Mrs Weasley kept the kids working very hard over the next few days following Harry's arrival here in Number 12, Grimmauld Place. The drawing room took three days to decontaminate.
Finally, the only undesirable things left in it were the tapestry of the Black family tree, which resisted all their attempts to remove it from the wall. Although I kept insisting that it was permanently sticked to the wall and therefore could never be removed.
Another thing was rattling writing desk. Mad-Eye had not dropped by Headquarters yet, so most of the Order didn't know what was inside it.
But little did they know it was a Boggart.
Yes. A Boggart.
I have had a few encounters with it ever since I was a child. So, the rattling sounds coming from the desk did not bother me at all.
We moved from the drawing room to the dining room on the ground floor where they found spiders as large as saucers lurking in the dresser.
Ron screamed from the top of his lungs left the room hurriedly to make a cup of tea and we all had to convince him to return half an hour later.
Sirius and I had the china (which bore the Black crest and motto) thrown into a sack, and the same fate met a set of old photographs in tarnished silver frames, all of whose occupants squealed shrilly as the glass covering them smashed.
Kreacher kept appearing wherever all of us were gathered, his muttering becoming more and more offensive as he attempted to remove anything he could from the rubbish sacks. And it even got to the point where Sirius threatened Kreacher.
My Auror training which was temporarily halted due to the numerous Order missions, continued two days ago much to Sirius's chagrin (as he called it a complete waste of brother-sister bonding). This time, the training became more and more arduous. I met new Aurors, and my mentors increased, adding the risk in the training.
The doorbell kept ringing several times a day, the perfect cue for Mother to shriek; either new recruitments for the Order or visitors, and the kids continued to eavesdrop on us. Sometimes, however, the visitors stayed to help. Tonks joined us for the afternoon in which we found a murderous old ghoul lurking in the toilet upstairs. Remus, stayed in the house with me and Sirius but left for long periods of time to do mysterious work for the Order or during the full moon.
August 12 was the date for Harry's hearing in the Ministry, regarding the Dementor incident in Little Whinging and Mr. Weasley was to accompany him there. The poor lad was getting more and more nervous as the hearing drew near, afraid that he will surely be expelled and will probably have to spend the rest of his life with his horrible muggle relatives. But most of us reassured him repeatedly that he won't be expelled.
The hearing flew by quickly than we had all expected. I woke up earlier than usual at half past five. When I had arrived at the kitchen, I did not fully expect to see Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Sirius Tonks and Remus wide awake, fully dressed (except for Mrs. Weasley) and sitted by the table.
"Morning." Remus smiled, kissing me on the cheek, making me blush as I sat next to him.
"Sirius are you alright?" Mr. Weasley asked all of a sudden. I raised a brow and looked two seats away from me, Sirius looked a bit pale, his chin resting on his hand and he did not speak.
"Sorry, what was that Arthur?" he snapped out of his thoughts and blinked.
"Mr. Weasley was asking if you were okay." I said, sipping a cup of coffee.
"Of course I'm okay." he shrugged off, rubbing his hands frantically then let out a small chuckle.
The door swiftly opened as our attention switched from Sirius to Harry, who had just woken up.
"Breakfast." Mrs. Weasley said as she pulled out her wand and hurried over to the fire.
"M – m – morning, Harry. Sleep all right?" yawned Tonks.
"I've – b – been up all night," she said, with another shuddering yawn. 'Come and sit down ..."
She drew out a chair, knocking over the one beside it in the process as she exclaimed. Sirius and I couldn't help but snicker and Remus chuckled softly.
"What do you want, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley called. "Porridge? Muffins? Kippers? Bacon and eggs? Toast?"
"Just – just toast, thanks." said Harry, Mrs. Weasley came back a few moments later, placing two pieces of toasts and marmalade in front of him.
"How are you feeling?" Mr. Weasley asked.
Harry shrugged.
"It'll all be over soon," Mr. Weasley said bracingly. "In a few hours' time you'll be cleared."
Harry said nothing.
"The hearing's on my floor, in Amelia Bones's office. She's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and the one who'll be questioning you."
"Amelia Bones is fine. She'll listen to you, a very fair lady I'll say." I said to Harry who looked at me with hesitation and nodded.
"Don't lose your temper. Be polite and stick to the facts." said Sirius quickly as Harry nodded again.
"The law's on your side," said Remus quietly. "Even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in life-threatening situations."
"You'll be fine. You'll be back in Hogwarts like nothing's ever happened." I smiled.
"Doesn't it ever lie flat?" Mrs. Weasley said in a desperate tone, combing Harry's messy hair as the boy shook his head.
"I swear, James passed ninety-nine percent of his genes on Harry." Sirius whispered with a grin to Remus as he laughed.
"I think we'll go now," Mr. Weasley said to Harry. "We're a bit early, but I think you'll be better off at the Ministry than hanging around here."
"Ok." Harry said, standing from his seat.
"You'll be all right, Harry." said Tonks, patting him on the arm.
"Good luck," said Remus reassuringly. "I'm sure it will be fine."
"And if it's not," said Sirius grimly, "I'll see to Amelia Bones for you ..."
"We've all got our fingers crossed." Mrs. Weasley said, hugging Harry.
"Don't worry, I owe the twins ten galleons." I smirked.
"Right. Well ... see you later then." Harry said as he and Mr. Weasley left the kitchen.
We spent the next few hours patiently waiting for Harry's arrival, the kids woke four hours after Harry and Mr. Weasley. The morning was like no other, same routine and the same faces. Sirius, much to my suspicion, was acting strangely. He refused to leave his room right after Harry left for the hearing and wouldn't speak to anyone, it was if he'd done something terrible.
"I'll go talk to him." Remus said to me, as I stood outside his room and he knocked.
"Leave me alone, Moony!" Sirius shouted.
Remus rolled his eyes and went inside his room. I sighed heavily and proceeded downstairs, to my surprise, Ana was there but I noticed that she had the same expression as Sirius earlier.
"Hey, Ana." I greeted with a smile, but she did not reply, and stared at me blankly much to my curiosity.
"Has Sirius decided to leave his room yet?" Tonks asked all of a sudden, her legs on the table as her hair color changed into lavender.
"Wait, how's Sirius?" Ana said all of a sudden, before I could even reply to Tonks' question as I looked at her with shock. She looked at me awkwardly, and she bit her lip nervously, fiddling with the glass of water in her hand.
"Of course he's here. He's upstairs. Refuses to leave his room. He's been acting strangely." I breathed.
"Can I talk to him for a moment, please?" she asked him, I noticed the tone of concern in her voice and I raised my brow. I saw the kids in the corner of my eye blinking and looking at Ana with surprise. Mrs. Weasley froze, holding the stack of plates in her hands as the rest of the Order landed their attention on her.
"Since when do you care about Sirius? I mean, yeah he gave you a peace offering but you never asked about him before. Is there something wrong?" I questioned her, but she did not reply or mumble a single word.
And she finally spoke. "Could all of you leave Selene and I for a minute?" she mumbled awkwardly the Order exchanging nods and quickly left the kitchen, leaving Ana and I in the kitchen.
"Hey, Ana. Is there something wrong?" I asked with concern.
She looked as though she was going to burst into tears in any second right now and bowed her head. And then, she finally spoke.
"Can I ask you something?" she mumbled.
"Yeah." I replied slowly, with narrowed eyes and stared at her.
I saw her tired, worried position and troubled eyes.
"Does this have to do with Sirius?" I asked her, making sure the tone of my voice was friendly yet careful and I raised a brow at her and watched as Ana's head shoot up in the air and shock and widen her eyes.
"W-what? No! Why ... why.. no.. why would you even think that?"
I felt my eyes widening slightly and I crossed my arms as she faltered with her sentence.
"What did you do to my brother?!" I said, my voice rising a bit, every reason to be protective of my brother rising.
"Nothing! I-I didn't even ..."
But I felt my cheeks turning into brick red and I spat at her venemously. "I swear to god, Dolohov if something bad happened to Sirius, you will—"
"I JUST KISSED YOUR BROTHER!!"
A/N: finally convinced myself to get back at writing! It's been about three weeks, and it's good to be back. I hope you all enjoyed, even though I'm sorry kept you all waiting with a boring chapter.
- jxlvpin