AN: Half of me is embarrassed because I'm writing fanfiction at 19, and the other half of me is like 'HARRY POTTER MUST LIVE ON!'

Disclaimer: Lynx and anything that changes/is added because she exists is the only thing that I own. Harry Potter is not one of these things.

Dumbledore's Daughter

03 | The Order

A long hallway loomed in front of Lynx, lit with a large chandelier and a few gas lamps. The carpet was worn thin; the wallpaper was peeling off. Directly above an umbrella holder on the left side was a picture frame covered with a black curtain, hiding the owner of the house's portrait: Walburga Black. On the other side was the dining room, featuring a dresser holding the Black family crest and china, now home to many spiders and other homely bugs. At the end of the narrow hallways was the stairs to the upper floors, which was decorated with a row of shrunken House Elf Heads mounted on plaques.

"Lynx." A warning voice pulled her from her wandering mind. "I thought Dumbledore told you about Apparating." Alastor Moody glared at her, magical eye looking frantically around while the other stared directly in her eyes.

"Sorry," she said with a sigh. "Force of habit."

"Well un-force it," he growled, turning.

She rolled her eyes, earning a gruff, "I saw that" from him.

She chuckled and followed him down the hallway to a narrow staircase. At the bottom was the kitchen, the place where the meetings with the Order of the Phoenix took place.

It was a cavernous room with a large fireplace at one end. Several large pantry shelves lined up against the wall, a small room used by Kreacher, the House Elf, as a bedroom, nuzzled near the bottom. In the middle, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, and Snape were all sat at a large wooden table.

"Lynx, dear," Mrs. Weasley greeted wholeheartedly, getting up from her place to pull her into a tight hug. "Glad to see you're alright."

Lynx couldn't help but smile. Even from their first meeting, when she was introduced, Mrs. Weasley had treated her as if she had been a long lost daughter.

"Have you been eating well?" she continued, cupping Lynx's cheeks with her tired hands. "You look a bit pale."

Just as Lynx was going to lie and say she had eaten fine, Sirius grumbled, "Of course she hasn't; she's been as cooped up all summer as I have."

Mrs. Weasley shot Sirius an impatient look before returning to her warm smile. "Want to stay for dinner then?"

"Um, I don't know if that's a good idea…" she mumbled.

"Of course it isn't," came a very blank and annoyed voice.

Severus Snape sat in a chair on the far left side, looking like he belonged a little too well in the dark house. With sickly, yellowish skin covered in black robes, it was almost uncanny how well he matched the creepy living space.

"She has already screwed up once today; we can't have her revealing her identity too," he finished.

Lynx hissed out of reflex, bearing the teeth of her lynx form unconsciously. Snape pulled back, eyes narrowed, and Mrs. Weasley gave a little squeak of surprise.

"Lynx," Dumbledore reprimanded, cold and hard, as he came to the head of the table opposite to her. "That's enough."

"But he—" she protested childishly, pointing at Snape.

"—is right," Dumbledore interrupted.

"Now, now," Mrs. Weasley said. "Let's wait until the other members arrive, shall we? Until then, what would you like to eat, Lynx?"

"That's, um, not really necessary—" To her horror, her stomach growled in protest. Her eyes widened, red rushing to her face as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. "Uh…"

Mr. Weasley let out a hearty laugh as Moody grunted.

"How long has it been since your last meal?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

Lynx laughed uneasily, rubbing the back of her head. "Only a few days…" she mumbled.

"A few days!?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. "I'll go get you something to eat right away, dear, just take a seat next to Arthur and I'll be right back."

She sighed in defeat, sitting in a wooden chair next to Mr. Weasley. "How's everything?" she asked halfheartedly.

"The same as always," he said, playing along with her ruse to deter the subject away from her white lie.

"Ah," she said lamely.

Mrs. Weasley returned then, thankfully, bringing in a bowl full of meaty soup. "Here you are, dear," she said, setting it down in front of her. "I made this batch specifically for you and Remus: lots of raw meat, but enough vegetables to keep your energy up. Eat as much as you want."

"Thank you," Lynx said warmly, surprising Dumbledore with the genuine smile she gave Mrs. Weasley.

She ate in silence, enjoying the taste of thick soup. It had been so long since she had eaten anything homemade (Nolan knew how to hunt, but they were both pretty hopeless when it came to seasoning) that it was actually nice to have something besides raw beef. As she shoved spoonfuls into her mouth—trying rather unsuccessfully to hide how hungry she really was—members of the Order piled in one by one.

Of course, even if she had eaten like a pig, none of the members would've noticed because few even bothered acknowledging her presence.

Unlike Dumbledore, Mr. Weasley, Mad-Eye, and Sirius, most of the members didn't like having someone like Lynx—who was not only underage, but didn't even exist until the beginning of summer—in the Order. Mrs. Weasley simply found it distasteful that such a young girl was risking her life—one that she never really had a chance to live!—to protect someone her age, while others, like Snape, didn't trust her to do the job right.

And with the dementor attack, they were definitely going to argue her importance.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, however, accepted her presence by sitting down in front of her, smiling slightly. "Taste good?" he asked in his deep voice.

She grinned up at the dark-skinned, bald wizard, swallowing. "Yes," she pooped. "Mrs. Weasley is an amazing cook."

It was interesting, Dumbledore thought for a moment, that he found Lynx acting more like a teenager in front of people like Mrs. Weasley and Kingsley, who gleamed with reassurance and understand. Any adult that seemed to care seemed to bring out the neediness in her, whether she noticed it or not.

Nymphadora Tonks made herself home on the other side of Lynx, glaring at Severus as she sat down. "Smells good," she commented.

"Well, I hope you're hungry," Mrs. Weasley said, taking a stand at the end of the table, left of Mr. Weasley. "Dinner's after the meeting."

Tonks pouted, but it didn't last long, fascination taking over as she looked at Lynx. "I like your eye color," she said. "Really cool red. Are those the eye protectors Muggles are always wearing?"

Mr. Weasley was suddenly looking at her, intrigued. "They don't appear to be like the one's Harry wears."

"Not those!" Tonks said. "You know! The ones that are clear and go right into the eye, some even change the color of their eyes!"

"Oh!" Weasley said, comprehension hitting him. "You mean contacts!"

"Yeah, those!" she said, looking back at Lynx. "Are they 'contacts'?"

"No, they're not," Lynx answered, spoon near the rim of her bowl. "This is the natural color of my eyes."

"But they were light brown last time we saw each other," Tonks pointed out, eyes widening. "Are you a Metamorphmagus too?"

"Er, not exactly…" she said, taking another bite. "Although it is hereditary."

"Then what—"

Snape, who had raised his voice, cut her off. "But the girl obviously can't do the job right!" he argued.

Apparently, while Lynx's friendly conversation with the few people who actually liked her had gone on, the members near Dumbledore, including Sirius, Snape, Moody, and Remus, had already started discussing things.

"She's fifteen, Snape," Remus reasoned, polite.

"Exactly!" Olympe Maxime, the headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy, agreed. "That's our point! The girl is only fifteen; how can we trust her to pull this off!?"

Lynx ignored them, pointedly focusing more on her soup than the argument downwind.

"This is ridiculous!" Sirius growled. "She's sacrificed what little freedom she had to guard Harry! She's the reason this entire plan is possible!"

"Obviously not," Snape said coldly, "if she almost got the boy killed. If it wasn't for his annoying habit of breaking rules, they both would've been Kissed."

"ENOUGH!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, coming to stand over Lynx protectively, hands resting on each of her shoulders. "She's just a child—how can you all talk about her as if she wasn't here?"

Lynx smiled to herself. You had to love Mrs. Weasley.

"I see your point, Severus," Dumbledore said, "but Sirius is correct. She has done a lot for us these past few months, and it has made everything much smoother." He looked at Lynx. "We can't have a replay of today's events, however. Understood?"

She stared at him unblinkingly.

He sighed, unsurprised by her lack of reaction. "From now on, we need to be extra cautious," he continued. "I think it best if Harry came to stay here for the remainder of the summer. We will send the Advanced Guard to his aunt and uncle's place to get him soon."

"And what about Lynx?" Mrs. Weasley asked, worry thick in her voice. "With Harry here, can't she stay too?"

"Absolutely not!" Snape objected. "That girl is going to unravel the entire plan!"

"Well, maybe if we told her what the plan is," Kingsley offered, sending her a quick wink.

"In good time," Dumbledore said, watching as Lynx's smile stayed painfully in place. "But, for now, I agree with Severus: it is best if we wait to introduce her to Harry face to face."

"Then where will she go?" demanded Mrs. Weasley. "What can she possibly do for the rest of the summer?"

"What she always does," he stated simply. "Only this time, she will be with Arabella Figg."

Mrs. Weasley grumbled, unsatisfied with this, and Lynx found it easier to smile this time.