Chapter Sixty-Nine: Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

Daphne and Harry had sent their friends letters asking them for more information after the encounter with the Dementors, though Daphne really didn't think they'd be providing much in the way of actual explanations. At the very least, though, it might speed up the moment where they'd be allowed to leave Privet Drive, and that alone would be welcome enough.

For the first few days, however, it didn't seem like anything was likely to change. The Daily Prophet was still filled with inane articles, which occasionally contained a barb directed at Harry or Dumbledore as part of the ongoing smear campaign, but nothing else seemed to happen.

"Are they just going to leave us here until the hearing?" Harry asked one day.

"They'd better not. We need to prepare for the hearing, but that's going to be pretty difficult without help from people who actually know how those work, like Mum and Dad," Daphne said.

That very same evening, however, Mr. Dursley came up to their room — which Daphne and Harry had hardly left since the Dementor attack — to tell them the Dursleys would be out for a while, and that they'd be locked in for the duration of their trip to prevent them from touching anything or stealing food from the fridge.

"You do realize that if we really wanted to, we could unlock the door, right?" Daphne asked.

"You'd better not try," Mr. Dursley said irritably. Then he stomped out of the room and Daphne heard the key being turned in the lock. Soon after, they heard the front door slam.

"You know, your relatives might genuinely be as bad as the Malfoys," Daphne said.

"I know," Harry said. By his annoyed tone Daphne knew he was angry at the complete silence from their friends.

In all honesty, so was she. Not being able to tell anything sensitive she could understand, but after the Dementor attack they hadn't heard anything anymore. How dangerous could it be to say, 'We're sorry we can't tell you anything, but we'll get you out' or something? Anything but complete radio silence. Mum and Dad hadn't told her anything yet, either. Were they really that busy? Or were people interfering with them?

There was a loud crash in the kitchen below, and Daphne and Harry exchanged wary glances and drew their wands. Even if these people weren't Death Eaters, they still might have bad intentions.

The lock on the bedroom door clicked and it swung open.

Cautiously, Daphne and Harry moved into the upstairs landing, sneaking to the top of the stairs.

"Don't bother sneaking," a growling voice said. "I've seen you already anyway."

"Professor Moody?" Harry asked, sounding as confused as Daphne felt.

"In the flesh, or what's left of it, anyway," Moody growled. "Now get down here. The others want to see you too."

"How do we know you are who you say you are?" Daphne asked.

"You tried to unmask me by setting your Kneazle on me last year," Moody said.

"And you got that idea from your experience with Kneazles the year before," another, equally familiar voice said.

"Remus!" Harry said happily.

"Indeed. It's safe to come down, Harry. We're all aware that Death Eaters can't enter this house," Remus said.

"Don't jump, we're turning on the light," Harry said before flicking the light switch.

"Ooh, that's handy," a female voice Daphne had never heard before said.

Still holding their wands, Daphne and Harry went down the stairs to join the group of people waiting for them there. She recognized Moody and Remus, but the others were strangers to her. After a quick round of introductions, during which many of the people present looked at Harry with such interest that it began to annoy Daphne a bit — he wasn't some weird animal in a zoo, after all — Moody got to business.

"We'll be taking you to our headquarters," he said. "It's undetectable and protected in every way we could think of."

"So why the huge number of people?" Daphne asked. "Can't you just take us there with Side-Along Apparition?"

"Too dangerous. We can't afford to have any additional magic reported to the Ministry, under current circumstances. Normally, they're clever enough to know that an underage wizard can't Apparate under their own power and wouldn't respond to that particular magic being used, but they're looking for excuses to expel Potter already," Moody said. "A Portkey is impossible as well; as we are not the Secret-Keepers of the headquarters, we cannot reveal the location directly and Dumbledore wasn't on-hand to do it for us.

"The Floo network, of course, is monitored by the Ministry, in addition to the Fidelius Charm making it impossible for anyone to pronounce the address to begin with. That means we'll be using brooms. We'll need to fly fairly high to avoid being seeing by curious Muggles on the ground, because I won't be able to Disillusion you without alerting the Ministry and your Invisibility Cloak would just be blown off."

"You didn't happen to bring a hippogriff with you, did you?" Daphne asked. "Because I prefer flying on one of them…"

"You'll have to deal with it," Moody said with a shrug. "Now come on, we're on a schedule. Get your things packed and get down here, and remember: no magic."

"So how'd you open our bedroom door, then?" Harry asked.

"Um, oops?" Tonks said with a sheepish grin.

"You didn't wonder at all why I picked the front lock like a Muggle?" Moody asked.

"No, I did, it just…slipped my mind for a moment," Tonks said.

"Well, no use worrying about it now," Moody said gruffly. "Get packing, come on."

Daphne and Harry quickly went back upstairs and began throwing their books and clothes into their trunks. This went somewhat quicker for Daphne than Harry, because she had at least made some effort to keep her things organized, while Harry was…less fastidious about such things.

In the end, though, they had their stuff packed and laboriously pulled it down the stairs. It was the first time Daphne had ever dragged all her luggage anywhere without any magical assistance, and she decided she didn't care to repeat the process — and that was with the weight reduction enchantment on her trunk.

Once they were downstairs again, though, a small problem occurred to Daphne. "Er, I don't actually have a broomstick," she said.

"We've thought of that," Moody said. "We brought a spare. It's a bit old, but it'll work."

He handed her a broomstick, which looked like it had been made at least a hundred years ago. The handle was a bit worn and some of the twigs in the tail were crooked or broken. The sight of it did very little to inspire confidence in her, but she decided not to mention it.

The group filed out into the Dursleys' front lawn, and Tonks and Remus fastened the trunks to their brooms while Moody gave some last-minute instructions.

"We'll be flying in close formation. Tonks'll be right in front of you, keep close on her tail. Lupin'll be covering you from below. I'm going to be behind you. The rest'll be circling us. We don't break ranks for anything, got me? If one of us is killed–"

"Is that likely?" Harry interjected nervously, but Moody ignored him.

"–the others keep flying, don't stop, don't break ranks. If they take out all of us and you survive, Harry, the rear guard are standing by to take over; keep flying east and they'll join you."

"Stop being so cheerful, Mad-Eye, he'll think we're not taking this seriously," Tonks said.

"I'm just telling them the plan," Moody growled. "Our job's to deliver him safely to headquarters and if we die in the attempt–"

"No one's going to die," Kingsley said in his deep, calming voice.

"Mount your brooms, that's the first signal!" Remus said sharply, pointing into the sky.

Far, far above them, a shower of bright red sparks had flared among the stars.

With some trepidation, Daphne mounted her broom.

"Second signal, let's go!" Remus said, as more sparks, green this time, exploded high above them.

Daphne kicked off from the ground and the group rose into the air quickly. She saw that Harry had an expression of pure bliss on his face and felt happy for him, though she definitely didn't share in his happiness.

Up and up they went, with Moody occasionally shouting course changes at them. It didn't take long for Daphne's hands to begin going numb, adding to her already large discomfort. She gritted her teeth and kept quiet, though, since complaining wasn't going to do her any good.

Harry, who still had his enchanted bracelet, didn't seem too bothered by the cold at all, and by the short, jittery, side-to-side bursts of motion he gave, she could tell he wanted to engage in some acrobatics. She wondered idly if Mum had been banned from coming over because she'd probably find a way of turning the flight into Quidditch practice.

On and on they flew, and Daphne noticed Harry looking at her worriedly from time to time. She tried to smile at him, to show him she was fine, but it probably didn't look too natural, considering Harry looked even more worried afterwards.

Then, mercifully, an attempt by Mad-Eye to double back for a bit was shot down by Tonks, and Remus said, "Time to start the descent. Follow Tonks!"

Daphne and Harry followed Tonks into a dive. They were clearly diving toward a city, flying lower and lower until at last they landed on a patch of unkempt grass in the middle of a small square.

The grimy fronts of the houses looked like they'd seen better times. Some had broken windows, paint was peeling from most of the doors, and heaps of rubbish lay outside several front steps.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, but Remus quietly replied, "In a minute."

Moody rummaged in his cloak and pulled out a small, silver object, which he used to turn off all the streetlights with a series of clicks.

"Borrowed it from Dumbledore," Moody growled. "That'll take care of any Muggles looking out of the window, see? Now come on, quick."

He took Harry and Daphne by the arm and led them from the patch of grass, across the road, and onto the pavement. Remus and Tonks followed with the trunks, while the rest of the guard flanked them with their wands out.

"Here," Moody muttered, shoving a piece of parchment into Harry's hand, taking out a Muggle lighter to illuminate it a bit. "Read quickly and memorize."

Harry read the note and then gave it to Daphne, who struggled to make out the narrow handwriting in the gloom.

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

"What's the Order of the–" Harry began, but Moody cut him off.

"Not here, boy! Wait till we're inside!"

He took the piece of parchment out of Daphne's hand and burned it with his lighter. Daphne looked at the houses they were standing between, and saw that they were number eleven and thirteen. She thought about number twelve, while Harry received the instruction to do the same right beside her. The hidden house materialized in the place it should be, seemingly inflating from out of nowhere.

They ascended the newly formed steps and Remus tapped the black door with his wand. There were many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the clatter of a chain, and the door creaked open.

"Go on, you two, get in," Lupin whispered. "But don't go far inside and don't touch anything."

Daphne followed Harry over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. Everyone else filed in behind them. Moody returned the light he'd taken from the streetlights and then limped inside, closing the door behind him.

"Now stay still, everyone, while I give us a bit of light in here," Moody whispered.

There was a soft hissing noise, and old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life along the walls. The hallway looked a bit shabby, but was otherwise fine, even though the chandelier and nearby candelabra looked a bit gaudy and very Slytherin, being shaped like serpents.

There were hurried footsteps and Mrs. Weasley emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried toward them, though she looked thinner and paler than the last time Daphne had seen her. She hugged Daphne and Harry, seeming particularly pleased to see him.

"Oh, Harry, Daphne, it's lovely to see you!" she whispered. She looked at both of them critically. "You're looking peaky; you need feeding up, but you'll have to wait a bit for dinner, I'm afraid…"

She turned to the gang of wizards behind them and whispered urgently, "He's just arrived, the meeting's started…"

The various witches and wizards behind them seemed excited to hear this and began filing past Daphne and Harry toward the door Mrs. Weasley had just emerged from.

Daphne and Harry wanted to follow, but Mrs. Weasley stopped them. "No, you two, the meeting's only for members of the Order. Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you can wait with them until the meeting's over and then we'll have dinner. And keep your voice down in the hall," she added in an urgent whisper.

"Why?" Daphne asked.

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

Pressing her finger to her lips, she led them on tiptoes past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, and after passing a large umbrella stand that looked like it had been made from a troll's leg, they started up the dark staircase, moving past a row of House-Elf heads mounted on plaques on the wall. It looked like an old, Dark family had lived here, and given this was the headquarters of a group of people fighting Voldemort, there was probably only one person to whom it could belong.

"Sirius's family home?" Daphne guessed.

"Yes," Mrs. Weasley said. "Ron and Hermione will explain everything, I've really got to dash."

They reached the second landing. "There, you're the door on the right, Harry. Daphne, Hermione will show you the girls' room later. I'll call you when it's over."

Mrs. Weasley scurried off downstairs again, and Daphne realized that, indeed, she wouldn't be sharing a room with Harry anymore. Though she was glad she'd finally be getting some answers again, she really wished she could stay with Harry, especially given his nightmares. It had been the one good thing about staying at the Dursleys, who couldn't care less about them sharing a room. Harry, for his part, seemed to have drawn the same conclusion, but there wasn't much they could do about it. In school they'd be in entirely separate parts of the castle again, anyway.

They crossed the landing and Harry opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, where he was nearly immediately tackled by Hermione.

"HARRY! Ron, they're here! Harry and Daphne are 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…the Dementors! When we heard…and that Ministry hearing…it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, and 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–"

"Let him breathe, Hermione," Ron said, closing the door behind them and grinning at Harry and Daphne.

Hermione, still beaming, let go of Harry and hugged Daphne as well now, while Hedwig flew over and landed gently on Harry's shoulder. She clicked her beak and nibbled his ear affectionately.

"Nyx is somewhere around here too," Hermione said to Daphne. "Probably hanging out with Crookshanks…"

"So…" Harry said. "Now that we're here…can you give us some answers? Because if Daphne hadn't been with me I'd be a bit angry right now. In all honesty, I still am, given that we didn't even get anything from you after the Dementor attack anymore." His voice was still calm, but Daphne could hear the icy undertone in it.

"Dumbledore seemed to think that was for the best," Hermione said uneasily.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles…" Ron said.

"Wait, he was going to keep us there all summer?" Daphne interrupted. "You said a few days in your letters. Were we ever going to hear about that? And why, anyway? Yeah, the blood bond is on that house, but this place seems pretty well-guarded too, and it has people in it who know what's going on."

"Well…people in the Order were watching the house all the time…" Ron said awkwardly.

"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" Harry asked, his voice still cold. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

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

"Yeah, but if he hadn't, Harry wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would apparently have left us there all summer long, without knowing anything. The only thing keeping us going there was the thought we'd be coming here around the time of Harry's birthday — though we thought you were at the Burrow — but now it turns out that was never the plan. Very kind of him to inform us of that," Daphne said.

"And don't say he didn't have time or didn't have a means of contacting us," Harry added. "He's Dumbledore. I don't believe for a second he couldn't have come up with a way to get a message to us."

Hermione glanced at Ron and then said, "I thought that too. But he didn't want you to know anything."

Harry looked at Daphne, who shrugged and shook her head in disbelief. "I get that he wasn't going to tell us everything," she said. "But to tell us nothing at all, to tell Harry nothing at all? All I can say to that is, 'What the hell, Dumbledore?' However," she said with a glare at Harry, seeing that he was about to go on a rant of epic proportions, "Dumbledore's whims aren't your fault. So, what can you tell us? I presume Mrs. Weasley doesn't let you in on these meetings, either?"

"We're in the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, also known as Sirius's home," Ron said.

"It's a secret society founded and led by Dumbledore, consisting of the people who fought You-Know-Who last time," Hermione added.

"Most of the teachers are in it, including Snape, and Lupin and Moody, Sirius, of course, and a whole bunch of other people, too, like Mundungus," Ron said.

"Are Mum and Dad members?" Daphne asked.

Ron nodded. "Yep. They're in the meeting right now."

"Good. Then we'll have some answers tonight, Harry," Daphne said.

"But Dumbledore–" Hermione began.

"Isn't going to stop them from telling us what's going on," Daphne interrupted. "They didn't contact us, likely at his insistence, but now that we're here, they'll tell Harry what he wants to know."

"I don't think my Mum would be happy with that," Ron said uncomfortably.

Daphne shrugged. "Disapproval is hardly enough to stop either of my parents — or any politically active pureblood — from doing anything," she said. "Besides, no matter how annoyed it might make Mrs. Weasley, she's got nothing on how angry Harry is. And if Dumbledore really does want him kept in the dark, he deserves to be that angry, after everything he did for everyone."

"So what is Voldemort doing right now?" Harry asked, bringing the conversation back on topic after shooting Daphne a grateful look for coming to his defense.

"Well, the Order won't let us in on their meetings, but Fred and George invented Extendable Ears, so we've been able to catch some details before Mrs. Weasley found out and went berserk. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, some are working on recruiting more people to the Order, and some of them are standing guard over something."

Before Harry could ask anything else, there was a loud crack and Fred and George appeared out of thin air in the middle of the room.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said in annoyed voice, but Fred and George ignored her.

"Hello Harry, Daphne," George said with a huge grin. "We heard you were here." He held up something that looked like a long, flesh-colored string.

"An Extendable Ear, I suppose?" Daphne guessed.

"Right in one," Fred confirmed. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs, but we got this landing first."

"Sadly, we now know less than we did before, given that this lot knows so little it's actively draining knowledge out of us," George said.

The door opened and Ginny came into the room. She smiled brightly when she saw Daphne and Harry.

"Hello, you two," she said. "I figured Fred and George wouldn't Apparate in here for no reason…" She turned to Fred and George and said, "It's a no-go with the Extendable Ears. Mum's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" George asked, looking crestfallen.

"Tonks told me how to find out," Ginny said. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."

Fred sighed deeply. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"We might find out anyway, at least to a degree, later tonight," Daphne said.

"You mean from your parents? They didn't tell us much, thus far," Fred said.

"That's because they don't want to cross Mrs. Weasley unnecessarily. But they're my parents, so they get to decide what I can and can't hear. And obviously, whatever they tell me, I'm telling you. Harry will probably hear things from Sirius, since Sirius is his legal guardian, and probably fairly willing to give him information as well," Daphne said.

"So are Bill and Charlie and Percy in the Order?" Harry asked Ron and Ginny.

"Bill and Charlie are," Ron said. "Percy…"

"Is a git," Ginny said angrily.

"Yeah, you really don't want to mention him in front of Mum and Dad," Ron said.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Percy and Dad had a row," Fred said. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts…"

It turned out that Percy, despite never realizing his boss had been replaced by an insane Death Eater, had been promoted at the Ministry, and Mr. Weasley had assumed — quite reasonably, in Daphne's opinion — that it had been to use Percy to spy on his family and Dumbledore, who was considered a troublemaker by Fudge. Percy hadn't taken the accusation well, accused Mr. Weasley of being a hindrance to his career and a traitor to the Ministry, and had slammed the door in Mrs. Weasley's face when she'd gone to talk to him at his new home in London.

"But Percy must know Voldemort's back," Harry said slowly. "He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof…"

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," Ron said. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and…I dunno…he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," Hermione said tartly.

Daphne and Harry exchanged a look and groaned. "How? After all the nonsense they wrote last year?" Daphne asked.

"I told you, he's a git," Ginny said again.

The stairs outside the room creaked and Fred and George quickly Disapparated.

Seconds later, Mrs. Weasley appeared in the doorway. "The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks," Ginny said without batting an eye. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said. "I thought it might have been Kreacher. He keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please…"

Ginny grimaced at the others and followed her mother out of the room.

"Who's Kreacher?" Harry asked.

"The House-Elf who lives here," Ron said. "Nutter. Never met one like him."

Hermione frowned at Ron. "He's not a nutter, Ron…"

"His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque just like his mother," Ron said. "Is that normal, Hermione?"

"Honestly, for a House-Elf serving a Dark family…yes," Daphne answered before Hermione could.

"It is?" Ron asked in confusion, while Hermione looked scandalized.

"Yes. Dark Noble Houses are weird like that. Very big on tradition and lineage. Their House-Elves generally follow similar lines of thinking to their masters, though, like Dobby proved, there's always some odd ones out there.

"Finny's family has been with ours for ages too, though as far as I know, even my ancestors didn't put their heads on the wall, though my family was never truly Dark…at least, not for several generations. They were proud of being pureblooded, make no mistake, but they weren't like the Malfoys.

"By the way, that is another reason why simply freeing all House-Elves would make them unhappy; to a lot of them it's like forcing them to leave their own family behind, too," Daphne added with a glance at Hermione.

They headed downstairs, but before they could enter the kitchen, there was a loud crash, and Daphne looked over to see Tonks flat on the ground, with the umbrella stand next to her.

A horrible, earsplitting screech filled the hallway, and the moth-eaten curtains nearby flew open, revealing the portrait of a crazy-looking old woman, who was shrieking insults at them nonstop.

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers–"

She didn't get any further, because someone stormed over and grabbed the curtains and began to wrestle them shut.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut up!" he shouted.

"You!" the portrait howled. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I…said…shut…UP!" Sirius roared, before managing to force the curtains shut again.

A silence fell over the hall. Sirius turned to face Harry, Daphne, and the others.

"Hello Harry," he said grimly. "I see you've met my mother."

I decided to change the reasonings for taking brooms somewhat compared to the books, as well as removing most of the magic Tonks used when getting Harry, because the Ministry would certainly know spells were being used, and given that Harry got in trouble for the magic Dobby used in Chamber of Secrets, and it's confirmed…somewhere…that the Trace can't tell who performed the magic, I doubt Moody would let anyone use magic outright.

The Portkey thing still doesn't make sense, but it was the best I could come up with. The book says that making an unauthorized Portkey is too dangerous, but I honestly don't see why, since the Order is already operating in secret and against the Ministry's wishes anyway.

Floo powder should have been mentioned as impossible in the book, too, considering they literally wouldn't be able to pronounce the address, as Snape explains in Half-Blood Prince. But then, the Fidelius Charm is odd to begin with; Bill is his own Secret-Keeper in Deathly Hallows, which raises the question of why Lily and James weren't simply their own Secret-Keepers too.