I do not own the Harry Potter Franchise. They belong to J.K Rowling and probably some other people.
AH! I'm so sorry my darlings! I did not abandon you! I have a very valid excuse this time; my brother and his wife just had their first baby! I'm an Auntie! Waylon Rhys was born on the 18th of June and he is the most perfect little baby you could ever imagine.
There is a little fowl language in this chapter.
Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the story, review review review!
Bill both hated and loved it when Charlie was home. Charlie was his closest brother and he loved having him under the same roof. Romania was really too far away, then again, so was Egypt. Despite this love, he hated having Charlie home for two reasons. Number one was his mum. After Charlie moved to Romania Molly made it her personal mission to find him a girl in England so he would move back. The plan had failed miserably, starting with Tonks. After five years, she was getting desperate and trying to set him up with anyone. Bill shuddered when he pictured Molly attempting to put Charlie and Hermione together.
The second reason Bill hated having Charlie home was his sleeping habits. The man had two modes, wide awake and tossing, or dead asleep and snoring. Neither mode was very conducive to Bill's sleep cycle. Tonight was mode one; wide awake and tossing and turning. That meant he had something on his mind.
"Would you shut up over there?" Bill said in a loud whisper. To his dismay, Charlie sat up and swung his legs over his cot so he was facing Bill's bed. That was Charlie-talk for 'I have something on my mind and need your big brotherly advice'.
"Ugh," Bill sat up too and faced the slightly younger man, "What is it?"
Charlie paused with his shoulders slumped and head in his hands before finally looking at his brother, "It's just, that was weird, right? That whole thing with Lestrange and Dumbledore. And you should have seen her in the library, Bill, I thought she was dead. I can't get that image out of my head. Then she's just, better? She seemed almost totally fine when she left with him. This was after having her leg mangled by a dragon, the dark mark carved into her arm, and-"
"And surviving your abysmal disapparting skills." Bill grinned.
"Exactly. It's weird." Charlie stopped talking, as if that explained everything.
"So, the girl is tough. She works with dragons! You know how much grit that takes. Why are you obsessing over her?" Bill raised an eyebrow and hoped it wasn't for the reason he was thinking.
"I'm not obsessing!" Charlie threw a pillow at Bill.
"Denial is not just a river in Egypt." Bill quoted their mother. "Now tell me what's really going on in that freaky Charlie head of yours."
Charlie laid back on his cot with his arms folded on his chest, but kept talking. "She's just so, so, mysterious! I thought I had her pegged at Hogwarts. She was the Slytherin princess, Snape's favorite, a good seeker, she had the world. Then one day she just showed up at the preserve. You said she's tough, but you don't know the half of it. I've seen her do things that I wouldn't even risk. It's like she has a death wish. And she is always so conceited! So I figured she was just this cocky little bitch trying to prove something, but then in the past day she's totally blown that image to hell. She scared, Bill. I just think anything that has Nyx Lestrange scared should scare all of us. It kills me not knowing what it is."
"Well, she's with Dumbledore now. He'll get everything sorted out and then you can go back to hating and judging her in peace. For now, please go to sleep, we're moving to the order house in the morning, remember?"
Bill got back into his bed and pulled the covers around himself hoping that settled things. He didn't hear any snores, though, which meant Charlie was still thinking.
The next day was very hectic for the Weasley household. Hermione Granger arrived shortly after dawn, per instructions from Dumbledore, and now the whole family (minus Percy who had not come home from work the previous day after an argument with his father) was gathered in their sitting room waiting for something to happen. No one was sure exactly what, Dumbledore had simply said to wait. Someone knocked on the door and Arthur opened it to reveal a youngish bedraggled looking man.
"Professor Lupin!" Ron, Ginny, and the twins all let out the exclamation at the same time. The man in question smiled at all of them.
"Please, I am not your teacher anymore. It's Remus." He looked around, "Well everyone's ready to go then?"
"Yes, yes." Molly answered. "We're all here. Hermione too, although Harry's missing. I assume someone's gone to fetch him? Anyway, how are we getting to, well, wherever." She was quite flustered.
"The first time, you'll all be taking a portkey. Don't worry about your things, other order members will pick them up for you. As for Harry, well, Albus is keeping that rather secret. So then, here we are." Remus pulled an old cabbie hat from his robes and the Weasley's (with difficulty and much pushing) all placed at least one finger on it and were soon standing in a small grouping of trees.
Once everyone caught their bearings Remus cleared his throat, "This isn't the headquarters obviously. Here, you each need one of these," He passed out small slips of parchment to each of them, "Memorize that and then destroy it. Then follow me."
Charlie looked down at his paper, The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at number 12 Grimmauld Place. He memorized the parchment then set it on fire, Ron and Hermione asked him to do the same to theirs. Soon the group of red heads followed Lupin out of the trees and onto a busy sidewalk. They were clearly in London. A house appeared in between addresses 11 and 13. Lupin walked confidently in, the family followed but with less gusto.
The interior of the house was dimly lit by old fashioned gas lamps. It had the smell and feel of a place that had sat empty for a very long time. They were in a hallway and had the option to go straight forward, which would lead them to a set of double doors, or go up. There was a large staircase above them which appeared to house many landings.
"Well this is it." Lupin raised both arms part way. "Our host seems to be missing, probably gone to chase some cats." Only Hermione and Ron smiled at that, they were certain they knew who Lupin was referring to. "Anyway, you all can go fight over rooms. The first, second, and third landings have been set aside for you." Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and the twins all made a dash for the stairs. The older Weasley's followed Lupin through the double doors into a large kitchen. From a room on the right they could hear two male voices.
"Ya the Malfoys were real pissed when I became a Gryffindor. But it was nothing compared to what Nyx did. You know the fancy pureblood engagement parties?"
"Ah yes. I was forced to one or two of them. They usually ended with me hexing someone's hair a different color."
The second voice chuckled, "Ya well this one was for Nyx. She was supposed to marry Etienne Zabini, then at the party with both families all gathered around she gets up on this platform and insults nearly everyone there, then she turns to Zabini and says she would rather screw a troll than marry him."
The older sounding voice let out a bark like laugh and Lupin opened the door to reveal Sirius Black and Orion Black-Lestrange.
"Hey! You're all here!" Sirius got up from the chair he had been lazily sitting in. Orion followed him out of the room into the adjoining kitchen.
"Sirius Black." Molly looked frightened for a moment. "Oh dear, this is going to take a while to get used to."
Sirius grinned, "Don't worry about it Molly. Is Harry upstairs?" He added hopefully.
"No Padfoot, Dumbledore hasn't said when he's coming." It was Remus who answered.
"What about Nyx? Is she up there, or is she helping the others get your stuff?" Orion directed his question to Bill and Charlie. They were all in the same house at Hogwarts and had gotten along pretty well.
"Nyx?" Bill looked bewildered. "We haven't seen her since the day she left our house with Dumbledore. He said they were going to see you."
Now is was Orion who was confused, "They did see me. Then Dumbledore took us here. Nyx left last night to go see you. She said she had something important to talk to Charlie about, said it couldn't wait. So Dumbledore said she could go and then come back with you all this morning. Are you saying she didn't show up?"
"No, no one was at our house last night." Arthur answered, "How was she getting there?"
"She said she would apparate to Ottery St. Catchpole then walk." Orion looked scared now.
"Well then." Molly tried to sound hopeful, "Maybe she's just lost, or, or something." She failed.
"Ah shit!" Charlie banged his fist on the kitchen table.
"Charlie!" Molly attempted to reprimand him and failed, again.
"I'll go look for her." He didn't sound hopeful.
"I'll help." Bill and Orion spoke at the same time.
"Bill, you need to get to work. None of us can afford the suspicion of missing too many days." Arthur put a hand on his oldest son's shoulder.
"And Orion, Albus said you are not under any circumstances to leave the house." Remus looked pointedly at Orion who was looking mutinous.
"Remus and I will go. If we don't find her in an hour..." Charlie left off his sentence and looked at Remus who finished for him.
"We'll alert Dumbledore and other members to help."
Nyx awoke to find herself standing against a heavy brick wall with her wrists chained above her. She could see no visible bindings on her body, but nevertheless could not move away from the wall. She tried screaming for help, but no sound came out. From out of the shadows stepped a dark woman who pointed her wand at Nyx.
Nyx tried screaming again at the sight of Bellatrix, still nothing came out. Bellatrix brushed her wand down Nyx's face and stopped it just above her heart, she leaned in and whispered,
"My darling girl. What a beauty you've become."