What Sirius never said

Chapter 67

As was tradition, the first night of our holiday we were hosted by the Cleverlys for dinner. Their house wasn't much bigger than ours and now that we had all grown up (and brought friends) it was quite a squish around their dining table.
The room that we ate in was long and thin with great views out over the beach, around the bay and out to sea. It looked like a regular muggle coastal house, but dotted around the room was the occasional artefact which would have been out of place in the muggle world. A Cornish pixie preserved in amber, ticket stubs from the quidditch world cup, or a band poster of 'the drunken goblins'. I watched as Sirius took it all in, from the stick figure drawings that Paige had done as a child, to the photograph of Judy and Colm Cleverly with Alastair Moody.
"It's so subtle" he commented after a while. "If you didn't know they were wizards..."
Andy, who was sat opposite Sirius, laughed. "It took the Greenwoods long enough to work it out".
"Ach, Andy, can you blame us?" Dad chimed in.
"Dad had found this cottage for rent in a muggle holiday cottage brochure" I started the story, filling Sirius and Sophie in together.
"This was long ago, mind" Dad chimed in. "Long before Adam went to school." The room fell silent, listening to his rendition of the story.
"But we wanted to go on a family holiday in the summer and I found this place. Like Trudy said, it were listed in the muggle literature. So we wrote some letters and sent them in the muggle post and the reply came the same way. The house were free and ours for the taking. So we rocked up here, Delphine, Adam, Trudy and I, and we find these great hosts. Friendly as can be. And on the last night of our holiday they invite us over for dinner. Bearin' in mind that we've all been actin' like muggles the whole time we've been down here. And the kids have all been playing together all week".
"We were only kids mind, so we couldn't exactly do much but pretend to be muggle" I interjected.
"And then on the last night, we comes over here for dinner, kids disappear upstairs to play whatever game they fancy, and we take a moment to look around. And right there, bold as brass on the sideboard, is a picture of Judy and Colm with Luc DeBaton, an old school friend of Delphine's. So she turns around an says 'oh you know Luc, I went to school with him' and Judy and Colm slide straight into conversation as if they knew we was wizards the whole time. It was a hoot" his laugh rumbled round the room as others joined in.
"See us kids had worked it out too" Adam joined in, leaning in conspiratorially. "Turns out, having a Hogwarts trunk in your room isn't quite so subtle if people know what Hogwarts is, is it Andy?"
Andy stuck his tongue out in return.
"But the fun we had that week, trying to pretend we were normal" Judy chimed in. "Paige was only just starting to show signs of magic. I remember one morning you stopped by for some milk. I had to shut the door behind me when I gave it to you because she was having a marvelous time bounding around on the ceiling".
"Ay and you had to convince us that Colm was a detective. When we asked him what he did, Sirius, he looked us straight in the eye and said 'I hunt down the bad guys'. Never imagined he were an auror".
"Yes but didn't you say something particularly dodgy too Bobby?" Andy retorted in high spirits. "You said, and I quote, 'I'm a green grocer and I source other bits and bobs people might need on the side.' Mum and dad were convinced you were a drug dealer! They were so relieved when they realised that other bits and bobs just meant potions ingredients".
"Ah well" Dad sighed, "I've learnt my lesson there. I only say I'm a greengrocer now and leave off the bits and bobs" I chuckled into my stew. It was good to reminisce. I glanced around at all the smiling, happy family around me, at Paige watching Sophie out of the corner of her eye, at my parents and Judy, at Andy, Adam and Sirius all seated round me laughing. This was home. I loved this. Sirius glanced over at me and I could see it in his face. He felt the same. I gave his leg a squeeze under the table and he grinned openly at me before Andy dragged him back into conversation.
"So Sirius. I know you don't care about Padleigh. And I don't care about quidditch, so sports is off the cards. What's your opinion on music?"