Monstrous seas of happiness and sadness, combined came crashing down on me. I was happy, because, I was going to finally live with my brother and we would finally be a proper family.
The promise that he had made was finally coming true at last.
Sad because – I was leaving the Tonks house. And I did not know when or if ever I can see them that often. I lived in their house for 10 years, and during those ten years, I was wholeheartedly welcomed in this family and they never failed to make me feel I was a part of their family.
And to live away from the people to whom you owe your life was very hard.
I stood up and decided to go downstairs back in the kitchen, my mind was now made up. I wanted to live with Sirius.
As I reached the last step of the wooden staircase, the first thing my eyes saw were Ted, Andy, Tonks and Sirius who were all looking at me as though I had already told them my decision.
I looked at each of them, and smiled.
"I've decided already —" I begun. "I'm going with Sirius."
Sirius was now beaming, as the family of three flashed small yet happy smiles for me. Sirius was now racing towards me, and the next thing I knew it, he lifted me off the ground as he let out my favorite bark-like laugh.
"WE'RE GOING TO BE A FAMILY NOW!!" Sirius exclaimed over and over me, twirling me as Ted, Andy, and Tonks were beginning to laugh.
"Ok, Pads put me down before you suffocate me to death and you won't be seeing me in your – our house." I laugh as I patted his back to put me down.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then." he smiled gleefully as he finally put me down on the floor.
"That quick?" Andy chuckled, wiping a small tear from her eye.
"Well, the Order meetings will begin very soon," Sirius said in a matter-of-factly tone as he rumpled up my hair. "And my little sister over here is a member of the Order of the Phoenix."
"W-what?" I asked, confused. "B-but nobody even recruited me!"
"I did." Sirius said with a mischievous wink. My cheeks flushed pink and smiled, during the first war, I wanted to be an Order member even though I was young and my family were allies with the Death Eaters.
"As well as me." Tonks laughed.
"So you're an Order member, and you didn't even tell me?!" I said as Tonks shook her head and howled with laughter.
"Well, I have to go now." said Sirius all of a sudden.
"Y-you're not staying?" I asked.
"Hmm, I wished I could, but I have to head back to Remus's cottage. Dumbledore must be there by now, don't worry, you'll be with me tomorrow. I'll come here by 5:30 pm right after your training." Sirius sighed.
He kissed Andy on the cheek, shook hands with Ted and Tonks and embraced me before leaving us and apparating.
"You better get some sleep, now." Andy said softly, her hand on my shoulder and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before I went back to my room.
I arrived back home at 5:00 in the evening. I quickly got dressed, Andy had finished packing the rest of my things in my suitcase. My old bedroom was almost empty, leaving only the furniture. The cabinet was now empty, no clothes, as well as my desk.
I walked around the room for the next thirty minutes, as I waited for Andy's sweet voice to tell me that Sirius was already downstairs waiting for me. Memories I spent in the Tonks House flooding through my eyes while I waited.
I stared at the walls of the little room, with my arms folded.
My last evening in my room. My last evening in the Tonks House. Because later, I would be returning back to Grimmauld Place. My home.
As I stood there, I allowed my mind to wander idly for a moment. But, after a few minutes, I felt anxiety slithering back into my stomach.
Among all the places in the whole world, Grimmauld Place must've been the worst for me. Like Sirius, I hated it. I never had many happy memories there like here, full of pain and misery before I came to the Tonks family's lives.
I breathed and shook my head to shake the anxiety away.
"Selene! Sirius is here!" I heard Andy's muffled voice calling from downstairs.
I slowly walked towards the door, my right hand grabbing the doorknob, my suitcase in the other. My head turned back to look at the room I had slept and stayed in for 10 years.
I smiled and closed it. My hands traced on the 'S' carved on the door before descending downstairs.
Sirius was seated on the couch, waiting anxiously as he rubbed his hands repeatedly. Andy and Ted were standing a few inches away from the first step of the stairs, looking teary-eyed as well as Tonks.
Sirius stood from his seat with a small excited smile gracing his lips as he stood beside me. I looked at Andy with a sigh, she was beginning to sob and wiped her tears with a tissue.
Without second thinking, I quickly grabbed her into an embrace, my arms wrapped around her back.
"Thank you Andy, for everything." I told her, her wands placed on my neck.
Pulling away from Andy, I walked towards Ted who immediately hugged me.
"I'm going to miss you kid." he whispered.
"I'll miss you too, Ted." I managed to choke out.
Tonks quickly seized me, as she began to sob, her hair changing into multiple colors. "Thank you for being the little sister I've always wished for."
"Thank you for being the big sister I've always wished for Tonks."
I stood beside Sirius now, looking at the theee poeple whom I owed my life to.
"Thank you all, for everything. I love you all from the bottom of my heart."
They all smiled, wiping their tears away. Sirius placed a hand on my back, grabbed my suitcase as we slowly walked away, my hand waving goodbye to the family of three.
I was wiping tears away from my eyes as we departed from the house before we apparated. My feet landed on the patch of disheveled grass in the middle of a small square. I bit my lip nervously as my eye caught the familiar, gloomy fronts of the unwelcoming-looking houses.
Some of the windows were broken, and the light coming from the nearby streetlamps. The paint was scraped away from the many doors, mountains of rubbish laying outside on the several of steps.
"Here, memorize it. But quickly." Sirius said quietly, handing me a piece of parchment. My eyes skimmed the narrow letters on the paper:
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London
"Ok, I got it." I said, handing the piece of parchment back to Sirius who quickly mumbled 'Incendio' and burned the paper.
A few moments later, I saw the Number 12, in between Numbers 11 and 13. I breathed, remembering that Father had put a Fidelius Charm on our home which made it invisible to the Muggle neighborhood.
I felt Sirius's hand pulling mine as we quickly walked towards the battered door of our home. We stepped into the threshold, and were welcomed by the familiar darkness of the hall.
I groaned at the horrible scent of the hall, as I started to remember my time in Number 12 Grimmauld Place as a child.
A weak, hissing noise was overheard and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls.
A flickering sheer light had cast 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. Heaps of dust and cobwebs was almost covering the entire house.
"Long time no see, enemy." Sirius and I said in a low chorus. We looked at each other and both chuckled like small children.
"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!"
The two of us looked up, I groaned loudly at the sight I saw. How could I be so stupid to forget my mother's portrait that regularly screamed? Sirius had placed his two hands on his ears as I winced, our mother still screeching and her eyes met mine.
"Hello, Mother." I mumbled gloomily.
"HOW DARE YOU COME BACK?!" Mother screeched at me. "After choosing and living with your filthy blood traitor cousin and her mudblood husband over your own family, you dare come back to the house of your fathers?! You really are your brother's spitting image, I've never loved you, and never will! GET OUT!! BOTH OF YOU!!!"
I rolled my eyes, my arms crossed whilst Sirius stood there and stared at me.
"Really wish I could, but sorry, Sirius and I officially own this house now." I said sarcastically, smirking.
She began her usual screeching but I didn't care. I was fully used to this, even I haven't been in Grimmauld Place for 10 years.
"I didn't know our lovely mother had put her portrait here. When I ran away from home, it wasn't even here." Sirius mused.
"Well after she died she requested for it to be put here, but sadly, it's a Permanent Sticking Charm." I snickered as Sirius let out a laugh.
"Come now, I fixed your room up this morning." Sirius said casually, smiling as I walked up the stairs excitedly.
The long hallway that led to the bedrooms were exactly as I remembered and I still memorized each corner of the room. My old bedroom was located at the very end of the hall. I carefully opened the door, and my eyes slightly widened.
The room was familiar; the wooden floor, the light blue walls, the wallpapers that were once peeling were now fixed and looked good as new. The curtains that were once chewed up by moths was fixed too, the difference was that it was once emerald green but now it was scarlet red.
A desk and cabinet was near my bed, but were still empty, and a fireplace was in front of my canopy bed.
"Sirius, it's wonderful." I said, my hands tracing the white satin curtains of my bed. Sirius was beaming, and sat on the bed next to me.
"I hope you're happy living with me." he said softly, his arm around my shoulder.
"Of course, I am. We got what we both wished for – living together. I won't be asking for anything else now that I'm here with you." I told him, making him smile and blush from the tip of his ears.
I felt his wands wrapped around my back as I did the same.
"Alright," he grinned, pulling away from our hug. "You could unpack your things now if you'd like, I'm going to take a shower. I'll call you if dinner's ready."
He went out of the room, as I immediately grabbed my suitcase, placing my clothes in my cabinet as neatly as possible; putting some things such as pieces of parchment, ink and quills and my Auror books on my desk, as well as photographs of my family. There were already a few Gryffindor banners on the walls, Sirius had probably placed it and I immediately added them with posters of the Weird Sisters with a sticking charm.
After about 30 minutes later, Sirius had called me downstairs for dinner. As I descended from the steps, I heard someone grumbling.
"You came back."
I turned around, my eyes seeing Kreacher, the family house elf who took care of me after Mother had died. He looked exactly the same after 10 years, very unpleasant and filthy.
"Hello, Kreacher." I said.
"Kreacher was very happy when you left, Kreacher didn't have to take care of anybody. And Master Black had sabotaged Kreacher's happiness by coming back here and bringing his sister back at the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black; friends of mudbloods and blood traitors alike." Kreacher muttered gruffly, as I glared at him.
"Kreacher! That's enough, leave her alone! And clean the rest of the house!" Sirius yelled, coming from the kitchen.
"Of course, Master." said Kreacher, bowing at Sirius and scurrying away.
"Still grouchy, after all these years." Sirius huffed.
"Obviously." I said, laughing as the two of us headed to the kitchen.
The dinners I spent in Number 12 Grimmauld Place as a child were clearly torture. Eating in complete, awkward silence and being surrounded by your family members that you hated very much and the conversation were always about Death Eaters and serving Voldemort, and blood purity.
But with Sirius, the gloomy house was now filled with laughter and lively chatter. It had to be the best dinner I had spent so far in Grimmauld Place. After dinner, Sirius had told me that the recruitings for the Order will be beginning tomorrow and the meetings will officially start two days later.
I went to bed at around quarter to 12:00, Sirius and I had spent the rest of the evening entertaining ourselves telling stories, mostly funny ones which made us howl with laughter and Mother screaming again.
I flopped myself against the soft and comfy mattress, pulling the red blanket over my body. I smiled contently as my eyes roamed around the room, surges of happiness and content flooding through me before I drifted off to sleep.