Blood Bound | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [5]

𝗶𝘃 | 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀

Mrs Weasley kept them all working very hard over the next few days. The drawing room took a solid three days to completely decontaminate; the tapestry of the Black family tree took a lot longer than Gwen had expected, and, like the portrait of Mrs Black, refused to come down.

The cleaning honestly felt more like waging a war on a house that was desperate to be inhabitable; it was putting up a big fight against being cleaned, aided by Kreacher, whose muttering was becoming more and more offensive. Hermione still defended him at every turn, much to the annoyance of everyone else, but Kreacher's behaviour was so despicable that Sirius ended up throwing him from the room by the back of his loincloth, much to Hermione's protest.

The doorbell rang several times a day, which was the cue for Walburga Black to start shrieking again, which also meant that Gwen and the others had a rather hard time eavesdropping on the visitors before Mrs Weasley recalled them to their tasks. Snape flitted in and out of the house several times more, though he never came face to face with them. Gwen also caught sight of Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, who both looked very strange in the Muggle attire. Both, however, seemed too busy to linger to say hello.

Sometimes, however, the visitors did stay to help; Tonks joined them too for what was a memorable afternoon where they found a murderous old ghoul lurking in an upstairs toilet, and Remus, who was staying in Grimmauld Place with them, helped them repair a grandfather clock that had developed a habit of shooting bolts at passerby. Mundungus did redeem himself in Mrs Weasley's eyes when an ancient set of purple robes tried to strangle Ron to death, and Mundungus managed to save him.

Gwen was sleeping badly again, but she was having fun. She was fine when she was busy, but as soon as she relaxed, as soon as she had time for herself, all she could think about was everything that had happened. Cedric, Voldemort, her parents, Harry's hearing... the latter was only a few days away, and if Harry were expelled... She didn't want to think about that.

She expected Ron and Hermione were feeling the same way; Gwen often caught them whispering in lowered voices together. It made her feel kind of lonely; Harry was still not talking much about anything, which Gwen understood, but she felt very alone despite being in a house filled with people.

And so the day of Harry's hearing came, and he and Mr Weasley left at the crack of dawn, before Gwen and the others were awake. They went down to breakfast where only Remus, Sirius, and Mrs Weasley were sat around the table.

'What would you like for breakfast?' she said, as soon as Hermione, Ginny, and Gwen entered. 'Eggs? Bacon? Toast? Scones? Full English?'

'Just toast, please,' Gwen said.

The atmosphere was tense. No one mentioned Harry, but the subject hung in the air like a death warrant. None of them voiced it, but they were all thinking the worst. Breakfast passed by incredibly slowly, and then, with no more cleaning duties left, Gwen and the others were left to their own devices.