<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :love --><img src=
http://216.40.249.192/mysmilies/otn/love/yllove.gif ALT=":love"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> Oooh, I'm feelin' the love in here. {{{{HUGS}}}} for all my readers and a belated Happy Valentine's Day. Hope none of you were knocked over by a singing dwarf yesterday. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=
http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... s/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Tracie</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> - Sheesh, what can I say? If I were any slower, I'd be going backward. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :lol --><img src=
http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/lol.gif ALT=":lol"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> I didn't notice it. Let me just use it a few times to make up for it ...<br><br><!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :hp --><img src=
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http://www.majiklmoon.com/ezboardsmilies/Grin_anim.gif ALT=":grin"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> There, all better. Now on with the fic ...<br><br>*****<br><br>Chapter Eighteen – <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Meeting Snuffles</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you to your aunt’s house?” said the woman’s voice. “It’s no bother …”<br><br>“No,” said Hermione. “But thanks anyway … and thank you for the ride.”<br><br>“Is there anything else I can do for you?” asked the woman.<br><br>“There is one thing,” said Hermione slowly. Ginny saw her reach a hand into her jacket pocket.<br><br>“What’s that?” said the woman.<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>“Obliviate!”</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> exclaimed Hermione, waving her wand at the woman. She duplicated the process for the two children, and then left them. They looked slightly dazed and mildly confused. Ginny could have sworn that the woman was looking at her children as if they were not her own.<br><br>“You didn’t wipe out their <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>entire</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> memories, did you, Hermione?” asked Ginny anxiously.<br><br>“Of course not,” said Hermione, securing her wand back in the pocket of her jacket. “Just slightly modified them is all.”<br><br>They didn’t have time to debate the success of Hermione’s Memory Charm – Ron and Harry had already started off down the road toward the place where they were to meet Sirius. According to the map, it wasn’t far.<br><br>Mercifully, the rain had stopped, but the sky was nevertheless a dreary gray. The ground was still wet, so rather than walk through the muck and mud along the side of the road, they trudged along on the pavement.<br><br>“This is it,” said Hermione, glancing down at the map as they reached an intersection and a signpost. “Downing Drive – we go …” she glanced back down again “… to the right. We’re looking for number twelve.”<br><br>Number twelve Downing Drive was a plain looking building on a street of many other very ordinary looking buildings. Some were shops and others looked like private residences, but all were very commonplace – very Muggle-looking. Ginny secretly wondered how Sirius Black kept a low profile in this obviously Muggle town. The only pictures she’d ever seen of him had been wanted photos in the <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Daily Prophet</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. She doubted whether or not he’d be able to keep a low profile anywhere, let alone here.<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>“Alohomora!"</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> exclaimed Hermione to the door of the building. Nothing happened. "That’s funny,” she commented , as Harry and Ron peered through the cloudy windows of number twelve – the words <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Pearl Darnworthy, Seamstress</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> were painted across the larger window.<br><br>“This must be some old shop,” said Ron, trying to wipe some of the grime away to see in more clearly. He squinted and turned to Hermione. “What’s funny?”<br><br>“I never noticed there was a key in here before,” she pulled a silver key from within the envelope. “Did you know there was a key in here?” she asked as she turned to Harry.<br><br>Harry shook his head. “Try the door with it,” he said. “Seems logical it would fit the lock - especially since you couldn't magic it open.”<br><br>A deep woof sounded from within the building as Hermione fit the key into the lock and Harry peered through the glass again.<br><br>“It’s Snuffles,” he said flatly.<br><br>“Good,” said Ron. “I didn't fancy getting bitten by some Labrador for breaking and entering.”<br><br>Ginny peered through the window beside Harry, keen to have a look at his godfather in Animagus form. She saw a big, black brute of a dog sitting anxiously on the other side of the door, his tail wagging as Hermione fumbled with the lock.<br><br>“Gimme the key, Hermione,” said Ron. “She learned <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Alohomora</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> in a second flat our first year, but can’t handle a simple key.” Ron wiggled the key to the left and creaked the door open. "You'd think I was the one who was Muggle-born," he said with a smirk. Hermione smiled at him, obviously pleased to hear Ron back in true form.<br><br>As they entered the building, the dog dubbed "Snuffles" greeted them warmly, with a great bark of welcome that seemed to resonate through the walls of the old shop – and before Ginny knew it, the dog was there no more. A man in ragged robes, with dark features stood before them – a smile across his face, but a look of compassion behind his weary eyes. To her surprise, he looked a Ron and herself first.<br><br>“Words can’t express how sorry I am,” he began. His jaw trembled and he reached out to them both. His arms crunched them in a tight hold and Ginny smothered a sob in her throat. Maybe she’d half expected the boogeyman in Sirius Black after all, but he wasn’t – not at all. She heard a muffled sort of snivel coming from Ron but he apparently choked it back as well, because he leaned back and said to Sirius,<br><br>“Have you heard from Percy? How’s our Mum?”<br><br>Ginny leaned back as well, curious to know the answers to Ron’s questions.<br><br>“I have heard from Percy – your mother is with him, in London. Bill and Charlie are there, too. He says she’s …” he paused for a moment, then said “… holding up.”<br><br>Ginny felt her insides churn. She knew her mother - her steadfast, unfaltering mother. She could “hold up” in almost any situation. But she also saw her steadfast, unfaltering mother that night – if anything, her mother was barely holding on. <br><br>“Where do we go from here?” asked Hermione.<br><br>“Nowhere,” said Sirius. “You’re going to lay low here, until the school term starts.”<br><br>“What?” asked Ron incredulously. “You’re joking, right?” <br><br>“No, Ron,” said Sirius. “I’m quite sincere. You’re all to stay put – Dumbledore’s orders.”<br><br>Ron’s mouth gaped in disbelief. Clearly he had other opinions on how to spend his time while his father’s murderer was running around on the loose. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=
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