"There you are." Molly opens the door as I ring the doorbell Friday evening, grinning when the ghoul in the attic starts clanking his chains to drown out the tones. My cousin gives me a scowl that might make lesser women quail in fear, but just makes me grin. "It's five fifty-nine," I say proudly. "So I'm not late."
She rolls her eyes. "Your watch is ten minutes slow, dear." When I make a face, she relents. "All right, come in. We haven't sat down to eat yet."
I follow her into her living room, looking around at the squashy furniture and dancing flames in the fireplace. Molly's house always feels like home- much more so than my sterile apartment. There's always noise and laughter, and the house is full of-
"Cassie!"
-children, I finish. Ginny, my youngest cousin and the baby of Molly's brood, dashes into the living room and hurtles straight at my knees. I barely manage to stay on my feet as she hugs me around the middle. This kid is getting too big for this.
"Hey, Ginny," I grit out through clenched teeth. "How goes it?"
"Fred turned my hair blue," she pouts, standing back so I can get the whole effect. When I raise an eyebrow, she says proudly, "Got 'im back with a full Body Bind. Dad's sorting him out now."
I give her a high five. "That's my girl."
She grabs my hand and pulls me into the kitchen, oblivious to the daggers Molly is glaring at me over her head. I shoot my cousin an innocent smile- me? Corrupt her only daughter? Never!- and allow Ginny to lead me to an empty chair beside hers. Arthur looks up from the floor, where he is busy removing the hex Ginny placed on his son. "Hello, Cass," he says cheerily. "Good job with those toilets."
"Yeah, well, I specialize in things that are full of shit," I joke. Arthur laughs, catching the reference to Black.
I've barely sat down when the doorbell rings again. I pretend to take a sip of pumpkin juice to hide my smile as the ghoul starts up again. I love this house.
Ginny starts talking animatedly about the garden gnomes and how one of them bit her this afternoon, but my attention is diverted by the new arrival- or should I say arrivals? I frown when I spot Black standing behind Remus in the doorway, looking wary.
"Hello, Remus," I say sweetly, pulling out a chair for him. He smiles politely and sits down on my other side, greeting Ginny when she pauses for breath in the middle of her story. Black walks around to the other end of the table, refusing to meet my eyes, and goes to take a seat in an empty chair. With a flick of my wrist under the table, the chair slides out from underneath him and he tumbles to the floor with a loud, "Oomph."
Molly hurries in to help him, fussing over him as George, Fred's twin, and I exchange identical grins. "Nice one, Cass," he whispers, winking at me.
Remus frowns. "I see this is going to be an interesting dinner," he observes mildly. "I should have known better than to bring Sirius by on a night when you were visiting."
"Yep, you should have, Professor," I reply distractedly, flicking peas at Percy at the other end of the table with my spoon. He frowns and polishes his glasses on his robes. His eyes look squinty without his glasses, and his reprimanding look isn't quite as intimidating as it could have been.
"Oh, stop it, Cassandra, you're acting like a child," Molly huffs as she helps Sirius into a chair. He turns to grin at me. "Cassandra?" he repeats, his eyes glowing with this new information.
"Don't you dare, Black," I tell him, loading my spoon up with more peas and pulling it back. "Or I will pelt you to death with vegetables."
"Interesting way to go," he observes.
"Very plausible way to go," I warn him. He leans back in his chair involuntarily. I have to hide a grin- is the famous Sirius Black actually afraid of me? What an interesting development.
The rest of dinner goes smoothly. After a particularly sharp look from Molly, I decide it would be best to behave myself. Ginny keeps frowning in my direction, as if disgruntled that I haven't threatened Black in the last ten minutes. She thinks it's a game- she has no idea.
Finally, Remus pushes his chair back with a scrape and stands to his feet. "Thank you for the lovely dinner, Molly," he says. "We always appreciate your generosity."
Sirius stands as well, throwing me a jaunty wink. It's enough to set me off. As he leaves the kitchen, I whisper a spell. Fred and George break out into identical gales of laughter.
"What's so funny, boys?" Molly gives her sons a disapproving frown.
George, unable to speak, points at the lion's tail now hanging out from underneath the hem of Sirius' robes. Ginny, Ron, and Arthur join in the laughter, but Percy's expression matches his mother's.
Sirius spins around, suspicious- rightly- that I may have something to do with the laughter. When he sees the back of his best friend's robes, Remus covers his mouth with his hand. "What?" Sirius asks.
No one can answer him, so he stalks out into the night, oblivious to the tail that is twitching with irritation behind him. I cross my fingers and hope Remus can't figure out the counter-jinx before Sirius has to be at the office tomorrow.