Tidy Time

Tidy Time

Part 2

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Eight people stood at the entrance to number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

"I told Kreacher we were coming today so a good bit of the house cleaning on the first floor should be done. He had the kitchen spotless last time we were here. All we should have to do is get rid of any dark stuff," said Harry.

"Well the first thing we need to do is disenchant the entrance. That specter of Dumbledore is getting to me," said Ron.

"I think I've got that covered," said Harry as he opened the door. "Professor McGonagall and Kingsley gave me an idea."

"Severus Snape?" said Moody's voice.

Their tongues froze and the dusty caricature of their favorite teacher rose from the carpet and swept toward them. Harry waited until the tongue tie was released, and then stepped forward.

"The war is over, professor, and love has won the day."

The specter stopped halfway down the hall and smiled. Dumbledore pulled off his hat and bowed. When the specter straightened, it had changed into a grinning Alastor Moody.

"Well done, Potter. Well done indeed. As I'm not here to banish this I assume I didn't survive, so I'll leave you with this last lesson. Constant vigilance, Potter, always!" With that the specter vanished.

"Even dead, he's still a teacher," said Ron. "So, how did you figure out the disenchantment?"

"Profess...the Headmistress," said Harry, smiling, "told me that Moody usually had a fairly obvious disenchantment built into this kind of security measure. We talked a bit, and it occurred to us that probably all we had to do was tell the specter the war was over. It seems we were right."

"What about the 'love' part?" Hermione asked.

"Kingsley thought that up. You know how Dumbledore was always on about love; well, Kingsley thought Moody might have had something about that too. He said Death Eaters would never think of it; looks like he may have been right."

Just then the door to the kitchen stairs flew open.

"Master is home," cried Kreacher as he burst into the hallway.

"WHO IS HOME?" a voice shouted from behind the moth-eaten curtains covering Mrs. Black. "THE HALF BLOOD? BLOOD TRAITORS, MUDBLOODS? WHO HAS COME, KREACHER?"

Kreacher stopped halfway down the hall and looked at the group apologetically.

"Well I guess you're up first, Dean. I wanted to wait for this, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. Everybody ready?" Harry asked the group. Dean, Luna, Hermione Ron, Narcissa, Andromeda, and Ginny all nodded their assent.

Harry stepped up to the painting of Walburga Black. "Good morning, Mrs. Black, and a lovely day it is too."

"HALF BLOOD, BLOOD TRAITOR, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!! FILTH, DEFILERS, THIS IS THE HOUSE OF BLACK, OUR BLOOD IS PURE, AND NONE BUT..."

"Hermione, if you please," said Harry, gesturing toward the painting.

Hermione flicked her wand, and a black leather strap with a bright red ball gag materialized in the painting; it wrapped around Mrs. Black's head, silencing her. Muffled shouts and screams issued from the painting as Harry and Narcissa, bemused, turned to Hermione.

"I am going to regret this question I know, but where did you get the idea for that?" asked Harry.

"You told me you wanted to gag her. You know I'm teaching a Muggle Studies class next term for my NEWT?"

"Yeah."

"Yes, um, well, I was doing some research at the Muggle library, and I got a bit bored. You know, Harry, we grew up Muggle so we know almost everything about them already. I mean there I was looking up how refrigerators work, and how aeroplanes fly, and..."

"The point, Hermione?"

"Oh, yes, so for a lark I looked up gags on the computer at the library, and, well, this was the most popular response," she said, blushing furiously.

Narcissa suppressed a chuckle, and Harry looked at her askance.

"And just how would you know about such things, young Potter?" Narcissa asked.

"Well one day while my aunt and uncle were out, Dudley and I sort of investigated their closet, and... well... they had some things..." he finished in a rush.

Andromeda laughed. "Okay, we'll just not mention that to Molly."

"Yeah, okay, let's move on." Harry addressed the still fuming Mrs. Black: "Ready to listen?" Mrs. Black struggled with the leather strap of the gag, but it wouldn't budge. "Better than you have tried to undo Hermione's work. It won't come off, so I'll ask again. Are you ready to listen?"

Mrs. Black dropped her hands from the gag and bored holes in Harry with her eyes.

"Better. Now, here's my proposal; we can do one of two things today, you can continue to howl and act inhospitably, and we'll whitewash right over the top of you." Dean held up a bucket of white paint to illustrate the point. "Or you can be civil, and young master Thomas here will paint you some lilies in your portrait to honor my mother. It's your choice. We'll give you some time to think." Harry drew the curtains.

"She's not going to be reasonable, Harry. I don't know what you hope to accomplish," said Andromeda.

"We'll see. Phineas Nigellus was not particularly helpful or cooperative at first, but he came round in the end. Well, upstairs first?"

"Ron and I will tackle Regulus's room," said Hermione.

Harry looked at Ginny. "Think they need a chaperone?"

"No more than the two of you," said Ron as he smacked Harry's arm.

"So, think they need a chaperone?" said Harry, still looking at Ginny and laughing.

"I think we'll be fine, Harry," said Hermione. She grabbed Ron's arm and headed up the stairs.

"What would you like Dean and me to do while Mrs. Black considers her predicament?" asked Luna.

"Why don't you two take the second floor, and the four of us will take the ground floor," said Harry. "If you run into any problems, just come and get Andy or..."

"Cissy, please all of you, call me Cissy," Narcissa implored.

"Come and get Andy or Cissy then," said Harry.

"Who's taking the attic?" asked Narcissa.

"Attic?" said Harry, puzzled. "There's an attic?"

"They don't know, Cissy!" Andromeda said gleefully. "Harry, we had the best play place in the world up there. Come on!"

With almost child-like abandon Narcissa and Andromeda tore up the stairs; they were slightly winded when the reached the top landing. On one side was Sirius's bedroom and on the other Regulus's. The door still bore the snakes and the legend of its owner. It was also closed and strangely quiet.

Harry banged his fist on the door. "Oi, you two! I can't hear any work going on."

There was a brief scuffling behind the door before Hermione flung it open. Her lips were a little puffy and her hair was undone from the ribbon she had tied it back with.

"We were checking the closet," she said to the completely unconvinced quartet.

"The snogging king's bedroom is across the hall," said Andromeda, starting to chuckle. "Regulus never scored in here, so..." and she and Narcissa leaned on each other, laughing.

"Wha's so funny?" asked Ron as he stepped up behind Hermione, a streak of her lip gloss running down his neck.

Ginny looked at Hermione and gave her a smile and a knowing nod; Harry shook his head, and the Black sisters continued to giggle.

"Oh Merlin, said Narcissa. Thank you dear for the laugh, I really need it."

"Regulus was... well, pathetic is too kind a word, completely inept when it came to women. I think that's partly why he became a Death Eater, to get some action. It didn't work though, did it Cissy?"

"No. He didn't even manage to get it on with Alecto, and she was... accommodating." She rolled her eyes.

"Sirius, on the other hand, well you already know what a hound he was," said Andromeda, and they all laughed.

"Yeah, actually I think we might know more about that than you. He won a sort of prize for it back at school," said Harry

"Did he?" said Narcissa as she hiccupped to a stop.

"Yeah, we'll tell that story another time. About this attic..."

"What attic?" asked Ron.

After a short conversation Andromeda led them through the bedroom, out of the second door, and into the corridor that led to the storage rooms and the loo shared by the two top bedrooms.

"Descendo," she said, pointing her wand at the ceiling in the corridor.

A large golden rectangle appeared in the ceiling. Then it dissolved, and a set of stairs slid down out of the ceiling.

"We had no idea," said Hermione.

"This is great. Come on." Narcissa bounded up the stairs, closely followed by her sister.

"After you," said Harry to Ginny.

"You just want to watch my arse go up these stairs," she said smiling.

"Hey, chivalry has its perks," Harry said as he helped her up.

"Perv," she said, and kissed him. Then she stalked up the stairs, very deliberately rocking her hips with every step.

You're not helping, either, Harry thought as he followed Ginny up into the attic.