Raven (Fred x oc)

56. Potter Temper

"Black," Snape snapped, stepping into the kitchen. He had spotted where I was sitting at the table next to my father.

"Snape," I said, replicating his dry tone.

"Shall we begin?" Dumbledore asked. "As many of you noticed, we have a new member. Miss Black has joined our numbers and will be our primary eyes and ears within Hogwarts itself. Now, several of you have informed me of your reports. Please, each of you, summarize."

I listened with mild interest as most of the members reported who they had spoken to and the reactions they had gotten and so on. Finally, we had gotten to the interesting bit.

"Now, as we do have a new member, I need to explain the weapon," Dumbledore said. I sat up straighter. "We believe that there is something within the Ministry itself that Voldemort-" I flinched "-is after. As you may or may not know, the Department of Mysteries, among other things, holds a storage of prophecies."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"The memories of those who witnessed them," Dad explained. Earning a nod from Dumbledore, he explained, "One of those prophecies was about Harry and Voldemort." I looked away, trying to hide my flinch. "He believes that with it he can discover how to destroy Harry."

"So, what are we doing about it?" I asked, looking around at them all.

"We have guards posted at all hours of the day watching over it," Mr. Weasley explained. "We rotate it."

"However, it is very important that this information is kept from everyone," Dumbledore said pointedly. "Especially Harry." I nodded. Just as they had begun to go over guard duty for the following week, the group that had gone to rescue Harry appeared and quickly took their seats.

Now that everyone was present, Snape got to his feet.

"I have, as most of you know, successfully made contact with the Dark Lord," he said. Instantly, I felt the color drain from my face. "He now believes I am on his side. I appeared at the graveyard hours after and explained my delay. I believe he is beginning to trust me."

My eyes blazed as I stared at him. So many emotions swirled inside of me I wasn't entirely sure how I was feeling. Anger? Fear? I had no idea.

"He believes me loyal," Snape resumed, his large, beetle eyes glittering as they moved over everyone, lingering a moment too long on myself. "As of late, he has his followers focused on gathering more."

I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat was completely dry. No words would come out. The next moment, a tall figure appeared beside me. It was Khadija. Crouching down beside me although no one could see or hear her, she said, "You asked me to keep an eye on Harry. Um, he's screaming his head off right now."

I sighed. "What about?" I muttered, trying not to draw any attention to myself as Snape kept going on.

"He wants to know what Vo-" she broke off. "He-who-must-not-be-named is doing and Ron and Hermione can't tell him since they don't know so he just started shouting." I sighed again.

Leaning towards me, Dad asked, "What is it?"

"Harry," I muttered back. "Don't worry about it."

Dad nodded, going back to his relaxed position. Soon Snape finished and everyone stood up. Mrs. Weasley went to start dinner while the other members began congregating in the hallway, but I stayed down with Dad.

Facing him, I said, "He's not going to be happy, Dad. I'll bet you anything he's felt as cooped up as you this summer."

"I haven't-"

"Dad," I deadpanned. "You're forgetting. I can read you like a book. What do we even do?"

"He'll be fine," Dad said. "Right now we just need to get him through the trial." Before he could say more, the all-too-familiar blood-curdling scream of my dear grandmother started up.

"FILTH! SCUM! BY-PRODUCTS OF DIRT AND AND VILENESS! HALF-BREEDS, MUTANTS FREAKS, BEGONE FROM THIS PLACE! HOW DARE YOU BEFOUL THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!" she shrieked.

I ran after Dad to the portrait as he shouted, "Shut up, you horrible old hag! Shut up!"

"YOUUU!" she screamed, her eyes going from him to me. "Blood-traitor! WRETCHED CHILD! Abomination! Shame of my flesh!"

"I said SHUT UP!" Dad shouted, finally getting the curtain closed. Turning, he said, "Hello, Harry. I see you've met my mother."

"Your-" Harry began.

"Dear old Grandma," I said sarcastically. "We have a great relationship."

Turning to Sirius, Harry asked, "But what is a portrait of your mother doing here?"

"Hasn't anyone told you?" Dad asked. "This was my parents' house. But as Valerie and I are the only Blacks left, it's ours now." I sped ahead of them and went down to the kitchen, giving them some time to catch up.

As usual, the kitchen was complete havoc. Instead of listening to that, I went over to Bill to help put away some of the things from the meeting. As we were clearing up, Bill asked, "How'd you get your dad to let you into the Order? Last I heard he was adamantly against it."

I shrugged. "I just reminded him that I'm of age and it's not really dangerous yet. At least, not while I'm just at Hogwarts."

"That's true," Bill agreed. "Dumbledore's there." I nodded, handing the stack of papers I'd formed over to him. As dinner was being set out, I sat down by Dad and Bill and said so quietly they could barely hear me, "Why does Dumbledore think we can trust Snape?"

"Valerie," Bill sighed. "He has his reasons."

"I don't like him either," Dad said.

"No one does," Bill agreed. "No one that was taught by him anyway."

"Or went to school with him," Dad added.

Throughout dinner, I couldn't help but notice Dad and Remus shifting between giving each other worried glances and looking at me, but I shrugged it off, figuring it was just because I was apart of the Order now. After dinner was over, Mrs. Weasley got up with a yawn and said, "Nearly time for bed I think."

"Not yet, Molly," Dad replied, shifting his gaze to Harry.