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𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 was very different to the Burrow. That was the only thought Marina Weasley had as she entered the headquarters beside her mother, who she hadn't seen in a few weeks.

Why? Well, because for the last three weeks, Marina and Pavarti went to Cornwall (a boring Muggle town) to spend some time with Lavender. And Marina had a ton of fun. The three had gone swimming in lakes, hiking on trails, and even went to a Muggle movie theater.

"I've missed you dearie, it's not the same without you by my side." Molly smiled as she hugged Marina.

"Oh mummy your making me go red." Marina teased.

Molly laughed. "Go put your trunk in your room."

As Marina placed her trunk onto her bed in her, Hermione, and Ginny's shared room, she then looked to the two girls. Hermione had looked quite different from last term. She was taller and her hair seemed to be less bushy. Ginny was more lanky but like usual, was wearing her hair in her signature ponytail.

"Marina!"

Hermione and Ginny ran over to the her and gave her a squeeze.

"You've gotten so much taller!" Hermione said. "Y'know Ronald has grown tall as well this summer."

"If Ronald's taller, then I'm married to Leonardo DiCaprio." sassed Marina.

"Don't be stupid sissy, your married to sweet little Harry." winked Ginny.

Marina rolled her eyes. "Oh not you too. I've had Lavender and Pavarti on my backs for the past few weeks about that bloke already."

"I don't care what you say. I've just started a Harrina Fan Club and I'm planning to ask them to join. Oh shoot — I gotta go. Told Fred I'd help him with his prank stuff." Ginny added as she ran out of them room.

Ron and his stupid owl, Pig came into the bedroom.

Ron smiled as he hugged his sister. "Marina! You didn't tell me you're here! Its been bloody weird without you around!"

"Awww ickle Ronniekins misses his sissy!" Marina said as she ruffled his hair. Making him quickly fix it as Hermione giggled.

Suddenly a tall raven haired lanky boy with the familiar color of green jem eyes entered the room.

Marina's stomach flipped as she tried to hide her blush.

Holy crap. Control yourself Marina, it's Potter! He's disgusting no matter how sharp his gorgeous jawline is...

Hermione then practically jumped onto Harry with a hug.

"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's 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 you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't, oh, we've got so much to tell you, and you've got to tell us – the dementors! When we heard – and that Ministry hearing – it's just outrageous, I've looked it all up, they can't expel you, they just can't, there's provision in the Decree for the Restriction of Under- age Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations –"

"Let him breathe, Hermione," said Ron, grinning, closing the door behind Harry.

Hermione, still beaming, let go of Harry.

"Potter." Marina spat.

Harry looked to her with a smile. "Marina."

"Still a clumsy bloke aren't you?" chuckled Marina.

"A bit." Harry smiled.

"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" Harry asked, still trying hard to keep his voice casual. "Did you – er – bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," said Ron. "We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted –"

"Basically good old Dumbledore told everyone to shut up about it. It was so pathetic! You should be able to know about it." Marina spat.

"He could still've kept me informed if he'd wanted to," Harry said shortly. "You're not telling me he doesn't know ways to send messages without owls."

Hermione glanced at Ron and then said, "I thought that too. But he didn't want you to know anything."

"Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted," said Harry, watching their expressions.

Marina rolled her eyes. "Harold, your the kid who he literally gave the goddamn house cup to three years ago."

"Don't be thick," said Ron, looking highly disconcerted.

"Or that I can't take care of myself –" Harry started.

"Of course he doesn't think that!" said Hermione anxiously, Marina rubbed her shoulder kindly.

"So how come I have to stay at the Dursleys' while you all get to join in everything that's going on here?" said Harry, the words tumbling over one another in a rush, his voice growing louder with every word. "How come you three are allowed to know everything that's going on –?"

"We're not!" Marina shouted.

"Mum won't let us near the meetings, she says we're too young –" Ron added.

"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU THREE'VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT – WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

"WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"

Ron was standing there with his mouth half-open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, while Hermione looked on the verge of tears.

Marina honestly knew what Harry was feeling, nobody told her what happened when her parents died. And why the left her, she had do go through it all alone. And the best thing to do is just let it all out.

"BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPP- ENING?"

"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did –" Hermione began.

"CAN' T'VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR –"

"Well, he did –"

"FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN GODDAMN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON –"

"We wanted to –"

"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER –"

"No, honest –"

"Harry, we're really sorry!" said Hermione desperately, her eyes now sparkling with tears. "You're absolutely right, Harry – I'd be furious if it was me!"

"What is this place anyway?" Harry spat, Marina had never seen Harold this angry before.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," said Ron at once.

"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix –?"

"It's some secret society," said Marina. "Dumbledore's in charge, of course, he founded it. It's the people who fought against Voldy last time."

"Who's in it?" said Harry, coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets.

"Quite a few people –" Hermione replied.

"– we've met about twenty of them," said Ron, "but we think there are more..."

Harry glared at them.

"Well?" he demanded, looking from one to the other.

"Er," said Ron. "Well what?"

"Voldemort!" said Harry furiously. "What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings," said Hermione nervously. "So we don't know the details – but we've got a general idea –" she added hastily, seeing the look on Harry's face.

"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," said Ron. "They're really useful."

"Extendable –?"

"Ears, yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know –" Marina told him.

"– some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order –" said Hermione.

"– and some of them are standing guard over something," said Ron. "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry sarcastically.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension.

"So what have you all been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings?" he demanded. "You said you'd been busy."

"We have," said Hermione quickly. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms, and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo – AARGH!"

With two loud cracks, Fred and George, had materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room.

Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.

"God you I'm gonna frickin push you two off an iceberg the next time you do that!" Marina groaned.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slightly shorter.

"Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

"You two passed your Apparation tests, then?" asked Harry grumpily.

"With distinction," said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-colored string.

"It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," said Ron.

"Too much brain power for these blonkers." Marina sassed.

"Time is Galleons, little brother, and kindness doesn't cost anything She-Devil," said Fred. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears," he added in response to Harry's raised eyebrows, holding up the string, which Harry now saw was trailing out onto the landing. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You want to be careful," said Ron, staring at the ear. "If Mum sees one of them again..."

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," said Fred. The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.

"Oh hey losers." said Ginny, brightly. "It's no go with the Extendable Ears, she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" said George, looking crestfallen.

"You just chuck stuff at the door and if it can't make contact the door's been Imperturbed. There's no way the Extendable Ears will be able to get under the gap." Marina explained.

Fred heaved a deep sigh. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape?" said Harry quickly. "Is he here?"

"Yeah," said George, carefully closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds; Fred and Ginny followed. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," said Fred idly.

"He's on our side now," said Hermione reprovingly.

"He's on our side now. Which means him verbally abusing us as our teacher is totally okay now!" mimicked Marina in a high pitched Hermione-like voice.

Ron snorted. "Doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us..."

"Bill doesn't like him either," said Ginny.

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt."

"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order," said Fred. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked, "there are compensations..."

"What d'you mean?"

"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" said George. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish –"

"– and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," smirked Marina. "But I bet they're just snogging each other."

"Marina!" Hermione scolded.

"Charlie's in the Order too," said George, "but he's still in Romania, Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked.

At these words all the Weasleys and Hermione exchanged darkly significant looks.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad," Ron told Harry in a tense voice.

"Why not?"

"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying," Fred said.

"It's been awful," said Ginny sadly.

"That little son of a bitch making his own mother cry." Marina spat.

"I think we're well shut of him," said George with an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face.

"What's happened?" Harry said.

"Percy and Dad had a row," said Fred. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts..."

"It was the first week back after term ended," said Ron. "We were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted."

"You're kidding?" said Harry.

"Yeah, we were all surprised," said George, "because Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain..."

"So how come they promoted him?"

"That's exactly what we wondered," said Ron, who seemed very keen to keep normal conversation going now that Harry had stopped yelling. "He came home really pleased with himself – even more pleased than usual if you can imagine that – and told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts – Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."

"Only Dad wasn't," said Fred grimly.

"Why not?" said Harry.

"Well, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore," said George.

"Dumbledore's name's mud with the Ministry these days, see," said Fred.

"They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back."

"Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks," said George.

"Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession –"

"But what's this got to do with Percy?" asked Harry, confused.

"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family – and Dumbledore."

Harry let out a low whistle. "Bet Percy loved that."

"He went completely berserk. He said – well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been – you know – not had a lot of money, I mean –"

"What?" said Harry in disbelief.

"He's a little shit." Marina said as she curled her fists.

"I know," said Ron in a low voice. "And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he – Percy – knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family anymore. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now."

"Mum's been in a right state," said Ron. "You know – crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work – ignores him, I s'pose."

"But Percy must know Voldemort's back," said Harry slowly. "He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof –"

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," said Ron, shooting Harry a furtive look. "Percy said the only evidence was your word and... I dunno... he didn't think it was good enough."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," said Hermione tartly, and the others all nodded.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, looking around at them all. They were all regarding him warily.

"Haven't – haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Yeah, I have!" said Harry.

"Have you – er – been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asked still more anxiously.

"Not cover to cover," said Harry defensively. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it"

Hermione hurried on, "Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they – um – they mention you a couple of times a week." "But I'd have seen –"

"Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldn't," said Hermione, shaking her head. "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke."

"What d'you –?"

"It's quite nasty, actually," said Hermione in a voice of forced calm. "They're just building on Rita's stuff."

"But she's not writing for them anymore, is she?"

"Oh no, she's kept her promise – not that she's got any choice," Hermione added with satisfaction. "But she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."

"Which is what?" said Harry impatiently.

"Okay, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?"

"Yeah," said Harry, who was not likely to forget Rita Skeeter's stories about him in a hurry.

"Well, they're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attentionnseeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something," said Hermione, very fast, as though it would be less unpleasant for Harry to hear these facts quickly. "They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears they say something like 'a tale worthy of Harry Potter' and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it's 'let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next –'"

"I don't want anyone to worship –" Harry began hotly.

"I know you don't," said Hermione quickly, looking frightened. "I know, Harry. But you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I'll bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy who's a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going."

"I didn't ask – I didn't want – Voldemort killed my parents!" Harry spluttered. "I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think I'd rather it'd never –"

"And of course, they didn't report a word about the dementors attacking you," said Hermione. "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy – we thought they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off – we think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town – I mean, if you're expelled, obviously," she went on hastily, "you really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you."

They were back on the hearing and Harry did not want to think about it. He cast around for another change of subject, but was saved the necessity of finding one by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Uh-oh."

Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs. Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway.

"The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

Marina winked to Ginny, who smiled back in pride.

"Oh," said Mrs. Weasley, "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall."

As Marina walked down the stairs, she then saw a painting scream.

"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 –"

Then a man with long black hair came charging out of a door facing her.

"Shut up, you horrible old hag, shut UP!" he roared.

The old woman's face blanched.

"Yoooou!" she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. "Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!"

"I said – shut – UP!" roared the man.

The old woman's screeches died and an echoing silence fell.

"Sirius!" Marina smiled as she hugged him.

"Cherryhead! I haven't seen you in a while! How's Harry?" smirked Sirius.

"He's fine. Not like I care, he's downstairs." Marina spat. "Ginny didn't influence you did she?"

Sirius stood proud. "In fact she did. I'm the second member of the Harrina Fan Club."

"Your still on about that?" laughed a feminine voice with a slight Greek accent.

A tall pretty thin woman walked next to Sirius. She had a wide smile with bright white pearly teeth. The woman had black wavy hair and wore a black dress.

"Hello, I'm Toula Labropoulos." smiled the woman.

Marina gasped. "Your Sirius' wife! I've been dying to meet you!"

"Sirius' wife. Merlin I love hearing those words." sighed Sirius. Toula rolled her eyes.

"How come I've never met you before?" Marina asked. "Hey! Do you have kids too?"

"I work at Ollivanders. He's says he's not as fit as he was twenty years ago so I'm helping him." explained Toula. "And no. I don't have any children unfortunately."

"I mean if you want we could?" Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows.

"So you work for Ollivanders? That's bloody brilliant." Marina smiled.

Toula looked to Sirius. "She reminds me of you."

Sirius put his arm around her and winked. "Well that's why you like darling."

"You never change Sirius Black."

"I never will Toula Labropoulos."

Marina gagged. "Flirt somewhere else please."