Harry hesitated but eventually made his way down after Mrs. Weasley. He walked past the heads of the Black's former house elves without looking at them. They made him think of Kreacher and Kreacher was part of the reason that Harry had no godfather. He had a sudden urge to tear all of the heads off of the wall and throw each one at the portrait of Sirius' mother but was distracted by Mrs. Weasley who had turned to talk to him.

"We've been so worried about you. Sitting up there in that dusty, old room all day. It's just not…healthy." She had hesitated on that last word. She didn't want Harry to think that she thought something was mentally wrong with him.

"I'm fine," Harry lied. He didn't bother to lower his voice while passing the portrait of Sirius' mother. He really didn't care if she started to scream, it would have taken his mind off of other things.

"Well," she continued in a quieter voice, "a nice cup of tea will do you good."

Harry didn't say anything. The last thing he wanted to do right now was eat or drink. No, he felt more like going back up to his dark and dusty room to sit on the bed and stare at the wall. That sounded better than making it known to the other people in the house that he was still alive and therefore can attempt to talk about his problems. But Harry didn't want to talk about his problems, he didn't want to talk to anybody, not even his friends, he just wanted the comfort that only solitude could provide him. But nonetheless, a small part of him must have wanted to talk to people for he was still following Mrs. Weasley towards the sounds of conversation and laughter and somewhere, even deeper inside, was a feeling of happiness that came from being in the presence of such warm company.

They made their way into the kitchen and much to Harry's dismay there was a rather large crowd there. As soon as he entered the room, every head turned his way and it made him feel very uncomfortable. Ron and Hermione both had responded with an enthusiastic, "Harry!" when he entered the tiny kitchen. Ginny, who was sitting next to Ron, smiled and waved at Harry and then quickly averted his eyes. Also at the table, to Harry's complete surprise, sat Fred and George, both dressed in what looked like very expensive clothing. They both grinned mischievously at him. Lastly sat Remus Lupin who looked very tired indeed but still managed to give Harry a warm smile.

"Harry I'm so glad you came down," cried Hermione as she gave him an enormous hug, "we've been so worried." Tears rimmed her eyes and her grip on Harry's arm was extremely tight.

"You've been up there forever mate," said Ron as he gave Harry a pat on the back and a worried look.

"I'm fine," Harry repeated, "I'm just tired."

"Well then why don't you sleep while you're up in that room instead of staring at that tapestry all day," said George.

Ginny gave George a stern look as if to scold him for his abruptness but he ignored her.

"George is right, Harry," responded Fred, "it's not good for you to sit in this house all by yourself. You might get attacked by some kind of creature and we would never be able to hear you scream."

George and Ron laughed but Harry only managed a crooked smile.

"Well," said Mrs. Weasley, "why don't you have a seat and I'll make you a drink. Go on, sit down."

Harry sat next to Lupin who was staring at him as if he were hoping for a glimpse of the old Harry, but he never saw it. Truthfully, Harry didn't want to see Remus at the moment. It brought back painful memories of Sirius. Ginny's gaze on the other hand rarely met his eyes and for a moment, Harry felt as if he were back when they first met. She sat there determinedly looking at her folded hands as she started to blush furiously. Harry couldn't help but to smile slightly.

"How are you, Harry?" Remus said suddenly.

Harry shrugged. He was getting sick of saying he was fine and there was no other way to describe how he felt unless it was something extremely unpleasant. He avoided looking at Remus in hopes that he would stop talking to him. He wanted so much to be alone right now. Avoiding his gaze didn't work and he began to talk again.

"Listen, Harry," he began rather slowly and quietly, "if you ever need to talk, I'm here." Harry nodded but still did not look at him. Remus looked as if he wanted to talk to him more but he could tell that Harry was not in the mood. Feeling defeated, Remus finally took his attention away from Harry and towards his own cup as he swirled the contents of it slowly.

"Here we are," Mrs. Weasley said pleasantly as she handed Harry his tea, "I put a bit of something extra in there just for you."

Her eyes lingered a little too long on him as he raised the cup to his lips and Harry hesitated to drink. What exactly did she put in his tea? He felt everybody's eyes boring into the top of his head as he stared down into his teacup.

"What exactly did you add?" said Harry rather sheepishly. He didn't want to seem ungrateful for the tea that he hadn't yet bothered to try.

"Oh, just this and that," replied Mrs. Weasley with a rather guilty looking grin, "just take a sip, it won't kill you, I promise."

He took a quick sip and instantly felt a warm sensation, much like the feeling of being plunged into a hot bath, spread throughout his cold and tired body. The feeling made his arms and legs tingle with suppressed energy and he suddenly felt the fatigue caused by weeks of restless nights leave his body as if someone had drained it from each of his fingertips. This wonderful feeling made his mouth force a smile while deep down he was struggling to make his body feel miserable again. Mrs. Weasley must have put some kind of cheering potion inside his tea for now he felt positively happy. He was now a depressed and lonely soul trapped in a way-too-happy-to-be-real body. Every time he tried to show anger his face would contort into a wide grin and every time he tried to frown he was sent into fits of humorless laughter. Although his face showed differently, Harry hated the result of whatever was put in his drink for now he couldn't even show the effects of the agony and grief that had been building inside of him for a year and a half. He felt words forming in his mouth that he did not want to say but before he knew it they escaped from his mouth like word vomit.

"Thank you," Harry said, "wonderful tea."

Mrs. Weasley smiled happily. "There's the old Harry I remember."

"Mom you didn't have to drug him," said Ron as he watched Harry smile continuously and very unnaturally.

"That's nonsense Ron, I didn't drug him. I just thought I give him a little pick-me-up. I think he deserves that much."

Harry began to blow bubbles in his tea causing a stream of it to run down his chin and collect on the table. Fred and George snorted into their tea as Mrs. Weasley walked over to wipe his chin. Hermione looked positively horrified.

"All right, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley grabbing the cup away from him, "I think that's enough for one day." She walked over to the sink muttering something about putting too much in.

"Well Molly I'd love to stay and help you clean up but I really should be getting to work." Remus said as he pointed to his watch and rose from his seat.

"Excellent excuse, Professor," said George, "mind if I borrow that one for the next time I have dinner here?"

Remus smiled as Mrs. Weasley scowled at George.

"Now George, I know perfectly well the difference between an excuse and laziness having raised two kings of excuse-making myself. I also am still your mother and no excuse of yours will be good enough to get you out of helping me clean."

It was the twin's time to scowl although Remus kept his smile. "Don't worry about it, Remus," she said turning back towards him, "It was a pleasure having you for a while. Don't work too hard."

Remus kissed her on the cheek and started for the door. Before he left he looked once more at Harry and smiled. Harry smiled back but Remus knew that it was only the effect of the potion that Mrs. Weasley had put in his tea. After Remus' footsteps were gone, the room was silent again, although Harry didn't really feel awkward anymore. Ron and Hermione were staring at Harry as if he were some kind of lunatic while Ginny rose from her seat and started to help her mother clean.

"So, Harry," Ron finally broke the silence, "Hermione and I were just talking about who we thought would be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year."

"Oh really," said Harry with a forced tone of enthusiasm, "who do you think it'll be this year then?"

Ron looked oblivious to his enthusiastic response, mainly because he was just happy that Harry was talking.

"Well, I think Professor Lupin will teach again this year," said Ron hopefully.

"Oh Ron, he has so much to do already, he won't have time to teach you lot," Mrs. Weasley said, still occupied with her dishwashing. "I think Dumbledore will choose somebody who isn't already in the Order."

"Yeah, but how can you trust somebody who isn't in the Order," Fred asked.

"Just because somebody isn't in the Order doesn't mean they are untrustworthy," Hermione spoke up.

"Right, like when we had, hmm, what was it, oh yeah, Quirrel who had You-Know-Who himself sticking out the back of his head," said George.

"Yeah, or when we had a former death eater impersonating Moody that one year," Fred said.

"Or, when that Umbridge bi…" Mrs. Weasley shot George a piercing look and he quickly changed his choice of words. "That Umbridge toad sent dementors after Harry that one time."

"Well what about Lockhart?" said Hermione, "he wasn't a traitor to us."

All of the guys in the room choked on their tea.

"Lockhart was a useless bag of dragon dung," said Fred as if it were a proven fact.

"Yeah, and there was the fact that he had taken credit for hundreds of other witch's and wizard's accomplishments all over the world," Ron said bitterly.

Hermione's face turned red and she said nothing more. Both Mrs. Weasley and Ginny hadn't said a word at the mention of Lockhart but Harry could have sworn he saw them both give each other the smallest of glances.

"I think it'll be someone completely different this year," said Ginny, "It's always somebody new."

"That's because nobody in their right mind would take that job again," said Ron.

"What about that greasy git of a potions teacher?" George asked. "He is always going after that job."

"George Weasley, will you stop poking fun at everybody?" said Mrs. Weasley sternly.

"I only poke fun at the people who deserve it," said George genuinely.

Hermione made a small grunting noise that suggested she didn't quite agree with George. Harry hadn't been paying attention. The cheering potion was wearing off and he felt as if all of the bad things that had recently happened were happening all over again.

"Well," said Fred looking at his very expensive watch, "I think we've overstayed our welcome. We should head back to the store."

"Right, we'll be back for dinner in a few days or so, whenever we're available," George said importantly.

"All right you two be careful," Mrs. Weasley said hugging her two twin sons.

"Mum, not so tight, I can't breathe," said Fred, gasping for breath.

"Well it's not safe these days, I worry about you kids."

"We're just apparating, we'll be there in two seconds, plus, we aren't children, we're men."

"Well men still need to be careful," said Mrs. Weasley waving her finger at them.

"See you Mum."

"Ron…"

"Ginny…"

"Hermione…"

"Harry…"

All of them waved goodbye as the twins departed and the room instantly felt much emptier. "This is more like it," Harry thought.

Ginny had finished cleaning with her mother and sat back down at the table to join in the silence. Nobody knew what to say. You could always count on Fred and George to strike up a conversation because they were never fazed by anything. Harry had been so reserved and anti-social lately that it was awkward to be around him, even for his best friends and the closest thing to a mother he'd ever had. It became a daily thing to sit in awkward silence around Harry because everyone was always afraid to say something that might upset him. Harry sat with his head down, staring at his own entwined fingers while everyone else searched for a sensitive topic of conversation. Harry didn't care if they ever found anything to talk about. He had become accustomed to the silence he sat in every day. It was comfortable.

"Harry," Ginny spoke up. Out of all the people to begin a conversation while in complete and awkward silence, Ginny was the last person who would do so. Her cheeks and ears were tinged with red. "We were going to clean out the rooms upstairs again, did you want to help?"

Everyone in the room seemed to be waiting for his response. It was an uncomfortable feeling and Harry wanted it to stop. He didn't necessarily feel like cleaning, he'd rather lie on his bed and wait for September the first to roll around but he couldn't just say no. Ginny had been bold to ask him amongst the awkward silence and he felt he needed to give her the answer she wanted to hear. "Sure," he said. Ginny's face relaxed. A smile formed on her face and the red that was spreading all over her cheeks was starting to subside. Everybody else in the room seemed to lighten up as well, all glad that he was still willing to be apart of some sort of group activity.

>>

"I didn't think we'd have to do this ever again," Ron whined as he carried a bucket of cleaning solution up the stairs to the second landing. "I still have blisters from the last time we did this."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well with Kreacher gone things have been getting dirtier even faster. Believe it or not, I saw him cleaning certain rooms last year once or twice. If we're going to use this house for the Order it needs to be clean."

Harry had thought for a minute that Hermione would start talking about S.P.E.W. again but she hadn't. Ever since she learned that Kreacher had been responsible for releasing information to Lucius about the Order and specifically about Harry, she hadn't been as interested in elf rights anymore. She still cared deeply for Dobby and Winky but Kreacher had dampened her enthusiasm for her self-made organization. Harry was quite glad that this had occurred for he despised Kreacher for what he did and he would not have tolerated any sort of justice on his behalf.

The first room they entered was some type of study. There was a desk sitting in the corner near a window that was covered in a thin layer of mold. The desk smelt of rotting wood and, what Harry thought, was the waste of some sort of animal. The walls were a series of tall bookshelves littered with old books and covered in cobwebs. Harry pulled one of the books towards him and a cloud of dust was released, stinging his nose and eyes. Ginny had done the same thing with another book and a small creature that looked similar to a mouse only with small tusks jumped out from behind it causing her to scream. The book landed on the floor with a loud thump and the mouse-like creature scurried back behind another row of books, scratching the leather covers with its tiny tusks.

"I'll bet you can find new species in here," said Ginny recovering from her scare with a clear look of disgust on her face.

Hermione picked the fallen book off of the floor and looked at the cover. "How to Keep your Residence Free of Mysterious Looking Creatures," Hermione read out loud, "how appropriate. It doesn't look like they ever bothered to use this."

Ginny giggled but chose to clean somewhere else.

"I think Fred and George cleaned this room last time," said Ron looking through stacks of books with caution. "They probably left some creatures here to reproduce as some kind of joke."

Harry decided to brave the rotting desk. He walked over to the other side and saw several drawers, most of which looked safe to open. The first drawer he opened was empty except for a few spider webs and a small brown spider. The spider looked similar to Aragog only much, much smaller. Harry was careful not to mention this to Ron. The second drawer contained a very thick layer of dust as well as the third. The fourth had a very inaccurate map of Hogsmeade inside it. Harry figured that this map had to be decades old for some of the shops seemed to not have been erected yet. The last one that he checked had something more disturbing in it. It contained a brown envelope that was blank but there was definitely something inside of it. Harry tore it open and dumped the contents of it out onto the desk. What he saw angered him. Wizard photographs that had ceased to shift and move in their frame were punctured by massive burn holes. The holes weren't the things that bothered Harry, though. Inside the pictures were the faces of some of the Black relatives. Mainly Andromeda, Tonks, and even Sirius. The photos were burned in certain places; one particular one was burned over top of Sirius' face. Harry could tell it was Sirius because he saw his Gryffindor robes and his trademark disheveled black hair. One of the pictures with Andromeda was completely burned in half with the tear right through her neck. Harry even saw a photo of Tonks as a child with her bright blue hair and burn marks were where her eyes should have been. Harry felt a surge of anger at the sight of these pictures. He recognized that most of the people in the photos were the same ones that had been burned off of the tapestry. He remembered Sirius telling him about them. There were hundreds of photos in the envelope, some of them torn into pieces, others burned beyond recognition. Without thinking, Harry violently shoved the photos off of the desk and in doing so, knocked the drawer he found them in down as well with a loud bang.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all jumped at the sound. "Oy! You trying to give us a heart attack, mate?" Ron yelled as his eyes traveled from Harry to the new mess on the floor. "What are you doing? We're trying to clean in here not make it worse."

"I'm going to clean another room," said Harry hotly. "I really don't care if this room gets clean or if it burns to the ground." He stormed out of the room as the others stared at him in disbelief.

"Oh no, we've lost him again," said Ron dismally as he watched Harry leave the room.

Hermione had rushed over to the spilled photos and let out a horrified gasp as she saw what was on each one. "These are horrible!" she said, truly disgusted.

Ginny and Ron both gathered a handful and let out the same gasp as Hermione's. "Who would do this?" asked Ginny.

"Take your pick," said Ron, eyeing every photo as if they too were covered in mold. "Anybody in the Black family except the ones in these photos could have done it."

"How can there be so much hate over something as simple as where you come from?" Ginny asked innocently.

"That's a good question," Hermione said dropping the photos back onto the desk, "One I think we'll never be able to answer."

"You think we should show these to someone?" Ron asked, putting his handful in the fallen drawer.

"Why? It'll just depress everyone."

"Alright then," said Ron, "let's get rid of them shall we?" With a flick of his wand, Ron made each photo burst into flames and turn to dust. "Much better," he said.

"Let's go find Harry," said Ginny.

>>

Harry had gone up to the next landing in a rage, not knowing exactly where he was going. He realized after reaching the next landing that he had never been there before. Out of all the time he spent in number twelve he had never gone higher than the second floor. He began to randomly search different rooms here and there. The hallway seemed to have an infinite number of doors leading off of it and it reminded Harry of the Burrow with it's unnatural amount of living space. Every room he entered was dark and smelled of rotting wood. He entered one that looked much more inhabitable and he guessed that this was Fred and George's old room. He confirmed his suspicions when his gaze traveled to several Ton-Tongue Toffee wrappers strewn across the floor. The twins were never known for being tidy.

He reached the room that was the farthest away from the stairs and stood in front of the door. He turned the knob and leaned forward but the door wouldn't budge. He jiggled the handle violently and rammed his shoulder against it but it still remained shut. The door wasn't locked, if it were he wouldn't have been able to move the handle as far as he had. No, it was jammed shut as if it weren't opened in months and the mold growing around it was acting more like glue. He backed up several paces from the door until his back was pressed flat against the opposite wall. Then, bracing himself, he ran shoulder first into the door causing it to spring open and bang on the inside wall. Harry rubbed his sore shoulder absently as he peered around the room. The room was pitch black and there was no light from outside the room to illuminate it in the slightest. Harry pulled out his wand and muttered "Lumos" causing a strong beam of light to fill the room. Harry searched for a candle and found one on a dresser near the far wall. He grabbed it and lit it muttering another spell. He found several more candles and lit them until the contents of the room were bright enough to see.

The walls, Harry noticed at first, were covered in papers and photos. Harry saw overtop the bed in the corner a flag that bore the Gryffindor crest, similar to the one Harry had in his room at the Durselys. He also noticed that it was charred at the edges. He thought to himself that the people who did this were pyro-maniacs, as they apparently loved to burn things. He moved closer to the bed and saw a photograph that was miraculously unharmed. It was a picture of Sirius standing next to James and Remus was standing behind them giving them rabbit ears. As the picture moved, James and Sirius turned around and started playfully hitting Remus. The picture kept moving and focused on Lily who was sitting underneath a nearby tree and writing in a small blue book. James called her over and she closed the book and ran over to him. She tucked the book in her robes as she kissed James on the cheek and smiled out at Harry. By now, Remus and Sirius were both giving James and Lily moose antlers. Harry, although he thought it was nice, didn't see Peter at all. Was he the one taking the photograph or was he just not there at the time? But then he looked closer and saw in the very corner that there was a part of the picture that wasn't moving. The reason for this was because there was ink sketched all over it and Harry thought that he saw somebody's foot underneath of it.

The thought hit him like a brick. He examined the photo closely and then his eyes traveled around the room again. There were photos of his father and Sirius everywhere and there were loads of things everywhere that bore the Gryffindor crest. This was Sirius' old room. He pocketed the photo and began to search the room with excitement and curiosity. He looked at most of the photos that covered the walls and saw to his dismay that most of them were ripped up or burned. He then went to the dresser he saw when he first came in and knelt down before it. Cautiously he opened the top drawer and found nothing in it. The second had nothing, as well as the third, but the fourth was filled with papers. There were old Hogwarts schedules and old maps of Hogwarts that were curling slightly at the edges. Harry shifted them around and uncovered a stack of parchment. On the parchment were notes scribbled everywhere. The notes were of several subjects that Harry took himself such as Herbology and Transfiguration. There was even an occasional tic-tac-toe game on the corner of each sheet. Harry raised his eyebrows in confusion. "I never knew Sirius took notes," he said to himself slightly bemused.

He dug deeper into the drawer and froze at what he saw. It was a small blue book that looked extremely familiar. He reached into his pocket and grabbed the photo he had found a minute ago. He looked at his teenaged mother more closely and as she darted towards James he watched her put the book back in her robes. Harry saw that there were the letters L. E. embossed on the front of it. His mother's initials before she was married. He then looked at the book in his hand and wiped the dust away revealing the very same letters. His heart leapt, he had found Lily's diary. Harry wondered for a moment why his mother's old diary was sitting in the bottom dresser drawer of Sirius' old room. Without any more hesitation, he opened the book to the first page. It was blank. He then turned to the next page in which was also blank. He flipped through several more blank pages and his spirits fell. He had seen her writing in this book, there had to be something. But before he could look any further, three shadows appeared in the doorway.

"There you are Harry," came Ron's voice, " we've been looking everywhere for you. What are you doing sitting in the dark?"

"Nothing!" Harry leapt up in surprise and shoved the book into his pocket. "I was just cleaning in here."

Hermione looked around the darkened room. "What room is this?" she asked.

"Dunno," Harry said stupidly.

"I know what room this is," said Ginny in a sudden realization.

But before she could reveal what it was, Mrs. Weasley appeared. "What are you four doing up here, fighting with the furniture? I heard several loud bangs."

"We were just cleaning like you asked us," said Ron.

"Oh well, come on down stairs for some dinner, you've been up here long enough. And what on earth are you doing in this room?" she added as she looked around. Harry had the impression that she knew exactly whose room this was. "Come on, I want you completely spotless before you set one foot in that kitchen."

Harry was the first to leave the room and on the way to the washroom, he bolted into his room and secretly stashed the small blue book underneath his mattress.