You can imagine my utmost shock when I looked at my story today and found
that I had not one.but TEN.ten wonderful and fabulous reviews! Thank you so
much to everyone who read it.I would like to thank you all personally
though.
Lily Skylo: Thank you so much for the review.as I was writing chapter four the thought came to me that Sirius had also been locked up in the house (I'm not going to explain much here, but I will in the next chapter). Thank you so much again for the smashing review!
Malexandria: I also found it a bit fishy that Hermione's parents weren't included in Book 5.I found it awfully curious but I couldn't help but think that they will in fact have a more prominent role in future books. Especially since Hermione is of muggle decent.
Izziebizz: *falls out of chair in shock and amazement* Me give Rowling a run for her money? That could be one of the biggest compliments someone could ever give me. Seeing as she is my favorite author and I've been reading all the books over and over to get her sense of style and tone she gives out through her characters and settings.wow.just wow. I will be checking out your story though! It sounds extremely interesting!
Q: *as I sit back up in my chair I read your comment and fall back out again* I wouldn't exactly call this something Rowling would pull out of her magic hat.wow.two compliments about me and Rowling.pinch me I'm dreaming
Snivellus: Thank you again for reviewing my story! You truly are talented and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I am totally engrossed in your story! And thank you for the bulk of my reviews.*as I fall out of my chair yet again with being compared to Ms. Rowling* I seem to be doing that a lot falling out of my chair. But me.be as good as Rowling Holy Golden Snitches that is a compliment! Lol thank you!
You guys are amazing thank you so much for reading my story you do not know how happy it makes me feel that people are actually reading my stories!
Anyway.to the update we merrily go!
5. Exploration to Disaster.
Hermione had hurried downstairs, followed by Ginny as she went to greet her parents whom she hadn't seen in over a month. Harry could hear her excited squeals as she hugged and kissed both her mother and father. Fred and George hurried to their room where they would, no doubt, begin experimenting new products for their popular joke shop.
Harry sat in the drawing room for a few moments, watching the foot rest that had tried to bite Ron circle around the rug before it lay down on the floor. Shaking his head, Harry got up from his abnormally squishy armchair and walked up the room he shared with Ron. He knocked on the door before a slight grunt admitted him entrance.
Ron was sitting on his bed, a copy of Quidditch through the Ages in front of him. Harry sat on the bed across from him and stared at Ron for a moment.
"You know it's not good to get your knickers twisted up about staying in here for a month." Harry explained as his best friend threw him a look as if something rather nasty was hanging underneath his face.
"Sirius was locked up in here far longer than a month." Harry explained as Ron put aside his book and looked at Harry a reproachful look on his face.
"But Sirius was used to house arrest. He was locked up in Azkaban for twelve years, what were a couple more months or a year until his name got cleared?" Ron explained rolling his eyes. Harry could feel his temper mounting at Ron. How dare sit there and tell Harry that Sirius could be denied freedom simply because he was used to not having that privilege.
"But Sirius finally had the chance to be free after broke out from prison. His situation is a little bit different than ours. We'll be able to leave here in a month, Sirius got excited if he was allowed out of his house if it were only for an hour. Don't be selfish Ron, besides, there's plenty of stuff to do here. Have you seen how enormous this house is?" Harry explained trying to hold back his temper. He didn't want to have a fight with Ron his first day back to the wizard world, he found having his very best friend mad at him would not improve the situation they were in.
"Yea I guess you're a bit right mate. I was acting a bit daft back there. It's just the Burrow's my only home, besides Hogwarts and leaving there not knowing if I'll be able to go back or if it'll be destroyed, I kind of just snapped." Ron explained with a small smile.
Harry just stared at Ron. He only had one home and that was Hogwarts. It almost certainly wasn't the Dursleys. He would rather spend an entire year in the Black House than go back to the Dursley's home. Sure the Burrow felt like a home to him, but it wasn't the same. Harry didn't really have a home at all. He cleared his throat and then got up from his bed.
"Right then, Hermione's parents just got here, I reckon we'll have to go say hello." Harry explained as he headed towards the door.
"Smashing. Dad will probably attack them with questions about their life, them being Muggles and all," Ron said with a slight wink as they headed downstairs, the portrait of Mrs. Black silent once more.
Sure enough when Harry and Ron arrived in the kitchen, Mr. Weasly had the Grangers cornered into two chairs asking them about their dentist tools.
"Is it true you use needles and hoses to clean muggle's teeth?" Mr. Weasly asked amazed as Mrs. Granger nodded. "Amazing! And you use elektritiy to make them all work?" Mr. Granger nodded and Mr. Weasly clapped his hands excitedly. "Splendid, splendid! You know I work for the Ministry of Magic in the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts Department.I've seen it all from biting teacups to toilets that blow up when you flush them!" Mr. and Mrs. Granger were exchanging nervous looks and that's when Mrs. Weasly came to the rescue.
"Hurry up Arthur, I need help with dinner! We have quite the bit of company tonight!" Mrs. Weasly said in a bustling voice as she pushed her husband away from the Grangers who were shooting Mrs. Weasly with looks of appreciation.
The entire group was then sitting down for dinner, all of them enjoying fresh vegetables and a wonderful chicken soufflé that Mrs. Weasly cooked herself. Everyone watched in wonderment as Tonks began to do her routine of changing her appearance. She now had bright yellow hair that strangely reminded Harry of her handkerchief and her nose looked like a large ski jump. Hermione and Ginny laughed and clapped their hands in amusement before Tonks morphed into her original state, short spiky hair, flushed cheeks and a pointed face. Percy, who had personally apologized to his family for criticizing them for joining forces with Dumbledore, was talking to his father, Shaklebolt, Moody, Lupin and Diggle about work at the ministry and how they hoped to brush over the whole Voldemort issue smoothly.
"I think there should be classes at different points around the country to teach witches and wizards self defense. Something's telling me that You-Know-Who is going to stop at nothing to gain more power than he had fifteen years ago," Mad-Eyed Moody explained as he took a sip from his hip flask. Even though he was in a dining room with people he probably trusted with his life, the always jumpy Moody still drank from the leather bottle attached to his hip. Everyone nodded in agreement at this and the conversations continued until Ginny started to fall asleep at her position at the table. Mrs. Weasly sent all of her children up to bed immediately promising Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny that by the time they woke up tomorrow they would have all their school things bought and packed away in their trunks. Hermione looked disappointed. She explained she wanted to buy more books at Flourish and Blotts to further influence her studies in Arithmancy and Transfiguration and she beamed as her parents gave her a proud look.
"It looks like you'll need new robes Ron. I figure half your legs are showing from your old robes, you've grown so much," Mrs. Weasly said worriedly. Buying new robes meant spending more money and that was something the Weaslys didn't have an abundance of.
As the group of them set off for bed, Harry walked by Mrs. Weasly and snuck a few Galleons into her pocket. He heard someone behind him give a small chuckle and he turned around and saw Moody's magical eye staring at Mrs. Weasly's pocket. Harry blushed a bit before he followed Ron upstairs to their room. Ready for a full night's rest.
Harry found himself standing in a large room that was lit with thousands of candles. Even though there were enough candles to rival the floating ones in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, there were still shadows everywhere.
"You must find the Black Diamond. . .You cannot fail not this time," a high pitched voice said in the shadowy corners. Harry could feel his scar burning. He knew that voice.he had heard it so many times.
"Yes master.I will find you the Black Diamond.but it is well hidden my lord," a squashy voice said its voice filled with groveling. Harry scowled. Wormtail.
"Excuse me my dear Wormtail? Did I hear doubt? Because you know what I do to my doubters," the voice said in a highly arrogant voice.
"Oh. . . oh no my lord. I meant no doubt! I have full hopes to find the Black Diamond don't worry my lord you can count on me!"
"Good. Because you saw how I treated Miss Lestrange when she failed to bring me the prophecy a month ago." Harry could hear Wormtail let out a gagged cry as if he remembered how horribly Voldemort had tortured the young female death eater.
"Y-yes. . . my lord. I remember. Don't worry! I won't fail you my master. . . my w-w-wonderful master," Wormtail sniveled.
"Get up Wormtail. Don't stain my robes with your filth."
"O-of course my lord."
"Get out of my sight." Voldemort snapped.
"Yes my lord."
The scene changed rapidly and Harry found himself back in the Department of Mysteries, watching Sirius fall into through the veil. Harry screamed loudly for his godfather while a high pitched laughter filled the room. Harry felt as if his head was going to split in two his scar burned so bad. A flashing green light filled Harry's vision before he started to shake violently, blind and confused as to what was going on.
"Harry wake up! Wake up Harry! Harry you had another nightmare!" a voice yelled through the dark and misty cloud in Harry's mind. He sat up straight in his bed rather quickly and he put a hand up to his scar, the burning still there in his scar, but not as bad as it had been before. Harry looked up and saw Ron and Hermione looking at him, worried expressions etched into their tired faces.
"What was all that about? Did you see You-Know-Who?" Ron asked anxiously. Hermione rolled her eyes and shot Ron a disapproving look.
"Why don't you just say his name Ron?" Hermione scoffed before she gave Harry a nervous look, "Are you okay Harry?"
"Yea.yea I'm alright."
"What was that all about? You woke up the entire house. Of course, some of the members of the Order at Diagon Alley getting our things right now. Fred and George have gone as well. But was that you were screaming about? Something about a Black Diamond." Hermione explained in a rather hurried voice.
"I don't know." Harry said truthfully and then he went into a detailed version of what he could remember in his dream. Leaving out the part about the Department of Mysteries.
"You should tell someone in the Order about this right away. You telling them about this Black Diamond could be important." Hermione said in a stern voice that rivaled Professor McGonagall.
"Look.I heard Wormtail. He said it was extremely hard to find and he had no clue where it was." Harry said blatantly.
"But you know that if Voldemort wants something bad enough he'll find it. You've seen what he's capable of!" Hermione shouted boldly.
"Look Hermione, just leave Harry alone for a bit. Can't you see he's a bit shaken up?" Ron shouted coming to Harry's defense. He offered Ron a smile before they heard the front door downstairs open.
"We're home!" Tonks screamed at the top of her longs.
"Oh Tonks!" they heard Mrs. Weasly scold as Mrs. Black started to scream curses at them again.
"Sorry 'bout that Molly! I was excited to give these things to the kids!"
"Just help me get the curtains closed around that infernal woman," Mrs. Weasly mumbled before the three of them could hear parcels being dropped down, Mrs. Black yelling at Mrs. Weasly and Tonks all the while.
The weeks leading up until the first of September flew by rather rapidly to Harry and Ron's surprise. Hermione had buried her head into her schoolbooks explaining everything to her parents, from Transfiguration to Potions. Harry and Ron entertained themselves by exploring the house and finding many rooms that had been left untouched. They had explored the first three floors of the house, one week for each and as the first day of the fourth week began they began to tackle the fourth floor much to Mrs. Weasly's dismay.
"I wish you two wouldn't go around causing trouble! This house is very, very old and I wouldn't want to disturb anything unpleasant hiding in some of the rooms."
"Aw mum, you know we won't do anything rash," Ron explained as they bounded up the stairs to the fourth floor, Ginny on their heels. Mrs. Weasly gave him a accusing look before she set off to the kitchen to have a talk with some of the other members of the Order.
Hermione poked her head out of one of the doors and gave them all disapproving looks. She was holding their new Defense against the Dark Arts book, 'Deciphering the Dark Wizard and his Curses' and she seemed to be halfway done with it.
"What are you all doing?" she asked them as she set the book down in her room and came to join them.
"Just exploring is all. There's nothing to do in this house. We can't even go out back and fly around on our brooms." Ron complained as they opened the door into a sun room, the windows not emitting any light because of all the dirt and grime caked on them. Ron saw a pair of big yellow eyes and shut the door quickly. "Best not go in there," he said with a grin.
The quartet continued on finding yet another boggart in one of the toilets near the back of the floor. Since the entire fourth floor was just guest rooms, Harry and Ron decided to jump ahead and explore the fifth floor where they knew the master suite of Mrs. Black was.
The floor was rarely used, except for the ancient house elf Kreacher who Harry had seen neither hide nor tail of since he arrived. Harry thought this a very good thing considering if he had seen Kreacher he would chop off his head, stuff it, and place it on the wall next to his ancestors. It was partially the house elf's fault that Sirius had died. Kreacher had personally injured the hippogriff Buckbeak to keep Sirius busy while Kreacher told Harry that Sirius had indeed left the house.
The group remained silent as they walked up to a large oak door with a rather elegant door knob that would sneeze loudly if anybody touched it in a certain spot. Harry calmly opened the door and looked inside.
This was definitely the master suite of Mrs. Black. There was a large canopy bed that was placed in the middle of the room, the black hangings had holes where Doxies had obviously chewed through and on top of the bed was a rather unusual animal.
Laying on the bed, a bag of dead rats at its front claw, Buckbeak the hippogriff looked at them as if they were all mad. Buckbeak was half horse half eagle. His back end was that of a grey horse and the front end was a massive eagle with huge white wings. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all bowed to the hippogriff who bowed his head in return.
It was obvious that Buckbeak didn't leave Mrs. Black's room often and the state of the room proved he had taken his boredom out on some of the furniture in the room. A sofa lay in shambles, the feathers from the cushions were all over the place and there was a discreet smell of waste that was coming from the joining master bathroom. There were pictures of the ancestors of the Black house and most of them were torn apart, the inhabitants of the pictures long run away to different portraits of famous pure blood wizards.
"Smells like something died in here and didn't bother to pick up after themselves," Hermione said her face turning a putrid green color.
"I think it's time to leave," Harry told all of them. They all said goodbye to Buckbeak before they left Mrs. Black's room, letting the door shut behind them.
Hours later the four of them were in Harry and Ron's room discussing the coming of the second war and their upcoming year at Hogwarts. They were just getting on to a discussion about their new Dark Arts teacher when a petrified voice screamed from downstairs.
Thinking an attack had been sprung on the Order headquarters; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny brandished their wands and walked out into the hallway. The scream sounded through the house again. Hermione went white in the face.
"That's my mom! Oh! Oh! Hurry Harry! Ron.we need to save her!" Hermione said her voice trembling with fear. That was when Mrs. Black started to scream again.
"FILTHY GOOD FOR NOTHING MUDBLOODS! LEAVE NOW! MUGGLES IN MY HOUSE WHAT A DISGRACE!"
"What is going on?" a new voice asked apparently it was coming from the door that lead down to the kitchen.
"UNPURE BLOOD-"
"Moody! Moody, Lupin! Buckbeak's on the rampage! He got out of the room! Oh when I get my hands on Ron." Mrs. Weasly shouted down to the kitchen. Harry heard Ron gulp down a lump in his throat as they heard many things crashing to the ground.
"What's going on Molly. . . Oh Merlin's beard. . ."
"DON'T POSION MY HOUSE WITH YOUR DECENT! OUT, OUT, OUT!"
"Oh my stars how did he get out?"
"Must have been Potter and Weasly."
"KREACHER! KREACHER THERE'S FOUL BEINGS AFOOT!"
"Would someone please shut her up?" Bill Weasly shouted obviously behind a few people. There was more crashing followed by a satisfied roar of approval.
"Stupefy him and we'll take him back up to the room." Lupin suggested.
"I'll take Mr. and Mrs. Granger downstairs, fix them a cup of tea. They look like they're in a state of shock," Mrs. Weasly explained before they heard three pairs of feet go down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Let's catch ourselves a hippogriff," Tonks said, happy that something was actually happening in the stuffy old house.
But catching a hippogriff that had been captive in a room for a long amount of time proved difficult. Buckbeak led his keepers in and out of room, the crashing reverberating through the entire house.
"Remus to the other side of the door."
"FILTHY MUDBLOODS!"
"Tonks.go up behind him!"
"GOOD FOR NOTHING-"
"Not in front Tonks behind!"
"Sorry Moody."
And then Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny heard a large quantity of voices yell at once, "Stupefy!" The crashing and roaring from Buckbeak ceased and there came many cheers coming from what seemed to be the parlor room.
"ALL OF THEM SHOULD BE KILLED! MANGY MUGGLE BORNS!" Mrs. Black screeched. Harry heard Moody appoint a few to escort the petrified hippogriff back to the master suite and then another few wizards to take care of Mrs. Black.
"And you," they heard Moody say to a person downstairs, "fetch Potter, Granger, and the two Weaslys." They all exchanged fearful looks before Lupin came upstairs and beckoned them to go into the kitchen.
Mrs. Weasly wasn't too happy with the lot of them. "I don't believe it! Do you know someone could have been seriously hurt? You gave Mrs. Granger quite a fright when Buckbeak went charging past her!" Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny looked down guiltily and gave their sincerest apologies to Mrs. Granger. She gave them a sympathetic smile.
"And for your punishment."
"Do we have to have a punishment mom? It wasn't really our fault," Ron said cutting off his mother which made her if even possible madder.
"You lot are to clean up all the rooms that Buckbeak destroyed until the first."
"You can't be serious mum! We have two weeks left until the start of term! Don't make us end our holidays by cleaning!" Ginny cried out.
"I won't hear it. If you want a few days off before we leave for King's Cross I suggest you get started now."
And so for the next two weeks, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, with much persistence, began to clean up the three floors that Buckbeak had managed to stampede through. They would all wake up considerably early. Eat their breakfast and then work until lunch. Mrs. Weasly was kind enough to bring them lunch in whatever room they were working on for the day. Most of the time the four of them would skip dinner and head straight to bed, Harry even too tired to dream about Voldemort and his quest for the Black Diamond.
And no matter how hard Harry tried to call Hermione off, she kept insisting that Harry tell the Order about the Black Diamond and Voldemort's wish to have it as soon as possible. Ron helped him for the most part saying that cleaning a large house was enough for Harry to handle and thinking about some stupid dream wasn't going to make cleaning even more enjoyable. Hermione just rolled her eyes and got back to pushing the stuffing back into the foot rest that had tried to bite Ron weeks ago.
Then September first came and Harry and Ron were ecstatic to be leaving behind their cleaning, happy that they wouldn't have to clean anything for a whole school year. They traveled with a few members of the Order to King's Cross, Hermione saying goodbye to her parents at the Black house. They crossed through to Platform Nine and three quarters and Harry, Ron, and Hermione found an empty compartment in the middle of the train, stowed their things inside and went back out on the platform to say goodbye to everyone that came to see them off.
"Say hello to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for me," Lupin told Harry a few minutes before the Hogwarts Express was scheduled to depart.
"Do you know him?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Let's just say we kind of grew up together," Lupin said with a wink. "Now get on the train before it leaves without you." Harry shook Lupin's hand and boarded the train just as the whistle sounded and the train pushed off and headed off towards Hogwarts.
Lily Skylo: Thank you so much for the review.as I was writing chapter four the thought came to me that Sirius had also been locked up in the house (I'm not going to explain much here, but I will in the next chapter). Thank you so much again for the smashing review!
Malexandria: I also found it a bit fishy that Hermione's parents weren't included in Book 5.I found it awfully curious but I couldn't help but think that they will in fact have a more prominent role in future books. Especially since Hermione is of muggle decent.
Izziebizz: *falls out of chair in shock and amazement* Me give Rowling a run for her money? That could be one of the biggest compliments someone could ever give me. Seeing as she is my favorite author and I've been reading all the books over and over to get her sense of style and tone she gives out through her characters and settings.wow.just wow. I will be checking out your story though! It sounds extremely interesting!
Q: *as I sit back up in my chair I read your comment and fall back out again* I wouldn't exactly call this something Rowling would pull out of her magic hat.wow.two compliments about me and Rowling.pinch me I'm dreaming
Snivellus: Thank you again for reviewing my story! You truly are talented and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I am totally engrossed in your story! And thank you for the bulk of my reviews.*as I fall out of my chair yet again with being compared to Ms. Rowling* I seem to be doing that a lot falling out of my chair. But me.be as good as Rowling Holy Golden Snitches that is a compliment! Lol thank you!
You guys are amazing thank you so much for reading my story you do not know how happy it makes me feel that people are actually reading my stories!
Anyway.to the update we merrily go!
5. Exploration to Disaster.
Hermione had hurried downstairs, followed by Ginny as she went to greet her parents whom she hadn't seen in over a month. Harry could hear her excited squeals as she hugged and kissed both her mother and father. Fred and George hurried to their room where they would, no doubt, begin experimenting new products for their popular joke shop.
Harry sat in the drawing room for a few moments, watching the foot rest that had tried to bite Ron circle around the rug before it lay down on the floor. Shaking his head, Harry got up from his abnormally squishy armchair and walked up the room he shared with Ron. He knocked on the door before a slight grunt admitted him entrance.
Ron was sitting on his bed, a copy of Quidditch through the Ages in front of him. Harry sat on the bed across from him and stared at Ron for a moment.
"You know it's not good to get your knickers twisted up about staying in here for a month." Harry explained as his best friend threw him a look as if something rather nasty was hanging underneath his face.
"Sirius was locked up in here far longer than a month." Harry explained as Ron put aside his book and looked at Harry a reproachful look on his face.
"But Sirius was used to house arrest. He was locked up in Azkaban for twelve years, what were a couple more months or a year until his name got cleared?" Ron explained rolling his eyes. Harry could feel his temper mounting at Ron. How dare sit there and tell Harry that Sirius could be denied freedom simply because he was used to not having that privilege.
"But Sirius finally had the chance to be free after broke out from prison. His situation is a little bit different than ours. We'll be able to leave here in a month, Sirius got excited if he was allowed out of his house if it were only for an hour. Don't be selfish Ron, besides, there's plenty of stuff to do here. Have you seen how enormous this house is?" Harry explained trying to hold back his temper. He didn't want to have a fight with Ron his first day back to the wizard world, he found having his very best friend mad at him would not improve the situation they were in.
"Yea I guess you're a bit right mate. I was acting a bit daft back there. It's just the Burrow's my only home, besides Hogwarts and leaving there not knowing if I'll be able to go back or if it'll be destroyed, I kind of just snapped." Ron explained with a small smile.
Harry just stared at Ron. He only had one home and that was Hogwarts. It almost certainly wasn't the Dursleys. He would rather spend an entire year in the Black House than go back to the Dursley's home. Sure the Burrow felt like a home to him, but it wasn't the same. Harry didn't really have a home at all. He cleared his throat and then got up from his bed.
"Right then, Hermione's parents just got here, I reckon we'll have to go say hello." Harry explained as he headed towards the door.
"Smashing. Dad will probably attack them with questions about their life, them being Muggles and all," Ron said with a slight wink as they headed downstairs, the portrait of Mrs. Black silent once more.
Sure enough when Harry and Ron arrived in the kitchen, Mr. Weasly had the Grangers cornered into two chairs asking them about their dentist tools.
"Is it true you use needles and hoses to clean muggle's teeth?" Mr. Weasly asked amazed as Mrs. Granger nodded. "Amazing! And you use elektritiy to make them all work?" Mr. Granger nodded and Mr. Weasly clapped his hands excitedly. "Splendid, splendid! You know I work for the Ministry of Magic in the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts Department.I've seen it all from biting teacups to toilets that blow up when you flush them!" Mr. and Mrs. Granger were exchanging nervous looks and that's when Mrs. Weasly came to the rescue.
"Hurry up Arthur, I need help with dinner! We have quite the bit of company tonight!" Mrs. Weasly said in a bustling voice as she pushed her husband away from the Grangers who were shooting Mrs. Weasly with looks of appreciation.
The entire group was then sitting down for dinner, all of them enjoying fresh vegetables and a wonderful chicken soufflé that Mrs. Weasly cooked herself. Everyone watched in wonderment as Tonks began to do her routine of changing her appearance. She now had bright yellow hair that strangely reminded Harry of her handkerchief and her nose looked like a large ski jump. Hermione and Ginny laughed and clapped their hands in amusement before Tonks morphed into her original state, short spiky hair, flushed cheeks and a pointed face. Percy, who had personally apologized to his family for criticizing them for joining forces with Dumbledore, was talking to his father, Shaklebolt, Moody, Lupin and Diggle about work at the ministry and how they hoped to brush over the whole Voldemort issue smoothly.
"I think there should be classes at different points around the country to teach witches and wizards self defense. Something's telling me that You-Know-Who is going to stop at nothing to gain more power than he had fifteen years ago," Mad-Eyed Moody explained as he took a sip from his hip flask. Even though he was in a dining room with people he probably trusted with his life, the always jumpy Moody still drank from the leather bottle attached to his hip. Everyone nodded in agreement at this and the conversations continued until Ginny started to fall asleep at her position at the table. Mrs. Weasly sent all of her children up to bed immediately promising Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny that by the time they woke up tomorrow they would have all their school things bought and packed away in their trunks. Hermione looked disappointed. She explained she wanted to buy more books at Flourish and Blotts to further influence her studies in Arithmancy and Transfiguration and she beamed as her parents gave her a proud look.
"It looks like you'll need new robes Ron. I figure half your legs are showing from your old robes, you've grown so much," Mrs. Weasly said worriedly. Buying new robes meant spending more money and that was something the Weaslys didn't have an abundance of.
As the group of them set off for bed, Harry walked by Mrs. Weasly and snuck a few Galleons into her pocket. He heard someone behind him give a small chuckle and he turned around and saw Moody's magical eye staring at Mrs. Weasly's pocket. Harry blushed a bit before he followed Ron upstairs to their room. Ready for a full night's rest.
Harry found himself standing in a large room that was lit with thousands of candles. Even though there were enough candles to rival the floating ones in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, there were still shadows everywhere.
"You must find the Black Diamond. . .You cannot fail not this time," a high pitched voice said in the shadowy corners. Harry could feel his scar burning. He knew that voice.he had heard it so many times.
"Yes master.I will find you the Black Diamond.but it is well hidden my lord," a squashy voice said its voice filled with groveling. Harry scowled. Wormtail.
"Excuse me my dear Wormtail? Did I hear doubt? Because you know what I do to my doubters," the voice said in a highly arrogant voice.
"Oh. . . oh no my lord. I meant no doubt! I have full hopes to find the Black Diamond don't worry my lord you can count on me!"
"Good. Because you saw how I treated Miss Lestrange when she failed to bring me the prophecy a month ago." Harry could hear Wormtail let out a gagged cry as if he remembered how horribly Voldemort had tortured the young female death eater.
"Y-yes. . . my lord. I remember. Don't worry! I won't fail you my master. . . my w-w-wonderful master," Wormtail sniveled.
"Get up Wormtail. Don't stain my robes with your filth."
"O-of course my lord."
"Get out of my sight." Voldemort snapped.
"Yes my lord."
The scene changed rapidly and Harry found himself back in the Department of Mysteries, watching Sirius fall into through the veil. Harry screamed loudly for his godfather while a high pitched laughter filled the room. Harry felt as if his head was going to split in two his scar burned so bad. A flashing green light filled Harry's vision before he started to shake violently, blind and confused as to what was going on.
"Harry wake up! Wake up Harry! Harry you had another nightmare!" a voice yelled through the dark and misty cloud in Harry's mind. He sat up straight in his bed rather quickly and he put a hand up to his scar, the burning still there in his scar, but not as bad as it had been before. Harry looked up and saw Ron and Hermione looking at him, worried expressions etched into their tired faces.
"What was all that about? Did you see You-Know-Who?" Ron asked anxiously. Hermione rolled her eyes and shot Ron a disapproving look.
"Why don't you just say his name Ron?" Hermione scoffed before she gave Harry a nervous look, "Are you okay Harry?"
"Yea.yea I'm alright."
"What was that all about? You woke up the entire house. Of course, some of the members of the Order at Diagon Alley getting our things right now. Fred and George have gone as well. But was that you were screaming about? Something about a Black Diamond." Hermione explained in a rather hurried voice.
"I don't know." Harry said truthfully and then he went into a detailed version of what he could remember in his dream. Leaving out the part about the Department of Mysteries.
"You should tell someone in the Order about this right away. You telling them about this Black Diamond could be important." Hermione said in a stern voice that rivaled Professor McGonagall.
"Look.I heard Wormtail. He said it was extremely hard to find and he had no clue where it was." Harry said blatantly.
"But you know that if Voldemort wants something bad enough he'll find it. You've seen what he's capable of!" Hermione shouted boldly.
"Look Hermione, just leave Harry alone for a bit. Can't you see he's a bit shaken up?" Ron shouted coming to Harry's defense. He offered Ron a smile before they heard the front door downstairs open.
"We're home!" Tonks screamed at the top of her longs.
"Oh Tonks!" they heard Mrs. Weasly scold as Mrs. Black started to scream curses at them again.
"Sorry 'bout that Molly! I was excited to give these things to the kids!"
"Just help me get the curtains closed around that infernal woman," Mrs. Weasly mumbled before the three of them could hear parcels being dropped down, Mrs. Black yelling at Mrs. Weasly and Tonks all the while.
The weeks leading up until the first of September flew by rather rapidly to Harry and Ron's surprise. Hermione had buried her head into her schoolbooks explaining everything to her parents, from Transfiguration to Potions. Harry and Ron entertained themselves by exploring the house and finding many rooms that had been left untouched. They had explored the first three floors of the house, one week for each and as the first day of the fourth week began they began to tackle the fourth floor much to Mrs. Weasly's dismay.
"I wish you two wouldn't go around causing trouble! This house is very, very old and I wouldn't want to disturb anything unpleasant hiding in some of the rooms."
"Aw mum, you know we won't do anything rash," Ron explained as they bounded up the stairs to the fourth floor, Ginny on their heels. Mrs. Weasly gave him a accusing look before she set off to the kitchen to have a talk with some of the other members of the Order.
Hermione poked her head out of one of the doors and gave them all disapproving looks. She was holding their new Defense against the Dark Arts book, 'Deciphering the Dark Wizard and his Curses' and she seemed to be halfway done with it.
"What are you all doing?" she asked them as she set the book down in her room and came to join them.
"Just exploring is all. There's nothing to do in this house. We can't even go out back and fly around on our brooms." Ron complained as they opened the door into a sun room, the windows not emitting any light because of all the dirt and grime caked on them. Ron saw a pair of big yellow eyes and shut the door quickly. "Best not go in there," he said with a grin.
The quartet continued on finding yet another boggart in one of the toilets near the back of the floor. Since the entire fourth floor was just guest rooms, Harry and Ron decided to jump ahead and explore the fifth floor where they knew the master suite of Mrs. Black was.
The floor was rarely used, except for the ancient house elf Kreacher who Harry had seen neither hide nor tail of since he arrived. Harry thought this a very good thing considering if he had seen Kreacher he would chop off his head, stuff it, and place it on the wall next to his ancestors. It was partially the house elf's fault that Sirius had died. Kreacher had personally injured the hippogriff Buckbeak to keep Sirius busy while Kreacher told Harry that Sirius had indeed left the house.
The group remained silent as they walked up to a large oak door with a rather elegant door knob that would sneeze loudly if anybody touched it in a certain spot. Harry calmly opened the door and looked inside.
This was definitely the master suite of Mrs. Black. There was a large canopy bed that was placed in the middle of the room, the black hangings had holes where Doxies had obviously chewed through and on top of the bed was a rather unusual animal.
Laying on the bed, a bag of dead rats at its front claw, Buckbeak the hippogriff looked at them as if they were all mad. Buckbeak was half horse half eagle. His back end was that of a grey horse and the front end was a massive eagle with huge white wings. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all bowed to the hippogriff who bowed his head in return.
It was obvious that Buckbeak didn't leave Mrs. Black's room often and the state of the room proved he had taken his boredom out on some of the furniture in the room. A sofa lay in shambles, the feathers from the cushions were all over the place and there was a discreet smell of waste that was coming from the joining master bathroom. There were pictures of the ancestors of the Black house and most of them were torn apart, the inhabitants of the pictures long run away to different portraits of famous pure blood wizards.
"Smells like something died in here and didn't bother to pick up after themselves," Hermione said her face turning a putrid green color.
"I think it's time to leave," Harry told all of them. They all said goodbye to Buckbeak before they left Mrs. Black's room, letting the door shut behind them.
Hours later the four of them were in Harry and Ron's room discussing the coming of the second war and their upcoming year at Hogwarts. They were just getting on to a discussion about their new Dark Arts teacher when a petrified voice screamed from downstairs.
Thinking an attack had been sprung on the Order headquarters; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny brandished their wands and walked out into the hallway. The scream sounded through the house again. Hermione went white in the face.
"That's my mom! Oh! Oh! Hurry Harry! Ron.we need to save her!" Hermione said her voice trembling with fear. That was when Mrs. Black started to scream again.
"FILTHY GOOD FOR NOTHING MUDBLOODS! LEAVE NOW! MUGGLES IN MY HOUSE WHAT A DISGRACE!"
"What is going on?" a new voice asked apparently it was coming from the door that lead down to the kitchen.
"UNPURE BLOOD-"
"Moody! Moody, Lupin! Buckbeak's on the rampage! He got out of the room! Oh when I get my hands on Ron." Mrs. Weasly shouted down to the kitchen. Harry heard Ron gulp down a lump in his throat as they heard many things crashing to the ground.
"What's going on Molly. . . Oh Merlin's beard. . ."
"DON'T POSION MY HOUSE WITH YOUR DECENT! OUT, OUT, OUT!"
"Oh my stars how did he get out?"
"Must have been Potter and Weasly."
"KREACHER! KREACHER THERE'S FOUL BEINGS AFOOT!"
"Would someone please shut her up?" Bill Weasly shouted obviously behind a few people. There was more crashing followed by a satisfied roar of approval.
"Stupefy him and we'll take him back up to the room." Lupin suggested.
"I'll take Mr. and Mrs. Granger downstairs, fix them a cup of tea. They look like they're in a state of shock," Mrs. Weasly explained before they heard three pairs of feet go down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Let's catch ourselves a hippogriff," Tonks said, happy that something was actually happening in the stuffy old house.
But catching a hippogriff that had been captive in a room for a long amount of time proved difficult. Buckbeak led his keepers in and out of room, the crashing reverberating through the entire house.
"Remus to the other side of the door."
"FILTHY MUDBLOODS!"
"Tonks.go up behind him!"
"GOOD FOR NOTHING-"
"Not in front Tonks behind!"
"Sorry Moody."
And then Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny heard a large quantity of voices yell at once, "Stupefy!" The crashing and roaring from Buckbeak ceased and there came many cheers coming from what seemed to be the parlor room.
"ALL OF THEM SHOULD BE KILLED! MANGY MUGGLE BORNS!" Mrs. Black screeched. Harry heard Moody appoint a few to escort the petrified hippogriff back to the master suite and then another few wizards to take care of Mrs. Black.
"And you," they heard Moody say to a person downstairs, "fetch Potter, Granger, and the two Weaslys." They all exchanged fearful looks before Lupin came upstairs and beckoned them to go into the kitchen.
Mrs. Weasly wasn't too happy with the lot of them. "I don't believe it! Do you know someone could have been seriously hurt? You gave Mrs. Granger quite a fright when Buckbeak went charging past her!" Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny looked down guiltily and gave their sincerest apologies to Mrs. Granger. She gave them a sympathetic smile.
"And for your punishment."
"Do we have to have a punishment mom? It wasn't really our fault," Ron said cutting off his mother which made her if even possible madder.
"You lot are to clean up all the rooms that Buckbeak destroyed until the first."
"You can't be serious mum! We have two weeks left until the start of term! Don't make us end our holidays by cleaning!" Ginny cried out.
"I won't hear it. If you want a few days off before we leave for King's Cross I suggest you get started now."
And so for the next two weeks, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, with much persistence, began to clean up the three floors that Buckbeak had managed to stampede through. They would all wake up considerably early. Eat their breakfast and then work until lunch. Mrs. Weasly was kind enough to bring them lunch in whatever room they were working on for the day. Most of the time the four of them would skip dinner and head straight to bed, Harry even too tired to dream about Voldemort and his quest for the Black Diamond.
And no matter how hard Harry tried to call Hermione off, she kept insisting that Harry tell the Order about the Black Diamond and Voldemort's wish to have it as soon as possible. Ron helped him for the most part saying that cleaning a large house was enough for Harry to handle and thinking about some stupid dream wasn't going to make cleaning even more enjoyable. Hermione just rolled her eyes and got back to pushing the stuffing back into the foot rest that had tried to bite Ron weeks ago.
Then September first came and Harry and Ron were ecstatic to be leaving behind their cleaning, happy that they wouldn't have to clean anything for a whole school year. They traveled with a few members of the Order to King's Cross, Hermione saying goodbye to her parents at the Black house. They crossed through to Platform Nine and three quarters and Harry, Ron, and Hermione found an empty compartment in the middle of the train, stowed their things inside and went back out on the platform to say goodbye to everyone that came to see them off.
"Say hello to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for me," Lupin told Harry a few minutes before the Hogwarts Express was scheduled to depart.
"Do you know him?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Let's just say we kind of grew up together," Lupin said with a wink. "Now get on the train before it leaves without you." Harry shook Lupin's hand and boarded the train just as the whistle sounded and the train pushed off and headed off towards Hogwarts.