The Other Black Book 5

Chapter 9 - Luna Lovegood

Aurora hardly slept. The pink toad was now hopping around at Hogwarts, barking orders at students. Her mother too, was there, running around, trying to find Aurora. She'd started awake, sometime around midnight, when her dream ended with an in a large brown-stoned building and black wrought-iron gates. Above the gates, in metal letters, read the words BEKKER STREET.

Aurora stared around in the darkness of her bedroom. She doubted she'd get much sleep, feeling almost wide awake after seeing Bekker Street exploding. She had no love lost for the building, but she had friends who lived there. Three witches and wizards lived in the orphanage. The oldest one, Rose, would be going into her third year at Hogwarts. Maggie and Ryan, twins, were going into their second.

Aurora tried to convince herself it was just a dream, even as she pulled on her clothes, but she'd yet to have a dream that didn't mean anything. She also knew of her skill in Divination. If that was now becoming dreams... Aurora shivered at the thought.

Aurora found herself staring out the window, looking at the empty Muggle street below, thinking of her Muggle parents back home in Privet Drive. She fell into a sort of waking sleep, staring out at the sky, undisturbed until Hermione and Ginny woke and found her like that.

As one might expect in a house overcrowded with people, all of whom are rushing around, there was a lot of commotion in the house. Aurora kept herself out of it, save letting Mrs. Weasley know she was awake and dressed, and instead remained in her room, making sure everything was packed.

From what Aurora could hear in her room, she gathered that Fred and George had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs to save the bother of carrying them, with the result that they had hurtled straight into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs into the hall; Mrs. Black and Mrs. Weasley were both screaming at the top of their voices.

"— COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS —"

"— FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS —"

Aurora started getting herself to her feet, gathering her belongings, and went downstairs as Mrs. Weasley hollered, "WILL YOU LOT GET DOWN HERE NOW, PLEASE!"

Mrs. Black's portrait was howling with rage but nobody was bothering to close the curtains over her; all the noise in the hall was bound to rouse her again anyway.

"Harry and Aurora, you're to come with me and Tonks," shouted Mrs. Weasley over the repeated screeches of "MUDBLOODS! SCUM! CREATURES OF DIRT!" "Leave your trunk and your owl, Alastor's going to deal with the luggage. . . . Oh, for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!"

A bearlike black dog had appeared at Harry and Aurora's side as Harry and Aurora clambered over the various trunks cluttering the hall to get to Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh honestly . . ." said Mrs. Weasley despairingly, "well, on your own head be it!"

She wrenched open the front door and stepped out into the weak September sunlight. Harry, Aurora, and the dog followed her. The door slammed behind them and Mrs. Black's screeches were cut off instantly.

"Where's Tonks?" Harry said, looking around as they went down the stone steps of number twelve, which vanished the moment they reached the pavement.

"She's waiting for us just up here," said Mrs. Weasley stiffly, averting her eyes from the lolloping black dog beside Harry.

An old woman greeted them on the corner. She had tightly curled gray hair and wore a purple hat shaped like a porkpie.

"Wotcher, Harry," she said, winking. "Better hurry up, hadn't we, Molly?" she added, checking her watch.