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The headmaster of Hogwarts blinked in surprise and repeated her words in the same muffled voice she had used before. “You would like to be an artifact inventor for a You-Know-Who opposing group?“The Three Broomsticks were thankfully busy enough at this hour to drown their words, but Aurelia still warily looked around. “Yes.“Dumbledore adjusted his half-moon spectacles, and his gaze turned penetrating. “I thought you were here for the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher position.“She winced and shuffled on her wooden chair. “I know, and I‘m so sorry for that, headmaster. I didn‘t know how else to get hold of you. I am not qualified for that position, I‘m afraid.“ She watched him as he rubbed his temples, looking both exasperated and deep in thought. “I hope you‘re not too upset with me.““I take it you believe my word, then?“ he asked after what felt like forever.She hesitated. “I haven‘t noticed any evidence for what you‘re saying, but I‘m choosing to act like you are right about this.“Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. “That doesn‘t sound like you believe me very much, Miss Conlan.““I just don‘t tend to rely on believing. I look at it this way, if you‘re right and we do nothing, consequences could be catastrophic.““While that‘s surely true, opposing Voldemort“—she jerked in surprise when he said the name— “is not something one does lightly. Why do you want to join? You‘re still a pure-blood, even if your mother is a squib.“ He looked at her curiously.It didn‘t surprise her that he knew of her mother. Aurelia straightened in her chair, mildly irritated by the implication the war did not directly concern her. “I lost my father in the war,“ she reminded Dumbledore. “And my mother only kept her life out of sheer luck.““Revenge then?“ He said in a conversational tone like they were talking about the weather.She shook her head. “No… not really. I mean, I would like for the Death Eaters who did it to be punished, of course, but that‘s not why I want to join the resistance. I really just think I could help, make some difference.““I see.“ Dumbledore took a sip of his butterbeer. “But why do you think such a group would need an artifact inventor?“The question didn‘t surprise her. She often had to defend and explain her job to other people as most wizards worked in the ministry or had other - “more stable“ as her mother had often put it - jobs. “I specialize in charms and magical engineering. As an inventor, I could react to the group‘s needs and try creating artifacts that could make some things easier or safer.““Oh, I don‘t doubt your skills, Miss Conlan. You were a true prodigy in charms, and I do find some of your publicly available inventions quite ingenious.“ She blushed at the praise but knew he was yet about to make his point. “But a “You-Know-Who opposing group“ requires also - hmm… some street work, some traditional fighting. Do you have any skills in that area?““I‘m good at healing wounded fighters,“ offered Aurelia. It was true, her grandmother from her father‘s side was a healer, and she picked up more than a few things from her.The headmaster seemed amused at her obvious deflection. “That can come in handy,“ he admitted, “but are you good at dueling?“Aurelia sighed. “It‘s never been something I pursued after school. I was decent back then, though.““I see.“ Dumbledore was examining her thoughtfully. She stirred her drink to avoid his inquisitive eyes. “Are you willing to learn?“She looked up and grinned. “I‘m a Ravenclaw.“
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Aurelia brushed her hair out of her eyes, and for a hundredth time that day, she wished for some cold breeze. It was just the second week of July, but this summer had brought an exceptional drought, making it draining to be outside at all and almost making her miss England’s everpresent rain. She smoothed out her light summer dress and looked around the street where Dumbledore had just apparated with her. It seemed like a relatively unremarkable neighborhood, but she knew better than to rely on first impression at this point. Somehow, she had thought the headquarters would be in a place tad more hidden, like, say, in an abandoned country villa, but she supposed hiding in plain sight was much smarter.Dumbledore searched for something in the pocket of his robes, and after a moment, he took out a small piece of parchment. ”Last chance to change your mind, Miss Conlan.””I am sure about this.””In that case, I’d like to officially welcome you to a Voldemort-opposing-group.” He gave her a smile and added: ”Although I dare to say I gave it a bit more charming name - the Order of the Phoenix.””That does have a better ring to it,” she admitted amusedly.The headmaster handed her the piece of parchment and beckoned her forward across the street towards a long line of townhouses. ”This is the address of the Order’s headquarters. I am the secret keeper. I presume you are familiar with how the Fidelius Charm works.””I am.” She never had to cast it, but nearly everyone knew about the Fidelius Charm from the war. She skimmed through the words on the page - number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London - and memorized it. They stopped before two houses - number eleven and - oddly - thirteen. She closed her eyes and focused on the address, and when she opened them again, she wasn’t surprised to see another house appear before her, bearing the number twelve.Dumbledore knocked.”I’m gonna have to ask you to keep quiet in the entrance hall. Someone will explain later. Others should already be waiting - the meeting should have started about ten minutes ago.”She nodded and stifled her excitement. Dumbledore led her into the hall and began sealing a series of magical locks behind them. ”I asked them not to lock the door for us before, but we truly ought to be careful.”Aurelia turned around and wrinkled her nose in disgust when she caught the faint rotting smell hidden beneath the air of dust and dampness. It seemed like this house hadn’t been inhabited for a while. She took in the faded old wallpapers, the umbrella stand made out of a severed troll’s leg, a serpent-shaped chandelier, the dark staircase. Eerily, she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the heads of house elves displayed on the walls above it.”Well. It’s certainly grim and old.” She chuckled to herself quietly.Dumbledore smiled. ”I think you will get along with the house owner.” He led her to a door across the hall, down the narrow staircase, and through a door behind which she could hear chatting voices. The kitchen was lit by a large fireplace at the end of the room. There was a long table around which about twenty people were sitting and talking among themselves. Dumbledore greeted them and stepped aside. Silence fell upon the group as soon as Aurelia emerged from behind Dumbledore.She took in the odd mixture of people, recognizing Professor McGonagall, Alastor Moody, Severus Snape, and Arthur Weasley. There was a tall black man she swore she had seen before, then a young woman with bright pink hair, and - Sirius Black?She opened her mouth to scream in warning but promptly realized how stupid that was, so she closed it again. What would she yell: ”Watch out, Black!” or maybe: ”It’s Black! Catch him!” The rest of the room was well aware of that fact, including the famed auror Alastor Moddy and Albus Dumbledore of all people, who was no doubt thoroughly checking who was let into the Order. If Black is here, then there must be a reason for it. Maybe there was some kind of mistake, and he’s innocent? Or maybe he deflected from You-Know-Who and is their spy now? She somehow doubted it as fractions of memories of him from her Hogwarts days came to her. Aurelia was younger than him, but she still was a witness to the famous Black-Potter duo, if only for a short while. Even as a stranger or a fellow Hogwarts student, it had been a shock to see him arrested before (she couldn’t imagine how it was for people who actually knew him), but he was found guilty by the Ministry, with Dumbledore himself attesting to it, so there wasn’t any debate.He was looking at her with a raised eyebrow as if challenging her to say something. She realized she was staring at him for too long and quickly averted her eyes. ”Good evening,” she addressed the room with a polite smile.”Good evening indeed. My apologies for the delay, but I brought in a lovely new member to compensate for our late arrival.” Dumbledore gestured to her. ”This is Aurelia Conlan. She works as an inventor of magical artifacts and will join us in our fight against Voldemort.””Nice to meet you all.”People rose from their chairs and came up to shake her hand, and she had been introduced to the ones she hadn’t known before - the tall black man was Kingsley Shacklebolt - he was an auror alongside the pink-haired woman - Tonks (not Nymphadora), next, there was Arthur Weasley’s wife Molly and their son Bill, Dumbledore’s old friend Elphias Doge, the square-jawed Sturgis Podmore, Dedalus Diggle with an odd taste in hats, Hestia Jones who she vaguely remembered from somewhere, the graceful Emmeline Vance, Mundungus Fletcher, who looked like criminal and alcoholic at once, and Remus Lupin, the werewolf who caused a minor scandal by teaching at Hogwarts a few years back.Sirius Black let his chair fall to the ground with a resounding thud and came up to her with an incredulous expression on his face. ”Do I actually need to introduce myself? Are you not going to ask the obvious?” He gestured to himself and gave a short laugh. ”You know, like, why is the most notorious mass murderer sitting at the dining table?”He had a point - it would have been the understandable and normal thing to do. Other Order members, including Dumbledore, all looked as if that was a question that interested them. Aurelia wasn’t going to tell them that she simply didn’t want to look like an idiot and was quite good at thinking before acting. ”Well, I just assumed you were somehow innocent since this is the ”let’s bring down You-Know-Who” group.” A few people chuckled, and Black narrowed his eyes at her, though the corner of his mouth curled up. ”You sure deal with shocking new findings with an enviable speed. Although, I could have also been brought to light in Azkaban, seen the error of my ways, and deflected.”His poker face was too good for her to be able to tell if he was joking or not, but from the slightly exasperated faces of some of the adults, she could tell he was probably just trying her. ”I honestly doubt Azkaban enlightens anyone,” she decided to be honest. ”I thought the first option to be more likely. I remember you from Hogwarts, even if I was just a first year when you were graduating. You and James Potter were a famous duo. I’ve also known of your family situation.” She shrugged. ”I guess it’s the fact that your charges never quite fitted your psychological profile that makes it easier to believe.”He flinched a bit at that, like she poured cold water at him, and a shadow of some expression she wasn’t able to identify crossed his face. The silence in the room stretched.”I do wonder, though,” she started carefully, ”if you’re innocent, how did they not find out at your trial? Wouldn’t they have given you Veritaserum or something?”His face was carved out of stone when he said: ”There wasn’t a trial.””Oh.” She didn’t know what to say to that, and it seemed that neither did the others. Lupin cleared his throat. ”Well, we’re glad to have you, Aurelia.”She looked away from Black and smiled at them. ”Thank you. And you can call me Reli, people usually do.” The atmosphere in the room loosened, and people scattered back to their respective chairs. Hestia Jones poured her a glass of wine and gestured to a seat next to her.Dumbledore took his place at the head of the table. ”I suggest we give Miss Conlan a brief overview of our situation first. Then we can listen to Severus’ report and sort out the usual.”In the following twenty minutes, she was given a quick summary of the events of the past few weeks. Apparently, Barty Crouch Jr. infiltrated Hogwarts posing as Moody and tricked Harry Potter into being sent straight to You-Know-Who, who needed him to gain a new body. Peter Pettigrew helped him achieve that, and he was also the traitor who betrayed the Potters. She couldn’t remember Pettigrew from school - she didn’t remember Lupin either, to be honest, as neither were in her house, and both were seventh years in her first Hogwarts year. The only memory she had of Pettigrew was from the Daily Prophet article announcing his murder after the You-Know-Who’s fall. She was told James Potter, Black, and Pettigrew all became animagi at school in order to help Lupin, which impressed her greatly, even if she tried not to show it too much.Their review of the current political situation contained little new information - she knew of Fudge’s information war with Dumbledore from the newspaper and her acquaintances at the Ministry. However, as she was not working at the Ministry, Fudge being willing to fire his employees over possible ties with Dumbledore was certainly news to her.The Order itself had over twenty members. Some of them were busy keeping an eye on Harry Potter while he was at his aunt and uncle’s, some were keeping tabs on known Death Eaters, and others were trying to recruit new members. Much to the group’s amusement, she was commended by Dumbledore for already participating in that as she basically recruited herself. Most importantly, they were guarding a prophecy about Harry Potter and You-Know-Who in the Department of Mysteries. She wasn’t told what the prophecy was about, only that You-Know-Who wanted it to gain the upper hand and avoid making the same mistakes as last time.Severus Snape was acting as a spy and had been giving the Order reports on You-Know-Who and the Death Eater’s activities. He also mentioned Sirius Black’s important job as a cleaning lady, which caused the two men to bicker for a while. Apparently, this place used to belong to Sirius Black’s parents, so he and Molly Weasley were now slowly working to decontaminate it as the Weasley children and Hermione Granger - a friend of Harry Potter - were to arrive soon.After they listened to Snape’s report, Dumbledore’s updates on the political situation, and a few member’s accounts of notable events during their respective watches and guards, a new schedule was decided for next week. She was not assigned to guard duty, as she wasn’t working at the Ministry, and thus her presence there was a risk. Instead, she was to join Harry’s guarding duty, but only after Moody assessed her skills regarding such activities so they could decide what other training she needed. His electric blue eye fixed on her when Dumbledore announced this, and she was momentarily possessed by a sense of anxiety as Moody looked ready to throw her into a fighting pit to see how she fared. The meeting flew by, and soon, people were leaving, with some staying for dinner. She quickly realized that her presence at dinner was practically mandatory as others couldn’t seem to wait to ask her questions.”How old are you, dear? You look almost as young as Tonks.” Molly served her a generous portion of stew.She thanked her. ”I’m twenty-nine, actually.”They sat down at the table while chatting about mundane things until Black burst out laughing when she addressed him ”Mr Black” and insisted on being called Sirius. This was promptly supported by all the other present members, so she was soon calling them by their first names, except Tonks, of course.About halfway through the meal, Sirius pointed a fork at her, curious. ”You said earlier you knew of my family situation. What did you mean by that exactly?”Aurelia took her time answering, a bit taken aback by him pointing it out. She didn’t think he would find it odd as a lot of people knew about him running away and being disowned. She guessed she would have to come clean with her mother earlier than expected. ”I knew from my mother, who was friendly with your uncle Alphard.”He blinked in surprise at that.”They knew each other from some pure-blood gatherings. She was disowned as well,” Aurelia explained. ”My mother, I mean. Used to be a Rowle before she married my father.” She braced herself for questions, as her mother’s side of the family was famously traditional with blood-purist views, and her mother’s younger brother Thorfinn was one of the Death Eaters currently rotting in Azkaban.No one said anything, though. Sirius nodded grimly. ”Why was she disowned?””She’s a squib. When she was eleven and no letter came, her family pretended she was chronically ill before disowning her when she was seventeen. She went to live in Muggle London. They told everyone she ran away.”People exchanged sympathetic glances. Disowning squibs was still not unheard of in the more traditional pure-blood families. Aurelia disliked the pity that appeared on some of their faces - she knew her mother to be brilliant and sharp after all, not at all someone to be pitied. ”She did fine - teaches psychology at a muggle university now,” she added to paint a better picture of her.This caused confusion among some members of the group. ”Psychology?””It’s-” she stopped to think for a moment. ”It’s a muggle science which studies the human mind. You know, why people act the way they do, also mental illnesses fall under that…””Did she teach you that as well?” asked Tonks with interest.”Yeah, a bit at home, and I went to some of her classes in London after graduation.”Kingsley smiled. ”Well, I believe that’s something that may be put to use.””Perhaps we should let Reli examine Sirius and give us a detailed list of his issues,” said Tonks teasingly, and Sirius snorted. ”The only Black that needs examining in that regard hangs in the entrance hall.”Remus noticed Aurelia’s confused expression and explained: ”There’s a er- lovely life-sized portrait of Sirius’ mother in the hall. She starts verbally attacking people she doesn’t deem worthy of being in her ancestral home if woken up. We have to keep quiet around her - we’ve still not figured out how to remove her from the wall.”Aurelia nodded. It explained Dumbledore’s earlier request.Kingsley looked at her thoughtfully. ”So you’re a pure-blood?””Technically, yes, both my parents come from pure-blood families.””I knew your father,” Moody spoke for the first time since dinner started, and everyone turned to look at him. ”An excellent fighter.””He was.” Aurelia smiled as she got lost in memories for a moment. ”He was killed in the war,” she explained when she noticed the questioning looks.”Oh, I’m sorry, dear.” Molly reached out to squeeze her hand.Moody took a swing from his flask. ”Nearly everybody here lost someone in the war,” he said grimly. ”You’ll fit in.” He turned to her. ”You’re a fighter like Aiden, then?”She shook her head. ”Not really, haven’t been dueling since Hogwarts, I’m afraid.””I’ll have to test you like Dumbledore said.””Yes, about that, hmm… what does that entail?” she tried to sound casual, but her suspicion that she didn’t quite manage to keep the anxiety from her tone was confirmed when Tonks and Sirius laughed, and Kingsley offered: ”I can test you instead, Moody is busy these days anyway.”Moody growled. ”I would find the time. Why would you be a better choice than me?””He’s gentler,” offered Tonks.”We’re at war. This is not a good time for gentleness!””So it’s settled.” Kingsley smiled at her kindly. ”We’ll figure out the time later.”She returned his smile, grateful. Moody snorted.”So you said you were an artifact inventor? How does that work? And what artifacts do you invent exactly?” Sirius seemed genuinely interested in that.”Oh, I specialize in Charms and magical engineering, and basically, I create items at my workshop at home, and then they’re being sold in a shop at Diagon Alley I own.””A shop?” Molly straightened in her chair, her voice a bit sharper than before, and she reminded Aurelia of her own mother for a moment. Arthur placed a hand on her shoulder. ”Our twin boys are aiming to open a joke shop at Diagon Alley,” he explained. ”Molly doesn’t approve.””My mother did not either, at first. She thought it unstable, but I really wanted to create things.” Aurelia shrugged. ”It took me a bit of time to establish myself, but it was definitely worth it. I can freelance, so no constricting schedules, and I don’t even have to sell in the shop anymore. I just invent and supervise.” She remembered Sirius’ earlier question and added: ”A lot of it is just things that make life easier, like quills you don’t have to dip in ink all the time, coats that warm according to the outside temperature, stuff like that. Though, I also specialize in protective charms and artifacts.”Kingsley nodded. ”The Auror Department buys some of your stuff. The glasses that make you see at night are my favourite.” He grinned.”Sucks if you have my eye, though,” grunted Moody.Aurelia turned to him. ”I can adjust them for you if you want.””That would be appreciated. I have to stay as vigilant as possible.””Of course you do. Now, I’ll need someone to help me with the dishes, please.” Molly looked at them expectantly.Aurelia stood up, but Molly quickly ushered her back down. ”No, no, not you, dear. You just got here.” Her husband and Remus moved to the kitchen counter to help, and Tonks followed Remus as they were in the middle of a debate about the Ministry. Moody and Kingsley hastily bid them goodbye, thanked Molly for dinner, and left. Aurelia was left at the table with only Black - no, Sirius, she corrected herself. She contemplated leaving as it was getting rather late, but Sirius seemed so genuinely delighted at the company that she allowed herself to stay a bit longer.”So you’re gonna be the Order’s inventor?””I’d like to help in that regard, yes.” She looked at him properly now that he was her only conversational partner. His dark hair was much longer than he wore it at Hogwarts, and his face seemed rather weary with much more lines than she remembered. He was also notably thin, which was understandable considering the circumstances. She doubted even Molly’s hearty portions could fix that in just a month. Despite the effects of Azkaban, he somehow managed to remain handsome, even though she wouldn’t call him pretty anymore.She probably wasn’t subtle in her assessment because he grinned knowingly. ”Haven’t aged well, have I?”She blushed a bit. ”I haven’t meant to stare.”He snorted. ”No, you haven’t meant for me to notice.””True.” Aurelia shrugged. ”You don’t look objectively bad, though. Your aging doesn’t even seem too much correlated with your life circumstances.”His laughter reminded her of a barking dog. ”That is certainly the oddest compliment on my looks I’ve ever gotten from a girl. You’re very charming.”He sounded playful despite the sarcasm she could hear in his voice. ”Yes, my mother complains about that frequently. So you’re in Harry’s guard? He’s your godson, right?”A somewhat pained expression crossed his face. ”He is, but I don’t guard him these days. I’d love to, of course, but I can’t leave the house.””Why not?””Dumbledore’ orders. Death Eaters will have known about my disguise by now, and the Ministry’s still after me, so according to Dumbledore, it’s an unnecessary risk.” He clearly wasn’t happy about it.”Still, you can’t even go for a walk? That can’t be good for your mental health.””Mental health? Like sanity, you mean?””It’s a muggle term. I know wizards mostly call mental illnesses madness,” she couldn’t keep the distaste from her voice, ”but muggles treat it more broadly and focus on how to keep the mind healthy as well as treating it when something’s already wrong. Scientists generally agree that no sunlight and no time spend outside sucks for you.””Well, that’s a new approach. I mean, it’s pretty intuitive when you say it, but it also sounds like something wizards would not say.” He looked thoughtful, then smirked. ”Maybe I should try that on Dumbledore. If anything, I may have the rare pleasure of seeing some brief confusion on his face.”She chuckled at that.Sirius leaned closer to her. ”So… you’re a Ravenclaw,” he announced quietly, like it was some sort of dirty secret.”Guilty as charged. Is this an exclusively Gryffindor group?””We have a token Hufflepuff - Tonks. And I guess a token Slytherin as well.” She realized he meant Snape. ”You can be our token Ravenclaw.”She snorted. ”Am I truly the only one?””Well, Minerva and Albus almost got there.”The sound of shattering glass suddenly pierced the air. They both startled and turned towards the sound - Tonks was profusely apologizing, Molly was leaning over Remus’ bleeding hand, and Arthur vanished the shards with a wave of his wand. Tonks and Remus were both sent back to the table, and everyone quickly fell into easy conversation. Aurelia found herself staying well into the night with them, even after Molly and Arthur left.
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The test of her fighting skills with Kingsley went… well. She supposed she was sufficient, but she was never one to be satisfied with sufficient. She was considered good for an Auror applicant but lacking for someone who was supposed to fight in war. At least, she was deemed skilled enough to guard Harry, she supposed. She really wanted to contribute in that regard since she wasn't suitable for guarding at the Ministry. Kingsley had also labeled her a "creative duelist", which was flattering enough, but it also implied a certain lack of traditional fighting skills, which she knew to be true. So far, she's been promised some lessons with Kingsley to compensate, but the Aurors were busy these days, so it had to wait a bit.To her delight, she also had a private lesson with Dumbledore, where he taught her how to send messages via Patronuses. The Patronus Charm had always been her strong suit, so she picked it up fast, pleasing the headmaster and prompting him to discuss Dementor protection with her for a while despite his lack of time.In spite of Kingsley taking over her assessment, she had not avoided Moody's interference. He still thought it his responsibility to enlighten her about the dangers of being a member of the Order of the Phoenix, which included a detailed description of all the gruesome ways she could be murdered. She felt mildly sick after his speech and barely ate dinner, making Molly concerned. Her focus was thankfully soon directed elsewhere as her children and Hermione arrived the day before, and her hands were full since then, especially with the twins often causing havoc with their products.Molly had warned her beforehand and pleaded with her not to make the idea of owning a Diagon Alley shop seem too appealing to the twins as they would surely ask her questions about it. However, Aurelia's job was something she was really passionate about, and it was impossible to keep the excitement out of her voice when she talked about it. Others seemed to notice it, too, and she usually had an inquisitive and notably entertaining audience of the twins, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks, whenever she started on the topic.Sirius in particular, seemed keenly interested. That was, of course, in times when he wasn't distancing himself. He was getting more and more restless by the day, and she didn't need to spend too much time with him to understand he was the sort of person who was used to acting, especially when he believed others were in danger. Still, these episodes were usually pushed aside whenever he had enough of a company - he seemed to be genuinely glad to socialize, which didn't surprise her at all as he had spent so many years in Azkaban alone."You know back when I was young, I used to be something of an inventor myself," he said one evening after she stayed past dinner to entertain the twins' questions.She raised her eyebrows. "Were you?""Oh yeah, Dad told us about the flying motorbike," Fred supplied."And you can't forget the map," added the other twin.Aurelia looked at Sirius. "Hmm, motorbike's handy, I'll give you that."He smirked, reminding her of the arrogant teenager he once was for a moment. "Girls were always impressed with that one."She scoffed. "I'm captivated strictly by the magical engineering aspect of it."He didn't seem convinced, the self-satisfaction not leaving his face. "Of course."She noticed the twins' thoughtful expressions and mumbled to Sirius: "Don't give them ideas."Fred and George put on innocent masks.Sirius snorted. "Trust me, they don't need help in that regard.""He‘s right," George - or was it Fred? - confirmed."So what map are you talking about?"Sirius and the twins gave her a thorough explanation of the Marauder's map, something that just from the description of it must have required quite an advanced magic to create. She would love to examine it herself, but it was currently in Harry's possession. The explanation also shed light on something from her past."So that's how James Potter knew so much about secret passages," she said without thinking.Sirius froze, and Aurelia only now realized it could be a sensitive topic for him. She opened her mouth to apologize, but he was faster: "How do you know that James knew of secret passages?"The twins apparently sensed the change in atmosphere because they quickly excused themselves and retired to bed. Aurelia frowned at Sirius' almost accusing gaze. "He told me.""James wouldn't tell anyone about the passages. It was our secret." He was drumming his long fingers against the dark wood of the dining table."I know, I-" she stopped and decided it would be better to start from the beginning. "James was the Head Boy when I was a first year. I- well, I got into some trouble back in the day."He raised his eyebrows at that, amused. "What could you possibly do, not return books on time?"She rolled her eyes. "Funny, but no. I mean, I wasn't a rule-breaker per se, I just didn't really care about the rules very much.""Sounds like a rule-breaker to me.""No, no. That's your Gryffindor thinking." She took a sip of her tea to gather her thoughts. "I just didn't really care about the rules. If they didn't get in my way, I followed them, but I just- er- never quite let them hold me back." She consciously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I was kinda experimenting with magic and trying to create things even back in my Hogwarts days, and not all my attempts were perfectly in adherence with the school rules, you see… or with law."He was grinning now. "A fellow criminal, then.""I'm not convicted of anything.""Well, I'm falsely convicted, so we're even."She didn't really think they were, but before she could argue further, he asked: "So how does James come into it?"Aurelia smiled. "James was very kind to me back then. The prefects or the professors would usually just try to discourage me - give me a detention or take points from Ravenclaw - when they caught me doing something off-bounds. James never questioned whatever it was I was attempting at the moment. He always asked me why my experiment failed and gave me advice and some useful tips. After I ended up being summoned to him a bit too regularly, he told me that the castle had some secret passages and that he was willing to show me one where I could do my experiments without anyone finding out."She smiled again as the memory came to her. "I had to solemnly swear I wouldn't tell anyone, though."Sirius was watching her, thoughtful. "Which passage was it?" he asked after a while."The one behind the mirror on the fourth floor, leading to Hogsmeade. It was quite spacious."There was a minute of silence as several different expressions crossed Sirius' face. "Yeah, that… sounds like James. He was always good with kids, especially the rebellious ones." His face twisted into a pained grimace."Sorry," Aurelia quickly offered. "I didn't really think twice before mentioning him. You must miss him a lot.""Every day," he agreed quietly. "But please, don't refrain from talking about him because of me. I'm glad to talk about James, Lily as well - it's just a bit difficult sometimes.""I understand," she said softly."I just wish Harry could have known him for longer than he did. James would have been an amazing father.""True," Aurelia smiled sadly. "At least Harry's got you now."Sirius' smile was a bit bitter. "I don't really feel like I'm contributing enough, to be honest."She thought for a moment, recalling a piece of information she once overheard. "But you're the only adult he writes to, aren't you? The only one he confides in."That seemed to make him pause. "Well, yes, that's true, but I could have- if I had the chance, a real chance, I could have done so much more for him." The emotion on his face felt very raw."You both have been dealt some awful cards to work with," said Aurelia gently. "You're doing the best you can at the moment. That has to be enough."He took a swing of Firewhisky. "I do hope you're right."It didn't take long after Kingsley's clearance, and Aurelia was assigned on her first "Harry duty" as she dubbed it. So far, she's been on two duties, and she quickly learned it mainly consisted of two activities: 1) survey the most generic-looking house she had ever seen, and 2) follow a teenage boy aimlessly wandering through the neighborhood.Harry was a mirror image of James, though he seemed a bit thinner than she remembered James Potter being. She hadn't really seen him from up too close, so as not to risk being discovered, invisibility cloak aside, but he sure seemed to resemble his father a lot. However - at the moment at least - he certainly lacked James' liveliness.He seemed very, very bored. She supposed he had that in common with Sirius, although the boy was at least able to get out of the house for a bit. Not that it was very pleasant in this weather, the heat was getting unbearable. She half wished the boy would stay inside or choose a place with more shade to hang out in, but he seemed oddly determined to avoid being inside the house as much as possible. Not that she blamed him, from what she had seen of his aunt and uncle.She reported about her Harry duties to Sirius, who was gathering the Order's recollections on that matter and reporting anything of importance - which was really not much - to Dumbledore. With the watches being notably uneventful, the Order members' reports usually went along the lines of "All clear" or "Nothing unusual", which Aurelia found out only after the second time she spent at least half an hour detailing her watch to a surprisingly attentive Sirius while trying to pinpoint some entertaining details and sharing her little observations with him, just to make it at least a little bit more interesting than it actually was.Sirius, oddly, never mentioned that the reports were typically dealt with in two words, and when she came back from a watch after getting swapped with Molly, from whom she gained this new knowledge, he was already waiting for her with a cup of tea. She felt it would be quite weird to just suddenly tell him "All clear" and leave, and thinking about it, she didn't really mind spending her free time talking to him. No, she didn't mind that at all.The sound of Emmeline Vance choking on her wine woke Aurelia up from her lethargy. She had been looking forward to this Order meeting for a week now. Dumbledore had promised to share with them a part of his reasoning behind why they were guarding the prophecy in the first place, mainly on Sirius' insistence. She didn't expect to be told everything, of course, but she couldn't wait to get at least some basic information because right now, she felt like she was very much in the dark. The meeting had a rough start as it was a bit postponed by an extensive scene during which Molly discovered a pair of Extendable Ears and a pack of spying children, while Mrs Black rediscovered her hatred for blood traitors and filth of all kinds, but not long after, they were all finally sat in the chairs of the Grimmauld's place basement kitchen.Aurelia barely listened to the formalities at the beginning - Emmeline's wine incident had been the most interesting thing happening so far. Or perhaps it was just the weather, the heat made it quite hard to focus.Dumbledore smoothed down his purple robes. "As some of you are eagerly waiting for," - he looked at Sirius and then met her own eyes - "today, I will explain why we are guarding the prophecy at the Department of Mysteries."The room awoke. Some people began chattering excitedly, while others straightened in their chairs or leaned closer.The headmaster adjusted his glasses. "While the prophecy does contain important information about Harry Potter and Voldemort that could have disastrous consequences if it ended up in Voldemort's hands, it is not the only reason why we are defending it. I am sure some of you have already figured this out."A few people, Aurelia included, nodded."Right now, Voldemort has limited resources, given he only came back a short while ago, and a large chunk of his Death Eaters is at Azkaban. He naturally focuses on recruiting new followers and gaining back some of his past strength. The Ministry's unfortunate stance creates an optimal position for him to freely do so. We need to convince the world he is back, but as you may have realized, it probably won't happen without hard proof.""So we're hoping Voldemort will eventually show up at the Ministry himself?" Kingsley asked."Yes."Aurelia took a sip of water. Some people looked surprised, but for most, it was more of a confirmation than brand-new information.Dumbledore continued: "At the same time, guarding the prophecy as diligently as we do ensures that Voldemort believes it is indeed of great value and focuses his limited forces, and most importantly his rather obsessive mind, towards this one goal.""It's better than not knowing what he might be up to," murmured Moody."Indeed. However, I wouldn't like you to start thinking of the prophecy as less valuable than it is because of this."Aurelia raised her hand.Professor McGonagall chuckled. "We're not at Hogwarts, Miss Conlan. I am sure Albus won't mind if you speak without raising your hand.""Right." Reli felt herself blushing. "I meant to ask: Am I correct in assuming our main objective is to prevent You-Know-Who from having the prophecy? Not obtaining the prophecy for ourselves?"Dumbledore exchanged a hard-to-read look with Sirius. "Yes, that is a perfectly correct assumption."She opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question, but the headmaster silenced her with a gesture. "I must ask you to keep any theories you may have on this matter to yourself. Information is dangerous, and right now, all of you know as much as you need to know."Aurelia disagreed with this on principle but didn't press further. If anything, this had just confirmed her theory.The rest of the meeting flew by without anything remarkable happening, and just when Reli thought it would be dismissed, Moody raised a question about the lack of functioning invisibility cloaks the Order could use. This captured Aurelia's interest as it was an area where she could - perhaps - be useful."… so you see, Albus, there's only three for all of us, which is not nearly enough.""Yes, but invisibility cloaks are near impossible to acquire," Kingsley said in his deep calming voice."And extremely expensive as well," added Mr Weasley.Reli made a motion to raise her hand before catching herself and aborting the attempt. "I could probably get us more."People shifted their attention to her, surprised."How?" Kingsley asked. "They are barely available for the Auror Department to obtain."Reli looked away from his prying eyes, nervous about what she was about to confess. "Ehm… because of my job, I have a lot of contacts in Europe and several in other continents. Both the legal market and er - the black market. You see some artifacts require special ingredients and…" she let the rest of the sentence fade away, and when she noticed Dumbledore's expression, she quickly added: "No black magic, though. As far as I know, it's all mostly ethical, just a bit… hmm… outside the law."She glanced at the three law enforcers of the Order. Moody's eye was observing her suspiciously, Kingsley looked thoughtful, and she was sure he was going to do a background check on her, and Tonks was grinning wickedly.Mundungus apparently felt like she needed his support: "Nothing to worry 'bout, dear. I, for one, wouldn't judge you for a little black market shenanigans, do that all the time myself."Aurelia shuffled uncomfortably, not wanting to be put in the same bracket as Mundungus, who was, very simply put, a thief.Sirius patted Mundungus on the shoulder. "I think there's a slight but substantial difference in what the two of you do on the black market, Mundungus, but I'm sure Aurelia appreciates your support."She nodded politely, and some people laughed. Dumbledore stepped in before Molly could voice her disagreement. "We are at war. I'm sure a bit of ehm-shady business practices in the name of invention are something we can tolerate perfectly fine. Am I to understand your contacts can get us additional cloaks, Miss Conlan?"Aurelia thought about it. "Eventually, yes. I would have to arrange a meeting with them. It's too risky to communicate our intentions directly via owls. It may take some time, but I should be able to get some.""We do need the cloaks." Moody decided for everyone. "Survival is more important than ethics.""But how will we pay for them?" Remus asked.Reli shrugged. "My business' doing well. I could buy a few for the Order."A few people began to protest, and someone from the back of the table offered: "I can spare some money for an invisibility cloak as well."Dumbledore silenced the discussion with a raised hand. "We will do it this way. Whoever wants to ask Miss Conlan to get them a cloak to buy at their own expense can do so." He turned to Moody. "How many extra cloaks do we need as of now?""Hmm… At least two, I'd say.""Then Ms Conlan and I will buy one each, and these will be shared…"Aurelia accepted thanks from the other members, and the meeting was finally declared over. She was just washing her glass in the sink when Sirius rounded her up. "Stay a bit, will you? I need to talk to you."Aurelia frowned, curious about what he might want. "All right."Molly, who was washing dishes by her side, threw them an inquisitive glance. It made Reli feel irrationally embarrassed, and she uselessly continued to wash her already perfectly clean glass."Well, I'll leave you to it, then." Molly waved her wand, and the dishes neatly arranged themselves on the counter. "Goodnight."They both bid her goodnight, and soon they were left alone in the kitchen. Sirius turned to her. "So what's your theory?" He looked equal measure curious and apprehensive."Hmm?" She knew what he was referring to but needed some time to think about her response."You know what I mean. The prophecy."She had half a mind to tell him she was basically ordered not to talk about it by Dumbledore, but his determined expression suggested he wouldn't just let this go. Right. This was about his godson, after all.He must have noticed her struggle because he added: "I would really like to know, and the general opinion is that I am quite headstrong by disposition. Butterbeer?" He summoned two bottles non-verbally and handed one to her."Fine." She took a swing from her bottle and propped herself up to sit on the kitchen counter. With Sirius being as tall as he was, this made them roughly the same height. "So someone besides the seer had to hear the prophecy, given seers don't remember the contents of their predictions afterward, right?""Correct." He was watching her expectantly."Someone also had to warn the Potters the prophecy was about them.""Correct as well.""So, given how unfazed Dumbledore is about the contents of the prophecy, which could hold crucial information for war, my theory is that he, in fact, knows what the prophecy is about. Either he heard it himself, or he found out from the person who did." She paused to drink. "Meaning we don't really need the prophecy - we just need to keep it from You-Know-Who."Sirius raised his butterbeer in a tiny toast. "Good deduction."She narrowed her eyes. "You knew!"He chuckled. "Of course. For one, I am Harry's godfather, and for two, I have a functioning brain. It occurred to me it was a possibility when Dumbledore first told me about the prophecy, and he confirmed it when I asked." He took a sip of his butterbeer. "I did not ask publicly, though.""Me neither.""You almost did. That would be a bit of a security hazard.""You don't trust the Order?" She supposed it made sense for him to be careful, given his past, but it was hard for her to imagine someone from the Order would willingly betray them.Sirius shook his head. "I do trust them, but this is not just a matter of trust, but a tactical decision as well. Information like that is best to keep between as few people as possible. It's bad enough that you know now."She folded her arms across her chest. "I also have a functioning brain."He grinned at that. "I noticed."It didn't take long for Aurelia to grow quite comfortable in the Order. She grew fond of several Order members and shed some of her initial shyness. She almost forgot they were actually at war. The next day, she got reminded rather harshly with a Patronus message from Tonks about an emergency meeting. Harry was attacked.
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Dumbledore's silence was worse than Molly's yelling. Aurelia felt uncomfortable during the whole meeting, and she only got to Grimmauld's place after Dumbledore reprimanded Mundungus. From the expressions of other Order members, she could tell that they, too, weren't used to seeing the headmaster in this state of anger. More than a few people were a bit distraught, however. Harry was forced to conjure a Patronus to defend himself from a pair of Dementors, and apparently, the Ministry meant to immediately expel him for it. Dumbledore hurried there as soon as he found out and managed to negotiate a proper trial for him. Arthur, who was at the Ministry at the time, sent Harry a letter to give him some basic information and prevent him from leaving the house, and Sirius quickly followed with a note of his own. Everyone was now anxious about what the future held for Harry.Sirius himself seemed much more restless than angry. He was pacing relentlessly, distractedly drumming his fingers against the tableboard while sitting, and generally looked like he was ready to get up and set off to Harry at any given second.The emergency meeting was almost entirely about the organization of an operation whose goal was to bring Harry to Grimmauld's place, as it was decided he was no longer safe at his aunt and uncle's house. A team of volunteers tasked with ensuring his safe arrival was chosen. So many Order members raised their hand to volunteer that Dumbledore had to refuse a few, Aurelia including. She did not take it personally as she wasn't as battle-savvy as many of the other members, but she felt slightly disappointed nonetheless. A new meeting was scheduled on the evening of Harry's arrival, where they were supposed to discuss everything further since too many people couldn't stay long at this one, given how short notice it was. It was crucial they remain as inconspicuous as possible.They were in the middle of the eagerly awaited meeting when Harry finally arrived. They originally meant to wait for the rescue team, but when they were running late, probably because of the awful weather, Dumbledore decided to begin without them. He had no time to spare, and he counted on the present members to pass on the information later.They were given an overview of the situation at the Ministry and listened to Snape's newest report, which didn't contain any particularly significant information. A lively discussion about how a pair of Dementors ended up in Harry's vicinity took up a good half an hour. No feasible conclusion was drawn as the idea of Voldemort randomly sending two Dementors seemed a bit odd, and Mundungus' theory that the Ministry itself sent the Dementors was too far-fetched for most of the Order members. They all agreed that it was likely that the Ministry didn't control the Dementors the way they surely thought they did, but they had no evidence, no proof of anything. One way or another, Harry Potter potentially getting expelled would be very convenient for the Ministry, serving to discredit both him and Dumbledore. The members working at the Ministry were tasked with trying to find out more about the situation as Dumbledore thought it probable they could try to manipulate things on their behalf.When Harry's rescue team arrived at last, Molly quickly slipped out to show Harry to his room - Sirius stayed as he was just giving his opinion on their tactic regarding the guarding of the prophecy. Aurelia noticed he was quite passionate about strategy matters.After the meeting was dismissed, she joined the group of people staying for dinner. She was very curious to finally officially meet Harry. She and Bill Weasley were just pondering how to best wake the sleeping Mundungus when a loud crash interrupted them."That's probably Tonks again," remarked Arthur.A familiar voice quickly followed Tonks' suit. Sirius sighed and shot up to his feet. "And that's my dearest mother." He charged upstairs to silence her, and Aurelia began to gather the rolls of parchment containing the layout of the Department of Mysteries as Mr Weasley and Bill fell into a quiet debate.By the time Sirius brought Harry downstairs, the scrolls were still not safely put away, which prompted Molly to reprimand her son and husband, and all of them quickly tidied up the incriminating evidence to protect them from kids' prying eyes. After Harry was invited to take a seat by Sirius, Aurelia extended her hand to him."Hi, I'm Reli Conlan. I've actually met you before, but you wouldn't know - I was one of the people assigned to watch over you during this summer.""Oh." The boy didn't seem very pleased about being watched, she could tell. "Nice to meet you." He smiled at her politely and shook her hand.Sirius dropped to a seat next to Harry. "Yes, that's Aurelia, our lovely Ravenclaw inventor. And this - " he pointed to a sleeping Mundungus - "is another member of your summer guard, although notably less successful one. Meet Mundungus."Mundungus awoke and took a moment to regain his sense of time and place. Then he asked Harry a series of guilt-driven questions and gave him a flimsy apology followed by an explanation about his whereabouts. The boy turned his attention back to her. "I didn't know wizards could be inventors."Reli explained her job to him and spent some time answering his curious questions about it before Harry directed his attention to Sirius again, and they talked about his holiday.She glanced at Sirius when he told Harry he would have welcomed a Dementor attack - she suspected it was not as encouraging for the boy as he probably thought it was. She also somehow doubted Sirius actually missed the Dementors - it was an action he seemed to crave. And a reason to get out of this house, understandably.She also noted Mundungus had an undeniable interest in Sirius' silverware and wondered if he considered stealing from a fellow Order member off-bounds or if she would sometime in the future come across Sirius' silverware on the black market. Sirius seemed to be too occupied by his distaste towards the silver goblet with Black's family crest to notice. Her thought process was suddenly interrupted by an attack of a cauldron of stew, a flagon of Butterbeer and a wooden headboard with a knife. This turned out to be the work of Fred and George, who currently had the habit of bewitching anything they came across. Not that Aurelia had been any different when she was their age.Harry, Sirius and Reli began laughing as Molly yelled at her children, coming abruptly to a stop when she mentioned Percy. Aurelia had been in the Order for long enough to know about the Percy situation, but she had yet to be accustomed to the uncomfortable atmosphere that appeared whenever someone mentioned him in front of the Weasley parents. Bill quickly suggested they eat, and soon, everyone was enjoying their portions of stew, forgetting about the incident. To Sirius' dismay, the topic of cleaning was raised, and Tonks was once again entertaining the girls with her Metamorphmagus abilities.The rest of the dinner flew by quickly until Sirius broke the relaxed atmosphere by questioning Harry about his lack of inquiry about You-Know-Who. The air in the room got tense, and a series of protests followed. Molly didn't seem to want Harry to know anything, while Fred and George complained about being denied information despite being older than him. Soon, the conversation turned into a dialogue between Sirius and Molly, one that felt very much like an argument.Aurelia frowned when Molly mentioned Dumbledore's order not to tell Harry more than he needed to know. In her opinion, that could be interpreted in a variety of ways, and personally, she thought the more information, the better. One way or another, this was Sirius' decision, as he was the boy's rightful guardian. She followed the argument some more until Molly dropped: "He's not James, Sirius", and Reli shuffled uncomfortably in her chair. She never found Sirius to be confused about who Harry is. He obviously missed James, but that was just it, she supposed. He was lonely. That didn't necessarily mean he thought of his godson the same as of his dead best friend. From what she could tell, Aurelia found Sirius to be quite paternal towards Harry.The convo continued, and both Molly and Sirius were gradually raising their voices. At one point, Molly demanded the support of her husband, but to Aurelia's surprise, he - although very softly - agreed with Sirius. Remus gently inserted himself in with a reasonable suggestion to give Harry a general picture of the situation by themselves to avoid having him find out from other sources. Aurelia also spoke up to support this, remembering the Extendable Ears twins showed her at some point. She didn't even want to imagine what the kids' theories were composed of since they were only getting random pieces of information.She thought the crisis had been averted when Molly admitted to being overruled, but Sirius quietly interrupted her speech. "He's not your son."Molly's response that Harry was "as good as" made Aurelia feel warmth for her, which promptly disappeared when she uttered her following question. "Who else has he got?"She glanced at Sirius and met Remus' eyes as he did the same, and she suddenly felt like they understood each other."He's got me!" Sirius exclaimed, anger seeping into his voice."Yes." Mrs Weasley's lip curled. Aurelia did not think she meant bad, but Merlin, at the moment, she really did not read the room. "The thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"Reli flinched.Sirius started to rise from his chair, his face unusually pale."Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry." Remus' voice was uncharacteristically sharp. "Sirius, sit down."In the next few moments, barely anyone dared to breathe while Sirius sank heavily into his chair.Aurelia cleared her throat and hesitantly spoke up: "Look, I know I don't have a say in this, but it seems to me that both of you want to protect Harry, just through different means."The people in the room turned to her, and she suddenly felt self-conscious. This really wasn't her business. "I just think that in Harry's case, it's important to acknowledge that usual means of protection which work well with other children may not apply here." She was now speaking to Molly directly. "From what I've heard about Harry, he seems a bit prone to acting before thinking and regularly ends up in trouble, despite adults - and Dumbledore himself - protecting him. Perhaps - I mean, I just think we can't really hope to-" She realized that what she was about to say sounded too harsh for Harry's ears and quickly glanced at him."You can't protect me," he finished for her."That's not entirely correct," Aurelia said softly. "It's just that with You-Know-Who after you, I don't think we can afford not to account for a situation where we fail to protect you and you get into danger. Where you'll need to make decisions." She turned back to the adults. "I'm not saying we should share details about what we're doing, but just give him the general picture, like Remus said, so that he can make informed decisions, just in case we fail to protect him."Sirius' stare fixed her in place, and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. "It's your decision, though. You're his guardian." Reli waved her hand in acknowledgement, in case he thought she was speaking out of turn."Oh, no, I completely agree with you. Truly." His gaze was too intense for her, so she averted her eyes."That does sound reasonable, Molly," said Arthur gently, and his wife sighed.Remus nodded. "Yes. And I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this. He's old enough to decide for himself.""I want to know what's been going on." The boy's response was very quick.Molly sighed again, and seemed to give up, turning her attention to her remaining children, whose rightful guardian she very much was. After a series of dramatic protests and fights, Weasley's youngest daughter, Ginny, was the only member successfully sent upstairs, and the questioning finally began. Following the Weasley clan, Harry and Hermione's retirement to bed (rather abrupt one as Molly firmly cut off the questioning after Sirius mentioned the weapon), Sirius pulled her aside under the guise of helping him take the rest of the wine back into the pantry.He was not saying anything for a good minute, and she almost thought she misunderstood his intentions, but really, it did not take two people to return one half-full wine bottle to the shelf. Sure enough, he turned to her. "Thank you for supporting my case." He took care arranging the bottle, and unlike before, he did not meet her eyes. "You didn't have to do that."Aurelia frowned. "Well, I was being honest. Had an opinion, so I shared it.""Right, I just wanted to tell you that you put it well, and you were right. I really am trying to protect Harry by this, not put him in danger, despite what people might think." He let go of the wine bottle and turned to her, hooking his thumbs into his pockets. "I wasn't coherent enough to explain myself back there. Touchy subject.""Yeah, that's understandable," she said quietly.Sirius leaned against the shelf and looked up at the cobwebs covering the ceiling. "To be fair, I rarely have the desire to explain myself to people.""That must get you into a lot of unnecessary trouble."He chuckled bitterly. "Yeah. As evidenced by my life story."Reli stepped closer to him. The dim light of the pantry softened his features, but his expression was as melancholic as he often wore it these days."It can't be entirely my fault, however. I'm convinced there's something about me that makes it easy for people to write me off as reckless and immature," he murmured.She gently nudged him with her elbow. "It's probably the hair."Sirius grinned and actually winked at her. "I think you solved it. All I gotta do is show up at the Ministry with a Molly-approved haircut and some freshly ironed robes. I heard Lucius is sporting one of those fancy walking sticks. Might get one of these as well."Reli laughed, and he beamed down at her."You should try pastel tones for the robes," she suggested, and it was Sirius' turn to chuckle.The door to the pantry swung open, and Remus half-walked in before freezing in the doorway. He hesitated and inspected them curiously. "Am I interrupting something?""We were just returning the bottle." Sirius pointed towards the wine on the shelf. It was a ridiculous explanation, but he was somehow pulling it off. Aurelia could certainly use some of his confidence."Of course." Remus did not look convinced. "I'll leave you to it, then."Both she and Sirius began to protest, and they swiftly left the pantry to make space for Remus. Reli felt a blush creep up to her cheeks, a completely misplaced one, in her opinion. After all, they had only been chatting. There was nothing about chatting that required Remus to hesitate and choose to leave them alone and Reli herself to blush. Nothing at all.
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Aurelia stopped at the Order headquarters frequently, mostly for the company. Since she didn't have a fixed work schedule, she sometimes stayed to help Molly, Sirius and the kids clean. She originally thought it would be a few week's matter, but it turned out that the house was a tough nut to crack. Reli suspected the cleaning crew would have enough work to last them for the rest of the summer. There was still tension between Sirius and Molly from their previous fight, but they both seemed capable of putting their differences aside, careful to be polite to each other.One member of the Black household, whose company she certainly didn't seek, was the house elf Kreacher, a passionate defender of everything related to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, with the exception of his Master Sirius. Kreacher was… well, difficult didn't do it justice. Dumbledore insisted the Order and especially Sirius are nice to him, but Kreacher, being a walking insult machine, made it extremely difficult. Sirius never even attempted it and, just right off the bat, decided that ignoring Kreacher was the best course of action. Remus told her the house elf reminded him too much of his childhood, and Reli knew Sirius' memories of that time weren't exactly sunshine and rainbows. Speaking strictly for herself, she had no issue with coping with Kreacher's insults. He mostly called her a blood traitor, which hadn't affected her much.Mrs Black was much more creative in that regard, calling Reli a "disruptor of her noble ancestors' traditions" (she supposed it was to do with her job) and, on one occasion, a "filthy stain on an otherwise noble family line". Despite herself, she was a bit impressed with Walburga Black's spell work as the portrait somehow had the ability to recognize her as her mother's daughter before meeting her prior. She once naively attempted to interrogate the portrait for information on its magic workings, but Mrs Black couldn't be reasoned with. Aurelia suspected the portrait had been specifically cursed to defend the house from anything it deemed impure - it seemed incapable of normal conversation. It had one bright side, as Reli's apparent impertinence rendered Mrs Black, although temporarily, speechless.Harry's hearing took place on the 12th of August. Aurelia heard of his clearance later from Tonks at the following celebratory dinner at Grimmauld's place. Everyone was relieved, and an unusually joyful atmosphere took over the room. The only person who didn't seem quite genuinely happy - only at a second glance, however - was Sirius. His mental state had been getting gradually worse the longer he was stuck in the house, and she heard Dumbledore refused to let him accompany Harry to the Ministry prior to the hearing. It seemed the news of Harry's clearance cemented Sirius' fate of being left alone at Grimmauld's place after Harry's departure to Hogwarts and was the main culprit behind his moodiness.She did not think he was actually hoping Harry would be expelled, not at all, but all the loneliness from Azkaban clearly took a toll on him. His mood was very infectious, and it had a tendency to slowly take over the whole household. Sirius seemed aware of this, however, as he often isolated himself and did his best to be a nice, supportive godfather to Harry. The issue was that right now, he simply did not have the capacity to do so well enough.This evening, she again came to the Grimmauld's place to find Sirius missing - he seemed to be solving his episodes of sadness by isolating himself in his mother's bedroom, now occupied by Buckbeak. Reli was recently assigned to a group of Order members who would be guarding Harry once at Hogwarts - or rather outside of them, such as during his visits to Hogsmeade, and Remus recommended she should ask Sirius about Harry's habits and "potential secret passages exits" from which he could in case of emergency or misbehaviour emerge. Thus, Sirius' frequent withdrawals were delaying this conversation, and to be completely honest with herself, Reli also kind of missed him.After mentioning it to Remus, he suggested she should just go upstairs and try to talk to him anyway. He said she might have better luck than the rest of the people who tried, which ended up being only Remus, as Aurelia found out after asking. For some reason, Sirius tended to come off as a bit intimidating to others, she noticed. Remus accompanied her to the stairs and supplied her with the directions to the master bedroom, and after reassuring Reli several times that it was indeed appropriate for her to do this, she went.She found the bedroom without difficulties and knocked twice on the door. When no answer came, she carefully opened the door and peeked in.She was met with the intense yellow eyes of Buckbeak, the hippogriff.Reli froze. For a fraction of a second, she panicked and saw her hesitance reflect in the hippogriff's eyes. Then her Hogwarts lessons came to her, and she bowed, careful to keep eye contact. Buckbeak assessed her for a couple of tense seconds, but to her relief, he bent his legs and bowed his head."Good Buckbeak," she petted his feathers. "Good hippogriff." He seemed satisfied with the praise. "Is Sirius here?"Buckbeak screeched in response, and Aurelia looked behind him to survey the room. The once mighty master bedroom did not do well housing a hippogriff. The room was a mess, the huge bed made into Buckbeak's nest, feathers all over the place, and there were remains of what appeared to be dead rats in the corner of the room. No sign of Sirius.Aurelia petted Buckbeak once more for good measure before saying her goodbye and closing the door. She was just thinking she would just return downstairs when a raspy voice behind started muttering, startling her: "It's the blood traitor woman - Kreacher bets she's looking for his Master, that ungrateful criminal. He's not in there, no, Kreacher wonders-""Hello, Kreacher," she interrupted him brightly. "Would you happen to know where Sirius is?"Kreacher turned to her with a look of pure distaste and bowed. "Master is in his room.""In his room?" Somehow, Aurelia assumed he slept with Buckbeak, but, of course, he would have his own room here - it was his childhood home, after all. "Would you tell me where that is?"But Kreacher was already going away, clearly purposefully ignoring her. "Wait, Kreacher!" she ran and caught up with him at the stairs. "Look, if I try to find it on my own, I may unknowingly stumble somewhere Sirius' ancestors wouldn't want me to, or even-" - she lowered her voice - "accidentally misplace or break something belonging to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black."Kreacher looked at her with his shrewd old eyes, clearly in battle with himself. "Kreacher didn't know Mistress cared about House Black's possessions.""Oh, I do, I do. I-uh - I also have ancestors," she said in a tone she hoped indicated her understanding of the importance of Noble houses.Kreacher hesitated. "Master's room is on the fourth floor labeled with Master's name." He bowed again and gave her one last suspecting look before disappearing."Thanks!" She continued upstairs, stopping at the fourth and final floor. There were only two doors, both labeled with names. She anticipated Regulus' name before seeing it - she knew him from school, after all. Aurelia stared at the pompous name tag for a second, momentarily lost in memories of the ever-proper and arrogant Slytherin boy. Then she turned and knocked on the door, whose label read Sirius.She heard some shuffling sounds from behind the door, and soon, it swung open, revealing a notably surprised Sirius. "Reli?" He looked her up and down. "What do I owe the pleasant surprise?"She shuffled, unsure if she was not intruding when he clearly went up here to be alone. "Remus said I should go find you. I wanted to ask something regarding Harry's guarding duties." She inspected him more closely now, her gaze lingering on his unkempt hair and the few day's stubble on his jaw."Wasn't expecting guests," he explained and fastened a loosened button of his robe. Were his cheeks slightly pink?"Oh, I'm sorry for coming unannounced. I would have asked you at dinner, but you've been missing lately."He nodded. "Yeah, we may have missed each other. I was just taking some time to… er-think."The room behind him shone bright red, a stark contrast to the dark and gloomy colouring of the rest of the house. He noticed where she was looking and stepped aside so she would get a better view. "I was in Gryffindor if you couldn't tell." He waved his hand. "You can come inside if you want."She was too curious not to.The room was very spacious, with a large bed and old fancy-looking furniture. Reli's attention was immediately caught by the impressive amount of posters and pictures plastered to the walls. Sirius clearly made sure to highlight all the ways he was different from his family with the classic teenage tactic of parent-provoking wall decoration.She nodded towards the banners. "Did you steal that from your common room?"He smirked. "Oh, yeah. Took one each time I went back here for a summer holiday. Didn't even get into trouble for that - the house elves always just replaced them without telling anyone."Reli inspected the room further, skimming the many pictures of Muggle motorcycles, each from a different angle, some even showing sketches of their inner workings. She smiled at the photograph of James, Sirius, Remus and Pettigrew, turning back to Sirius to comment on it when she caught a glimpse of something peculiar from behind his shoulder.She quickly walked over to the source of her amazement and stared at the few posters of what appeared to be beautiful Muggle women in bikinis. She gave an incredulous chuckle. "Oh, Merlin."Sirius laughed. "It was a noble act of rebellion against the prejudiced ways of this house, you see."The portrait of his mother came to her mind. "You should be in Gryffindor for that feat only."He grinned at that. "That's what James said as well.""So.. who even are they? Some celebrities?""Oh, I've got no clue - I just cared that they were Muggle and half-naked.""Right," she shook her head with a smile."Don't say your room doesn't have any compromising material." Sirius stepped closer to her and raised his well-shaped eyebrow. "I bet you had a poster of-" He seized her up. "Hmm, I wouldn't beg you for a Quidditch girl. Some famous librarian, maybe?"She snorted. "Very funny.""Or maybe Lockhart? You mentioned him earlier when we talked about the upcoming naming of Hogwarts prefects, and as a Ravenclaw yourself, you had a perfect opportunity to get that one signed."Reli laughed at that. "True, but sadly, he's never been my type.""Too blonde?" He was quite close now, and his eyes sparkled with mirth. If Reli didn't know better, she would have thought he was flirting with her.She blushed at the thought and pretended to think. "His teeth were too shiny. There was also the part where he was a cowardly pathological liar, so…”"No posters of brave truth-tellers in your bedroom then?”She laughed. "I am twenty-nine, a bit too old for posters like that if you ask me.""Here I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to value originality."Their conversation was interrupted by the loud screeching of his mother bellow, and Sirius blinked. "Merlin, I forgot McGonagall's coming to pass the message from Dumbledore today. I better go - she and my mother in the same room really don't make for a good combination.""Of course, I'll go with you." She suddenly remembered why it was that she sought his presence in the first place. "And then we can talk about the matter of Harry's guarding."On the last day of the holiday, Reli got a message from Molly inviting her to a celebration of Ron and Hermione's naming as the new prefects at Hogwarts. She took her up on the offer and arrived along with a notable number of other Order members. The dinner hall was decorated with a scarlet banner congratulating the kids on their naming, and the table was full of tasty cuisine. Molly was clearly ecstatic. The celebration had a considerable attendance - Tonks, Kingsley, and all of the Weasleys except Charlie (and Percy, of course) arrived, Moody finally appeared after being away from the headquarters for a while, and Mundungus came dressed in a cloak under which he was poorly concealing some no doubt illegal goods.After they toasted to Ron and Hermione, everyone moved to eat, and the room was soon filled with sounds of pleasant chatting. Reli couldn't help but notice that while Harry seemed happy for his friends, sometimes, his expression turned thoughtful, and his smile felt a bit forced. She supposed it made sense - she heard others talk about the upcoming prefect naming a couple of times before, and everyone thought it would go to the boy.Reli joined the now read-headed Tonks at the table - she was just jesting about how her inability to behave herself cost her the prefect position. Reli resonated with that as her situation had been rather similar. She laughed along with Sirius and Remus when Ginny asked if Sirius had been a prefect and noticed Harry seemed relieved upon hearing his answer."And what about you, Reli?""Me?" She chuckled. "No, no. I got the grades for it, but I didn't care about the rules much. It's the key requirement for the position, somehow."Others laughed, and they moved to discuss the ups and downs of the position, then arrived at the subject of prefects they knew and their subsequent achievements on the inquiry of Hermione. Noticing Harry's carefully guarded expression, Aurelia tried to comfort him. "Well, being a prefect isn't always a guarantee of future success, right? We - I mean Ravenclaw - had Barty Crouch, and look how he ended up." She got momentarily lost in memories. "And then there was also Gilderoy."This sparked the children's attention. "Lockhart?""The one and only."They ate after that, Aurelia sitting with Ginny and Tonks, who were quite interested in her stories about Lockhart's time at Hogwarts. Soon, Reli got lost in all the conversations, and the evening flew by faster than she had thought possible.When she thought it was finally time to leave to retire to her quite comfortable bed, Moody came in with an old photograph of the original Order of the Phoenix. He had just proudly announced he showed it to Harry, and his second audience of choice seemed to be Sirius and Remus. Reli, Tonks and a few other people joined in out of curiosity, and Moody began pointing the individual people to them. Original Order members seemed to be all delighted at this discovery - they shared small stories and fragments of resurfaced memories, fondly remembering their lost friends and family.For the new Order members, however, it had quite the opposite effect. It didn't help that Moody told them exactly how each late member died, and looking at their young faces made Aurelia's stomach clench. They were so, so young.She quickly understood the situation of the first Order had been far more dire and dangerous than what they were doing now. When Remus said it was different now than it was before, it was just words for her, but seeing the actual real people who were killed, she realized he was right. They truly had it good right now. No wonder Sirius talked so often about dying for the Order - back at the time when they were fighting the first war, dying for the Order was the most likely outcome of being in the Order.Moody's commentary was unexpectedly interrupted by an incident with a boggart, after which Sirius and Remus came back downstairs looking unusually pale, and most people quickly retired to bed. She contemplated going, too, but when Sirius sank to the chair next to her heavily, she didn't have the heart to just leave."Are you all right?" she asked carefully.He turned to look at her. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was just a boggart." He looked rather haunted despite his words. She watched him with concern, which Sirius seemed to notice because he waved his hand. "It's fine, I don't really want to talk about it."Reli nodded in understanding - she suspected she had a good idea about what he saw up there. Remus returned from the pantry with three bottles of butterbeer and put them on the table before them.Sirius nodded at her. "You also look like something's bothering you a bit, though."She hesitated before deciding it was no use to struggle with it alone, so she asked Sirius and Remus about the photograph again - and they painted her a picture of the first war that was far more brutal and spine-chilling than what she remembered herself. She now fully realized how much more experienced the older members of the Order of the Phoenix really were. They - and Sirius especially - had been in many fights and duels with Death Eaters, some of them being downright deadly ambushes. After hearing some of Sirius' stories about his "adventures", she understood very well why everyone had been so apprehensive of him after his Azkaban escape. On their side, or You-Know-Who's, the man was dangerous.She supposed it was apparent in her face because Remus smiled. "Sirius was always great at fighting. He was a natural."Sirius shrugged. "It's a useful skill in a fighting organization.""I bet." She took a swing of her butterbeer. "I liked dueling in Hogwarts," she admitted. "But I didn't really have any reason to fight after that.""Not even during your very shady, very secret black market activities?" Sirius asked. "I heard that can get dangerous."No doubt from Mundungus, she thought. "That's true, it can. But I've always been the type of person to predict danger and take measures to avoid it. The black market's not war - usually, only the short-sighted get into that sort of trouble.""Yeah, I doubt Mundungus is this calculating.""Or maybe he's just exaggerating."Remus frowned, looking concerned. "Aren't you supposed to be getting some lessons from Moody?""I am, but I'm not getting any yet. You know, the Aurors are very busy nowadays. It's gotta wait.""You're not?" Sirius roughly put his butterbeer down, and a bit of the drink overflew.She and Remus both turned to him, Aurelia taken aback by the sharpness of his reaction.Sirius half stood up, then came back to himself and sat back down. "I will tell Moody to step up and make some time for you in his schedule. Or Kingsley. You need to train - practice in fighting is essential - it is often the difference between life and death. You don't want to be rusty when it comes to dueling."Reli lifted her hands up in defense, still surprised at his fervour. "Alright, alright." She reached for him in an attempt to placate him and gently squeezed his forearm.He froze and blinked at her owlishly, clearly taken aback.She retrieved her hand, feeling herself blush. Perhaps Sirius wasn't very used to people touching him after Azkaban. She cleared her throat. "It's fine, I will ask Moody or Kingsley myself. Don't worry about it." Remembering the faces of the young people on the photograph, she admitted to herself that he had a point. She needed to get better at fighting.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
On the first of September, the children departed for Hogwarts. Sirius had been overjoyed to accompany Harry to the King's Cross in his dog form - something Dumbledore forbade. It caused many people, and especially Molly, to shake their heads at his irresponsibility, but to Sirius, the risk was clearly worth it. Aurelia herself was rather intrigued by the whole incident because it was the first time she had witnessed someone from the Order go directly against Dumbledore's orders (or even wishes when she thought about it).The following morning Reli showed up to the headquarters to find Sirius and Remus in the most unusually cheerful mood. After a brief questioning, which didn't bring any satisfying answers, Remus handed her a torn newspaper page with an article on it. She took it and read aloud: "Sirius - Black As He's Painted?" Reli frowned. "Is someone questioning the sentence then?""I wish." Sirius, who briefly left to check the locks, rejoined them in the drawing room and sank to a chair.Remus told her with a barely contained laughter: "What you don't realise is that Sirius Black is a false name."Reli looked at the paper again, confused. Her eyes landed on a subheading that read: "Notorious Mass Murderer OR Innocent Singing Sensation?"Aurelia stared at the words for a couple of seconds while the men laughed at her bewildered expression. Then her brain caught up with her. "It's the Quibbler! You should have led with that." She laughed incredulously. "Wait, an innocent singing sensation?"
Startling new evidence has recently come to light that Sirius Black may not have committed the crimes for which he was sent to Azkaban. In fact, says Doris Purkiss, of 18 Acanthia Way, Little Norton, Black may not even have been present at the killings.
"May not even have been present?" she wondered out loud.
"What people don't realise is that Sirius Black is a false name," says Mrs Purkiss. "The man people believe to be Sirius Black is actually Stubby Boardman, lead singer of the popular singing group the Hobgoblins, who retired from public life after being struck in the ear by a turnip at a concert in Little Norton Church Hall nearly fifteen years ago.
"Oh, Merlin." She was full-on laughing now, along with Remus, who was rereading the story over her shoulder.
I recognised him the moment I saw his picture in the paper. Now, Stubby couldn't possibly have committed those crimes, because on the day in question he happened to be enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with me. I have written to the Minister for Magic and am expecting him to give Stubby, alias Sirius, a full pardon any day now."
Aurelia took more than a few seconds to process it. Then she burst into a fit of laughter, and shook her head. "Merlin, I feel like I don't know you at all."Sirius crossed his arms over his chest. "You two are just jealous none of you makes it into the newspaper.""I'm not sure if this is what I'd like to be known for.""Never wanted to be a singing sensation? At least all my personas are famous.""Singer performing in Little Norton Church Hall, how famous he could be?" she teased him."Besides - you were taken down by a turnip," pointed out Remus. "A turnip, Sirius."Sirius snorted while they laughed. "At least I've got an active dating life," he countered unconvincingly."Mrs Purkiss seems like a catch, mate. Congrats," said Remus with a grin."Well. I am expecting a full pardon any day now," added Reli.Sirius groaned. "Would you two finally stop quoting it?""As you wish, Stubby alias Sirius." She winked at him, and he snorted, smiling.The light atmosphere didn't last for long. On the 1st of September, Sturgis Podmore had been sent to Azkaban. He was caught breaking into the Department of Mysteries, certainly under the influence of the Imperius Curse.The fact that he was attacked (no doubt by Lucius Malfoy) left most of the Order members relatively unfazed - they had suspected before You-Know-Who might try to use someone else to break into the Department instead of himself and the Death Eaters, after all. Sturgis' following Azkaban sentence, however, caused a great unease, especially among the members who weren't part of the original Order during the first war. The possible consequences for fighting in the Order seemed frighteningly real now - it wasn't just the Death Eaters they were up against but the Ministry, too.What Reli found the most fearsome about this was the grim acceptance of the original members. Their hardened expressions, the way they exchanged knowing looks, the way they never panicked in front of other people and frequently tried to reassure their fellow newer members. It scared her. She knew it was supposed to be calming - it was for the others - but all she could think about was what they must have gone through to achieve this state of mind. Maybe one day, when this war is over - if she survives, that is - she will be the same as them.On the evening of another Order meeting, Reli finally got around to ask Kingsley about her promised training. He blanched a bit at the question, clearly having forgotten about the matter altogether. "I'm sorry, Aurelia. A lot has been on my plate lately with the job and the watch and-""That's all right, Kingsley. Don't worry about it, I can-""No, no," he interrupted her firmly, deadly serious. "This is important. Listen, we'll talk after the meeting and make it work. You need that training. I mean, no offence.""None taken. And thanks." The majority of the meeting was centred around the incident with Sturgis, and Dumbledore took extra care to look like he had everything under control. They were even given more detailed information than usual, and several measures were taken to prevent another successful ambush. There was little they could do, though. There was always a risk.The air between Sirius and Dumbledore was just a bit tense thanks to Sirius' recent stunt with Padfoot - Dumbledore lacked his usual playfulness and was somewhat less kind to him than to the others, which Sirius countered with carefully measured words and coldly polite demeanour, which reminded her of the Black family portraits hanging in hallways. She would never tell him that, though. His recent disagreement with the head of the Order did not stop Sirius from bringing up the fact he had nothing useful to do several times during the meeting - it seemed that the Sturgis incident only served to spur him on.As for Sturgis, they had no way of breaking him out, they were told. Along with him, they also lost the invisibility cloak he loaned from Moody, and Aurelia's mission of acquiring new ones became all that more pressing. And she did not bring good news to the table. One of her contacts - an old artefact dealer from Poland - answered her request to meet up at their usual spot in London a few days prior. She prepared a list of her requested ingredients plus a very optimistic order of four invisibility cloaks - two for the Order, one for Kingsley, and one Reli wanted for herself, just in case. Her Polish friend then promptly shattered her hopes and let her know that one to two cloaks was the maximum he was able to get on the Black market. The cloaks were just so hard to come by and ridiculously expensive on top of that.She reported the finding to the rest of the people, who weren't as unhappy with the development as she expected."One or two cloaks are still much better than nothing," muttered Moody. "Though one of them will just replace the one we lost with Sturgis."The room collectively mumbled in agreement.Reli wasn't quite as ready to come to terms with their lack of cloaks; they were still magical artefacts and, thus, her area of expertise. "I'll look into it," she promised, and when she saw their confused expressions, she added: "Into the making of invisibility cloaks, I mean. I'll try to figure out if it would be truly impossible to create one myself.""It is certainly not impossible. Time-consuming, yes. It also requires very advanced skills in Charms, but you should be able to figure it out. So if you want to try that angle, feel completely free to do so, Miss Conlan."She smiled at Dumbledore. "All right, then. I'll put it on my to-do list.""Yes, and speaking of your to-do list - you are being trained, I presume?"She rapidly straightened. "Ah, about that. It got delayed a bit, but I'm sure to start soon.""It's my fault, really. I completely forgot about it with everything going on," added Kingsley.Dumbledore nodded at him and then assessed Reli from behind his glasses. She couldn't read his expression. She really hoped not to upset him further - he was a bit overwhelmed these days.He smiled at her. "This is brilliant, Miss Conlan."She blinked in confusion and kept a neutral expression, wondering if he suddenly turned sarcastic. "I don't understand, Headmaster?""One solution to two problems. If my memory doesn't fail me, Sirius used to be quite the fighter. One of the best duelists the Order had."He turned to him just as the sound of the front legs of Sirius' chair hitting the ground rang through the room. He glanced at Dumbledore, and for a second, his expression was just as astonished as Aurelia's before. "He is quite bored and wants to be more useful like he keeps pointing out. I suggest we delegate this responsibility to him - if you both agree, of course."They looked at each other. Sirius' face once again sported his usual mask of polite indifference. Then he shrugged almost nonchalantly. "I can do that. What do you say?"The Order turned to her expectingly.She coughed, a bit uncomfortable under all their gazes. "Sure. I have no problem with that."Remus smiled into his tea, and Tonks nudged him with her elbow.Reli wondered what was that about.Since Aurelia momentarily didn't have that much work to do, she took the time to catch up on her life outside the Order as her family and her business were getting rather sidelined lately. She told Sirius she would be away for a bit, and they agreed to schedule a training session once she returned.The Sturgis incident made her take the situation more seriously, and she decided to step up her defense strategy. Her first task was nearly a week-long visit to her mother's place - as was Laurentia Conlan, neé Rowle impatiently requesting for a while. As expected, Reli spent a considerable amount of her stay avoiding her mother's inquisitive questions. She was bound to silence, given the nature of the Order, but her mother was way too sharp to remain oblivious. By the time Reli had finished checking her home's wards and defences - reapplying some and adding entirely new ones - Laurentia Conlan had an uncomfortably accurate theory about her recent whereabouts firmly in place.It surprised Aurelia - not that her mother was able to sniff out her own activities - but that she so easily believed You-Know-Who to be back. After a short conversation, she found out that she never believed he was truly gone to begin with. She presented an argument so simple and convincing that Reli genuinely wondered why it had never occurred to her before - they never found You-Know-Who's body. Her mother, who had been alive during the first war and lost her husband to it, didn't really need convincing to take extra safety measures. She also sat Reli down for a lecture she didn't need as she took after her in her apprehensive nature. The only thing missing protection-wise was the Fidelius charm, but her mother did not think it was necessary yet, and she didn't want to give up her job and her Muggle friends.Reli's own places - a house in Scotland she inherited from her father and a flat in Diagon Alley above her shop - went through the same procedure. Unlike her mother, she was seriously considering casting a Fidelius charm on her Scotland home - it was good to have a safe place if something went wrong. Although it was still early on in the war, it was just safer, and she did not see a reason to wait until You-Know-Who came fully back, and the situation got more dire.She started researching the Charm and ordered a few new books for her library about the topic; she also made a mental note to ask Sirius about it later. He may have not had the best luck with it, but she learned he was very gifted in Charms. She doubted she could persuade Dumbledore to let him out of the house to help her cast it, but at least she could use some of his advice.Reli also finally got back to her business and spent a couple of days in her Diagon Alley shop, catching up with the business matters and starting the research on invisibility cloaks. According to the reports from her young employee, the sales were going more than fine, so it didn't matter it had been a while since Reli actually invented something new. She had to get back to spending more time in her workshop, but things had been a little chaotic lately with the whole Order business. It wasn't like her job as an inventor and her being in the Order couldn't be merged. She signed up with the idea of being an artefact inventor for the Order, after all. She tried to brainstorm and figure out what others needed, what would help them in their fight. But right now, what they truly needed was an artefact that would singlehandedly convince the Ministry that You-Know-Who was back, and that was beyond Reli's capabilities. At least she had the invisibility cloaks to take care of, though.There were two ways to make the invisibility cloaks - one type was woven from the hair of a magical creature Demiguise - these were very expensive but didn't require advanced spellwork and usually lasted at least a decade. The other option was a very strong Disillusionment Charm or the Bedazzling Hex. The Disillusionment Charm, Reli thought, was the answer. A Disillusionment Charm on this level was still beyond her capabilities, but she knew she could improve her spell if she really put her mind and time into it. Well, at least she found herself a useful job.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
When Aurelia returned to the Order headquarters, it was for a meeting, where she was finally able to announce some good news. She had done some serious work on the Disillusionment Charm, so the new invisibility cloaks were expected to become a reality soon enough. Other than this, not much had happened. The children settled in Hogwarts, and the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - Dolores Umbridge - was declared a nightmare by several teachers and Remus, who, prior to the meeting, gave an unusually anger-fueled account about the woman’s foul character. It was because of her that he couldn’t find a job lately and stayed in the headquarters with Sirius.After the meeting, Sirius stopped her in the doorway. ”Since you weren’t around lately, we didn’t have the chance to set up your training sessions,” he reminded her, casually leaning against the doorframe. ”What were you even up to?””Oh, right, I completely forgot. I went to my mother’s - she’s figured out an uncomfortable amount of information about my absence, by the way - and upped the defenses on her house. Then I did the same to my own places, caught up on my business, then all the research… I tend to get lost in it sometimes.””Sounds way more interesting than my activities or rather lack thereof. If the cloaks are coming along fine, then the research is definitely worth it.” He gestured to the two armchairs by the fireplace with a silent question.She smiled and took a seat. ”Yeah. Although to be honest, I’ve also spent quite some time researching the Fidelius Charm.””You want to cast Fidelius?” That seemed to genuinely surprise him. ”I don’t think even Moody is using one. Paranoia or apprehension?””Apprehension.”He measured her for a while. ”It’s a difficult charm.”Reli raised her eyebrows. ”Haven’t you and the Potters cast one at like twenty years old? I specialize at Charms, you know.”He raised his hands in defense and chuckled. ”All right. So, have you learned it yet?””I’m close enough. There are still some things I’m figuring out.”They spent a good half an hour discussing advanced defense magic before all of Reli’s questions were answered. She skimmed over the notes she started to take at some point during their conversation, much to Sirius’ amusement. ”Right, that will work. Any other advice?”Sirius stared into the distance, and the flames from the fireplace cast a shadow over his face. ”Don’t try to be smart,” he said after what seemed like forever.Reli looked at him curiously. ”What do you mean?”He coughed. ”You know. I tried to outsmart Voldemort, thought my plan was this perfect bluff…””Well, it would have been a bluff had Pettigrew not betrayed you, wouldn’t it?””Yes, but he still wasn’t James and Lily’s first choice. They chose to trust my plan and…” He pressed his lips tightly together. ”My point is: do not try to play chess with trust.” He looked at her with something like worry in his eyes. ”Who is your first choice? Your mother? If you feel comfortable sharing, of course.””That’s fine. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to put my mother into such a position.” She shrugged. ”I thought about it before, and I would probably be my first choice.”Sirius leaned back in his armchair. ”That’s practical.””I mean, I’m not hiding and protecting anyone or anything like that, so I don’t have to stay in the house. I just want a safe place if the defenses in my London flat get breached.””So you’ve got a house?””In Scotland, yes. It belonged to my father’s family.””I presume it’s nicer than this house.” She could tell he tried not to sound too bitter.”I will show you if you ever get freed,” she said without thinking, and he smiled.”I’d like that.” He assessed her carefully. ”Only if I get freed?”She was silent for a moment. ”No. No, I think I can deal with a convict in my home.”He gave her one of his now-rare broad smiles. ”Can you? Your duelling skills still need some sharpening, I keep hearing.”She chuckled. ”Yeah, we really need to arrange the lessons.””Of course. Just let me check my schedule; you see, I am awfully busy these days.”She rolled her eyes, but they were both smiling. ”Take all the time you need.”They agreed on having lessons twice a week. When Aurelia mentioned this to Remus one day, he made a few offhanded comments about being surprised Sirius agreed, which prompted her to finally ask: ”What do you mean exactly?”Remus shrugged. ”Just that Sirius had always been rather impatient with tutoring. He frequently refused to study with me during my Hogwart years because he found it boring. To be fair, it was schoolwork he already understood. He loved figuring things out with James, trying out advanced magic.” He smiled at the memory. ”Tutoring and teaching, though? Not so much.”Reli frowned, feeling a bit unsure. ”Well, I don’t mean to force him or anything-””No, no. It’s not like that,” stopped her Remus firmly. ”Trust me, nobody can really force Sirius to do anything. We tried.” He laughed. ”Although maybe James would have a fair shot, the issue was, they were always in agreement.””Yeah, I recall that,” she snorted.”I hope he’ll be patient with you,” offered Remus.Reli thought about it. ”To be entirely honest, I’m not a very patient student myself. Guess, we’ll see how it goes.””Just don’t set the house on fire,” said Molly, who managed to sneak up on them from behind, causing Reli to jerk in surprise. ”We can’t really use the Burrow as the new headquarters right now.””I’ll be on my best behaviour,” she promised.Their lessons were just the right sort of challenging. Sirius truly was an impatient teacher - he seemed to dislike explaining things, but Aurelia - having an equal dislike for slow presentations, could work with that. She was a quick study, so they spent more time discussing more creative uses of the spells as both she and Sirius seemed to enjoy the crafty side of magic.Despite this, there were still notable differences between them, which made the lessons a bit demanding for Reli. Unlike her, Sirius had a much more hands-on approach to everything. Where she would have liked to go a bit more into the theory and explore all the potential uses and dangers of a particular spell, Sirius was in favour of practical training and learning as you go.As you go in this context, it meant as you duelled.Suffice it to say, Sirius won the first five duels very decisively.By the end of the lesson, Reli was breathing heavily, bent forward with hands on her thighs. Sirius, on the other hand, was grinning almost happily - the duelling had liven him up, making him look several years younger than usual. ”Well, there’s certainly room for improvement,” she managed to get out.”You’re not bad, though. Considering you haven’t been dueling since Hogwarts.”She didn’t think it was very comforting, considering he had no chance to use magic at all in his twelve-long year stay at Azkaban. Sirius seemed to guess what she was thinking because he added: ”I survived several years of fighting in the first war; you can’t really use me as a comparison.”She nodded and straightened up. ”Any advice?”He cocked his head to the side. ”You need practice, mostly. Some of your spells are too complicated and long-winded for duels as well; you might want to switch to using something quicker.”She nodded again; that made a lot of sense.”You’re a very defense-focused fighter,” added Sirius, which made her snort. ”That may be because you are a very offense-focused fighter.””Maybe,” he smiled and stretched his arms. ”This was fun. I haven’t been using magic properly like this since-” He frowned. ”I don’t even recall. The first war, probably.””Well, there’s plenty of time for us to train if you’d like. Nobody says we have to do just two lessons a week.”He turned to her, and she quickly added: ”If you want to, of course.””Oh, I do.” There was a spark in his eyes, and she felt herself blush for no reason.Sirius might have noticed because he smirked with a sort of self-satisfaction that reminded her of his younger self. ”We’ll see if you’ll be able to go toe to toe with me one day.”Reli doubted that, but she supposed a little extra training wouldn’t hurt either of them, considering the situation.The door to the drawing room, where they held their training session, suddenly opened, and Kreacher peeked in. ”Hello, Kreacher,” greeted him Reli while Sirius watched him apprehensively. ”What are you doing here?””Kreacher heard noises,” mumbled the old elf as he bowed to Sirius. ”Kreacher thought Master might be in mortal danger.””More like hoped,” murmured Sirius and Kreacher bowed again while mumbling under his breath: ”What a mess they made here, oh what would Kreacher’s mistress say if she could see this.”At that, Reli looked around. She was too caught up in the duels and later with chatting with Sirius to properly take in their surroundings. They did not set the house on fire, was all she could say in their defense as she examined the damage the spells did to the furniture and walls.”Huh,” was all Sirius said as he considered the damage.”Perhaps we should pick one of the spare rooms and do some protective spellwork before our next training?” suggested Reli.Sirius scratched his hair as he gazed at a hole in one of his ancestor’s portraits. ”That may be a good idea. I would gladly demolish this place, but I’m not sure the rest of the Order would appreciate that very much.” He made a fluid motion with his wand, and the room began to tidy itself, misplaced items floating back to their respective places, the damage from spellwork disappearing from walls. Reli dodged a flying chair and quickly lifted her own wand to help him.With their lessons being in the morning, they also quite unexpectedly developed a new habit. With no access to the outside world, Sirius was quite appreciative when Reli brought the morning paper with her to the lessons - and just like this, they discovered their shared love for crosswords. Reli soon began bringing two newspapers so they would both have one to solve, which swiftly turned to morning crossword races, as Sirius called them. Despite Reli fancying herself an avid crossword solver, she didn't win as often as she would have liked. Still, they were more or less evenly matched, so it made for quite exciting competitions.She even gave Sirius a big book of magical crosswords for his birthday on November 3rd - something he accepted with a surprised thank you and a smile (and a comment from Tonks calling him old). Credit for that, however, went to Remus as he was the one to gather a few Order members to host the small birthday gathering - a blatant attempt to cheer Sirius up as he was becoming increasingly restless. The Order members were very busy with watches and their respective work these days, so Sirius didn't get to see them much besides the meetings. With Harry gone as well, Reli thought he seemed lonelier than usual. Often, only the ghosts of his past kept Sirius company - against his own will - and he had nowhere to run from those.He was always cheerful during their training sessions, but his thirst for action worried her. Her father - who had been an Auror during the first war - told her once that a hot head could kill even the most talented of fighters. Good Auror must be clear-sighted, he used to say. Right now, Sirius was dangerously deprived of action - or living in general - to be anywhere near level-headed in a fight.As it seemed to be getting worse with time, Aurelia decided to try to bring this up with Dumbledore since he claimed Sirius needed to be locked up in Grimmauld's place to remain safe. The more Reli trained with him, the more she considered Dumbledore's order as something that heightened the risk of Sirius getting hurt rather than the other way around. She even contemplated asking her mother for advice - she was a psychologist, after all. If Dumbledore refused her, she would do so - while protecting Sirius' identity, of course. She didn't think her mother would appreciate it very much if she knew with whom Reli was hanging out these days. It took her almost a week to get a hold of Dumbledore. It was an infuriatingly short conversation.”I understand the root of your concerns, Aurelia, but you have to trust me when I say this is what is best for Sirius right now. ”She didn't think he understood the root of her concerns. That was despite the fact that it truly seemed as if his eyes twinkled with some kind of knowledge she did not possess. Reli shook her head and opened her mouth to protest, but before she could even begin, he gently cut her off: ”I am terribly sorry, but I am needed somewhere in a short time. I am sure you understand. Hopefully, we will have a chance to talk some other time. Have a good evening, Aurelia.” He smiled at her, and she bid him goodbye, feeling defeated.She would have to think of another way to get him to see her point.Later in November, Moody finally cleared Aurelia to participate in watches - though she wasn't among the people assigned to guard the prophecy. Much to her dismay, she was awarded Mundungus as her provisional watch partner. Reli just hoped he wasn't as unreliable as he appeared to be literally every time they interacted.