Order

Chapter Twenty

As June went on it just got hotter, it was nearing the end of June now, and Erin sat in the drawing room with the ascent fan Sirius had let her have, she waved it trying to cool herself down, but it wasn’t working, nothing was working. Sirius walked into the room and he had his sleeves rolled up, he took a seat in an arm chair next to her and sighed.

“This is going to be a real rotten summer….”

“You’re telling me, this place is a hot box” Erin complained. Sirius ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes.

“You know, Harry will be out of school soon, I’m sure that after he goes back to Privet Drive for a bit, Dumbledore will let him come back here” Sirius then stated.

“That will be nice; maybe we’ll be able to have a proper chat…” Erin trailed off, she began to fan herself again and Sirius looked over at her.

“Hey, let me have a go with that.”

“No way, you said and I quote ‘what am I going to do with it?’ So, there you are, it’s mine and you can go get your own.”

“That’s rude… I gave it to you” Sirius persisted.

“Yes, and thanks, its working great.”

“Give it” he shouted.

“No” she smirked; he then lunged across her and pulled it from her hands.

“Ha-ha” he remarked.

“You stupid git” she jumped up and yanked it back from him.

“Give it back…”

“No, it’s mine now…”

“Look at that…that’s a B, stands for Black… my last name is Black…”

They were bickering so loudly that neither of them heard the front door open and someone walk into the room, at this point Erin was desperately trying to pin Sirius to the floor and get back the fan he had given her, but she was failing miserably.

“Well, I see you and Sirius have taken up muggle dueling” said the voice of Remus Lupin, they looked up from the floor to see him smiling down at them.

“Oh, she wouldn’t give me this ruddy fan, mate, but no matter, I’ve got it now.”

Just then Erin yanked it from his hand again, smirking proudly she got up and walked over to Remus, who was now laughing at the annoyed Sirius.

“I would like a word with you Erin” Remus told her.

“Is it privet or can Sirius stay?”

“Oh, no, he can stay… Dumbledore just wanted me to come fetch you; it seems he wants a word with you as well.”

“A word with me?” Erin asked, worried. “He’s never even talked to me before….”

“Maybe that’s why he wants a word with you” said Sirius. “He wants to tell you to give me that blasted fan.”

“Here… good lord, take the damn thing” she said, tossing it at him. “When does he want to see me?”

“This afternoon, at four actually” Remus said, chuckling at Sirius again, who was now fanning off his under arms.

“That’s only in two hours” said Erin, looking at Sirius with the look of disgust. “You’re sick you know that?”

“Yes, I s’pose it is…” Remus trailed off, as Sirius smiled at them.

“I better get ready then” Erin said, in a panic. “I look like hell…”

“You look just fine” Sirius told her, as he took his seat again. “Dumbledore doesn’t care about looks…he’s Dumbledore.”

“Still, I have to look presentable” Erin stated, Sirius rolled his eyes at her as she rushed from the room. She went up to her bedroom and looked through all her clothes, but she couldn’t find anything she thought would be worthy of meeting someone like Dumbledore, finally after twenty minutes she found clothes and then went to work on her hair, she had it pulled up in a bun, the ends falling out, she didn’t think this looked very nice, so she let her hair down, and brushed it a few times. An hour later she walked down the stairs to find them still in the drawing room.

“How do I look?” she asked, Sirius; who had his eyes closed as he fanned himself, looked up at her and nodded.

“Fantastic.”

“You look lovely, Erin, very pretty” Remus told her, she bit her lip and tried to hide her smile, but that was like trying to hide the weird smirk that was now playing on Sirius’ face.

“Please, Remus, why don’t you just sha...”

“Sirius, do you mind, shutting your trap?” Erin stopped him before he went on any further and made her turn an ugly shade of red. “Can the man not pay me a damn complement?”

“Yes, I s’pose he could, if he did it the right way.”

“How did I do it wrong?” Remus then asked, confused.

“In many ways, Moony, my friend, in many ways” Sirius said, in a mystical voice. Both Remus and Erin gave him a weird look and he grinned.

“When will we be leaving, Remus?” Erin then asked.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Now, if you’d like to go” Erin stated, she looked over to Sirius and he sighed, Erin then started feeling guilty, she didn’t like leaving Sirius all alone. “How long will we be gone?”

“I’m not sure; Dumbledore will be escorting you back here, after your meeting.”

“Oh…” Erin trailed off, Remus stood up and walked from the room, going into the hall and getting his cloak.

“Well” Sirius said, getting up and smiling at Erin. “Do try to be back by dinner… I don’t think Kreacher will fancy cooking for me.”

“If you were nicer to him maybe…” Erin trailed off, with a smirk.

“If he wasn’t such a little bugger…” Sirius trailed off, as they walked into the hall. Erin felt weary about leaving Sirius; she didn’t like the thought of him being all alone in the house for hours, with only the nutter house-elf to keep him company…if Sirius could even find him.

“Will you be alright by yourself?” Erin asked, as they all stood by the front door.

“I’ll be just fine, I’ll just look for Kreacher… go through your personal possessions ” he smirked.

“Don’t even think about it” she warned him, and a huge grin broke out on his face.

“Well, come along, Erin” said Remus. “I’ll be back in a bit, Sirius.”

Sirius bid them each a goodbye as they walked out of the front door; it was slightly weird for Erin to be outside again…it had been so long, she fallowed Remus down the porch stairs and onto the side-walk. She still felt slightly guilty for leaving Sirius all alone, as she came to Remus’ side she sighed.

“Do you ever feel bad for leaving him there?”

“I used to, but when you came along I knew he was in good hands” Remus told her, holding his wand inside his pocket. She smiled at him but she didn’t think he noticed, and once they got to the end of the street he grabbed her arm, and with a blink of an eye they were gone from the street. A few seconds of whizzing around and feeling like she was being jerked all around, she felt land again and opened her eyes to see an ally-way. They walked not to the street but back toward the brick wall, Erin wondered what was going on as they reached the dirty, white cement, Remus then muttered something and the cement bricks melted away, and there was a brown door, he pulled it open to see a plush looking room. There was a red, satin couch a matching arm chair, with a high back, a nice, shiny wooden coffee table, and right behind that was a gold desk, and at this desk sat Albus Dumbledore, smiling at them, his blue eyes sparkling behind his half-moon spectacles, and off to the right, on a perch, there stood a big, red bird, fast asleep; with its wing covering its beak.

“Ah, Remus, early I see” said Dumbledore, smiling.

“Yes, sorry, Professor” said Remus.

“No need to be sorry...Erin, I must say our meeting is a tad overdue, but I am very busy as you can see.”

“Yes, I know…” she trailed off, unsure if she could talk or not, to be truthful she was feeling slightly nervous now.

“Well, Remus, thank you for bringing Erin, but as of now I would like to talk to her alone, if you would return to your friends Sirius’ house, I think you’ll come to find a few other Order of the Phoenix members have arrived there.”

Remus nodded and smiled one last time at Erin before leaving the office like room.

“Well, now then” Dumbledore stated. “Please do take a seat… I bet your wondering why I’ve brought you here today, after you’ve spent so much time at Grimmauld Place.”

“Well, yeah… I was a bit.”

“But I think you and I both know why you’re here, Erin.”

She looked down; she didn’t want Sirius to get in trouble for telling her that she might be related to Lily Evans…Potter.

“That’s quite alright that Sirius told you, I trust if he hadn’t you wouldn’t have gotten quite as comfortable… I do hope you’ve enjoyed your time at Grimmauld place.”

“Oh, yes, I have” she smiled.

“ Good…well, now I think it’s best if we get down to business; Sirius told you that you might be related to Lilly Potter, nee Evans, as of now I can neither confirm nor deny this, I, myself believe you are, but it can only be tested, and as of now Harry Potter mustn’t know of this, if we were to test you Harry would have to be of knowledge of the situation at hand, an…”

Just then Dumbledore had stopped talking, stopped talking because a head had popped into the fire of the fire place that was off to their left, Erin couldn’t see who this head was, but she thought this must be how Sirius looked when he talked to Harry from the fire.

“Erin, if you would wait in the other room for just a moment” said Dumbledore, pointing to the door she had walked into the room through, she didn’t want to tell him that the only thing on the other side of that door was an ally-way, he was Dumbledore after all, so she got up and walked over to the door, she pulled it open to see not the ally at all, but another room, this room had a kitchen, and more of that red furniture, she shut the door behind her and took a seat on the couch, waiting…and waiting.

She wondered how long Dumbledore would be talking to whoever was in the fire. It was getting close to dinner time now, she wanted to be back at number twelve, Grimmauld Place by dinner, so she could cook for Sirius, and so he didn’t have to eat alone, but Dumbledore did say there would be other Order members there… maybe one of them would cook for Sirius. Soon it was well past dinner but finally Dumbledore came from the room.

“I’m sorry for the wait, and I’m afraid you must wait a bit more, there is somewhere I have to be as of now, I trust you’ll find everything you’ll need until my return, I daresay it might be awhile.”

Erin nodded, not fully understanding what was happening, but as Dumbledore pulled open the door he had just came from the office…but it wasn’t the office anymore, it was the ally-way. She stood there quite dumbfounded as she watched Dumbledore leave. And so she was alone...alone in a house…or maybe it wasn’t a house, all she knew is that this place was freaky, she wondered if she walked over to the door and opened it if she would find the ally-way or the office again, she walked over, slowly, as if trying to plan a sneak attack, she yanked the door open to see the office, she sighed and closed the door again, only to pull it open again quick, she thought for sure it would be the ally-way this time, but yet again it was the office she walked through the door and over to the gold desk, the bird that had once been snoozing on the perch was gone now too, that was funny because she didn’t see Dumbledore leave with the bird. But then she thought Dumbledore was a wizard, a really good one, he could probably shrink the bird and put it in his pocket or something like that.

She sunk into the desk’s chair and looked around at the desk, there was a bunch of parchment and a quill sitting on the desk, among other things, Erin had no idea what they were. She then thought that maybe she would draw; Dumbledore did leave her there all alone, he wouldn’t be mad if she used some parchment and his quill to draw, of course he wouldn’t. And so she spent the next two hours drawing, she thought for sure Dumbledore would be back any moment, not only had he been gone forever but she really…really wanted to get back to Grimmauld Place, she was starting to get tired and as soon as she could get back to her lumpy bed the better. But more hours past and he still didn’t come back… and then more hours. Erin didn’t know what time it was but she had fallen asleep on the red, satin couch.

What felt like five minutes, was really more like two or three hours, Erin awoke, to see sunshine pouring into the room, she got up and staggered into the office, she was sure Dumbledore had to be back by now, it had been the whole night that he was gone, but once she saw the office was as empty as the living room area she felt slightly worried… no, that was a lie, she felt very worried, had he forgotten? Maybe something happen on the way to wherever he was going… maybe his plan was to lock her in a room and office forever and never let her out again. She sighed and fell on to the couch, she much rather be locked up at Grimmauld Place forever, even though this place was really nice and Grimmalud Place was really old, she would still have Sirius there. Suddenly she heard a bang, and even more suddenly another door appeared, and within a few seconds Dumbledore walked through it, looking tired. But even so he smiled over at Erin.

“I am very sorry for the wait” he said, like it had been only five minutes, not hours on end. “If you’d like to return to my office I’ll explain.”

She nodded and fallowed him into the office once more, she took the seat she sat in hours ago and he sat behind his desk again.

“When can I go back to Grimmauld Place?” she asked, she was feeling much too tired to talk about her relation to Lily.

“Oh, I’m afraid you won’t be returning to Grimmauld Place” said Dumbledore.

“Wha...what?” she gasped, she had to go back. “But, what about Sirius?”

“It pains me to be the one to tell you this, but as it is I must….. Sirius is no longer at Grimmauld Place.”

“What?” she gasped again. “Where is he now? Are we going to be living somewhere else?”

“Yes, you will be going to the Burrow… the home of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley” said Dumbledore.

“But what about Sirius? He’s coming too, right?”

“No, Erin, he will not be coming with you.”

“But why not?” she asked, getting upset now. “I won’t go unless he come’s too.”

“Sirius cannot come with you… because he’s dead.”

Erin blinked at this, what did he say? No, she must have heard him wrong.

“What?”

“Last night six very brave Hogwarts students, including; Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, went to the Ministry of Magic under false presences put in play by Lord Voldemort, Harry thought that Voldemort had Sirius and was torturing him, but this was untrue for he was safe at home with four other Order of the Phoenix members; Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Alastor Moody and Kingsley Shackleblot. When they got word of this they all rushed into action, Sirius was told he could not come, that he would have to stay behind and wait for you and I to arrive, but he did not…. And so he went to the Ministry where he fought bravely, but was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in the Death Chamber, Level Nine.”

Once again Erin blinked, this all sounded crazy, like some kind of messed up dream, this wasn’t real…it couldn’t be real, but it all felt real, the tears that were now burning her eyes felt real.

“His...his own cousin?” she blurted out, how could Sirius have been killed by someone who shared his blood? They were family and family didn’t kill family.

“Family to some is different than to others, to Sirius Bellatrix was no family of his, and Bellatrix surely felt the same” Said Dumbledore.

“But no, no...he can’t be…no, maybe he was faking” she said, she couldn’t believe it, it couldn’t be true, not Sirius, he had such an awful life so far, it couldn’t be over before he got to be a free man, his life couldn’t end without the public finding out that he wasn’t a killer at all, that he was really a cool guy who cared about his friends too much.

“There was no way in faking, I’m sorry” said Dumbledore, somehow sorry didn’t really seem to cut it, yet she still refused to believe it, she wouldn’t let herself cry, if she cried then it would be true, he would really be gone, and that just couldn’t happen. “Remus Lupin shall be here at any moment to take you to the Burrow… I would do it myself but I have many things to take care of.”

“Yeah...yeah ok..” she trailed off, but she didn’t know what she was agreeing to, for she hadn’t been listening, just trying to remind herself that it wasn’t true because it couldn’t be true, Sirius was not dead, it couldn’t be possible. “Wait...you said there was others…is everyone alright…Harry…the Weasleys, Hermione...”

“Yes, everyone is fine, Nymphadora Tonks was taken to St. Mungo’s, but after a few days she should be back to herself.”

Erin nodded, she felt the hot sting of tears again, but she wouldn’t cry, because it wasn’t true, it couldn’t be true, she didn’t think she could bear it if was, she couldn’t bear the thought of living somewhere other than Grimmauld place and she couldn’t bear the thought of living without Sirius Black.