Mass Collision

2. Dinner

"Would any of you like to stay for dinner? Tonks? Remus? Kingsley?" Molly asks the adults that I was introduced to earlier as the rest start to file out of the room or disappear into thin air. 

"I would love to, Molly," Remus smiles.

"Me, too," Tonks claps excitedly.

"That would be amazing, thank you," Kingsley agrees. Everyone starts standing up and walking out, a couple of them nod to me and I nod back. Do I know any of their names? No. Do I care? No.

"I will see you again when the school year begins, I hope to see you in Slytherin," Snape tells me. What the fuck is Slytherin?

I stand up and follow Molly out of the room to see the rest of the kids coming down the stairs, "Well, we'll be eating down in the kitchens," she whispers. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hall, it's through this door here —"

All of a sudden a crash can be heard throughout the hall, "Tonks!" Molly cries.

"I'm sorry!" wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over —" She's cut off by a throat clenching scream of a woman. Every clutches their ears as I look around for the source of the noise. I look over a see a portrait of a woman that is screaming. Molly and Remus run over to try and close the curtain as she spews some not-so-nice words. Welp, guess they have talking paintings here.

Tonks starts apologizing over and over again as Sirius runs over. "Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!"

"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 lot of effort, he and Remus managed to force the curtains closed again. The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence fell.

After a few seconds, Sirius was finally able to look at his godson. "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 Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas. Let's get downstairs, quick, before they all wake up again."

"But what's a portrait of your mother doing here?" Harry asked, bewildered, as they went through the door from the hall and led the way down a flight of narrow stone steps, the others just behind them. I let them all go first before I followed after.

"Hasn't anyone told you? This was my parents' house," said Sirius. "But I'm the last Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters — about the only useful thing I've been able to do." Just about anyone could detect how bitter Sirius sounded about being coped up. I would hate it if I wasn't allowed to leave one house forever. Heck, I didn't even stay at camp long. The place I've stayed at for the longest amount of time is the Lotus Casino. I shivered thinking about it. I'm never going back there.

Sirius lead us to the basement kitchen when Harry turned to me. "Hi," I wave awkwardly.

"Uh, I'm Harry-"

"Harry Potter. I know," I acknowledged. "I'm Natalia."

Harry brings his hand forward and I shake it. "Your accent, are you American?" he asks.

"No, I'm Italian, but I've lived in America for the past couple of years so I have a little bit of an accent," I explain. I can still bring out my Italian accent whenever I want and speak Italian all the time with my brother. Harry stares at me for a few seconds before I turn back to the front and we make it to the barely lit room.