Selene || Remus Lupin

Ch. 40 - The Ministry of Magic

The next few days were spent trying to rid Grimmauld Place of things that were actively trying to kill them. It felt as if they were waging war on the house, and it was putting up a fair fight back.

At one point, Mundungus Fletcher rescued Ron from a set of purple dress robes that tried to strangle him as soon as he opened the wardrobe. At another point, they unearthed a music box that, when playing, issued an unearthly lullaby that quite literally almost put them all to sleep, until Ginny at last shut the lid.

Remus, who was frequently away on various missions for Dumbledore, was able to fix a grandfather clock that had tried to assault Selene with flying bolts as soon as she had walked past it. Meanwhile, Kreacher tried his best to rescue anything that they tried to throw out.

He was often not successful.

Selene hoped that while it was hard work, all of the cleaning would distract Harry from his impending hearing, and it nearly seemed to. Unfortunately, the day of the hearing creeped up on them, and Selene found herself waking up the morning of, ridden with anxiety.

When she sat up in bed that morning, she found Sirius already awake, sitting up in the bed next to her.

"I was waiting for you," he said groggily. "I thought we'd go down together and wait for Harry to come down."

Selene nodded, and they both dressed quickly, making their way down to the kitchen for a light breakfast.

"Good morning," Selene said quietly, as she and Sirius walked into the kitchen. Both Arthur and Molly were already there, as well as Remus and, to Selene's displeasure, Tonks.

"Good morning," Molly said somewhat brightly. She immediately slid plates covered in toast, eggs, and bacon in front of her and Sirius as they sat down at the table.

"Thanks Molly, but I usually have a cup of coffee first before –" Selene began, but she hadn't even finished the sentence before Remus set a steaming mug of fresh coffee in front of her.

She smiled gratefully at him.

"Are you ready for today?" Arthur asked Selene.

Selene nodded reluctantly. "As ready as I can be, I suppose. You think this is alright to wear?"

Selene had retired her Muggle clothes and was donning a smart set of emerald-green witch's robes. She had, at Sirius' advice, not worn her usual star-spangled, dark blue set, since those didn't seem to be very Ministry-appropriate.

Molly nodded in confirmation. "I would think so. I'm actually a little concerned at what your godson is going to come down wearing."

Selene frowned. Harry had not been known to wear the most stylish of outfits. It wasn't ever really his fault; she knew most of what he owned was hand-me-downs from his cousin Dudley, which meant they were almost always too big for him.

They found out soon enough when Harry came down a few short minutes later, wearing a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt. His hair was as messy as ever.

"Breakfast," Molly said immediately, jumping to her feet and pointing her wand to the fire, which leapt into attention.

"M-m-morning, Harry," Tonks yawned. "Sleep all right?"

"Yeah," Harry said.

"I've b-b-been up all night," she said, another big yawn issuing from her mouth. "Come and sit down..."

She pulled up a chair near her, knocking over a nearby one in the process.

"What do you want, Harry?" Molly asked. "Porridge? Muffins? Kippers? Bacon and eggs? Toast?"