MOON AND STARS, fred weasley

three

There was a whole lot of ruckus downstairs, but neither Sirius or Adhara moved. Instead, Sirius laughed as she went through a notebook of her prank inventions, and looked in awe at some of them having already been made and sitting in front of him.

"An extendable ear?"

"That one was actually Fred's idea," she said. "But it's brilliant. You just put one of the fake ears to your ear and then the other goes wherever you want to eavesdrop."

"That's bloody brilliant."

"Half the stuff we do wouldn't be achievable if it wasn't for the map though. How else were we supposed to know when Filch was going to catch us?"

"You're welcome," Sirius grinned. "I knew it would be passed down to the second generation of pranksters one day." He nodded to another large book in her suitcase. "Is that more ideas?"

"No," she said, lifting it onto her knee. "This is a scrapbook. Lily likes to help me with it, but I've gotten pretty good at doing it on my own."

"Can I see?"

"Sure," she said, opening the first page, which was a picture of her, Remus, and Sirius when she was three. "That's the only photo I could find of all three of us, but I wanted to put you in there."

The second photo was of her and the twins before they got to Hogwarts. Adhara was in the middle grinning, with a twin at each side of her.

There was more like that as they got older — photos taken in the middle of a prank, or during Quidditch. Lee added in there since, of course. There was quite a few photos of her and Remus too, baking chocolate chip cookies or something else chocolate-related.

Sirius paused as he got to one photo in particular. They were all there: Adhara, Remus, James, Lily, Harry... His family. The photo was a reminder that he wasn't there for any of it. Sirius Black did not get to raise his own daughter.

Adhara did not know to respond when Sirius began crying.

"Oh—um, I'm sorry. I didn't think they'd upset you! But we can always take some, now that your here and can help with the pranks—" she wasn't sure if it was working or not.

Regardless, the door opened to reveal James.  Clearly the commotion downstairs had been Harry-related, as usual. James' smile seemed to drop as he saw the state of Sirius.

"I'm sorry!" Adhara yelped, almost crying herself. "He asked to see the photos—I didn't think—Uncle Prongs?"

James slowly entered and took the photo book away into his own arms. He saw exactly the photo that had gotten Sirius to the state he was in, and understood completely. He sat on the other edge of the bed, placing his arm around his friend.

He looked to Adhara, "Why don't you go and find Lily and your dad and see what they're up to?"

She frowned. Until now, she was enjoying spending time with Sirius, getting to know each other better. Stupid photo book. "I'm really sorry, Uncle James."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," he chuckled. "Just leave us for a couple minutes and we'll be right down."

Unsurely, she stepped out into the corridor. Her eyes had already begun brimming with tears but now they began to fall freely. She walked down the stairs miserably.

"Adhara?" Lily asked, stopping her conversation with Remus. "What's wrong?"

"I showed him my photos and he got upset. Uncle James is with him now but it's my fault, isn't it? I shouldn't have shown him, even though he asked."

Lily and Remus exchanged a look. Except for around the full moon when her emotions went haywire, she never got this upset. She usually held all the confidence that Sirius and Marlene had in their youth, and that combination was dangerous. But now there were tears streaming down her face, a clear indication that she was not doing too well.

"Adhara," Remus spoke, holding his arms out to her which she gladly took as he wrapped her into a hug. "That's not your fault. Sirius was trapped in Azkaban for 12 years and now he's trapped here again, the one place he never wanted to return to. It's a lot for him, but none of that has anything to do with you, okay?"

She pulled back from the hug, wiping her eyes. "He thought the pranks were cool."

"Of course he thought the pranks were cool," Remus said. "Even if I don't completely approve of how your using your smarts, you and the twins put a lot of thought into those."

"I really feel as if I shouldn't tell you this..." Lily began. "But I did catch James packing two more mandrake leaves this morning."

Remus opened his mouth. "No, Adhara, you're not—"

She grinned. "I'm going to go and find Fred and George for completely unrelated reasons. Thanks, Lily!"

Once she ran off, Remus gave her a look. "I knew there was only a small amount of time before you'd crack."

"Come on, Rem, look how much happier she is." The pair watched as she ran up the stairs, her previous years forgotten.

"She confuses me. She told me that she was against the twins becoming animagi for her."

"For her, maybe she is. But I think it's the easy accessibility to pranks that excites her now."

Remus paused. "You've been spending far too much time with James. He's rubbing off on you."

"Don't I know it."