A/N I'm so sorry for the delay! I wanted to update ages ago but I've been so busy I hadn't even finished this chapter! :( But I've finished it now so yay. And thank you for all the reviews - to the new ones and the ones who've stuck by me for ages now :) I really hope I'll be able to get the next chapter out ASAP, but I have a busy weekend, Art exam Monday&Tuesday, Drama exam Thursday and other revision and things! So I'll try my best, and i hope you like this chapter - please R&R xxx
Chapter Four
Jesse's New Job
The next morning, half-way through breakfast, Jesse (who hadn't made an appearance the day before) came bursting in, looking uncharacteristically shaken.
"What on earth's the matter?" Hermione said, startled, as Jesse sat down next to Tally, holding a pale blue envelope, which had golden writing and the Beauxbatons' logo, in his hands.
"My HAT results," said Jesse breathlessly. "I couldn't open them – Fleur and Adrien had already left."
"Oh, pour l'amour de Merlin," said Tally, rolling her eyes at him.
"You don't understand – this could affect everything -"
"Open it zen! You'll find fantastique results and you'll get ze job and get promoted –"
"Tallulah!" Jesse snapped. "Don't say things like that!"
"Tallulah?" said Ginny in confusion.
"My full name is Tallulah," said Tally. "It's not just Tally – but nobody calls me Tallulah."
"Why not?" asked Hermione. "Tallulah's a nice name."
"I don't know," said Tally. "Papa started calling me Tally, so it stuck, I suppose."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked Amara.
Amara looked up from her breakfast.
"It never really came about –"
"Only my Professor's call me Tallulah," said Tally. She rolled her eyes.
"Don't do that," reprimanded Jesse. "Madame Maxime loves you, and your name."
"I know," Tally sighed. "Oh – give it here, I'll open it."
Amara watched as Tally opened the letter, scanned it through, rolled her eyes once more, and put the blue sheet of paper onto the table. Leaning in, the rest of them read (everyone except Amara, Tally and Jesse trying to translate it):
L'ACADÉMIE DE MAGIE DE BEAUXBÂTONS
Notes de passage: Parfait (P) Redoublent: Mauvais (M)
Exceptionnel (E) Terrible (T)
Acceptable (A) Non Classes (NC)
Jesse Emile Reynolds a atteint :
Arithmancie P
Ancienne traduction P
Anglais P
Charms E
Herboristerie E
Potions P
Transfiguration P
Fantastique ! Tout espoir pour l'avenir
Madame Maxime
~Directrice~
"From what I can tell, they're amazing results," said Ron as they finished reading them. "But then again, I don't know French."
"They're amazing," said Amara, re-reading them. "You got five perfects and two exceptionals!
"This means you can go for the interview!" Hermione said excitedly. "They'd be stupid not to let you in!"
"Thanks guys," Jesse beamed. "I'm going to go show Adrien – have a nice breakfast!"
He had disappeared before Mrs Weasley had re-entered with Fred and George.
She seemed to be talking to them sternly, but they didn't seem to be listening. Mrs Weasley huffed to herself before walking out the room, leaving Fred and George to get their own breakfast.
"We saw Jesse on the stairs," George yawned. "He looked happy about something."
"Got good grades in his HATs," said Ron. "He can go for his job interview now."
"Good for him," Fred nodded. "Would hate to work at the Ministry myself, but, then again, each to their own."
"Nicely said, dear brother," said George appreciatively. "Couldn't have said it better myself."
"Thank you," said Fred. "What are we doing today?"
"Cleaning," came Mrs Weasley's voice from the kitchen stairs. She had arrived back into the kitchen. "We can do the bedrooms now."
Everyone around the table supressed a groan.
"You want to help the Order, don't you?" said Mrs Weasley.
"But they don't have meetings in the bedrooms," said Fred.
"They don't have little sleepovers," added George. "Can you imagine Mad-Eye doing that?"
"Stop being silly," said Mrs Weasley as everyone snorted. "You need the bedrooms clean – the ones you're sleeping in can't be completely clean either."
They started in Hermione and Ginny's room (Mrs Weasley made the girls enter first to see if there was anything that they didn't want seen on the floor to be packed away) and by lunchtime they had progressed from Tally and Amara's (Fred and George were delighted to find Amara's underwear drawer, and Mrs Weasley forbade them from going in any other drawers from then on, because they had nearly succeeded in tying the underwear all around the room. Amara was more irritated and amused than embarrassed, but it couldn't be said for Ron, who's face went rather red when Fred and George nearly found Tally's) to Ron's room, which was extremely messy, eventhough it was only him in the room.
At lunchtime, some more Order members dropped by. Everyone got a massive shock when they went down the stairs, for the Order members rang the doorbell, which screeched throughout the house. Leading on from this, some rag-eaten curtains down the hallway flew open, revealing a life-size portrait of a woman dressed in black. It wasn't a normal painting either – Amara was so shocked when she saw it that she jumped back into Fred and George.
The woman had been painted so realistically that Amara thought it was real at first. She was screaming – a high, bloodcurdling scream that made Amara get goose pimples and take several steps backward. Her mouth was open as she screamed, and there was drool producing from her mouth. Her eyes, horrible and revolving in her sockets, and her skin was taunt with how much she was screaming. The portraits down the corridor started yelling too, and everyone in the hallway – including the Order members who had entered – covered their ears and started yelling to get the portrait to shut up. It seemed that this was a new occurrence, as nobody knew what to do, and Tally, Hermione and Ginny (as well as Amara) looked terrified.
"Who dares enters the House of my Fathers?" the woman screeched. "Look – mudbloods! Scum! Filthy half-breeds!"
Amara and the rest were looking, open-mouthed at the portrait.
Remus Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt went forward and tried pulling the curtains back over the portrait, to no avail. Mrs Weasley and Sirius came up from the kitchen as they heard the noise.
"Merlin," Sirius said as he saw the portrait. The woman turned to him, and her screams got, if possible, even louder.
"YOU!" she screamed so loudly it sounded as though she was being tortured. "HOW DARE YOU RETURN HERE! SHAME ON THE FAMILY – FILTHY BLOOD TRAITOR!"
"SHUT UP!" Sirius roared, making them all jump. He whipped his wand out and shot it at the portrait. Lupin and Kingsley managed to pull the curtains over and then there was silence.
It was a ringing silence as everyone established what on earth had just happened.
"Who – who in the name of Merlin was that?" George said, voicing everyone's question.
"My mother," said Sirius grimly, looking at the curtain. "Seems like she's made herself stay here even though she's dead. Want to help me get her off?" He asked some of the members.
Mrs Weasley ushered them down the stairs, all of them talking about the scene they had witnessed and how horrible Mrs Black was.
The Order members staying for lunch include Tonks, Jennifer Barnes and Barnaby O'Connor, an Irish fellow the same age as Tonks, who was very funny and had bright yellow hair. Tonks had electric blue hair in a long plait that day, and she told them how shocked Mad-Eye had looked when she had walked up to him, because it was so bright.
"He was very disapproving," giggled Tonks as they recovered from Mrs Black's appearance. "'Don't need any more attention!' he goes – ha! We get a lot of attention 'cos we're Aurors."
"Only you do," said Jennifer, who went by the name Jen. "Nobody else can turn their hair blue."
Sirius, Lupin and Sturgis Podmore came down shortly after, explaining that the portrait of Sirius' mum was unable to be removed, and they would have to try again another time.
"We'll just have to be quiet in the halls now," said Mrs Weasley. "And nobody should ring the doorbell."
"Good thinking," said Lupin. "That will wake her up every time."
They went on to clear out Fred and George's room (they insisted that they didn't need Mrs Weasley's help or supervision, as they didn't want her finding anything).
"What is this?" Amara questioned as she picked up a strange object.
"Ingredient," said Fred, walking over an examining it. "Forgot we had this – hey George, maybe we should test this thing out!"
"Why not?" said George. "Let's do it tonight before dinner."
"You two are going to injure yourselves doing this stuff," said Amara.
"We wouldn't be able to do anything if we didn't test them," said Fred.
"Yeah well, it's more dangerous in here than anywhere else in the house …"
"What are these?" said Tally, holding up a box full of pills. One end was orange and the other was purple.
"Puking Pastilles," said Fred enthusiastically. "The first thing we made for our skiving snackboxes."
"'Skiving Snackboxes'?" Ron asked.
"Things we're putting in the shop," said George vaguely. "These will get you out of lessons in no time."
"How?"
"You swallow one end, and you puke up – thus, getting sent to the Hospital Wing. Then you swallow the other and voila! You stop puking and get to stay in the Hospital Wing for the remainder of the lesson," Fred explained.
"Wow," said Amara, impressed, taking one as everyone else resumed their duties. "Do they work?" she asked as she examined it.
"Well, it's pretty hard to stop puking and eat the other half … so not yet."
"Have you got any others?" said Amara as Fred and George led her away from the tin of Puking Pastille samples.
"We've got ideas –" said Fred.
"Nosebleed Nougats –" said George.
"Haven't completed them yet –"
"Fainting Fancies –"
"They could work, but you faint in weird ways –"
"We'll sort them out soon though," said George firmly. "Then we can open the shop."
"Just like that?" said Amara, surprised. "But –"
Fred and George were saved being questioned because Hermione had found some dead animal stuffed in a drawer.
"Careful Hermione – we forgot we put that there," said Fred.
"Sorry," said George. "We'll put it somewhere else."
Amara rolled her eyes at the twins' antics and resumed cleaning.
-OOOOO-
The next few days went the same way – they went from Fred and George's room and the bathroom on that floor to all the other bedrooms in the house. They still had a few to do, but they had made significant progress. The bathrooms were worse, as there were many infestations and mould had spread a lot, meaning Amara, Fred and George spent one horrible afternoon wiping the mould off the ceiling. Mrs Weasley had delegated them that job because Fred and George had somehow made Amara get in with their scheme of who-could-get-the-butterbeer-corks-closest-to-Mrs-Black-without-waking-her and Mrs Weasley had felt that it was not a very good pastime.
"You can clean the toilet on the third-floor," she had told them, handing them mops. "Don't come down until you're done.
"D'you think this will work in the products?" said Fred now, grimacing as a bit of mould landed on his head. He picked it off gingerly, flicking it into the bucket.
"If you put them in there, I am never ever buying or eating one," said Amara, who was wiping the walls. "That's disgusting."
"It could," said George, seemingly ignoring Amara's remark.
"It's mould," said Amara in exasperation. "What's it going to do? Grow on people?"
"I suppose," said Fred, cocking his head to the side and looking at her in thought. "It would be cool though, if it grew on people."
Amara wrinkled her nose as the twins put mould in their pockets.
"I feel sorry for your mother for having to clean them," she said as she started wiping the other wall as she stood on the toilet. Fred and George, being tall enough, didn't have to.
"So do we," said George.
Three days after Jesse's HAT results had arrived, they were in Ron's room lounging around, having a rare break from work.
"I got the job!" Jesse's ecstatic voice came from the hallway. Everyone went out of the main room and looked over the bannisters. Jesse was standing with a girl his age, with chestnut hair that was at her shoulders and she was wearing normal, muggle clothing opposed to Jesse's formal robes. "Dad's going to be so proud!"
Amara, Tally and Hermione hurried down the stairs to greet him, with the Weasley's trailing behind.
"That's awesome Jesse!" Amara grinned. "When do you start?"
"Monday," said Jesse. "I need to go shopping for new robes - this is Amelia Stanwells, by the way, my new co-worker, she would have been in my year at Beauxbatons, but she went to Hogwarts."
"You wouldn't know me," the girl - Amelia Stanwells - said. "I was a Hufflepuff."
"She's in the Order too!" Jesse beamed. "I found her - Dumbledore came to our flat to talk to me and he allowed me to be in it. My job is to recruit people - and I found Amelia this morning."
"We are going to work together to find people," Amelia Stanwells grinned at them.
"Oh - I forgot to introduce you -" Jesse pointed at Tally first. "This is my little sister Tallulah -"
"Tally," Tally interjected.
" - this is Amara Matthews, my cousin, and that's Hermione Granger, my girlfriend."
Hermione didn't look that pleased with Amelia Stanwells being there.
"Pleasure to meet you all," smiled Amelia. "We'd better go - don't want to be in Diagon Alley too long!"
The next few days held no sign of Jesse. He was at work most of the day and seeking out members and staying at his flat in the night. Hermione seemed most upset about this, but it gave a chance for Amara and the rest to meet the new Order members which people recruited. They were all very nice, and it seemed Jesse was doing a good job at finding inconspicuous people. Everyone was very pleased, except Sirius, who was becoming steadily more bitter with each person arriving and leaving.
The thing Amara was finding most difficult was writing to Harry. She knew Hermione and Ron had written to him, but she had no idea what to write when they had been forbidden to tell him anything.
Dear Harry, she started one evening, resting on a bedpost as Ginny and Ron played chess, Hermione read and Tally was stitching something for Mrs Weasley.
I'm sorry I haven't written sooner, Hermione would say we've been busy, but it's because I haven't known what to write. We've had to swear we won't say anything because apparently it's easy for letters to go astray and someone else read them. That's stupid, in my opinion, but I've promised and I've had to keep it. It's been a bit of a bummer summer so far, really quite boring, aside from Fred and George's jokes. Jesse's moved here too (am I allowed to include this? I'll ask Hermione) and Tally's staying with us for the majority of the summer. Tessie's meant to be getting into Hogwarts this year, so fingers crossed she'll get her letter. I know this must be horrible for you, being kept in the dark at Privet Drive, but I assume we'll see you sometime soon.
Stay alert & stay safe
Love
Amara
She decided to use Archimedes straight away because she hadn't given him a job for a while. He seemed more than happy to take the letter, and whooshed off straight away. Amara knew she wouldn't see him for another couple of days, because he liked to hunt for things.
Amara and the rest of them at Grimmuald Place soon got very bored of the constant cleaning that they had to do. Even the knowledge of knowing a little about what was going on soon wore off as they kept using the Extendable Ears, as they kept saying the same things they already knew. Mrs Weasley was getting suspicious about what they were up to during the evenings when there were meetings, and was now prone to be standing by the door for a while before returning to them. So now they had to be extra careful when the meetings were held.
"This is rubbish," said Ron one evening, a week after Amara and Tally arrived at Grimmauld Place. "What are we supposed to do except clean all summer? And Harry's not even here!"
"It's ridiculous," Amara nodded , moving a pawn, which was immediately squashed by Ron's bishop. She slammed her hand down as the pawn hobbled off. "Stupid pawn."
"And Jesse was recruited - he could have told us everything - but instead they put him in a job that makes him never around!" Hermione chipped in, looking annoyed. She had been looking forwards to spending time with Jesse, Amara knew, and she wasn't impressed that she had to write to him all the time again.
"When we get to Hogwarts we'll be able to see him in Hogsmeade," said Amara. "That'll be cool."
"I suppose," said Hermione. "I hope Harry gets here soon."
"So do I," said Amara. "He must be so annoyed at the moment. I don't even know what to write to him."
"And that can't be helping, us not telling him anything," said Hermione. "It must be really irritating for him."
"Checkmate," said Ron and Amara whipped back to the bored.
"You cheated!" she accused him, frowning at his smug face.
"Nope," said Ron idly.
"See, this is why I never play chess with you," said Amara. "But somehow you get me to do it."
"It's a Weasley thing," said Ron. "Fred and George manage it too."
"It's true," said Hermione. "You always do what they say."
"I do not!" Amara said, but she knew she was wrong. She wasn't going to say that, though.
Hermione and Ron just grinned at her. Amara pouted and crossed her arms.
-OOOOO-
They did not see Jesse for a good few days after he had arrived with Amelia Stanwells. When he did return, he came for dinner with a very baffled looking Adrien Page.
"Amara!" Adrien said, very surprised. "Zis iz where 'ou are – and Tally! You all disappeared!"
"Yeah, sorry about that," said Amara apologetically. "I'm guessing Jesse told you?"
"Yes, I am now a member, I zink," said Adrien, looking round. "Where iz zis place? Adeline would 'ave a fit if she saw eet."
"She would," said Tally, popping up next to them and taking a seat next to Adrien. Jennifer Barnes was on Adrien's other side, with Amara, Jesse and Hermione opposite them.
"Zis eez very cool though," said Adrien. "And Dumbledorrre said 'e eez 'appy to get foreign wizards into the alliance."
"Yeah, he's got Charlie Weasley in Romania," Amara nodded as dinner was served.
Adrien's appearance pleased everyone, as he was very charming and had funny stories about his work. The Weasley's, Hermione and the other Order members, who hadn't met him before, all liked him immediately too, and he informed them that when he was back in France, he would try and recruit his sister, who was still at school, but knew a lot of people.
"Fleur is enjoying her job a leetle too much," Adrien informed them. "She loves going and asked for extra time."
"Hmm, I wonder the reason for that," Amara said with a sly look at Bill. Bill glared at her slightly as everyone else looked at him too.
"Like to share with the group?" Fred said keenly.
"No," said Bill.
"C'mon Billy-Willy."
"Don't call me Billy-Willy," said Bill, glaring at the twins, who beamed at him. "She's just someone from work."
"Just someone from work?" repeated Fred. "Is that why you always do overtime now?"
A pink tinge was working up Bill's neck.
"Maybe," said Bill.
"Leave him alone," said Amara, rolling her eyes.
"He can't help who he likes," said Ginny. Recently, Ginny had confided in Hermione, Amara and Tally that she had started seeing someone named Michael Corner, who was in the year but in Ravenclaw. Amara was pleased for the girl, because she had had crush on Harry for many years and had just gotten over it. Ginny had told them not to tell Ron or any of her brothers as they would try and break them up. Amara couldn't really picture Michael Corner, as she only really knew his friends, Anthony Goldstien and Terry Boot (and Roger Malone, but she hadn't thought about him for a long time, apparently him and Sophie Roper were still going strong).
"Anyway," said Adrien. "Adeline wrote to me saying Noah's friend Jaques got a letter from Noah saying 'e was staying in America. Is zis true?"
"I told Mum and Dad," said Jesse, frowning. "Because he won't listen to me."
"What's he doing out there?" Bill asked.
"Working with magical creatures - mainly dangerous ones, especially dragons and things."
"Like Charlie in Romania," said Ginny. "So he's decided to just not go back to Beauxbatons?"
"He didn't really like it," said Jesse. "He never did anything except draw dragons and animals all the time - he got his LATs back this summer and somehow passed five of them. I don't know when he suddenly wanted to travel and examine magical creatures."
"He'll be OK," said Amara. "Uncle Louis will talk to him."
"I suppose," said Jesse grumpily.
"I don't see anything wrong with it," said Fred.
"Yeah because you already know what you want to do," said Amara.
"Can't argue with that," said George nodding. They all seemed glad that Mrs Weasley was preoccupied with talking to Emmeline Vance.
-OOOOO-
Out of all the members of the Order, it seemed Mrs Weasley did not take a liking to Mundungus Fletcher, who seemed to like to stay to dinner most of the time.
"Why's he in the Order anyways?" Amara asked one day to Sirius as they were cleaning one of the bedrooms.
"He's handy," said Sirius, flicking dust carelessly off an old book. "As he's a crook he finds inside information out easily – and he owes Dumbledore."
"Mrs Weasley doesn't like him," said Amara.
"Yeah, Molly's not keen on having a known criminal in the house," said Sirius. "She doesn't trust him."
"Does anyone?" Amara scoffed. "I mean, all he does is smoke at dinner."
Sirius shrugged and grinned, a flicker of his past-self appearing on his face. "Too right," he said. "And sleep, and hide stolen goods here. He seems very interested in the things in this house."
"He could at least help with this lot," said Ginny, motioning to the mound of books they were going through. "Can't we give them to Buckbeak to chew up?"
Buckbeak was in the master bedroom on the third floor. Amara had not visited him yet, as she didn't know what to expect, a hippogriff living in a bedroom.
"Even Buckbeak wouldn't touch these," said Sirius, throwing another book into the pile of 'trash books'.
The book pile slowly got bigger as the day progressed. Not many were passed into the 'keep' pile, as Sirius seemed keen to get rid of them, and most of the books were full of Dark Magic anyway.
Amara found many interesting (not in a good way) books as she searched through. She found Why Muggles and Mudbloods are below Us and Pureblood: How to check you're not being lied to, in the piles which she flicked through. All of the ideas were absurd and Sirius threw them in the pile of trash books immediately.