AN/- hey guys, I have officially finished all my exams and can now finally devote most of my free time to fanfictioning and other things will win me nobel prizes =l hehe-anyway-this is just a filler-but think it's kind of cute-next chapter will mostly be of them going back to Hogswarts-but i think you'll enjoy one special bit in this chapter-I shall leave you to reading without any more.

Also please review for updates-muhahaha-OK no-but still review please! batters eyelashes and has begun mixing butter cream icing mix and placed cupcakes in oven for reviewers =)

Chapter 53

Audrey had spent a lot of time with the Weasleys, she knew Charlie all too well now and he seemed to be a very nice person to talk to, but Audrey's favourite gift came when Bill decided to pay his weekly visit on her birthday.

The minute Audrey saw Fleur she jumped on the girl pulling her into a strong hug as Fleur was as happy to see Audrey as she was, seeing no one really saw her as an opinion. Audrey couldn't wait anymore, she rushed into a list of questions and queries about her, Leon, Gabrielle, the Delacours and not just that she rushed over in French which Audrey never thought she would do. The rest of her birthday was spent quite well actually. Mrs. Weasley had baked a rather delicious cake and they had had a small party at dinner. Audrey had received several gifts along with a gift voucher from Fred and George of a 60% discount on anything she bought from the Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes. Hermione had given her a muggle novel while Ron gave her a box of chocolate fudge his mother made. Ginny gave her another scarf and Neville sent her a photo frame with a picture of the DA in it, the letter that he wrote made Audrey smile slightly...it said "Happy Birthday Cousin, thanks for everything—Envy (Neville)."

Audrey received a small letter from her mother along with a key,

"Drey,

I thought—it was best that you had your own little account at Gringotts now...seeing that you have only another year left till you stop listening to me for good.

I thought it best to start you up, the account has two hundred galleons in it...Don't go spending unnecessarily.

Love

Mum."

Audrey found it quite considerate that her mother had thought of her future but she was still upset that she couldn't be here.

"Hey—Audrey do you have a minute?" Harry asked her as she came out of her room where Hermione, she and Ginny were discussing Dean Thomas in great detail.

Audrey shut the door as she stood next to it, Harry handed her a box as she smiled and tore the wrapping open.

"I hope they fit," he said as Audrey pulled open the lid of the box, inside there were a set of magnificent silver pumps.

"Woah!" she exclaimed as she took them out and looked at them closer.

"They're beautiful—I am going to wear them everywhere—I can't wait to show Hermione and Ginny." She exclaimed happily.

"Try them on first," he said chuckling as she giggled, she placed the shoes on the ground and placed her hand on his shoulders as she put pressure on them, he wrapped a hand around her waist to steady her. She slipped them on quickly and tried to walk in them but wearing such tall heels for the first time Audrey wasn't very confident of herself, but she did walk to a certain distant around the aisle of the floor, she went up to Ron's room and came back, she was removing the shoes with Harry's help when she lost her balance and they both fell on the floor together. He held her close as she fell on him, her laughter musical to his ears as he chuckled along with her, not realising that her being in such close proximity to her body wasn't good for him if he was afraid to tell her he liked her.

She pushed herself off him and pulled of the shoes, pulled the box to her and placed them back into the box.

"Thank you so much Harry!—they're beautiful," she said as he nodded a light blush crossing his face.

"When did you even buy them?" she asked looking at them longingly.

"Well—they usually go to London to shop for Dudley before his birthday—so I tagged along this time and I saw these in one shop and I remembered you—you know you rarely wear shoes like these—so I thought you'd like them—merlin—you don't even wear these—do you really like them?" Harry asked unsure as he released his stupidity, she laughed lightly as she stepped closer to him.

"Yes—I love them," she said kissing his cheek lightly.

"Thank you," she added smiling gently at him, he leaned forward and pressed his lips into hers, for a second he did not realise what he was doing, he wondered what gave him the courage to finally kiss her, he did not receive an answer for that, he just continued to kiss her.

Audrey slipped her arms around his neck as he pulled her closer to his warm body as they got eagerly and passionately stuck together by their mouths and did not wish to be separated, but the earthly need for air forced their lips to tear apart. He rested his head lightly on her forehead as he noticed that her eyes were still shut, he wondered if she had responded only due to the spur of the moment, but she opened her eyes and looked into his, he did not need to know that there was a smile on her lips, he could tell from her eyes.

"Audrey—your father is here to see you," said Mrs. Weasley from the beginning of the staircase. Audrey pulled away suddenly; a look of total horror crossed her face as she moved away from Harry, she bit her lower lip in confusion.

"Audrey," called Harry disappointedly.

"Wait here—we need to talk about this," she said finally as she climbed down the staircase, she turned around to see Harry still standing there looking at her leave, she sighed and rushed up.

"Please wait-,"she repeated as she kissed his cheek and smiled, Harry nodded and sat down on the first step as Audrey went down to meet her father.

Dumbledore had decided to have a meeting after midnight—possibly much after the children were asleep, this meeting would be to decide whether the Weasley twins should be let into the order or not. Severus stood outside the open door his back to the house as he looked at the sky. Rachel would be arriving late with Remus, Sirius, Tonks and Sinistra as they were to stay back while Aurora would floo back with him to Hogwarts. Rachel would floo back tomorrow after breakfast with Remus and Tonks while Sirius would stay back and then leave after the supply visit to Diagon alley for which Rachel would be accompany them.

"Daddy!" exclaimed an excited voice as Audrey ran to him and crashed herself into his back; he chuckled softly as he wrapped his hand around her and pulled her into a proper hug, he did not care who saw, it was her birthday and weeks since he had seen her.

"Happy birthday," he said as she tightened her hug as he ruffled her hair a little and pushed a box into her stomach.

"Thanks—I thought you forgot," she said smiling as his cheeks developed a light red tinge.

"I couldn't really—your mother chewed my brains hoping against her stupidity that you would have received your key—I mean who the bloody hell sends a ke-," he began but stopped short frowning.

"What's up?" asked Rachel coming in as Remus walked in with Tonks, he seemed a little hassled but he smiled when he saw Audrey. Audrey didn't give her godfather time to breath as she hugged him tightly, he pulled her into a hug as well as he too shoved a small parcel into her stomach just like Severus had, Tonks smiled at her and gave her a small package as well. Sirius who must have apparated directly into the house came down the steps followed by Sinistra, Sirius must have met Harry on the steps as he seemed rather happy.

Sirius handed Audrey an envelope with a few galleons in it which was labelled from Sirius and Aurora as Aurora smiled pleasantly and gave Audrey a small package stating that Hagrid would be very displeased if it hadn't been delivered to her safely.

Audrey placed all her gifts with great care on the table and began opening them one by one. Remus had given her a small thing that looked like the two bezeors, he asked her to carry them around with her all the time, Audrey would do as told she promised. Tonks gave her a hair clip which was bedazzled way beyond Audrey's liking although Tonks said, it was charmed to make her hair look however she wanted it too, so it would be somewhere close to what Tonks did most of the time, Audrey had always been a little inquisitive about Tonks inherent skills. She opened her father's gift last; as she opened the box she found a small heavy silver mental sculpture like thing. She picked it up to study it closer. It was a head of running horse, you could tell from it intricately engraved mane, but she couldn't really tell what it was.

"It's a wand holder—you know—to put it at the back of your wand," said Severus as Audrey pulled out her wand not really knowing where it would go, seeing there was no hole in the end of the holder.

"Show me," Severus ordered as she handed him her wand and the gift. He placed the horse close to the wand handle; the ends of the horse suddenly opened up and wrapped themselves around the wand, fixing itself around the handle turning it to silver in the process. Audrey took in the whole process with awe as her father handed her wand back to her, she studied it closer as right were the silver ended the pattern of creepers that ran across her wand began, the holder made her wand look even more pristine.

"Thank you," said Audrey she tried using her wand to levitate the empty box of the clip that Tonks had given her.

"I am glad you like it," smirked Severus as Audrey nodded, hugging him tightly possibly way more than before. Sirius picked up the wand and studied it carefully as he handed it to Rachel who seemed to be pleased by the results, she passed it to Tonks. She too studied it but noticed that Remus edged away from her.

"Don't you want to see it?" asked Tonks as Remus shook his head, but Tonks was demanding and she thrust the wand towards him, but he moved away making her fling the wand at him by mistake.

"No!" shouted Audrey as she let go of her father and dashed to her godfather, catching the wand in mid air before crashing into the wall behind her.

"Shit!" snapped Remus as Tonks looked extremely worried.

"I'm ok!" said Audrey as she got up, dusting herself as her father helped her up and repaired any damages to the wall.

"What's with the jumping?" asked Tonks confused as Audrey threw her the worst glare she could possibly gather, in all of last year.

"He's a werewolf-you need to be dafter than a Hufflepuff to hand him a silver object!" she snarled.

"Audrey—that is no way to talk –to—!" scolded Rachel

"Could have killed him—would that be acceptable?" snarled Audrey angrily as yanked out the horse off her wand and thrust it into her father's hands.

"I can't accept this!" she said disappointedly as Severus didn't say anything, internally he was hurt, he was hurt way more than he had expected.

Audrey sighed and then left the room as she climbed the steps quickly completely forgetting Harry as she came across him, he stood smiling at her. She pursued her lips tightly, she didn't know if she could be able to go on without any tears.

"Could we—talk—later—could we-," she couldn't go on really, she just let her tears, falls, she knew she hadn't behaved appropriately, not with Tonks or her father but then Remus, how could she let silver touch him, I mean how could Tonks have not realised!

"What's wrong?" Harry asked frowning as he went and captured her into his arms as she cried into his shoulder, he repeated his question.

"Nothing—I just," began Audrey.

"Audrey!" said Severus looking at Potter with his best loathing look he used against him in his class. Harry let go of Audrey instantly as his hands dropped away as he stepped away from her.

"I'll—I'll see you later," he said, although he didn't want to leave her alone but—he could never hold her with Snape glaring at him like that so Harry edged away, it was true, he was intimidated, Snape was intimidating—and even though Harry would never admit it—he hated Snape, but he was also a little frightened of him.

"Audrey?" called Severus ignoring Potter's departure; she turned to look at him, clearing her eyes. Severus bit his lower lip as she looked up at him embarrassed. She noticed Remus come in from the back as he crossed his hands. She couldn't decipher his expression.

"I suppose I should apologize to Tonks," she said softly as she sighed and then made her way down leaving Severus with Remus.

Severus sighed and turned around to see Remus looking at him; he frowned and then carried forward. It wasn't that he wanted an apology...or maybe it was...but he didn't want her stealing away her glances and walking away, why wouldn't she speak to him, if she felt guilty, Severus was a little put off as the meeting began and wasn't able to offer his full participation in it. He felt a hand brush his thigh and settled there as it went lower and down to his knee as the thumb rubbed asymmetrical lines over his knee. He let out a deep breath as if trying to flush out a discourse going on in his head at least for the moment, Rachel's hand helped him and it helped him immensely. A sudden loud crash of thunder outside

The meeting ended after a rather long time, rain still poured outside like a rather harsh storm and therefore everyone decided to stay back.

Remus made sure he knocked on Ginny's door as Ginny rubbed her eyes before answering the door, she looked like she had been thrashed around—her red hair was all over her face, she squinted her eyes to see who it was.

"Remm—us?" she said yawning.

"I'm sorry Ginny—is Audrey awake?" asked Remus, he doubted it.

"Yea—she's been studying since the minute she came in—think she's trying beat Hermione's scores too," said Ginny stretching as she let Remus into the room as she herself then went and plopped onto her bed. Remus frowned and shook his head as he sat down slowly on the edge of Audrey's bed. She was stuck against the wall she brought her knees into her abdomen and was reading from a book. She was purposely ignoring him. He sighed and placed a hand over the book pulling it down from her face. She looked up at him and smiled as she turned away instantly.

"Audrey?" called Remus and rest his hands over her knees pushing them down. He could tell she was breaking, she was biting her lower lip tightly—she was so much like her parents.

"Audrey—are you alright?" asked Remus as she nodded vigorously without looking at him.

"Good," he said.

"I didn't mean to say those things to her—they just came out—I am sorry—I just—I thought—it was silver—you could have gotten badly injured—what if—something terrible happened to you?" she said tears falling down.

"Nothing is going to happen to me—it would have hardly burnt me," he said rubbing her hand slowly that he had picked up to console her.

"I don't want to see you get hurt," she said looking at their hands.

"Nothing is going to happen to me Audrey—I assure you," smiled Remus kissing her forehead as Audrey smiled, she was feeling much better now—even though his comforting her was very certain—seeing he himself did not know what could possibly happen to him.

"Nothing is going to happen to me—you've apologised to Tonks to—although—there is still one person who is rather upset with the episode," said Remus calmly as Audrey frowned, who had she upset now?

"Your father—Audrey—I've known Severus for a very long time—he may not show it but he is a very sensitive person—he's been through a lot—rejected to many times—by too many people Audrey—I don't think he needs another one," said Remus as Audrey let a single tear fall down—yes—she had wronged him—had turned away when he came to speak with her—had rejected him in some way—Remus was right—he did not deserve the way she had treated him.

"He must hate me," she said softly.

"No—Audrey—I doubt he hates you—in fact I think, he believes you hate him," said Remus trying to make her understand.

"Why would he think that—oh!" she said answering her own question.

"What should I do?" asked Audrey—she did not know how to approach a situation like this.

"I'm sure you'll think of something—get some sleep," said Remus kissing her forehead as she nodded, he did not leave before tucking her into bed.

Audrey rubbed her eyes as she woke up and made her way down to the kitchen after freshening up. Audrey noticed she was the first one up, it was odd, she had been waking up way earlier than what she used to. She passed the living room where most of the last nights order had crashed for the night. When Audrey reached the kitchen she saw her father sleeping on the table, his hands resting on the table while his head lay over them.

She could see a tiny shiny thing in vest pocket; she reached for the wand holder as she smiled at it. She wanted it and although she had pushed it into his hands, she seemed to like it too much to part with. She knew it must have cost him a lot to have bought something like that, no she shook her head, this wasn't bought—it was so distinct—it had to have been custom made and Audrey knew things like these were not extremely cheap, plus when she studied it closer and thought of the whole situation. Remus wasn't the only werewolf in the world—this would most definitely protect her from any werewolf that was a foot close to her, one jab would burn holes into his flesh. She remembered how he had placed it over her wand, she did the same as the horse head sat daintily on the top of her wand as it shook its mane a little and then came again to the same as it fell still.

Audrey smiled as saw her father stir but he didn't wake, she wondered if the house was magically registered, well it must be seeing that the Weasley siblings used to play quidditch outside. She moved her wand smoothly as she muttered the spell under her breath.

"Expecto Patronum"

Audrey watched as her patronus stallion burst out of her wand tip and galloped around the room before trotting back to her and breathing out in a very horse like fashion.

"Wake him up—gently," she ordered as the horse made another horse like move by blowing a raspberry using his lips, although that meant he understood.

Audrey watched as her stallion made his way to her father and nudged him with his mouth on his arm as her father stirred but swatted him away with one hand unconsciously. The stallion repeated the same a few times but did not receive any response from the sleeping man and so he decided to take matters into his own hands, he glanced at Audrey as she raised her eyebrows smiling at him, he took the one of the man's loose robe sleeve into his teeth and yanked it with force as the hand came down and the head hit the table.

Severus groaned when his head hit the table, he rubbed it gently as he blinked several times before remembering where he was, he found his daughter laughing in front of him as her patronus stood beside him, it began licking his face, although it didn't really turn wet seeing the saliva nor the horse was real, yet having a patronus make love to your face wasn't fun.

"Get off," he ordered as the horse pulled back and went to stand next to his conjurer.

"Morning," said Audrey politely as Severus grunted in reply as he held his head, trying to get rid of the sleep, he cracked his neck slightly as he stretched himself as he stood.

"I wanted to see how the spells would work with it on," she said smiling, no response. He was still mad, her job was to apologize and make him understand that she was truly sorry for her behaviour.

"Works fine—he likes it," she began, she did not receive any response

"Says a horse makes him think of you," she added no response again.

"He wanted to say thanks," she smiled, no response, it made her sigh a little as she sat down next to him. Maybe a direct apology would suffice.

"He also wanted you to know how—"

"Think of me? Why does your patronus make you think of me?" asked Severus frowning not looking at her.

"Didn't I ever tell you?" she asked smiling, well at least he was talking to her. He shook his head and turned to her curious as she beamed at him.

"Well—the first time you taught me how to make a patronus—it was when I—I didn't know you were my father—and I told you that there was a memory but it wasn't exactly true—do you recall?" she asked him enthusiastically as he nodded slowly remembering.

"Would you like to see that memory?" she asked him as he frowned but she waited for him to respond as he shook his head, she closed her eyes and opened them again as he entered her mind.

Audrey was five just like in the picture he had seen her shoulder length black hair flying around her face as she ran through the mass of trees her little feet crunching the dried leaves and sunlight under them as a man ran behind her laughing and calling out her name his voice was rich, deep, smooth and baritone, his voice! Audrey giggled softly as her hair whipped around her face as strong arms went around her small body as Audrey was lifted from the ground, as someone buried their face in her hair and laughed tickling her on the stomach, Audrey giggled like a five year old would. Audrey was then flipped and turned as Audrey snuggled into the man's shoulder, there was no face but her voice echoed in her head.

"Daddy,"

His face came into view as he cradled his daughter as close to him as he could.

"Pappa, are you alright?" Audrey asked as Severus came back into reality as he felt his mind being pulled out his daughters, her shields were raised, he was truthfully impressed, she had been practicing all summer, either that or Rachel had forced her to.

"You thought of that?" he asked her disbelievingly, this girl—she really did love him and all this while he had been jealous for her counting Lupin way more than him.

"Well—not exactly—seeing that I didn't know what my father looked like—but I associated your voice with his—I don't know why—but it seemed only easy to do it—but it's the only memory I use to produce my patronus," stated Audrey honestly.

"You see I thought and thought—about the form it takes and the only conclusion I ever made about it was understandable after I figured you to be my father," she said.

"You see I inferred that my patronus is a stallion not because of me being wild and temperamental but because I associated everything about a stallion with my father—he'd be tall—manly—strong—with a demanding voice—but he'd be soft spoken to me—just like you," she said, Severus could not believe as she went on telling him these things so easily, he felt terribly guilty for even thinking what he had last night. He thought that she didn't care—that she obviously considered Lupin way beyond him—that she connected with him way more than she could ever with him.

"I am sorry about last night dad—I didn't mean to do that—I was just mad that—I don't like seeing Remus get hurt—he's my god father—and I love him—and I just—I mean—it was silver—I mean—it could have—and I was—and you know—," she stated unable to form her statements.

Severus didn't say anything; she took it in the wrong way.

"I am really sorry pappa—I never meant to hurt you—and the fact that I didn't apologize then makes me feel worse—you didn't deserve to be treated that way—not after giving me something so thoughtful—I am really sorry—and that you consider giving me something so lovely makes me feels ungrateful and unworthy of it," she said hoping that he'd reconsider his decision and forgive her.

"I love you Audrey—I will always forgive you—you don't have to ask for it," he said enveloping her into a tight embrace as she hugged him back tightly.

"I love you too pappa!" she said as she stopped crying instantly.

AN/- Hope you enjoyed it-please review! please-or else-you'll getting poisoned cupcakes! =p