This chapter is dedicated to Mel! She's been amazing, reading and telling me her thoughts about my latest chapters, and reads them before they're evn typed up! So a huge thanks to her! I don't know what I'd do without her!
Chapter 6
The rest of the day passed in a flurry of cleaning: banishing doxies from curtains; scrubbing ingrained dirt off surfaces; clearing cursed items out of forgotten cupboards and spending hours being on the receiving end of verbal abuse from the portrait of Mrs Black while trying, and failing, to remove her image from the wall.
"Right, you lot, the meeting's about to start, so I want you all upstairs. No exceptions!" This last sentence was directed to Fred and George, who were already opening their mouths to argue. So, looking at each other dejectedly, they headed upstairs with the others. If Hermione hadn't known them so well, she would have thought she had imagined the wink Fred sent to George.
Pleased that there seemed to be so little argument to her announcement, Mrs Weasley headed back into the kitchen to join the other members of the Order. Fred, George, Hermione, Ron and Ginny, meanwhile, all went up to their bedrooms – Fred and George disappearing into theirs, heads bent towards each other, whispering secretly, and Hermione and Ginny went into their bedroom – but not before pushing Ron into his bedroom and ordering him to tidy it and make it slightly presentable for when Harry arrived.
Half an hour passed in this style, when Hermione suddenly thought Harry's voice. Immediately she closed her book, without even marking her page and hurried into Ron's room, just in case Harry was already in there. When she entered through the open door however, she was greeted by the sight of Ron lying on his bed, lazily flicking through his Chudley Cannons album, the room in the same untidy state as it was before. Just as Hermione started to berate him, Harry appeared in the doorway. Hermione flew at him, and hugged him tight, talking all the while. Since Mr Weasley had announced that Harry was coming to stay, news had arrived about a dementor attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley in Little Whinging, and his impending hearing at the Ministry, Needless to say, Hermione had immediately found as many books that covered the topic of underage magic and magic in the presence of a muggle.
Harry wasn't happy at all though. It wasn't long before he was having a go at them for not sending him any news, not letting them get a word in edgeways to explain that they wanted to, they really did, but Dumbledore expressly forbade it.
In the midst of this one-sided shouting, a CRACK sounded, heralding the arrival of Fred and George. They both sat down, perfectly at ease, on Harry's bed, joking all the while. The only difference between them was that Fred pulled Hermione to him, sitting her on his lap, and kissing her neck, causing Hermione to try, and fail, to fight a blush that flooded across all her exposed skin. This didn't go unnoticed by Harry, and he raised a questioning eyebrow at Hermione who sent a 'I'll tell you later' face straight back at him.
Fred and George's suggestion was impossible to refuse. Listen in to a meeting on the Order? Why not? Soon they were all huddled over the banister, watching the Extendable Ear being slowly lowered until it was level with the kitchen door.
They only caught a few moments of conversation though, which yielded information that Snape was a member of the Order, something everyone but Harry already knew, and Molly Weasley and Sirius Black were, once again, arguing, this time about Harry.
Their listening was interrupted by an arrival on the ground floor. A ginger, half-kneazle cat had entered the hallway and was now playing with the Extendable Ear, seemingly deaf to the loud whispers for above, entreating him to leave it. Suddenly the ear broke off from the string it was hanging from, and everything went silent.
Hermione shook her head, despairing of Crookshanks, while Fred growled, "Did I mention how much I hate that cat!"