Purple Rain.

Chapter Six.

"(Y/n), go and wash up for... dinner..." Molly trailed off as she looked at the neat piles of clutter. Deciding against questions, she shook her head and continued down the hallway, where Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Hermione were still conversing. After washing her hands, (Y/n) hummed as she went downstairs. She abruptly bumped into Hermione, who was waiting on the stairs. Hermione gave a gasp of surprise.

"What're they saying, (Y/n)?" she whispered. 

"Snape's—"

"Dammit!" Fred cursed from two flights up, hoisting the Extendable Ear back up. The front door opened and closed.

"Snape never eats here," Ron quietly told them. (Y/n) couldn't at all see with the lack of lighting. "Thank God. C'mon."

"And don't forget to keep your voice down in the hall, Harry," Hermione whispered.
As they passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall, they saw Remus, Molly, and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing its many locks and bolts behind those who had just left.

"We're eating down in the kitchen," Molly whispered, meeting them at the bottom of the stairs. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall, it's through this door here—"
CRASH.
"Tonks!" cried Molly exasperatedly, turning to look behind her.

"I'm sorry!" wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second them I've tripped over—"
But the rest of their words were drowned by a horrible, earsplitting, bloodcurdling screech.
The moth-eaten velvet curtains they had passed earlier had flown apart, but there was no door behind them. An old woman in a black cap was screaming and screaming as though she was being tortured. It was a portrait, but a little too realistic and unpleasant in (Y/n)'s opinion.
Hermione had covered (Y/n)'s ears for her, wearing a grimace. (Y/n), in turn, took Hermione's hand and placed a kiss on her palm. Hermione, torn between being confused and beaming, gave (Y/n) a very odd stare.

The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face stretched taut as she screamed, and all along behind them, the other portraits awoke and began to yell too, so that several peoples' faces scrunched up and clapped their hands over their ears. Even with an extra set of hands, the sound (Y/n) was hearing was unbearable.
Remus and Molly 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—"

Tonks apologized over and over again, at the same time dragging the huge, heavy troll's leg back off the floor. Molly abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand. Then a man with long black hair came charging out of the door facing Harry.
"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" he roared, seizing the curtain Molly 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!" roared the man, and with a stupendous effort, he and Remus 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, Harry's godfather, Sirius, turned to face him.
"Hello, Harry," he said grimly. "I see you've met my mother."

"Your—?"

"My dear old mum, yeah," said Sirius. "We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Stick Charm on the back of the canvas. Let's get downstairs, quick, before they all wake up again."