Chapter Text
"What's the Order of the-"
"Not here boy!" Moody snarls at Harry, making me jump. What? He's scary. "Wait till we're inside!"
He pulls the parchment out of our hands and sets fire to it. It honestly reminds me of when Harry and my names were pulled out of the Goblet of Fire, except those pieces of parchment didn't burn totally.
Now, I've noticed that there is no number twelve. There is a eleven, there is a thirteen, but there isn't a number twelve. Unless this is like the train station, I have no idea how we are going to get to our location.
"But where's-"
"Think about what you just memorized."
Harry reaches out, and a battered door appears out of nowhere. As if a balloon was being inflated, another house is revealed.
Okay, so similar to the train station I guess.
"C'mon, hurry," Moody says while pushing us forward. I would protest to being pushed but, he's scary.
We walk up the stone steps, and are only stopped by Lupin, who taps the door twice. A metallic lock clicks, and the door opens.
"Get in, quick," Lupin mutters pushing Harry and I in. "But don't go far inside and don't touch anything."
I grab Harry's wrist as we walk inside. My nose scrunches up as the smell of rot, mold, dust, and the damp air all mix together to try and make me gag.
"Here." And then, Harry and I are hit on the head by Moody, making the charm he previously put on us lift. "Now stay still, everyone, while so give us a bit of light in here."
A soft hissing noise accompanies the room lighting up. Old gas lamps flicker, giving us a bit of light.
And from what I can see, I can only assume the family that own this house is at least mostly Slytherins due to the multiple snake decorations around us.
Foot steps echo through the hall, until Mrs. Weasley, a slightly chubby woman who is the nicest person ever, emerges from a door.
"Oh, Harry, Hailey, it's lovely to see you two!" She whispers, pulling us both into a hug. She holds me at arms length before doing the same to Harry. "You both look a bit peaky, you need some feeding up, but you'll have to wait a bit for dinner, I'm afraid..."
She turns to the wizards that got us here and whispers. "He's just arrived, the meeting's started."
"Meeting?" I question, but they don't seem to hear me.
The wizards behind us all start walking away, and we attempt to follow, but are stopped by Mrs. Weasley. "No, the meeting's only for members of the Order. Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you two can wait with them until the meeting's over and then we'll have dinner. And keep your voices down in the hall."
I tilt my head at her words. "Why?"
"I don't want to wake anything up."
Harry looks even more confused than usual at her words.
Mrs. Weasley, who decides that we should go, gets the hint that Harry is still rather confused. "I'll explain later, I've got to hurry, I'm supposed to be at the meeting. I'll show you both where you're sleeping." She presses a finger to her lips as we pass by long curtains.
We pass by a wall of shrunken heads, making me gag. Harry decides to look closer, making me smack his arm. I'm not in the mood to deal with shrunken heads, not today, not ever.
"Mrs. Wealsey, why-"
"Ron and Hermione will explain everything, dears, I've really got to be going. Harry, you're the door on the right. I'll call you when it's over. Hailey-" she glances around, realizing that she still needs to go. "The girls will show you to your room."
And with that, she scurries off. I decide to follow Harry to the room in question. The doorknob is shaped like a serpent's head, making me truly believe that this is a Slytherin household.
Now, I expected a lot of things when opening the door, but a bushy haired fifteen year old bear hugging my brother is not one of them.
"Harry! Hailey! Ron, they're here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh how are you? Are you alrigjt? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless. But we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't. Oh, we've got so much to tell you two! The dementors! When we heard..and that Ministry it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up. They can't expel you Harry, they just can't. There's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Socery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-"
"Let them breathe Hermione!" For once, I actually think that Ron is right. Hermione is holding onto Harry rather tightly.
I walk up to the boy and huff. "Did you get even taller?"
He grins but shrugs.
Honestly, I live in a world of tall people, and I hate it. Maybe I can have Elaine bite their ankles until they can't walk. Maybe then they won't be standing taller than me.
"Hedwig!" I jump at Harry's voice, but calm down when I see the familiar snowy owl.
"She's in the right state, pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this-"
He shows Harry and I his index finger, that is now sporting a deep cut. I cringe but decide not to show it on my face very much.
"Oh yeah...Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know?"
"We wanted to tell you mate," Ron side glances me. "We wanted to tell both of you. Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you'd do something stupid of you were stuck all on your own without any news." Once again he looks at me. "Not you, she knew that you could wait." Well thanks Ron. "But Dumbledore made us-"
"Swear not to tell us, yeah Hermione's already said." Harry glares at them, making me smack him on the arm. These two aren't my best friends, they are his best friends. How am I acting nicer than he is?
"He seemed to think it was the best," Hermione says quickly. "Dumbledore, I mean."
"Right," Harry spits out, causing me to smack him again. Harry, unless you want me to break the rules and hex you, I suggest you be nicer.
"I think he thought you were both safest with the muggles-"
"Yeah?" Harry interupts.
"Well...no," Hermione cuts off Ron, "but that's why be had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you two all the time."
From what I can see, Harry is not happy with that answer. This isn't good at all....
Okay, but if he explodes, it's gonna be kind of funny.
"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" Harry says as his voice wavers a bit. Look, Harry, sweetie, I know you're mad, but calm yourself. They were trying to keep us safe. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"
Okay, Harry, I'm sorry, but your arm is gonna be bruised by the time this conversation is over because I keep on having to smack you.
"He was so angry," gee Hermione, can you be a bit more awestruck? "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift ended. He was scary."
Okay, but me scary or Mad-Eye scary? Both are scary, but Mad-Eye is a bit more so.
"Well, I'm glad he left," Harry says coldly.
"Well I'm certainly not!" I say a bit too loud. "Honestly Harry, you could have died. Or you could have gotten the kiss."
"If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore probably would have left us at Privet Drive all summer."
"Harry, you're being a arse, you do realize that, right?" I grumble at his tone. Harry can be pissed all he wants but he is not being rude to his best friends after not seeing them for a month.
"Aren't you...aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" Hermione's voice is a lot softer now, making me wonder if he actually is hurting her feelings.
"No," Harry replies before starting to look around. I honestly would love to smack him again, but it doesn't seem to do anything.
"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep us in the dark?" His voice wavers again, making me wonder if he's going to blow up or something. "Did you bother to ask him at all?"
"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," Ron says. He looks super frantic and I honestly don't blame him. Harry's acting like it is his time of the month when he's a guy. "We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell if you important stuff when we wrote. He said the owls might be intercepted-"
"He could still've kept us informed if he wanted to."
"Harry-"
"You're not telling me he doesn't know how to send messages without owls."
Hermione glances at Ron and I in panic. "I thought that too. But he didn't want you two to know anything."
"Maybe he thinks we can't be trusted," Harry's voice wavers again.
"Harry, you know that's not t-"
"Don't be thick," Ron says. I actually think he's annoyed, which I don't blame him actually.
"Or that we can't take care of ourselves."
"Of course he doesn't think that!" Hermione looks like she's severly stressed out, which again, I don't blame her.
"So how come we have to stay at the Dursleys' will you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" His voice gets increasingly louder, making me visibly flinch. Harry is pissed off, and I don't like it when he's pissed off.
"How come you two are allowed to know everything that's going on-"
"We're not!" Ron interrupts, making me sigh. At least Harry isn't screaming anymore. "Mom won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young-"
You know, I probably spoke too soon.
"So you haven't been in the meetings, big deal! You've been here, haven't you? You've still been together! We've been stuck at the Dursleys' for a month! And I've handled more than you two've ever managed and Dumbledore knows it! Who saved the Philosopher's Stone? Who got rid of Riddle? Who saved both of your skins from the Dementors?"
I'm honestly unable to do anything. Harry needs to get his frustrations out, yes, but he's not doing himself a favor when doing this.
"Who had to get past dragons and sphinxes and every other foul thing last year? Who saw him come back? Who had to escape from him? Me!"
From what I can see, Ron and Hermione are at a loss for words because I'm pretty sure they haven't seen Harry this pissed before. Honestly, I haven't seen him this pissed before.
"But why shouldn't I know what's going on? Why should anyone bother to tell me me what's been happening?"
"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did-" Hermione looks as if she's pleading with him to stop screaming.
"Can't've wanted to that much, can you, or you'd have sent me a owl! But Dumbledore made you swear-"
"Well, he did-"
"Four weeks I've been stuck in Privet Drive, nicking papers out of bins to try and find out what's going on-"
"We wanted to-"
"I suppose you've been having a real laugh, haven't you? All holed up here together-"
He is interrupted by me slapping his face, causing him to stop immediately. "Hailey-"
"No!" I yell out, causing everyone to flinch. "You weren't the only one who saved the stone that night you know! Ron got hurt because of the chess pieces, Hermione saved all of our lives with the Devil's Snare, and I went with you until the end! I saw Quirrell die Harry! You passed put before seeing it though so it must not matter!"
"Hailey I-"
"I'm not finished!" I snap, causing Harry to close his mouth. "Hermione and I got petrified just so you and Ron could stop the basilisk! And last year, I went through all the hell you did! Sure, I didn't battle him, but I still have a scar from where Wormtail took my blood! I had to make sure that you and Cedric were alive! I had to witness you almost dying because I'm such a coward that I couldn't help."
"Hails-"
"Don't Hails me you arse!" I interupt him again. "This isn't just about you anymore, this is about all of us." I glance behind me to see Hermione looking shocked that I actually started screaming. "All four of us have gone through hell. Not everything is about you Harry!"
So, after my blow up, we just all stand around in awkward silence, not knowing what to say.
Finally, Harry decides to speak. "So, what have you two been doing if you're not allowed in meetings?" Harry demands, but in a much softer voice after realizing that I won't hesitate to hurt him if he doesn't shut up and be nice. "You said you'd been busy."
"We have," Hermione says while glancing at me. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms, and I think we're doing the drawing room tomorrow-"
Hermione screams as two loud cracks ring through the room before Fred and George appear out of thin air.
"Stop doing that!" Hermione says weakly.
"Hello Harry," George grins before nodding at me, to which I nod back. "Hailey we thought we'd had your duclet tones."
"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," Fred beams while waving at me. "There might be a couple people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."
I laugh, covering my mouth once I notice that Harry is glaring at me.
"You two passed your Apparation tests then?" Harry is sounding grumpy, I wonder if he didn't like the fact that I yelled at him.
"With distinction," Fred beams, earning a high five from me.
"Good for you," I smile, only to have Fred look away from me, making my head tilt.
"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs." Ron just looks mad. Do they do this all the time then?
"Time is Galleons, little brother. Anyways, Hailey, Harry, you two are interfering with reception. Extendable ears." Fred holds up a flesh colored string that is trailed behind him. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."
"You want to be careful," Ron says while staring at the string. "If Mum sees one of them again..."
"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," Fred says while sitting next to me on the floor.
The door opens, only to reveal Ginny, another child of the Weasleys. "Oh hello Harry, Hailey, I thought I heard your voices." I wave, but Harry, being the moody piece of crap he is, refuses to acknowledge the poor girl. "It's a no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."
"How do you know?" George says while sitting on the other side of me.
"Tonks told me how to find out," Ginny says with a smile. "You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact, the door has been Imperturbed. I've been flicking Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to go under the gap."
Fred sighs at the news. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."
Now this peaks my interest. "Snape?" Harry and I say in unison, causing everyone in the room to stare at us.
"Yeah," George says while carefully closing the door. "Giving a report. Top secret."
"Git."
"He's on our side now," Hermione says quickly, noticing that Harry looks confused on why they even have Snape here.
Ron snorts however at her comment. "Doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us..."
"Bill doesn't like him either," Ginny says in a matter of factly tone.
Harry looks like he is about the yell again, but sinks onto the bed he is sitting on. "Is Bill here? I though he was working in Egypt."
"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order," Fred says while handing me a unmarked sweet. I stare at him in a questioning manner but he just waves me off. "He says he misses the tombs but there are compensations..."
Harry looks even more confused than usual with his words. "What do you mean?"
"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" George says while grinning. "She's got a job at the Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish-"
"-and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons." Fred says while snickering. He side glances me as I continue to stare at the sweet he gave me. He nudges me, causing me to look directly at him. "It's just a regular sweet, don't worry."
I decide that it's not worth it to question so I just pop it in my mouth, only to notice it tastes like a Skittle, but it doesn't look like one.
"Charlie's in the Order too, but he's in Romaina, Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible so, Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."
"Couldn't Percy do that?" I decide to ask. I've been wondering where the twat is.
Everyone is just quiet after my question.
"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad." Ron says in a tense matter.
Harry decides to ask the next question. "Why not?"
"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding a Mum starts crying."
What exactly did that twat do?
"It's been awful," Ginny says sadly.
George and Fred look like they're trying not to say anything to mean. "I think we're well shut of him."
Now, this is where I step in. "What happened?"
So, they explain that Percy has been a jerk, fighting with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, saying that if they help Dumbledore, they will go down with Dumbledore. Also, he blamed his father for their lack of money.
Now, I would be pissed, but I'm now royally pissed when they proceed to tell me that he slammed his door in Mrs. Weasley's face. That is going way too far.
"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," Hermione says tartly. Everyone nods, confirming what she's saying.
"What are you talkin about?" Harry asks.
I decide to hide due to the fact that I actually read the entirety of the Daily Prophet, when Harry only read the front page. So I know what they have been saying. They mostly target Harry, probably due to the fact that he screamed to everyone that Voldemort was back while I just looked terrified.
"Haven't you...haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asks nervously.
"Have you been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asks, even more nervous than she previously was.
"Not cover to cover," Harry says defensively. I drop my head, mad at myself for not telling him about the jokes. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it!"
Everyone, including myself, flinch at the mention of the name.
"Well you need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they...they mention you both a couple times a week. Mostly, they mention you Harry."
"But I haven't seen-"
"I've seen it," I say in a hushed voice. Harry looks at me with a arched eyebrow so I decide to elaborate. "When you would throw away the paper, I would take it and read the entire thing. I didn't have much to read so that was the only way to pass the time once I finished the summer homework."
"They just slip you in, like standing you're a standing joke."
"What d'you-?"
"It's quite nasty, actually." Hermione forces herself to be a but calmer, which I appreciate. "They're just building on Rita's stuff."
Eww, that woman. She's the most annoying thing in the world. The fact that she spread lies about people was just moronic in my opinion.
"But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?"
"Oh no, she kept her promise...not that she's got any choice." Hermione smirks,reminding me never to get on her bad side. "But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."
"Which is what?" Harry asks, getting impatient.
"They're writing as if we are attention seeking. They want us to be painted as the twins that want to still be in the spot light or something." I say quickly. Everyone stares at me, causing me to shrug. "You all were taking too long."
"I didn't...we didn't ask...we didn't want...Voldemort killed our parents!" Harry splutters out. "We got famous because he murdered our parents but couldn't kill us! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think we'd rather it never-"
"We know, Harry," Ginny cuts him off.
"And of course, they didn't report a word about the dementors attacking you. Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been really big story, out of control dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke an International Statute of Secrecy - we thought that they would, it would tie in so well with image of you being some stupid show-off - we think that they've been biding their time until you're expelled, then they're going to go to town - I mean if you're expelled, obviously." Hermione says hastily. "You shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you."
Harry looks like he wants to change the subject, but is interrupted by footsteps.
"Uh-oh."
Fred gives the Extendable Ear a good tug, winks at me, and with a loud crack, Fred and George are gone.
Seconds later, Mrs. Appears in the doorway. "The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you two. And who's left those Dungbombs outside the kitchen the kitchen door?"
"Crookshanks," Ginny replies without hesitation. "He loves playing with them."
"Oh," Mrs. Weasley says, "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget about keep your voices down the in the hall. Ginny your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go wash them before dinner..." Ginny grimaces as she follows her mother out of the room.
From what I can see, Ron and Hermione are staring at Harry nervously. "Look..." Harry mutters but is stopped by Ron shaking his head.
"We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we don't really blame you, but you've got to understand, we did try to persuade Dumbledore-"
Harry cuts Hermione off with, "yeah I know."
"So..." I trail off, deciding to change the subject. "Who's Kreacher?"
"The house-elf who lives here. Nutter. Never met one like that him."
Hermione frowns at Ron's words. "He's not a nutter, Ron-"
Ron decides to cut off the girl there. "His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque just like his mother," Ron says irritably. "Is that normal, Hermione?"
"Well, if he's a bit strange, it's not his fault-"
"Hermione still hasn't given up on spew-"
"It's not 'spew'!" Hermione says in a heated manner. "It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, and it's not just me, Dumbledore says we should be kind to Kreacher too!"
"Wait, you were being serious with spew?" I ask. The three stare at me like I've grown three heads but I just shrug. "I thought it was a joke."
"Anyways, I'm starving," Ron says. I'm actually quite hungry as well so I following him quickly because I want some food.
Before we can go down, Ron flings his arm so we can stop. "Hold it! They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something-"
I notice that Fred and George have the dame idea since they are lowering the Extendable Ear.
Everyone starts to leave, causing Ron to curse loudly. "Snape never eats here. Thanks god, c'mon."
"Don't forget to keep your voice down," Hermione whispers.
"We're eating down the kitchen," Mrs. Weasley whispers as we get to the bottom of the stairs. "If you tiptoe across the hall, it's through this door right here-"
We all stop when we hear a loud crash.
"Tonks!" Mrs. Weasley screams while Hermione and Ron cover their ears. Harry and I look at them, being extremely confused.
"I'm sorry!" Tonks shrieks, laying flat on the ground. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over-"
We are all cut off with shrieking.
The curtains open to reveal a old woman with a black cap. She's drooling, and her eyes are rolling. Her face is yellow and stretched as she screams. Due to her screaming, the other portraits begin to yell as well.
Lupin and Mrs. Weasley try to close the curtains, but are unable to get close enough.
"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"
Tonks is apologizing over and over again when trying to get the umbrella rack to stand up again. Mrs. Weasley is stunning each portrait, making them shut up.
Suddenly, a man with long black hair and a female with white-blonde hair emerge from a door, both looking rather annoyed.
"Shut up, you horrible old, shut up!" The man yells before seizing one of the curtains. The female helps Lupin with the other curtain.
"Yoooou! Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"
"I said, shut up!" He yells and the three are able to close the curtains. The screams die down, making us all sigh in relief.
"I honestly hate that woman," the blonde says while panting. She removes her hair from her eyes, making me gape.
What is it with new people and actually being attractive?
The girl is literally above the level of Fleur, and Fleur is a quarter Veela!
She notices me and nudges the man, causing him to remove his hair from his eyes. Sirius grins at Harry and I, causing us both to smile. "Hello Harry, Hailey, I see you've met my mother."
