The group walked up the staircase, hauling their trunks along, and went into the bedrooms they had slept in last Christmas. Nora, Hermione and Ginny walked into theirs and looked around. It was still exactly the same as they had left it. The room was large enough to fit three beds, which were all placed with the headboards against one wall. Ginny immediately sat on the bed that was in a corner and looked at her trunk that was sitting in the doorway. She sighed, got up and dragged it over to the end of her bed. Across from their beds was a large closet that could fit all of the girls' clothes. Each bed had a night table with a beautiful white lamp with light blue stripes on it. The lamps were hexed so that the only person who could see the light was the person that wanted to see it. This was done so that if one of the girls wanted to read a little, the light wouldn't bother the others when they wanted to sleep. There was a large window across from the door. It had yellowish orange curtains and on the windowsill were two potted plants. Nora put her empty birdcage down.
"Where's Siberia?" Ginny asked looking at the cage.
"She's off, delivering a letter to my parents. I just wanted to let them know that we were going to spend our Christmas here. But, now you mention it, she is taking a bit longer than I excpected." After they had all put their trunks away, they went downstairs to help Mrs. Weasley with dinner.
Harry and Ron entered their room and put their trunks at the foot of their beds. The room was quite large, though smaller than Hermione, Nora and Ginny's. There was a bed at each side of the door, and across from it was a closet. On the left side of the room was a large window with blue curtains. The two boys hung up their clothes in the closet. After he finished Harry let himself fall, face down, onto his bed. Ron decided to go downstairs and leave him alone.
"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked as soon as Ron came downstairs.
"In our bedroom, he just plopped onto his bed. I thought it was better to leave him alone." Mrs. Weasley bustled over and sighed.
"That poor darling. Only sixteen, and already his life is full of death and loss." She sighed again. "Let's just leave him for now, and when dinner's ready one of you can call him. It will be his decision if he wants to come down or not." She walked away, with yet another sigh, and went back to cooking dinner. When the food was nearly ready, a loud voice filled the whole kitchen.
"FILTHY SCUM! INTRUDING IN MY HOUSE! THAT GOOD FOR NOTHING SON, JUST LETTING YOU PEOPLE IN HERE!"
"Merlin, woman! Shut up!" It was Lupin. Mrs. Weasley hurried out of the kitchen to help him get the curtain back in front of the portrait of Sirius' mother. After a few minutes the wailing stopped and Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen again, with Lupin and Tonks behind her.
"Sorry. Tripped over that stand again," Tonks muttered apologetically. Her hair was purple this time and reached her shoulders. She'd made her eyes a shocking blue.
"That's quite all right, dear," Mrs. Weasley told her. She waved her wand and a few cupboard doors opened. With another wave plates, forks, knives and cups flew out of them and landed on the table. "Now, one of you go call Harry. See if he wants to have some dinner."
"I'll go," Ron said, and he walked into the hall and up the stairs. The rest sat down, waiting for Ron to return, hopefully with Harry, so that they could pile their plates with all of the delicious food that Mrs. Weasley had cooked.
"So, who's your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Lupin asked with a little smile. He was looking a bit worn out. His robes were dirty and ragged. The others couldn't help but wonder if it had just been the full moon.
"Professor Spring," Hermione replied.
"Really? What's he like?"
"Well he's all right. At first he was a bit like Quirrell, stammering and stuff," Ginny said, "But he's adjusted now, and he's not so scared anymore."
"I see. And… is he a good teacher?"
"Yeah, we learn loads of spells," Nora told him.
"Oh," Lupin looked at the table. They all laughed.
"But you're still the best teacher we've ever had for Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione assured him. Lupin looked up again, and smiled warmly.
"That's all I wanted to hear." Ron entered the kitchen and every one looked around to see if Harry had come down too. Ron shook his head.
"I called through the door that dinner was ready, but he didn't say anything. After a while I just gave up," he said as he sat down next to Ginny. Slowly everyone piled their plates. Lupin began to interrogate them about Professor Spring once more and of course Ron launched into his ridiculous theory of Voldemort's face on their Professor's rear end. Lupin chuckled, and Tonks nearly fell out of her seat laughing. Mrs. Weasley, though, scowled.
"Ronald Weasley! It's vulgar to say such things about your teachers in such manner!" Every one quickly stopped laughing and Ron looked at his food, his ears turning a dark, dark red.
"That was a brilliant dinner, Molly. You're a fabulous cook," Lupin told Mrs. Weasley after dinner as she started taking empty dishes off the table.
"Do the pig snout again!" Ginny said loudly. Tonks, who was smiling at the kids around her, turned her current nose into a pig snout, getting giggles out of Ginny and Hermione.
"Turn your hair pink with purple spots!" Hermione shouted. Tonks did as she asked and looked quite absurd. She now had the things the four kids requested: Ginny's pig snout, Hermione's pink and purple hair, Ron's red eyes and Nora's big ears. Mrs. Weasley smiled at them while putting a large treacle tart on the table.
"Eat, children," she said and everyone immediately grabbed some, eating very messily. After dinner they went upstairs.
"Ron, could you check on Harry?" Hermione said, looking a bit worried. Ron did as he was told and walked down the corridor that led to his and Harry's room. After a couple of minutes he returned, running.
"He's gone," he said, in between loud gasps for breath.
"What?" Ginny asked shocked.
"He's gone, his bed was empty and he wasn't in the room."
"Come on, Hermione." Nora said, grabbing her best friends arm.
"Where are you two going?" Ron asked.
"I know where Harry is, but it's best if only we go. You two just stay here and wait until we return." And she walked off dragging Hermione along with her.
"Are we going to Buckbeak's room?" Hermione asked.
"Yes. That's where he hid last year. When he thought that he was Voldemort's weapon." They walked up a few stairs, and then both stopped. Hermione knocked on the door that led to the Hippogriff's room. There was no answer. She looked at Nora questioningly.
"What now?"
"Now we walk in and scold Harry."
"What if he's not there?"
"Then we warn Mrs. Weasley." Hermione nodded and opened the door. The room was completely dark. The curtains were closed and all they could see were the few shapes of the furniture that was in there. Nora found the light switch and turned the light on. The sudden light blinded them for a few moments, but once their eyes were used to it they looked around the room and found Harry sitting in a corner. Buckbeak was nowhere in sight.
"Where's Buckbeak?" Nora whispered to Hermione.
"I think Dumbledore released him into the wild. The ministry's no longer looking for him, and there's no one in the house to take care of him, except for Kreacher, but… well… he probably wouldn't take care of Buckbeak very well. Do you think Harry's awake?"
"I'm not sure, let's go check." The two girls walked over to the limp figure in the corner of the room. "He's still breathing, that's good." Hermione shook him slightly.
"Whazzit?" Harry asked, still half asleep.
"Harry, wake up."
"What?"
"Wake up!" He was fully awake now, after Hermione had yelled right in his ear.
"Ouch! What are you two doing here?" he asked rudely, wishing they would all just leave him alone for once.
"Harry, we need to talk," he looked at Nora; her eyes were full of grief and concern.
"Why?"
"Because, we're worried about you." He turned his head towards Hermione; she looked as if she was on the verge of tears.
"I don't want too. Sirius is dead. I have no one who will take care of me left. And if I did, Voldemort would probably kill him or her off too."
"Harry, that's not true. You have us." Nora heard him mutter something like, "As if that helps," and felt a bit hurt.
"Snap out of it," Hermione shot at him. She too had heard his muttering and was becoming enraged. "You may have a point, that Sirius is dead, but you do have a guardian! You have tons! But you're just not trying to see who they are!"
"Oh yeah? And who are they? Moody? Lupin? Other people from the Order?" he said sarcastically. "They're just body guards! They don't care about me!"
"That's not true!" Nora exclaimed. He turned to look at her. "They do care! And you're forgetting about us! What about Mrs. Weasley? She sees you as her son, she cares for you. She knits you a Weasley sweater every Christmas." Harry stayed silent. It was true. Mrs. Weasley did knit him a sweater every year. She did care for him, and she did see him as one of her sons. He smiled a bit at those bone-crushing hugs she always gave him when he'd been in life-threatening danger.
"See?" Hermione said. "Look, let's go downstairs. Ginny and Ron are still waiting for us." The two girls pulled Harry up off the ground and led him towards the corridor where Ginny and Ron were indeed waiting for him. They quickly stood up, having sat down on the floor to wait, and walked over to Harry. After reassuring them that he was all right, the five walked downstairs to sit in a large living room and talk.
At ten o'clock they heard a tapping on the window. Ginny went over to the noise and opened the curtains. On the window sill outside was a snowy white owl, with a large envelope in its beak and a letter tied to its leg.
"Siberia!" She exclaimed letting the owl inside before closing the window and curtains again. Nora had gotten up at hearing her owl's name and held out her arm for the owl to hop on to. The two girls sat back down.
"Let's see…" Nora said, taking the envelope and parchment from Siberia. She hooted dolefully and sat on her owner's knee. Nora opened the piece of parchment first.
Dear Nora,
Hi, honey. We have received your letter saying you're staying at Sirius' old house and hope you'll have a nice time there. We also wanted to tell Harry that we are very sorry for his loss. Sirius was a good friend of ours, and we know that the last few months must have been very rough on him.
You may have been wondering what took Siberia so long. When we received your letter, Dumbledore was at our house, and he had something to give to Harry. That is what the large envelope holds inside. It's Sirius' Testament along with a letter he wrote for Harry. We trust you to give it to him.
Have a nice vacation, dear. Miss you.
Love,
Mom and Dad"What's it say?" Ginny asked.
"It's from my parents. Here, Harry." Nora handed over the parchment, thinking he had to read that first, before opening the envelope. Harry read the letter, and nodded. Nora handed him the envelope.
Ministry of Magic: Wills and Testaments
Testament of Sirius Black
To: Harry James Potter
Firstly we would like to give you our condolences: we are very sorry for your loss. Sirius Black has left you the following possessions:
Potter Manor
A sum of 330,000 Galleons from his vault: number 711
A sum of 478,000 Galleons from the Potter's vault: number 742
A Flying Motorcycle
Black Manor will be given to Dumbledore for the Order of the Phoenix
We hope you will be happy with these possessions and again, our condolences.
Sincerely,
Dallis Morchwalk
Ministry of Magic: Wills and Testaments
Harry looked at Sirius' Testament. So all that money was now his. So was Potter Manor, though he didn't know what that was. Maybe his parent's house. He also received Sirius' flying motorcycle. That ought to be fun to ride. Harry looked inside the envelope and found Sirius' letter to him. His hands were trembling.
Dear Harry,
When you read this, I am most likely dead. I had the chance to write this letter as I was inside Black Manor through the whole year. The loneliness was getting to my head and I knew that one of those days I was going to do something stupid. I gave this to Dumbledore and asked him to give it to you when I had indeed passed on. He agreed.
You will probably have read my Will already and seen the list. You are indeed getting everything on there. Your Parents house, which is located a bit from London, our money and my flying motorcycle. I also asked Dumbledore to put my money in Lily and James' vault, along with your other money, when I was gone. This would make it easier for you. That is also the reason why you are getting this letter late: The transferring of my money, along with yours, into your parent's vault cost Dumbledore quite some paperwork and would be finished about half a year after my death.
Another thing I need to write about. When I am dead, do not dwell on it for too long. It is probably caused by my own stupid actions, and it is definitely not your fault. Do not neglect your friends and family. Yes, your family, Harry. You still have one: the Weasley's. And as there are nine of them it will take a while before they are all gone.
Harry, who had started crying because Sirius was addressing him like he wasn't dead at all, snorted. His Godfather had not so subtly been indicating to Voldemort, who seemed to be killing all of Harry's loved ones, trying to get rid of the Weasley's.
So…take good care of your family and friends. And do not dwell on my death for too long; it will only give Voldemort what he wants and that will make him even stronger.
You will have to ask Dumbledore permission to see Potter Manor, as I'm sure you want to visit it soon. It comes with a few house elves as well as a pure blood (house) elf: Zacharias Reland. He is quite nice and has served your family his whole life.
I love you,
Sirius
Harry wiped away his tears and handed Sirius' letter to his friends. After they had read it too, the whole room was silent. Until the door opened. The group looked around and saw Kreacher standing there, laughing cheekily at them. Everyone immediately shot up and began running after the beast, which gave a yelp and started running away. They chased him through the house trying to catch him. Even Hermione was sprinting after him. All of a sudden Mrs. Weasley stood before them and they had to halt, bumping into each other and falling to the floor.
"As much as I loathe that house elf, I cannot have all of you running about through the house. It is time for bed, now go." She walked off, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Nora and Ginny made their ways to their rooms.
"I hate that house elf," Ron grumbled as he and Harry started undressing.
"I hate Kreacher, he is sooo creepy," Ginny said, shivering at the thought of him.
"Yeah, me too. And the nerve of him… to just laugh like that in Harry's face!" Hermione chimed in, looking furious. They talked for a while about the house elf, and then fell asleep.
The three girls were woken the next morning by loud banging noises. The girls walked out of their rooms in their pajamas to see what the noise was. The three of them were about to walk down the stairs when they had to dive out of the way as something red came tearing at them.
"RON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Hermione called from the floor. Ron bounded up the steps with Harry and stopped in front of the girls, who were struggling to stand up.
"Hey guys!" Harry said, rosy cheeked; he had obviously run up and down the stairs with Ron.
"What… were… you… doing?" Hermione asked them.
"Well, we were running up and down the steps," Ron answered shrewdly. Hermione snarled in frustration.
"Why?"
"Mum told us too."
"Why?" Ginny asked, looking at her older brother as if he was insane.
"Well, we went downstairs for breakfast and I asked mum where Kreacher was, 'cause we wanted to catch him. But mum was very busy and I think she was trying to get rid of us because she told us to go run up and down the stairs."
"Did she ask you to break it down in the process?" Nora asked.
"Not that I remember." The three girls sighed.
"Why didn't you just go do something else?" Hermione asked.
"We thought we'd go and annoy mum a bit, besides, there isn't anything else to do around here."
"Wait here while we go and get dressed." The girls entered their room again and a few seconds later crashing sounds could be heard again.
"God, they are just like little children. This would be more of a Fred and George thing than a Harry and Ron thing." Nora sighed. Ginny nodded in agreement.
The five made their way to the kitchen again where Mrs. Weasley was writing things down and muttering to herself.
"What's that?" Ginny asked, pointing at a piece of parchment. Her mom looked up startled and then quickly hid the things on the table.
"Oh, nothing dear, nothing, just some things for the Order." When everything was gone from the table, she added more calmly: "After you have had breakfast I thought you five would like clean up this house. It looks dreadful and a few well-chosen colors could fix the place right up. Of course, you'll be allowed to use magic. There are so many spells and enchantments on this house that no one will notice."
So after breakfast the five started painting the walls. They began with the hall first. In the beginning they had a hard time, but after a bit of practice it soon became real easy.
"HEY, Nora!" Harry yelled.
"What?" She asked, turning her head to look at him. SPLAT She received a jet of the light blue paint right in the face. "HARRY JAMES POTTER! You are so going to DIE!" and she began chasing after him with her wand pointed at him, ready to hit him with some pink colored paint. Harry stopped and faced her. Nora threw the paint at him, but he ducked and instead Ron got hit. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Ron! I didn't mean t- Hey!" Nora ducked as green colored paint made it's way from Ron's wand, hitting Ginny in the stomach. The rest of the hour was spent having paint fights, until Mrs. Weasley came in and ordered them to get back to painting the walls, instead of themselves.
At the end of the week the five had painted every room that would be used and the House looked a lot better than before. Mrs. Weasley came in to inspect the living room they had been working on.
"Very nice work, very well done indeed," she said beaming, walking along the walls. "Well that's it, you five are done painting now. I really appreciate it."
"Mum?" It was Ron.
"Yes, dear?"
"What happened to Kreacher? We haven't seen him for a long time. We think he may be planning something." Mrs. Weasley gave him a somewhat sad smile.
"No, no. Dumbledore has gotten rid of that creature, and of those heads that stood there on that shelf. He wanted to use this house only for the Order and asked me to make it a bit suitable. That was what those papers were for, on the morning when you two had decided to tear down the stairs."
"S-so Kreacher is dead?" Ginny asked? Mrs. Weasley nodded her head and Ginny did a little dance, receiving a glare from Hermione.
"Well, Christmas will be here in a few days, so I thought that tomorrow we could start decorating the house," Mrs. Weasley said happily. The others groaned at the sound of more work. "You can have the rest of today free, but I do expect you to help tomorrow."
"But, Mom! We don't get to do anything fun! All you let us do is work!" Ron exclaimed.
"Well, then you better get started having fun, because you still have to help tomorrow."
"Fine, we will," Ron huffed, and Mrs. Weasley left the room.
"Do you guys know anything fun to do?" Ron asked half an hour later, lying sprawled on one of the sofas. The others shook their heads, bored out of their skulls.
A/N: Hope you liked the chapter. I need reviews please.