A/N- Sorry I couldn't update on Sunday I was stuck in hospital (nothing serious) but I've given you two chapters to make up for the delay. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Four

Harry woke the next morning to hushed arguments downstairs, that weren't really all that hushed. At a guess, Molly Weasley had been telling her children off and managed to knock the shutters over Sirius's mother open.

He lay back on his pillow and tried to sort through what had happened the day before. He'd gone down for dinner, Kreacher was looking most unhappy and huddled in a corner rather than sitting at the table.

The sauces that Molly had weren't bad, but they had a strange after taste if you'd grown up used to Kreacher's cooking. Most of the very full household kept quiet about it, Danica on the other hand spat out her dinner and refused to eat it, saying it tasted 'yucky'.

Sirius had stuffed his napkin in his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud as Molly Weasley looked very annoyed around the table. Kreacher had only been to happy to jump up and make Danica an omelet.

Harry had crouched on the stairs, with Fred and George to try and listen into the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix that went on that evening. Fred and George had invented a set of long reaching ears that wormed their way under doors so you could listen in unseen. Harry had already bought two pairs for himself.

They hadn't been able to hear much, just Lily filling everyone in on what had happened before someone moved their chair and squashed the other end of the ears.

Harry yawned, sitting up in bed and stretched. The house may be full, and getting fuller by the day, but at least he still had his room to himself. He dug around in his wardrobe to find some clean clothes, he didn't like going downstairs in him pyjamas currently, as Molly kept telling him he was under fed.

Half way down the stairs Sirius was re-bolting the shutters over his mother's picture.

"Good morning Harry." He smiled, finally getting the yelling to stop.

"Let me guess? Fred, George and Mrs Weasley?" Harry grinned.

Sirius smirked, "Ginny and Ron actually, they were having a spat and Molly shouted at them for shouting."

"Go figure." Harry said, shaking his head, "Who's on breakfast duty?"

Sirius followed Harry down the stairs,

"Kreacher made pancakes, Molly supplied several jugs of sauces." Sirius told him, walking into the dinning room.

"Chocolate spread it is then." Harry said, flopping down in his seat at the table.

"Sorry Harry." Danica said, looking sheepish, her mouth ringed with chocolate "It's empty. Daddy is going to bring more home with him this evening."

Harry smiled, "It's fine."

He poured a small amount of strawberry syrup onto his pancake and dug in. It really didn't taste that bad, Harry knew that part of his dislike for Molly Weasley's cooking was, in fact, Molly Weasley. He'd never been the best of friends with Ron, or any of the others in the first place and now, living with them twenty-four-seven was definitely starting to grate.

Molly was very much a mother, she had had no trouble coming into to Grimmauld Place and making her family at home, but Harry already had a mother and felt put out by Molly Weasley's constant and unnecessary affections.

Harry had just finished his food when there was a pop in the hallway. He looked, confused at the clock, no one was due home for hours. He wiped his mouth and went to see who it was.

"Nikka?" Sirius said.

Nikka was standing in the hallway, holding a large cardboard box and looking very sorry for herself.

"Yep. That's me, last time I looked." she sighed.

"What are you doing home?" Harry asked, taking a small cactus that was trying to escape her box off her.

She forced a smile and walked into the dinning room, putting the box down on the table, "Well I sort of, maybe, kinda got fired?"

Harry could of dropped the cactus, "What? Why? How?"

"Harry, that's not helping." Lily said gently.

Harry nodded and sat down, Nikka was a brilliant Auror. Tonks and her had graduated top of their course, Harry couldn't think of a single reason why she would be fired.

Nikka sighed and hoped up on the table, swinging, "Well Scrimgeour was handing out normal assignments, me and Tonks were sending each other notes, complaining that our desks were so far apart, not that they were really but I was hoping to share with each other rather than being stuck with stupid Vanessa Bulstrode. Anyway Scimgeour was about halfway through the list when Fudge arrived, he said it was just a quick visit, checking up on everyone, but he took a seat."

"Yes," Molly nodded, she'd come into the room to see what the fuss was about, "Arthur had a visit from him the other day, he's keeping a close eye on everyone at the moment."

Nikka nodded, "Yep. Scrimgeour continued down the list, had me and Bulstrode investigating the disappearance of Lewis Scott when Fudge said that it wasn't important enough to be looking into. I suggested that with You-Know-Who back, all disappearances need looking into."

"Well… yeah." Sirius said, "I mean, surely even without Voldemort coming back it should be looked into?"

Nikka shrugged, "You would have thought. Fudge didn't think so, he got angry, told me that I had no right to speak to him, let alone tell him he was wrong in front of everyone. I said that with all due respect, it was my job as an Auror to look at all this and to say when I think there is something wrong."

"And?" Harry asked.

Nikka sighed, "And he said that it wasn't my job any more. He left and the papers firing me came through about half an hour later."

"Just like that?" Lily gasped, "What… what about Tonks?"

"She's fine, still in there. Scrimgeour was trying to work out a way to keep me, he didn't want to lose one of his best new Aurors but Fudge came back to make sure I was clearing out my desk. I gave Tonks the chance to pick a big fight with me, Fudge was looking at her too, we could tell." Nikka said, "So I cleaned out my desk and made sure I hit that disgusting toad of a women Umbridge with the corner of my box on my way out."

"But you worked so hard." Harry said, "You-"

"I currently hold the record for the shortest position as an employed Auror." Nikka grinned, "So I guess that's something?"

Harry felt like his world was crumbling around him. This was his fault, very much his fault. Nikka had been standing up for him, when the whole world thought that he was insane and shouldn't be trusted he could deal with it, it was the people around him getting hurt as well that was starting to get to him.

"Look, guys," Nikka smiled, "It's no biggy. We've still got Arthur and Tonks in there to feed us any information we should know and it'll give me more time to work around here. Sirius is just going to have to put up with a couple more cactuses in our room."

Sirius rolled his eyes, they already had a window still covered in them and their brightly painted pots. He moved over and put his arm around her shoulders, Nikka was putting a brave face on things but he knew that she was gutted. She's worked so hard to become an Auror.

"Harry, why don't you and Danica help put Nikka's cacti away." Lily suggested.

Harry took the hint and nodded, taking the three small pots out of the box. Nikka grabbed the box under one arm and led him out the room. Danica was in the sitting room, colouring in something with Fred and George.

"Hey, want to come and help me and Nikka put some plants away?" Harry asked.

Danica nodded, beaming from ear to ear, "Yeah! Can I finish colouring later?"

Fred and George nodded.

"Yep." Fred grinned, "We'll wait for you."

Danica took one of the pots off Harry and walked carefully up the stairs.

"I like cactuses." Danica said quietly, running her finger over one of the leaves, "This one isn't spiky."

Nikka smiled, "Nope. Aloe barbadensis miller, not technically a cactus but very useful for minor cuts and burns. Your Daddy uses it in a lot of potions."

Danica grinned, "This one is having babies!"

Nikka looked where Danica was pointing, "Yep. When they grow a little bit bigger then I can pot it up for you if you'd like your own."

Danica looked like she was about to jump up and give Nikka a huge hug before remembering that she was carrying the cactus and was likely to poke someone's eye out.

They reached the second floor and went to the first room on the left. Most of the rooms on this floor still hadn't been cleaned out but Nikka and Sirius had made a big effort to get this one, one of the bigger en-suit rooms, cleared out for them both.

It was decorated beautifully, with pale blue walls and dark blue details. Nikka went over and pulled the curtains fully open. There was still a little bit of room on the window still. Nikka cleared some space for the three new arrivals and placed them down. The plan terracotta pots looked a little out of place mixed in with the brightly painted ones.

"Looks like we're going to have to have another painting session." Nikka smiled.

Danica gave her a big hug, "Why are you home so early?"

Nikka's smile drooped a little, "Well, they don't want me to work at the Ministry any more, so I'll be spending more time at home. And with you."

Danica leant her head against Nikka, "We want you around. Don't listen to those… poo poo heads."

Harry choked out a laugh, trying to look cross, "Danica! Wait till I tell Mum what you said."

Nikka on the other hand was laughing her head off, "You're right, they are poo poo heads." she said, leading her from the room.

"Nikka! Don't encourage her!" Harry grinned.

They walked back down the stairs slowly, hearing the sounds of shouting coming from below and slowing down even more. Nikka sat down on the steps and pulled Danica onto her lap.

Danica leaned her head against Nikka's chest and dug her fingers into Nikka's long, purple and red hair, "I don't like the shouting."

"I know sweetie." Nikka said softly, "Me neither."

Harry flopped down next to them, part of him was wishing that he was still small enough to curl up on someone's lap.

"I don't understand what the big problem is!" Molly Weasley's voice echoed up the stair way, "I could make those… those… tacos!"

There was the unmistakeable noise of annoyed muttering before everything went quiet.

"So what were you colouring in with Fred and George?" Harry asked. He still hadn't forgiven them completely for the ton-tongue-toffee incident.

Danica smiled, "It's a secret."

"You know that you're not meant to keep secrets from Mummy or Daddy." Harry frowned.

Danica shook her head, "Not from Mummy or Daddy silly. Or from you I guess, just from Mrs Weasley."

Harry wasn't sure he liked the sound of this, "Go on then, if you can tell us."

Danica reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a rather crumpled piece of paper. She passed it to Harry looking very proud of herself.

He looked over the drawing, there were a couple on there, a precise outline of an unfolded box and a picture of a lion in the top left hand corner. Big letter across the top read 'Miniature Zoo- Lion'.

"For their shop, I've been helping." Danica beamed.

"You're designing the boxes for them?" Nikka asked.

Danica nodded, "Yep, I like colouring and they're going to give me ten… ten purrcent."

"Well that works." Nikka grinned, "I would of loved a mini zoo when I was little."

There was a knock on the door, Harry looked at his watch, "That'll be Hermione." he grinned, walking quickly down the stairs.

He was at the door before Kreacher, he guessed that Kreacher had been hiding in the kitchen again. Hermione was standing on the other side of the door with Sirius.

"I was worried I'd gotten lost to start with, I couldn't see the house." Hermione said, stepping in from the doorway.

Harry took her coat and hung it up, "Yeah, added protection spells, because of… well, yeah."

Hermione smiled, "Well, they work. Hi Danica!"

Danica ran over and gave her a big hug, "Hermione!"

Lily walked through from the dinning room and smiled, "Hello Hermione, sorry we've got a bit of a house full at the moment, but, more the merrier and all that."

"That's OK." Hermione smiled, "I'm just glad that you invited me."

"You're always welcome." Lily smiled.

Harry helped Hermione take her bag upstairs.

"Sorry it's a bit smaller than the room you had last time, you can move into the room across the hall after Neville and Draco go home if you'd like? You're staying until we go back to school right?"

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, Mum and Dad are going to be busy, it's meant we've had a brilliant few weeks though, they could take some time off work so we've been going out nearly every day. It's been really nice."

"Sounds great." Harry smiled, "I've… well we went to the Malfoys'. Other than that Mum and dad have mostly had me under house arrest."

"They're just worried, we all are." Hermione said, starting to pull her clothes out of her case to put away, "Dumbledore told me about the Dementors."

Harry looked at her in confusion, "That only happened yesterday."

Hermione shrugged, "Well it think it's a fairly big deal. I've looked it up though, there is no way they can expel you, I've got loads of research in here for you to use."

Harry smiled, "Thanks, I know Mum has been looking as well, might be worth you pooling your research. I can't imagine not going back to school."

Hermione wasn't sure what to say, there wasn't really anything to say that could make it better after all, "The room is great, by the way. Still bigger than my one at home."

Harry grinned, "Ah, I forget how the other half live."

Hermione rolled her eyes and smacked him with a pillow.

There was another knock at the door signalling the arrival of Neville.

It wasn't long before Harry, Hermione, Neville, Draco, Pansy and Daphne were laughing and joking in one of the upstairs rooms. They had volunteered to work on clearing out some more of the rooms to get away from Ron, who had been following them around, Harry suspected he was hoping for an invite. Tiding was a small price to pay for some privacy.

Harry felt a little better, surrounded by his friends and shut away from the outside world. So far they had planned, in detail, to either brake into the Ministry of Magic and destroy Harry's record of wrong doing or run away together until they were all seventeen and the Ministry couldn't tell them off for using magic outside of school. Either way, they had a plan. A slightly fantastical plan, but a plan none the less.