I've just been attacked by Dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.

Harry

Sirius Black looked up from the small piece of parchment covered in cramped writing at a loss for words. He was currently sitting at the kitchen table in the basement of the Black family home, Number 12 Grimmauld Place, surrounded by various members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Directly across from him sat Remus Lupin, still looking hesitant to relax in case Sirius jumped up and made a run for the door like he had when they first heard of the attack. At the other end of the table, as far away from the two friends as humanly possible sat Severus Snape, looking bored and unimpressed by all the fuss being made over the 'blatant disregard and disrespect for reasonable rules and restrictions that everyone else seemed more than willing to live with', as he had told Sirius when he first arrived, on Albus' orders, however reluctantly. For once, Sirius was in total agreement with Severus about his need to be there, but Albus had insisted on the dour man's presence in order to reaffirm that the Dementor attack was not instigated by Voldemort or any of his followers, and had then told everyone who was in Grimmauld Place at the time to stay put until he sent further notice about how the Ministry was reacting. So far, they had heard nothing since Arthur had sent his patronus outlining the fact that Dumbledore had convinced the Wizengamot (read "Minister Fudge", at least in Sirius' mind) to rescind the expulsion and hold off any definite punishment, or any punishment at all really, until Harry's trial later on in August.

The lack of news was starting to get disconcerting, and not only for himself, Sirius thought, as he observed the last person in the room, Molly Weasley. She had started cleaning up the supper dishes in an apparent attempt to rid herself of nervous energy now that the immediate crisis had passed and they were playing the patience-testing waiting game that Sirius found almost unbearable. He had been about to start interrogating Remus again on what he knew just to have something to focus on when Harry's owl had made her sudden appearance.

Sirius had expected Harry to try and get in contact with everyone at some point, having witnessed the boy's impatience and aversion to inactivity in the past year during the Triwizard Tournament, but not this quickly. It had barely been two hours after he had sent his own letter telling Harry to remain calm when Hedwig had swooped in from the front hall, dropped the letter onto the table in front of him, and then swooped back out and—from the sound of it—up the stairs, presumably seeking Harry's friends.

As if Sirius' thoughts had summoned them, the occupants of the kitchen suddenly heard two pairs of frantic footsteps descending towards them. In no time at all, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger burst in through the door, clutching identical pieces of parchment, with looks of both concern and confusion on their faces.

"What happened with—?"

"Did something go—?"

Both stopped suddenly, realizing they had spoken at the same time, and after exchanging a glance, Hermione took another step into the room. Despite the situation, Sirius had to smile to himself at the clear hierarchy within Harry's group of friends while also marveling at how well they seemed to know each other.

"Has something happened to Harry? His letters say something about Dementors, and Hedwig's in a right state."

As though to prove Hermione correct, Hedwig once again swooped through the kitchen door, landing in front of Sirius with an irritable hoot. After a moment, as if realizing he did not yet have a response for her to return with, she gave him a reproachful glare with her large amber eyes, and clicked her beak expectantly. If it hadn't been such a tense moment, Sirius would have laughed at the uncannily human expression the owl was using, though he felt a little guilty that he couldn't give her what she was clearly waiting for, due to Albus' hurried instructions he had sent while on his way to the Ministry.

So Sirius did the only thing he could think of at the moment, and shrugged at the owl, holding his hands up in surrender, as if to say 'this is out of my control'. He heard a quiet snort nearby, and assumed Remus was watching his silent conversation, but didn't look around to see whether the werewolf was laughing at him or not, since Hedwig had just narrowed her eyes into an even fiercer expression of disappointment than before. Now very uncomfortable with the owl's scrutiny, Sirius gulped and turned back to the room in general to see if anyone else had made more progress.

While the mini drama between man and owl went on, Molly Weasley had turned to the pair of students with a placating expression.

"It's nothing, dears, there was a slight mishap in Little Whinging, but everyone's fine and Professor Dumbledore is sorting everything out."

"Oh…Okay. That explains all the commotion we heard from upstairs. C'mon, Hermione, I'm sure the others are wondering where we ran off to." Ron turned back towards the stairs, seemingly mollified by his mother's explanation. Hermione, however, still looked slightly concerned, and it only took Ron a second or two to realize she wasn't following him. When he did, he turned around once more and gave her back a questioning look, since she hadn't bothered stopping her constant glancing between Molly, Remus, and Severus, as if trying to figure out who would be the most likely to give in and reveal some information.

"But, shouldn't Harry leave his Aunt's and Uncle's house as soon as possible, in case something else happens? I mean, Harry seems rather upset about everything, and I think he's expecting someone to get him out of there." She looked between all the adults as she said this. After a moment of silence that lasted just a bit too long for Sirius' liking (in his experience, not talking was a clearer indication of guilt than anything anyone could have said, and the fact that he was feeling guilty in the first place made him as uncomfortable as Hedwig's gaze had earlier), her expression changed from confusion to disappointed understanding.

"There's no plan to go get him is there?" She sighed, and looked down at her hands, which were nervously folding and refolding Harry's letter until it looked much older than the hour or two it actually was. At this, Ron whipped his head from where he had been looking at Hermione in confusion to his mother. When she stubbornly refused to give up anything, he moved on to Sirius, who once again felt uncomfortable and so avoided the gaze by pretending to re-examine his own letter from Harry. The red head turned to Remus with clearly growing frustration.

"So we're supposed to leave Harry dangling for the rest of the summer? Are we even allowed to explain to him what's going on, or is that classified, like the rest of the stuff we're not supposed to tell him about?" Ron's face was growing redder by the minute, and Sirius saw Severus roll his eyes at the sight. While the convict and the teenagers had been fairly vocal against leaving Harry entirely out of the loop, the Hogwarts potions master had repeatedly expressed his relief that the constant pandering to the boy's dramatics was finally coming to an end, whether said teen liked it or not. Remus, however, looked just as calm as ever, and Sirius felt a growing sense of confidence that Remus would be able to talk his way out of the situation, as he had done countless times when they were teens themselves.

"Ron, I understand your frustration with the situation, but at the moment, it is even more important for Harry to stay somewhere we know he's protected, especially since we now know his neighborhood is vulnerable to attack. I think Harry would understand dealing with such a nuisance if the alternative was another Dementor attack, or something worse, don't you?" Remus' reasonable reassurance seemed to have calmed Hermione's doubts and fears, as she visibly relaxed and even nodded slightly at her ex-professor. Even Ron found himself reluctantly agreeing with the logic.

"I guess that makes sense…but if we don't explain it that way to Harry, I'm sure when he finally gets here you'll see how reasonable he is on the subject of being cooped up with the muggles for any longer than what he sees as necessary," he warned the adults. Sirius thought he might have been exaggerating, but when he saw Hermione roll her eyes in agreement, he had to rethink his assessment of Harry. True, he had grown closer to his godson while he was in Hogsmeade for the Tournament but, he reminded himself, the two teenagers in front of him had known the boy longer than that, so it might be smarter to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Well, that's fine then, since we haven't yet finished getting this house into any sort of suitable place for him to live anyway, since you lot haven't seen fit to finish cleaning out the rest of the bedrooms like I asked!" Molly suddenly jumped into the conversation, leveling a glare at her youngest son, as if sensing the drop in his defensiveness, and jumping on anything that would get him and Hermione to leave so they could finish their own discussion in peace.

"But mum! I told you already, Harry can just share my room, like at school and at home, and it's only for two more weeks. It's not like he's moving in here for good, is it?" Ron groaned and pouted, effectively cutting the tension in the room, and moving the focus away from delicate and secret information. Having lived with the Weasleys enough this summer, Sirius knew that once Molly took control of the conversation, there would be no more treading into difficult and restricted territory. Indeed, as Sirius watched, Molly expertly turned the conversation around entirely, making the teens look more stubborn than concerned as the minutes passed.

"Well, if that's how you feel, Ron, then you can sleep on the couch in the drawing room we haven't cleaned yet, and Harry can take the only bed in your current room, now can't he?" At Ron's outraged gasp, Sirius could practically see Molly's satisfaction at cowing her son. "That's what I thought. Unfortunately, it's too late tonight to continue on with any sort of cleaning, but tomorrow, the faster you two , the twins, and Ginny clean out one of the other bedrooms where you and Harry can share, the faster it might be possible to get Harry here. Go on now, you lot should by all rights be asleep already, I don't know where the rest of the evening went!" Molly's mutterings trailed off as she turned around to refocus on the dishes that had been previously interrupted.

Ron was clearly ready to keep arguing with his mother when Hermione turned toward him, grabbed one of his arms and practically dragged him out the door while saying over her shoulder, "Of course we'll work on one of the bedrooms tomorrow, Mrs. Weasley, good night!" And with one more tug on the captive arm when Ron looked angry enough to argue with her about agreeing to clean, the pair passed into the hallway and let the door fall closed behind them, though not before Sirius caught one last glimpse of Hermione shushing Ron with a very meaningful glance that the Marauder knew all too well meant that bed was the last thing on either teen's mind.

Shaking his head slightly, he was unceremoniously brought back to the situation at hand by Hedwig, who had apparently gotten tired of waiting for a response that seemed never to be coming, and had taken it upon herself to bite Sirius on the thumb. Hard. Cursing, he swatted at the bird irritably, snapping back at her with words instead of a beak.

"There's not going to be any letters to Harry for awhile, you bloody feather duster, so why don't you go bother someone else, yeah?"

The only response he got was a wing straight in the face as Hedwig screeched and took off in a huff, to where exactly, Sirius didn't really care at the moment, since he had been ungraciously reminded of the situation as it had stood before Harry's unintentional interruption.

The fact was that they hadn't yet heard back from either Arthur or Albus about trying to keep the press and publicity of the attack to a minimum in the Ministry, nor did they yet have any concrete plan about what they were going to do in terms of the rest of Harry's summer living arrangements. Sirius was in total agreement with Ron and Hermione that his godson absolutely should not remain at his relatives' house, and while he had supported Remus' stalling tactics, he didn't actually believe they were the best option to actively pursue and he meant for everyone he talked with to know that point blank. Unfortunately, Sirius' urge to argue with someone about his opinion at the moment was stymied.

Molly was still busy with the supper dishes; though Sirius suspected they had been clean even before Harry's letter had arrived. He figured Molly might just be trying to concentrate on something other than the fact that her husband still hadn't returned home. But by the way she was scowling at the stew pot in her hands Sirius suspected she might not be doing as good a job as she thought in distracting herself.

He wasn't going to tempt fate by interrupting her, though—he wasn't that desperate for conversation, yet. He had the same thought when his eyes passed over Remus, who seemed to be staring intently at the kitchen door, lost in thought. Having known the mild-mannered Marauder for going on two decades, however, Sirius had an inkling that Remus was actually concentrating on listening more than thinking. He couldn't blame the man, having more than once caught a hint that there were adolescent eavesdroppers around during the Order's 'secret' meetings, though they had gotten harder to detect, and Sirius was sure the twins' inventiveness was at the heart of that mystery.

The only other possible person in the room to converse with was Severus, and Sirius might have survived living for twelve years in Azkaban, but he was not so much a glutton for punishment that he would attempt civility with his childhood enemy. And so, Sirius gave up on the idea of breaking the silence and tried to reign in all the thoughts that started racing through his head now that he had nothing else to do to avoid thinking about the situation Harry had found himself in.

He was spared the task of dealing with all but the most insistent thought, however, when the floo suddenly came to life and none other than a slightly worn-out Professor Minerva McGonagall stepped out into the dingy, poorly-lit basement. She seemed relieved when she glanced around the room and everyone she was expecting seemed accounted for. When it seemed like she wasn't about to start talking, Sirius quickly stood up, and opened his mouth to demand an update. Minerva must have seen this coming, however, and held up a hand to forestall his questions while turning to Molly with an expression of tired yet polite inquiry.

"You wouldn't be able to get some tea going, would you Molly? It's been quite a long evening, and young Harry always seems to find ways to strip me of my energy quicker and more effectively each year." She smiled slightly and made her way over to the table, where she settled herself into a chair in a way that—were it anyone other than Sirius' stern and upright ex-Head of House, he would have described as a collapse.

"Oh, of course, Minerva! Just give me one second and I'll put the water on for you, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Dear me, but you look exhausted! Were you with Albus this whole time? Have he and Arthur managed to rein in the potential aftermath of the attack in the Ministry?" Molly couldn't seem to help herself from bursting into a nervous litany of questions as she bustled around the kitchen, gathering up everything for last-minute tea while waving her wand at the kettle, which started steaming and whistling.

"No, actually, I've been dealing with the ongoing correspondence between Hogwarts, the Ministry, the Daily Prophet, and I don't know who else trying to answer as many questions about the upcoming school year for Potter as I can, going off what little information Albus gave me in the first place. He left me very hurried and vague instructions when he left his office, and I've been inundated with more owls and floo calls than even the Tournament last year garnered. I don't suppose any of you know more than I do at this point? Ah, thank you, Molly," Minerva inhaled deeply as she took the steaming cup and seemed to become visibly more fortified even before taking a sip. Realizing no one had yet answered her question, she glanced up expectantly with a raised brow.

Seeing that no one else seemed inclined to answer, and Remus was still half concentrating on the door, Sirius took a deep breath and said, "Well, that all depends on what you've heard, Minerva. The last time Arthur updated us Albus had just gotten through to Fudge and the Wizengamot that they couldn't technically expel Harry, so they had Mafalda send out another letter explaining about the trial and the delay of punishment. We also know Arthur sent Harry a letter of his own, though what that said is anyone's guess, since I don't even know where he found the time or an owl to do that, and I sent Harry a note as well, though he sent one back that makes it sound like he's not too happy with what little we could tell him." Sirius had to stop himself here, because Remus had given him a warning glance, and he realized his frustration was leaking into his voice, making it more of a low growl than anything else. Either Minerva hadn't noticed or chose to ignore this, though, because she nodded slightly and sighed.

"I thought so, and no, that's not much more than I know at the moment, either, though I do agree with Albus that it's for the best if Harry doesn't know exactly what's been going on. I know you think he's mature enough to understand Sirius," she added before the man himself could even open his mouth, "but, forgive me if I think I have a little more insight into Harry's reactions than you do. I have been his Head of House for over four years now, and if I have learned one thing about the boy, it is that when he has information he tends to act on it immediately rather than waiting. While I detest the idea of essentially lying by omission to a young man with little trust in adults as it is, in this case, if it keeps Harry safe and in one place, I think I can live with the decision." She finished her explanation with a determined expression on her face, and Sirius once again knew it would be useless to argue with her.

"Well Minerva, I would never have expected you to say something so revealing about your lions' weaknesses. Can it be that perhaps you have finally seen the incompetent arrogance in the boy I've been describing for all these years?" Severus suddenly drawled, with an interested and possibly even gleeful look.

"Nonsense Severus. I have no idea where you get incompetent arrogance out of what I said, but I am surprised that you call a trait you yourself exhibited more than once something of a weakness. Personally, Mr. Potter's distrust stems from something else entirely, but as I fall under the category of 'adult' he has yet to confide in me about such things." Minerva took another sip of her tea while Severus' complexion briefly looked as if it were going to turn red, but he quickly composed himself when he saw that Sirius, Remus, and Molly were all staring at the two professors as if they had never seen them before.

Indeed, while Sirius knew that the two Heads regularly sniped at each other about trivial things such as Quidditch and House points, he knew they were probably more in jest than either would care to admit, since they both had very similar sarcastic humors, as much as it pained him to admit that about his ex-professor and schoolyard target. Then what he heard caught up with his brain and he turned to Minerva questioningly.

"What makes you say he doesn't trust adults? He seemed fine when I was giving him advice last year, and I doubt he would have let Remus see him so vulnerable while learning the Patronus if he didn't trust him." As he said this, he turned to Remus for confirmation, but instead found his friend looking at Minerva with a somewhat serious and calculative expression. Minerva was looking at Severus, however, who was staring back at her intensely, with a complex expression Sirius couldn't decipher, though the two professors seemed to be having a silent conversation about something. Glancing at Molly, he saw that she was quite as confused as he was.

"Okay, is there some secret Hogwarts teacher code that's keeping you three from spilling the beans or something? Because that silent-conversation thing you're doing is making me even more curious. Remus? Fancy letting your oldest, dearest friend in on the secret?" Sirius played the last card he could think of to get them to talk, and turned to Remus with what he thought was a fairly good impression of a pleading puppy-dog look. Remus glanced at Sirius quickly, rolled his eyes, and took one more inquiring look at Minerva, who sighed and nodded her head while Severus sat back in his seat, once again silent and stony faced. She then turned to Sirius and gave him a sad, tired smile before finishing her tea and putting the cup decisively down on the table once more.

"Well, Sirius, the truth is…those two occurrences you mentioned seem to be the exceptions to the rule when it comes to Mr. Potter. He hasn't told you about his first two years at all, has he?" When she saw Sirius' negative shake of his head she looked down. "Well, I wouldn't want to reveal all the boy's secrets, but I can tell you that those two years were quite exciting in their own way, and yet the end results could have been avoided if he had confided in someone other than children his own age."

"Come now, Minerva, there's no need to be so delicate. The truth is that if Potter didn't have so much of his father in him, and didn't think keeping things to himself would make him look all the better in the end, there were many things that could have been avoided altogether, and in truth, we probably wouldn't have as many problems with the Dark Lord as we do now if the brat had just left well enough alone!" Snape spat suddenly, seeming to take Minerva's dancing around the subject as a personal offense.

"What do you mean? What happened Harry's first two years? Do you know anything about this, Remus?" Sirius was starting to get worried, and he hoped it was only his overactive imagination that made him think the reason nobody would explain things clearly was because of some tragic event that must have happened involving Harry.

"Well, Sirius…" Remus hesitated with a grimace, but seemed to decide that not talking would make his friend more upset, so he continued. "I did hear some stories about the two years before I went to teach, both from students and faculty, but they were so mixed up with each other that I have no idea if any of them are true, exaggerations, or pure fiction. Though there seems to be a recurring theme involving forests, snakes, chambers, dragons, and stones that pop up in almost all of the tellings I've heard, in various forms, so there must be some sort of truth in there. I can tell you, however, that in third year, I did personally experience Harry's lack of trust, and you did too, if you'll think back."

"Wait…What? What do you mean….oh, are you talking about the fact that you and Snape followed Harry to the shack after me?" At Remus' nod, Sirius tried to bring up as much of that encounter as he could, though that was a little difficult, given that he was a dog half the time, and their memories didn't work quite the same way as humans', he had also been more focused on getting to Peter to pay attention to anything else seriously, and the Dementors he encountered later that night had made a lot of what happened fuzzy in his mind.

The four other adults were looking at him now, as he muttered under his breath, trying to recall what exactly Remus was talking about. Minerva and Molly looked slightly confused, though this didn't surprise Sirius in the least, as many of the night's events had been kept under a very tight wrap thanks to Albus' quick thinking. Remus looked encouraging, and Snape looked slightly disgusted, though Sirius couldn't decide if that was because he couldn't remember something that seemed obvious to the greasy-haired spy or if it was because he was also thinking back on what happened that night, and his somewhat inglorious encounters with not only Fudge (as Harry had recounted that meeting to him once), but also the three Gryffindors' wands. Thinking back on the stunning incident (Sirius laughed to himself about the pun, fairly proud that he had kept his own well-worn name out of it completely), he suddenly realized what Remus was talking about.

"Oh! You mean the fact that you and Snape both had to use the map to see where me and the kids were?" At Remus' slightly relieved nod—he clearly had doubted Sirius being able to remember the tiny details—Sirius tried to figure out why this was significant. "What does that have to do with Harry's trust? Unless…the only reason you used the map was because Harry didn't tell you what he was doing, did he?" Once again, Remus looked relieved; though this time he was shaking his head in the negative.

"See Sirius? Even though Harry may have trusted me enough to get my help with the Patronus, he didn't trust me enough to come to me when he thought one of his best friends had been kidnapped by a giant black dog."

"Indeed, and it is the same reasoning behind his previous years as well, though I must admit I may be slightly more to blame for what happened in first year…..but that is besides the point." Minerva finished up abruptly, when she realized that the three younger men and the Weasley matriarch were staring at her curiously.

"Okay, so I get what you're saying about Harry's trust issues, but doesn't that argue that we should tell him what's going on in order to gain his trust so that he will take our advice to heart and listen to us?" Sirius said, finally remembering why this whole journey down memory lane had started in the first place. He was damned if he wasn't going to at least play devil's advocate and try to get someone to tell Harry something, since it was such a big deal now that Voldemort was back.

"Are you really that much of an imbecile Black, that you've forgotten what we just said? If we give Potter even the smallest bit of information, one, he is likely to spread it around to his friends as soon as he gets the chance, two, he will probably try and get more information out of us when he realizes he can charm his way past rules put in place specifically for his own good, and three, even if he doesn't have all the information, he will act like he does, and like he knows best and go gallivanting off on some ridiculous crusade that will probably be more troublesome in the end than dealing with his temper tantrums about not getting any information." Severus sneered, clearly thinking that all the work done to convince Sirius about Potter's issues was a complete waste.

"Besides, Sirius," Molly cut in before Sirius could even open his mouth to form a comeback at Severus. "While I don't necessarily agree with Severus about Harry's inherent lack of consideration, I do think it is foolish to go and give him any information about what we're doing right now. He's just a child! He shouldn't have to worry about any of this, and I think he should be more focused on dealing with the idiots in the Ministry who are trying to get him expelled from school. I can't even imagine what he would do if he weren't allowed to go back. How would he be able to even find a job without taking his O.W.L.s?" Sirius rolled his eyes when Molly wasn't looking. He realized the woman was worried about how another war would affect her family, but he didn't understand how keeping all her children (and yes, he considered Harry and Hermione to be under Molly's definition of 'her children') ignorant of even the basic situation would help them in the long run. He was tired, though, and didn't want to get into another argument with her, especially since he had noticed that she was getting more and more nervous the longer Arthur failed to return from the Ministry. If he didn't show up soon, it would look like his wife had a permanent tic in her face the way she kept glancing at the fireplace every few seconds.

"I understand your concern for Harry, Molly, but don't you think that telling him this information would actually be better if he did get expelled? Then he would be prepared for a war that he's going to get dragged into no matter what, even if he never finished the physical and magical training of regular students. It might even make the difference between him surviving and…" Sirius had to physically stop himself there, because he didn't even want to consider any other possibility besides Harry surviving this war.

"Well now you sound like you want to make him some sort of, of super soldier or something! He's just barely turned fifteen! The boy shouldn't have so much pressure put on him at so young an age! What if it destroys him, rather than helping him, hmm?" Molly was clearly getting into her stride, and Sirius was fast losing his resolve about not arguing with the woman. Remus was looking slightly exasperated, Sirius was sure, because he had heard this argument multiple times, and nothing he ever said helped resolve the disagreement. Minerva and Severus both seemed slightly more taken aback by how intense the two guardians had suddenly become, but also interested, as if they were trying to figure out which side they supported. Sirius could understand this as well, since neither professor was at Grimmauld Place often enough to have seen them go at it, and it was pretty much how Remus had acted the first one or two times he was caught between the two stubborn opponents.

He was stopped from responding to Molly's latest point by the floo activating once more, and seeing a very tired Arthur Weasley stumble out of the fireplace. Molly was at his side in an instant and leading him over to a chair by the table while once again gesturing with her wand toward the kettle and heating water for tea.

"Oh, Arthur, thank goodness! I wasn't sure you were ever going to be coming home tonight! How did everything go? Did Albus get everything back in order? Here, let me take your cloak. I'll just go get you a cup of tea, then, ok?" Molly hovered around her husband while also summoning the tea supplies she had never really gotten put away after Minerva's entrance. Only after making sure Arthur was comfortable and settled with a hot cup of tea, and banishing his slightly sooty cloak to the rack in the corner did she finally sit down herself, all the while watching him anxiously.

"Thank you, Molly; this is just what I need at the moment." Arthur took a very long sip of tea despite it steaming rather strongly still and seemed to pull himself together in an eerie display of déjà-vu from Minerva's entrance. "Well, the hubbub at the Ministry has finally died down, and the Prophet's not going to print anything about the attack, though whether that's due to Fudge's persistence or Albus', I'm not sure." He seemed to drift off in his thoughts for a second, shaking his head sadly, but then pulled himself back to the present when Sirius made a not-so-subtle cough to indicate his growing impatience. "Oh, I'm sorry, Sirius, it's been quite a day. But anyway, Albus decided to remain at the Ministry for the night just in case anything else happens either in the offices or in Little Whinging, in which case he will be best placed to react quickly. Kingsley and Hestia are also remaining on duty for the moment in case there is anything we need to do, such as run interference at the ministry or go fetch Harry ourselves."

"So, Albus is planning on getting Harry out of his Aunt's and Uncle's house then, yes?" Sirius jumped in as soon as Arthur finished speaking, unfortunately startling Molly, who seemed to still be more concerned about her husband's fatigue than the news he was relaying. "That's good," he sighed, suddenly realizing how late it had gotten while they'd all been sitting around and waiting for news. "The sooner we get him back here, the better I think all of us will feel, and the easier it'll be to actually answer his questions without trying to encode it or rebuff his attempts with issues about secrecy."

"Sirius, we were just discussing how Harry isn't to get any more information than he or the other children already have." Molly's stern voice had suddenly come back full force, and while Sirius was taken off guard he saw Remus roll his eyes again and Arthur sigh. Molly, focusing so intensely on Sirius, completely missed these little motions, and barreled forward with her argument, possibly re-energized by the sight of her husband finally being home. "Even Minerva, Severus, and Remus agree with me; while Harry has the best intentions, giving him information is dangerous, and that's not even taking into consideration Albus' new concerns about his scar!"

"But this is completely different! If we tell him what we know, he will trust us more because we're being truthful with him and it will curb his curiosity because there won't be anything else he needs to find out from other sources, and he'll know that this is a much more serious matter than silly schoolyard trifles because it will have a direct impact on him and his future. I mean, clearly whatever he got up to didn't have any lasting effects, and couldn't have been as serious as facing Voldemort." Sirius argued, this time trying to add some weight by using the new information he'd learned recently about Harry. He was a little surprised by the reaction of the Weasley's however, and even by Severus and Minerva, all of whom had suddenly stiffened, while Molly had also started turning red, reminiscent of her youngest son from earlier.

"Don't you DARE tell me that what Harry did in either of his previous years is of little importance, or has little impact on our lives, Sirius." Molly had said it with such quiet and deadly force that Sirius all of a sudden understood how she could be related to the easy-going, yet very talented war heroes, the late Fabian and Gideon Prewett. He gulped and then followed through on his old fall-back from school every time he and his friends had ended up in trouble over their heads: he turned to Remus. The werewolf sighed, and in a very soft and placating voice turned to the Weasleys, who were still sitting extremely stiffly in their chairs.

"Molly, Arthur…Sirius doesn't understand, and unfortunately, I haven't had much time to fill him in on what happened, but I'm sure he didn't mean to offend or speak less of what you went through. Why don't you head on upstairs and retire for the night. It's been such a busy day, and we'll need to make sure that the children don't catch us off guard or become suspicious tomorrow." At Remus' words, the two red heads relaxed, and when Sirius nodded at them with an apologetic face, though he was still confused as to what he had said wrong and was getting frustrated by the reproachful looks from both Remus and Minerva, not including the fact that Severus' sneer, while not totally unpredictable, still rankled.

"All right, then, Remus, you're probably right. I'll just clean up the dishes from tea. Arthur, can you think of anything else you need to pass on from Albus?" She asked as she slowly got up from the table, and whisked the cups into the sink with a wave of her wand as she collected the rest of the odds and ends still lying about.

Sirius, however, had had enough. Maybe he was just too tired, and his brain had been worked too hard, but he decided that he was not going to back down this time. Before Arthur could open his mouth—though, to be fair to himself, Sirius later said it looked as though he was only going to shake his head and not say anything—Sirius butted in.

"I'm sorry, Molly, Arthur, I really am, for whatever I said, but I'm still confused as to what I did wrong." Once again, the two Weasley's froze, though Molly slowly turned around from the sink to face Sirius, and Remus put a restraining hand on his friend's forearm, as if in warning. It was, once again, Severus, however, that broke the awkward silence in a way that only the Slytherin Head of House could.

"Surely, Black, you can't be that dense as to not know why someone would ever be offended by something you've said?" He sneered, glaring at Sirius, with a little bit of actual surprise mixed in.

"What do you mean, Snape? All I want to know is what I said that got everyone's backs up. All I did was mention Harry's first two years, which, I'll remind you, we were talking of before without the same reaction." Sirius was determined to get to the bottom of this. Maybe it was a way for him to distract himself from the mess that his and Harry's life was right now, or he was suddenly feeling sympathetic to Harry's plight, but the mysterious goings on of his godson's first two years had been mentioned repeatedly without actually having any information given, and Sirius wanted answers.

"Sirius, you must understand," This time Minerva answered him, and it was clear that while she was keeping her patience better than everyone save Remus, her smile was closer to a grimace, and there was definitely tension in her voice. "One, as I said, if Harry hasn't told you himself, I don't think any of us have a right to tell you without first getting his permission. Two, I don't think this is the time or place to be discussing this. Three, I don't want you to overreact to anything that we might tell you and do something rash. I'm not that surprised, I'll admit, but you and Harry do have some rather similar reflexive reactions to certain things, and digging the past up right now is something that will not help anybody, the least of all Harry." By the time she finished, she was almost looking beseechingly at him to drop the topic, but unfortunately, her answer just made him all the more determined to find out what everyone was talking about.

"I appreciate your candor, Minerva," He started, in an attempt to remain as civil as she had during her explanation, though he had a feeling if he was pushed much father it would degenerate quickly. "However, at the moment, I think I'm sympathizing with Harry more than you wish, and I can totally understand why he resents not being told information, though at the same time being told it's important. Also, there are not many other places I can get this kind of information from at the moment. I can't ask Harry, since he is not here, and by the sounds of it, won't be for some time. I could possibly ask the kids, but they might not give me a very accurate version. Now, I HAVE asked you, but you have refused to answer me, so what else am I supposed to do? It's not like there's been books written and published that will tell me about Harry's past—"

WHUMPFFF!

Sirius was suddenly cut off by a very odd, muffled sound that he couldn't figure out the location of. However, when he stopped looking around the kitchen and focused back on the table, he saw an odd package wrapped in brown paper sitting right in the center. There seemed to be a cloud of dust settling around it, which had muffled the thump and made such an odd sound. There was also a note attached to the top of the package, but when Sirius reached out to grab it, Remus grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Sirius! You don't know if that's cursed or not! Why would you even think about grabbing it?" As he said this, Sirius looked around, and found that not only Remus, but everyone else had their wands out and pointed suspiciously at the center of the table. Molly and Arthur looked highly alarmed, while Severus wore a wary expression, and Minerva and Remus both had a look of slight curiosity on their faces. Sirius suppressed the urge to point out how being a professor must have corrupted Remus' marauder side, seeing as the tension in the room was almost thick enough as to be visible.

"Did anyone see where that came from?" Arthur asked hesitantly, looking around near the ceiling, as if he would spot an owl that obviously wasn't there. Everyone else was shaking their heads, but Severus had taken the initiative and was apparently trying to see if there was any magical signal coming from the oddly thick box that might indicate who, or what, had prompted the delivery.

"No, but I can tell you this definitely didn't come from any Death Eater, and anyone in the Order would have sent a patronus along beforehand. Black, are there any wards around here that prevent specific things getting in so we can eliminate some possibilities?" Snape looked almost civil when asking this, but Sirius just put that down to him being distracted by the spells he was still casting.

"Not that I know of…my father was really more concerned with people physically finding and travelling here rather than mail being delivered, so I think we can rule out there being a person in there. Why? Is there some sort of magical signature on it?" He said, curious now because Snape had started paying more attention to what he was doing, even going so far as to mutter under his breath while still keeping up the constant wand motions. When he didn't appear to hear Sirius, Minerva stepped up to her colleague's shoulder, and asked quietly,

"Severus? Is something wrong?"

This seemed to jerk the man out of whatever trance he'd been in, because he looked up at all of them with a faint frown on his face.

"There is a magical signature present, but only in the note on top, and not in the actual package. It's odd, however, I feel like this signature is familiar to me, like I've met whoever sent this before, but at the same time, there's something different about it as well…it's changed somehow." Seeing Severus so confused by this, the rest of the adults exchanged nervous glances, unsure of how to react to this revelation. Remus appeared to decided that if no one else was going to ask, he would.

"Is it…do you think it's dangerous?" Severus looked up again—having previously gone back to muttering spells—and shook his head slightly.

"The signature seems fairly tame, or faint, similar to a Howler, I believe, though clearly that is not what it is." He shook his head again, apparently more disturbed by the fact that he couldn't identify what was going on with the package than the fact that there wasn't a howler attached to it. Sirius, in his usual manner, decided that enough was enough, and the suspense was killing him, so before Remus could grab his arm again, he reached out and plucked the sealed note off the top of the rectangular box. When he brought it closer, he noticed that the paper was very odd: it was silver, and it shimmered, almost like the surface of a puddle, but the texture was solid and as smooth as satin. Before he could make any more observations, however, the envelope opened itself—once again endearing itself to Howler comparisons—but instead of a voice, white vapor poured out into the air until there was enough to make out the opaque, iridescent form of a hare.

"A patronus?" Remus muttered to himself, but was quickly shushed by Sirius when the hare started speaking in a dreamy, light voice that everyone, except Sirius, recognized instantly.

"Hello, everyone. I'm sure you're wondering what is going on, but I can assure you there is nothing bad or even suspicious about this package you have received. I realize that there are probably Hogwarts professors there, though I can't be sure, as this delivery is not set in stone, and we were simply waiting on the cue to send this through. A very impractical system, I know, but there are some things you can't mess around with too much, or you risk going backwards, you know. That's why sometimes its pays off to be slightly narrow-minded, but really in the end I think that's too much of a sacrifice…" Here the voice paused, as if thinking to itself.

As the silence stretched, Sirius took the chance to look around at the others. They were all staring at the Hare still, though the Weasley's looked utterly bewildered, Remus looked like he was concentrating very hard on understanding what he was hearing, Minerva just seemed to understand the situation, but she still had traces of confusion on her face, and Severus looked bizarrely satisfied about something, while also intrigued, as if he knew something, but didn't understand why he was correct. Sirius knew his face probably matched the Weasleys', since he had absolutely no idea what was going on, but since at least some people did, he wasn't willing to admit that out loud, especially with Severus in the room. Then suddenly the voice returned.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot myself a little there. Anyway, if there are any Hogwarts professors present, then yes, this is Luna Lovegood that you are hearing, though I'm sure you may realize that I'm much older than I was when I was in school. You see, here in the Department of Mysteries, we—that is, the Unspeakables—have been studying Time, which in itself is a fascinating subject, especially if you talk to other creatures about their views. The centaurs are quite unique in that they have a very broad definition of time, though I'm afraid that causes a lot of confusion when they say things like "soon" and that turns out to be one hundred and fifty years later.

"In any case, I'm not talking about how centaurs measure time, but rather the timeline of witches and wizards. This is really more of an experiment than anything else, but ever since I found a Crumple-horned Snorkak in the forests of Albania, Head Unspeakable Yallay tends to believe me more often than not. So, this package is actually a package from my time, your future, though depending on when the key was given, I'm not sure how far in the future for you, but hopefully, someone was curious enough to use the key before Harry Potter got out of school. Otherwise, I'll have made all this effort for naught, and poor Harry won't ever get rid of his Wrackspurt infestation until too late. The poor boy would have had such an easier life if those dratted pests weren't flying around and making his reasoning fuzzy." At this point, Minerva and Remus let out small, quiet chuckles, clearly familiar with, and clearly fond of this Luna girl Sirius was listening to. He even noticed Severus, while rolling his eyes, had less of a frown on his face than was usual for the dour man. Intrigued, Sirius continued to listen.

"Wrackspurts or not, Harry Potter is a very nice boy, and since I needed to test out this new device, I decided to help one of my friends out as well, especially since he helped me out on so many occasions. In order to do this, I decided that I would help Harry out with his scar. I don't know if you know this, but Harry's scar from You-Know-Who is somewhat troublesome, and he's so much nicer when it behaves rather than giving him headaches. So to get rid of the headaches I have sent him these books, so that he can kill You-Know-Who that much quicker and become the nicest Head Auror that I've ever met. Oh, dear, me, I don't think I was supposed to tell you that. This whole time thing is a little tricky, because I don't want to cause any paradoxes, because you know how the saying goes; 'a pair of doxies, cute at first, then they make ten more, and it's the worst'. Ah well, I hope this doesn't cause too many paradoxical problems, but I don't think this recording can be edited." By this point, Sirius wasn't sure what the actual message was supposed to be about, but he was enjoying the girl's sense of humor, at least, so he let a little laugh escape and settled down for however much longer the girl—woman?—would go on about Harry and his headaches.

"But back to the books, they were actually Hermione's idea, and I was quite surprised she let me borrow them, because she has always been the hardest person to talk to about time. I think she once had a bad experience with a time turner, but that was all rumors in school, so I'm not sure. The books, though, are almost like a dairy of sorts, a collection of Harry's memories, with some others added in so it doesn't get too boring. I do hope Hermione didn't put any of her memories in, though, because then you might not finish the books until I meet you in person." Here, not only Sirius, but Remus, Minerva, and the Weasleys all let out a laugh, since they were all quite familiar with Harry's bright friend.

At the same time, Sirius just caught the end of Severus mumbling what sounded suspiciously like "Merlin save us, I hope Lovegood's right or we'll never leave." Smirking to himself, he turned back to the hare, which was still rambling in the dreamy voice.

"…would be nice to meet you, though, so we'll see. Unfortunately, sending you this package is enough of an experiment without me trying to stop time as well, so good luck finishing them all. I do hope you read them together, though I don't think it really matters who listens. It would be nice to hear them myself, especially since they are about before Harry gave me real friends, and I didn't get a chance to read through them before the key was activated, which I suppose is a good thing, because who knows if I would have ended up with all of you? But in any case, enjoy the books, and I hope Harry feels better when they're over, and thank you to whoever keyed the books by asking about Harry's past and got my Tempus Transitar to work!" In a bright flash, the hare, the envelope, and even the brown paper all disappeared, and the five Order members were left staring confusedly at each other and at the pile of seven books sitting in the middle of the table.