Chapter 118: Harry's Arrival

Another morning of cleaning had both Hermione and I exhausted by midday. However. We were way too excited (and also somewhat anxious) over the fact that Harry would be coming.

A team of Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and others had gone to retrieve Harry after he had been attacked by dementors and been sent a letter, stating that he was expelled from Hogwarts. Once again, Hedwig tore Hermione and my hands up, wanting an answer, wanting to know what was going on. However, we couldn't send back word. So we simply kept her.

We were sitting in my bedroom, playing a game of exploding snap, when Harry opened the door. Hermione immediately threw herself onto him in a hug that nearly knocked him flat.

"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you alright? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless-but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got things to tell us-the dementors! When we heard-and that Ministry hearing-it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-'

"Let him breathe, Hermione" I said, grinning as I closed the door behind Harry. It was funny watching her ramble on and on, and it felt good to finally have all three of us back together.

Still beaming, Hermione let go of Harry, but before she could say another word there was a soft whooshing sound and something white soared from the top of a dark wardrobe and landed gently on Harry's shoulder.

"Hedwig!",exclaimed Harry, stroking her feathers.

"She's been in a right state," I said. "Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this "

I showed Harry my right index finger, which sported a half-healed but clearly deep cut.

"Oh, yeah," Harry said. "Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know..."

"We wanted to give them to you, mate," I began. "Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you'd do something stupid if you were stuck all on your own without news, but Dumbledore made us-"

"-swear not to tell me," said Harry. "Yeah, Hermione's already said."

There was an awkward silence in which Harry stroked Hedwig automatically, not looking at either of us. I had a bad feeling come over me.

"He seemed to think it was best," said Hermione rather breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Right," said Harry, looking down at Hermione's scratched up hands.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-"

"Yeah?" said Harry, interrupting me and raising his eyebrows. "Have either of you been attacked by dementors this summer?"

"Well, no," i said slowly, "but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time.

Harry looked insulted.

"Didn't work that well, though, did it?' said Harry, his voice trembling with noticeable rising anger. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

"He was so angry," said Hermione, in an almost awestruck voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"Well, I'm glad he left," Harry said coldly. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer."

"Not true, mate." I said in a low voice.

"Aren't you ... aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" said Hermione quietly.

"No," Harry, looking away from us and checking his surroundings.

Hermione and I gave each other troubled looks

"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" Harry asked."Did you-er-bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," I told him. "We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted-"

"He could still have kept me informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said shortly. "You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."

Hermione glanced at me and then back at Harry. "I thought that, too. But he didn't want you to know anything."

"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted," said Harry, watching our expressions.

"Don't be thick." I scoffed, getting annoyed.

"Or that I can't take care of myself."

"Of course he doesn't think that!" said Hermione anxiously.

"So how come I have to stay at the fucking Dursleys' while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" said Harry, getting louder and louder with every word. "How come you two are allowed to know everything that's going on?"

"We're not!" I interrupted, getting loud myself. "Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young-"

'SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG FUCKING DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE MOTHERFUCKING DURSLEYS' FOR A GOTDAMN MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE SHIT THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT! WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR ASSES FROM THE DEMENTORS? WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL FUCKING THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!'

I was standing there with my mouth half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, whilst Hermione looked on the verge of tears.

"Harry-"

"BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?!"

"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did-"Hermione began.

"CAN'T'VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR-"

"Well, he did!"

"FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON-"

"We wanted to-"

"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER-"

'No, honest-"

"Harry, we're really sorry!' yelled Hermione desperately, her eyes now filled with tears. "You're absolutely right, Harry. I'd be furious if it was me!"

Harry glared at her, still breathing deeply, then turned away from us again, pacing up and down. Hedwig hooted glumly from the top of the wardrobe. There was a long pause, broken only by the mournful creak of the floorboards below Harry's feet.

"What is this place, anyway?" he snapped at us.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," I said at once. Truthfully, I really didn't want to talk. I was all but ready to sock my best mate. I understood his anger, but the way he just unleashed on Hermione and I was absolutely ridiculous.

"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix?"

'It's a secret society," said Hermione quickly. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

'Who's in it?" said Harry coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets.

"Quite a few people..."

"We've met about twenty of them," I said, "but we think there are more."

Harry glared at us. "Well?" he demanded, looking from Hermione and I.

"Well what?" I said, confused.

"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously. "What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings," said Hermione nervously. "So we don't know the details, but we've got a general idea." she added hastily, seeing the look on Harry's face.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see,"I said. "They're really useful."

"Extendable-"

"Ears, yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realised what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know."

"Some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order-" began Hermione.

"-and some of them are standing guard over something," I finished. "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah."

Harry snorted. He walked around the room again, looking anywhere but at us. "So, what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?" he demanded. "You said you'd been busy."

I quickly thought back to the other night. But I wasn't gonna share that with him. Especially the way he was blowing up.

"We have." said Hermione quickly. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo-AARGH!"

With two loud cracks, Fred and George, had Apparated into the middle of the room. Pig twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.

"Stop doing that!"Hermione said weakly to the twins, whom they had been annoying her with it all week.

"Hello, Harry" said George, beaming at him. 'We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out." said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

"You two passed your Apparition tests, then?" asked Harry grumpily.

"With distinction," said Fred, who was holding an Extendable Ear.

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," I grumbled.

"Time is Galleons, little brother," said Fred. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears. We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You want to be careful," I said, staring at the Ear, "if Mum sees one of them again..."

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred.

The door opened Ginny came happily through.

"Oh, hello, Harry! I thought I heard your voice. It's no-go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door." said Ginny.

"How d'you know?" asked George.

"Tonks told me how to find out," said Ginny. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap."

Fred heaved a deep sigh.

"Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape!' said Harry quickly. "Is he here?"

"Yeah," said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. 'Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," said Fred idly.

"He's on our side now," said Hermione.

I snorted. She could be so naive sometimes. "Doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us..."

"Bill doesn't like him, either," said Ginny, as though that settled the matter. Which in my eyes, it most certainly did. If Bill didn't like you, then something was definitely wrong with you, because Bill got along with everybody.

Harry sank on to the bed opposite of us, his anger looking as if it wanted to leave, but was going to stick about a little bit longer.

"Is Bill here?" he asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt?"

"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order," said Fred. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked, "there are compensations..."

"What d'you mean?"

"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" said George. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish-"

"-and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," sniggered Fred.

"Charlie's in the Order, too," said George, "but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

'Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked. The last he had heard, the third Weasley brother was working in the Department of International Magical Co-operation at the Ministry of Magic.

At Harry's words, the rest of us gave sour looks.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad," I told Harry in a tense voice.

"Why not?"

"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying," Fred said.

"It's been awful," said Ginny sadly.

'I think we're well shot of him," said George, with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.

"What's happened?" Harry said.

We proceeded to tell Harry about Percy and Dad's fight. Harry looked completely stunned throughout the whole thing, and when we were done, he looked like we felt that night.

'Mum's been in a right state," I said dully. "You know, crying and shit. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work-ignores him, I s'pose."

"But Percy must know Voldemort's back," said Harry slowly. "He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof."

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row. Percy said the only evidence was your word and ... I dunno ... he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," scoffed Hermione, and we nodded in agreement.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, looking around at us all.

"Haven't-haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Yeah, I have!" said Harry.

"Have you-er- been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asked, still more anxiously.

"Not cover to cover," said Harry defensively. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it?"

We flinched at the sound of the name. Hermione hurried on, "Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they-um-they mention you a couple of times a week."

"But I'd have seen-"

'Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldn't," said Hermione, shaking her head. "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke."

"What d'you-?"

"It's quite nasty, actually," said Hermione in a voice of forced calm. "They're just building on Rita's stuff."

"But she's not writing for them any more, is she?"

"Oh, no, she's kept her promise, not that she's got any choice," Hermione added with satisfaction. 'But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."

"Which is what?" said Harry impatiently.

"OK, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?"

"Yeah," said Harry, rolling his eyes. Skeeter was still a thorn in his side.

"Well, they're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something," said Hermione, very fast. "They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears, they say something like, 'A tale worthy of Harry Potter', and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it's, 'Let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next'-"

"I don't want anyone to fucking worship-"

"I know you don't!" said Hermione quickly, looking frightened. "I know, Harry. But you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I'll bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy who's a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going."

Harry looked furious. "I didn't ask- I didn't want- Voldemort killed my parents!" Harry spluttered. "I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think I'd rather it'd never-"

'We know, Harry," said Ginny earnestly.

"And of course, they didn't report a word about the dementors attacking you,' said Hermione. 'Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy. We thought they would, it would be in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off. We think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town- I mean, if you're expelled, obviously," she went on hastily. "You really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you."

"Uh oh." mumbled the twins.

Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mum appeared in the bedroom doorway.

"The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now. Everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks,' said Ginny, quickly. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh. I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please..."

Ginny grimaced at the others and followed Mum out of the room, leaving Harry alone with Hermione and I, which felt uncomfortable. Both of us were watching him apprehensively, fearing he would blow up again now that everyone else had gone.

"Look..." Harry began, suddenly looking ashamed.

I shook my head, and Hermione said quietly, "We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you, but you've got to understand, we did try to persuade Dumbledore-"

"Yeah, I know," said Harry grudgingly. "So, who's Kreacher?"

"The bitch ass house-elf who lives here," I said. "Nutter. Never met one like him."

Hermione frowned at me.

"He's not a nutter, Ron."

"His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on plaque just like his mother. Is that normal, Hermione?"

"Well-well, if he is a bit strange, it's not his fault."

I rolled my eyes at Harry.

"Hermione still hasn't given up on spew. Which I personally feel shouldn't extend to this wretch."

'It's not 'spew'!" said Hermione heatedly. "It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. And it's not just me, Dumbledore says we should be kind to Kreacher too-"

"Yeah, yeah. Come on, I'm starving." I said, cutting her off before she started giving a speech.

I led the way out of the door and onto the landing, where ilI began to hear hushed voices. "Hold it!" I breathed, flinging out an arm to stop Hermione and Harry from walking any further. "They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something."

The three of us looked cautiously over the banisters. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards. They were whispering excitedly together. In the very center of the group was fucking Snape.

A thin piece of flesh-coloured string descended in front of our eyes. Looking up, I saw Fred and George on the landing above, cautiously lowering the Extendable Ear towards the dark knot of people below. A moment later, however, they all began to move towards the front door and out of sight.

"Dammit," Fred whispered, as he hoisted the Extendable Ear back up again.

We heard the front door open, then close.

"Snape never eats here," I told Harry quietly. "Thank God. C'mon."

'And don't forget to keep your voice down in the hall, Harry," Hermione whispered.

As we passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall (Hermione cringing like usual), we saw Lupin, Mum, and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left.

"We're eating down in the kitchen," Mum whispered, meeting us at the bottom of the stairs. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall it's through this door here."

CRASH.

"Tonks!" cried Mum in exasperation, turning to look behind her.

"I'm sorry!' wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor. Tonks was brilliant, but it was like her feet didn't work at all. How she became a rebound auror was beyond me, but I figured if a clumsy girl like her could do it, then I for sure had no excuse.

"It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over-"

But the rest of her words were drowned by a horrible, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech coming from the portrait we were trying to avoid. The black curtain that was over it blew back to reveal a hideous old woman, who was probably a looker in her day, but evil had made her cold, dark, and completely grotesque. The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed, and all along the hall behind us, the other portraits awoke and began to yell, too, causing us to clap our hands over our ears.

Lupin and Mum darted forward and tried to tug the curtains shut over the old woman, but they would not close and she screeched louder than ever, brandishing clawed hands as though trying to tear at their faces.

'Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers!"

Tonks apologised over and over again, dragging the huge, heavy troll's leg back off the floor; Mum abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand.

Then, Sirius came out of the kitchen towards Harry

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" he roared, seizing the curtain Mum had abandoned.

The old woman's face blanched.

"Yoooou!" she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of her son. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said-shut-UP!" roared Sirius, and with a stupendous effort he and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again.

The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence tell. Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Sirius turned to face Harry, who was finally smiling.

"Hello, Harry,' he said grimly, 'I see you've met my mother."