DISCLAIMER: THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER BELONGS TO JK. ROWLING.

The girls were in the their room, unpacking all their belongings for their two months in the Order Headquarters. At the moment Stephanie was just lying on the bed, looking at the ceiling, as Laura was bubbling all around the room, trying to keep herself as occupied as possible to not let any Sirius thoughts creep up on her mind.

" Hey Laura, did you notice how much Sirius has changed?" Stephanie said while staring at a spot on the ceiling.

" Uhh…not really.."

" Are you blind? He doesn't look shaggy, it's like he cleaned up," Laura buried her head in her trunk at those words, because truth be told, she had noticed, but she was trying to not picture his handsome face, if only for 1 moment. " Well whatever it is, he looks pretty good Laura. Hey, you know I sort of told Fred I loved him the other day." She had a small blush creeping in her cheeks, but she was trying to remain calm and stare at her spot on her wall.

" What? You're kidding!" said Laura who flopped down on Stephanie's bed.

" No… I—"

" Wow I thought you guys had already been past that step, like a year ago. How funny. I guess the boys will be sad, because we have this bet, and—whoa. Nice." Laura seemed so cool about it, Stephanie sat up looking relieved, then squinting her eyes she said, " What bet?"

Laura cleared her throat nervously, " Ohh…just this bet…you know… not big deal… better go check up on Sirius in the kitchen!" and she got up and ran out of the room. Stephanie didn't have time to react before Laura disappeared.

Ok great now you escaped Stephanie's questions, but now you have to go and face him. Great thinking Laura! Oh God! Oh God! Ok, just go down the stairs; act as if nothing happened…it's all good. You are with Oliver now…breathe, breathe, ok the breathing is not helping. Oh shit, I am already approaching the kitchen. Damn feet, made for stupid walking, making me too fast, why do we need feet anyways, stupid invention, only made to---

" Hello Laura." said Sirius.

"…Oh hi." Laura had been shocked to see him all of a sudden, kicking her out of her thoughts. He had been quickly wiping the big Kitchen table, perhaps trying to make things look homier. He had a kitchen towel on his shoulder, and was turning around away from her back to the sink to fetch a sponge.

" Umm, this is a nice house…" said Laura trying to relieve this slight awkwardness.

" Yeah right! I hate this house. I ran away from it, and now I am back, something I never thought would happen." He said bitterly as he stood over the sink.

Laura walked up behind him and put a hand on his back saying, " I am sorry we put you through this."

She felt so sure of what she was doing; it was like another woman had taken over her body making her act this way. His back relaxed at her touch, and he turned around catching her hand that was on his back, bringing it to his chest, holding it tight, focusing his eyes in hers, "Laura, listen I—"

" Hello Sirius! Laura! The boys are coming shortly." Said Mrs. Weasley coming out of the fireplace and wiping soot off her robe.

Sirius and Laura jumped up startled, and Laura took her hand out of his grasp and took a step back. When she looked back and in a cheerful voice she said, "Oh perfect, can't wait!"

She was secretly thankful Mrs. Weasley came when she did, because she didn't know what Sirius was going to say, but she never felt like she could hold back with him. If he held her hand for a moment longer, she would have really melted. When she stole a quick glance back at Sirius, she noticed his shift in attitude; he came up to Mrs. Weasley very courteously, and embraced her in a big hug.

" So Molly, any news from Harry?" asked Sirius after giving her a cup of tea.

" No no, perhaps you should ask Ron, I believe he sends mail every now and then." Rite on cue, Ron jumped out of the fireplace, followed by his brothers and sister, and surprisingly, Hermione as well.

" Welcome everyone!" Said Sirius happy to have some company.

" Hermione? What are you doing here?" asked Laura totally taken aback.

" Oh, well I received a letter from Mrs. Weasley and Dumbeldore, asking for some help to clean up this…ummm…yea, and with the order."

" Well I am happy you could all make it." said Sirius sincerely, not caring about the slight comment made on his house. They all smiled at one another, wiping soot off their clothes, and then Mrs. Wealsey spoke up.

" Well Sirius, with the kids here, I thought we could clean up this place a little, you know, make it more livable, because I doubt anyone besides yourself has lived here in quite some time."

" Sure that's and excellent idea, you can throw anything out, nothing in this house means much to me." Said Sirius getting a bit happier by the idea of not being alone all the time.

" Hey mate, Fred and I have some ideas to run by you too.." said George who knew Sirius had been a Marauder.

" Now George, I don't want you and your brother to do any more joke stuff, you already deceived me by not getting as many O.W.Ls as I would have liked and…"

" …Please make her stop before she gets too into it…" whispered Fred looking exasperated. Laura couldn't help smile a little at his remark, and soon Ginny looked at Laura and she too started to hold back a smile, and all of a sudden it was too much and everyone started laughing, and Mrs.Weasley just looked appalled, then turned around and put an apron on muttering to herself, " Well, it looks like I will be surrounded by a bunch of idiots this summer, fine fine, just fine." That comment just made them laugh harder, that it made Stephanie come down from her room upon hearing the noise.

" What's all the commotion…you guys made it!" she exclaimed upon seeing all the familiar faces.

" Quickly Sirius, show us our room before malmsey explodes…" said Fred in an undertone. Sirius took the hint and told them all to follow him. Laura let them all walk ahead of her, and remained in the kitchen with Mrs. Weasley, because no matter what temper she was in, it was far better then the confusion that was in her head every time she found herself around that muscular, black haired, tempest man.

" Dear, have you and Stephanie already unpacked?" asked Mrs. Weasley in a very motherly tone.

" Yes, pretty much. Anything I can help you with in the kitchen?"

" Oh, umm…well the last couple of times you helped me that resulted in disasters. You know, I don't think I have found anything to remove to burnt hole in the wall by my stove…" said Mrs. Weasley thoughtfully.

Laura blushed. It was true, she was a walking disaster waiting to happen when it came to her and cooking. She laughed nervously, more so out of embarrassment, grabbed a sponge and started wiping the table clean.

Meanwhile upstairs….

" Ok boys, Fred and George you take this room," Sirius mentioned to the twins, " oh, and after I show the rest of the rooms, let me know about…you know..."

The twins nodded gravely, " Yes yes, we will let you know about …'you know'… "

" Rite Rite…" said Sirius.

" Bloody weirdoes." Said Ron in an undertone to Stephanie who just smiled and nodded her head.

" What was that dear brother of mine?" asked Fred coming threateningly closer.

" Nothing nothing, not a thing." Said Ron waving his arms around.

" Ok Ron, this will be yours and Harry's room when he comes." Motioned Sirius

to another room in the house.

" Wait, so when is Harry coming?" asked Hermione.

" I don't know, I thought he was coming with you guys."

"Umm no, Dumbeldore told mom that he had to stay with the ' Crazy-psycho-family' for a while, so we don't know when he will be coming." Piped in Ron.

" Oh rite, I forgot. He told us all this really late the other night. Also Ron, Hermione I must ask you to not tell Harry of where you are or what exactly you are doing, because your owls may be intercepted and that would devastate the order."

The kids nodded, and he took and good look at all of them and sighed, " I guess this is it then." They weren't sure what he had meant, but they felt it too, the feeling of embarking on an adventure that wasn't going to be easy. " Ok now, Hermione and Ginny you don't mind sharing a room together, not like you have much of a choice."

" No no it's fine, we are just happy to be here is all anyways. You know, be part of this." Said Ginny encouragingly. Sirius seemed a bit relieved at that comment and smiled back.

" Rite then, here you guys are. I'll let you get settled in, be careful to not be too loud when you come downstairs, because you might wake the portraits, and trust me when I say that that would not be a pretty picture."

Ron raised an eyebrow and muttered, " ok…"

Ginny and Hermione went to their rooms to get settled in followed by Stephanie, probably up to a little gossiping about this and that. The boys were still standing in the hallway when George said, " Ok Sirius, meeting in our room now. " and he turned around with Fred and went in their room followed by Sirius. Poor Ron was left in the middle of the hallway, and just rolled his eyes and went inside his room and closed the door.

" All right Sirius, so my dear brother and I have called this meeting due to a very important issue that must be laid out. " said George gravely.

Sirius put on a playful serious face and said, " Ok boys, lay it on me. "

" Ok, but I must warn you this won't be pretty. " said Fred.

" To begin with, Fred and I have sort of started a joke shop under Mom's nose, and secondly, we need you help with this new invention." Said George pointing to a fleshy looking string.

" What is that?" asked Sirius rather curious and feeling like he was with James and his Marauding gang all over again.

" Well, we aren't sure yet…" said Fred.

" It's a device to enable us to listen to conversations happening far away. You know, like girls talking about who's hot and who's not, or mom and dad talking about the Order…" said George.

Sirius was laughing to himself, and exclaimed, " This is genius! Ok, so what you need is a simple spell that Remus and me used to do back at school to spy on the slytherins…" the three boys stayed in their room all afternoon concocting this new invention while everyone else in the house was busy settling in.

After trying to help Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen, Laura went to find the girls, feeling the need for some estrogen empowerment.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" asked Laura as she walked in Hermione and Ginny's room. They had been in the middle of a pillow fight and laughed when they say Laura standing in the doorway.

" Uuuhh…have I missed something here?"

" No..haha..we…breathe breathe we were just testing out the pillows…" Ginny tried to say while laughing and catching her breath.

" You know what they say, nothing like a good pillow fight to start out the day. " said Stephanie.

" Hermione! I would have thought you would have stopped this." Said Laura jokingly, knowing Hermione's strict nature. In her defense, Hermione simply giggled and said, " It's a conspiracy, they hit me first."

Then they all started laughing even harder, until Stephanie grabbed her pillow and hit Laura square in the face. " OOH!" shrieked Laura, and grabbed a huge pillow in retaliation. And once again, the pillow war was on! The girls were screaming and jumping on the beds, trying to hit one another, until it got taken all the way out in the hallway. Ron came out of his room to ask what the commotion was all about, when he was received with Hermione's pillow on his head. He was taken a bit by surprise, but just smiled and took it off his head for revenge.

" No Ron, don't you dare!" said Hermione trying to run away.

" Oh ho ho! You can run, you can hide, but I'm gonna get you!" he said running after her, but was blocked by Ginny's swinging fluffy pink pillow. The hallway was a sea of flying pillows and shrieks, which caught the twins' attention who apparated where the fiesta was taking place. They appeared right in front of Stephanie who hadn't seen them, not quite used to their new apparition ability and were knocked clean off their feet. Soon enough Sirius came down the stairs from the twin's room and asked, " What the—" he was loss for words. The girls were swinging left and right, and pink in the face. Ron was trying to catch Hermione who was running from her room to his, and the twins were trying to tickle Stephanie until she couldn't breathe.

" Well, this is definitely more lively." He said grinning.

" What the bloody hell is going on!" asked Mrs. Weasley coming up the stairs.

They all stopped and looked at her as she glared at them. It was quite a funny picture, for the twins were on top of Stephanie pinning her down to tickle her as she laughed and shrieked for them to stop. Ron had caught Hermione and had his arm around her stomach to keep her from running away, but it had resulted in both of them falling over in the hallway, taking Laura and Ginny down with them, and in the middle of this puzzle of limbs and pillows was Sirius holding a pillow in his hand, looking confused.

" Sirius, I expected better from you." Said Mrs. Weasley looking aghast.

" Uhh, well – I..."

She huffed and puffed, and walked back down to the kitchen after telling them all to straighten up and come down to help her. They all smiled at each other, trying no to start laughing again, and got back up on their feet. Sirius lent Laura a hand to stand up, and when she put her hand in his, he closed his fingers upon her delicate skin, pulling her back up to her feet.

" Well, this was fun!" said Ginny.

" Yeah, tons of fun, " said Stephanie sarcastically, " I think I just made a six pack for my abs by laughing so hard." She said still catching her breath from the tickles of death.