White Heather for Protection

Weasleys' Whereabouts

After a highly awkward parting at King's Cross Station (in which Amos Diggory made snide digs at Hadrian about being unworthy of being co-champion of the Triwizard Tournament while Sirius made barely-concealed threats to Cedric out of Hadrian's earshot) they all finally reached the Burrow. Heather and Hadrian would floo home the next morning after staying the night, at Mrs Weasley's insistence. Not that they protested much.

It was when they were finished with their hearty dinner that Sirius and Remus asked to speak with them, sombre looks on their faces. A prickle of unease passed through Heather. She wondered what could have made even Sirius look so, well, serious.

Mrs Weasley, bless her, bustled them into Charlie's unoccupied room to give them some privacy. Or as much as they could with one of FredGeorge's Extendable Ears under the door, of course. She rolled her eyes at the rubber ear, flicking up a wandless privacy charm that she knew would work against the listening device. Really, they expected to fool her with one of those things? She'd helped make them!

She sat next to Hadrian, waiting for the two men to start talking. She had a feeling she wouldn't want to be standing for this. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked eventually, when all they did was look at them uncomfortably.

"Well, the other day, Dumbledore asked us and Snape to go to your Aunt's house." Sirius coughed into his hand, nudging for Remus to continue.

Her eyes widened briefly in surprise. She'd known that Professor Snape had visited them, but she didn't expect Sirius and Remus to have gone with him. She'd forgotten to ask him about how that went.

She smiled a little, remembering the talk she'd had with her teacher. She was glad that they had cleared the air. The situation wasn't ideal, but at least they could be friends in private. Her heart beat a little faster when she thought about the hug at the end. She didn't know what had come over her. Professor Snape wasn't exactly someone people thought was huggable, but it had felt nice.

"I hope you pranked them good," Hadrian muttered viciously, snapping Heather out of her thoughts. Sirius smirked weakly and shrugged.

Remus coughed. "Well, about that. That's what we wanted to talk about. I don't know if you know, but the Headmaster originally sent us there to persuade Petunia to take you in again for your protection." Heather nodded sharply. The old man was really presumptuous. She held in a grimace of distaste at the thought of the man. "There might have been a change of plans when we got there, however."

Oh, what did the three wizards do when they were there? She thought about what she'd told Professor Snape and what she knew of his protectiveness. Sighing, she asked "Did you leave them alive, at least? I don't want to have to be your defence counsel again, Sirius."

"Ignore Heather." Hadrian leaned forward eagerly. "Tell me you got rid of the bodies."

"Unfortunately, we didn't kill the bastards." Sirius narrowed his gaze defensively. "How do you know we did something anyway?"

"Hah! As if you'd have been able to hold back. I bet Professor Snape told you some things about our childhood. There's no way he would have allowed us to go back." She trusted her Professor enough to know that he hadn't divulged anything she'd told him in confidence. Besides, if he had, these two would have been much more overbearingly worried.

"So it's all true?" Remus asked haltingly. "About the...abuse?" He cursed himself for the blunt question. Perhaps he should have worded that better. His cubs both frowned. Yep, definitely should have used another word.

"Well, that would depend on what you mean," Heather-flower said wryly. "Yes, we stayed in a cupboard while living there. And there wasn't much food to be had."