Chapter 10:

Mrs. Weasley followed them upstairs looking grim.

"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," she said as they reached the first landing. "We've got a busy day tomorrow. I expect Ginny's asleep," she added to Hermione, "so try not to wake her up."

"Asleep, yeah, right," said Fred in an undertone, after Hermione bade them good night and they were climbing to the next floor. "If Ginny's not lying awake waiting for Hermione to tell her everything they said downstairs, then I'm a flobberworm…"

"All right, Ron, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley on the second landing, pointing them into their bedroom. "Off to bed with you."

" 'Night," Harry and Ron said to the twins.

"Night." Alicia waved.

"Sleep tight," said Fred, winking.

Mrs. Weasley closed the door behind Harry with a sharp snap as Alicia and the twins continued up to their room.

"You're coming to get me and we're all having a talk." Alicia hissed to the twins before she moved to her room. She gave them a final look before she shut her door.

Alicia changed quickly, locking her door and turning all the lights off, feeding Noel so she would be quiet as well and then sat on her bed.

Fred and George suddenly apparated into her room with a crack.

"Quick." she hissed

"You know it's harder in the dark, let alone with you."

"Practice makes perfect." Alicia said simply and she waited for the squeezing feeling when George and Fred both took her hands and disapparated.

Alicia landed on something soft but boney and was instantly aware of what it was.

"OUCH!"

"Keep your voice down, Ron, or Mum'll be back up here."

"You two just Apparated on my knees!"

"Yeah, well, it's harder in the dark —"

"Sorry Ron." Alicia said

"Alicia!" Ron hissed

"What?"

"Why are you here?"

"Yeah right, what a stupid question." she muttered as she got up and moved to sit on Harry's bed with him before George did the same.

"So, got there yet?" said George eagerly.

"The weapon Sirius mentioned?" said Harry.

"Let slip, more like," said Fred with relish, now sitting next to Ron.

"We didn't hear about that on the old Extendables, did we?"

"Yeah we kinda did." Alicia disagreed

"When?"

"Remember they were asking Tonks what is was like and talking about how he was going to make sure the plan was full proof before he did anything?"

"They said nothing about a weapon."

"Well what else would he be breaking into the ministry for?"

"The ministry?" Harry whispered

"Well they're guarding it during the day and night, it's not Hogwarts because Voldemort would never infiltrate that himself while Dumbledore's around, the only next really guarded place that takes careful planning is the Ministry."

"How do you know he needs to be there?"

"Because Sirius told me it was something he need to collect himself or something." Alicia admitted

"What?!" Ron whisper shouted

"Why didn't you tell us!?"

"Because Harry was arriving and I was annoyed enough." Alicia muttered "And personally I found the talk this evening completely useless, everything they told us, other than the weapon, was all guessable or not even top secret enough to keep from us." she grumbled

"But what d'you reckon it is?" said Harry back on the topic of the weapon.

"Could be anything," said Fred.

"But there can't be anything worse than the Avada Kedavra curse, can there?" said Ron. "What's worse than death?"

"Maybe it's something that can kill loads of people at once," suggested George.

"Maybe it's some particularly painful way of killing people," said Ron fearfully.

"He's got the Cruciatus Curse for causing pain," said Harry. "He doesn't need anything more efficient than that."

"I think it's something Dumbledore already knows about but Voldemort doesn't. After all Dumbledore's always one step ahead so he must know something important he doesn't. And seeing as we know where the weapon is and that it's obviously important…"

"Snape could have mentioned that." Ron offered

"Well clearly Voldemort needs it for something and it'll make him even more dangerous, personally I'm not sure if a weapon is as worrying as that." Alicia thought

"What else could it be then?"

"Information?" Alicia offered

"You think it's knowledge?" Fred scoffed

"I'm sorry, I know more than you all because of that. Knowledge is power, remember."

"Like what?"

"Like what Hagrid's up to." she smirked turning to George

"What?" they all whispered

"Yeah, Dumbledore called for him and Madam Maxime at the end of last year for a mission. Don't start dissing the idea that he could be after some sort of vital information." Alicia said seriously "I mean as Harry said he's got the Cruciatus Curse and he's got the Killing Curse. What weapon is worse than that?"

There was a pause as they all thought over that, wondering what other horrors of torture there could be.

"So who d'you thinks got it now?" asked George.

"I hope it's our side," said Ron, sounding slightly nervous.

"If it is, Dumbledore's probably keeping it," said Fred.

"Where?" said Ron quickly. "Hogwarts?"

"Bet it is!" said George.

"No, I still think it's at the Ministry." Alicia disagreed

"Well, that's where he hid the Philosopher's Stone!" George reminded her

"Yeah and look how well that turned out." Alicia smirked, "Voldemort almost had it and Harry and I ended up in the hospital wing."

"A weapon's going to be a lot bigger than the Stone, though!" said Ron.

"Not necessarily," said Fred.

"Yeah, size is no guarantee of power," said George. "Look at Ginny."

"What d'you mean?" said Harry.

"You've never been on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes, have you?" Alicia chuckled.

"Shhh!" said Fred, half-rising from the bed. "Listen!"

They fell silent. Footsteps were coming up the stairs again.

"Mum," said George, Alicia grabbed his hand from beside her and instantly the two twins were out of there with a loud crack and Alicia felt the squeezing feeling and her air cut off from her lungs before she was back in her room, slamming into her mattress.

"Night Alicia." and with another crack George was gone also.

Alicia sighed and she heard the stairs creak and someone stop outside her door. She knew it was Mrs Weasley and ignored it.

So they told us the Ministry's reason for covering it all up, something that was guessable. They told us the hardships of spreading the news under the radar and they told us Voldemort is after something. I'm pretty sure out of everything, the only think I didn't know or guess was that Fudge thinks Dumbledore wants to be minister. Alicia sighed as she pulled her blankets over the top of her.

"Then again they know not to tell me anything because I'll tell Harry. And that's what Dumbledore, for some stupid reason, doesn't want."

Now all that's left… is the hearing. Easy peasy…

Alicia was up early the next morning and she sat down in the kitchen fully dressed with a hot cup of tea in her hand, absentmindedly twiddling the spoon around the mug. It seemed no one else was awake yet, but she expected Mrs Weasley would be up any minute, and Alicia didn't expect she'd be very happy to see Alicia of all people. Not only that but Alicia wasn't sure she wanted to see the women either.

Pinning Sirius' imprisonment on him like that. His best friend died because of someone he thought was a friend and he goes to hunt them down only to be tricked and end up in prison for twelve years. For a crime he didn't commit no less. It wasn't Sirius' fault he didn't get a trial.

And I do not understand what's so wrong about allowing us to know information anyway. Knowing what the Order is planning or doing is completely different from actually being in the Order after all.

"Well no one else seems to think that way." she muttered, staring at her half empty tea cup.

"You're up early." Alicia turned to see Lupin walking into the kitchen, a newspaper in his hand.

"Too much brain activity I guess." she sighed

"Still thinking over the information from last night?" Lupin sighed as he sat down opposite her

"What information?" Alicia slumped her head into the palm of one of her hands, her elbow on the table "The only thing you told us last night that I didn't know was that Fudge thinks Dumbledore wants to be minister." she grumbled and Lupin looked her over carefully. "And how is that at all top secret?"

"Well good…" Lupin and Alicia stopped and turned to see Mrs Weasley walking in. "Morning." she finished in a mumble. The two turned away from one another quickly and Lupin sighed as the girl got up from her seat and headed to the door.

"Alicia if you could go and wake the girls up that would be helpful. I want to tackle the doxies in the drawing room." Mrs Weasley said without turning to her. "And wake the boys up also wont you." Alicia said nothing but left with a glance at Lupin, making her way up the stairs.

Hermione was already awake, though in her pyjama's still while Ginny was mumbling in her sleep.

"Mrs Weasley wants everyone awake to clean out the drawing room." Alicia said and Hermione nodded before throwing a pillow at Ginny.

"Ginny wake up." she yawned. A groan left Ginny's bed as Alicia chuckled and left to go up a floor to the twins room. Typically they were awake and Alicia opened the door with a hand over her eyes.

"Are we decent?" she asked with a grin and the two snickered as Alicia peaked through her fingers and lowered her hand.

"Your mother wants you up and dressed for breakfast and to clean the drawing room. We're getting rid of the doxies."

"Excellent!" Fred beamed

"We want to use those doxies." George admitted

"Something poisonous, why does that not surprise me?" Alicia sighed before turning and closing the door behind her to move down to the other two boys' room. Ron and Harry were both still fast asleep.

"Oi!" she snapped and she hit Ron's head slightly, the boy jumping up to a sitting position in surprise before she went and shook Harry.

"Harry get up!" she said

"Alicia what are you doing?" Ron muttered lying back down

"You're mother's instructed me to wake you all up." Alicia said simply "So come on, move your ass. We're cleaning out the doxies in the drawing room."

The door creaked as Fred poked his head in.

"We're also having breakfast, mum's shouting that it's ready." he said and Alicia could tell he knew by the extendable ear he always seemed to have attached to his ear.

"You're really risking those things for no reason aren't you." Alicia sighed as she walked away from Harry's bed, the boy having yawned and sat up.

"Well who knows what they'll let slip when we're not around."

"Not very much unless Mrs Weasley's scolding Sirius or complaining about my attitude." Alicia rolled her eyes.

Half an hour later Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George, and Alicia were grouped in the long, high-ceilinged room on the first floor with olive-green walls covered in dirty tapestries. The carpet exhaled little clouds of dust every time someone put their foot on it and the long, moss-green velvet curtains were buzzing as though swarming with invisible bees. The eight of them were all standing before the long curtains, tying cloths over their noses and mouths. Mrs Weasley handed out large bottles of black liquid, nozzles at the end.

"I thought you weren't helping?" Fred said to Alicia

"I said I'd help if I was told information." Alicia corrected "They didn't tell me much new information but they still tried." she shrugged as the door opened and Harry and Ron walked in.

"Cover your faces and take a spray," Mrs. Weasley said to two boy. She pointed to two more bottles of black liquid standing on a spindle-legged table. "It's Doxycide. I've never seen an infestation this bad — what that house-elf's been doing for the last ten years —"

Hermione's face was half concealed by a tea towel but the reproachful look they all knew existed was thrown at Mrs. Weasley at her words.

"Kreacher's really old, he probably couldn't manage —"

"You'd be surprised what Kreacher can manage when he wants to, Hermione," said Sirius, who had just entered the room carrying a bloodstained bag of what appeared to be dead rats. "I've just been feeding Buckbeak," he added, in reply to Harry's inquiring look. "I keep him upstairs in my mother's bedroom."

"Shows how much he didn't like her, covering her room in blood and allowing Buckbeak to rip everything." Alicia added, earning a look from Sirius

"Anyway… this writing desk…"

He dropped the bag of rats onto an armchair, then bent over to examine the locked cabinet which was shaking slightly.

"Well, Molly, I'm pretty sure this is a boggart," said Sirius, peering through the keyhole, "but perhaps we ought to let Mad-Eye have a shifty at it before we let it out — knowing my mother it could be something much worse."

"Right you are, Sirius," said Mrs. Weasley.

They were both speaking in carefully light, polite voices that Alicia assumed was used to express that neither had forgotten their disagreement of the night before.

A loud, clanging bell sounded from downstairs, followed at once by the cacophony of screams and wails of Mrs Black.

"I keep telling them not to ring the doorbell!" said Sirius exasperatedly, hurrying back out of the room. They heard him thundering down the stairs as Mrs. Black's screeches echoed up through the house once more: "Stains of dishonour, filthy half-breeds, blood traitors, children of filth…"

"I'm actually so glad I never met that women…" Alicia muttered

"Close the door, please, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley.

The twins, Ron and Alicia all listened extra quietly as Harry took as long as he could to close the door. Hermione and Ginny listened intently, pretending to be playing with their nozzles as Mrs Weasley watched Harry with beady eyes.

Sirius walking down the hall, then the clattering of the chain on the front door, and then a deep voice they recognised as Kingsley Shacklebolt's spoke.

"Hestia's just relieved me, so she's got Moody's cloak now, thought I'd leave a report for Dumbledore…"

Mrs Weasley stared at the back of Harry's head, her eyes narrowing and the boy, having probably felt her eyes, closed the door and walked back over to them. With the door closed and none of the teenagers trying to ears drop Mrs Weasley turned back to her book, one of Gilderoy Lockhart's novels, Guide to Household Pests.

"Right, you lot, you need to be careful, because doxies bite and their teeth are poisonous. I've got a bottle of antidote here, but I'd rather nobody needed it." Mrs Weasley said, reading the book. She straightened up, positioned herself squarely in front of the curtains, and beckoned them all forward to join her.

"When I say the word, start spraying immediately," she said. "They'll come flying out at us, I expect, but it says on the sprays one good squirt will paralyse them. When they're immobilised, just throw them in this bucket."

The group of them lined up facing the curtains, their cloths on their mouths secured and their nozzles ready as Mrs Weasley stepped carefully out of their line of fire and raised her own spray.

"All right — squirt!"

As soon as the doxicide hit the curtains, suddenly full grown doxies came soaring out of the folds in the material, shiny beetlelike wings whirring, tiny needle-sharp teeth bared, its fairylike body covered with thick black hair and its four tiny fists clenched with fury. Harry caught one full in the face with a blast of Doxycide; it froze in midair and fell, with a surprisingly loud thunk, onto the worn carpet below. Harry picked it up and threw it in the bucket. Alicia sprayed everywhere in front of her as the little creatures jumped out and several just fell from the curtains without getting anywhere.

"Fred, what are you doing?" said Mrs. Weasley sharply. "Spray that at once and throw it away!" Fred was holding a struggling doxy between his forefinger and thumb.

"Right-o," Fred said brightly, spraying the doxy quickly in the face so that it fainted, but the moment Mrs. Weasley's back was turned he pocketed it with a wink.

"We want to experiment with doxy venom for our Skiving Snackboxes," George told Harry under his breath who was looking at them in question

"Of course you do." Alicia muttered "I am not taking anything with doxy poison in it." she hissed at them, earning a raised eyebrow from Harry. He deftly sprayed two doxies at once as they soared straight for his nose before Harry moved closer to George

"What are Skiving Snackboxes?" he muttered, making sure not to catch Mrs Weasley's ear.

"Range of sweets to make you ill," George whispered, keeping a wary eye on Mrs. Weasley's back. "Not seriously ill, mind, just ill enough to get you out of a class when you feel like it. Fred and I have been developing them this summer. They're double-ended, colour-coded chews. If you eat the orange half of the Puking Pastilles, you throw up. Moment you've been rushed out of the lesson for the hospital wing, you swallow the purple half —"

" '— which restores you to full fitness, enabling you to pursue the leisure activity of your own choice during an hour that would otherwise have been devoted to unprofitable boredom.' That's what we're putting in the adverts, anyway," whispered Fred, who had edged over out of Mrs. Weasley's line of vision and was now sweeping a few stray doxies from the floor and adding them to his pocket. "But they still need a bit of work."

"A bit?" Alicia grumbled and Fred grinned at her before turning back to Harry

"At the moment our testers are having a bit of trouble stopping puking long enough to swallow the purple end."

"Or the purple end just doesn't work at all and their nose bleeds on end like a tap." Alicia muttered, spraying a doxy and throwing it into the bucket.

"Testers?"

"Us," said Fred. "We take it in turns. George did the Fainting Fancies — Alicia tried the Nosebleed Nougat —"

"Mum thought we'd been dulling and she got hit by a stray spell," said George.

"Let's not forget the puss filled balls you caused to appear on my face." she said angrily and the two smiled guilty

"Yeah, we're sorry about that one." Fred assured, patting her shoulder. She shoved him off.

"I don't think I've ever seen Alicia so angry before." George muttered to Harry, looking at the girl with worry. Harry smirked slightly.

"Joke shop still on, then?" Harry muttered, pretending to be adjusting the nozzle on his spray.

"Well, we haven't had a chance to get premises yet," said Fred, dropping his voice even lower as Mrs. Weasley mopped her brow with her scarf before returning to the attack, "so we're running it as a mail order service at the moment. We put advertisements in the Daily Prophet last week."

"All thanks to you, mate," said George. "But don't worry… Mum hasn't got a clue. She won't read the Daily Prophet anymore, 'cause of it telling lies about you and Dumbledore."

Harry grinned. He had forced the Weasley twins to take the thousand-Galleon prize money he had won in the Triwizard Tournament to help them realise their ambition to open a joke shop, but he was still glad to know that his part in furthering their plans was unknown to Mrs. Weasley, who did not think that running a joke shop was a suitable career for two of her sons.

"If she knew we'd helped you out she'd hate me even more than she already does." Alicia said looking at the women.

"I don't even know if that's possible." George grinned.

The de-doxying of the curtains took most of the morning. It was past midday when Mrs. Weasley finally removed her protective scarf, sank into a sagging armchair, and sprang up again with a cry of disgust, having sat on the bag of dead rats. The curtains were no longer buzzing; they hung limp and damp from the intensive spraying; unconscious doxies lay crammed in the bucket at the foot of them beside a bowl of their black eggs, at which Crookshanks was now sniffing and Fred and George were shooting covetous looks.

"I think we'll tackle those after lunch."

Mrs. Weasley pointed at the dusty glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantelpiece. They were crammed with an odd assortment of objects: a selection of rusty daggers, claws, a coiled snakeskin, a number of tarnished silver boxes inscribed with foreign languages and, least pleasant of all, an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of what looked very much like blood.

The clanging doorbell rang again. Everyone looked at Mrs. Weasley.

"Stay here," she said firmly, snatching up the bag of rats as Mrs. Blacks screeches started up again from down below. "I'll bring up some sandwiches."

She left the room, closing the door carefully behind her and Alicia was first to the window. Everyone look down onto the doorstep to discover who had arrived. They could see the top of an unkempt gingery head and a stack of precariously balanced cauldrons.

"Mundungus!" said Hermione. "What's he brought all those cauldrons for?"

"Probably looking for a safe place to keep them," said Harry.

"Yeah somewhere they wont get nicked by someone else." Alicia agreed

"Isn't that what he was doing the night he was supposed to be tailing me? Picking up dodgy cauldrons?"

"Yeah, you're right!" said Fred, as the front door opened; Mundungus heaved his cauldrons through it and disappeared from view. "Blimey, Mum won't like that…"

"Quick, she'll start shouting any minute!" Alicia grinned. She, Fred and George crossed to the door and stood beside it, listening intently. Mrs. Black's screaming had stopped again.

"Mundungus is talking to Sirius and Kingsley," Fred muttered, frowning with concentration. "Can't hear properly d'you reckon we can risk the Extendable Ears?"

"Might be worth it," said George. "I could sneak upstairs and get a pair —"

But at that precise moment there was an explosion of sound from downstairs that rendered Extendable Ears quite unnecessary. All of them could hear exactly what Mrs. Weasley was shouting at the top of her voice.

"WE ARE NOT RUNNING A HIDEOUT FOR STOLEN GOODS!"

"I love hearing Mum shouting at someone else," said Fred, with a satisfied smile on his face as he opened the door an inch or so to allow Mrs. Weasley's voice to permeate the room better. "It makes such a nice change."

"I'll say." Alicia muttered as she peaked through the door

"— COMPLETELY IRRESPONSIBLE, AS IF WE HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITHOUT YOU DRAGGING STOLEN CAULDRONS INTO THE HOUSE —"

"The idiots are letting her get into her stride," said George, shaking his head. "You've got to head her off early, otherwise she builds up a head of steam and goes on for hours."

"You've learnt that haven't you Alicia?" Fred grinned and the girl shot him a glare.

"And she's been dying to have a go at Mundungus ever since he sneaked off when he was supposed to be following you, Harry — and there goes Sirius's mum again —"

Mrs. Weasley's voice was lost amid fresh shrieks and screams from the portraits in the hall. George made to shut the door to drown the noise, but before he could do so, Kreacher edged into the room.

Except for the filthy rag tied like a loincloth around his middle, Kreacher was completely naked. He was also very old. His skin seemed to be several times too big for him and though he was bald like all house-elves, there was a quantity of white hair growing out of its large, batlike ears. Both Kreacher's eyes were a bloodshot and watery grey, and its fleshy nose was large and rather snoutlike.

As per usual, Kreacher took absolutely no notice of the teens. Acting as though he could not see them, he shuffled hunchbacked, slowly and doggedly, toward the far end of the room, muttering under its breath all the while in a hoarse, deep voice like a bullfrog's.

"… Smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my Mistress's house, oh my poor Mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let in her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do…"

"Hello, Kreacher," said Fred very loudly, closing the door with a snap.

The house-elf froze in his tracks, stopped muttering, and then gave a very pronounced and very unconvincing start of surprise.

"Kreacher did not see Young Master," he said, turning around and bowing to Fred. Still facing the carpet, he added, perfectly audibly, "Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is."

"Sorry?" said George. "Didn't catch that last bit."

"Kreacher said nothing," said the elf, with a second bow to George, adding in a clear undertone, "and there's its twin, unnatural little beasts they are."

Alicia snorted slightly to repress her laugh and George gave her a look, she simply winked at him.

The elf straightened up, eyeing them all very malevolently, and apparently convinced that they could not hear him as he continued to mutter.

"… and there's the Mudblood, standing there bold as brass, oh if my Mistress knew, oh how she'd cry, and there's a new boy, Kreacher doesn't know his name, what is he doing here, Kreacher doesn't know…"

"This is Harry, Kreacher," said Hermione tentatively. "Harry Potter."

Kreacher's pale eyes widened and he muttered faster and more furiously than ever.

"The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher's Mistress saw him in such company, oh what would she say —"

"Don't call her a Mudblood!" said Ron and Ginny together, very angrily.

"It doesn't matter," Hermione whispered, "he's not in his right mind, he doesn't know what he's —"

"Don't kid yourself, Hermione, he knows exactly what he's saying," said Fred, eyeing Kreacher with great dislike.

Kreacher was still muttering, his eyes on Harry.

"Is it true? Is it Harry Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, both the Potter children who surprised the Dark Lord. That's that boy who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how he did it —"

"Don't we all, Kreacher?" said Fred.

"What do you want anyway?" George asked.

Kreacher's huge eyes darted onto George.

"Kreacher is cleaning," he said evasively.

"A likely story," said a voice behind Harry. Sirius had come back; he was glowering at the elf from the doorway. The noise in the hall had abated; perhaps Mrs. Weasley and Mundungus had moved their argument down into the kitchen. At the sight of Sirius, Kreacher flung himself into a ridiculously low bow that flattened his snoutlike nose on the floor.

"Stand up straight," said Sirius impatiently. "Now, what are you up to?"

"Kreacher is cleaning," the elf repeated. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black —"

"— and it's getting blacker every day, it's filthy," said Sirius.

"Master always liked his little joke," said Kreacher, bowing again, and continuing in an undertone, "Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart —"

"My mother didn't have a heart, Kreacher," Sirius snapped. "She kept herself alive out of pure spite."

Kreacher bowed again and said, "Whatever Master says," then muttered furiously, "Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother's boots, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving him, how she hated him, what a disappointment he was —"

"I asked you what you were up to," said Sirius coldly. "Every time you show up pretending to be cleaning, you sneak something off to your room so we can't throw it out."

"Kreacher would never move anything from its proper place in Master's house," said the elf, then muttered very fast, "Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out, seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it, Kreacher will not let Master and the blood traitors and the brats destroy it —"

"I thought it might be that," said Sirius, casting a disdainful look at the opposite wall where a tapestry did hang. Alicia turned to it as well and, ignoring Sirius' distasteful look she walked over to it. "She'll have put another Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of it, I don't doubt, but if I can get rid of it I certainly will. Now go away, Kreacher."

It seemed that Kreacher did not dare disobey a direct order; nevertheless, the look he gave Sirius as he shuffled out past him was redolent of deepest loathing and he muttered all the way out of the room.

"— comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he's back, they say he's a murderer too —"

"Keep muttering and I will be a murderer!" said Sirius irritably, and he slammed the door shut on the elf.

"Sirius, he's not right in the head," said Hermione pleadingly, "I don't think he realises we can hear him."

"He's been alone too long," said Sirius, "taking mad orders from my mother's portrait and talking to himself, but he was always a foul little —"

"If you just set him free," said Hermione hopefully, "maybe —"

"We can't set him free, he knows too much about the Order," said Sirius curtly. "And anyway, the shock would kill him. You suggest to him that he leaves this house, see how he takes it."

Sirius walked across the room, where the tapestry Kreacher had been trying to protect hung the length of the wall. Alicia was already eyeing the family tree that was embodied onto it as Harry and the others followed.

The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though doxies had gnawed it in places; nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black "Toujours Pur"

"You're not on here!" said Harry, after scanning the bottom of the tree.

"Shouldn't you be here?" Alicia asked pointing to a small blacked out hole in the tapestry

"I used to be there," said Sirius with a nod. His name had been burnt from the tapestry with something similar to a cigarette. "My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home — Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."

"You ran away from home?"

"I don't blame you." Alicia muttered

"When I was about sixteen," said Sirius. "I'd had enough."

"Where did you go?" asked Harry, staring at him.

"Your dad's place," said Sirius. "Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at your dad's during the school holidays, and then when I was seventeen I got a place of my own, my Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold — he's been wiped off here too, that's probably why — anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr. and Mrs. Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."

"But… why did you… ?"

"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly and ran a hand through his long, unkempt hair. "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal… my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them … that's him."

Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name Regulus Black. A date of death (some fifteen years previously) followed the date of birth.

"He was younger than me," said Sirius, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded."

"But he died," said Harry.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Stupid idiot… he joined the Death Eaters."

"You're kidding!" Both Alicia and Sirius turned to look at Harry surprised

"Really?" Alicia wondered

"Come on, Harry, haven't you seen enough of this house to tell what kind of wizards my family were?" said Sirius testily.

"Were — were your parents Death Eaters as well?"

"No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the Wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having purebloods in charge. They weren't alone either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colours, who thought he had the right idea about things… They got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first."

"Was he killed by an Auror?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Oh no," said Sirius. "No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely, I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death."

"Lunch," said Mrs. Weasley's voice.

She was holding her wand high in front of her, balancing a huge tray loaded with sandwiches and cake on its tip. She was very red in the face and still looked angry. The others moved over to her, eager for some food, but Harry and Alicia remained with Sirius, who had bent closer to the tapestry.

"I haven't looked at this for years."

"You haven't been here for years." Alicia reminded him and the man chuckled slightly with a not.

"There's Phineas Nigellus… my great-great-grandfather, see? Least popular headmaster Hogwarts ever had… and Araminta Meliflua… cousin of my mother's… tried to force through a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal… and dear Aunt Elladora… she started the family tradition of beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays… of course, anytime the family produced someone halfway decent they were disowned. I see Tonks isn't on here. Maybe that's why Kreacher won't take orders from her — he's supposed to do whatever anyone in the family asks him…"

"You and Tonks are related?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah, her mother, Andromeda, was my favourite cousin," said Sirius, examining the tapestry carefully. "No, Andromeda's not on here either, look —" He pointed to another small round burn mark between two names, Bellatrix and Narcissa.

"Andromeda's sisters are still here because they made lovely, respectable pure-blood marriages, but Andromeda married a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks, so —"

Sirius mimed blasting the tapestry with a wand and laughed sourly. Harry did not laugh, he was too busy staring at the names to the right of Andromeda's burn mark. A double line of gold embroidery linked Narcissa Black with Lucius Malfoy, and a single vertical gold line from their names led to the name Draco.

"You're related to the Malfoys!"

"The pure-blood families are all interrelated," said Sirius. "If you're only going to let your sons and daughters marry purebloods your choice is very limited, there are hardly any of us left. Molly and I are cousins by marriage and Arthur's something like my second cousin once removed. But there's no point looking for them on here — if ever a family was a bunch of blood traitors it's the Weasleys."

But Harry was now looking at the name to the left of Andromeda's burn: Bellatrix Black, which was connected by a double line to Rodolphus Lestrange.

"Lestrange…" Harry said aloud.

"They're in Azkaban," said Sirius shortly.

Harry looked at him curiously.

"Crouch." Alicia muttered and Harry looked at her while Sirius nodded

"Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus came in with Barty Crouch, Junior," said Sirius in the same brusque voice. "Rodolphus's brother, Rabastan, was with them too."

"They tortured Neville's parents." Alicia muttered. She and Harry had seen Bellatrix Lestrange inside Dumbledore's Pensieve, the strange device in which thoughts and memories could be stored: a tall dark woman with heavy-lidded eyes, who had stood at her trial and proclaimed her continuing allegiance to Lord Voldemort, her pride that she had tried to find him after his downfall and her conviction that she would one day be rewarded for her loyalty.

"You never said she was your —"

"Does it matter if she's my cousin?" snapped Sirius. "As far as I'm concerned, they're not my family. She's certainly not my family. I haven't seen her since I was your age, unless you count a glimpse of her coming in to Azkaban. D'you think I'm proud of having relatives like her?"

"Sirius!" Alicia snapped at him for his tone. "And Harry, he's probably not proud of it." she reminded him.

"Sorry," said Harry quickly, "I didn't mean — I was just surprised, that's all —"

"It doesn't matter, don't apologise," Sirius mumbled at once. He turned away from the tapestry, his hands deep in his pockets. "I don't like being back here," he said, staring across the drawing room. "I never thought I'd be stuck in this house again."

"It's ideal for headquarters, of course," Sirius said. "My father put every security measure known to Wizard-kind on it when he lived here. It's Unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call — as if they'd have wanted to — and now Dumbledore's added his protection, you'd be hard put to find a safer house anywhere. Dumbledore's Secret-Keeper for the Order, you know — nobody can find headquarters unless he tells them personally where it is — that note Moody showed you last night, that was from Dumbledore…" Sirius gave a short, barklike laugh. "If my parents could see the use it was being put to now… well, my mother's portrait should give you some idea…" He scowled for a moment

"It's their fault for picking the minority of the wizard population." Alicia shrugged and Sirius smiled before he sighed.

"I wouldn't mind if I could just get out occasionally and do something useful. I've asked Dumbledore whether I can escort you to your hearing — as Snuffles, obviously — so I can give you a bit of moral support, what d'you think?" Harry's face instantly failed and Alicia turned to her god father with annoyance and shock.

"Don't you even think about it! Walking straight into the ministry?!" she hissed and Sirius chuckled slightly before he turned to Harry. Alicia did the same and they watched as the boy stared at everyone eating their sandwiches. Knowing that Sirius' words had just freaked Harry out Alicia gave Sirius a glare and he gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry," Sirius said. Harry looked up and realised that the two had been watching him. "I'm sure they're going to clear you, there's definitely something in the International Statute of Secrecy about being allowed to use magic to save your own life."

"But if they do expel me," said Harry, quietly, "can I come back here and live with you?"

Sirius smiled sadly and Alicia turned her face away with a frown. She knew Dumbledore would never allow it, after all Harry was safer with the Dursleys at least until he came of age.

Harry spending full time with the Dursleys now there's something to laugh about. she thought. "We'll see."

"I'd feel a lot better about the hearing if I knew I didn't have to go back to the Dursleys," Harry pressed him.

"They must be bad if you prefer this place," said Sirius gloomily.

"Here's where everyone he cares about is. It doesn't matter about the building." Alicia said "Also, he didn't have an awful childhood here." she added

"Hurry up, you three, or there won't be any food left," Mrs. Weasley called.

Sirius heaved another great sigh, cast a dark look at the tapestry as Alicia moved over to the others, Sirius and Harry following her.

Their next job involved emptying the glass cabinets. Many of the objects in them were very reluctant to leave their dusty shelves. Sirius sustained a bad bite from a silver snuffbox; within seconds, his bitten hand had developed an unpleasant crusty covering like a tough brown glove.

"It's okay," he said, examining the hand with interest before tapping it lightly with his wand and restoring its skin to normal, "must be Wartcap powder in there."

He threw the box aside into the sack where they were depositing the debris from the cabinets; George quickly wrapped his own hand carefully in a cloth moments later and sneak the box into his already doxy-filled pocket. Both twins gave Alicia a grin when they saw she'd noticed. They found an unpleasant-looking silver instrument, something like a many-legged pair of tweezers, which scuttled up Harry's arm like a spider when he picked it up, and attempted to puncture his skin; Sirius seized it and smashed it with a heavy book entitled Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy. There was a musical box that emitted a faintly sinister, tinkling tune when wound, and they all found themselves becoming curiously weak and sleepy until Ginny had the sense to slam the lid shut; also a heavy locket that none of them could open, a number of ancient seals and, in a dusty box, an Order of Merlin, First Class, that had been awarded to Sirius's grand-father for "Services to the Ministry."

"It means he gave them a load of gold," said Sirius contemptuously, throwing the medal into the rubbish sack.

Several times, Kreacher sidled into the room and attempted to smuggle things away under his loincloth, muttering horrible curses every time they caught him at it. When Sirius wrested a large golden ring bearing the Black crest from his grip Kreacher actually burst into furious tears and left the room sobbing under his breath and calling Sirius names they had never heard before.

"It was my father's," said Sirius. "Kreacher wasn't quite as devoted to him as to my mother, but I still caught him snogging a pair of my father's old trousers last week." He went to throw it away when Alicia caught it.

"It'd be terrible to throw out where Mundungus can sell it." Sirius rolled with eyes and sighed as Harry looked confused.

"She's been taking things I've wanted to throw out, something about having some sort of heirloom even if it does sit in her vault for the rest of forever." Sirius explained to Harry as the girl pocketed the ring. Harry didn't blame her for wanting some sort of family heirlooms, after all, they had none. It had all been destroyed when Voldemort's curse had rebounded off of Harry.