I stretched, contorting myself to relieve the tension between my shoulder blades. I really have been sitting on this bed for far too long.

"You okay there, Nymphadora?" Remus asked, a note of humour in his voice.

I mumbled incomprehensible at his as I stretched in another direction. Something, somewhere desperately needed to click and it couldn't happen fast enough for my liking.

"Doing your stretches, cousin?" Sirius teased. "Is this how you warm up? Should we be worried?"

I couldn't even muster up enough extra energy to blush or roll my eyes at Sirius' dirty mind. I really shouldn't even be surprised any more, I'd heard more than enough stories from Mum about it. And the multiple scolding she had given him. Those were always hilarious to hear and I bet even more hilarious to see in real time. Maybe I'd get the chance one of these days. Anyway, I ignored my filthy-minded cousin and tried a different stretch.

"Is this what Muggles call yoga?" Sirius asked Remus in a stage whisper.

That stretch didn't do anything except make my back feel like a ready-to-snap rubber band. Fantastic. I eyed the distance from the bed to the floor. How weird would it look if I did a crab's bend from the bed?

"Nymphadora?" Remus tried again, this time some concern bleeding into his tone.

"Shoulders hurt," I muttered, face flushing. It was really nothing but I knew I wasn't going to be able to hide it from either of these two. "I'm just stiff," I reassured them, bending my arm backwards to rub ineffectively at some of the tension.

"That's what you get for not sitting properly," Remus scolded mildly, his face showing his disapproval. "I told you to sit against the wall or the headboard.

"You sound like my mother," I told him. It was not a compliment. "She's always going on about my posture."

"You'd be wise to actually follow her advice."

I was about to retort with something sarcastic when I felt two hands press on my back. I shrieked loudly and spun around; fists raised.

"Hey!"

Oops. It was just Sirius. I flashed him a sheepish smile as he glared at me from his prostrate position on the bed. Well, at least his reflexes were improving.

"Sorry," I offered as he pushed himself up. "What were you doing?"

"Giving you a massage!" he said indignantly. "I'm good at them!"

I gave Remus a doubtful look. Surprisingly, he nodded.

"He did it all the time after full moons and Quidditch Practices for me and James respectively," he offered.

"Aw." That was actually really sweet.

Sirius gave me a smug look. "See, I can be useful."

"Of course," Remus continued, a grin on his face. "He found out that this talent was extremely useful with members of the fairer sex."

"I got to feel so many people up," Sirius said blissfully.

"Pervert," I jokingly accused, whipping a pillow at him. Remus laughed at us.

"Yeah, yeah," he mock-grumbled, poking me in between my aching shoulder blades. "Now turn around so I can work on those muscles."

I hesitantly did as I was told, it would hurt. The worst that would happen is that I would still have my aching muscles. Even Sirius couldn't do much damage when giving a massage, right?

All negative thoughts left my head as he put his hands on me. I moaned theatrically in absolute pleasure. Oh Merlin, God, whatever deity was up there. Sirius' hands were a magic all of their own. They were firm but gentle and found knots that I didn't even know I had. I groaned inappropriately and I felt my bones turn to jelly. This was marvellous.

A thought just struck me out of my haze of blissful thoughts.

"Huh."

"That didn't sound good," Sirius commented, hands moving to my left shoulder. "Dammit, Nymmie, you should have said something before. Your muscles are like rocks."

"Don't call me that," I mumbled almost drunkenly. This was so good. What was I going to say again?

One of the hands poked me in the back. It wasn't appreciated.

"Hey!" I tried to turn to glare at him but Sirius firmly kept me facing forwards.

"Let me finish," he scolded.

"Hmpf."

"What were you thinking?" Remus asked encouragingly, whether it was because he wanted to distract me from Sirius or he actually wanted to know – I couldn't tell.

"Umm," I dredged through my slow-moving thoughts. They were like thick honey. "Oh, yeah. Moody!"

"Talk abut a buzz-kill," Sirius muttered but moved to the centre of my back.

Ooh, I didn't realise that my muscles were tense there.

"What about Alastor?" Remus asked curiously.

"Where is he?"

Both men froze and gave me a puzzled look. Well, I assumed Sirius did because his hands stopped moving.

"Well, he's not here," Sirius said slowly, as if you were talking to a particularly dense person.

I swatted at him and stuck my tongue out.

"I know that. I meant, where did he go?"

"He wasn't here, Nymphadora."

I tired to twist around to look at him but Sirius stopped me.

"Don't ruin this now," he scolded.

"He was a few days ago, though," I informed both of them. "It's the reason I hid up here in the first place."

The two men were silent again as they mulled over my words. Thankfully, Sirius didn't stop moving his magic hands this time. I was basically a flobberworm at this point

"Wasn't that like two days ago?" Sirius asked, leaning more heavily into the massage. I groaned again.

Good thing Molly wasn't here or she'd be charging in, accusing all three of us of 'being inappropriate'. I blushed at the thought.

"Well, we've had two breakfast together," Remus replied. "So yes. Two days. Nearly three."

"That short?" I asked out loud. It felt like I had been talking for much longer.

"Why were you hiding from him anyway?" Sirius asked. "You're meant to be his protégé, right?"

"I made him spout blue feathers," I offered, blushing at the nickname I'd been given in my early days as a trainee. "From his eyebrows."

"You what?" Remus spluttered, eyes bulging slightly as he took in what I said.

Sirius simply hooted with laughter. "That's fantastic!"

"He didn't think so."

"How did you even manage it?" Remus demanded, his mouth twitching like he wanted to laugh but thought showing his disapproval was more appropriate. Killjoy. "It's remarkably difficult to gt one over Alastor."

"Trust me, I've tried," Sirius sulked.

Remus rolled his eyes at his best friend's antics. I bet he was involved in some of the attempts as well, he was a Marauder after all. There was no need to be so high and mighty about it!

"Uh."

Did I admit it and possibly lose their respect or risk a lie? I sighed heavily. There wasn't any point in lying, my hair would give it away. These two hadn't been around me long enough to figure out what all the involuntary changes of colour meant but they'd still question a quick colour change. They both leaned forwards eagerly.

"It was a mistake," I admitted in a squeak.

There was that silence again.

"What?" That was from both at them.

"I was aiming at the twins," I explained. "And Mad-Eye got in the way."

"Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, got in the way of spell fire?" Remus asked slowly.

"Yes."

Neither men really had anything to say to that. In fact, they looked a bit stunned. So was I, if I thought about it. Trust that the only time I caught Mad-Eye out was by accident and it wasn't even for him!

"I bet it looked hilarious," Remus offered, the smile he'd been holding back finally breaking out over his face.

"Oh, he did," I assured him, not being able to hold back my own chuckle at the memory of my mentor's expression.

That's all it took to set the two of them off and soon we were all laughing at Mad-Eye's predicament.