.⊹⁀➷ CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO !
↳ ❛number twelve grimmauld place❜

MOODY HIT HIS large wooden cane a few times against the hard concrete, before the earth underneath their feet suddenly started trembeling. Annabeth's eyes widened when she suddenly saw that a whole house was appearing between the two other's in the dim lit light.

The girl let out a huff and smiled widely. Moody nodded his head at the building, "In you go."

As soon as Harry and Annabeth set foot into the old house, voices could be heard in the distance.

The old fashioned gas lamps started flickering on along the walls and casted a dim light over the peeling wallpaper.

Annabeth held her breath when her eyes fell onto the cobwebby chandelier that glimmed above their heads and the age-blackened portraits who all hung crooked on the walls.

Harry and Annabeth flinched in surprise when Moody suddenly pushed them aside and made his way further down the dim lit corridor.

Tonks and Kingsley followed shortly after him, which made Harry and Annabeth continue their way towards the now opened door.

Annabeth's heart skipped a beat when she spotted Sirius, who was sitting at the long black table.

The man immediatly stopped talking when he spotted the two siblings and his mouth opened slightly before Molly stepped in their way and closed the door behind her. "Harry! Annabeth!"

The girl quickly smiled at her, "Mrs. Weasley!"

The ginger haired woman smiled at them, "Heavens, you're all right." She immediatly pulled them both into a tight huh before she narrowed her eyes, "A bit peaky, but I'm afraid dinner will wait until after the meeting's finished."

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Mrs. Weasley didn't let him, "Nope. No time to explain. Straight upstairs, first door on the left."

The two teenagers slowly made their way upstairs, and Annabeth frowmed when she passed a large umbrella stand that looked as thought it had been made from a severed troll's leg.

Annabeth scrunched up her nose when she saw the row of shrunken house elf heads that were mounted on plaques on the wall.

The house looked like it once belinged to the darkest of wizards.

"Mudblood, werewolves, traitors, thieves", a scratchy voice hissed from another room.

Annabeth stopped herself from jumping in surprise when she saw a house elf walk passed her. "If my poor mistress knew the scum they let into her house-what would she say to old Kreacher?"

Harry nudged Annabeth and motioned for her to move along when the house elf passed them by, still muttering to himself.

They continued upstairs and when Annabeth opened the door at the end of the corridor, Hermione immediatly jumped onto her arms.

"Oh, Annabeth!" The brunnet pressed her against her body, squeezing the air out of her lungs.

She then quickly went on to Harry, doing the same with him.

"Are you all right? We overheard them talking about the Dementor attack. You must tell us everything!", she immediatly started rammbling when she pulled back from their hug.

Ron gave the girl besides him a concerned look, "Let them breath, Hermione!"

The girl just ignored Ron before she continued, "And this hearing at the Ministry. It's just outrageous!" She shook her head, "I've looked it up! They simply can't expel you. It's completely unfair!"

Harry had a blank expression on his face while he stepped further into the room. "Yeah- there's a lot of that going around at the moment."

Hermione went quiet and the three watched how Harry paced up and down through the room, his gaze wandering around.

"So, what ist this place?"

"It's headquarters." Ron stated shortly and Hermione jumped in almost immediatly. "Of the order of the Phoenix. It's a secret society. Dumbeldore formed it back when they fought You-know-who."

"Couldn't have put any of that in a letter, I suppose?", Harry questioned, His voice dripping with sarcasm.

"We've gone all summer without a scrap of news", he quickly added when he noticed how harsh that had sounded.

Ron seemed taken back, and answered quietly, "We wanted to write, mate. Really, we did. Only-"

"Only what?", Harry half shouted at them.

"Only Dumbeldore made us swear not to tell you anything", it suddenly bursted out of Hermione.

Annabeth immediatly frowned at her friends, "Dumbeldore said that?"

There was a moment of silence before she continued, her voice louder that before, "But why would he keep us in the dark? Maybe we could help. After all we're the ones who saw Voldemort return - we are the ones who thought him, who saw Cedric get killed!"

Suddenly two loud cracks could be heard and Annabeth flinched when Fred and George appeared behind her.

"Hello, Annabeth!" Fred placed a hand on her shoulder to catch her attention.

George did the same in her other side, "Thought we heard your dulce tones!"

The twins sat down on the bed behind them and smirked at the brunnet girl, "Don't bottle it up, though, let it out!"

"It woud have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs", Ron gave his brothers' a pointed look.

"Time is Galleons, little brother." George raised his eyebrows before he addressed Harry and Annabeth. "If you're all done shouting-"

"- Do you wanna hear something a little more interesting? - Because honestly, your interfering with reception. - Extendable ears." Fred pointed to something in his hand that looked like an ear, with a thin rope attanched to it.

"We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs-", George stated and Ron shook his head. "You want to be careful- if mum sees one of them again-"

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having", Fred informed the group, His eyes gleaming.

Suddenly Ginny entered the room, her eyes immediatly landing in Annaniand Harry, "Oh, hello, Harry. Hey, Annabeth. I thought I heard your voices."

"It's no-go with the extendable ears, she's gone and put an imperturbable charm in the kitchen door."

"How'd you know?", George spoke up, his eyebrows raised. "Tonks told me how to find out."

Fred sighed heavily, "Shame, I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

Harry's head immediatly snapped around to them, "Snape? - he's here?"

"Yeah", George nodded while carefully closing the door and sitting back down next to Ginny and Fred. "Giving a report. Top secret."

Fred grimaced while he muttered, "Git."
Hermione immediatly shot him a glare, "He's on our side now."

Ron had a dark look on his face, "Doesn't stop him from being a git- The way he looks at us when he sees us."

Ginny crossed her arms over her chest while she spoke, "Bill doesn't like him either."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows at them, "Is Bill here?"

George nodded shortly, "He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order."

"He says he misses the thombs, but there are-", Fred smirked suggestively. "- compensations."

Annabeth gave him a curios glance, "What do you mean?"

The ginger haired boy still smirked widely, "Remember old Fleur Delacour?- She's got a job at Gringortts to eemprove 'er eeenglish- "

"And Bill ist giving her a lot of lessons", George finished his twins sentence, also smirking.

Annabeth nodded slowly, understanding exactly what the two were saying.

George then shrugged, "Charlie's in the Order, too. But he's still in Romania. Dumbeldore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

Harry frownded at them, "Couldn't Percy do that?"

Annabeth noticed how Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys' immediatly exchanged dark looks.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad", Ron told them, a serious look in his eyes. "Why not?"

"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum start crying", Fred told her. "It's been awful."

"What happened?"

Fred rubbed the back of his neck before he spoke, "Percy and dad had a row. I've never seen dad row with anyone like that. It's normally mum who shouts."

Ron nodded in agreement with his brother, "It was the first week after term ended- we were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he's been promoted."

Annabeth's eyes were wide, "You're kidding?" Ron nodded, "Yeah, we were all surprised."

Harry sat down besides Hermione, "So how come they promoted him?"

Ron looked down onto his hands while he fiddled with his fingers, "That's exactly what we wondered- he came home really pleased with himself - even more than usual, if you can imagine that- and told dad he's been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts. Junior Assistant of the Minister. He expected dad to be all impressed, I think."

There was a moment of silence before Ron continued, "Only dad wasn't."

Harry and Annabeth both frowned deeply, "Why not?"

"Well, apparently Fudge has been storming around the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbeldore", George informed them, an annoyed grimace on his face.

When Annabeth frowned, Fred spoke, "Dumbeldore's name is mud within the Ministry these days, see- they all think he's just making trouble saying You-know-who's back."

"Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy in the family- and Dumbeldore."

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

Ron hummed in response, "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?" Harry exclaimed loudly.

"I know. And it gets worse, he said dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbeldore, that Dumbeldore 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 any more. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now."

The silence laid over the room once more, because no one really knew hwat to say.

"Mum's been in a right state- you know, crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face."

Harry rubbed his forhead, "But Percy must know Voldemort's back! 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", Ron stated slowly, avoiding his friends gaze. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and- I dunno- he didn't think it was good enough."

Hermione suddenly joined the convetsation once more, "Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously."

Annabeth's eyebrows shot up and she questioned, "What's in the Daily Prophet?"

Hermione gave her a sympathetic look, "It's quiet nasty, actually - they're just building Rita's stuff."

"And what's that?"

Hermione had a pained expression on her face while she spoke, "Well, they're writing about you two as thought you're both this deluded attention-seekers, who think they're great tragic heroes or something."

Harry and Annabeth exchanged a quick glance before Hermione continued, "They keep slipping in snide comments about you two. If some far-fetched story appears, they say something like ' A
Tale worthy of Harry and Annabeth Potter' and if anyone has a funny acciddent or anything it's 'Let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forhead or we'll be asked to worship him next-"

Harry seemed to get angrier once more, "I don't want anyone to worship -

Hermione immediatly interrupted him, a worried look in her eyes, "I know, Harry- but you see what they're doing. They want to turn you both into someone who no one will belive. Fudge ist behind it, I'll bet anything. They want wizards in the street to think you're both just some stupid boy and girl who are a bit of a joke, who tell ridiculous tale stories because they love being famous and want to keep going."

Annabeth's face expression had fallen while Hermione talked, "I didn't ask- we didn't want- Voldemort killed our parents!"

She shook her head to herself before she stood up and shouted, "We got famous because he murdered our family, but couldn't kill Harry! Who want's to be famous for that! Don't they think we'd rather it'd never-"

"We know!", Ginny said quickly to calm her down. "We know that, Annabeth."

"And of course, they didn't report a word about the Dementor attack. 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 Statue of secrecy. We thought they would, it would tie so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off. We think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town- I mean, if you're expelled, obviously."

She quickly realized how her words had sounded and hectically tried to correct herself, "But there's obviously no case against you, Harry!"

Suddenly the door flew open, revealing Mrs. Weasley, who had a bright smile on her face.

"Meeting's finished, let's eat!", she motioned for everyone to leave the room and step out into the hallway.

But before everyone could make their way down to the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley stopped them. "Remember to be quiet when you go downstairs- we don't want the portrait to wake."

Harry and Annabeth exchanged curios glances before they followed the other's downstairs.

When the group of teenagers had just reached the end of the stairs, Tonks yanked the kitchen door open, letting it collided with the wall behind it.

Only seconds later a terrible, screeching and loud voice filled the air. Annabeth immediatly covered her ears, shooting a nasty glare over to the covered painting which was ratteling.

"Blood traitors! Scum in my mouse! Mudblood! Such filth!"

Annabeth turned back towards the kitchen and was greeted by Mr. Weasley, "You two sure you're all right? Face us quiet a turn."

Annabeth was about to answer the man when a familiar voice interrupted them, "Harry and Annabeth Potter."

Mr and Mrs Weasley stepped away from each other and revealed Sirius, who was standing behind them, his arms spread out.

"Sirius." Harry and Annabeth immediatly dashed into his arms and wrapped their arms around the man.

Their godfather let out a loud chuckle while he clapped them both onto the back. "Well, I see you've met my mother."

SOON ANNABETH CAME to know that this was the house of Sirius childhood. His family, had been one of the the most ancient and nobel houses and big supporters of the insane pureblood mania.

Annabeth took her seat at the table in-between Harry and Hermione when the terrible screaming of Mrs Blacks painting had finally died down.

Annabeth's gaze wandered further down the long table and her gaze landed on George, who was shooting Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, a nasty look.

The twins had told Annabeth that the cat was always destroying their Extendable ears when they were trying to eavesdrop, so it was personally.

Besides him, Tonks and Ginny were laughing because Tonks nose had morphed into a pig snout.

Annabeth thought back to their third year with Professor Lupin, where he had explained what a Metamorphorgus is.

"It seems your hearing in the Ministry is to be before the entire Wizengamot", Mr Weasley's voice caught her attention.

Harry seemed to be quiet annoyed by that topic when he questioned, "I don't understand. What has the Ministry of Magic got against me?"

Sirius glanced at Lupin, who sat besides him on their opposit, the Daily Prophet on his lap, "Show him- he'll find out soon enough."

Lupin slowly placed the Prophet onto the table and Harry and Annabeth sat up, "The boy who lies?"

Professor Lupine looked like hell, he had new scars on his face and was paler then usual. Deep and dark circles were visible under his eyes, "He's been attacking Dumbeldore as well- Fudge is using all his power, including his influence at the Daily Prophet to smear anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned."

Harry frowned at them, "Why?" Lupin gave him a simple look, "The Minister thinks that Dumbeldore is after his Job."

The siblings frowned at them, "But that's insane! No one in their right mind could belive that-"

Lupin immediatly interrupted Harry, his voice a bit louder than before, "Exactly the point! Fudge isn't in his right mind! It's been twisted and warped by fear. Now, fear makes people do terrible things Harry. the last time Voldemort gained power he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear."

Annabeth saw how Sirius gaze sunk onto the table as soon as Remus made eye contact with him. "Now he's returned, and I'm afraid the Minister will do almost anything to avoid facing that terrifying truth."

Annabeth caught Sirius gaze, the man's grey eyes seemed a bit absent when he spoke, "We think Voldemort wants to build up his army again. - fourteen years ago, he had huge numbers at his command and not just witches and wizards, but all manner of dark creatures. He's been recruiting heavily, and we've been attenpting to do the same."

There was a short silence between them and Annabeth felt how her stomach twisted, "But gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in."

Suddenly Moody cleared his throat from the corner of the room.

Sirius made fleeting eye contact with the Auror, but still continued, "We belive, Voldemort may be after something."

"Sirius."

Their godfather continued, "Something he didn't have the last time."

Annabeth raised her eyebrow at him, "You mean like a weapon?"

Suddenly Mrs Weasleys angered voice interrupted their convetsation, "No, that's enought! He's just a boy! And she's just a girl! You say more and you might as well induct them in the Order straight away!"

She snatched the Prophet from the table and shot Sirius a dark glare.

"Good, I want to join! If Voldemort's raising an army, then I want to fight!", Harry immediatly exclaimed clearly and Annabeth nodded her head in agreement.

Sirius clapped his hands together and shrugged at Molly while he leaned back into his chair, seeming proud of them. "They dealt with so much as most in the Order!"

"No one's denying what they've done! But they're still-"

Sirius gave the woman a dark glare, "They're not children!"

"They're not adults either!", snapped Mrs Weasleys coldly. The colour was rising in her cheeks, "He's not James, Sirius! And she's not Lily!"

Sirius had a sour expression on his face, his arms were crossed over his chest, "I'm perfectly clear who they are, thanks Molly!"

"I'm not sure, sometimes the way you talk about them, it's as though you've got your best friends back!", the ginger haired woman hissed at the man infront of her.

"What's wrong with that?", Harry immediatly piped up once more.

Mrs Weasleys eyes were still fixed on Sirius while she answered the boy, "What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not your father, however much you might look like him!"

Everyone else in the room was watching the two adults, "You're still at school and adults responsible for you should not forget it!"

Sirius voice was now rising, "Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?"

"Meaning you have been know to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbeldore keeps reminding you to stay at home and-"

The vein on Sirius forhead was about to pop out while he interrupted the woman, "We'll leave my instructions from Dumbeldore out of this, if you please!"

Now Professor Lupine stepped in, "Molly, personally I think it's better If Harry and Annabeth get the facts- not all the facts, but the general picture- from us, rather than a garbled version from- others'."

"Well, I can see that I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this- Dumbeldore must have had his reasons for not wanting them to know too much and speaking as someone who has their best interest in heart-"

"They are not your children", muttered Sirius quietly under his breath. But Mrs Weasley had hear him, "They're as good as. - Who else have they got?"

His voice was now filling the whole room, "They've got me!"

Molly gave him a small glance before she sighed, "Yes, the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after them while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"

Annabeth found that quiet unfair of Molly. Sirius was innocent and it wasn't his fault that he had been locked up in prison, and that for a crime he didn't comit.

Sirius started rising from his chair, but that was when Lupin jumped in. "Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about them."

He then glared over at Sirius, "Sirius, sit down!" Sirius slowly fell back onto his chair and Molly bit down on her bottom lip.

"I think they're light to be allowed a say in this", the former professor stated calmly. "They're old enough to decided for themselves."

"I want to know what's been going on", Annabeth immediatly stated and Harry agreed with her.

Mrs Weasley didn't seem to like this situation at all. "Fine." She turned towards the other's that were sitting at the table, "Ginny- Fred- George- Hermione- Ron- I want you out of the kitchen, now!"

Fred and George immediatly started shouting, "We're off age!"

Ron also protested, "If Harry's allowed, why can't I?"

Ginny sounded more pleading than angry, "Mum, I want to hear!"

Their mother didn't seem like she was open to discuss the topic, "I absolutely forbid-"

Mr Weasley obviously had decided to be the voice of reason to his wife, "Molly, you can't stop Fred and George- they are off age."

Molly seemed shocked at his statement, "They're still in school "

Her husband gave her a pleading look, "But legally they're adults now."

"I- oh, all right, Fred and George can stay, but Ron-"

"They'll tell me and Hermione everything you say anyway", Ron immediatly stated, his voice seeming uncertain.

Annabeth glanced at the ginger from the corner of her eye. For a moment she was considering to tell Ron that he could try a taste of being kept in the dark, but decided against it.

She nodded her head, "Yeah, I will."

Molly gave them a defeated look before she sighed, "Fine! - Ginny, bed!"

But the girl didn't go quietly. She immediatly started argueing with her mother and could be heard until she had reached her room upstairs.

Mrs. Black's painting started screaming once more and Lupin disapeared into the hallway. A moment later he returned and took his seat.

"Okay, what do you want to know?", Sirius folded his hands on the table.

Harry sighed deeply before he questioned, "Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? We've been trying to watch the Muggle news, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."

Sirius spoke his gaze wandering from Annabeth over to Harry, "That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet. Not as far as we know anyway - and we know quiet a lot."

Lupin leaned back in his chair, "More than he thinks we so, anyway."

Annabeth had her chin placed onto the palm of her hand, "How come he's stopped killing people?"

Sirius raised his eyebrows while he pressed his lips into a thin line, "Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself- it would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quiet the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."

"Or rather, you two messed it up for him", Lupin explained simply while he pointed at the siblings.

"How?"

"You weren't supposed to survive!" Sirius exclaimed at them. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he's come back. But you two survived to bear witness."

Lupin nodded his head, "And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbeldore- and you made sure Dumbeldore knew at once."

Harry didn't seem to understand why that was such a big day, "How has that helped?"

This was the first time that Bill engaged into the convetsation, "Are you kidding? - Dumbeldore was the only one You-know-who was ever scared of!"

"Thanks to you Dumbeldore was able to Recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned."

"So, what's the Order been doing?"

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

Annabeth's eyes wandered from Mrs Weasleys over to Sirius, "I have one last question- What is Voldemort after apart from followers?"

Sirius gave her a long look before he slowly answered, "Stuff he can only get by stealth-"

Annabeth nodded while staring off into the distance, "- Like the weapon you mentioned." She let a small moment pass by before she continued, "Is it worse than the Avada Kedavra-?"

Suddenly Molly's voice cut through the air, "That's enough! I want you in bed, now! All of you!"

Fred and George immediatly wanted to argue with her but Lupin stepped in once more, "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you- I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."

Sirius seemed like he didn't agree with his statement, but he just shrugged. Annabeth exchanged a quick glance with her godfather, who had a liverish expression on his face before they all got onto their feet and went up towards their rooms.