Grimmauld Place –

I was standing inside the grossest looking house ever after the craziest trip ever. Tonight was pretty exciting. We had gotten on magic brooms and flew for hours and hours till we got to England. It was pretty cold outside, and I couldn't have my own broom. The girl, Tonks, had me ride with her while the other three had levitated Jake the whole way back. I was kind of scared at first, in case Jake fell into the water or something. But they were pretty careful. We hadn't talked much the way back. I guess I still expected them to kill me or something. I still did, really. It was possible, right?

But when we got to this house, I figured I was safe. Safe as I could be, anyway. Alex would've made a funny joke about it. I just figured I'd get sick and die in this dump. Justin could probably have told me what I'd catch and why.

I swallowed back the tears and just looked up at Lupin. He made me feel safe. Maybe he'd be my new protector? "He really ought to get some sleep. It's a long flight. Both of them, really." Lupin nodded towards the still unconscious Jake.

"What about eating? Mom'll kill us if she finds out we brought a kid here and didn't let him eat." The red haired one, Bill?, said.

I looked up at Lupin and tapped his arm. He bent down, slightly. I guess that meant he was listening. "I'm not hungry." I had meant to say it loudly, but it looked like only Lupin had heard. It was hard talking loudly anymore.

He smiled again. He did that a lot. "Of course you aren't. Why don't we take you up to a bedroom and get you to sleep? Hm?"

Normally, I hated it when people said I needed to go to sleep. I'd way rather stay up and hang. But I was pretty tired, what with everything that'd happened so far. Plus, I didn't really think they were asking. So I just sort of nodded.

"Right, then. Bill, why don't you go and get your mother, so we can find a place for Max to sleep?" The cool looking red haired kid left without a word. I guess Lupin was pretty much in charge. I looked up at him and tried to talk a little bit louder.

"Is Jake going to wake up soon?" I really didn't like seeing him like that, even if he had been babying me this week. Lupin looked to Tonks who looked to the Kingsley guy who shrugged and said.

"Well, we might want to wake him up with Max in the room. It'll probably calm him down."

We walked into a sort of living room (man, this house is big). They set Jake up into a kind of leaning position against one of its arms. I sat down next to him. Lupin kneeled down and pulled out his wand. "I really hope he isn't too upset. Enervate!"

Jake blinked slowly a few times and then rubbed his eyes. He looked around slowly, first down at me, and then at the other three. One of his hands went in his pockets, looking for a wand I guess. The other hovered protectively near me. I wish he wouldn't do that. I wish he'd leave me alone. I wish he didn't make me think about what had happened every time he tried to look out for me.

"What…where…what do you want with us?"

"Ah, yes, I figured we'd get to that. As I had attempted to explain to you earlier, Jake, my name is Remus Lupin and I was, or rather did, move you to a safe-house on the orders of Albus Dumbledore. With me are Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt." Jake snorted. I wiped at my nose with my palm. Ever since that broom ride, my nose had been kind of stuffed. It was pretty cold.

"And I'm just supposed to take your word on that, am I?" Jake looked ready for a fight again. My face and neck felt hot, but I couldn't help but shiver a bit in the house. It really was pretty drafty. "If you brought us here on Dumbledore's orders, why'd you stun me, where's my wand, 

and where's Dumbledore? And who're they?" From the other room walked back that Bill guy and a shorter, kind of fat looking woman that must be his mother.

Lupin looked like he was trying really hard to be calm and not get into a fight. "To answer your questions in reverse, those are Bill and Molly Weasley, two more of Dumbledore's allies. Bill helped escort you back here. Dumbledore is currently very busy, as I'm sure you've gathered, but he is due to drop in tonight, presumably to speak with you. Your wand is with me. If you promise to not curse anyone, you may have it back." Jake nodded and Lupin pulled out his wand and handed it over to Jake without pausing. "I stunned you because, as I'm sure you can attest, you were not about to let a group of strange wizards take you and that boy anywhere without a fight, which, though perfectly understandable and commendable, was about to prove to be a hazard."

"Where exactly did you bring us?"

"England." I coughed out. My throat felt soar, probably from all the snot I'd been trying to swallow down. "They took us to England." I coughed again.

The mother-person, Molly, walked over to me. "Is he alright? Goodness, he sounds sick." She rounded on the others. "You took him on a broom ride across the ocean without him wearing even so much as a jacket." She looked really angry and her voice started to rise. "I'll have words with you later." She reached a hand out towards me and tried to pull me up. "Why don't you come off to bed."

I shook her hand off and looked up at Jake. Lupin seemed alright, but I wasn't sure about these other people. She was different than Jake and Lupin. Jake was pretty cool, and Lupin just looked like I could trust him. This Molly person was like a mother. I didn't want to be around her. She reminded me too much. "Come now dear, don't be silly. You need to get to bed." She reached out again.

Jake growled. "He stays with me."



"Now, really, he needs to get to bed. He's coming down with a cold." She reached out again. This time, Jake was on his feet, wand out.

"He's not going anywhere." There wasn't a lot of movement, but I could see that everybody except Molly had a wand out pointed at Jake. There was a lot of shouting for him to put it away. I smiled a little bit. At least he was still protecting me.

A quiet voice cut through the room and made everyone go silent. "Put the wands away. Now." Standing in the doorway was an old man with half-moon shaped glasses and dark blue robes. He was tall, and had long, grey hair with a really long grey beard too. Nobody had to say anything. This was Dumbledore.

Without hesitating, Jake put the wand in his pocket and sat down close to me. Everyone else put their wands away too. Slowly, more people started to walk into the room. One guy had a peg leg and the craziest moving eye ever. There was an older looking woman who walked in, a gaunt (Justin taught me that word) looking dude with messy hair, and all sorts of other people. The older guy, Dumbledore, started talking. I guessed this was some sort of meeting. Everyone seemed to be listening to him. He was sort of introducing everyone and something about a phoenix, a Moldy-Wart, and all sorts of other things I didn't really understand.

After only a few minutes, I fell asleep in Jake's lap.