CHAPTER THREE
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The Plates over the Mantle

Lupin led the party of attendees around the ancient house that Harry suddenly remembered was not there last year, and through the front door. Harry had to shield his eyes from the light coming from the chandeliers. When his eyes adjusted his jaw dropped; there were no cobwebs in sight, and the floors sparkled out of the corner of Harry's eye. But there was carpeting here last year! I swear it, he thought. The walls were clean and there were no elf heads in sight, a relief to Harry; he could not stand the sight of those rotting heads.

They filed into the parlor where Harry and his friends waited for the news of Mr. Weasley's status after he was attacked by a snake a year before. An array of smell barraged Harry's nose, two tables were covered in refreshments. Mounds of chocolate frogs and pastries covered the platters, biscuits littered the table and huge pots of fondue of both cheese and chocolate were at the ends of each table. Fruit and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans filled huge silver basins. Pumpkin juice and butterbeer were in buckets of ice under the tables. Harry felt a warm feeling as he sat down in a new chair by the fireplace, the feeling of belonging.

Professor McGonagall walked up to Harry. She sat down in a chair opposite of him, and handed him an envelope. "Harry, I have some good news for you."

Harry opened the envelope. Confetti sprung out of the card and became stuck in his hair. He read,

Harry,

Congratulations! You have passed all of your O.W.L. exams! You will be in every N.E.W.T. class you need in order to become an Auror!

Professor McGonagall

Harry smiled. He could pursue the profession he wanted. She stood up and patted him on his head. "Good luck!" Before she could leave, Harry called her.

"Professor?"

"Yes, Potter?"

"How come we can see Grimmauld Place now, but last year the only thing we could see was a door?"

"Last year, Harry, we put a charm on this house. The charm worked like this, Muggles could see this house, but wizards and witches couldn't. Now because we placed another charm on the Portkeys, anyone who attended the service today can see this house. Understand?"

She left before Harry could answer. Ron replaced McGonagall in the seat across from Harry. He was holding a plate piled high with sweets. He tossed Harry one of two bottles of butterbeer that were in his hand. Hermione sat beside Ron's chair on the floor, "It's good to have you back, Harry," she said and then she took a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"Did you hear Snape's speech?" Ron asked in between mouthfuls of creampuff.

"Snape is here?" Harry's face contorted into a look of surprise.

Hermione and Ron exchanged looks. "Where was your head?" Hermione demanded. "He spoke right after that girl."

"Yeah," Ron confirmed. "Do you know her? 'Cause you were staring at her the whole time."

Harry opened his mouth to speak when he caught a glimpse of the girl out of the corner of her eye.

"Well," he said, "I had a dream of her, but I'll tell you about it later. Who cleaned the house? It looks great!" he quickly added in an attempt to break the tension. It worked.

"Mum has been going at it since we got here," Ron began. "She changed the carpet into wood flooring and she put a spell on the walls to have a fresh coat of paint that will never crack or get dirty. Too bad she hasn't done that to the Burrow." Ron shoveled a couple more pastries into his mouth.

"Well, Harry, it wasn't all of Mrs. Weasley's work. That girl, Selene right?" Harry nodded and Hermione continued, "She came in really late last night. I heard her talking to Lupin, but I didn't hear what. Anyway, she helped Mrs. Weasley get the house one hundred percent clean before dawn. I do remember her saying that she was going to clean the upstairs rooms." Before she could continue on, two loud pops sounded in the air in front of them. Ron's twin brothers, Fred and George, were now standing in the middle of the trio's group.

"Who was that bird?" Fred asked.

"She sure was a looker," George replied.

"Are you lashed up? How could you be so indifferent to her? Ugh! I'll never understand men!" Hermione got up and stomped up the stairs.

"What a loony girl! We were just acknowledging her good looks," George protested.

"She's up in knots for no reason! Women, I don't think we'll ever understand them," Fred replied, and with that the two Disapparated.

Hours passed by, and the amount of guests dwindled. Ron and Harry played a couple of rounds of Wizard's Chess and headed to their rooms to get changed out of their robes. When Harry stepped into his room the lights automatically turned on. His jaw dropped as he looked at his neatly arranged belongings, and scanned the room. The portrait that hung on the wall was covered with a black velvet cloth and the walls smelled of fresh paint. His bed was adorned with clean cotton sheets, and there was no sign of dust to be seen. Harry closed the door behind him and pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt. He left the room and traveled down the stairs and into the basement, the lights shutting off behind him.

Harry heard Hermione say, "-and they called you a looker and a bird!"

"Hermione, I don't think they meant it as an insult!"

He stepped onto the hard stone floor of the cellar and an echo, an unusually loud one, made the two young ladies at the stove turn around. "Er... hello?"

"Hi, Harry," Hermione replied to his feeble greeting. "This is Selene."

Harry crossed the room and shook her outstretched hand, "A pleasure to meet you, Selene," he said.

"It's nice to meet you too," she replied. She was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with "Aidanadolfor" written in blue printed on it. Her hair was tied back into a messy bun, but the same strand of hair was present in front of her face. "You want to help us set the table for dinner? Mrs. Weasley went somewhere and left us in charge of dinner preps."

Harry replied, "Sure." Selene handed him a stack of dishes and told him to set the places according to what name was printed on the plate. Harry stared at the golden letters and placed all of the Weasleys' plates first. They took up almost a whole side of the table. "Let's see, Mr. then Mrs., then Fred and George then Ginny and finally Ron. Then I'll sit next to Ron and then Hermione on my other side." Harry placed the rest of the plates down in no specific order from then on.

Hermione pulled on a rope that was hanging from the ceiling, and minutes later wizards and witches began to gather at the table. The Weasleys took their seats and the other guests were climbing over each other to see which plate had their name on it, but Mrs. Weasley still was not present in the room. Tonks grabbed the end seat then Lupin sat next to her, Mad Eye Moody wobbled to a chair one seat down from Lupin's. Mundungus Fletcher slid into the seat next to Moody and the last three seats remained vacant.

Harry watched as Selene looked at the plates in front of the empty chairs. He continued to follow her with his eyes as she silently picked them up and carried them to the counter. She opened a cabinet door and pulled out some nails, a couple of hooks and a hammer. Selene walked over to the wall, stopped, and turned to face the folk gathered around the table. She put the items back on the counter and went to a box in a dark corner of the room. She pulled out a large golden brown turkey and carried it to the table. "Sorry about that," she said as she gently placed the dish in the center of the table.

"Hermione, could you please help me?" Hermione stood up from her seat adjacent to Harry's and walked to Selene. They both crept to the corner and carried out mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, vegetables, mugs of butterbeer, and a huge tureen of soup.

"I hope you enjoy it," Selene said as Hermione took her seat. "Go ahead and help yourselves, I'll be there in a minute. Harry continued to watch her as she glided to the counter, collected the tools and plates, and went up the stone steps. Everyone began to talk at once as soon as she left, but Harry sat silent for a couple of minutes until Ron punched him in the arm and told him to eat.

Minutes later Selene slipped into the chair opposite of Harry's, next to Lupin. She quietly ate her food that Lupin had hurriedly spooned onto her plate when she was gone.

Harry put a spoonful of the mashed potatoes into his mouth. The warm garlicky mush seemed to melt in his mouth, and the taste of butter danced on his tongue. He took another bite and gravy swirled against his palate, it was heaven for his taste buds, in his opinion it was better than the food prepared at Hogwarts. He silently cut his turkey and ate a piece. The juice made him smile the cooked bird was tender and made him feel as though he needed another bite as if his life depended on it. He took a swig of butterbeer and tried to start a conversation.

"So Selene," Selene's head jerked her face from its down-facing position and looked at Harry. "Er, do you play Quidditch?"

"Yeah, actually my dad was on the American Quidditch team. He taught me all of the positions so that I could make my house team at school."

"No wonder where I heard your name before!" Ron exclaimed. "That man did look familiar. What was he?"

"He was a Chaser, but usually he'd have to be the Seeker because the signed one was very accident prone. They did have other people play as a Chaser for my dad."

"What did your mother do?" Hermione asked.

"She was an Auror. That was how my parents met actually; they both went to the same Auror School, but my dad dropped out to play Quidditch. My mom was the referee during certain games and for practices."

Lupin joined in the conversation then, "I remember one game that your mother played in when she was at Hogwarts. She was the Gryffindor Keeper, and in the last game against Slytherin of our seventh year, she blocked every single attempt at a goal. Harry, your father did great in that game too. He scored almost all of the goals, but she pulled off this amazing block; she jumped, no, dove off of her broom, grabbed the Quaffle, and was able to summon her broom just before she hit the ground. You see Chaundra was circling above the posts because the Seeker was delirious from being hit in the head with a Bludger, and she was trying to help him find it."

The door at the top of the stairs squeaked; Harry jumped and turned around to find Mrs. Weasley carrying a huge cake into the room. She walked over to the table and flicked her wand which she was carrying between her middle and forefingers. The plates moved themselves in order to make room for the giant pastry. She put it down in the center of the table.

"Everyone done with dinner?" she asked. Energetic nods came from the men and women sitting around the table. Mrs. Weasley flicked her wand again and the dishes floated their way into the sink and the trays of food placed themselves in the box in the corner of the room. "Happy Birthday Selene and Harry!"

"That can't be right," Selene protested, "It can't be August first already!"

"We're in different time zones, dear," she replied.

"Well, that explains why I'm so tired!"

Mrs. Weasley handed generously sized pieces of cake after Harry and Selene blew out the sixteen candles together.

After everyone had finished their cake, Moody's gruff voice said, "So Selene, how about you tell us some more about your past? I know I would like to hear about it."

Harry looked at Selene to see her reaction. "Sure, how about we go into the living, er, drawing room and I'll tell you and anyone else that wants to hear all about it?"

Moody grunted and Selene stood up, so did Harry and the rest of the company, but Mrs. Weasley staid behind.

They filed out of the stairwell and into the drawing room. All of the tables and refreshments from the party had vanished. Harry caught a glint of gold in his eye; he turned and looked at the fireplace. Hanging from the wall above the mantle were three plates, the plate on the lower left said, "Bade," the plate opposite of it said, "Chaundra," and in the center higher than the two hung the third plate with "Sirius," written across it.