A cloaked man stood over Mira'sunconscious figure. Looking furtively around, the man took off his cloak and threw it over her body.
Taking from his pocket a long wand of light wood, he pointed it at Mira, mumbled something that could've been "Dissaparate Corpus!" and disappeared within seconds of arriving on the old, worn road, taking the misery-stricken girl with him.
Mira awoke on an old couch, the room around her dimly lit by a crackling fire. Her body was sore, her neck strained, and though she was covered in a thick blanket, she was shivering. Her clothes were still soaked from running endlessly through the rain, and there were raw marks on her arms from the impact of dropping to the road.
"Good, you're up." A raspy, deep voice said from the opposite of the room, sitting by the stone fireplace.
Mira sat up, rubbing her temples. "Where am I?" She asked, pulling the blanket tighter around her freezing body.
"Come by the fire, it'll help you get dry." The voice said, gesturing for her to join him.
Mira stood, kept the blanket held tight around her, and walked cautiously but gratefully to the warm fire. "Moony!" She burst out, upon seeing the stranger's face. "I -I mean Remus…" Mira hurriedly corrected herself.
Remus nodded at her. "I was wondering if you would remember my face."
Mira nodded slowly, cocking her head to one side, taking him in. "Where am I?" She asked finally, while Remus added a log to the fire from a pile on the stone hearth.
"You are at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, and I must beg you to not ask irrelevant questions when he's here."
Mira narrowed her eyes. "He? You mean Dumbledore?" Remus looked at her, then nodded.
"Fuck that!" Mira cried, accidentally dropping the blanket to the ground
"Enough." Remus spat, standing from his rickety chair. He was almost two heads taller than Mira, just a few inches taller than Draco. "You will see him, you have no choice about that. You do, however, have the option of a bath and some dry clothes. I'm sure Molly can dig through some of Hermione's things for you to borrow. Don't want our heir getting pneumonia, now do we?"
Mira looked up, confused. "Heir?" She questioned.
Remus looked at her oddly for a fraction of a second, then cleared his throat loudly. "Come, let's go see Molly. I believe we have time," Remus took out of his coat pocket a golden stopwatch, and checked the time, "for a cup of tea, if we hurry." Remus walked over to the door of the darkened room, opened it, and led Mira down the strangest hallway she had ever seen in her life.
All along the wall hung mounted house-elves heads, and oddly-shaped frames held portraits of the scraggiest looking witches and wizards Mira had ever seen.
"We would have taken them down, but there's a Sticking Charm on the back of most of them…" Remus said from ahead of her, shrugging. Mira nodded, hurrying to get closer behind him. This house creeped her the fuck out.
"Well, come on, I believe she's in the kitchen." Mira followed Remus down three flights of stairs, in almost total darkness.
"I apologize for the lack of light, but nobody is up to lighting all the lanterns lately....or up to anything, really, for that matter." Remus shrugged again, as though there were no real reason for this sudden depression, but Mira knew.
"It's because of him, isn't it? The Animagus Black."
Remus stopped and turned to look at her. "I keep forgetting how much you know. I'm not used to be able to speak freely in front of an underage witch."
Mira smiled faintly. "I know many, many things, Remus. Speak all you want."
Remus stared at her for a moment, his face illuminated by the only lit lantern above the stair case. "Yes…yes, perhaps." He murmured, then turned back around and continued on through the house. "Here we are." Remus said in his raspy voice, leading Mira down more stairs and through an old, wooden door.
The room they entered was a basement kitchen, similar to the Malfoy's. There was a large dresser that held plates, glasses, and silverware, a pantry in the corner, and in the middle of the low room, sitting heavily on the uneven, stone floor was a long, very scrubbed table, with a large black burn along the length of it.
"Molly!" Remus said, and a woman with red hair and a kind face turned from the stove, where a kettle was being brought to boil. "Remus! And Mira, my dear, welcome! Sit, I'm just finishing up the tea." Molly beamed at them. Remus smiled and took a seat at the long table. Mira sat across from him, uncomfortable, but Molly's friendly face had eased the knot in her stomach and she waited patiently for her tea.
"Here we are." Molly bustled over, placing two steaming cups and a slab of fruitcake on the table before them. "Mira, dear, you look soaked through!" Molly said, sitting next to her. "I do wonder, Remus, if she could change into something dry?" Remus nodded through a mouthful of cake. "I'm sure that Hermione will have something for you to wear, dear." Molly said to Mira. "You do look a bit thinner than her, though…you need feeding up, you're practically starved! Have some cake."
Mira smiled. "Thanks, Molly, but I think I'll just take those dry clothes." Molly looked severely at her, but Remus cleared his throat and nodded, so Molly gave in.
"Alright dear, come on. They won't be home for a while, and Dumbledore said to keep you until we had to, and he's off in London right now, attending to things at the Ministry, so I daresay you'll be bunking up here, maybe for a while, not just tonight."
Mira's eyes widened, and she set her cup of steaming tea down on the table with a clatter. "But the Malfoy's don't know I'm gone, I can't just not go home!" She said, though she would take sleeping in this creepy, decrepit house over returning to the Malfoy manor any day.
"Oh dear, who do you think lured Lucius and Narcissa out of the house? They won't be back until next week. And young Draco has the company of that girl he's been seeing at school. It'll be okay, you can meet everyone! It will be wonderful. Your parents will be happy that you've finally found your way here." Molly rambled cheerfully, while she led Mira up three staircases and down a dusty hallway to a bedroom with two beds, a large closet, and a large round window that took up half of the back wall.
"This is Ginny and Hermione's room, I'm sure they won't mind you staying with them. Anyway, here we are." Molly went to the closet, and opened the door with a wave of her wand.
"Let's see…ah, how's this?" Molly took out a pair of blue pajama bottoms and a white tank top. Mira suddenly looked down to her bare arms, very aware that they were covered in gashes and scratches. The gauze was gone, and the deep cuts that should've occupied her forearms, underarms, and both biceps had almost entirely disappeared, only faint white lines remaining, hardly noticeable.
"Dear?" Molly said again, holding up the clothes.
"Yes, those are great, thanks." Mira said, holding out her hands.
"I'll show you the bathroom. The girls' things are in there, so you can freshen up, if you like. I reckon everyone will be home soon."
Mira nodded, and once again followed Molly down the hall. "There you are, dear. I'll be back in a minute, to check on you." Mira nodded and thanked her, watched her walk away, then locked herself into the bathroom.