Grimmauld Place – The next morning
I woke up and Jake was, as he promised, still in the room. But he'd somehow managed to fall asleep in the chair he'd made last night. It was light outside, so it was probably morning. I didn't really want to wake Jake up, but I didn't want him to have to sleep in that chair either. It didn't look comfortable. I tried to move him to the bed, but as soon as I touched him, his eyes opened up.
"What's the matter?" He asked and rubbed his eyes. "Are you feeling alright?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." My throat was still really scratchy though, and I bet it sounded like it. "I was trying to get you into a bed though."
He laughed. "Don't worry about it. I'm up anyway. How're you feeling though? Your throat still sounds terrible." He reached out a hand and touched my forehead. It felt like ice. "And you're still running a fever." His smile was replaced with a frown.
"Well, my body still kind of hurts."
"Alright, get back into bed." I was going to tell him no, but he pushed me into the bed. "I don't want you getting up just yet. I'm going to go downstairs and get you something to eat. Then we need to talk about some things, alright?"
He walked out the door and closed it behind him. I laid my head back down on the bed. Well, this sucked. I was stuck in bed here. But I guess that might be better than being out there. Lupin seemed alright, but I wasn't really ready to talk to the other people. I wished Jake would quit babying me though. He kept treating me like he had to take care of me or something now. I liked it better when he was just a cool big brother or something. But that was gone. Mom and Dad, Alex and Justin, they were all gone. Everyone who used to take care of me was gone. Now all I had was Jake, and I just wanted him to be back to normal.
My eyes started to tear up, and I rolled over to look at the wall. I didn't want anyone, especially Jake, to see me crying when he came back in. I stared at the wall, counting in my head. By the time the door finally opened back up, my eyes were dry. I rolled over to see Jake carrying a tray with food and a drink on it.
"Now, I want you to eat, but first, drink this." He held out a flask with a green, smoking drink in it. I wrinkled my nose and raised my eyebrows at him. "Oh, come on now, drink it. It'll make your throat feel better, I promise." I rolled my eyes, gave him a "whatever" and drank it. It was warm going down, but it felt like everywhere it touched hurt stopped hurting.
"See, there you go, now eat up. I need to talk to you." I started eating while he talked. "I told you about Dumbledore, You-Know-Who, and Harry Potter, remember?" I nodded through a mouthful of eggs. "Well, he's back. Right now, we're in the base of the Order of the Phoenix. I don't know how much you heard last night before you fell asleep, but that's basically the group that's going to fight him and his followers. They're lead by Albus Dumbledore, I don't know if you remember which one he is, but he's the older man with the beard."
"He was the one you were shouting at last night." Jake nodded after a second of staring at me. Maybe he didn't know I knew that. "How come you were fighting with him if he's in charge?"
"He's in charge of the Order, not of us. We're not part of the Order. And, well, that fight is a little bit private for right now. Anyway, they, that is to say the Order, have invited us to stay here right now. I wanted to ask what you thought about that. It's safe, well, as safe as anywhere is anyway. I know there are a lot of strangers here, but it's better than me taking you to a different motel every other night, trying to stay hidden. If you want to go back to that though, we'll leave right now." It really was up to me. He did just want me to feel safe. I smiled up at him. All the food was gone, and I was finally full.
"Sure. I mean, we can stay for a little bit right? Anyway, if it's really bunk, we can just leave. If that's alright, I mean." He nodded, but I don't think I gave him the answer he wanted. Too bad, he shouldn't have asked.
"Right, well, how about we go downstairs, hm? You can meet some of the other kids here."
"Is, what's his name, Harry Potter going to be here too? I mean, if this is the people who fight this really bad wizard, and Harry Potter's the only person who ever beat him, he'll be here, right?" I still didn't quite understand everything. I mean, he'd only be a few years older than me now, and he had beaten a wizard who was now alive again that scared everyone this badly? It just didn't make sense.
"He's not here right now, but I think they, the Order, are going to bring him in a few weeks." We started to walk towards the door. I stopped. I had just realized something.
"Hey, uh, Jake? I'm still just in my pajamas. Can I get dressed first?" He opened the door.
"The rest of your clothes are downstairs. I didn't feel like unpacking last night." Something was still bugging me though.
"I changed downstairs? How come I don't remember that?" I thought for a minute and then turned red. "Oh," I said realizing. "Nevermind" Jake laughed and we walked downstairs. I was probably the youngest person here. Not only was I walking downstairs in my pajamas, something that only kids wear anyway, but I had been changed into them last night while I was asleep. Man, I hated being the youngest kid at home, and now everyone else was going to treat me like that here too. I couldn't wait to leave.
We walked down the stairs and walked into the same room that I had barged into last night. This time, though, there were just the kids sitting at the table eating what looked like lunch. Jake walked me towards a chair and then sat in the one next to it.
"Hey, everybody, this is Max and I'm Jake. We're going to be staying here with you all for a little bit." Jake was just trying to start a conversation and introduce me, but he seemed a lot more interesting to them than I did.
"Hey, cool, so are you in the Order too then?" One of the twins asked.
The other twin piped up. "You're an American, right? I didn't know there were American wizards in the Order."
"Um…" Jake didn't look like he had expected a conversation about this stuff. He can be slow sometimes.
The bushy haired girl rolled her eyes. "Of course American wizards would be just as interested in combating You-Know-Who as we are. Don't you all ever listen to anything Dumbledore says?" She sounded kind of like a know-it-all.
"No," the tall one said, "we have you for that. What do you mean though?"
"Well," the girl began, "Dumbledore has been saying for a while now that we need to extend our friendship to foreign wizards to help defeat-"
"Woah woah and woah." Jake cut in. "Guys, I'm not part of the Order. That's not really my thing."
"Yeah, Hermione, didn't you hear him yelling last night?" The twins started to laugh. Then there was a loud bang that silenced them. Standing in the doorway was that short, fat woman with the red hair. Probably their mother.
"What did you say?" It was more of a growl than a question. I recognized that tone. Someone was about to be in a lot of trouble. "And how exactly did you hear what was going on in the meeting last night?"
"Well, uh, Jake, how about you show me where my clothes are?" I wanted to get out of there fast. He took the hint, and we sneaked around the now enraged mother and the two twins who were busy trying to head her off with excuses.
"Well, ah, here's your bag. There's a bathroom down the hall. Why don't we wait until things have calmed down a bit before we go back in, hm?"
I walked off towards the bathroom to get changed.