───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

"What's the Order of the — ?" Harry began.

"Not here, boy!" snarled Moody. "Wait till we're inside!" He pulled the piece of parchment out of Blair's hand and set fire to it with his wand tip. As the message curled into flames and floated to the ground, Blair looked around at the houses again. They were standing outside number eleven; she looked to the left and saw number ten; to the right, however, was number thirteen.

"But where's — ?"

"Think about what you've just memorized," said Lupin quietly.

Blair thought, and no sooner had she 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. Blair gaped at it. Apparently the Muggles inside hadn't even felt anything.

"Come on, hurry," growled Moody, prodding Blair in the back. Blair walked up the worn stone steps, staring at the newly materialized door. Lupin pulled out his wand and tapped the door once. Blair heard many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the clatter of a chain. The door creaked open.

"Get in quick, Blair, Harry," Lupin whispered. "But don't go far inside and don't touch anything."

Blair and Harry stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. She looked over her shoulder and saw the others filing in behind her, Lupin and Tonks carrying Harry's 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 Blair hard over the head with his wand; Blair felt as though something hot was trickling down her 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 Blair an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person. She heard a soft hissing noise and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls.

There were hurried footsteps and Mrs. Weasley emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried toward them, though Blair noticed that she was rather thinner and paler than she had been last time she had seen her.

"Oh, Blair, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" she whispered, pulling them into a rib-cracking hug before holding them at arm's length and examining them 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 them and whispered urgently, "He's just arrived, the meeting's started..."

The wizards behind Blair all made noises of interest and excitement and began filing past Blair and Harry toward the door through which Mrs. Weasley had just come. Blair made to follow Lupin, but Mrs. Weasley held her back. "No, Blair, the meeting's only for members of the Order. Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you and Harry 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?" Blair asked.

"I don't want to wake anything up."

"What d'you — ?"

"I'll explain later, Blair, 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 them on tiptoes past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, behind which Blair 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 Blair that the heads belonged to house-elves. All of them had the same rather snoutlike nose. Blair looked horrified and thought what would Hermione think about it. Then, she thought 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 Hermione will explain everything, dears, 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.

Blair and Harry looked at each other, still confused, and crossed the dingy landing, turned the bedroom doorknob, which was shaped like a serpent's head, and opened the door. Blair caught a brief glimpse of a gloomy high-ceilinged, twin-bedded room, then there was a loud twittering noise, followed by an even louder shriek, and her vision was completely obscured by a large quantity of very bushy hair — "Mione!"

Hermione had thrown herself onto her in a hug that nearly knocked her flat, but Blair had good reflexes and caught her while steadying herself. Hermione pulled away and gave Harry a quick hug before hugging Blair tightly again. 

Blair smiled widely and hugged her back just as tight. It was a different feeling from the happy hug she and Harry shared and the warm hug that Oliver gave her. With Hermione, she felt everything all at once. She felt warmth, happiness, longing and love, but most of all, she felt at home.

"BLAIR! HARRY! Ron, they're here, Blair and Harry are here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you two all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you are, I know our letters were useless — but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us — the dementors! When we heard — and that Ministry hearing — it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations —"

"Let them breathe, Hermione," said Ron, grinning, closing the door behind Blair and Harry. Blair waved at him. Hermione, still beaming, let go of Blair, but before she could say another word there was a soft whooshing sound and something white and something red soared from the top of a dark wardrobe. The white one landed gently on Harry's shoulder while the red one landed on Blair's.

"Hedwig!"

"Herman!" The red owl clicked his beak and nibbled Blair's ear affectionately as Blair stroked his feathers.

"They've been in a right state," said Ron. "Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, Herman was nasty too. Look at this —" He showed Blair and 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 we wanted answers, you know..."

"We wanted to give them to you, mate," said Ron. "Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you two would do something stupid if you were stuck all on your own without news, but Dumbledore made us —"

"— swear not to tell us," said Blair. "Yeah, Hermione's already said."

After talking with Moody, Lupin and Kingsley, Blair felt that her frustrations were relieved, and she was happy to see her childhood friend and her love, but when she glanced at Harry, she knew he was going to blow up. There was a strained silence in which Blair and Harry stroked Herman and Hedwig automatically. Blair smiled weakly towards Ron and Hermione.

"He seemed to think it was best," said Hermione rather breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Yeah, we know," said Blair. She noticed that Hermione's hands too bore the marks of Hedwig and Herman's beaks and felt her heart soften. She had to help her with that later.

"I think he thought you were safest with Oliver, Blair. And Harry, you with the Muggles —" Ron began.

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

"Well, no — but that's why he's had Blair locked up and people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time —" Ron tried explaining.

"You knew that Harry was being followed?" Blair said with surprise. She wasn't surprised at the fact that she and Harry didn't know. She was more surprised that they knew as well.

"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" said Harry, doing his utmost to keep his voice even. "Only Blair talked to me with actual letters. Had to look after ourselves after all, didn't we?"

"He was so angry," said Hermione in an almost awestruck voice. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary when he found out you were there too, Blair."

"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. It was good that I had Blair all summer and that she visited, but she too didn't know anything."

Blair kept silent and slowly moved towards Hermione. Then, she let her hand rest on the floor a few inches away from Hermione's. She looked towards Hermione and found her fighting a smile, which made Blair smile as well.

"Aren't you... aren't you two worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?" said Hermione quietly.

"No," Blair and Harry lied defiantly. Harry started pacing around. Blair moved her hand an inch towards Hermione's. Hermione rolled her eyes, but her heart was beating hard and fast. Why didn't Blair just take her hand and be cute like this? It made Hermione want to take her hand that moment, but she was having fun seeing Blair trying to be subtle but obviously failing.

"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep us in the dark?" Harry asked, still trying hard to keep his voice casual. "Did you — er — bother to ask him at all?" Blair looked towards Hermione and Ron and saw them exchanging glances.

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you two what was going on," said Ron. "We did. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted —"

"He could still've kept us informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said shortly. "You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."

Blair moved her hand another inch and their hands were now brushing. Blushing slightly, Hermione glanced at Ron and then said, "I thought that too. But he didn't want you two to know anything."

"Maybe he thinks we can't be trusted," said Harry, watching their expressions. Blair sighed defeatedly. She knew where this was going, but she didn't stop it. She knew Harry need to let out his pent-up anger.

"Don't be thick," said Ron, looking highly disconcerted.

"Or that we can't take care of ourselves —" Blair said lightly, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Of course he doesn't think that!" said Hermione anxiously.

"So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' and Blair has to be locked in her house while you two 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 two 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 —"

Before Blair knew it, Harry slammed his fists on the wall and started 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! BLAIR WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO EVER ACTUALLY TALKED TO ME, NOT SENDING EMPTY LETTERS! AND YOU KEPT HER TOO IN THE DARK AFTER WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT. WE'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT — WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

Blair's eyes widened. Hedwig flew off Harry's shoulder and Herman followed after her. It was clear how bitter and resentful Harry had been feeling. She knew that though Harry talked to her about his feelings, he still needed to pour it all out, and Blair felt it too, all those frustrations, but she had calmed down considerably after the explanation from Moody, Lupin and Kingsley. She thought he was done, but Harry wasn't finished.

"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? WHO HAD THEIR PARENTS MURDERED BY VOLDEMORT? BLAIR AND I!"

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. Blair moved her hand and took Hermione's sneakily and rubbed a thumb on the back of her hand. Hermione sent her a weak smile and intertwined their fingers to Blair's delight.

"BUT WHY SHOULD WE KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL US WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?"

"Harry, we wanted to tell you two, 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, TRYING TO GIVE COMFORT TO BLAIR —"

"We wanted to —"

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

"No, honest —"

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

Harry was about to speak when Blair let go of Hermione's hand, reached over and took his hand and rubbed a thumb over his knuckles. "It's all right, Harry. It's all right." Harry took in a deep breath and sent her a grateful smile before sending a glare at Hermione and paced again.

Blair leaned back and moved her hand down beside Hermione's. This time, Hermione was the one who took her hand. Blair blushed deeply. She still felt the butterflies whenever Hermione would do simple things like holding her hand or smiling at her. That was just Hermione's effect on her.

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

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

"Is anyone going to bother telling us what the Order of the Phoenix — ?"

"It's a secret society," said Hermione quickly, cutting Harry off. "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 —"

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

"Well?" Blair asked curiously, looking from Ron to Hermione.

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

"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously, and both Ron and Hermione winced. "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.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," said Ron. "They're really useful."

"Extendable — ?" Harry glanced towards Blair, asking silently if she knew what it was.

Blair nodded and muttered to him so that Hermione and Ron wouldn't hear. "One of our inventions."

"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," said Ron. "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. Harry walked around the room again, looking anywhere but at Ron and Hermione. Blair suddenly felt Hermione's hand leave hers and pouted when Hermione had a cheeky smile on her lips.

"Wait. So what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?" Harry said calmly but coldly. "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 and Herman on top of the wardrobe. But Blair was blushing deeply because Hermione jumped and somehow ended up in Blair's lap. Hermione realized their position and quickly got off, blushing as well.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins.

"Little B!" The twins grinned at her and brought her into a hug.

Blair stood up, grinned and hugged them back. "Freddie, Georgie!" Behind her, Hermione was pouting, missing the feeling of Blair's warmth beside her.

"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. "Shout it all out, Little B! There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear Harry."

"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. We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

Blair looked at them with a twinkle in her eyes. "Do they work perfectly?"

George nodded and ruffled her hair. "Of course, Little B. We have you and your great mind with us."

"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 Ginny, brightly. "I thought I heard your voice."

Ginny then turned to Blair and hugged her tight with outstretched arms. "Hey Blair!"

Blair hugged her back. "Hey Gin. It's great to see you again."

Turning to Fred and George, Ginny 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 Blair 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 on our side now," said Hermione reprovingly.

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.

Blair sank onto the bed opposite the others. Harry sat beside her. "Is Bill here?" he asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt."

"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?" Blair said curiously.

"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. At his words, all the Weasleys and Hermione exchanged darkly significant looks. Blair and Harry looked at each other for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day, confused.

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

"Why? What happened?" Blair asked them.

"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.

"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?" Blair asked again.

"That's exactly what we wondered," said Ron keenly.

"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 Blair, 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." Fred said bitterly.

"Bet Percy loved that." Harry let out a low whistle.

Blair's jaw clenched. "That pompous git."

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 Blair and 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."

"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 names got dragged into the row," said Ron, shooting Harry and Blair a furtive look. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and... I dunno... he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," said Hermione tartly, and the others all nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Blair asked, looking around at them all. They were all regarding him warily.

"Haven't — haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet? Even you, Blair?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Yeah, I have!" said Blair and Harry.

"Have you — er — been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asked still more anxiously.

"Not cover to cover," said Blair defensively.

"Look. If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it?" Harry said impatiently. The others flinched at the sound of the name.

Hermione hurried on, "Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they — um — they mention you a couple of times a week."

"But I'd have seen —" Harry started saying.

"Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldn't," said Hermione, shaking her head. "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke."

Blair looked at her with confusion. "What d'you — ?"

"It's quite nasty, actually," said Hermione in a voice of forced calm. "They're just building on Rita's stuff."

"But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?" Harry said.

"Oh no, she's kept her promise — not that she's got any choice," Hermione added with satisfaction. "But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."

"Which is what?" said Harry impatiently.

"Okay, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that? And that you, Blair, were deadly and that you keep on hurting people."

"Yeah," said Blair, who was not likely to forget Rita Skeeter's stories about her in a hurry.

"Well, they're writing about Harry as though he's this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something, while they're thinking... well, they're making you out to be some violent girl because of the trauma of all your dangers, which is stupid and a lie, and they made your parents' deaths look like a tragic accident," said Hermione, very fast. There was a moment of silence, and they all looked at Blair, trying to gauge her reaction.

Blair felt a pain in her chest but shrugged it off. "Seriously? Can't they pin something different on me? Oh, they could make me look crazy. I'd like to be able to speak to lions, you know." Laughter sounded through the room. Blair really knew how to make things better.

Hermione continued on. "They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears, they say something like 'a tale worthy of Harry Potter and Blair Wood' and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it's 'let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or let's hope someone doesn't die or we'll be asked to worship them next —'"

"We don't want anyone to worship —" Harry began hotly.

"I know you don't," said Hermione quickly, looking frightened. "I know, Harry. But you see what they're doing? They want to turn you two into people nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I'll bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy and girl who are bit of jokes, who tell ridiculous tall stories because they love being famous and want to keep it going."

"I didn't ask — I didn't want — Voldemort killed our parents!" Blair said, her voice rising.

Harry was getting riled up. "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, Blair, Harry," said Ginny earnestly.

"And of course, they didn't report a word about the dementors attacking you two," said Hermione. "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy — we thought they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you two as some stupid show-offs —

"We think they're biding their time until you two are expelled, then they're really going to go to town — I mean, if you're expelled, obviously," she went on hastily, "you really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you." Blair felt her stomach drop. The hearing again. She wanted to change the 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 two, Blair, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks," said Ginny unblushingly. "He loves playing with them." Blair held back a smile, the youngest Weasley was following her twin brothers' and her footsteps. Ginny sent a wink at Blair, who nodded subtly at her.

"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 Blair and Harry alone with Ron and Hermione again. Both of them were watching Harry apprehensively, as though they feared that he would start shouting again now that everyone else had gone. Then, they'd glance at Blair with the same looks, but for a different reason. They were cautious because they didn't know how to act around Blair, now that everything had changed. Blair just smiled at them reassuringly. Her eyes were genuinely telling them that she was fine. Ron and Hermione visibly relaxed after that.

"Look..." Harry muttered.

Ron shook his head, and Hermione said quietly, "We knew you'd be angry, Blair, Harry, we really don't blame you, but you've got to understand, we did try and persuade Dumbledore —"

"Yeah, we know," said Harry grudgingly. Blair looked at him softly, knowing that he was not too keen of Dumbledore at the moment. Blair was mad too at Dumbledore a few hours ago, but she knew she had to trust him. If she didn't, she didn't know what to do anymore.

"Who's Kreacher?" Harry asked.

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

Hermione frowned at Ron. "He's not a nutter, Ron —"

"His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque just like his mother," said Ron irritably. "Is that normal, Hermione?"

Blair's eyes widened. "His mother is one of those?"

Hermione stuttered. "Well — well, if he is a bit strange, it's not his fault —"

Ron rolled his eyes at Harry and Blair. "Hermione still hasn't given up on spew —"

"It's not 'spew'!" said Hermione heatedly. "It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, and it's not just me, Dumbledore says we should be kind to Kreacher too —"

"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 Blair, Harry and Hermione walking any farther. "They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something —"

The four of them looked cautiously over the banisters. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all of Blair and Harry's guard. They were whispering excitedly together. In the very center of the group Blair saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of Snape. Blair leaned farther over the banisters. She 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 Blair's eyes. Looking up she 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," Blair 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 Blair and Harry quietly. "Thank God. C'mon."

"And don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall," Hermione whispered. As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall they saw Lupin, 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. "Blair, Harry, dears, 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 they had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. There was an old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she was being tortured — it was a life-size portrait, but the most realistic, and the most unpleasant, she had ever seen in her 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 Blair 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.

"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 Blair. Blair smiled widely. It was Sirius. "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 Sirius, 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 fell.

Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Blair and Harry's godfather, turned to face them. "Hello, Blair, Harry," he said grimly, "I see you've met my mother."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────