Percy gave up pounding on the walls around three AM and took a short nap. At about seven, he got up and headed outside. If anyone came out, he'd make them tell him where Nico was. He was seriously starting to worry. Who were these guys, and what did they want with his cousin? Did they want him to raise the dead or something? That wasn't really possible, and he worried what they'd do to Nico when they found it out.
A man with a false eye and a ton of scars decorating his face stepped out the front door of Number 13 quickly and drew a thin stick. Percy realized he was going to disappear like the last girl had. He ran towards him, yelling, "Stop!" For some reason, the man listened to him and hastily crammed the rod back in his pocket. "You just came from in that house, didn't you?" he demanded.
The man glanced over his shoulder and nodded.
"What do you want with my cousin?" he asked, shaking his shoulders a little. "Just give him back already!"
The man looked furious for a moment, but suddenly his face shifted into a mask of confusion. It threw Percy for a loop, and he wondered if he had imagined it. "I don't quite know what you're talking about, son," he said. "Are you insinuating that I have kidnapped someone? Do I need to call the police?"
Percy stepped back, wondering if this guy was just an unfortunate mortal that he was totally wigging out right now. "Sorry, sir," he said, but the doubt remained. It would be better if he didn't remember Percy being there... He snapped his fingers in front of the man's face, and said, "No need to call the police, I'm just a normal teenage boy."
His human eye glazed over and seemed to react correctly. The man muttered, "Yes, of course... an ordinary kid." But his false eye spun in its socket and fixed on him, looking really ticked off. The man suddenly clapped a hand over his real eye and eyed Percy with the other. "Just what kind of a stunt was that?" he demanded in an ominous tone. "What are you trying to pull here, kid?"
Percy was absolutely shocked. How had he seen through the Mist? He knew he had done it right, his eye had fogged up and he had started to agree. It was like he had completely turned around halfway through, nothing like the way Rachel Dare had seen through the Mist instantly. He wasn't just a mortal with the sight, and any demigod that old would have to be really skilled to have lived that long that the Mist wouldn't be a problem for him. So he was just a really, really stubborn mortal? Percy began backing away slowly, but the man started after him.
"Hold on," he growled. "I've got a few more questions for you." He stretched out a gnarled hand to seize Percy's orange Camp Halfblood shirt, but Percy twisted away and sprinted up the road. Behind him, the man let out a roar of rage, but he didn't pursue him. He suspected it had something to do with the wooden leg. Unless he was the son of Nike or something, there was no chance he'd catch up like that.
Percy watched from a distance until the man took out the rod again and vanished with a bang, just like the girl from before had. Then he slowly crept back up the road, feeling like a criminal. Which he shouldn't have to. It wasn't illegal to walk down the road in London, he was pretty sure. He approached the door of Number 11, determined to pound on the walls some more.
Okay, maybe this one was kinda illegal.
But, Percy reminded himself, legality was hardly important now. And it hadn't really been in the past, either. During the battle of Olympus, he had instructed people to steal phones. Of course they had been returned, but still. And allowed the Aphrodite campers to loot for anti-monster perfume.
Actually, now that Percy thought about it, he had done a lot of things frowned upon by law enforcement. He had basically robbed the water park after forcing entry to it back when he was twelve. He had as good as stolen those canoes when he was trying to get Annabeth back during the whole Artemis incident, because drachmas probably didn't fit in the ATM machine. And that was just the start of the list.
Past transgressions aside, Percy was not feeling too excited about another potential breaking and entering charge on his head. Sure, he hadn't gotten caught before, but that was no reason for him to start today. Guiltily, he wandered to a new place to hack on the walls, hoping that maybe there would be a weak spot somewhere in this house. Drawing his sword, he tried to slice a big gash through it. Predictably, nothing happened.
Sirius was in the drawing room with Nico. The desk drawer was rattling, but he had forgotten to ask Moody to check to see if it was a boggart or not and he didn't fancy opening the drawer and releasing something large and poisonous. So for now, the drawer would remain shut. Nico seemed apprehensive of it, and was sitting on the sofa on the opposite side of the room. Also in the room were Lupin and Ginny. The three of them were cleaning diligently, but after Nico's display the previous night, everyone was too frightened to force him to help. And Nico certainly didn't offer any assistance.
Lupin and Ginny were struggling to make a strained conversation just to fill the uncomfortable silence left by Nico's presence. All of them could clearly feel the fear and death he carried with him wherever he went, but Sirius was glad they were trying hard to ignore it for his sake. "So you'll be a fourth year now, Ginny?" Lupin asked after a long pause that dragged on for ages.
"Yes, I will be," she said, visibly relieved that they weren't working in silence anymore. She let out a long breath. "I've been thinking about doing Quidditch, but I don't know what position I could play."
"Beater, maybe?" Lupin suggested, a twinkle in his eyes.
She snorted, and Sirius was pleased to see they had forgotten Nico was there for a brief moment. "Fred and George would only kill me," she said. "Seeker is out, obviously. I think I'd be a rubbish Keeper, even if there is an opening now that Wood's gone."
"That leaves... Chaser, then," Lupin said. "I think you could do it."
Ginny picked up her dusting cloth and stepped over to the windows that were invisible from the outside. She had to go around Nico on the couch to get to where the windows were, and they were all suddenly reminded of him. "I don't really—" she said, but broke off and just scrubbed the windows. After a while, she turned and looked to Nico. "What's that, then?" she asked, trying to look interested. Nico had his Muggle music box plugged in. Sirius had seen him use it once before, and he had brought it in to Grimmauld Place for him. He figured it was important.
"It's an iPod," Nico said, tugging what looked like an earplug out of his ear. The earplug was connected by a long wire to the box... the whole thing was very confusing looking. "It plays music."
"Ooh, who's your favorite artist?" she asked. "I like some Muggle bands, I might know who they are!"
Nico looked dubious. "Well, I guess My Chemical Romance is pretty popular in London," he suggested.
She glanced away. "I've heard of them... Not in the most glowing terms. Didn't they write an entire album about death?"
He scowled at the ground. "It was about a cancer patient, and probably the deepest album anyone has released in the past seventy years," he said, and the way he said it... Sirius almost felt like he knew exactly what music was like seventy years ago.
Then he shrugged the feeling off. Nico was thirteen, tops. Unless he had been getting some serious Philosopher Stone action, there was simply no way. And even the stone didn't prevent aging... it prevented dying. Nicolas Flamel had looked like an ancient hobbit when he died.
"Right," Ginny said, turning to the window. "I meant more like Lady GaGa, but to each their own."
Frankly, Sirius felt that all of the Muggle band names were a bit ridiculous. He didn't want to intrude, though, so he just scrubbed the carpet harder, trying to get out what may or may not have been a blood stain. His parents worried him some times.
Harry burst through the door. "Someone's pounding on the wall downstairs," he said breathlessly. "Against the dining room wall. Molly said to come get you."
Lupin rose instantly, as did Sirius, eager for a break from the bloody carpet. Nico perked up, but Lupin shook his head, silently denying him permission to come. Nico's happy expression slipped off his face. "I think it would be best if you stayed here," he told him.
Sirius wanted to say something in the boy's defense, but Nico had already slumped back onto the sofa and plugged back into his 'iPod'. He turned up the volume so loudly that Sirius could hear faint strains of song from the opposite side of the room. The singer seemed to be doing less singing and more screaming along to a heavy drum beat. Sirius got the message. Conversation over.
Ginny saw them leaving and dropped the rag. She clearly didn't want to be left alone with Nico for the fear he would start going crazy on her. She hurried after Sirius. Lupin was already to the top of the stairs. "Where's the fire?" Sirius joked. Lupin wore a good humored expression, but his eyes were intense, like a cold inferno behind them raged. It shocked him to see his friend in such a state.
They gathered in the dining room, where someone was whaling on the wall and shouting. "If you can hear me, I'm not going away until you let my cousin out of there!" a teenage boy hollered through the wall. "Answer me!"
Lupin relaxed. "He won't be able to hear a word we're saying," he said. "There are preventative charms against that sort of thing." Then he frowned. "However, he on the other hand, has grown a bit irritating. Muffliato."
The boy's voice grew a bit softer in his complaints, but didn't vanish entirely.
"We'll just put on a nice record and it'll be like he's not there," Mrs. Weasley suggested, grabbing a vinyl disc off of the counter and putting it on the player. After a moment, a creaky melody wafted out of the ancient speakers and the boy was mostly silenced aside from the odd thump against the wall.
Upstairs, a loud yell resounded through the house, followed by a noisy crash.
Sirius and Lupin made for the stairs, followed by Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The twins appeared out of their rooms halfway up the first flight and joined the group as they ran up the next flight. On the third floor, the drawing room door was wide open and a twelve foot tall man stood in a fancy Muggle suit, holding a humongous lightning bolt in one hand that was crackling with electricity. They froze in the doorway. Sirius looked around the room for Nico, who had slid back against the far wall and was shaking all over.
"Nico di Angelo," the man boomed. "I've come to finish what should have ended seventy years ago. Do not tremble, demigod. You will be seeing your relatives very soon." He gave Nico a cold smirk.
Nico was absolutely white with fear. Normally, this wouldn't be unusual as Nico was always pale and skeletal, but it was like every ounce of color he had was gone. "No," Nico said as the man approached him. "What have I done? Wasn't I useful last summer, my lord? If it wasn't for me—"
"You are nothing more than the worthless son of my selfish brother," the man growled. "Like him, you have begun to rot from the inside. I suspect you have little time before you go mad as the rest of your siblings." Nico sucked in a sharp breath. The man wasn't done. "Your sister was lucky to die before the insanity got to her."
Nico's eyes narrowed. He lunged to his feet and sprang at the man. "Never talk about Bianca! It's your fault she was on the quest! If you had just let us be back then, she would have died of old age before Kronos even began to return!" The shadows exploded around the room, heading straight for the man. Sirius was sure he'd be skewered, but they seemed to just bounce off of him and spun around the room wildly, seeking a new target.
The man laughed and swatted him aside. "You dare attack me, boy? You presumptuous brat. You think you can defeat the king of the gods?"
That was quite the ego, Sirius thought, drawing his wand to help. "Protego!" he cried, deflecting a column of black just in time. Sirius's eyes fell on an open desk drawer in the corner of the room. Wait...
Nico had hit the wall and fallen onto the floor, but he was climbing back up. Every stone or earthenware object in the room began to rattle and rise. Unfortunately, this was the room that his mother had kept her tea cup collection in. The freakishly contorted cups—not Nico's doing, his mother had such an odd taste in things—began to fly across the room at the self proclaimed 'king of the gods'. Lupin whipped out his wand as well.
"Riddikulus!" Sirius shouted, pointing at the twelve foot man. He imagined the man in a purple frilly dress and let out a snort of laughter that bordered on hysterical. The boggart spun a few times before exploding.
"Blimey, and I thought spiders were bad," Ron said from behind him.
Nico slumped on the floor, curling into a ball. The cups began to fall from the sky and shatter on the floor. Behind him, Lupin muttered something and they all froze in mid air, or what was left of them, anyways. Not that Sirius particularly cared about saving them. The two of them hurried to his side, and Hermione scurried behind them, anxiously peering down at Nico.
"You're safe now," Hermione said, awkwardly patting Nico's shoulder as Lupin checked him for broken bones. "That wasn't real. It was a monster that just takes the shape of something you're afraid of."
Nico let out an animal snarl and brought his hand up, clawing Hermione across the face. She lurched backwards, clutching her cheek. A trio of red lines were beginning to seep blood. Everyone went for their wands, even Harry and Ron, who couldn't legally use them.
"Nico, calm down!" Sirius shouted. Instead of calming down, Nico spun on Sirius. "Can't we just talk this through like sensible people? Who was that man? Why did you call him 'lord'?"
"A murderer," Nico spat, and the levitated teacups began to shake in place. One split in half and shot shards of clay everywhere, making them all duck. A shard cut Nico right across the cheek, but he ignored it. "He killed my mother, and he tried to kill me and my sister."
"What was he saying about your siblings all going insane?" Lupin asked. Sirius felt that maybe Nico was beginning to slip a bit towards the other side of sane, but he wisely kept his mouth shut, thinking Nico would take his head off if he said so.
Nico grimaced. "Runs in the family. We all go mad, sooner or later. I've lasted fairly long, by comparison," he added, but Sirius sort of doubted that. And if Nico was thirteen, and gone mad, just how long had the others made it?
"He called you a demigod," Lupin said, but Nico seemed to be done talking. He clawed at Lupin as he reached out to try and calm him down. "Ouch! I'm just trying to help," he said, retracting his hand after Nico tore a gash in it with his nails.
"I don't need your help!" he shouted. "I don't need you or anyone else's help!" Nico threw his arms in the air and more cups began to explode. Sirius jumped across the room to where Harry was standing, wide eyed, and he pushed him and Ron behind him so the shards wouldn't hit them.
"Stupefy!" Lupin cried, and Nico fell to the floor in a pile of limbs. Somehow freed from their spell, the cups all fell to the ground and were smashed. "What do we do now?" Lupin asked, helplessly.
"I think we need to talk to Snape," Sirius said.
Severus swept into the Order two hours later. He ignored Sirius in the front hallway and entered the kitchen instead. When he realized there was a noise coming from the walls, he began to study the walls intensely. Aside from him, the dining room was empty. Maybe people were disturbed by the noise coming from the other side, or maybe they had gotten sick of listening to the same witch on repeat, over and over again. Even Molly had hurried away. Sirius took the record off, and the noise became more pronounced.
"What exactly did you see in Nico's mind when you used Legilimency on him?" Sirius demanded, following him in. Snape raised his hooked nose in the air. He gazed down at Sirius, clearly thinking he was better than him. Sirius wanted to shake him hard and turn him upside down by his ankles like he had done in school.
"And why, exactly, should I tell you?" he sniffed with his big bird beak of a nose. "What's in it for me?"
Sirius gritted his teeth. "You're going to tell me before I punch your big honking face in, that's why!" he snapped. He grabbed the front of Snape's robe and twisted it.
Snape brushed him off. "I know why you invited me here. If I didn't intend to tell you, it wouldn't have been worth my time. Mr. di Angelo has a bit of a curious brain. At first, he seemed to be thinking about his sister, Bianca, who died a few years ago. I didn't access that part of his memory. Instead I tried to get into his past. Oddly enough, anything before the age of ten is gone. Completely blank. Though the boy seems to have spent a large amount of time playing Muggle video games." Snape shrugged. "That's all I could get before the table flew at me, thank you very much. Maybe if I could get another look..."
But Sirius wasn't sure he wanted Snape to get inside Nico's head anymore. Snape wouldn't be careful with Nico, he'd be rough and abrasive, and probably upset Nico more than anything. The last thing they needed was another temper tantrum, especially after that last boggart bit. He shook his head. "The boy's unconscious right now, anyways."
Snape arched his eyebrows. "Really," he said, in a voice that was curious but trying to mask it by sounding indifferent.
Sirius nodded, smirking inwardly, proud of the fact that he had gotten Snape intrigued. "Oh, yeah. He faced a boggart, which tried to kill him. After that, he lost it and started attacking us."
"I'd better be on my way, then," Snape said, anxiously peering at the ceiling as if Nico would come thundering down and maul him at any second. He hurried away like a rat. At the door, he paused and looked back at Sirius. "Do get rid of him soon," he added, looking intimidated.
As the door slammed shut behind him, Sirius sank into a chair and stared at the wall. A painting depicting Regulus Black on his first day of school shook and fell off with another thump. He felt terrible for Nico. He was trapped in a house he didn't want anything to do with, which was something Sirius could definitely relate to. Letting him out, though, was a major security risk. The others would never agree to it.
But, Sirius wondered, did he even care what the others wanted anymore? His friend was getting more and more miserable upstairs, and he hated to watch him like this. Nico was clearly not in a good state of mental health, and he doubted being locked up in this bin was really helping him with that.
Suddenly, the rhythmic thudding on the wall stopped. Sirius stared at the moldy wood, wondering what was going to happen next.
Percy slumped against the wall in defeat. This clearly was NOT working. He was just being ignored. He wondered if there was even anyone over there, or he was mistakenly pounding against an empty building's adjoining wall. He was so worried about Nico. Anything could have happened to him by now. Visions of a bloody, battered boy flashed through his head. He winced, squeezing his eyes shut to try and block out the images.
He stood up and wandered into the kitchen, which was disgustingly filthy. Gods, he was getting thirsty. If only he could get something to drink... A quick check in the fridge gave him hope for a moment, but the gallon of milk was set to expire tomorrow... ten years ago. Percy made a retching noise and pushed it back into the warm fridge, which obviously had not had any power in years.
Without much hope, he turned on the kitchen sink. To his surprise, it spewed out a rusty red stream of water. Percy gaped at it for a moment as the rust slowly faded away until it was barely tinged pink. Then he stuck his hands under it and drank deeply. That cleared the dust out of his throat nicely. After breathing in nothing but stale air and dust motes, his lungs were caked with the stuff.
Hang on, Percy realized. There was water in this house. He was the son of Poseidon. What was he thinking? If his sword couldn't get through it, maybe he could get something else through. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made to him. Nico had created some kind of rainbow with steam or something, which meant that house had running water too. And if they had water, he could force the pipes inside to explode.
He didn't know how much it would do, but maybe something would happen. Percy figured it was worth a shot.
He closed his eyes and tried to feel the water as it rushed through the pipes. A familiar tug in his gut appeared, and suddenly the water seemed to match his pulse. Percy felt the water just like he felt a strong rush of blood to the head, and he turned around. Digging his nails into his palms, he cranked up the pressure. A leak sprang on the wall.
No, that would be no good. There was no reason to flood his half of the house. A pressure began to surge on his ears, and then suddenly, it popped. The water was free, but it wasn't coming out on this side.
Which meant it was coming out somewhere else. Percy grinned.
Sirius walked to the wall. He knocked against it briefly, wondering what had happened to the boy on the other side. Had he given up and left? Somehow, Sirius doubted that. He suspected the boy was planning something new. It was like the calm before the storm.
Sirius leaped back as the walls began to explode with water. "Good god!" he yelled. Molly hurried into the room and gasped.
"What is going on here?" she cried, pulling out her wand. As she began to frantically cast spells, Sirius began trying to cover up the holes in the walls with his hands. It did nothing—the water shot out around his palms anyways. Nothing seemed to be working. Suddenly, the thumping returned with renewed vigor, and it was much louder and accompanied by frightening cracking noises.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared in the kitchen. Hermione let out a gasp. "Oh my word!" she shrieked. "What's happening?"
Harry stepped into the room and straight into a puddle of water. His socks were instantly drenched. Sirius glanced back at them. "Go get Lupin!" he shouted. Ron turned and started to run back up the stairs. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded, trying to get Harry and Hermione out of there. Instead, Hermione pointed a shaking hand at the wall, and Sirius turned to see that a long black crack was spreading along the wall. Each thump made it grow and branch out a little more.
Sirius backed away from the wall a few steps and drew his wand. He had to be ready for whatever was on the other side.
Then the wall blew open. Before anyone could move, a boy with black hair and sea green eyes lunged through the gaping void and grabbed Harry. He held a glowing bronze sword at Harry's throat. "Nobody move," he said. "Or I'll..." but he trailed off, looking slightly sick at the thought of cutting Harry's head off. Harry raised his hands slowly.
"Who are you?" Hermione asked, aghast.
"I'm Percy," he said. "I've come for my cousin. Where is he?"
"He's on the third floor, but be forewarned," Sirius blurted. "He's unconscious." He had to tell Percy, Nico needed to get out of here. Molly cut him a glare for telling him. What did she want him to do? Let Harry get his head cut off? It was win/win for both sides. Harry kept his head on and Nico got out of this godforsaken hovel.
"Stupefy!" Molly shouted, shooting the spell at the boy. It hit Percy in the face and bounced off. While everyone gaped at him in astonishment, the curse rebounded and hit Harry in the neck. Harry slumped to the ground, and Percy let go of him.
"Oh, well," he said. "I've never really liked hostage situations much, myself." Then he turned around and sprinted for the staircase. Sirius ran right after him.
At the second landing, Percy swung around and jabbed the sword tip at Sirius, who took a defensive step back. "What do you want?" he demanded coldly. Sirius held up his hands and met his eye.
"I'm helping Nico get out of here," he said. "We're friends. I'm Sirius."
Percy studied him, and Sirius got the feeling that if he didn't meet this character test, Percy would have no problem shoving him down the flight of stairs. Then he nodded, to Sirius's relief. "I believe you. Let's go."
Sirius had not been kidding—Nico really was passed out. He wanted to punch the guy who did it in the face. As he leaned over his cousin to check him for wounds, he realized that there were thin streaks from tears running down his face. Nico had been crying. What had happened? He had never seen Nico cry, even when Bianca died, although he suspected Nico had just waited until he was alone to do it then. Percy wiped off his face quickly and felt his forehead to make sure the fever had gone down. Relief swept through him. Nico was cold as always.
"Help me get him on my back," Percy said, and Sirius lifted Nico so he was wrapped around him, his arms dangling in front of Percy. "I'll take the backpack, too," he added, grabbing the orange bag off the ground. Then he paused. "Hold on," he told Sirius, who was making for the door. He dug in his pockets and found a golden drachma. "Here."
Sirius accepted the coin. "Nico had these before, didn't he?" he asked, holding it up to the light. "What are they?"
Percy hesitated. He didn't really intend to tell Sirius how the whole Iris Messaging thing worked. That would be revealing all the demigod things to him.
"It's like a phone card for our... family," he said. "You need to get some kind of rainbow or mist or something going on, and then you throw the coin through the rainbow. Then say, 'O Goddess, please accept my offering. Show me...' and then you say the name or the place of the person you want to see." He grabbed Sirius's hand and wrote down the Camp Halfblood address on it, having no paper. "That's the address we'll be at, but if you just say 'Camp Halfblood', we'll get the call."
Sirius studied his hand. "I see. And if you need to contact us, we're at..." He hesitated, probably not intending to tell them where he lived. Not that it really mattered, now that Percy had kind of busted down a freaking wall. So they were both hiding things. "Give me that pen," he said quickly. "And don't show anyone other than Nico."
Percy nodded, not getting what the big deal was. He handed over the pen and held out his hand for Sirius to write it on. He wrote down Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Percy tried to read it out loud, but found he couldn't form the words. That was odd. He tried again, to the same effect.
"I'll be here," Sirius said, somewhat bitterly. "Now let's go."
Percy followed him back downstairs. A haggard man was trying to revive his former hostage, who was still slumped against the wall, and a thin barrier that shimmered and rippled in place like a veil had filled the void. When they saw him, everyone pointed their sticks at him. Percy was having a hard time being intimidated by this, because after having the Minotaur charge straight at you, trying to murder you, you had a hard time getting nervous over a couple wooden rods. Sirius seemed to take a different position than him.
"Protego!" Sirius shouted, and a thin wall spread between Percy and Sirius and the rest of the people in the living room. Their faces changed dramatically, looking startled and then really angry.
Percy gaped at him. What had he just done? All of the things people had done with those sticks hadn't affected him yet. This was the first real display of power he had seen with them, aside from when the lady knocked out the kid. Sirius turned and faced the veil, muttering softly under his breath.
"Go on," he said as it thinned and vanished. "You can get through. Tell Nico I say hello when he wakes up," he added, and Percy nodded gratefully.
He stepped through the void and watched as Sirius began repairing the wall. He noticed that he didn't let the wall between his friends and him go down just then. Percy hoped he hadn't caused too much trouble for him, and then he turned and ran to find Mrs. O'Leary.
She had gotten up and was chewing on the kitchen counter, snorting angrily when she couldn't bite it off. "Time to go home, girl," he said, and she perked up eagerly.
Mrs. O'Leary let out a loud woof as Percy climbed up onto her back. He grabbed her puppy fat on her neck to get a better grip. It was like picking up a large dog with one hand. Even her fat was massive. She barked again and turned to run straight at the wall. Percy closed his eyes an instant before collision, sure they were going to smack a dog shaped hole through the house. Then he opened them and Mrs. O'Leary was running through an empty void.
They were going home.
"Nico has gone," was the first thing Moody said when he arrived that evening for dinner.
"Well, that's because I helped him escape," Sirius said, pleasantly, sitting back in his chair.
Moody looked really upset, but Sirius didn't feel the least bit guilty. He had taken down the wall between him and the others only about ten minutes after Percy left, and let Molly lecture him for a good hour. He had done what he knew was right in helping Nico get home. He had fixed the dangerous hole in the security wall of Number 12. His conscience was completely appeased.
The table was silent until Ginny said, "Good." Everyone looked at her and she blushed. "What? He was really freaking us all out. I'm glad he's gone."
"Depressing blighter, wasn't he?" Fred asked, taking a sip of his water.
Hermione simply nodded. The bandage on her cheek was more than enough reason for her to want him out of there.
"Security!" Moody spat, standing up. "You've completely put the security of this house at risk! What if they found out the address? They could get in!"
Sirius hesitated. "They don't know the address," he lied, although he was pretty sure that didn't ease Moody's rage. Moody probably knew he was lying.
"Come now, everyone," Molly said, waving her wand. The pot of soup began ladling itself out into everyone's bowls. "Let's not ruin dinner with all this serious discussion. We can talk about it tonight at the meeting."
Ginny groaned. "Another secret meeting?" Fred and George, on the other hand, had their eyes twinkling with pleasure. They were obviously going to listen in.
Sirius was not excited for the meeting. He knew he was going to get chewed out for what he did, but he didn't care. It was the right thing. He had no regrets.
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry this one took me so long to update! I decided it needed more action about two seconds before publishing this chapter and I wound up rewriting about half of it over the weekend. Plus I started viola camp this morning, and I started playing viola for the first time ever yesterday. So I'm busy trying to learn the darned thing. Alto clef confuses me! TT_TT
I don't think I'll be able to continue my 1 AM writing sessions if I want to remain awake at camp. In other words... the next chapter, which is all I think I'll get out this week, will be delayed. Apologies to everyone, but I will write with renewed vigor after Friday!
Please leave a review and give me some more feedback! I love hearing what everyone thinks!