"You know," Abigail began as her and her father walked down the street with Tonks trailing behind them, "You could do with a bit of a makeover." She pulled on the sleeve of his sweater, "You look like you've been living on the streets for months now."
He narrowed his eyes at his daughter, "Filter, Abigail. Remember the filter."
"I don't think I need a filter in this instance," she countered before glancing back at Tonks, "He looks like a homeless man, right?"
"I'm staying out of this," she stated and Abigail frowned. The auror's normally bubblegum pink hair was now a dull brown and most of her normal metamorphmagus powers had stalled out.
"I think..." she began, "Maybe we should stop by and say hello to Sirius?" Abigail was walking backwards now so that she was facing both her father and Tonks, "Assuming he's home."
"What are you stalling for?" Lupin inquired, "I'm surprised you're not more adamant about joining your friends as soon as possible."
"I'm not stalling," she countered, "I would be more than happy to join them now but you said no. If I ask again, I'm afraid you may disown me."
He rolled his eyes, "I suppose we can stop by and see Sirius."
"Aha!" she exclaimed as she turned back around with an extra hop in her step, "He understands my humor more than you do and therefore makes great company." She glanced back at her father quickly, "Not that you're bad company...you can just be kind of bland."
Lupin shook his head at his daughter as they made their way to Grimmauld's Place where Sirius was currently a resident.
She entered the building quickly and ran up the stairs leaving Lupin and Tonks in the dust. "Sirius..." she began as she looked around the house but she stopped when she saw who was also in the room with him. "Oh," she began when Harry as well as Dumbledore looked up at her. She glanced back at where her father was no doubt about to emerge soon, "Oh, no. He's going to kill me."
She turned around quickly just as he emerged, "I swear, I had absolutely no idea he was here. I was serious when I said that I wanted to say hello to Sirius." She glanced back at Harry who seemed confused, "Not that it's not great to see you." She turned back to her father, "Sorry."
He rolled his eyes at his daughter before he walked further into the room, Tonks right behind him. "Dumbledore," he greeted, "Harry."
"Harry, Abigail," Sirius spoke up, "You two can go catch up in another room." Lupin narrowed his eyes at his friend but he simply brushed it off. "Just be quiet."
Abigail and Harry left the adults to discuss whatever it was they needed to discuss and walked up the stairs.
"Are you going to the Burrow?" Harry inquired.
"I honestly have no idea," she replied. "It took me long enough to convince my dad to even let me go back to school this year. He doesn't want me to leave his sight."
"Because of the Prophecy?"
"Mostly, yes," she nodded. "He thinks someone from the other side is going to kidnap me or something. I explained that they would only kidnap me if they knew what made me so...unique and they would do it whether I was at Hogwarts or not. It took awhile but eventually...not soon enough, but eventually he came around."
"Can you blame him?"
"You think he's right?"
"Well...no, not entirely. I just don't blame him for being worried," he explained. "I'm worried."
Abigail smiled at this, "You do realize you're in far more danger than I am, right?"
"Thanks for the reminder."
"I live to please," she grinned before they settled down on a bench that rested in the hallway. "How bad do you think it's going to get?"
"No doubt worse than the first time around," he frowned. "But this time we'll know the odds are in our favor."
"Why's that?"
"Because the secret weapon's on our side," he pointed out and Abigail whacked him on the arm.
"You would think I was worth more than my powers."
He rolled his eyes as he put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. She happily rested her head on his shoulder as he spoke, "Speaking of, how is that going?"
"Oh!" she exclaimed and he covered his ear that she had just yelled in. "Sorry," she apologized quickly. "But I've learned a new trick!"
"Yeah?" he laughed at the girl's enthusiasm as he rubbed his ear, "What's that?"
'I can communicate with people without even opening my mouth.'
His mouth dropped open as he stared at the girl in awe, he pointed at his head, "You just...but how."
"No idea," she shrugged, "We were working on the whole looking at the world through Voldemort's eyes thing and my father wouldn't stop talking about how he thought it was dangerous. I told him to shut up without opening my mouth. I didn't even mean to, I truthfully just thought it and apparently, I like, sent the thought to him or something. We worked on that for awhile and now I've mastered it."
"Your father must love that one."
"Oh, yes," Abigail nodded with a smile, "I use it to annoy him all the time. It's honestly one of the few good things to come from this." She frowned slightly, "There's still not much progress on the main goal. I get snippets here and there but nothing substantial like it is when I do it with someone I know. However, I can control when it happens so I don't accidentally slip into someone else's mind. If the emotional pull is strong enough, it can happen but I'm usually good at getting out. I always thought that was kind of creepy."
"And the dreams?"
"I've been keeping a dream journal when I can remember them," she explained but shook her head, "Anyways. Enough about me, I want to hear about you. Well, the stuff we didn't discuss in the letters."
"That's the difference between you and me," he pointed out as he grabbed the girls hand gently and examined the scars that remained from last year, "When you go home from Hogwarts, you get to stay in the Wizarding World. I get to return to the muggle world where all that's waiting for me is my aunt and uncle's glares and my cousin's smelly socks."
"Well if it's any consolation, my father probably smells worse than your cousins smelly socks."
"Filter, Abigail," her father spoke from the top of the stairs and she jumped.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"Harry, it's time for you to go," Lupin stated before he walked back down the stairs.
The pair stood up from the bench and faced each other. Their hands remained intertwined as Abigail looked up at him, "So I will see you at some point in the near future."
"I'm holding you to that."
She smiled up at him before she stood up on her tip toes and placed a kiss on his lips. Harry was quick to respond as he moved his hand to the side of her face and deepened the kiss.
"Harry!" Lupin exclaimed and the two jumped apart.
"I'm gonna..." Harry began, pointing toward the stairs.
Abigail nodded, "Mmhmm."
He started to walk backwards but there was a loose floorboard and he stumbled. Abigail covered her mouth to prevent herself from laughing. Harry looked up at her sheepishly, "Bye."
"Bye," she grinned before he made his way down the stairs.
There was a light thump and Harry mumbled, "Ow."
Abigail rolled her eyes at her father's behavior before rejoining the other downstairs. She entered the room and Harry as well as Dumbeldore were already gone, leaving Lupin, Tonks and Sirius.
"Tonks is heading home but we're going to stay here for the night," Lupin explained and Abigail nodded.
Abigail turned to Tonks and smiled, "I'll walk you out?"
The two made their way toward the exit and Abigail faced Tonks, "My father..." she began cautiously, "He's a stubborn man. The world he grew up in warped his views and because of that he truthfully believes that he's a disgrace. And then my mother...Anyway, my point is, give him time and maybe he'll turn around. But don't lose yourself in the process, okay? I miss the pink hair."
Tonks smiled sadly, "You're a good person, you know that?"
"So I've been told," Abigail smiled back.
"I mean it," she nodded, "Not many people are truly good at heart. You're a lot more like your father then you like to lead people to believe."
"I'll see you around?" the girl inquired.
Tonks nodded and they said a quick goodbye before Abigail made her way back to where Sirius and Lupin were talking.
"So..." Abigail trailed off, "What's for dinner?"