The Disgraced of the House of Black - A Multi-Character Fanfiction - Part One

123. Crack

Hedwig, alarmed at the noise, quickly took flight from Harry, landing beside Althea who began gently stroking her with a shaking hand with a thestral ring which was flapping its wings, its ears pinned back against its head as it reared, stamping and shifting on its feet.

"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!" Harry continued. "BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?"

"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did-" Hermione tried.

"COULDN'T HAVE 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 PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON-"

"We wanted to-"

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

"No, honest-"

"Harry, we're really sorry!" Hermione cried finally. "You're absolutely right, Harry - I'd be furious if it was me!"

Harry said nothing, but in the tense silence that followed, a sudden sniffle was heard. Three pairs of eyes instantly landed on Althea who was shaking so terribly Harry felt all his anger drain out of him as guilt took back over. Crouching beside her, he saw tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Thea, I'm sorry," he said finally, his tone a thousand times softer than before.

She didn't look up as her silent tears were replaced with shuttering sobs. With a sympathetic sigh, Harry sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her as she began crying into his shoulder. Hermione sat down beside them both, resting a hand comfortingly on her knee as both her arms were wrapped around Harry. Ron joined them last, unsure what to do to comfort her. They remained respectfully silent until Althea's crying had slowed enough for her to speak.

Not moving, she whispered shakily, "Harry, we hardly know anything either. I'm sorry we couldn't tell you anything, but they keep it all so secret. Even my parents won't say a word to me about anything, and Sirius and Amara won't talk either."

"I'm sorry I yelled," Harry said softly.

Althea said nothing as she began to cry again but not as bad as before. Harry looked up at Hermione and Ron for some kind of explanation for what was going on with Thea, but they looked just as confused and surprised as he felt. Sure, Althea had always been sensitive, but that usually just showed itself in her moods or feelings about certain things. She very rarely was driven to tears. In fact, Harry wasn't entirely sure he had ever actually seen her cry before.

Deciding if he kept his voice down it would be all right to ask questions, Harry asked softly, "So...what's happening? What's Voldemort up to? What are we doing to stop him?"

"We've told you, the Order don't let us in their meetings," Hermione explained gently. "So we don't know the details, but we've got a general idea."

"Fred and George have Extendable Ears, see," Ron explained with a smile. "They're really useful."

"Extendable-?" Harry began in confusion.

"Ears, yeah," Ron said. "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-"

"-some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order-" Hermione added.

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

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

Althea began to laugh, letting go of Harry as she wiped away her tears. She sniffled, leaning over to grab a Kleenex from the nightstand before blowing her nose. Harry couldn't help but smile at the sound of her laugh. Something about Althea was too good, too lovable to tolerate seeing her upset for long.

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

Althea began laughing again, giving him an incredulous look. Hermione began giggling too and soon even Ron joined in on the laughter. After only a few minutes, however, Althea's laugh turned into a shocked cry as with a sharp crack, two figures materialized from nothing into the room.

"Stop doing that!" she cried, giving the twins irritated looks.

"Now, now, Thea," they said, dropping down on the bed behind her on either side. Turning to Harry, George said, "Hello, Harry. We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," Fred agreed. "There might have been people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

"You two passed your apparation tests then?" Harry remarked, leaning back to look at them and catching sight of the flesh-coloured string in Fred's hand for the first time.

"With distinction," Fred said with a pleased smile.

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

"Time is galleons, little brother," Fred replied. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears, you know." He nudged the flesh-coloured string. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You want to be careful," Ron said warningly. "If Mum sees one of them again-"

"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting they're having," Fred said as the door opened and Ginny appeared.

"Oh hello, Harry!" she said brightly. "I thought I heard your voice." Turning to the twins, she added, "It's no go with the Extendable Ears. She's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."

"How d'you know?" George asked.

"Just chuck stuff at it and you'll know," Althea replied, grabbing another Kleenex for herself.

"Shame," Fred sighed. "I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

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

"Yeah," George replied, closing the door and sitting down again as Ginny sat on the other bed. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," Fred said idly.

"Amara and Snape in one room," Harry remarked. "Wish I was there to see that."

"What do you mean?" Fred asked with a frown.

"Didn't you know?" Hermione said in surprise. "They're twins."

"What?" George exclaimed, his eyes wide. "You're kidding."

"Nope," Harry said. "And they've argued every time I've seen them interact. They hate each other."

"Damn," Fred muttered.