The reason why the people living in Grimmauld Place could not see Number Twelve was because it was that particular townhouse that, back in 1832, had come to the attention of Licorus Black, a wizard. Licorus had seen the house, decided that he wanted it and 'persuaded' the previous, muggle occupant to leave. From then the townhouse had, over time, become the main house owned by the Black family. From Licorus, ownership of the house had passed to his grandson, Phineas Nigellus Black, then to his son Sirius Black I, and then to his grandson Orion and his wife (and second cousin) Walburga.
Following the death of Walburga Black in 1985, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place had sat empty and mostly forgotten, for there was no one left to take it on. Of the surviving Blacks, Walburga's father, Pollux, was in Azkaban and his sister, Cassiopeia was in St Mungo's long term care ward, as was Orion's father Arcturus. Orion and Walburga's oldest son, Sirius, was in Azkaban while their younger son, Regulus, had been killed in the service of Lord Voldemort while their three nieces were also indisposed.
Bellatrix was with Sirius and Pollux in Azkaban, Andromeda had been banished from the family for marrying a muggle and Narcissa was married to Lucius Malfoy who, at the time, was doing all he could to keep his name away from anything that might link him to Lord Voldemort. That included the London Townhouse, no matter how much he coveted the many treasures he believed to be hidden away within.
The other, more distant relations that might have been able to claim some kind of ownership over the house, the Weasleys, the Potters, the Longbottoms, the Macmillans, the Bulstrodes, the Flints and the Crouches were either unaware of their potential right to the house or simply did not want it.
And so the house had sat empty and unused with no one to claim ownership of it, with the only sounds within being the screeching commands issued by a portrait of Walburga to a House Elf named Kreacher, the only thing in the world to have shown her any amount of care during the latter years of her life.
Then, ten years later, Sirius Black, Azkaban escapee had been seeking a place to lie low and, against his personal tastes, he had arrived on the front step of Number Twelve and pushed open the door.
In order to give the two fingered salute to his more unsavoury ancestors and all they stood for (particularly his mother), Sirius had offered his home to Albus Dumbledore for use as the Headquarters of prestigious The Order of the Phoenix, a secret society founded by Dumbledore to oppose the actions of The Dark Lord Voldemort and his followers, The Death Eaters.
The Order of the Phoenix was originally founded in the early 1970's when Voldemort had returned to magical Britain from years of study abroad and began to wage war against those he deemed unworthy of owning a wand; muggleborns, half – bloods, half – breeds and blood traitors.
Throughout the course of that war The Order had fought alongside the Ministry of Magic in order to combat the Death Eater insurgency and hold the tide of darkness at bay. Like the Ministry, The Order suffered heavy casualties and would likely have not held out much longer had the events of one fateful Halloween night in 1981 not come to pass.
Voldemort had been banished that night but now, after thirteen years the Dark Lord was back and with the Ministry of Magic refusing to believe it Dumbledore had reformed The Order of the Phoenix in order to combat the forces of darkness once again.
Now, several months later, Sirius Black had a problem. Being the hub of a pretty important secret organisation meant that people were usually coming in and out of the house all the time and Sirius was very rarely left alone for more than five hours at a time. Not now though.
In a change to the norm, Sirius had not seen anyone for several days and it was beginning to get to him. As far as he knew, the only people from the Order who should be completely out of contact with Headquarters were his long-time friend Remus Lupin, who was off trying to make contacts within the Werewolf community, Rubeus Hagrid, who was trying to make some kind of deal with the Giant colonies of Europe and Charlie Weasley who was still in Romania where he lived and where he was supposed to be sounding out foreign allies for Dumbledore's cause.
As many people entering Hogwarts to deliver reports to Dumbledore would likely draw the suspicions of the interfering Ministry of Magic they instead came to The House of Black where Sirius would use a two-way mirror in order to contact Dumbledore and let him know of whoever had arrived. While Sirius had, at one time, intended to use the mirrors in order to communicate with his godson, Harry Potter, the need to communicate effectively and freely with Dumbledore had proved more important and, unable to safely use the floo network for communication, what with every fireplace within Hogwarts likely being monitored by the Ministry of Magic, Sirius had handed the Headmaster one of the two communication mirrors that he had in his possession.
The usage of those mirrors had prompted Sirius to wonder why several days ago Dumbledore had chosen to communicate through owl post rather than the mirrors, but had decided not to question it. At the time he had reasoned that Dumbledore most likely knew what he was doing.
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