Chapter 9

Teenage Rebellion

Harry turned to look at Susan as she gaped at the entry hall to Grimmauld Place, taking in the peeling wallpaper, the threadbare carpet and the tattered old paintings. He noticed the look on her face, something between confusion, curiosity and distaste.

"Where are we?" she asked loudly, trying to take in her surroundings.

"Shhhh!" Tonks put a finger to her lips, "not so loud, we don't want to wake up Mrs. Black," she whispered as she backed up, motioning for them to follow her. Harry tried to stop her, but was to late as she tripped over the troll leg umbrella stand sending her tumbling to the ground. He winced as the moth-eaten curtains flew apart.

"MUDBLOODS and BLOOD-TRAITORS! HOW DARE YOU DEFILE MY HOUSE-"

Harry ran to the curtains, and tried to tug them shut, "Shut your mouth you miserable old hag!" he shouted. Tonks quickly jumped to her feet and grabbed the other side and with some effort they managed to close them long enough for her to place sticking and silencing charms on them. Harry shook his head in annoyance, "I swear, if we can't find the password to that stupid sticking charm, I'm going to tear down this entire wall."

Tonks chuckled at him, "I don't think Dumbledore would approve."

"Yeah, well Dumbledore can go suck a goat. I'm sick of that old bitch screaming every time someone walks by. I don't know how Sirius put up with it,"

Hearing a choking sound from behind him, he turned to see Susan staring at the both of them with her jaw wide open. "Wh- where are we?" she asked in shock.

"This is the headquarters of the Order of the Pheonix," explained Tonks. "you'll be staying here for the next few days."

Susan still looked confused, "Order of the Phoenix?" she asked.

"Anti-Voldemort group," Harry replied, causing a flinch from each of the women.

"This is the headquarters for an anti-You-Know-Who group?" she asked, looking around dubiously at the dark hallway.

Harry rolled his eyes at her avoidance of Voldemort's name. He knew most people were to afraid to say it, especially since they believed he had returned, but it was grating on him more and more. How could anyone hope to stand up to the dark tosser if they were to scared to even speak of him? "Yeah, Sirius allowed the Order to use it as headquarters."

Susan looked at him horrified, "Sirius? You mean Sirius Black the mass murderer?"

Harry glared at her, "No," he said through gritted teeth, "Sirius Black my godfather. Sirius Black, the man that spent twelve years in prison despite never being convicted of anything."

Harry looked at her in anger for another moment, the little color left draining from her face as she stammered, trying to apologize, before he remembered that she had no way of knowing that Sirius had been innocent all along. He looked over at Tonks, who seemed torn between anger at the slight to Sirius and disappointment in him for scaring a teenage girl that had just been tortured and nearly killed. He sighed and continued in a softer tone, "I know it must be shocking after everything you've probably heard or read, but Sirius was framed. He isn't one of Voldemort's supporters, he never betrayed my parents and he never murdered anyone."

"So Sirius Black is here?" she asked, looking only slightly less terrified than she had a moment before.

Harry felt his stomach sink as he shook his head, "No, he died a few weeks ago, during the battle in the Department of Mysteries."

Susan opened her mouth to ask another question, but Tonks cut her off, "I think this little game of 20 questions can wait until later. I'm sure Dumbledore is waiting in the kitchen for you Harry. I'll take Susan upstairs and get her settled into the girls room."

Harry nodded his head, grateful not to have to answer any more questions about his godfather and headed towards the kitchen, hoping to get the lectures out of the way quickly and maybe grab a snack before heading to bed. He walked into the kitchen to find the headmaster waiting at the table drinking tea, so Harry took the seat across from him.

There was no twinkle in his eye as he sat quietly gazing at Harry. Harry pushed down his nerves knowing that whatever happened, he had done what was right. If he hadn't gone to help Susan would have been killed and they wouldn't have four captured Death Eaters currently waiting to be interrogated by the Ministry.

The sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before the headmaster spoke, "I am both proud and disappointed in you Harry," the headmaster said, watching the boy in front of him closely, "You managed to save Ms. Bones, yet you disobeyed a direct order and put yourself in danger."

Harry looked across at the old man, "I did what I had to do, sir. You were outnumbered, I thought it would be best to even the odds a little bit," Harry said, silently fuming at the old man. It was like he didn't think Harry was capable of taking care of himself.

"Harry, my boy, we had everything under control, there was no need for you to put yourself in such danger."

"Really?" Harry asked angrily, "So if Tonks and I hadn't been there, one of you would have saved Susan? And how about the four Death Eaters we fought inside, would you still have been able to fight off Voldemort if they had joined with the rest? Somehow I doubt it. If I hadn't been there Susan would be dead, maybe her aunt as well."

"And that would have been a tragedy Harry, but it would be a much greater tragedy if something were to happen to you. You know the prophecy, if something were to happen to you, Voldemort would win. You must remember the big picture."

"So what, I'm supposed to hide away and do nothing?" Harry asked, the anger that he felt whenever he talked to the headmaster rising, "Am I supposed to run and hide and hope that one day he drops dead because I'm still alive? I need experience if I'm going to stand a chance against him one day."

"Harry, my boy, you are still a student. You are too young to be fighting a war. You should enjoy the little bit of childhood you have left."

Harry looked at him as if he were senile, which at this point he wouldn't find overly surprising, "Childhood?" he asked, "I've never had a childhood. You took that away from me when you sent me to live with people that hated my guts just because I had the indecency to live. I've already been fighting this war for five years, I won't quit now."

"Harry, it was for the best-"

"Who's best professor, because it certainly wasn't mine. I never had a childhood because you sent me to be starved, mocked and beaten, and now you try to force me to accept the childhood that I've outgrown," Harry raged at the old man in front of him, "well you can take your childhood and shove it where the sun don't shine old man."

Dumbledore gave him a disapproving look, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this Harry, but you leave me no choice. As of now, you are not to leave this house for the rest of the summer."

Harry's jaw dropped as he looked at the headmaster seated across from him, "Excuse me? What right do you have to keep me locked up?"

"With Sirius and the Dursley's gone, who do you think is your legal guardian Harry? You knew you were supposed to remain here, yet you disobeyed and now you must face the consequences. You are not to leave Grimmauld Place until it is time to return to school. This includes Sirius' will reading."

Harry was so angry at the headmaster that he almost missed his last sentence, "Will reading, when is this will reading?"

"In two days. You will sign a parchment allowing me to claim your inheritance on your behalf."

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but slammed it shut instead and stormed from the room, upending the table and throwing the headmaster's tea flying to the ground. He stormed up the stairs, past Tonks as she tried to speak to him and into his room, slamming the door behind him. He threw himself on his bed as his mind raged, furious over the fact that the headmaster would ban him from his godfathers' will reading only days before, when the thought struck him. Why had Dumbledore waited until two days before, after he had a reason to ban Harry from going and after the Order meeting to inform him of his godfather's will reading? Wouldn't the Order meeting have been the perfect time to have told him about it? It would have been easy to arrange for guards with everyone there. Harry sat down on the edge of his bed as he began to think. Why would Dumbledore have put off telling him unless... Had he always intended to stop Harry from going? His thoughts were cut off as a knock came from his door and it opened slowly.

Harry looked up as the gray haired werewolf stuck his head in through the doorway, "Hey pup, Tonks said you were mad, I figured I should come see if you wanted to talk about it."

Harry sighed and fell back onto his bed, looking up at the ceiling, "Dumbledore just banned me from going to Sirius' will reading. I didn't even know there was a will reading. How could you not have told me Moony?"

Remus looked away, seemingly uncomfortable, "I'm sorry pup, Dumbledore made Tonks and I promise not to bring it up unless you asked. He said it was better not to remind you of Sirius' death. I assumed he had already told you about it and you had taken it poorly. I wanted to talk with you about it, to try to help you get over it, but I promised."

Remus took a step back when he noticed the look on Harry's face as he felt his rage at the meddling headmaster reigniting. Now that he looked back, Tonks and Remus had been acting strangely, both constantly looking at him as though they wanted to talk to him about something. He forced himself to calm down as he noticed Remus looking at him apprehensively "It's alright Remus, I believe you. I noticed you and Tonks both seemed to want to tell me something."

Remus looked at him strangely, "Really? Why didn't you ask what it was?"

"Well I just assumed you two were debating whether or not to tell me that you had started dating," he said, hoping that teasing Remus would help cheer him up.

Remus' face went beat red and his mouth began flapping, "But we're- How did you-?"

Harry grinned at the older man, "How did I know? I didn't, but you just confirmed it for me." He laughed as Remus hung his head in defeat, "What do you two both think I'm oblivious? I mean you guys do a good job of hiding it, but you've slipped up once or twice."

Remus shifted uncomfortably, "Well no, I just didn't want to tell anyone yet. I'm not really sure it's going anywhere..."

"Why, what's wrong with Tonks?" Harry asked, unsure why the werewolf wouldn't want a relationship with the young metamorphmagus. Not only was she beautiful, but they got along so well.

"Nothing's wrong with Tonks, it's just.." he trailed off, pointing at his scars.

Harry looked at him for a moment before he caught on, "Your furry little problem?"

Remus smiled for a moment at the old moniker, before sighing deeply and looking down, "Yes Harry. Soon enough, she'll come to her senses and we'll be done. It will be easier to go back to the way things were if no one else knows about us."

Harry looked sadly at the old werewolf, the old wolf's problems causing him to momentarily forget his own, "Moony, Tonks isn't like that. She couldn't care less about your furry little problem. She likes you for who you are. For that matter so do I," he grinned, "though obviously not in the same way."

Remus couldn't help but smile, "Well I'd certainly hope not," a look of uncertainty crossed his face for a moment before he continued, "so you aren't jealous or anything?"

Harry shook his head, "Why would you ask that?"

The older man ran his fingers through his hair as he shrugged, "You two are so close and I've seen the way you look at her. "

"Well she's beautiful and I love spending time with her, but... I've never even had a real relationship before. I think it would be better if I were to date someone my own age."

The werewolf raised an eyebrow, "You do realize you are closer to her age than I am, don't you?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah, but you're both adults. And when it comes to relationships, she might even be more mature than you Moony. Unlike you, she hasn't been avoiding them for the past decade. I might be mature for my age, but when it comes to relationships, I'm still a kid."

"So you don't mind?"

"Of course not Moony, in fact I insist," he grinned mischievously, "you can keep her occupied until I gain enough experience to sweep her off her feet," he teased, prompting the old Marauder to burst out laughing, before telling him that he didn't stand a chance against the old wolf. They bantered back and forth for a while before returning to more serious matters.

"So Harry, what do you plan to do?" Remus asked.

Harry shrugged, "Well, I haven't really got to do the whole teenage rebellion thing yet. I mean breathing was practically rebelling against the Dursley's, so that doesn't really count, and Sirius was more likely to encourage me than anything. So now that Dumbledore is apparently my guardian, I guess I can finally get it out of my system."

Remus looked at him in shock for a moment, clearly surprised that he was no longer following Dumbledore's orders, "And how do you plan to do that?"

"Well," Harry said, looking thoughtful, "first thing I suppose is for us to go to that will reading. After that I guess I'll play it by ear."

"Us?" Remus asked with a frown, "And how exactly did I get involved in this?"

"Come on Moony, you know you're as sick of Dumbles manipulations as I am. I know he means well, but he treats everyone, especially me, like they're chess pieces, to be used and sacrificed as necessary."

Remus looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding, "Alright, I'm in, but only if we bring in Tonks as well."

Harry gave him an incredulous look, "Do I look like an idiot? If she found out we planned this without her, she would string us both up by our toes."

Remus chuckled at the thought as he stood to leave, "Alright, well I'll let her know and we can start planning tomorrow. Meanwhile, you should get some rest."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Of course mother," he said mockingly. Remus didn't look back as he let out another chuckle and left the room.