Disclaimer: Of course I'm not. Alice belongs to me and Sirius, and Remus too I suppose. The poor bloke does deserve to have some kind of say in his sister, if however little. Oh, and the Arthur Weasley tweaked toaster belongs to me as well as I'm rather proud of it.
I would also like to say thank you so much to Esme's Favorite Daughter for being my first and last reviewer, and for sticking with this story dispite its irregular and far in between updates.
About two weeks later from the prior events in the story thus far:
"Ohhh, fuck ow ow ow!" muttered Alice over the kitchen stove top, early one morning. They weren't up yet. Of course, lazy bastards, she thought as the cooking bacon sizzled and spat grease at her arms, as she tried to tame it and make it edible and somewhat cooked. She pivoted on her heel slightly and lunged to put the kettle on for coffee. The burner whizzed to life as the sweet addicting smell of coffee beans filled up through the house. Alice then turned and walked over to a side door that led slightly down some stairs to where the 'underground freezer/fridge' that the Black family had employed in use and invested in rather than use muggle electricity and actually getting a freezer, was. Well that was pureblood mania for you, no electricity and no fridge. As she walked down her barefeet smoothly gracing the steps before freezing as she only had on a pair of Sirius boxers and t-shirt that she had claimed from him. She smiled fondly as she recalled the last time Tonks had come over to visit to exchange records with Remus, and had of course hooked Alice on some newer stuff, she had kind of put music on the backburner after Halloween 1981, she put a lot of things on the backburner. She searched through shelves, her eyes scanning for the items she was looking for. She remembered how Tonks and Remus seemed to share a general liking of one another, how immediate it had been, and also the fact that they were on such good terms. Sadly she thought as her eyes found a loaf of bread, that that wasn't as much as her and Sirius seemed to show of late. Oh yes, last week had been fun, and the recalling of past Hogwarts memories and pleasanter times had loosened them up to one another for a while, and she thought as she grinned mischieviously, that she had enjoyed a rather good snog session that night with Sirius in his room plus the groping. God I mised the groping, he is ….. mind alteringly good at it. Though that was the one time they seemed to be somewhat like their old selves together, of course the boose prior to Tonks arrival had helped, as well as the boose after. It seemed ever since he came back they avoided one another like the plague. She heard the kettle whistle as she retreated upstairs, her feet stomping on the stair steps. When she opened the door from the food cellar to the kitchen she found Sirius already there in long pj bottoms and t-shirt standing over the coffee kettle and pouring himself some. He turned towards her, raised his mug to her, and smiled slightly though there was a tinge of something she couldn't place as he eyed her clothing or rather his on her.
"Now I know it hasn't been Kreacher that has been knicking my stuff. I wonder if that means that I can't yell at him for it anymore." He said with his eyes on his mug before taking a sip of the warm coffee and it seemed to him, to warm his bones a bit.
I missed your smell, plus they're really comfy, she thought then turned away from him. "Sorry to dissapoint you" she said. And stop being mean to Kreacher, he was so nice for Regulus and its just because you treat him like shit that he's like that to you. Though of course being the mature one was never your forte was it? He avoided her eyes as well. She went back and placed the toast into the toaster that Arthur Weasley had rigged for them so it would run on magic. She tapped the toaster three times with her wand, and it turned on and began to warm up.
Sirius said behind her, "So it's bacon, toast and coffee today?" he asked as if questioning about the weather and sat down in a seat at the table on the opposite side of the kitchen.
"We have some fruit downstairs I was gonna get to in a minute. Plus there are eggs and sausage waiting in the oven" She said, watching the progression of the bacon. He seemed to mull over the idea of fruit before returning to his coffee.
There was a long silence before Remus walked into the room looking rather groggy in gray blue fannel pjs, bearing with him a new copy of The Daily Prophet, which he slammed down on the table. Sirius grabbed it and flipped through it before his face took on a notable change. "Bastards" He said before throwing the paper across the room.
"What is it?" asked Alice as she pulled the eggs and sausage out of the oven. Remus reached for some plates before filling up two mugs with coffee and adding the specific amounts of sugar and creamer to each mug as its recipient desired then handing one to Alice and placing the plates on the counter.
"The Daily Prophet, more likely orchestrated by the Ministry, is targeting Harry and labeling him as mentally unbalanced thereby discrediting him on Voldemort's return."
"Fuck" Alice replied, then remembered a long red haired witch with green eyes sitting behind a minitsry cubicle excited about her next article for the newspaper and how it would help people to realize the truth and not cover it up. If only you could see what your newspaper has turned into Lily, I hate to see it. Then she pilled up the four plates with food, distributed them, then placed one in the oven to keep it warm before going down to the food cellar to grab some fruit. While she was down there, giving the ministry a few choice words of her own, most of them not very nice, she heard the shreaking of a particular portraite and chairs being hastily moved out from the table. One day when I come across the most foulest hex I can find, I'm going to aim it at that damned portraite and hopefully at least that bitch will be shut mouthed for at least a week, one peaceful nice pleasant week. "Tonks must be here." She said aloud to the packages and items in the fridge before smiling and jumping up the stairs, pulling Tonk's plate out from the oven, placing the fruit in a bowl, and placing them on the table.
The kitchen door opened to Tonks dressed for the day already in some kind of graffitied up shirt, and big black pants, with the most comfortable and trashed shoes ever seen to human kind. Today she was sporting shoulder length purple hair. "Alice!" Tonks said and wrapped Alice in a hug.
"Tonks, how've you been, and what in the world did you do to the guys, scared them off, perhaps it was your hair. It is a bit early for them for their eyes to withstand the brightness that is that purple." Alice returned Tonks hug.
"Oh, piss off it isn't that bad, besides it is their fault that they're not awake by a decent hour. Lazy old bastards sleeping in all the live long day when there's so much to do."
"Well I don't know if they're that old, but yeah. Though I suppose you can't blame them, don't have much to look forward to do they? I mean Sirius is fucking stuck here with no hope of escaping anytime soon by Dumbledore's orders and Remus well," she pondered how to phrase this to Tonks without outright lying to her, even though the half-truth about it wasn't the whole "with him getting ill all the time it's hard to hold down employment."
"Yeah" said Tonks looking off to the side, lighting up a smoke. Alice spied it longingly before setting Tonks' plate in front of her. Tonks smiled, "I love coming over here for breakfast." She said as she took an enourmous bite of toast.
Alice sat down next to Tonks, which placed around the right end of the table, from right to left: Sirius, Alice, Tonks at the head, and then Remus next to Tonks and across from the other two. Alice grabbed some fruit, eyed Tonks, then said, "So how long have you liked Remus?"
Tonks nearly chocked on her toast, "Pardon?"
"You heard me" Alice said and then smiled "Honestly Tonks I could use a bit of girl talk, as long as you remember he's my brother then we should be fine."
"I didn't peg you for the girl talk type." Said Tonks, trying to recover and dismiss the case at hand.
"I long for a bit of girl talk. Living with Sirius and Remus has taught me just the value of it these past two months."
Upstairs as Remus and Sirius were changing and getting ready for the day ….
"I do not fancy Tonks." Remus argued back
"Bollocks" said Sirius eyeing Remus with a knowing look
"It is not, she's an extraordinary young witch but she's far too young, we're completely different. I mean the age gap alone, besides the fact that I have my" and at this he looked around and lowered his voice, "furry little problem to boot"
"I'll tell you again, bollocks. As to the age thing, we're not that old mate." He said and winked.
"Sirius we're thirty five, almost forty probably going on fifty. Tonks is …. 20, 21 maybe. It's not possible."
"There have been differences in ages and of much greater difference than yours Moony."
"Oh, because the one between you and Alice is so astronomical" Sirius merely grunted and turned away "And Sirius, if you hurt her I will not hesitate to kill you."
"I think that speech is getting a little old mate, besides nothing is going on between Alice and me."
"Oh really? So I suppose her sleeping in and wearing your clothes, and you two dissapering into your room for awhile mean't nothing." And Remus squared off, faced to face with Sirius a little ways across the room.
"Look mate, it's complicated."
"Uncomplicate it for me then."
Sirius kicked over a chair, "Damnit Remus," he said and then waved his wand, the stool righted itself and he sat down in it. "I can't, I won't get involved with her this time." He said, Remus still stood watching over head.
"What makes this time different than last time."
"The fact that last time happened." Remus quit his hawk eye glaring at his friend and his eyes dropped to the floor. "Look at what happened to James and Lily," he paused, "It doesn't do any good."
"Look at Molly and Arthur."
"Look at Gideon and Fabian, people die."
"Well Sirius if you're going to continue this way then don't lead her on. She cares for you." And with that he left the room and headed downstairs to finish up breakfast.
"I know," said Sirius to the abandoned room, "That's the problem."