A/N: Welcome back! This story is part 5 of my twisted canon series - if you haven't read parts 1-4, I would highly recommend doing so if you don't want to be confused going forward. Part 1 is called 'Circumstances of an Unexpected Trio' & can be found on my profile.

And off we go...

"Expelliarmus!"

"Stupefy!"

"Impedimenta!"

"Hey, Harry – bloody Merlin, stop! Finite Incantatem!"

Harry Potter, Draco Black, and Hermione Granger lowered their wands and turned to stare sheepishly at the frozen form of Sirius Black, who was gaping in shock at the dagger quivering precariously close to his left ear.

"Who threw that?" he asked weakly, gesturing towards the knife. Harry and Hermione immediately pointed at the blond standing between them.

"Oh, I see how it is," Draco said sarcastically, rolling his eyes in as exaggerated a fashion as possible. "Really feeling the love here, you two."

"Oh, don't whine, it's unbecoming," Hermione said. "And so is questioning our love for you." She turned Draco's face with her hand so she could press her lips to his, and when Draco moved to deepen the kiss, Harry coughed and said, "Get a room, you two!" Draco pulled away and smirked.

"And how do you intend to prove your love for me, Harry?" he asked, his eyes dancing with mirth. "I don't really fancy having my own brother snog me."

"Ugh, no!" Harry quickly agreed. "Hermione can have you…and stop being an arse, it was a good throw."

"It was," Sirius agreed, struggling for a moment to extract the knife from the wall. "It's a little scary how quickly you've taken to it, actually." Finally succeeding in freeing the knife, he finished descending the basement steps and presented the weapon to Draco, who tucked it into the sheath at his hip. The knife was actually one of a set of four, two pairs of beautifully crafted, goblin-wrought blades that had, until recently, sat with the other weaponry in the Black family vault. The knives had once belonged to two Black brothers and their spouses some two centuries before, and as Draco and Harry both had blood ties to the line, Sirius had given them the blades near the beginning of the summer holidays, insisting that they learn to wield another weapon in addition to their wands. The pair to Draco's knife had gone to Hermione, and since Harry didn't yet have anyone to give his to, it was currently locked in the safe in Sirius' room. Upon the trio's return to Surrey, Sirius had transformed the entire basement into a heavily fortified dueling space, much like their practice arena in the Room of Requirement back at Hogwarts, and they'd been practicing with their new weapons ever since. Draco had proven exceptionally adept at wielding the little knife, hitting nearly every target with deadly precision.

"I just came down to tell you that lunch will be ready in a half hour or so, and that we've got something to share with you all," Sirius said. He wrinkled his nose then and added, "And you might want to consider a quick shower before then – you stink!"

"Padfoot!"

"What? It's true. Three teenagers who've been dueling heavily for nearly two hours? Yuck!" Sirius grinned mischievously then, shrinking into his dog form and thoroughly licking their faces before bounding back up the stairs, his bark sounding suspiciously like laughter as he vanished.

"Now I really need a shower," Hermione grumbled as she wiped her face on her sleeve. "Sometimes I wonder how you two can stand to live with him."

"Maya, you basically live with him too," Harry pointed out.

"Fair point. Are we ready for lunch, then?"

"You had to ask?"

"Again, fair point."

They were halfway up the stairs when Draco suddenly stopped.

"Hey…where's my wand?"

"Hmm…you mean this wand?" Hermione smirked and withdrew a wand from her pocket that was most definitely not her own.

"How'd you get that?" he demanded. He tried to reach for the wand, but Hermione hopped down a few steps until she was just out of reach.

"You were a little preoccupied a minute ago, weren't you?" Hermione replied, her smirk widening. It only took Draco a moment to realize what she meant.

"You stole my wand while we were kissing?" he said incredulously. "You little minx…"

"Constant vigilance, love," Hermione said, blowing him a kiss.

"Oh, you'll pay for that, Lotte!" Without another word, Draco leapt back down the basement stairs, landing on all fours like a cat, and took off across the room after Hermione, who shrieked and bolted almost instantly. Draco's longer legs meant it wasn't long at all before he caught up to her, and the two collapsed to the floor in a heap of laughter.

"I'll just leave you two to it, then," Harry said with a chuckle, very quickly noticing that his brother and best friend probably wouldn't be joining him anytime soon. "If nothing else, it means I get the hottest shower!"

Nearly an hour later, Harry, Draco, and Hermione had finally joined Sirius and Lily in the kitchen, where an enormous plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of cold lemonade waited for them. Quite hungry from their extensive workout, they dug in eagerly, and the next few minutes were quiet as they enjoyed their lunches.

"So what did you want to talk to us about?" Harry asked as he reached for a third sandwich. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him and he shrugged in reply – fifteen-year-old boys did have huge appetites, after all.

"Oh, that," Sirius said, taking another sandwich as well. "Well, we might be relocating in a week or so."

"Relocating?" Draco repeated. Sirius nodded.

"Yup. Dumbledore's been busy this summer contacting the Order, and he wants everyone within easy reach of Headquarters. Since Headquarters is my house anyway, he suggested we just move in for the rest of the summer."

"Um…aren't we already in your house, Padfoot?" Harry asked, gesturing around the kitchen with his free hand.

"I mean my ancestral house – the Black family house in London," Sirius clarified. "You've been there before, although not since we moved here, so I doubt you remember it much. Eccentric old place, but there will be plenty there to keep you occupied, at any rate."

"Who else will be there?" Hermione wanted to know. "And do my parents know about this?"

"We've already spoken to your parents, dear – they said they'll miss having you around, but they agree that it's for the best," Lily said. "Besides, they have those conferences all through August, don't they?" Hermione nodded. Her parents, both dentists, had an unusually busy schedule this summer, and they'd be spending almost all of August traveling to different conventions throughout the UK.

"As for who's going to be there, I'm not quite sure," Sirius continued. "The house is pretty big, but not big enough to house the entire Order – most people will just pop in and out as they need to. Unless I'm very much mistaken, though, the Weasleys will be spending most of their time there with us." The teenagers brightened considerably at the thought of spending the rest of the summer with their close friends, and the conversation turned to details such as their departure date and what they needed to pack.

"So why are we moving into Headquarters, anyway?" Harry asked as they cleaned up after lunch. "Dumbledore must have a reason for wanting everyone nearby."

"He does," Sirius replied, and Harry, Draco, and Hermione gave him their full attention when they noticed the considerable darkening of his tone. "You see, there's been a bit of a problem."

"A bit of a problem?" Draco repeated.

"Ok, a big problem," Sirius amended. "The Ministry – Fudge specifically – didn't believe Dumbledore when he told them how Cedric Diggory died."

"What?" Harry cried, sounding both angry and horrified. As long as he lived, he would never forget the horrible note that had been attached to Cedric's lifeless body, the Dark Mark stamped beneath blood-red words: I have no use for spares.

"Well, Fudge has always been a bit of an idiot, but he's really gone off his rocker this time," Sirius continued. "He's absolutely insisting that Cedric's death was an accident and that Voldemort can't possibly be back in England – he just doesn't want to admit that anything's wrong, because he doesn't want to admit that he doesn't know how to deal with it."

"That's a pathetic excuse if I've ever heard one," Harry hissed. "What the bloody hell is he telling everyone, then?"

"Language, Harry," Lily chided.

"That's the thing – he's not telling them anything," Sirius said, ignoring Lily's reprimand. "Cedric's obituary was in the Prophet, but it didn't mention the specifics of how he died, just that it was during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament – I think everyone thinks he ran afoul of a magical creature or something. Personally, I'm just glad Rita Skeeter hasn't gotten wind of anything yet – she'd have a field day, that's for sure." Harry, Draco, and Hermione exchanged satisfied looks. Of course Rita Skeeter hadn't published anything, and she wouldn't be doing so anytime soon, either – Hermione had discovered her secret at the end of the previous term and had threatened to reveal Skeeter's status as an illegal Animagus if the reporter didn't keep her quill to herself for the next year.

"In any case, Fudge isn't correcting the assumptions, and as a result, Dumbledore is having a hard time convincing anyone who wasn't there that night that his story is the truth. That's why he got in touch with the Order so quickly – people have been scattered all over the place for the last few years, doing surveillance missions, looking into Voldemort's whereabouts, things like that – but now that we're almost positive he's back in the country, Dumbledore needs to focus on rallying the troops, on gathering together everyone he can who is unquestionably on his side."

"I'll bet Fudge is thrilled about that," Hermione said.

"Oh, he's livid. Of course, he just thinks Dumbledore is after his job – never mind that Dumbledore's turned down the Minister position more than once, Fudge has been paranoid since day one. I'm sure he's already looking for other ways to undermine Dumbledore, so we're going to have to be very careful."

"Constant vigilance," Harry said, repeating the mantra they'd heard many times before.

"Constant vigilance indeed," Sirius agreed.

A/N: Hello again! If you've made it this far with me, THANK YOU - lots of plans going forward, so I hope you stick around!

Also...Happy New Year! Just over 2 hours to go here, but close enough. If you're in the mood for a NYE-themed story, I've got one up called '1999: The Year of the Badger' - fun little one-shot I posted for my youngest sister's birthday back in February, contains a little bit of both Dramione & Harry/Ginny, plus the glorious fun that is George Weasley. (Shameless plug, haha)

Alrighty, enough of that. JKR owns all things Potter, I just play. Please R&R, & enjoy! :)