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Cleaning the house had become Noel's most dreaded part of the summer. She had finished her room and she was satisfied with it but the other rooms were disgusting and they wanted to at least finish those so people could sleep in them safely but it was a lot of work.
Another issue that they had come across was Kreacher and Mrs. Blacks painting. The house elf would spit vile to both Noel and Remus and while the two Lupins ignored him and walked around him to not upset him, Sirius took personal offense to his name calling. He would yell at the house elf and grumble around the house expressing how much he hated it.
Mrs. Black would yell at the top of her lungs, announcing how disrespectful it was for half-breeds to be in her house. Sirius and Remus had spent an afternoon trying to get her portrait down but there was no use, the portrait had a permanent sticking charm to it.
It was the morning of July 1st and Noel stood anxiously at the door of her dad's bedroom. She had forgotten to tell him about the letter. She had a cup of his favorite tea in one hand and in the other the letter. The tea was to bribe him and the letter was for evidence. She knew that he wouldn't let her go on her own but they didn't know what time Theo would be there so there was the possibility of waiting there all day.
Taking a deep breath she knocked and creaked the door open to see him still sleeping. Scratching her head she looked back to the hall but he was already sitting up, having heard the door open.
"Noel, are you okay?" He asked. Noel walked in fully and sat on the bed. "Yes, everything's fine. Tea?" She asked, handing him the cup, he looked at her suspiciously but grabbed the mug nonetheless.
"We have to go to Diagonally." She cut to the chase. "Has the supply list come in already?"
Noel looked down at the letter that she was clenching, she smoothed it out on her knee and shook her head, "No, it's from Theodore, he's leaving today. He wrote to me and said to meet him in Diagonally."
Remus sighed heavily and looked at his cup in dismay. "Noel, it's very dangerous to go out. We can't just stay there for the whole day, we'll look suspicious."
Noel chewed her lip feeling guilty, "I know, I know. I'm sorry."
"We have to take Sirius, I wonder if there's a leash around here somewhere."
Noel gave a relieved sigh and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, thank you!"
Diagonally was still very busy with people. Everywhere you looked you could see people reading the Daily Prophet which was sporting a page with Dumbledore on it, calling him mad, trying to convince people that he's after the position of Minister of Magic.
Noel and Remus had both brough books, alongside Padfoot who they unfortunately had to put a leash on, he was absolutely livid but that was the only way for them to go out.
They sat on an empty bench for half of the day and it wasn't until Padfoot started barking that the two bookworms looked up to see what the commotion was about.
Theodore looked horrible. His hair was a tousled mess and his clothes were disheveled. It looked like he was minutes away from passing out. Noel and Remus both ran over. Now closer, Noel could see the abrasions on him, her head was starting to hurt again.
"Dad, we have to go!"
"Grimmauld is closer, we can just go there."
"Apparate with him first, and then come back." Noel told him, looking at Theo worridley who was now swaying.
Remus looked reluctant but looked at Theodore and knew that that was their best option. He was gone for no more than 10 seconds when he came back and took them all home. Once there, Noel set his trunk aside and knelt down beside him, he was laying on the couch half conscious. Her hand hovered over his, she didn't touch him though, not knowing how he'd react.
"Theo," she whispered, "Theo." She repeated.
He hummed back, having heard her. "Hello," he mumbled.
"Can I heal you, please."
Theo took in a harsh breath, "Yes, please. It hurts."
"Where?"
"My back."
Noel gently rolled him to his side, and lifted his shirt to see, she saw a huge gash on his lower back, it was still trickling blood. She took a deep breath and laid her hand on it, apologizing at his hiss. Her body felt numb but she watched in relife when the mist started to heal the cut, the skin sticking back together and his breathing becoming less erratic.
"There, all healed."
Theo chucked weakly, his eyes were focused now. He was looking around, taking in the drawing room. "To be honest, this wasn't what I pictured your house to look like. I would've thought there were plants and... stuff."
Noel laughed, "This isn't my house. This is headquartered for the Order of the Phoenix. It's Sirius Black's house."
Theo whipped his head to look at her, "What?"
"Sirius Black, convicted mass murderer turns out to be innocent."
Theo gaped at her and tried to sit up when Sirius Black himself walked into the room.
"Lay down, I don't bite." Sirius chuckled at his own joke.
Noel rolled her eyes at him and scoffed at how lame he was. "Sirius, this is my friend Theodore."
Sirius extended his hand for a hand shake, Theo looked between them looking apprehensive but shook his head tentatively. "Hi." He said stiffly.
"Theo what happened? Did you get caught?" Noel asked, catching his attention.
"Yeah, he saw me packing my trunk, I guess he was already suspicious of me. He had been watching me and asking me questions. I tried to leave at dawn, but he was already awake. He managed to get some spells in before my elf Apperated me to the alley."
Noel gave him a sympathetic look while Sirius gave him an empathetic one. "Well, I'm glad you're okay now."
She helped him sit up, he groaned here and there the bruises on his abdomen hurting him.
Remus had now walked in the room as well, holding a vial of pain relief, he offered it to Theo who took it graciously.
"Thank you, professor."
"Not your teacher anymore Mr. Nott. Please call me Remus or Lupin."
"Mr. Lupin is the best it's going to get. Please call me Theo. Mr. Nott is my father."
Now that they were at the house again they took advantage of cleaning once more and this time around they completely finished all the rooms. The only ones that they didn't get to were the ones on the fourth floor and Sirius' mother's bedroom where Bukbeak had taken residence.
"I'm assuming that you'll be living with us now, I should let you know what the whole ordeal is." Remus started, addressing Theo who was cleaning his hands with a slight look of disgust on it.
"We normally live in our house which is in Wales but with Voldemort back Dumbledore started the Order again. We're going to be living here until further notice. The Weasleys would be joining us and Order Members of course would be in and out all the time."
"Can we join the order?"
"Unfortunately members have to be of age and out of school. Another issue is my... condition, days around the fulls if you could be a little quieter. I get irritable. Noel usually does her own thing, I transform far away from the house so you don't have to worry about that and days after I would lack energy but don't fret. If I look like I'm about to pass out, don't bring it up because I can feel people staring." He emphasized by looking at Noel and Sirius who were watching him. The two quickly looked away pretending to do something.
Theo smirked but nodded his head at Remus. "Sirius, we can send a letter to Dumbledore and let him know that we're done. We'll pack everything tonight and be moved in by tomorrow, the Weasleys of course should have a letter as well."
Noel looked around her room, not knowing what to pack. Everything she did pack were all her necessities like clothes, books, school stuff but she also has a lot of other things like paintings, drawings, scraps of trash that are sentimental to her. She has her ballet shoes and her violin that she hasn't touched since Rowina knows when.
"Did you like ballet?" Theo asked from where he was laying on her bed, watching with amusement as Noel had an internal crisis about what she should take.
"No. I hated it, the other little girls were mean to me. I also don't have any balance so my teacher would punish me and make me stay on the ramp for hours. I do have some cute pictures though." Noel looked under her bed for the photo album that her dad made her.
"The problem is, I don't know how long we'll live there so I take all my junk and make the other room my own or should I take what I know I'll miss and leave the rest."
"Just take what you need Noel!" A voice came from below, Noel pursed her lips, "Well then, I guess I'm done."
"You have a shit ton of books that you still need to pack Noel."
"My dad can do that, did you see his bookshelf downstairs?"
"Yeah, bloody massive."
"Are you feeling okay though? Nothing hurts anymore right?"
"No, Noel. I feel fine now. Actually, now that you mention it... how did you heal me? You didn't have any potions with you and you can't use your wand yet."
"Last year, after the first task I went to go check up on the dragons and I healed the one Krum had blinded. Obviously I had freaked out and when I met Harry I had healed him too. I didn't want to tell Dumbledore so I did my own research and discovered that it might be stardust and so that's what I've been calling it.
I get really lightheaded whenever I'm near something that's hurt. So that is why I can heal things now."
"Wow."
"Yeah, I know. C'mon we have to go get Mars. I almost forgot about him."
"Who's Mars?" Theo asked, following her out of the bedroom, down the rickety stairs, towards the little green house they have where a small dragon was shooting sparks from the birdcage he was in.
"My dragon." Noel said, opening the cage and letting the small dragon fly around before he landed on her shoulder. She unhooked the cage and walked back inside as Theo continued to gape because owning a dragon should not be as casual as she makes it seem.
"Right, you just happen to own a dragon that you named Mars." He said sarcastically.
Noel grinned at him. "Yes, Harry gave him to me."
"Of course he did. So how does the Order work?"
"I actually don't know. My dad said it was missions and stuff," Noel shrugged, not really caring, she wasn't allowed to be a part of it anyway.
Moving day was hectic, the Lupins and company had set their stuff up in the morning, they were done by the time that the Weasleys had come. They were loud and chaotic and Noel had never been so overwhelmed with so much noise. The kids were fighting about which bedrooms they wanted and Mrs Weasley was yelling at them to not yell.
Sirius looked delighted at the noise, the once cold and eerie house was now filled with joyful noises and laughter. He walked around the house inspecting what the living arrangements were and would joke around with the twins who had discovered that he was the Padfoot from the map.
Noel felt slightly guilty that she was only one of the kids that had their own bedroom. Ginny would bunk with Hermione. Ron with Theo, they were both slightly displeased but the room was big enough that they wouldn't step on each other's toes and the twins together.
An Order meeting was scheduled for the evening and all the kids were excited to be able to be included but Mrs Weasley had shut that down immediately saying that none of them had any business being in those meetings.
For lunch, everyone sat around the long wooden table that was in the kitchen. They passed around the food while Mrs Weasley looked around to see what needed cleaning.
That's how they had spent the following weeks there. All the kids were assigned something to clean while Order members filter out and in. The twins who spent a lot of time in their room came out one day and showed them all an invention that they had created. It reminded Noel of the kind of telephones that people would make with cans and a fishing line.
They named them Extendable Ears. Someone else that had been showing up frequently was Hedwig. She would come with a letter and stay until someone gave her something to take back. She was just as angry as the person sending one, nipping and biting people who would try to get close. Noel, who was the only one that was responding, had to send the letters back secretly because Ron and Hermione had taken Dumbledore's words to heart about not sending Harry any letters.
Noel was petting Mars when a sudden cold chill ran down her back. She shuddered at the feeling when just then Sirius and Remus came in looking pale and worried.
"Harry's been attacked."