The Summer of the Phoenix

Chapter 24

"It's your turn now," Ron said to Sirius.

"What do you mean?"

"Yes, we've told you all our news, now tell us yours," said Hermione briskly.

"Yeah, and tell us about the house," Ron added. "It's a really creepy place."

Hermione gave him a look that would have done honour to Mrs Weasley, but she seemed to have no better word for it either.

"There's not much to tell," Sirius said. "I thought it might be a good idea to set up the Order's Headquarters here, and Albus Dumbledore agreed, so here I came. I haven't done anything really interesting since. I don't go out often these days."

But his three young friends clearly thought that there was nothing more interesting in the world than setting up headquarters for a secret underground movement.

"And the Order," Ron lowered his voice respectfully at the last word, "they're using this place as their base of operations? They have all their secret meetings here and everything?"

"Now don't get excited," Sirius said dryly. "Yes, we do meet here, as you will soon see, but only about once a week, and sometimes no one looks in at all for several days. Depends on how much they've got to do."

"And what exactly is it you're doing?" Ginny asked curiously.

Sirius let out a short laugh, much like a dog's bark. "Me?" he asked back. "Cooking, and cleaning, and reading, and sleeping. Honestly, Ginny, the Order is putting a great effort into keeping what they're doing a secret, and besides, I don't think your mother would think it a good idea if I gave you a detailed account."

"So who else is in the Order?" Ron tried a different question.

"I'm not going to give you a list, either."

They all looked severely disappointed.

"Listen, you three," said Sirius, and hoped that they would, "it's not because you're too young or because you don't understand, or because the grown ups like having secrets. It's for your own protection. What you don't know you can't be made to tell. Remember that from time to time, will you? And now let's go down to the kitchen and see if we can help your mum with the lunch, shall we?"

His warning had definitely made an impression. The three of them asked no more questions, but nodded slowly and then filed out of the girls' bedroom before him. They were joined on the landing by Fred and George, who had been keeping to their own room in conspicuous silence.

"This house is wicked," one of them said in awe. "How did you get hold of a place like this, Sirius?"

"By waiting until my parents died," Sirius said matter-of-factly. "It's still wicked enough without them. Just so you know - " He indicated the door to their right "- this room is off limits to all of you, unless want to become a Hippogriff dinner. If you hear any odd sounds in there, it's just Buckbeak flapping his wings."

"Oh, Buckbeak is here?" Hermione exclaimed excitedly. "Can't we say hello to him, Sirius?"

"Later. I want you to know what's behind the other doors first." They followed him down to the second floor. "This room," he pointed at the door leading to his father's bedroom, "is Lupin's, so it's off limits to you, too, particularly at the full moon."

"Professor Lupin is here, too?" asked one of the twins.

"Cool," said the other.

Ginny suddenly looked terrified. "But he won't be here when - "

"No, I guess he won't," Sirius said, remembering that most wizards would think it completely mad to spend a full moon's night under the same roof as a werewolf, even a werewolf on Wolfsbane. "All the same, don't bother him when he is here if you can help it, he's really busy at the moment. Same goes for all the others. You'll have the run of the house most of the time, so don't get in anyone's way while they're here."

Five heads nodded in agreement. "Of course we won't," Hermione said for all of them.

"The room next to this is the study," Sirius continued. "So if you're planning on doing any homework, or a bit of extra revision for your exams, this is where to look for books."

He had meant it ironically, but Hermione was literally bouncing up and down at the prospect. "Can I? Really?" she asked excitedly.

"Once we've chucked out the books that burn your eyes out or bite your fingers off, yes."

Hermione's enthusiasm quickly evaporated. Ginny gave a shocked gasp.

"You're kidding," said Ron.

"No, I'm not," Sirius replied. "I told you, don't touch anything in this house until we've had a closer look at it. Even I don't know half the unpleasant surprises that might still be lurking in here. And I don't want any of you to end up in St. Mungo's, we can't have the Healers ask your mother awkward questions. So be careful, and don't make life more complicated for all of us than it already is."

They continued downstairs past the grim shrunken heads on the wall.

"Urgh." Ginny shuddered.

"Why would anyone collect shrunken heads?" Ron wondered.

Hermione forced herself to look at them more closely. "Are they - are they house-elves?" she asked in a whisper.

Sirius nodded.

"Where do they come from?"

"They all served the family once."

"Your family had house-elves?"

Sirius could see Ron rolling his eyes behind her back. "Yeah, sure," he shrugged. "Most old wizarding families have, Hermione."

"And then they put their heads on the wall when they die?" Hermione asked, looking revolted.

"No, that's just the Blacks' idea of a joke," Sirius said dryly.

"But that's really sick!"

Sirius decided not to tell Hermione what he thought was the really sick part of the story.

"Drop it, Hermione," Fred told her in a very bored voice. "Fighting for the rights of dead house-elves really is a lost cause."

"Probably the lostest cause there is," George added. "Even you have to admit that."

"And the only living specimen of their kind left in this house deserves your efforts even less," Sirius concluded.

"You still keep a house-elf?" cried Hermione, sounding scandalized.

"Sssh!" Ron hissed at her.

"I assure you that if I could have my way, I wouldn't keep him one day longer," Sirius said grimly. "I wanted to kick him out, but he knows too much."

"But you don't make him work any more, do you?"

Sirius shrugged again. "Why not? He's been lazing around in the empty house for about ten years, it's time he remembered what he's here for. Wait till you meet him, Hermione," he said when she opened her mouth to protest. "I'd like to see you keep sticking up for elf rights once you've met Kreacher."

"Master said Kreacher's name?" a small, wheezy voice came out of the shadows of the entrance hall. Sirius stopped dead on the stairs, and so did the others behind him.

The small figure of the Black's old house-elf edged around what looked like a large umbrella stand in a corner of the hall. He'd obviously been hiding behind it. His large pale eyes were gleaming faintly as he looked up at Sirius and the group of children at his back. "Master has visitors," he muttered. "Noisy brats, trampling about the house, sticking their nasty noses into everything..."

"You talk about sticking their noses into everything," Sirius snapped at him, "eavesdropping on us as you were!"

"Not eavesdropping," Kreacher answered. "Kreacher must look after Master's guests, see to their needs..." The house-elf stared at each of them in turn with his unsettlingly pale eyes, and then sank into a low bow. "They must be hers," they heard him mutter under his breath, "all these nasty redheads, just like their parents, invading my Mistress's house, throwing out my Mistress's things, the scum..."

"That's enough, Kreacher," Sirius said sharply.

"Kreacher," said Hermione suddenly, and stepped down into the hall. "Kreacher, we're not invading your house, we're just guests." She attempted a little smile. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"Granger?" the elf muttered, eyeing her suspiciously. "Kreacher has never heard the name, it's not one of the old families."

"No, you wouldn't know them," Hermione said in a friendly tone, obviously happy that Kreacher was responding. "My family are Muggles."

But to that, Kreacher responded in a manner that she had probably not expected. "Muggles!" he mumbled, and turned away from her. "A Mudblood, that's what she is, a filthy Mudblood -"

Sirius hand shot forward, and he grabbed the elf hard by the shoulder. "Shut your dirty mouth," he hissed, shaking him roughly.

"Sirius, don't!" Hermione cried.

"Hermione, he just called you a - " Ron protested.

"Yes, but he probably doesn't know better." She looked sadly at the small creature squirming in Sirius's grip. "Let go of him, Sirius, please."

"As you wish." Sirius gave Kreacher a shove that made the elf stumble several feet backwards. He fell hard on the stone floor, whimpering in pain. Sirius looked at him disgustedly and then turned back to Hermione, defying her to say any more in the Kreacher's defence, when suddenly, Ginny pointed over his shoulder down the hallway.

"Sirius, what's he doing there?"

Sirius spun around. Kreacher had crawled a little way further down the hall to where the moth-eaten velvet curtains hung on the left hand wall, and had grabbed the ends of the curtains with his spindly fingers. A wicked grin spread across his ugly face.

"OH NO YOU WON'T!" Sirius roared, and realised immediately that this had been a mistake.

The curtains flew out of Kreacher's hands of their own accord, and revealed the portrait of Mrs Black, eyes popping at the sight of all the redheaded children, screaming at the top of her lungs. "DIRTY BRATS, BEFOULING MY HOUSE! AND YOU!" She pointed an accusing finger at Sirius. "YOU, UNNATURAL SON THAT YOU ARE, HOW DARE YOU LET THIS SCUM INTO THE HOUSE OF YOUR FATHERS! AH, THE SHAME OF IT, SHAME OF MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD, YOU'RE NO SON OF MINE, YOU - "

"Come on!" Sirius shouted to the Weasley boys, who stood rooted to the spot, gaping at the portrait. "Help me close the curtains, someone!"

The twins came to live, and hurtled down the last few steps into the hall to help. Together, the three of them managed to force the curtains shut. Ginny, who had grabbed Hermione's arm, let go looking white and shaken.

"What was that?" Hermione whispered.

"A screaming portrait, in case you didn't notice," Sirius replied sarcastically. "And the reason why we want no noise in the entrance hall."

"But Sirius - " Hermione's eyes travelled back and forth between him and the now perfectly still curtains. "She said - she said, you're no son - "

"Yeah, that was a lie, actually," said Sirius bitterly. "Because technically speaking, I am."

There was a stunned silence. Then, "Blimey," Fred said in an awed whisper, "and I thought our mother shouting at us was bad."

* * *

Lunch was a very subdued affair. Mrs Weasley started glaring at her children the moment they entered the kitchen. Sirius told her bluntly that it had been him who had set off Mrs Black in the entrance hall, but it was clear that she didn't believe one word of it.

None of them ate much, and they talked even less. Sirius felt that the young Weasleys all avoided looking at him, and with all that he had on his own mind, he wasn't going to make polite conversation and pretend that everything was fine.

When they had finished their meal, Mrs Weasley enlisted Fred and George's help with the washing up. "Come on, you two, you can make yourselves useful for once," she said, getting up and starting to clear away the plates.

But Fred and George at their end of the table had just produced a sheaf of parchments from their pockets and were putting their heads together over it, shielding it from view. "Ginny and Ron can do it," George said dismissively.

Ginny opened her mouth to protest. Mrs Weasley's eyes were flashing dangerously. "If I say you two help me with the washing up - "

"We're of age, Mum, so stop ordering us around as if we were babies," said Fred grumpily.

Their mother put her hands on her hips. "As long as you two at least are still living under my roof - " she began rather loudly. Ron and Hermione exchanged an alarmed look.

"This is not your roof, Mum," said George smartly, "it's Sirius's roof." The twins grinned at each other.

"Then you could at least show a little consideration for your host and -"

"Our host has a house-elf, Mum."

"That's no excuse to be rude, you two!"

"Oh, come on," Fred said to George, rolling his eyes. "Let's get out of here." There was a loud crack, and a moment later, the twins and their parchments had disappeared from the room.

Mrs Weasley heaved an exasperated sigh. "They're hopeless!" she exclaimed. "They always do that now they're allowed to, they think they can get away with everything just because they can get away from it!"

"Mrs Weasley, we can help you with the washing up," Hermione said quickly, tugging Ginny's sleeve to prompt her into agreeing. Ginny nodded half-heartedly.

"I'm sorry about their behaviour, Sirius," Mrs Weasley said apologetically. "Really, sometimes I just don't know where we went wrong with them."

"There's nothing wrong with them," Sirius said thoughtfully. "I think they must be a very clever pair of wizards, actually."

"Clever?" Mrs Weasley cried. "Well, if you mean all this nonsense, all this useless joke shop stuff - "

"I didn't mean that," said Sirius. "I was only wondering how they've just managed to Disapparate from an Apparation-proof house."