The Lion, The Wolf and The Phoenix ~ Harry Potter

Chapter Six | Ron and Hermione

Grimmauld Place looked no better on the inside. The walls had strips of dirty wallpaper hanging off of them, accompanied by large portraits, which were each covered by a set of moth-eaten black curtains. An almost sweet smell of rot hit Ariana's nose when she entered the house, making sure to avoid touching anything, as she and Harry had been told to do. The request made the white-haired witch curious as to what would happen if she did disturb anything but it wasn't enough to actually do it; for all she knew, her head would be sliced clean off if she did.

The others filed into a dimly-lit room at the end of the entrance hall, and Ariana saw Remus take a seat at a long wooden table beside Sirius, who looked much more groomed than he did the last time she had seen him, then smile at her. As if instinctive, she returned the smile, but it seemed to hurt to do so. Her Patronus was a massive issue; was she going to tell anyone? Surely, the longer she kept it a secret, the worse the shock would be when it was discovered. Truthfully, the witch didn't even want to think about the problems, not for a long time.

Both Ariana and Harry made to go into the room but Mrs. Weasley appeared, closing the door behind her. She smiled broadly, creases forming beside her eyes as she did, then pulled the two wizards into a loving, bone-crushing hug. For the first time in a long time, Ariana felt a wave of peace wash over her as the woman embraced her like a mother; she hadn't any memories of her own mum doing the same thing.

"Harry, Ariana," she gasped, now holding the pair at arms-length, her eyes narrowing to examine the teenagers critically. "Heavens, you're both all right. Bit peaky, but I'm afraid dinner will wait until after the meeting's finished." Ariana opened her mouth to interject but she was not allowed to get a word in edgeways. "Nope. No time to explain. Straight upstairs, first door on the left. Yeah."

Harry shrugged when Ariana shot him a questioning look, so they hesitantly walked up the rickety-looking staircase. The wooden planks creaked beneath their feet as if they were going to break at any moment, which definitely made Ariana very aware of the condition of the house. She knew it had to be safe to live in, why else would it be being used as headquarters for... in fact, she didn't know exactly who it was hosting.

The witch gripped the brass doorknob of a scruffy door and hesitated; was she ready to face the people on the other side? She was so incredibly pissed, confused and ready to explode at any point... she didn't want to vent her anger at her friends, but at this point, her feelings had almost steamrolled her self-control.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked, frowning in concern.

"Hmm?" Ariana hummed, pulling away from the consuming thoughts in her head, "oh, yeah." As soon as the white-haired witch opened the door, her vision was completely blinded by a head of bushy brunette hair.

"ARIANA! HARRY!" Hermione yelled at the top of her lungs, knocking Ariana and Harry flat as she barreled into their arms.

"Hi, Hermione," Ariana groaned, trying to breathe through Hermione's hair. For a mere second, the anger melted away, and the witch was just happy to be with her family again, but it ebbed back as the trio got up off of the floor.

"Ron, they're here, they're here! We didn't hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless - but we couldn't tell either of you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've both got things to tell us - the dementors and the Death Eaters! When we heard - and the Ministry hearings - it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't either of expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations -"