(Coeus Black - PoV)
Sleep, glorious sleep! After those terrible days of being forced to wake up early, we finally can sleep in...
Except, of course, for the fact that we owe someone a dose of vengeance.
...
Tomorrow...
...
Zzzz
(Tomorrow)
*Poke*
I reluctantly open my eyes, finding Phoebe laying next to me with a raised eyebrow.
Ugh...damnit Dora, even when you aren't here you are causing me problems. At least I got one day of sleeping in...
"Fiiine. I would hate to let all that practice go to waste..."
We spent most of yesterday practicing the Levitation Charm. Now it's Dora's turn for an unpleasant wake-up.
Phoebe crawls over me while I am still stretching, dragging her hair over my face. Blearg.
"One of these days I'm going to shove you in the floor when you do that," I threaten.
"No you won't," she replies with all the confidence of a seer.
...
Whatever.
I get up and grab my wand, quietly following her into the hallway.
*Sneak* *Sneak* *Sneak*
The door to our target's room is locked, though this hardly poses an obstacle.
"Alohomora"
One of the first spells we learned, of course. Ridiculously useful for how easy it is to cast, and the counter for it isn't taught until Seventh-Year Charms, which Dora hasn't started yet.
The door swings open noiselessly, and we survey the room without entering.
A tiny Dora lays sprawled out on the bed as is her habit, barely covered with her blanket and...are those my boxers? Damnit, Dora!
...
Right, focus, here for revenge!
Searching carefully, I see her wand on the bedstand.
"Wingardium Leviosa" I whisper.
Slowly, carefully, the wand makes its way to me, until I can snatch it out of the air.
"Success," I whisper, sharing a smirk with Phoebe as I pass the wand to her.
Together, we raise our wands, targeting Dora's mattress.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" we cry!
Dora wakes at the shout, hand snatching for her wand out of instinct as she is lifted into the air, but grasping only air.
"Whoa!" she cries as the mattress rockets upwards, slamming her against the ceiling. Whoops, little over-enthusiastic there.
We let it drop back down before flicking it to the side instead, and the bed zooms across the room far faster than when we practiced, smashing against the wall and sending her flying out the open window with a yelp.
...
"Uh..."
"Oops?" Phoebe says.
"We...probably should have practiced casting together instead of separately."
"Yeah."
...
Carefully, we release the spell, letting the mattress collapse to the floor.
Peeking through the window, we check outside, finding Dora stuck in a hedge, muttering curses.
"Looks like she's fine. Let's get Iris before we tell Andy? She can play human shield."
Phoebe nods in agreement.
As luck would have it, Iris is peeking her head out the door as we approach, likely wondering what all the commotion is about.
"Iris, come! We need you!"
"Ok?"
She hesitantly steps out of her room, and we each grab an arm and push/pull her in front of us.
"Guys?"
"Human shield time."
"...What did you do?"
She may be getting to know us too well.
...We may be needing her in this role entirely too often.
Andy is placing plates on the tables as we come down the stairs.
"Good morning Iris. And I didn't expect to see you two up...so...early," She trails off. "What did you do?" She demands.
"Umm, we might have, maybe, kind of, accidentally, thrown Dora out the window?"
"...What?"
"Ted, could you maybe go check on her? She landed in a hedge, so she looked ok, but..." I ask.
"How!?" Andy yells while Ted sighs and rubs his face, before folding his paper and getting up.
"I got it, I got it. Should have known I would be called in when I heard that banging upstairs..."
Phoebe and I huddle behind our Iris shield as Andy gets worked up for a good rant.
Luckily Dora was unharmed from her unplanned broomless flight. She rescued us from the ranting Andy and was surprisingly forgiving of the entire matter. We agreed that it would be a good time to just...wipe the slate clean for the moment, even including my sadly ruined boxers.
Andy was still rather upset about everything, but everyone else managed to talk her down, and she had to admit that having things settle down for the rest of the summer would be nice.
The next few days were significantly less eventful. Mostly reading ahead in our books and practicing spells, only one at a time, thanks to Iris's limitations, but still, progress. Things could be much worse, and Iris fits into our dynamic quite well. It is nice to have an extra person to bounce ideas off of.
All good things must come to an end, however, as Andy stops us after breakfast one morning.
"Oh don't give me that look, I have good news!"
No you don't, it's never good news. Ted sometimes has good news, but not Andy.
"The healers have finally released Sirius!" she exclaims. "He will be by this afternoon!"
See? That's not good news. That's...meh. We were going to start potions today. Iris has had some interest in it since we did the pictures, though, of course, she didn't tell us until yesterday, silly girl.
Dora perks up, but Andy deflates at the lack of reaction from the rest of us.
"Hmmm, so, need to change clothes I guess. Slytherin colors? Oh, and maybe we could find some snakes for Iris? Could you take her on a quick run to the pet store?" I suggest.
"Coeus..."
I roll my eyes.
"I'm joking. Ish."
I shake my head.
"He's related, so we can give him a chance, just stop expecting us to be all excited about it. We have you, and Ted, and Dora, and Iris, and Grandfather. If he can really step up and be family that's great but...we don't need him. We have a family."
Phoebe and I grab Iris and drag her upstairs, trying to ignore the complicated expression on Andy's face.
Retreating to our room I start rifling through my trunk, looking for something to wear. Should I even change? Like is this a thing to dress up for or not? I think we will...keep things formal for the moment...
Digging through the trunk suddenly becomes much more difficult when my arms become trapped by my sides.
"Huh?"
Iris has wrapped herself around me.
"Thank you," she says.
I blink at her. What?
"For...for calling me...family..." she elaborates, sensing my confusion.
"Oh...well duh. You are family now? We adopted you...or something. I think?"
...
You know, actually, I have no idea.
"Ok, well, you were ours ever since we kidnapped you from the bastards, paperwork or no paperwork," I assure her.
She lets out a choked laugh, releasing me, and sitting back on the bed, leaning into Phoebe.
"It...it hasn't even been a month though? I'm just...amazed..."
I shrug.
"So? As I said, you are ours now. That's the end of the matter."
I nod resolutely.
Now, where were my night sky constellation robes? I rather like those, and they would be appropriate, I think.
"So...Sirius?" she asks.
I shrug while digging through the trunk.
"As I said, we will give him a chance."
There you are!
I pull the robes out, setting them on the bed.
Really, I try to keep things better organized, but someone misplaced them.
I glare at Phoebe, who smiles at me.
"Sorry, anyhow." I clear my throat. "He was supposed to be our dad, you know? Instead, he went and did something stupid, and got himself thrown in prison for no reason. Like, before no one knew what happened, so we ignored it, but then we finally learn the truth, and it's that he is an idiot. He ran off without thinking and messed everything up."
I shrug.
"And, well, from everything I've heard...that's all he ever did. Act like a pure Gryffindor, run in headlong without thinking. Honestly..."
I look at Phoebe, before looking back to Iris.
"Well, I know Andy thinks that we hold a grudge about him not being there for us or something, but, not really? Given his track record, I think we are better off without him. We are saving that little bit though, for if he turns out to be really bad."
Iris's brow furrows.
"What do you mean?" she asks.
"It's the sort of thing you can say to someone to really hurt them. Point out that we were better off with him in prison, and hopefully he will just...go away."
I sigh.
"Not that we want that to happen, just..." I push Iris backward lightly with one hand, "We like how things are right now. Everything's great, and he better not mess it all up."
Iris nods.
"I guess I understand...But it's hard for me to imagine. I wanted to meet my parents for so long, you know?"
I nod at her.
"I get it, but you needed parents, we don't. And given his history...Ugh"
I shake my head, then go back to my trunk, looking for Phoebe's matching dress.
"I really expect he's going to try to butt into things without consideration."
Which is right there, easy to find. Of course she would put hers up properly.
I toss it to her.
"Anyhow, I figured we can do the constellation theme for clothing today, it matches in with the Blacks historically. You are welcome to join in if you want? I am pretty sure you have a couple of appropriate pieces," I explain as I start changing.
"Eeep!"
"What's that?"
I turn back around and Iris is covering her face and blushing scarlet. Phoebe smirks at her as she starts changing as well.
She shakes her head at me when I look to her to figure out what's up.
Whatever.
"Technically we don't need to dress up, but I figured we would keep things formal for the mo-"
Iris jumps off the bed and runs out of the room, the door slamming shut behind her.
"Phoebe?" I ask.
She laughs at me, but won't answer.
Ugh, girls.
After lunch we are all lined up in the sitting room, waiting in front of the floo. Sirius's house is currently considered "unlivable", so he is coming here.
The fireplace lights up, and Grandfather passes through first.
A small smile appears on his face at the formal reception, before he steps to the side as the flames quickly flare again, allowing an eager man to step through.
A man in robes of red and gold, Gryffindor colors, ugh. Didn't acting like a Gryffindor get you put in prison in the first place?
His face is a bit gaunt, but I can see the resemblance. This man very likely is our father. Dark hair, blue eyes, shining with determination...perhaps he will be acceptable...
His gaze locked onto the three of us, rapidly swapping back and forth.
He swallows heavily, stepping forward, before plastering a smile on his face.
"Hi kids, I'm Sirius Black! Sorry I've been away for so long, but it's great to see you!"
"C'mere!" he says, kneeling on the floor, arms spread wide.
...
Nobody moves.
Fortunately, my irritating hugging habit doesn't seem to extend itself to random skeletons, no matter how fancy their robes or how well-groomed they are.
...
I admit, I do feel at least a little bad, considering the disappointment on his face...still, not happening.
"Perhaps we should all take seats?" Andy suggests from behind us.
"...Yeah...Yeah that's...probably a good idea..." Sirius admits, slowly standing.
Don't look at us like that, you're the idiot who thinks you can just show up out of nowhere after a decade and walk right into our lives like nothing happened. I've never met you before, I am not giving you a hug!
...
Iris was a special case!
"So..." Sirius starts once we are all settled, a tray of tea and snacks on the table.
Well, mostly tea, as Dora is quickly making her way through the snacks, ignoring Andy's glares and Grandfather's chuckles.
"So!" Andy says with a fake smile on her face. Clearly this is not going quite as well as she hoped. I did warn her, repeatedly.
"You, err, got your wands then?" he asks us.
We nod, pulling them out to show him.
"Been practicing any magic?"
"Quite a bit," I speak up for everyone. "Locking and Unlocking Charms, Ice Jinx, Full-Body Bind and Counter-curse, Levitation Charm, and such. We have read ahead a bunch as well, but are still kind of limited in how much we can practice, due to Iris's issues with magic right now."
He flinches at that.
"Ah...I see. That's...good..."
Dora snorts.
"Don't let him undersell it, Sirius, they are little monsters already. He dueled Daphne Greengrass at the party celebrating your release and dropped her three times without effort. Then they managed to get the drop on me a few days ago." she says.
His eyes light up. "Oh? Greengrass? The snakes?"
I frown. "Daphne is a friend. We just...had a misunderstanding," I explain.
His enthusiasm dims. "Oh. And Dora?"
I shift awkwardly in my seat. "We may have been going at each other for various slights for most of the summer. Last week she dumped us out of bed as a wake-up call. We tried to return the favor but...well, two people levitating the same object appears to enhance the effect."
"They threw me out the window," Dora explains.
"A prank war? You had a prank war! Hahahahahaha!"
He appears quite enthused by the idea.
"One that will not continue," Andy adds, glaring at us.
No argument here.
"Oh, but that's great though!" he complains.
"Great, he says..." Ted mutters. "He's not the one that has to fix the damage."
"What else, what else? What about flying?" he asks enthusiastically.
Again, we grimace.
"No flying!" Andy demands.
"What!? Why no flying?" Sirius whines.
"We may have went to Diagon one day while Andy and Ted were gone and bought four of the best brooms they had, then came back home and gotten...overly enthusiastic," I admit.
Sirius tilts his head.
"I ended up breaking my arm, and none of us knew how to fix it. It kind of sucked but...well didn't know how bad Iris's issues were at the time, a bad crash could have..."
I trail off, looking down.
That was such a huge mistake.
She nudges me in the side.
I look up and she smiles at me.
Yes, I know you don't blame me but...
Ugh.
"Anyhow, she's an amazing flyer, but it is probably a good idea to just not risk it until she finishes her main potion regimen here in a week or so." I continue.
Sirius is quiet, which I have trouble believing is a normal state of affairs for the man.
He is looking at Iris.
"You can't fly, can barely cast magic, all of the...everything..." he mutters.
We all frown at him. Is he judging Iris?
"I...I'm sorry..." he says, shoulder's slumped. "My fault...I was supposed to be there...Supposed to be the one...Let them take you...ran after the rat..." he mumbles.
"What?" I ask.
Grandfather speaks up, explaining as Sirius continues to mumble, eyes unfocused.
"Sirius is not only your father, he was also Iris's godfather. After her parents' death, he was supposed to be the one to take care of her."
...
"Wait...so...but he..." I am at a loss for words.
"You...you!"
Standing, I shout at the deadbeat failure.
"You left her?! You...she was your responsibility and you still ran off? She never had to go there! You abandoned her! Like everyone else!"
I draw my wand and manage one stinging hex before Dora disarms me.
"Bastard! You abandoned everything! You left Iris to the Dursleys! You left the family to die out! You left Mom to die!"
I pick up the platter and throw it at him, before stomping up the stairs to my room, ignoring the shouts behind me.
((Nympha)Dora Tonks - PoV)
Phoebe quickly rushes up the stairs after Coeus. Iris at least spares a glance for Sirius before following them.
"Well, that could have gone better," I comment.
Gramps seems to appreciate my comment with a small chuckle, even if no one else does. I don't know how I feel about that.
I sit back in my seat while Mum and Dad attempt to clean up the mess. Damn, I really should have eaten the rest of those pastries...
Spinning Coeus's wand in my left hand and my own in my right I look over at Sirius, sitting dejectedly in his chair, making no effort to dry his robes. Poor Sirius.
Well, at least I have a better idea of why the twins were so unenthused now. Holding a grudge about their mom this whole time...yeah, that explains a lot.
Totally unfair to Sirius, and I think they know it, which could be why they never spoke of it before, but no one's rational all the time. Just one more pile of shit dumped on his head.
"I'm sorry Sirius. Kids, you know? I'm sure they will get over it?" Mum says.
No. Just, no. That's not how it works and she knows it.
Sirius seems to know it too.
"No...I deserve it," he says. "Everything they did to Iris...I could have stopped it all...all I had to do was put my responsibilities first..."
I mean, he's not wrong. And no one argues otherwise.
"But you are trying to do better now, right?" Mum asks.
He gives a hollow laugh.
"Sure, now. But...what good is it now? What need do they have for me now?"
That's what you are going to have to figure out, isn't it? Because you are going to have your work cut out for you at this point.
Ah, what a disaster. Though really, what was he expecting? What was Mum expecting? Sirius at least had ignorance on his side, she really should have known better than to expect anything else. I really don't understand her...
