Author's Note: Thank you to XAlstroemeriaX for your review of the last chapter! I'm so happy you found your way to Part 2! I really hope you all like this chapter!

Chapter Three: The Order of the Phoenix

Mairead awkwardly stood at the gates to Hogwarts castle, twisting her hands nervously and looking around. Dumbledore had told her to wait here when she arrived, but she felt horribly exposed. She had been extremely jumpy ever since Dumbledore had told her of You-Know-Who's return. She felt as though Death Eaters were lurking around every corner. She had even finally agreed to start training with firearms at the Combat Arts Academy, something Coach Omer had been trying to talk her into for ages now.

"Mairead."

Mairead let out a shrill cry and whirled around, hands flying up to protect her face as she searched for the source of the noise.

Professor McGonagall held her hands up in an apologetic gesture. "I'm sorry for startling you," the older witch said. "You're to follow me."

Mairead apologized and lowered her hands, then set off alongside Professor McGonagall. It quickly became apparent that they were heading to Hagrid's cabin. Mairead wondered sullenly why Dumbledore hadn't just told her to meet him there.

"The Headmaster thought it would be best to set the meeting location at the last minute," said Professor McGonagall, as though she had read Mairead's mind. "We don't yet have a headquarters set up, and holding meetings in people's homes or places of work is risky."

"Oh, okay," said Mairead softly, standing back and waiting for McGonagall to enter the cabin first.

Mairead did her best not to gawp when she walked in. She had always been curious about the Groundskeeper's dwelling, but had never been invited inside before. She got the impression that she had shrunk down to a fraction of her regular size. Everything around her was proportionate; it was just about three and a half times the size she was used to. There were bowls the size of cauldrons and teacups the size of buckets on the shelves. The bed looked massive and had an equally enormous quilt and pillow on it. Mairead was already shorter than average, and looking at the chairs at the table she felt certain that, not only would her feet not touch the ground if she were to sit in one, but her legs might just stick straight out in front of her.

There was already a crowd of people inside the cabin. They were clustered around in a group talking, and they all seemed to know one another. Mairead immediately saw Hagrid, standing taller than anyone else. Conversely, she was also able to pick out Professor Flitwick, easily the shortest member of the group. Professor Sprout was standing at the edge of the crowd, and she looked over and offered her a smile, waving her over. Mairead bashfully returned her former Head of House's wave, but she was too shy to join in the conversation with so many people she did not know. She appeared to be the only student present. Or at least, the most recent graduate by far.

Hugging her arms around herself, she turned slowly on the spot, wishing she knew what to do with herself. She heard a snuffling sound and looked around to see Fang, Hagrid's gigantic, black boarhound, sniffing at her shoes. He lifted his head and regarded her soulfully. Mairead raised a hand and began stroking Fang's shiny coat. Fang, who recognized when he had a good thing going, turned sideways so that Mairead could scratch his back and rump with one hand and stroke his ears with the other.

Mairead was immensely grateful not to feel so alone anymore, and she murmured soft, sweet things to Fang as she pet him, smiling at the long, glistening tendrils of drool that were dangling from Fang's jowls and slowly extending their way towards the floor. The massive dog began leaning his side against her and she stumbled backwards under his weight, catching herself and bracing her back against a wall of the cabin for support. She smiled lovingly down at the dog, content to stay here for the entirety of the meeting. She was so happily distracted by Hagrid's pet that she didn't notice a man break away from the crowd and stroll over to her.

"Well, of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world."

All of Mairead's senses began to quiver as she looked up into a pair of twinkling dark grey eyes.

She stared, utterly stunned, at the man smiling softly at her.

"Oh, my God," she breathed, one hand fluttering to her mouth.

The man's smile widened. "Hello, May."

"Oh, my God!" she repeated, closing the gap between them and throwing her arms around the man she had thought of every day, whom she had never stopped loving, whose face she had searched for in every crowd. Every crowd, that is, except this one.

Professor Lupin staggered back on one foot, caught off guard by her enthusiasm, but returned the hug nevertheless. Mairead heard him chuckle quietly and disguised the shiver that went through her by tightening her arms around him.

She felt his arms wrap around her, holding her to his chest, and she couldn't help but sag slightly at the relief she felt at finally being back where she wanted always to be.

They broke apart, but Professor Lupin kept a hand on her shoulder as his eyes searched hers in the way they always did. Mairead noticed a faint line form between his eyebrows as he asked in a serious voice, "How are you doing?"

She opened her mouth to respond but found that she couldn't answer. Since her breakdown in the churchyard she was constantly teetering on the edge of losing control of herself, and she didn't want to begin crying hysterically in front of all of these strange people.

She was saved from replying, though, by Lupin, who shook his head and said, "Forgive me. That was a stupid question."

She smiled gratefully at him and asked, "How are you?"

"I'm..." Lupin trailed off. Mairead watched as half a dozen emotions flickered through his eyes, quick as blinking. Then he pushed them away and smiled at her. "I'm happy to see you."

Mairead hoped she didn't look too much like a besotted puppy as she gazed devotedly up at him. "I'm happy to see you, too," she murmured.

Lupin looked over his shoulder at the crowd of people, then back at Mairead.

"You don't know anybody here, do you?" he asked shrewdly. Mairead shook her head. "Would you like me to introduce you?"

"Erm," said Mairead, painfully aware of how shy and self-conscious she was feeling. "I don't want to trouble anybody."

Lupin nodded, smiling again. "Why don't you just stick by my side, then?" he suggested. "These things are always slightly less painful when you know at least one person."

Mairead felt the clenching, vibrating anxiety at the back of her neck lessen. She had forgotten just how perceptive Lupin was, how adroit he was at sensing exactly what was bothering her and somehow knowing just what she needed.

"Do you mind?" she asked in a tiny voice. "I don't want to be a pain."

"Nonsense," he said briskly. "You're never a pain." He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Unless, of course, you'd rather stay here and be covered in slobber?"

He nodded at Fang, who was leaning his head against Mairead's belly and had left a dark, wet spot on her blouse. She let out a tiny giggle. Bowing her head only a little, for the dog was tall enough that she barely had to stoop, Mairead dropped a kiss onto the top of Fang's head and said, "I'll pet you more later."

Lupin smiled down at her and turned towards the group. Mairead's stomach felt like it was filled with live worms as she considered the crowd of people. She wanted to climb under Hagrid's enormous kitchen table and hide. But then Lupin laid his hand on her back just between her shoulder blades to guide her forward, and nothing had ever felt this nice and she knew that she would go anywhere he asked as long as he was by her side and touching her like that.

The people nearest to the edge parted to let them join. There were several conversations going on at the same time, and Mairead had trouble distinguishing one from another.

"That's Dedalus Diggle," Lupin muttered in her ear, pointing at a man with a shining, open face and a top hat on his head. "And that is Sturgis Podmore," he continued. Mairead followed his gaze towards a man who looked to be a little older than Lupin, with yellow hair and a strong jawline. "That over there is Elphias Doge," he went on, pointing out a grey-haired wizard who seemed to be talking about the Wizengamot. "And do you know Alastor Moody?"

Mairead cringed backwards as Moody turned around and caught sight of her.

"'Course she knows me," said Moody in his gruff voice. Both his regular, dark eye and his bright blue eye were fixed on her, the magical eye appearing to vibrate subtly as it took in her appearance. "The last time I saw you, you were yea high and showing fully grown Aurors what bravery looks like."

Mairead frowned, perplexed. "But..." she said softly, "I just saw you last week, sir. Outside of your office?"

Moody exchanged a look with Lupin, then said, "Nope, wasn't me."

Mairead's frown deepened. "I'm sure it was you, Professor Moody," she said in polite confusion. "You asked me to come to your office and catch up, but I -"

"As I say, that wasn't me," interrupted Moody. "I spent all of the past year being held prisoner in a storage trunk while a walking piece of trash impersonated me using Polyjuice Potion. Reckon you ought to remember the scum yourself, Mairead - Barty Crouch, Junior?"

Mairead's mouth fell open in surprise and horror. She knew Barty Crouch, Junior all too well. He had been a frequent guest at her parents' house while her father was teaching him mastery of the Unforgivable Curses. Horrible memories flashed across Mairead's vision. She had most often been the subject upon whom Barty had practiced the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses. The knowledge that he had been standing right in front of her without her knowing made her want to scream in terror.

Moody scoffed darkly. "Asked you to come 'catch up.' Like as not he'dve killed you dead before the door clicked shut behind you and stuffed your corpse into the trunk right next to me."

Mairead blinked a few times. "Oh, okay," she said faintly. "Cool."

Lupin, who had been watching this exchange with a small frown, said, "Right, well, I'm just showing Mairead around, Alastor."

"Oh, sure," said Moody breezily. "Good to see you, O'Keefe. You always had a good head on your shoulders. Glad to see it's still attached."

Before Mairead could marshal the mental resources to come up with a response to that, Lupin was firmly steering her away from the retired Auror.

"Sorry about that," Lupin leaned down and muttered. "He's kind of..."

"Yeah, he sure is, at that," said Mairead. The two looked at each other for a moment, then shared a smile and a quiet laugh before moving on.

"Arthur," Lupin said, stopping just behind a tall man with thinning red hair. "Have you and Molly met Mairead?"

Arthur turned and smiled benignly at her. "No, I'm afraid I don't think we have," he said. "Molly, dear? Do we know Mairead, here?"

A short woman, also with red hair, looked around and Mairead saw that it was the woman who had visited Harry Potter during the Tournament. Recognition lit on the witch's face as well.

"You were with Cedric's family at the Third Task, weren't you, dear?" she asked, her voice warm and sympathetic.

Mairead held her breath and nodded, determined not to cry. This determination was severely challenged, however, when the woman immediately tugged Mairead away from Lupin and pulled her into a warm embrace.

"I am so very sorry for your terrible loss, sweetheart," she murmured in her ear.

Mairead took a deep breath and let it out slowly through pursed lips. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, she repeated in her head like a mantra.

The woman released her but put both hands on her shoulders and smiled in a nurturing way. "Now, what did you say your name was, dear?"

"Mairead... O'Keefe," she admitted to her last name reluctantly.

As expected, Mairead saw alarm flash across the woman's eyes. Looking over, Mairead could see that Arthur looked trepidatious, as well. To Mairead's surprise, though, the woman's expression quickly cleared and she smiled genuinely at Mairead.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mairead," she said kindly. "My name is Molly and this is my husband, Arthur. And this is our son, Bill."

The woman reached over and placed a hand on the arm of a tall, very handsome man whose long, red hair was tied back in a ponytail, revealing what looked like a sharp tooth dangling from his ear. When he turned and smiled at her, Mairead recognized him as Harry's other visitor.

"Hey," he said, sticking out a hand for Mairead to shake. "Bill Weasley. Nice to meet you."

Mairead blinked. "Oh, you're the Weasleys!" she said. "I know some of your kids." Molly beamed. It was very evident that she was extremely proud of her children. "Ron was always in the library when I worked there," Mairead went on, but then Bill snorted.

"Ron?" he said with a grin. "Not likely."

"No, he was," Mairead insisted. "He and his friends were working to help Hagrid build a defense for his hippogriff."

"Was he really?" said Molly. Though she was even shorter than Mairead, Molly seemed to grow several inches taller with pride.

Mairead smiled at Mrs. Weasley. Not for the first time, she wondered what it would be like to have a mother to love her and be proud of her. She wanted to continue to make Molly happy, so she added, "And I was in the same year as your other son, Percy."

Like candles snuffing out, the smiles vanished from Molly, Arthur, and Bill's faces. Arthur made a vague excuse, then turned and began speaking to a tall, handsome woman wearing a shawl, while Molly's mouth trembled and her breath hitched. Mairead looked to Bill, eyes wide with remorse, but Bill shook his head and muttered, "Don't worry about it," and put an arm around his mother's shoulders.

"Let's keep moving," said Lupin, putting his hand on her back again and walking further into the crowd.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Mairead turned to Lupin and anxiously said, "What happened to Percy?"

Lupin's mouth thinned. "He has decided to side with the Ministry," he said grimly. At Mairead's puzzled expression, he went on. "The Minister of Magic's official stance is that Dumbledore and Harry are lying about the return of Voldemort. Percy has had a falling out with his family as a result. He's moved out and they're not speaking at present."

Mairead felt horrible. "Oh, no, I've got to go apologize," she said, wringing her hands in distress. "I didn't mean to -"

"Who's your friend, Moony?"

A male voice cut Mairead off and she saw Lupin's gaze shift to someone behind her. Mairead could immediately tell from the way Lupin's expression grew happier and warmer that this was someone he liked a great deal, and so she turned curiously to greet the new person.

As soon as she locked eyes on the man standing behind her, Mairead screamed and stumbled backwards, reaching for her wand. Lupin caught her arm and gently but firmly stopped her from raising her wand.

"It's all right," he murmured soothingly. "He's not a threat."

Mairead stared at Lupin, flabbergasted. Then, she looked over and gaped at the man whom she had last seen brandishing a long, lethal knife with which he had just stabbed her.

Sirius Black grinned and winked roguishly at her, then turned to Lupin and said, "I told you we should've made this a drinking game."

"You'd be on the floor by now," said Lupin dryly. He turned to Mairead and quietly said, "I'm going to let go of your arm now. You don't have to be afraid."

He released Mairead and she looked back and forth between the two men, mouth still hanging open. "Erm, Professor Lupin," she said shakily. "Er, with all due respect, sir, what the fuck?"

Black let out a single bark of laughter while Professor Lupin chuckled and smiled apologetically.

"Sirius is innocent," said Lupin. "He was set up."

Mairead eyed Lupin skeptically. "He blew a dozen people sky-high in front of a street full of witnesses," she reminded him.

A muscle jumped in Lupin's throat. "Not... exactly," he said slowly. "He was present when the street blew up, but the scene was all part of Pettigrew's plan to frame him."

Mairead felt as though her joints had turned to lead at the name. "Pettigrew?" she repeated in a low voice. "Peter Pettigrew?"

Black looked at her sharply. "Have you heard of him?" he asked, frowning.

"He's the one who murdered Cedric," she said, her voice pulsating with hatred.

Black's upper lip curled, and Mairead was forcibly reminded of a dog baring his teeth. "Yeah, he's a real peach," he snarled.

"So... you didn't... like, murder anyone?" she asked, frowning.

"Not yet," growled Black. "But the minute I track that rat down I intend to become a murderer just as fast as I can manage."

"I'll help," said Mairead coldly.

Black considered her for a moment. "You look awfully familiar," he said, abruptly changing the subject. "It's the damnedest thing, because I don't see how we could have met."

"Ah, yes, well she should look familiar to you, Sirius," said Lupin pleasantly. Mairead shot a look at him at the edge she heard hiding beneath the friendly tone. "Seeing as you stabbed her nearly to death a year and a half ago."

Black's eyebrows went up and his mouth opened in surprise. "That was you?" he asked. He sounded almost impressed. Mairead nodded.

"That was one of the bravest things I've ever seen," said Black, shaking his head. Addressing Lupin, he added, "She should've been in Gryffindor with guts like that."

"I know," agreed Lupin.

Mairead's mouth tightened, annoyed at the implied slight against her House.

"Sorry about that," said Black, and he did actually look guilty. "That was a total accident."

"Do you know, it seemed like it was an accident," said Mairead, recalling the look of stunned horror on Black's face when he had realized where his knife had ended up.

"Yeah, definitely not intentional," nodded Black. "I honestly thought you'd turn tail and run. Never dreamed you'd go for a face-off."

Mairead found herself grinning at Black. "No blood, no foul," she said with a shrug.

"There was actually quite a lot of blood," said Lupin, raising both eyebrows. "Very nearly died from it, as I recall."

"The way you destroyed your wand like that - fuck!" chuckled Black, ignoring Lupin. "That was seriously hard nut."

"I never could get all the blood out of the shirt I was wearing that night," Lupin continued in a conversational tone. "Had to throw it away."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" said Mairead, turning to him anxiously. She would never want to insult him by saying so, but she could only imagine from the usual state of his clothing that a new shirt was not in his budget.

"You are not the person to whom I'll be sending the bill, Mairead."

Black appeared to be completely unfazed by Lupin's resentment. "You've got bollocks the size of cantaloupes, d'you know that?" Black asked her, grinning.

Mairead made a show of glancing down at herself. "Shoot, I thought these trousers hid them; are they showing?" she asked, feigning anxiety.

Black threw his head back and let out a loud bark of a laugh. "I like you," he said, sticking out his hand. "What's your name?"

Mairead smiled. She decided she liked him, too. "Mairead," she said, shaking his proffered hand.

"Mairead what?" asked Black.

Mairead hesitated. Normally she avoided telling people her last name whenever she possibly could, but then, the Weasleys had taken it in stride, and Black was friends with Lupin and he seemed really cool, so she said, "O'Keefe" at the same time she heard Professor Lupin murmur, "Sirius," in a low warning voice.

"What?!"

Black yanked his hand back. "O'Keefe?" he demanded, glaring at Lupin. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Mairead's eyes narrowed. Anger had been astonishingly close to the surface ever since Cedric had been killed and now she felt it flare and boil over all at once. "Are you fucking kidding me?" she shot back. "You just fell all over yourself about how I should've been in your precious house - which, by the way, is highly overrated - and now you're all offended because of my last name? When exactly are my choices going to be allowed to speak for themselves? When are my actions going to speak louder than those of my father? You, of all people, should know better than to jump to conclusions, Mr. Azkaban breakout - stabby - convict... man." She cringed internally. Though anger was quick to rise, eloquence sadly did not accompany it in equal measure.

Black stared at her for a moment before addressing Lupin. "She started out strong and then just..." he made a swooping gesture with his hand to indicate a sharp decline.

"Fuck you," spat Mairead.

"Fuck you!" Black shot back. "Your dad killed friends of mine."

"Yeah? Well, you killed actually me and you don't see me holding it against you now, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" Black demanded.

"It's true," Professor Lupin confirmed. "Her heart stopped, so technically you did kill her. Twice, in fact."

The wind seemed to have been slightly taken out of Black's sails. "Well... that was unintentional."

"As opposed to my being born to my parents, which, as we all know, is completely goddamn intentional?" Mairead countered.

Black glared at her, suspicion and hatred seething in his dark blue eyes.

"Sirius."

Black looked over at Lupin at the sound of his name. Apparently that was all that needed to be said, because after a moment Black shrugged and his face relaxed.

"I knew she wasn't dead," he said, sounding a bit sulky.

Lupin raised an eyebrow. "You ruptured her spleen and left her bleeding out on the floor," he said coolly. "How exactly were you able to surmise her wellbeing?"

"I sent Crookshanks to check on her," said Black. "He told me she made it through all right."

Lupin let out an astonished laugh. "Hermione's cat?" he asked.

"Yep."

The two men shared a laugh. Mairead watched their interaction, feeling puzzled. Though she had no idea how, it was clear that Lupin had somehow vouched for her and managed to defuse Black's wrath.

Well, mostly.

Black turned back to Mairead and stared intensely at her. "I like you," he said in a low growl. "But be warned: I liked Peter too."

Mairead regarded him coolly. "If I ever do to you what Pettigrew did to me you can put me in the ground yourself, I'll help you dig."

Black snorted. "Sounds like a win-win to me."

"Grand," said Mairead acidly.

"Fine."

The two stared each other down, defiance in both their expressions. Lupin cleared his throat.

"Well, now that we're all friends here," he said pointedly. "Sirius, I was just introducing Mairead around..."

"No more time," Black said, nodding over Mairead's shoulder. "Dumbledore just got here."

Lupin and Mairead turned and followed Black's gaze to the door to Hagrid's cabin. Mairead could see a tall head of silvery hair slipping into the cabin and closing the door behind him. Though Dumbledore did nothing to announce his presence, the room quickly quieted except for the sound of people shuffling to clear a space for him to speak.

"Good evening," said Dumbledore, looking around at the crowd. "Thank you all for joining me here. I would like to keep tonight's meeting brief, in the interest of not drawing any unwanted attention to ourselves."

Mairead could feel a palpable sense of tense anticipation in the air. She found herself holding her breath as she watched the Headmaster's grave expression.

"As you all know by now, Lord Voldemort has returned." Many people in the crowd winced or flinched at Dumbledore's use of the name. Mairead herself felt a violent shudder wrack her frame. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder and looked up at Lupin, who was still standing next to her. He hadn't batted an eye at the name, but he had put an arm around her shoulders without taking his eyes off Dumbledore, who continued to speak. "He was returned to his body on the twenty-fourth of June and within fifteen minutes, nearly a dozen Death Eaters returned to his side. He tortured and nearly killed Harry Potter, and he is responsible for the death of a very fine young man named Cedric Diggory."

Mairead felt her eyes burning and thanked Merlin no one was looking at her. Lupin's fingers twitched on her shoulder as though he nearly pulled her closer, but he somehow seemed to know that offering her comfort right now would tear her apart and held still.

"There is much work to be done," Dumbledore went on. "But I regret very much to say that we must conduct this work without the assistance of the Ministry of Magic."

"Fucking bureaucratic quill-pushers," Mairead heard Black say under his breath. He was not the only one muttering darkly.

Dumbledore held up a hand for silence and the whispers immediately ceased. "As I have said before, Fudge's stance is not helpful, but neither is it unexpected. Regardless, it does complicate our work with the added necessity of being conducted in the utmost secrecy. And that is the point that I wish to discuss tonight. There is much that we can still do while we are awaiting the acknowledgment of the Ministry, but the very first order of business we must see to is finding and securing a location for headquarters."

"This cabin'll always be open ter all o' you, Headmaster," Hagrid spoke up.

Dumbledore nodded his head towards Hagrid. "I appreciate your hospitality, Rubeus," he said. "But I am afraid that we cannot have the headquarters here at Hogwarts. It cannot appear to Fudge as though I am working against the Ministry. Additionally, there are several students here at Hogwarts whose parents have realigned themselves with Voldemort. If one of them were to see evidence of our meetings and write to their parents, we would be inviting Voldemort to bring the war to Hogwarts, and I cannot allow our children to be endangered any more than they already will be."

"The Burrow is in the countryside," said Arthur Weasley. "No one would see, and there is plenty of room there."

"You looking to lose your job, Arthur?" Mairead heard Moody's voice from within the crowd. "What do you think'll happen if we're in the middle of an Order meeting and one of your work colleagues decides to Floo you?"

Arthur looked crestfallen. "Oh, I... I suppose I hadn't thought of that..." he said quietly.

"I thank you, Arthur and Molly, for generously offering to open up your home to us at great personal risk to yourselves," said Dumbledore, nodding graciously at Arthur. "But Alastor is right. I am afraid we cannot have headquarters be the residence of any Ministry of Magic employees. Likewise, we cannot have headquarters in the homes of any Hogwarts staff."

Mairead listened as more ideas were thrown around. Someone suggested meeting in a room at the Hog's Head, and Mairead winced as she remembered the bed bugs she had had to deal with after spending only one night there. Someone else suggested that headquarters change locations every time. Mairead wished she could contribute to the discussion in some way. She very briefly flirted with the notion of offering up the homes she sat in as headquarters, but she instantly rejected the idea herself. You-Know-Who and his followers loved nothing more than torturing and killing Muggles. Inviting the Order to meet in Muggle residences throughout London was simply inviting disaster.

Finally, after another few fruitless suggestions, Black said, "Wait - what about my house?"

Dumbledore looked over the heads of the other people to look at Black.

"Grimmauld Place - it's right in London," continued Black. "Plenty of bedrooms for anyone who wants to stay there."

"Do you own it outright, Sirius?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yep," confirmed Black. "I'm the eldest son, and my parents are long dead, so it would've fallen to me sometime when I was in Azkaban."

"Have you been there recently?" came McGonagall's voice.

"Not in about twenty years," said Black, sounding bitter. "But I remember where it is and how to get inside if that's what you're wondering."

"Will you and Remus kindly visit and evaluate its suitability, Sirius?" asked Dumbledore. "Report back to me and we will make a decision."

Black nodded and looked over Mairead's head at Lupin. "Head there after this?" he asked in a low voice. Lupin nodded once.

"Excellent," said Dumbledore. "Thank you, Sirius. I think we should conclude shortly. The rest of you will be contacted when a decision has been reached about Grimmauld Place. In the meantime, if any of you knows of anyone whom you are positive would be discreet and amenable to joining the Order, could you please speak to me about them?"

"I still know some folks in the Auror office I could get in touch with," said Moody.

Dumbledore inclined his head. "Please only speak to those of whom you are absolutely certain. That goes for all of you," Dumbledore added. "Until Voldemort comes out into the open the Ministry will continue to deny his return, and will make enemies of anyone who claims otherwise. Those of you who have been in the Order before know the risks. Those of you who are new: I beg of you to tread carefully. That is all."


Fifteen minutes after the meeting let out, Remus apparated to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. He had never been to Grimmauld Place before, and Sirius had said it was just a short walk to King's Cross, and so they had agreed to meet here. Sirius appeared a moment later with a quiet pop and the two set off.

They passed the thirty minute walk mostly in silence, hands resting on their wands and watchful of the night around them. When they reached Grimmauld Place, Remus's sensitive nose was assaulted by the smell of refuse rotting in the summer heat. They walked down a row of run-down townhouses until they reached number twelve.

"After you," muttered Remus.

Sirius had a look of utmost distaste on his face as he scaled the stone steps to the peeling black door. Remus turned his back on Sirius to scan the street for passersby while behind him, Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped the door. Remus could hear the grinding and clicking sounds of the tumblers unlocking. Sirius stepped in through the doorway and motioned for Remus to follow him.

Once inside, Sirius and Remus, no longer keeping their voices down, both said, "Lumos!"

That was when all hell broke loose.

Remus's first thought was that they had been ambushed. Shouts and screams shattered the silence all around them. Most of the sound was wordless wailing, but a screeching voice cut through the sound.

"Traitorous scum! How dare you return to the ancestral home of my forefathers and befoul it with your stinking presence?! FILTH! Anguish of my ancestors!"

Remus and Sirius immediately went back-to-back, looking around for their assailants. It took Remus a moment to locate the source of the noise: it was coming from the portraits that lined the walls. All of the subjects were howling and flailing in their frames. He shared a dubious look with Sirius before they broke apart.

"Immobulus!" Remus cried, pointing his wand at one painting while next to him Sirius shouted, "Stupefy!"

Both spells seemed to work, and in mere seconds the only portrait left moving was the one that was screaming slurs and obscenities at them.

The woman in the portrait was ancient and her face was sunken. The black cap on her head wobbled as she tossed herself about in her seat, tearing and clawing at the canvas in front of her.

Sirius pointed his wand at the portrait and tried to Stun it, but it did not work. Remus attempted the Freezing Charm, also without effect. Exchanging a glance with Sirius, Remus tried to think over the cacophony coming from the old woman. He and Sirius spotted the floor-length curtains on either side of the portrait at the same time. Each took a curtain and tugged at them. The curtains were heavy, but more than that they seemed to resist their efforts to move them. Finally, after a mighty heave they managed to close the curtains.

Silence fell.

"Jesus Christ, Almighty," whispered Sirius, passing a hand over his face.

Remus glanced at the curtains and then back at Sirius. "That was -?"

"Yeah."

Remus nodded, watching Sirius closely. Sirius seemed almost embarrassed. A glance around the corridor told Remus why. In addition to the portraits, the walls were also lined with what appeared to be the heads of house-elves. There was also an extremely unbecoming umbrella stand that seemed to be some sort of hollowed-out leg. Sirius was taking this all in with a look of extreme disgust.

"Let's just..." Sirius whispered, indicating with his head that they should continue further into the house.

They explored the house side-by-side, not wanting to split up in case something more nefarious than a bunch of mad portraits lay in hiding. They started at the bottom and worked their way up. The house was absolutely filthy. Every surface appeared to be covered in grimy dust, and Remus could hear things skittering away from their wandlight as they went.

In the basement they discovered what appeared to be some sort of nest near the boiler. Remus looked questioningly at Sirius as he delicately picked through the moldy, moth-eaten clothing that had been crumpled there with an indentation in the middle.

"These are my parents' clothes," said Sirius quietly, frowning. "How did they get down here?"

Other than a truly impressive array of household pests, they didn't discover anything alive in the house until they reached the master bedroom. As they approached the door, Remus grabbed Sirius by the shoulder. He could hear scuffling coming from inside the room. Silently, Remus held up his wand, and Sirius, picking up on the warning, raised his, too. Remus reached for the doorknob, turned it silently in his hand, and looked over at Sirius, who held up three fingers.

"Three," Sirius mouthed, "two, one -"

Remus threw open the door and they stepped in smoothly, one after the other. Their wandlight bounced off a filthy mirror and lent more light to the room. The scuffling continued as though they were not there.

Sirius looked at Remus, who pointed at the closet door. Noiselessly, they crept to the door and stood on either side of it.

Sirius wrenched the door open. Keeping their bodies out of the doorway, they twisted and each chanced a quick glance into the closet. There was nothing at eye level, but Remus's eye caught movement near his knees. Training his wand lower, his eyebrows shot up at the sight of an ancient, decrepit-looking house-elf. Sirius had spotted the elf, too.

"Kreacher?" he asked incredulously.

The elf, who had a long nose and an impressive amount of white hair sprouting out of his bat-like ears, looked up from whatever he was doing.

"Master Sirius," the elf croaked in a low, creaky voice. "You have returned home at last." He then began to mutter, "Ungrateful blood-traitor whelp, destroying my Mistress's happiness in life, thinks he can crawl back into this house and slither onto the throne of this great household - hah!"

Remus looked at Sirius wordlessly. Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Say that to my face, why don't you?"

The elf looked up, a great look of surprised innocence on his face. "Say what, Master Sirius? You are most welcome home, sir, to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black." Then, without lowering his voice even a touch, the elf added derisively, "He brings another with him, Kreacher does not know who this is. Undoubtedly another traitorous mumpsimus looking to befoul my glorious Mistress's house."

Sirius scoffed. "He's cracked," he said dismissively.

He made to shut the door on the house-elf but Remus caught it. "Wait!" said Remus. Addressing the house-elf, he asked, "Does anyone live here with you, er..." he looked up at Sirius for the elf's name.

"Kreacher," supplied Sirius.

"Does anyone live here with you, Kreacher?" asked Remus.

The elf ignored Remus entirely and returned to his task, which appeared to be riffling lovingly through the robes hanging in the closet and taking long sniffs of them. Remus suddenly thought he knew whose nest they had stumbled upon in the basement.

"Answer him!" barked Sirius. When the house-elf did not respond, Sirius rolled his eyes. "My mother had all of her house-elves trained only to respond to a member of the family," he said, his lips curling. "Kreacher!" The elf jumped and turned around.

"Is Master still here?" Kreacher asked. "Leave Kreacher be - oh! What my poor Mistress would say if she saw Kreacher talking to her wastrel of a son..."

"Do you live here alone?" asked Sirius.

"Kreacher lives to serve the Most Upright House of Black."

Sirius closed his eyes as though praying for patience. When he opened them again, his voice quivered a bit as he struggled to contain his anger. "Does anyone else live in this house, Kreacher? Answer me."

The house-elf stooped and bowed. "Master Sirius is welcome to return to the house that has been empty since his poor Mistress died all alone, in agony over the betrayal and abandonment of her eldest son and the most grievous loss of her youngest and most favored son."

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, then Sirius said, "When was the last time someone has been in this house other than you, Kreacher?"

"It has been ten long years that Kreacher alone has shown his faithfulness and loyalty to maintaining the seat of this great line."

"The house has stood empty for ten years, is that what you're saying?" asked Sirius. "Except for you?" he added when Remus nudged him with an elbow.

The house-elf bowed once more. "Empty of noble persons, but never empty of noble spirit. Except for now that Mistress's ignoble son and his layabout crony have come to strip all that is right and good from this fortress of purity. Kreacher will -"

"Right! Good enough for me," said Sirius, and with that he closed the closet door in Kreacher's face.

Remus kept a wary eye on his friend as they finished surveying the house. Sirius's mood, which had been somewhat buoyant at the prospect of going on a scouting mission with Remus, had taken an unmistakably dark turn. When they had explored all the rooms and determined that the house was, in fact, unoccupied, Remus decided to broach the subject.

"Sirius, are you quite sure you want to offer this place up as headquarters?" he asked carefully. "It looks as though it needs an incredible amount of work, and you're clearly not happy to be back here."

"It's perfect," insisted Sirius stubbornly. "My father put any number of protective spells on this place. It's already Unplottable, it's big enough, it'll work."

Remus frowned and pursed his lips. "Yes, but -"

"You know, I've been thinking about that girl at the meeting tonight," Sirius interrupted, completely changing the subject. "The O'Keefe girl."

Remus sighed. He knew better than to push once Sirius had made a topic off-limits. James was the only one who had ever been able to get Sirius to talk about anything he didn't want to. Giving in, he asked, "What about her?"

"There's something about her that doesn't sit quite right with me," said Sirius, trailing his finger through a thick layer of dust on the railing and pulling a face. "About that night at Hogwarts."

"The night you attacked her?" asked Remus. Mairead might not hold it against Sirius, but Remus still remembered all too well how small and pale she had looked. How frightened he had been.

"I didn't - look, all I wanted was her wand, and if she'd just fucking given it to me I could've killed Peter and Voldemort wouldn't even be back right now, so don't go giving me any of your guilt-trip shit over what happened," snapped Sirius, leaving Remus to wonder whether Sirius's irritation was truly about that night or about this one.

Remus relented. "What about that night?" he asked.

"She already had her wand out before I even came 'round the corner," said Sirius thoughtfully. "And she had me cornered with it. She could've stunned me, or done a Full Body-Bind, or even a Jelly-Legs Curse, but she didn't. She didn't do anything. It just makes me wonder... just go with me here: if she thought I was a Death Eater, maybe she just... wanted me to escape. Otherwise why not do something about it? Unless she were secretly sympathetic to the cause?"

"Why not just give you her wand then, if she wanted you to succeed?" asked Remus. He was feeling defensive and had to take a moment to fight down his irritation so that Sirius wouldn't see it.

"Well, she clearly had a good thing going at Hogwarts," theorized Sirius. "She obviously wanted you all to believe she was on your side. But maybe... maybe it was all just a show. That's what it felt like - it felt like she was making a show of being tough and threatening, but I just... I can't shake the feeling that she was just being theatrical. Like she never actually intended to do anything with her wand."

Remus's mouth twisted in amusement. "Well," he said slowly, "It's possible that the reason you felt that way is because she did not, in fact, intend to do anything with her wand."

Sirius turned to him. "Exactly!" Then, catching sight of Remus's crooked smile, he frowned. "Wait - what do you mean?"

"The reason it felt like a show to you is because it was a show," said Remus. "Mairead never intended to do anything with her wand because she couldn't do anything with her wand. She's a Partial Squib."

Sirius's eyebrows shot up. "She's a Squib?" he repeated.

"Only partially," Remus repeated. "She can't use offensive magic. Or defensive magic. But she doesn't have any trouble with other branches of magic."

Sirius gaped at him.

"You said she could have stunned you or bound you, but she couldn't have," Remus went on. "She couldn't have even cast a Tickling Hex on you. She was bluffing."

Sirius blinked. "But... why not just run then?" he asked in a stunned sort of tone.

"She had just closed up the library. She'd missed the Halloween feast that night," Remus explained, and he felt a smile tug at his mouth at the memory of the meal they had shared earlier that day. "She hadn't realized the feast had broken up and she thought you were headed to the Great Hall to cause another explosion."

Remus watched the gears turn in Sirius's head as he took this information in. "Do you see what this means?" Remus asked. "She was prepared to sacrifice herself to keep everyone in the school safe from you. That's the kind of person Mairead O'Keefe is. She could not be more different from her father."

Sirius was silent for a while longer. Eventually, he snorted. "Fuck," he said in a hushed voice. "Forget cantaloupes. Watermelons. She's got bollocks the size of watermelons."

Remus smiled then, pride and fondness washing over him at the thought of his shy, courageous student. "Can we drop this now?" he asked quietly.

Sirius nodded. "It's dropped."

The two turned and re-entered the foyer of the house. They walked as quietly as possible and did not speak again until they were back on the landing outside the house. Sirius tapped the door once again with his wand and the door locked itself.

"Right," said Remus. "Shall we head back to Hogwarts and report to Dumbledore?"

Sirius grinned. "Maybe we can score a kip in one of those cushy faculty beds you were going on about."

They set off back for King's Cross. They would Apparate from there to the Shrieking Shack.

"It's kind of odd though," said Sirius as they stepped through the concrete barrier onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. "If she's a Squib -"

"Partial Squib," corrected Remus.

"Sure, sure," Sirius waved a hand impatiently. "But if she has no way of attacking or defending herself, what's Dumbledore playing at, letting her join the Order?"

Remus stopped in his tracks. He had been so pleased to see Mairead again that the thought hadn't even occurred to him. Before he could answer, though, Sirius had turned on the spot and disappeared.


Author's Note: The moment we've all been waiting for finally happened! What did you think? Thank you all very much for reading! I also wanted to give you a heads up that I am going to be traveling next Friday, and so Chapter 4 might get posted at an odd time. I might post it on Thursday, I might post it on Saturday. Worst case scenario is that I won't be able to post it until I get back the following Monday, but I'm hoping that won't happen!

Song for Chapter 3: "This Love (Taylor's Version)," Taylor Swift (Mairead) (Yeah, there's going to be a lot more TS in Part 2 - I can't help myself.