"Excellent," came the approving sound of Remus Lupin. "We'll probably be going in about a minute." He looked at Autumn. "Don't worry, Harry, I left a note for your aunt and uncle saying not to worry-"

"They won't." Autumn interjected.

"-and that you'll be okay." Remus finished.

"Oh, that'll just make them depressed." Autumn interjected a second time, and Remus gave her a look.

"Before we go," Alastor grumbled, "let me disillusion you first."

"Dis-a-what?" Autumn asked, looking at the mad-eye. He looked back, raising his wand.

"Disillusionment Charm." He explained. "It'll make you invisible. Stand still."

Without much other warning (or more importantly to Autumn, room to argue), Alastor waved his wand, and Autumn felt a cold sensation creep down her. She looked at her hands, and she could tell, it wasn't so much she was invisible, she just... looked like her surroundings.

"C'mon," Alastor grumbled. "We're going."

Waiting for signals, it wasn't long before Autumn and the three accompanying wizards took flight, leaving Privet Drive behind in the cloudy sky.

Two hours later, the wizards set foot on solid ground, and started looking around. Giving a small grin, Remus pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket and slipped it into Autumn's hand. In Sirius' writing, she noticed, she read the words.

The House of Black lends the Order of the Phoenix the residence of 12 Grimmauld Place.

No sooner did she read them, she saw a house expanding into existence in front of her, and she was amazed. Walking up to the door, Remus tapped his wand against it. The sound of a dozen locks whirling out of place came out from it, before it opened gently.

"Get inside, quickly, Harry." Remus whispered, "Don't go too far inside, don't touch anything."

Stepping into the house, Autumn first noticed how it was almost pitch-black inside, and the sweetish, rotting smell of damp wood filled the hallway. As Remus, Tonks, and finally Moody came in, closing the door and sealing the pitch-blackness, and Autumn was nervous. As Moody dissolved the disillusionment charm, another spell hissed to life, feeling the decaying hallway with light. Cobwebs, portraits, and overall disarray and disgust filled the room.

Hurried footsteps filled the hall, and Autumn caught sight of Molly Weasley as she walked into the hallway. She was beaming, but Harry noticed she seemed more unhealthy than usual.

"Oooh, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" She muttered, pulling Autumn into a hug. "You need feeding up, but you'll have to wait for dinner, come on..." She turned to the adult wizards. "He's arrived, the meeting's starting."

They made noises of interest, and left. Autumn moved to go after Remus, but Molly stopped her. "Sorry, Harry, the meetings for the adults." She said, turning her around. "Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you can wait with them until after the meeting. And keep your voice down."

"What, why-?"

"I don't want to wake anything up."

"Wh-"

"I'll explain later, I've got to hurry, I'm supposed to be at the meeting — I'll just show you where you're sleeping." She said, and guiding her silently to a room, "Ron and Hermione will explain everything, dear, I've really got to dash, and... there, you're the door on the right. I'll call you when it's over." She said, letting Autumn head to the room before departing.

Entering the room, then there was a loud twittering noise, followed by an even louder shriek, and her vision was completely obscured by a large quantity of very bushy hair — Hermione had thrown herself onto Autumn, while Pigwidgeon soared around their head.

"AUTUMN! Ron, she's here, Autumn's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless, but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us- oh, wait the dementors! When we heard, and... and that Ministry hearing, it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-" Hermione rambled.

"Let her breathe, Hermione," said Ron, walking over to the two of them. Hermione, still happy, let go of Autumn, and they started discussing things: Dumbledore had restricted them speaking for some reason

"I think he thought you were safest witht eh muggles." Ron offered, and Autumn snapped.

"Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?" She asked coldly, and Ron stammered. "Have you?"

"Well, no, but that's why he had people from the Order watching you all the t-"

Auutmn glared.

"That didn't work well, did it?" She deadpanned, "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

"He was so angry," said Hermione in a calm voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"Well, I'm glad he left," Autumn said coldly. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer."

"I mean, it's not that bad there, is it?" Ron asked jovially, but Autumn seemed to lock up at those words. "H- Autumn? Is it ba-"

"I'm fine." Autumn said on reflex, and Hermione's eyes narrowed darkly.

"Autumn. Talk. Now." Hermione said.

"I'm just worried about the hearing with the Ministry," Autumn lied, "It's just a lot of stress, little things get me."

"Aah. Well, trust me, Dumbledore won't let yo-AAA!" Ron started, as two loud cracks were heard. It was the sound of Fred and George materializing, discussing things from Extendable Ears to Percy and Arthur's argument, until it was time for dinner.

Autumn was excited, but see was already dreading it suddenly.

"So, Harry, how was the summer?" Asked Molly passively, and Autumn nodded gently. It was a non-committal answer.

Around the table, there was the Weasleys (excluding Percy and Charlie, but the rest of them were there), Hermione (who seemed to be playing with her food, scared to look up), Sirius (he wasn't eating, merely looking at Autumn worriedly), Remus (who was looking at Sirius worriedly), Tonks (who was looking at Remus worriedly while eating, making her the 'winner'), and Mad-Eye (well, to call him at the table was wrong, more like observing the table from the edge of the room).

With exactly thirteen people - Autumn felt uneasy with that, remembering Trelawney's thing about the thirteenth at a table was to die or whatever, before discrediting Divination completely - the table was in a hushed chatter, likely to avoid walking up that damn portrait again.

"So, uh, can somebody tell us what's going on?" Hermione interjected loudly, much to surprise. Up until this point, Hermione had been dead quiet. "Or are we expected to just guess?"

Ron spoke up. "Yeah, I mean, I get why Autumn doesn't understand, she just got here, but we've been for a month now and we know the s-"

"Autumn?" Sirius said suddenly, although judging by where he was looking, he knew exactly who Ron was talking about. This was confirmed for Sirius when Autumn put her hand up meekly.

"Ooh, that's a lovely name!" Molly said, and while it was clear she meant it, it was also clear she wanted to change the subject.

"Don't change the subject, mum." Ron said bitterly.

Sirius gave a small thumbs-up to Autumn, while speaking. "We, uh, we're under orders from Dumbledore not to tell H-," Sirius started, before pausing and correcting himself. "Autu-"

"Oh for Merlin's sake, stop." Two voices said.

Autumn expected Ginny, she really did. Ginny had been doing this since day zero. The second voice was the surprise.

Remus Lupin.

"Remus?" Sirius asked confused.

"Ginny!" Molly snapped at her daughter.

"I just want someone to tell me what's..." Autumn started, realizing that there was now two rows over the table. "...going on." She trailed off, looking. Molly was clearly mad at Ginny, and Remus seemed to be as close to yelling at Sirius as Sirius at him. The fight was escalating, and Autumn wanted to just sink into her seat. Fred leaned over.

"We've been asking for a month now. Mum won't let anyone tell us anything, we're 'too young'," George said, the end of it in a falsetto.

"Yeah. Your best bet is Sirius, if we had to take a guess." Fred commented, "But that's still a long shot."

Out of nowhere, Remus start yelling, not at Sirius, but Ginny.

"And you have no right to get mad at him, Ginny." He snapped, and Sirius glared.

"Moony, really? You're arguing the exact same thing with me right now!" The two started bickering in a hushed echo, while Ginny seemed quite frustrated. She got up, and left the room, before Sirius got up, grabbed Remus' arm, and dragged him elsewhere.

And thus, the table consisted of ten (well, nine, Moody wasn't at the table). Autumn felt her eyes pricking, tears held back, but she tried to sound confident.

"Look, I get if you can't tell me everything. I just don't want to be out of the loop." She said, looking at the people. "But fine. I think I might just sleep, is that alright?"

"I'll talk with Ginny." Molly said apologetically.

"It's not just Ginny." Autumn said. It was everything, it was the potion was off the table, Ginny and Remus, the fact no one could tell her anything, the upcoming trial at the Ministry, hell, Voldemort. "I just... Can I go?"

Molly seemed on the fence, before nodding gently. Autumn got up, and started leaving up to the room.

She hadn't been lying. She was going to sleep.