Disclaimer: I so clearly do not own any of this – I mean – honestly – would I be posting this here if I did. NO – it all belongs to the ever great J.K. (despite the fact that she had to go and kill off Sirius – she'd better be planning on bringing him back, now.)
Remus Lupin walked heavily into the kitchen at No.12 Grimmauld Place. Finally – the full moon was over, and he'd emerged from his room after sleeping most of the day away. Now, he thought, some really hot chocolate would be amazing. Maybe with marshmallows – did they have any? His stomach grumbled loudly as he fantasized about roasted marshmallows. Suddenly his musings were interrupted by a soft. "Ow! Oh, damn" coming from the kitchen.
He froze. He did not recognize that voice. Molly Weasley was visiting her children at Hogwarts and Tonks was busy on Order duty. And there was no way that any of the other female Order members were here – he was certain that he'd never heard this person before. Listening intently, he caught the sounds of soft scuffling, followed by a muted chopping. He remained still for a minute, and then proceeded quietly to the kitchen door with his wand hidden by his side.
He'd barely opened the door when a pleasant female voice nervously called out. "Hello?" When he didn't respond, she tried again.
"Hello – uh – Mr. Lupin?"
Remus opened the door to find a nervously smiling young woman looking back at him. He was right – he'd never seen her before.
"Yes…" he began, although hesitantly. 'Calm down, Remus' he told himself 'she couldn't get in here unless she'd been told to by Dumbledore.'
"That's me." He finished, and the young woman visibly relaxed, breaking into a smile.
'Well' Remus mused, lowering his wand slightly. 'If she kills me, I'll die to one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen.'
"Oh, good" she said, moving towards him after putting down a rather sharp looking knife. She held out a hand. "I'm Sarah Brenton – I don't know if Albus mentioned me?"
Remus shook the proffered hand, nodding in reply to her question. So this was the goddaughter that Albus was talking about. 'I thought she was a little girl – not older, and quite – so - pretty.' Sarah's long shiny chestnut curls and brown eyes had definitely caught his fancy. "You must be Albus' god daughter." He smiled at her, and felt deeply rewarded when she returned the favour.
"Yes." Sarah said, picking up the knife again and proceeding to the counter. "So you know that I'll be living here for a few months then? I hope I don't bother you – Uncle Al said that you would most probably be the most frequent visitor."
Remus had begun to reassure her that she would not be any trouble when her last sentence caught his ear. "What" he began "did you call Professor Dumbledore? Uncle – Al?" Before he could stop himself, laughter erupted as he pictured a small child calling the venerable old man 'Uncle Al' in a high voice.
"Well…" Sarah said, somewhat apologetically. "He is my godfather, and really the closest thing I have to a grandfather"
"Oh, no, no." Remus gasped for air. "No, I understand – it's just – hard to imagine- old Professor Dumbledore – Uncle Al…" Fresh laughter burst out.
Sarah smiled mischievously. "I used to get the greatest kick out of tormenting him in staff meetings at Hogwarts. Oh, back when I could get away with anything." Remus snorted as he imagined a small child tugging on Dumbledore's robes and peppering him with questions. "Aaactually no." Sarah said, not realizing what she was doing. Thankfully, Remus didn't either. "I did that to Professor McGonagall. I think Uncle Al used to send me to her just to get on her nerves."
"Anyway" she said, rather suddenly. "You wouldn't happen to want some Dominican style scrambled eggs, would you?" Remus began to decline but his stomach betrayed him - he was hungry from his transformation.
"Here, let me help" he said, and moved towards her. She protested until he said. "Nonsense – you're a guest –and look, you're even doing it the hard way" and proceeded to pull out his wand. Sarah fell silent. So Uncle Al hadn't told them, then. Which means they probably also didn't know about her-
"Sarah – is something wrong?" Remus asked. She was quiet and her cheeks were flushed with – was that embarrassment?
"Oh!" Sarah came back to the brightly lit kitchen. "No – I'm… well, I was doing it this way because this – this is the only way I can do it. I can't do magic." She said slowly. "I'm a muggle."
Please please please review – this is my first fanfic – see, look at that nice review button – you know you want to review!