Padfoot's Puppy
Chapter Eleven
'The Weaselys'
"They're here, the Weasley's are here, quick, change into a dog!" Sirius cried, coming into Amber's room early the next morning. With a yawn, Amber sat up in bed, glancing out the tiny window located above the bed. It was still dark outside, who in their right mind would come to the Headquarters in the middle of the night? Certainly no one sane, making Amber a little bit afraid to meet the family.
"Hurry up and change!" Sirius said, sounding desperate. Amber nodded, and quickly transformed, yawning again. Sluggishly, she jumped off of the bed and walked crookedly towards the door, her eyesight blurry. Buckbeak glared at them from his place on the floor and sighed loudly in disgust. Amber looked at him wistfully, wishing that she were the one who could go back to sleep, and not have to worry about pretending to be something she wasn't.
"Come on!" Sirius said irritably. Amber glared at him, but picked up her pace slightly. She didn't want to go too fast, it was still a little awkward to walk on four legs, though Sirius seemed to have forgotten that.
When she finally got down the stairs, Amber stayed right behind Sirius, worry twisting within her. She tried to calm herself down, but it wasn't working and she felt the nervousness grow.
Finally, she and Sirius made it to the front hallway, where there was a large group of people standing, including Remus and Tonks. They were the only people who didn't have a headful of brilliant red hair. Amber stared at the family in amazement; she hadn't seen much people with red hair before, and certainly not such a large group!
"Hey Sirius!" Two identical voices chimed. Amber had to take a second look to make sure she wasn't seeing double. Sure enough though, there were indeed two identical-looking boys, Fred and George, Amber presumed. She took a quick count of all the kids, and came up with only four, and two adults, the parents more than likely.
"Hi, how was the trip out here?" Sirius asked, shaking hands with one of the twins, Fred maybe?
"It was fine, though I don't know why we had to get up so early!" The twin replied, shooting a glare at him mother. Amber wanted to laugh, but she stayed off to the side, not making a sound, hoping no one would notice her. Sirius laughed, and as he started to talk again, Amber's attention shifted over to the youngest son and the daughter.
"This place looks like it's been empty for years!" The boy was saying. His sister nodded and whispered something that Amber couldn't hear. The boy laughed though, causing everyone to look at him. He blushed and quickly looked away, his sister giggling.
Losing interest in them, Amber turned her eyes to the parents. Tonks was talking to the mother, making exaggerated gestures with her arms, while Remus was talking to the father in a low, serious voice. So far, none of them had noticed Amber, which suited her just fine.
"Do you have any rooms we can get some sleep in?" One of the twins, (George?) asked Sirius with a yawn. Sirius nodded and started to speak, but Tonks interrupted him.
"I'll show them their rooms Sirius, you needn't worry!" She said cheerfully. Mrs. Weasley looked relieved that Tonks had stopped talking to her. Remus and Sirius on the other hand, looked worried.
"Oh no, that's alright Tonks, I was going upstairs anyway." Sirius said quickly. Tonks shook her head and started walking towards the stairs. She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking though, and Amber knew immediately that Tonks was going to walk right into her. Knowing there wasn't enough time to get out of the way, Amber ducked low to the ground, closing her eyes. Sure enough, Tonks walked right into her, falling down as she did. Amber fought the urge to yelp loudly, even though Tonks pretty much landed right on top of her.
"Tonks, are you all right?" Mrs. Weasley cried, rushing over to help up the young witch. Tonks nodded, and slowly got up, making Amber worry that she'd gotten hurt as she fell. But her worry faded as Tonks grinned sheepishly at everyone around.
"I'm sorry!" She said. Amber saw the youngest son, Ron maybe, laughing silent. His sister elbowed him hard in the ribs, and he glared at her.
"Hey, when did you guys get a dog?" One of the twins said, finally noticing Amber. Amber glanced up at Sirius, who motioned slightly with his head for her to come forward. With a quick glare at him, Amber bounded forward, her tail wagging. She was getting tired of always acting happy when inside, she was far from happy. She didn't hate living with Remus and Sirius, but she couldn't say that she liked it. It felt as though something inside of her was missing.
"Just a few weeks ago, we found her out in the streets." Remus answered as Fred and George patted Amber. "Her name is Snowball."
"Snowball, you guys named a dog Snowball?" They asked in disgust. Surprised, Remus glanced at Sirius before nodding slowly. Mrs. Weasley was glaring at the twins, Amber was sure she was going to kill them, right there and then.
"Uh, yes." Remus said slowly, sounding a bit nervous. In fact, both he and Sirius looked nervous. Amber couldn't figure out why though, the twins just thought the name was stupid, as did she. She'd just never dared to speak up about it.
"Snowball is a cat's name!" The girl spoke up. Amber wagged her tail a little harder, maybe these kids could talk some sense into Remus and Sirius. She'd always hated the name Snowball, even before she'd ever met Mister back at the cliff. She'd read it in a story once, and vowed that she'd never name an animal it. It was ironic that she herself was now named Snowball.
"So it is." Sirius said, unsure of what he was supposed to say. He found it funny though, that no one thought that Snuffles was a bad name for a dog, but naming a dog Snowball was apparently a sin against nature.
"Why don't you just shorten the name to Snowy, that way everyone will be happy." Mr. Weasley suggested. His kids immediately agreed, and it wasn't long before Sirius and Remus agreed. Amber thought it was a much better name.
"So, does anyone want to go see their rooms?" Sirius asked after a few minutes. The four Weasley kids were still paying attention to Amber, who, even though it was weird being petted, loved all the attention. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were standing beside each other, smiling fondly down at their children, while Tonks was standing nearby, watching them all with a smile.
Reluctantly, the four Weasley kids left Amber and trudged upstairs to their rooms. Amber stayed down with the adults, until they all moved into the dining room. Amber knew what that meant, meeting time!
"Uh, Snowy, go follow the others." Remus said, clearly uncomfortable about calling Amber by her dog name. With a glare, Amber did what she was told. Remus just smiled.
It wasn't hard to find the Weasley kids, Amber had spent much time exploring the house. They were all together in one room, Ginny in a chair, Ron sitting on the floor, and the twins on the bed.
"I still don't get why we have to be here!" Ron was saying as Amber came into the room. Since Ginny was the closest to the door, Amber went over to her. Ginny smiled and patted Amber's head.
"I don't know, Mum probably thinks we'll be murdered if we stay at home, with all the business of that Order thing she and Dad keep going on about." Fred said a little too cheerfully. At least, Amber thought it was Fred.
"Well that's encouraging." His twin said. Amber watched the two of them closely, trying to find at least one difference between them. Of course though, there was none that she could find.
"Weird that they got a dog, I mean, having pets can't be that easy when you're either in hiding or trying to battle You-Know-Who." Ginny said. Her brothers nodded in agreement, and Amber's ears pricked up. She knew that Sirius was in hiding, but was Remus really trying to fight Voldemort?
"I know, though she is a pretty dog." Fred said. Amber knew that underneath her fur she was blushing. There hadn't been too many times that she had seen a mirror, for some reason, Lucius and Narcissa had only had one mirror, in their room, which Amber had rarely gone in. And the few times she had seen her reflection, she'd never thought of herself as pretty.
"Yeah, but her eyes are weird, I've never seen a dog with eyes that shade of blue." George said. Amber shivered slightly; her eyes hadn't changed like the rest of her had? Why hadn't Remus or Sirius said anything? Wasn't that important?
There was a long silence as everyone became engrossed in their own thoughts. Amber could hear a faint murmur which could only be the voices of the adults downstairs. Unfortunately, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't pick up a single word of their conversation.
"I wonder how Harry is." Ron said finally, his voice sounding thoughtful. His siblings nodded in agreement. Amber looked at them curiously, Harry, as in, Harry Potter?
"Probably having a grand time with that cousin of his." Fred said sarcastically. Amber wished she could ask them what they meant, but no, she had to keep pretending to be a dog. She wouldn't be surprised if she ended up forgetting how to talk!
"Wish we could hear what they were saying." Ron said a few minutes later. For a while, Amber listened to their conversation, but she found it a bit dull. They didn't say anything that was useful to her, it seemed like no one did these days. The two people who did refused to say anything. Just thinking about it made Amber angry. It was about her, so she had a right to know. Now, if only she could work up the courage to say that!
Author's Note: First, let me apologize, AGAIN, to my lab partner, for breaking that stupid cylinder thing and cutting her, and thus ruining our entire experiment. At least it was entertaining! And I at least cut myself as well, not just you, so I'm not out to get you…yet… Just kidding!
I'm trying to make my chapters longer, bit by bit, and yes, the story will eventually move on more than it has…There's just so many things that need to happen before I can make it more interesting…And I don't know if I'll be able to update for a few days, I'm going up to my dad's, and he has no computer…even if he did, I wouldn't be able to update… way too busy…But look on the bright side, it'll give me a lot of time to write new chapters, so when I come back, I can put them all up!