CHAPTER 19
He continued walking, desperate to know what was at the end. But it turned out, there was nothing at the end, or was there? He could hear someone. They were behind the corner. Harry turned, to see a girl with long...blue hair.
"Oh hello Harry." Said the girl. Harry recognised that voice. He had heard it so many times.
"Anna!" He gasped.
The girl smiled, then, catching sight of a strand of her hair, stared horror struck at Harry. "Oh no!" She whispered. She shook her head frantically and her long dark hair returned.
"Anna! Harry said amazed. "You're a metamorphmagus!"
"Yes, I suppose I am." Sighed Anna. "It's from my Dad's cousin. Well her daughter has it."
"Really?" Harry said. "I've only met one other person who's had it before, I didn't know there were three in one area."
"Three? Is there really?" Said Anna. "Well now Ginny, Luna any you know about it. So, don't spread it around. Even Dumbledore doesn't know. Well I didn't before I came here actually. I've been practising since."
"Anna, they're really rare! Have you really only told three people?"
"Well, not told. I didn't need to tell Luna, she already knew. And Ginny, well Ginny guessed. It was me who came into the compartment a moment ago."
"What, you made yourself look like Ingrid?"
"Yes, I can do it for Ginny as well. I find it harder with blond hair though. So I can't do Luna."
"What do you mean do it for Ginny?" Harry asked her, voice shaking slightly.
"Well I can be her, look like her I mean. I disguise myself as Ginny a lot, so I can be in the Gryffindor tower."
"You mean it was you in the Gryffindor common room a few months ago? Ginny was just sitting at a desk, when she changed into you, or it must have been the other way around."
"Yes, that's right. Well Ginny and me, we have this, well I can't tell you what it is Harry. The only people who know are me, Ginny and Luna of course."
"Why Luna?" Harry asked, frowning at her as though searching for a trace of a false smile.
"Oh, don't you know?" Anna said in mild surprise. "Luna's a Skelthirophus."
"A what?"
"A Skelthirophus." Anna repeated. "Well I'm going back to the carriage. Are you coming?"
"Yeah, OK." Said Harry and they returned to the compartment together.
There was icy silence when they entered. It seemed that Hermione had had too much, because the seat by the door she had been sitting in was not occupied. "Where's Hermione?" He asked. "I need to ask her about - "
"This lot drove her out." Ron glared at Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Pierres who were looking superior.
"I have to find her!" Harry hissed at Ron.
"Don't bother Potter." Muttered Pierres. "We're at Kings Cross." Harry looked out of the window and sure enough, they were back at Platform 9 ¾.
"Now we need to find Hermione!" Said Ginny, and left the compartment. The train grinned to a halt, and a whistle blew. They scrambled off. There was no sign of Mr or Mrs Weasley yet; they carried their trunks through the barrier dividing Kings Cross-station and Platform 9 ¾. Closely followed by Pierres and Dean.
There were two girls who looked around 8 or 9 chatting to each other. One of them had blond hair and was holding her mother's hand, while the other had darkish hair, not unlike Anna Chang's. Their parents seemed to be in deep conversation.
"Dean!" Squealed the girl with blond hair and ran up to him.
"That must be Amanda," Ginny whispered, as the girl with the dark hair smiled and waved at Pierres. And that's Isabelle." The girl with the blond hair was not wrapped so tightly round Dean; he didn't look as though he could properly breathe.
"See you Harry." Dean said to him, before he, his family and the Polkins vanished from view.
"Ron, Ginny, Harry!" Came a voice from besides the barrier of platform 10. They turned, Mrs Weasley was waving at them, and Hermione was with her.
"We're not going by floo powder," said Mrs Weasley. "Too dangerous."
"Why?" Harry asked, they had travelled this way so many times before he didn't think once more would hurt.
"Well no one's doing it any more. The ministry have disabled most floo connections but of course a fair few will remain." Mrs Weasley smiled at them, as though willing them to ask no more questions.
"But, why is it dangerous?" Harry persisted.
Hermione shot him a warning look and Ginny stepped on his and Ron's feet at the same time. There was a synchronised groan of pain. "So how are we getting back?" Ginny smiled.
"Well we're going to Grimmauld Place, Arthur can't leave it now so much has been going on. So we're getting muggle transport there."
Harry was very surprised Mrs Weasley knew how muggle transport worked, but he did catch her glancing at a list of instructions every so often. They arrived in a shabby street in London, and at once, Number 12 Grimmauld Place appeared.
"Come on," hissed Mrs Weasley, and they went inside.
It was exactly the same as it had been the year before, but somehow for Harry, it didn't feel the same.
"Oh, hello!" Mundungus Fletcher staggered over, a bottle of Fire whiskey clutched in his hand.
"Oh put that thing down will you Dung!" Kingsley Shakklebolt arrived at the scene. "Oh you got here alright Molly, good good. William and a couple of his friends are coming over later this week. I hope it's alright with you Molly, not too much trouble I hope."
"No, no that's fine." Said Mrs Weasley but Harry could tell she was thinking about the three more mouths to feed and beds to set up."
"Oh and their father's coming." Said Kingsley, "not my brother, the Evans man. He's an old friend you know, but not a drop of magical blood in him."
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny left them too it. They went upstairs to the bedrooms they had had last year. Harry was very miserable to be back here. Now he knew how Sirius had felt when he came back. It led Harry on to a whole new path of unhappy fairly recent memories.
"I'm going to get some homework done if we'll be having guests, are you coming Hermione?" Ginny asked her.
But for once Hermione abandoned the chance of getting homework done. "I don't think I will actually," she said to everyone's surprise. "What is it Ron?" She snapped. "I need to talk to Harry."
So as Ginny vanished into her room, he Hermione and Ron headed downstairs to the Black Tapestry. "So what is it?" Hermione asked him, running a finger along the many gold lines on the Black family tapestry.
"Hermione, do you know what a Skelthirophus is?" He asked her, Ron watching the conversation.
"Yes, I do actually." Said Hermione, finger pausing on the small hole where Sirius' name had many years before been. "You don't know anyone who is do you?" Hermione gasped, letting her hand drop from the tapestry.
"Yeah," Harry said, "Luna Lovegood."
Hermione let out a gasp, but Harry and Ron looked puzzled. "Harry, do you know what this means?" Hermione said, looking horror struck. "Luna Lovegood knows everything about all of us! She must be the only one for thousands and thousands of miles! We've got to tell the Order! It's so important! This is dreadful! Who told you Harry!"
"Why is it awful? What do you mean know all about us? Anna Chang told me."
"Oh Harry! It means, well, if someone is a Skelthirophus, they can see what's going on inside everyone's head that they know. Even you, you've met her haven't you!"
"What?" Ron yelped. "You mean she knows what I think about her!"
"Yes!" Hermione said. "She'll know all about the Order if we think about it, all about this conversation if she wanted to, and she'll know exactly what people think of her!"
"Oops." Said Ron.
"But," Hermione continued, "it's one of those things you can only use at will, like being a metamorphmagus. If she wanted to, she could see everything going on inside your head."
"So maybe she wasn't using it at, say 3 o clock yesterday?" Ron said, looking hopeful.
"Maybe not." Said Hermione, turning back to the tapestry. "But we'll have to tell the Order later, it seems this is the time for finding things out." She smiled; her finger was resting on a name at the end of a vertical line leading from Regulus Black. "It seems Sirius had a niece he never knew about."
"What?" Ron and Harry both ran over to the tapestry, sure enough there was the name Regulus Black next to the small hole where Sirius had been, and a line leading from it read 'Anna Black.'
"She must be a year old then." Harry said, that name wasn't there last time! Hang on, she can't have been, Regulus Black died years ago, Sirius told me last year."
"You're right!" Said Hermione, "here's the birth date, the 15th September, its eleven years ago! Someone must have realised they were related and filled her in on the tapestry. I wonder who."
"That would have been me." Came a voice from the doorway.
They all turned. Albus Dumbledore entered the room, looked at the tapestry and smiled. "I've just arrived." He said. "Ah yes, I myself did that," he pointed at the name Anna Black. "But of course, I only realised who she was when she started at Hogwarts in September. Haven't you ever wondered why she was on such good terms with Draco Malfoy?" He pointed at Malfoy's name, that was at the end of a gold line leading from Narcissa Black and Lucius Malfoy. "I believe Mr Malfoy would be a distant cousin to her, as their parents were cousins themselves."
"You mean she's at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, amazed he had never met her.
"Oh yes, but she goes by the name Anna Chang, I believe the Chang family adopted her after her father died nine years ago." Said Dumbledore, smiling down his moon shaped glasses at the tapestry.
"I thought she looked like Sirius!" Ron said triumphantly.
"Yes, I suppose she does doesn't she," Said Dumbledore, "I'm surprised you didn't know about her." Smiling once more, he left the room, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione staring in awe at the tapestry.
They had completely forgotten to tell the Order about Luna Lovegood, and before they knew it, it was the day William, Ingrid, Andrew and their father would be arriving. Mrs Weasley was running around the house with a duster and Mundungus could be found chatting heartily to anyone who would listen. "Oh give it a rest Dung!" Ron groaned for the fifth time as they went into the kitchen for breakfast.
"So I said to him I said, well as long as I get the cauldron, it don't matter whether my beard has biscuit crumbs in it or not!" Grinned Dung to the kitchen table.
Ron groaned loudly and helped himself to scrambled eggs. "No, no, it's true. We we're sitting there we were, and 'e just said..."
"I'm not really hungry anymore." Said Ginny. Harry was feeling the same way himself. The stench of fire whiskey was a lot stronger now Mundungus was just feet away.
At that moment Tonks came into the kitchen. "Oh, hello! Dung what are you doing here still? Molly's going to murder you!"
"Yeah, she did say something about not wanting me around when the guests were here. Well, I'm a man of my own." He gave Tonks a toothy grin and put his feet on the table.
"I don't believe this!" Came Mrs Weasley's shrill voice. "Mundungus Fletcher! I told you to get out of this house!"
"But I'm a member of the Order! And it's my place as much as it is yours!" Retorted Mundungus.
"I want him out!" Mrs Weasley hissed at Tonks who Harry knew could no more have ordered him out of the kitchen, than ordered him to wash his beard.
"Yeah, go on Dung," grunted Kingsley Shakklebolt from the doorway. Mundungus grinned at Kingsley. "Oh alright! I'll go make some more sales then, I will." He got up, groaning and rubbing his back, then left the kitchen.
"I can't stand him!" Roared Mrs Weasley. "Why on Earth did you ask him to join the order anyway Kingsley? Where are Fred and George? Aren't they up yet?" She left the kitchen and they heard her climbing the stairs.
"They're taking a Christmas holiday." Ron explained to Harry.
He continued walking, desperate to know what was at the end. But it turned out, there was nothing at the end, or was there? He could hear someone. They were behind the corner. Harry turned, to see a girl with long...blue hair.
"Oh hello Harry." Said the girl. Harry recognised that voice. He had heard it so many times.
"Anna!" He gasped.
The girl smiled, then, catching sight of a strand of her hair, stared horror struck at Harry. "Oh no!" She whispered. She shook her head frantically and her long dark hair returned.
"Anna! Harry said amazed. "You're a metamorphmagus!"
"Yes, I suppose I am." Sighed Anna. "It's from my Dad's cousin. Well her daughter has it."
"Really?" Harry said. "I've only met one other person who's had it before, I didn't know there were three in one area."
"Three? Is there really?" Said Anna. "Well now Ginny, Luna any you know about it. So, don't spread it around. Even Dumbledore doesn't know. Well I didn't before I came here actually. I've been practising since."
"Anna, they're really rare! Have you really only told three people?"
"Well, not told. I didn't need to tell Luna, she already knew. And Ginny, well Ginny guessed. It was me who came into the compartment a moment ago."
"What, you made yourself look like Ingrid?"
"Yes, I can do it for Ginny as well. I find it harder with blond hair though. So I can't do Luna."
"What do you mean do it for Ginny?" Harry asked her, voice shaking slightly.
"Well I can be her, look like her I mean. I disguise myself as Ginny a lot, so I can be in the Gryffindor tower."
"You mean it was you in the Gryffindor common room a few months ago? Ginny was just sitting at a desk, when she changed into you, or it must have been the other way around."
"Yes, that's right. Well Ginny and me, we have this, well I can't tell you what it is Harry. The only people who know are me, Ginny and Luna of course."
"Why Luna?" Harry asked, frowning at her as though searching for a trace of a false smile.
"Oh, don't you know?" Anna said in mild surprise. "Luna's a Skelthirophus."
"A what?"
"A Skelthirophus." Anna repeated. "Well I'm going back to the carriage. Are you coming?"
"Yeah, OK." Said Harry and they returned to the compartment together.
There was icy silence when they entered. It seemed that Hermione had had too much, because the seat by the door she had been sitting in was not occupied. "Where's Hermione?" He asked. "I need to ask her about - "
"This lot drove her out." Ron glared at Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Pierres who were looking superior.
"I have to find her!" Harry hissed at Ron.
"Don't bother Potter." Muttered Pierres. "We're at Kings Cross." Harry looked out of the window and sure enough, they were back at Platform 9 ¾.
"Now we need to find Hermione!" Said Ginny, and left the compartment. The train grinned to a halt, and a whistle blew. They scrambled off. There was no sign of Mr or Mrs Weasley yet; they carried their trunks through the barrier dividing Kings Cross-station and Platform 9 ¾. Closely followed by Pierres and Dean.
There were two girls who looked around 8 or 9 chatting to each other. One of them had blond hair and was holding her mother's hand, while the other had darkish hair, not unlike Anna Chang's. Their parents seemed to be in deep conversation.
"Dean!" Squealed the girl with blond hair and ran up to him.
"That must be Amanda," Ginny whispered, as the girl with the dark hair smiled and waved at Pierres. And that's Isabelle." The girl with the blond hair was not wrapped so tightly round Dean; he didn't look as though he could properly breathe.
"See you Harry." Dean said to him, before he, his family and the Polkins vanished from view.
"Ron, Ginny, Harry!" Came a voice from besides the barrier of platform 10. They turned, Mrs Weasley was waving at them, and Hermione was with her.
"We're not going by floo powder," said Mrs Weasley. "Too dangerous."
"Why?" Harry asked, they had travelled this way so many times before he didn't think once more would hurt.
"Well no one's doing it any more. The ministry have disabled most floo connections but of course a fair few will remain." Mrs Weasley smiled at them, as though willing them to ask no more questions.
"But, why is it dangerous?" Harry persisted.
Hermione shot him a warning look and Ginny stepped on his and Ron's feet at the same time. There was a synchronised groan of pain. "So how are we getting back?" Ginny smiled.
"Well we're going to Grimmauld Place, Arthur can't leave it now so much has been going on. So we're getting muggle transport there."
Harry was very surprised Mrs Weasley knew how muggle transport worked, but he did catch her glancing at a list of instructions every so often. They arrived in a shabby street in London, and at once, Number 12 Grimmauld Place appeared.
"Come on," hissed Mrs Weasley, and they went inside.
It was exactly the same as it had been the year before, but somehow for Harry, it didn't feel the same.
"Oh, hello!" Mundungus Fletcher staggered over, a bottle of Fire whiskey clutched in his hand.
"Oh put that thing down will you Dung!" Kingsley Shakklebolt arrived at the scene. "Oh you got here alright Molly, good good. William and a couple of his friends are coming over later this week. I hope it's alright with you Molly, not too much trouble I hope."
"No, no that's fine." Said Mrs Weasley but Harry could tell she was thinking about the three more mouths to feed and beds to set up."
"Oh and their father's coming." Said Kingsley, "not my brother, the Evans man. He's an old friend you know, but not a drop of magical blood in him."
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny left them too it. They went upstairs to the bedrooms they had had last year. Harry was very miserable to be back here. Now he knew how Sirius had felt when he came back. It led Harry on to a whole new path of unhappy fairly recent memories.
"I'm going to get some homework done if we'll be having guests, are you coming Hermione?" Ginny asked her.
But for once Hermione abandoned the chance of getting homework done. "I don't think I will actually," she said to everyone's surprise. "What is it Ron?" She snapped. "I need to talk to Harry."
So as Ginny vanished into her room, he Hermione and Ron headed downstairs to the Black Tapestry. "So what is it?" Hermione asked him, running a finger along the many gold lines on the Black family tapestry.
"Hermione, do you know what a Skelthirophus is?" He asked her, Ron watching the conversation.
"Yes, I do actually." Said Hermione, finger pausing on the small hole where Sirius' name had many years before been. "You don't know anyone who is do you?" Hermione gasped, letting her hand drop from the tapestry.
"Yeah," Harry said, "Luna Lovegood."
Hermione let out a gasp, but Harry and Ron looked puzzled. "Harry, do you know what this means?" Hermione said, looking horror struck. "Luna Lovegood knows everything about all of us! She must be the only one for thousands and thousands of miles! We've got to tell the Order! It's so important! This is dreadful! Who told you Harry!"
"Why is it awful? What do you mean know all about us? Anna Chang told me."
"Oh Harry! It means, well, if someone is a Skelthirophus, they can see what's going on inside everyone's head that they know. Even you, you've met her haven't you!"
"What?" Ron yelped. "You mean she knows what I think about her!"
"Yes!" Hermione said. "She'll know all about the Order if we think about it, all about this conversation if she wanted to, and she'll know exactly what people think of her!"
"Oops." Said Ron.
"But," Hermione continued, "it's one of those things you can only use at will, like being a metamorphmagus. If she wanted to, she could see everything going on inside your head."
"So maybe she wasn't using it at, say 3 o clock yesterday?" Ron said, looking hopeful.
"Maybe not." Said Hermione, turning back to the tapestry. "But we'll have to tell the Order later, it seems this is the time for finding things out." She smiled; her finger was resting on a name at the end of a vertical line leading from Regulus Black. "It seems Sirius had a niece he never knew about."
"What?" Ron and Harry both ran over to the tapestry, sure enough there was the name Regulus Black next to the small hole where Sirius had been, and a line leading from it read 'Anna Black.'
"She must be a year old then." Harry said, that name wasn't there last time! Hang on, she can't have been, Regulus Black died years ago, Sirius told me last year."
"You're right!" Said Hermione, "here's the birth date, the 15th September, its eleven years ago! Someone must have realised they were related and filled her in on the tapestry. I wonder who."
"That would have been me." Came a voice from the doorway.
They all turned. Albus Dumbledore entered the room, looked at the tapestry and smiled. "I've just arrived." He said. "Ah yes, I myself did that," he pointed at the name Anna Black. "But of course, I only realised who she was when she started at Hogwarts in September. Haven't you ever wondered why she was on such good terms with Draco Malfoy?" He pointed at Malfoy's name, that was at the end of a gold line leading from Narcissa Black and Lucius Malfoy. "I believe Mr Malfoy would be a distant cousin to her, as their parents were cousins themselves."
"You mean she's at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, amazed he had never met her.
"Oh yes, but she goes by the name Anna Chang, I believe the Chang family adopted her after her father died nine years ago." Said Dumbledore, smiling down his moon shaped glasses at the tapestry.
"I thought she looked like Sirius!" Ron said triumphantly.
"Yes, I suppose she does doesn't she," Said Dumbledore, "I'm surprised you didn't know about her." Smiling once more, he left the room, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione staring in awe at the tapestry.
They had completely forgotten to tell the Order about Luna Lovegood, and before they knew it, it was the day William, Ingrid, Andrew and their father would be arriving. Mrs Weasley was running around the house with a duster and Mundungus could be found chatting heartily to anyone who would listen. "Oh give it a rest Dung!" Ron groaned for the fifth time as they went into the kitchen for breakfast.
"So I said to him I said, well as long as I get the cauldron, it don't matter whether my beard has biscuit crumbs in it or not!" Grinned Dung to the kitchen table.
Ron groaned loudly and helped himself to scrambled eggs. "No, no, it's true. We we're sitting there we were, and 'e just said..."
"I'm not really hungry anymore." Said Ginny. Harry was feeling the same way himself. The stench of fire whiskey was a lot stronger now Mundungus was just feet away.
At that moment Tonks came into the kitchen. "Oh, hello! Dung what are you doing here still? Molly's going to murder you!"
"Yeah, she did say something about not wanting me around when the guests were here. Well, I'm a man of my own." He gave Tonks a toothy grin and put his feet on the table.
"I don't believe this!" Came Mrs Weasley's shrill voice. "Mundungus Fletcher! I told you to get out of this house!"
"But I'm a member of the Order! And it's my place as much as it is yours!" Retorted Mundungus.
"I want him out!" Mrs Weasley hissed at Tonks who Harry knew could no more have ordered him out of the kitchen, than ordered him to wash his beard.
"Yeah, go on Dung," grunted Kingsley Shakklebolt from the doorway. Mundungus grinned at Kingsley. "Oh alright! I'll go make some more sales then, I will." He got up, groaning and rubbing his back, then left the kitchen.
"I can't stand him!" Roared Mrs Weasley. "Why on Earth did you ask him to join the order anyway Kingsley? Where are Fred and George? Aren't they up yet?" She left the kitchen and they heard her climbing the stairs.
"They're taking a Christmas holiday." Ron explained to Harry.