Granger Yet
Laughing Matter

"This isn't a laughing matter."

"Sorry." Try as he may, Sirius couldn't hold back his laughter as he watched Lizzy's attempt at being serious, or perhaps he wasn't trying. Molly did, after all, give him a look, saying she didn't feel his actions were helping. "You're right. It isn't a laughing matter."

Yet—

Everything started with Molly attempting to set Jules straight about kicking people, only for Lizzy to interrupt, first answering for Jules and then later saying, "What don't you understand about my sister being autistic?"

"Autistic?" Sirius asked, confused like almost everyone else in the room. "What is this autistic?"

Lizzy answered, "Everyone knows it means Jules can't communicate properly because she's an idiot."

Of course, Jules protested that she wasn't an idiot, but her abhorrent answer ended up repulsing the twins. George cut straight to the point of her words being mean, while Fred quickly agreed while adding he didn't think that's what the word meant. Lizzy looked at them, obviously flabbergasted that nobody there recognized the word.

Nobody, except—

"I know I shouldn't laugh, but seeing the look on Arthur's face…"

"Autism," Arthur said, introducing another word to their vocabulary. "I doubt your mother would be pleased with your explanation, Elizabeth."

Lizzy swallowed, indicating Arthur was right.

"You know about this, dear?"

"Ah. Yes. Mrs. Granger explained Jules is autistic and what that was. She said she'd send some books on the subject, not because she doesn't trust us with the girls, but to make things easier for us."

Sirius opened his mouth, suddenly realizing his nieces were given into the care of the Weasley family instead of him, which left just as unsettling feeling in his stomach as finding out Regulus was, in fact, a father, only for that to be replaced with more trying to hide his laughter as Tonks piped up, hands going to a satchel at her side.

"Oh! I'd forgotten about those books in the commotion," Tonks said. "I think I'll be interested in reading them as well, given…"

"This is a private matter, you know," Lizzy snapped, glaring at her. And she turned to look at Sirius. "And you? This isn't a laughing matter."

"Sorry," Sirius said, followed by, "You're right. It isn't a laughing matter." He bit his lip, then turned to look at Jules. "How about this? If I'm not allowed to kick people when I'm mad, you're not allowed to either?"

Jules looked at him, wide-eyed, carefully thinking over what he said. Lizzy sighed, starting to say that Jules didn't understand, when Jules quickly said, "Oh. Okay."

Molly watched, then took a deep breath. "Well, that ended up working out, I guess."

"You guess?" Lizzy said, frowning.

"Now. What's with you claiming to be a Squib when you're not?"

Lizzy opened her mouth, looking as if she wanted to fire back, when a tapping sound came at the window. Sirius frowned, stepping over the window and opening it, allowing an owl who matched the haughty beauty of the Black family matriarch in, allowing it to land on a cabinet in the room. At the same time, Lizzy stared wide eyes, and Jules pointed at the owl. "Pretty owl."

"Why is an owl in here?" Lizzy asked, reminding Sirius she knew nothing about the wizarding world.

"Haven't you seen your sister's letters delivered by owl?" Sirius asked.

"Well," Lizzy started, falling silent.

He sighed, turning to look at the owl and the package the Black family matriarch sent, glaring, not wanting to open the letter, glad she'd not thought to attach a howler for once. " I left so I wouldn 't have to ever deal with her again. "

"I don't pay attention to that kind of thing."

Sirius turned and looked at Lizzy, surprised to see that she had actually answered the question. "Hold on," he thought. I thought she didn 't answer because she couldn't deny seeing the owl ."

"But Jules is likely to notice weird things like that, right?"

"Huh?" Jules looked at her, staring, seeming as confused as Sirius currently felt.

"Is she trying to avoid the question by pushing it off onto her younger sister?" Sirius took a deep breath, a hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck as he kept his mouth shut, remembering how Jules reacted to him reaching out

Sirius sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, the corner of his mouth twitching. " She 's pushing this onto her younger sister? Because she wasn't aware, or because she's just that much in denial. "

"Yeah. It is a pretty owl," Lizzy said. Then her eyes blinked. "Wait. If mail is delivered by owl, then that means it's someone important?"

"What?" Sirius startled.

"I mean, Jules is right. It is a rather pretty owl."

"Yeah. The old hag isn't important," Sirius said, snapping at her, resulting in Lizzy flinching.

"Old hag?" Jules asked, her eyes widening in curiosity.

"Ignore your Uncle Sirius," Molly said. "That isn't polite speak."

"Not polite speak."

"I think it's completely polite, but I doubt Regulus, as polite as he's always been, would appreciate me teaching her that," Sirius thought to himself. "I can't believe I'm worried about that, though. Should just teach his kids whatever the Bloody Merlin I want to, although for some reason that just…"

"That said," Molly continued speaking. "What is it that she wants?"

"You were made aware that she knows we're here?"

"If you're worried about her outing us," Molly said.

"Well, there is that."

"I didn't need Dumbledore assuring me that she wouldn't, Sirius," Molly said, not batting an eye.

"Say what?" Sirius' eyes blinked. He turned to the letter, frowning. "How should I know what she wants?"

"It's the potions."

Sirius turned, remembering Remus was there. He noted how quiet his friend remained, watching him look at the ground, seeming rather uncomfortable. "Potions?"

"You really don't…" Remus said, and then he sighed. "She's aware of his head injury, remember?"

"Head injury?"

"You know, my father? The one you claim to be your brother?" The words made Sirius turn to look at Lizzy, who simply glared at him.

"What is her problem?"

"Even I can put two and two together. That's what he's talking about, as he got a right talking to about said head injury."

"Oh, yeah," Sirius said, glancing over at Molly, who gave him a look.

"Well, at least we don't have to wait for Snape to brew a potion," Molly said.

"Your spy," Jules said.

"Hey, Juliet?" Charlie piped up.

"Yes?"

"Him being our spy is a secret, alright?"

Jules nodded her head and then ran a finger across her mouth. "Jules is good at keeping secrets." And then she paused. "Unless it's a secret that can get someone hurt because maman and papa say not to keep such secrets."

"Well, he's our spy, so people don't get hurt," Tonks said, and Jules nodded her head in understanding.

"What exactly is going on?" Lizzy said.

"You'll get enough of that once you get to school, so I think that is an off-limits topic around you two girls," Molly said. "Do you understand that Sirius?"

"Understand what?"

"Not to scare them more than needs be," Molly said.

Sirius watched Jules nod while Lizz huffed, muttering to herself as she crossed her arms. "More than needs to be?"

And in that moment, he found himself disagreeing with Molly, his mind puzzling out why, as when I looked at Jules, " I can definitely see why limiting anything that could alarm Jules is a definite thing, though. "

"I'll take the potion to him then," Molly said.

"How do you know it isn't poisoned?" Sirius blurted out.

The result—

He received a look from Molly, letting him know how much she didn 't appreciate his reaction to the matter. "What?"

"You just said you think some potion Mrs. Weasley is taking to my dad is poisoned."

"Ah. Hermione," Remus said.

Sirius took a deep breath, noticing Regulus' eldest returned while he wasn't looking.

"Mum?" Ginny said as she stood next to Hermione.

"Believe me when I say she absolutely wouldn't poison either of her children," Molly said, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"How do you know that?"

"Sirius Orion Black!"

Sirius flinched, glancing away.

"As a mother, I would know!"

"Yes. Well. Some mother she was," Sirius said. "I don't trust the old hag."

"You really—honestly, Sirius." Molly let out a sigh. "Are you going to receive the package or not?"

"You get the package, Molly," Sirius said, his mouth twisting in disgust. "I can't. I just…" He glanced away. "I can't."