A/N: I'm back!
First, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people seemed interested in this story, and would like to give you all a very enthusiastic thank you for the lovely reviews and favourites! Second, I would like to deeply apologise for how very long I've taken to get this chapter finished. I expect many of you would like to throw things at me, as you've now likely forgotten what the first chapter was and are having to re-read it.
I originally had this planned for submission on April 1st, but I was unhappy with it and life happened and blah blah… 2016 has been an absolutely crazy year for me so far, for both good and bad reasons. I won't bore you with the details. So… I basically re-wrote the whole chapter from the ground up and have hopefully improved on the last one [he says unconvincingly] and given Lynn's character a bit more depth.
This chapter is set several months after chapter 1, in the summer break after 5th Year ended.
As always, I would love to get constructive criticism from you lovely people. So if you have a couple minutes to spare please post me a review to tell me your thoughts.
Anywho, please ignore me and read on!
BB
WARNING: This chapter contains some mild adult references. Certainly not enough to merit an M rating in my opinion, but thought I'd warn you anyway.
"You'll have to kill me," whispered Sirius.
Hands clenched the bedsheets as her body snapped rigid. No, it was a lie. It could not be true.
"Undoubtedly I shall in the end," said the cold voice.
A sharp inhale of breath and the hands held ever tighter, nails biting into the soft flesh of her palm.
"But you will fetch it for me first, Black… you think you have felt pain thus far? Think again…we have hours ahead of us and nobody to hear you scream…"
SLAM! "Hoot!"
Lynn groaned as her whole body protested its sudden contact with the floor of her room. She raised her head off the wood and wearily took note of the low light of dawn coming through her window. Letting her head fall back to the floor with an audible 'thunk', she pulled the duvet tighter around herself and lamented the loss of another night of sleep.
She sat up slowly, massaging her throbbing head. Again and again visions had appeared to her, each just as vivid and believable as the first. The worry and stress they dredged up, which sat in her stomach like a coil of hot lead, had begun to dull through the near constant repetition. But she was so damn tired of it.
She briefly entertained the tempting idea of screaming and throwing her various possessions out of the too-small window of her bedroom. Instead of giving in to her fantasies, Lynn wound her fingers deep in her hair, readying herself to tear it out, but never quite reaching that level of despair. The absence of the usual summer distractions were taking a worse toll than normal. The letters this summer had been rather trying. Ron was usually a bad writer, but this year he seemed to have made it his mission to make sure she didn't get bored. It was a lovely idea, very sweet. Problem was, most of his letters revolved around or at least mentioned quidditch at some point. So when she finished reading each one, newly invigorated with fresh sports gossip, she looked around at the dingy walls and remembered. Oh yeah, I'm not allowed outside. That always put her in such a great mood.
Thankfully there was also Luna and Nevil, who had both taken to sending her letters occasionally. Luna's letters were usually worth a good laugh, but replying to them was sometimes difficult and definitely not something one should do when feeling irritable. Nevil's letters were surprisingly witty, and the ones she looked forward to reading the most. But he tended only to write when he had something to tell her, so they came rarely. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to be her own personal informant, being close to one of the very few 'nice' pureblood heads of house had its advantages. Augusta was an influential woman after all.
She didn't have any letters from Hermione, not that she wanted any. The less thought about that the better.
Sirius' heavy footsteps broke her wallowing as he rushed to her door and rapped on it sharply, clearly only just remembering at the last second not to barge in to the teen witch's room.
"Are you ok Lynn, I heard a crash?" he asked with obvious concern.
"Yeah" she said, her mouth feeling dry. "Just dropped a book is all." trying her best to sound nonchalant.
There was a pause as he absorbed this rather obvious lie, but he made no comment on it as he answered. "Breakfast is downstairs when you want it, Pup." Before she heard him walk back down the stairs.
"Ok" she said in reply, if only to break the suddenly oppressive silence that settled around her. She untangled herself from the sheets and pulled on some jeans and an old t-shirt. Before venturing out, she gave a stroke to Hedwig in apology for waking her again. The bird puffed up her feathers and pretended not to enjoy it, which made Lynn smirk in amusement.
She barely registered her surroundings as she descended the grimy staircase of 12 Grimmauld Place, pausing only momentarily in her journey to automatically step over the second from last step. Sirius told her he had jinxed the step years ago, to trip anyone with Black blood who stepped on it; a retaliation against his mother burning his muggle magazines he claimed. She crept quietly past Sirius' mother's painting, managing for only the second time to do it successfully, and opened the kitchen door.
Sirius cast a silencing charm on the door the moment it closed, and greeted her with a small smile over the rim of his coffee. Black, no sugar of course. She forced herself to return his smile and sat down to the breakfast he had cooked for her. To be fair to him, the breakfast looked quite good, but her stomach was still churning from her nightmare, so the mere idea of eating it made her feel ill. Resigning herself to yet another miserable day stuck in her not-so-gilded cage, she searched for a topic of conversation that would keep Padfoot off her back, and, more importantly, provide a little entertainment. She waited until he had taken a gulp of the steaming brew, before she struck. "So… Padfoot," she started, with an innocent look many had learned not to take at face-value. "I hear you were quite a womaniser in school."
To his credit, he managed not to choke on his coffee when his goddaughter posed the not-so-innocent question. Though he was not above spluttering, and the dark liquid was running down his chin by the time he formed a coherent answer.
"Who the bloody hell told you that?!"
Lynn picked at her food leisurely. "Professor McGonagall might have mentioned it, once or twice." she lied. The only thing she got out of the stern woman when she asked for stories about Sirius Black, was a tight lipped scowl, angry muttering or a resolute "No!" Ron thought she had a death wish for popping that question as many times as she had; to deputy head teachers, potion masters and ministry officials alike.
"Hmmm… Well, Mini only ever really caught me running away from girls, not after them…" he said pensively, wiping away the spilt coffee and eyeing her curiously.
Lynn couldn't restrain a rogue eyebrow when she heard the nickname. Mini? I've got to use that one even if it kills me. Which, realistically, is quite possible…
"And I mean running away from them because they wanted to hex me, not because I'm desperately handsome, though that is also true." He added with a wistful grin.
Lynn made sure he noticed her dramatically rolling her eyes in response to his self-appreciating comment, before turning back to the food she had barely touched. She could feel his eyes on her, he wasn't even attempting to hide it. To her irritation, she found she couldn't think of a single comment, sarcastic or otherwise, to keep him distracted with him giving her that look. After a silent battle of wills was fought over who would break the silence first, Lynn finally gave up.
"What!?" she asked, with much more hostility than she had intended.
"I can tell you're trying to distract me, kiddo." he said calmly, unfazed by her apparent anger. "You can never hold a conversation when something's bothering you, and being quiet just isn't in your nature." he said with a wry smile. "Lilly was the same. Well, the brooding part anyway."
Lynn slumped in her chair feeling defeated, her anger treacherously abandoning her.
"Nice try though." he added lightly.
"I do not brood." She said grumpily, staring at her godfather reproachfully.
"Then why did you come down stairs with an expression like you were walking to your death." he deadpanned. "I know my pancakes aren't brilliant, but you could at least try to make me feel better about it."
She snorted, but the amusement snuffed out as quickly as it had come. She gave him a noncommittal shrug, hoping he would drop the question, but it wasn't to be. He adopted a look most parents would use to make their children fess up to wrongdoing. The sheer irony of it should have left her cackling heartily, but this time his usually unbeatable power to make her smile only served to twist the knife deeper. So her reaction was more of a grimace, before she hastily broke eye contact to examine the fascinating details of the dirty kitchen floor.
"Just had a bad dream." she murmured, half hoping he wouldn't hear her.
He did. His posture stiffened and all trace of humour vanished from his face, replaced by a look of alarm.
"Not that kind of bad dream." she quickly amended, gesturing wildly with her hands until colour returned to his face.
"Just a normal one." The last thing she wanted was to be locked behind even more protections, or be subjected to any more gruelling occlumency lessons, and having visions was a one way ticket to that cosy little corner of misery.
Sirius sat back and studied her for a moment, with an intensity that made her fidget uncomfortably, before abruptly breaking eye contact and sighing heavily.
"Do you know Lynn, that sometimes you're an awful liar?" he said disappointedly, with a tired shake of his head that instantly made her feel guilty.
"Talk." he ordered firmly, though not unkindly.
She quashed the flair of defiance that instantly lit at the demand, though her jaw locked, instinctively readying herself for a fight or argument that her conscious mind knew wouldn't come from him. Lynn forced herself to relax, breathing deeply, and dragging words out from behind her teeth.
"There's not much to talk about." she started slightly defensively, but after taking a moment to collect her thoughts again she tore down this last barrier. "Most of the time the nightmares are pretty standard. Oh you failed this person and they're going to die because of you, how could you! That kind of thing." Sirius nodded gravely, he was certainly familiar with that kind of nightmare.
"But sometimes, I get ones that are much worse..." Her heart beat faster and her skin prickled un-naturally just thinking back on them. "I'm always killing or torturing people, but it isn't like a normal dream. Everything seems more solid and real. I feel awake and aware but the thoughts in my head aren't me, they are vicious and murderous." Lynn stared unseeingly and silently off into nothing for a moment. "And I love every minute of those dreams… until I wake up." Lynn started when Sirius gripped her shoulder reassuringly. He looked worried. She swallowed dryly and quickly averted her eyes from his stormy grey ones before continuing on out of impulse, her thoughts spilling out of her mouth like a confession. "When I wake from those dreams it's like I keep a part of it with me, for a moment I… I want to kill… I want to torture." She put her head in her hands, trembling with suppressed fear and guilt.
Sirius looked down at his goddaughter as he tried to control his expression. He suspected that these dreams certainly weren't just dreams, and that terrified him. It was very unusual to have visions at all, let alone multiple ones, and Dumbledore knew something, that much was clear. Resolving to bleed some more information from the headmaster, he moved to comfort Lynn.
"That isn't you."
Lynn raised her head to look at Sirius who was now kneeling in front of her, and for a moment she saw someone else, who had said and done something similar not so long ago, but she swatted the memory aside quickly as a familiar pain bloomed in her chest. It would not help her to think of that now.
"You aren't like that, everyone knows you aren't like that." Sirius continued, oblivious to her wayward thoughts as he wrapped her in a tight hug. She didn't really take in his words but allowed herself to relax into his embrace, enjoying the feeling of affection freely given. It was something she had only recently become accustomed to.
Sirius cleared his throat after a warm and lengthy embrace "Excuse me, I think I've got something in my eye." He pulled away, slowly and theatrically pulling out a handkerchief to dab at his eyes, eliciting a weak laugh from Lynn. He didn't comment on the way her eyes glistened and stayed downcast, or when she discreetly wiped away the moisture with a sleeve when he was pretending to blow his nose. He always let her feel in control, it was a curtesy no one else afforded to her.
"On a slightly lighter note, I've been meaning to ask you something." Sirius said with an undecipherable expression, once he'd managed to tempt a genuine smile out of her with his theatrics. Lynn was silently beyond grateful for the change in subject.
"You remember when we were all in Dumbledore's office a couple months back?" he asked pointlessly, of course she remembered, it was difficult to forget. She nodded as a broad smile split her face, the event was still the source of much amusement between the two of them. "What did Dumbledore say to you when he had changed, something about doing it before?" Sirius asked with a puzzled expression.
She scrunched up her face, trying to recall her headmaster's exact words after he had polyjuiced into a physical copy of her, attempting to catch the deatheaters at the ministry unawares. Lynn had informed the order of her vision, and so Voldemort's ploy had been discovered and turned against him. "He said he had used polyjuice a few times, though this was the first time it was entirely by his own choice. Which raises more questions than it answers really…" Lynn said with an expression that said she wasn't quite sure if she should be horrified or curious.
Sirius snorted "No kidding." He said, twirling his wand between his fingers absentmindedly. "Did you see dear old Ronald's face when he was watching Moody transform into him? It was quite the picture."
Lynn smiled widely "Yup, sure did. I thought he was going to vomit." she said with a disturbing amount of delight.
"I don't get what he was so disturbed over, I had to witness it going the other way." Sirius said with an exaggerated shiver. "And trust me when I say that's worse… Let's just say Ron's clothes are much smaller than they look."
Lynn turned a horrified look to her Godfather. "Oh, sweet merciful Merlin! Please don't ever put that image in my head ever again." She said breathlessly.
"Now you understand why I wake up screaming sometimes." he nodded gravely, not quite able to hide his amusement at her antics.
"I must admit, I do feel kind of bad for Moony though. He looked so uncomfortable-"
"He did and it was brilliant." Sirius said, cutting her off with a wicked grin. "Lupin to Luna, oh the irony! There are so many possible jokes that I don't even know where to begin."
"You're so evil, Padfoot." she said jokingly before typically joining in. She cocked her head to one side quizzically, and stared off into nothingness with a wide eyed expression, before saying in an admirable impression of Luna's wistful voice "It's okay Professor, I trust you, and I know you're not strange."
Sirius chuckled "I tried so hard not to laugh at that I might have given myself an aneurysm, his face was just so priceless. Almost as priceless as your own while looking at your twin." He said teasingly. "Never knew Dumbledore was such a prankster, I could have sworn I saw him wink at Kingsley while he was transfiguring his robes. Don't think I've ever seen him have so much fun."
Lynn looked at him curiously, her stomach doing that irritating flipping that it always did when conversation strayed in to this kind of territory. "Padfoot, you know Dumbledore… err… has different tastes don't you?" Lynn asked with a little hesitation.
He looked at her blankly. "I'm not following…" Sirius said after a rather lengthy pause.
"He batts for the other team."
"Is that supposed to be a quidditch reference?" he asked perplexed.
Lynn rolled her eyes and tried again a bit more directly. "He is partial to a wand rather than a holster."
Again, another blank stare.
"Gahh!" Lynn threw up her hands in exasperation, and resorted to some very crude hand gestures to get across her meaning. Lynn watched his reaction closely, and noted with relief that when his eyes reverted to their original size there was no revulsion present in his expression.
"What!? Oh! No he isn't, is he?" he said uncertainly.
She spared him a pitying look. "It's very obvious Padfoot, I'm frankly amazed you hadn't noticed. He isn't exactly subtle." She said, thinking back on the yule ball during the tournament in fourth year. The headmaster had led a startled - yes startled - Professor Snape onto the dance floor late into the evening. What followed was, without a doubt, the funniest three and a half seconds of her life. But she hadn't told Sirius about that, she was saving it for a day he felt down or grumpy, maybe she would gift him the memory for his birthday. That pensive in the Potter vault was just gathering dust anyway…
"I always thought the way he acted was just part of him being… well…"
"Eccentric?" she answered with an amused smirk.
"Yeah" he said with a sheepish smile.
"Most of it is because he's eccentric." She said with a shrug "Doesn't make the signs that aren't any less obvious..." she suddenly trailed off, a thought occurring to her, before she narrowed her eyes at Sirius incredulously. "Wait a sec, back up… you think I would have let a strait, lonely old man polyjuice into me? Don't you think that's a bit creepy?"
"Well when you put it like that, yes, it does sound weird." Sirius said pensively "But in my defence, this is Dumbledore we are talking about. I have trouble imagining him swearing."
Lynn pictured in her mind's eye the headmaster stubbing a toe on his desk, only to jump around in pain shouting 'Shhhugar Quills' and 'Fffizzing Whizzbees'.
"Yeah," Lynn said distractedly "he'd probably blush."
The pair of them sat there for the remaining hours of the morning and into the afternoon, speaking about many topics, both light hearted and slightly darker. But after a late lunch when the clock on the mantelpiece showed the time was almost four, Sirius casually let slip some unwelcome news.
"I took the liberty of inviting Hermione round by the way. We have all been asked to stay at the Weasley's till the end of summer term, so I thought we could go over together. She should be arriving about now, actually." He said brightly, then resumed flicking through the paper they had been openly mocking not ten minutes before.
Lynn froze and turned an intense glare on her godfather, he pretended not to notice and took his time to look up, eventually acknowledging her look with an unconcerned "What?"
"So, dearest godfather, am I to assume you forgot to tell me about this?" She said in a dangerously sweet tone.
"Must have slipped my mind." He said calmly, and took a loud slurp of his third coffee of the day without breaking eye contact.
A moment later there was a loud gong sound which reverberated through the house, making Lynn almost fall out of her chair in sudden panic. "That should be her, you better go greet her." her godfather said, looking insufferably pleased with himself. Lynn scowled darkly at Sirius and silently promised him retribution, before dashing from the room, fervently hoping against hope that he was joking. But she knew deep down that he never made idle threats.
There was a flair of green as Hermione stepped out of the flue. She brushed the ash off of her jeans as her eyes searched the room, quickly finding what they were looking for. She smiled uncertainly, beginning to regret wasting time planning out what she would say, as the carefully structured apologies fell apart in her mind like a house of cards in a sudden gust. Her hair was tied back and had clearly been purposefully tamed from its usual frizzy state. Several strands had escaped from a short pony tail to elegantly frame her face, far too well for it to be accidental. And her clothes were a step above the simplistic style Hermione usually favoured. She took a hopeful step forward, waiting for some kind of reaction from the dark haired girl, who had been looking on impassively from the moment she arrived.
Without a word, Lynn broke eye contact and walked out of the living room. Hermione watched her walk away, feeling the weight of her failure suddenly come crashing onto her shoulders. The strained smile dropped from her face like a stone, and her throat tightened as her emotions threatened to get the better of her. Swallowing down the guilt and hurt she rushed after Lynn, leaving her trunk behind.
Lynn was at the door to her room when Hermione caught up with her. "Wait!" Lynn's hand paused on the door handle but she didn't turn around, or make any other indication that she had heard her at all. "Please don't shut me out." Hermione said, voice completely void of her usual confidence and lips turned decidedly downward.
Lynn spun round, hair swinging out dramatically in a manner reminiscent of Snape's billowing robes. "I don't know Granger, sounds like a pretty big ask for me." Despite the way her eyes blazed with anger, the pain in her voice could not be masked.
"You were the one who drifted away and shut me out. You were the one who suddenly couldn't stand being near me. You were the one who disappeared off home without so much as a goodbye at the end of term."
The words struck her like physical blows, each hitch in Lynn's voice brought a sharper spike of guilt through her heart than the last. She bore the pain willingly, it was well deserved, but her shame didn't allow her to look Lynn in the eye for long.
"Now you suddenly want to talk to me? Well, maybe I think you're too late." She said scathingly, turning away so Hermione couldn't see how much she had truly affected her, before shouldering her door open and slamming it shut with as much force as her diminutive frame could manage.
When the door slammed in Hermione's face, her composure finally slipped and the tears ran silently down her face. She leaned against the divide, wishing she had the courage to turn the handle, but she did not, so she curled up with her back against the solid wood and struggled to quieten the sobs that she could withhold no longer. It was her fault.
On the other side Lynn was in a similar position, her back pressed against the closed door as she fought to stem the flood of angry tears. After a few minutes, she was startled by the sudden appearance of a neatly folded sheet of paper that had been slipped under her door. A heartbeat later an equally muggle pen followed it. Lynn picked up the paper and opened it up to reveal Hermione's flowing script. "I'm sorry." She felt her anger surface again and promptly ripped up the offending message. She shoved the remains and pen back under the door and sat back again, her nails biting painfully into her palm for the second time that day.
A second sheet of folded paper came moments later, Lynn snatched it up and read. "I made a mistake." The temptation to tear this one up as well was palpable, but she also wanted to see where Hermione was going with this. So Lynn scrawled "Did you?" underneath, attempting to channel as much sarcasm as possible into the written words. She folded the paper deliberately askew, which she knew Hermione couldn't stand, before shoving it under the door with far more force than was warranted.
The paper came back after several tense minutes, which Lynn spent trying to convince herself that each passing second without a reply didn't cumulatively bother her. When the reply did finally come she snorted at the once again perfectly folded paper, forcefully pushing aside her pesky insecurities to read the note with a critical eye. "I was scared and confused. This was all new to me and I didn't know what to do with myself, or who to turn to. I'm not confused anymore." Lynn swallowed dryly and pushed the paper back under the door.
You're going to have to do better than that.
This time the pause was much longer, and just as she had all but convinced herself that Hermione had left, the paper was slowly and delicately slid under the door again. Lynn stared at the white rectangle, wearily willing it to disappear and allow her life to go back to being less complicated, but to her chagrin it did not magically disappear. So she hesitantly picked it up and read. "I know that isn't an excuse. I just want you to know that I wish I could change how I acted. I hurt you, and I can't forgive myself for that, so I certainly can't expect you to forgive me for it. You're angry, like you should be, but if there is anything I can do for you to give me another chance I will do it. Anything."
Lynn read and re-read the message at least three times before scrawling her bitter reply.
"You can leave."
She regretted answering with that almost immediately, it was too harsh, too uncompromising. She wanted to give Hermione another chance, but her pride would scarcely allow it.
"Never." came the almost instantaneous reply on unfolded paper. Hermione's usually studiously neat handwriting had been steadily getting worse as the exchange dragged on, now it looked positively shaky, as if it had taken a great effort to write the simple word.
Lynn closed her eyes, trying to suppress the way her heart leaped at the implications. Damn it, stay angry, remember she made you cry yourself to sleep that night… oh, screw this…
Lynn stood and yanked open the door. Hermione jumped up and spun around to face Lynn, she looked awful, her eyes were red rimmed and dim. Lacking their usual lease of life and animation.
She's suffered enough.
Lynn grabbed Hermione by the front of her shirt and dragged her into her room before leaning up to press her lips firmly to Hermione's.
"About time you two made up, I was getting..." Sirius's voice faded into nothing and his mouth fell open in a comical O shape.
No doubt if Sirius's much younger self had walked in on something like this, he would have dived for a camera. But as it was, he was now far older and one of the girls was his surrogate daughter, whom he could remember very clearly as a baby, and that made it all kinds of wrong. And then of course, his luck got worse…
Oh crap she's noticed you! Say something funny and walk away!
"Wooooooops! Ignore me girls, I didn't see a thing." He waved awkwardly at the red-faced teens and backed out hastily.
Oh very smooth, Padfoot… I'm so doomed.
Sirius bolted for the study and closed the door firmly behind him. Putting his back to the door, he frantically searched for something to barricade it with when Lynn's voice drifted through, startling him half out of his skin.
"Sirius, let me in."
"Err, Sirius isn't here…" He cleared his throat and shifted to an impressive imitation of Kreature's croaky voice. "It's me Kreature, what does filthy half-blood want?"
There was a pause then Lynn's voice came through again, slightly irritated. "That's very amusing Sirius, but Kreature is right here". And he was, Sirius could hear him muttering. "Good-for-nothing master is hiding from the underage witchies he is, scared of them Kreature thinks. Disgraceful, waste of noble blood that he is. What would mistress say?"
"Kreature, could you open this door?" Lynn asked sweetly.
"Kreature won't listen to the Potter girl, no he won't."
"Ha!" Came Sirius' slightly muffled triumphant exclamation.
But Lynn wasn't to be denied. "I suppose you're right Kreature, Sirius probably wants to hide in there all day. I'm sure he would simply hate having to come out…"
There was a terrifying moment of silence while Kreature absorbed this, before the door swung open, catapulting him halfway across the room where he landed in a sprawl on the carpet. He quickly sat up in a cross legged position and rested his chin in his hands, smiling innocently up at them.
When Lynn's eyes met his own, he could see the moment her mind went blank as she realised precisely why she had followed him. She stood there with her mouth slightly open and her face getting redder and redder until Sirius could handle it no longer. He burst out laughing. Lynn retaliated grumpily by gesturing rudely at him, but was instantly reprimanded with a firm smack on the back of the head from Hermione. Who seemed to promptly regret it, and avoided Lynn's eyes guiltily as Lynn watched in suppressed amusement.
"You don't have any more secrets like that do you? No hidden appreciation for the Chudley Cannons?" Sirius asked lightly, once he'd managed to get his laughter under control.
"No, the Cannons suck, everybody knows that." Came Lynn's slightly confused reply.
"Oh thank Merlin, I'm not sure I would have survived that one." He said jokingly, getting back to his feet and brushing non-existent dust off his clothes.
"So… you don't mind that I'm… that we're-"
"Does it make you happy?" He cut her off, smirking at her uncharacteristic loss of words.
"Well, yes but-"
"Then not at all."
Lynn all but tackled Sirius in a hug of pure relief that had them rolling on the floor, while his warm barking laughter filled the room.
"I was positive you were hiding someone from me, I mean, I was getting prepared to do the 'That's my little girl' speech that your father and I rehearsed before you even had your first birthday." He said, still chuckling to himself.
Lynn glanced mischievously at Hermione. "You can still do that." she said with a playful grin.
"I'd really prefer if you didn't." Hermione squeaked, but they both ignored her.
"Yeah, I can, but it doesn't have quite the same effect when that person is also someone else's 'little girl." He actually looked genuinely put out that there was no hapless teenage boy to scare witless.
An evil grin snuck its way onto Lynn's face when an idea of how to cheer him up came to her, she leaned close to Sirius and whispered her idea in his ear. A strikingly similar grin appeared on his face. "Have I mentioned that I love how devious you can be, Pup?"
"I'm still mad at you, you know." Lynn whispered when Mrs Weasley bustled off to finish making dinner, and the attention of the other present redheads was turned away. "Don't think luring me into smooching you made me forget that I hate you right now."
Hermione's face fell and she nodded gloomily, still not quite meeting Lynn's eyes.
Lynn rolled her eyes. "Come on Mione, lighten up. I'm just teasing."
"In that case… how do you feel about round two?" Hermione whispered tentatively, her eyes sparkling mischievously, with a sly smile playing at her lips.
Lynn stared at Hermione in amazement with her mouth hanging slightly open, finding herself unable to respond as Hermione raised an eyebrow, patiently waiting for an answer with bolstered confidence. And that was hot. That was definitely hot.
"No snitches to catch here, Lynnie my dear." said Fred, sidling over to place a finger under her chin to close her mouth.
"Don't fret Lynn, you're not the only one to be struck dumb by our dashing good looks and rambunctious charm." Added George, giving Hermione a wink and coming to stand at Lynn's other side, with Ron following behind him.
"Push off twin one." Lynn said to George, recovering her wits.
"Why is Gred always twin one?" Fred asked with fake incredulity.
"Because he's clearly the most handsome and witty of the two of you." she said brightly, surreptitiously accepting the three sickles that George handed her.
"Lynn, what are you up to?" Hermione said resignedly, a little of the old familiarity peeking through.
"Just a little business transaction." She whispered evasively back to her with a mischievous smile, only to notice Sirius making his way over to them, using him as an excuse not to explain further. She locked gazes with him and gestured to Ron with her eyes, he smirked and then schooled his expression into one of stern indifference, before clearing his throat to get the redhead's attention.
"Ronald, a word, if you please." Sirius said, in a voice that brokered no argument.
"Err… Sure" Ron said, clearly a little startled at being called out. He followed Sirius out of the room, nervously glancing at Lynn, who shrugged casually. The moment he was gone the twins both turned to her for an explanation.
"And the thought of me being entirely innocent in this never crossed your minds?"
"Not even for a second" they both intoned together.
"The satisfaction is written all over your face-" said Fred with mock disappointment and a shake of his head.
"-you should learn some professional distance." Advised George.
"She's convinced Sirius to give Ron 'the talk'. Hermione explained, and the twins both winced in sympathy.
"Ouch, you don't pull your punches do you Lynn?"
"Oh don't be such a wus Fred." Lynn said without any remorse.
"Hey, in my defence he is currently on the run from the law for killing thirteen people."
"He didn't actually kill those people though." Interjected Hermione.
"We know that, but that doesn't mean he isn't capable of killing pesky little teenage boys who 'date' his goddaughter." George said wisely.
"Oh shush, sit back and enjoy Ron's expression when he comes back in."
"Yes, Ma'am." The twins replied with evident relish.