"You are to stay well away from anything that heats things up," Remus said firmly with a slight twinkle in his eye.

I huffed again and crossed my arms, pouting like a toddler

"Ah, ah, ah, none of that, Nymphadora" Remus said while shaking his finger at me. "You may arrange the salad."

Rolling my eyes as I opened the cold cupboard to reach for the lettuce, I asked him, "Why the heck are we eating salad and are you sure I can be trusted with lettuce?" And yes, the last part of that sentence was sarcasm, my close friend.

Now it was Remus' turn to roll his eyes. Huh, I didn't know he had it in him. "Salad is healthy, Nymphadora and normally a tasty side dish to most main meals. And yes, I trust you with the lettuce. A knife, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about."

I chucked the lettuce at him for that comment. I missed! That werewolf has good reflexes! Or, I just couldn't aim right which would make Mad-Eye pissed (He spent about three weeks making me aim at random targets that got smaller and smaller).

"But are we having meat?" I asked anxiously. Salad was rabbit food! Nymphadora Tonks was no rabbit!

Remus sighed and muttered something about carnivores. Hmpf, he is one to talk Mr-I-Am-Werewolf. "Yes, Nymphadora. We are having lamb chops with a healthy salad on the side so can you please get the carrots and tomatoes because lettuce is not a salad. And I will even consider letting you handle a knife."

I reached inside the scarily empty cupboard for the rest of the salad stuff. Hopefully the Weasleys were bunking down here soon and Molly's delicious food would be filling up the place.

"I'll have you know that I have mad chopping skills, dude," I replied while giggling and attempting to juggle the salad stuff. Result: Three squished tomatoes and my butt on the floor.

Remus snorted but kindly helped me up, nice of him wasn't it? Though, I noticed that he removed the sharp pointy knife from my reach.

"I am not convinced," he said sceptically. "I do not want to rush you to St. Mungo's because you've chopped off your thumb."

I waved my hand around airily while saying, "Oh, been there, done that. Not quite as painful as you would think it would be but I swear the healers reattached it crooked." I raised the aforementioned digit right in front of his nose.

Bless the man; Remus squinted at it for a few seconds before gently grasping my wrist and pushing it away from him so he could actually see my thumb and not a blurry peach object.

"Hmm," he said and tilted his head to the side (much like a dog but I decided not to comment). "It is actually crooked...how come?"

I just shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. It may be because of mum screaming an awful lot more than I was, there was a lot of blood and the healers were trying to stop me from attempting to morph a new thumb for myself so they got all frazzled and just stuck it back on and said 'There! Done!' and sent us on our way. Probably celebrating because they got rid of us."

Remus chuckled, oh that was such a nice sound, and examined my thumb again.

"Can't you morph it?" he asked curiously, not looking at me because he was too fascinated by my thumb, odd.

I shook my head. "Nah, well, I can but it involves changing the structure of small bones and stuff and it's kind of pointless and a waste of energy. That and morphing is a temporary thing and all. It just means that I hold my quill and wand funny. Not really restrictive or anything."

Remus nodded at this and I could tell that he really wanted to learn more about my morphing but was far too polite to ask. I didn't volunteer any information though. I didn't really like talking about myself.

"So what are you two lovebirds up to?" barked a thick, unrecognisable voice.

I spun around and could feel my face reddening. Me and Remus? Seriously?

It was only Sirius.

"Dolt," I accused, punching him in the arm. "You gave me a bloody heart attack"

(I didn't mention that I felt guilty for not recognising his voice which was obviously hoarse from tears)

Sirius chuckled at me and nodded at Remus gratefully.

"Remus thinks we're rabbits!" I exclaimed trying to cover the slight awkwardness in the air and not focus on the kind-of obvious tear tracks.

"What!" Sirius gasped genuinely. "Moony! You have to feed us meat! This better not be another crazy fad!"

Remus gave us a long suffering sigh and informed his best mate, "We are having meat and salad because it is healthy."

Sirius immediately clapped his hands over his ears and whined, "Moo-oony! You know better than to mention that word around me!"

"What? Healthy?" I asked not-so-innocently (honestly, I just wanted to see his reaction. Bad me).

Sirius shrieked girlishly and ran around the kitchen several times. It was quite amusing. Remus just banged his head against the wall in defeat.

"By the way," Remus added. "It was James who enjoyed the fads."

That made us all freeze in our track and Remus had a 'Oh-Merlin-Why-the-Fuck-Did-I-Say-That-You-Moron' look. Hyphens and all.

But, amazingly, after a beat Sirius chuckled and said, "Oh yeah. Remember the soy-milk and cranberry one?"

"It was not as bad as the mince and toffee syrup one," Remus countered and both friends laughed.

I felt happy just watching them even though I didn't have a clue what they were on about. Frankly, I hope they share theses stories later so I can get a break from my own life.

"MEAT Moony. Need meat. Me man. Man hungry! Hungry for meat! Meat good!" Sirius growled making everyone crack up again.

"Remus won't let me near a knife," I whined.

"Don't blame him" retorted Sirius while reaching for a fork on the table which Remus whisked away from him. "Aw, Moony!"

Remus shook his head and moved all vaguely pointy objects out of our reach and relocated them to the counter behind him.

Sirius sniffed the air. "Is that lamb?" he asked hungrily.

"Yes," Remus replied, turning the lamb over. Why he did not use magic to cook I'll never know.

"Baa!" I chirped.

"Moo!" replied Sirius

"Quack!"

"Neigh!"

"Woof!"

"You two are incorrigible!" Remus yelled exasperatedly, tossing a spoon up in the air in the process.

Sirius and I just laughed at him.