The two of them conversed quietly as Sirius explained to Harry where they were and it was the way it was. Ellen turned to Ron and Hermione and spoke quietly. "I heard yelling earlier. Are you alright?"

"Harry was upset that we had kept all this from him." Hermione explained, walking next to Ellen as they headed to the kitchen. "We haven't been able to say anything, Dumbledore made us swear not to."

"You don't have to rationalize yourselves to me. I know how Albus is."

They walked in to Molly scolding Mundungus; the man was merrily puffing on his pipe without a care in the world while Molly looked as if she would have an aneurism any second. "Would you please not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially not when we're about to eat!" The scruffy man grumbled but put out the pipe, the smell of smoke still lingering in the air. "If you want dinner before midnight, I'll need a few helping hands." Molly continued, gesturing towards the counter.

Ginny and Tonks, despite Molly's protests, began pulling out cutlery and the like. Hermione went to help them and began setting dishes on the table. Soon a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables of their own accord, supervised by Ellen who was arguing about technique while Molly stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire and the others took out more goblets, and food from the pantry.

Mixed conversation flowed from the table. Mundungus and the twins were roaring with laughter while Sirius and Harry were speaking on the other end of the table. She focused in on what the two were talking about, snorting lightly.

"...his snide hints that he's out there risking his life while I'm sat on my backside here having a nice comfortable time, asking me how the cleaning's going —"

"What cleaning?" asked Harry.

"This place was barely fit for human habitation when we got here." Sirius vaguely waved his hand. "No one's lived here for ten years, not since my dear mother died, unless you count her old house-elf, and he's gone round the twist, hasn't cleaned anything in ages!"

"Lucky thing I showed up," Ellen teased him gently. "This place would still be covered in grime if we'd kept cleaning with just Scourgify."

Harry stared at her. "Er, what else can you use?"

She could feel her eyes twinkling like Albus's at the question. "Well you see, it's this lovely little spell I learned-"

"Enough of that!" Molly scolded her. "You are not going to teach them any of your tricks!"

Ellen stuck her tongue out at the older woman, who was motioning for the twins to help move everything to the table. "Fred — George — NO, JUST CARRY THEM!" Molly shrieked.

The ones at the table looked around and, a split second later, dived away from the table. Fred and George had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, to hurtle through the air toward them.

The stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface, the flagon of butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere, and the bread knife slipped off the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius's right hand had been seconds before.

"Never did like that table." Ellen commented, completely ignored as Molly yelled at her sons.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed Molly. "THERE WAS NO NEED- I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS- JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!"

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" said Fred, hurrying forward and wrenching the bread knife out of the table. "Sorry Sirius, mate — didn't mean to —"

Harry, Sirius, and Ellen were roaring with laughter while Mundungus had actually fallen out of his chair. Molly continued to scream at the twins, comparing them to their brothers before stopping cold in her tracks. She stiffened and looked as if she was holding back tears for a moment.

"Why don't we go ahead and eat?" Remus gently suggested. They all quietly sat down and for a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food.

Then Molly turned to Sirius and spoke, "I've been meaning to tell you, there's something trapped in that old wardrobe in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a boggart, but I thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it before we let it out."

All of those who had been present for the boggart incident stiffened, no one saying anything. "It's been taken care of, don't worry." Ellen said tightly. "It caught me off guard when I got here and I handled it."

There was an awkward silence, Harry looking confused at the atmosphere. "Well, we'll need to tackle the curtains tomorrow. Ellen took care of most of the cleaning, but there's still a dreadful infestation of doxies." Molly sniffed.

The group all grimaced, but agreed before turning back to their conversations. Tonks was transforming her nose to strange shapes, much to the amusement of Ginny and Hermione. Mundungus was telling Ron and the twins some type of story detailing his more criminal activities, sending Molly into a brand new fit of shrieking.

Sirius leaned back in his chair and eyed Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

"I did!" Harry spat out. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so —"

"And they're quite right," Molly replied with a shake of her head. "You're much too young for all of this."

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" asked Sirius.

"Hang on!" One of the twins interrupted loudly.

"Why does Harry gets his questions answered?" The other one said angrily.

"We've been trying to get something out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single thing!"

" 'You're too young, you're not in the Order,' " The first twin imitated his mother. "Harry's not even of age!"

"It isn't my fault that your parents made the decision not to tell you," said Sirius calmly. "But Harry—"

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Molly said sharply. Her face was a bright pink and she looked angrier than Ellen had seen in years. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius's voice was deceptively polite. Ellen groaned and let her head fall onto the table with a thud.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know,"

"I don't plan on telling him more than he needs to know, Molly," He snapped back. "But it was Harry that saw Voldemort come back, he deserves to have some answers!"

"Harry is still not a member of the Order of the Phoenix! He's only fifteen and —"

"— and he's dealt with as much as most in the Order," Their voices were rising steadily, "and more than some —"

"No one's denying what he's gone through, what he's had to do" Molly's hands were trembling in anger "But he's still —"

"He's not a child!" Sirius bit out, looking very much dangerous in that moment.

"He's not an adult either! He's not James, Sirius!" The room went deathly silent. Ellen lifted her head up and slowly clenched her fists.

"I'm perfectly aware of who he is, thanks, Molly," said Sirius coldly.

"I'm not sure you are!"

Ellen slammed her hands down on the table. "That's enough! Molly, the boy's life is at stake here. Would you rather him hear the truth from us or some half baked gossip from someone else?"

"Well," Molly looked around and found no support, "well, I can see I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as someone who has got Harry's best interests at heart —"

"I will deal with Albus!" Ellen snapped. "He's not your son, you don't get to make these decisions for him!"

"He's as good as!" Molly's tone was biting and sarcastic. "Who else does he have? Sirius? It must have been rather difficult for him to look after Harry while he was locked up in Azkaban."

"I think Harry should have some say in this," Remus spoke up. "He's old enough to decide for himself."

"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once, avoiding Molly's gaze.

"Very well," said Molly, her voice cracking. "Ginny —Ron — Hermione — Fred — George — I want you out of this kitchen, now."

Instantly the kitchen exploded with protests and yelling. Molly and her children screamed back and forth and it ended with only Ginny being forced to leave. She marched the girl upstairs, Ginny raging and storming the entire way there. The noise triggered Walburga's portrait again and Remus was forced to run out to close the curtains.

It was only after he had returned, closing the kitchen door behind him and taking his seat at the table again, that anyone dared to say a word.

"Alright then Harry, what do you want to know?" Sirius tried to smile in a comforting way.

"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news," Harry said, seeming to ignore the way that people winced at the name, "and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything —"

"That's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," said Sirius, "not as far as we know, anyway...And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway," said Remus.

"Why's he's stopped killing people?"

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself at the moment," said Sirius. "It would be dangerous for him. You messed up his comeback by surviving in that graveyard. Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," Remus added. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to start recalling the Order of the Phoenix within an hour of Voldemort returning."

"So what's the Order been doing?" asked Harry, looking around at them all.

"We've been making sure that whatever Voldemort is planning won't happen." Ellen finally spoke up, staring straight into Harry's eyes.

"How do you know what his plans are?" Harry asked quickly.

"Albus has a pretty good idea, and his ideas are right more than they're wrong." She replied.

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"

"He wants to build up his army again," said Sirius. "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command; witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. He's trying to recruit the giants now, but they're only one group that he'll go after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."

"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?"

"We're doing our best," Remus said. "But the Ministry is working against us at every point."

"But why?" Harry's voice was desperate. "If Dumbledore-"

"Dumbledore's the problem," Tonks added. "His name's mud in the Ministry these days. Fudge is scared that Dumbledore is after his job, so he's doing everything he can to make sure that Dumbledore doesn't seem creditable."

"But you're telling people, aren't you?" said Harry, looking around the room. "You're letting people know he's back?"

Ellen smiled bitterly. "Sirius is a wanted criminal, Remus is a werewolf, and we can't have people losing their jobs in the Ministry for speaking the truth. We're doing all that we can, Harry."

"And who are you?" Harry asked. "Professor Lupin said you're my godmother but you can't be older than I am."

"My name's Ellen, I'm a Noah," she smiled at him, "James and Lily were my friends. I miss them dearly." She took his appearance in with sad eyes, the baggy clothes and his small frame making her heart ache. "I can remember when you were just a few months old. You were so small then, now look at you, so grown up."

Harry opened his mouth to reply when Molly interrupted him. "Enough of that. You all need to get to bed. You've given Harry enough information and you can tell him stories any time Ellen."

She followed them all upstairs, frowning at the bright white light she saw appear beneath Ellen's door. Said girl stood still and waited for Molly's footsteps to fade before closing the Ark door behind her. Mumbling the words needed, she closed her eyes and opened another gate in Ron and Harry's room and quickly stepped out.

The boys looked alarmed until they spotted Ellen. Ron slowly lowered his wand, shaking his head. "Blimey, Ellen! You can't go scaring us like that. We thought you were a Death Eater!"

"Sorry," she replied, not looking the least bit apologetic. "I was hoping you would come talk with me Harry?

He stared suspiciously at her, relaxing when Ron reassured him that she was his friend. Ellen held her hand out and pulled the boy into the Ark.

Harry's mouth dropped open as he took in the view around him. It a town full of bright white buildings and an enormous white tower at the center. It was so bright compared to Grimmauld Place. Ellen quickly closed the gate behind them and turned to Harry. "I thought we could continue talking here, since Molly cut us short."

He nodded. "How did you know them?"

"Let's go somewhere a little more comfortable, hm? C'mon then, follow me."

Harry followed her into the nearest home, looking startled when they instead entered a large white pavilion high above the city. A warm breeze gently drifted around him as he gazed below.

Ellen giggled, catching his attention once more. She waved her hand and a large, deep fountain grew out of the floor, soft cushions set into the stone around it. Ellen slid her shoes and socks off and sat down, dipping her toes in the bright blue water.

She gestured for Harry to join her and he quickly followed suit. They sat there quietly, seemingly afraid to speak. "I met Lily and James at the first Order meeting I attended." Ellen's voice was soft, but it echoed across the vast space. "You see, I had only joined because I owed Albus a favor and most of the members were..hesitant to have a 'dark creature' like a Noah join their cause. But not them. Lily just walked right up to me and introduced herself, and she brought me to meet her friends. She and James were so kind, and they did everything to make me feel like I was one of them. Being around them, I felt human for the first time in over a hundred years."

"We only grew closer as the war went on. Those were dark times and all of us clung to each other to feel safe." Her hands clenched. "It was a dark time, but that didn't stop them. Lily and James got married in a private ceremony, with just the six of us and the priest. It was small, but you could just feel how much they loved each other. A few months later, that love grew because they found out that they were having a child. Lily had to pull back from the fighting soon after, because she was scared that something would happen to the baby."

Ellen took a deep, shuddering breath and met Harry's eyes. "Then they had you. You were so, so small but they looked at you like you held the whole universe in your eyes. They loved you so much Harry. I remember sitting in St. Mungo's, watching them count every finger and toe and declare that it was perfect. You were the brightest light in the darkness that had taken over."

"It wasn't until Alice and Frank were tortured to insanity that I realized just what was at stake. I had gone to visit them, watch the little one so they could get some rest. Instead I walked in to see that evil witch holding them under the Cruciatus, laughing at their pain. I managed to kill two of the Death Eaters that were there, but she and two others escaped and the two most brilliant people I knew were unable to even recognize their own son."

"So I ran." She laughed bitterly. "I wrote letters to my friends, told them that I couldn't watch them die and that they would never find me. But I never really did leave. I watched them from far away, protecting them in every battle and skirmish before disappearing again. Then Lily and James disappeared with you. Albus told me that you were in grave danger, so your family went under the Fidelius Charm to protect themselves."

Ellen ran her fingers through her hair, wishing desperately that she could cry for those she lost. "And then they were dead. They were dead and sweet Sirius was a traitor, then Peter was dead and Remus was still so deep in Greyback's pack that I couldn't even recognize him."

"I wanted to take you with me. I begged Albus to let me raise you here, where no one could harm you, but he refused. He wanted Lily's sister to take you in, so that your mother's sacrifice could protect you. And so I left." Ellen swallowed hard. "I took what I had and I got on the next plane to New York City and I promised myself that I would never return to this world, because all it had brought was death and heartbreak. That's where I've been for the last fifteen years."

"I told you all of this Harry, because I want you to understand how sorry I am." Her voice wavered with emotion. "I should have stayed. I should have bought the house right next door and stayed next to you and made sure that you got all the love that Lily and James would have given you. I'm sorry, Harry."

"How could you just leave them like that?" said Harry, bright green eyes full of righteous anger. "If they were your friends, how could you do that?"

"Because I'm very old, Harry. I've lived hundreds of years and I've watched my friends die before," She said quietly. "And that's the only way I can remember them now. I don't remember the laughter or the joy. All I see are their broken, lifeless bodies. I didn't want Lily and James to be remembered that way."

She and Harry sat there for around ten minutes, neither one of them saying a word. They watched the spray of the fountain, feeling the breeze tousle their hair.

"You would have raised me?" Harry's voice was thick and he looked very much the small child that had just wanted to be loved like everyone else.

"Yes, I would have." Ellen reached out and squeezed the boy's hand. "I loved you so much when you were a baby. We were family back then. Mum, Dad, Uncle Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail, and Aunt Ellen."

Harry squeezed her hand back tightly and she leaned her head on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Harry?"

"No." he said, pulling away from her somewhat. "Everyone here has been keeping things from me while I've been cooped up at Privet Drive for the past month and now that I'm here they expect me to be alright with it."

Ellen rubbed his arm soothingly. "That's completely understandable. What happened in that graveyard, that was only a few months ago and something like that is traumatizing, and they all need to understand that. It's okay that you're angry."

Harry said nothing else, just stared down into the water. With a wave of Ellen's hand, a variety of colorful koi fish appeared, swimming around the two's dangling feet. "Where are we?" He finally asked. "I've never seen a place like this before."

"This is Noah's Ark," Ellen smiled, "It was home to the whole Clan of Noah at one point in time. Now I'm the only one that can control it. The others couldn't get in if they wanted to."

"You can come here whenever you want?" Harry looked over at her. She nodded, kicking her keet in the water. "Why didn't you use this to get me from the Dursley's?"

Ellen sighed loudly. "Despite what Moody will tell you, I can't open a gate to a place that I've never been before. Granted, I've traveled most of the world during my years so I'm not too limited. But now that I've been there it shouldn't be a problem."

They sat there in silence, enjoying the warm breeze and each other's presence. Ellen sighed deeply. "Harry?"

"Hm?"

"I want to give you something, but you can not let anyone know about it. Not Molly, not Ron and Hermione, no one."

Harry stared at her with those bright, bright eyes of his and she steeled herself for what she was about to do. She held out her hand and focused, watching as a woven silver ring came together in the palm of her hand. Lifting it up to her lips, she whispered the words of the Musician's song. The notes formed little bumps all along the ring in a similar way to the code she and Mana had made.

The ring glowed with a blinding white light before it finally dimmed, gleaming silver in the sunlight. Ellen held it out to the boy, her face betraying her nerves. "It's a key to the Ark." She murmured as he took it from her, rolling it in his fingers. "I mean, not really the whole Ark. In case you're ever in danger it should take you to the Fourteenth's room and you can stay there until I come retrieve you. I wasn't there for you before, but I'm here now and I promise that I'm not leaving."

"Er, how does it work?" asked Harry awkwardly, still rolling it around.

"You twist it three times to the left and say the code to unlock it." Ellen grimaced but continued. "I'm only going to say this to you once and only once because it is a dangerous word and it could cause a lot of pain and suffering if the wrong person got a hold of it."

She motioned for him to lean in and spoke so quietly that he almost couldn't hear her. "The code is Neah."

Ellen moved away from him quickly and began to put her socks and boots on again, her feet miraculously dry. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Harry slid the ring into his front pocket. He quietly slipped his shoes and socks on as well and stood, standing there as if he was unsure of what to do next.

With a quick wave of her hand, another shining gate opened. Harry walked over to it without saying a word and climbed out with one last look at the Noah. She sighed deeply before closing the gate, leaving her alone in the vast world of the Ark.

Giving Harry the ring had certainly been intense, but it was worth possibly alienating him. All Ellen could hope for was that he kept the ring a secret until he truly needed it. She trusted the Order with a lot of stuff, but the thought of them entering the Ark made her shudder in disgust. This wasn't a place for wizards and magic. The Ark ran off of ancient Dark Matter, giving her the ability to hide it. As of that moment, the Ark was currently anchored deep in a cave at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. It was the only way that she could ensure no human would find it. She rubbed her eyes roughly, staring out into nothing. It had been so hard to talk about her friends again. She hadn't thought that it would hurt as much as it did, like pouring salt into wounds she thought had healed. And Harry...

The child that she had loved so much looked so scared and angry. He looked like he couldn't trust anyone, even the ones that care about him. But, she reminded herself, Harry was not a child anymore. He was growing into an adult and she had to treat him like one.

Snap!

With the crack of her fingers, all that she had built for their talk disintegrated and floated away like dust in the wind. She shook herself roughly, forcing out all of the soft emotions she had been filled with for the past few days. It wouldn't do anyone any good for her to wallow in sorrow and self pity any longer.

Ellen looked down at her left arm as she had that morning, rubbing along the scaled skin. There was war coming and this time she would be ready.

Her arm glowed a dark purple, Dark Matter perversely flowing where Innocence once lay. She reached out to a column laying on it's side and gently rested her hand on it. The stone made a loud creaking noise before collapsing in on itself, nothing left behind but dust. A twisted smile made its way onto her face as she embraced the power of the Fourteenth for the first time in fifteen years. Voldemort and all of his followers would face justice for the world that they created. They had killed and maimed and taken parents away from children who had done nothing to deserve it.

With bright yellow eyes she opened another gate and stepped back into her room at Grimmauld Place. Her head hit the pillow and she was asleep soon, her dreams filled with vengeance and the power of the Destruction of Noah.

This is definitely more a filler chapter, just to give some background on why Ellen cares so much about Harry when he doesn't even know who she is. Y'all get two chapters in one day this week, but the next one will be up next Monday :)