Existing in Radiance

Chapter Twenty-Three | Grimmauld Place, August 1995

“Get out of my house.” Growled Sirius, and Sonia shivered; she’d never heard her godfather speak like that. It was truly frightening.

“You cannot banish me from coming to meetings -”

“No, but I can banish you from my house.” Sirius stepped out of sight to the twins, and they could only guess what sort of look their father was receiving. “Don’t ever cross my threshold again – and if I ever hear that you have laid eve a finger on Hazel or the twins, I will make sure your life is cut quite short.”

It sounded as if someone were walking away, and Sonia thawed; flying down the stairs, she just saw the door slam shut.

“No!” she cried, bounding across the foyer and throwing open the door, only to see a twist of black robes disappear from the bottom step. “No!”

Andrew stood in the doorway, watching his sister shout at air – he knew Sonia wanted to meet their father, but honestly didn’t feel the connection. He was not a good man, he knew that much; Remus had told him that he had betrayed Hazel long ago, used her for quite some time before they conceived the twins.

“Sonia, come back inside…”

Turning to her twin, Sonia gave him a tearful, fiery look “He’s our father, Andy – blood. I can’t just forget he exists.”

Going down the steps, he pulled her into a hug “He hurt Mamma, Sonia.”

“I don’t care,” she said “Maybe somewhere, deep down, he does love Mamma. He could just be waiting.”

“Maybe.” Andrew said it, but he didn’t believe it. The man he had heard, but not seen, had sounded cruel – he didn’t care about Hazel, or even them. The man his mother had fallen in love with wanted power, not family; Andrew didn’t want that sort of person in his life – and not in Sonia’s, either.

            Harry, Ron and Hermione had been appointed to getting more doxy’s out of the curtains the day after the hearing, much to their distaste.

“I can’t believe Hazel’s your Godmother.” Said Ron for the third time “Known her all my life I have, and never knew…Merlin’s mother knickers, the things you learn.”

Hermione rolled her eyes “It’s not that surprising, Ron.”

“I was playing with the Bowen twins since I was four months old!” he defended “And turns out they’re Harry’s god siblings.”

“Is that a thing?” Harry asked, frowning as he tossed another doxy in the bucket.

Shrugging, Ron studied a doxy with disgust “I guess, maybe.”

“Think of it like this Harry,” said Hermione, beaming at him “There’s someone living here who really knew your Mum, who is more family you never knew you had!”

“Yeah, I hadn’t really thought of it like that.” He mused “And my parents were her kids godparents, too. They must have been really good friends.”

“Ask Sirius about it.” Hermione advised “I bet he can tell you a lot about Ms. Bowen and other things about how they all got along before the first war.”

Ron piped up. “You know, the twins –Fred and George I mean – reckon that Sirius was in love with Hazel at some point.”

“Come off it!” Harry cried just as Hermione adopted the look she did when something finally made sense.

“That actually could be true,” she said “Sirius never married, and Remus said he never really had a serious relationship, even after Hogwarts.”

Falling into an old arm chair, dust rising as he did, Ron sighed “Maybe the twins are Sirius’.”

Harry made a face “I don’t think so.”

“That could also make sense, in theory.” Sitting on the arm rest of Ron’s chair, Hermione tossed a pocketful of doxys into the bucket “They have the same symmetry, you know? They all look almost too…I don’t know, perfect.”

Ron shrugged “They’ve always been sort of better looking than everyone else in the crowd, but Hazel’s the same. Mum used to tell us not to stare when she came by for tea, and whenever we went to Diagon Alley with the twins people would always look twice.”

“There’s something familiar about them though, not like Hazel – someone else we know.” Hermione slid to the floor “But we shouldn’t gossip like this; the Bowen twins’ father is none of our business.”

“Right.” Said Harry, but really he wanted to talk about it; he also couldn't tell what, but there was something about the twins that reminded him of someone – and it was no one good, he knew that at least.

A/N: Updates, updates, updates! It's like Christmas came twice.

Question: Do you think the trio will figure it out? What do you think of Hazel and Severus' fight, and of the twins nearly meeting their father? So close!

Rose<3