Everyone was speaking in hushed voices as we entered the dingy terrace. Harry and I were hustled into a dark corridor that smelled of dank, abandoned house.
There were hurried footsteps and Mrs Weasley emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried towards us, though I noticed that she was rather thinner and paler than she had been last time I had seen her.
“Oh, Daisy, Harry, it’s lovely to see you!” She whispered, pulling us both into a rib-cracking hug before holding us at arm’s length and examining us critically. “You’re looking peaky, Harry, dear; you need feeding up, but you’ll have to wait a bit for dinner, I’m afraid. Daisy, dear, you’ve got a healthy glow about you, it’s good that you’re eating more...”
I sniggered. I’ve been eating as much as I used to; it’s just that puberty happened to me.
Mrs Weasley turned to the gang of wizards and witches behind us and whispered urgently, “He’s just arrived, the meeting’s started.”
Everyone behind us all made noises of interest and excitement and began filing past us towards the door through which Mrs Weasley had just come. I made to follow Emily, but Mrs Weasley held me back.
“No, Daisy, the meeting’s only for members of the Order.” They had all explained - well, mentioned - what the Order was on the flight over. “Fred and George - oh, and Terry, Ron, and Hermione - are upstairs, you can both wait with them until the meeting’s over, then we’ll have dinner. And keep your voices down in the hall.” She added in an urgent whisper.
“Why, what’ll happen if I don’t?” I grinned.
“I don’t want anything to wake up.”
“What d’you -“
“I’ll explain later, I’ve got to hurry, I’m supposed to be at the meeting - I’ll just show you where you’re sleeping.”
Pressing her finger to her lips, she led me and Harry on tiptoe past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, behind which I supposed there must be another door, and after skirting a large umbrella stand that looked as though it had been made from a severed troll’s leg, we started up the dark staircase, passing a row of shrunken heads mounted on plaques on the wall. A closer look showed me that the heads belonged to house-elves. All of them had the same rather snout-like nose.
My bewilderment deepened with every step I took. This house was the weirdest fucking building I’d ever been in.
‘Harry, what the hell?’ I sent to him.
He simply shrugged in response.
“There -“ we had reached the second landing, “Harry, dear, you’re the door on the right. My sons will show you your room, Daisy, pet. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
Harry and I grinned at each other and pushed open the door.
Harry and I were immediately engulfed. I choked, flailing my arms around, as Harry stumbled backwards.
“Her-Hermione -“ Harry rasped.
“Terry FUCKIN’ Boot -“
Our two friends released us at the same time, causing Harry to sway on his feet and me to brace myself against the wall. Terry was grinning at me, his chocolate eyes twinkling, and Hermione was grabbing Harry’s hands, squeezing them as she beamed at him. Ron was leaning against a desk, smiling at us, and Ginny was in the corner, lifting a hand in greeting.
“So, Softpaw, I heard that you’ve got huge tits now, is that true?” Terry said loudly, quirking an eyebrow at me. The other four went silent, slowly turning to us in horror. I stared him down. Terry’s grin slowly faded.
“Dude, it was just a joke -“
“TERRY AARON BOOT, I SWEAR TO GODRIC, YOU WILL NEVER SEE DAYLIGHT AGAIN IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT! COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW! GET - COME - I’M GONNA FUCKIN’ KILL YOU, YOU BISEXUAL BASTARD -“
I chased Terry around the room, us both giggling hysterically and me whacking at my best friend with a long brush.
With two loud cracks, Fred and George had materialised out of thin air in the middle of the room.
“Stop DOING that!” Terry said weakly to the twins, halting in his tracks. I skidded to a halt beside him, propping my arm up on his shoulder as I panted.
“Hello, Softpaw.” George said, beaming at me. “We thought we heard your dulcet tones.”
“You don’t want to bottle up your anger like that, Softpaw, let it all out.” Fred said, also beaming. “There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn’t hear you.”
“Shut the fuck up, you wankers.” I said. “Come here.”
Fred, George, Terry, and I group-hugged. I relaxed into the comforting hug, feeling safer than I’d had in ages.
“You two passed your Apparation tests, then?” Harry asked once we’d all broken apart and Terry had darted out of the room, ducking from one last swipe of my long brush and giggling.
“With distinction.” Fred said, who was holding an Extendable Ear. I grinned. We’d been developing those over the past few months.
“It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs.” Ron said.
“Time is Galleons, little brother.” Fred said. “Anyway, Softpaw, you’re interfering with reception.”
I held my hands up in mock surrender. “Sorry, sorry. My bad.”
“Extendable Ears. You’ve probably seen your sister trying to listen in on Dudley’s secret FaceTimes with Parvati Patil with these.” Fred added in response to Harry’s raised eyebrows, and held up the Ears, which I now saw were trailing out to the landing. “We’re trying to hear what’s going on downstairs.”
“You want to be careful.” Ron said, staring at the Ear. “If Mum sees one of them again...”
“It’s worth the risk, that’s a major meeting they’re having.” Fred said.
The door opened, and Terry darted back in. He turned to the twins and me, and said, “It’s a no-go with the Extendable Ears, she’s gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door.”
“How d’you know?” I said, crestfallen.
“You just chuck shit at the door and if it can’t make contact the door’s been Imperturbed. I flicked Dungbombs at it from the top of the stairs and they just soared 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!” Harry said quickly. “Is he here?”
“Yeah.” George said, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Terry followed. “Giving a report. Top secret.”
“Git.” Fred said idly.
“He’s on our side now.” Hermione said reprovingly.
I snorted. “Doesn’t stop him being a git. The way he always looks at me in the halls at school... remember, guys, he was so jealous in Potions that one time with my magazine ‘cause he wasn’t one of my suitors, eh?”
I glanced around at Harry and Ron, and they laughed, high-fiving.
“Bill thinks he’s a great greasy git too.” Ginny piped up from the other side of the room, where she was perched on a dresser.
“Is Bill here?” I asked, flopping down on the bed beside Terry, who collapsed beside me and threw his arm around me.
“I thought he was working in Egypt?” Harry said.
“He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order.” Fred said. “He says he misses the tombs, but,” he smirked, “there are compensations.”
“Oh?” I smirked back.
“Remember old Fleur Delacour?” George said. “She’s got a job at Gringotts to ‘eemprove ‘er Eeenglish -‘“
“And Bill’s been giving her a lot of private lessons.” Fred sniggered.
“I bet you’d like to give Softpaw some private lessons, wouldn’t you, Red?” Terry asked pointedly, as I snuggled into him.
Fred stared him down, narrowing his eyes, as I turned to Terry, patting him on the chest.
“Cozy Ravenclaw.” I told him, and he shrugged.
“I guess.”
“Wait, wait, what does that mean?” Ron said. “What’s Fred giving Daisy private lessons for? Private lessons for what?”
The Insurgents all exchanged glances.
“Paragliding.” George said.
The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs drifted underneath the door.
“Uh oh.”
Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack as he grabbed my arm -
Suddenly, the twins, Terry, and I were in what I assumed was our room - four beds, two on each wall. Fred was holding my arm and George was holding Terry’s.
“Nice.” I said.
“This’ll be like us all being in the same House.” Terry cheered, slinging his arms around me again. I held onto him, laughing giddily. I was so happy. I was back with my three best friends. Nothing could ever make me happier than this.
“Yeah, if only you were a Gryffindor, Hopper.” Fred said.
“You just had to go and be put into the know-it-all House.” George sighed.
“That’s because he’s a fucking nerd.” I said, booping Terry’s nose.
Terry made a disgusted noise and shoved me onto the nearest bed. I snickered, pulling him down onto my legs, dragging a pillow from the top of the bed and whacking him with it.
Mrs Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway.
“The meeting’s over, you can come down and have dinner now. Everyone’s dying to see you, Daisy. And who’s left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?”
“Crookshanks, Mrs Weasley.” Terry said unblushingly. “He loves playing with them.”
“Oh.” Mrs Weasley said. “I thought it might have been you four or Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don’t forget to keep your voices down in the hall.”
Fred and George glanced at each other once she’d left, and joined me and Terry’s pillow fight. We slapped each other with big fluffy pillows, shrieking and laughing, until we heard a quiet commotion in the hall outside. We paused, glancing at each other again, and hurried out of the bedroom.
The four of us looked over the banisters, and Fred and George cautiously started lowering the Extendable Ear towards the dark knot of people below. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards. They were whispering excitedly together. In the very centre of the group I saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of my least favourite teacher at Hogwarts, Snape. A moment later, however, they all began to move towards the front door and out of sight.
“Dammit.” Fred whispered, and hoisted the Ear back up again.
We heard the front door open, then close.
“Snape never eats here.” Terry told me quietly. “Thank Godric. C’mon.”
We made our way down the stairs, sniggering and shoving, and joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the bottom of the stairs.
“Don’t forget your keep your voices down.” Hermione whispered angrily at us four.
“Or what, Mynee?” I grinned. “OR WHAT?!”
Hermione opened her mouth to reply in haste, but her words were drowned by a horrible, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech.
The moth-eaten velvet curtains we had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. For a split second, I thought I was looking through a window, a window behind which an old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she were being tortured - then I realised it was simply a life-size portrait, but the most realistic, and the most ugly I had ever seen in my life.
The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed; and all along the hall behind us, the other portraits awoke and began to yell, too, so that I actually screwed up my eyes at the noise and clapped my hands over my ears.
‘Dumbass.’ Harry sent to me, and I stared him down with venom as he grinned.
Lupin and Mrs Weasley darted forward and tried to tug the curtains shut over the old woman, but they would not close and she screeched louder than ever, brandishing clawed hands as though trying to tear at their faces.
“Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers -“
“Sorry, guys!” I yelled over the noise. The twins and Terry grinned at me, Ron had stuck his earphones in, Harry rolled his eyes, and Hermione visibly sighed heavily. Mrs Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand; and a man with long black hair came charging out of a door facing me.
“Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!” He roared, seizing the curtain Mrs Weasley had abandoned.
The old woman’s face blanched.
“Yoooou!” She howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. “Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!”
“I said - shut - UP!” The man roared, and with a stupendous effort, he and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again.
The old woman’s screeches died and an echoing silence fell.
Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, my godfather Sirius turned to face me.
“Hello, twins.” He said grimly. “I see you’ve met my mother.”
I grinned. “Cool!”
