The Summer of the Phoenix

Chapter 34

It was hard to tell who jumped more at the sight of him, Sirius or Tonks. But Lupin seemed far too preoccupied to notice their few seconds of awkward silence that followed his arrival. The little commotion of Mr and Mrs Weasley getting to their feet to greet him, Bill drawing up another chair, and Ron and Hermione packing away their parchment and quills contributed conveniently to the effect.

Lupin sat down, yawned, apologised, and thankfully accepted the goblet of pumpkin juice Sirius set down in front of him.

"Has anyone seen Snape lately?" he asked without preamble, looking around at his fellow members of the Order.

They frowned, and shook their heads. The young Weasleys were listening with bated breath, trying very hard not to remind their parents of their presence.

"I haven't seen him since he came and left that message for Moody late last Friday," Mrs Weasley said. "But I don't know what it was all about, do you, Tonks? Didn't you talk to him in the hall?"

"Oh, I did," Tonks said. "But I've been trying rather hard to forget that conversation." She grinned awkwardly.

"Why?" Bill asked in an amused tone. "You weren't talking about NEWT Potions classes, by any chance?"

"As a matter of fact, we were."

"And didn't he like your compliments?" asked Sirius innocently.

"I don't know about that," Tonks said darkly. "I never got far, you know. I started with the wrong question. I first asked him if he remembered me from his classes."

"And?"

Tonks blushed. "And he said, 'Of course I do, you were the one who would always ape me behind my back when you thought I wasn't looking.' Turns around and stalks off. End of conversation."

Bill and Sirius burst out laughing. "He's such a git," said Bill helplessly, shaking his head.

Lupin cleared his throat impatiently. "But you haven't seen him or heard from him after that?" he repeated his original question, unsmiling.

"Should we have?" Arthur Weasley wondered. "Has anything happened?"

"That's what we'd like to know," Lupin said heavily. "Snape's gone missing."

"Who cares?" Sirius snorted.

"Wait a moment," Arthur Weasley said with a frown. "Wasn't Snape going to - "

"I think it's time you children went to bed," Mrs Weasley said very loudly, getting to her feet and looking sternly around at her charges.

Hermione nodded unhappily, accepting the inevitable. Ginny very reluctantly got up from the floor and picked up Crookshanks, who seemed equally reluctant to leave now the conversation had taken a really interesting turn. Ron remained on his chair. "It's not fair," he grumbled.

"Come on, Ron, let's go and join Fred and George upstairs," his sister said, and Sirius was quite sure that a very pointed look passed between them at these words.

"OK," Ron said, suddenly convinced, and the three of them trotted out of the room.

The moment they were gone, everyone else instantly turned back to Lupin.

"Gone missing?" Bill repeated. "How?"

"I have no idea. Nobody has. That's why I was asking. It seems that nobody has seen him or heard from him at all since last Friday night. He just vanished after that."

"I can't believe he liked Tonks's compliments so little," Sirius said, and attempted a grin that nobody shared.

"That makes three full days," Arthur Weasley said thoughtfully. "It could still be a coincidence, couldn't it?"

"Unlikely, though," said Lupin darkly. "He was supposed to report back as soon as he could, and he hasn't. Dumbledore's worried, there's no denying that. He doesn't believe in coincidences, in this case least of all."

"Snape's probably just having fun giving us all a good fright," Sirius muttered.

"Having fun is probably last word to describe what Snape is doing at the moment, Sirius," Lupin said icily.

"If that is what he's doing."

"What else should it be?" Arthur Weasley asked. His question hung in the room, unanswered, casting a shadow of unease over them all.

"You don't think - " Bill began.

Sirius shrugged. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"We must," said Arthur Weasley firmly. "If we don't, we'll go mad."

There was a pause.

"What about the meeting on the second then?" Tonks finally asked from her place on the floor. "Is that happening without him?"

"Suspended until further notice," Lupin said curtly.

"Then what - oh, what's that?" Tonks suddenly pointed at the kitchen door. Something small and pink seemed to have crept through the crack under it, like a short piece of string that ended in something that looked suspiciously like an ear. Mrs Weasley gave an exasperated hiss, crossed the room with surprising speed, flung the door open and stomped up the stairs to investigate the cause of this strange disturbance.

"What was that?" Bill asked.

"I warned them," Sirius said with a shrug, and a moment later, all hell broke loose in the hall over their heads. Mrs Weasley was shouting at the top of her lungs, shouting so furiously her voice even drowned that of Mrs Black, who had instantly joined in, adding her own abuse to Mrs Weasley's rage. The two voices combined echoed through the house with such force that the doors and windows rattled on their hinges.

Remus Lupin sighed and put his elbows on the table and his hands over his ears.

"Close the door, Bill," said Arthur Weasley. "Please."

* * *

The ugly scene that followed Mrs Weasley's discovery of the Extendable Ears cast a dark shadow over all of Harry's birthday. The Extendable Ears, at least those that Mrs Weasley could find, had been thrown out, but they had not been forgotten. Mrs Weasley kept glaring at her children whenever she set eyes on any of them, and Sirius wasn't excluded from her disfavour. She clearly suspected him to have been in on her children's attempts at eavesdropping, if not even to have instigated them himself. Sirius wouldn't have cared too much about that - it was half true after all - if it hadn't been for the young Weasleys seeming to suspect the exact opposite. They didn't avoid him like they avoided their mother, but none of them would meet his eyes if they could help it. Whether they were ignoring him for allegedly denouncing them to their mother, or felt guilty for breaking their own promise to him, Sirius didn't bother to ask.

The visits from the members of the Order didn't help to lift the mood either. There was still no news from Snape, but their talk revolved around little else, reduced to whispers now, still repeating the same unanswered questions over and over again, all expressing the same fears, losing themselves in speculation where they had no certainty.

A heavy cloud of gloom hung over No. 12, Grimmauld Place, and there was no indication that it would lift again any time soon. On the contrary, Sirius felt that it was getting even heavier over the days that followed. Outside, it was very warm now, the oppressive summer heat weighing down on the house and everyone in it, the sweet, stuffy air of decay intensifying from day to day. Closing the curtains against the sun didn't help. Even the basement kitchen was uncomfortably warm, and the nights brought little relief.

Sirius felt more trapped in the house than ever. It was as if the walls were closing in on him, suffocating him. An inexplicable feeling of foreboding took possession of him, growing slowly but steadily to dread. It felt as if time had been suspended, holding its breath; as if the days were flowing together in one endless single moment, drawn out almost to the breaking point.

The evening of the second of August came, and Sirius's restlessness had grown to a degree that made it impossible for him to sit still on his chair in the kitchen where he, Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt had assembled once more to wait for news of Snape. They had talked themselves into silence. Sirius paced round the room while his three companions sat broodingly by the fire. He walked about half a mile, ignoring Alastor Moody's annoyed looks, before he got tired of it.

"If anyone wants me," he said to the room at large, "I'll be bringing Buckbeak his dinner."

Crookshanks, reliable as ever since he'd made No. 12, Grimmauld Place, his hunting grounds, had provided another couple of rats for the Hippogriff, and the heat wouldn't allow them to wait until the next morning to feed them to him. But the familiar sight of Buckbeak tearing apart his fodder made Sirius's stomach lurch tonight, and he found the sweet smell of blood so sickening he quickly left the Hippogriff to himself and made to return to the sullen company in the kitchen.

But something had changed there. Something had happened. Sirius knew it almost before he caught the sound of their agitated voices echoing up the stairs.

"Is it definite?" he heard Kingsley Shacklebolt ask nervously as he hurried down to join them, three steps at a time. "Can you find out more?"

Sirius stopped short in the open door. His friends were gathered around the fireplace, their backs turned to him, looking intently into the flames. He couldn't see the head sitting in there, but he immediately recognised Arthur Weasley's voice when he spoke.

"I'll try," he was saying. "I don't know, it might be no more than a rumour... a hoax... maybe you'd better not tell Sirius yet..."

"Don't tell me what?" Sirius asked sharply.

The three wizards by the fire whipped around, and immediately moved closely together, blocking the fire from view. There was a little pop that could only mean that Mr Weasley had disappeared.

"Don't tell me what?" Sirius repeated impatiently. "What's happened?" He looked at Moody, whose face was a stony mask, then to Kingsley, who gave a very unconvincing shrug, and finally at Lupin.

"Nothing," Lupin said, trying to return Sirius's gaze steadily, but Lupin had always been a bad liar. Sirius watched him struggle with himself, and then lower his eyes, and suddenly, Sirius knew.

"It's Harry, isn't it?" he asked hoarsely, feeling his stomach churn horribly.

Lupin shook his head, not looking at his friend.

Sirius took a step towards him. "Don't lie to me, Remus."

"All right," said Moody bluntly, "Sirius, we've just had news from the Ministry, Harry has done magic, and he's been expelled from Hogwarts."