The Summoning

THE MIDNIGHT DUEL

Remus fidgeted with the book in his hands for a moment, waiting for Sirius to react beside him for some sort of clue, but when that didn't seem forthcoming Remus tried to offer it to him, asking, "Sirius, did you want a turn?"

Sirius' dark gray eyes held Remus' for only a moment, but it was the longest he'd looked at him this whole time, so Remus took that as a win as much as his hands darting out and snatching the book away while he muttered, "guess I might as well, everyone else in here will be at some point."

As he read out the chapter title, his voice still sounded shotty at best from disuse, but Remus couldn't care about that one bit. Getting Sirius to read would be the most he'd talked this whole time, and Remus was now considering trying to convince him to read the rest of the book if he could just keep hearing his voice.

Arthur however turned begrudging eyes on mostly his son, but still at least trying to caution Harry, "and exactly how much of a good idea does that sound like?"

Ron instantly began promising he would not repeat the mistake of being anywhere at midnight, let alone dueling, while Harry uneasily agreed at his side, clear fear flashing off of him at finally realizing he was in fact doing something wrong in here.

Mr. Weasley wasn't exactly shouting though, nor really threatening violence, he looked more exasperated at what he and Ron might be getting up to than anything.

When his dad turned away, looking more like waiting for the ball to drop than actually angry, Ron leaned in to whisper to Harry, "just be glad my mum isn't here, she'd go bonkers on us dueling anywhere."

Harry gave a small return smile, not able to deny he'd still like to meet Ron's mother, or anyone's mother that wasn't Aunt Petunia.

Sirius' hands held the little object awkwardly, his right hand didn't seem able to curl all the way around properly from where his knuckles had swollen, but he managed to start without showing any discomfort.

"I believe you can hate two people in equal measure," Tonks told him wisely, "so just reserve some for both."

"I'm not going to let you keep giving advice to my brother and his friend if you keep that kind of stuff up," Charlie scolded her, though there wasn't one bit of him showing he disagreed.

Sirius had been trying to read in as monotone a way as he could, emotions were still new to him in general and he wasn't much enjoying the audience, but he'd never deny the spike of interest that got him when he heard about this!

Charlie sighed and said a few choice things about this, elaborating when his brother asked, "I'd pay my weight to have been there for Tonks' first flying lesson, I can only imagine how she managed to knock herself out without leaving the ground."

Tonks smacked him a good one for that, though didn't look remotely embarrassed as she stated, "If I hadn't, we might never have become friends." Turning to Ron and asking, "didn't he ever tell you we met in the Hospital Wing that day?" When Ron shook his head and looked on for more, Tonks smirked and explained, "Charlie decided to spend his first flying lesson by trying to show off, and ramming into a tree, broke his collarbone in three places."

"Madam Pomfrey fixed it in a second," Charlie promised at once as his dad's eyes fell on him.

"I was coming around just as he was complaining he wanted to go back down and try again," Tonks laughed. "Instead we were stuck in there the rest of the evening, you know how she is with her paranoia there might be 'complications,'" she overly emphasized the quote, "been hanging around each other whenever we could ever since."

Remus opened, then closed his mouth, fighting back the impulse to tell Harry how ridiculous that was, flying was in his blood. It was almost comical that any child of James wouldn't be as self assured in the air as the father.