Amie and the Army (Harry Potter fan-fic) Book 5 COMPLETED

The mural

Amie'd been staying at Grimauld Place for a couple of weeks. The first night she supposedly was told what was going on with Voldemort. Except, the adults didn't actually tell her anything. They said that they'd started up an old rebellion group founded by Dumbledore during the first wizarding war, the Order of the Phoenix, and that this house was the headquarters. Apparently, it was also Sirius childhood home. Amie knew he was from a family of Slytherins, and that he hated them all. They'd had some talks about how he wanted to get out of the house and do something, and Amie sympathized with him.
"I imagine you and Harry have similar lives at the moment," she'd told him.

Living at Headquarters was both good and bad. Amie loved being back with her friends and boyfriend, but she couldn't help worrying over Harry. Amie and the others had gotten the instructions to not tell him anything of importance in their letters to him.
"It must be driving him crazy," Hermione said one afternoon.
"He's going to be so mad," Amie agreed.

Meanwhile, they were trying to make Grimauld Place habitable again. The house had been empty for quite a few years, except for the useless house-elf Kreacher, who belonged to the Black family. He only reluctantly obeyed Sirius' orders - his Mistress, who he still loved dearly, was the departed Mrs. Black, Sirius' horrifying mum, who occupied the screeching portrait in the hallway, that only Sirius seemed to be able to control. It was a custum to not speak around her area - no one wanted to hear her deranged shrieks about mudbloods and scum. Amie couldn't bring herself to like Kreacher - he'd simply grown too strange during his lonely years. But according to Sirius, he'd always been like he was now. At least Amie tried to act civil towards him, until the point when he muttered obsceneties about them. Then her temper would flare, and she'd throw him out of the room. Amie's favorite room in the house was Sirius least favorite, it seemed. It was the drawing room, and it had an ornate mural covering the wall. The mural was the Black family tree, and it went back to the middle ages. Amie, who liked history, spent many hours in the room, watching the mural. She'd found out that Sirius was related to the Weasley's, the Crabbe's, the Bulstrode's, the Malfoy's and many more. But what interested her the most, was another branch of the tree. Sirius great grandfather, Cygnus Black, had a sister named Belvina Black, who married a Herbert Burke. The couple had two sons, and one daughter. One of Belvina's sons had two sons and two daughters. One of the those two daughters were burnt off from the mural, like Sirius, and her name was Delia. Was it possible that her grandmother's maiden name was Burke? If it was, that meant Amie was related to Sirius, Tonks, Draco maybe Neville and probably Harry too. If Amie was related to Belvina Black, that would mean that she'd dated her fourth cousin!

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"Sirius?"
Amie was going to question him about the mural. Her grandmother hadn't given her much information to go by, but perhaps Sirius knew.
"Amie?"
Sirius was sitting in the kitchen, reading the Daily Prophet.
"I was wondering if you could come with me to the mural?"
Sirius looked up at her and frowned.
"Why are you so interested in it?" he asked.
"Please, Siri, just come," Amie pleaded, using her puppy-eyes. Sirius sighed and chuckled before following her to the drawing room.
"Now, are you going to tell me why you're so interested in my family tree?" Sirius asked as they walked in, shooed out Kreacher and stood in front of the mural.
"Because I think I'm missing from it," Amie breathed out.

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After Amie's announcement, Sirius was quiet for quite a while. Amie was wondering if she should say anything, when he finally spoke up.
"I thought you were Muggle-born?" he said.
"I am," Amie nodded. "It's just, my grandmother was a Squib. Haven't I told you?"
"I don't think so," Sirius said. "If you did, it's slipped my mind,"
"So, you see, I could belong to your family, really," Amie said.
"All wizard families are related, so yes," Sirius agreed. "Where do you think you are?"
"Here, you see? Belvina Black and Herbert Burke had three children. Leo, Delphinus and Lyra. Leo had four children; Christopher, John, Josephine and Delia. And see, she's been burned off - my grandmother was a Squib, and she married a Muggle! And see who Leo's wife is? Cassandra Vablatsky, famous Seer and author of our Divinations book for school! I don't know much about my grandmother, but I know she had brothers and a sister, her mother was a Seer, and she was from a family who valued purity of blood!"
Sirius was quiet again. Amie's arguments were logical.
"I think you're right," he said. "What would that make us?"
"Well, since you're a descendant of Cygnus - and Sirius, I suppose, because both your parents were of the Black family - they were Belvina's brothers, that would make us... I don't know what it's called, but you're my mother's third cousin, I think."
"So we're third cousins once removed." Sirius concluded. "I'm going to see if there's any evidence among my mother's things, but I think you're right. Welcome to the family, Ames!"
They hugged each other, and then Amie took a step back.
"Sirius?"
"Yes?"
"If all magical families are related..."
"George?" Sirius guessed.
"Well, yeah," Amie sheepishly nodded.
"He's also missing," Sirius confessed. "Cedrella Black married Septimus Weasley and was burnt off. They are Arthur's parents,"
"So Mr. Weasley is my grandmother's second cousin? And George is my mother's third cousin? He's my third cousin once removed too?"
"If we're right about you being related to us, yes, that would be the family relation,"
"And suddenly, I don't know if I want to be right or not," Amie said jokingly.
"Amie, you have to go back to Phineas Nigellus to find a common ancestor, it doesn't matter. Actually, it was the same for my parents, but they were second cousins, it's a different thing," Sirius finished with a mumble.
"Gee, thanks, Sirius," Amie snorted. "I'm going to go find George, you find out if we are related,"

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Honestly, Amie didn't care if she was related to George - it was such a distant relation that it didn't matter. She'd seen the name Prewett on the mural too, and figured out (because she knew it was Mrs. Weasley's maiden name) that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were probably third cousins once removed too. Amie didn't tell anyone about what she'd found out until the next day. Sirius had found his mother's private recollection of the family tree. In it Sirius found the names Delia and Greg Crockney, and Anne Jones. Amie wasn't there, but Sirius mother died before she was born, so that was to be expected. Sirius was surprised that his mother had kept such a close tab on her relatives. It was obvious from the mural what she thought about Squibs, Muggle-borns, Muggles and blood traitors. Amie's guess was that Mrs. Black liked being in control and knowing things, and that was why she'd kept records of even Amie's own very Muggle family. 

Amie and Sirius told everyone during dinner, and the reactions were happy. Tonks and the Weasley's were there, and Amie were hugged by them all. The first time Nynphadora Tonks and Amie met, and Tonks introduced herself, Amie did a double take. She realized Tonks' name was on her list from Death. It turned out that Tonks was Sirius' cousin's daughter, and as Amie acted as if she didn't know that this young witch was to die in a few years, they became friends as they got to know each other. Tonks had a great sense of humor, she was an Auror, and she was a metamorphmagus, like Amie. Amie wondered what Draco would think if he knew about which family tree she was on - being related to the Black family was status in the wizarding world, although Amie wondered how much it would've mattered to the Malfoys. She was more Muggle-born than anything else, really.
"Welcome to the family," George, the last person to reach Amie, said. 
Amie spun around and smiled at him.
"We're related, George," Amie laughed.
"Just barely," George said with a fake stern face, and Amie sobered to look fake serious. Then they both laughed together. 

At that moment Dumbledore walked in.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Amie, and several others exclaimed together.
Professor Dumbledore looked as if he was holding in his anger.
"Miss Jones, Miss Granger, Miss and Misters Weasley, would you please go upstairs to your rooms?"
"Oh, no, did I miss something?" Amie groaned. Her intuition told her that the order meeting that would take place had to do with Harry.
"Miss Jones," Dumbledore repeated, and Amie reluctantly followed her friends from the kitchen. They didn't go to their rooms though - they stayed in the staircase above the closed kitchen door. Fred and George fetched their own invention - Expandable Ears. With them, they eavesdropped on the grown-up's conversation.

Dumbledore was talking.
"Mundungus left his position.... There were Dementors... Harry used magic... Expelled... Hearing..."
Amie and the others didn't hear everything that was said, but it was enough to get the picture. Harry'd used the Patronus Charm and been expelled from Hogwarts. Dumbledore'd managed to get Harry a hearing instead. 
"This is not good," Amie whispered. "Why were there Dementors in Little Whinging?"
"Do you think You-Know-Who's gotten control over them?" Ron asked, wide-eyed.
"It's possible," Hermione said. "But it sounds very suspicious,"
"The Ministry's certainly using it to their advantage... Expelling Harry, when he was defending himself!" Ginny said.
"He got off easy third year when he blew up his aunt - Fudge and the Ministry were on his side then," George said.
"I really hope they will listen to him at the hearing... Think of the consequences if Harry doesn't have a magical education..." Amie said.

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Took about two weeks to get this done, and it's still so short! Clearly, I'm not out of the writer's block yet... I hope it was good, but I really can't tell. Please tell me if there's any mistakes (especially in the family relations, I'm not English, so I'm not sure I wrote it right)

Comment, vote, fan, bye! :)