The Princess of Light

Chapter 5.8 (The prefects)

Mrs. Weasley kept them all working very hard over the next few days. The drawing room took three days to decontaminate. Finally, the only undesirable things left in it were the tapestry of the Black family tree, which resisted all their attempts to remove it from the wall, and the rattling writing desk. Moody had not dropped by Headquarters yet, so they could not he sure what was inside it.

They moved from the drawing room to a dining room on the ground floor where they found spiders as large as saucers lurking in the dresser (Ron left the room hurriedly to make a cup of tea and did not return for an hour and a half). The china, which bore the Black crest and motto, was all thrown unceremoniously into a sack by Sirius, and the same fate met a set of old photographs in tarnished silver frames, all whose occupants squealed shrilly as the glass covering them smashed.

Snape might refer to their work as 'cleaning', but in Aurora's opinion they were really waging war on the house, which was putting up a very good fight, aided and abetted by Kreacher. The house-elf kept appearing whenever they were congregated, his muttering becoming more and more offensive as he attempted to remove anything he could from the rubbish sacks. Sirius want as far as to threaten him with clothes, but Kreacher fixed him with a watery stare and said, "Master must do as Master wishes," before turning away and muttering very loudly. "But Master will not turn Kreacher away, no, because Kreacher knows what they are up to, oh yes, he is plotting against the Dark Lord, yes, with these Mudbloods and traitors and scum..."

At which Sirius, ignoring Hermione's protests, seized Kreacher by the back of his loincloth and threw him bodily from the room.

The doorbell rang several times a day, which was cue for Sirius's mother to start shrieking again and for Aurora and the others to attempt to eavesdrop on the visitor, though they learned very little from the brief glimpses and snatches of conversation they were able to sneak before Mrs. Weasley recalled them to their tasks.

Snape flitted in and out of the house several times more, though to Aurora's relief they never once came face to face. Aurora also caught sight of her Transfiguration teacher Professor McGonagall, looking very odd in a Muggle dress and coat, and she also seemed too busy to linger.

Sometimes, however, the visitors stayed to help. Tonks joined them for a memorable afternoon in which they found a murderous old ghoul lurking in an upstairs toilet, and Remus, who was staying in the house with Sirius but who left it for long periods to do mysterious work for the Order, helped them repair a grandfather clock that had developed the unpleasant habit of shooting heavy bolts at passers-by.

Sirius used this time to ask his daughter all sorts of question. Easy ones like: What's your favourite colour? To questions like: What's up between you and Harry?

She answered them all as truthfully as possible (except maybe the ones about Cedric and Harry) and Sirius seemed to really enjoy their time together.

"So what're your best subjects?" Sirius asked as Mundungus saved Ron from some old robes who tried to strangle him.

"Probably Transfiguration." Aurora said thoughtfully. "But I'm also reasonable at Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions and Arithmancy."

"Reasonable?" Elizabeth scoffed. "You're McGonagall's best student. You and Hermione are Flitwick's favourite, Hagrid's favourite, even Snape has nothing to mark on your potions and your Defence Against the Dark Arts is only rivalled by Harry." Sirius looked very proud to hear this.

"But I hate Astronomy." Aurora said. "And I don't really like Herbology either...I mean I'm sort of good at it, but it's defintely not my favourite. And Ancient Runes is also boring but the teacher is nice."

"So you've chosen three selectives?" Sirius said, impressed. "Must be hard work."

"I guess." Aurora shrugged. "But I like learning new stuff and it's proven useful quite a few times over the years."