Beyond the Door

I

"James, stop complaining."

James Sirius Potter rolled his eyes behind his mother's back as he carefully kicked the door shut behind him.

"And don't you give me attitude, young man."

Ginevra Potter looked over her shoulder at her son, shrugging off her coat.

"How did you even—"

"I see everything," she interrupted. "Now stop lagging behind and catch up with everyone else." She shooed him up the creaky stairs.

James didn't anticipate spending his first summer out of school at the decrepit Grimmauld Place, but his father had the out-of-the-blue idea to finally utilize the building after it had gone uninhibited for so long.

But the first step to that was cleaning. Lots and lots of cleaning.

And what's worse was that because of how magically unstable the house was due to years of neglect and exposure to Dark Magic, it was Muggle cleaning—the kind you do with your hands.

James' only weakness.

He slowly climbed the old stairs, trying to delay the tedious chore for as long as he could. It was their third day of cleaning, but it felt like they had made no progress. The house was massive, which meant the filth was nearly unfathomable. To James at least.

"James? That you?" someone called from down the hall.

One couldn't exactly be sneaky on the old wooden floors found at Grimmauld Place.

"Yeah! Where are you guys at?" James replied as he reached the landing of the third floor.

Albus Severus Potter, James' younger brother, popped his head out of a room from down the corridor.

"We're all in here," he said, before disappearing again.

James made his way towards him, and sure enough the rest of his siblings and cousins, plus Scorpius Malfoy—a family friend—were all inside. It was the only room with seating, that being in the form of a large bed and a loveseat.

No one was cleaning yet; they seemed to hate it as much as James did. The first day or so at Grimmauld Place was fun and exciting, being able to explore where the legendary Sirius Black grew up, but after a while, they began to dread making the trip out.

"Well," Edward Lupin sighed, "I guess we ought to start, or else Aunt Hermione or Harry will start hounding us for not doing anything productive."

Edward, or more commonly known as Teddy, didn't technically have to be there. He was twenty-three years old, far past the age of being ordered around, but he felt he owed it to Harry, him being his godfather and helping raise him and all.

The Malfoy boy, however, did have to be there, despite what one might originally think.

He got into trouble with his father for sneaking out to meet with Albus and Albus' cousin, Rose Granger-Weasley, one night. Draco Malfoy was not a fan of that, to say the least. So his punishment was to help the Potters and Weasleys with the restoration of Grimmauld Place, for however long that may take.

"Do you know how much left we have up here?" Victoire Weasley asked.

She, too, was old enough to not necessarily have to listen to her parents, but she didn't think it was fair that everyone else had to help out and not her—plus Teddy, who was her fiancé, was there and she enjoyed spending the time with him.

"Umm..." Teddy scratched his head. "I think just a few more rooms down the hall."

Everyone dispersed after that. They had agreed on specific jobs they would each do in order to make the work go by faster and easier.