── ⲇ ──
It was merely a few minutes before Y/n was fetched from her room by Ginny who was shouting on her way up. "They're asking for you. Mum wouldn't let me stay."
Y/n stood up. "What do they want?"
Ginny huffed and rolled her eyes. "They're gonna let you in on their big adult talks, they're filling Harry in. Tell me everything, 'kay?"
Y/n cracked a small smile. "Will do." She then made her way back to the kitchen. She was quite embarrassed to walk in there, seeing how she had left. They all looked at her as she walked in. She kept a stern face and arms crossed as she sat next to Fred.
"So, what is it you want to know, Harry?" Sirius asked Harry. "Where's Voldemort?" he said, ignoring the renewed shudders and winces at the name. "What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."
"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," said Sirius, "not as far as we know, anyway... and we know quite a lot."
"More than he thinks we do, anyway," said Lupin.
"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked. He knew Voldemort had murdered more than once in the last year alone.
"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," said Sirius. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."
"Or rather, you messed it up for him," said Lupin, with a satisfied smile. "How?" Harry asked, perplexed.
"You weren't supposed to survive!" said Sirius. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."
"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," said Lupin. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."
"How has that helped?" Harry asked.
"Are you kidding?" said Bill incredulously. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!"
"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned," said Sirius.
"So, what's the Order been doing?" said Harry, looking around at them all.
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," said Sirius.
"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked quickly. "Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," said Lupin, "and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate."
"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"
"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," said Sirius. "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command: witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one of the groups he's after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."
"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?"
"We're doing our best," said Lupin.
"How?"
"Well, the main thing is to try and convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has returned, to put them on their guard," said Bill. "It's proving tricky, though."
"Why?"
"Because of the Ministry's attitude," said Tonks. "You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back, Harry. Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."
"But why?" said Harry desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore -"
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," said Mr Weasley with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," said Tonks sadly. "Frightened of Dumbledore?" said Harry incredulously.
"Frightened of what he's up to," said Mr Weasley. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic."
"But Dumbledore doesn't want -"
"Of course he doesn't," said Mr Weasley. "He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."
"Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," said Lupin. "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister for Magic and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."
"How can he think that?" said Harry angrily. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up - that I'd make it all up?"
"Because accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," said Sirius bitterly. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilise him."
"You see the problem," said Lupin. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumour-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware any things happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."
"But you're telling people, aren't you?" said Harry, looking around at Mr Weasley, Sirius, Bill, Mundungus, Lupin and Tonks. "You're letting people know he's back?"
They all smiled humourlessly.
"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" said Sirius restlessly.
"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," said Lupin. "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."
"Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off," said Sirius, "and it's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them."
"We've managed to convince a couple of people, though," said Mr Weasley. "Tonks here, for one - she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage - Kingsley Shacklebolt's been a real asset, too; he's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry information that Sirius is in Tibet."
"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemorts back -" Harry began.
"Who said none of us are putting the news out?" said Sirius. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"
"What d'you mean?" Harry asked.
"They're trying to discredit him," said Lupin. "Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemorts return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot - that's the Wizard High Court - and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."
"But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," said Bill, grinning.
"It's no laughing matter," said Mr Weasley sharply. "If he carries on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have Dumbledore locked up. While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to he's going to go cautiously. If Dumbledore's out ol the way - well, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."
"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" asked Harry desperately.
"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," said Sirius. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well practised at operating in secret. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in. He's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on those for the moment."
"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked swiftly. He thought he saw Sirius and Lupin exchange the most fleeting of looks before Sirius answered.
"Stuff he can only get by stealth."
When Harry continued to look puzzled, Sirius said, "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."
"When he was powerful before?"
"Yes."
"Like what kind of weapon?" said Harry. "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra -?"
"That's enough!" Mrs. Weasley spoke from the shadows beside the door. Her arms were crossed and she looked furious.
"I want you in bed, now. All of you," she added, looking around at Fred, George, Y/n, Ron and Hermione.
"You can't boss us -" Fred began.
"Watch me," snarled Mrs. Weasley. She was trembling slightly as she looked at Sirius.
"You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."
"Why not?" said Harry quickly. "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight."
"If he gets to, so do I." Y/n spoke firmly.
"No." It was not Mrs. Weasley who spoke this time, but Lupin. "The Order is comprised only of overage wizards," he said. "Wizards who
have left school," he added, as Fred and George opened their mouths. "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you... I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."
Sirius half-shrugged but did not argue. With that, Molly ushered them all to bed.
── ⲇ ──
"I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking," she said as they reached the first landing, "we've got a busy day tomorrow. I expect Ginny's asleep," she added to Y/n and Hermione, "so try not to wake her up."
"Asleep, yeah, right," said Fred in an undertone, after Hermione bade them goodnight.
"Night, love." Y/n whispered to Fred, softly kissing him before heading to bed. "Sleep tight." He told her, winking.
The other boys groaned in disgust as they continued to make their way to their room.
── ⲇ ──
Morning came sooner than they'd think.
Not that Y/n got much sleep that night.
But with the crack of dawn came the shrieks of a house that needed to be cleaned out.
Y/n got up early and after getting ready for the day, she set off into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for every guest in the house.
It wasn't long after that everyone came down and once breakfast was finished, they headed off. Y/n was left to clean up the kitchen. She finished in less than five minutes and after that she began to look in the muggle newspaper for home ads.
"How'd the de-doxying go?" Y/n asked, feeling the presence of a tall wizard behind her. He shuffled around in his pocket before taking out a fairy with hair out of his pocket; a doxy.
"Whaddya think?" He proclaimed, holding it right next to her head. "Kind of looks like you." He snickered, taking a close look at the winged creature.
Y/n stared at Fred with narrowed eyes and pouted lips. "I'm slightly offended." He leaned down, softly kissing her lips. "I–" he kissed her again. "Apologize." He grinned before kissing her again.
"Put that thing away." She told him. "Don't want your mother to see it."
He nodded and put the doxy back into his pocket. "So, what're you doing here in the kitchen, all alone?" He wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"Well, I cleaned it after everyone left their plates. Then I didn't feel like helping de-doxying so I just stayed in here." She shrugged, sliding the newspaper away. "What were you reading?" He asked her. "Muggle paper. Nothing special." She turned to face him, smiling as she looked into his eyes.
He returned the smile. Everything was perfect for that very moment before shouting broke them apart.
"WE ARE NOT RUNNING A HIDEOUT FOR STOLEN GOODS!" Molly could be heard shouting.
Fred chuckled softly, resting his forehead on top of Y/n's. "I love hearing Mum yell at someone else." Y/n began to chuckle. "I'd hate to be on the receiving end of her shouting."
"I have been on the receiving end, truly frightening." He replied. "This is comforting." He commented, snuggling into the crook of her neck but Y/n's attention began to shift to somewhere else. "What is he—?" She cut off, pulling away from Fred and walking off, following after something, or someone.
"Hey–! We were having a moment!" He followed after her. The two made their way into a room where George, Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione were located.
"Hey, you two!" George greeted. Y/n was looking around. "Lost something?" Ginny asked her.
"Uhh... heads up, a naked Kreacher is on its way." She told them, walking to the door. She attempted to close it but Kreacher edged his way into the room. "Dammit..." she muttered.
Kreacher took no notice of them and began to walk to the edge of the room, muttering to himself. "... smells like a drain and a criminal to boot, but she's no better, nasty old blood traitor with her brats messing up my mistress's house, oh, my poor mistress, if she knew, if she knew the scum they've let into her house, what would she say to old Kreacher, oh, the shame of it, Mudbloods and werewolves and traitors and thieves, poor old Kreacher, what can he do..."
"Hello, Kreacher." Fred spoke loudly, closing the door with a slam. Kreacher froze in his tracks before bowing to Fred. "Kreacher did not see young master," he said. Facing the carpet, he added, perfectly audibly, "Nasty little brat of a blood traitor it is."
"Sorry?" said George. "Didn't catch that last bit." Y/n narrowed her eyes at Kreacher.
"Kreacher said nothing," he said, with a second bow to George, adding in a clear undertone, "and there's its twin, unnatural little beasts they are."
Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not. Kreacher stood straight, eyeing them all malevolently, and apparently convinced that they could not hear him as he continued to mutter.
"... and there's the Mudblood, standing there bold as brass, oh, if my mistress knew, oh, how she'd cry, and there's a new boy, Kreacher doesn't know his name. What is he doing here? Kreacher doesn't know..."
"This is Harry, Kreacher," said Herrmone tentatively. "Harry Potter." Kreacher's eyes widened at her voice, his muttering soon became faster and angrier.
"The Mudblood is talking to Kreacher as though she is my friend, if Kreacher's mistress saw him in such company, oh, what would she say -"
"Don't call her a Mudblood!" said Ron and Ginny together, very angrily.
"It doesn't matter," Hermione whispered, "he's not in his right mind, he doesn't know what he's-"
"Don't kid yourself, Hermione," Y/n and Fred both spoke. "he knows exactly what he's saying," Fred finished, eyeing Kreacher with great dislike.
Kreacher was still muttering, his eyes on Harry.
"Is it true? Is it Harry Potter? Kreacher can see the scar, it must be true, that's the boy who stopped the Dark Lord, Kreacher wonders how he did it - "
"Don't we all, Kreacher," said Fred.
"What do you want, anyway?" George asked.
Kreacher's huge eyes darted towards George.
"Kreacher is cleaning," he said evasively.
"Since when do you do that?" Y/n asked.
"A likely story," said a voice behind Harry.
Sirius had come back; he was glowering at the elf from the doorway.
The noise in the hall had abated; perhaps Mrs. Weasley and Mundungus had moved their argument down into the kitchen.
At the sight of Sirius, Kreacher flung himself into a ridiculously low bow that flattened his snoutlike nose on the floor.
"Stand up straight," said Sirius impatiently. "Now, what are you up to?"
"Kreacher is cleaning," the elf repeated. "Kreacher lives to serve the Noble House of Black-"
"And it's getting blacker every day, it's filthy," said Sirius. Y/n couldn't help but internally laugh at Sirius's joke.
"Master always liked his little joke," said Kreacher, bowing again, and continuing in an undertone, "Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother's heart -"
"My mother didn't have a heart, Kreacher," snapped Sirius. "She kept herself alive out of pure spite."
Kreacher bowed again as he spoke. "Whatever Master says," he muttered furiously. "Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother's boots, oh, my poor mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving him, how she hated him, what a disappointment he was -"
"I asked you what you were up to," said Sirius coldly. "Every time you show up pretending to be cleaning, you sneak something off to your room so we can't throw it out."
"Kreacher would never move anything from its proper place in Master's house," said the elf, then muttered very fast, "Mistress would never forgive Kreacher if the tapestry was thrown out, seven centuries it's been in the family, Kreacher must save it, Kreacher will not let Master and the blood traitors and the brats destroy it–"
"I thought it might be that," said Sirius, casting a disdainful look at the opposite wall. "She'll have put another Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of it, I don't doubt, but if I can get rid of it I certainly will. Now go away, Kreacher."
It seemed that Kreacher did not dare disobey a direct order; nevertheless, the look he gave Sirius as he shuffled out past him was full of deepest loathing and he muttered all the way out of the room.
"- comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh, my poor mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he's back, they say he's a murderer too -"
"Keep muttering and I will be a murderer!" said Sirius irritably as he slammed the door shut on the elf. Hermione began to plead on Kreacher's behalf. "Sirius, he's not right in the head! I don't think he realizes we can hear him."
"He's been alone for too long. Taking orders from my mother's portrait and talking to himself but he's always been a foul little–"
"If you could just set him free, maybe–"
"We can't set him free, he knows too much about the Order," said Sirius curtly. "And anyway, the shock would kill him. You suggest to him that he leaves this house, see how he takes it."
Sirius walked across the room to where the tapestry Kreacher had been trying to protect hung the length of the wall. Harry and the others followed.
The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though Doxys had gnawed it in places. Nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:
"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black"
"You're not on here!" said Harry, after scanning the bottom of the tree closely.
"I used to be there," said Sirius, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn. "My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home - Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath."
"You ran away from home?"
"When I was about sixteen," said Sirius. "I'd had enough."
"Where did you go?" asked Harry, staring at him.
"Your dad's place," said Sirius. "Your grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at your dad's in the school holidays, and when I was seventeen I got a place of my own. My Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold - he's been wiped off here, too, that's probably why - anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr and Mrs. Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."
"But... why did you... ?"
"Leave?" Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his long, unkempt hair. "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pureblood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them... that's him."
Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name 'Regulus Black'. A date of death (some fifteen years previously) followed the date of birth.
"He was younger than me," said Sirius, "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded."
"But he died," said Harry.
"Yeah," said Sirius. "Stupid idiot... he joined the Death Eaters."
"You're kidding!"
"Come on, Harry, haven't you seen enough of this house to tell what kind of wizards my family were?" said Sirius testily.
"Were - were your parents Death Eaters as well?"
"No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they
were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggleborns and having purebloods in charge. They weren't alone, either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colours, who thought he had the right idea about things... they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first."
"Was he killed by an Auror?" Harry asked tentatively.
"Oh, no," said Sirius. "No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely; I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death."
The thick atmosphere was sliced through by Molly as she came in with a tray of sandwiches. Sirius continued on to show his lineage to Harry, and Y/n continued to listen.
"I haven't looked at this for years. There's Phineas Nigellus... my great- great-grandfather, see?... least popular Headmaster Hogwarts ever had... and Araminta Mehflua... cousin of my mothers... tried to force through a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal... and dear Aunt Elladora... she started the family tradition of beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays... of course, any time the family produced someone halfway decent they were disowned. I see Tonks isn't on here. Maybe that's why Kreacher won't take orders from her - he's supposed to do whatever anyone in the family asks him -"
"You and Tonks are related?" Harry asked, surprised. "Oh, yeah, her mother Andromeda was my favourite cousin," said Sirius, examining the tapestry closely. "No, Andromeda's not on here either, look -"
He pointed to another small round burn mark between two names, Bellatrix and Narcissa.
"Andromeda's sisters are still here because they made lovely, respectable pure-blood marriages, but Andromeda married a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks, so -"
Sirius mimed blasting the tapestry with a wand and laughed sourly. Harry, however, did not laugh; he was too busy staring at the names to the right of Andromeda's burn mark. A double line of gold embroidery linked Narcissa Black with Lucius Malfoy and a single vertical gold line from their names led to the name Draco.
"You're related to the Malfoys!"
"The pure-blood families are all interrelated," said Sirius. "If you're only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods your choice is very limited; there are hardly any of us left. Molly and I are cousins by marriage and Arthur's something like my second cousin once removed. But there's no point looking for them on here - if ever a family was a bunch of blood traitors it's the Weasleys."
But Harry was now looking at the name to the left of Andromeda's burn: Bellatrix Black, which was connected by a double line to Rodolphus Lestrange.
"Lestrange..." Harry said aloud. The name had stirred something in his memory; he knew it from somewhere, but for a moment he couldn't think where, though it gave him an odd, creeping sensation in the pit of his stomach.
"They're in Azkaban," said Sirius shortly.
Harry looked at him curiously. "Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus came in with Barty Crouch junior," said Sirius, in the same brusque voice. "Rodolphuss brother Rabastan was with them, too."
"You never said she was your–"
"Does it matter if she's my cousin?" Sirius snapped, stunning Y/n and Harry with shock. "As far as I'm concerned, they're not my family."
"Sorry," Harry quickly apologized.
Sirius sighed. "Don't apologize, it doesn't matter. I don't like being back here..." he began to walk away. "But it makes for perfect headquarters."