"Have some more eggs, dear." Mrs. Weasley insists, piling another helping onto my plate.
I don't argue, though this is the third helping I've been given, I go on eating silently. Fred, knowing this, winks at me from across the table, and I can't help but smile.
"Well, children, when you've all finished your breakfast, you can head upstairs." Molly says, starting on the dishes. "You'll be cleaning up the house room by room each day, while the order has meetings."
"What?" Fred and George ask together. "Why do we have to clean when you get to attend meetings?"
"Because this place is filthy and we'll be here for the rest of the summer holidays. You all need to do your part." Mrs. Weasley says sharply. "Now hurry up."
"But I don't understand why we can't be in the order, we're of age." Fred and George continue. I take this opportunity to express my feelings toward this subject as well.
"Yeah, and why can't I? He's my father so I of all people should be allowed to join." I say, just as Mrs. Weasley opens her mouth to tell off the twins again. She closes her mouth, then opens it again, her expression softening.
"I'm sorry, Vanessa, but Dumbledore told me directly not to let you join the order until he believes the time is right." She says gently, pursing her lips. She turns back to Fred and George. "And as for you two, I'm your mother, and as long as you live in my house you will do as I say, and in this moment I'm saying that you two are not mature enough to join the order."
Fred and George begin to argue that they are not currently living in her house, but one look from their mother silences them. I sigh, knowing there's no use arguing if Dumbledore told everyone not to let me join the order. I doubt that there will ever be a "right time". Fred and George on the other hand, look upset for only a moment before they begin whispering to each other, nodding and grinning mischievously. I worry about them sometimes.
Molly pushes the twins apart. "Alright, everyone upstairs. Go and choose a room."
Not daring to disobey her, we all stand and head upstairs, and as soon as Mrs. Weasley is out of sight, Fred and George begin whispering again. Lani and McKenna walk beside me, McKenna complaining about having to clean, Lani worrying about being pulled away from her homework.
"Why can't we just go back to our rooms?" McKenna asks. "I could sleep, Lani could be boring and you can... do whatever it is you do."
"I think they just want to give us a reason to not listen in on the meetings. Fred, George, and I did last night." I shrug. I'm not really upset that we have to clean, just that I can't join the order.
"You listened in? How?" McKenna asks, perking up as we walk past our rooms and continue up the stairs.
"Extendable ears, Fred and George's new invention." I reply, thinking of the meeting we overheard last night. "All they talked about was some kind of guard duty. The twins said they've heard about that sort of thing during previous conversations."
"That's why you were gone so long!" McKenna exclaims.
"Yeah. It wasn't very interesting, but the extendable ears are pretty cool." I shrug. McKenna opens her mouth to respond, but just as she does, we hear a terrible screeching noise, and turn to find a house elf with grey cracking skin and a pointy nose. I stare at him for a moment, confused at his sudden appearance. Fred and George stop walking ahead of us and turn around to watch the thing scream.
"I didn't know there was a house elf here." McKenna says, squinting at the elf, who looks at her and mutters something about mudbloods in his Mistress' house. This makes my blood boil.
"Don't you dare call her that!" I say fiercely. The elf turns his head to look at me, and suddenly drops to the ground.
"Kreacher is sorry, Mistress Black. Kreacher will not disappoint you again." He bows several times, then gets up and bangs his head against the wall.
"What?" I ask, taken aback. I take step forward. "Stop that."
The elf stops hitting his head and slumps to the floor, bowing again. I shake my head in confusion, and he stops bowing as well.
"What did you mean? I'm not a Black, I'm a Riddle-I mean... I'm a Redwood." I manage to stutter. Now its Kreacher's turn to be confused. He squints at me. I'm about to open my mouth to ask again, but Fred is suddenly at my side.
"Let's go, Nessa." He advises, taking my hand. "You'll never get a straight answer out of him."
I nod slowly, still staring at the elf's scrunched up face, but silently decide to find the elf later and question him.
Ahead of us, George pulls McKenna aside to make sure she's okay, which of course she is, because she's not easily offended. He wraps his arm around her waist, and kisses her cheek. I smile at that, and lean against Fred's shoulder, my encounter with the elf almost forgotten, as Fred leads me down the hall and into the small room that they have apparently chosen.
It doesn't take long to clean once we actually get started, as all of us, except Hermione, are of age and can therefore use magic. After about a half an hour, we're finished, and our small group begins to split up and head down to the level below where our temporary rooms are, but I stay behind.
Fred, who was previously talking about launching dung bombs at the kitchen door during tonight's meeting with George, lags behind as well and walks over to me.
"You're mum would kill you if you threw dungbombs during the meeting." I smile slightly as he wraps his arm around my waist.
"Well someone's got to keep the order on their toes." Fred laughs briefly, then his expression softens. "You okay, Ness?"
"Yeah..." I hesitate. Fred nods, telling me to continue. "I just keep thinking about what that elf said. I hate that my parents are who they are, but at the same time, I want to know where I come from. It doesn't make sense, I know..."
"I get it." Fred nods simply. "But you're not going to get that out of him."
I nod hesitantly.
"Maybe you can ask Dumbledore when we get back to Hogwarts." Fred suggests. "But for now, don't think about it. Lets go back downstairs."
"You go ahead, I'm going to find a room to do tomorrow so we don't have to wander around and risk running in to him again." I say, attempting to be convincing.
Fred squints at me for a moment, then nods, his usual lopsided grin replacing his previous concern. "Alright, but then come downstairs. We've got important dung bomb business to discuss." He kisses me on the cheek and releases my waist, heading downstairs.
I head down the hall in the top floor in the house, checking each room for the hunched house elf, knowing that I'll have to search quickly, because Fred will be expecting me back on the level below soon.
Before I can find the creature though, I come across a room with a large tapestry covering one entire wall that catches my eye. I enter the room and examine the tapestry, which seems to be a large representation of the Black family tree.
I'm about to leave the room and continue my search for the twisted elf, when I suddenly catch sight of my mother's name on the tapestry, and turn my attention back to it.
"Bellatrix Black, married to Rodolphus Lestrange..." I mutter to myself, running my hand over the words and faces. "What a scandal."
I glance down for a split second and catch sight of a picture of a baby girl with black hair directly beneath Bellatrix, with the name Vanessa Black.
"Well that explains it." I say, mystified, my eyes locked on the picture of me as a baby. I sit on the musty rug and stare at the tapestry some more.
I find that Bellatrix has a sister named Narcissa Black, who married Lucius Malfoy... which makes Draco my cousin, and his mother my aunt... That's more family than I bargained for.
Suddenly, someone enters the room behind me.
"I see you found a room then, Fred was beginning to worry, sent me up to check on you."
I turn around only to find Sirius sitting down behind me, watching me curiously.
"I thought you were Fred." I admit. Sirius nods.
"He wanted to come back up here and find you but I convinced him to let me come up instead. I had a feeling you would be in here." He says, staring at his name on the tapestry, where his picture has been burned off.
The room goes quiet as we both stare at the tapestry.
"It's a little overwhelming isn't it? Most Pureblood families are related." He comments quietly. I nod simply, turning back to look at the tapestry.
"Are we related?" I ask in a small voice.
"Of course." Sirius smiles. "Your mother's my cousin. So we're extended family but family all the same."
"Does your house elf know that?" I ask with a sigh.
"Not to my knowledge." Sirius says. "Why? What did he do?"
"He... called me 'Mistress Black' and banged his head against the wall when I yelled at him for calling my muggleborn friend a... you know what." I say slowly.
"Ah." Sirius says knowingly. "He probably mistook you for your mum. You do look exceptionally like her."
"Lovely." I exhale. My words are followed by an empty moment as no one speaks for a while.
"Right well, you'd better get downstairs." Sirius finally says semi-awkwardly. "Fred will be waiting."
I nod and stand, leaving the room without a moment's hesitation, wanting to get away from the situation as fast as possible. I head downstairs and am about to re-enter my shared room with Lani and McKenna, when arms wrap around my waist from behind and pull me backward.
"You didn't forget, did you, Nessa?" Fred asks, already pulling me towards his and George's room. "I told you, we have important business to discuss."
"Sorry, I got caught up in my conversation with Sirius." I say. "You can put me down now, I'm coming."
"So he found you then?" Fred asks, putting me down. "What did you talk about?"
"Family." I say simply. "We're related."
"Are you?" Fred asks casually as he opens the door ahead of us.
"Yep. We're second cousins or something. Extended family." I say.
"You took long enough." George exclaims, talking over Fred as he tries to say something. "What were you, snogging in the hallway?"
"I wish." Fred says cheekily, I shove him lightly to the side.
"No, I only just came down here." I explain.
"Right." George says in a disbelieving tone. "Anyway, let's get to work. We need your help with charms for our new invention, Nessa."
"And what's that?" I ask curiously.
"Skiving snackboxes." Fred and George say together.
"Oh." I say, remembering the sketch and simple explanation of the product in our ideas book. "I thought I only worked in the Wonder Witch area, and anyway, aren't we supposed to be discussing dung bombs?"
"Yeah, and we're still going to do the dung bomb attack during tonights meeting, but for now we need your help with the skiving snackboxes." George explains.
"And yes, you're the main representative of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes that's in charge of Wonder Witch products, but you can still help us." Fred adds. I nod.
"When did we come up with that name, though? Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" I ask. "I'm not a part of the name?"
"You could be." Fred wiggles his eyebrows at me, and all three of us burst into fits of laughter.
*
Two hours of talking, laughing, and working later, and we have couple handfuls of double-ended prank sweets to show for it. It's not bad really, but we could have made more if we hadn't wasted so much time talking and teasing when we first got started.
Suddenly, the front door opens and closes downstairs several times, shaking the upper levels of the house each time.
"The meeting's starting!" George exclaims.
"Time for the dungboms!" Fred grins.
I drop the half finished skiving snackbox in my hands, and stand, laughing because I didn't think we were actually going to go through with this.
The twins gather up their stash of dung bombs from inside the boxes under their beds, and head out into the hall, standing by the stairway banister. Standing here we can see the front entry way and the kitchen door currently swinging open.
The front door suddenly swings open again, and none other than Severus Snape steps into the grimy house, slamming the door heavily behind him.
"It must be serious." Fred whispers, watching Snape enter the kitchen. "If he's here."
"Maybe we should forget the dung bombs, save them for tomorrow's meeting, and just listen in again." George suggests in a whispered tone.
"Okay." I nod, wanting to hear whatever is serious enough to have Snape make an appearance.
The door opens again, and the three of us duck beneath the stair railing as Mad-Eye Moody also enters the house, his magical eye flitting around, finally landing on us just as we sit above the stairwell.
Soon, though, he's entered the kitchen, and the meeting seems to be starting, so the twins take the dung bombs back to their room, retrieving the extendable ears instead, lowering them down to the kitchen door as soon as they return.
The three of us crowd around the end of the extendable ears, and immediately hear many voices arguing, their words blurring together, making it hard to catch a single word, other than Harry's name, which seems to be used in every sentence.
I look at Fred and George in confusion, but they look as puzzled as I do.
"What happened?" George wonders aloud.
"Harry must have gotten into trouble again." I say, stating the obvious. "Why can't that boy take a break, just one peaceful year..."
"Not likely." Fred points out.
Suddenly, the arguing beneath us stops as one voice booms above the rest.
"It should concern you lot to know that our discussion is no longer private!" Mad-Eye must have been the one to say it.
"Uh-oh." I whisper.
"Scatter!" Fred whispers fiercely.
I run across the hall, into my shared room with Lani and McKenna, and can just see the twins break into a run towards their room before I close the door, and back away from the door slightly.
"Merlin's beard! What was that about?" McKenna exclaims.
Just then, the sound of yelling fills the halls below, reverberating through to the upper level, and I know that the twins must have been caught. My heart sinks, knowing that I should have been caught too.
After a brief moment of silence from outside, the door in front of me opens, and I no longer feel pity for the twins, as they're standing in front of me, Mrs. Weasley behind them, holding the extendable ears.
"Hello?" I ask uncertainly, trying to act innocent.
"These two say that you were listening in on the order meeting with them, is that true?" Mrs. Weasley asks, obviously fighting to stay calm. McKenna snorts behind me, her question having just been answered. I stay silent, contemplating how to go about answering her.
"No..." I hesitate, attempting to sound confused. "I'm sorry, I didn't know they were listening in or I would have stopped them. I respect the order's privacy."
Molly squints at me for a moment, then gives an apologetic smile.
"Oh yes of course, I should have known you wouldn't be involved in such a thing." She says quickly. "Sorry to bother you then, I'll just deal with these two downstairs."
"Don't worry about it." I say in an understanding tone. Fred and George stare at me in shock as their mother drags them away by the ear, and when she isn't looking, I wink at them and close the door.
The second the door is shut, McKenna bursts into laughter.
"Way to get out of that one." She says breathily.
"You really shouldn't have lied." Lani reasons, partially drowned out by McKenna. "You shouldn't have been eavesdropping in the first place!"
"It's fine, the twins would have done the same thing if they could have." I say, waving off her accusations.
"That doesn't make it the right thing to do." Lani says in a motherly tone.
"Touché." I nod.
*
By the time Mrs. Weasley calls us down for dinner, I've received a full lecture from Lani, McKenna has about pulled her hair out, and it's been hours since I've heard anything from the twins.
"Saved by the dinner bell!" McKenna exclaims, rolling off of her bed where she'd been pouting.
"I didn't hear a bell." Lani states blankly. McKenna and I stare at her until I'm about ready to tell her that she takes everything too literally, but she suddenly smiles. "I'm only teasing."
"There's the mischievous Lani I know and love." McKenna smiles, ruffling Lani's hair, though she doesn't appreciate this gesture.
The three of us walk downstairs and into the kitchen together, where we find Fred and George sitting on opposite ends of the table, probably because of Molly, and a few order members scattered between them, though Snape, luckily, has left.
McKenna sits down by George, and I sit with Lani near Fred. Soon, Ron and Hermione come downstairs and take their seats, followed by Sylvia and Ginny who sit next to Lani, Fred and I.
Mrs. Weasley busies herself in making sure that everyone gets at least two helpings of meat and potato stew, while order members around the table speak casually to one another, all except a younger looking girl with bright pink hair, who turns her face into that of a pig, trying to earn some laughs. It would surprise me, if I hadn't seen her take on the face of a duck at dinner last night.
"Nymphadora, really, stop making faces and eat your food, please." Mrs. Weasley insists as she walks past the girl.
"Don't call me Nymphadora." She replies, her hair turning bright red. "It's Tonks."
I smile slightly, but turn my attention away from 'Tonks' as I catch sight of George and McKenna whispering and grinning across the table, and smile.
McKenna's POV:
"So what were you lot doing before you got caught for listening in?" I wonder aloud.
"Working on our new invention." George smirks, wrapping an arm around me.
"Well, now you have to tell me what it is." I laugh
"I don't think so." He teases, shaking his head.
"Vanessa knows, so why can't I?" I insist. "Just tell me."
"Alright." George gives in. I look at him expectantly. "They're called Skiving Snackboxes. You bite one end, you get sick, after you get out of class, you bite the other end and you're perfectly fine."
"Uhm, where were those when Snape went out of his way to beat up on me in potions last year?" I exclaim excitedly. George just chuckles. "Could I have some?"
"For a price." He quips.
"And what would that be?" I ask, an innocent smile on my face.
"A kiss." George smirks. I raise my eyebrows at him.
"I think that could be arranged."
*
After dinner, George and I walk back upstairs, stopping just outside his shared room.
"So how about that kiss?" Geroge whispers, smiling at me.
I smirk, and stand on tip-toe to kiss him on the cheek. He frowns, making me laugh.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." He says in a low voice, stepping closer to me and wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Well it was a kiss." I smile innocently. George chuckles quietly, shaking his head, and leans in, pressing his lips against my own.
I wrap my arms around his neck, and we slowly walk backwards until my back hits the door.
"Now who's snogging in the hall?"
I pull away instantly, just in time to see Fred laughing at the top of the stairs, and Vanessa slap him upside the head. George presses a couple of sweets into my hand, shaking his head at the couple.
"Shove off!" He says, pushing Fred away when he holds up his hand for a high-five. Vanessa rolls her eyes, takes Fred by the arm, and pulls him into our shared room, though that doesn't stop us from hearing her yelling.
George and I burst into laughter.
"You know," George says, his voice serious again. "I think we've been too focused on getting them together that we haven't taken the time to get together ourselves."
"I think you're right." I smile. George turns to whisper in my ear.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" He asks quietly. In answer, I pull him down by his collar into another kiss.
Vanessa's POV:
"Fred!" I exclaim, hitting his shoulder. "That was probably their first kiss!"
"I know for a fact that it was." Fred laughs.
"If that was us you wouldn't think it was funny." I point out.
"Technically, George did interrupt what would have been our first kiss." Fred insists.
"Yes he did and then you got flustered and tried to walk away." I remind him. "That's my point."
"That's not how I remember it." Fred laughs.
"And how do you remember it?" I ask.
"I walked you back to the common room, and we'd just gone through the portrait hole when you tried to kiss me, then George came downstairs, and I tried to leave, but you kissed me anyway, because you can't resist me." Fred grins, making me laugh.
"I'm going to bed." I announce, still laughing. "You can keep dreaming."
Fred smirks, and draws me in to him for a kiss.
"Goodnight, love." He says as he pulls away.
~•~
"Will you two shut up?" Lani shouts, looking miserable, laying on her bed. "I get it, McKenna and George are dating now, but can you talk about something else? Not all of us have perfect, happy relationships, and I don't need you rubbing it in my face!"
"Lani... Are you okay?" I ask quietly, looking away from McKenna, who I've been talking with for the past hour.
"No." She answers simply, a tear falling down her cheek. "Goodnight."
She waves her wand, after telling McKenna and I to get into bed, and turns off the light, leaving the three of us in an uncomfortable silence. What just happened?
AN: Guess who's back from California!!! Hope you guys like this chapter, I made it a little longer than usual because you had to wait so long for an update. Remember to vote and comment!!!