The Mudblood

Chapter 78 : Year 4

"Narcissa—Malfoy? And Bellatrix—er—"

"Lestrange, yes," Lupin finished with a sigh. "I didn't want you to think differently of Andromeda because of her family, which was why I said nothing."

"She's—Draco Malfoy's aunt? And that means—Nymphadora's his cousin," I blurted incredulously. "And that would make you—er—"

"His second uncle, perhaps?" Sirius suggested with a nonchalant shrug. "I try not to associate myself with any of them in any way. I'm sure Andie does the same... Now, enough talk about that. Remus and I have important Order business to discuss—"

"Can't we hear?" I insisted, looking around at the hopeful teenagers and then back to the two uneasy adults.

"Er—perhaps when you're older, Lainey," Lupin began. "Perhaps when all of you are older—"

"—meaning no for now," Sirius concluded bluntly. "You're simply too young. Remus and I are the only two adults here now, though, meaning if we step out of the room, you all are free to drink as much butterbeer as you desire."

"Wicked," the twins enthused before retreating to where the butterbeer was stored in the back cupboard.

"I would tell them not to drink any of the hard liquor, but I doubt they'll listen," Sirius noted ponderingly. "Oh well. Tell Tonks we'll be in the library if she happens to show up."

"There's a library in this house?" I questioned, thinking somberly about the fact that my brothers all lived in a space that was probably smaller than this basement.

"Yes, there is," Hermione replied briskly as the two adults strolled up the stairs. "It's nice."

"You would know," Ron snorted. "She spends half of her bloody days in there."

"And here we are," George sang as he and Fred waltzed out of the cupboard with their arms full of butterbeer.

"One for you, Fitz—and Ginny—and—no Ron, that's not for you, it's for Hermione," Fred insisted as he shoved a bottle in Hermione's face. "Drink up."

"You two put something in these, didn't you?" Hermione questioned, staring hard at the bottle of butterbeer in her hands. "What's in here?"

"Nothing," George said as he handed bottles to Harry and Ron.

"Nothing at all," Fred agreed before taking a sip of his own butterbeer.

"Let's sit," Ginny suggested as she stepped toward the long wooden table that took up much of the space in the basement. "I want to hear more about your Christmas, Lainey."

"It was nothing too eventful," I assured them as we all took a seat at the table: Ginny and Fred positioned themselves on either side of me, with George next to Fred as well, while the trio sat across from us. "Evan tried to propose to Astoria, which was disturbing."

"Who would want to marry her?" Ron questioned, his nose crinkling in disgust. "I only had to spend a few hours with her at the Yule Ball and I know she's mental."

Fred and George began to snicker through sips of butterbeer. "Ronniekins went to the Ball with Greengrass..."

Normally, I may have come to Astoria's defense, but after the way she'd acted yesterday, I was more than perturbed by her.

"We saw Lockhart at St. Mungo's," Ginny put in weakly. "That was a bit disturbing as well..."

"Oh yeah, he's definitely mental," Ron agreed before taking a large gulp of butterbeer.