The Lost Witch | Fred Weasley

CHAPTER THREE

I'd never really had any family except for the Tonks'. So I was glad I got the opportunity to bond with my 'cousin' like this. It had been five days since I moved into Grimmauld Place, and it was starting to shape up.

You could never tell that there had been a lot of work done in the house if you entered the front door, but the change from what it looked like only half a week ago was huge if you looked closely.

Sirius and I were pleased with our work. We only managed to clean beds, dust some bedrooms and change the bedding though, seeing as there were over 10 beds that needed to be ready for today.

I was coming to realise I shared a lot of traits with my family members, even if I was adopted. Nym and I got along great, both bringing out the worst and most scheming traits in the other.

But I was coming to realise that me and Sirius shared a lot of those traits too.

The mischievous, scheming, misfit personalities inside of us that had been suppressed by adulthood and responsibilities. He was very fond of pranks back in his school years, like me. Too easily bored for it to be safe for anyone around.

We quickly started bickering and getting on each other's nerves just like me and Nym did. Sirius was quickly turning out to be my long, lost soul-brother.

"You'd think, after 12 years in prison, that you would be a complete basket-case, but you're actually quite normal. Outdated jokes, sure, but almost so much so that it could be conceived as ironic humour."

Sirius had just pulled a proper dad joke about the curtains, and it physically hurt me to hear it.

"And you're quite funny yourself when you don't try to be. One could almost call you accidentally witty," he mused.

"Yes, and one could almost call you old, but some would consider that rude." At this point I was only looking for a reaction from him. When he didn't respond, I turned around to look at him.

"What? You finally run out of comeb-" as I finally turned around, I saw Sirius staring out the window of the room we were in.

I joined him by the window and peered down to see what had stopped him in his tracks.

Down on the street, stood a group of people. I would say a family, all just arriving on the street.

I smiled.

When I was in school, Charlie Weasley was in the grade above me, so I knew exactly who this family was. There was another girl there as well, with bushy hair and a ginger cat in her arms. This, I was guessing, must be Hermione Granger that Sirius had told me about.

I turned to Sirius, and he looked rather nervous, and a little paler too. I straightened his shirt collar for him. "What's the matter Black? Cat got your tongue?" I smiled at him.

"They haven't met me, you know. Ron, Hermione and the parents, they've seen me, and I think they all know that I'm innocent, but the rest of the children haven't met me." He audibly swallowed.

I rolled my eyes, but I got it. He was afraid to be judged, I could definitely relate to him on this one. "Well, let's just go down there and show them the person you really are, not the person everyone else thinks you are."

I grabbed his elbow and pulled him with me towards the bedroom door. We had just finished fluffing the pillows in the room for Molly and Arthur Weasley.

The house was a real job, but we'd managed to get all the beds cleaned before the Weasley's arrived. The rest of the house was still a mess, but our focus was giving everyone a clean bed for the night.