Chapter 103

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Jenna felt her heart sink in her chest from where she was sitting on the floor in her cat form. A long silence fell among them as Sirius and Molly glared back at each other.

    "I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," said Sirius coldly.

     "I'm not sure you are!" Molly went on. "Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

    "What's wrong with that?" said Harry, raising a brow at her.

     "What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not your father, however much you might look like him!" said Molly, her eyes still boring into Sirius. "You are still at school and adults responsible for you should not forget it!"

     "Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?" demanded Sirius, his voice rising.

      "Meaning you've been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay at home and —"

     "We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, if you please!" said Sirius loudly.

     "Arthur!" said Molly, rounding on her husband. "Arthur, back me up!"

     Arthur did not speak at once. He took off his glasses and cleaned them slowly on his robes, not looking at his wife. Only when he had replaced them carefully on his nose did he say, "Dumbledore knows the position has changed, Molly. He accepts that Harry will have to be filled in to a certain extent now that he is staying at headquarters —"

     "Yes, but there's a difference between that and inviting him to ask whatever he likes!"

     "Personally," Remus started quietly, looking away from Sirius at last, as Molly turned quickly to him, hopeful that finally she was about to get an ally, "I think it better that Harry gets the facts — not all the facts, Molly, but the general picture — from us, rather than a garbled version from... others."

     "Well," said Molly, breathing deeply and looking around the table for support that did not come, "well... I can see I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as someone who has got Harry's best interests at heart —"

     "He's not your son," said Sirius quietly.

     "He's as good as," said Molly fiercely. "Who else has he got?"

    "He's got me!"

     "Yes," said Molly, her lip curling. "The thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"

    Jenna took aback. This conversation was going too far, and she could sense an even bigger fight approaching. Sirius started to rise from his chair at those words, ready to argue.

     "Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry," said Remus sharply. "Sirius, sit down."

     Molly's lower lip was trembling. Sirius sank slowly back into his chair, his face pale and white as a ghost.

     "I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this," Remus continued. "He's old enough to decide for himself."

      "I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once.

    Jenna didn't want to listen anymore. She was frustrated with Sirius for deciding to include Harry in the Order without even including her in it. Jenna agreed with Molly more, but even she had gone too far in this argument.

     So tearing her yellow eyes away from Sirius, Crookshanks got up from the floor and walked out of dining area, making her way up the stairs and toward Sirius's bedroom. But even though she knew that no one other than Sirius was going to enter this room and it was safe in there, she still didn't transform in her human form. She wasn't in the mood to argue with Sirius tonight.

     So Crookshanks hopped on the bed in her cat form and curled up beside the pillow on her side, awaiting Sirius to return back upstairs at the end of the night.

     It didn't take more than half an hour until Jenna heard Sirius's footsteps approaching the room. Once he walked inside, Sirius closed the door behind him before turning his glance on the ginger cat who was still laying on the bed.

     "Everyone's gone to sleep. Remus and Molly wouldn't let me continue and sent the kids up," he said slightly gloomily, walking toward the bed. "You can transform back now."

     But Jenna ignored him and turned her head around, looking in the other direction.

     Sirius sighed. "Is that your way of silence-treatmenting me, Jenny?"

     Crookshanks still wouldn't look back at him.

     "If you're mad at me for telling Harry about the Order, then you should know that Harry had every right to know."

     Silence.

     "Fine. Be stubborn." Sirius grumbled, but then an idea made its way over his head.

    So with that, he transformed into a large, shaggy, black dog, and sat down on the floor beside the bed, wiggling his tail amusingly as he stared up at the fluffy cat.

     "You can't hide your thoughts away from me now, Kitten."

     "Stupid git," Crookshanks thought.

     "Hey!" Padfoot barked at her.

     Padfoot then hopped on the bed as well, laying in front of the cat and facing her, giving her the puppy eyes.

    "C'mon, Jenny... you know you love me." He kept wiggling his tail playfully.

     "You know, we should make this decisions together, when it comes to Harry!" Crookshanks hissed after a short pause. "I know he's old enough to decide some things for himself, but I'm his guardian too, as well as you are. The only difference is that I feel useless, while being a cat."

     "Well, screw Dumbledore and what he thinks! Harry deserves to know who you are! And I'm sure you want to meet him properly more than anything in this world!"

      "It's... not that simple." Crookshanks laid her head down on the bed, closing her yellow eyes sorrowfully.

     "Don't worry, Jenny." Padfoot nudged her softly with his snout. "I promise you that one day we can finally be a proper family. You'll see."

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