Homecoming from Hogwarts

Spending the summer holidays at Grimmauld Place was the best thing Harry had ever experienced.

Although the month he spent at the Weasleys' house during last year's Quidditch World Cup was perfect, it was Ron's home after all, and he couldn't help but feel like a guest in someone else's home.

But he didn't have to worry about that at Grimmauld Place. This was his godfather's ancestral home, and he should stay here as a matter of course.

After a few days of fear, Harry's life began to get back on track.

Every morning, Harry would get up earlier than Ron, Hermione and the others and go to the kitchen to help Mrs. Weasley.

There were too many people living in the house, and preparing three meals a day for so many people was really too much for Mrs. Weasley. Harry was one of the few people here who could give Mrs. Weasley some help in this matter instead of making things worse.

Although it is a leisurely summer vacation, daily breakfast is always carried out in a very hurried atmosphere.

Remus and Amelia never sat at the table until the end.

They were the busiest two of them all, and breakfast time was often the only time of the day Harry got to see them.

And Sirius couldn't stay at home for long, not even on weekends.

When Harry questioned this, Sirius's grey eyes flickered with hesitation.

"I'm on a mission, Harry. Amos Tower gave it to me."

"What is it?"

The children at the table were all very interested in this, but after Mrs. Weasley coughed loudly, the hesitation in Sirius's eyes disappeared, and he avoided Harry's inquiring gaze.
"It's just some ordinary surveillance, which is boring, but someone has to do it."

But when Harry continued to ask who he was following, Sirius was unwilling to say anything.

"Grown-ups have learned to keep secrets now!"

As they went upstairs, Ron said angrily,

"I miss the old Sirius, when he was always willing to talk to us more!"

"Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine asked them to do this."

Ginny, who was following behind them, suddenly said this, causing Harry and the others who were climbing the stairs slowly to turn around and look at Ginny in surprise.

Ginny was wearing a light grey-green, cool suspender nightgown, which made the whiteness of her chest clearly visible to Harry, who was in a higher position.

Harry shook his head violently but slightly to disperse the blood and energy that rushed to his mind, and asked impatiently,

"How did you know that, Ginny?"

"Oh--"

The instantaneous heat in Harry's green eyes did not escape Ginny's notice. Her cheeks flushed and she whispered,
"I ran into Tonks when I got up to go to the bathroom late last night. I asked her what the Order of the Phoenix was doing, but Tonks was unwilling to tell me. I asked her a few more questions before she said that Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine had told them not to let us know too much about the Order of the Phoenix."

"Professor Dumbledore and Professor Braine ordered you to do that?"

Hermione bit her lip, recalling the "contempt" Professor Blaine showed her on the second day she moved into the house, and resentment appeared in her brown eyes.
"What else did Tonks say, Ginny?"

"do not have much left"

Ginny glanced at Harry quickly and took a few deep breaths to get rid of the blush on her cheeks.

"Oh, she also told me that there will be a meeting of the Phoenix Society in a few days. Well, it seems to be on this Friday night, and Snape will come to give a report then."

"Tonks is such a nice person."

Ron felt sympathetic.

"She was at least willing to say something to us. The other members of the Order of the Phoenix simply ignored us."

The group started climbing the stairs again.

In the morning, their main activity area was Harry and Ron's bedroom.

Here they would read various newspapers and periodicals published in London in the past three months, which Hermione had collected from various sources.

Harry had never known there were so many different kinds of newspapers published in London, and the newspapers Hermione had collected filled the space under his and Ron's bed.

It's a boring job.

Most Muggle newspapers contain either news about Muggle politics or entertainment, or cryptic advertisements or useless junk information.

Often, one has to read a dozen newspapers and periodicals before one can find a little information about a crime, usually robbery or theft.

Although he knew that this was a very important and necessary job, after a few days, even Harry himself lost his motivation.

Only Hermione and Ginny were able to maintain their initial concentration.

Occasionally, they would find news about murders, and when they did, a group of people would discuss heatedly whether it was the Muggle murder that the Minister of Magic had claimed, but the results of the discussion were always disappointing.

"I haven't left Hogwarts at all this whole year!"

Harry turned his eyes away from the news about the Muggle jumping off the building in the Financial Times and scratched his messy black hair in annoyance.
"I was so frightened by Fudge that there is no way any murder could have anything to do with me!"

"Objectively speaking, you left Hogwarts once."

Ron's words attracted everyone's attention. He shrugged.

"Remember, at Christmas time, we came to Grimmauld Place to spend Christmas with Remus and Sirius, and we also visited, uh."

Hermione's warning look made Ron shut his mouth in time.

They'd better not spread the word about the orphanage where Professor Blaine grew up.

"Oh--"

Harry frowned,

"That's okay as I went out once but I couldn't possibly kill anyone around Sirius and Remus right?"

"No one thinks you killed Muggles, Harry."

Hermione sighed heavily.
"We have discussed this, haven't we? The biggest possibility now is that the Ministry of Magic has implicated you in a Muggle murder case in a way we didn't expect, or... has simply fabricated a Muggle murder case and pinned the blame on you!"

Harry pursed his lips and remained silent.

Even he himself believed that since the Ministry of Magic had publicly announced to the entire magical world that he had killed someone, they must have some 'real stuff' in their hands.

Wow.
Everyone flipped through the newspapers again.

The afternoon time is usually used by them to deal with summer homework.

Homework was always the last thing Harry wanted to face at the Dursleys'.

He had to be careful not to expose anything to do with the wizarding world to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Peggy.

Otherwise, in just thirty seconds, they would turn his magic book and homework book into waste paper in the trash can.

He could only do it secretly in bed with a flashlight in the middle of the night, and he had no one to ask for help.

But at Sirius's house, he didn't have to scratch his head about it at all.

Although Hermione insisted that he do it on his own, she was still willing to help them if there were any real problems.

And Sirius was happy to give him a little more help in this matter.

Although Sirius was notoriously naughty at school, his grades were also outstanding.

The time before dinner is spent by several people having fun.

In addition to playing wizard chess and playing with a set of Gobstones found around the house, Fred and George would also share their latest developments with them.

But we have to be careful, because some of the things the twins took out are very likely to have side effects, and they took them out just to experiment on them.

After dinner, Number 12 Grimmauld Place was completely transformed into the combat headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

Many wizards they knew and didn't know would rush here continuously, and then leave in a hurry after staying for a while, exchanging various information, holding a short meeting or something like that.

Once when Harry went downstairs to find something to eat late at night, he saw his Transfiguration professor at school saying something to Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen.

She looked tired, and when she saw Harry, she first opened her eyes unexpectedly, and then gave him a smile mixed with some sympathy and pity.

After greeting each other, Professor McGonagall Apparated away. As there might be someone else coming to the kitchen later, Mrs. Weasley gave him some food and then sent him upstairs.

"I just saw Professor McGonagall down there."

Back in the bedroom, Ron had already fallen asleep in bed. When he heard Harry say this, he muttered in a drowsy tone,

"Really? Did she come here to give us more homework because she thought our Transfiguration homework was not enough?"

"who knows."

Harry shrugged and jumped into his own bed.

Close your eyes and darkness falls.

A strange corridor and a black door emerged from the darkness. (End of this chapter)