Authors note: Hello my lovely readers! Long time no update:) I apologize, this summer has been a lot more hectic than I thought it was going to be. Hopefully I can start updating more frequently after school starts, but I have no guarantees. So here's the newest chapter of Learning to Love Again, where our Alex gets to meet Sirius again...oh snap. lol. Annnyway, I hope you enjoy it, cause I'm not 100% sure I'm satisfied with it, but then again, I never really am...haha. As always, Please read and review, and I will love you forever and ever. :D
Disclaimer: *Pinches herself, and sighs.*Nope. Still not JKR. Drat.
It was dark, the wind whistled around us and in my ear as we walked down the street named Grimmwald place, cold darkness surrounding us as our cloaks whipped around our ankles, our wands held at our side with white knuckles and our eyes scanning and alert for anything unusual, or out of the ordinary. It was amazing and sad at the same time how paranoid war could make a person, or people in general.
"Do you still have the paper?" Remus asked me quietly, glancing at me wearily from the corner of his eye, still walking quickly down the street without stopping, his wand held out in front of him, shedding its glowing white light on out in front of us.
I nodded silently, pulling the wrinkled piece of paper out of my pocket, squinting my eyes to read the vaguely familiar slanted hand writing, "The headquarters for the order of -" I started softly before he cut me off hastily.
He shushed me, "Just read it to yourself. You never know who could be listening." He muttered ominously, his eyes darting across the street to where a stray cat had jumped off of the fence, like it could be a death eater just waiting to kill us.
I rolled my eyes at how much like Mad-Eye he sounded like, "Constant vigilance." I muttered sarcastically to try and cover up the fear that was almost choking me and I looked down at the paper again, reading:
The Headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix may be found at Number Twelve, Grimmwald place.
I looked up at Remus with a confused expression, and said cautiously, turning my head between the home of number eleven, then at thirteen slowly, "Remus, there is no number..." I tried to start, looking back at him skeptically, but he interrupted me again.
"Watch." He said quietly, calmly gesturing his wand right between number eleven and thirteen, where his gaze was, his eyes watching something I clearly could not see yet.
I did as he said without questioning it, and looked between the two houses, my eyes widening and my jaw dropping at what I saw happening before my very stunned eyes.
The two houses seemed to pull apart at the seems, and the space-no, there was no space in between them-there was another house completely, that seemed to fit between the odd numbers perfectly, like it had been there for hundreds years. Which, I had to remind myself, it probably had.
"Merlin." I whispered in wonder, my eyes as wide as saucers by now, "I love magic." I said hoarsely, laughing quietly to myself as I kept staring at the newly appeared house.
"Come on." Remus said hurriedly, going up to the front door and holding it open in front of me, looking over my shoulder with narrowed eyes as I got rushed into the house.
And then promptly tripped on the umbrella stand. Me and my bloody clumsiness...
"FOUL, DISHONORABLE, DISGUSTING VERMIN INFILTRATING MY HOUSE! NEVER HAVE I BEEN SO INSULTED BY-"
I gasped from the ground as the curtains in front of me flew open, spewing dust everywhere as it revealed an old, sour looking, wrinkled woman wearing some obnoxious, old fashioned colored green and silver robes, screaming obscenities at me as her face twisted in anger and sheer hatred of-as far as I could tell-anything that moved in "Her House."
I covered my ears and looked at Remus with terrified eyes, expecting him to give me some explanation as to why I had a painting screaming at me, but found instead that he was furiously trying to pull the curtains closed around the portrait with some manner of difficulty.
Suddenly, a younger witch with brilliant bright florescent blue colored hair wearing a holyhead harpies tee shirt and ripped muggle jeans came running in from another room, grabbing the other curtain and pulled it closed with him harshly.
Finally-and how they did it I wasn't quite sure-they managed to close it on the old hag, thank Merlin. The wonderful sudden silence rang in my ears as the witch and wizard in front of me panted heavily with the obvious effort it must take to close that curtain on her.
The witch odd colored hair looked at me with interest with her equally odd colored eyes-they were a particular shade of yellow reminding me of an eagle, and Madam Hooch-as she tried to catch her breath, glancing slightly at her companion, "Remus, I don't believe you have introduced us yet." She said politely, smiling at me reassuringly.
He nodded, "Sorry, sorry." He said apologetically, his lips twitching in amusement, "Alex, this is Nymphadora-" I had to grin at the look on her face as he said her name, so similar to mine own when ever someone called me by my real name, "Tonks-"
"Sweet merlin, we've gone over this before Remus." She said in exasperation, rolling her now shockingly violet eyes at me, "My name is Tonks." She said, glaring at Lupin.
"Who goes by her last name only." Remus finished, chuckling at Tonks with an amused expression on his face.
"Wotcher!" She said cheerily, but slightly hushed, not wanting to wake up the cranky portrait again, "Pleasure to meet you."
"Alex White. I went to school with Remus." I said quietly with a grin, adding, "I love your hair."
"Really?" She said back, pursing her lips thoughtfully, "Cause personally, I was leaning more towards red today-what do you think?" Before I could ask her what she meant, she screwed her eyes closed, looking like she was deep in thought, and before I knew it, she had changed it to bright red spikes before my very eyes.
"Metamorphmagus." I said in hushed excitement, looking at her hair appreciatively with wide eyes, cause I had never med a metamorphmagus before"Brilliant."
She grinned in pride, "Thanks." She whispered back.
"We should go into the kitchen, before we wake her up again." Remus said, gesturing to the place where Tonks had come in from, looking at her, "Nymphadora, has the meeting started yet?"
She didn't seem to mind as much if only he called her that, and said easily, "Not yet. We're all waiting for you and Dumbledore..." She said, glancing at me, "Did you tell Dumbledore you were bringing a recruit?"
I snorted at being called that, and let Remus answer her, "I owled him yesterday." Quietly following her into the kitchen.
The house itself was old, unkept and dusty, but more so in the kitchen, which made me sneeze violently as soon as I entered the kitchen, my eyes watery when I looked up at the odd group of people huddled around the table, looking up at me with open curiosity.
My eyes flitted around the table, taking their appearances in silently. My eyes were automatically pulled to the four heads of red hair that were sitting by each other-an older, kind looking couple with what had to be their two sons. Then my gaze went next to a scruffy, scroungy looking wizard-I hid a grin and a snort as I recognized who it was-who I had the misfortune of knowing to be Mundungus Fletcher. I looked around at the table some more, seeing several witches and wizards I could not name, and even some of my old Professors from Hogwarts. I waved cautiously, smiling nervously as I stayed close to Tonks and Remus, looking at them anxiously.
"Everyone," Remus started, looking at the group with his gray eyes, "This is Alexandria White." He said quietly, smiling at me reassuringly.
Several people in the group smiled at me, and others murmured their hellos, but one person above all the others stood out, saying with a voice that I would know from anywhere, at anytime of the year, and had been haunting me in my dreams more recently.
"Moony, what the hell?"