CRASH
"Tonks!" cried Mrs. Weasley exasperatedly, turning to look at her.
"I'm sorry!" wailed Tonks, who was lying flat on the floor. "It's that stupid umbrella stand, that's the second time I've tripped over-"
Estella groaned as the voice of her mother's mom, Estella's grandmother, began screaming and screaming as though she was being tortured.
"What is this?" asked Harry as his face contorted and his hands clapped over his ears.
"That's my grandmother," said Estella as Lupin and Mrs. Weasley darted forward and tried to tug the curtains shut over the old woman, but they would not close, and she screeched louder than ever.
"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"
Tonks apologized over and over again, at the same time as Mrs. Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand.
"Shut up, you horrible old had, shut UP!" Siris roared, seizing the curtain Mrs. Weasley had abandoned.
The old woman's face blanched.
"Yooou!" she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of him. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"
"He said-shut-up!" snapped Aspen as he and Lupin managed to force the curtain closed again.
The old woman's screeches died, and an echoing silence fell.
Panting slightly and sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes, Sirius turned to face Harry.
"Hello, Harry," he said grimly, "I see you've met my mother. This was my parent's house," he added. "But I'm the last Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters-about the only useful thing I've been able to do."
Sirius's voice was hard and bitter; anyone could feel the frustration and dejection in his voice.
"What took you so long?" asked Mrs. Weasley as she sat down next to Mr. Weasley.
"Oh, I-I," Harry stuttered, his eyes glancing toward a smirking Estella, who turned and looked at a smiling Hermione. "I was putting away my bag; we didn't miss anything, did we?"
"No, not at all!" smiled Mrs. Weasley.
"Journey all right, Harry?" Bill called, trying to gather up twelve scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"
Bill wore his long hair in a ponytail; he was about the only Weasley who could truly pull off long hair and look good, in Estella's opinion. He sat, hastily rolling up lengths of parchment left on the table.
"He tried," said Tonks, striding over to help Bill and immediately sending a candle toppling over the last piece of parchment. "Oh, no-sorry-"
"Here, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, sounding exasperated, and she repaired the parchment with a wave of her wand: In the flash of light caused by Mrs. Weasley's charm, Estella caught a glimpse of what looked like the plan of a building. That must've been the building they were protecting. In all of Estella's current dreams, she'd seen glowing orbs that she assumed were prophecies, but what they were about, Estella didn't know.
Mrs. Weasley saw them looking. She snatched the plan off the table and stuffed it into Bill's heavily laden arms.
"This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings," she snapped before sweeping off toward an ancient dresser from which she started unloading dinner plates.
YOU ARE READING
Future Nostalgia / Harry Potter Fanfic
Fanfiction"He'd do it again if it meant she got the chance to live." "He looked at her, actually looked at her, and wondered how anyone who saw her, didn't fall in love with her." "A trade was to be made." "Friendship was going to be the only way to get throu...
