𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 | 𝐡. 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝟐𝟑 - 𝐥𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡

"You stick it in there, turn the dual to five minutes, give it a stir and pop it in for another five minutes." explained Ophelia as she gestured to the microwave, trying her best to make the knobs, dials and digital clock look as intimidating as Sirius' stare made it out to be, "Then you take it out, leave it on the side for a minute to cool and then you can eat it, I've written it all down there just in case you forget." as she handed Sirius the note which had been placed on top of the tub of leftover stew from the freezer.

The poor man looked like she had just handed him a bomb and instructions to defuse it.

Ophelia put her hand on his shoulder and said "You'll be fine, if you don't want stew there is plenty of stuff in the fridge you can have, like a sandwich or a slice of carrot cake?"

"Can't I just come as a dog Moony?" Sirius complained, turning to Remus who was pulling on his jacket.

Shaking his head, "I do believe Penelope is alergic to dogs, so best not risk it."

"Quick question, are any of your aunts single?"

Ophelia gave him a coy grin before explaining, "Well Aunt P went through a very brutal divorce with uncle Henry and has sworn off all men and I believe Aunt D is engaged to Sophie from Honeydukes in Hogsmede."

"Oh. Well, nevermind then, you don't have any more relatives?"

"My grandmother but she's been unhappily married to my grandfather for 50 years now..."

Sirius shuddered, "I would rather keep my distance from old Mary if you don't mind, she did always remind me of my own mother... no offence."

"None taken, she can be vile to me sometimes too."

Sirius and Remus whipped their heads to look at her intensely, eyebrow raised she realised she shouldn't have said anything about it at all, she knew her father had a very sensitive relationship with his mother in law as it was... but any mention of Mary so much as giving Ophelia the side-eye sometimes had her father flying off the rails in a mad rage.

Remus did not want to disrespect his late-wifes mother, so he would often prefer for Ophelia to only interact with her cousins and aunts who were much more pleasant and warm to converse with and they most definitely wouldn't say anything hurtful to their niece, if anything Daphne wanted to overcompensate for the lack of her mother and would cook things that she and Gwen made at home when they were still living under their mother's roof but she was at work for the day.

"What has she said?" asked Remus, voice calm and levelled but the look in his eyes was plain enough that Ophelia knew she had to be careful on what she said, as Sirius ever so carefully played with a butter knife in his fingers.

"Oh you know... everything I said from last summer, I haven't seen her since." she told him

Remus pursed his lips but knew she couldn't lie about that, he knew she hadn't stepped foot out of the house aside from Harry's Birthday and The World Cup, so it was nothing to be concerned over.

"Should we go?" she asked him, grabbing her jacket also, not that she would need it, it was a particularly sunny morning and it was meant to get hotter throught the day, she couldn't wait. So she had equipped herself with a pair of beige drill shorts and a tank green tank top with a large flanel shirt over the top, left unbuttoned. Her black battered high-top converse on her feet with socks so she didn't get blisters.

Remus nodded, "Please try not to burn our home down padfoot, we'll be back late this evening."

"No promises, have a good time." said Sirius, sitting down on the couch with his cup of tea, he left the back door open so he could enjoy the summer heat still while he watched a couple of the VHS tapes Ophelia left out for him.