Sneaking back into the Grangers' house as Crookshanks was easy. And Hermione truly made it even easier by pretending to be surprised to see Crookshanks back after setting her free for some while.

But once they were alone up in her room and Jenna transformed back to her human form, they finally managed to greet each other properly.

     "Okay, now that you're finally here," Hermione whispered quietly, even though it was pretty late at night and her parents had gone to sleep, "what's been going on? What is Dumbledore up to?"

    "Look, I can't tell you anything," Jenna said, watching Hermione's face fall in disappointment. "At least, not here. It's not safe."

     "But it's been too quiet," Hermione tried to reason, "there's no mention of You-Know-Who in the Daily Prophet. And nothing strange is happening in the Muggel world either. I've read The Rise and Fall of Dark Arts and it says that in the last war even the Muggle world was in chaos, because the Death Eaters were hunting Muggles and Muggle-Borns down. But there's been nothing in the news."

     "We think that at the moment Voldemort's trying to stay low and getting stronger. He's using the Ministry's denial to his advantage. They're making his work so much easier, so he's trying to keep it that way for as long as possible. But that's pretty much all I can tell you right now."

Although no matter how much Hermione insisted on knowing what Dumbledore and the others had been up to in the past few weeks, Jenna kept telling her that it was highly confidential and that she couldn't say anything at the moment about the matter. But Jenna did promise her that she would explain everything later.

The next day when it was time to leave for the Burrow, Mr. Weasley connected the Grangers' fireplace to the Floo Network so Hermione could easily be transported there with her heavy trunk and Crookshanks's basket.

     Even the Weasleys' household seemed to have fallen in chaos. Apparently, Percy had stormed out on their family, declaring his loyalty to the Ministry. So bringing his name up was always a mistake, because Mrs. Weasley would burst into tears each time and Mr. Weasley would break a glass if he was holding any.

    Jenna was glad to be in her cat form the whole time she was at the Burrow, because she still felt too awkward to be around Molly and Arthur.

     Although Jenna did use her disguise as Crookshanks to her advantage to see what else had been going on around. After Dumbledore had told the Order about Lexi Hooper and how she was a Muggle girl who had valuable knowledge about the future, Jenna kept a close eye on her.

     For some reason, Lexi looked really familiar to her. There was something about the girl that reminded Jenna of someone, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it.

     Jenna had never paid close attention to her throughout their year at Hogwarts, but now she realized that Lexi was a sweet girl, yet almost as mischievous as the Weasley twins; quite like Jenna herself, when she was younger. As it seemed, to Jenna's surprise and delight, Fred had finally managed to ask the girl out.

     Jenna was relieved that soon after arriving at the Burrow, the Weasleys announced that they were moving to a new place for the summer. But no matter how many times their kids asked where they were going, their parents only responded with 'you'll see when we get there'. The only person among them who didn't seem surprised about this was Lexi.

     Hermione carefully carried Crookshanks's basket as they finally reached Grimmauld Place, and that was when Arthur took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to one of the kids.

"Memorize this and then give it to the others to memorize it, too," he said in a quiet tone, looking around carefully.

     On the small piece of paper, it was written,

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can be found at number twelve, Grimmauld pace, London.

     Once everyone had memorized it, Arthur took the paper back and set it into flames with his wand.

"Now think about what you have just memorized," he said.

     No sooner had they all done so, than a house emerged from amid numbers eleven and thirteen, catching everyone by surprise.

"Quickly, get inside, everyone." Arthur rushed everyone toward the house.

"What is Order of–"

"–Shush, Ron!" Molly cut him off. "Not here. We'll explain everything once we're inside."

Jenna wasn't sure if she had missed being inside the dusty and dim halls of Grimmauld Place, but she was just glad to be back with Sirius even after such a short while.

"Welcome to the headquarters." Everyone turned around at the voice, seeing Dumbledore standing at the end of the hall, beaming at them.

But when he saw the kids still looking at him in confusion, he went on, "We decided to have this place as a safe house for somewhere to have our small meetings in. And I must ask you this," his voice became very stern by the following words, "this will stay between us, and us only."

He then turned his eyes on Ron and Hermione and said, "and this means that I want your word that you would not tell Harry about any of this, until the time is right."

"But, Professor —" Hermione tried to protest, but Dumbledore broke her off.

"Your word, Miss Granger."

Hermione hesitated at first, but finally muttered quietly, "My word, sir."

"And you, Mr. Weasley?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled down on him as Ron nodded silently.

"Yes, sir," he mumbled under his breath.

"Very well, now that that's out of the way, let me introduce you to Miss Hooper," Dumbledore said, gesturing down at Lexi. "I don't think there's a point in hiding your true identity from them anymore, now that we're all in this together."

"What's that supposed to mean?" George muttered in Fred's ear, but his brother didn't say anything.

"It is a matter of fascination for all of us to know that Miss Hooper here," Dumbledore started, putting a hand on Lexi's shoulder, "is a Muggle."

George snorted in laughter. "Ha! Good one."

"It's true," Lexi finally said in a small voice, watching all of their eyes widen.

"You're joking!" George let out.

"I am not." Dumbledore chuckled. "I am very serious."

"Did someone say my name?" All their heads turned at the voice, seeing a man coming down the stairs. Jenna felt her heart flutter inside her chest at his usual sight.

"AARGH!" Fred and George suddenly yelled once they spotted Sirius, taking a few steps backwards.

"That's – is that – that's Sirius Black!" Fred cried out, pointing at him in horror.

"It's rude to point, Weasley," Lexi said with a grin. "Get it together. He's innocent."

"Well, well," Sirius beamed at her, walking toward them, "someone who defends me before actually meeting me. Is the world coming to an end?"

Lexi stared up at him with excitement glimmering in her eyes as he chuckled. "H-hi," she stammered, automatically raising her hand for him to shake. "I'm Lexi."

"Ah, yes. Dumbledore's told me about you, of course," Sirius said brightly, shaking her hand and finally looking into her eyes. "You probably know me, but I'm —"

But Sirius suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, staring down at the girl with a frown. Crookshanks looked at him through her basket with curious yellow eyes, seeing that he had stopped shaking Lexi's hand, and yet wasn't letting it go, as though he were in some sort of a trance.

"Er – Mr. Black – Sirius?" Lexi muttered awkwardly, as he had not looked away from her all this time. "Are you all right?"

By that, as if suddenly coming back to his senses, Sirius pulled away briskly, clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry... it's just that..." Sirius shook his head, but then looked back at her again with furrowed brows. "You look so familiar."