The Other Black Book 5

Chapter 4 - Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

"What's the Order of the — ?" Harry began.

"Not here, boy!" snarled Moody. "Wait till we're inside!"

He pulled the piece of parchment out of Harry's hand and set fire to it with his wand tip. As the message curled into flames and floated to the ground, Aurora looked around at the houses again. They were standing outside number eleven; she looked to the left and saw number ten; to the right, however, was number thirteen.

"But where's — ?"

"Think about what you've just memorized," said Lupin quietly.

Aurora thought, and no sooner had she reached the part about number twelve, Grimmauld Place, than a battered door emerged out of nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen, followed swiftly by dirty walls and grimy windows. It was as though an extra house had inflated, pushing those on either side out of its way. Aurora gaped at it. The stereo in number eleven thudded on. Apparently the Muggles inside hadn't even felt anything.

"Come on, hurry," growled Moody, prodding Harry in the back. Aurora had already started.

Aurora walked up the worn stone steps, staring at the newly materialized door. Its black paint was shabby and scratched. The silver door knocker was in the form of a twisted serpent. There was no keyhole or letterbox.

Lupin pulled out his wand and tapped the door once. Aurora heard many loud, metallic clicks and what sounded like the clatter of a chain. The door creaked open.

"Get in quick, you two," Lupin whispered. "But don't go far inside and don't touch anything."

Aurora stepped over the threshold into the almost total darkness of the hall. She could smell damp, dust, and a sweetish, rotting smell; the place had the feeling of a derelict building. She looked over her shoulder and saw the others filing in behind her, Lupin and Tonks carrying hers and Harry's trunks and Hedwig's and Cooper's cages. Moody was standing on the top step and releasing the balls of light the Put-Outer had stolen from the streetlamps; they flew back to their bulbs and the square beyond glowed momentarily with orange light before Moody limped inside and closed the front door, so that the darkness in the hall became complete. "Here —"

Harry appeared beside Aurora, and a second later Moody rapped Aurora hard over the head with his wand; Aurora felt as though something hot was trickling down her back this time and knew that the Disillusionment Charm must have lifted.

"Now stay still, everyone, while I give us a bit of light in here," Moody whispered.

The others' hushed voices were giving Aurora an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person. She heard a soft hissing noise and then old-fashioned gas lamps sputtered into life all along the walls, casting a flickering insubstantial light over the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet of a long, gloomy hallway, where a cobwebby chandelier glimmered overhead and age-blackened portraits hung crooked on the walls. Aurora heard something scuttling behind the baseboard. Both the chandelier and the candelabra on a rickety table nearby were shaped like serpents.

There were hurried footsteps and Ron's mother, Mrs. Weasley, emerged from a door at the far end of the hall. She was beaming in welcome as she hurried toward them, though Harry noticed that she was rather thinner and paler than she had been last time he had seen her.

"Oh, Harry, it's lovely to see you!" she whispered, pulling him into a rib-cracking hug before holding him at arm's length and examining him critically. "You're looking peaky; you need feeding up, but you'll have to wait a bit for dinner, I'm afraid. . . ."

She turned to the gang of wizards behind him and whispered urgently, "He's just arrived, the meeting's started. . . ."

The wizards behind Harry and Aurora all made noises of interest and excitement and began filing past them toward the door through which Mrs. Weasley had just come; Harry and Aurora made to follow Lupin, but Mrs. Weasley held them back.