Chapter 4: The House of Black

Following Tonks through the front door, Holly found herself in a long, yet narrow hallway, everything was quite dark, as it was only lit by some candles. She'd expected the headquarters of the Order to be somewhat…nicer. This hallway alone screamed dark magic at her. It probably belonged to an old wizarding family, one who was really into all that pureblood-shit like the Malfoys or most of the other Slytherin kids.
Finally, they reached a staircase. Holly could make out voices, talking, discussing things, seemingly coming from behind a closed door just opposite the stairs. Must be some kind of meeting, she guessed, concerning the Order.
Tonks knocked at the door, and just seconds later it opened, revealing a smiling Molly Weasley. Neatly, she closed the door behind her. When her warm, motherly eyes fell onto Holly, she pulled her swiftly into a very welcome hug.

"Holly, dear, so glad you've arrived at last, safe and sound! Let me look at you, I think you've grown again, since I last saw you!"

With Mrs. Weasley Holly couldn't help but feel safe, welcome, cared for. Even though Molly Weasley had seven children to care about, she always had more love to give, even for Holly. She couldn't imagine anyone being as good a mother as the red-headed woman in front of her. A smile began to curl Holly's lips, she couldn't resist it.

"Hullo, Mrs. Weasley, good to see you too! Where is everyone, Ron, Hermione?"

Mrs. Weasley released her from the tight embrace and pointed to the stairs.

"The children are upstairs in their rooms until we're done with our meeting in the dining room, why don't you head up and join them? You will be sharing a room with Hermione and Ginny as long as we're staying here, it's on the third floor the last door on the right. I will call for you, as soon as it's suitable for you to join us inside for dinner, dear!"

With those words, Mrs. Weasley turned around, making her way back to the meeting. Tonks had stood silently next to them while they spoke and flashed Holly a last smile, before following Mrs. Weasley through the door, Holly seemingly wasn't allowed pass yet.
Left alone at the staircase, Holly shrugged her shoulders and began ascending the stairs, up to the third floor. There was no light in the long corridor that opened up in front of her, once she reached the right floor, but she could easily make out the right door, since she could instantly hear Ginny's giggles from behind it.
Without bothering to knock, Holly pulled the door and it swung open. Before she could even see even a tiny bit of the room, her sight was blocked by wild, bushy brown hair as she was being pulled into a hug by none other than Hermione.

"You're here! Finally!"

Ginny quickly joined them, and Holly felt the youngest Weasley's arms locked around her as well, a flowery smell tingling her nose.

"Hey, you two, glad to see you as well", Holly finally managed to say, as the arms around her began to soften their grip a little.

The girls took Holly by her hands and led her over to one of the two king size beds standing in the room. Holly at last got a chance to take in her surroundings. She found herself in a large room, the high walls covered with green tapestry, floor and furniture all made from the same rich, dark brown wood, something her aunt Petunia would call mahogany, or something like that. All those chests of drawers, wardrobes and the headboards of their beds were adorned with beautiful carvings. Everything in this room must have been incredibly expensive, so her theory from earlier, that the house must have belonged to one of the old pureblood families proved itself truer by the minute.

"I know, it's a lot to take in at first", Ginny stated knowingly.

"Whose property is this house? Must be some rich pureblood by the looks of it all", Holly answered, still in awe with everything she saw.

"Right you are, goddaughter. It's mine", a voice spoke softly behind her. Holly whirled around and saw Sirius Black standing in the open door, leaning against the frame in that casual way of his.

"Sirius!", Holly screeched and ran over at him, into his arms, ultimately at home.

Dinner was perfect, being cooked by Mrs. Weasley after all. Holly found herself surrounded by all the people dear to her, to her left sat Ron, whom she'd probably missed the most and to her right sat Sirius, joking with glistening eyes, apparently just as happy as her about all the people in his house. Holly still couldn't believe that Sirius had grown up at this place, it seemed to be so very dark even if very beautiful.
Gathered all around the long (again mahogany) dining table were six of the Weasleys (Arthur, Molly, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny), Hermione, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin and several people she didn't yet know, but since all of them were part of the Order, Holly couldn't help but like them already.

After everybody was stuffed with Molly Weasley's exquisite food, the helped cleaning up everything and sat down again, talking about this and that. After some time, Holly couldn't hold back her curiosity anymore and asked Sirius about everything going on at the moment. She still was a bit disappointed about being too young to actually join the Order's meetings and fighting, but nevertheless wanted to know as much as possible about the ongoings. When Sirius started to explain everything, Holly sensed that all the small conversations that had been going on had stopped, all the attention had focused on Sirius' talking:

"You see, at the moment Voldemort is still kind of staying in the dark, he hasn't officially come back again. He's probably angry about his ruined rising at that cemetery. We guess, he wanted to finish you off and immediately claim the power, since your death would have proved him to be invincible after all. But thanks to you, he didn't succeed and know he and his followers are not officially starting a war, even though of course it has started anyway."

Holly wondered, what the Order did, if they weren't actually fighting Voldemort or death eaters at last. This time, Alastor Moody joined their talk and continued instead of Sirius:

"Well, You-Know-Who is looking for something. He seeks information about something, that might help his case, bring him victory after all. And we are doing everything to keep him from gaining that information. Isn't as easy as it sounds, Potter."

Holly's brow furrowed, she still could not comprehend the meaning of any of this. What information might bring victory to Voldemort? Weren't his death eaters and all the dark magic enough to achieve his goal? Before Holly could ask further questions, Mrs. Weasley interrupted their talking, claiming there'd been enough information for now (by the look in her eyes she likely meant generally enough for the "children") and sent everyone upstairs to bed. Holly caught Sirius' eye while leaving the room. He obviously wasn't of the same opinion as Molly.

Later in the darkest hours of the night, Holly found herself awoken with a hurting scar, trying to forget everything she'd seen in her dreams just some seconds ago. As silently as she could, she crawled to the end of the large bed the three girls had decided to sleep in all together, and slipped into one of the green dressing gowns, hanging next to the door.
Since she didn't want to wake any of the girls, she'd decided to go down to the kitchen, maybe drinking some tea or hot chocolate to calm down again. She would do anything, to get rid of the tight feeling in her stomach. It was always the same dream, ending with Cedric's lifeless body, eyes staring empty from what once had been a very handsome face. Holly knew, she shouldn't blame herself, but she couldn't help it, no amount of telling herself to stop that bullshit ever helped, it always came back by night, taunting her again and again.
After all, it had been her idea, to take that stupid cup together. Back then it had seemed to be a good idea, her and Cedric winning the tournament together. Little did she know, that taking that thing would mean his death, nearly hers too and the return of the darkest wizard, and biggest enemy, that ever existed.

Finishing her drink of hot chocolate, she went back to bed, trying shut down her brain with little success.

Next up will be the trial. What do you think will happen?
Will the truth be acknowledged by the Ministry or will they find a way to lock Sirius up again?
Leave a comment and stay tuned, I will upload several chapters this weekend alone!
- entscha