"Have you- ever been to Uncle Alphard's cottage in Surrey?"
Sirius lowered his newspaper and thought for a second.
"Well- yeah. When I ran away from home at 16. I lived there for a few months and moved to his flat in London." he replied curtly, flipping the page of the Daily Prophet and continued reading.
"What does his cottage look like, though?" I questioned him.
"Er- well ... big," he chuckled. "Bigger than average cottages, but the interior is just – wow."
"Tell me more."
He huffed impatiently, I giggled. "Well, I reckon you already know it's in Surrey. But- it's very well protected by powerful charms. It's invisible to muggles, but luckily, dear Uncle Alphard made sure that cottage had no neighbors."
"And who's the secret keepter?"
"Me." he winked.
"Well, Remus and I have decided once we get married we'll live there, if it's okay with you." I said pleadingly, Sirius stared at me for a few moments before finally saying."
"It's your decision, not mine, so I don't mind." he sighed.
"Promise, I'll visit you here every other day." and at my statement he widely grinned.
"Could you be our secret-keeper."
"Um ... I-I'm not really sure about that-" he said awkwardly.
"I can be," Ana piped up from across the room. "It wouldn't be that obvious, the Death Eaters wouldn't think I'm part of the Order."
"Nice, thanks there, and don't you dare be Pettigrew the second." I warned her, squinting my eyes at her dangerously as she laughed.
"Speaking of the whole Uncle Alphard's cottage thing, where are you off to in such nice clothes?" Sirius mused.
"I'm going there, with a few Ministry officials including Graves in two hours," I replied. "And Ana, would you mind if you go with me there? Graves said it would be better if I bring a chaperone with me.
"You really made me your godmother?" she grinned. "Of course, I'd be glad to."
"Not fair," Sirius pouted like a child and looked over the ticking clock on the wall. "Jesus, it's almost ten o' clock, Moony's been sleeping like a rock. You better wake him up.
"I think it would be better if you stay here today, and leave tomorrow." Remus nodded, wiping the socket of his eye tiredly.
"Hmm, I disagree completely. Graves says my attendance is a must, and besides, I'd be back by the afternoon. Ana's with me." I said with my head shaking, reaching down to tie my leather boots but Remus immediately pounced on me before I could, his tall figure tackling me into the soft mattress of our bed.
"Get off! I need to go —" my voice broke off into fits of hysterical laughter as he embraced me even tighter.
"I need to leave in a minute!" I protested, trying to catch my breath, my words being drowned by laughter.
"I swear to god, Lupin if Sirius and Ana–" I managed to kick him away, he staggered into the floor in a comical way.
He sat and placed his chin on the mattress in a dreamy matter whilst he stared at me.
"Now I see why Tonks says you've been improving in your training," he said with a sheepish grin. "I'm beginning to wonder if you're going to be an efficient Auror."
"Oh shut up." I muttered, finally tying the lace. I felt him sitting beside me as his soft, warm lips brushed against my hair.
"YOU TWO COMING DOWN YET?!" I shot my head up as I heard both Sirius and Ana shout from outside.
"Told you. See you later." I chuckled, kissing him tenderly, I could feel him smile against my lips.
"I swear, I won't be going if you two continue being lovey dovey." Ana groaned, swinging the door open and slamming it close again.
"Alright, I'm coming!" I hollered.
"I love you, sweetheart." Remus whispered to my ear.
"Love you too." I smiled and went out of the room.
"Shall we?" Ana grinned at me.
"We shall." I said as she linked her arms aroud him and we disappeared with a crack.
My feet landed on gravel, crunching under my boots as Ana gripped the material of my jacket tightly as we began to walk.
"Kind of my place to live." I commented, nodding at the small neighborhood at the distance. Dotted trees lined the side, with the leaves slightly rustling in the wind's breeze. It was all quiet, it seemed as though it was a ghost town, but it surely wasn't.
"Ah, Black! Glad you've made it." Graves was now standing right in front of me with two other unfamiliar, female officials from the ministry.
"You scared me a bit," I chuckled, shaking her hand as well as the others. "My friend, Anastasia Dolohov."
Their friendly and calm looks was temporarily replaced with stern and suspicious ones and they carefully shooks hands with her.
"Don't worry. I don't bite." she said with a grin.
"Anyways, follow us." Graves cleared her throat as the two of us walked behind them.
After a few moments, we stopped at the end of the small, lone street. At first, nothing was there but as we waited for about five seconds, my eyes slightly widened at what I saw.
There, nestled into what was once a vacant space, was a medium-sized cottage. It belonged here so absolutely, I never could've believed Uncle Alphard would make sure that his cottage look so simple yet elegant. Ivy and creeping fig climbed across the walls like a lattice, winding all the way up and over the brick walls.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Ana breathed in disbelief.
"Yeah." I said softly.
Graves cleared her throat. "I think it would be best if we know proceed inside."
"Oh, yeah yeah, sorry there." I chuckled in embarassment, gritting my teeth and my cheeks flushed bright pink.
"Mind if I join in, ladies?"
We all slowly turned our heads around together, and to my very shock, he was standing right behind us, wearing a grin across his face. The man Remus and I had met after our engagement.
"Excuse me, sir. Do we know you?" the red-headed official asked, her fingers slowly tracing the wand in her pocket. And the other quickly pressed the end of her wand at his throat, but he showed no sign of vulnerability or whatsoever.
"Must be a Death Eater," the other said darkly, staring at him but he seemed as though he did not care or whatsoever. "And how come you can see this house?"
"Without a doubt, it's dark magic." Graves said, I could feel Ana pulling me to her side.
"Wait," I said loudly. "He's not a death eater."
"Are you mental?" Ana questioned.
"No, erm- we've met before," I told them, he was furrowing his eyebrows in confusion before slowly nodding his head in agreement. "Right after our engagement, we bumped into him. He's really nice."
Graves was raising a brow at me.
"Even if you have to make me drink veritaserum, I am telling the truth." I said firmly.
She huffed impatiently. "Fine, inside now. But keep an eye on him."
He patted my shoulder.
"Hello, again," he chuckled awkwardly as I waggled my eyebrows at him. "Thanks for that back there."
"Anytime."
I coughed once we stepped inside the dusty and dark hallway and lit my wand to see through the room.
"Has anybody touched this house in years?" Ana hissed at Graves, as she lit her wand as well.
"No, as far as we could tell. After Alphard's death, his house-elf died as well after a few weeks. And it hasn't been cleaned our touched ever since. Based on the house' appearance, Sirius Black decided not to occupy it after receiving his fortune." Graves said.
The furniture in the living room was covered with white sheets as we stepped into the large kitchen, and there was a sunroom off the kitchen that was piled with towers of boxes.
"Would you like to head upstairs?" Graves suggested.
"Yes please."
We made our way upstairs, the master bedroom was large and white with an absolutely huge white bed in the center of the room, hung with billowy clouds of mosquito netting. There were three large bedrooms on the other side of the hall, and one large bathroom in the master.
"It'll take probably months to clean and renovate this whole house." Ana sighed heavily.
"No, not really," the brunette piped up, making Ana roll her eyes. "Weeks, yeah but months? I highly doubt it."
"What a show off." she gritted her teeth.
The officials left us for a moment to inspect the other parts of the house, Ana couldn't stand his presence and went upstairs, leaving the two of us in the dusty living room.
"Can I- ask you something?" I spoke after a while of awkward silence.
"Anything." he said with a smile.
"How- did you manage to see the house?" I said incredulously. "Aren't muggles-"
My question was interrupted by his soft laughter. "Isn't that obvious? I'm a wizard, I was passing by in London when I first met you, well I'm often mistaken for a muggle but that's fine." My mouth went slightly ajar and joined in his fits of giggles.
"By the way, I didn't get the chance to introduce myself properly," he grinned and stuck out his hand to mine. "I'm Charles. Charles Dumbledore."
"Selene Black," I shook his hand. "Wait- Dumbledore? Are you by any chance related to the Albus Dumbledore?"
"Well, Aberforth, his brother is my dad. Or my adoptive dad, I should say. I work with him in the Hog's Head." he said.
"Hmm, I've never seen you before during my school years. I was a regular customer of your dad's."
He chuckled. "Well, that's because I'm just starting to work with him. I-I don't really go out of my room that much when there are people. So, I'm the shy type."
"I see." I mumbled absent-mindedly.
"So, Lupin huh?" he flashed a grin again. "Nice choice, I've heard a lot about him from Dad. I've heard he's the kind of friend anybody would want and need."
"He sure is. We'll move here, once we tie the knot." I smiled, Charles reciprocating it and his two eyes fixed on my sapphire ring.
"And," he spoke slowly. "Sirius? H-he's your b-brother?" I nodded. "H-how is he doing?"
"Why'd you ask?" I raised a brow and laughed to myself.
He bit his lower lip and stared off in a distance before answering. "Nothing. You know, Azkaban's really horrible. And, is he really ok?"
"Yeah he is, he desparately wants to get out of the house, he wants to roam around like a free man. But, sadly he still can't." I replied, as he nodded his head slowly and went silent again.
"Wow, you two exchanging backstories without me? Great," Ana muttered sarcastically, eyes trained on Charles and she looked at me. "I see
you and Charles are best friends already."
"Hold on- how'd you-" Charles furrowed his eyebrows.
"Legillimency," Ana smirked, as he nodded with an agape expression. "Anyways Selene, Graves told me that we can renovate and clean this house next week. By mid-March or earlier, the house will look like as it was before."
"Great."
"Graves said we could leave if we like, they'll take care of this place."
"Nice, oh and by the way, Charles?"
"Yeah?"
"How 'bout an invitation to our wedding?" I suggested, his eyes widened with surprise.
"Oh, uhm, I'd love to." he nodded and smiled slowly at me, looking at me with sincere eyes.
I smiled back at him. "Thank you!" I hugged him, and he did the same, but it was tighter much to my slight confusion.
"I- um, you better get going," he said after a while, finally pulling away from our embrace. "Sirius might be worrying about you."
Ana and I laughed. "Oh, he'll be running around the hallways like a small child when we come home."
Charles smiled gently.
"Er- I'll see you at the wedding." he said after a few moments.
I flashed a grin at him. "Grimmauld Place. You can invite Aberforth as well."
"Sounds terrific."
Author's Notes: ARRGGH WRITERS BLOCK AGAIN. I've been really busy with school and never found the energy to write, but thankfully, Christmas break starts next week.
Charles was originally never supposed to appear but due to demand from some people after the 86th chapter, I finally granted their wish.
And, Timmy Chalamet plays Charles <33
See you next week! (or earlier hopefully)
- jxlvpin