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chapter twenty six | out of touch

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"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, YOU COW!"

Kaya liked to think of herself as quite a patient person, but Walburga Black and her ear splitting screams was really pushing her limits - especially when everything she wailed was insulting practically everyone Kaya knew.

"Careful, Kaya's gonna punch a painting in a moment," Jaeden muttered to Fred, who was wearing a smirk at the girl's sudden outburst.

"I hate to admit it, but she scares me," George said.

"Nah, she's about as threatening as a kitten," Jaeden said casually, watching Fred walk over and drag the girl by her arm past the painting and downstairs with them. Alfie and Jeremy separated themselves from the group and headed to the room where they'd be sleeping.

"Kittens grow into cats, and cats can be vicious!" George said, he and Jae both joining the two on the first floor to greet Harry, who was loudly talking to Ron and Hermione in one of the bedrooms.

But, as Kaya and Jaeden opened the door, the twins vanished. They could only suspect the ginger ninja's were up to something that revolved around a prank - it did set the two on edge a little wondering what it would be, though - especially Jaeden, after being attacked with dungbombs last April.

"...But why would he want to keep me in the dark?! Maybe I could help! After all, I-I'm the one who saw Voldemort return, I'm the one who fought him-"

"Alright, greased-lightnin'," Kaya interrupted, although Harry continued his rambling to his two friends.

"Greased-lightnin'?" Jaeden muttered to her with a frown.

"His scar," she said, motioning a lightning shape with her index finger.

"-I'm the one who saw Cedric Diggory get killed-!"

Kaya froze, her face falling - and then the twins decided to apparate right behind Harry, causing everyone in the room to jump as they placed their hands on Harry's shoulders.

"Harry!" Fred greeted with a jolly tone.

"Thought we heard your dulcet tone," George grinned.

"Don't bottle it up though, mate," said Fred, as they sat down. "Let it out,"

Kaya and Jaeden exchanged smirks, before joining the rest of the group.

"Kaya!" Hermione smiled. "Jae! When did you get here?"

"Not long before Harry," Kaya replied, flicking her eyes between the trio. "How're you lot?"

"Alright," Ron shrugged.

"Anyway," George continued. "If you're all done shouting..."

"...do you wanna hear something a little more interesting?" Fred finished.

"You two creep me out when you finish each other's sentences," Jaeden told them, to which they sniggered.

"Twin-telepathy," George grinned. "I'm surprised you and Kaya don't have it,"

"I'm insulted that you thought I might've been related to that, even for a split second," Kaya retorted, pulling a face at Jae who flipped her off in response.

Fred was untangling some kind of flesh coloured product, and Kaya frowned.

"What's that, Freddles?"

"Follow us," was all he'd said, exchanging a mischievous glance with George.

The flesh-coloured product turned out to be some kind of listening device the twins had created - which admittedly impressed Kaya and Jaeden. 'Extendable Ears' was what they'd named them, and they were using it to try and spy on the Order.

Everyone gathered around the top of the staircase, holding one ear as they lowered the other in hopes of getting even the slightest bit of information. There was a small crackle until they could all make out a faint voice echoing, as the Order spoke in hushed voices.

"He's not James!" was the first thing they could hear from the voice of Molly Weasley.

"And he's not your son," Sirius retorted.

"He's as good as. Who else has he got?"

Ginny soon appeared standing in between the twins, also wanting to eavesdrop. One of them greeting her in a whisper.

"He's got me!" Sirius said.

"How touching, perhaps Potter will grow up to be a feloner just like his godfather,"

"You stay of this, Snivellus,"

Kaya and Jae snorted, as Hermione's cat became particularly interested in the Extendable Ear.

"Snape's in the Order?" Harry asked with a confused frown.

"Git," Ron pulled a face. George began to panic as he noticed Crookshanks starting to pounce at his and Fred's product. He tried yanking it back up, as everyone else continued trying to listen to the Order over the crackles and meows from the cat.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione called in a hushed whisper. "Crookshanks! Leave it alone!"

But the cat finally bit off the ear and scurried off, leaving everyone almost silent.

"Hermione, I hate your cat,"

"Bad Crookshanks!"

Dinner was soon ready, and after scolding her sons yet again for apparating right behind her, Molly guided everyone back into the dining room, where they would be eating - and Kaya and Jaeden were introduced to yet another Weasley.

"That's Bill," Fred told them. "He usually works in Egypt, but he applied for a desk job so he can come home and work for the Order, but..." a smirk grew on his face. "There are compensations,"

"How d'you mean?" Kaya asked with a slight frown.

"Remember that old Fleur Delacour?" George said with a grin. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish-"

"-and Bill's giving her a lot of private lessons," Fred finished with a snigger.

"Lucky Bill," Jae started, receiving an elbow from Kaya.

"Charlie's in the Order, too," George continued, as they began to sit down. "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,"

"Can't Percy do that?" Harry chimed in. Kaya and Jaeden's eyebrows creased as they watched the Weasley children exchanging darkly significant looks. Fred glanced towards their parents, but they thankfully weren't listening.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad," Ron said through a tense, lowered voice.

"Why not?" Harry asked slowly.

"Because every time Percy's name is mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he is holding, and Mum starts crying," Fred said casually. Kaya raised an eyebrow.

"It's been awful," said Ginny with an unhappy expression.

"I think we're well shot of him," said George.

"What happened?" Harry asked. Jaeden and Kaya were also waiting for an explanation.

"Percy and Dad got into a fight," began Fred. "I've never seen Dad shout like it before - it's usually Mum who yells,"

Kaya glanced towards Arthur, who was happily chatting to her own Dad. She definitely couldn't picture Mr Weasley as angry as his children were describing.

"It was the first week after term ended. We were about to come and join the Order, when Percy came and told us he was promoted,"

"You're kidding?" said Harry.

"Yeah, we were all surprised," George continued. "He came home really pleased with himself - even more pleased than usual, if you could imagine - he'd told Dad he'd gotten a position in Fudge's office. Apparently it was a really good job for someone just a year out of Hogwarts - he expected Dad to be all impressed-"

"-Except he wasn't," Fred finished.

Kaya's eyes flicked between the two twins as they explained, as she slowly learned what had happened between Percy and his family. Apparently, Fudge had been running round the Ministry checking nobody'd had any contact with Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore's name's in the mud at the Ministry," George had explained.

Since everyone under the impression that Dumbledore was causing trouble, or attention seeking, Fudge suspected Mr Weasley since he'd known he was close with Dumbledore. Arthur had told Percy that Fudge only wanted him in the office to use him to spy on the rest of the Weasley's, and Percy had gone mad.

"He said all sorts of terrible things. He'd said he'd had to struggle with Dad's lousy representation ever since he'd joined the Ministry, and that's why... we don't have a lot of money... and things..." Fred said, trailing off.

But it had gotten worse, for Kaya had learned that Percy had told Arthur he was an idiot for running round with Dumbledore and that he knew where his loyalties lay - with the Ministry. He'd told his parents that if they were going to be 'traitors' he was going to make sure everyone knew he wasn't apart of their family anymore - and had packed his bags, and moved to London all on the same night. Kaya and Jaeden were - for what seemed the first time in forever - left with no words. Harry swore under his breath, as the last bit of food was put down.

"Sit down, Harry," Sirius told his godson, as Jaeden and Kaya sat opposite the Weasley twins. "You've all met Mundungus, haven't you?"

"Some'n say m'name?" A man Kaya could only assume was Mundungus said, sleepily. "I 'gree with Sirius,"

Jaeden snorted and Ginny giggled.

"Me too!" Kaya playfully said, nodding to him. She could see Fred grin at her out of the corner of her eye.

"The meetings over, Dung," Sirius said, as Harry sat down at the table. "Harry's here,"

Mundungus looked around with a confused look, which turned to surprise.

"Blimey, so 'e is. You all righ' 'Arry?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, before turning and continuing his conversation with Sirius.

"Good summer so far?"

"No, it's been lousy,"

Kaya looked over and took note of two others she had not yet been introduced to. One was an old woman, who still had a head of blonde hair amongst the grey, the other was quite young - younger than Kaya - with almost white hair that fell gracefully down to her waist.

"That's the Silverstones," Fred explained. "Yeah, the Silverstones. Elizabeth - you've probably heard of her, she's quite famous - and her granddaughter, Diana,"

"Diana's in Ron's year," George added. "Her parents were Death Eaters,"

"Oh," Kaya said, suddenly understanding.

The Silverstones had been a well known, powerful wizarding family for centuries - recognised deeply for both the good and bad. Some have turned out to be the worst wizards of all time - some the greatest. In fact, the huge contrast between morals of the members of this particular family has led to the rest of the world inventing a little game based around them.

Every time a Silverstone was born, wizarding families placed their bets, and the rest of the world held their breath to determine if it would be insanity or greatness that'd grasp ahold of the new Silverstone - and which ancestors of theirs they would continue to follow.

It was already known that Elizabeth Silverstone was one of the greatest witches in Britain - she was a notorious Auror well known for creating the 'lethal fire' spell that set anything aflame apart from the witch or wizard that conjured it. Nobody knew how it was cast except her. But was no lie that Elizabeth was one of the great Silverstones.

Kaya wondered which type of Silverstone Diana would turn out to be.

Molly Weasley called Fred and George to help set the table, and Kaya exchanged glances with Jaeden, knowing fully well this was going to be a disaster.

They were correct.

"Fred, George- NO JUST CARRY THEM!" Molly shrieked. Kaya and Jaeden jerked themselves back and Harry and Sirius dived out of the way, as a cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard with a knife soared towards them.

Fred and George froze as the stew skidded the length of the table, and stopped just before the end. The flagon of butterbeer fell with a crash, sending its contents everywhere, and the bread knife had slipped off of the board and landed point down on where Sirius' right hand had been, just before.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" Mrs Weasley screamed. "THERE WAS NO NEED-!"

Kaya broke into a fit of giggles and held the bridge of her nose, joining Jaeden, Harry and Sirius in laughing at the two twins, who were holding back their sniggers as their mother scolded them.

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" said Fred, hurrying over and trying to wrench the knife out of the table. "Sorry, Sirius, mate - didn't mean to-"

George was helping Fred try to pull the knife out, but they did so much as bend the handle.

Kaya drew her wand from her pocket and flicked it, and the knife launched itself upwards, Fred blinking in surprise at the sudden swiftness of removing it from the table. The brunette smirked.

"Boys," Arthur eventually said. "Your mother's right, you should show a sense of responsibility now that you've come of age,"

"That'll be a long shot," Jaeden whispered to Kaya, before they both sniggered to each other.

"None of your brothers caused this much trouble!" Molly sighed, giving them a cold stare. "Bill didn't feel the need to apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't charm everything he met! Percy-"

She glanced at her husband with a frightened expression, as Arthur's face turned wooden.

"-is a pillock," Kaya finished with a mutter, so only Jae could hear. He bit his cheek to stop himself from laughing.

"Let's eat," Bill said, attempting to break the sudden awkward atmosphere.

"It looks lovely, Molly!" Lupin said. For a few minutes there was a silence except from the clatter off plates and cutlery, and the sounds of chairs being tucked in or pulled out.

Fred and George sat back opposite the two best friends, Fred giving Kaya a cheeky wink and making her grin.

Elizabeth Silverstone beckoned Harry over to speak to both her and her granddaughter - Kaya could tell the poor boy wasn't so sure, but he still stood up and reluctantly headed over.

The pink-haired woman Kaya had learned was named Tonks, was entertaining Hermione and Ginny by using her metamorphmagus abilities and transforming different facial features.

"Do one like a pig snout!" Ginny said enthusiastically, and giggled as Tonks did exactly so.

The four seventeen year olds, as well as Ron, ended up getting into a conversation with Mundungus who was busy telling them all kinds of funny stories, resulting them in great laughing fits as they rolled around in their seats.

But Molly soon became concerned at what he was telling the children and stopped him as Ron slumped forwards with laughter and Kaya wiped away many tears that had rolled down her face from giggling. Fred and Jaeden buried their faces in the table and George was hiccoughing. Molly sent a cold look to Sirius, of whom Kaya could hear him quietly telling Harry (who had quickly made his way back to his godfather once his conversation with the Silverstones was over) how Molly doesn't approve of Mundungus.

"You know, I'm surprised at you," He told his godson. "I thought as soon as you got here, you'd be asking questions about Voldemort,"

"I have!" Harry retorted. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order!"

"And they're quite right!" Molly said. "You're too young,"

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order to get their questions answered?" Sirius argued. "Harry's been trapped in that muggle house for ages, he deserves to know-"

"Hold on!" George interrupted loudly.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?!" Fred said, angrily.

"We've been trying to get it out of you for months, and you haven't said a single stinking thing!"

Kaya hadn't really thought about it too much, but as it all came out, she and Jaeden agreed with the twins. It wasn't fair if Harry, a fifteen year old, got answers and they didn't.

"You're too young! You're not in the Order!" said Fred, putting on a high-pitched voice.

Kaya looked towards her mother with pleading eyes, and she raised an eyebrow at her daughter, crossing her arms.

"Harry's not even of age!" Fred continued.

"It's not my fault you've not been told," Sirius replied calmly. "It's up to your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand,"

And then Molly and Sirius soon got into a fight about whether Harry deserves to know about Voldemort's return, Jaeden and Kaya calling across to their parents also wanting answers.

It was an extremely frustrating scene.