As soon as Harry found his way around number twelve, Grimmauld Place, he could see and even smell that a wonderful dinner had been cooked for everyone. It looked as though the Order had gone all-out to make his first night at Grimmauld Place as excellent as they could.
"Wow…" he said in wonder, as he walked into the kitchen. The table was set beautifully for sixteen and it was laden with dishes of cakes, puddings, fries, turkey, sausages, potatoes…the smell made Harry even more hungry than he already was.
"Harry, dear, you can come and sit down if you'd like," said Mrs. Weasley, motioning to a chair at the far head of the table.
"Who else is coming for dinner?" Harry asked Lupin, apprehensively.
"Let's see," he said, "There are the ten of us." He said motioning around the table, as people began to take their seats, "and Fred and George should be arriving soon; Mr. Weasley, naturally; Hagrid is stopping by along with Madam Maxime; and…oh, yes! Dumbledore said that he would come tonight."
"Dumbledore?" Harry repeated, "But…he never comes here! At least he didn't last summer."
"He said that he wanted to talk to you, Harry." Said Bill, "wouldn't tell us what about, though." Lupin shuffled in his chair uncomfortably.
As Harry sat down, two faint pop's sounded and all of a sudden Fred and George were marching over to him, wringing his hand. "Nice to see you, Harry old chap!" Said Fred, "Yes," Said George, pushing Fred out of the way, "it is quite charming to see you old boy!"
"That's enough Fred, George. Harry's only just arrived!" Said Mrs. Weasley.
"Fred and George," Ron muttered to Harry. "Ever since they've started the joke shop, they've been acting like kings of the universe." He sighed, "It gets annoying after a while, though," he added as an afterthought.
As Fred and George took their seats, the door in the hall opened and Mr. Weasley came in, accompanied by Hagrid and Madam Maxime. "All righ' Harry?" Said Hagrid gruffly.
"Bonjour," said Madam Maxime.
"Hello Harry, everyone!" Said Mr. Weasley, "just gotten off work! It's a nightmare there! We're still getting howlers from people saying that You-Know-Who is not back…and from people who say that we should have warned them earlier! I've been putting out fires all day!" As he got closer, Harry could see that his eyebrows were singed and his face was a bit dirty. He took his seat and everyone around the table began to look apprehensively at the door, waiting for Dumbledore.
"Dumbledore should be arriving later," said Moody, "so we can dig in now." He picked up a sausage with his fork, sniffed it, and took a great bite out of one end.
Harry began to help himself to the food all around him as the babble of talk broke out around the table. Tonks was, yet again, changing her nose for the pleasure of Ginny and Hermione; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were in deep conversation with Lupin and Moody; and Fred, George, Mudungus, Hagrid, and Madam Maxime seemed to be talking about the joke shop, though Madam Maxime didn't look remotely interested. This left Harry free to talk to Ron.
"So," he said, "what've you been doing here all summer?"
"Well," said Ron, "we're still trying to improve this place so that it's livable. We got rid of some things up on the top floor yesterday, but tomorrow, we're gonna start working on the attic." He said, "I don't really reckon there's anything bad up there, though. When Sirius was here," he looked nervously at Harry, who looked down at his plate, determined not to let Ron see how much pain it was causing him to talk about Sirius, "well, he said that his family rarely went up into the attic. He had been up there a couple times, but now there's probably just a load of dust everywhere."
Ron looked up at Harry again, and just as Ron was about to open his mouth Harry said, "Let's not talk about Sirius that much…okay?"
"Sure, mate." Said Ron.
Harry helped himself to more food and just when he was feeling sleepy and ready for bed, the door in the hall opened once again. In stepped a tall man with a blue pointed wizards hat, deep blue robes to match, and a long flowing white beard. Dumbledore was the wizard that Harry admired above all others - and the only wizard that Lord Voldemort had ever feared.
He walked into the kitchen just as the nose died away and looked at everyone with his twinkling eyes. "Harry," he said, "if you would be so kind as to come with me into the hall for a moment."
Harry got up, aware that every pair of eyes in the room was on him, and followed his Headmaster into the hallway.
Once they got there, Dumbledore turned to Harry and said, "Harry, it is my wish that you continue studying Oclumency again this year."
"But…why, professor?" Harry asked, "Would Voldemort try to get inside my head again after what you did to him last year? He knows that you wouldn't sacrifice me now."
"He knows that I will not sacrifice you, but that will not stop him from trying to possess you. He could make you do things, find out secrets using you, and even hurt other people through you."
"Will I have to study it with Snape again?" He asked.
"Professor Snape, Harry." Said Dumbledore, "But no, you will not be studying it with Professor Snape again."
"Then who?" Asked Harry.
"I have asked Lupin to come back to school again this year and be your defense against the dark arts teacher again this year. He has kindly agreed to come back and he is also willing to help teach you."
"But won't the parents send owls again?" Harry asked, "Won't they be mad that there's a wearwolf teaching their children again?"
"I expect that some parents will be," said Dumbledore, calmly, "but as long as everyone is assured that Professor Lupin takes the potion around the full moon, it'll be okay. Some people might even be comforted by him being there," Dumbledore went on, "they might feel that if Voldemort decides to attack at Hogwarts, Professor Lupin could drive him away. I daresay that Voldemort won't be that intimidated by a wearwolf, but we will let people believe what they wish." He finished, simply.
"Okay…" Said Harry, awkwardly. Professor Lupin had been his most favorite defense against the dark arts teacher and he would be thrilled to have him back. But, now with the prospect of more Oclumency lessons, he wasn't all too happy about having Lupin return.
He let Dumbledore lead him back into the kitchen, gave a meaningful look at Lupin, who nodded back, and sat down. As soon as he did, Ron swarmed him with questions about his talk with Dumbledore, but Harry only told him that he would let him know as soon as they went to bed that night.
But, as they made their way up to bed, Lupin stopped Harry and pulled him aside.
"So," he said, "Dumbledore's told you that I'm coming back, has he." It was more of a statement than a question.
"Yeah," said Harry, "and about the Oclumency."
"Ah, well, I just wanted to tell you…don't make it known that I'm teaching you after hours. Just tell people that you have detention, or something. I don't want a lot of attention drawn to the fact that I'm back."
"Okay," said Harry and with a quick 'good-night' he went upstairs, changed into his pajamas, and got into bed.
Once he was tight under his covers, Ron asked him to relive his chat with Dumbledore. Ron didn't seem too startled by the news; on the contrary, he acted like he had known it all already. When Harry told him this he said, "Well, Fred and George left some of those extendible ears, and we heard him and Lupin talking the other day. We couldn't hear much, but we thought we heard something about Lupin coming back to work and you doing Oclumency again."
"Oh," said Harry, startled, "Well…'night."
"'Night," he heard Ron grunt from across the room.
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TeamExtremeGurl: I'm writing more! Happy now?!?!? lolz!
