Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 86

Sirius and Jenna stared back at each other in horror. So many things had happened all at once and so fast that neither of them had quite gotten a grasp on what was going on.

But when the sound of the woman shrieking from upstairs kept on going, Sirius got to his feet in horror, his eyes widening in realization.

"It can't be..." Sirius muttered under his breath, hastily walking out of the parlor.

"What is it?" Jenna questioned, her heart beating fast.

"That's — that's my mother's voice."

"What!?" Jenna exclaimed. "Isn't she supposed to be dead!?"

But Sirius had already walked out of the parlor, quickly going upstairs. Jenna didn't know what she had to worry about more at the moment and which problem to handle; the woman who had just seen Sirius and Jenna kissing half-naked, or Sirius's supposedly-dead mother who was screaming from upstairs.

So she just decided to follow Sirius up, but they both came to a halt when they saw that the sound of Sirius's mother was coming from a portrait hung on the wall, screaming down at them.

"I should've known..." Sirius grimly muttered under his breath as he stared up at his mother's portrait.

The two had been so caught off guard and shocked about everything which had happened that they didn't even get the time to think about this possibility.

"You!" Walburga snarled down at Sirius from inside her portrait, her teeth gritting against each other from anger. "How dare you come back in here after running off like that! You're a disgrace to the name of Black, you ungrateful child! How dare you return to my father's house—!"

But her voice was muffled out when Sirius closed the curtains on the sides of the portrait, blocking the entire frame. Panting, Sirius tried to take the portrait off the wall, but it wouldn't budge.

"Ugh, I'll deal with this later." Sirius huffed as he took a step back and looked around at Jenna. "Who the hell was downstairs?"

"I don't know!" Jenna shrugged, still looking horrified.

"They have to be here on Dumbledore's invitation, because he's the Secret Keeper."

"But the Order members aren't supposed to be here until a few hours later!"

"Well, let's go down and see who it was," said Sirius, but then without waiting for Jenna, he turned around and made his way downstairs.

Jenna hesitated. She didn't really want to go down, finding the whole situation awkward. She felt too embarrassed to go and face whoever had caught her and Sirius like that. Even her hair had turned pink at the thought.

But shaking her head to turn her hair back to brown, Jenna cleared her throat and followed Sirius downstairs, trying to fix her messed up clothes as she went.

Once she caught up with Sirius, the two of them walked down the hall and toward the house's entrance, where they sighted a man and a woman standing awkwardly in the corridor, both having red hair and freckles all over their faces.

"Hello," said Sirius, moving forward. "You must be Molly and Arthur Weasley. We'd met at the hospital wing, back in Hogwarts, I believe."

"Er... yes, Molly had already met you," said the man awkwardly and he cleared his throat, his ears going red.

But the woman was still looking between Jenna and Sirius in a judging manner.

"Well, I don't think we've met," Jenna said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

Although when she raised her hand for them to shake, the Weasleys gave her an odd look, not taking it.

"Oh, I see," Jenna chuckled nervously, dropping her hand once she realized what their problem was. "I'm not — er — some prostitute, if that's what you were thinking."

Molly's eyes widened and Arthur's ear went red again, meanwhile Sirius only snorted in laughter, receiving a smack on the arm by Jenna. She gave him a look which said 'that's not really helping'.

So clearing his throat and trying to hide away his smirk, Sirius turned to the Weasleys again, saying, "This is Jenna Potter; Harry's aunt, and my fiancé."

"Oh, right!" said Arthur. "Dumbledore did mention that you were alive and would be here. We just didn't suppose — I mean, we didn't know you and Sirius were — um... together."

"W-well, it's nice meeting you," said Molly, looking embarrassed. "And sorry for intruding on your — your moment. It's just that Arthur and I thought that we should come here a little earlier to help clean up this place a bit before the actual meeting."

"That's — that was very kind of you, thanks," said Jenna with a small nod, trying to offer them a smile.

"So, where would the meeting be held?" Molly questioned, trying to change the subject and forget about their terrible first impression of one another.

"I was thinking maybe the dining room would be a good place for the meetings. It's large enough," said Sirius. "Here, I'll show you the way."

Once they got into the dining area, they were faced with an enormous room and a long table set in the middle of it, consisting many chairs around it. There was a chandelier hung above the dining table, though it was covered in cobwebs.

Molly's eyes were widened as she looked around the room in disgust, every inch of it being drowned in filth and dust.

"Well... let's not waste any more time," she said, rolling up her sleeved and taking out her wand. "Cleaning up this place will take ages, even with magic."

With that, Jenna and Arthur took out their wands as well, starting to use different spells to clean up the dining room. Sirius had gone downstairs to call Kreacher up, so the house elf could help with the cleaning. But not five minutes later, Sirius ordered the elf to go back down when Kreacher started calling Mr. and Mrs. Weasley a bunch of blood traitors.

They were soon joined by Remus, who showed up about half an hour later, carrying a few boxes of wands. He gave them to Sirius to try one by one, so he could see which one worked for him better.

After two hours or so, they had finally managed to make the dining room at least a little livable, though not remotely clean. Not too long after, the Order members started to show up one by one, and Sirius showed them the way and led them through the dining room.

Jenna had her eyes on Sirius from across the room as he was speaking with Alastor Moody, who had recovered in the past few weeks. She stood still on the spot, though her mind was far away. She missed spending time with Sirius more than words could explain.

But Jenna was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she felt someone tap on her shoulder softly to get her attention. Once she turned around, she found herself facing a tall and blond man, smiling at her.

"Hello, Jenna. Remember me?" he said charmingly. "I'm Sturgis. Sturgis Podmore."