Hailey hid behind the tree. The purple light barely missed her. She took a deep breath, holding the wand steadily which was ready to drop from her hand. A movement in the dry leaves caught her ears and she ducked and took a step back while shouting, 'Protego.'

A red light bounced off her blue shield.

'It's you, isn't it?' the man in front of her laughed. 'The States did not suit you then, did it?'

She did not reply but muttered, 'Confringo.'

He ducked it off with a spell of his own.

'Come on,' he said in his ice-cold voice. 'Hailey, the Lord shall be pleased to see you.'

'Aguamenti,' a third voice came and drowned the man.

A hand held hers and pulled her along.

'Tonks,' she whispered.

They ran past several trees and several deers. Once they were out in the fields in the vicinity of the moonlight, Tonks clutched her hand tightly and they were gone from there.

'Who in Merlin's name was that?' Tonks asked her as they came out of the ministry atrium.

'No one.'

'Of course,' she scoffed.

'Anyway, where were you?'

'Actually,' her hair turned to a deep shade of red. 'I kind of tripped on a tree branch in the middle of the fight.'

'Holy Christ,' Hailey said. 'I thought he had taken you down.'

'Don't tell Shacklebolt about this,' she said to her, turning her hair back to purple.

They walked to the lift and Tonks pressed the calling button.

'Where did you go, yesterday?' Hailey asked, trying to suppress her smirk. 'Yesterday, both Shacklebolt and you were gone in the evening. You generally walk to the Ben Clock with me.'

'I had to go home early,' It was hard to lie for her with her hair changing to a shade of violent red. 'I don't know about Kingsley, though.'

'I followed you,' she replied.

The lift came and opened before them. They got in and stood beside two men who were already there. Tonks stared at her with wide eyes.

'Ms Winter,' the man next to her in a suit greeted her.

'Brend,' she nodded back.

He got out on the next floor. The other man stood quietly and the lift stopped at the Auror department.

'Come with me,' Tonks strode past her to the Head Auror's office. She opened the door and held it open for her. Hailey went aside and Shacklebolt stood up with a startled look.

'What happened this time, Tonks?'

'Hailey knows about it,' She said to him, locking the door and putting on a silencing charm.

He raised his eyebrows, 'You told her?'

'No,' she sat down in a chair, her legs over Kingsley's table as she knocked out a quill and some ink. 'No, she followed us yesterday.'

Hailey waved her wand and the ink and quill restored themselves to their previous position.

'But I didn't see anything other than you both disappearing. What was it, a disillusionment or perhaps a fidelius?'

'How could you be so careless, King?' Tonks asked him, shaking her head.

He raised his eyebrows higher, 'As if you weren't there.'

'You are the senior,' she shrugged. 'Anyway, we can use a memory charm.'

'I am sorry,' Hailey took a step back.

'I am only kidding,' she winked with a chuckle.

'Hailey,' Shacklebolt turned to her. 'Do you remember asking me about the organisation Dumbledore formed in the last war?'

She nodded, eyes widening.

'With Voldemort back, the Order is in function again.'

She pulled on her sleeves, 'And you both are a part of it.'

He nodded, sitting back in his seat.

'But when I asked you about it, the both of you denied knowing anything about the organisation.'

'Dumbledore asked us not to, we cannot go around announcing in the Ministry that we are a part of an illegal organization.'

'When can I join?'

Kingsley chuckled, 'That eager, huh?'

'Oh,' Tonks' hair turned bright yellow. 'That is going to be so great. We will have so much fun on guard together.'

'Guard?' she asked, sitting in a chair herself. 'Guarding what?'

'Dumbledore will discuss that with you,' Shacklebolt said. 'I will discuss it with him when you could join.'

'Given my name,' she leaned forward. 'Do you think-'

'He is Dumbledore, he wouldn't care about that.'

She nodded, leaning back comfortably.

The next day, Hailey and Tonks walked down a lone alleyway.

'Where's King?'

'He left early,' Tonks replied. 'He would be there.'

'So, where are going?'

'It's an old lanky house,' she replied and then said in a whisper, 'It's the house of Blacks.'

'Oh,' Hailey scoffed. 'We might have to be careful to see if Sirius Black doesn't turn up.'

Tonks stretched her lips into a grin and giggled and walked forward.

'What is it?' Hailey asked, smiling with her.

'You will get it when we get there,' she replied with a chuckle, knocking over a trash bin with her foot.

'Tonks!' she looked around and found no one there so she took out her wand and the bin was back the way it was moments before.

'Come on,' Tonks pulled Hailey.

'Yeah,' she muttered. 'Knock over a bin and walk away.'

'I am sorry, Mom.'

'Shut up.'

They turned to a quiet alley down the road. Tonks held her hand and held up five fingers of the other hand.

'One,' she closed one finger. 'Two, three-'

'Just do it already.'

'Four, five.'

A horrible force tugged at Hailey's navel and with a twist, she appeared in another alleyway. They walked to their left, going past a stray cat towards the main road. She pulled Tonks behind her, making sure she did not trip on the elevated footsteps.

A soft sound behind her startled her and Hailey turned behind and took a step back. It was only the stray cat.

'Holy Mary!' She kept a hand on her chest as Tonks led her forward. She stopped before an empty shackled building.

'Is this it? I remember it.'

She nodded, winked, and gave her a small piece of parchment. It read:

Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London.

'A fidelius it was,' she replied with a smirk as she looked up and saw the Number twelve there. The door was an old one with greased wood. They walked up to it.

Tonks raised her hand to ring the doorbell. A hand came out of nowhere and stopped her hand, pulling it downward. In a snapshot, Hailey's wand was pointed at the woman's throat.

The woman, with a pointed hat over her head, gave her a severed look before she said to Tonks, 'This friend of yours is quite vigilant. Mad-Eye would like her.'

'Professor, she was just startled,' Tonks said to her with a laugh.

'Mad-Eye's on it?'

The 'professor' raised her eyebrows, 'You know him?'

'Yeah,' she replied, putting her wand back in her pocket. 'I have worked with that coot once.'

'Now, we know where you get your insanity from,' Tonks said.

'When did you get here?' Hailey turned to the woman.

'I am an animagus.'

'Oh,' Hailey nodded. 'You were that cat.'

'Quite clever.'

'Well,' she leaned against the door. 'I certainly am that.'

Professor knocked on the door.

'So, you are a professor at Hogwarts?'

'You have got the inquiry spirit of an Auror,' she replied. 'But yes, I am a teacher of Transfiguration. Minerva McGonagall.'

'Hailey Winter.'

She shook her hand as the door opened. A man in grey robes stood there.

'Remus,' Tonks greeted, turning to go inside eagerly.

'Nymphadora,' Remus replied with a smirk.

'Don't call me that.' She scoffed at him as her hair went red.

'Professor.'

He let him inside, walking ahead with Tonks as she talked on. Remus asked Hailey about herself. They continued walking down a long and dark hallway as they introduced themselves.

At the end of the corridor, stairs led up to the upper floor and another door was open. Remus pushed it open further to reveal a kitchen with a dining table laid. Several people sat there, talking with each other among an uproar of laughter.

A man turned around from two redheads he was talking to.

'Look,' he said, smiling casually, 'Who is here? Tonks, Professor McGonagall, and the new member Mad-Eye was talking about.'

'Hey, Uncle Sirius,' Tonks patted his shoulder with a chuckle.

'You don't do that,' he said to her, pausing dramatically on each word.

'I already did,' she walked over and sat beside a redhead girl and a brunette.

'Sit with us,' Remus called her.

She stood wordlessly, 'Sirius Black?'

She kept a firm grip on her wand.

'That would be me,' the man with the sleek hair said to her.

'You are the mass murderer.'

'Here we go again,' he grunted and slammed his hand on the table.

'Hailey,' Tonks stood up. 'He is not-'

'But I remember, he-he killed this friend of his Peter and was responsible for-'

'He was not responsible for any of it,' A gruff voice came from behind and she turned around to see a man with only one intact eye and the other one sort of a machine.

'Mad-Eye,' she nodded her head.

'Hailey Winter, whatever you know about Sirius Black is a lie propagated by another mass murderer.'

'Okay,' she took his word.

'It's been a while,' he came forward and shook her hand.

'I thought I wouldn't have to deal with you anymore,' she replied.

'And you are still as nasty as ever.'

'And you are still as irate as ever.'

She sat beside Sirius Black and Remus.

'Hey,' she grinned at Sirius.

He raised his eyebrows, stroking his beard.

'I am sorry,' she said. 'But you seriously can't expect me to react kindly when I see a supposed mass murderer before me.'

'Yeah, I get it,' he nodded and passed her a glass of butterbeer.

'So,' she said to him. 'You are the owner of this house?'

'Yeah,' he replied in the middle of taking a sip of his butterbeer. 'My stupid parents left it to me.'

'And you have been here since your escape?'

He set down his glass quietly on the table, 'Not exactly. I have been ...traveling for last two years.'

'Why not come here directly?'

He paused, staring at her with his grey eyes, 'I...I wasn't so sure if this belonged to me, not to mention I did not want to return here.'

She nodded as Remus made eye contact with Sirius with a smirk.

'Ginny,' A voice came from the kitchen and the redhead woman there eyed the table with her hand on her hips. 'Help me here.'

'I could help too, Molly.'

'That's alright, dear.'

'No, I want to,' she hopped over to the slab and knocked over a glass. 'Sorry- I will clear it.'

'I will help,' the brunette walked over to the kitchen and Molly nodded with a grateful smile at her.

'I get why she is worried,' Hailey said.

'Classic Tonks,' Sirius muttered. He turned to her, 'So, you are from the States?'

'Not exactly, I am English but my family moved to the States when I was ten.'

'Why come back now?'

She squirmed in her seat, 'I get better pay here.'

'Just for the pay?'

'Of course,' she shot back with a curious look. 'We do everything for pay, don't we?'

'No.'

Hailey did not argue as the door opened suddenly and an old man in grey robes walked in with the speed of wind and King behind him. Everyone rushed around the table and sat down as Molly, the matriarch redhead working in the kitchen sent all the kids outside.Dumbledore stood for a minute before he cast a spare glance at Sirius.

'Mundungus Fletcher was missing from his guard today,' he began, eyeing Hailey for a flash of a moment. 'In his absence, an unfortunate event took place-'

'What do you mean?' Sirius stood up hastily, leaning against the table.

'Everything is fine,' he replied. 'I assure you. Two Dementors attacked Harry and his cousin last evening.'

Molly shrieked, and Sirius matched his eyes with Remus. Hailey continued staring at Dumbledore.

'Dementors?' Remus asked. 'In Little Whinging?'

'That is what surprises me.'

'Is Harry fine?' the redhead from the kitchen asked.

'Exactly, Is he?' Sirius slammed his hand on the table.

'He is just fine. He managed to send the dementors away. The only one who was hurt was his cousin but he is fine too now.'

'I say we bring Harry over here right now,' Sirius said to Dumbledore. 'Right now.'

'I agree with him,' Molly said, 'He has lived there long enough, it's time he is put out of his misery.'

'I do echo that sentiment,' Dumbledore stroked his beard. 'We will get him here. Alastor, form a guard to go and retrieve Harry.'

'Here we go, then,' Sirius clenched his fist and shared a grin with Remus who only squeezed his eyes back at him.

'Sirius,' Dumbledore called him.

'No!' He pointed his finger at him. 'You cannot do this to me. I will go with the guard to get-'

'I apologise,' Dumbledore held up his hand. 'But that would be too big a risk, we will have too much of that with bringing Harry as it is.'

'But-'

'Sirius,' Remus shook his head at him.

He slammed his hand against the table again and dropped to his chair, spilling some of the butterbeer in his glass.

'Severus is not here today,' Dumbledore continued. 'Lord Voldemort has arranged a meeting with his most faithful followers. He wishes to tell them about the goal he has in his mind, the goal if he achieves will help him kill Harry.'

'You don't mean..?' Arthur, Molly's husband muttered. 'The prophecy?'

Sirius sat straight again, his eyes full of disdain still.

'Yes. He is after the prophecy. He only heard half of it, and he thinks the other one will give him a clue as to how to defeat Harry.'

'But,' Sirius said. 'He cannot take the prophecy himself.'

'Indeed,' Remus nodded. 'He is lying low lest the ministry finds out about him.'

'So..' Bill muttered from the other side of the table, 'He will get Harry to do it.'

'Exactly,' Dumbledore agreed, taking a sip of the tea Molly gave him. 'That is why we must advise Harry to remain cautious.'

'So, shouldn't we tell Harry about the Prophecy?' Sirius asked.

'No!' Molly disagreed, pouring Arthur tea quite violently. 'He is only a child.'

'I stand with Molly here,' Dumbledore said. 'We should not burden him unnecessarily.'

'Better than endangering him.'

'Dumbledore is right,' Remus said. 'Harry is a kid, let him be peaceful.'

'Peaceful?' Sirius stood up again. 'If peace kills him-'

'Silence,' Dumbledore stood up. 'I have to leave for some errands. Before I do, does someone have any important information to relay?'

'I had an encounter with a Death Eater,' Hailey said to him. 'Following me. I managed to escape in time with Tonks.'

'That was a Death Eater?' Tonks asked.

'They are keeping watch outside the Ministry,' Dumbledore said to her and she nodded. 'To keep an eye on the prophecy.'

'Will you stay for dinner, Professor?' Molly asked him.

'Thank you, Molly. But I have certain errands.'

He walked to Hailey and shook her hand, 'I must say I was glad to hear that you decide to join us, Ms Winter.'

'I can't stay in the shadows always, can I, professor?'

'Certainly not,' He chuckled and left with Kingsley and McGonagall behind him.

'I can't believe this,' Sirius muttered as he gathered all the used glasses. 'I can't go outside this damn house, Harry can't know about the prophecy-'

'He is right, you know,' Hailey said to him.

'What,?'

'About you not leaving this house. Even the muggles know you from the news, it would be too risky.'

'I am an animagus,' he said back, washing the glasses in the sink as Hailey followed him. 'I will go as Padfoot.'

'Peter must have already told Voldemort about this,' Remus said, dropping another plate in the sink.

'Hey! Wash it yourself.'

Remus walked out of the room, smirking to himself.

'See,' Hailey said to him. 'You should not-'

'Hey, Hailey,' Tonks called her. She sat with Mad-Eye. 'You are coming with the guard, right?'

'Of course, I am going.'


I apologise for the short chapters. With time, this shall improve. We probably will not be getting a chapter from Harry's POV for the next two chapters.