Hello, long time no see, right? Sorry about that, here's the next chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it.

"Mooonyy!" a booming voice sounded from behind the door. Remus Lupin groaned as he sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I know you're awake." the voice continued and Remus sighed. Deciding he was not going to get any more sleep, he dropped his feet on the ground and shivered from the cold. He wondered what was up with the heating charms in this house but his musings were soon interrupted by the annoying voice of his friend. "Come on, Moony, I need to talk to you." Sirius said and Remus couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"We already talked about it yesterday, Sirius. And I said no."

"Come on!" The animagus whined. "You're my only chance." he said through the door. Finally, Remus shuffled out of the room, fully dressed in warm clothes since the house did nothing to keep the cold of the December weather outside.

"I told you it's a bad idea Sirius, and I mean it. You can't just go to London, not even in your animagus form. Remember what happened the last time you did?"

"So what? What of it if Malfoy saw me? They can't find me here, can they?"

"But you don't have to parade right under their noses."

"Why not? Oh, never mind that, but please, Remus, you have to do this for me."

"Padfoot," Remus said quietly as he stopped in the hallway, careful not to wake Sirius' mother and not to be overheard by Natalie. "I understand how important this is for you, I really do, but…perhaps you should think about this once again before you get yourself arrested? Because I'm sure that Natalie wouldn't appreciate that."

"I already did, Remus. For once, I have finally thought about something and I'm absolutely sure I want to do this. And it's got to be during Christmas."

"What if someone recognizes you? You can't just stroll down the Diagon Alley and look for a-"

"We can go to muggle London. I'm sure they have plenty of shops as well." Sirius interrupted him in a bored manner.

"I suppose so. But-"

"No buts, Moony. I have to do this. And you have to help me. I can't exactly give her a gift card and tell her to pick one by herself, now can I? Besides," Sirius added slyly. "You still owe me a favor from our summer break in sixth year when I helped you to pick up that girl. What was her name? Oh, Erin, I think, wasn't it?" he gave his friend a smug smirk.

Seeing that Sirius won, Remus sighed. He didn't like Sirius' idea to go into Muggle London to buy Natalie a Christmas gift, but he knew his friend was right – a gift card just wouldn't do. "Alright, Padfoot." he said and Sirius whooped, almost waking up the portrait. "But you have just two hours, no more."

"That's more than enough, Moony. You're the best, mate." he said as Remus was already retreating to the basement kitchen to have some much needed coffee.

"Yea, yea. And by the way, Padfoot, you need new blackmail material. You've already used the 'Erin excuse' three times." he said over his shoulder. Hearing that, Sirius chuckled and bounded up the stairs, his mood looking up.

"This one?" Remus asked and pointed into the shop window for what seemed as a hundred time. And once again, the huge black dog at his feet only whined and shook his head. Remus sighed. He had given Sirius two hours and now they had been outside at least for three, going from shop to shop. Many people had already looked at the werewolf weirdly for talking to a dog, his feet hurt and Padfoot still had not found anything he actually liked.

"Alright, Padfoot. One last shop, then we're heading back to the Grimmauld." he said resolutely. Once again, the dog whined and gave Remus a pitiful look. "Don't look at me like this, Pads. You had more than three hours to find something you liked, we really ought to head back." he said and gave an awkward smile to a passing by woman, who was giving him a funny look.

When they finally found another shop, it only took one look for Padfoot to find what he was looking for. Immediately, he was wagging his tail and barking madly, again drawing attention of the passers-by. "Alright, Pads, I get it. Now, which one is it you like? This one?" Remus asked and pointed at one object in the lower row. Padfoot growled shortly, indicating it was not the one that caught his attention. This went on for a while before they finally established which one Sirius wanted to buy.

"Alright, then. I'm going inside. Are you sure you want this?" he asked hesitantly. As an answer, he got one bark from the black dog and a wag of tail. Giving Sirius a nod, Remus strode purposefully inside, clutching a roll of bank notes that Sirius had given to him at home right for this purpose.

…

"Sirius?" they heard as soon as they apparated to the hall of the Grimmauld place and Sirius turned from his dog form. "Sirius!" Natalie was calling from somewhere above.

"Oh shit." The animagus swore under his breath and turned to his friend anxiously. "Go to the kitchen, Moony, quick! If she sees us here together she will suspect we were outside." he whispered urgently as he ushered Remus to the basement kitchen.

"I spend three hours of shopping in London because of you and this is what I get?" Remus complained but instead of an answer, Sirius slammed the kitchen door shut after him. Himself, he bounded upstairs just to find Natalie standing there, looking at him suspiciously.

"What's going on?" she asked. "I was looking for you everywhere, where have you been?"

"Where would I be? With Buckbeak. He's closed all the time in that room, he needs entertaining." he lied quickly.

"Really? I've been looking for you in there." she said with confusion, her eyebrows creased.

"Yeah, I just went for a snack. I didn't know you were home already." he said, trying to distract her.

"I left work early, there was nothing much to do. And I missed you." she finally gave him a smile.

"Did you, now?" He smirked, pulling her closer.

"Of course I did." she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I know just the perfect remedy for that. What would you say to a nice relaxing bath?"

"That sounds like the best suggestion I've heard today." she grinned at him and kissed him on the lips.

"Go and draw the bath, then. I'll get some wine from the pantry." he said, distractedly, since he was more concentrating on running his lips across her jaw and down her neck.

"Ok." she sighed and after a moment, she reluctantly disentangled herself from his arms, and with one last look at him she went upstairs.

Sirius headed back into the kitchen, a silly look on his face. "I'm sorry about that, Moony." he said sincerely as he saw his friend sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a much deserved butterbeer. "But I couldn't have her get suspicious. You know her. She would find out in a matter of hours in some way."

"That's true." Remus chuckled, knowing his friend.

"And I want to thank you. This means much to me." Sirius said

"Anytime, Pads. I know it was important."

"Besides, it felt great to finally stretch my legs again." Sirius said, heading into the pantry to get a bottle of wine.

"I still think you were dragging me from shop to shop just to take a longer walk." Remus accused him teasingly

"Not true, my friend. I just have a knack for picking out jewellery and in most of the shops there was nothing suitable."

"Right." The werewolf muttered, taking a sip of his butterbeer.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, the lady's waiting for me." he gave him a wink and headed upstairs.

It was late at night when Natalie was stirred from her comfortable sleep. She clenched her eyes tightly shut before she opened them, squinting, as she raised her head from Sirius' chest. And then there it was again: the noise that had woken her up. It was coming from a room above them and sounded strangely as a human voice.

"Sirius?" she whispered and shook her lover's shoulder. "Sirius!" she repeated the action when he was still sleeping like a log, until finally she rose him from his slumber.

"Wha' is it?" he mumbled tiredly.

"Can you hear it?" she asked him.

"Hear what?" Sirius asked without even raising his head or opening his eyes, obviously intent on going back to sleep.

"This!" she said urgently when she heard the voice again. Sirius seemed to hear the same thing since he immediately propped himself up on his elbow and furrowed his eyebrows. "Could it be Kreacher?" she asked.

"No. I know what it is. Stay here." he said, quickly threw on his pants and left the room. Natalie heard him running up the stairs and then quick steps in the room above her, followed by more voices. However, it didn't even take half a minute before she heard his steps on the stairs once again, this time running even quicker than before. At once, Sirius flew into the room and grabbed his shirt from the floor, where one of them had discarded it a few hours before.

"Get dressed. Quickly!" he said urgently as he put the shirt on.

"What is it? What was the voice?" Natalie asked as she scrambled out of the bed and quickly began looking for her clothes as well.

"Phineas Nigellus with a message from Dumbledore. Arthur Weasley was injured during his guard duty. Harry and the Weasleys are coming here." he said quickly.

"Oh God!" Natalie gasped. "Poor Arthur. Is he going to be alright?"

"No idea. I just know it's bad."

"When are they coming?" she asked as she struggled with her shoes.

"Right now. Come on." he grabbed her hand and led her downstairs. Indeed, they could already hear the sounds of several people landing in the kitchen.

As soon as they burst in, they could hear Kreacher's spiteful mumbling.

"OUT!" Sirius yelled at the hated old house elf and together with Natalie, they rushed to help the children get up from the floor.

"What happened?" Natalie asked when she pulled Ron up from the kitchen floor.

When Harry told them about his vision about Arthur getting attacked by a huge snake, there was a long moment of silence. For a while, Natalie was staring at Harry, who was anxiously boring his eyes into the floor, before she exchanged a worried glance with Sirius. They didn't know what this meant, but one thing was for sure: Harry having visions, about Voldemort no less, was not a good sign.

"Is Mum here?" Fred inquired after their mother.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet." Sirius replied

"Dumbledore had to get you all out before Umbridge found out. He's probably contacting her as we speak." Natalie said quietly.

"We have to get to St. Mungo's. Could you lend us some cloaks? We're still in our pajamas." Ginny said.

"You're joking, right?" Natalie frowned, just as Sirius did.

"You can't go tearing off to 's." he added.

"Course we can if we want to! He's our dad!" Fred protested loudly.

"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?" Sirius asked exasperatedly.

"What does it matter?" George exclaimed.

"It does matter greatly. We can't let out the information of Harry having visions. This fact can't reach the Ministry nor the Death Eaters." Natalie said, much calmly than any of the men.

"Somebody else could have told us… we could have heard it somewhere other than Harry." Ginny objected but Sirius snorted.

"Like who? Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's-"

"We don't care about the dumb Order! It's our dad dying we're talking about!" the twins yelled angrily and by now, Sirius was fuming as well. Natalie shook her head tiredly. This really wasn't the time to shout at each other. However, her lover was known as a patient person.

"Your father knew what he was getting into and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order! This is how it is ‐ this is why you're not in the Order ‐ you don't understand ‐ there are things worth dying for!" he yelled.

"Easy for you to say, stuck here! I don't see you risking your neck!" Fred shouted and finally, something inside Natalie snapped. Sirius had asked for this, she knew, but she wasn't about to let anyone question his contribution to the Order, the less so a hotheaded but naïve teenager.

In a flash, she crossed the room and before anyone could react, she grabbed Fred by the scruff of his neck and dragged him out of the kitchen. "You are coming with me if you don't want to get hexed into next week." she hissed at him on their way and believing her, Fred stopped struggling. The remaining people in the kitchen just gaped at the kitchen door, which had been slammed loudly, no one knowing what had just happened.

"She wouldn't really hurt him, would she?" Ginny asked shakily. Sirius would like to confirm that thought, he really would. However, when he remembered what Moony had said about Natalie's behavior and how irrationally had she been behaving sometimes, he wasn't very sure himself.

In the meantime, Natalie had dragged George into the drawing room, where she finally let go of him. Immediately, he rubbed his neck and gave her a scalding look.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled.

"Nothing is wrong with me. There is, however, something wrong with some things you've said." she said coldly. "We need to talk about it."

"I don't have time for this. My dad is dying!"

"I know. But there is nothing you can do about that. Listen to me, Fred. You need to see reason."

"About what?" he said moodily.

"First of all: You are going to apologize to Sirius. Not necessarily right now, but eventually. Sirius, Remus, the Potters, I and many others have sacrificed many things to the first Order and we're doing it again. In the first war, there were even several fights a week. We were injured many times and lot of our friends died. Sirius lost his friends and his freedom for thirteen years. He knows what he's talking about and you're not going to question it." she said, coldly. Fred was staring at her, not even blinking. "Your parents weren't fighting in the first war. No one is blaming them, they were responsible for several very young children. But now they chosen to join and help and trust me, they both know very well what they're getting themselves into. Everyone is doing their best and you can't just go and trash their job because of yourself." she finished and Fred seemed to be fuming again.

"It's not because of myself. It's because of our dad!" he spat. For a while, Natalie was silent, but then she sighed and her look softened.

"I know. But you won't do him any good if you know burst into 's."

"But-"

"Look, Fred," Natalie interrupted him with a sigh. "you and your brother always want to be taken as adults, is that right?" she asked and the redhead teen nodded. "Then I will talk to you as to an adult. Let's say, you and your siblings will go to St. Mungo's right now. The Healers are now working to save your dad's life, so they won't let you in, you will be waiting in the waiting room, not knowing anything much quicker than here. And since the circumstances about your dad's injury are so obscure, there will be an investigation. Someone will definitely mention, that the children, who are all supposed to be at school right now, showed up at the hospital even before Arthur's wife."

"So what?" Fred folded his arms across his chest.

"Well, you all will be interrogated as well. Your dad was injured during the job for the Order but I think I can even tell you he was doing the exact job that Sturgis Podmore had been doing when he was arrested. You surely heard of him at the beginning of the term. You know what that means, right? If his presence at that place has no plausible explanation, he will go to Azkaban." she said, choosing to be straightforward, and Fred paled. "By now, Dumbledore is working on his alibi, I'm sure. Everything will be alright but you can't make the situation worse. There are other important things you can do right now."

"Like what?" Fred mumbled, his eyes boring into the floor, and Natalie knew he was suppressing tears and immediately felt a wave of sorrow for the boy.

"For example be strong for your siblings. Especially Ron and Ginny need you and George right now. You're the oldest here, and responsible for them. They're scared as well." she said softly and he nodded wordlessly. Natalie felt a wave of sympathy towards him and although she knew it had to be done, she felt bad for having talked to him so harshly before. Carefully, she put her hand on his shoulder and when he didn't flinch away, she wrapped it around his shoulders and pulled him closer, trying to soothe him. "I know it's hard. Believe me, I know. But you have to hold on, and be strong now. If not for anyone else now, then for your mother, who needs to know now that at least you four are safe." she said and Fred nodded, before turning away and subtly wiping away the few tears. "Can we go?" she asked him and he nodded once again.

When they entered the kitchen again, there was a strong tension, and just as they stepped in, everyone looked at them. The Weasleys were obviously relieved that their sibling was unharmed, while Sirius was eyeing Natalie curiously. However, she kept her face passive even as she sat down next to him.

"What's going on?" Ginny broke the silence and looked at Fred. He gave no hint of what he and Natalie had been talking about either.

"We will wait here." he just said and sat down next to Ginny, wrapping his arm around her.

I hope you liked the chapter. Please review;)