When Elodie opened her eyes next, it was with a jolt of adrenaline coursing through her system that made her confused, until the hunger hit her.

She sat up, and there was a gentle tap at the door. "Come in?"

Sirius came in and smiled to see that she was awake. "You look a lot less like a homeless squib, excellent," he remarked.

"I feel like one, though. Pretty sure I woke myself up with a stomach growl," she said.

"I made sandwiches. Can't vouch for their edibility, but I haven't heard Remus choke in the last minute or two, so it's worth a try?"

"Did you use the sweet bread for them this time?" she asked, sliding out of bed and pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

"That was one time, witch!" he growled, catching her hips with his hands as she walked past. He turned her to face him and stole a quick kiss. "Let up!"

"It was one time because I've carefully reminded you by not letting up, Sirius," Elodie told him with a cheerful grin. "When my tastebuds forget, I'll stop."

A devilish expression came over his features, and Elodie held up a hand. "I am pretty sure I can figure out the gist of your next comment without your even voicing it. No need to steal the innocence from any children who live within a fifty kilometer radius."

"Mean," he accused, but she headed out the door after a flick of her wand changed the color of her shirt to be purple instead of blue. She knew that Remus knew she slept in the master bedroom more times than not, nowadays, but she didn't feel like being blindingly obvious today.

The fact that she was wearing day clothes instead of nightclothes turned out to be fortuitous. As soon as she entered the hallway, Elodie heard Albus's voice. It turned out he was in the fireplace talking to Remus, and she turned to lift her eyebrows at Sirius.

"Didn't I mention?" he said with wide-eyed faux innocence.

"Elodie, I was just telling Remus that I've called a last-minute meeting of the Order before the Task tomorrow," Albus said, preventing her from responding to her adorably infuriating boyfriend.

"Good plan," she told Albus.

"Right, then. We'll all see you after dinner, say, seven? Until then!" Albus said before pulling his head out of the fire on his side.

"So the meeting is here, then," Elodie said in a dull voice. She looked around the living room with the eye of someone who was expecting guests. She didn't like the view. "That's-"

"It'll be fine," Remus said. "We'll just, I don't know, turn everything that's out of place into a chair." He looked over at her with a playful grin. "I'll sit on any of them as long as it didn't used to be the typewriter!"

"No way am I turning a key part of your livelihood into a chair. You can just swap it with the chair in your room, instead," Elodie said to Remus, shaking her head.

Sirius picked up his scarf. "Please tell me I can turn this into a beanbag and make Moody sit in it. I will promise anything in return!" he said, clutching the scarf to his chest. "Lunch duty for a week?"

"Not lunch duty for a week?" Remus said, levitating his typewriter and its stand in front of him and frowning good-naturedly at Sirius.

8888888888888888

Elodie totally didn't make sandwiches for dinner solely to show Sirius how much better she was at making them.

Even though she totally was.

It was mostly because it's easier to rush around straightening up and transfiguring things into comfortable-looking chairs if you can carry your dinner around with you.

8888888888888888

Elodie was downstairs getting dressed after her shower when the first guests arrived. There was no mistaking Moody's vocal cadence, nor Albus's tone of greeting, even through the floorboards of the house. The sounds of a woman's voice she didn't recognize prompted Elodie to hurry. She tossed on a flowy black skirt and embroidered golden shirt, cast a quick gentle drying spell on her hair, and ran upstairs.

"Elodie!" Moody said with a large, slightly frightening smile on his face. She skidded to a shocked halt upon seeing it. Her expression apparently was amusing enough for even Albus to burst into laughter along with Moody.

"I told you she would be more alarmed than encouraged, Alastor," Albus said to the ex-Auror.

"Good!" Moody boomed. "Constant vigilance!"

"Yeah, it's fine, retraumatize the new girl, I see how it is," Elodie groused. "Did anyone come with you two? I thought I heard someone else."

"Nymphadora Tonks. Black took her outside the second he laid eyes on her," Moody explained.

Elodie went over to the picture window and noted the distinct lack of hippogriff. "I assume that if you can refer to him simply as 'Black,' that you've been told about his innocence?" she said to Moody.

He nodded. "Had a meeting about that in Albus's office before we came. McGonagall's still there with some others, yet." Moody narrowed his eyes and cocked his head sideways as he looked at her intently. He lifted his hand and made a circle with one finger pointed at her, the unspoken question writ plain on his face.

"Relief. If I'm making a strange expression, it's probably relief that we don't have to put Remus through the ordeal of explaining everything again. It was… rough on him last time," Elodie explained. "Have you two spoken to him yet?"

"No." Albus shook his head. "He headed into the Floo shortly after we arrived. He said he would be back before the meeting started."

"The Floo?" Elodie said in surprise. "I figured he was out with Sirius and his cousin." She had figured that, but hadn't let herself dwell on it at all. The idea that she'd probably missed one of their first meetings wasn't a pleasant thought. Add to that the revelation from Remus that morning, and Elodie's choice of sitting in a room with both Remus and Tonks half a day after hearing him say Elodie was the perfect woman for him was only slightly less awful than not sitting in the meeting and observing their every interaction.

Sirius Black, Elodie reminded herself. You're in love with Sirius Black. You ought to tell him that, too. Verbally, not just with baked goods.

Shortly after she'd spoken, the Floo roared to life again, and the three of them backed up to give the next visitors enough space. Elodie was grateful that this had the effect of distracting both Moody and Dumbledore from noticing any more odd facial expressions on her part.

Then, she saw who walked through, and she forgot about everything but greeting them.

"Charlie!" Elodie exclaimed, grinning. Then, before his parents could feel too left out, she added, "Arthur and Molly, it's lovely to see you."

"Elodie, hello! Thanks for your Owl right after Christmas," Charlie Weasley told her with a warm smile. His clothes were decidedly more presentable than they had been the first time they met, and she told him so. "Before she has a chance to tell you, that's all on Mum. She's got some secret spell that strips out all the smoke damage from my clothes. If it weren't for that, I'd stink up your lovely room just by sitting in it, no matter how many times I wash them myself!"

"You don't tell a woman about who does your laundry, Charles Weasley!" Molly hissed at him in a horrified whisper.

"Mum, Elodie's not… I mean, she's a woman, but-" Charlie stuttered in apology and explanation, and Elodie walked over and placed her hand right over his mouth to stop him.

"Molly, I think what he's trying to say is that there are various kinds of women in this world, and I'm the kind that he doesn't mind knowing his Mum does his laundry sometimes," Elodie said, moving her hand before Charlie had the chance to move it himself.

"Oh," Molly said, not even bothering to hide her disappointment.

"Didn't Dumbledore say she and Sirius are…" Arthur murmured to his wife, gesturing to two seats nearby with one hand and making an odd sort of gesture with his other hand.

Elodie was suddenly quite grateful that Arthur had a use for his second hand, because she wasn't sure what kind of symbolic gestures he'd have made with two. She walked closer to the front window to look for Sirius, Buckbeak, and Tonks.

"I should have bitten your hand; you should know it's high praise that I didn't," Charlie murmured in her ear.

Elodie turned to smile at her freckled friend. "I'm glad you didn't, it would have given your mother even more ideas," she teased. This earned her an eye roll.

"It's not usually this bad," he told her. "It's just that, with the visit for the Task -to see Ron along with the rest of the family I missed for the First Task, I mean- she's gotten it into her head that Bill and I will be confirmed bachelors if she doesn't get involved. I think her most quotable moment was when she said, 'You're a dragon tamer, for Merlin's sake, Charlie! How difficult can this possibly be?'"

"It does seem like a romance novel kind of profession," Elodie said.

"Oh, it is," he said with a confident kind of smile that made her pulse jump despite herself. "I have to be very careful, though. My ladies can get very jealous, and their talons are sharper than any witch's claws."

Elodie immediately understood the difference between ladies and witches. "The dragons can scent them on you?"

He nodded and rolled up his loose button-down shirt to show her a curved scar on the skin of his forearm, just by his elbow. It looked painful, even healed.

"Tell the truth," Elodie said, narrowing her eyes teasingly. "Could this have healed without a mark?"

His warm smile was infectious. "Yes and no. This deep? Not actually necessary nowadays. I may have made a tactical decision to allow it to heal poorly in solidarity with my predecessors across the ages."

"I'll be honest. It would have worked on me, if you were my type," Elodie told him. Just as she said this, Buckbeak landed outside, and Elodie and Charlie watched as the two riders dismount.

Charlie nodded at the scene out the window. "Those scars are probably a bit more deep than mine, you know," he said gently.

Elodie glanced over to see where Molly was. She was deep in conversation with Minerva and Arthur, so Elodie turned back to smile at Charlie before kissing his shoulder gently.

"Thanks for the concern. And for being short enough that I can do that without straining my legs," she told him. "I could wax poetic about picking who we love, but…"

"I get it," Charlie said. "Just tell me if he needs any more scars, and I'll oblige."

Elodie threw on her scarf and patted her chest over her heart in answer to Charlie's offer. Then, she went outside into the chilly winter evening.

"If you're going to be giving out hippogriff rides like candy to all of our visitors, I'm going to have to pretend to move out just to get one!" she told Sirius once she got close enough for him to hear her. She tipped her head down in respect to Buckbeak, and was rewarded with a loving head butt that was juuust this side of too powerful.

"You know that Bucky would take you up anytime, don't you?" Sirius said, patting the creature's neck. Elodie wasn't even mad at him for missing the point she was trying to make about guided hippogriff tours of the countryside, since she had been a bit subtle, after all. "Tonks, this is Elodie. Elodie, my cousin Tonks," he said, turning toward the short woman standing beside him and gesturing to Elodie and the woman in turn.

"Hello, lovely to meet you," Elodie said. Ideally she'd have thought up a middle-ground answer that had less to do with how delighted she was to meet the person Remus Lupin was supposed to marry and more to do with how it was great to meet a relative of Sirius's, but she had yet again failed to prepare herself.

Elodie forced herself to take a deep breath of the frosty air and get a fucking grip.

Nymphadora Tonks's grip was firm in the handshake. "Wotcher! I didn't know about you before today, Elodie, but I'm pleased to meet you!" The handshake and happy look on her face faltered, and Tonks frowned. "I meant that I didn't know Sirius was in a relationship- or that he was innocent, for that matter, but-"

"Fuck, Dora, I forgot how easily you can put your foot in it," Sirius said, laughing so hard he leaned over to put his hands on his knees for a few seconds. "I should have guessed something like that was going to happen when you got down off of Buckbeak without falling on your face!"

The bubblegum pink hair that Elodie had loved so much in the books faded almost bone-white for a few seconds as Tonks put her hands on her hips and glared at Sirius.

Once again, Elodie's foreknowledge of the books presented her with a chance to win favor with someone she didn't technically know. She took it.

"Wow, did your hair just change color?" Elodie asked. Her impressed tone of voice wasn't feigned at all, because watching that happen in real time (even when you knew it was a thing) was seriously cool. "Are you a Metamorphmagus?"

Tonks's arms came up from her waist into a hand clasp under her chin. "You've heard of Metamorphs?" she asked, her eyes almost sparkling with delight. "I mean, we're not studied at Hogwarts, or all that, but cor," she stopped talking and just grinned at Elodie. "I might just skip being suspicious of this one," she said to Sirius.

"You won't regret it, at least, I don't think you will," Sirius said, throwing an arm around each of their shoulders to steer them toward the house. "I've only ever seen her with Molly, I don't actually know if she's a bitch around other women."

"My boyfriend, ladies and hippogriffs," Elodie said sardonically.

Tonks laughed so hard she tripped on the third step up to the door.

When they walked into the house, Elodie saw that the rest of the Order had arrived. The ride on Buckbeak seemed to have been the exact right choice for Sirius, as he was less on edge than he had been earlier at the prospect of seeing everyone. That was a good thing, because everyone who didn't already know what had really happened with Peter Pettigrew were keen to shake his hand or clap his shoulder and express their happiness in having learned about his innocence. Elodie left them to it, and headed into the kitchen to collect her various House mugs and such, so she could at least offer everyone tea or something, since she hadn't had time to bake anything.

The kitchen was full of baked goods despite this, however.

Elodie stood in the doorway and stared at the full serving tray of various cookie/biscuit things, noting the still-closed and folded over edges of at least two other brown bags with a bakery logo on them.

"Earth to Elodie?" Remus said, and she blinked a few times before she saw him standing in front of the sink drying his hands.

"You-" she started.

"-went to pick up some things that you could have made yourself, if you'd have had enough time to. I hope you don't mind?" he interrupted. The easygoing apology in his voice made her throat constrict a little. He was so relentlessly kind that it hurt, sometimes.

"It's wonderful. You're wonderful," she said before she could stop herself. His eyes widened a little, but the smile didn't drop from his face as she would have expected. Elodie still cleared her throat and made a goofy face of embarrassment for both of their sakes. "Oops. You are, though. Thank you bunches?"

"You are very welcome. Would you rather offer them out or set up tray number two?" he asked.

Elodie tried not to blink at him in surprise. His behavior was the complete opposite of what she'd expected from the man she'd argued with that morning, not to mention the man who'd mostly avoided both she and Sirius all afternoon.

Something something look a gift horse in the mouth? her Inner Elodie prodded, and she smiled at Remus.

"I'd let you pick, but I can picture your uncomfortable expression before I even offer," she teased. "I'll set up tray number two. I don't want to take credit for the bakery's hard work. Or yours."

"That's reasonable," Remus said. He lifted the tray and waited for her to walk over so he could move past her without knocking into her with it. At the doorway, he turned and tipped his head to the side, an impish expression on his face. "I didn't even look for my favorite biscuits when I was there, as per your instructions!" Then, before he could see the look of abject relief on her face, he walked out into the living room.

"I could have guessed that, heh," Elodie said, drawing in a huge sigh and letting it out slowly, careful not to breathe all over the baked treats Remus had bought.

It didn't take long to set out the rest of the tray, and Elodie followed Remus to the living room within five minutes. Her favorite spot on the couch was empty, and Tonks, Charlie, and Arthur were sitting on the rest of it. She took a few seconds to swear at the entire concept of a universe that was searching for plot points so diligently that it would place Tonks right next to her, but sat down in 'her' spot anyway. Molly cast a Hovering Hostess charm on Elodie's tray, and it floated out of the circle with its twin, just close enough that they could be called over to satisfy anyone's sweet tooth.

The room was full of people, but it didn't feel cramped as much as cosy. Elodie suspected this wouldn't be the case in the height of summer, though.

"Well, thank you all for coming at such short notice," Albus said from his seat in front of the hearth.

"It took a lot of doing, but I managed," Sirius joked. Everyone laughed.

"Most of you know each other, if not in person than by reputation. The only person I am not sure whether everyone knows is Kingsley Shacklebolt," Albus said when the chuckles died down. He gestured to a calm-looking black man seated beside Molly on a chair that used to be a drawer from a dresser in the basement. Kingsley lifted a hand and nodded with a thin smile, looking from face to face without embarrassment. Elodie liked him immediately; she knew that he had political leanings, and had wondered if the 'real' Shacklebolt would come across as an obvious pleaser. The easy confidence he seemed to exude instead was instantly likeable.

"You were my year at Hogwarts, but in Gryffindor. Charlie, right?" Tonks said to the man seated beside her.

"Got it in one," he winked.

Tonks raised an eyebrow at Charlie, and across the room, Sirius cough-laughed. This led to a bit of cross-talk among the other Order members, so Elodie's retort was lost to most of the room, but not to Charlie.

"Your mom might be right to worry," Elodie whispered at him in the space behind where Tonks was leaning forward saying something to Moody.

"I already have a nagging sister, that position is not available," he snarked back.

"On to the business of the evening," Albus said in a quiet voice that was still commanding enough to cut through their chatter. "Alastor and I have been examining the various options for why Tom chose to place a spy at Hogwarts. Today, I made the decision to share with him the details I just learned about the Second Task for the Tournament, and we both agreed that it's very possible that tomorrow's Task may be the reason for Tom's interference. What I am about to share with you is in the strictest of confidence," he told them in a severe voice that brooked no possibility of betrayal.

"I want to say," Sirius leaned forward and looked up at Albus, his head cocked sideways so that his hair obscured a good deal of his face. Elodie recognized immediately that this was because he was a bit unsure, but it was Sirius, so he continued speaking anyway. "I've been talking with Harry over Owls about this Task. I can't promise we haven't figured out anything we weren't meant to," he said, looking down. "I can say I won't share anything I learn tonight. But if I get an Owl tomorrow morning first thing, I'm not ignoring it just because I know things that Harry shouldn't." At this, Sirius sat up and threw his hair back with both hands. His grey eyes shone bright and challenging. "I'm good with heading out for a walk if you need me to."

Remus was within arm's reach of him, and he leaned over to squeeze Sirius's shoulder.

"I trust you, Sirius Black," Albus said firmly. Then, he simply continued speaking, and the lack of further discussion was such a powerful statement in and of itself that Elodie felt a lump growing in her throat as she saw the various Order members looking at each other and then nodding in respect at Sirius. For his part, Sirius blinked a lot for the next few minutes.

If text messages had existed in 1994, Elodie would have totally texted Sirius to ask if anyone was cutting onions.

The gist of what Albus had to say was that the Second Task involved the three Headmasters choosing a person who was important to each of the Champions. This group of people were to be magically protected and placed in the lake, ostensibly 'in peril,' to be rescued. As soon as he revealed this fact, Molly cottoned on to the problem immediately- Ron was the closest living human being to Harry Potter. After many reassurances, they were able to move on to the second, more unexpected (to everyone but Elodie, of course) bombshell: Hermione Granger had been chosen as the person closest to Viktor Krum.

This had been the instigator for the Order meeting. There was an agreement among the Headmasters that the person in peril needed to be somewhat helpless in their own right; an adult wouldn't be in a position to give up their wand for pretty much any reason, and with it, they could hardly be considered helpless. Fleur Delacour's little sister was chosen, despite the fact that she had to be 'shipped in' from France. Krum, though, had hardly anyone who could be considered as fitting the criterion, but Albus felt that Karkaroff was being very cagey about this.

Albus wasn't mincing words. "The bottom line is, Harry shouldn't even be involved-"

"You're damn right about that!" Sirius burst out.

"-and now, his two closest friends have now been placed in at least a mild amount of danger as a result. We would be foolish to ignore this completely."

"The Tournament is judged with point values, isn't that right?" Arthur asked, his voice shaking a little bit with concern. When Albus nodded, he went on; "How about a guard, underwater? Whoever it is can contribute their opinions on point values, as to the clean-ness of the rescue, and if it's one of us- no, dearest, not either one of us, I wouldn't put you through that, and I know you wouldn't put me… I love you too, Molly, darling." Arthur kissed her forehead and squeezed her hand. He looked around the room. "I would trust any one of you to do this. Albus, I'm asking you to keep Ron safe, keep every one of these hostages safe, and in doing that you keep the reputation of Hogwarts safe too."

"Oh, Arthur," Albus said, standing up and walking over. He pressed an encouraging hand on the other man's shoulder. "You don't have to use Hogwarts as incentive. Your son is worthy of protection no matter what. Yes, Harry is a priority for me, but keeping Ron safe would be important even if he and Harry Potter were mortal enemies."

"Who are the original guards?" Tonks asked after a few seconds of silent contemplation around the room. "I mean, there were some planned out more than a day in advance by someone, I assume?"

"The Merfolk have agreed to assist, yes."

"I've always wanted to be a mermaid," Tonks said brightly. "I volunteer."

"They're mostly naked, you know," Charlie whispered. "And ugly."

"Everyone aspires to be what they're not," Tonks said with a toss of her pink-haired head.

Elodie had been lucky enough to be looking in their direction when this exchange happened, and the spark of interest on Charlie's face was completely fascinating. The fact that Tonks might have caught the look was even more fascinating. Tonks's head actually jerked in surprise, and even though the other woman was faced away from her, Elodie felt sure she'd seen the expression on Charlie's face. Elodie had just met her that day, but she could already picture the expression of speculation that might be showing on Tonks's face.

Charlie, for his part, had started a slow, lazy grin that just had to be in response to the nonverbal interaction the two of them had just had. Elodie totally recognized how sexy it was, even as a person struggling mightily with the fact that she was in love with two completely different men.

If the recipient of that smile had been anyone other than Nymphadora Tonks, Elodie would have declared her doomed. As it was, she just hoped she'd get to observe at least some of the ensuing chaos.

By the end of the meeting, the expanded Order of the Phoenix had decided that they would position members throughout the area of the lake and platform so that someone could intervene if anything threatened the lives of the participants. They agreed that stationing Order members at regular intervals with ward spells to prevent anyone from sneaking into the lake would be the least disruptive option. Elodie felt a bit off-balance when it came to these plans. She knew the real reason for Crouch's deception, and while this wasn't it, she'd foiled that plan. There was no way of knowing if there existed any contingency plans that had triggered after Moody's rescue.

Elodie was proud of Remus's contribution to the discussion. He'd stood up to teach them all about a couple of spells that let a person move around underwater without fear of drowning, particularly in situations where they might be dueling. His approach was a layering one- a saboteur would be expecting that a spell to strip away water breathing or something similar would end the confrontation immediately, and therefore the best way to combat that expectation was to have multiple spells layered on top of each other, kicking in seamlessly if one was dislodged. Elodie had surprised herself with the realization that this was the first time she'd seen Remus teaching in person. He was good at it.

He was also good at avoiding looking frustrated when first Sirius, then Charlie and finally Minerva heckled him a bit about testing the spells they'd learned from him.

Apparently there had been a tense moment during the Marauders' Sixth Year Transfiguration class where the end result of a flooded classroom was narrowly averted. The dry tone with which McGonagall completely destroyed Remus's mildly uncomfortable facial expression was the icing on the heckle cake, but it was Sirius who came out on top in Elodie's humble opinion.

"Mr. Lupin, I do believe you promised me that you'd have a drain installed in every residence after that rather unfortunate experience you and James Potter had in Sixth Year?"

There were a few seconds of amused silence before Sirius muttered, "Oh, he has one today."

"Do share?" Minerva said, her lips curving into a rare, disturbing-looking smile.

"It's… erm." Sirius shook his head.

"I absolutely insist. You've had little chance for triumphant quips and barbs over the past years, have you not?"

Sirius squared his shoulders and sat up with a resigned look on his face. "I was implying you were the drain, ma'am," he admitted.

"Me?" Minerva's schoolmarm shock was precise and biting. "I am afraid I simply don't follow. In what way could I be viewed as draining?"

"I'm sure Azkaban would be happy to welcome you back, if you'd rather run," Arthur told Sirius sympathetically.

"No, I made my bed, I'll lie in it," Sirius said. "We all come face to face with the reality of our crushes on teachers at some point in our lives. Today is the day for me. I should have expected I would never get up to any level of equality with mine!" Despite the look of resignation on Sirius's face, the impish expression was still hovering under the surface, and this latest revelation actually seemed to shake Minerva's confidence ever so slightly. She blinked away her look of utter surprise and gestured to Sirius to continue. "I was implying that you, ma'am, were a drain on the humor in the room. I see the flaw in my logic now. I'll never have a chance with you without at least half your sense of dignity."

"Your girlfriend might find something to say about that," Minerva sniffed.

"I'm honestly not worried, now that I know the key quality is dignity," Elodie quipped.

"It's not very kind to joke about that, Sirius, dear," Molly said reproachfully. Sirius's hand flew to his chest in a gesture of defense that Elodie knew immediately was only half-faked. He and Remus had spoken about his crush on McGonagall in the past, she remembered.

"He's definitely not joking," both Elodie and Remus said at the same time. They looked over at each other, holding the look of embarrassment for a split second before both bursting into laughter. The rest of the room soon followed.

"On that note, I believe we are ready to adjourn," Albus said, standing. He opened his arms expansively and smiled, the expression an odd mixture of determination and fondness. "We can't know what tomorrow's Task will bring when it comes to Tom's plans. We are, however, vastly better prepared for it than we were at this time yesterday. Sleep well. Come to Hogwarts early tomorrow morning and we will decide where everyone will be stationed."

Everyone stood and began speaking to each other in small groups. Elodie walked over to stand in front of Sirius, crossing her arms and smiling lovingly at him.

"I have another late meeting to attend. This one was far less dour than I had expected," Kingsley Shacklebolt said, reaching for the Floo powder. "I'm pleased to have met almost all of you!" he added with a twist of his lips. Before any of them could come up with a suitable retort, the fire flashed green, and he was gone. Elodie looked forward to talking to him sometime.

One by one, almost everyone left, until only Tonks and Charlie remained. Sirius had been talking animatedly to Albus and Minerva until they left, and immediately afterwards, he walked over to Elodie, ducked his head under her arm and scooped her up, backing over to the couch and sitting with her still clasped to his chest.

"I wasn't jealous, you know," Elodie told him, kicking one foot in an attempt to get him to at least drop the hand hooked under her knees.

"That's because she's out of both of our leagues. Not being jealous is actually a fantastic defense mechanism for your sense of inferiority," Sirius said, letting to of her back to grab both of her hands with his free one so she couldn't reach for her wand. Elodie glared up at him.

"Aren't you the one who taught me a wandless stinging hex?" she reminded Sirius.

He dropped both her hands and her legs at the same time that Remus walked in from the kitchen, a dish towel hanging on one shoulder. "Would either of you like anything else tonight?" he offered to their two visitors. Both of them demurred.

Elodie both did and did not want to know if Tonks found the dish towel thing as attractive as she herself did. She covered the blush on her face with her hair as she got up from the awkward position Sirius had put her in. Then, Elodie whipped out her wand. She heard Remus laugh and mutter something about preferring mug clean-up to whatever was about to happen in the living room. Elodie tried to glare hard enough at his retreating back that he would turn back around and see her expression, but it didn't work.

"You might want to head on into the Floo," she told Tonks and Charlie. "It was nice to meet you and nice to see you again," she added, nodding to each of them in turn. When she turned back around, Sirius had moved from her seat, and Elodie let her disappointment show on her face. "Aww, I was looking forward to levitating you!"

"Later," Sirius said, knowingly. He popped up into a stand and walked over to Tonks. "Thanks for not shoving me off of my hippogriff earlier. I'm sorry I missed so much of the good parts of your growing up," he said.

"You're sorry you missed the awkward phase, you mean. No worries, you didn't!" she told him, grinning. "I didn't get to see you much as a sprog, but you hold up pretty well to those memories. Scruffy troublemaker, scruffy tattooed troublemaker…" She held out her hands as if she were balancing them against each other.

"Hug Andy for me- your mum, I mean, will you? I know you can't tell her anything, but-"

"You got it," Tonks said. "And you! Nice to re-meet you, as well," she said to Charlie. Her eyes twinkled as she added, "My memories of you aren't too different from his. Ginger troublemaker, innit?"

"At least my troublemaking was on purpose," Charlie teased, rocking back on his heels as if the memories of their time at Hogwarts were overwhelming him. "I seem to recall something about the entire entrance to the Hufflepuff common room being disabled for a week after something you knocked over?"

"Well, a Metamorph without a defining characteristic is just flat out unmemorable," Tonks told him, unfazed. "Come on, buy me a drink and I'll tell you about the stuff I paggered that the school never found out about."

"Floo? Or…" Charlie said, looking down at her, intrigued.

"Side-along. Hold on tight!" she said, threading her arm into his.

Right before the two of them disappeared, Elodie caught Charlie's gaze. He had an almost steamrollered expression on his face, and she didn't blame him. He was used to being the person who was casually impressing the people around him, not the other way around!

"Well that's interesting," Sirius said, looking at Elodie with a thoughtful expression on his face. Now that the whirlwind of preparing the household for the meeting, attending the meeting, and cleaning up after the meeting was nearly complete, there was nothing stopping her from talking with Sirius about what had happened that morning. Elodie pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest as she thought about what she wanted to say. What she really needed to do was talk to Remus somehow, but she wasn't entirely sure she could talk to him without letting on that she'd heard any of what he'd said to Sirius. That was a whole different conversation, and not one either she or Remus was prepared for right now. If ever.

"Elodie?" Sirius's voice was soft and uncertain. She looked up from where she'd been staring at the fabric of her trousers. He walked over and sat on the edge of the couch beside her. "Can I have a rain check on the conversation we should be having right now and just kiss you?" he asked.

"Yes," she told him, her smile a reflection of the flood of relief that she felt flowing through her veins at his suggestion. "In fact, I insist."