Reflections - Mattheo Riddle

I'm still being followed?

Kirra whipped around. Sirius's untidy dark head was sitting in the fire again.

'Hi,' he said, grinning.

'Hi,' chorused the Hufflepuff and the Slytherins, all four kneeling down on the hearthrug. Whisker's purred loudly and approached the fire, trying, despite the heat, to put his face close to Sirius's. Jasper carefully scooped him up in his arms and put the cat on his lap. 

'How're things?' said Sirius.

'Not that good,' said Kirra, as Jasper pulled Whiskers back to stop him singeing his whiskers. 'The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means Gryfindor have not been allowed to have Quidditch teams, we got permission but we need teams to v –'

'Or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?' said Sirius. There was a short pause.

'How did you know about that?' Kirra demanded.

'You want to choose your meeting places more carefully,' said Sirius, grinning still more broadly. 'The Hog's Head, I ask you.' 

'Well, I didn't choose the ruddy place!' said Kirra defensively. 'The Three Broomsticks would have been better since its so full of people...'

'Why would that be better?' Theodore asks in confusion

'It means you'd have been harder to overhear,' said Sirius.

'You've got a lot to learn, Nott.'

'Who overheard us?' Kirra demanded.

'Mundungus, of course,' said Sirius, and when they all looked puzzled he laughed. 'He was the witch under the veil.'

'That was Mundungus?' Kirra said, stunned. 'What was he doing in the Hog's Head?'

'What do you think he was doing?' said Sirius impatiently. 'Keeping an eye on you, of course.'

'I'm still being followed?' asked Kirra angrily.

'Yeah, you are,' said Sirius, 'and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is help organise an illegal defence group.'

But he looked neither angry nor worried. On the contrary, he was looking at Kirra with distinct pride.

'Why was Dung hiding from us?' asked Jasper, sounding disappointed. 'We'd've liked to've seen him.'

'He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago,' said Kirra, turning to face Jasper

Sirius nodded,  'and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately ... anyway ... first of all, Em – I've sworn to pass on a message from Remus.'

'Oh yeah?' said Kirra, sounding apprehensive.

'He says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defence Against the Dark Arts group. He says you'll be expelled for sure and Hogwarts is the safest place for you, so you need to not do anything that would get you kicked out. He also doesn't want you boys participating either. He says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. Though he accepts that he has no authority over any of you and simply begs you all to remember that he has your best interests at heart.'

Kirra rolled her eyes but couldn't help but grin a bit. She wasn't going to listen, but there was a nice nostalgic feeling erupting in her as Remus yet again tried to keep her out of trouble. 

'Remus would have written all this to you, but if the owl had been intercepted you'd all have been in real trouble, and he can't say it for himself because he's on duty tonight.'