Girl Who Survived: Book Two {Harry Potter: Order of Phoenix}

[Chapter Four: Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place]

I stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. It smelled damp, dusty and there was also a sweetish, rotting smell; the place had the feeling of a derelict building. Harry was beside me, and the others were filing in behind us, Lupin and Tonks were carrying Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage, while Simba and my pack remained on my back. Moody was standing on the top step releasing the balls of light the Put-Outer had stolen from the streetlamps; they flew back to their bulbs and the square glowed momentarily with orange light before Moody limped inside and closed the front door, so that the darkness in the hall became complete.

Without any warning, Moody whacked Harry and me hard over the head with his wand, again hitting me harder than necessary; I felt as though something hot was trickling down my back this time and knew that the Disillusionment Charm must have lifted.

"Now stay still, everyone, while I give us a bit of light in here," Moody whispered.

The others' hushed voices were giving me an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though we had just entered the house of a dying person. There was a soft hissing noise and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls, casting a flickering insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet of a long, gloomy hallway, where a cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls. I jumped at the sound of scuttling behind the skirting board. Both the chandelier and the candelabra on a rickety table nearby were shaped like serpents.

There were hurried footsteps and Ron's mother, Mrs. Weasley, emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried towards us, though she was rather thinner and paler than she had been last time I had seen her.

"Oh, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" she whispered, pulling him into a hug.

I smiled shortly at her, figuring we didn't know each other well enough to be having a mushy reunion.

"Ash, dearest, don't be shy, come here and give me a hug!" Then I too was pulled into a rib-cracking embrace. Not that I minded. I had always loved Ron's mother, even though she, at one point, absolutely hated me from all the tabloids. She held me at arm's length and examined me thoroughly, "You're both looking a little peaky; you need feeding up, but you'll have to wait a bit for dinner, I'm afraid."

She turned to the gang of wizards behind him and whispered urgently, "He's just arrived, the meeting's started."

The wizards behind Harry and I all made noises of interest and excitement and began filing past us towards the door through which Mrs. Weasley had just come. Harry tried to follow Lupin, having my elbow in his hand, but Mrs. Weasley held us back.