Sirius was definitely going to be getting Dobby some new socks for Yule once the time comes. He could not believe how helpful the energetic elf was. Harry was right when he told him that the elf was crazy, but that did not make him any less helpful. Harry was probably just glad that he had bonded with Dobby and that the elf was no longer trying to "save him" by trying to injure him.
Sirius was packing up as many books as he could from the Black family library. Since he was no longer going to be living in magical Britain, the last thing he needed was to leave all of these books around. Especially since he did not trust his cousins not to try and give them to Voldemort once he made his move. Narcissa would certainly do anything to please both her husband and Voldemort. And Bellatrix was simply downright crazy that was scary loyal to Voldemort.
The wards would not stop either of them because they both were Blacks by blood. The last thing that Sirius wanted was for Voldemort to get his snakey hands on the powerful tombs that are in the family library. Not to mention that he also had Winky clearing every magical artifact in the house as well so that they could not be used, either.
Sirius was happy that he had saved his school trunk from when he had gone to Hogwarts. Enchanting it with both a feather-light charm as well as an everlasting-expanding charm, he could literally put the entire library in the trunk without worrying about how much it would weigh.
Dobby had apparated him right into Number 12. Since house elf magic was so different from wizard magic, the ministry had no way to tell that he was back in the country. He might have surrendered his British citizenship when he accepted sanctuary in magical Greece, but he was not going to leave anything behind for others to use.
He heard the pop of someone else apparating into the house. Since only a few others were allowed to pass through the wards, he had a good idea of who had just come.
"Sirius," he heard the voice of Kingsley. "You here?"
"In the library, Kings," Sirius calls out to him.
He heard the Auror come up the stairs and was soon in the library with him. He looked shocked by the nearly empty shelves but figured that Sirius was making sure that they would be in safe hands.
"Sirius, are you sure that it's safe to be here," Kingsley was concerned.
"The wards are still up, Kings," Sirius tells him. "And as much as I hate Dumbledore, I doubt that he would release the Fidelius Charm since this is the Order's headquarters."
"But isn't it against the rules of your offered sanctuary to come back to Britain," Kingsley was still worried about his friend.
"Olivia knows that I am here," Sirius says. "Once I told her about what I was doing, she gave me permission to come back in order to collect everything from the house. I couldn't, in good conscience, leave the Black family library behind."
"You are worried about Voldemort getting his hands on them," Kingsley knew about the family members that Sirius had in Voldemort's ranks.
Sirius nodded. "Narcissa and Bellatrix know that the Black family library is located here. Even with the Fidelius Charm on the house, either of them could use the Black family magic to override the charm in order to come into the house. It's a small miracle that neither of them has already done so. Probably because Bellatrix is still in Azkaban and they are waiting for them they can break her and others out."
"Do not look a gift horse in the mouth, Sirius," Kingsley tells him. "They currently know that Dumbledore is out of the country as well as believing that you are not here. They could still decide to come here."
"Another reason to get these books out of here as quickly as possible," Sirius said. "I'm almost finished down here. Next, I will go to the real family library on the family floor."
"Oh, so that's where you, Harry, and Remus were staying during the summer," Kingsley had heard enough complaining about Harry not being in the room the others assigned him to a lot while they had been staying at the house.
"As if we would have let Harry room with a traitor," Sirius says. "Also, Harry deserved his own room in general just to have peace from everyone. If he was in a normal room on the regular floor, everyone would have been bothering him non-stop."
"I can definitely understand that," Kingsley said. "Harry really does not deserve them trying to control him."
"Not that it will stop them from trying," Sirius muttered, but Kingsley still heard him.
He placed his hand on Sirius's shoulder.
"Harry is going to be fine, Sirius," he tells him
"I can not help but still worry about him, Kings," Sirius says. "It's not just Voldemort and his death eaters that I want to not have the books, but Dumbledore is another person that I want these away from. Someone like Dumbledore is not someone that I want to be around these books."
"Would he even be able to get them," Kingsley asked him.
"While Tonks might not be a part of the Black family since her mother was disowned, the Black blood in her veins might still enable him to do some type of magic to take down the family wards," Sirius explains. "While Dumbledore might hate all things related to dark magic, I still do not want these books anywhere near him."
"It is better to be safe than sorry," Kingsley agreed with him.
Sirius's shoulders then sagged in a sad way.
"I'm not coming back, you know," he says. "After this, it is most likely that I will never step foot or paw in magical Britain ever again."
"I can not blame you," Kingsley said. "After everything that people in this country have done to both you and Harry, you have no obligations to stay here."
"But... I..." Sirius took hold of Kingsley's hand. "I don't want to leave you."
Kingsley was definitely shocked to hear that. He had liked Sirius for a while now. In fact, he actually had a crush on Sirius back when they had both been at Hogwarts and Sirius had been a couple of years above him. Not to mention that Sirius also had trained him when he first became an Auror. He had been heartbroken when he found out about Sirius being sent to Azkaban for supposedly betraying the Potters. He never believed it, but it's not like he could do anything about it.
He never thought that he would have been given a chance with Sirius. Plus, he understood how Sirius would much rather focus on keeping Harry safe and happy rather than trying to have any type of relationship. But now, it looked like they might be getting a second chance.
"Sirius, I..." Kingsley tried to talk.
"I know that things have been really rough for all of us," Sirus interrupted him. "But, you have no idea how much it meant to me to find out that you never believed that I was guilty. Everyone else didn't even think twice because I am a member of the Black family. But your faith and loyalty meant the world to me."
"James was your Auror partner, Sirius," Kingsley remembers. "I saw you two work together when you trained me to be an Auror. You two were brothers in everything but blood. I could never believe that you would put him or Harry in danger."
"Another reason why it makes it so hard to leave you," Sirius said. "You are one of the very few good people in this country. I can't just leave you here. Who knows what will happen? Especially if Dumbledore ever finds out that you are not actually loyal to him."
"Who says that I would be staying," Kingsley smirked at him.
"What," Sirius gasped, not expecting that at all.
Kingsley let go of Sirius's hand. He smirked as he took a few steps away. Much to Sirius's shock, Kingsley's eyes glowed.
"Elemental Armor- Stone Skin," he cast.
Sirius's eyes got even wider as he saw what was happening right in front of his eyes. Kingsley's skin, and even his clothes, all turned to stone. And not only did he turn to stone, but he could still move. And to top it off, Kingsley showed off how he was able to turn his arms into two swords of stone.
"You're a mystic soul as well," Sirius gasped.
"You're not the only one with hidden talents, Padfoot," Kingsley smirked, though the smirk was harder to detect given his literal stone face.
His skin soon faded back into how it looked before as Kingsley canceled his spell. Though, Sirius had to admit that even when he was made of stone, the Auror looked good.
"That's quite a power that you have," Sirius complimented him.
"It's called Elemental Armor magic," Kingsley explained. "It allows me to turn my body into any natural element. And as you also saw, I can then use my body to form other things, such as weapons."
"The ministry would lose it if they learned that a 'monster' managed to hide right under their noses," Sirius laughed.
"The risk was worth it to be able to be a spy inside the ministry," Kingsley tells him. "Because of my job, I was able to hide a lot of reports of mystic souls that have found their way into magical Britain as well as help many of them escape before anything could happen to them."
"You would do really well working for the magic council as one of the Guards," Sirius says.
"At least I have something to look forward to, then," Kingsley chuckled.
"You want to come to Greece, then," Sirius guessed.
Kingsley nodded as he took Sirius's hand again. "You said that you do not want to leave me. So, now you don't have to."
Sirius started to lean toward him, hoping that the two of them could actually have their first kiss. But there was no way that their luck was that good.
They heard what was definitely the floo activating downstairs. A number of other people's voices could be heard. Kingsley looked at Sirius in worry, knowing that Dumbledore had definitely told the Order everything that happened with Sirius.
"I'll get to the family floor," Sirius tells him. "I just finished with this library, so I was going to up there eventually."
Kingsley nodded. "Just get up there before any of them see you."
As Sirius went up to the family floor with his trunk of books, Kingsley went downstairs to run interference with those that had just arrived. He was not surprised to see the ones that had arrived were Moody and Tonks. It made him sick to be an Auror with the two of them since it was obvious that neither of them actually cared about the law. All they cared about was doing whatever Dumbledore said, even if it was against the law or simply against basic human decency.
"Good, you're already here, Shacklebolt," Moody said.
"And why would you two need to be here," Kingsley asked them. "The Headmaster didn't send over any orders."
Not that he would ever follow any orders from Dumbledore. He was well aware that Dumbledore was just as biased against mystic souls as almost every other British magical being. So, he was definitely never going to follow any orders from the man. There was nothing that he wanted more than to see the downfall of the power-hungry old man.
Once he was able to actually leave with Sirius, there was nothing he wanted more than to see the look on Dumbledore's face when he realizes just how people were not as loyal to him as he thought. Dumbledore truly believed that everyone should be loyal to him and that he was the most powerful wizard in the world. Being at Crystal Rose was probably killing him as even the youngest student there would be able to beat him in a duel. Something he would gladly see happen.
"He left standing orders of where I am in charge of the Order while he is in Greece," Moody says.
"What can we even do," Kingsley crossed his arms. "Voldemort has still not made any move to make himself known. I have even looked at muggle newspapers and there have been no unexplained deaths in the muggle world, either."
"How do we even know if You-Know-Who is still in the country," Tonks says. "Maybe when he heard that Dumbledore went to Greece, he also went there to recruit allies."
"You-Know-Who is all about purebloods," Moody grumbled. "Even when he is known to recruit werewolves and giants. I doubt that even he would recruit mystic souls."
"Don't see why he would," Tonks grumbled.
"He wouldn't even be able to," Kingsley remembered the original lie Olivia had come up with. "Olivia did say that Voldemort had killed a few mystic souls during the last war. None of them would ever follow him. Not even mystic soul criminals. Though, from what Olivia has said about the prisons in their country, none of those criminals would be breaking out any time soon."
"I meant why would You-Know-Who recruit them when I doubt even he would want such monsters with them," Tonk stated.
Kingsley facepalmed when he heard that.
"You say that you're fighting against Voldemort, but what you just said would be the exact same thing he would think," he said.
"How dare you compare me to You-Know-Who," Tonks yelled at him.
"What I did was call you out on your hypocrisy," Kingsley glared at her. "This entire Order is filled with hypocrites like you. Including you, Moody. You all say that you're fighting against Voldemort and his death eaters, but you all act a lot like them."
"I have been putting dark wizards like them in Azkaban for more years than you've been alive," Moody yelled at him. "I am nothing like them! We're fighting against them!"
"And yet from what I've seen, this so-called Order of the Phoenix has not actually done much," Kingsley stated. "Olivia was right when she called you all out on not actually doing. You're more focused on spreading hate than actually doing anything to stop Voldemort."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Tonks glared at him.
"You all and the death eaters are both opposites while also being exactly the same," Kingsley says. "The death eaters spread hate against muggleborns and anyone else that has 'non-pure' blood. But you all spread hate against dark wizards and Slytherins. Evil does not mean dark nor does light mean good. I have had multiple family members in Slytherin and all of them were the farthest things from evil."
"They are just the exceptions," Tonks argued. "Everyone knows that Slytherins are evil."
"That is one of the most ridiculous and stupid things that I have ever heard," Kingsley stated.
"You can not argue with the facts, Shacklebolt," Moody tells him. "Almost all of You-Know-Who's death eaters are from Slytherin."
"Oh really," Kingsley smirked since he already had the perfect argument against that. "Let's see if that is actually true. Voldemort possessed one of the Hogwarts teachers back in Mr.Potter's first year. Guess which house Quirrell was in?"
"That's easy," Tonks said. "Slytherin."
"Wrong," Kingsley smirked even more. "He had been a Ravenclaw. How about this next one? Barty Crouch Junior. The one that helped the Lestrange family torture Alice and Frank Longbottom into insanity."
"Slytherin," Moody stated.
"Wrong again," Kingsley was enjoying himself. "He was a Hufflepuff. Maybe you will get this next one right. Fenrir Greyback. Mostly known to us as being the werewolf that bit Remus when he was only six years old."
"Well, he obviously was Slytherin," Tonks stated with confidence.
"Wrong again," Kingsley said. "Greyback never went to Hogwarts, so he was not in any of the houses. I would say that it is shocking how you two, those trained to actually investigate and look at all angles in a case, simply blame Slytherins for everything. Makes me wonder how either of you was made an Auror in the first place."
"How do we know you are not just making everything you are saying up just to make Slytherin look good," Tonk accused him.
Kingsley gave her a look that their boss, Amelia Bones, had secretly nicknamed his "lawyer face" because of how when he makes it, he starts firing off facts as if from a gun or wand. And when he fires his "fact bullets" no one was safe from the icy tone that he says them in.
"I was not only in Ravenclaw back in Hogwarts, but I was also at the top of my year," Kingsley explained. "Until Mr.Potter came alone, I actually had the highest scores in Defense Against The Dark Arts. Not only that but I was known to have some of the most detailed essays that some of the teachers actually have me extra points for it. Since the war was still going on when I was in school, I actually spent a lot of time in the library looking up everything I could. And one of the things I discovered was that it was NOT just Slytherins that sided with Voldemort. His death eaters came from all the houses with a majority of them not having gone to Hogwarts at all."
Tonks looked ready to either burst into flames of anger or deny everything that Kingsley had said. Moody looked like he either wanted to yell at Kingsley for what he was saying or to actually praise him for really good investigation skills. But, it looked like he chose to be angry.
"But probably the worst part of your hypocrisy is that neither of you even bothered to check your own memories," Kingsley glared at them both. "After all, wasn't your own mother a Slytherin, Tonks? So, you either think your own mother is evil or you simply ignore the facts until they work in your favor."
"Oi! Don't bring my mum into..." Tonks tried, but Kingsley ignored her.
"And then there is you, Moody," Kingsley moved on to the other hypocrite in the room. "You also say that all Slytherins are evil. And yet, the death eater that lead Voldemort to James and Lily as well as the one that used their son to bring Voldemort back was not a Slytherin. Peter Pettigrew. A Gryffindor. Guess that proves my point even more. Not all Slytherins are evil nor are all Gryffindors good. Maybe you two need to learn to not be so prejudiced."
Kingsley then went back upstairs, knowing that he was definitely leaving with Sirius once he was done collecting the books. He knew that everything he said would probably go in one ear and out the other with the two of them, but it felt so good to tell them off like that.
Sirius had given him permission to come up to the family floor, so he soon joined him in the library.
"So, did you have fun roasting the chickens," Sirius chuckled as he asked that.
Kingsley smirked. "I am sure that I fried them more than roasted them with the amount of heat that I used to burn them."