After Christmas, the days at Black's old mansion filled with boredom.
Harry, Ron, and Ginny were doing their assignments at the dining room table, and every half hour, Kreacher would bring a steaming pot of tea.
"Thanks, but I really can't drink anymore." Ron's face turned red as he held it in, and shortly thereafter he bent over and ran upstairs to use the bathroom. It looked disgusting to Ginny.
She picked up the teapot in a delicate gesture and poured herself a cup of tea, and brought the cup to her lips, taking a very ladylike sip before gently placing the cup on the dining table and looking up to find Harry frowning as he pondered his Potions class paper, she immediately huffed and flipped through the pages loudly.
Ron returned.
"Snape is still in the study." He said briefly.
Harry knew what he meant; Snape had started to come over regularly the day after the Christmas, and it was a little odd how he appeared at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters three days in a row at a time when the members of the Order were all busy.
"Look on the bright side, maybe he's just coveting the Black family's book collection." Ron said.
"I saw him, last night." Ginny said pointedly, and Harry and Ron immediately turned their heads. "I was going to the kitchen to have some water and I saw him glide past the stairs like a ghost without making a sound ..."
Harry and Ron looked at each other, this made him even more suspicious.
" Is he looking for something?"
"Maybe trying to decipher the Order of the Phoenix's protection magic!"
"Don't be silly, this place is under Fidelius Charm and no one can force Dumbledore to reveal the secret!"
"Why don't we write to Hermione, she knows quite a bit of sneaky magic." Ginny suggested as she leaped to her feet.
"Good idea."
For the next few days, Harry and Ron discussed what Snape planned to do while they anxiously waited for Hermione's reply. It took nearly a week for them to realize that the old Black mansion is protected by layers of magic and Hedwig couldn't find her way back in.
Harry slipped out during lunchtime and brought back Hedwig, who had been wandering around Grimmauld Place for days. Hedwig angrily pecked Harry's ears and fingers as Harry kept apologizing, and only when she had vented enough did she drop a bulging envelope on the top of Harry's head.
Hermione's letter was long.
'Mum, Dad, and I are in Switzerland, and it's very peaceful here without a hint of a war vibe. I persuaded them to stay here for a year and a half, but they strongly disagreed and forced me to promise to write them a letter every week!
I taught them by hand how to subscribe to the Daily Prophet and the New Solutions to the Rune Magazine, and although they couldn't read the latter, they were able to find my name on it. They were also interested in 'The Quibbler', which I thankfully discouraged in time, as I don't want them to ask me what is a goblin pie in a letter.
For your questions, I do know a few tricks, but I'm not sure if they'll work on Professor Snape. I recommend a few methods that muggles use, which I was inspired by a detective novel Dad was reading recently, you can place a strand of hair in the space between the book and if someone opens it, the hair will fall out ... Other methods are enclosed at the end... ...'
"What do you think?" Putting the letter down, Harry asked Ron and Ginny.
"Use that muggle method!" Ron and Ginny said in unison, Harry didn't object, apparently he too had little faith in his chances of getting past Snape using magic.
In the evening two days before the school starts, Harry went upstairs to call Sirius down for dinner. At the fourth-floor stairway, Harry saw Sirius leaning against the doorframe, and just when he was about to say hello, he noticed that Sirius was facing the room, as he lazily fiddled with his wand, talking to someone inside.
Harry took a few steps closer and the voice became clear.
Sirius' tone was unfriendly, "Tell me, how did you end up in my room?"
Who was he talking to? The question just popped into Harry's head and in the next second he knew the answer, when a slow voice said, "Naturally, I have something to look for you, why are you even asking this question, do I look like I am lost or something?"
It is Snape!
Harry's breath caught and his heart raced. He held his breath, Snape's actions had been so suspicious lately, and he desperately wanted to know why.
"Yeah well," Sirius squinted as he looked around the room, "I thought someone had sneaked into my room to look for something ..."
"Look for something?" Snape's icy voice said with an intense contempt in his tone and Harry could almost imagine his thin lips puckering up like a snake poised to spew venom, "Oh ... you mean the bikini pictures posted on the wall?"
Sirius, who was raising an eyebrow at Snape, stiffened and licked his lips, "What did you say?"
"I have to say, you have a unique taste and a lot of nerve." Snape's sneering voice heard and Sirius turned red, "That's an old picture!" He growled in a low voice.
Not wanting to hear any more, Harry backed away, when Snape suddenly appeared in the doorway, bumping past Sirius who was in the way, and was surprised to see Harry who was tiptoeing backward.
That moment was downright awkward.
A few seconds felt like centuries. Harry froze in place as a sneer pulled at the corners of Snape's mouth, "Looks like Someone found out your little secret, Sirius. Would you Obliviate him?" He walked away with a large stride.
Harry turned slowly to get down the stairs, "Stop." Sirius said with a grimace and Harry stammered, "I didn't hear anything." Sirius couldn't help but curse in a low voice, not sure who he was cursing, "Follow me."
Harry walked into the room with a great burst of courage.
He had never formally entered this room before, at most knocking on the door to call Sirius out for dinner and vaguely glimpsing the large sculpted bed and velvet drapes over the bed. It was only when Harry entered that he realized the room is spacious and beautiful.
Sirius sat on the bed with a huff and pointed to the wall behind Harry.
"See for yourself."
Harry slowly turned his head, expecting to see some odd pictures, which he did. Harry noticed the Gryffindor flags on either side of the silver satin wall first, they acted as the baseline for the entire wall of photographs, allowing one to tell at a glance which house the owner of the room came from.
Harry secretly applauded.
Then he couldn't help but notice the wall full of stickers and photographs, and Harry blinked, it wasn't quite what he had expected, there were lots of pictures of Muggle motorbikes plastered on them, only a few of them being 'bikini pictures' as Snape had called them, the girls' faded smiles frozen on the yellowed pictures - they didn't move at all - seemingly cut from a muggle film poster.
This had been glued to the wall when Sirius was at school, which Harry realized, and at the same time he had to admit that Snape was right about one thing, Sirius did have a lot of nerve ...
Apart from these, there are also many wizard pictures on the wall. Harry was first surprised and then with a tinge of discomfort, he finally knew where the set of photographs that Sirius had obtained from the Creevey brothers was hidden. There are dozens of Harry Potter's winked at him.
Harry wasn't sure what he felt more inside, embarrassment or being moved, his eyes were slightly sore, and it took him a few moments to spot a couple of different pictures.
A picture of four Hogwarts students standing arm in arm, Harry stared at the picture of his father, Sirius, Lupin, and of course Peter Pettigrew, each of them smiling happily at the camera.
And then there is a picture of Sirius with a young man on his shoulder, which Harry recognizes as Regulus, neither of them very old when the picture was taken, and Sirius was yet to run away from home
The last picture - Harry's breath froze - featured a dark-haired baby flying up and down on a small broomstick, giggling and smiling, and two legs of a full-grown man were trailing behind him; that must be his father, James Potter.
"Lily mailed it to me back then, I managed to find it when I was cleaning the house." Sirius said, pointing to the baby picture, "It was hidden in my motorbike repair manual and I nearly threw it away."
Harry remained silent, unsure of what to say.
"I have a few more letters here from James and Lily ..." Sirius stammered, "I've been hesitant whether you would want it or not."
"Of course I do!" Harry immediately said, looking at Sirius with an expectant look on his face.
Sirius smiled.
"It's probably not exactly what you're expecting ... We talked mostly about the war in those days, except for your mother, Lily. She always had a great passion for life ..." he muttered, and when he finished he paused for a moment before getting up from the bed, and yanked open the drawer of his bedside table, taking a pile of letters from it.
Harry gazed greedily at the somewhat faded traces of ink, wondering how he hadn't thought of this before. But then it occurred to him that he never seemed to have the habit of keeping Ron and Hermione's letters ... he decided to change it immediately, starting now.
"Do you have James's invisibility cloak?" Sirius abruptly asked.
"What? Oh yeah, Headmaster Dumbledore gave it to me in my first year." Harry replied, not knowing why Sirius was asking this question, his full attention fixed on the letters. He saw a line of beautiful handwriting, probably written by his mother.
He impatiently held it in his hand, wishing he could feel the body heat of the person writing the letter.
Sirius stopped talking and looked moody. He waved his hand and Harry headed outside, he suddenly turned back at the door, "Well ... Sirius, I wanted to say that you do have good taste." Without waiting for Sirius's reply, he hurriedly slipped away.
------------
Thanks for all your love and support.
Read 50 days or 100 chapters in advance on P@treon. If you have some extra pocket money, Support me at P@treon: www.p@treon.com/Crazy_Cat.
Happy Reading!!!