Bittersweet

Chapter Three:

Attention: Elvis has Entered the Building

It seemed as though an eternity passed before Felicity finally got to her feet and walked back up the stairs, unaware of where exactly her feet were taking her. She found herself in front of the room Fred, George, and Ginny were cleaning just as it was flung open. As if in silent agreement the twins headed upstairs and Ginny took off downstairs, all three with a very determined air. Apparently they too, knew that something important was just short of happening.

Felicity watched as Fred and George climbed a flight of stairs and Ginny descended one, unable to decide which she would rather tail. Figuring that the twins would hold a slightly more mischievous agenda, Felicity hurried after their retreated backs and was soon within a short distance of them.

"Think they'll have put another Imperturbable Charm on the door?" Fred asked George.

"I dunno, sometimes they forget so it might be worth a try," George responded deliberately, as they entered the room they shared.

Fred strolled across the room toward a small writing desk against the far wall, as Felicity and George watched from the door. He opened the bottom drawer, closed it, tapped it with his wand, then opened it again and withdrew two long pieces of flesh-colored string.

"Got 'em," he said as he tucked one of the strings into his pocket and threw another to George. "Ready?"

"Ready," George responded, as he too pushed the fleshy twine into his pocket and the two of them jauntily traipsed out.

Felicity looked from the open drawer to the closed door, an internal battle taking place. She would dearly love to see what these flesh-like lengths of thread were but she did not want to invade the twin's privacy. Finally her curiosity won out and she tiptoed over to the open drawer and drew out another long piece of flesh from the tangled mess that sat inside. Felicity gathered the ends together and found that on each end was a quivering ear and she could only assume that these were some sort of eavesdropping devices.

Well, good thing she'd put an Imperturbable Charm on her room, she thought as she held the thing close to her ear. It snaked its way from underneath her cloak toward the door.

"What are you doing?" she heard George call as though he was right next to her.

"Forgot to shut the drawer," Fred hissed, sounding equally as close. Felicity gestured frantically for the string to come back to her and it just barely slithered back under her cloak as Fred burst through the door.

"Well hurry up, we've got to get back to that room before mum catches us," George urged him.

Felicity held her breath, praying Fred wouldn't miss the bit of string from the web of ear-things in the drawer. Thankfully, he didn't even glance down into it, just slammed it shut and gave it another tap with his wand.

Felicity let out the breath in a long low sigh as the door clicked shut again. Well, she couldn't put the string-thing back now that the drawer was closed, could she? She would just have to take the thing with her and try and return it later.

Cautiously, she eased the twin's door open and peered around it, only to find their fleeing backs and an otherwise clear hallway. She leaned against the railing and peered over the edge onto the floors below. In the dim she could see the forms of two people coming up the stairs to the floor directly beneath hers. One a plump woman she was sure was Mrs. Weasley and the other a tall boy who appeared to be wearing glasses and had messy hair that stood up in tufts all over his head.

This must be Harry Potter. The only other in the whole house who wore glasses was Mr. Weasley and he had no hair so it had to be Harry Potter. Then before she knew it, the eavesdropping-ear-thing had snaked itself over the railing and down the stairs, under the door the boy had just entered. Ron's room.

Hermione's frenzied voice was the first thing she had heard.

"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, 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 him breathe, Hermione," Ron interrupted her. There was a long pause during which... Harry breathed? Felicity had no idea what was going on and vaguely wished the ears had eyes too.

"Hedwig!" came the voice of Harry Potter, it was another pleasant British voice and it delighted Felicity even if she had no idea what he was talking about.

"She's been in a right state," said Ron. "Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this-"

Okay, so Hedwig must be a bird, presumably an owl. Harry Potter's owl.

"Oh yeah," Harry Potter said. "Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know..." He didn't sound sorry at all though.

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

"-swear not to tell me," the-boy-who-lived bitterly cut in. "Yeah, Hermione's already said."

There was a long silence so thick with tension Felicity was ready to bet you could have cut it with a knife.

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

"Right," said Harry, his voice still rather cold and resentful.

"I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles-" Ron began.

"Yeah?" said Harry in a sardonic tone. "Have either of you been attacked by dementors this summer?"

He had a good point, Felicity had to admit.

"Well, no-but that's why he had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time-"

Probably wasn't a smart idea to mention that they knew he'd had someone tailing him all summer, Felicity thought.

"Didn't work that well, though, did it?" said Harry his voice sounding strained. "Had to look after myself after all, didn't I?"

"He was so angry," said Hermione in awestruck tones. "Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

Hermione was right, Dumbledore had been scary, Felicity silently agreed.

"Well, I'm glad he left," said Harry his voice oozing with ice. "If he hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer."

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

"No," Harry Potter said shortly, but Felicity had a vague feeling he was lying. There was another long awkward pause during which Felicity heard the shuffling of feet and a small noise that sounded like a snicker of laughter.

"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" Harry asked suddenly, startling Felicity, his voice cool and casual. "Did you-er-bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," said Ron in the same earnest voice. "We did, mate. 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 me informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said, dismissing what Ron had just said. "You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."

Okay, that made sense, then why didn't he tell Harry Potter anything. I mean he, of all people had probably the most right to be informed of what was happening outside the Muggle world.

There was a short pause then Hermione said hesitantly, "I thought that too. But he didn't want you to know anything."

"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted," said Harry as though this was no concern to him.

"Don't be thick," said Ron.

"Or that I can't take care of myself-"

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

"So how come I have to stay at the Dursley's while you two get to join in everything that's going on here?" said Harry, his voice steadily growing louder as his words poured out. "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-"

Wrong thing to say, Felicity noted numbly before the yelling began and the ear-things were no longer necessary.

"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! AND I'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?"

Harry was screaming at them, and sounding very frustrated by the sound of it. Felicity heard indignant hoots from what sounded like a pair of owls as Harry's shouts startled them.

"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? ME!"

Felicity had no idea what Harry was talking about here, but listened with intense interest just the same.

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

"Harry, we wanted to tell you, 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-" Ron tried to explain.

"FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON-"

"We wanted to-" Hermione tried.

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

"No, honest-" Ron said and he was interrupted but by Hermione this time instead of Harry.

"Harry, we're really sorry!" said Hermione. She sounded as though she was crying. "You're absolutely right, Harry-I'd be furious if it was me!"

Harry, Ron, nor Hermione said anything for a long time and Felicity began to wonder if they had discovered her eavesdropping tool when Harry's voice fired off what appeared to be a random question.

"What is this place anyway?"

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

Tell him more or he'll start shouting again, Felicity advised Hermione and Ron, knowing that there was no way either of them could have heard her.

"It's a secret society," said Hermione quickly, apparently thinking along the same lines as Felicity. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."

"Who's in it?"

"Quite a few people-" Hermione answered in the same hasty manner.

"-We've met about twenty of them," said Ron, sounding eager to offer information to his steaming friend, "but we think there are more...."

There was another short irritating pause.

"Well?" demanded Harry.

"Er, well what?" Ron asked, voicing Felicity's confusion.

"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously. "What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"

Felicity was pleased to hear that Harry wasn't one of the ninnies who insisted upon calling Voldemort "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." It was hard to have intelligent conversations with people when you were constantly getting annoyed with them for not using the Dark Lord's name. What was Voldemort going to do? Swoop down on you right there?

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings," Hermione was saying with an apprehensive tremor in her voice. "So we don't know the details--but we've got a general idea-"

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

Felicity looked at the bit of string she was holding up to her ear with comprehension. So that's what these things were called.... Extendable Ears.

"Extendable-?"

"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. 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-"

Hmm... they must have made this discovery earlier this summer, before she had arrived, because she followed the teenagers of number twelve Grimmauld Place every and had thought she knew everything they did.

"-Some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order-" said Hermione.

Wow. This was new too.

"-and some of them are standing guard over something," said Ron. "They're always talking about guard duty."

Okay, she'd heard about that one at least.

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry sarcastically.

That's what she'd thought at first, but something about the way Sirius answered the vague questions she asked him about the thing they diligently guarded made her think it was an object.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, sounding as though this thought had just occurred to him.

Harry snorted, with what seemed to be disgust. "So what have you two been doing if you're not allowed in the meetings?" he demanded. "You said you'd been busy."

Busy flirting with each other, Felicity thought with a small smile to herself.

"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!"

Crack! Crack! Felicity recognized the sounds of someone Apparating.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the Apparating couple.

"Hello, Harry," said George brightly. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle your anger up like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred in an equally bright voice. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" asked Harry grumpily.

"With distinction," said Fred proudly.

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," said Ron testily.

"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."

"You want to be careful," said Ron warningly. "If Mum sees one of them again..."

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred.

"Oh hello, Harry!" Ginny's voice said brightly from out of nowhere, startling Felicity so that she almost dropped the Extendable Ear she had jacked. "I thought I heard your voice."

Apparently speaking to the twins, Ginny said, "It's no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put a Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How'd you know?" said George.

"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? Severus Snape? Her godfather, Snape? Great, let's hear what everyone thinks of him, Felicity thought glumly.

"Snape?" said Harry quickly. "Is he here?"

"Yeah," said George. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," said Fred idly.

Well, no surprises there.

"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.

Hmm... Felicity had never met a Bill... well, she reminded herself, she hadn't really met any of them. Observed, would be a better way to put it. She had never observed a Bill before. Was he Ginny's boyfriend? Or another Weasley? Or related to Sirius?

"Is Bill here?" Harry 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 there are compensations...." Fred's voice trailed off and Felicity could almost see the smirk on his face.

"What d'you mean?"

"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.

Okay. So he definitely wasn't Ginny's boyfriend. Another older brother perhaps?

"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.

Two more wizards Felicity hadn't yet heard of, Charlie and Percy.

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

"Why not?" Harry said in bewildered tones.

"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying," Fred said.

Felicity had been hooked the moment Ron had told Harry not to mention Percy's name and at this from Fred there was little she could do to contain questions of her own.

"It's been awful," said Ginny sadly.

"I think we're well shut of him," said George firmly.

"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...."

Crouch? Crouch... she recognized the name but couldn't remember where she'd heard it. It was Bartimus Crouch, wasn't it? Yes, that was right, but what had he done, where had she heard that name?

"So how come they promoted him?" Harry asked.

"That's exactly what we wondered," said Ron. "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?" Harry asked.

"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 explained. "They 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 Harry sounding as confused as Felicity felt.

"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy I his office because he wants him to spy on the family-and Dumbledore."

Someone, presumably Harry, whistled and Harry said, "Bet Percy loved that."

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 Harry in disbelief.

Someone hissed angrily.

"I know," said Ron in a low voice. "And it gets 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 then he was gong 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."

"Damn," Harry said softly.

"Mum's been in a right state," said Ron dully. "You know-crying and stuff."-so that's why Felicity sometimes saw Mrs. Weasley with red eyes and a puffy face-"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 name got dragged into the row," said Ron. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and... I dunno... he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet very seriously," said Hermione tartly.

At that moment Felicity's borrowed Extendable Ear was yanked free of her grasp. Felicity had been sitting with her back to the stair railing, listening intently to the conversation down in Ron Weasley's bedroom, when the Extendable Ear leaped from her hand.

She whipped around and peered through the railings to the floors below and saw that a small squat wrinkled something had tripped over her the fleshy string part of the eavesdropping device. She watched as it got slowly to its feet and pick up the Extendable Ear, holding it gingerly in its grubby hands. Felicity knew several seconds of horror as the thing's gaze traveled up the bit of string toward her, before she remembered she was covered in the Invisibility Cloak and the monstrosity couldn't see her.

Or could it?

Its face turned upward and even though Felicity couldn't see its eyes in the gloom, she felt for sure the thing was staring straight at the transparent patch of air that was her. Quick as a whip, she wrenched the Extendable Ear toward her and it slid out of the creature's open palms. Gathering the stringy wad together Felicity turned and fled up the nearest set of stairs to her room.

She collapsed on the bed and lay there breathing heavily. She had gotten so completely absorbed in the conversation below that she had let her guard down and almost allowed someone (or something) to discover her. Her heart was racing and she pressed her palm to it in a vain attempt to slow it.

Just when it had begun to ease back into its normal pace, Mrs. Black's furious insulting screams reverberated through the floorboards into her room, startling her so much she all but fell off her bed.

"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, be gone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers -"

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" she heard Sirius roar.

"Yoooou!" the painting howled at her son. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said-shut-UP!" Sirius roared angrily and a few moments later the Mrs. Black's screaming died and the silence echoed around the house.

Felicity's heart thudded wildly against her ribcage and she pressed a hand to it in an attempt to somehow ease it's rapid beating. She slumped back into her bed and thoughts of Harry Potter drifted lazily into her mind. There was something about him that she just couldn't put her finger on; something about his voice that intrigued her... made her wonder about him. It was just a normal male British voice, but it made her skin tingle because there was something powerful about him that she couldn't quite place, but could sense it in every word spoken from his lips...

But maybe she was just being crazy. She wished she didn't have the annoying habit of psychoanalyzing every person she met or even heard speak.

Suddenly there was a sharp rap at her door and she had a horrible feeling she knew who it was.

Felicity cleared her throat and called, "Yes?"

Her guardian's voice answered her, "Let me in. I'm in a hurry."

Not feeling up to greeting him at the door, Felicity simply waved a hand and the tumblers and switches in her door unlocked. Another swish of her hand and the curtains draping around her bed slid shut, hiding her from view.

"It's open," she called, staring up at the canopy of her bed.

The door swung open and Snape trudged over to her bed. She could see him clearly, could see that his expression was one of smugness and impatience, but she knew he couldn't see her own of defiance and irritation.

"What do you want?" she asked in a purposely-bored voice.

"I just wanted to tell you," Snape said glancing around her room peevishly, "that under no circumstances are you to meet Potter, do you hear me?"

"Meet Potter?" she asked in confused tones. "What do you mean, I'm not to meet Potter? Potter who?"

"Harry Potter, that's who," he spat. "He's just been retrieved from his aunt and uncle's home in Surrey."

"Oh really?" Felicity inquired keenly from behind the curtain. "I had no idea... Now what did you want me to do? You want me to meet this Potter boy, you say?"

Snape looked about ready to have a conniption fit. "No," he said through clenched teeth. "I said 'under no circumstances are you to meet Potter.' Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," she said simply. "Is that all?"

"Yes, goodbye," Snape said with a snarl. He spun around on one heel and tramped back out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

"Buh-bye," she called to the shut door, slumping back into her pillows with a smile.

Tomorrow she would meet Harry Potter.

* * *

Dear Diary,

Guess who arrived today? The one and only famous H. Potter! Apparently he's had it quite rough the past weeks of his summer vacation and is more that a little put out that he's just now arriving at Number Twelve and the others have been here all summer. Though his home in Surrey must be pretty horrific to be happy to finally be here.

There's something about him, Diary, something I just can't put my finger on. He's powerful, yes, I can sense that, but there's something different about it. When I had my first encounter with Dumbledore I could feel how powerful he was, but it was a different sort of strength. I haven't even seen his face, but I can feel it in his voice. Is that normal, Diary? I don't know... I wish I had some answers.

There's something unique about the aura around him. There's something... something special about him.

It's corny, I know, but bare with me here.

But of course there's something special about him. I mean, come on, he's Harry Potter. The Harry Potter. But somehow that doesn't feel like the answer. There's something more... I just can't realize it right now. It makes the Seer in me buzz like an angry hornets nest. Ugh! I wish I could remember where I felt that power before. I know I've felt power like that before because it's familiar in a vague inconclusive way. This is driving me insane, this constant wondering. I don't know how I'm going to be able to sleep tonight.

Snape dropped by my room on his way out this evening, forbidding me to meet Harry Potter. Of course you can see how utterly preposterous this order is, can't you? How could I possibly refrain from making Potter's acquaintance when there are so many unanswered questions buzzing around my head right now? The only way to make them stop would be to meet the guy. So I'm going to do so. Tomorrow. I'm going to meet him tomorrow.

Decidedly,

F. Parish