Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. Please refer all enquiries to the richest woman in Britain :P
Updated: Tuesday 18th September, 2005 (Sorry, a day late, I know, I know… of all the nights for my flatmate to come home early and hog the phone…)
Beta'd by: 3-legged dog
Chapter 06: Stir Crazy
"Wotcher, baby cousin." Tonks swept into the kitchen and addressed her breezily, as only she could. "How's life in the madhouse… my goodness, you look exhausted!"
Nearly two weeks had passed since Harry's birthday. Ever since he'd returned the memory, Remus had been stealing strange looks at her whenever anyone else in the room started talking about flying (which, with four Quidditch mad teenagers in the house was quite often). Estella could not escape the unbidden hope in his eyes, and so she lay awake at night for hours on end, desperately trying to reconcile the warring emotions in her mind. Unfortunately, while the spell returned her youthful fascination with flying, the memory did not undo all the years she'd come to fear flying because of the botched charm.
Harry too, Estella noted, had slightly bigger issues keeping him awake at night. Because Harry had not been suitably trained in Occlumency, Sirius had only told him the basic idea of the Prophecy – that he had been marked as Voldemort's equal and had been targeted as a baby because he was the only one who could defeat him. Naturally, the young Gryffindor had not adjusted to the news straight away; and had taken to wallowing in self-pity and guilt, feeling responsible for his parents' – and most recently, Cedric's deaths.
Surprisingly, it was Harry himself, who insisted that Hermione and his Weasley housemates remain uninformed of the latest development. He didn't want them staring and acting weird around him, let alone being thrust into unnecessary danger by knowing. Sensing something big was being kept from them, however, his friends took varying degrees of offence. While Ginny and the twins readily accepted that they were not close enough to be told, Ron was up in a lather and Hermione's veiled acceptance and bookish logic was tainted by a renewed sense of jealousy and derision towards Estella, who knew something she did not.
The tension cast a divide amongst the group. Ron would silently fume about Harry in one corner, joined by Hermione's identical indignation towards Estella, while the others – the twins and Ginny – remained on the fence. As a result, Harry and Estella spent a lot of time together, going through Selina's diary and cornering the surviving Marauders for stories about their parents. While thinking of his parents had initially made Harry feel even more guilty about their deaths, Estella was right in that learning more about them would eventually affirm to him that James and Lily had lived for their son and had only done what any loving parent would do for their child.
After years of being made to feel worthless and unappreciated by his Muggle aunt and uncle, the concept of being the centre of someone's universe endeared Harry. Slowly but surely, he began to accept their deaths as what they were; the deflated self-loathing in his eyes was replaced by a fierce determination to ensure his parents deaths hadn't been in vain.
Sirius, who, until this point, had been beside himself questioning whether or not telling Harry had been a good idea after all, was proud as punch at Harry's turn around. Even the smothering Mrs Weasley could sense the shift in Harry and was no longer able to chastise Sirius for making the wrong decision. One by one the adults slowly came around to Sirius' 'tell-all' method of parenting, and he steadily began to receive the respect he deserved when it came to making decisions about either of his charges.
Unfortunately, things amongst the teenagers had yet to improve. In fact, they were only getting worse. Ron, in particular, had become so persistent in trying to corner Harry for answers at every opportunity, that the girls had moved out of Sirius' room and back into Estella's so that Harry could have his own space away from the unrelenting redhead. After a few days of this, however, things between Hermione and Estella had become so equally tense, that the girls swapped with Harry, leaving Estella to share her room with her father's godson.
"A sickle for your thoughts?" Tonks looked at her cousin knowingly as she flopped down on the couch opposite Estella.
"Oh, I was just thinking about how Dad actually stuck Harry and me in the same room." Estella said wistfully, sticking her finger between the pages of her Transfiguration text so that she wouldn't lose where she was at as she looked up at her cousin. "Anyone would think he'd just send Hermione home, or move us back to our place. I guess things out there really aren't that safe, huh?"
Choosing to ignore the heavier implications of her comment, Tonks took the lighter road. "Ya know, I'd be careful about what I got up to in there." She said, her eyes glinting mischievously as they shifted from midnight blue to emerald green and back again. "Sirius has probably charmed the beds to hex you if things got too cosy."
"What… Tonks!" Estella spluttered, her face flushing red. "I wasn't saying that there was any chance of anything like… like that happening! I was merely commenting on it because, as far as I know, it's rather unusual to have a boy and girl share a room."
"Well I'm pretty sure my Mum and Dad shared a room at some point…" Tonks winked, screwing up her nose as it morphed back and forth between a cute button nose and cat's whiskers. "I doubt I'd be here if they didn't."
"Nymphadora!" Estella shrieked indignantly. "Get your mind out of the sewer! I meant boys and girls as in brother and sister! And would you stop morphing! You're making me dizzy!"
"But you and Harry aren't brother and sister, now are you?" Tonk's tapped her nose and winked again.
Estella scowled. "This isn't going anywhere!" she threw her hands up in the air as she shook her head. Ignoring the annoying little voice in her head that reminded her that Harry was, indeed, not related to her, she scowled at the girl before her who was. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"Relax, baby cousin, I'm just stirring your cauldron." Tonks grinned victoriously. "Something must really have you cooking since you're such an easy target today! Really though, ya Dad letting you share with Harry just shows that he trusts you both…" her look turned thoughtful. "Well, either that, or he's trying really hard to set you two up."
"More like things are going stir crazy in this house and he couldn't think of anything else to do!" Estella crossed her arms across her chest and schooled her features into one of indifference. There just was no getting any sense out of people when it came to her and Harry.
Tonks shuddered. "Has anyone told you how much you resemble your uncle when you do that?" she said incredulously. "Even though you've got Sirius' eyes you still got the Snape glare."
"Thanks." Estella drawled, smirking slightly. "Pity I haven't shown any signs of being a Metamorphagus… could really go to town then. You still haven't told me what you're doing here."
"Does a girl need an excuse to visit her baby cousin?" Tonks pouted, and Estella rolled her eyes. Smiling restrainedly, Tonks turned serious. "Thought you might do with some company while all the others are out."
"Thanks." said Estella genuinely, a small smile on her lips. The date was the 12th of August, and Harry, with his friends, had left with Arthur Weasley for the ministry early in the morning. In the two weeks Dumbledore had insisted Harry stay with his Muggle relatives, he and his Muggle cousin had been confronted by Dementors, giving Harry no choice but to use magic outside of school. Still under Dumbledore's thumb at that time, Sirius had conceded and agreed to keep Harry with his family until the two weeks were up – the Muggle family's ongoing safety was apparently dependent on it. In hindsight, it had become yet another thing to chalk up on Dumbledore's list of stupid things that had happened because Sirius had trusted his judgement.
Between getting him settled into his new home, his birthday party and then the prophecy, neither Harry, nor anyone else, had really given the hearing much thought. All were quietly confident that the ministry would not expel the boy-who-lived from Hogwarts and looked upon the hearing as a mere formality. Because Estella had wanted to give Harry something he could share with his friends alone – for she knew firsthand how difficult it was to hold onto a friendship with so many secrets – Estella chose to stay behind and work on her Transfiguration homework.
Sirius, too, had stayed behind. The official reason for this was because he didn't know if he'd be able to stop himself from retaliating if either the verdict was bad or he saw someone like Lucius Malfoy around. Between Harry, Estella and Remus, however, Sirius stayed away because he was still not entirely happy with Dumbledore. He neither cared to be reminded of what Dumbledore's trusted advice had almost cost them, nor did he want to bear witness to Dumbledore imposing his meddling influence over the Ministry officials. As leader of the fight against Voldemort, Dumbledore commanded respect and trust, and as such, Sirius didn't want his current feelings towards the man to become permanent. He needed time to cool off.
"You worried about the hearing, baby cousin?" Tonks persisted with her own brand of endearment and Estella could not help but roll her eyes.
"Not really." she shrugged in response, returning her gaze to the Transfiguration text she'd found amongst her grandparent's extensive collection. "Dumbledore seldom goes without what he wants, and the press would have a field day if they deprived the 'Boy-Who-Lived' of an education." She paused, tearing her eyes away from her text once again to look her cousin in the eye. "I'm more worried about Harry being at the Ministry, period. With Fudge refusing to admit that the Snark Lord is back, that place just has a big target painted all over it."
"Snark Lord?" Tonks raised a brow, stifling a giggle at the flippant way Estella threw it out.
"Harry came up with it." Estella grinned indulgently. "We were getting sick of the others quivering at the name 'Voldemort' and calling him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'."
"It takes a lot of guts to call him by his name, you have to admit." Tonks herself had flinched slightly at the reference. "Especially if you've been raised to fear it," she smiled apologetically at Estella's withering look. "But hey, between you and me, I think Mr. Snark would want to look at re-evaluating the decision to make people afraid of his name… especially since all the Muggleborns aren't going to be able to stop conjuring images of Prince in their minds."
"Prince?" Estella raised a brow. "You mean, that lame Muggle musician you used to have an infatuation with? Didn't he turn his name into a symbol?"
"I did not have an infatuation with Prince!" Tonks glared, rueing the day she'd ever started a fleeting correspondence with her youngest relative. Since then, Severus had not been able to deny his niece contact with her father's relatives. "He had one good album… everyone liked him back then."
"Yes, and now no one knows what to call him." Estella snickered. "I should start encouraging people to call old Voldie 'The Snark Lord Formerly Known As Tom.'" Her grin widened. "Yes! That will do nicely… the Muggleborns will lap it up." She paused. "Well, all the ones old and crusty enough to get the whole Prince reference. What kind of idiot changes his name to a symbol that most Muggle typesets can't reproduce, anyway?"
"He's not that out of vogue!" Tonks protested. "Just you wait. End of 1998 he'll re-issue 1999 and then everyone will know his name again."
"No they won't." Estella said stubbornly, her tone deadly serious. "He doesn't have a name anymore for people to know, remember?"
Tonks blinked at her in confusion before breaking out into honest-to-goodness laughter, Estella not too far behind her.
"Why, hello there, Nymphadora." Sirius teased lightly, the girls' laughter drawing him out from the rock he'd been brooding under. "Thought for a moment that Moody had come in and transfigured some poor unfortunate soul into a hyena to help Estella with her homework, but I guess I was mistaken."
"Oh, well, you can talk! Have you listened to yourself laugh lately? If anyone actually knew you were an Animagus, they'd think you'd failed to change back, the way you bark." Tonks threw a cushion at him as she growled. "And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that…"
"Well," Sirius caught the cushion deftly in his hands and flashed his daughter a cheeky look. "What am I supposed to call you when you've gone and passed on the title of 'baby cousin' to someone else?"
Tonks and Estella looked at Sirius' pouting face, surprise written all over their faces.
"Oh, that's right…" Tonks screwed up her face in concentration, as though she was trying to remember something from a long time ago. "You used to call me that, didn't you?"
"I believe so." Sirius shrugged and kicked off from the doorframe he was leaning against to cross the room and perch himself on the arm of the armchair his daughter was curled up in. "Though I must say it was really rather appropriate at the time – you couldn't have been anymore than five or six."
"I was nearly eight!" Tonks crossed her arms defiantly and scowled at her mother's cousin. "But my mother told me you only called me that so that she would stop calling you her 'baby cousin'."
"Well it was rather inappropriate." Sirius said diplomatically, shooting a playful glare in his daughter's direction when she started giggling. "Regulus was, after all, younger than me."
"Yes, but she never really had much to do with him, now did she?" Tonks threw back.
"With good reason." Sirius agreed slowly, the steam running out of their conversation. Due to Andromeda's marriage to Tonks' Muggle father Ted, he'd had very little to do with his favourite cousin and her family while he was growing up. It was not until he escaped from his mother's clutches and moved in with James that Andromeda had been able to invite him over to get acquainted with the other 'Black sheep' of the family. Turning to the youngest member of his family, Sirius smiled at his daughter, ignoring the nagging feeling of injustice that Ted and Andromeda had largely been kept out of his child's life. "You don't mind being the baby of the family, though do you, missy? There's not a lot you can do about it if you do."
"Well when you put it that way, how am I even supposed to answer?" Estella rolled her eyes and returned her attentions to the Transfiguration text in her lap, inwardly heartened by the quirky little traditions members of her strange unorthodox family had. Like her father, she too had felt the pang of loss that came with things her family had been denied over the years.
Any further discussion, however, was abruptly cut off by Harry's return. Scrambling to their feet, father and daughter rushed towards the honorary member of their family, Tonks a leisurely pace behind them.
"Wotcher, Harry." All three of them said simultaneously, the two most closely related participants sporting matching lopsided grins as they successfully anticipated the greeting of their wayward cousin.
"How'd it go, Harry?" Sirius stepped closer and rested a hand on his godson's shoulder, smiling slightly when he saw the humour in the boy's eyes.
The answer to Sirius' question, meanwhile, came not from Harry, but from the twins who were looking a little giddy from excitement.
"He got off! He got off!" They chanted, dancing a crazy little jig that left everyone smiling.
"Well of course he did!" Sirius drawled sarcastically, though relief was evident in his pale eyes. As much as everyone knew Harry's acquittal was a sure thing, Sirius, of all people, had the most reason to suspect the Ministry of being completely inept at reaching a sound judgement.
'At least he got a hearing' Father and daughter locked eyes, both thinking the same thing. Sirius' incarceration, after all, had come without so much as a trial.
"All they need to do now is, pull their finger out and realise Voldemort's back in the game and they could be almost competent." Estella voiced her father's thoughts, rolling her eyes when a collective shudder passed through the party of redheads. "Oh, come on guys, honestly!"
"Sirius, may I have a word?" Arthur gestured quietly towards Sirius, motioning him away from where the teenagers were crowding around Harry, chatting excitedly amongst themselves. For all intensive purposes, a temporary amnesty between them had been drawn as they shared in Harry's victory; all secrets forgotten.
"What's that about, I wonder?" Estella followed her father's movements as he conversed with Arthur Weasley quietly. Arthur had escorted Harry to the hearing on the way to his job at the Ministry, taking his own children and Hermione with him, to show them his office as they waited.
Ron and the twins stopped in their animated re-telling of how Hermione had spent the entire time in their father's office properly identifying all the Muggle artefacts and paled as they followed Estella's gaze.
"Oh, that." Ron said lowly, looking at Harry apologetically, who had stiffened at the memory. The longer he hesitated, the more Estella got a taste of what it was like to be left out of a secret. All three redheads exchanged nervous looks, while the normally stoic Hermione refused to meet her questioning gaze.
"Harry?" Estella's breath hitched as she looked from the grim expression on the boys face, to the darkening looks on her father's face in the distance. "Who was at the Ministry?"
"Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy." Harry said quietly.
Estella's eyes went impossibly wide and she swallowed hard, unable to find any words. Behind Harry, on the far side of the hallway, she noted absently that her father was looking at the pair of them worriedly, concern haunting his once-handsome features.
"Dad reckons he was trying to sneak into the hearing." Fred said lowly.
"Fudge's office is nowhere near the courtroom. He had no place being where he was." George mirrored his brother's tone perfectly. "Mighty glad we were waiting for Harry in Dad's office, but Merlin, could you imagine running into him in a deserted hallway?"
"The Ministry would be holding more 'disciplinary hearings' before the summer was out, that's what would have happened." Fred said ruefully, his fingers twitching towards the pocket that carried his wand.
"The audacity!" Hermione said quietly, shaking her head. "Walking around freely as though he owned the place not two months since… since…"
"I wish Dad had banished his robes, though." Ginny said, scowling at the boys slightly when they took her words the wrong way. "Malfoy would have had a hard time explaining his choice of body art."
Sighing in relief, the boys all agreed.
"Wouldn't work." Harry said softly, still a little overwhelmed by the events of the day. "He came out as a Death Eater after the first war ended; convinced everyone he had been under the Imperius Curse and had been forced to take the Dark Mark."
"If he was truly on our side, then why is he still alive then?" Estella frowned. "If Tom can cause the Dark Mark to burn when he's summoning his minions, surely he can inflict serious damage to those who have defied him and fled the ranks."
Estella met Hermione's eyes, and for a fleeting moment saw a flicker of understanding and sympathy in them. The bushy-haired girl was the quickest to realise what such a power would mean for Estella's uncle.
"It wouldn't make sense for him to go after any defected Death Eaters." Harry said, looking directly at Estella as though to reassure her. "The Ministry might actually start to think he was back, if stuff like that started to happen."
"They should take your word for it and believe that anyway." Estella stated grimly. "Bunch of incompetent dunderheads."
Snickers broke out amongst the teenagers as they drew the comparison between uncle and niece. Smiling invitingly at the humour, Estella could almost hear the ice break.
Maybe things would work out between them all, after all. Across from her, Sirius smiled at his daughter knowingly, inwardly thankful that the once fractured group of teenagers were beginning to show signs of reconciliation. With the Dark Lord on the loose, a foolish Minister under the thumb of one Lucius Malfoy and that damn prophecy that started it all hovering overhead, it made no sense for allies to remain divided.
Fresh from their encounter with the shameless, two-faced Death Eater, Harry's closest friends were beginning to come to the same conclusion.
That night, to celebrate, Sirius and Remus had herded the teenagers to the family home to watch videos. The Weasley twins, in particular, had become particularly enamoured with the world of action movies, and poor Arthur had looked like a dog denied a bone when, after escorting his children to the half-Muggle house, he realised he couldn't stay and explore all the working Muggle amenities without being a burden on his rambunctious teens.
Besides, he'd already agreed to make a sweep of Grimmauld Place, flushing out the doxy nests while most of the house's occupants weren't there to scare them into hiding. The house may belong to Sirius, Arthur knew, but his entire family had been living there for over a month; so whatever he could do around the house in return was the least he could do.
"That Arnie dude, he speaks funny." Fred shook his head at the screen. "Where's he from, you think?"
"He's not from anywhere, you idiot!" George chastised his brother, sounding a little too much like Percy, much to everyone's amusement. "He's a machine… right?"
"Living tissue over metal alloy endo-skeleton." Ron attempted to mimic the action star's distinctive drawl.
"If only they paid as much attention to detail in class." Hermione exchanged a look with Estella, who rolled her eyes at the naivety that existed between the magical and the Muggle.
"Hate to break it to you, but it's all just make up." Estella informed the boys, and not for the first time.
"Make up?" Ron whined, his brothers' following; all their faces screwing up in disgust.
"Grown men in make-up!" George shook his head. "Clearly a Muggle thing."
"Is the blood all make up too?" Fred asked, looking at it from a slightly different perspective. Estella nodded. "Wicked."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Gred?" George caught up with his brother's train of thought as their eyes met, twin sets glinting with untapped potential.
"If it's what I'm thinking then I am, Forge." Fred agreed, before the pair sidled off to plan a range of gags that made ghastly looking fake gashes appear on one's skin.
"Mum's gonna flip when they come out with that." Ginny frowned. "But just you watch, they'll come in with a real injury and Mum'll ignore it and it'll serve them right for having her on."
A little behind them, Sirius and Remus watched the teenagers interact.
"Those two are going to give us a run for our money." Remus noted dryly, nodding towards the scheming twins in the corner.
"Is it true they stole the map from Filch's office?" Sirius mused. "Really should thank them for that one day."
"But not now?"
"What, and tell them who we are?" Sirius looked levelly at his friend. "It's much more fun having them speak freely about the Marauders, not knowing that they're actually talking to two of them, isn't it?"
"You just like to be hero-worshipped, Mr Padfoot." Remus shook his head at his friend in amusement.
"And you just like to be quietly smug and all-knowing about something, Mr Moony." Sirius countered, hitting the nail square on the head.
"You keep talking like that and they'll hear you anyway." Estella turned her attention away from the movie and rolled off the beanbag. Shuffling over to them on her knees, she leant her chin against the arm of the couch. "And I, for one, am having far too much fun to have them know just yet."
"Well, there's no mistaking whose daughter you are." Sirius said proudly, ruffling the hair on her head with one hand, while patting the couch next to him with the other. "Now, c'mere. Sit with us."
As Estella made her way around the couch and went to take the seat between her father and godfather, however, Sirius reached out and hauled her onto his lap instead.
"Dad!" Estella protested, caught by surprise. "What are you doing?"
"Stealing a cuddle from my number one girl." Sirius said glibly, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "I don't get to do it near enough."
"I'm too big now for that!" Estella pouted, though she made no effort to extricate herself from her father's lap. "I don't see Arthur Weasley going around being all huggy!"
"Nonsense! You're still light as a feather." Sirius noted. "There's nothing wrong with me wanting to make up for lost time, is there?"
"No," said Estella demurely. "But must you do it in front of everyone?"
"I don't see anyone watching." Sirius whispered, inwardly ecstatic that, despite her protests, Estella had made no attempt to move away. "Now make yourself comfortable and tell me what you want to do for the rest of summer."
"You mean I have a choice?" Estella stared at her father incredulously, ignoring her godfather's oomph as she surreptitiously stretched out her legs across his lap. "Who do you think you are, Father Christmas?"
"Father what?" Sirius frowned. "Christmas? Don't get so far ahead of yourself, missy. Let's just concentrate on the next two weeks, hmm?"
Remus and Estella exchanged a look, fighting to suppress their mirth at Sirius' naivety. Deciding to put his puzzled friend out of his misery, Remus closed the gap between them and whispered an abridged explanation about the Muggle tradition into his friend's ear.
"Don't you be calling me clueless, Remus Lupin." Sirius reeled back and scowled at the barely suppressed grin on his friend's face. "I'm not the clueless prat who believed that you could teach Mandrakes to talk!"
"Yes, well, I hadn't figured out James' poker face yet." Remus muttered, blushing slightly. "And it was just after the full moon, so I dare say you had me at an advantage. At least I'm not the one who took off his ear muffs and spent the day unconscious in the infirmary."
"Pity the Mandrake wasn't more mature." Sirius' eyes darkened. "Would have served Peter right for being so gullible."
Not liking where this particular memory was headed, Estella cut in. "Wait… are you telling me, Remus, that you fell for that? Not even I fell for that!"
"You tried the same joke on my daughter and it didn't work?" Sirius chuckled. "How old was she then?"
"Four." Estella grinned victoriously. "No wonder you thought you'd catch me out, Moony, if Dad n' James had fooled you at 12."
"13." Sirius corrected, glad that no one else in the room had heard Estella call Remus by his Marauder name. "Mandrakes were on the third year curriculum back then, not second year."
"Good heavens!" Estella marvelled at the pair. "It's any wonder you lot lived to see graduation."
"We had help." Sirius said quietly, his eyes full of meaning as they locked with Estella's own.
"Yes, I suppose you did." Estella said flatly, her mind lost to the memory of that day in the alleyway.
"Hey, none of that now." Remus squeezed her ankle and started to play with her laces. "Think of something you want to do for the rest of summer."
Just at that moment, the teens on the floor broke out into cheers as the T1000 was destroyed in the molten steel, and everyone's attention was returned to the action on the screen.
"I need a vacation." The monotone voice of the victor onscreen caused a ripple effect as the teens on the floor began to giggle at each other's subsequent impersonations. Sirius blinked at the action hero as though his eyes had just been opened for the first time.
"I have an idea."
Before Sirius could elaborate, however, the low chime of the wards, signifying that someone had just flooed into the study, caused all on the couch to scramble from their seats.
"It's only me!" Arthur Weasley's voice called out to them reassuringly, causing the boys spread out across the floor to groan. None of them wanted to go back to the gloom of Grimmauld Place just yet.
Leaving her father to go talk with Arthur, Estella curled up back on the couch next to her godfather, who had already returned to his seat. It was not unusual, after all, for people to frequently call upon her father on the rare occasion he was out of his ancestral home to see to some of the more unresponsive hurdles the uncooperative house would throw at its unwelcome guests. This time, however, things appeared to be a little more serious when a shaken looking Arthur and equally concerned looking Animagus made to address the teenagers.
"We're all going back." Sirius said firmly. "There's been an incident."
Apparently, as Arthur went on to explain quietly, Molly Weasley had a nasty encounter with a Boggart in the upstairs drawing room and she'd yet to calm down. Her greatest fear, as most everyone could guess, was losing her family, and so upon hearing of their mother's distress, all of the Weasley children were keen to return to her.
As they filed towards the Floo – which, in the wake of Estella's midnight wanderings had been limited to just two connections: Hogwarts and Grimmauld Place – Sirius sidled up to his daughter. Though he had not confronted the Boggart himself, it was clear by his sudden clinginess that just the mere mention of a parent's worst fear had invoked an effect on the man.
With Harry on one side, Estella on the other, and Remus slightly in front, they were the last to leave the place they called home. Muttering something to himself about no longer wasting any of the precious few days they got to spend together as a family, Sirius waited until the last Weasley had gone through the Floo before holding everyone else back.
"What's say we ditch the Order and have ourselves a real vacation?"
END CHAPTER: Stir Crazy
NEXT CHAPTER: Rebels With a Cause
DUE: Things are really up in the air at the moment on account of Uni finishing (for good) and starting the application process for graduate employment. Add to that the fact that my computer officially died, and the fact that the computer I have on loan A) has serious RAM issues, continuously crashing Windows and B) the 'privilege' of using said piece of machinery may well be revoked as of tomorrow since I have technically finished my studies; and, well, I'm just hoping you can understand how unpredictable that makes things. I should know more about where I stand insofar as computer access goes within the next week, so for those who review, I'll send out an e-mail with a more definitive update date when I have it available. I can't imagine it being any later than the end of the month, however.
