15 July 1997
It felt odd how quickly a couple of weeks could pass when one was fighting against time. That left two weeks to the wedding… two weeks until Harry had to leave in his crusade, two weeks to make sure he was ready…
It was helping him bear his burden that helped Mia accept there was no away around it. Nearly every day, she would sweep over and over through every book in the library of Grimmauld Place with the word 'defence' in it – which happened to be a lot of them. She would gather spells, practice them with Sirius and then they would teach them to Harry together.
Izzy had mostly become stuck as the target for her brother to practice on, as he found it too disturbing to use his godparents as such. She seemed to be pretty satisfied in that position, saying that 'at least she was learning something out of the whole thing', and happy to be included. In the rare occasions she didn't step in as the target, it was mostly Ron serving as such as Harry couldn't bring himself to attack Ginny when she offered herself for that purpose, no matter how much she encouraged him, saying it was fine.
The fifth of July started out as a regular week day, with Sirius and Mia giving Harry his daily defence lessons in the morning and letting him rest the afternoon. Ginny came by shortly after lunch, to help Harry going through his mother's diaries. He'd only just gotten to start reading them a few days before and had quickly realized that he'd never have time to go through all of those before his time to leave came if he didn't split work with someone. That someone, turned out to be Ginny.
Although he hadn't gotten to take a look at the diaries himself so far, Sirius already liked their effect on his godson – he seemed less… sombre, likely because he was indirectly gaining memories of his mother and not for someone else's testimony. Those were Lily's words and her words only – he was getting to know Lily through Lily and that was as close as it got to the real thing in Harry's case.
Plus, Sirius had to admit, it was pretty funny having Harry asking him about things that he hadn't thought of in decades like some prank he and James had pulled on the Slytherins, consisting of filling every ventilation shaft leading to their common room with hippogriff dung, which had caused it to become the smelliest incident in Hogwarts' history. Of course, in the words of twelve-year-old Lily, it had been an 'awful prank courtesy of that stupid insufferable bully, Potter, and his twin-in-spirit (Sirius particularly liked that title), Sirius Black'. Her opinion concerning Remus' participation was left ambiguous and Peter was simply described as 'that poor simple-minded boy'. If only…
It was little past three when, eager to find out if his godson and Ginny had found more equally interesting adventures in Lily's chronicles, Sirius made his way down from Alex's room – where he'd put his son down for a nap – headed to Harry's, where the 'investigation' was taking place.
He didn't quite have the chance to actually get in, though, as the scene he found opposite him when he reached his destination's floor had him raising his eyebrows instead. His wife happened to be standing in the centre of the hall, holding in her hands what seemed to be a stick covered with birds' feathers, which he identified as a feather duster, and apparently oddly using it to clean the inexistent dust off the stairway's rail. Trying to seem subtle – but not doing a good job out of it – Mia looked over her shoulder at Harry's door and gave a little jump when she saw him there, between her and the half-open door.
"Merlin, Sirius, just curse me with the worst spell you can think of, shall you?" she hissed under her breath.
"What are you doing?" he asked her in confusion, ignoring what she'd just said.
She gave him a very 'it's obvious' look. "Cleaning – what does it look like?" She pointed out, waving the feather duster in front of his face.
The look on Sirius's face clearly informed her he wasn't convinced as he snatched the feathery object from her hands. "Well, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but there are spells for cleaning, love. Or, you know, house-elves. Such as the one going by the name 'Kreacher' and still haunting this house like an angry Poltergeist."
"Language, Sirius. These days, that word is a major insult for most ghosts…"
"Hum-hum, love," he said, shaking his head as he touched her chin with the feathery end of the duster. "Don't try to get beside the point."
"What point?" she asked, playing the 'I'm not getting it' card.
"The point when I ask you why you are standing here, right outside Harry's bedroom, pretending to be busy dusting the rails of the stairs," he stated.
Mia gave him an immediate annoyed look and quickly glanced into her godson's bedroom to see if he or Ginny had heard her husband's comment. They seemed to be too entranced in their reading to pay them any attention. Relieved, she grabbed her husband's arm and all but dragged him behind her up the stairs towards the upper floor, making him drop the feather duster midway through the stairway. She only stopped when they were standing right opposite the door of their bedroom.
"Secrecy, hum?" Sirius asked her just as they stopped. "Well, you've got me interested. What is so important that you can't tell me on the same floor as Harry?"
"Nothing," his wife mumbled, stepping into their room. "I'm just… I'm just keeping an eye on them. That's all."
"Keeping an eye on who?" he asked as he went after her. "Harry and Ginny? Well, I'd say they're old enough to spend time alone without getting themselves hurt by accident or something – especially when they're just reading diaries… but, you know, maybe that's just me…"
"Oh, just shut up, Sirius," Mia hissed in annoyance. "They're all alone. In Harry's room! Don't you think that's… awkward?"
Sirius shrugged. "Not particularly. I mean, I'm sure they've been alone in a room before."
"Not here at home, they haven't. In a bedroom, I mean," Mia pointed out.
Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Really?"
She shook her head. "Not that I'm aware of, at least. Well, they've been in one here at home alone with Izzy, with Ron, with Hermione… but when they want to spend time actually alone, they usually do it in the Burrow or, you know, Hogwarts." She huffed. "I know it barely makes sense and that I'm completely obsessing over this but…" she paused and gulped. "What if Harry and Ginny… what if they end up snogging or… something?"
"They're dating, Mia. Of course they snog!"
"I know they snog but… I don't like to think of it, okay? It feels odd and… so odd. Yesterday, I was changing his diapers and now he has a girlfriend and… it's weird."
Sirius snorted. "Blimey. You're really freaking out – where did this obsession come from? You were happy enough when he invited Ginny over yesterday."
"I know, I know," she said, helplessly sitting on the bottom end of their bed. "And I was fine, really fine. But then Ginny arrived and Harry said they were going up to his room to meddle with Lily's diaries and it just hit me. They were going up to his room, where they would be all alone and you remember what we did when we saw ourselves all alone in a room at their age."
Sirius's lips curled as he sat by her side. "Yeah… good times."
"No, no reminiscing," Mia ordered, poking his chest sternly with her finger. "This is serious… and awkward. Very awkward."
"You're exaggerating it, love," Sirius pointed out. "By a lot." He reached for her cheek with his hand and patted it as he grinned. "My little prude."
She narrowed her eyes. "Oh, am I a prude? So, let's say, it wasn't Harry all alone in his room with his girlfriend but Izzy in hers with some boyfriend."
The look Sirius gave her was of deep horror – the thought itself was revolting in his mind… "She… how… er… that's completely different, love…"
"Oh, really?" Mia asked sceptically. "Because she's a girl?"
"Well…"
"You chauvinistic pig," she called him, punching him half-heartedly on the arm before he could finish that sentence. "It's a good thing you had a daughter – now you know what the father of all the girls you snogged before me felt like."
"Phew, I doubt any of them ever even heard of me," he mumbled before shaking his head. "But, hey, that's hardly the point! I thought we were talking about Harry, not Izzy…"
"No, we were talking about one of our kids being all alone in his room with his significant other and me not having any idea of how to deal with that," she said, sighing. "I wonder if… if I'm spending too long worrying about them growing up into adults too fast with this bloody war. Sometimes I barely remember they're teenagers too… and then stuff like this just catches me by surprise." She took a deep breath and leaned back, turning her face to Sirius. "Am I really being such a prude?"
"Let's just call you a 'mother hen'," Sirius offered before placing a kiss on his wife's brow. "Still a bit mental from time to time but…"
"Shut up," she said, groaning.
He chuckled and kissed her cheek, then. "Look, it's not like you've had any other teenager to raise before Harry. And Harry's not an easy one to deal with… I suppose that gives you… hell, us a free card to freak out a little over what he and Ginny may or may not be doing in his room, which, by the way, I'm completely sure it's nothing."
"Oh, really, and what makes you be that sure?" Mia asked sceptically.
"Well, not to call you dumb or anything but it's pretty obvious, isn't it? It's Harry. How mortified do you think he'd be at the very thought of you walking in on him snogging Ginny? I think he'd rather jump of a window than risking that – if he and Ginny even get to do any kissing whatsoever this afternoon, it will be a bloody miracle." He was pretty aware that he was by far exaggerating his words but, well, what his wife didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Mia sighed, slightly relieved by her husband's words. "I suppose you have a point."
"I always have a point – I'm enlightened," he said, grinning before pointing at his lips. "Now pay up. No good advice comes free."
Her lips curled a little before she pressed them to his own for a quick kiss.
Sirius looked a bit disappointed when she looked at him after pulling away. "Maybe I wasn't clear enough before. No advice comes free or cheap. I'm afraid your bill is only half paid, Mrs Black."
Mia rolled her eyes before reaching to pat his cheek sweetly. "I'm afraid you're forgetting the fact that I get a fifty per cent spousal discount, Mr Black. Plus, you get… significant donations in a regular basis so…"
He narrowed his eyes. "Blimey, aren't you a knut-pinching prude?" he told her.
She glared in annoyance. "I'm not a prude – you've just said so yourself."
"Well, I've changed my mind – maybe I can change it back if you waive your right to the spousal discount," he suggested, smiling seductively before nodding at the bed they were sitting on. "And as for those donations…"
"Dream on. I don't give in to blackmail," she replied stubbornly just for the sake of pushing his buttons. "Now, go away. I have things to do."
No one could expect that pushing Sirius's buttons wouldn't lead him to push them back. "What? Spying on Harry and Ginny a little more?"
She narrowed her eyes at him and pinched his arm, which didn't seem to affect him even a little as he kept grinning. "Don't you have something to do? Someone else to tease, maybe?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," he pointed out. "It's been a while since I've last mocked Moony with everything that's been going on lately. I suppose now it's a time as better as any to fix that. I mean, unless you need me here to keep an eye on Alex and Mary…"
Mia shrugged. "No need. They should be napping for another couple of hours. I think I can handle them after that. But if you're going to see Remus, you might want to have a word with him so he would come by and help out with Harry's defence lessons. I know we've been trying to keep this quiet but I'm sure we can trust him to help."
Sirius nodded. He'd thought of him already – the kid needed all the help he could get and, with Remus around to help, he supposed he and Mia would have more time to investigate further about the Horcruxes, where they were and how to destroy them. Those had been left for second in their priorities as he and Mia had agreed that the first was making sure Harry didn't lack defence skills to face any threat that might come his way during the odyssey ahead of him. Still, as the time draw closer, it was time they got their hands dirty, starting with finding out where that fake Horcrux that Harry and Dumbledore had found in the cave – which they were still to see as Harry had resentfully shoved it onto the bottom of his school trunk and never looked at it again – had come from. "I'll have a word with him about that, don't worry," he assured her before smiling. "Aren't you going to give me a goodbye kiss?"
She smiled back, although in a rather cunning fashion, and kissed his cheek instead. "Don't think you've distracted me enough to forget my earlier point about kissing. After all, I'm a prude."
He huffed, shaking his head as he got up. "And they say I am the stubborn one."
She chuckled. "Oh, well, maybe when you come back later I'll be too busy to remember… Make sure you're back before dinner. And be easy on Remus."
"Aren't I always?" he asked as he made his way out.
He descended the stairs and stopped in front of the door of Harry's room. Just out of curiosity, he peaked into it and saw nothing major was happening – they were just laughing over something they read on one of the diaries. He thought of going in to ask them about it but stopped himself when he figured they were having a moment. He made a mental note to ask them about what it was about later.
Sirius resumed descending the stairs and made his way into the living room when he heard the sound of the Muggle telly playing something. He quickly spotted Izzy inside, apparently focusedly watching some sort of program airing there.
"You know, for someone who, just a few weeks ago, was all pissed off for being left out by Harry and company, you seem pretty fine with sitting here watching the telly while he and Ginny are right upstairs," he pointed out from the doorway.
His daughter turned to him and shrugged as he approach had. "Telly's not that bad. Muggles have funny daytime programs," she commented, pointing at the screen. "In this one, they give out stuff to people when they guess prices. Odd, isn't it?"
Sirius gave her a look of agreement as he raised his eyebrows and sat down by her side, watching as, inside the telly, a tiny man in a suit stood with a bunch of people in a futuristic-looking set. "Very odd," he agreed. "So, they just have to guess and win a bunch of things? Interesting deal."
"Yeah. But since they rarely guess it right, I suppose it's not that impressive," she observed with a shrug. "Anyway, about Harry and Ginny, there are times to be with them and times not to. When the times in question appoint to the likeness that I'll end up holding the candle as they go into couple mode, it's best to stay away before they get to the snogging."
"Blimey, seems like today every female in this house thinks those two won't do anything but snogging," Sirius observed.
"It's a reasonable assumption, isn't it? It's a pretty good opportunity, being alone in a bedroom and all," she pointed out.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Don't let your mother hear that – she's a bit sensitive today. And, by the way, that knowledge of knowing whether or not his is a good opportunity for them to snog had better not be backed up by personal experience."
"You do know I've had boyfriends before, Daddy," she pointed out testily.
"I'd rather not take that fact into account," he told dryly before clearing his throat. "Well, are you planning to stay here all afternoon watching the weird show on the telly or would you rather go to Diagon Alley with your favourite Dad?"
"A thousand times Diagon Alley," she said, eagerly getting up. "I'm going antsy these days from being confined to here, the Burrow and Lulu's."
"It's not safe for you to go out there on your own, Izzybel," Sirius told her with a sigh as he got up as well. It wasn't safe for anyone, but especially for people easily connected to Harry Potter – unless she was under his watchful eye, he wouldn't want to risk his daughter's safety by letting her out.
She sighed. "Will it ever be safe?"
"Hopefully. If it doesn't, we can always move to another country." He didn't like the idea of running. At all. But, Merlin, if they reached a point when it was the only chance, then so be it.
Unsure of her father's seriousness, Izzy just nodded. "Give me a minute to go upstairs and get ready."
"Okay. Tell your Mum you're going with me," he replied. "And ask Harry and Ginny if they want to go too."
She nodded and rushed up the stairs as he made his way down to the ground floor, where he waited for his daughter to return. Little more than a minute passed before she appeared at the bottom of the stairs, walking towards him.
"What did they say?" he asked.
"Mum said to have a good time and not to wonder away from you. Harry and Ginny mumbled something that I'm assuming means 'no' – they were pretty entranced in those diaries. It's like they've gotten them hypnotized."
"Well, Lily could be pretty eloquent in what she said – no surprise she'd be too in what she wrote. Maybe one of these days I should give a look at 'The Chronicles of Lily' myself," he told her. "Well, how do you want to go. Floo or apparition?"
"Apparition," she responded. "Better get more used to the feeling since I'll have to do it myself soon."
"One year and a half doesn't fit into the 'soon' category, Izzybel," he pointed out with a chuckle as he opened the house's front door for them to step out. They apparated out of a nearby alley and landed right outside the Leaky Cauldron's passageway into Diagon Alley.
There, they quickly saw themselves surrounded by the various shops the magical area of London held. Looking around, they couldn't really say that that day was a busy one at Diagon Alley – it wasn't deserted or anything but it still lacked the vibrant feeling of its non-belligerent days…
"Well, where do you want to go first?" Sirius asked his daughter. "I'd play the 'really cool dad spoiling his daughter' by offering you a small fortune's worth of ice cream but since Florean Fortescue's is closed…"
She gave him a wide smile. "Don't worry. You can spoil me with a small fortune's worth of the twins' products."
He showed signs of wanting to protest but then stopped himself. "Ah, well, at least you've got a good tast… oh, crap, don't look left," he suddenly told her, turning his face away from the mentioned direction.
Her father might as well have told her to look left as, being the curiosity too much, that was exactly where she looked, only to see Narcissa Malfoy exiting Madam Malkin's dress shop with what seemed to be black garment bag hanging on her arm. The woman's cold and sharp blue eyes turned to her seconds later and Izzy felt a chill running down her spine and finally looked away. But it was already too late, as the woman was quickly stepping in their direction.
"She's coming here, Daddy!" Izzy hissed under her breath. "Do something!"
"What? Stun her? Believe me, I'd love to but I'd rather not be arrested for assault," he mumbled in frustration. "Why did she have to be here out of all places? And what does she want with us? I despise her just as much as she despises m…"
"Hello, Sirius," his cousin said in a cold voice with a small hint of… delight in it? No, that couldn't be right – his cousin would never be delighted to see him. Whatever had put that tone in her voice couldn't be good. At all. And that thought gave him the chills. Clearly, she'd just approached him to mess with his head.
He put on a cool face and turned to her as Izzy's arm remained around his own. "Cissy. I'd say it was a pleasure to see you but I think all of us here are smart enough to know that's not true."
"Always a pool of charm, aren't you, Sirius?" she said before turning to Izzy, who gulped. "And this would be… Annabelle, isn't it?"
"Isabelle," Izzy corrected instinctively before becoming very quiet again
"Isabelle, right," she said dryly, turning to Sirius again. "Not a very Black-worthy name, is it, Sirius? But then again, you weren't around to name her when she was born, were you?"
"You know I wasn't," Sirius replied to his teeth. He could curse her for mentioning that fact – one of the things he hated the most about having been locked up was missing his daughter's birth. Her childhood. Cold shrew, he thought. "It seems I was warming up a cell for your Lucius. How's he doing, by the way? It's been a year since he started shaking up with the Dementors. I hope you brought him a cake to celebrate – all in all, I'd say his new neighbours are quite an improvement from living with you. Maybe Draco will join him there soon since he's still wanted for questioning over Dumbledore's murder."
Narcissa gave him a chilling look. "You can gloat and mock all you want, Sirius, but Azkaban is very different now. And so are the Dementors. You try to make it sound like that place doesn't affect you anymore but it does – it terrifies you. You're damaged goods. Always were. And very soon, let's wait and see who's the one locked in and the one out." Her look was of victory when she saw Sirius's face harden and turned to Izzy, then. She guessed aiming for the daughter would be the final straw for Sirius. "It's still time to rethink which side you want to take, girl. Just because your father decided to dishonour his family, doesn't mean you have to stick by him – and if you know what's good for you, that's what you'll do. It would be a pity to waste such a youthful life…"
That hit just the painful spot and, before he could stop himself, Sirius was already reaching for his wand. By Merlin, he'd teach her to shut up! But just as he was getting ready to aim, Izzy grabbed his arm firmly – she had a pretty impressive grip for a girl her size.
"Daddy, don't!" she told him. "Don't let her get to you."
"Izzy…" he hissed, gesitating.
She ignored him and looked at Narcissa with determination. "I'd rather 'waste' my life fighting for the people I love than make it last fighting for people like you."
The blonde's look was of disgust. "Just like your father," she hissed before walking away, the sound of her heels echoing all over the alley.
Sirius stood where he was, tense and furious and really, really wanting to punch someone.
"Daddy…" Izzy said.
"That bloody bitch," he hissed. "How dare she…?"
"She just said that to get to you," she told him. "I could see she didn't care about which side I was on – she just wanted you to lose it. Maybe even attack her so she could get you into trouble with the aurors." She pointed at a group of cloaked figures standing outside the sweets' shop, who Sirius identified as aurors. They seemed to have their eyes still fixed on him, likely trying to guess whether or not he'd cause more commotion. "Let's just walk," she suggested.
He nodded for her sake and they did so, keeping a quick pace so Sirius would exhaust all that rage-induced adrenaline faster. The alley wasn't all that long, so they walked back and forth along it several times, the aurors keeping their eyes on Sirius each time he passed by then.
"Sorry if I scared you, Izzybel," he finally apologized around the sixth time they passed in front of Flourish & Blots, headed in the joke shop's direction – the walk had indeed calmed him down. Izzy, he noted, had her mother's knack for calming him down. "But when she said that to you… it just made me flip. It's my duty to protect you and that sounded a lot like a threat."
"It's okay, I understand," she said, offering him a smile. "I wouldn't want it any other way, actually."
"Well, do you want to actually go into the shop now?" he suggested, smiling back.
She nodded and they made their way to Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, which, not surprisingly, was crammed. Either the twins were genius enough to always keep the shop bursting with costumers or they had sold their souls to the devil for that purpose. That fact was that, no matter how empty Diagon Alley might be, WWW wasn't lacking in buyers.
They waved at one of the twins surrounded by a crowd of costumers and made their way through the crown to the counter, where the other one was messing with the cash register. As she approached, Izzy noted he had more freckled on the right side of his face than on the left and recalled Ginny's teaching about telling the twins apart. "Hi, George," she greeted him.
At the same time he calculated the change for a costumer, he turned to her and raised his eyebrows. "How do you…?" He didn't finish his question as he recalled the answer. "Damn it, Ginny," he mumbled before smiling at the costumer, giving her change and urging her to come again.
"What did Ginny do?" Sirius asked, curious.
"Oh, she told me how to tell him and Fred accurately apart. See, they…"
George covered her mouth with his hand before she could spill the beans. "Oh, no, you won't. That secret's not reaching anyone else's ears," he said, pulling her to behind the counter. "Why don't you get busy and run the cash register for us? Shop's pretty full. We could use a hand."
"Don't you have a cashier? The blond girl," Sirius asked, looking around for the perky young lady that was always behind the counter.
"Ah, Verity. We gave her the afternoon off – she has a date tonight," George said.
"You give her time off whenever she has a date?" Izzy asked sceptically.
"When the date is with Lee Jordan, yeah, I do," he told her. "They've been dancing around each other for months. We thought it would be fitting to give them a push. Anyway, are you helping out, or not?"
"How much would I get for that?"
"What, you want payment? How about our eternal gratitude?" George asked with a laugh.
"She's not gonna fall for that, mate," Sirius pointed out.
"Yeag, I'm not gonna fall for that," Izzy agreed. "I want… three galleons."
George's eyes nearly bulged out of his face. "Three galleons? For an afternoon working? Are you mad? Five sickles at the most."
"Well, good luck handling all the costumers with Fred," she stated, motioning to turn her back to him. "Hum, looks like that group over there's planning to buy. Get your hands ready, George."
"Wait," he said, making her turn around. "One galleon, then."
"Make that two," she replied.
"No way! One galleon and a box of chocolate frogs we've got upstairs," he countered. "That's my final offer."
She remained silent for a second. "The kind sprinkled with cinnamon?"
He huffed. "Yeah, the kind with cinnamon. Deal?"
Once again, she let a few seconds pass before her answer. "Deal," she finally accepted. "Just teach me how to work with this thing."
Sirius pretended to wipe a tear from his own face. "My little girl – a natural bargainer. I'm so proud."
George mumbled something under his breath before approaching the cash register to give Izzy a crash course on how to run it. "Remind me in the future to never hire you to work here. You'd drive us bankrupt in a week."
She chuckled triumphantly. "Shut up, George."
"Well," Sirius said with a laugh – five minutes around the twins and the unfortunate meeting with Narcissa was nearly forgotten, "I see my girl's in good hands. I'll be upstairs bugging Moony if you need me." He trusted Fred and George to protect Izzy like family and the shop's protection wards to do their share.
"See you later," Izzy said as he made his way through the little door behind the counter that led to the staircase leading upstairs.
There, he was quick to find his old friends' mate where he was, as always, busy rummaging to piles and piles of parchment.
"Well, I'd think you were gravely ill if I didn't find you here working like an obedient little soldier," Sirius commented from the doorway.
"And I'd think you were ill if teasing wasn't the first thing you did just as soon as you walked in," Remus commented in return, his eyes fixed on a piece of parchment as his friend closed the door, walked further into the office and took a seat on the chair opposite him. "You came in a bad time, though. I'm a bit behind on work today."
"Behind?" Sirius asked, exaggerating the shock in his voice. "Perhaps I was wrong and you're actually ill after all, mate."
"I did have to take a few days of personal time for health reasons," Remus admitted.
"Heath Reasons?" his friend inquired, surprised. "Full moon's not for another couple of weeks."
"Not my health," he said. "Dora's. She's been a bit… under the weather."
Sirius frowned. "What happened?"
"Well, it seems she got a bit of… food poisoning. From her own cooking," Remus observed, shaking his head with a sigh.
"And you let her cook?" Sirius asked him in disbelief. "You told me she couldn't boil water without melting the cauldron."
"I couldn't guess she could cause food poisoning out of a roast," he replied sheepishly. "Besides, what was I supposed to say? She really wanted to give cooking a try."
"But how come she got food poisoning and you didn't?"
He coughed nervously. "Well, as far as she knows, because my stomach is stronger than hers. The truth, though, is that I barely ate a couple of bites out of it before I started banishing little bits of food out of my plate every few seconds while I kept her talking so she wouldn't notice it," Remus admitted, a bit of shame in his voice. "Honestly, I don't know how she managed to choke down the whole plate – it tasted dreadfully. I think she was just trying to prove a point – convince me it wasn't that bad…"
"Maybe she used a taste-bud numbing charm," Sirius suggested in amusement.
Remus looked thoughtful as he nodded. "Probably. Anyway, the next morning – that would be the day before yesterday – she was, well…"
"Projectile?"
"Very much. I tried to convince her to spend the day at Andromeda's so she wouldn't be alone but she's stubborn. In the end, I decided it was best if I just stayed home and kept a look on her myself."
"But she's better now, right? You're back to work," Sirius imagined.
"Well, she's well enough to have gone back to work and for me to come back too and put things back in order in this shop," Remus stated, huffing and looking back at the pile of parchment on his desk.
"Mate, I do recognize you have quite an extensive job here as the twins' bookkeeper/accountant/manager/occasional nanny. But you were only gone for a couple of days – things can't be that much out of order…"
He raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really?" Remus asked. "Then let me show you something that proves you wrong." From under the sea of parchment over his desk, he proceeded to fetch what seemed to be a board covered with Muggle yellow sticky notes filled with numbers and a nearly untranslatable scribble. "This is their notion of bookkeeping."
Sirius got a hold of it and couldn't help laughing hard and loudly. "Well, seems practical of them."
Remus didn't look amused. "Yes, I imagine you'd handle the situation similarly."
"The sticky notes are a nice touch, really."
He huffed. "Honestly, Padfoot, you're hopeless. Now, can I hope you'll come back another day for your dose of 'let's bug Remus' time if I tell you have work to catch up with?"
"You could if Izzy didn't happen to be downstairs helping the twins running the shop – and shamelessly extorting them for that too, by the waY. That said, you're stuck with me at least until the crown downstairs is manageable for the twins alone," Sirius said with a grin. "But I didn't just come here to bug you, mate. I also happen to have serious business to talk to you about."
Remus looked up at Sirius from his work and gave him a sceptical look. "Serious business."
His friend nodded and figured he might as well just get to the point. "We were hoping you'd agree to give Harry a few… defence lessons in your free time. Mia and I have been taking care of that ourselves but we can only do so much since, well, none of us has actually worked teaching defence the way you did."
The werewolf just looked at him for several seconds like he was sensing he wasn't just being asked to teach Harry for the sake of learning. "Is there any special reason for you to be asking me that? Something going on with Harry?"
"I'd rather discuss that with Mia present, mate. And Harry. No offense. All I can tell you now is that it's for the sake of the kid's safety – we all know he has a hard future ahead of him," Sirius said, taking a neutral tone. "Well? What do you say?"
"You know I'd never deny helping Harry, Sirius," Remus told him. "Just tell me when and where and I…"
The door burst open before he could finish and a rather pale Tonks walked in. Her usual colourful hair was a short brown mess, which made her look even worse. "Kingsley sent me away," she declared.
Remus got up in a flash. "Oh, Dora…" He reached for his wife's arm and guided her to the sofa, fearing she might fall flat on the floor if he didn't do so.
"The boss said my vomiting was distracting everyone from their jobs," Tonks declared. "Cheeky bastard lately, that one." She turned to Sirius, then, and managed a faint smile. "Hey, Sirius. Didn't see you there."
"Not looking so great today, are you, Tonks?" he asked, a bit concerned.
"I've had better days," she mumbled.
"Want me to go fetch a bucket for you?" he asked, half joking.
She shook her, shifting to a lounge position on the sofa. "I'm good for now."
"What happened?" Remus asked. "You looked better this morning."
"I did," she agreed. "But then I had my lunch and couldn't keep it down." She groaned and glared at her husband. "It's disgusting how you're not even a little green or ill."
Sirius bit back a chuckle and Remus just looked away, avoiding the subject.
"Mark my words, Remus. I am never, ever cooking for us again. Ever. I think I'd rather starve. You're in cooking duty for good."
"Oh, I'm sure he's got no issue with that," Sirius joked, earning himself a glare from his friend.
"Do you want me to take you home?" Remus asked his wife, conjuring a blanket with his wand and protectively covering her with it. "I just need to have a word with the twi…"
"No. I think I'll just… stay here on this sofa. I'm feeling less… weary now. No need for you to lose another day of work on my account. I…" she suddenly hissed and both Sirius and Remus just remained on their places, looking at her wide-eyed in alarm.
When she hurriedly ripped some sort of leathery bracelet from around her wrist, though, Remus seemed to relax like he knew exactly what was happening
"Bloody thing burned me," Tonks cursed, holding out the bracelet.
"What is it?" Sirius inquired, looking curiously at the object in her hand.
"New auror emergency summoning device," Remus explained shortly as his wife waved the plain bracelet around, trying to cool it down. "I hope you're not planning to go in that state."
"I'm not mad, Remus," she told Remus before turning to Sirius. "Stupid thing's a pain," she complained moodily, referring the bracelet. "We used to use the silent calling like we do in the order but a couple of idiots slept through a few calls and told Kingsley it was because it was too weak. A few days later, we had to start using this stupid bracelet things. Doesn't come out unless there's a call, by the way – bloody uncomfortable."
"What does it say, anyway?" her husband asked, getting up to seat by her side on the wide sofa.
"I don't know. Let me see," she said, straightening the bracelet in her hand.
Approaching the sofa and standing over Tonks just so he could spot the object in her hands, Sirius saw some sort of print on the inner side of the bracelet, although it was too small for him to read from that distance.
Tonks, however, seemed to be quite successful in reading it, as her expression quickly became darker. "Oh-oh," she mumbled.
"What do you mean by 'oh-oh'?" Sirius inquired immediately. "Is it bad?"
"Oh, it's bad alright," she mumbled.
"Dora? What does it say?" Remus inquired.
She gave him an actually concerned look and took a deep breath before looking down and reading the tiny print on her bracelet. "Red Alert. All Aurors available report to the Ministry's Atrium. Massive breakout from Azkaban. Dangerous individuals at large. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. K.S." She refrained herself from reading the last part saying 'P.S.: Aurors on sick leave are dismissed from these orders' as it seemed a bit obvious and anti-climactic. Instead, Tonks just looked silently at her husband and then at her cousin, waiting for their reactions.
'Let's wait and see who's the one locked in and the one out,' Sirius thought. Those had been Naecissa's words. She'd known. He could just bet she knew. The tone, the taunting… the garment bag she'd been carrying. He could just bet it had been a nice non prison-themed outfit for dear Lucius. Because if there had been a breakout, he was just sure Lucius had been one of the ones out.
"Well," he finally said in bitterly plain tone. "That is definitely not good…"
A/N: Hi! Sorry for the long wait. Again! But I got a new part-time job that's taking most of my free time. Writing just got even more complicated (but still something I always make an effort to do). I hope you liked the chapter. Feedback is always welcome. Review!