Hopeless : Sirius Black's daughter Book 2

New beginnings

It was beautiful. Sure it looked abandoned but all it needed was a woman's touch. It was big enough to house an entire family of five. The colour was cream and the garden looked well kept. "It's absolutely perfect ! Uncle Remus it's amazing!" I gushed.

"This is a total dream house! Come on Miley let's go in!" screeched Ginny pulling me to the door. Uncle Remus had bought it fully furnished but it was all dusty.

"I know you are itching to choose a room. Go right up." said my uncle smiling.

I chose the room closest to the stairs. All the bedrooms were huge, seriously, it was awesome I felt like I was going to be living in a five star hotel compared to our old dump.

"This bed is so comfortable." said Ginny after throwing herself onto it. 

"I know. And you get to enjoy it with me!" I sighed, noting how dusty the room was. "Hey uncle Remus do you think you can spare a bit of magic up here? The room is really dusty and I am not feeling up to cleaning right now!" I shouted. An annoyed uncle came into the room and waved his wand. The room was instantly spotless. "You are the best!" I said as he grumpily left the room.

Ginny helped me unpack and we even had an argument over whether or not to put up a poster of Viktor Krum on the wall. "He's so grumpy! The only good thing about him is his Quidditch talent!" she moaned.

"He's adorable and mostly he's rich and famous. Who cares about talent? I'm putting him up." I stated as Ginny looked through my collection of Dark Oracle magazines. 

"These are so weird."she said turning to a Witch Weekly .

"Girls! We have visitors!" uncle Remus called. Ginny and I made our way downstairs. Uncle Remus sat in the kitchen with a woman and a teenage girl. They turned as we arrived. 

The woman smiled genuinely. She had one of those agelessly pretty faces that were never quite complete with a smile. She was  an easily likeable person. "Hello girls, I thought you said it was only one girl?" she said and uncle Remus replied,

"Oh it's just one. The other one is her best friend."

"Oh? I get that. Girls and their best friends. Hi, I'm Mrs Clearwater, I live right next door. This is my daughter Ariana." she said gesturing to the girl and Ariana waved at us.

I stepped up to take Mrs Clearwater's hand. She must be married to Rhine's brother and she reminded me of Penelope Clearwater.

"I'm Camilla and this is my friend Ginny. Nice to meet you." I said with a smile.

"You too dear. Can you join us for dinner tonight? The family is dying to meet you of course. Although I must say, you look nothing like Rhine."

I knew that I did not look like my mother at all with her blonde hair, blue eyes and her celestial turned up nose. I had come to terms with it. Before responding to Mrs Clearwater, I looked at uncle Remus and he nodded, so I said "We'd love to come over of course."

After they finished welcoming us with a lovely smelling muffin basket, they left. "So they know about your mother?" Ginny asked.

"I'm guessing uncle Remus told her?" I said turning to him as he nodded.

"I met her when I came to look at the house. She was very nice but I needed to make sure she was someone that we could trust. I told her about you when I purchased the house. The whole family was surprised." he said.

The three of us made our way to the house next door around 7 P. M. that night. Mrs Clearwater opened the door. I was literally shaking with excitement and nerves.

"Good evening! Come on in, everyone is waiting for you." she said excitedly. 'Everyone' sat at the dinner table. There was Penelope, Ariana, an old woman, a guy about the same age as Ariana, two other guys who looked alike and I guessed they were Rhine's older brothers. They all stared as we entered. I almost screamed. I was meeting Rhine's family!

"This is Remus Lupin, I told you about him, that is Camilla and her friend Ginny." said Mrs Clearwater introducing us to the family. 

They all said their 'hellos' as Mrs Clearwater introduced them. "That is my mother in law, your grandmother Camilla." Rhine's mother was still alive, I could not believe it. "My husband, Roman and his younger brother Rocky, both Rhine's older brothers." It was the two men who looked alike. "And my children, Louis and of course, Penelope and Ariana you have already met." I guessed Louis and Ariana were twins.

"Please call me Miley." I told them.

During the meal the old woman spoke to me, "Rhine was such an untameable child. That's why I named her Rhine, because that river flows without boundaries between the dead and the living dear. But she was a sweet girl growing up. I don't know what happened to her. What I did wrong." she said mournfully.

"Rhine never told us that she had a child. We aren't wealthy but I dare-say we could have looked after you." said Rocky Clearwater.

"We all know why she never told us." said his brother quietly but I could detect some resentment from him.

"It's okay, Mr Clearwater, uncle Remus took care of me. My childhood was quite fine."

He frowned, "Call me Rocky."

"So Miley, you know Rhine was a good friend of mine? Yeah, so forgive me for saying this but I was really surprised to learn that your dad was Sirius Black. I guess I always expected her to end up with James Potter." Mrs Clearwater said. I almost chocked on my food.

Uncle Remus snorted, "She was a big fan of James while at school." he agreed. This was getting really weird fast. I looked around the table. Ginny was talking animately with Louis, while his father kept casting me glances as though he could not believe Rhine had a child. 

"Oh Eleanor dear, do you remember where we put those old pictures of dear Rhine?" asked Grandma.

 Mrs Clearwater frowned, "I'll look for them but not today. Ari can help me tommorrow." she said. 

I turned to Penelope "So, how have you been?" I asked her. 

"I'm okay. I've been job hunting for a while and I almost wish I was back at school!" she sighed. You and me both sister.

"Ari and Penelope, clear the table please." their mother said. 

Rocky stood up."Thanks for the meal Eleanor but I have to go. I got a hot date tonight! Nice meeting you Miley. And Remus, man thank for raising Rhine's little girl. Bye guys."

"Oh Rocky, when will you settle down?" his mother asked but Rocky just waved. 

"Come visit again soon!" called Louis. "And bring the hot girl over!"

We stayed for a while longer as Ginny and I chatted with Louis and Ariana.

I slept late because Ginny and I kept talking into the night.