The play-hut, perched rather precariously on a moderate-sized tree, was quite small for two teenage girls and one scrawney pre-pubescent boy. But it served them well currently, cramped together like a tin of sardines as they were. The gap formed between them after "Ardila's Cyndrome Incident," widening alongside the approach of Harry's departure to Hogwarts, now lessened slightly. The unity they had achieved the previous week began to mend, albeit slowly, and Harry could not be gladder about that. (He could not stand the distance between them, this close to the first of September.)
They seemed to have chosen a good hideout too, as George – whom Harry had later known called Jerry by the twins (to distinguish him from his father) – plus Ed and Severus were searching diligently for them all around the ground level of the tiny estate. Given the necessity of talking mind-to-mind so as to limit betraying sounds, Harry also felt lucky that he had learnt mind-shielding and mind-penetration to Ana's satisfaction. He did not want to see Severus all too soon, especially that he knew he was being defiant towards the man.
They were silent for a long time, just soaking in each other's presences, but at last Ardila broke the quiet contemplation. `Do not pester Severus, Harry. He holds grudges fast, and he had one with your father.`
Oh. Harry had never thought she would observe his – practically nonexistent – relationship with the dour former guard of her room. He had never imagined that Severus had known his father too, much less holding a grudge against him – now just a dead man among many. It seemed quite childish to him, and the man had not looked so when he had been on guard duty in front of Ardila's room. But if Harry's father had done something unspeakable…?
`James Potter mightn't want to admit that he did many things wrong to Sev, Harry, and Sirius Black less. But wouldn't you agree that those denied acts were still wrong?` Ana murmured gently.
`Who's Sirius Black?` Harry wondered, baffled. His relatives had never told him about his parents nor their lives and friends; their names only: James Potter his father and Lily Evans his mother – the little sister of his aunt.
`Sirius is your godfather.` Ana hesitated slightly. `They were popular in the Gryffindor House, especially for their… pranks… to the Slytherin House.`
Harry's heart clenched, and he felt like being doused by a bucket of icy water. Had his father and godfather been bullies at school?
`Children are often cruel,` Ardila remarked in her bland-but-meaningful tone. It did not help him, at all.
Trying not to take the – most likely unintentional – bait and ask about Ardila's past, he changed the subject and instead inquired, `What started the cyndrome, Ardila?`
Oops… Too crass…
But thankfully, neither of the twins remarked about that. Ardila just blithely answered, `It needs to stand on queue, unfortunately.`
What more secrets did this family hold, if that one even had to "stand on queue?"