Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003622070

Chapter 2: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003623371

Chapter 3: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003624429

Tags: @Bellatrisblack @CatsAndRoblox @Heli aesthetics

Chapter Four: Number Twelve Grimmauld Place

‘The Order...Is it back? Is it being reformed—?' Harry began.

'Not here, boy!' snarled Moody. 'Wait till we’re inside!'

He pulled the piece of parchment out of Harry’s hand and set fire to it with his wand tip. As the message curled into flames and floated to the ground, Harry looked around at the houses again. They were standing outside number eleven; he looked to the left and saw number ten; to the right, however, was number thirteen.

'But where’s—?'

'Concentrate on what you just read,' said Tonks quietly. Harry thought, and no sooner had he reached the part about number twelve, Grimmauld Place, than a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen, followed swiftly by dirty walls and grimy windows. It was as though an extra house had inflated, pushing those on either side out of its way. Harry gaped at it. The stereo in number eleven thudded on. Apparently the Muggles inside hadn’t even felt anything.

'Come on, hurry,' growled Moody, prodding Harry in the back.

Harry walked up the worn stone steps, staring at the newly materialized door. Its black paint was shabby and scratched. The silver door knocker was in the form of a twisted serpent. There was no keyhole or letterbox.

Tonks pulled out her wand and tapped the door once. Harry heard many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the clatter of a chain. The door creaked open.

'Go in, Harry,' Tonks whispered. 'Just make sure not to go to far you should probably not touch anything.'

Harry stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. He could smell damp, dust, and a sweetish, rotting smell; the place had the feeling of a derelict building. He looked over his shoulder and saw the others filing in behind him, Bill and Tonks carrying his trunk and Hedwig’s cage. Moody was standing on the top step and releasing the balls of light the Put-Outer had stolen from the streetlamps; they flew back to their bulbs and the square beyond glowed momentarily with orange light before Moody limped inside and closed the front door, so that the darkness in the hall became complete.

'Here—'

He rapped Harry hard over the head with his wand; Harry felt as though something hot was trickling down his back this time and knew that the Disillusionment Charm must have lifted.

'Now stay still, everyone, while I give us a bit of light in here,' Moody whispered.

The others’ hushed voices were giving Harry an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person. He heard a soft hissing noise and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls, casting a flickering insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet of a long, gloomy hallway, where a cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls. Harry heard something scuttling behind the baseboard. Both the chandelier and the candelabra on a rickety table nearby were shaped like serpents. There were hurried footsteps and Bill’s mother, Mrs Weasley, emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried toward them, though Harry noticed that she was rather thinner and paler than she had been last time he had seen her.

'Bill, so happy you made it home safe,' she said while hugging her oldest child. She then turned her attention to Harry.

'Oh, Harry, it’s lovely to see you!' she whispered, pulling him into a rib-cracking hug before holding him at arm’s length and examining him critically. 'You’re looking peaky; you need feeding up, but you’ll have to wait a bit for dinner, I’m afraid...'

She turned to the gang of wizards behind him and whispered urgently, 'He’s just arrived, the meeting’s started...'

The wizards behind Harry all made noises of interest and excitement and began filing past Harry toward the door through which Mrs Weasley had just come; Harry made to follow Tonks, but Mrs Weasley held him back.

'No, Harry, the meeting’s only for members of the Order. The Twins, Ron, Ginny, and your friends and family are upstairs, you can wait with them until the meeting’s over and then we’ll have dinner. And keep your voice down in the hall,' she added in an urgent whisper.

'Why?'

'I don’t want to wake anything up.'

'What d’you—?'

'I’ll explain later, I’ve got to hurry, I’m supposed to be at the meeting—I’ll just show you where you’re sleeping.'

Pressing her finger to her lips, she led him on tiptoes past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, behind which Harry supposed there must be another door, and after skirting a large umbrella stand that looked as though it had been made from a severed troll’s leg, they started up the dark staircase, passing a row of shrunken heads mounted on plaques on the wall. A closer look showed Harry that the heads belonged to house-elves. All of them had the same rather snout-like nose.

Harry’s bewilderment deepened with every step he took. What on earth were they doing in a house that looked as though it belonged to the Darkest of wizards?

'Mrs Weasley, why—?'

'Ron and Theodore will explain everything, dear, I’ve really got to dash,' Mrs Weasley whispered distractedly. 'There'—they had reached the second landing—'you’re the door on the right. I’ll call you when it’s over.'

And she hurried off downstairs again.

Harry crossed the dingy landing, turned the bedroom doorknob, which was shaped like a serpent’s head, and opened the door.

He caught a brief glimpse of a gloomy high-ceilinged, twin-bedded room, then there was a loud twittering noise, followed by an even louder squeal, and he suddenly had the air knocked right out of him—Canini had tackle-hugged him with her incredibly strong arms for a slender twelve year old girl, nearly knocked him flat, while Ron’s tiny owl, Pigwidgeon, zoomed excitedly round and round their heads.

'HARRY! Guys, Harry's here, he's back!' his sister exclaimed with joy. She seemed to have had another growth spirt as she was now less than a head shorter than him, and her dark brown hair was now to her mid back.

'Harry?' said Tracey who had now come into view, her dark skin glistened in the lamp light, her black tight curly hair was still growing out from an incident last November, now about four and a half inches long. 'Oh thank goodness you're alright. Gosh this is probably a shock for you, sorry about the letters, I know they didn't help you or answer any of your questions.'

'We weren't allowed to tell you anything, just vague enough responses so you wouldn't try running from the Dursley's,’ Theodore said with dark circles under his blueish-grey eyes, he sounded quite annoyed but Harry couldn't tell at who. 'Dumbledore made us swear that we can't write anyone other than you, and that when we do write you we had to keep you in the dark. There is a lot you need to know, but first you have to tell us—the dementors! Its all insane—and now there's a Ministry hearing—but there shouldn't be as the use of magic in life-threatening situations is already covered in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for—'

'Let him breathe, you guys,' said Ron Weasley, grinning, closing the door behind Harry. He seemed to have grown several inches in the last month, though Harry had to admit he had neglected his old friend over the last year of school and so Rob might have grown and Harry had simply not noticed.

Canini, still beaming, let go of Harry, but before she could say another word there was a soft whooshing sound and something white soared from the top of a dark wardrobe and landed gently on Harry’s shoulder.

‘Hedwig!’

The snowy owl clicked her beak and nibbled his ear affectionately as Harry stroked her feathers.

‘She’s been in a right state,’ said Ron.

‘It was like she was trying to peck our fingers off when she came with your letters,' said Tracey, 'Ron still has the wound—‘

Ron showed Harry the index finger of his right hand, which sported a half-healed but clearly deep cut.

‘Oh yeah,’ Harry said. ‘Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know...’

'Answers we desperately wanted to give,' said Canini. 'We all thought you knowing what has been happening would prevent you from doing something stupid, but Dumbledore—'

'—made you swear not to tell me,' said Harry. 'Yeah, Theodore’s already said that.'

The warm glow that had flared inside him at the sight of his friends and family was extinguished as something icy flooded the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden—after yearning to see them for a solid month—he felt he would rather his family and Ron had left him alone.

There was a strained silence in which Harry stroked Hedwig automatically, not looking at either of the others.

'I've never seen Dumbledore that serious,' said Tracey rather breathlessly. 'Well, except for...that night.'

'Right,' said Harry. He noticed that her hands too bore the marks of Hedwig’s beak and found that he was not at all sorry.

'I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles—' Ron began.

'Yeah?' said Harry, raising his eyebrows. 'Have any of you been attacked by dementors this summer?'

'No, but none of us but Tracey are allowed to leave the house,' said Theodore in a huff, clearly upset about being stuck.

'And the Order of the Phoenix has been trying to keep you safe,' said Ron, 'That’s why Dumbledore’s had them tailing you all the time—'

Harry felt a great jolt in his guts as though he had just missed a step going downstairs. So everyone had known he was being followed except him.

'Didn’t work that well, though, did it?' said Harry, doing his utmost to keep his voice even. 'Had to look after myself after all, didn’t I?'

'Dumbledore was beyond angry though,' said Canini, in a quiet voice. 'I thought he was going to murder Mundungus when he learned he had left his shift early.'

'Well, I’m glad he left,' Harry said coldly. 'If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer with no outside contact.'

'Is it worth it though,' asked Tracey, 'you might get expelled at the hearing.'

'Yes,' Harry lied defiantly. He walked away from them, looking around, with Hedwig nestled contentedly on his shoulder, but this room was not likely to raise his spirits. It was dank and dark. A blank stretch of canvas in an ornate picture frame was all that relieved the bareness of the peeling walls and as Harry passed it he thought he heard someone lurking out of sight snigger.

‘Where are the other’s?’ Harry asked. ‘Why isn’t Allison or Terence here?’

Tracey rubbed the back of her neck, ‘After what happened at the World Cup last year the Higgs’ thought it best Terence stay in the muggle world for the summer for his safety, and Alli...’

‘Remus doesn’t trust her father,’ Theodore said bluntly. ‘He didn’t say it out loud but he implied she’s equally untrustworthy because she’s his daughter. We all protested, even Sirius, but in the end the security of headquarters overruled our protests.’

‘What?’ said Harry in shock. ‘But that’s rubbish, Allison is just as trustworthy as Tracey or Ron.’

‘We know, but because our owl sending was limited we couldn’t send her a letter to prove to the Order she’s trustworthy,’ said Tracey.

'So why’s Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark anyway?' Harry asked, still trying hard to keep his voice casual. 'Did you—er—bother to ask him at all?'

He glanced up just in time to see them exchanging a look that told him he was behaving just as they had feared he would. It did nothing to improve his temper.

‘We begged Dumbledore to let us fill you in but ordered us not to,’ said Tracey. ‘And we haven’t really seen him since to protest further, he’s only been here twice to my knowledge.’

‘He didn’t seem to have much time,’ said Ron, ‘he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted—‘

‘Or tell you through the mirror because it might make you want to do something stupid,’ said Canini.

‘So he thinks I’m some sort of foolish child. Does he think I can’t be trusted?’ said Harry, watching their expressions.

‘Don’t be thick,’ said Ron, looking highly disconcerted.

‘Or that I can’t take care of myself—‘

‘I’m sure that isn’t his intention!’ said Theodore anxiously.

‘So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys’ while you guys get to join in everything that’s going on here?’ said Harry, the words tumbling over one another in a rush, his voice growing louder with every word. ‘How come you guys are allowed to know everything that’s going on—?’

‘We’re not!’ Ron interrupted. ‘Mum won’t let us near the meetings, she says we’re too young—‘

‘Moony and Padfoot won’t let us either—‘ said Canini.

But before he knew it, Harry was shouting.

‘SO YOU HAVEN’T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU’VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN’T YOU? YOU’VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I’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?’

Every bitter and resentful thought that Harry had had in the past month was pouring out of him; his frustration at the lack of news, the hurt that they had all been together without him, his fury at being followed and not told about it: All the feelings he was half-ashamed of finally burst their boundaries. Hedwig took fright at the noise and soared off on top of the wardrobe again; Pigwidgeon twittered in alarm and zoomed even faster around their heads; Canini’s sleeping owl Janus awoke in alarm and hit her head on the wall.

‘WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO WATCHED CEDRIC DIE? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!’

Theodore and Ron was standing there with their mouths half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, while Tracey looked horrified and Canini was on the verge of tears.

‘BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?’

‘Harry, we didn’t have a choice, we really wanted—‘ Tracey began.

‘CAN’T’VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU’D HAVE SENT ME AN 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 BEEN GOING ON—‘

‘This was out of our control—‘

‘I SUPPOSE YOU’VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN’T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER—‘

‘Never, we—‘

‘Stop it, Harry, stop!’ said Theodore, who to Harry’s shock was all chocked up and had tears running down his face. ‘Do you know how much it has hurt to leave you there? When I was stuck in living hell with my father the only thing that kept me going was letters from you guys, so to not do the same for you was like torture. It might not have been the same but I know much it hurts to be isolated and only surrounded by those that hate you. So please, we’re sorry, but you got to stop yelling at us.’

This broke Harry’s fury, but only a little. He glared at them, still breathing deeply, then turned away from them again, pacing up and down. Hedwig hooted glumly from the top of the wardrobe. There was a long pause, broken only by the mournful creak of the floorboards below Harry’s feet.

‘What is this place anyway?’ he shot at the others.

‘Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix,’ said Ron at once, though Canini looked like she wanted to add more.

‘And when exactly did the Order get reformed?’

‘The day Ce-er-the day of the final task Dumbledore sent Sirius and Remus out to tell people, what he had them telling was the Order was back and to await further instructions,’ explained Tracey.

‘Who’s in it?’ said Harry, coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets. ‘The Weasley’s weren’t members in the first war.’

‘You know that my uncle’s were though, and Sirius and Remus are like family too,’ said Ron. ‘Mum and dad didn’t even hesitate when Nymphadora asked them.’

‘So far there are about twenty members, or at least twenty that we’ve seen. Our numbers are also growing,’ explained Tracey.

Harry glared at them.

‘Well?’ he demanded, looking at each of them slowly.

‘Sorry?’ said Tracey, confused.

‘Voldemort!’ said Harry furiously, and Ron nearly jumped out of his skin, Tracey looked a little shaken up to.

‘What’s happening? What’s he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?’

‘The meetings Harry, we’re not allowed in the room where everything is discussed,’ explained Canini.

‘We have a couple ideas though,’ said Ron slowly. ‘Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see. They’re really useful.’

‘Extendable—?’

‘Ears, yeah. Only we’ve had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know—‘

‘—some like Tonks are trying to recruit more members for the Order—‘ said Tracey.

‘—and a lot of them are guarding something, and we don’t think they’re talking about the people who were guarding you,’ said Theodore.

‘And no idea what?’

‘No,’ said Ron. ‘Sorry mate.’

Harry walked around the room again, looking anywhere but at his friends and family. ‘So what have you all been doing, if you’re not allowed in meetings?’ he demanded. ‘You said you’d been busy.’

‘That is true though,’ said Canini quickly. ‘They’ve been having us clean every inch of this place. It has been empty for about a decade. Normally it would just be a lot of dust and maybe some mold, but we think some animals got in and have been breeding so it was nearly uninhabitable when we first arrived.’

‘Out of everyone Theodore has been making light work of the cleaning, he’s quiet good,’ said Tracey.

‘Whenever I was home my father would dismiss the house-elves, so for four years I did all of the cleaning,’ replied Theodore, this caused some awkward silence so he changed the subject. ‘And every couple days Tracey gets escorted back home so she’s able to bring back sweets and other stuff we can’t get from being locked up her—‘

‘—AARGH!’

With two loud cracks, Fred and George Weasley, Ron’s elder twin brothers, had materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.

‘Can you please just use the door!’ Tracey said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slightly shorter.

‘Hello, Harry,’ said George, beaming at him. ‘We thought we heard your dulcet tones.’

‘You don’t want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out,’ said Fred, also beaming. ‘There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn’t hear you.’

‘You two passed your Apparation tests, then?’ asked Harry grumpily.

‘With distinction,’ said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-colored string.

‘It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs,’ said Ron.

‘Time is Galleons, little brother,’ said Fred. ‘Anyway, Harry, you’re interfering with reception. Extendable Ears,’ he added in response to Harry’s raised eyebrows, holding up the string, which Harry now saw was trailing out onto the landing. ‘We’re trying to hear what’s going on downstairs.’

‘You want to be careful,’ said Ron, staring at the ear. ‘If Mum sees one of them again...’

‘It’s worth the risk, that’s a major meeting they’re having,’ said Fred.

The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.

‘Oh hello, Harry,’ said Ron’s younger sister, Ginny, brightly. ‘I thought I heard your voice.’

Turning to Fred and George she said, ‘It’s no go with the Extendable Ears, she’s gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door.’

‘How d’you know?’ said George, looking crestfallen.

‘Tonks told me how to find out,’ said Ginny. ‘You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can’t make contact the door’s 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 get under the gap.’

Fred heaved a deep sigh. ‘Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape’s been up to.’

‘Snape?’ said Harry quickly. ‘Is he here?’

‘Yeah,’ said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. ‘Giving a report. Top secret.’

‘Git,’ said Fred idly.

‘He’s apart of the Order, we should trust him,’ said Theodore. Theodore had been torn up at the end of the previous year about trusting Snape or not, clearly he had decided to double down on trusting him.

Ron snorted. ‘Doesn’t stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us...’

‘Bill doesn’t like him either,’ said Ginny, as though that settled the matter.

Harry was not sure his anger had abated yet; but his thirst for information was now overcoming his urge to keep shouting. He sank onto the bed opposite the others.

‘So how long has Bill been back?’ he asked. ‘Did he really leave Egypt just for the Order?’

‘He did, he applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order,’ said Fred. ‘He says he misses the tombs, but,’ he smirked, ‘there are compensations...’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘Remember old Fleur Delacour?’ said George. ‘She’s got a job at Gringotts to eemprove ’er Eeenglish—‘

‘—and Bill’s been giving her a lot of private lessons,’ sniggered Fred.

‘Charlie’s in the Order too,’ said George, ‘but he’s still in Romania, 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?’ Harry asked. The last he had heard, the third Weasley brother was working in the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry of Magic.

At these words all the Weasleys and Canini exchanged darkly significant looks.

‘Whatever you do, don’t mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad,’ Ron told Harry in a tense voice.

‘Why not?’

‘Because every time Percy’s name’s mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he’s holding and Mum starts crying,’ Fred said.

‘It’s been awful,’ said Ginny sadly.

‘I think we’re well shut of him,’ said George with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.

‘What’s happened?’ Harry said.

‘Percy and Dad had a row,’ said Fred. ‘I’ve never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It’s normally Mum who shouts...’

‘It was the first week back after term ended,’ said Ron. ‘We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he’d been promoted.’

‘You’re kidding?’ said Harry.

Though he knew perfectly well that Percy was highly ambitious, Harry’s impression was that Percy had not made a great success of his first job at the Ministry of Magic. Percy had committed the fairly large oversight of failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by Lord Voldemort (not that the Ministry had believed that—they all thought that Mr Crouch had simply gone mad).

‘Yeah, we were all surprised,’ said George, ‘because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn’t going to complain...’

‘So how come they promoted him?’

‘That’s exactly what we wondered,’ said Ron, who seemed very keen to keep normal conversation going now that Harry had stopped yelling. ‘He came home really pleased with himself—even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that—and told Dad he’d been offered a position in Fudge’s own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts—Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think.’

‘Only Dad wasn’t,’ said Fred grimly.

‘Why not?’ said Harry.

‘Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody’s having any contact with Dumbledore,’ said George.

‘Dumbledore’s name’s mud with the Ministry these days, see,’ said Fred. ‘They all think he’s just making trouble saying You-Know-Who’s back.’

‘Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who’s in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks,’ said George.

‘Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he’s friendly with Dumbledore, and he’s always thought Dad’s a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession—‘

‘But what’s this got to do with Percy?’ asked Harry, confused.

‘I’m coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family—and Dumbledore.’

Harry let out a low whistle. ‘Bet Percy loved that.’

Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way. ‘He went completely berserk. He said—well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he’s been having to struggle against Dad’s lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad’s got no ambition and that’s why we’ve always been—you know—not had a lot of money, I mean—‘

‘What?’ said Harry in disbelief, as Ginny made a noise like an angry cat.

‘I know,’ said Ron in a low voice. ‘And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he—Percy—knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn’t belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He’s living here in London now.’

Harry swore under his breath. He had always liked Percy least of the Weasley siblings, but he had never imagined he would say such things to Mr Weasley.

‘Mum’s been in a right state,’ said Ron. ‘You know—crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work—ignores him, I s’pose.’

‘But Percy must know Voldemort’s back,’ said Harry slowly. ‘He’s not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn’t risk everything without proof—‘

‘Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row,’ said Ron, shooting Harry a furtive look. “Percy said the only evidence was your word and...I dunno...he didn’t think it was good enough.’

‘I know I was never close with him, but I’ve known Percy nearly my whole life, why would he think I would lie?’

But Harry already knew the answer, he could see it in a four Weasley siblings faces. Ever since Harry had been sorted into Slytherin most people thought that automatically made him a dark wizard, at the very least untrustworthy.

‘Er, well,’ Ginny tried to say, ‘Percy is obsessed with the Daily Prophet.’

The others all nodded.

‘What are you talking about?’ Harry asked, looking around at them all. They were all regarding him warily.

‘Harry,’ Theodore said very slowly, ‘I thought you finally subscribed to the Prophet. Have you not been reading your copies?’

‘Yeah, I have!’ said Harry.

‘The entire paper?’ Tracey asked inquisitively.

‘Not cover to cover,’ said Harry defensively. ‘If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn’t it!’

The Weasley’s flinched at the sound of the name. Theodore hurried on, ‘It might not be front page news, but in nearly every issue the Prophet has—er—mentioned you a lot.’

‘But I’d have seen—‘

‘If you’re just reading the headline of the first page then you wouldn’t see,’ said Canini, shaking her head. ‘They aren’t glamorous but they have been consistent, and they don’t paint a pretty picture of you.’

‘What d’you—?’

‘Allison might have, um, taken care of Skeeter,’ said Theodore, ‘but the damage is done, and the Prophet is just continuing where she left off.’

‘Which is what?’ said Harry impatiently.

‘Ok Harry,’ said Tracey, ‘remember back towards the end of school how Rita wrote about you collapsing and your scar hurting you all the time?’

‘Yeah,’ said Harry, who was not likely to forget Rita Skeeter’s stories about him in a hurry.

‘You see, they have been writing about you like you’re some demented, narcissistic person who is addicted to heroic fame,’ said Tracey, very fast, as though it would be less unpleasant for Harry to hear these facts quickly. ‘And they’ve been adding as many sly insults as possible. Now whenever something ridiculous happens in our world they’ll say something like “a tale worthy of Harry Potter” and if anyone in the community gets hurt doing something they often say “let’s hope they haven’t got a scar on their forehead or we’ll be asked to worship them next—“‘

‘I don’t want anyone to worship—‘ Harry began hotly.

‘We all know that Harry,’ said Theodore. ‘We all saw the great lengths you went to last year to stay out of the news and out of people’s way. But they aren’t actually reporting about you, they’re trying to make you seem as untrustworthy and unbelievable as possible. Dumbledore And Sir think Fudge is responsible, and I believe them. They want as many wizards and witches as possible to think you’re a liar, who will do or say anything to reclaim as much fame from when you were a baby as possible.

‘I didn’t ask—I never wanted—Voldemort killed my parents!’ Harry spluttered. ‘I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn’t kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don’t they think I’d rather it’d never—‘

‘We know, Harry,’ said Ginny earnestly.

‘The only thing they haven’t reported about you lately is how you were attacked by dementors,’ said Canini. ‘That should have been the story of the month, dementors attacking outside of Azkaban, but someone is keeping that story quiet.’

‘There hasn’t even been a mention that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy—we thought they would have used that to disgrace you even more,’ said Theodore. ‘I guess they’re waiting until you’re expelled or not. It’s a gamble they’re going to lose though because you aren’t going to be expelled and by then it will be to late to report on you breaking the Statute.’

‘Yeah,’ Tracey assured, ‘as long as they follow the law there is no reason you should be expelled. You were defending yourself, and the muggle you performed in front of already was aware of the wizarding world.’

They were back on the hearing and Harry did not want to think about it. He cast around for another change of subject, but was saved the necessity of finding one by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

‘Uh-oh.’

Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway.

‘The meeting’s over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone’s dying to see you, Harry. And who’s left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?’

‘Phileas, Theo's toad,’ said Ginny unblushingly. ‘He loves playing with them.'

'Oh,' said Mrs Weasley, 'I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don’t forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please...'

Ginny grimaced at the others and followed her mother out of the room, leaving Harry alone with Ron, Tracey, and his siblings again. They were watching him apprehensively, as though they feared that he would start shouting again now that everyone else had gone. The sight of them looking so nervous made him feel slightly ashamed.

'Look...' he muttered, but Ron shook his head, Canini hugged him again, and Tracey said quietly, 'You don't need to apologise, Harry. We knew you'd be mad, and that you had a good reason too. Just know we really did try to convince Dumbledore to not have you so isolated.'

'Yeah, I know,' said Harry grudgingly.

He cast around for a topic to change the subject from Dumbledore—the very thought of him made Harry’s insides burn with anger again.

'Who’s Kreacher?' he asked.

'The house-elf who lives here,' said Ron. 'Nutter. Never met one like him.'

Canini frowned at Ron.

'I'd like to see your mental after being stuck here for a decade,' she said.

'His life’s ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque just like his mother,' said Ron irritably. 'That isn't normal. But even so, you know whose fault it is for being left behind.'

Ron rolled his eyes than turned to Harry, 'You were busy last year so you might not have noticed, but Hermione Granger started an organization to free all House-Elves and your sister is now a member.'

'S.P.E.W. is a good idea,' argued Canini, 'it just has some logistical problems. That and Dumbledore told you all to be nice to Kreacher anyway—'

'Yeah, yeah,' said Ron. 'C’mon, I’m starving.'

He led the way out of the door and onto the landing, but before they could descend the stairs—'Hold it!' Ron breathed, flinging out an arm to stop Harry and the others walking any farther. 'They’re still in the hall, we might be able to hear something—'

The five of them looked cautiously over the banisters. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all of Harry’s guard. Other people Harry recognised included Chiara Lobosca, Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid. They were whispering excitedly together. In the very center of the group Harry saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of his least favorite teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Snape. Harry leaned farther over the banisters. He was very interested in what Snape was doing for the Order of the Phoenix...

A thin piece of flesh-colored string descended in front of Harry’s eyes. Looking up he saw Fred and George on the landing above, cautiously lowering the Extendable Ear toward the dark knot of people below. A moment later, however, they began to move toward the front door and out of sight.

'Dammit,' Harry heard Fred whisper, as he hoisted the Extendable Ear back up again.

They heard the front door open and then close.

'Snape never eats here,' Ron told Harry quietly. 'Thank God. C’mon.'

'Oh, Harry, make sure to stay as quiet as possible,' Theodore whispered.

As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall they saw Bill, Mrs Weasley, and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left.

'We’re eating down in the kitchen,' Mrs Weasley whispered, meeting them at the bottom of the stairs. 'Harry, dear, if you’ll just tiptoe across the hall, it’s through this door here—'

CRASH.

'Tonks!' cried Mrs Weasley exasperatedly, turning to look behind her.

'I’m sorry!' wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor. 'It’s that stupid umbrella stand, that’s the second time I’ve tripped over—'

But the rest of her words were drowned by a horrible, earsplitting, bloodcurdling screech.

The moth-eaten velvet curtains Harry had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. For a split second, Harry thought he was looking through a window, a window behind which an old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she was being tortured—then he realized it was simply a life-size portrait, but the most realistic, and the most unpleasant, he had ever seen in his life.

The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed, and all along the hall behind them, the other portraits awoke and began to yell too, so that Harry actually screwed up his eyes at the noise and clapped his hands over his ears.

Bill and Mrs Weasley darted forward and tried to tug the curtains shut over the old woman, but they would not close and she screeched louder than ever, brandishing clawed hands as though trying to tear at their faces.

'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 apologized over and over again, at the same time dragging the huge, heavy troll’s leg back off the floor. Mrs Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand. Then a man with long black hair came charging out of a door facing Harry.

'Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!' he roared, seizing the curtain Mrs Weasley had abandoned.

The old woman’s face blanched.

'Yoooou!' she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. 'Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!'

'I said—shut—UP!' roared the man, and with a stupendous effort he and Bill managed to force the curtains closed again.

The old woman’s screeches died and an echoing silence fell.

Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Harry’s godfather and adoptive guardian, Sirius, turned to face him.

'Hello, Harry,' he said grimly, 'I see you’ve met my mother.'