For several days, Jerry and the others had been helping Mrs. Weasley clean the old Black family house. It had stood empty for so long that thoroughly disinfecting the drawing room alone took three whole days.
Although he could not go anywhere, Harry still felt far more at ease here than he did with the Dursleys.
In a room on the second floor hung the Black family's vast, intricate family tree. Sirius was related not only to Tonks, but even to the Malfoys. Bellatrix Lestrange was, in fact, his older cousin.
Sirius's portrait, however, had been burned away by his parents, who had been fanatical about blood purity. Only as he explained the family tree did Harry learn that Sirius had a younger brother: Regulus Black.
"That idiot, that fool of a brother of mine," Sirius said, shaking his head. "He blindly believed in Voldemort and joined the Death Eaters. When he finally saw Voldemort for what he was, he lost his nerve and backed out. In the end, Voldemort killed him..."
Late on Tuesday night, the members of the Order of the Phoenix sat solemnly around a long dining table in the kitchen of the old Black house. Dumbledore, who had not appeared for some time, was there too.
An argument had broken out between Snape and Sirius again. They glared at each other, and if the people beside them had not held them back, the two men, who could not stand the sight of each other, would surely have come to blows.
Dumbledore, who had remained silent for a long time, suddenly turned his head. His gaze pierced the dimness in a corner of the kitchen and settled on an overlooked patch of shadow.
At some unknown point, Jerry had appeared silently in that darkness, as though he