The following day, Tom and Sirius ignored each other and only acknowledge each other when needed be. It was awkward for Charity and the girls, it was as if they had to take a side, but they knew that I would just worsen the situation. On the second day, an owl came from Dumbledore, saying that he would come to take Sirius to Grimmauld Place personally the following day, midnight. It only allowed Sirius to pack his things shortly – but given that he had only so little to no things, he didn't quite need to pack, instead, he helped Carina to pack.
"You got your trunk ready?" Sirius asked.
"Yes." Carina nodded.
"Books?"
"I still don't have the list, Dad. They won't come until next month."
"Right... well how about an extra jumper, then, or a scarf?"
"Got it all packed."
"What about this?" Sirius held out the doll that Carina would sleep with every night.
"Oh, right, sorry." Carina took the doll and placed it in her purse that they had placed an Extension Charm.
"Now, before we leave..." Sirius sighed, "I want you to apologize to your Uncle."
Carina stayed silent.
"I will." She muttered.
"It's only right, dear." Sirius sighed, "I'm sure it hurt him when you chose me over him."
"But you're my dad!"
"But he raised you..." Sirius reluctantly said, "And this is his house, so it's only right."
Carina nodded. "Alright."
"Good. Now go." Sirius said, "And say good-bye to Maisie, you won't be seeing her until you go to Hogwarts."
Carina complied and left her room, leaving Sirius alone. Sirius sighed and sat down on the bed, it wasn't that long until a knock came to the door, Sirius called out 'it's open' then the person came in and climbs the stairs. To his surprise it was Tom that came. Sirius got up from the bed to acknowledge Tom.
"Tom." He said.
"Sirius." Tom said back. "Carina apologized earlier – I believe it was your doing?"
"Even if I didn't tell her to, she would still have apologized. Where is she now?"
"At Maisie's room, saying goodbye, and I heard them saying about giving Fred the cat one last scare before she leaves." Tom chuckled at the last part. There was a long pause before he spoke again. "I came to give this to you." He handed Sirius a narrow chest, locked with a key. "I believe you would be needing it..."
With the key that hung with a chain attached to the chest, Sirius opened the it and saw a beautiful wand. He remembered this wand, its smooth cherry wood that had a small design of two rings with the texture of scales, and then at the part of its holder was a dragon carved all around it. It was a beautiful wand to Sirius, a treasure worth more than gold.
"Emmanuelle." Sirius smiled at the sight of the wand.
"I was able to find it – I hid it and thought that maybe Carina would like to have it, but I thought that maybe she would prefer to have experience the whole wand-choosing at Ollivander..." Tom said. "Cherry wood with a Dragon heartstring core, twelve inches... I hope it would fit you."
Sirius took the wand from the chest, he caressed the smooth surface of the wand to its carvings and held it with his right hand. He thought of a spell to try the wand, then he remembered.
"Avis."
And from the wand came out two birds, and flew around the room.
"Well it works." Tom said, "Well now, how do you get these birds out of the bloody room before they –" the birds just pooped and it land on Tom's shoulder " make a mess..."
•†•
Quarter to midnight, the Goldsteins and the Blacks sat waiting in the living room, drinking tea. Sirius had used a shrinking spell to shrink Carina's things and had it in a pouch, and they already had Hester flying around and had told him to go to Tonks' home for the time being. Carina had already fallen asleep on the couch beside Maisie – who was also snoring – with Fred in her arms, laying in defeat as he wasn't able to escape his owner's hold.
Sirius stared at Fred as he begged him though his eyes. He didn't know what to feel for the cat or what to do with him, he felt that he should help the cat and get him out of Maisie's strong grip or just watch in amusement as the cat continued to beg to be free
"You and Fred seem like to have a connection." Tom mused, "Is it an animal, thing?"
Sirius turned to Tom with a frown. "Ha. Ha." He said sarcastically.
"Sometimes I feel sorry for him," Charity sighed, "But most of the time I'm glad."
"Why?" Sirius turned to Charity.
"Because he keeps on shedding and it's getting quite annoying to clean up his shedding."
Sirius and Tom chuckled.
"Where did you get this cat? He doesn't seem to be the normal cats that we usually see in Diagon Alley." Sirius asked as he eyed Fred's orange and white fur.
"Oh, he's not from Diagon Alley." Tom said, "We found Fred at a Muggle park. Maisie took a liking to him when he was still a little kitten and begged for us to keep it..."
"Huh." Sirius said as he once again looked at Fred in the eye. "And he's always been one-eyed?"
"Yes." Charity said. "Maisie said that the one-eyed-ness added to why she loved him even more."
"Peculiar kid." Sirius said.
"She is... very..." Tom chuckled when she saw Maisie's hold on Fred tightened even more.
The bell of the clock rang. It was midnight. Tom and Charity got up to ready the arrival of Dumbledore and the other members of the Auror to assist the travel of Sirius and Carina. Sirius went to wake Carina from her slumber and had her ready.
"Wake up, sweetheart, time to go." Sirius said.
Carina woke and stretched, she then poked Maisie awake, and the girl got up.
"You're leaving now?" Maisie asked.
"Yes, Maise..."
"Well, bye." Maisie said and brought Carina to a tight hug.
Carina hugged back and let's Fred escape while he still can.
"I'll miss you, Maisie... see you at the station then."
"See you."
The door opened and came in Dumbledore with Alastor Moody, Lupin, and Tonks at his side. Carina and Maisie smiled upon seeing Tonks, they both ran to the woman and hugged her. Whilst Sirius greeted Lupin.
"Aww, I missed you two!" Tonks said.
"We missed you Tonks!" Maisie said.
After releasing Tonks, Carina turned to Lupin and wrapped him in a hug as well.
"It's been so long!" Carina said.
"Sorry if I havent' been able to write back... things have been busy." Lupin said.
"All right, all right!" Moody interrupted the reunions, "Reunions' over, we have to move!"
"Now, where are you things?" Tonks asked Carina.
Sirius got out a small pouch and tossed it to Tonks. Of course, Tonks – the clumsy woman she was – almost dropped the pouch, but managed to get it.
"Got it here." She said.
Moody scoffed at Tonks' clumsiness.
"So, how do we travel? Brooms? Do we apparate to the place?" Carina asked.
"We don't have brooms." Said Lupin.
"We apparate then?" Carina asked.
"Yes... but not directly at the location..." Lupin said.
"Sirius, if you don't mind transforming to your Animagus form... we will be walking for the night." Dumbledore said.
"Of course." Sirius said, the beside Carina, Sirius transformed a huge black dog. His clothes were left on the ground, and his wedding band on the ground. Sirius was about to get his wedding band with his mouth, but Carina beat him to it and had hung with her mother's wedding band.
"I'll hold on to it." Carina told her father.
Sirius let out a whine as a response.
"Sirius will be traveling with Tonks." Alastor said, "Black will be traveling with Lupin..."
Carina bit goodbye to Tom, Charity and Maisie, then hugged her father. She then stood beside Lupin and held on to his hand. Then the vacuum like feeling came and Carina was apparated away from the Goldstein house.
•†•
Carina felt like she was about to puke, she was dizzy and she felt her insides all messed up.
"Don't worry... that's exactly how it felt when I first apparated." Lupin chuckled at Carina. Carina had her hands on her knees as she tried to support herself. "Shall we?"
"Yeah... just a bit dizzy." Carina sighed.
After taking her breath, Carina and Lupin walked down the dark Muggle streets. She held on to Lupin as they walked, she looked around the streets and found some Muggle teens walking around, smoking, drinking, and some even shouted at those who drove by. This wasn't what she expected of Muggles her age, but who was she to judge when there was Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson, she thought.
They arrived at a series of series of Muggle homes, identical to each other. Lupin then got out a piece of paper for Carina and made her read it.
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
Carina did not ask more because right before her eyes, gaps between the two Muggle houses eleven and thirteen widened, and came out another building, identical to the others at the street.
Lupin was first to enter the house, and as expected it was dusty and covered with cobwebs. Once he was sure that it was secured, Lupin had Carina follow after him and they both ventured into the house. They settled in the living area of the house, they didn't even thought of sitting down. It was too dusty.
"Well, welcome to twelve Grimmauld Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix." Lupins said.
Carina simply smiled, but as she and Lupin looked around, they knew that there was too much work to do before the others would arrive.
"Its... homey." Carina said.
•†•
Sirius and Tonks arrived at Twelve Grimmauld Place at exactly two o'clock. He stared at his old home and all the memories of his time in the place – not so happy memories, the only happy thing that happened in this place was when he walked out of its doors and never looked back. That was the only happy thing that happened in Twelve Grimmauld Place – and it happened at the door!
Upon entering the house, Sirius was able to transform back to his human form. He frowned at the sight of the untouched house – literally, since it was all covered with dust. The sound of shuffling inside the house caught Sirius and Tonks' attention, they immediately walked further until they saw Lupin waving his wand around, directing the cleaning supplies to clean the surroundings.
"I see you've made yourself quite at home, Moony." Sirius chuckled, "And are living up to the role of 'mother' I see."
"Well, who else is going to clean this place up, I don't reckon you're the most tidy person, Sirius." Lupin smirked.
Sirius rolled his eyes. He looked around the house, slowly getting cleaned, but there was something missing.
"Where's Carina?" Sirius asked.
"She said that she'd be cleaning upstairs." Lupin said.
A loud shriek echoed in Twelve Grimmauld Place, Sirius, Tonks and Lupin immediately ran up to where the loud shriek came from. Sirius saw Carina in shock at the shrieking painting before her, Sirius quickly went to his daughter and pulled her away from the painting.
"Filthy scum! Half-breed! A product of dirt! Just because your mother was a Goldstein does not excuse that you are a filthy Half-breed! I cannot believe that a half-breed now carries the honorable name of Black! I would have killed you the moment you were born!"
"Stay with Tonks." Sirius told Carina. He then tried to take the painting off of the wall, but won't budge. "Remus! A hand!" Sirius called. Lupin and Sirius then tried to remove the painting, but still can't. The woman kept on screaming, yelling profanities towards Carina and Tonks, then Lupin – pointing out that he was werewolf – and then Sirius.
"And you! Blood-traitor! An abomination! A shame to the House of Black!"
"Shut up!" Sirius yelled at the painting.
"Tonks, a blanket!" Lupin said.
Tonks went to get a blanket and came back with a white and dusty one. The two men then covered the painting and the house was once again quiet. Sirius and Remus sighed once the woman was quiet.
"She must've placed a spell so no one can take her off." Sirius sighed, "Bloody woman."
"Who was that?" Carina asked.
Sirius sighed. "Carina, meet your grandmother."
"My grandmother?" Carina asked, still can't believe that she was related to a woman like that.
"Yes. My dear old mum..." Sirius reluctantly said.
"Not quite for first impressions..." Lupin chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood.
"Sorry if she said some things." Sirius told Carina.
"It's alright... are all my relatives at the Black side this crazy?" Carina asked.
"I'm afraid so, darling." Sirius said.
"Well I'm not." Tonks grinned.
"Shall we continue with the cleaning then?" Lupin said, "So we can leave Grand-mummy Black to her... cursing."
"I'll just clean upstairs." Carina said.
"Make sure to look out for doxies!" Lupin said.
Carina yelled 'will do' from the stairs, then the sound of opening of the door and a small yelp caught the adults. Sirius and Lupin sighed and massaged their temples.
"I'll go with her." Tonks said
"Thank you, Nymphadora." Sirius said.
"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks sneered. Her hair turning red. Once Tonks went to Carina's aid. The two friends looked around and cleaned.
"I can't believe I'm back here..." Sirius said. "I hated this place."
"I know... but it's only for the time being... the Order needs a place to stay in secret... after all this, once you're free, you and Carina, and Harry can live at the Hill." Lupin reassured his friend.
"Now that'd be something to look up to." Sirius smiled. But his smile faltered at a thought. "I can't believe that this house is all that I can inherit Carina – a bloody house with a screeching woman."
"I'm sure you can find something else." Lupin said.
It wasn't long when the peaceful silence was interrupted once more by a grumpy-sneering house-elf.
"You! You disrupted the Mistress! You Blood-Traitor!"
Sirius sighed and faced the house-elf with a glare. "Your still here?"
The house-elf sneered at Sirius, but it didn't scare the man. It just made him even more angry at the creature.
"Off with you! Leave!" Sirius said to the house-elf towards the kitchen where he had his little bed. The house-elf then left, muttering under his breath.
"Interesting." Lupin said.
"Kreacher." Sirius sighed. "The only good thing to being the next Black to inherit this place is that I can get that bloody house-elf to shut-up."
"There is always a bright side, my friend."
•†•
They were still cleaning the House when Dumbledore and Moody came with some one – or something.
"I see you've cleaned." Moody said.
"It'd be bad hospitality if I had my guests sleep on dirty sheets." Sirius said.
"Where's the little Black?" Moody asked.
"At my old room." Sirius said, "She fell asleep."
"I believe that we will be having an extra guest, Sirius." Dumbledore said.
Lupin, Tonks and Sirius had a curious look in their eyes. Dumbledore then turned to the distorted camouflage behind him and Moody, he waved his hand and a spell came off the thing. And to Sirius' surprise it was his trusty hippogriff, and co-fugitive. Buckbeak.
"Beaky?" Sirius chuckled. Buckbeak let out a screech and he made his way to Sirius, letting the man pet him. "I remember leaving you at the hill, it was the safest place to be."
"Aurors plan on searching the Hill again." Dumbledore said, "Alastor and I had to get Buckbeak away from there before they caught him... I hope there is enough room for him."
Sirius then smirked. "Oh, there is."
Sirius left Buckbeak to feast on the doxies and boggarts in his mother's old bedroom, where the hippogriff can scratch, shed all over his mother's bed. It was the perfect payback for all those years of torment, and for yelling at his daughter. When Sirius got down, Dumbledore bid farewell, needing to meet with the other members of the Order.
After cleaning for some more, Lupin and Tonks bid farewell to Sirius, needing to go home themselves. Sirius gave Lupin a pat at the back before the man apparated away, and told Tonks to say hello to Andromeda for him and Carina, then she too left. Once alone, Sirius made his way up the stairs then to his old room, he saw Carina sleeping peacefully on his old bed, he sat down on the space beside Carina and laid down. He stared at the ceiling of his room, then to the clock.
6:00 AM. It read. Sirius sighed then closed his eyes to rest.