Again Harry staggered a little, stumbling out of the hearth. He would never get used to flooing. The whole spinning and circling made him dizzy and he tried to get hold of something. Before he could find something he was scooped up by wide arms and pulled into a warm and soft hug, pressed against a motherly figure.
"Oh Harry my love, welcome welcome." Harry smiled, hugging the red-haired woman back. Her hand brushed over his back in a circular manner and he smiled at the comfort. Mrs Weasley had been the first person in his life hugging him like this, in a motherly manner. She was exactly that, warm and comfy and he was happy she liked him. Ron once told him she considered him one of her own and he had tried his best not to cry at that notion. Then he felt her arms tense a little around his back when behind Harry a new swoosh sound came from the hearth.
"Oh hello Mrs Weasley, thanks for having us." The women stepped back from Harry, looking intently at Harry's godfather. He had taken Harry's advice and wore casual clothing, nothing special or expensive.
"H-Hello Mr Black." She said with a little bit of strain in her voice. He brushed the back of his neck with his hand, placing his other on Harry's shoulder.
"Actually, it's Lord Black by now, but I never were one for titles, so please, call me Sirius." He said with an effortless smile. Molly Weasley's eyes darted to the Boy-who-lived for a moment, before she nodded slowly.
"Of course, in that case, I must insist you call me Molly." Sirius nodded smiling for a moment.
"Very well. I know it is a little...awkward with my former reputation, but I hope to make good friends with the parents of all of Prongslet's friends." He grinned.
Molly Weasley rose an eyebrow, making it a little wrong for a moment. "P-Prongslet ?"
Sirius nodded, smiling down at his godson. Harry placed his hand on Sirius' smiling up to him.
"Yeah, Sirius and his friends had nicknames when they were in school. My dad was Prongs, so yeah, I'm Prongslet. It feels weird saying Dad to Sirius and for him calling me son, and Godfather and Godson are so formal, so we went with this." Molly took a moment then she smiled. Then the third swoosh came from the heart when Narcissa Malfoy stepped out of it like she was the queen on a royal visit. Mrs Weasleys smile froze on her face. Harry had written he would bring Sirius and a cousin of his but she had thought he was talking about Andromeda Tonks. She had a little bit forgotten that Lady Malfoy would also be his cousin. The women's eyes connected and you could feel the temperature drop in the room. There was this ice between the two of them as a barrier.
Harry stepped up in front of Molly, taking her hand.
"Mrs Weasley?" Her eyes turned from the cold starring women, looking down into warm green eyes. The boy smiled heartwarmingly and she couldn't help herself smiling back.
"I would like to introduce you to Sirius' cousin Narcissa Malfoy nee Black. At the moment she has been taken in by House Black for refuge and we are doing our best to help her in her...difficult time."
The boy stared intently at the matriarch of the Weasley family, deep into her brown normally warm eyes, trying his hardest to make clear what he wanted. Slowly Mrs Weasley nodded her head.
"Of...Of course." She raised her head again, looking at the woman in her living room, standing there like a sculpture cast from ice, tall, thin. She hadn't taken up Harry's advice about wearing something simple and wore expensive robes, her hair made up perfectly, covering her right side face again.
"Mrs Malfoy, welcome to the Burrow. I hope you...enjoy your stay." Molly said with a strained voice, doing her best to keep up. She could keep up with her for at least one day. There was trampling of feet on the stairs and a red-haired boy rushed through the door.
"Haaarry." He called out, swishing around his mother to bump into Harry. They hugged grinning.
"Hey, Ron. How are you?" The redhead stepped back, grinning, holding on to Harry's shoulder.
"Good mate, this is..." His voice trailed off when he looked up at Sirius and something like worry or fear came to his face.
"H-Hello Mr Black."
Sirius smiled at him, looking down shaking his head slightly.
"Hello, Ronald. Please call me Sirius." The boy slowly nodded and the smile slowly left Sirius face, and he sighed.
"I want to say I am sorry. I didn't mean to injure you back there and scare you. The sight of the rat." He spat the last word out. Mrs Weasley flinched and looked darkly at the man who had injured her son. "Kind of clouded my judgement there. I..I am really sorry, I hope you can forgive me." The man let his head hanging and you could really see his regret. Ron swallowed hard. After thirteen years with five older brothers, he was used to apologizing but mostly forced once Mom had them to do.
"L-Look Mr Black...Sirius, I know it wasn't easy for you too, It's okay really. You helped my mate that is something good in my book." Sirius smiled nodding, placing his hand again on Harry's shoulder.
"Thank you. And I hope I will continue to do so in the future." Narcissa who had stood back this whole time stepped up placing her own hand on her cousin's shoulder. She was about to say something when Ron blurted out, blinking at the tall woman.
"What is SHE doing here?"
"Ron!" Harry hissed at him before his mother bellowed "Ronald Bilius Weasley." The boy flinched at the (in this house) common holler of his mother.
"Mrs Malfoy is accompanying Harry and Mr Bl-Sirius today. She is our guest and you WILL behave yourself." While Mrs Weasley didn't seem happy with a Malfoy under her roof, she wouldn't allow one of her children to disrespect a guest. The boy lowered his head a little and mumbled.
"Sorry, Mom." Earning a smack on the back of his head for it.
"Not to me." Ron carefully raised his eyes.
"S-Sorry Mrs M-Malfoy." Narcissa stared down her nose at the sunken boy, blinking once slowly, before she nodded.
"It is all right Mr Weasley. Yet the proper address of a woman of a noble house is Lady." She stated with a firm and cold voice. Harry himself flinched a little. He raised his eyes at her, squinting while staring. Narcissa's eyes darted to the godson of her cousin and she sighed a little.
"But Mrs Malfoy is quite all right, right now."
A moment of silence hung in the room before Mrs Weasley coughed a little.
"All right, we set up the table outside in the garden on this wonderful day. The children probably want to play Quidditch anyway." Harry and Ron grinned at each other. Then Harry's face got a little strained.
"Damn, I forgot my broom at home." Narcissa's eyelid twitched a little bit and she squinted down at the boy again.
"Language Harry." The boy flinched a little raising his hand apologising. Sirius stepped up.
"That shouldn't be a problem. Kreacher!" With a pop, the house-elf appeared next to the surprised Weasleys.
"Go and get Harry's broom." The elf bowed, popping away only to return a moment later.
"Your broom Heir Black." And with a pop, he disappeared again.
Ron opened his eyes wide, staring at Harry.
"Your Heir Black now? And you have a house-elf?" Harry, flushing a little nodded slowly.
"Yeah kind of, Sirius made me his Heir. And it's his elf, not mine." This brought a smile on the embarrassed face of the boy, getting a huge grin from his friend. Sirius shook his head smiling. "Our Harry. Our."
"Blimley. Let's get outside, the others will want to play." Harry looked at his godfather for a moment, who nodded. Both boys ran outside, grinning brightly.
Again a moment of quiet came before Molly gestured to the door.
"Maybe we should go outside." Sirius nodded, and they followed the mother of the Weasley family. Narcissa did her best, holding back a sneer on the dishevelled and random setup. They crossed a kitchen where no chair fit the other, every crevice and shelf filled with different colours and nick-knacks. It was clean but patched up and run down. It was nothing like the clean and clear environment she was used to. Sirius, on the other hand, grinned brightly at everything.
"You have a lovely home, Molly. It is quite comfy and warm."
The plump woman turned her head while still walking without looking, knowing the house like the back of her hand. She smiled at the compliment.
"Thank you, Sirius. It is a lot of work, but I'm quite happy here." She said with a lot of pride. Narcissa bit her tongue. The stepped into a wide and big garden, full of different flowers and overgrowing grass. There was a small vegetable garden at the one side and a henhouse on the other. On the back, Ron and Harry just started rising from the grounds, meeting up with three other children with brooms. Up to the side was a small garage, door open. An old Angelica stood in the door, it's hood open, a man blowing into it. Sirius' eyes light up when he saw that.
"Uh, that looks interesting." He said taking a step in the direction. Molly let out a little huff.
"That's just my husband tinkering with his muggle toys like a little child." The annoyance was quite clear in her voice. Sirius smirked and shook his head while walking over.
"That's okay, I had a motorcycle once. Damn, I miss it. I will just..." His voice trailed off looking at the two women who looked at him in a disapproving way. Sirius brushed the back of his hair for a moment, then in a fit of immaturity, he stuck his tongue out and made his way over to the man with the red hair. Molly frowned for a moment.
"Your cousin is an...interesting...person." She said carefully. Narcissa snorted out rather unladylike.
"He is a big man-child you mean." Both women chuckled a little bit, finding kinship for a moment in the rather surprising common outlook on the world. Then Molly turned, her face looking a little guilty.
"Mr- Lady Malfoy, I want to apologize for my son Ronald again. He is a little...flippant sometimes."
Narcissa shook her head and uncrossed her arms from her chest before she pulled her eyes away from her cousin who was staring at the metal monstrosity with admiration in his gaze.
"It's all right Mrs Weasley. I know your son and mine don't get along pretty well. In fact, I want to apologize for my son's behaviour towards your family. Draco can be...difficult." She stated, not looking at the woman but instead looking up at her cousin's godson, flying around and around.
Molly Weasley chuckled at that.
"It think every child is difficult at times in his own way, but that is part of the happiness they bring to us, don't you think?"
Slowly the aristocratic woman pulled her eyes away from the flying boys and looked down to the woman who would be about a head shorter than her. A thin smile appeared on her face, almost not noticeable.
"You might be right with this Mrs Weasley." Molly smiled back at her a little. At least their love to children they had in common.
"Would you like some tea Lady Malfoy?" The tall thin woman nodded and they turned to the table, to talk about children.
"Dinner is ready!" The yell went over the entire lawn, making the kids descent on their brooms and the two men turned from the garage. Molly Weasley and Narcissa Malfoy had talked for about an hour about their children and noticed, while they had rather different ways of dealing with their children and their lives, they had a lot in common with what fears and joys they got out of being mothers. It was for both of them a strange talk, not totally unenjoyable but a conversational minefield. Narcissa did her best not to sneer at the mentions of poverty and this more liberal approach of parenting, while Molly tried her hardest not to scowl at what she saw as stuck up and old fashioned.
So both manoeuvred through this conversation rather carefully but they had both been surprised. This hadn't been as awful as they both thought it would be at first. They could agree on a lot of things, children grew up way to fast, Hogwarts wasn't as safe as it has been in their time and strangely their assessment about Harry and the entire boy-who-lived business. Their only real argument that came when they had talked about Severus Snape and his attitude towards their children, but considering his hate for all Gryffindor and bland favouritism of Slytherin, that was a given.
Slowly the men first arrived at the table, cleaning their hands.
"I must say I am really impressed, Mr B...Sirius. You seem to know a lot about motors and clockworks." Arthur praised the younger man, with somewhat of a gleam in his eyes. Sirius chuckled, saying nothing about the fact that a car had no clockwork in it.
"Yeah, you know, back in the day I always wanted a motorcycle, had seen muggle driving these and I kind of dug it. Well when we finished Hogwarts, James gave one to me as a gift. It was utterly amazing, Black paint and it had a sidecar. I loved it dearly. I wonder if Hagrid still has it. Anyways when James gifted it to me, Lils gave me this book on how to maintain and work on the thing, said most people had more fun working on it then actually driving it. I spent hours, reading and rereading it over and over again, loving the small illustrations and learned it cover to cover. A motorcycle isn't much different from a car motor in principle, so yeah."
The black-haired man chuckled again and Mr Weasley looked at him in utter amazement. The man pulled back his chair, not taking his eyes of this man. He was a pureblood, one of the richest man in the land and he had an interest in muggle things? He had never thought he would see the day. Sirius sat down himself. Arthur under the disapproving eye of his wife leaned over.
"Do you still have this book about motors and cars? It sounds really really interesting."
Sirius smile faded a little and he shook his head, looking a little down.
"No, it had been in my flat back then when all this went sideways. Probably it had all been thrown out with all the other stuff. I don't think the landlord would have ignored twelve years of missing rent. A lot of good memories were lost back then." He smirked, a little sad, while Molly Weasley smacked her husband on the arm.
"I'm sorry Sirius. My husband is sometimes a little inconsiderate in his muggle-fanatism." The heavy women stated, staring firmly at Arthur, who shrank down a little at that, before turning.
"She is right Sirius. That was inconsiderate of me, I'm very sorry." Sirius waved it off, shaking his head.
"I have been through worse, don't worry about me." The three other adults flinched a little at the casual mention of his time in Azkaban.
Luckily they didn't have time to dwell on this uncomfortable topic because this moment the five children returned from their Quidditch play, all panting, grinning widely. Harry had missed flying so much. For over a month now he hadn't gotten to ride his Firebolt at all and this feeling of freedom was just amazing. He grinned brightly, warming hearts all around the table with his simple happiness. The boy placed his broom away safely and then sat down next to his godfather, smiling happily.
"Had fun Prongslet?" Sirius asked with a little wink towards him, Harry nodding at him eagerly.
"Yeah Padfoot, I missed flying. I still wonder who send me the Firebolt though." Harry looked into the distance, only then Sirius coughed a little, placing his hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Well Prongslet, that would have been me." Harry's and Ron's head flipped around, staring at him.
"You?" He blurted out, blinking at his godfather. The man smirked while his cousin just rolled her eyes beside him.
"Yeah, I thought, twelve years of birthday presents should add up to that." He almost fell from his chair when his godson slammed into his side hugging him fiercely.
"Thank you, Padfoot." He mumbled into the side of his shoulder, hugging him hard, making the man laugh.
"No problem Prongslet." After a moment the boy pulled back, blushing in a bit of embarrassment due to his sudden show of affection. Molly Weasley smiled, waving over the table.
"Okay then, dig in before it gets cold." The Weasleys helped themselves, taking food on their plates, talking a little. Apparently Percy had to work, which made the twins fake gagging, earning a slap on the back of their heads by their mother. Sirius was for once a proper gentleman, serving food to his cousin, who took up on that with a smile and a nod. The younger Weasleys eyed Lady Malfoy carefully, like a cat they weren't sure would scratch them. Harry had while they were playing urged them to be nice, even if she was Draco's mother. He told them not much, just that she was having a difficult time and Sirius had taken her in.
Narcissa did her best not to frown or sneer, but the youngest boy of the Weasley family made it pretty hard for her. He ate noisily, often with the fingers and talked while still having food in his mouth. Luckily because he sat beside Harry she didn't really see him, but the sound on itself was a little bit stressing. After a few moments, Ron got a slap from Harry on the upper arm.
"Ow, Mae, wha de holl?" The boy asked while having mashed potatoes in his mouth. Harry leaned over hissing at him.
"Could you eat a little bit more orderly?" Ron stared at him like he had lost his mind but then Molly chimed in, staring sternly at her youngest son.
"Harry is absolutely right Ronald. Don't speak while eating and close your mouth."
Again the boy lowered his head, but he didn't understand. His friend had never cared for his manners what so ever. This had never been important, so what the hell?
The twins leaned over after a moment, staring at Sirius with thoughtful eyes.
"Mr Black..."
"...We might have..."
"...a little question for you." The spoke in their normal way. The man raised his head and an eyebrow, nodding while still chewing.
The twins looked at each other, nodding one after the other before turning back to the man. Harry stopped also eating interested.
"Prongslet." George smirked, dragging out the nickname Harry knew would come up quite often in the future in a teasing way.
"Just called you Padfoot." Fred took over from here.
"Does by any means the name Prongs ring a bell with you?" Sirius raised a brow. George chimed in.
"Or Wormtail?"
"Or Mooney?" The twins grinned leaning closer, while the older male had a smirk on a face.
"Oh, I don't know..." Harry chuckled a little bit. "I guess you could say that but you would need a map to find these Marauders," Sirius stated with a chuckle in his voice. Both boys rose to their feet walking around the table. Everyone stopped eating looking at them a little confused.
The boys as one knelt down in front of Sirius chair, bowing their heads like they were about to be knighted.
"We are not..."
"...worthy. To have one of..."
"...the infamous Marauders..."
"...under our humble roof. Your deeds are.."
"...mythical ..."
"...your reputation is..."
"...spotless..."
"But we try to live..."
"...up to your legend, humble as we are."
Sirius chuckled, before rising, smirking at the antics of the two.
"I can't speak for Mooney and Prongs and I will not speak for despicable Wormtail, but I can say Mr Padfoot is delighted that the honoured traditions and values of the Marauders live to this day in the walls of Hogwarts."
Both twins rose, grinning before high-fiving. They made their way around the table again, sitting and continuing their eating.
Molly Weasley looked form her sons to Sirius and back.
"What was that about if I am allowed to ask?" she questioned with a sternness in her voice. While she loved her sons like all her children, years of mischiefs and pranks had made her careful. Sirius just chuckled.
"Mrs Weasley...Molly, I'm sorry but I can't talk about it. Marauders honour." He stated proudly. Narcissa shook her head, glaring at him.
"Mrs Weasley, as I said to you before, my cousin is a child at heart." Sirius threw her a mocking hurt gaze.
"Oi!" He earned a slap on the shoulder, while Narcissa and Harry smirked. "Anyways, when they were in school, he and his friends called their group the Marauders. Actually just a nice name for a bunch of troublemakers and pranksters."
Sirius slapped his chest in a mock hurt manner.
"Cissy, how could you? I expected better of you." The older Black smirked at her cousin's antics and pointed her fork at him.
"This is for the green hair." Sirius winced slightly. Back then he had been pissed his cousin had been so cold to him and also a Slytherin, so he had with the help of Mooney, made her hair green and for three days no one could reverse it until Dumbledore himself had swung his wand.
Sirius scratched the back of his head slightly, a little embarrassed.
"Well, yeah okay, that's fair enough. But I guess correctly my punishment for that isn't done with that or is it, Cissy?" The cold ice queen of House Malfoy turned her head just raising an eyebrow, while she stared at her cousin. He sighed.
"Oh damn."
Then the twins leaned forward, grinning.
"Green hair?" But a raised eyebrow of Molly Weasley stopped Sirius from laying out the way to do that.
"Yeah, no that is not something you should do, one of our few moments we were more bullies than pranksters." Narcissa snorted for a moment, stopping the table with the unladylike noise.
"Yes, like what you did to Severus wasn't bullying." She stated, still concerned with her plate.
Sirius frowned a bit, putting down his fork.
"Now Cissy, that is something different. That was a war between him and us and Snivellus did his own in that." He crossed his arms, while family Weasley and Harry got quiet, this was uncomfortable. Finally, Narcissa looked up from her meal, staring back at her cousin.
"Fine Siri. Think about what you did to Severus, good and hard and then tell us, tell your godson that wasn't bullying."
It turned silent at the table and Sirius shot Harry a worried look. The boy stared at him a little frown on his face. Sirius could see the thought behind it and while at first, he wanted to outright refuse to acknowledge this as bullying, he took a moment, while staring into Harry's green eyes, thinking about what happened between them and Snape in their school years, how Lily had yelled at them over and over again. He then sighed, shaking his head.
"Maybe...Maybe you aren't wrong Narcissa. I...I will have to think about this and maybe talk with Remus about this."
She nodded, turning back to her plate. Harry frowned still thinking about Snape and how he treated him and all this. Sirius raised his head, looking at the whole family of the Weasleys, staring at him.
"I am sorry, this was a rather grim moment, we didn't mean to bring this mood to your table."
For a moment, nobody said anything, then Molly nodded slowly.
"I think it would be best we talk about something else." Sirius nodded and then his eyes lit up.
"I heard you people know a man named Lockhart." The entire table groaned at the name, while Sirius smirked.
"Oh yeah, Harry told me about your second year. He was in school with us and I can't get the idea of him being famous into my head. I mean in his second year he painted his own face over the side of the north tower and..."
And with that the dark mood left the table, not to return that afternoon.