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Grimmauld place was a complete and utter mess, no one was denying that. Elle had learnt that the house belonged to Sirius, it was his childhood home. He'd allowed it to be used for the order as they needed a safe place that wouldn't be suspected. The house was covered in dust on almost every surface. Molly had been encouraging everyone to help clean the place up however Fred and George seemed more involved in the development of their new skiving snack boxes.
May people traipsed through the house for the super secret meetings. Elle saw professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore walking through the corridor at some point. It felt weird seeing the teachers out of school, she usually just stayed upstairs out of their way but had run into them a few times. Mad eye moody also clunked through at some point. At the end of last year it had been discovered that a death eater by the name of Barty Crouch Jr had actually been using Polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Moody so Elle had never actually met the renowned auror.
The Weasley's were permanently staying at Grimmauld place for the time being to be close to the order. Remus came and went but seemed to be around a lot as did Athena Sinistra who was often there even when her sister wasn't. Sirius and Theodore stayed constantly as they were still on the run from the ministry. Elle liked the excuse to see her brother so much. Kennedy also seemed to live there permanently, she still intimidated Elle as she walked around carrying the black baseball bat. Tonks (like Remus) was there frequently but not all the time. Out of the members Elle had just met, Tonks was by far her favourite.
Tonks may be older than the kids by a few years but that didn't stop her from being a lot of fun. Ginny and Elle were often roped in by her ability to change her appearance from will. She would go through a rainbow of hair colours deciding which one suited her best (pink being her favourite). More impressively she could change aspects of her face, such as her nose and morph it into a beak and a snout. This was highly amusing to see.
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One morning, Elle and the twins had been roped into removing doxies from many of the rooms. Doxies were small little winged creatures that were extremely annoying. Their venom was poisonous and they tended to hide in places such as the drapes and carpets. Elle had learned about them in her care of magical creatures classes last year and therefore knew that the best way to get rid of them was by using a simple knock back jinx.
Elle was more successful at this than the twins who couldn't focus on the doxies flying around and ended up smashing a mirror into large segments.
"Repairo" Elle muttered allowing the shards of glass to come together into a mended form again. "You two break stuff even when you're not trying" Elle turned to the twins who were now playing a game of catch with an immobilised doxy.
"I'm going to get some doxicide, don't do anything stupid" Elle frowned at the two childish men before leaving the room to try and find Molly.
Doxicide was another effective way of removing the pests, it was how Ginny had been doing it all week considering she wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school.
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She was walking down one of the halls when she caught sight of a glittering orb hanging above a large chest of open drawers. Enchanted by it, Elle opened the door to the room. She was surprised you what she saw. Kennedy was standing stiff in front of the orb gazing at it. Her wand was loosely grasped in her hand as her eyes reflected the delicate light.
Elle recognised the orb to be the moon as it was shielded slightly by wisps of cloud.
Elle was about to make her presence known when Kennedy spotted her, the expression on her face turned quite dark as she stared at the girl. She hastily turned to the orb and pointed her wand at it.
"Ridikkulus" she stated tonelessly and Elle watched as the moon became a yo-yo which bounced a few times up and down before the wand flicked and the moon flew back into the drawers.
Kennedy looked at Elle one last time before walking past her without saying a word. For the first time Elle noticed three large scratches down the side of her face and neck. Her heavy boots made loud noises as she stomped her way down the steps.
Elle recognised that Kennedy had been tackling a boggart from the spell she had used. The only other person she'd known to have the moon for their boggart was Remus.
Was it possible that Kennedy was a werewolf too? She knew they weren't that common but the scratches on her neck and her fear being the moon seemed to suggest that this was the case.
Elle decided it was really none of her business but as she stood there alone in the corridor she seemed to have forgotten why she was there in the first place, her mind was cleared from any thoughts excepts ones surrounding Kennedy.
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When she returned to the room the twins were in it hit her that she'd been going to find Doxicide. However it seemed they hadn't needed it, in the short time that Elle had been gone it seemed that Fred and George had managed to rid the room of Doxies, she wasn't sure how they'd done it but she wasn't about to complain. That left one less task for them to do,
"You alright" George smiled hopefully at Elle who had been frowning at the floor thinking about what she had just seen,
"Yeah" Elle replied bluntly,
"What's bothering you" George continued, Elle was an awful liar everyone knew that.
"It's nothing... well" the twins looked intrigued now.
"I just saw Kennedy facing a boggart" Elle sighed,
"What did it turn into? Clothing that isn't black?" Fred joked causing Elle to smirk. After all the woman seemed to wear nothing but black.
"It turned into the moon"
"Like Lupin's" Fred gasped "do you think she's a werewolf?"
"Well she does have scratches all over her neck" Elle continued.
"Kennedy is a werewolf" all three of them jumped and spun around to see Sirius lazily leaning against the door frame,
"Sorry" Elle muttered immediately "we were just being nosy" Sirius chuckled,
"You don't have to apologise, just don't bring it up in front of her it's quite a new development"
Fred, George and Elle all shuddered as Sirius disappeared down the corridor singing to himself.
They all gazed at each other slightly awkwardly before they heard the chipper call of Mrs Weasley announcing that tea was ready.
They entered the kitchen to see many people grouped round the table. Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Ron, Ginny, Theo, Sirius, Remus, Athena, Tonks and Kennedy were all sat looking hungrily at Molly who was currently serving pasta into large bowls.
Elle and the twins squeezed on the end of table and took bowls of their own eating quite quietly.
Bill and Charlie were arguing about their brother (Percy) and specifically his high up role in the ministry,
"He has no problem stabbing us all in the back to get what he wants" Bill snapped,
Percy hadn't been mentioned thus far since Elle had arrived and she had wondered where the other Weasley brother was these days. Every time his name was brought up in the discussion, Elle noticed that Molly would tense slightly.
"So last year at Hogwarts next year" Sirius turned to Elle and the twins who looked up and all nodded,
"We had some good times in Hogwarts" he looked up at Remus and winked, Elle's uncle just shook his head.
"Ahhh he's in denial he had great fun really" Sirius chuckled before looking over to Kennedy and Athena who were sitting close together "didn't we" he edged them.
"Yes of course we did" Athena smiled, Kennedy on the other hand didn't even look up. Elle hoped whatever had caused her foul mood wasn't the fact that she'd walked in in her facing that boggart.
"I wonder who the defence against the dark arts teacher'll be next year" Ron mumbled lazily through a mouthful of food,
"Don't talk with your mouth full Ron" Molly snapped causing him to glare at her.
"You should come back Prof- ... Remus" Fred corrected himself, Remus smiled warmly but shook his head,
"Unfortunately I cannot, I'm sure whoever you have will be satisfactory"
"I wouldn't count on it" George rolled his eyes "we had a death eater last year" that was true however she did remove the twins raving about how good Moody was before they found out it wasn't actually Moody at all.
"Dumbledore will find you a good teacher, don't worry about that" Arthur grinned wearily.
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That night Ginny was sent to bed early which caused an eruption of arguments as she yelled that she was fourteen and shouldn't be treated like a child. Meanwhile Elle had found herself in a large lounge with Theo, Athena and Remus who were currently all sitting quietly pretending not to listen to the argument that was going on.
Remus was peacefully reading a book occasionally shifting his gaze to Athena who was braiding a small strand of her hair.
Elle had been dying to talk to her brother since she had arrived however she didn't think now was a good time. After all she didn't want to break the calming silence that had befallen the group. The twins were god knows where doing gods knows what but she was sick of them trying to prank her into eating a puking pastille. She could clearly see through their attempts. Elle had thought that when she'd become more than friends with George she might not be the victim of his pranks anymore however she was very wrong.
The room grew darker and eventually there was so little light that Remus couldn't even read his book anymore. Theo flipped his wand towards the light which glowed orange before basking the room in a new light.
"What time is it, I should be getting off" Athena yawned and Remus looked down at his watch,
"It's 10" he murmured "yes I should be leaving too"
The two of them promptly stood up together and turned to Elle and Theo,
"Tell Molly I said thanks for the tea" Remus smiled,
"Yes me too" Athena added, Theo nodded politely before Athena took Remus' arm and they disappeared with a pop.
Elle turned to Theo who was levitating a book without using any words. He noticing her staring and smiled,
"Just trying to get used to this wand" Theo informed her. When a witch or wizard went to Azkaban, their wand would be snapped in half meaning Theo no longer had his original one.
"I haven't had a chance to talk to you while you've been here" he observed "how are you?"
"I'm good" Elle shrugged, mostly this was a lie. She still felt completely lost and empty a lot of time time but it was undoubtedly getting easier,
"How are you really?" Theo smirked causing Elle to laugh,
"Well I've been better" she sighed.
He nodded,
"Awful thing, that final task" he shuddered,
"Even worse to watch" she mumbled "Cedric didn't deserve that"
"No one deserves death" Theodore smiled "but he deserved life"
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