Don't let me be your guiding light/ 'cause I'll get you lost in the dark I'm Not the Sun, Arkells
The children were all roused and fed at an ungodly hour of the morning, forced into service cleaning the house.
"Bloody hell," Ginny grumbled on their way up the stairs. "It is too early for Scourgify."
Harry groaned his agreement, running one hand over his face, glasses dangling from the other hand.
"Could've waited till lunch." Ron yawned. He was still munching on a piece of toast he'd grabbed on their way out of the kitchen.
"Let's just get this done," Hermione snapped. "Maybe we can nap later."
Molly led them into a study on the second floor, near the back of the house. It smelled of mould, like most of the house, and the curtains were moving suspiciously.
"Right then," Molly began, surveying the room, hands on hips. "Fred, George, why don't you get started on that fireplace—it'll need a good scrubbing. Harry, Ron, you get to work on the sofas."
"Goody," Ron muttered. "Dust up the nose, grey bogies galore."
"Ron, that's vile!" Hermione elbowed her friend.
"Girls, you and I will try and tackle these curtains."
"Good luck with that," another voice came from the doorway. "Doxies, it looks like."
"Sirius!" Harry grinned at his godfather. His bad mood of late seemed to have been forgotten.
"Brilliant— Sirius, give us a hand would you?" George called.
"Well, I would, but—"
Whatever excuse he was about to make was pre-empted by Molly. "Yes, Sirius. This was your family's house, so your knowledge would be most helpful."
~PRIZONER ~OF ~AZKABAN~
Down the hall, Remus was stumbling out of his room. Technically he had nowhere to be at this time in the morning, but habit and chronic back pain always roused him early. He was leaning against the door frame wrestling with a jumper when the door down the landing opened and Adria stepped out. He did know she'd stayed the night.
"Erm… good morning."
Adria's head whipped around and she grimaced a little when she saw it was him.
"Good morning."
"Won't your father wonder where you are?"
She shook her head. "No, my sister is covering—I'm upstairs still recovering from by broken ribs."
She made to smile at her cunning plan, but it turned to another grimace—Remus was beginning to suspect she should be in bed recovering after all.
"Are you all right?" he asked, moving toward her.
"Yes, of course. It's just the pressure from my corset; it's holding my ribs in place so they can heal, but my body has more space in it than usual since I had to do it up myself. I just forget that my chest will hurt if I move too quickly."
Remus regarded her carefully for a moment, then nodded—she wasn't his to fuss over anymore.
"Tea?" he asked instead.
Adria smiled "That would be lovely."
He gestured for her to precede him down the stairs and they got to the bottom just as Molly was enlisting Sirius, citing that his 'knowledge would be helpful'.
"Helpful for what?" Remus asked, approaching his friend. Sirius turned to him with a strained smile.
"Molly wants my help. To clean the house."
The dismay on his face made Remus chuckle. "It won't be so bad, Padfoot. I'll even volunteer to help."
"Wonderful!" Molly clapped her hands once. "You, Sirius and Adria can take the upstairs bathroom. There's supposedly a ghoul in there—Dedalus heard it rattling about when he stayed over last week."
"Oh, Molly, really—you don't want me dealing with a ghoul. My wand magic is… less than stellar."
"Really?" Hermione asked in interest.
"Curse of being a vampire, dear—Transfiguration and Charms are exceedingly difficult. I once almost slept through an exam because I was so exhausted by my Charms one the day before!"
The kids laughed.
"Very good at Potions, though." Remus smiled conspiratorially. She looked over at him and smirked. They had once talked of her making Wolfsbane for him, since she didn't trust Snape to do it.
"Well, we'll just get you some Muggle implements and you and Tonks can—where is Tonks?" the matriarch looked around, as though just noticing their auror friend wasn't there.
"She was at breakfast." Fred shrugged, sticking his head inside the hearth to peer up the chimney.
"Go check the kitchen, dears, then nip up and check on that ghoul." Molly turned back to Ginny and Hermione, producing bottles of Doxycide and handkerchiefs from the pockets of her apron.
When they got downstairs, Remus, Adria and Sirius found Tonks asleep at the kitchen table, elbow precariously close to knocking a glass of juice onto the floor. Sirius caught the cup and shook his cousin.
"Nymphadora!" he called.
"Don't call me that!" Tonks immediately sat up straight, eyes still shut.
"I wont if you get up right this minute. We have some cleaning to do, apparently."
Tonks groaned but hauled herself out of her chair.
"'M coming, stahp." she slurred.
"We really are related." Adria muttered to Remus as Tonks grumbled her way up the stairs.
"Hm... I wonder if Tonks was out last night- she sounds just like you after-"
"The worst hangover of my life?" she finished with a grin. "You promised to never bring that up again."
"I didn't."
"Yes you did!" Adria cried, following him up the stairs behind Tonks and Sirius.
"My word versus yours."
Remus simply chuckled at the frustrated groan that came from Adria's lips.
The ghoul took most of the morning, but at least it they were in good spirits when they emerged, covered in toothpaste. Tonks and Adria took refuge in the second floor bathroom to clean up, while the boys headed to the kitchen.
"So, the worst hangover of your life was witnessed by Remus, was it?" Tonks asked with a smirk. "Was it preceded by some fabulous drunken sex?"
Adria smiled, pointing her wand at a bit of toothpaste stuck to her sweater. "No, not at all. It was the cause of our second kiss. I was... well, plastered. From my friend's birthday party. At the time, I considered making it back to Hogwarts from the village to be an incredible achievement."
"And then she was unable to remember the password to her rooms."
The girls looked up to find Remus, looking cleaner, leaning up against the doorjamb. "I found her being mercilessly teased by the portrait covering her door."
"The damned thing kept asking me to do tongue twisters." Adria defended with a smile. Sirius joined them and snorted in amusement.
"So she slept in my room."
Sirius and Tonks' familial resemblance became painfully obvious when they looked at one another, looked at their friends, and teased "Reeeeeally?"
Remus rolled his eyes. "You are both children."
As the boys left the room, Adria looked at Tonks. "If you promise not to be so silly, I might tell you about our one instance of drunken sex." Tonks raised her brows in encouragement, but Adria just smiled. "I didn't say now. Maybe someday."
The pink-haired witch watched her friend walk down the stairs. "TEASE!"