Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(92) Order Matters

Hermione Granger had arrived days after the Weasley family did, carrying with her the baggage that she would also be bringing to Hogwarts, as she was going to stay in headquarters for the rest of the summer. She also had a ginger furred cat, who's name sounded very odd, Miss Mimsy immediately deciding that they were to be friends. On some occasions, they would hiss and claw at each other, which would make someone question the solidarity of their friendship. Miss Mimsy had once tried to push Crookshanks down the stairs.

Upon Hermione's arrival, the adults of the house had started to grow secretive by the minute. There were brief meetings that were commenced at the dining room, and when either one of the children would come in, they would fall completely silent, wiping away all the papers on the table. At one point, Florence had walked in on a screaming match between Sloan and Moody, their faces equally as red as the other. Julien, who was sitting to the right of his father, had immediately scooped up the papers on the table at the sight of his cousin.

"Don't mind me, by all means please continue," she beckoned, as the meeting completely froze upon her arrival. Sirius looked at her, distress on his face, "Florence, you know you're not allowed in here. Please—"

"I know, I was just going to get some cat food for Miss Mimsy. She's been stealing from Crookshanks' bowl." she scurried over to the cat food box, hauling everything outside to the lobby for easier access. Florence looked around the room to see all the adults staring intently at her, as if mentally telling her to go away. Her eyes landed on a particular person, nearly making her drop the box of rationed cat food.

It was professor Snape.

She blinked rapidly, thinking that maybe she wasn't seeing things clearly. But he was still there. Florence decided not to question the adults further, and rushed out of the room.

Since that incident, their meetings now happened behind closed doors. As Florence had told the others that she saw Snape with the order, their curiosity grew, and had formed a group themselves, trying the best as they could to eavesdrop on the conversations.

Fred and George thought that it was unfair that they were left out, considering the fact that they were already of age. But Molly had reasoned out that they were still in school, and that it could be dangerous to get them involved.

"Why does Julien get to sit in, though," Fred grumbled, seeing the brown haired boy briefly from the crack on the door. Someone had eventually noticed, and shut the door completely. He groaned exasperatedly, his hand buried in his hair.

"He's 19, Fred. And he's also out of school. And on his second year of Auror training, as he told me," Florence said as she lounged peacefully on the couch. Ginny was playing with the cats on the living room rug, George tinkering with something on the opposite couch, while Ron was teaching Hermione the basics of Wizard's chess.

"Being an Auror is a wicked cool job," Ron said, moving a piece on the chess board, his Queen completely demolishing Hermione's knight, tiny white rubble scattering to the floor.

Hermione gawked at her now headless and horseless chess piece, "This game is absolutely barbaric."

"You'll get used to it," he chuckled, before resuming his talk about Aurors, "Dad says all their operations are top secret. No other branches in the Ministry would know about it except maybe the Minister himself."

"But it's a dangerous job," said Hermione, "As cool as it is. They deal with dark wizards of different sorts. The death eaters, during the Wizarding War. Professor—I mean, Moody lost a whole eye."

"Maybe he's one of those recklessly stubborn Aurors. There are careful ones too, I'm pretty sure."

"Stubborn usually does the trick though, doesn't it?" George piped up, now smiling as he finished the item that he had been so eagerly trying to finish, "Speaking of which, Florence, do you happen to know anywhere else we could eavesdrop? Maybe somewhere upstairs that's directly above the dining room?"