Ready to prove Remus wrong, me and Sirius got stuck into sorting the house out. Which was made easier by Sirius just sealing off a load of rooms.

"We just need enough rooms for everyone to live in," he made the excuse.

Fair enough! That meant less work for us so I certainly wasn't going to complain. Especially when there were suspicious noises and smells coming from certain rooms. No thank you! My job description didn't include curse breaker so the more I avoided things like that, the better.

Anyway, 'Auror gets murdered by musty old sofa' was not the way I wanted to go. And that wasn't even an exaggeration. One of the sofas in the room we locked up definitely moved by itself.

"Isn't there a way to sterilise everything from dark magic?" I couldn't help but wonder out loud.

What even did the Ministry do with confiscated dark objects? Is that what they did? Aurors didn't exactly get to see what happened beyond the confiscation and making it safe to handle- which was different than making it dark magic free.

"Burn the whole place down?" Sirius suggested dryly.

"I don't think that would go over too well," I said lightly, not wanting to delve into the horribleness of the Black Family. "That and it probably would release some sort of dark magic pollution or something."

I was imagining this big greenish-black mushroom cloud hovering over the remains of the house. Hey, it could happen! It made Sirius snort anyway, which was always a plus. His expression had been getting darker with each room we had to go into.

Not that I blamed him. There was some seriously freaky stuff in here and that was only the things I recognised. And half of those id only ever seen in books during my Auror Training because they were considered too dangerous to actually be in the presence of for no reason. Not that Moody hadn't tried to get a few of those things for me but was thankfully either shot down or couldn't find them. Either way I wasn't forced to experience them and that was very much a good thing in my books.

"At some point I'm going to have to actually go through each room and take out the most dangerous things," he said, looking reluctant to even think of doing such a thing. "Just so no one gets killed."

"Probably wise when the Weasley twins are going to be here," I agreed.

That made Sirius smile. "I've heard about them. Moony said they reminded him of the Marauders."

"They are chaos personified," I told him. "With a sense of humour to match.

"They'll spice the place up a little then."

"Or burn it down."

"Either works for me."

I gave him a look, not knowing if he was joking or not. I still couldn't tell from his face. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I'm joking, I'm joking."

"Really?" I asked sceptically.

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Mostly."

Well, at least he admitted it? That had to be worth something...

"How do you feel about the Weasleys coming to stay?" I felt like I had to ask.

Sirius hadn't really brought it up so I was curious about it. Or, as mum liked to say, I was too nosey for my own good.

Hey, it was a valid question! The darkest, dullest, possibly the most dangerous house in the British Isles was about to be invaded by a swarm of redheads that were basically the complete opposite of all the adjectives I just used there.

"Excited," Sirius admitted. "There'll be someone around all day which is much better than now."

He gave me a pointed look at that.

"Hey!"

He waved me off. "You know what I mean. It gets really boring when no one else is around."

Well, that would certainly be true. He did only have Kreacher and Bucknell here permanently. Neither of which were great conversationalists.

"Ron is fun and from what I've heard, the rest of the Weasleys are too," he continued.

"At least you won't have to put up with Percy," I told him. "He's a real stick in the mud."

I didn't even feel bad saying it. The third Weasley was, after all. Though, I would have to be careful not to say anything about him when the Weasleys came. Arthur (that was still weird to even think) had mentioned that they had had a falling out with him recently and he'd actually left home! Wow, I didn't think that Percy would ever have the guts to do something like that.

Yes, it was wrong to be amazed like this. Especially since Arthur had mentioned it on the quiet without Molly listening in so obviously it was a touchy subject. But still. Percy was the last Weasley I'd ever suspect of doing something like this.

Sirius mock shuddered. "I get enough of that with Moony around."

"Hey!" I gave him a half-hearted punch to the arm in Remus' defence.

"I'm joking, I'm joking. Remus is boring, not a stick in the mud."

I rolled my eyes at that.

"Here, I'll get this one," I said as we stopped in the middle of the hall, a door on either side.

I picked the one I was closest to.

"Sure, give me a shout if you need a hand," he said, opening the door to the other room, a cloud of dust escaping.

I very much regretted my choice not even five minutes later. Supposedly inanimate objects attacking you would do that.

I gasped for air as the blankets shot off the bed and landed on top of me. Merlin, they were heavy and so, so, so dusty. Seriously, why was there so much dust in this place? Surely it shouldn't be possible?

"Tonks? Are you okay?" Sirius shouted, running into the room.

Or, I assumed he did because I currently couldn't see anything but blankets. I struggled to get them off and Sirius also helped, I could feel the weight getting lighter. Soon I was free and could breathe somewhat easier again.

"Are these cursed or something?" Are you okay?

I spat dust out of my mouth and crossed my arms.

"I can never get that spell right."

Sirius gave me a long look before he realised what I meant. Then he just laughed and laughed. I threw the blankets at him.

"Glad I could be your entertainment."