Vulnerability || George Weasley

Meeting Padfoot

Being in London was always a busy affair. Phoenix, her hair a cherry red, wiggled her nose as she saw a pigeon narrowly avoid a big red bus. Lucky bastard, she thought as she followed Cecilia and Anastasia into every shop they laid their eyes upon.

"Oh come," Phoenix groaned impatiently, following her companions into John Lewis, "Let's go to the Headquarters! Little Marie doesn't want to go in there, do you Ree Ree?" The infant in her arms gave a little giggle as Phoenix tickled her stomach.

"Just because you're so anxious to see your boyfriend," Anastasia smirked. "See it as a punishment for getting outrageously drunk last night Phoenix."

Phoenix made a face at her sibling, it was very true. Last night she, Angelina, Lee, Alicia and the twins had all spent the night at Lavender Cottage, drinking Firewhiskey until Alicia had thrown up out of Phoenix's window. It had been an excellent night, despite how rough Phoenix felt this morning, she had put on another Muggle film, which had left Lee in near tears. It had been a night filled with laughter, some tears and many jokes.

"I'm helping you save money! You've got all the food, clothes and essentials you wanted, now let's get going!"

Cecilia rolled her eyes, "For once Phoenix is right–"

"I hope that's a joke."

"–I can be as sarcastic as you can be Phoenix," Cecilia said with a wry smile, leading the way out of the shop and down the street, "It's only a ten minute walk or so, we'll be there in no time."

It was not a ten minute walk. Phoenix was glad that she was only holding baby Marie-Athenè, who was much lighter than all the bags that Cecilia and Anastasia were carrying. It had been an enjoyable day, sometimes it was nice to step away from the magical world and live in the Muggle world, doing mundane things such as shopping and stopping for an hour in a café, Phoenix sometimes wondered what it was like to live completely with no magic, though she wouldn't like to find out as the magical world was always so interesting to her.

The small infant in Phoenix's arms was sleeping peacefully, wriggling every now and then. Phoenix had fallen in love with her niece, she was lovely, despite deciding to wee on her when she offered to change her nappy after dinner yesterday. She was of course very loud when she needed to be, but other than, her mother's beauty was already shining through, her father's cheekiness seemed to also be seeping in (just yesterday she had thrown her meal at William's face, which had left Phoenix in tears of laughter).

"Right," Cecilia finally spoke, setting down her bags beside her, stopping in the middle of a street, "Here we are."

Phoenix looked around, the street they were standing in was called Grimmauld Place. Though it looked nothing special, the townhouses were all tall, old and dark. They were stood directly in front of numbers eleven and thirteen. Phoenix pursed her lips, looking at Cecilia, then Anastasia, then back at Cecilia.

"Is this a joke?" She finally asked, looking around, expecting to see Will or Ed, jump out and shout "BOO!".

"Of course not," Anastasia scoffed, also setting down her bags and taking Marie from Phoenix's arms, "Mum, show her."

Cecilia handed Phoenix a piece of parchment, looking around her carefully as she did so.

Phoenix looked at the piece of parchment, in very narrow, sophisticated handwriting, it said:

The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

She reread it several times, then gave an "oh" of understanding. She looked up slowly, only just realising that there was no number twelve. But as soon as she realised this, a beaten door materialised seemingly through thin air between numbers eleven and thirteen. Black, dirty walls appeared, grubby windows appeared, the houses either side of it moved slowly, though the Muggles Phoenix could see through the windows were not perturb in the slightest.