Chapter VIII – Number Seven, Grimmauld Place

Cleome's POV

As we Apparated in the street of Grimmauld Place, we realized our mistake. We had Apparated in a Muggle street in broad daylight.

As Jack and I materialized, we saw that our friends were standing dumbstruck, being confronted by four Muggles who, quite obviously, had seen them appear out of thin air as white smoke and solidify into people.

But even as I joined my friends and returned the stares that some of the Muggles offered me, Tristan and Peter shouted, "Obliviate!"

The eyes of the Muggles turned confused and dreamy, and we quickly ran to Number Seven. As we entered and closed the door behind us, Jack turned and said, "This is the house my father gave me as a coming-of-age present. Nobody comes here. We can stay here for as long as we want. Trikero?"

When he said the last word, a small house-elf appeared before them with a crack.

"Master Jack! Welcome, welcome! I fear I am unprepared to honour your arrival with a feast. But if some lunch would please master?" He said in a timid voice.

"Maybe later, Trikero. For now, I want you to see that the rooms are ready for the sixteen of us. Thank you."

The house-elf, Trikero, gave a deep bow to Jack, and another one to all of us together. Then he disappeared with another loud crack.

Then I began to notice the house.

We were (all sixteen of us) standing in a cramped entrance lobby. Right in front of us, we could spy a grand living room behind a door that was half ajar. But before that was a hall with a staircase going up it. There were three floors, and each floor had a corridor with five doors. The house was very big, but I could sense that Jack at least was the type who would like to live alone in a house that could easily accommodate twenty people.

Mostly, I liked to be in no big company, but not alone either.

"Why are we standing here staring at everything?" Corey said.

There was a bout of nervous laughter and we moved out of the lobby into the hall.

"OK everybody. There's a kitchen downstairs with the dining room adjoining it. Rest a while, and feel free to go anywhere in the house. There's no room that I think is out-of-bounds. We'll settle two to each room. Choose your own roommate. I'd be grateful if you leave me to my room alone. It's the one at the end of the corridor on the third floor. Now, get down to the kitchen in an hour for lunch. We'll talk then."

This will be fun.

"At Hogwarts, boys and girls have separate dormitories, but I don't think Jack mentioned any such "restriction" here, did he?" Link whispered to those nearest him, and everybody sniggered.

The corridors had two doors on the left and right side each, and one extra on the left side.

Link and Ivy ascended the staircase and took the first left room on the first floor. Rune and Cosimo took the one right opposite to it.

Anita and Donny, best friends and confidants always, took the last room in corridor. Erica and Rose took the second room on the right on the second floor, while Chrys and Poppy took the opposite one. Peter and Tristan, the seventh years, took the last door on the left. I went up to the third floor, and took the first right door with Sal. Corey took the one opposite to us. As I closed the door of our room, I saw that Jack went into the last room.

The rooms, Jack had told us, were all similarly furnished, so there was no particular one anyone would prefer, except the location. The walls had a beautiful tapestry, grey and black swatches over a backdrop of white, forming striking and intricate figures. The colours were dull – white, black and grey – but the design they formed was bright nonetheless.

There was a hearth in the room – I had always wanted to stay in a room with a fireplace! – and two single beds separated by a chest of drawers, on which was kept a lamp. The room had excellent lighting; but the windows were sufficient themselves. They were quite big, not much defence in case of an ambush, Cleome realized, but this was not a fortress after all!

Apparently, Trikero was very fast. The beds were made, the fire in the hearth was burning although very dimly given it was not properly winter yet, and the curtains were drawn. There were two mugs of coffee on the mantelpiece.

Salamon sat down on the bed near the door. I took the one next to the windows and looked out.

There was a man approaching our side of the street. There should not have been anything unusual about that, except for the fact that this man wore a green cloak.

"Salamon! There's a wizard here. Do you think they could have followed us?"

"What? No way! But that's a wizard alright. And he's coming this way. Let's alert the others."

We ran out of our room and I hammered on Jack's door, while Salamon informed Corey.

When Jack opened the door, he looked tired, and I could almost pity him. I could pity all of us. But we were caught in a war, and there was nothing we could do about it.

"Jack, there's a wizard in the street, headed in this direction."

"I saw him too. Let's go down and wait at the main entrance." Jack's voice was morose. "I don't think there's any point in disturbing the others right now."

We descended the stairs, and looked out the windows next to the main door. That was strange. I hadn't noticed any windows next to the door when I had been standing outside.

"The window is enchanted. It is present for those inside, but not visible from outside," Jack said, as usual reading others' minds.

The green cloaked wizard was standing right in front of Number Six now, consulting a piece of paper he had in his hand.

Then he moved to Number Seven and rang the doorbell.

Before I could register that the doorbell was a pleasant sound of wind chimes, Jack shouted through the door, "Declare yourself!"

"I am Fynn Limbel, sent here by Neville Longbottom, seventh year Gryffindor who sends the luggage and other possessions of Mr Jack Westron and his associates."

I couldn't help but gasp at this feat of Neville's.

"It is impossible," Corey whispered to Jack, Sal and I. "How did Neville Longbottom manage to collect the possessions of sixteen runaways and smuggle them out of Hogwarts?" Corey asked the man outside the door, Fynn Limbel.

"You revealed much in that sentence, Corey! Much that we had rather not tell somebody who we don't know yet!" I hissed.

"Mr Longbottom, apparently, knew you would ask me that question, so he gave me the answer scribbled on this parchment along with your address. It says here that he "distracted" the Headmaster and the others while three of his friends summoned your possessions from various parts of the castle. Then it was put into this pouch, which has the Undetectable Extension Charm placed over it by Filius Flitwick and sent to me as a temporary Portkey. Now, please let me go! Take this damn pouch and relieve me, I have other duties for the Order I need to perform." Towards the end of the monologue, Fynn's voice had grown irritable.

Jack pulled open the door, glanced around and took the package. Then he whipped out his wand and murmured, "Obliviate!" All this took a fraction of a second.

Then he slammed the door. We watched Fynn walk down the street, scratching his head, then Disapparate. "He won't remember our address only," Jack said to us when he received three questioning glances. "We can't be too careful."

Then Jack opened the pouch and waved his wand over it; all his possessions came out and flew up the staircase.

"It's the Banishing Charm, help me with it," he said to us.

With the four of us working together, we transported everyone's things to the right room in less than ten minutes. We were happy to see that Neville had also sent us our pets, all caged and stuffed in the pouch being another matter.

As the last pet was released, I was surprised to see a bat fly out of the pouch. "Shadow. He's Ivy's," Corey said to me.

Then the four of us ascended the stairs, Salamon holding Corvus, his raven and Corey whispering to Lara, his owl. As we passed each floor, heads that were looking out the doors bemusedly nodded to us, suddenly understanding.

Sal and I entered our room, and I collapsed on my bed. Even as I tried to open my eyes to look at Sal methodically arranging our things in the wardrobes and drawers, I fell to the pressure of such a long day and was asleep in a minute. And to think that it wasn't even lunchtime yet!

A/N: According to what I have planned, the chapters will get longer from here on. I hope you like it! And please friends, REVIEW!