Chapter 3:
My feet landed on solid ground abruptly, I gasped at the sudden feeling of the atmosphere coming back to me.
I looked around at what surrounded me, we seemed to have been in a flat. It was dark, poorly lit and a bit dusty. I saw Kingsley, Mad eye and Tonks waking down the hallway in front of me, Tonks looking back and ushering me to follow.
I looked down and saw my trunk by my side, though there was a small house elf who had his hands on the handle.
"Ms' bag will be brought up to the mudbloods room, they said, with the mudblood and blood traitor," he grumbled, looking up at me with hate in his eyes.
"Thank you," I said quietly, shocked that a house elf had such prejudice, and to the family is was serving... then I began to wonder who's house this was.
"Kreacher! Don't speak that way to our guests!" An angry voice warned, I looked up to see that Mad Eye and Kingsley had walked away, and a new figure was beside Tonks. Kreacher simply bowed and hulled my trunk down the hallway and up the stairs.
"I'm sorry about that, he's grown accustomed to his old families beliefs," the man said in a much nicer tone, taking a step forward. I furrowed my eyebrows at who he was, he looked very familiar, though I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Well I'm Sirius," he introduced, then it clicked, he was Sirius Black. Harry has told me the truth about what had happened to him, that it was actually a man by the name of peter pettigrew who betrayed his parents and became a follower of Voldemort.
"I'm Anastasia," I said in a full voice for the first time in a few hours, "I'm sorry to burden you all my staying here," I apologized, looking around awkwardly.
"Oh, you are not a burden," he said in a shocked tone, "Harry's told me so much about you, anyone who's a friend of my godson is a friend of mine, you're very much welcomed here," he said, flashing a kind but sympathetic smile.
"Thank you," I smiled weakly at the thought of Harry talking about all our memories, "it means a lot," I mumbled, playing with my hands anxiously.
"Stassie?" I heard a familiar voice called out from behind Tonks and Sirius. They turned to see who was talking, allowing me to see Hermione, with Ron right on her tail. She ran past the two adults, my way, wrapping her arms around me. I hesitated before hugging her back, bursts of warmth and happiness bursting through me.
We broke apart, I smiled at her, happy to have friends close by. I turned to Ron and noticed him rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, with a small smile on his face. I took a step toward him and gave in a huge hug, smiling when it was him that hesitated into the hug, knowing that his ears would be bright red.
"Wait," I pulled away and took a step back, they both looked at me with confused faces, "what are you guys doing here? Why haven't you been answering Harry's letters?" I took a step closer, seeing that Sirius and Tonks had left us to ourselves, though wanting to make sure there were no prying ears, "this is headquarters for aurors, is it not?" I wondering out loud, remembering hearing that Mad eye and Kingley were talking about earlier.
Hermione shushed me, and lead me upstairs, past a few doors. I looked back at Ron, shaking my head slightly as if asking what the hell was going on, he simply shrugged and nodded forward to keep walking up.
Once we entered a room, that held two beds, one looked untouched and the other well lived in. Hermione sat on an old leather arm chair, Ron on the messy bed, I stood by the door, still wondering what the hell was going on.
"Stassie, I really shouldn't be telling you this," Hermione started, thinking over every word that comes out of her mouth.
"Especially now, Stass we heard what happened, we really don't want you to stress over all this," Ron said, interrupting Hermione, she glared at him and shifted in her seat to face me completely.
"How are you holding up, by the way?" Ron asked, Hermione nodding along, as if asking the question as well.
"I don't know yet," I said, actually thinking about how I was truly doing. I guess I hadn't worried much about how I was feeling due to worrying about how my father was doing. I think as good as I can be, you know, with all that's happened, I'm just relieved my father is being treated with proper care now," I mumbled quietly, sitting beside Ron, inbetween my two friends.
"Oh Stassie," Hermione started in a quiet voice, "you know we will always here for you," she finished, reaching her arm over to placed a hand on mine in comfort.
"Thank you, thank you both," I smiled at both of them, squeezing hermione's hand slightly, I was lucky to have friends who cared as much as they do.
"So, what is this?" I asked after a brief moment of silence, looking around at the bedroom we sat in. I wondered what type of 'headquarters' held in some random family's flat, with aurors, a wrongly convicted ex felon and hogwarts students alike.
"Well, it's top secret, Dumbledore made us swear not to speak a word of it to any outsider," Hermione said, biting her lip nervously, "though, I suppose you're here now, so you should be kept in the loop," she contemplated to herself, causing Ron to sigh.
"Well spit it out then," Ron said, crossing his arms across his chest. Already annoyed at his friends internal conflicts.
"That's rude, Ronald," Hermione said, causing Ron to roll his eyes, "Stass those aurors, they're apart of a secret organization.... under Dumbledore," she said, with a tone of excitement.
"Dumbledore?" I asked, unsure about how our elderly head master is running some secret organization.
"Yes, it's to protect all muggles, witches and wizards alike, since the ministry is doing nothing about the rise of Voldemort, even though he's obviously back and forming an army," Hermione said, leaning back to her regular position on her chair after slowly leaning in out of the excitement of telling a secret.
"That's incredible," I said, looking between my two friends, "though, how are you two here? Apart of all this? And how is Harry not apart of this," I asked, her explanation just giving me more questions.
"Well my dad's apart of the order," Ron began explaining, I furrowed my eyebrows.
"The order? What order?" I asked, turning more to Ron.
"Oh well, it's Dumbledores order," Ron said, beginning to explain, "the order of the phenix," he finished, I nodded in response.
"So your dad is apart of the order, what about you 'Mione? Aren't they dentists?" I asked, moving so I was facing Hermione now.
"Well yes, but with all the muggle deaths recently, my parents 'won' a trip to Australia. Thanks to the Weasley's and the Order, they are now safe and away from any harm that Voldemort can cause," Hermione said, recognizing her tone and the look in her eyes, seeing how much she missed her parents.
"I'm glad they're safe, Hermione," I said with a small smile, meaning it from the bottom of my heart.
A knock on the door broke the silence that fell on to the room, the door opened halfway to show Mrs. Weasley.
"Dinner's ready," she informed us all, looking at me last, walking towards me, enveloping me into a motherly hug.
"I'm so happy to know you are safe, dear," she whispered, breaking apart out hug and looking me up and down. She grabbed my cheeks and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Look at you, have you been eating properly? You look like you've barely slept a wink," she began to fuss over me, though I knew it was in a caring manner.
"Mum leave her be, she needs to settle down a bit," Ron said in an annoyed tone, he and Hermione stood up together and walked by my side. Mrs. Weasley simply sighed, ignoring her sons attitude.
"Well, come down to dinner, we need to be quick as there's an important meeting afterwards," she informed before leaving the room.
Ron and Hermione made their way toward the door, turning slightly toward me, waiting for me to follow them.
"I'll be right down, I just need to settle a bit... do you know where I'll be staying?" I asked while standing up.
"You, Ginny and I are sharing a room directly above this one," Hermione said, pointing up the stairs.
"This is mine, Fred and George have the one across from yours, we can give you a tour soon if you'd like," Ron added, with his regular grin. I nodded and said my thanks, walking up the stairs as they made their way down to what I assumed was the dining room and kitchen.
Once I made my way up, I noticed Kreature leaving the room Hermione instructed was ours.
"Thank you for grabbing my things," I said, hoping to not anger the already grumpy house elf. He simply eyed me cautiously and grumbled on about how he rather be dead then work for blood traitors.
I simply walked by him, ignoring his racists profanities and shut the door behind me. I noticed three twin size beds lined up side by side on the left side of the room, with a large dresser facing them on the right.
There was a long window at the end, the bed closest to it had my trunk on coat on it. I made my way over and looked out the window, to notice we were in London. Maybe I'd get to visit Harry after all, that is, if I was allowed to leave.
I sighed and layed down on the bed, taking in all that had happened today and falling into a reckless sleep.