House of Black

Chapter 4

The Weasley\'s fireplace felt so good against her skin as she sat near the hearth, curling her legs underneath her as she listened intently to what Hermione, sitting across from her was telling her. The rest of the household was in the kitchen. They could hear them laughing over drinks.

Hermione smiled at her new friends rapt attention. \"You\'re very curious about what Harry did when he was younger.\"

She blushed and looked over to the fire, hoping the glow of the embers would distract from it. \"I didn\'t go to Hogwarts, I\'m just curious what it was like.\"

Hermione was silent for a moment and she could tell the curly hair women was watching her. \"Too bad you didn\'t go to school with us.\"

She looked back now, her brows furrowed. \"So do I.\"

The other women\'s eyes lit up. \"So... you\'re single?\"

Adhara was slightly taken back by the question. \"Erm... yes.\"

Hermione\'s smile increased and she turned to look at the fire. \"So is Harry.\"

The darker hair girl fell silent. Tonks had already told her about Harry\'s ex-girlfriend. She had been killed by Voldemort or his supporters during the war and Tonks told her he was still heart broken and blaming himself over it. She didn\'t want to press herself on him... though it had been many years, and the way Hermione was talking, it sounded like people were shipping for him to find someone.

Still... she wouldn\'t do that.

She had just lost someone as well...

Wanting to change the subject, she smiled and looked to the kitchen door. \"So, when\'s the big day?\"

Now it was Hermione\'s time to blush, looking very modest. \"Spring... it\'s still a while off.\" She shook her head as if thinking it was a stupid topic.

\"I love weddings... nothing like a bit of romance to spark other\'s interests.\"

Hermione furrowed his brows at the other girl and Adhara chuckled and explained. \"I met my last boyfriend at a wedding.\"

\"Oh...\" Hermione\'s eye dazzled again and Adhara found herself wondering if she should avoid saying anything to make that happen. \"Maybe you\'ll meet a new boyfriend at our wedding?\"

Damn this women was persistent, but she went along anyway, ignoring the sudden growing amount of discomfort. \"I have to wait until spring to get someone?\"

The curly haired women smiled and turned to the door as Ron came striding into the room, followed by his parents, the twins, Tonks and Remus. They all settled themselves in arm chairs around the fire, both Hermione and (to Adhara\'s surprise) herself watching fondly as they began to talk among themselves once more.

Ron took a seat beside the two women on the rug in front of the fire, bending down to kiss his future wife on the forehead before deciding to engage Adhara in conversation. \"So you\'re living with Tonks and Remus?\"

She nodded, not knowing what else to do, than added, \"For the moment... until I find an apartment.\"

\"Flats are quite expensive here...\" Hermione told her with a small frown, than received a small nudge in the side from Ron, she glared up at him.

\"You could always stay with Harry. He has an extra room.\" Ron told her with a roguish grin.

My god! What was with these people! If she thought they were shipping for Harry before, this took the cake. \"Erm... Maybe... once I meet him.\"

\"Oh... right.\" The red-headed man frowned, \"He didn\'t come tonight.\"

She did realize that, yes.

\"My mom left me some money... I could get a job, than I\'ll be fine.\"

\"A job?\" Fred... or George... which ever one was leaning down towards her from his chair. She hadn\'t realized how close he was sitting to her. His eyes twinkled in the firelight. \"You need a job?\"

Somewhere behind her she heard Hermione groan. \"Probably, yes.\"

\"You could come work for us!\" George... yes that one was George.. he was wearing green. The first twin to speak was Fred.

\"What?\"

Hermione made another sound that indicated she was about to say something but Ron cut in. \"That\'s a brilliant idea.\"

\"We own the joke shop in Diagon Alley.\"

She furrowed her brows. Having never been to Diagon Alley, this had no significance to her.

Hermione finally was able to speak. \"She won\'t be you\'re tester.\" She was glaring at Fred.

\"We weren\'t going to ask her to, \'Mione.\" George told her, his tone sounding almost hurt. \"A pretty girl like her should work as a sales person.\"

A sales person... at a joke shop... this was sounding more and more interesting.

\"We\'ll pay you well.\" George told her, grinning fit for a fool.

Without further hesitation...

\"When can I start?\" She passed a grin to Hermione who was still glaring at the twins, though she wasn\'t sure why, than turned and shook hands with Fred when he offered it.

\"As soon as possible.\" George informed her.

\"Lucille just quit the other day. Had to move to Ireland.\" Fred.

\"We\'ve been looking for someone to replace her, but all that\'s applied for the job are either scary freaks-\"

\"hags-\"

\"losers who smell funny-\"

\"and well... the simple point is-\"

\"we\'d rather have pretty females working for us.\"

\"That\'s called prostitution.\" Ron mumbled from the side.

Unfortunately, his mother heard him.

\"Ronald! You\'re brothers are not running a brothel! Now go and do the dishes.\"

Looking slightly outraged, and mumbling \"can\'t take a bloody joke\" under his breath he trudged towards the kitchen.

Adhara had to stifled her laughter, biting her bottom lip as she turned to the fire again, hoping no one would notice, though she was quite pleased to see Tonks chuckling.

\"Anyway...\" Fred grinned down at her. \"With past employees we\'ve discovered our customers react better to female sale persons.\"

Still chuckling, Tonks spoke up. \"With the male population you mean?\"

A sudden clang of pots came from the kitchen, followed by Ron\'s muffled voice through the kitchen door. Everyone turned to look.

\"Oh for Merlin\'s sake! He\'s getting married, you\'d think-\" Mrs. Weasley had jumped up from the flower patterned armchair and began stalking towards the kitchen, but stopped in her tracks when Ron poked his head around the door. \"Ronald Weasley, what are you doing in there?\"

\"Sorry, Mum.\" He looked happy about something, and the reason for this became apparent quite soon. \"Look who\'s here.\" He pulled a very embarrassed looking man through the door.

\"Harry, dear!\" Mrs. Weasley seemed to forget she was going to yell at her son, and instead bustled forward, taking the hesitating man into her arms for a hug which he returned uncertainly, his amazing green eyes taking in the others in the room, pausing only briefly when they came to Adhara.

She found she was holding her breath. But she didn\'t miss the look Hermione passed her from the side.

Mrs. Weasley realized the boy-who-lived and immediately began bustling him over to the armchair she had just been occupying. \"Have a seat, dear, and I\'ll just whip up something for you to eat.\"

His did sit... but only because she seemed to forcing him into the chair. He looked up at her. \"You don\'t have to do that, Mrs. Weasley, I\'m not really-\"

\"Nonsense.\" Her voice was stern and she patted his shoulder. \"You\'re skin and bones. A good auror needs to eat.\" Without another word she bustled back towards the kitchen. As the door swung close behind her they clearly heard her telling her son. \"Don\'t think you\'re getting out of doing those dishes.\"

Harry sighed and seemed to sink into the armchair, looking extremely uncomfortable.

\"Don\'t worry about it, mate.\" George grinned at him well patting his own stomach. \"You\'re a lot more fit than me.\"

The auror smiled, but didn\'t reply to this.

... Instead his eyes fell on Adhara inquiringly. She felt she was blushing.

Remus seemed the first to recover to the tenseness the room seemed to be suddenly feeling. \"Harry, this is Adhara...\" He hesitated, and she felt a sudden nervousness rise. \"...Corilith. She\'s staying with me and Tonks for a bit.\"

Now he was definitely looking curious. Had Remus\' hesitation been too obvious, or was he just curious about the situation?

She met his gaze evenly and smiled, wondering if it would look forced. She was so nervous...

He didn\'t smile back. But his eyes did do something odd. She saw it in the firelight. Almost... recognition? Calculation?

She turned away.

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The dinner died down considerably after the twins left. Mrs. Weasley took to sitting in front of the fire, knitting out the traditional sweaters for this years Christmas presents well Mr. Weasley read sections of the Daily Prophet he may not have got to that morning. Ron and Hermione had disappeared somewhere... and Tonks and Remus had left Adhara there to stay the night (at Hermione\'s persistence). So that left Adhara alone... with Harry.

She found him in the kitchen, standing by the window near the door, looking out over the snow strewn yard, his forehead pressed against that glass so that his fringe of hair in front stood on end.

She found he looked quite handsome in the glow of the lamp Mrs. Weasley lit about the kitchen table. His arms crossed casually over his chest, leaning almost as if posing for something against the window pane. Half his face obscured into the night\'s darkness.

Her goal was to leave the room as quietly as possible without him noticing; she hadn\'t realized he was in there when she went to get a glass of water. But as the door leading into the den swung closed the soft thump was evident in the silence of the house.

He looked round at her, not moving from his spot. His glasses caught the light momentarily before he lowered his head ever slightly and his brilliant green eyes came into view. She blushed and went over to the cupboards and; not knowing which one held glasses, began opening them at random.

He was silent, even as she retrieved a glass and filled it up with tap water from the sink, but she knew he was watching her.

When he did speak, she startled and nearly slopped water down her front. \"What\'s the big secret they\'re not telling me?\" His voice was quiet... not hurt. Just quiet and... husky. It seemed all her thoughts about the boy-who-lived were not completely false after all.

Trying to compose herself, he placed the half empty glass of water on the table and turned her gaze up to him, her face slightly tilted, meeting his gaze unflinching. \"What makes you think that?\"

He moved again, uncrossing his arms, laying one across the bottom of the window frame in the manner that made him oh so delicious. \"I\'ve experienced enough now to know when someone is lying to me.\" He told her simply.

Crap. \"I haven\'t lied to you.\" She took a few steps closer to him, growing from some unknown strength within her. She thought meeting her long-time crush for the first time would leave her in the state of total chaos. This was hardly what she expected...

\"You haven\'t been telling the truth either.\"

She sighed, feeling her heart rate increase. \"What do you want to know.\"

He straightened and crossed his arms again. Still his gaze did not move from her, but they were studying her face now. \"I want to know why Remus is letting a perfect stranger stay with him...\"

She opened her mouth to speak but he continued.

\"But that could have something to do with my next question...\"

She furrowed her brows slightly, her mouth still open in the action to speak. To answer.

He took a step towards her. \"I want to know why you look so much like Sirius Black.\"

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