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CHAPTER SIX

The next evening, all of the children staying at 12 Grimmauld Place were sitting on the staircase leading to the first floor, greeting the members of the Order of the Phoenix as they slowly arrived to Headquarters for the meeting. This meeting would be the first one occurring since the arrival of the Weasley and Wood children and Hermione, and because of that, it seemed to be a bit more hectic than previous ones. The children were adamant on staying to listen in on the meeting, and their parents had been desperately trying to get them to go to their rooms or at least a different part of the house so they weren't in earshot.

Most of the Order members attending the meeting had already arrived. Two of those members were Nymphadora Tonks, who had been in the same year at Hogwarts as Charlie, and Alastor Moody, who was supposed to have been teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts the previous school year but was impersonated by Azkaban escapee Bartemius Crouch Junior.

The door opened and someone Arabella had not seen for a few years entered.

"Professor?" the children that knew him asked, all surprised to see him.

Their voices startled him, but he gave them all a kind smile nonetheless. "Oh, hello," Remus Lupin greeted them.

"Are you in the Order, Professor?" Fraser asked him. "That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"Yes, I am. Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that none of you are supposed to be sitting there right now." His expression wasn't stern unlike the other adults but instead he had a playful grin on his face.

"That depends," Arabella said. "Are you going to tell our parents?"

"Tell your parents what?" He winked at them. "I'll see you later." And with that, he entered the kitchen where the meeting would be taking place.

"I miss him teaching us. I wish he'd come back."

"He used to teach at Hogwarts?" Duncan asked. Since he was only a second year, he hadn't been around when Lupin was teaching.

"No, we just called him Professor to confuse him," Fraser responded sarcastically. "Yes, he taught at Hogwarts. My first year. He was brilliant. Dumbledore's going to have a hard time finding someone better than him."

"Why'd he leave?"

"'Cause he's a werewolf."

Duncan's jaw dropped open in shock. The others around him sat nervously waiting for his reaction, hoping that it wouldn't be negative as they all really liked Lupin.

"What? R-Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Awesome!"

The others laughed at this, knowing that many people would not think being in the presence of a werewolf was awesome.

For the next few moments, Olivia, Oliver, Ben, and Fraser discussed the older boys joining the Order, but their conversation was cut short by the door opening once more. The person that entered was also a Hogwarts professor, but one that was much less liked, especially by those gathered on the stairs.

"Hello, Professor," Faustus said awkwardly. For a moment, Arabella questioned why in the world someone would greet the man, but then remembered that Faustus was in Slytherin House.