A/N So here we are again. I think I have everything in the right order now, at least up to the middle of the book. I'll keep working on it and hopefully there won't be much I need to change in the later chapters. There may be a break in the middle, but I hope not. Anyways, enjoy :D

Thanks to all who have reviewed and for all your patience with waiting.

Section 4: fourth year

Chapter 24: Grimauld Place

After Dumbledore had quickly resurrected the Order of the Phoenix at the end of last year we spent the summer, not at the Burrow as usual, but rather at the Order's new headquarters. At first I was scared to be in the same place as Sirius Black. I knew from Harry that he wasn't the great evil monster he'd been painted but his legend was almost as well known as Voldemort's and Harry's and it was really hard to let go of those 'truths' and accept that he was really and truly one of the good guys. I tried not to let it show too much but it wasn't long before he had sat me down kindly and had a little chat.

'You're not happy here are you?' I finally looked at him properly and he had kind eyes, so I nodded.

'I miss the space at home' I said. 'The space to run around outside, to get a broom out.'

'It's not much fun being cooped up I know' he said, and a fleeting look of sadness crossed his face. 'But it's safer here for people who are opposing the Ministry.'

'I know' I said, 'I just wish …'

He nodded sympathetically. 'And it's not the prettiest of houses either, is it?' I almost giggled as I said 'Not really.'

He said, 'Well, look. I know it's hard and it sucks and it's not fair, but can you think of it as helping Harry?' I looked up suspiciously, wondering if he was making fun of me, but there was nothing but sincere kindness in his eyes.

'What do you mean?' I asked instead.

'You've seen what they've been writing about him.'

Had I ever! I was almost constantly in a rage over the horrible stuff they'd been printing about him in the Daily Prophet, so I nodded again.

'Well, we here in this house are fighting to rectify that. To show them he's not lying, that he and Dumbledore are telling the truth. Staying here is fighting for his cause. Does that make it any easier?'

To my surprise I realised it really did. And from that moment on I wasn't scared of Sirius anymore either. Anyone who had Harry's welfare at heart as much as he did had to be one of the good guys.

From then on I was happier and about once a week I received a letter from Michael. He was a really great letter writer, witty and interesting and I was always left smiling after I received them. He had somehow managed to ensure that I only got the letters when I was in my room, so only Hermione and I knew he was sending them. I was just reading one of them and laughing happily when Hermione rushed into the room in a right state. She had been with us almost since the start of the holidays because her parents had gone to a conference and they wanted her to have more exposure to the wizarding world she was going to inhabit. I smiled at her and was about to ask her what was wrong when she gasped out her news.

'Harry's almost been expelled!'

'What?'

'He used the patronus on some dementors.'

'In Surrey? There were dementors in Surrey?'

'Yes, oh and they're sending some Order members to go get him, and he's in so much trouble. He has to go to a hearing at the ministry.'

'A hearing? Why?' All thought of Michael and his letter had been crashed out of my mind by this.

'Because he was expelled, but that's been revoked because they have to do a proper hearing about underage magic.' She started pacing. 'I can't believe he did something so stupid.'

'Well, I can. He's been shut up in that hole with those dreadful Muggles all summer and you all have been writing letters with no information in, and you know how he feels about that.' She nodded. His bitterness seeped out of every line of his letters. 'Plus, if there were dementors what else what he meant to do?'

'Oh, I don't know, but it was reckless and stupid.'

Oh yes it was. And once again I thrilled to it. Of course I was worried about him and the hearing coming up, but the fact that he had managed to fight off dementors, and the fact that he had got away with it, well probably got away with it, just impressed me mightily.

As expected, a few days later Harry arrived at Grimauld Place (our new home for the duration). It wasn't exactly the reintroduction that I expected but it certainly wasn't hard to know he was in the house. The Order members were all tucked up downstairs in the kitchen so I doubt they heard him, but the rest of us copped a right earful. Oh he had a right head of steam up by the time I got to the bedroom. It was fairly glorious to hear him actually; after being stuck with those muggle idiots for so long I guess he had some things he needed to get out. I just barged my way in to the room where they all were. Fred and George, who had obviously heard him too, were already there; they'd probably apparated in and Ron and Hermione looked like they'd been hit with a tidal wave. Well, really, that wasn't the way to deal with a shouter, hadn't Ron learned anything from listening to Mum? Deflect the anger, tell a joke, seriously.

'Oh, hello, Harry! I thought I heard your voice.' Nice subtle hint at: 'as if anyone could have missed it' there. I could tell he heard the unspoken line because he looked a little uncomfortable when he greeted me. I turned my attention to the twins and we tried to figure out a way to overhear the secret meeting. But sadly there was a no go on the extendable ears the boys had been working on. Imperturbable charms. I sighed; Mum knew us just too well.

I could see Harry struggling with his anger but I knew if he tried to light up again I'd just talk him down. I couldn't believe the others didn't do that last time. So instead we all talked about what had been going on at our end while Harry was off breaking wizarding law. Percy of course was dragged into it. Our great git of a brother who had so spectacularly ditched the family in favour of his Ministry aspirations. Mum was still prone to cry over him, and I was angry as a hatter at him too. We had lots of fun abusing him for his daft ideas and of course what the Daily Prophet had been saying about Harry had been dragged in there. He'd had no clue they were putting him down so badly and I truly expected another angry outburst but it didn't come; he was remarkably restrained though he sure looked like he wanted to light up again. One thing I did notice was that Hermione seemed almost scared of Harry when he was in this sort of temper, and that did no-one any good at all. Maybe I should have a chat with her about how to deal with angry people. That thought almost made me giggle; me giving Hermione advice on dealing with one of her best friends seemed incongruous but … she really did need to learn to stand up to him. There was no point letting him get so crazy that he was no fun to be around. I understood his anger to a point, yes, but honestly shouting at your mates isn't the best way to deal with it. Well, not after you've got past your first well-deserved vent anyway. Anyway about then Mum came and called us all for dinner and we all headed downstairs in groups.

After dinner Sirius basically told Harry that he could ask any question he liked about the Order and its activities, and we all pricked up our ears eager to be in on it and somehow they all managed to talk their way into being allowed to hear it all, except Mum sent me off to bed like the stupid little kid she thought I was. I didn't go quietly I can tell you. I revelled in a hugely angry shout fest all the way up the stairs. Yeah, remember, one well-deserved vent is fine, and I took full advantage of mine. I think there was a heap of stuff about 'I hate you' and 'I want to know' and 'it's not fair' etc. It was very immature but hey. It was my only means of release at that point, and, as we all saw from Harry's earlier attempt, shouting in that house had a very conciliatory effect. It could be heard all over, so I knew they would get the full benefit of my feelings on the matter. I took the only revenge available to me. Good thing I wasn't interested in Harry right then because frankly he would likely have seen me as really petulant.

Thankfully, Hermione is a great believer in fair play and she thought it was unfair that I hadn't been included in the discussion so she dished all the dirt as soon as she got back to the room we were sharing.

'So, tell me, what did they say?'

'OK' she was struggling to get into her pyjamas while talking to me, so her voice was sometimes muffled. 'First, though. That was some impressive shouting.'

I giggled. 'Just trying to be ready in case Harry needs competition at shouting practice.'

We both dissolved in giggles, and then she began telling me all about it. Apparently Harry had ruined Voldemort's plans by not dying

'Damn good show, too' I muttered when she said that, and she grinned at me and carried on talking. And so while many were still in denial (and here we roundly abused the Ministry officials who were ignoring Voldemort's return) Harry was there to continuously bear testimony. The fact that he was sticking by his story was making both Voldemort and the Ministry very nervous so they were trying to discredit him. My blood boiled but I still felt a fierce pride in him for being courageous enough to stick to his point even in the face of the opposition. He was going to need all the courage he could muster this year, though. The smear campaign lasted all year and at times it nearly did him in, but he kept at it. But I'm getting ahead of myself again. Whoops. But it's true. His strong sense of right and honour kept him from falling to their ideas. Hermione and I talked long into the night, long after we heard Mum come by and listen at the door to see if we were talking. Unlike the boys we weren't put off by that; we just stopped what we were saying for a few minutes til we were sure the coast was clear. Those times with Hermione were so much fun. I always wished I had a sister whenever we had those late night chats.

We spent the next several days just cleaning that wretched house. Sirius had been right, it was incredibly ugly and cleaning didn't seem to remove the oppressive feeling of it, but it did rid the place of most of the dark artefacts. I watched Harry over the next little while and I could tell he was really worried about Sirius, and I could see why. Sirius had taken to moping really badly. But who could blame him really? He had thought he'd got out of this mausoleum of a house and yet he hadn't; he'd been sucked right back in there, and he wasn't able to go out anywhere because of the whole Voldemort knowing his big dog disguise thing now. Oh wait. I don't think I told you about that. Way back in my second year the 'Grim' that Harry kept seeing everywhere was actually Sirius in his animagus form keeping an eye on Harry. It was really sweet really, but when Peter Pettigrew escaped and Voldemort had returned of course Peter'd told him all about his old friends Sirius and Lupin. And so Sirius was no longer safe since he was technically still an escaped dangerous prisoner. Harry and he got on really well that year mostly I think because they both felt trapped and confined and they both were accused of things they hadn't done and no-one would believe the truth about either of them. Plus they were both a bit bitter about it.

And so it finally came to the day we were all nervous about, though none of us really spoke about it much. Harry's hearing. Hermione had looked up every book under the sun and was convinced that he would get off, but it didn't stop the rest of us, and her if the truth be known, from worrying like mad about it. Harry himself was getting pale and tired looking again, so I knew he was worried about it too even though he put on silly boyish bravado and said he didn't care what happened. I knew he was lying.

The day he was due there I think Mum arranged it so that none of us were up when he left with Dad to go to the Ministry, and so the anxious wait for him to come home was dreadful. I didn't have any idea how he would have looked that day, if he looked nervous or whatever was going on and it bugged me a little not to have a sense of where he was at emotionally since I usually did. The hours seemed to drag on and we didn't expect him back til late that afternoon given the time of the hearing. So when Dad ushered him in at lunch time we were all shocked. He looked tired and paler than ever but there was a grin on his face. I was so excited that he had got off that when Fred and George started a kind of dance with a chant I joined in with abandon. 'He got off, he got off' we chanted whooping around the kitchen, expelling some of that nervous energy that had built up. And I was so relieved that I didn't really listen to the conversation Mum and Dad were having around us. But I did notice when Harry clutched his scar and winced. I pretended that I hadn't seen it, but it puzzled me. Why did he grab at the scar? And since Hermione seemed worried but not totally freaked out I decided it must have happened before. I wondered what it was about and why it might be happening. He certainly didn't seem to be enjoying it. He looked positively sick after he dropped his hand from his head. The memory of that incident stayed with me and I kept a careful eye on him from then on. The scar clutching happened reasonably frequently now I was looking for it. It seemed to be something that hit during emotional stress from what I could see. The only other times I noticed it were when he was either very angry or very sad about something. But it also seemed like he didn't want attention called to it, so that day I carried on singing with Fred and George and then helped myself to food with a much lighter heart than I had before that day. At least we were still going to be school mates again.