~Chapter 13- Spilling Secrets~ 

I quickly adjusted to visiting Grimmauld Place. Though I wasn't allowed in the meetings and was therefore stuck in the moldy house with all of the strange artifacts, I was learning a lot about the Black family. My family. The house was known as the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black-and black pretty much described it all: dark and malevolent, obsessed with purifying the race, supporting Voldemort's ideas.

I'd learned from my mistakes, however. On the second day at Grimmauld Place I discovered that the portrait of Mrs. Black, Sirius's mother, was easily disturbed. If someone walked just a decibel too loud down the halls, ran into something such as the troll leg umbrella stand (like Dora always did), or rang the doorbell, the curtains over her portrait would fly up and she would begin to scream and wail, saying, "Scum! Dirt! In my house! The shame of it all! Half-breeds, werewolves, blood traitors..." until Sirius finally shut her up.

Even stranger than Mrs. Black's portrait, if possible, was Kreacher. He was the old house-elf who lived here, and he absolutely hated Sirius. He was much like Mrs. Black, complaining about the types of people who came into the house. I found it extremely strange that Kreacher bowed every time he saw me, especially considering that I'd never spoken a word to him.

Eventually, the meetings became so long and tiring that Dora and I ended up spending the night. Though the house had plenty of bedrooms, the moth-eaten blankets and moldy smell weren't very inviting. However, Mrs. Weasley had made plans to clean up the house-throwing away what Sirius wanted gone, exterminating the rooms of nasty pests-which kept me busy while Dora was in the meetings.

But I have to admit some items in the house were dangerous or just plain strange, and often resulted in me embarrassing myself. One time I got my hand stuck in a bewitched toilet on the third floor while cleaning it out and had to wait a whole hour before Mad-Eye helped me out (Dora couldn't stop laughing hysterically). Even worse, I'd opened a door and found an oddly familiar-looking hippogriff in there and screamed, "Sirius, there's a hippogriff in here!" only to have him come up laughing and saying that Buckbeak was his pet.

It was hard work, but it paid off. Not only was I discovering a lot, but I'd gotten to know the members better. At mealtimes we were all entertained when Sirius and Lupin told stories about their Hogwarts days or when Dora performed her crazy noses or when Mundungus told us hilarious tales about his life of crime (which Mrs. Weasley very highly disapproved of).

Two weeks after Dora joined, the workload was getting heavier. The Weasley's decided to move in for the summer, so Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny came to stay. Hermione also came, and they made plans to bring Harry up, but they were waiting for the right time.

When they arrived, the house became much crazier. Fred and George were up to their usual practical jokes. Now that they were of age, they felt the need to Apparate every few feet and use magic on the tiniest things. However, one of their joke items became extremely useful: Extendable Ears, which allowed us to eavesdrop on meetings (in full awareness that we'd be in loads trouble if we were caught). So one day, Fred and George gave one to each of us. We crowded around the door and let the strings of the Extendable Ears fall to the crack in the doorway. Immediately, the voices in the kitchen were magnified so that we could hear them clearly.

"Someone should tab Lucius Malfoy," the voice of Remus Lupin said.

"I'll do it," Arthur Weasley said. "I see him around a lot at work; lately he's been suspiciously discussing things with the Minister."

"And what about Walden Macnair, of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures?" Lupin asked. "He's been cleared by the Ministry, but Harry says he was in the graveyard when Voldemort returned. Tonks, could you track him?"

"I don't know," Dora asked. "You've seen how clumsy I am. I nearly failed Stealth and Tracking when I trained to be an Auror."

"Kingsley, then?"

"I'll do it," Kingsley Shacklebolt's deep voice said.

Outside the door, Hermione whispered, "So they're tracking known Death Eaters! They're making sure they're-"

"Shhhh!" Fred said. "Listen!"

Behind the door, Mad-Eye Moody was saying, "So who's doing guard duty tonight?"

"Guard duty?" Ginny whispered. "What are they guarding?"

"Well, stop talking and maybe we'll find out!" hissed George.

But before we could hear what the Order was saying, Hermione's ginger cat, Crookshanks, came over and began to play with the Extendable Ear strings like they were cat toys.

"No, Crookshanks!" Hermione said frantically.

"Shhhh, they're talking about Harry!" Ron said suddenly. In the kitchen I heard Lupin's voice say, "We need to form and advance guard to pick up Harry tomorrow. Tonks, you said you'd write the letter-"

The rest of their words were muffled because Crookshanks had tangled the strings. I could barely hear anything now, except for the words Mrs. Weasley spoke next: "I'm going to see what's going on outside. I keep hearing something."

"Quick, hide them!" Fred said, pulling the wad of string into his pocket, but it was too late: Mrs. Weasley had appeared outside the kitchen door. I braced myself for the explosion.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, LISTENING IN ON THE MEETING?"

"We weren't listening in, we were playing with Crookshanks," said Fred. "See?" He held up the string.

"What's this?" Mrs. Weasley spat. "Honestly, does it really take six people to play with a cat? No, let me see them, Fred!" She grabbed the string from his hands and read the label on it. "'Extendable Ears, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?' I thought I told you to throw all of this garbage away!"

"It's not garbage," George said.

"Well, I'll be trashing them, anyway!"

Later that night, Hermione, Ginny, and I sat in the bedroom we shared and discussed what we'd heard.

"They're guarding something," Hermione said as she paced back and forth. "Something important. What could it be?"

"Something You-Know-Who's after," Ginny said. "It must be really dangerous. I wish they'd tell us what it was. They say we're too young, but most of us have faced a lot more than they have!"

"Well, Harry's coming over tomorrow," Hermione said. "And I have a feeling Sirius will tell him a lot. Sirius tells Harry everything, and Harry will tell us anything."

Sirius tells Harry everything...would he tell me everything?

"I could ask Sirius," I said. "He might tell me; I am his cousin."

"Well, maybe," Hermione said. "But he's Harry's godfather, and the two are really close. You could try, but it doesn't sound very promising."

"But why would Sirius tell his godson something and not his cousin?" I argued.

"Harry's known Sirius for two years, so they've bonded," Ginny said. "And well...you've only known him for a few weeks. Why don't you ask Tonks instead? Doesn't she tell you everything?"

"She did," I groaned. "But she won't tell me anything about the Order unless I snuck her some Veritaserum."

Ginny shrugged. "We'll wait. When Harry gets here, there will be a huge meeting."

Dora, Lupin, Mad-Eye, Kingsley, Elphias, Emmeline, Hestia, Dedalus, and Sturgis all formed an advance guard so they could pick up Harry from his aunt and uncle's house. Dora told me the plan as she stood by the door, getting ready to leave.

"So, you lured his aunt and uncle out?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered, grabbing her Comet Two-Sixty. Today her hair was totally different: short, spiky, and purple, unlike anything she'd ever tried. "I sent them a letter, saying they won the All-England Best-Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. That way, they'll be gone when we pick him up. Pretty funny, right?"

"Sure is," I said dully.

"I'll see you later," she said, stepping outside into the night air with the others. "We'll be back soon."

"Tonks!" Moody said. "Come on!"

"Sorry!" she replied to him, mounting her broomstick and nearly tripping down the front steps as she did.

The door closed, and I heard a sigh. Sirius was right behind me.

"Sure wish I could join the advance guard," he said. "I'd love to get out of this house."

I turned to face him. "I think they have enough people going already."

"That's not the point," he said, sighing again. "Harry's lucky. He gets some action, being attacked by dementors, while I'm stuck here forever."

I looked at him, puzzled. "Dementors?"

"Yes, haven't you heard? He was attacked by dementors in Little Whinging and had to use magic to escape. They say he's been expelled, but he's going to be tried at the Ministry. The Prophet didn't report it; you know how it is these days, claiming Harry's a nutter for saying Voldemort returned."

I flinched at the sound of the Dark Lord's name. Sirius noticed and said, "You really should call him by his name. Being scared of his name only makes Voldemort scarier himself."

"I still prefer the Dark Lord," I said. "'You-Know-Who' sounds childish but his real name sounds-well, you know how people are about not saying it."

"Only Death Eaters call him the Dark Lord," Sirius said. "Come on, say it with me. Vol. De. Mort." He said that to me as if I was a three year old. "Come on, Lindsey. You think ‘You-Know-Who' is childish but what's really childish is being afraid of a word."

"Hmmm. When you say it like that..." I said. "All right, so Harry was attacked by dementors. Does that mean You-Know-oh, fine, Voldemort-sent them after him?"

For once, I didn't flinch. Saying his name was actually quite satisfying, like overcoming an obstacle or accomplishing something big. Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort. I almost giggled. That was fun.

"We don't know yet," Sirius said. "Well, I have to go help prepare for the meeting."

He left for the kitchen and I went upstairs to the bedroom. Ginny and Hermione were there. Hermione was pacing and talking half to herself under her breath.

"I mean, I hope he's not mad at us...we wanted to tell him what was going on, but Dumbledore told us we couldn't...I would be angry if I were him, I would want to know...oh, he's going to be so mad! I wish we could tell him, but Dumbledore...well, maybe he'll understand, and he'll find everything out tonight..."

"Hermione!" Ginny snapped, looking up from her copy of a magazine featuring the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch Team. "Could you keep your thoughts inside your head? I'm trying to read!"

"Sorry," Hermione replied. "It's just...what will Harry think? What do you think, Lindsey?" She jerked her head at me sharply.

"Oh...I don't know. He might be mad...I'd probably get angry..."

Hermione let out a stressed moan and sat down on her bed. "Hedwig's already pecked me to death; I guess Harry wanted a good, long answer...but I couldn't tell him!"

She fiddled her fingers, which had been wounded by Harry's owl. She sighed again. "Maybe I'll talk to Ron."

She left. I flopped down on my bed, thinking. Maybe things were getting serious now. Dementors in a Muggle neighborhood...

Harry arrived later that night while the meeting was still going on. He joined Ron and Hermione in Ron's bedroom, and I could hear him shouting at the top of his lungs. Hermione had predicted correctly.

"Not happy, is he?" Ginny asked. I shook my head. "I guess I can't blame him. If I were Harry, I'd want to know what was going on."

"Yeah," I said lazily.

"Come on, let's go," Ginny said. "I think they're outside now; maybe they're trying to use the Extendable Ears again, but it won't work. Mum put an Imperturbable Charm on it. She was furious when she found out we'd been listening to the meetings."

She left, but I stayed behind. I was really tired for some reason. I reclined on the bed for awhile before I heard screaming in the hall. Mrs. Black's portrait had been disturbed again (most likely, Dora had run into the umbrella stand). I left the room just in time to see Sirius close the portrait's curtains. Then Mrs. Weasley called us to dinner.

We all came into the kitchen. I noticed Sirius immediately explaining the house to Harry and answering any questions he could. I couldn't help feeling slightly jealous. I'd felt an instant bond between Sirius and me, but seeing these two so close made me realize that the godson-godfather bond-in other words, their friendship-was obviously stronger.

Mrs. Weasley gave us each a job (except for Harry, of course). We all cooked, set the table, and prepared to eat. Lupin and Mundungus joined us tonight.

The meal was relatively normal: Dora did her nose transformations (and I noticed that she'd changed her purple hair to bubble-gum pink while she was on the journey) and everyone discussed what they could about the Order.

Finally after desert, Sirius asked Harry the obvious question: "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort." [*]

That snapped everyone out of their sleepy trances. Harry blurted, "I did! I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so-" [*]

"And they're quite right," Mrs. Weasley said. "You're too young." [*]

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius asked. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happen-" [*]

I put my head in my hand as the next few minutes turned into a cacophony of arguing. I felt a headache coming on. I tuned everything out until it had passed. Mrs. Weasley and Sirius still weren't happy with each other, however.

"I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this," Lupin said. "He's old enough to decide for himself." [**]

"I want to know what's been going on," [**] Harry said immediately.

So do the rest of us, I thought bitterly. But there's no way they'll tell us anything. We weren't in the graveyard the night Voldemort returned.

Mrs. Weasley, admitting defeat again, told everyone who wasn't Harry to go to bed. We all began to protest. I was angered at her; she was acting like she was my parent. I barely knew her.

As the Weasley children worked on her, I looked at Dora. "Dora, tell her I can stay!" I exclaimed, thinking about how it wasn't Mrs. Weasley's decision.

"I don't know Linds," she said as Mrs. Weasley yelled at her children and Hermione to go to bed.

"Won't you tell me everything?"

"I said, I don't-"

"Don't I have the right to know?" I asked her, giving her a serious stare. "Considering...everything?"

I could tell Sirius, Lupin, Bill, and Mr. Weasley were confused by what I'd just said, but Dora understood. She sighed.

"Arthur...can Lindsey stay?"

"Well..." Mr. Weasley said uncertainly.

"Sure, she can," Sirius said. "Go on, sit down."

I looked at him gratefully as Mrs. Weasley yelled, "Fine!" She'd given in and apparently let Fred, George, Ron, and Hermione stay. "Fine! Ginny-BED!" [***]

Ginny left raging and woke up the portrait of Mrs. Black as she stormed up the steps as Mrs. Weasley turned and saw me. Her gaze shifted from me to Dora, and she said, "Tonks, are you sure? Shouldn't you get consent from your parents?"

"What do you mean?" I asked somewhat harshly.

"Well, she's just your sister! Are you sure her word is enough?" Mrs. Weasley asked me. "She's not your parents, is she?"

"My parents wouldn't care," I said hotly. "Besides, Sirius said I could stay. His word is better than that of my parents anyway."

Mrs. Weasley, fed up with the night's arguments, said, "Fine!" for the last time and sat down, giving Sirius a venomous look. I sighed, frustrated, not missing the looks of confusion that crossed Lupin's, Sirius's, Bill's, and Mr. Weasley's faces. Nobody knew why talking about my parents was such a touchy subject with me.

"I still don't think-" Mrs. Weasley continued, causing Dora to sigh and say, "Linds...I'm sorry, but I think you should go upstairs with Ginny."

"But Dora, I'm fifteen; Ginny's not even that-"

"This is not a matter of age," she said. "Please, just do as I say."

"You're not my parent." But I stopped there. Sure, I felt hurt and betrayed, but I was making a fool out of myself. I wasn't the kind of person who made a scene. I looked at Dora, expecting some sort of signal or sign-I wink, I shrug, anything-that would indicate she would tell me later when we weren't in the presence of Mrs. Weasley. But her face was stone-cold.

"Fine," I said, calmly but unhappily. "I'll go upstairs."

I turned around and left, resisting the urge to slam the door. I began to stomp up the stairs, but remembered Mrs. Black's portrait and stopped. I dodged Kreacher on the way. He bowed to me once more, but I hardly took any notice.

I pushed the bedroom door open forcefully, now that I was out of the portrait's way. Ginny was lying there on her bed, reading her magazine. She looked genuinely shocked to see me.

"They sent you away too? I thought you were allowed!"

"Well, I was, but my sister changed her mind."

"Tonks? Really? She doesn't seem that type to me."

"Well, she's not your sister." I flung myself onto the moldy blankets of my bed. "Sirius said I could stay, but that wasn't good enough for your mother. I mean...I'm sorry. That came out wrong."

"Don't worry about it; I know what you mean. She can be really uptight." She called Mrs. Weasley a few more words that I wouldn't have said, yet I kind of felt like Dora fit in the same category tonight.

Ginny and I found ourselves venting about our families forever, and how unfair we felt this was. After several minutes in which our anger was mostly gone, she said, "You know, I wonder what they're talking about. I wish those Extendable Ears would work." She sighed and turned a page in the magazine. "Should we theorize?"

"What? Oh, I don't know. I'd hate to get a theory into my mind that ends up being totally off," I replied.

She sighed. "Good point. I think I'll beg Hermione to tell me. She might be too good-girl for that, though. Fred and George might!" she said brightly. "Although, they might just tease me about it. I hate being the youngest. Do you hate being the youngest child?"

"Right now I do," I admitted.

Unfortunately, we ended up theorizing anyway. None of it was very productive, but we thought that maybe Voldemort was secretly creating some ultimate magical artifact in order to turn everyone into Death Eaters. Sadly, that was the most intelligent of our theories.

Hermione came into the room after the meeting looking annoyingly casual.

"I wasn't going to ask," said Ginny.

"I didn't say you were," said Hermione.

"Is it over?" I asked. "Can I go back down?"

"Yes, it's over."

I knew I would have to leave soon, so I hurried down to say goodbye to Sirius, and also thank him for trying to let me listen. At least somebody was on my side.

I almost ran into him on the stairs to the ground floor. Luckily I didn't, or Mrs. Black would have screamed at us.

"Sorry!" I said.

"No problem," he said. "Actually...follow me, will you?"

He led me to the kitchen. Nobody was in there but Kreacher, so Sirius shooed him out. Then he turned to me. "I'm assuming you want to know what we talked about at the meeting."

"Of course," I said.

"I'm sorry you couldn't stay. Molly doesn't always understand."

"A lot of people don't always understand," I said, but I was getting at a different meaning, one I couldn't say.

"Well, I think you should know. You're part of the Order as much as Harry, Ron, and Hermione."

I shrugged.

"Sit down. I'll tell you what we talked about. Oh, and...don't tell Tonks, okay?"

I smiled. "The secret's safe."

He launched into explanation. By the end I'd learned several things. For one, Voldemort tried to return unnoticed by anyone but his Death Eaters-Harry wasn't supposed to have survived. But because he did, his plans got flawed, and the fact that Dumbledore knows he's back was the last thing he wanted. Since Dumbledore found out, the Order was re-formed.

Dumbledore also expected that Voldemort was trying to do what he did last time-build up his army with Death Eaters and Dark creatures. The Order was trying to prevent this by convincing more and more people to join them, but it wasn't easy with the Ministry ignoring the idea that he was back.

Fudge was also frightened-and being a complete idiot in my opinion-because he thought the whole thing was a plan to overthrow the Ministry so Dumbledore could become Minister of Magic. He thinks Dumbledore and Harry are plotting and making the whole thing up.

Finally, Sirius said Voldemort was after some sort of weapon...something he didn't have last time he was powerful.

"Not a word to Molly," he insisted. "I purposely slipped up in telling Harry and the others. You should know too. But Molly went ballistic, so you have to keep quiet."

"I won't tell anyone," I promised.

Suddenly the kitchen door burst open and Dora flew in. She had a surprised look on her face, and in seconds she understood what was going on. She sighed and rolled her eyes, saying, "I should have known. I suppose we can't keep a secret from you, can we, Linds?"

I didn't find this joke funny at all. I was still feeling resentment toward her.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't my decision to make in letting you stay."

"Then whose decision was it? Mine, right? Certainly not my parents?"

"Lindsey..."

"It doesn't matter, Dora. Sirius told me."

"Right, well, come on, Linds. We're going home tonight."

"Fine, but my stuff is upstairs. I need to get it."

"I'll get it. Wait here," she said, and left.

I sat back on the table and leaned back into my chair, thinking.

"Lindsey," Sirius said, breaking me away from my thoughts. "I would...er...tell Miss Hotheaded Weasley everything I just said. She's part of this too. Like Tonks said, it's not a matter of age."

"All right. I can do that," I told him. Then I lapsed back into my thoughtful state. Voldemort was after a weapon, but what was it? I stared down at the wooden table when Sirius's voice spoke.

"Don't think about it too much. What comes in time just comes. The war will happen, Voldemort will be powerful, and we'll all have to fight."

"I was just thinking about this weapon, actually," I said.

He sighed. "Yes. There's so much more I wish I could tell you and Harry, but...you saw how Molly reacted tonight."

I nodded and, looking at him, said, "You and Harry are really close, aren't you?"

"Yes," Sirius said with a sad smile. "He reminds me so much of James." His gaze moved to the tabletop and he began to stare blankly at it like I'd been doing several seconds before.

"Sirius, what exactly-"

"What exactly happened on Halloween of 1981?" he asked. Once again I thought of that second-cousin telepathy thing. "It's a long story, but I'll tell you."

He took a deep breath. "James was my best friend. In our Hogwarts days, we were always by each other's sides. We spent time getting in trouble, serving detention, torturing Snape, chasing girls..." A smile danced across his face for a split-second. "Remus and Peter Pettigrew were our friends as well. The four of us called ourselves the Marauders at school. You see...Remus is a werewolf, as I'm sure you know. Because of this, the rest of us went behind Dumbledore's back-we hated doing it, but we did-and we each became an Animagus. Unregistered, of course...it took years. But finally we managed, and as animals we accompanied Remus to the Shrieking Shack each full moon."

I gasped. "So that's why people think it's haunted? It was actually Lupin in his werewolf form? I never knew that!"

"Yes, you're right. It was Remus as a werewolf, so we called him Moony. The rest of us had nicknames-I was Padfoot, as a dog; Peter was Wormtail, he was a rat; and James was Prongs, because he became a stag."

He paused, and I said, "But what does any of this have to due with...you know."

"It doesn't have to do with anything," Sirius said. "It just shows how close we were. Even after we graduated, we stayed close. Eventually, James married Lily Evans and they moved to Godric's Hollow. That's where Harry was born, and that's where Remus, Wormtail, and I visited several days out of the week. But then, Voldemort was becoming extremely powerful, so the Potters decided to use the Fidelius Charm on their home."

"The Fidelius Charm?" I asked perplexedly.

"It's where one person is Secret-Keeper, and only they can tell the location of the place being hidden. The Potters chose me as their Secret-Keeper, meaning nobody, not even Remus or Wormtail, could tell Voldemort where we were hidden. But at the last minute, the Potters changed their minds and made Wormtail Secret-Keeper."

"That was a bad move, wasn't it?"

"Yes. We always trusted Wormtail, but we knew he was a coward. Voldemort found him and forced the information out of him. Apparently he was going to kill him if he didn't give the information. Like I said, he was a coward. He chose to let James and Lily die rather than sacrifice himself for his friends. It didn't end well."

He paused for a moment, and for a second I regretted ever asking him anything. It seemed so personal and I could tell he was getting emotional, but I'd wanted to hear the story from someone who was actually there. He continued...

"Voldemort killed the Potters and tried to kill Harry, and of course that backfired. But then Wormtail made it seem like I was the one who betrayed them. He cut off his finger to make it look like he'd been killed, and then he transformed into a rat and hid. I was blamed and dragged off to Azkaban. It was the worst night of my life. I was locked up, my best friend was dead, Wormtail had escaped, and I would live my whole life without knowing my godson."

"But...but you did get to know Harry," I said. "And then...you said you escaped. But that's what doesn't make sense to me. Why didn't you escape sooner?"

"That's the thing," Sirius said. "I, like the rest of the Wizarding community, thought that Wormtail was dead. I knew everyone believed I was a murderer. But I knew I was innocent, of course, and then I saw Wormtail in the Prophet. It was his picture-he was with the Weasley's. As a rat, he was their pet. Pathetic, right? That's how he hid. So I'd been waiting for the right moment to escape. There was no reason to go after nothing. I didn't want to be locked up, but I had to prove I was innocent somehow. That didn't work, though, as you know. But at least I'm free to some extent...of course, that doesn't take back the fact that James and Lily are dead."

"I'm sorry," I said quietly, thinking of how hard it had been for him to tell that story. "I didn't mean...I wasn't trying to..."

"That's okay," he said. "I figured you'd ask sooner or later, especially since Voldemort has returned. Anyway, you deserve the truth. The rest of the world still thinks I'm a murderer. And now I'm stuck here forever."

I thought my life had some frustrating aspects, like the identity issue, but Sirius had it worse. Being locked up in a house he hated, not being able to leave for even the simplest thing, and being blamed for murdering couldn't be an ideal way to live.

I didn't realize how late it was or how tired I was until Dora came in and told me we were leaving.

"That took a while," I said to her, and though it was mostly a joke my tired voice made me sound annoyed. "Sirius told me a whole story while you were getting ready to leave."

Sirius leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and smiled a mischievous, knowing smile. "You and Remus had a nice snog, I take it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Dora replied flatly. But she totally blushed.

"Sirius, can we use the Floo?" I asked, moving toward the fireplace.

"No, they're watching the Network," he said. "We can't let the Ministry know about Headquarters. You'll have to fly."

Dora and I sighed in unison.

I could barely hang onto my broom due to fatigue, but on the way home I thought of Sirius's story...and how I wanted nothing more at that moment than to be able to Apparate home.