"Why are we doing this at Mum and dad's house? You could just come over to mine and we could do it here." Poppy pointed out to her sister. She was lounging out on her fire escape with a cup of coffee, her bare feet propped up on the rail.

"Because I want to see mum and dad."

"And Petunia."

"And Petunia." Lily confirmed. Poppy rolled her eyes and picked up the cigarette that was slowly smoldering on the railing next to her hand, she brought it to her lips and inhaled.

"Are you smoking?" Lily asked.

"Nope." Poppy answered, blowing the smoke up into the air.

"Poppy Elizabeth-"

"I gotta go, see you in a couple hours, love you Lils." Poppy turned her body and reached through the window into her apartment, hanging up the phone. "Are you smoking?" She mocked, bringing it to her lips again.

Lily had hoped calling and talking to Poppy that morning might help to keep her from being as late as she usually was, but that hope was dashed when she showed up to their parents house to find that dad was the only one there.

"Where is everyone?" Lily asked, slipping out of her jacket.

"Your mum and Petunia went to the shop for groceries, Poppy hasn't gotten here yet. Mum did clear off the dining room table for you though." Robert reached out to take her jacket, but Lily just magicked it away.

"Right." Robert shrugged. "I've got some work to do in my office." He informed her, leaning in to kiss his daughter's cheek before turning away and going off into the house, heading for his office.

It felt a little surreal, looking around her childhood home. It looked exactly the same as it always had. There had been a few updates over the years but honestly, everything looked basically the same except one big difference, it felt smaller.

Walking in the front door, the living room, which had once seemed so massive and spacious felt small, she was amazed that she, Petunia and Poppy hadn't broken everything in the room on a daily basis running through here after breakfast.

She headed back towards the bedrooms, curious. Petunia, as the eldest, had gotten her own room, a room she still lived in, so Lily didn't touch that door but the room across the hall, that had belonged to her and Poppy. She gripped the doorknob and turned, pushing it open.

The room was still as she remembered it, the two beds, side by side. Her side had an old Gryffindor pennant, pictures of movie stars and musicians clipped from magazines up on the walls. Poppy's side was covered in magazine clippings as well, but hers also had photos. Photos of her with friends, of boys that Lily could only assume she knew in real life. It seemed like every inch of the wall was covered in pictures.

The bedspreads had been matching pink with flowers, a desk that they had shared in the middle. The difference in this room was that, obviously, her parents had started using the room for extra storage, based on the treadmill leaning against the wall, the boxes stacked in front of the desk. She knew it couldn't stay pristine forever, but seeing this did kind of hurt. She reached out and ran her finger tips over the footboard of her bed.

Her family didn't know about the war, about the order and what she was risking. She couldn't bring herself to tell them, which she knew was wrong and unfair, but she didn't want to cause them any unnecessary stress.

"Hello?" Came a call from down the hall. "Are we just leaving the front door unlocked now? That sounds like a great way to end up robbed."

"That's only in your neighborhood." Lily called back, walking out of the room, closing the door behind her. Back in the living room, Poppy was slipping out of her jacket, tossing it on the nearest chair.

"Robbers don't have borders, Lil. I'd hate for someone to come in and run off with any of the valuables." She gestured to the walls where the framed pictures of the three sisters lived, including one with the three of them dressed alike, posed laying on their stomachs, Petunia smiling wide and missing her two front teeth.

"It truly would be a tragedy." Lily agreed, laughing.

"So am I the last one here?"

"You're actually the first… other than me."

"Ha! See! I'm not the latest-"

"I gave you a different time." Lily admitted. "You are earlier than I expected though. Mum and Petunia should be here soon."

"Lying is wrong." Poppy informed her sister.

"You smell like cigarettes."

"You smell like lies and deception." Poppy shrugged one shoulder and went to walk past her. Lily rolled her eyes, following after Poppy to the dining room.

Poppy dropped into one of the chairs, propping her feet up on the dining room table.

"Mum will kill you if she walks in and sees you like that." Lily warned, taking her own seat.

"I'm a grown ass woman, if I want to put my feet on the table, then I will." Poppy closed her eyes. Lily mouthed a spell and the front door started to open, Poppy scrambling to put her feet back down on the floor.

"You're not funny." Poppy informed her sister before sticking her tongue out as Lily laughed. She swung the door closed again and started to unload the bag she'd brought with her. It was a small bag, but Lily was pulling out far more than what should have fit inside. Poppy had grown used to this by now, watching as her sister pulled out handfuls of paper, a box with little glass vials inside, a bag of fake moss.

"So what we're going to do is simple, we will take the paper, write out 'will you be my bridesmaid' on it. We put a bit of the moss in the bottom of the vial, roll up and tie the slip of paper, put it in the bottle and cork it."

"Couldn't you do this with magic?"

"Some things are better done by hand." Lily shrugged. She sat down and picked up the pen. Poppy wrinkled her nose but did the same, tucking her hair behind her ears and got to work. It wasn't going to take long, they only had to make three of them, Poppy assumed she wasn't going to get one, seeing as she'd already been asked and accepted.

They were just finishing the last one when the front door opened, this time Catherine walked in, her arms loaded with groceries, a moment later, Petunia came walking through the door, holding less than Catherine.

"Oh good, Lily, you're here, there are a couple more bags in the car-" She barely had the words out before Lily had picked up her wand and waved it.

"They're in the kitchen."

"You're a doll." Catherine grinned. Petunia darkened at her mother's words, Poppy looked up, trying not to laugh at the look on Petunia's face. "Did you two get the invites done?" Catherine asked.

"These aren't the wedding invitations." Lily shook her head. "They're a little more special, actually." She picked one up and, when Petunia came back into the room with empty arms, she held the bottle out to her older sister. Petunia looked alarmed for a moment.

"Just take it." Poppy rolled her eyes. Petunia took it gingerly, with two fingers. "For the love of god, Petunia, I made that one. It's not magic." Petunia relaxed a tiny bit, using her perfectly trimmed nails to pluck the cork from the little bottle. She shook the note out and untied it, reading the words on the little scroll.

Her jaw tightened as she read it, glancing up at her sister.

"No." She answered simply, holding the pieces of the invitation back out to Lily.

"No?" Lily repeated, shocked.

"No." Petunia confirmed. "I have no interest in being a part of… all this." She gestured to the wand. Poppy stood up, going around the table, mostly to be closer to the action. Catherine reached out and took the note from Petunia, unrolling it to read it.

"Petunia." She started to scold her eldest daughter.

"No. Don't 'Petunia' me. I'm an adult. I do not have any obligation to be a part of this wedding. I don't like James, I don't like…"

"Magic. You don't like magic." Lily supplied. Poppy opened her mouth to contribute but Catherine silenced her with a look.

"I don't think I'll even be going to the wedding. I still have to figure out how to tell Vernon about all of this. It's embarrassing."

"Then don't come, Petunia, if you are that concerned about lying to this man, then don't come to the wedding." Poppy could hear the pain in Lily's voice. "I want you to be there, I want you to be at my side as I marry the man I love but if you can't get over your prejudice enough to be there for me then- then just don't come."

"Great, I won't." Petunia turned on her heel and headed down the hall towards her bedroom.

"Lils-" Poppy started to reach for her sister's hand.

"It's fine. If she doesn't want to be there then I don't want her there." That was a lie, they all knew it, but none of them were willing to be the one to say it. "I'll take the other two to Marlene and Alice." She turned and grabbed the other two off the table, quickly tossing the left over supplies into her bag. Before either Poppy or Catherine could say anything else, she'd apparated out of the house.

Poppy loved being independent. She had her own flat, she had a job, she paid for… almost all her own stuff. Admittedly her parents did help her out a little bit, but mostly just with groceries, or else her dumb ass would forget to shop and just… not eat.

So her parents often would buy her stuff while they were at the grocery store and send her home with it. She knew a properly independent adult wouldn't just blow off one of the essentials to living, but she had no excuse, often she just… forgot. Or else she didn't have time, and that was what happened this morning as she ran through the house, trying to get dressed. She did try to dress nicely for work, at least more professionally than she did in her day to day life.

She tucked in her shirt before buttoning her pants, sliding her feet into her shoes and dragging a brush through her short hair before rushing out the door, cursing and turning back, grabbing her work purse off the counter, then running back out.

"Morning Judy." She called over her shoulder as she hurried past the old lady who lived down the hall. Judy replied with an annoyed sniff. Judy did not like her. Poppy practically flew down the stairs, mentally trying to work out if it'd be worth it to try and catch a cab to work or if speed walking would be faster.

The choice was made for her when she got down there and there was not a cab to be seen.

"Dammit." She muttered, heading in the direction of the building where she'd been working for nearly a month now.

It wasn't a terribly long walk, but when she was already running late, it wasn't a pleasant walk. It was about fifteen minutes later, she walked through the front door of the building and went straight for the elevator.

"Morning Poppy." Someone called.

"Morning." She replied, not stopping. As long as she kept up this pace and the elevator didn't screw her, she'd be right on time… okay a few minutes late, but for her, that was right on time. She hopped in the elevator and pressed the button for her floor, sliding her hands into her pockets. The elevator went up one floor and the doors slid open, revealing a man in a suit.

"Poppy." She glanced up at him, her brain registering who she was looking at. Damn.

"Morning Greg." She smiled sweetly and stepped to the side to make room for him without crowding. "Going up?" She asked curiously.

"I have a meeting with Mr Garrison." He answered. "Shouldn't you know that?"

"Right, of course, I haven't been in the office yet to refresh my memory." She knew she didn't have anything penciled in for Greg, she'd remember that because she'd have scheduled that time for herself to go for coffee.

The doors slid open again and Greg reached out, his hand laying across the elevator door.

"After you."

"Thank you" She walked out of the elevator and to her desk. She flipped the page in the appointment book open on the desk as she sank into her chair and- oh, he did have an appointment. "If you want to just wait here a moment, I'll let Mr. Garrison know you're here." She got back up, heading for Mr. Garrison's door.

She knocked and poked her head in.

"Good morning, Sir." She smiled.

"Good morning Poppy, is my morning meeting here?" Mr Garrison was a youngish man. He was probably younger than any other senior executive in the company, not yet in his forties. However, premature balding and a medium beer gut made him look older than he was. However, Poppy could see in his bright blue eyes that in his day he'd been a looker, and she knew, based on his stories, he'd taken advantage of that.

"He is. I'll send him in." She turned and gestured to Greg to head in.

"After the meeting, if you don't mind, I'd like to have a chat." Greg lowered his voice as he walked by.

"Why would I mind?" She asked before guiding him into the office and closing the door between them.

Poppy headed for her desk and sat back down, sinking back into her seat. She really did not feel like dealing with Greg today. She thought about it a moment, glancing at the clock then back at the door. Yeah, she was going to avoid it. She sat upright and started straightening her desk. She reasoned the meeting wouldn't last more than half an hour so she found ways to busy herself for about twenty five minutes then put up her little 'be right back' sign and stood, walking out to the elevator. She managed to catch the office door opening just as the elevator doors slid completely closed.

There was a coffee maker on the floor she worked on, but it wasn't the good coffee maker, no that one lived on the third floor of the building, which was where she went. She grabbed one of the mugs and started making her perfect cup of coffee.

"You know that I know where your favorite coffee maker is." Poppy jumped managing to spill the hot coffee over her hand.

"Ow! Shit!" She gasped and grabbed for a handful of napkins. A moment later, Greg was beside her, taking the napkins and gently dabbing them against her now bright red hand.

"Jesus, Poppy, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She went to take her hand back, it hurt, a lot, but she had stuff in her purse that would help, stuff that her sister made for her.

"I didn't think it'd scare you that bad."

"It's fine." She shook her head, going to clean up the mess with her non-burned hand.

"You said we could chat."

"I did." She dropped the used napkins in the trash. "And here you are. What'd you want to chat about?"

"You can't guess?" Oh she knew exactly why he wanted to talk, that was why she was avoiding him.

"I might have an idea." She shrugged, going back to making her coffee, trying to ignore the stinging pain in her burned hand.

"You snuck out."

"I did." She confirmed.

"Why?"

"I'm not a breakfast person." Poppy answered, putting the pot back and going to get the creamer and sugar. She added way more sugar than a single cup of coffee really needed then added the cream.

"Poppy- I just wanted to make sure this wasn't going to get around."

"What?"

"That you and I... "

"Fucked." Poppy supplied. Greg visibly winced at a woman using the term.

"Yes, that. You see, Gina and I have been seeing each other for a couple months." Gina worked at the front desk downstairs.

"Oh, I see, and you don't want her knowing that you're the company bike."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't worry, Greg, Your secret's safe with me. I won't be bragging." She promised, picking up her coffee and taking a sip. Perfect. "Tell Gina I said Hi." Her heart lifted, knowing the awkward conversations were over. He had a girlfriend and she wouldn't have to start constantly avoiding him, it was perfect. She practically skipped back up to the elevator and to her desk on the fifth floor. She dug the salve out of her purse that Lily had given her and used it to heal the burn on her hand.

Sometimes having a witch for a sister was incredibly useful.

The first half of the work day basically flew by and that was when Poppy realized she had forgotten to bring anything for lunch.

"Mr. Garrison, I'm going down the street to pick up lunch, would you like anything?" She asked.

"No thank you, Miss Evans. I'll be meeting my wife for lunch today." He called back. Poppy nodded and got up, grabbing her bag. She checked her hand, the burn was completely healed now.

There were a few good places to pick up lunch around her office building and while Poppy usually didn't love spending the money, she had to eat.

There was a deli up the road and she decided that was where she'd be going to eat. She walked to the deli, got herself a sandwich and was walking out when she saw him. She had to do a double take to make sure it was really him, after all, she'd only seen him once before.

"Sirius?" She asked. The man froze and slowly turned. When he saw her, he relaxed.

"Poppy?" He waited for a group of people to walk by then headed in her direction.

"What are you doing here?" They asked at the same time.

"I work over here." She held up her sandwich.

"You work at the deli?" He looked to the restaurant beside them.

"What? No, I got food here, I work over there." She gestured in the general direction of her office building. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm-" He paused, his gears obviously turning. "Out for a walk."

"A walk? You live around here?" She asked.

"Not really." Lily had told him that she hadn't told her family about the war or about the Order and he wasn't about to spill the beans, however he hadn't really… expected this.

"So you came here to go for a walk because…" Poppy prompted.

"I was in the neighborhood." Sirius shrugged.

"Right." Poppy shook her head. "I'd continue to press you for information but… I don't actually care." She unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite. "Plus I have about fifteen minutes before my boss gets annoyed that I'm not back in the office."

"You work in an office… That seems… weird." Sirius informed her.

"How so?"

"You don't seem the office type."

"Thank you." She smiled sweetly and offered him half the sandwich, he didn't even think about it, taking it from her and biting into it. He didn't say no to food, he never had. He kept glancing away from her, back in the direction he'd been heading before she interrupted him.

"You know you can go right, you don't have to hang out here." She informed him. He paused, as if unsure. "I have to get back to work anyway, go." She shoo'd him off and he finished the last bite of sandwich before hurrying off in the other direction. Poppy rolled her eyes and turned to go back to the office, another familiar face catching her eye, Greg. He looked… not like someone who was worried about his girlfriend finding out he cheated.

"Shit." She muttered, that… felt like it was going to get more complicated than she wanted. She could tell that without any magic.