~in order to raise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn~
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Things fall, snowflakes, raindrops, tears but now it was the world that was falling into darkness. Dumbledore sent them a letter, inviting them to the first Order meeting. The attacks have increased and everyone seemed to be waiting for the next one, the next move. But what horrified Talea the most was that Sturgis Podmore's daughter was finally found.
Dead.
It was near a lonely cottage when the family living there heard the painful screams of a baby. The family followed the cries in the middle of the night, only to find the baby in a crib, placed on burning firewood. It was a muggle family, they weren't able to extinguish the fire on time. By the time they came back with buckets of water, the cries of the baby were non-existent. And the child was slowly burning to ashes.
It was not only Talea who drowned herself in guilt but Eloise too. Remus tried his best to comfort her but her pure soul couldn't bear the thought of the child dying just to scare Dumbledore, the Order and her. It was horrible, it was like Voldemort had thought of everything if you take a closer look.
The baby was just a metaphor for Eloise. The time when she was a baby and he thought that she died too in a fire, burning to death with her mother. It was a message, telling Eloise to follow his orders, to switch to his side. The fire is meant to be her power that was slowly killing herself. The muggles? Talea thought that Voldemort just wanted to show how "useless" muggles are. She bet that his death eaters liked his little game. But Eloise wouldn't follow him, just like Talea. He could kill her if he must but she wouldn't bend down to a Lord who wears the lives he has taken like a sign for power.
She send her application letter to the Ministry of Magic a few days ago and hoped to receive an answer soon. Dumbledore offered to help her get the job but she refused, she decided that she didn't need help from someone else to achieve her goals.
She slipped into her black coat and went back the kitchen where she picked up her wand "Are you ready?" she asked Sirius who was still in the bathroom. Talea walked to the door and leaned on the doorframe watching the black-haired boy while he admired himself in the mirror.
He brushed a hand through his hair and turned to Talea with a grin "You are so lucky to have a good-looking boyfriend."
She raised a brow "Are you implying that I'm ugly?"
Sirus grinned and kissed her temple "How dare you assume that I would go into public with an ugly person by my side."
"You are so full of yourself-" she was cut off by Sirius pressing his lips on hers. He pushed her back against the doorframe and deepened the kiss.
Her hand brushed over his arms, up to his face, leaving goosebumps on his skin even though she didn't noticed. When one of his hands started to lift her shirt slightly, she pulled away with a chuckle "We have to go darling."
Sirius pouted dramatically before whispering in her ear "I could think of better things to do than going to a boring meeting." His breath was hot on her neck and she turned her head away, trying to hide her blush.
"Me too Sirius, believe me but you know we can't." He brushed a hand over her cheek, his eyes following the movement as if he was in a trance.
He kissed her cheek and whispered "Sadly, I do know Mrs. Black" and left the room, walking to the living room."
Talea froze for a moment before rushing after him "Did you just called me Mrs. Black?"
Sirius stopped in his movements and turned around, raising a brow casually "Too early for that?"
She walked up to him and took his stretched-out hand in hers "We're not even engaged you idiot."
He smirked "Didn't know I had to do that to call you mine."
She blushed and grabbed some of the floopowder "What's it with you being so cheesy these past few days?"
He followed her movements and stepped into the fireplace "Just trying to find more ways to declare my love for you." She groaned and watched as he vanished in the green flames with a laugh.
A few seconds after she appeared in the meeting room. There was a long table in the plain room, a few of the Order members turned to her and waved before going back to their original conversation. Only a few windows were in the room, one of them open but it only showed the top of the trees. She didn't knew most of them, so she looked for her friends.
Sirius was walking over to where the rest of the Marauders sat and followed him. She noticed that Sirius was still smirking proudly when Lily raised a teasing brow at her. Talea just rolled her eyes and sat down next to Sirius and Remus.
She greeted the four boys and then turned to Eloise who was sitting next to Remus with an empty expression. "Lou?"
The blondes head turned into her direction and she offered Talea a tired smile. Talea stood up and walked over to her chair. She pulled Eloise into a hug and brushed her hands through her hair "Don't try to drown yourself into guilt Eloise. It is not your fault, the only person you should be mad at is Voldemort, he is the only guilty person, alright?"
"I know, it still hurts, you know?" said Eloise before letting out a deep sigh. "Maybe I should try to remove the problem instead of feeling guilty."
Talea nodded and turned to Remus who was also looking quite tired. She slapped him over his head and he turned to her with a glare "Why do you always do this-"
"Stop being so moody Moony, Moody is moody enough for this whole planet, so stop trying to steal his only personality trait." Remus raised a brow tiredly and shook his head as if he was questioning her sanity. "You know what happens soon, I have every right to be a moody Moony, maybe even moodier than Moody."
James leaned over Sirius, accidently bumping a shoulder into his face, only to pat Remus shoulder "Come on Moony, you know we'll help you through it. You're not alone."
Remus perked up and looked at James "Will you till help me? I mean we're not in Hogwarts anymore, it's far more dangerous and-"
Sirius clamped a hand over Remus mouth and rolled his eyes "Do you guys hear anything? I swear I can her the noise of an annoying, fluffy beast that still believes that his friends would leave him alone while he suffers. "
Peter nodded and rubbed his ears "Same, it's really getting on my nerves. It's like this annoying beeping sound you get sometimes."
They laughed- well everyone except Remus who was still in awe. Eloise took his hand in hers and whispered "Ma chére, at some point you have to realise that you have amazing friends that won't let you down."
Remus sighed "I do-" but he was interrupted by a little shriek. The group turned around to the door and saw Dorcas, Marlene, the Prewett twins, Olivia and Mary. The latter was the one who let out a shriek and rushed over to the group "Ugh, I haven't seen you in forever!" She pointed her finger excitedly at the group and turned to the others "Look at that Gideon, they've grown up!"
She walked over to Talea and squeezed her cheeks together and said in a baby voice "Oh look at you! How are you? Are you doing great? Oh, how you've grown up you little beast! The last time I saw you were this small" she showed a small gap between her index finger and her thumb.
Talea slapped her hand away before she could ruffle her hair and ignored the fact that her friends were laughing at their antics. "Hands of my face and hair you toad! You're ruining my beauty!"
Fabian laughed and pointed at Sirus "I see, you're spending too much time together!"
Talea grinned and engulfed the Prewett twins in a hug "Have you grown even more?" She stared up to them in awe.
Gideon shook his head "I think you've gotten smaller little seer." She sends him a glare "I was never small and I'll never be small, it's just the fact that you two are giants."
Fabian raised a hand "That's height shaming." Talea turned to Marlene, Dorcas and Olivia when she heard Lily's exited shriek "That's a baby bump!" the red-head pointed at Olivia's stomach, causing her to blush.
Gideon straighten his posture and said proudly "Yep, that's my niece in there." Fabian shoved him lightly "Stop boosting about my child."
After everyone congratulated them and greeted everyone they sat down and waited for the meeting to start. Their heads turned to the door when it was opened once again but it was not Dumbledore, who stepped into the room. Alice, Frank, Calix and Adelina stepped in, Talea remembered that the two boys were friends in Hogwarts. The four of them walked over to the group and settled next to them after they greeted each other.
A few minutes later Dumbledore arrived, talking to a red-haired couple. The room went silent immediately and everyone's eyes were on them. The women blushed and excused herself for being late, taking a seat with her- what Talea assumed to be- husband.
Dumbledore walked up to the end of the table but decided not to sit down. He smiled at the group "Nice to see you all again and I see that the new members have arrived." A few heads turned into their direction but turned back when Dumbledore continued his speech. "I want you introduce yourself to each other before we'll go over to the more important matters."
The members started to introduce themselves, Alastor Moody started, his magic eye flickered between Dumbledore and Talea, making her cringe. Cadaroc Dearborn was a slightly older man, his hair was slowly turning grey and his face started to wrinkle. Dedaurus Diggle was a chubby man with a kind smile who sat next to Mundungus Fletcher, a rather anxious looking man. Talea was surprised to see that Benji Fenwick sitting next to Elphias Dodge, one of the wizards that was a victim in Voldemort's schemes.
But Talea was quick to notice that he wasn't the only one of the victims that were seated around the table. Emmeline and Landon Vance smiled at the new members, probably not knowing who they were exactly. Minerva McGonagall seemed to be quite proud of her former students as she sends them an excited wave.
Grace was nowhere to see but Talea knew that she was part of the Order, she assumed that she might had better things to do at the moment- or already knows all of the new information.
The red-haired couple introduced themselves and it turned out that their names were Molly and Arthur Weasley, Molly was the older sister of Fabian and Gideon.
After a few minutes it was their time to introduce themself, starting with Marlene and Alice. The next persons were Lily and James, followed by Remus, Sirius and Peter.
"My name is Eloise Melancon" stated the blonde girl. This name seemed to peak the attention of the order members, some of them gasped.
"Aren't you Voldemort's daughter, the one with the fire powers?" asked Cadorac Dearborn while Eloise eyes darkened.
"I am, if you have a problem with me being here, deal with it. And just to get things clear, I am not like my father and I will never be. Believe me or not, that is not my problem, seeing as I have the trust of most people in this room."
Talea saw Remus hiding a proud grin behind the back of his hand as she looked around the table with a smirk.
"My name is Talea Lupin-" she couldn't even finish her sentence as she was interrupted by gasps. Dedarus Diggle turned to Dumbledore "Why didn't you tell us Albus, this is finally some good news. Don't you think that she can help us?"
Dumbledore nodded "I could've told you but I didn't see a reason why I should."
Edgar Bones was already walking towards Talea and took her hand in his "Thank you so much Talea Lupin, without your help my family would've died. Thank you, thank you so much."
She sends him a nervous smile, trying to shake of his hands "No problem Sir-"
"Oh, call me Edgar!"
"Alright Edgar, may I ask you to loosen your grip a little?" He let go of her hands and walked back to his chair. There was a short silence that Talea decided to fill with her words "I'll try my best to help and I will fight. Just like my friends, but I won't guarantee anything and I can't. I want you to respect that and the fact that my friends are willing to help the same amount. So, I would like to ask you to respect them, not judging them by where they're from."
She received a few nods from the rest of the members and grateful smiles from her friends. Dumbledore clapped his hands, turning the attention towards him. "Good, let's start."
Talea soon found out that the Order knew may death eaters that are working for the Ministry. When she asked why they won't capture them and send them to Azkaban, Dumbledore told her that he thought it was best to have an eye on them so they might get useful information out of them. Talea had another opinion but she didn't dared to say it out loud in her first Order meeting and she thought that Dumbledore is wiser than her, maybe she could trust him this time.
She couldn't quite understand why everyone seemed to love Dumbledore. Yes, he is powerful and has done some great things but what is it that made him so special? In fact, Talea was quite sceptical of the man. He only craves for power, just like many other wizards, just because he's old it doesn't mean that he's always right and does the right things. He made irrational choices and loved to take risks but for what?
Talea even dared to think that he was partly responsible for Tom Riddle becoming Voldemort. Tom was a lonely child who hasn't ever truly witnessed love. Instead of offering the boy guidance, he let the boy fall into a downward spiral.
He ordered some of the members to keep an eye on the few death eaters in the Ministry and then started to talk about a different matter. "In the past year, I have found a way eliminate Voldemort and therefore the war."
The older members pecked up at the news, visibly delighted while his former students frowned. He found a way to eliminate Voldemort?
"And how are you planning to do that?" asked Landon Vance.
"Voldemort has splitted his soul, making a Horcrux. I assume that everybody knows what that is?" They nodded, so he continued. "The only problem is that I found out that Voldemort has parted his soul not only once, but about seven times."
The members looked shocked while Mrs. Weasley let out a horrified gasp. "Seven times?" asked Benjiy Fenwick "Isn't that impossible?"
Dumbledore shook his head "It is not impossible but I suppose not many would be willing to take that risk. It is painful and you need immense powers to do so."
"How are we going to find them?" asked Elphias.
"Oh, I've already did. I've had some help" he turned to the Marauders "We have found and destroyed three of them. Leaving four."
Talea could feel Sirius tense next to her, she didn't liked the fact that Dumbledore skipped the part where Regulus had to pay for all of this either. He deserved honour, if the whole world couldn't know at least the Order should.
"Where do you suppose we'll find them?" asked Calix.
"I don't know yet but it is our task to find them. I'm sure that Talea could help us." Talea nodded "I will try but I can't promise anything."
"Yes, yes and if anyone of you should get accepted by the Ministry to work there, please an eye open for important information that could help us." They nodded their heads and he gave everyone a encouraging smile. "You can go now; I will speak to some of the others about their tasks."
They pulled their chairs back and Sirius took Talea's hand. She turned to Lily once more "Are you coming over tomorrow?"
"Yeah, Marlene and Mary are coming too" Talea grinned and waved goodbye before grabbing the floo powder.
She stumbled out of the fireplace, coughing a little. Sirius watched with an amused grin as she huffed and brushed off the dirt on her jeans. "Why is Dumbledore like that? I thought I liked him but from time to time he just starts to get on my nerves!" Talea threw her hands up in annoyance and let herself fall onto the sofa.
Sirius walked over to her and pulled her up. She looked at him in question before he threw her over his shoulders, earning a shriek from the girl. Sirius walked through the hallways to their bedroom "I'm slowly starting to think it's just called 'growing up and learning to separate good from bad."
Talea groaned "Thank you for your wise words but I'm starting to feel dizzy."
He dropped her onto the bed and send her a smirk, pulling her chin up, to look in her eyes "I can think of other ways to make you feel dizzy, love."
She blushed and tried to turn her head only to hear Sirius laugh and pull her chin towards him again. When she finally had enough of his games, she pulled him forward and kissed him. Her body started to tingle all over when he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.
His fingertips brushed hers and she imagined how it would feel like if they touched her cheek, move down to her chest and then slip under her shirt and jeans.
Pour bliss, and eventually they did.