✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Harry's P.O.V. 

Upon turning around, Harry couldn't exactly distinguish the look in Y/N's eyes. She seemed almost stoic, arms crossed, standing in the doorway of the musty room. Was she going to shout at him, like he had shouted at Ron and Hermione? Harry supposed he deserved it. 

Harry couldn't decipher his own turmoil of feelings either, but apparently, his body could understand just perfectly - his limbs moved on their own, without conscious thought, and before Harry knew it, he had strode over to Y/N and engulfed her in a hug. 

For a moment, he was sure she'd push him off. Y/N was frozen, completely stiff, and then she relaxed into Harry's arms with an exasperated sigh, and Harry smiled in relief. This could have gone much worse than he (his body, he wasn't stupid enough to hug an angry Y/N) anticipated. 

Harry was now realizing that he'd grown over the summer, because Y/N's body was significantly smaller than his, and as he held her closer, Harry could smell something similar to citrus and strawberries - maybe her shampoo? It was a new scent, but he enjoyed it all the same. 

Just as quickly as the moment came, it was gone, as Y/N grabbed Harry by the front of his navy shirt, scrunched the fabric in her fist, and pushed him lightly away. There was a beat of silence and Y/N glared at him, and then pulled him back into an even tighter hug. 

"You are such a dumbass, holy fuckin' Merlin," Y/N grumbled into Harry's shoulder, "Getting yourself expelled, you should've just let the Dementors get Dudley..."

This got a little chuckle out of him, until her voice hardened and Y/N continued, "Come on, you didn't have to yell at Herms and Ronnie like that - I know you're angry," she added when she felt him tense. "And you have the right to be angry, so angry." 

Harry nodded stiffly. 

"And you can talk it out with us, and we'll tell you stuff, and you can like...tell us stuff...too," Y/N said softly. "But please don't yell at Ron, or Hermione," she continued. 

Harry nodded, almost reluctantly, and Y/N met his eyes. His gaze softened, but her eyebrows furrowed, "If you yell at me, it will be the last thing you do," she said brightly. Before Harry could say anything else, she wriggled away from his arms and opened the room door and stuck her head out. 

"Herms, Ronnie, get your asses back over here - sorry, Missus Weasley - FUCK, RON YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO STEP ON MY TOE YOU DIMWIT - I didn't mean it, Missus Weas- er, Molly!" 

Unable to bite back a smile, Harry felt nice just being in Y/N's presence. She was so accidentally funny, and he could feel his anger melting away. 

Ron and Hermione stumbled into the room, and Y/N winced, glaring at Ron. 

Harry, almost bristling in their presence, Harry took a deep breath, 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 Ron and Hermione. 

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

Harry rolled his eyes, then caught a glance of Y/N's eyebrows raising. He softened his tone. "Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix - ?"

Y/N shrugged, "It's kinda like a gang-"

"It's a secret society," interrupted 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. 

"Quite a few people," answered Y/N. Harry was sure that she didn't know how many people, and she definitely didn't care. 

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

Harry glared at them, then stopped. "Well?" he demanded (hopefully in a civil-enough tone), looking from one to the other. 

"Er," said Ron. "Well what?" 

"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously, and both Ron and Hermione winced. Y/N came to stand beside him and held his hand, rubbing her thumb comfortingly. "What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?" 

"We've told you, the Order don'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. 

"Dad's really annoying," said Y/N disappointedly, "he doesn't tell me much, barely anything at all. Nothing about his missions, but I keep hearing him whisper to the others. Selene's journal is being weird - he still won't let me read it - it keeps appearing and disappearing from wherever he's keeping it."

Harry gave her a concerned look, and she simply shrugged.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see, that's how we know so much," said Ron. "They're really useful." 

"Yeah, right, so much," Y/N muttered.

This caught Harry off guard for a moment, "Ears?" he asked

"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 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, and considered sitting down on the bed, but never carried out the action. "So what have you guys 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, most of the bedrooms, and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo - AARGH!" 

With two loud cracks, Fred and George 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. 

"Do you two have to be so annoying? Like, all the time?" Y/N said irritably, and Fred simply flashed her a grin. 

"Stop doing that!" Hermione 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 kilometers away who didn't hear you." 

Y/N grumbled and shoved Fred's shoulder, "You're literally not funny. I made that joke when we were brainstorming what Harry would say when he got here."

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

"With distinction," said Fred, who was holding what looked like apiece of very long, flesh-colored string. 

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk downthe stairs," said Ron. 

"Time is Galleons, little brother," said Fred, giving Y/N, who rolled her eyes very dramatically, a nudge on the shoulder. "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."

Y/N huffed, "Crookshanks thinks its a toy, you'll have about three seconds of useless data before he tears it shreds," she said. 

Then, as though pretending to leave, Y/N turned expertly and snatched the Extendable Ear from Fred's hand - she was one of the Pranksters, after all - and tossed it over to Ron, who tossed it to Hermione, who tossed it to Ginny, who had just entered the room. 

"It's a major meeting they're having!" George complained, "Ginny, hand it here!" 

Harry grinned as Ginny raised a brow, "Why should I? Your boxes and papers are strewn about my bed right now!" she said in a stern voice, and Harry could tell her relation to Missus Weasley (even though the flaming red hair gave it away). "Plus, It's a no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchendoor." 

"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." 

The name alerted Harry's brain, "Snape is here?" 

"Yeah," said Y/N dully, "Giving some stupid report." 

"Git," said Fred idly. 

"He's on our side now," said Hermione reprovingly, and Harry was a little disgruntled by this. Hermione was acting she'd never -

"You literally set him on fire in first year, Herms," Y/N said in a jokingly outraged voice. "Please channel that energy right now. So what he's on our side?"

Ron snorted with a nod. "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, who really could not argue this, just nodded along. 

The group that had been slowly edging towards the door had compeltely forgone the idea, and had settled on the two beds. It was a bit of a squish, with the quartet on one bed, and Fred, George and Ginny on the other. Harry supposed this was his bed, because the other one was sure to be Ron's (it looked very...lived-in, and there was already some clothing strewn about). 

"I thought Bill was working in Egypt?" said Harry. 

Y/N explained how he'd gotten an office job here in London. "Downside is, he misses the tombs..." a slow grin spread across her face, "upside is, Fleur Delacour happens to have gotten a job at Gringotts," she said slyly. 

George grinned too, "To eemproove her Eenglish." 

"Bill has been giving her a lot of...private lessons," Fred snickered. 

The Weasleys, Y/N and Hermione giggled as Harry raised his eyebrows, watching Y/N's body shake with laughter beside him. 

For a moment, as everyone was laughing, Y/N broke her laugh - her face shifted back to something like sadness, and her eyebrows furrowed. She closed her eyes and something in Y/N's breath shook, and Harry could see a slight glow coming from under her eyelids. Taking another breath, Y/N's hand came to grip around the Shield pendant on her necklace, and Harry knew she was thinking about Cedric. 

As quickly as it showed, Y/N's guard went back up and suddenly she was laughing with her friends. Harry met her gaze, and a flicker of uncertainty showed in Y/N's eyes, and Harry wasn't sure if he should bring it up later, or leave it alone. 

"Charlie's in the Order too," said George, after everyone had calmed down (Y/N still had a smile on her face), "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, Y/N and Hermione 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?" 

Y/N blew some air through her teeth. "Well, let's just say the name triggers some negative emotions," she said. 

Ron sighed, "Every time anyone says his name, dad drops or breaks whatever he's holding, and mum bursts into tears." 

"It's been awful," said Ginny sadly, and Hermione nodded her head in agreement. 

"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..."

Y/N winced - Harry knew that she had visited Ron's house a ton in the summer before fourth year, because they'd found out they lived close to each other.

"It was a couple weeks, back after term ended, after the funeral..." 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 gone mad). 

Long story short, Percy's promotion was more important to him than his family, and he was feeding into the lies that Voldemort hadn't returned. Mister Weasley had proposed, to Percy, the idea that Cornelius Fudge had only promoted him so that he could spy on the Weasley family, because Fudge suspects that they're in league with Dumbledore. 

"I bet Percy loved that," Harry said with a low whistle. 

Ron gave a dry, hollow sort of laugh. "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 noncommittal grunt, Hermione clenched her fists, and Y/N rolled her eyes. 

"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."

The conversation shifted to the daily prophet, and how they had been spewing bullshit about Harry. How he was lying about the return of Voldemort, how he was just a crazy, disturbed little boy who wriggled his way to victory in the Triwizard Tournament, and didn't care about the cost. 

"Some articles even went so far as to say that you killed Ced," Y/N said quietly. 

Harry froze for a moment - if Y/N had seen articles like that, if the thought was always vaguely in the back of her mind...even if she didn't truly believe it, what if she resented Harry for not being able to save Cedric? 

He should have been able to. 

Why...why couldn't he? Was he incompetent in Y/N's eyes? 

Not even just in Y/N's opinion, it was eating Harry's brain, his thoughts. It was overwhelming guilt, and every time he slept, he woke up to green flashes, to Cedric's dead body before his eyes. 

Harry wanted to change the topic, because he really didn't need to hear all the conspiracies about himself. 

He was saved, though, by the soft patter of footsteps ascending the stairs. Fred and George looked at each other, retracted the Extendable Ear, and there was a snap! as they apparated away. 

The door creaked open, and Missus Weasley's face popped in, her hair like flame, and a warm smile on her face. 

"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?" 

"Crookshanks," 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..." and with that, she left. 

Ginny rolled her eyes then got up and left the room, leaving the quartet alone. For a moment, there was an awkward silence, until Y/N muttered, "We missed you, Goldie. A bunch." 

"I bet," Harry said, a little bit of spite in his voice. Y/N raised a brow, and he melted, "Fine, yeah. I missed you guys too, I guess." 

"Look...I'm sorry," he muttered, but Ron shook his head, and Hermione said quietly, "We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you, but you've got to understand, we did try and persuade Dumbledore -"

"Yeah, I know," said Harry grudgingly. 

Y/N put a hand on his arm gently. 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.  

"This nutter of a House Elf that lives here," snorted Ron. 

"He's sort of odd," Y/N agreed. "One time I got a little frustrated, and my eyes were acting up, and he told me that I looked possessed and that I should return to my half-blood, sad little mound of dirt." 

"He just isn't used to having people in the house," Hermione said in defense. "He's just a bit strange, it's not his fault!" 

"Okay, Herms," said Y/N. 

The group left the room and made their way downstairs. Harry was hand-in-hand with Y/N, and he could feel his love for her grow in that moment. But he didn't want to do anything too strong, because he could tell that Y/N wasn't in the right headspace right now. 

On the way down the stairs, they heard the front door open, and then close once more. 

"Snape never eats here," Ron told Harry with a nudge on the shoulder.

"And thank Merlin for that," said Y/N, "We don't need any more grease on our food, he's dripping with it." 

Hermione tutted as Harry and Ron snickered. "Don't forget to keep your voice down in the hallway," Hermione reminded them as they reached the bottom. 

As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall they saw Y/N's uncle Remus, Missus 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 with the others, 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 (Y/N was giggling). "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. 

"Holy fucking Merlin!" yelled Y/N, "Dad, shut her up!" 

The moth-eaten velvet curtains that Harry had seen earlier had flown apart, but behind them was not a door. At first, Harry thought he was looking through a window, a window behind which was an incredibly old woman, screaming like she was being tortured. Then he realized it was a life-sized portrait, and her screaming had awoken the other portraits too. 

Harry screwed up his eyes and clapped his hands over his ears.

Remus and Missus Weasley rushed to close the curtains, but they wouldn't budge, and the woman screamed louder than ever. 

"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. Missus 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 very familiar man with shoulder-length black hair came rushing out of a door facing Harry. "Shut up, you horrible, ugly, old hag, shut up!" he roared, seizing the curtains that Missus Weasley had abandoned.

The old woman's face turned white with anger and disdain. 

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

"I said - shut - up!" yelled the man, and with a great deal of effort, he and Remus managed to force the curtains shut once more. 

The screeches of the old woman died, an echoing silence filled the room. Sweeping his dark hair from his eyes, panting slightly, Harry's godfather, Sirius, turned to face him. 

"Hello, Harry," he said with a glare at the curtains, and a grim look on his face, "I see you've met my mother."

─── ☆: *.⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ .* :☆ ───

this has gotta be the most ass chapter i have ever written i am so sorry but idk i js rly wasn't feeling this chapter AT ALLLLL. it gave me SUCH a HUGE writers block and idek why!! hopefully other chapters are better sigh 

IT GETS EXCITINGer I PROMISE PLEASE IAWDIWNDiAWBDLIAWBdlawhndlaWHDNLAWHALDHaw

i giggled when i titled it bc like 

yk 

sirius black

and we see him again

and its the black household

so

back in black 

i think im funny 

ok guys im finna sleep now!! 

btw did i tell u that i love u and wait i love u and uh i love u and also that i have so much love for u ?? heh ily 

okokok

bye troublemakers >:3 

- dizzy