A/N Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/favourited/followed this story so far! Thanks for stickin' by me for four and a bit 'books' aha! I got my GCSE exam time-table today (Ahh!) which is horrible and I want to go back to Year Six. Anyway, please R&R! xxx

Chapter Two

Off to Grimmauld Place

Three days went past with Amara and Tally doing things they usually did in summer, but also helping Jesse, Fleur and Adrien with their flat and also Mr Matthews around the house.

They had decided to go to the forest behind Amara's house that day to go for a walk and have a picnic. Jesse was visiting Hermione, Fleur was at work and Adrien was going shopping so they weren't going to see them that day.

They stayed in late, and had a small breakfast before sitting outside in the garden, making the most of the sun. Mr Matthews was inside the house, in the art studio, fiddling with bits of wood and fixing things up on his day off.

"Amara, Tally, come here, someone's here to talk to you," Mr Matthews' voice filtered through the open French Doors that led into the house.

Amara and Tally looked at each other.

"Who's that?" Amara said. Tally shrugged and they took their sunglasses off as they went inside.

Standing in the lounge, his muggle clothes just as shabby as his normal robes was Professor Lupin. Amara hadn't seen him for a year, not since her third-year when he was a teacher at Hogwarts. She supposed she shouldn't really call him 'Professor' anymore, but it did suit him.

"Professor Lupin?" Amara said, shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"This is 'Professor Lupin the werewolf'?" Tally asked. "But - but he's not scary at all!"

"Hello Amara," Professor Lupin smiled. "Ah - yes, hopefully I'm not scary. And who might you be?"

"Tally Reynolds," said Tally. "Amara's cousin."

"Ah yes, Ron did mention ..."

"You've seen Ron?" Tally asked, eagerly. "Why?"

"I can't say here," said Professor Lupin. "But Dumbledore has requested for Amara to come with me, if her parents allow."

"What about Tally? I can't just leave her," said Amara. "She's here for the whole summer."

"I doubt Dumbledore will mind a few extra hands ... Provided she knows everything?"

"Of course," said Amara. "Is Hermione coming too?"

"Yes," said Professor Lupin. "Arthur is picking her up today."

"My brozzer is over zere," said Tally. "Can 'e come too?"

Professor Lupin smiled.

"I guess so," said Professor Lupin. "But I don't know if there is enough space ..."

"Don't worry, he has a new flat," said Amara. "He's moved from France."

"Ah," said Professor Lupin. "Explains the accent."

"Dad, can we go?" Amara asked her father, was looking at Professor Lupin's wand, which was sticking out of his pocket in interest.

"What was that?" he asked. "Oh – yes of course, I s'pect your mother wouldn't mind."

"Excellent," said Professor Lupin. "In that case, would you mind packing now? It'll be easier …"

"Sure," said Amara. "Do I need everything for school as well?"

"Yes, I should think so," said Professor Lupin.

"I can send Archie with letters to you," Amara said to her father. "To check you're alright."

"Don't worry about me," he said. "I'll be fine. Bryony, Ethan and Tessie will be back in a week anyway."

Amara nodded and followed Tally up the stairs. She heard her dad ask Professor Lupin a few questions as they went into the kitchen.

Tally dispersed into Tessie's room, which was where she was staying, whilst Amara went to the top of the house and walked over to her trunk, that lay open on the side of the room. She hadn't really unpacked since she'd come back, so she managed to get everything of her school stuff together. She then got all the things she need for the summer as well, which she would send back with Tally after the holidays were over.

After fetching her things from the bathroom and locking a disgruntled Archimedes in his cage, Amara took everything down the stairs and checked for anything in the lounge, which she may have left behind.

"What are you going to do about school lists?" said Mr Matthews, walking back into the lounge as Tally came hurtling down the stairs with her suitcase.

"I'll probably go get them," Amara said from her place under the sofa, finding her books. "With Ron and Hermione and Harry."

"Right," said Mr Matthews. "Do you have enough money?"

Amara nodded, coming out of the sofa and rubbing her head.

"I got some the other day," said Amara. "Write to me when Tessie gets her letter, won't you?"

"Of course," nodded Mr Matthews. "You got everything?"

"Think so, you ready Tally?"

"Yes," said Tally. "'Ow are we getting zere?"

"I'll take you by side-along Apparation," said Professor Lupin. "Are you familiar with it?"

Amara made a noise.

"Ah, I see," said Professor Lupin, smiling slightly. "It's rather uncomfortable."

Five minutes later, Amara and Tally had hugged Mr Matthews goodbye and were standing in their back-yard, with their suitcases and Archimedes. They linked arms with Professor Lupin and Amara felt the now-familiar pull of Apparation.

They reappeared (Archimedes looking thoroughly ruffled) in a patch of shrubbery that overlooked some houses.

"I'm sorry to run, but I've got a job to do," Professor Lupin said apologetically. "Read this, don't say anything, and then I will burn it - it'll tell you where to go."

Professor Lupin handed them a scrap of parchment, which Tally took.

Leaning over, Amara read the curly writing.

The Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix can be found at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place

"What's the -"

"Shhh!" Lupin said. "Concentrate on the note and follow me." He got out his wand and burnt it before they got to the edge of the

They walked out the shrubbery patch and found themselves on the grubby street with a row of tall houses stretching down it. They were in front of the houses 11 and 13.

"Where's number -" Amara said, thinking about the note. She didn't have to finish because the gap between the houses started moving. They stretched out, revealing a completely new house in between them, but it didn't seem to affect the muggle houses on either side.

Finally, before them, gate and all, was Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. The separation of the two houses either side had not affected the Muggles around them. There was no one who came out and started asking about the mysterious appearance of number twelve, which made Amara realise it was only them who could see it.

"Just knock on the door," said Lupin. "Molly will already be inside."

"See you later then," said Amara. Lupin nodded before walking back into the green trees. There was a faint crack of him apparating away.

"C'mon then," said Amara and she lifted her trunk and Archimedes through the gate and up to the front door. Tally trailed behind with her suitcase.

"Should we knock?"

"Guess so," said Tally.

Amara knocked on the door three times, and was surprised to hear screams coming from the other side. Tally gave her a weird look as the screaming stopped and the door was flung open.

Molly Weasley stood by the door, looking like her normal self except for looking slightly older and more strained than normal. She had her traditional apron on and it seemed like she was in the middle of cleaning.

"Amara! It's lovely to see you again!" She smiled at her.

"Lovely to see you too Mrs Weasley," Amara smiled back.

"'Ello Meeses Weeasley," said Tally. "I'm Tally Reynolds - Amara's cousin."

"Ah yes, we've met before? It's lovely to have you with us," Mrs Weasley said. "Come in, come in, we only got here yesterday evening."

She bustled back into the house and Amara and Tally followed her.

They found themselves in a dark, thin hallway, with dark green walls and lamps that cast dark shadows on the walls. There was an ugly trolls leg stand on one side and a doorway on the side of the wall. There was stairs going up down the end of the hallway and next to that was a small set of stairs going down. Also there was a pair of moth-eaten curtains that Amara supposed was another door. Mrs Weasley was heading up the hallway and seemed to be heading towards the set of stairs going downwards.

"If you go upstairs you'll find Ginny and Ron and everyone … I'm still finding all the kitchen things," Mrs Weasley said. "They're cleaning out the bedrooms properly – now Tally's here you can sort out the rooms …"

Amara and Tally nodded, but before they went upstairs someone else emerged from the staircase going downwards.

"Sirius?" Amara said. Sirius Black was standing at the foot of the stairs with the ugliest looking house elf Amara had ever seen. It had a snout-like nose and grey skin, with white tufty hair coming out of his bat-like ears.

Amara thought Tally would be more surprised when she finally met Sirius Black, but she was staring at the house-elf as if it was the most ugliest thing in the entire world.

"Hey Amara," Sirius smiled. His hair was long and he looked slightly healthier than he did, but Amara saw a hardness in his eyes. He looked bitter and Amara wondered why. Amara couldn't help but grin and give him a hug (avoiding the gross house-elf as she did so).

"What on earth is zat?" Tally said.

Sirius glanced at her curiously before looking down and remembering the house-elf next to him.

"Ah, this is Kreacher, my house elf," said Sirius. He looked disgusted himself. "This is my house."

"You're house?" said Amara.

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Gave it to Dumbledore."

"So you're ze infamous Sirius Black?" Tally had obviously gotten over the fact that the house elf was ugly and had turned her attention to Sirius.

"Yes I am," said Sirius. "And who may you be?"

"Tally Reynolds," said Tally. "Amara's cousin."

"Lovely to meet you," said Sirius, his grin on his face again. Mrs Weasley cleared her throat.

"Right," Sirius said. "We'd better get back – see you at dinner, have fun cleaning."

They disappeared down the stairs and Amara and Tally were alone in the creepy hallway with Kreacher.

"Let's get this stuff upstairs," said Amara, looking edgily at the house-elf, who was muttering words under his breath. Tally nodded and started up the stairs, remembering half-way that the no one was taking her bag up for her (she looked at the house-elf in distaste) and went back down to fetch it.

The stairs were rather gross too, at least a centimetre of dust was on the places where footsteps had not been. On the wall were mounted house-elf heads, each having a resemblance to Kreacher and disturbing Amara to no-end. Who beheaded their house-elves and mounted them? Sirius' mother or father must have been a strange.

On the first landing, there was noise coming from a door which was hanging slightly open. Popping her head through, Amara saw the back of Ginny Weasley, a close friend and sister of Ron, standing by a four-poster bed with mouldy hangings. She had a duster and was standing on the bed cleaning it, and ripping the hangings down as she did so.

"Need any help?" Amara asked, walking fully into the room. It was a reasonable size, with two beds and a chest of drawers with a mirror on top, with an edging of silver snakes winding around it. Ginny whipped around and squealed when she saw who it was.

"AMARA!" she shouted and she sprung off the bed, landing with a thump on the floor, and springing to Amara and giving her a hug. "I didn't think you'd be here this quickly!"

Once she let go, Amara brushed the dust that had settled on her and grinned.

"Sorry," said Ginny, whose red hair was also covered in dust, and had been put up into a ponytail out of the way. She was wearing a flannel shirt and shorts and looked like she'd been cleaning the room all day. "It's hard work this."

"Ginny!" Tally had entered the room too.

"Tally?" Ginny asked. "I didn't realise you'd come too! This is great – are Jesse and Noah coming too?"

"Noah's in America doing a creature-training camp tzing," Tally said. "And Jesse's wiz 'Ermione, so 'e will come wiz her I am guessing."

"Awesome," said Ginny. "But I don't know about sleeping arrangements – I was going to get mum to squeeze another bed in here with us … but now we can have two rooms."

"I'll stay wiz Amara, do not worry," said Tally. "Iz zere another room?"

"Not another one on this floor," said Ginny. "But there's plenty upstairs – Ron's up there cleaning his for Harry and himself. There's another on that floor, so you can just clean that one out. I've nearly finished this one – I just need to rip these mouldy hangings off and I'll come help – wear something scruffy!"

Amara and Tally nodded, and took their stuff up to another landing. The ceiling from the hallway was so high that there were little banisters that they could look over and see if anyone was walking down the hallway. The next floor was more-or less the same, with three doors, one which led to a half-clean bathroom and the other two leading to two bedrooms. In one, Ron Weasley was cleaning the floor free of dust, looking very put-out of this activity.

"Hi Ron," Amara said, walking into the bedroom (which was slightly bigger than Ginny's, and with a wardrobe) and letting dust puff off the floor.

"Dammit Amara," Ron said as the dust settled on his head and he kneeled up.

"Lovely way to greet your dear friend," Amara grinned and Ron rolled his eyes. She walked forwards to give him a hug, but jumped backwards when there was a crack and a sound like a gunshot.

She had uttered a shriek when she had jumped back – Tally had too – and she realised quickly that it wasn't a gun that had been fired, but it was Fred and George Weasley, who had apparated directly next to Ron.

"What the hell?" Amara said, still recovering from the shock. "I'm fifty years too young for a heart attack, I'll have you know!"

"Sorry love," said George, grinning at her. Fred was mimicking him. "Gotta get used to it."

"You passed your test?" said Amara, referring to the Apparition test that they had done that year.

"With distinction," said Fred proudly, bounding forwards with George and giving Amara a death-squeeze of a hug, because there were two people at once.

"Yeah, well, little warning would be nice," Amara said grumpily. "I have just arrived to this beautiful place, and don't intend to die from shock in it."

"Oh we quite agree," said George.

"It's a dashing place isn't it? Looked even more so when we arrived last night," said Fred, nodding.

"Did you see ze mounted 'ouse-elf 'eads on ze wall?" Tally said, who didn't realise the sarcasm.

"Miss Tally!" Fred cried, launching to the doorway and pulling her through. "Wonderful to see you again!"

"I didn't realise you'd get to come too!" Ron said, and he was flushing slightly.

"Yes, I am staying 'ere all summer," said Tally, smiling sweetly at him. Amara, Fred and George exchanged glances.

"We'd better go start cleaning our room," said Amara. "Coming Tally?"

"Yes," she said.

"We'll help!" said George. "We've already finished ours."

"You didn't say you'd help me!" Ron complained.

"Are you two lovely ladies who have just arrived or are you our brother?" said Fred as they started out the room. "Ask that to yourself first."

"We'll help you in a bit Ron!" Amara called as they walked to the other room. It had green walls and a chest of drawers, significantly smaller than Ron's, with an owl's perch conveniently in the corner, next to one of the two beds. The beds themselves needed a good clean, especially the bed covers.

Amara wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, Mum will clean those for you before you go to sleep," Fred said, poking one and watching the dust puff off it in a thick cloud. "Or you could sleep in the dust, seems pretty cosy."

"That's disgusting," said Amara. "Can we get rid of them first please?"

"At least the hangings aren't mouldy like Ginny's were," said George as he untucked the bed covers and grimacing as he got a face-full of black dust. "Man, this is revolting."

"Smells like Charlie's socks, doesn't it?" said Fred as he got the other corner. Tally and Amara (trying to cover their faces as they did the other bed) tried not to laugh.

"Don't make me laugh I'll inhale it," said Amara warningly.

"We would not want that now, would we Freddie?" said George. "Miss Amara here wouldn't like us anymore."

"Too right," muttered Amara as she threw the covers into the hallway as Fred did the same. Tally, who had been silent the whole way through broke in.

"Do you do zis all ze time?" she asked.

"Yeah they do," said Ginny, walking in. "You get used to it."

"Eenglish people," Tally muttered, shaking her head.

"We resent that," said Fred, grinning.

"Are neither of you helping Ron?" Ginny demanded. "He's all alone yet we have five people helping in here."

"It means we'll get it done faster," said George, beaming at his sister.

"I'll go 'elp 'im," said Tally. "I 'aven't got used to zis yet."

"Ron'll love that," Fred muttered under his breath as she left, so only Amara and George heard him.

Amara snorted and Ginny glanced at her.

"C'mon, we better hurry, who knows what they'll end up doing," she said.

"Don't ever get that image in my head, little sister," said George, closing his eyes tightly and shaking his head furiously.

Ginny rolled her eyes and said nothing.

Once their bedrooms had been cleaned, they all joined together in Ron's room.

"So," Tally said. "What eez ze 'Order of ze Phoenix'?"

"Organisation Dumbledore set up – this is the second one, apparently," said Ron. "it's a group against You-Know-Who."

"Who's in it?" Amara asked.

"Don't really know yet," said Ginny. "We only found our yesterday."

"Dumbledore told us," said Fred. "From what we heard, they're still getting people – but there's Lupin, the real Mad-Eye, Sirius and Dumbledore, and us, of course."

"You're in the Order?" Amara blinked. "Can't I –"

"We've tried," said George bitterly. "Even though we're of age," he indicated himself and Fred. "we have to have left school."

"Basically means we're not going to be told anything," said Ron.

"Even though we're seen more than our fair share?" asked Amara. "What about Harry?"

"Dumbledore's telling us tonight, once Hermione's arrived," said Ginny.

"Jesse!" said Tally. "'E's left school – 'e can join!"

"He's here too?" said Fred.

"He's with Hermione," said Amara. "But's he's living in London with his friends Adrien Page and Fleur Delacour –"

"Fleur Delacour?" George said. "Bill said something about her…"

"How she's got a desk job at Gringotts?" Amara grinned. "Oh, I know, she talks about him a lot –"

"As much fun as talking about our brother's love life is, can we get back on topic?" said Ron, his face rather red.

Amara snorted.

"Fine – Jesse could definitely ask," she said.

"Would he be staying here?" Ginny asked.

"No" said Amara. "I don't think so."

"Not with Hermione here – who knows what they might do?" George grinned wolfishly.

Tally said something darkly in French (Amara caught 'ne implique pas des choses comme ça couse merde sale!' which made her laugh).

"What was that?" said Fred pleasantly.

"Care to translate?" said George, beaming.

"She called you a dirty shit," said Amara helpfully.

"You know French?" George asked, in interest. Amara shrugged.

"Have you met anyone else in the Order?" Tally asked.

"No," said Ron. "Hopefully they'll come here soon – so they can look instead of Dad."

"Why can't he look?"

"Because of Dad's loyalty to Dumbledore," said Ginny. "Fudge is kicking everyone out who speaks the truth, so Dad has to be on his 'best behaviour'."

"I saw the stuff in the papers," said Amara.

"Awful, isn't it?" said Ginny. "Fudge's stupid."

"We saw Bill the other day," said Amara. "Is Charlie back?"

"No," said Fred. "He can't leave Romania."

"He told us about Percy too," said Amara.

"Dear old Percy," George's face didn't match his words. "Mum went to see him the other day – slammed the door in her face."

"Prick," Amara growled.

"It was going to happen eventually," said Fred dully. "He loves his job over his life."

"Who picked you up?" Ginny asked, diverting the conversation.

"Lupin," said Amara. "Hadn't seen him in a while."

"Neither had we," said Ron. "He's living here though."

"At Grimmauld Place?" said Tally, surprised.

"Sirius said he's not around much though," said Ron.

"How's Sirius?"

"Apart from the fact he's in his old house which he hated, yeah he's having the time of his life," said George.

"Better than him on the run –"

"- and he gets to annoy mum, so, all's well that ends well, eh?"

"He annoys Mrs Weasley?" Amara asked.

"Their personalities clash," said Ginny. "I don't think his bitterness helps –"

"Moving on," said Ron. "Apparently we'll meet others later… did you know Snape was in it?"

"Snape?" Amara said.

"And McGonagall," said Ginny. "Let's hope he won't come round here."

"I can't believe we're not allowed to know anything, but Snape gets too?"

"Dumbledore's weird trust for him again," sighed Ron. "Let's hope a potion explodes in his face one day, shall we?"