Out of the Books

Chapter 17 - Meeting Point Grimmauld Place

Remus and Tonks let go of each other as if they had touched something extremely hot. They whirled around, pulling out their wands in the process, and found the two men grinning at them from behind the kitchen counter.

Remus attempted to stand protectively in front of Tonks, but she glared at him, and remembering that she was the Auror and not he, Remus returned his attention to the intruders.

"Who are you?" he asked. It hurt to look at the man who had taken on the appearance of Sirius. Was it just the sick humour of the Death Eaters or was that some way to fool the wards of the house?

Remus took a closer look at the other man and gasped. He looked as James would probably have looked like, if he was still alive. His raven hair was sticking up on the back of his head and through his glasses looked a pair of hazel eyes curiously at Remus and his wand.

Well then, that settled it, it was definitely the sick humour of those guys.

"Who are you?" Remus repeated his question and barely managed not to let his voice break. "And what do you want?"

James grinned his typical lopsided smile. "Oh, Moony, come on. I know we haven't been around for quite a while, but you should at least recognize us."

Remus's hurt turned into anger and hate. How dare those foul Death Eaters insult the memory of his best friends.

Noticing the dangerous glim in Remus's eyes and the not at all amused expression on his face, the grin on James's lips died away.

"Moony, it's really us," said Sirius, also taken aback by Remus's reaction. He had never considered the consequences of his comment about Remus making out with his baby cousin. Of course! Everybody in their right mind would be shocked if supposedly dead people are smart with you, he berated himself. Maybe that was what everybody was talking about when they said he was acting rashly.

He raised an eyebrow at James, who had already started talking to Remus again.

"Remus, how can we prove..." James had his hands spread openly in front of him, asking the question with the most serious and sincere tone of voice.

"Oh James, really!" Lily piped up, standing up from her hiding place behind the kitchen counter.

Remus paled into an even sicker shade of greenish white as he gaped at her. However, two unhealthy flecks of red stood out on his cheeks consistently and, breathing heavily, he pointed his wand at the woman who looked so much like Lily would have looked like, were she still alive.

Tonks, he noticed from the corner of his eyes, was keeping the other two impostors of his two dead friends in check.

"Remus," said Lily gently and carefully, while she held out her empty hands in front of herself. "Please, if you would allow James and Sirius to transform, we could prove that it is really us."

Remus's mind was reeling. What if it was true? Could his friends have come back from death after such a long time? Have they been dead at all? They couldn't have! They have lived on. They have aged! Where have they been?

The slight move of Tonks turning her head to look at him was enough for Remus to snap back to focus on the situation with a guilty start.

Those intruders could have done anything while he had been standing there with glazed eyes, he berated himself angrily.

But they hadn't.

The two men and the woman were still standing behind the kitchen counter, looking at him expectantly, hopefully, encouragingly.

Remus nodded hesitantly, being only marginally aware of Tonks laying her hand on his shoulder.

James and Sirius stepped forward from behind the counter. Standing in the middle of the room, they gave Remus another encouraging smile and closed their eyes for the transformation.

Even before the stag and the dog had fully assumed their forms, Remus had let go of his wand and it fell to the ground with a soft clatter. It felt as if the rational part of his mind had gone somewhere else. But that didn't matter. The werewolf was there and he recognized his pack mates Padfoot and Prongs. It was really them. They had come back.

Remus blinked and the two animals were gone. Instead James and Sirius were standing in front of him again, looking at him worriedly.

A remote part of his brain was wondering how bad he looked to justify the concerned faces of his two friends, before he was swept in desperate hug. Clutching his two long-lost friends Remus couldn't repress the sobs, which were forcing their way up his throat.

***

The sun was shining brightly into the room, tickling Harry on the nose. Blinking several times, he opened his eyes and yawned widely, before letting his head fall back on the pillow contentedly and closing his eyes with a soft sigh.

Fleur's and Bill's wedding had been the best party he had ever been to. It had lasted till the early morning hours, and only when the sun had risen already, had the last guests left. Therefore he wasn't surprised now, when he found that it was already past noon. Considering how refreshed he felt even after a night of fun and more than one shot of firewhisky, he was deeply grateful to Hermione, who had provided him and all the Weasley siblings with a sobering potion before they had went off to bed.

A soft grumbling in his stomach unmistakeably reminded Harry that he had slept through breakfast. Noticing that Ron was also still asleep, he quietly pushed back his covers and grabbed his morning gown for the short walk down the hall to the bath room.

When Harry finally walked into the kitchen, he found Mrs. Weasley and Hermione chatting amiably over a large cup of tea. Looking at them from the kitchen door, he wondered where they got all their energy from. When all of them had gone to bed this morning, Hermione had helped Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to clean up after the party. Mr. Weasley was probably still asleep, but the two women seemed as if they had been awake for quite a while now.

Hermione noticed him standing at the door.

"Good morning, Harry." She smiled at him. "Slept well?"

"Yes, thanks." He grinned as he entered the room. "Good morning, Mrs. Weasley." He poured himself a cup of hot chocolate and sat down next to Hermione.

Mrs. Weasley was already on her feet. "What do you want for breakfast, Harry, dear? Everyone is sleeping in, we'll just have some brunch until all the others are up and skip lunch," she chattered away happily, loading heaps of bacon and egg on Harry's plate without even awaiting his answer.

Harry couldn't suppress a grin. It felt so good to be at the Burrow, almost like home.

Mrs. Weasley put the full plate in front of Harry and sat down with the two teenagers again. "You know, it feels like it was yesterday that Bill was just a little boy and now he is married," she sighed.

Harry was looking at Hermione, somewhat helplessly. He had no idea what to say to that.

"I'm sure he will be happy with Fleur," said Hermione smiling at Mrs. Weasley.

Harry was totally bewildered now. He knew that Mrs. Weasley was getting along quite well with her new daughter in law, since the night Bill had been bitten by Greyback. But Hermione and Ginny were still poking fun on the young French-woman, calling her Phlegm.

Not knowing how to deal with this strange female behaviour, he was relieved to see Ron coming down the stairs yawning, joining them at the table.

Mrs. Weasley filled Ron's plate generously, before she left the kitchen to do the laundry. Ron nodded a tired thanks and started shovelling huge amounts of food into his mouth. Hermione didn't seem able to decide whether she should find Ron's typical breakfast routine amusing or disgusting and finally settled on rolling her eyes. Harry caught her look and snorted, not exactly knowing, what he found so funny.

Ron looked up, startled. "What?" he asked, accidentally spitting a bit of egg across the table.

Just in that moment Harry realised that this might be the last time that the three of them were having an untroubled breakfast together.

Not wanting to spoil the good mood, Harry shook his head smiling and said, "Oh I just had to think of yesterday. You know, when Bill ate one of those Sticky-Tongue-Gums."

Ron nodded enthusiastically, laughing hard. "Yes, that was ingenious!" he agreed. "What a sight, Bill and Fleur being glued together by the lips!"

"Clever of Fred and George to use Ginny for offering the gum to Bill. Otherwise he would never have taken it," said Hermione, also grinning broadly.

Everyone had been a bit anxious about what the twins had planned for the party and had been careful not to take anything offered by either of them. So they had taken Ginny into the plan. She had been to give Bill a Sticky-Tongue-Gum, which caused him to be glued together at the lips with whoever he was kissing next.

Bill and Fleur sticking so close together for more than an hour had been cause to great amusement during the party. Even Molly found it funny and her relief that the twins had limited themselves for something this relatively harmless was clearly visible. Again and again, Bill and Fleur had had to listen to jibes like, "Hey, take your time you two, you've got the rest of your lives with each other!"

"Yep, one definitely shouldn't get on the wrong side of your sister, mate," grinned Harry.

Ron suddenly looked strangely at Harry. "Are you and Ginny still together?" he asked bluntly as only Ron could.

"I..." Harry began. He already felt how the companionable atmosphere they had had a minute before was dissipating and how reality closed in on him again.

"No," he said sadly. Both of his friends were looking at him, Hermione with curious concern and Ron with this wary face of a very protective brother. "Don't get me wrong, mate. I still love her. But it's just to dangerous with Voldemort around. I would never want her hurt," he said softly.

Harry stood up and started pacing. The restlessness he had felt during the long weeks in Privet Drive, and which had vanished during those wonderful days at the Burrow with the excitement of the wedding, had returned with full force.

Having come to a decision, he turned around to his friends. "I'm going up to pack my stuff. I'm leaving tomorrow. I need to finally do something."

Ron and Hermione had known that Harry wanted to start their Horcrux hunt after the wedding, but it seemed so soon. Ron just nodded glumly.

"Harry, wait!" said Hermione, an excited sparkle in her eyes. "I just remember what I heard yesterday at the party and what will help us with the search. I meant to tell you, but I forgot..."

Ron rolled his eyes at Harry. "Hermione, are you rattling on about how you forgot, or are you actually going to tell us?"

Hermione blushed and began. "Bill was talking to one of his former class mates. They were recounting memories of their school days. So, one episode happened in their first year. Bill and his friend had been hexed by a Slytherin Seventh year. All five boys in their dorm planned to do something together to get revenge. They got one of his school books and charmed it, so that it would enlarge itself and float up into the air, as soon as he opened it. It's really amazing for some first years to do magic like that."

Ron groaned. "Great, so how does this information help Harry?"

"Well, if you would let me finish," Hermione huffed indignantly. "Anyway, they also charmed it, so that it was written in bright red and golden letters, Regulus is the Star of the Lion"

"Regulus? Do you mean Sirius's brother?" asked Harry, not knowing how this would help him to find a Horcrux.

"Yes, Regulus Black. And I asked Bill, whether he knew his second name. It's Antares."

Ron and Harry stared at her blankly for a moment, before Harry gasped. "R.A.B.," he whispered. "R.A.B. was Sirius's brother. And he tried to destroy the locket. Well, apparently Voldemort has no idea about that, but maybe Regulus showed his repugnance at him in other ways as well. That's probably why he was killed..." Harry fell silent again to think about that.

"So what do we do now? Do you think the locket is somewhere hidden in Grimmauld Place?" asked Ron excitedly. "We could go there now and look for it."

"No, it could be anywhere, we could have accidentally thrown it out while cleaning last year," said Hermione, who seemed to have already put some thought into the topic. "But we could ask Kreacher," she recommended.

"Kreacher?!" said Harry and Ron simultaneously, neither of them sound particularly friendly.

"Yes, Kreacher," she said bossily. "He is our best chance. If he knows where it is, he has to tell you if you give him a direct order, Harry."

"Alright," Harry agreed reluctantly. He still resented the old house elf, and even more since Sirius had died.

"Kreacher, come here," he called out.

Nothing happened. "Kreacher!"

"Maybe he died," said Ron uncertainly.

"Nonsense," replied Hermione distractedly.

After waiting some more minutes, Harry sighed. "What a nice and helpful house-elf," he grumbled sarcastically. Then he stood up and turned to go. "Let's see if we find him at Grimmauld Place."

"What? Now?"

Harry shrugged irritably. "Yes, of course. Why waste time?"

They had to travel to Grimmauld Place via Floo powder as Harry hadn't taken his Apparation test yet. The box with the Floo powder stood next to the fire place, as it had when Harry had travelled by Floo powder the first time in the summer before his second school year.

"Ron, do you think we should tell your Mum where we are going?" asked Hermione.

"Are you mad? She would never allow us to go alone."

Hermione bit her lip. It was one thing to browse Hogwarts' corridors at night, but now they were leaving the relative safety of the Burrow. On the other hand they were travelling to another place, which was secured with lots of wards and protections as well.

"Okay, let's go. But we are not staying longer than ten minutes. We only look if Kreacher is there to tell us what he knows about Regulus or the locket," she said nervously.

The boys nodded impatiently and listening for voices or foot steps of the other inhabitants of the house, they stepped into the fire place one after the other, each of them enunciating "Grimmauld Place" loudly and clearly.

***

So much had happened on this morning that Remus wasn't even surprised anymore when he learned that Lily and James had two more children. Leo and Amy had been kept in their hiding place by Lily as long as Remus and Tonks were still sceptic and wary about their sudden visitors. Only when the three Marauders had hugged, had Lily let her children come forward from behind the kitchen counter.

After having raided the kitchen for something edible, the small group had sat down together in the sitting room of Grimmauld Place to talk. As interesting and exciting everything had been and still was for the twins, the long walk through the tunnels and being awake all night were taking their toll and soon Leo and Amy had fallen asleep, leaning against each other on the slighty shabby but comfortable sofa.

Tonks was fighting sleep as well and finally around ten o'clock in the morning, Lily decided to find a bedroom for the twins and then go to bed herself.

Nothing however seemed to be able to keep the three men from celebrating their reunion and catching up. Even when Lily lay in bed she still had the excited chatter of the three Marauders in her ears and sometimes the warm and full laughter of the men carried up to her.

When Leo awoke, he didn't know where he was. The bed in which he was lying was unfamiliar and he had never been in the room before. He sat up abruptly and looked around. In the bed on the far wall was his sister still sleeping.

Above his bed there were two small windows through which the sun was shining brightly. Leo guessed that it must be well after midday. He yawned and his eyes caught the portrait, which decorated the otherwise empty wall between the two beds. Something was stirring in the picture. Leo stood up and carefully walked over to the dark and seemingly empty canvas.

Leo gasped. There was a man walking into the picture.

"Mmmmm?"Amy had apparently been woken up by Leo's sudden intake of breath. "Wuddissit?" she mumbled from beneath her blankets.

"Amy, look at this! This picture is moving!" Leo exclaimed excitedly, suddenly remembering all the events of the previous day. It hadn't been a dream. They really were in a world where magic existed.

"Of course I'm moving. It would be a rather dreary existence to stand stock still at all times," sneered the man in the portrait. He didn't look friendly. He had a thin and clever face with a pointed black beard and wore long silver and dark green robes.

"Amy, the picture can talk, too," he called, now totally amazed. Amy scrambled out of her bed to get a good look at the picture as well.

The man looked at them with raised eyebrows, pulled his lips into a disgusted sneer and turned his back towards the twins, walking out of the picture again.

Leo and Amy grinned at each other, started snorting and soon their laughter was so unrestrained that their rips started hurting.

"What a stuck-up fellow," gasped Amy when she could finally talk through her laughter again. "Come on, let's see what else we can find in this house," she said and was already opening the door to the hall.

The were stepping on a narrow landing when they left the bedroom. The hall, in which they were standing breathed something strange and mysterious and something - dark.

"Well, Sirius said that his family weren't the friendliest wizards," whispered Amy, looking around the dusty hallway cautiously. The three rooms which they had seen so far of this house had been made more or less comfortable, but the hall still had a slightly unnerving air.

"Let's see if we can find the kitchen or the sitting room. They had seemed okay to me, and we should be a bit careful around here, shouldn't we?" said Leo reasonably.

Amy nodded and quietly they descended the massive wooden stairs. Amy thought she saw some kind of shrunken heads mounted upon plaques on the wall, but she quickly looked away from them.

Despite themselves they breathed a sigh of relief when they had found the kitchen. The large stony room was empty. The used dishes from this morning were still standing on the table.

"Want some tea?" asked Leo, filled a kettle with water and put it on the stove. While Amy put the dirty dishes into the sink, Leo rummaged the cupbords for cups and sugar.

Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the fireplace of the kitchen. Leo and Amy stared at each other, but before they even had the chance to decide what to do next, the fireplace roared to live with bright green fire and a boy was falling out of it. Two more times within the next seconds the green fire roared up and two more people fell out of it, a boy and a girl.

Not having noticed the twins yet, the three teenager scrambled to their feet.

"That must be Harry, Ron and Hermione," whispered Amy to her brother.

The heads of the newly arrived snapped up and they stared at the boy and the girl whom they had never seen before, who knew their names and who were standing in the kitchen of head quarters of the Order of the Phoenix.