Chapter 2: Home At Last

I appeared in a back alley way. Walking around the corner, I saw a small neighborhood. The houses were all big and tall. They were pretty close together too. I looked for 12 Grimauld place, but I only saw 11 ad 13.

"12 Grimauld place? What's the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters?" Just as I said this, I saw a building squeeze its way in between number 11 and 13. No one noticed anything. I looked around, and walked into the house.

"Freeze!" A voice shouted as a wand appeared at my neck. "Who are you?" another voice growled in my ear.

"Bloody Hell Moody! It's me! Isabella!" I exclaimed.

"Likely story!" he barked. "What happened the first time we met?"

"I-I walked into a meeting room by accident and ran into you and asked you about your 'crazy eye' before blushing like an idiot." I said.

Moody released me and flicked on the lights. I sighed in relief when I saw Remus, Tonks, and Sirius standing there with smiles on their faces.

"Moony!" I squealed and tackled him into a hug.

"Hey Bells," he laughed.

"What am I?" Sirius exclaimed aghast. "Damn! It was always 'bout Moony in Hogwarts too! Who would want a hot, sexy Sirius Black when the bookworm werewolf Remus Lupin was there?"

Bella and Remus looked at eachother and started laughing.

"And it's not as if he's as sexy as me, I mean, who is even close? James was hot, head boy, and bloody hell! He was even smart! Then there was Remus, he was cute I guess, bookish, and a prefect! Peter was just...there...and yet, everyone prefered them to me! even you Bella! How could you? HOW COULD YOU?" Sirius finished off dramatically as Remus and I were on the floor laughing.

Sirius looked down at us as though he hadn't even realized that we were there.

"Oh, hey Bella, when did you get here? Hey Moony." He said casually before striding away.

This just caused a whole new round of laughter for the two of us on the floor.

It was a while before either one of us could stand, let alone walk. When we could, we walked into the kitchen with tears streaming down our faces.

"Bella!" Voices called.

Soon, I found myself being crushed by so many people. They were all laughing and welcoming me back.

"Ah, Isabella Potter. Welcome back." Dumbledore was standing there with his arms held open in welcome. "Your brother should be arriving tomorrow. I will be sending Remus, Kingsley, Mad-eye, Tonks, and you to go retrieve him. That is, if you would like to go?"

"Of course!" i shrieked.

"Good, then, I wish you all good night. You will be leaving after the signal. Tonks will explain it to you Bella," Dumbledore said leaving the room.

I turned to Tonks and silently demanded an explanation.

She sighed and said; "The signal is that a display of "fireworks" will be seen in the sky. Red for danger, don't go. Green for go."

"Oh...okay." I nodded. "I'm going up to bed, night all!"

I left the kitchen and started upstairs.

"Disgrace, mudbloods, blood-traitors. Ooh, what would my dear mistress say? Such a disgrace. Only mistress Bella, only her. What filth!" I heard a croaking voice mutter.

"Kreacher!" I squealed. "How are you?"

"Mistress Bella!" The house-elf cried looking up. " I had no ideas that yous be here! Yous need something?"

I was the only person that Kreacher liked. I liked him fairly well also, I mean, he was okay. Before, when I lived here with Padfoot and Moony, Kreacher always took care of me. He seemed pretty attatched for someone who hated blood-traitors and mudbloods.

"No," I replied. "I'm fine. I just wanted to say hi."

"I is missed mistress Bella! i has no one to talk to! No one but my mistress Walburga. We is getting bored! I is hoping you come home!"

"Thanks Kreacher," I beamed. "I think I'm gonna go to bed now. I had a long day." A brief flash of pain crossed my face at the thought of Edward leaving.

"Okay! I is cleaning mistress! Nighty night!" Kreacher continued on joyfully with a new spring in his step, while I slouched off to my room feeling miserable.

"Bella!" An annoyingly shrill voice woke me up. "Bella! Wake up Bella!"

"Shut up!" I mumbled groggily swatting at the persons face and rolled over...but I rolled right off the bed. Of course, trust "clumsy Bella" to make an appearance now.

"Ooh! Are you okay?" Hermione giggled and scrambled over to help untangle me from the sheets.

"Yeah, just give me a moment." I said blearily.

I got up slowly and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"What time 's it?" I asked still hal asleep.

"4 AM." Hermione replied.

"4 A-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAKING ME UP THIS EARLY FOR?" I was beyond pissed. I just wanted to sleep! Was that too much to ask for? "I'm gonig back to bed."

"You won't if you want to go get Harry," Hermione said cheerfully.

She got me. I groaned and flopped face first onto my bed. This caused a big cloud of dust to surround me. I emerged coughing and hacking my guts out.

"What-cough-the hell-cough-does Sirius do-cough-all day if not-cough-do a few simple-cough cough-cleaning chams? cough cough!" I coughed my way out of the room grumpily with Hermione howling with laughter behind me.

I walked into the already full kitchen in just pj's. My hair must have been a mess, and my eyes were drooping.

"When a-a-ar-are we leaving?" I yawned.

"Should be any minute now," Mad-Eye looked at me. "Yeh want ter change?"

I looked down and blushed. "Yeah, I'll be right back."

I ran back up to my room and changed into a pair of jeans and a Wierd Sisters T-shirt. I pulled my traveling cloak on on top of that. I pulled a pair of sneakers out of my closet and trew them on. Hastily, I ran a brush through my hair and brushed my teeth. It was 10 minutes later that I ran back into the kitchen. Everyone was waiting for me.

"We just got the ready. Just a few more minutes 'til the go," Tonks said.

"Okay, what about Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon?" I asked. "We can't exactly just waltz in and tell them we're taking Harry. They'd start a fight!"

"Already covered. We already sent them a reason to leave the house for a while. Some gardeners award a few hours away. Ah! There's the go! Ready all?" Remus said.

We all marched out into the cool morning air. Our brooms all came zooming at us when Moody summoned them. My beloved Firebolt came to me like a puppy. It even acted like one! For some reason, it always seemed to emit a happy panting noise. Like a dog's panting. I swear Sirius did something to it!

"Mount up!" Moody barked. We did so. Tensed and ready for flight, we all looked up to see a burst of green sparks in the sky. "Go!"

We all kicked off the groud and sped away into the night. I was so ready to see my twin again.