Chapter 13

Grimmauld Place felt like a fever dream to Harry. During the summer it was heaven, a safe harbour away from his relatives, full of life and laughter. This time it was quiet. With Mr Weasley in the hospital, the mood was sombre. Mrs Weasley was spending most hours of the day at St Mungos and the little time she wasn't, sleeping or in the kitchen. Ron was still trying to stay positive, joking and occupying his time with Exploding Snap or vainly attempting to convince someone to play chess with him. Ginny was like a ghost, moving silently and swiftly whenever she left her room, which wasn't very often. The twins seemed preoccupied with their experiments though they never enthusiastically tested or showed off their latest breakthrough.

Sirius was a breath of fresh air for Harry. He acknowledged the gravity of Arthur's situation, but never fell into pessimism. He would still share stories about Harry's parents, his time at Hogwarts or the topics of discussion during Order Meetings. With Molly out of the house, Sirius was able to include Harry in the goings on of the war, as best he could at least. Dumbledore apparently agreed with Molly that Harry shouldn't be involved in the Order until he was of age, and so Sirius couldn't get Harry into their weekly meetings, but he could recount every detail he managed to remember.

Snape was still confident that Voldemort was going to try for the Department of Mysteries, despite the many setbacks he'd faced thus far. Voldemort seemed to be gaining some support from classically neutral families but Snape wouldn't elaborate on who or how many. Still he was reluctant to share the location the Death Eaters were hiding in, apparently because they would know he was betraying them. Luckily for Sirius' cynicism, the Fidelius Charm on number twelve kept him fairly confident in the fact that he couldn't bring Death Eaters down on their heads.

Reports from DMLE members were the same as usual. More and more people were seeming to side with the dark. Several upstanding department heads had been fired for false accusations, usually with bogus evidence, and being replaced with Death Eaters or their sympathisers. They couldn't be certain just who was and wasn't a Death Eater since work robes, no matter where they came from or what job they were for, came with short sleeves. They could however be certain that they were enabling more and more exclusionary laws. The recent werewolf reformed that took away the rest of Remus' very limited rights, was a prominent example.

Professor McGonagall had reported nothing amiss among the student body bar general hatred for Professor Umbridge. She was beginning to worry about how much power the Minister was giving her, especially with the problems in the Wizengamot chambers. That situation was still unresolved and neither Dumbledore nor any ministry official working on the case they'd opened had any idea who they needed to find or how to reverse the clause.

Harry knew exactly who they were talking about. I didn't take two brain cells rubbing together to know that Hermione was the one who'd triggered whatever clause they were reluctant about sharing. He'd avoided questioning Sirius on the subject, mostly so he couldn't give away the little information he did have.

It was strange, being surrounded by people who believed all Slytherins were evil, when he'd met 5 willing to cover for an alleged muggleborn with no advantage to themselves. Mostly. He was certain that when Pansy found out just how prominent Hermione was, she'd truly force Hermione to give her some exceptionally shiny jewels. Ron, nor Ginny, would understand what he'd seen, why he'd seen it or even why he hadn't hexed them in the process. He suspected Sirius might not either. So he kept his knowledge to himself, all too willing to allow the Weasleys to continue to distract themselves.

Harry was busying himself in the living room, quietly dusting and sweeping as a way to pass the time. He knew Molly would be upset if she noticed the house getting messy and so took it upon himself to make sure that never happened. It was when he eventually moved on to the hallway when a crack sounded at the door and McGonagall swept in.

'Is everything alright Professor?' Harry asked, suddenly terrified at the prospect of being in her way. She seemed angry. Incredibly angry.

'Where is Molly?' She asked, her tone clipped.

'St Mungo's.' Harry spoke, barely able to register her reaction when she apparated away again with a violent snap.

Harry attempted to shrug off the encounter, dismissing it as something Order related until Sirius appeared.

'Who was that?' He asked, taking a quick look out of the door's peephole.

'McGonagall.' Harry shrugged. 'Was she not here for some super secret Order stuff you forgot to tell me about?' Harry asked, carefully watching Sirius' expression.

'No I told you everything.' He shook his head. 'Did she say anything?'

Harry narrowed his eyebrows. 'She was looking for Mrs Weasley. And she was livid.'

'Try not to think too much about that expression, little prongs.' Sirius sighed, walking over to Harry and placing a hand on his shoulder. 'I can confidently say with personal experience it can give nightmares.'

Sirius smiled and patted Harry's shoulder one last time before heading back to the kitchen.

'But if she wasn't doing Order things then why was she looking for Mrs Weasley?' Harry called after him, leaving behind the broom he was holding.

Sirius paused and narrowed his own eyebrows, turning back to Harry. 'I suppose she had some updates about Arthur.' He shrugged, attempting to turn around again.

'But Mrs Weasley is at St Mungos.' Harry argued, causing Sirius to pause again. 'If she needed to know something about Mr Weasley then McGonagall wouldn't need to come here to tell her.'

Sirius narrowed his eyes, glancing uselessly around the corridor. 'I don't know why she'd have been here, but I might just have to find out.' He nodded to himself seriously before grinning. 'I haven't done anything like this since I was at school.' He giggled to himself.

'Just let me know what you find.' Harry yelled after his godfather who was currency sprinting up the stairs as a large black dog.

On the landing a shrieking began, splitting Harry's ears. 'Filth and scum befouling the home of my fathers! Blood traitors, half-breeds and their mutant pets!'

Harry sprinted past her and up into the room he shared with Ron. Ron wasn't there, and neither was Ginny in the room opposite. He went up a floor and checked the twins' room. That too was empty. He crept his way back down the stairs and into the basement, doing his best to not draw Walburga's attention as she wailed.

He eventually found them around the fire, mugs in their hands, playing a card game their father had attempted to introduce them. There had been earnest attempts at playing Uno in the Weasley household but it was only when they came to Grimmauld Place and Sirius witnessed them using the cards to play poker, he put his foot down and taught them all how to properly play. A soft smile drifted across Harry's face but he almost felt like he was witnessing something he shouldn't. They were happy, or as happy as they could be with Mr Weasley's stay in the hospital, and that happiness didn't need to be interrupted by him.

Or at least he thought it didn't because as soon as he began to leave, one of the twins apparated before him with two sets of cards in his hands. Neither of them said anything. Harry simply took the cards from Fred's hands and walked over to the fire with him where the game was in full swing.

'Pick up four, Ronald!' Ginny screamed, raising her mug into the air in celebration.

Ron groaned and wiped tea from his face, before reluctantly picking up the cards. 'I don't know how you have so many of them.' He complained. 'That was three in a row!'

Harry took a seat between Ron and Ginny, hoping to soften the blow to his friend, only for the next two games to have finished with more cards than he started. Somehow Ginny kept getting plus cards and Harry, with no way of blocking them, found himself on the perpetual receiving end. Ginny rounded out Harry's first game with a solid win streak of 3, but with Ron now out of her crosshairs, he scraped victory in the next game.

He was on his feet celebrating when a crack filled the room.

'I'm sorry to interrupt the fun.' Dumbledore smiled gently. 'But I'm afraid I need to borrow the room.'

They all quickly shuffled out, brushing past Sirius as they made their way up the stairs. Sirius gave Harry a wink and briefly brushed into George, placing something in his pocket. They flooded up the stairs and into the twins' room, the furthest from the basement, and huddled around their half of the extendable ears.

'Is Snape coming this time?' Sirius asked snippily.

'No, he's currently gathering information for our next scheduled meeting.' Dumbledore spoke, they could only imagine the soft smile and glint in his eyes as he spoke.

'Shame.' Sirius sighed. 'I'd have loved to punch his smarmy face in.'

'Still bothered by Harry's legilimency lessons?' Another voice spoke, though they couldn't place who it was.

'Those weren't lessons.' Sirius snapped. 'They may as well have been torture.'

'Now isn't the time to be airing grievances with the school Sirius.' Dumbledore admonished. 'We have more pressing matters to deal with.'

'Such pressing matters that half of the Order won't be able to attend.' Sirius muttered.

'They can be filled in in a few days.' Remus said diplomatically.

'So what's this important development then?' Another unknown voice asked.

'I do not know.' Dumbledore answered. 'We have to wait for Professor McGonagall to arrive.'

'McGonagall?' Ron asked. 'Does that mean something went wrong at the school?' Ginny nodded along with him but the twins seemed sceptical, glancing at each other.

'If it was the school Dumbledore would know.' George pointed out, tipping his head to the side.

'She showed up today.' Harry mentioned, thinking back to the odd encounter. 'She was angry. And looking for your mum.'

'I don't think we left anything at the school for her.' Fred shrugged.

'The only thing I remember was that weird glowing on the Quidditch Pitch.' Ginny shrugged.

'And we've been swearing up and down since it happened that it wasn't us.' Fred interrupted her. 'And it definitely wasn't you or Ron.'

Harry gulped. Feeling his palms start to sweat.

'So it has nothing to do with any of us.' Ron said decisively.

'We don't even know if it's about the Quidditch pitch thing.' Harry suggested, desperately trying to change the subject.

'What else could it be then?' Ron asked.

'I don't know.' Harry shrugged. 'She can turn into a bloody cat! Who knows what stuff she's seen.'

'Shush!' Ginny interrupted. 'I hear McGonagall.'

They all leaned back over the ear, their full attention on the conversation at hand downstairs.

'The aurors took far longer than I had anticipated.' She apologised, sounding out of breath.

'Aurors?' Fred whispered. He was immediately shushed by the group.

'As you all well know,' McGonagall began. 'There was a disturbance on the Quidditch Pitch back in November.'

'I knew it.' Ginny yelled. She too was shushed.

'I know who caused it and I know why.' She stated. 'I found out a little over an hour ago, which is why I requested Dumbledore call this meeting. It was a pair of students out that night, a very unlikely pair given all I know about them. I have known this for several weeks now. I was attempting to protect one of these students and so had hoped never to need to share with you her identity. Nor the identity of her accomplices.'

There was a murmuring, though they could only hear Sirius muttering 'Sneaky Witch.'

'I thought you said there were only two out that night.' Remus spoke up.

'To my knowledge, there were.' McGonagall answered. 'I overheard them filling in a third student about what they had been doing. They were explaining to him the process of claiming family magic. While these three students did not know that I was nearby, I suspect they found out someone was there later as I never found them discussing together again.'

'Cut to the chase.' Sirius interrupted. 'You kept something secret, you want to justify why. We get it. You're off the hook. Why were you hunting down Molly earlier?'

'Very well, Mr Black. Since you have no appreciation for context nor patience, I shall.' McGonagall snapped. 'I went looking for Molly for her aid in corroborating a falsified story that we have both now given the aurors, at the request of the students in question. I have just handed over Peter Pettigrew to the Aurors, who will now be opening a full investigation into the matter.'

'Peter.' Remus stammered. 'How did you find him?'

'I did not.' McGonagall sighed. 'I was summoned by Miss Hermione Granger to the Three Broomsticks this afternoon to discuss how she, Mr Draco Malfoy and Mrs Narcissa Malfoy had found, captured and removed Mr Pettigrew's magic.'

Harry froze, his eyes growing wide. He could see Ron noticing his change in demeanour. He wasn't experiencing the same shock as everyone else. They were surprised Hermione's name had been mentioned next to Malfoy's but Harry was more concerned with the last part of her sentence. Hermione had taken his magic away. It had to have been her or the Malfoys would have been simply removing magic from Muggleborns for the last millenia.

'As far as they are aware, I only know of Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger's involvement in the matter.' McGonagall continued. 'Unbeknownst to them I know who their third accomplice is and where he is at this very moment should we wish to ask him some questions.'

Harry was fucked. He knew it. The deep pit opening up in his stomach and threatening to swallow him whole attested to it.

'Sirius, I'll leave the choice to you.' McGonagall spoke, her voice eerily calm. 'Would you like to fetch your Godson?'

All four Weasleys stared up at Harry in a mix of shock and disgust. He couldn't stammer out an apology or an excuse, he just sat in their circle with his mouth agape.

'Don't tell them about the ears.' Ginny commented, seeming the least disturbed of the group. 'We want to know.'

Harry absently nodded and stood up, slowly making his way out of the room. He didn't need to hear Sirius' decision, nor did he want to hear what most certainly was his disgust at the matter. He simply made his way down to the basement and into the kitchen, like a lamb to the slaughter.