The celebration is just too impersonal with all of those people." Remus nodded.
"Yeah. I saw you down there about a year or so ago, but you Disapparated before I could get to you."
"I'm sorry. And you seem to be busy, too. You didn't come round for tea last week like you promised." Remus smiled sheepishly, a few gray-blonde strands of hair falling into his face.
"I know. I had completely forgotten. There were so many meetings last week, and I've just been getting more and more exhausted these days." I made a sympathetic face.
"Still no luck with the job then?" He sighed and shook his head. I ate a bit of roast and turned to him, lowering my voice.
"It's so unfair. You're a great and dedicated worker, and a good man. Wizards and their idiotic prejudices. It's not right!" We continued in talk about work and new things going on in our lives, but then I pulled out a few pictures from my pockets. Sirius and Remus gave me a curious look and leaned over to get a better view of the pictures.
"I brought all of the old pictures. I thought you guys might want a few, for old times sake." We went through each of them, and I saw Ron and Hermione lean over to see what they were. I smiled and pushed a picture at them. It was of a waving Harry bundled up in winter clothes, happily chasing bewitched snowballs in the backyard. Hermione laughed when one of the snowballs began to chase Harry and hit him in the back of the head.
"His mother was an absolute terror with the camera! Always following us around with the bloody contraption," I laughed. Remus picked out one of the Marauders minus Peter. They were sitting on the couch drinking butterbeers in Sirius' living room, all toasting to the camera. Sirius picked out three. One with him throwing Lily over his shoulder and spinning her around the room, and another with him and James, standing with their arms around each other and little Harry pulling at James' pants legs. The third was of me and him standing under the mistletoe at a Christmas party. Sirius was kissing me on the cheek and I was playfully shoving him away.
We went through more. There was one of our whole gang plus the kids. Alice was looking incredibly pregnant (it was only a few days before she gave birth) and Frank had one arm around her and his other hand on her stomach. James and lily were kissing for the camera and Sirius was placing a temporary Sticking Charm on their mouths. I was holding Harry.
There were more, but I liked the one with all of us and said that I wanted to keep it, but I would make copies for them if they wanted it. Both men eagerly agreed. Ron and Hermione were fascinated by their friend's baby pictures.
"Blimey. Harry would love this," Ron said in awe. Hermione shook her head earnestly.
"Yes. He has wanted more pictures to add to that photo album Hagrid gave him." I beamed at them.
"Well if that's true, I would be happy to show him. I've got loads upstairs in my trunk. I'm a packrat. Hate throwing things away, especially memories like these." Sirius and Remus were studying the pictures that they'd picked out. Both of them looked like they were about to cry. Dinner finished fairly quickly, and I went upstairs to my room. I taped the picture of all of us to my headboard.