Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(86) Who

The disadvantage about having close friends was the fact that they knew it was within their rights to visit one of their closest friends' house unannounced. In Florence's case, it was the most terrible situation, given the person that she and her mum were concealing from the world. She had hoped, for the entire duration of the summer that both Nicolai and Xander will have the decency to actually owl first before coming over.

But sadly, the odds were not in her favor. She and Sirius had been sitting in her bedroom, two weeks have gone by without any mishaps with Florence's friends. He was teaching her how to play a song on her guitar when the front door had slammed close rather loudly, making their eyes go wide. Nicolai's loud voice followed the sudden interruption, which made Florence freeze momentarily in place.

Nicolai was supposed to be at her Nan's house in the countryside for 3 more days. Why was she back?

"Floooooo!!" Nicolai half yelled, the two hearing her heavy footsteps trudging up the stairs. She and Sirius scrambled to get the guitar paraphernalia out of the way. Sirius couldn't really head out of the room, as Nicolai would surely see him. So he risked it, and dove under Florence's bed, just in time as Nicolai strode in to her room.

"There you are... Why's your door wide open? I thought you were in the bathroom or something."

"No," Florence nervously chuckled, "Just here. Sitting on my bed and contemplating life."

"Why didn't you hear me, though?"

"I spaced out," she flashed her an apologetic look, "Sorry."

"It's fine....." Nicolai's voice trailed off as she scanned the state of her friend's room. The duvets on her bed looked extremely messy. Too messy to have been caused by one person sitting. And Florence was always neat and tidy, especially when it came to making her own bed. Nicolai grew suspicious.

"Did you...." She frowned, "Did you have a boy in here?"

"A boy? Pfft, no? Who would I even have in my room?"

"Fred...Obviously. Was he here? Did he visit you?"

"No. No one was here," Florence said again.

"Well, speaking of him...Does your mum know already? About you and him? You know it wouldn't be fair if you didn't let him meet your mum when he let you meet his." Nicolai pointed out, to which Florence was too worried about Sirius getting caught to respond properly.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. We talked. I told her about Fred and all. She wants to meet him, too, but I haven't arranged it yet," she latched on to Nicolai's arm, trying to swerve her out of the room without looking suspicious. "So why'd you come over? How was your trip to your nan's house? Spare no details, we'll—"

They heard a loud thump from under Florence's bed, Nicolai's brows raised in surprise. "What was that?" she asked curiously, detaching herself from Florence, inching closer to the bed, "What? Didn't hear anything."

"No, no. I did. It sounded like it came from under your bed." Nicolai muttered. Florence braced herself, as she watched Nicolai pull up her covers that exposed the bottom of her bed frame, mind racing as she thought of all the ways in which she could explain why Sirius Black was in her house without Nicolai freaking out.

"A dog!" her friend exclaimed, Florence feeling the weight being pushed off of her chest. A big black dog came crawling out from under, licking Nicolai's face in a friendly gesture. She loved dogs, and was immediately engrossed in animagus-Sirius that her suspicion diminished.