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IT WAS MID-MOURNING JULY. The sun was surprisingly out, and the skies were clear. Este Black rolled around her silk bedsheets, staring at her pink ceiling. Her bedroom at Grimmauld Place was set aside for her visits and was the room she spent the most time in when she was a child. Her adoring grandmother had created an enchanted emporium for her, commissioning whimsical hand-carved furniture from Italy and walls painted with scenes from her favourite tale of Beedle the Bard, "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," cosseted by the most fantastical dolls, stuffed animals, and tea sets that money could buy and Este hated to admit it, but she secretly enjoyed the occasional night spent in her childhood bedroom.

But there was much more Este would've preferred to do. Like, spending her summers in turquoise bodies of water, spending her time relaxing, drinking virgin cocktails, flirting with older men, soaking up the sun, etc. She had houses all over Europe and could've spent her summer in Italy or France. Este had chosen to stay back in England because she wished to spend time with her father. But hadn't realized there would be guests, this summer. Atlas had gone to Italy, as he usually did, and Este thought she would have so much time to get to know her father, but then the Weasleys arrived, and then, Hermione Granger, and then, a few more people. For the most part, Este didn't mind, she was getting free food, and free entertainment.

Peering at the pale blue grandfather clock, it was lunchtime. Este smiled, hopped off her bed, slipped on her black fox fur slippers, left her room, and made her way down to the ground-floor dining room. She was especially in a good mood because today, she and her father would finally be spending some time together. "Ah, there she is!" Sirius beamed, clapping his hands together, "Estele."

Este smiled and slid into the seat next to Sirius, "I prefer Este, by the way." Sirius nodded, he found himself quite idle most of the time, he found himself giving her money when she asked for some, sitting in Order meetings and mostly finding some activity to do that did not involve her or anything to do with this home.

"So," he said, clapping his hands together enthusiastically, "What shall we do today? No order meetings, no distractions. Your mother and I use to bake cookies together, maybe we could do that──" He was cut off by an owl──the Weasley Family's owl. The owl came flying through the window and dropped the letter onto the table before crashing into a clutter of items.

"That bird is ancient," Este remarked dryly before peering into the letter that Sirius received.

SNUFFLES,

Harry has used magic outside of school. There is a possibility he might be expelled or sent to Azkaban. Please owl him and tell him to stay put at the Dursleys.

──ARTHUR

Este's face fell as Sirius frowned. "I'm sorry, Este," he mumbled, sounding dazed and he seemed more focused on Harry, "Maybe next time," he said, standing up and leaving the kitchen as Este scoffed before getting up and going back up the stairs, past a frantic Hermione and Ginny.

"Estele!" Hermione called as Este stopped walking, Hermione swung the door open and Este faced both girls.

"It's Este," she corrected as both girls made their way out to the hallway.

"Do you know what's happened to Harry?" Ginny asked, "Sirius seems furious,"

"Your friend decided to use magic outside of school and is now going to face a trial at the Ministry," Este replied nonchalantly, shrugging.

"Oh dear, he could be expelled," Hermione said worriedly.

"Oh, and I hear that Fudge wants him in Azkaban," Este informed them helpfully──at least, she thought it was helpful. No. She knew it wasn't helpful.

"But they can't do that! That would be insane!" Ginny said hotly

"The Ministry has it out for him just because he said You-Know-Who's back!" Hermione exclaimed, "There can't be any laws against him──I'm sure there are plenty in his favour──oh! oh! I'll build a defence plan for him!" Hermione rambled, running back into the room as Ginny followed.

Este went back to her room and shut the door loudly. Her nails dug into the palms of her hand as blood rushed to her face. Her heart thumped madly and anger flushed over her. She jumped to her bed and let out a horrible shriek into her pillow. Perhaps it was her hot temper to blame──but Este was beyond angry. She should've never agreed to this──everything was fine as it was. She and Atlas had grown up together and she had treated him like an older brother. And she could've been in Paris, going shopping and having macarons at Ladurée.

The idea that her father──her own father had put his godson before her──his own daughter──all blood and flesh──enraged her with every bone in her body and blood in her every vein. The entire summer, she had constantly put in an effort to speak with him but then it would either be about Harry or just plain awkward. Then there were order meetings where his other best mate came first. Lupin and Sirius had gone through a lot together but that wasn't an excuse to throw your daughter to the side──was it? Lupin had been very kind to her, he smiled at her and would ask about her grades. He was ever so polite and she couldn't blame him. And so, she found herself blaming her father──her horrible, horrible father who she found herself wishing for his attention the most.

She turned to find something she could throw and her eyes spotted a glass vase filled with her favourite flowers, Peonies. Peonies were her favourite flowers because they were considered the king of flowers. In the Chinese legend, Wu Zetian, the only she-emperor in the history of china, had ordered all the flowers to be brought to her. She ordered for all of them to bloom and they all did──every single one but the peony. The Peony bloomed as it liked, for no one──not even kings and queens.

Grabbing the glass vase, she hurled it to the floor with a loud crash. The glass splattered everywhere, some pieces cutting her pale skin as she stomped on the smaller pieces. She then heard a knock and cursed. Before she could reply, the door opened, and in came Kreature, the house elf. "Kreature could hear Young Mistress," the elf said, looking to the glass, "Cheap."

"Could you clean this mess?" she asked, referring to the ground as Kreature nodded, and with a snap of his fingers, the mess disappeared. Kreature had respected Este──Este had always treated Kreature with the amount of respect that Regulus Black did, and Kreature had found that she seemed more like Regulus than Sirius, and Kreature liked that.

Kreature had grown to accept that the girl was his mistress and treated her as such. "And your wounds, Mistress?" Kreature asked, referring to the cuts on her arms and legs.

"Never mind them, they'll heal naturally," Este replied simply before dismissing Kreature.

♰

Exactly five days had passed, and Harry Potter's name was the only topic of discussion in Grimmauld Place, it was constant──a mantra, repeating, haunting her. Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that. Her father continued ignoring her, and Lupin pulled her aside and told her it was stressful for Sirius and to not be too upset about it. But how could she not? All that left her father's mouth was about his godson.

That night, a select group of people were going to escort Harry Potter from his aunt and uncle's home and were bringing him to the headquarters. With a swift scoff, Este bid the select few goodbyes. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all begging to come but Mr. Weasley had lectured them and told them they were far too young. Este then had to remind them of how they practically ignored him and he wouldn't be very glad to see them, which hurriedly sent them into another frenzy and they too disappeared.

While everyone gathered on the first floor, Este was happy to spend her time relaxing in the comfort of her room. Her feet were dancing as she lay on her bed, muggle magazines sprawled all over the huge bed. She had been enjoying her night so far, she had given her nails a retouch, this time opting for a black. She was doing a facemask with her hair wrapped in a towel when she almost jumped out of her skin when she could hear a distinct voice, yelling loudly──Harry Potter. An annoyed expression painted Este's face as she got up from her bed and trotted down the stairs, not caring what she looked like. Silence dawned on the group, Hermione and Ron too shocked and Harry too angry to hear Este Black's feet, coming down the stairs.

When she entered the room, Harry was screaming, not noticing her presence behind him. "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 THANKYOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDOREKNOWS IT──WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

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."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!" Ron was standing there with his mouth half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, while Hermione looked 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 wanted to tell you, we really did──" Hermione 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──"

"We wanted to──"

"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER──"

"No, honest──"

"Harry, we're really sorry!" said Hermione desperately, her eyes now sparkling with tears. "You're absolutely right, Harry──I'd be furious if it was me!"

"Gah! Shut up!" Este snapped, dramatically, flinging her hands to her ears, "Well done, Potsy, my ears are bleeding now!" she added, smirking slightly as she leaned smugly against the doorframe. At once, Harry spun around, and instantly his anger rose again, glaring at the girl. "Ever the dramatics, Potsy."

"What is she doing here?" Harry asked hotly, gesturing to the very comfortable Este.

"Well... she is Sirius's daughter," Hermione spoke diplomatically.

"Shouldn't you be off with Malfoy, Riddle, and He-Black? Maybe joining the death eaters?" Harry said coldly as a mean glare set itself onto Este's face resulting in Ron gulping and Hermione shuddering.

"You might polish those manners," Este said coolly, "You are a guest at my house."

"What?"

"Wills, ancestry, you know ── the complicated stuff," she said simply, "Unless you want me to kick you out, keep that mouth of yours in check," she warned. "We're not at Hogwarts where you can prance around like the king of the castle," she and Harry began to glare at one another, but then, he turned away from her 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.

Harry asked, "What is this place, anyway?" he shot at Ron and Hermione.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," said Ron at once.

"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix──?"

"It's a secret society," said Hermione quickly. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

"Who's in it?" said Harry coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets.

"Aurors, people who believe you and the old crackpot," Este chimed in.

"Don't say that, Este," Hermione frowned. "Quite a few people──"

"──we've met about twenty of them," said Ron, "but we think there are more. . . ."

Harry glared at them, "Well?" he demanded, looking from one to the other.

"Er," said Ron. "Well, what?"

"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously, and both Ron and Hermione winced while Este yawned. 'What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?'

"We've told you, the Order doesn't let us in on their meetings," said Hermione nervously. "So we don't know the details──but we've got a general idea──" she added hastily, seeing the look on Harry's face.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," said Ron. "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 from 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 of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order──" said Hermione.

"──and some of them are standing guard over something," said Ron. "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah," said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension.

Harry snorted. He walked around the room again, looking anywhere but at Ron and Hermione. "So, what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?" he demanded. "You said you'd been busy,"

"We have," said Hermione quickly. "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, and most of the bedrooms and I think we're doing the drawing-room tomo──AARGH!" With two loud cracks, Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers, 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. "Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins

"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, and held 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."

"The Extendable Ears won't work, your mother's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door," Este suddenly said.

'How d'you know, Stella?' said George, looking crestfallen.

"Intuition," Este said simply, "Big meeting, Imperturbable Charm, they go hand in hand."

"Este is right. 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?"

"In the flesh," Este said, wrinkling her nose, "Oily hair, abnormally large and crooked nose." She glanced at all of them again and left the room. As she was walking down the stairs, she spotted Kreature "Kreature," Este called as Kreature paused.

"Yes?"

"When does that meeting end? It's been taking forever," Este said, crossing her arms.

"Kreacher has no idea... Oh, my poor mistress. Vermin in the house. What will my poor mistress do?" Este went down the stairs, ignoring the elf. As she passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall, she saw Lupin, Mrs Weasley, and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left. She then saw the group of teenagers come down the stairs.

"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 in exasperation, 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, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech. The moth-eaten velvet curtains Este had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. The life-size portrait of the old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she were being tortured. The most realistic, and the most unpleasant, she had ever seen in her life, was the portrait of Walburga Black.

Walburga Black had her eyes shut, her mouth closed as she slept elegantly, her pale, blue-hued skin on 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 Este actually screwed up her eyes at the noise and clapped her hands over her ears.

Lupin 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. Este rolled her eyes before running over and pushing the two older adults to the side.

"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──Oh! Estele, My beautiful Darling!" The woman exclaimed, her screeches stopping immediately, "How lovely it is to see you." Precious Estele──her prodigy of a granddaughter. Her darling and dearest Estele.

"Bonsoir Grandmère," Este replied idly.

"Oh! How well you've grown up!" Walburga cheered, she then frowned, her eyes sharpening, like knives, "Why are you here with them, Darling Estele?"

"Not much choice. I was tricked," Este shrugged as her face calmed again. "Well, nice talk, Grams," she smiled as the woman nodded before returning to the screeching. Tonks apologized over and over again, 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; and a man with long black hair came charging out of a door facing Harry.

"I thought you'd stop it?!" Harry yelled over the screeches as Este smiled smugly and shrugged before disappearing, but before she could leave, Sirius with long black hair came charging out of a door facing Este who stopped at the doorframe.

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

"Here comes the fun part!" Este sang, knowing the drill all too well.

The old woman's face blanched. "Yoooou!" she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. "Blood traitor, abomination, the shame of my flesh!"

"I said──shut──UP!" roared the man, and with a stupendous effort, he and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again. The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence told. Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Harry's godfather and Este's father Sirius turned to face him. "Hello, Harry," he said grimly, "I see you've met my mother."