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chapter twenty seven | waves & kisses

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AFTER a very long heated discussion, it was finally agreed that Kaya, Jaeden, Fred and George were allowed to stay to listen in on the Order, for they were of age and therefore were supposed to be practically adults. (Emphasis on the word 'supposed'.)

Ginny didn't leave the room quietly, as she found it incredibly unfair that she and the others couldn't listen - especially since Diana was allowed to stay. Elizabeth Silverstone had some hang up about her being up to date with the 'cold hard truth' so the silver haired girl remained seated when the other fifteen year olds (minus Harry) left the room.

"Ok, Harry," said Sirius. "What do you want to know?"

"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the muggle news, but there hasn't been anything that could be to do with him, yet. No funny deaths, or anything,"

"Well, there haven't actually been any funny deaths yet," Sirius explained. "Not as far as we know, anyway,"

"Except Cedric," Kaya muttered, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Fred shot her a sympathetic glance.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.

"He doesn't want to draw attention to himself. That's what we think, anyway," said Sirius. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off the way he wanted it too - he messed it up,"

"Or, rather, you messed it up," Lupin chimed in, giving Harry a satisfied smile.

"You weren't supposed to survive!" Sirius said. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you're a witness, Harry,"

"And the very last person he wanted to know he was back was Dumbledore. But you made sure Dumledore knew at once,"

The four seventeen year olds exchanged glances as they listened quietly.

"How does that help, though?"

"Are you joking?" said a Bill, and everyone's heads snapped towards him. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!

"Thanks to you, Harry, Dumledore was able to get the Order together for a talk, about an hour after Voldemort returned," said Sirius.

"What's the Order been doing?" Harry asked, looking around at everyone else.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out any of his plans,"

"How d'you know what his plans are?"

"Dumbledore has a small idea. His small ideas normally turn out to be accurate, too."

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's been planning?" Jae spoke for the first time. Harry nodded, asking the same question.

"He wants to build up his army again. He had loads in the old days - we're trying our best to stop him from getting followers. We're trying to make everyone aware that he's back, but it's tricky,"

"How?" asked Harry.

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," said Tonks, leaning back in her seat comfortably. "Fudge is refusing to believe that it's happened,"

"Why? Why's he being so stupid? Dumbledore-"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," said Arthur. Kaya rested her chin on her hand. "Dumbledore,"

"Fudge is frightened of him," Tonks explained with a hint of sadness.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Kaya spoke, pulling a face.

"Frightened of what he's up to," Cher added, looking towards her daughter, before leaving the rest of the Order to continue explaining.

"Fudge thinks Dumbledore is plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic,"

"But Dumbledore doesn't want to be-" Harry said.

"-Of course he doesn't. But there was a lot of people that wanted him to take the job, after Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge obviously hasn't forgotten how popular Dumbledore was, even if he hadn't applied for the job,"

"Deep down, Fudge knows how much more clever and powerful Dumbledore is than him. He used to ask Dumbledore for advice, but he's become fond of power and much more confident. He's somehow convinced himself he's more clever than Dumbledore, and that he's just stirring up trouble for the sake of it,"

"The Ministry are telling everyone that it's just stupid rumours, and they're also making sure that the Daily Prophet doesn't report any of Dumbledore's 'rumours'."

"So basically, some of the Wizarding people don't even know anything has happened,"

The thought of this made Kaya feel sick. The fact that Fudge was trying to cover up Cedric's murder or pass it off as an accident made her blood boil. And to pretend the man who'd killed him wasn't even present at this day in time? That was the cherry on top of a horrid cake.

"But you're trying to tell them... aren't you?" Harry asked Sirius.

"Well, everyone thinks I'm a mad mass murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand galleon price on my head, I can't start strolling up the road handing out leaflets, can I?"

Kaya had almost forgotten that Sirius was still painted out to be the same mass murderer who'd terrorised her in her fifth year when he'd broken into the school. She could still remember the night where all students had to sleep in the great hall perfectly clear - she'd spent most of it awake and frightened, signalling to Jaeden across the room, who was also restless, and trying to mouth things to him without any of the teachers knowing.

They hadn't gotten very far, because Jaeden 'selfishly' as Kaya had said, fell asleep before her, leaving her being the last person in her friendship group awake - much to her dismay.

"And I'm not a very popular person in the community. It's what happens, when you're a werewolf," said Lupin.

"Tonks, Arthur, Cher and Jack would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they start shouting their mouthes off," Sirius explained. "It's important for us to have spies in the Ministry because we think Voldemort has them, too,"

"We think we've managed to convince a couple of people, though," said Arthur. "Tonks, here - she's too young to have been in the Order last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage. Kingsley Shacklebolt, he's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's convinced the Ministry that Sirius is somewhere in Tibet,"

Jaeden gave Sirius a grin.

"Cher and Jack both work with me in the 'Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office,"

Kaya and Fred exchanged glances - both confused as to why they'd never figured out their parents worked together, before. It was a small world, indeed.

"But if none of you are putting out the news that he's back-" Harry began, but was interrupted yet again by his godfather.

"Who said none of us are putting the news out? Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"

"What?"

"They're trying to discredit him," said Lupin. "It was in the Daily Prophet, last week,"

"If he carries on defying the Ministry, he could get locked up in Azkaban," said Arthur. Kaya and Jaeden exchanged wide eyes.

"But if Voldemort's recruiting Death Eaters, it's bound to be found out!"

"Voldemort doesn't just knock on people's doors, Harry. He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well practiced at operating in secret,"

"He sounds like a snake," said Kaya, causing the three boys she was sitting with to break out in grins, staring down at the table to stop themselves from letting out a laugh. "What? He does!"

"But he's not just after followers. Voldemort's after something... something he didn't have, last time,"

"A win, maybe?" Jaeden muttered, so only Kaya and the twins could hear. They sniggered, but stopped immediately because of the tense atmosphere in the room.

If they were going to joke around, they'd probably end up being kicked out of the meetings - and that was a risk they weren't willing to take.

"You mean, like, a weapon..?" Harry asked slowly, until Molly snapped.

"That's enough," she said, from the doorway. She looked furious, as she turned towards Fred and George. "I want you to go to bed, now,"

"You can't boss us-" Fred began.

"Watch me," she snarled. "You've given Harry plenty of information. Anymore, and he might as well join the Order,"

"Why not?" asked Harry, quickly. "I want to join, I want to fight,"

"No," said Cher softly. "The Order is made up of only overage wizards - wizards that have left school," she added, as the four seventeen year olds opened their mouthes. "Anyway, I think Molly's right, Sirius. They've heard enough,"

Sirius half shrugged, as Molly gave Cher a quick small smile.

There was a short silence in which the twins huffed, before their chairs scraped as they stood up and headed for the door. Kaya and Jaeden followed, recognising defeat, saying a polite 'goodnight' to everyone, before closing the door behind them.

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Kaya was facing a complicated issue.

Her bedroom was supposed to be shared with Maisie - but as the red-headed girl hadn't arrived yet, she'd be alone. And there was no way Kaya would be sleeping in a strange dark, gloomy bedroom on her own - so what was she going to do?

Pester her mother until she agreed to let her sleep in her friends' room - just for tonight.

It had taken a long while, but she finally convinced her parents to let her bring a mattress onto the floor of Jaeden's room - which also happened to be the same room as Fred and George.

If Kaya hadn't slept in the same room as Jaeden and Milo many times before, there was no way she would've been allowed. But, she's done it all before, so it wasn't too much of an issue.

But even Molly was a bit concerned for Kaya,

"Are you sure you want to sleep in there with those boys? I doubt Fred and George'll give you a peaceful night, what with all their pranks and explosions," she'd said.

But Kaya had insisted she'd be fine - so Molly and Cher had told her if she changed her mind, she was more than welcome to share with Hermione and Ginny.

The three boys were over the moon to have 'Queen Kaya' George had called her, for some odd reason, to sleepover for the night. She'd threatened them as soon as she'd walked in, because just because she didn't want to sleep alone, it didn't mean she was going to put up with a night of hell from the twins and Jaeden.

And so, everyone was sitting in their pyjamas (Kaya obviously having to change in the bathroom) trying to stay awake for as long as possible, just for the sake of it. Kaya didn't notice Fred's little smile at the sight of her prominent, brown curls bounce as she sat down.

"So, what is that 'Grease' thing you keep talking about?" asked Fred, who was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. Kaya let out a laugh.

"It's so hard to explain because it's a muggle thing,"

"Try me,"

"Have you heard of 'films' or 'movies'?"

"No,"

Kaya sighed, exchanging a glance with Jaeden, before continuing.

"Right, so you know what a play is, don't you? When all the people act on stage, you know..."

"Yeah,"

"Has your dad ever talked about a muggle telly? Or a TV?"

The twins' faces lit up.

"Yeah! He tried explaining it but it makes no sense - I dunno if he's too sure what it is himself - but it plays things like stage productions doesn't it?"

"In a way - it can play, like, films or TV shows - which are like plays, but they're filmed beforehand, and not on stage, like the actors travel to the locations, or build sets,"

"Filmed?"

"Filmed... is like a photo, but instead of it being a still moment, it's... a full scene?" Kaya was trying her best to explain. "Like, say if someone filmed us now, they could record not just a picture of us all in here, but us talking, and moving around, you get me? Like a video?"

"A what?"

"Never mind,"

"Oh, right," George said, still frowning slightly, but nodding. "Cool,"

"We'll show you, one day,"

"Why not now?"

"Because we don't have a telly, here,"

"Oh,"

"It's okay!" Jaeden grinned. "Me and Kaya can just act it out for you, we know the script off by heart,"

Kaya laughed.

"Yes! Do the intro, Jae,"

Jaeden started humming and singing the intro tune to Grease, Kaya sitting up wearing a huge beam as the twins exchanged bewildered glances.

"...Get out of bed, it's the first day of school! Don't be a slob! Don't be a drool! Don't get a job! Go back to class, you can pass!" she said with a giggle.

Fred and George chuckled with a surprised look on their faces.

"And to start the day off nice and fine, we're gonna play a new old favourite of mine," said Jaeden, doing a much better impression than Kaya because he had a deeper voice.

"What are you two on-?"

"I solve my problems and I see the light! We got a lovin' thing we got to feed it right," The boy and girl sang together, letting out laughs in between the words.

"I don't think we're going to understand this until we see the actual... whats it called phlegm?" Fred pulled a face.

Kaya snorted.

"Film!"

"That's it, film,"

But Kaya and Jaeden continued their acapella performance for the twins, moving from the song 'Grease' to 'Sandra Dee' and many others.

"As for you, Troy Donahue, I know what you wanna do!" Kaya cried.

"You got your crust, I'm no object of lust! I'm just plain Sandra Dee!" Jaeden continued.

Fred and George were very baffled and a little disturbed.

Especially when Kaya, obviously unknowingly to them, did exactly the same dance as Rizzo when singing about Elvis, which caused Jaeden to burst out laughing.

"You two are crazy," said George. "I don't know if I wanna see 'Greasy' or whatever it's called after that,"

"Oh, you do," said Kaya, sitting back down and pulling the bed covers over her. "Trust me. We'll force you,"

"We will," Jaeden nodded.

And around half an hour later, everyone was lying in their beds and contributing to George's idea of having a competition at making up the most ridiculous theories.

"McGonagall's inner monologue at all times is, 'I must not punch Albus'," said Jaeden, causing a chorus of laughs.

"Because, let's face it, Dumbledore bringing death threats to school every year, I wouldn't blame her,"

"I've got one," Kaya said, before giggling. "Sprout, McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape are all in a rock band together,"

"I see it!" Fred said with a jolly grin. "Flitwick plays something weird or advanced, like the harp or something,"

"A harp in a rock band?"

"Snape plays the drums and pretends each one is one of us Gryffindors, and that's why he's so good at whacking them," said George.

"McGonagall is the lead singer. You can't change my mind," said Kaya.

"What does Sprout do?" asked Jae. "Wait, that's a no brainier, she's definitely on the rock guitar doing head bops,"

"What would their band name be?"

"Uh," everyone trailed off, in thought.

"We Just Want A Normal Teaching Job,"

"Snape Actually Hates Us, We Bribed Him To Be Here,"

"Snape's Asshole," said Jaeden bluntly, causing the twins to break into a fit of laughter.

"Jae!" Kaya pulled a face.

"Let's think of another one,"

As more and more ridiculous rubbish fell out of their mouthes, one by one, they all drifted off, the conversation ending due to their sleepiness. The only noise present was George's snoring.

Kaya and Fred were the last to be awake, and could just make out each other's faces lying in their beds across the room in the dark.

Fred grinned at her and gave her a small wave, and she waved back with a beam, before blowing a silent kiss his way. If it wasn't so dark, Kaya would've seen his grin widen, before blowing a silent kiss back.

And they soon joined Jaeden and George in falling asleep, both smiling into their pillows, after mouthing 'goodnight' to one another.