Chapter 5- Summer Begins
Harry had fallen asleep right where Cassie had placed him the night before. When he woke up he was alone in the room. Ron had probably gone down for breakfast. He changed his clothes and walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Everybody was already eating.
"Morning Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said merrily. "Hope you slept well. I figured you'd be tired so I told everybody not to wake you," she handed him a plate of bacon, eggs and toast. "We've got some work to do today so eat up!"
Around the table were Ron and his family and Hermione. Everybody was eating silently except for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. They were discussing some of the work they would be doing throughout the day. Harry wasn't hungry. He found his mind drifting back to Sirius. Last time he was around this table, Sirius was alive. The last time he was in Grimmauld Place, Sirius was alive. The last time Harry felt truly happy, Sirius was alive.
Harry, Hermione and the Weasley children were in the attic, trying to clear out all of the rats that had made their homes in the darkness. Mrs. Weasley wanted to use the attic as storage. Nobody knew what for but they did what they were told. The old dusty attic was dark and depressing. The only source of light was a lantern placed in the middle so they could see what they were doing. The fumes of the rat gas they were using were starting to get to Harry's head.
He heard footsteps coming up the staircase. He turned around and saw Cassie. He was starting to wonder what happened to her. She looked somewhat ruffled. Her hair wasn't as neat as it was yesterday and she looked exhausted.
"Hey Cassie. How'd you sleep?" Ron said handing her a pump full of rat gas.
"Okay I guess," she said rubbing her eyes. "It took a while to fall asleep. I have this massive headache."
"You sure you're up for this?" Ron asked as he continued to spray corners behind the beams.
"Yeah, I figure if I give my mind some exercise it might help. Gotta keep using the powers or they might slow down you know." She levitated some of the already knocked out rats and dropped them in the bucket.
After about two hours of work the attic was rat free. They were now working on the room where Buckbeak was kept. Whenever a rat got knocked out, Buckbeak enjoyed pouncing on it before swallowing it whole.
During lunch people were coming in and out of the house. Lupin, Tonks, even Snape and Dumbledore. None of them stayed long enough for Harry to talk to thought. Not until the evenings during dinner however. Lupin and Tonks stayed for some of Mrs. Weasley's chicken. Harry was tired from all de-ratting and hardly had any energy to talk. Tonks and Lupin didn't say much to Harry. There wasn't anything to really say. They couldn't talk about the business of the Order because Harry wasn't of age and of course Mrs. Weasley would disapprove.
The rest of Harry's summer was spent the same. Cleansing the house during the day, having dinner with members of the Order in the evenings, and occasionally some eavesdropping with the Weasley's, Hermione, and Cassie whenever there were major meetings of the Order.
July slowly slipped away into August. Harry counted off the weeks until he would return to Hogwarts. He was starting to get over the loss of Sirius until one day in the middle of August. Everything came flooding back to him.
"Children!" Mrs. Weasley called up to them one evening. "Come down here please. We have some things to take care of."
Everybody stomped downstairs and into the kitchen. Cassie was sitting on a chair. Her legs folded, her eyes purple and pupil-less.
"What's going on?" Harry said quite loudly.
"Shhh..." All the adults in the room hushed him. Dumbledore, Lupin and Tonks were sitting already at the table.
"Do you know what this is about?" Harry whispered to Ron.
He shrugged, "I dunno. But she's doing something. Something in her head's going on."
Harry looked at her mysteriously. She looked deep in thought. Occasionally her eyes would move around the room, almost looking through them instead of at them. It seemed like she was listening to something the rest of them couldn't hear. The kitchen was silent. All eyes were on her.
The purple in her eyes slowly faded back to the brown they usually were. Her pupils came back as well. She was breathing heavily.
"What did he say?" Dumbledore questioned quietly.
"Anybody care to explain what's going on?" Harry said louder than he meant to. "Who's she listening to? Why are we down here?"
"You're down here," Dumbledore explained, "Because Sirius has some things that he wants to leave for all of you."
