"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Still no. Black, come and get your daughter before I curse her!"
Alex rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest, Nymphadora gives her a sympathetic smile patting her on the shoulder as she grabs her broom, "Maybe next time, Alex."
"Why can't she go?" Sirius questions sticking up for his daughter.
Moody rolls his eyes, "When we let her go to the market last week to get food you didn't quit complaining and almost cried when she was two minutes late."
"I just worry," He shrugs placing his arm around Alex's shoulders, "Maternal instinct."
"You have the same amount of maternal insect as a Hamster."
"Why thank you, Jelly bean."
"That's not good, Dad, Hamsters eat their young."
Sirius looks at his daughter who shrugs and walks into the kitchen with Mrs. Weasley and Remus. "She's too much like you." Tonks comments with a chuckle.
"That's the best compliment you have ever given me. And when you were six you told me I looked like Brain May."
"I don't think that was supposed to be a compliment."
"Have you seen his hair? Amazing!"
~~~~~
Mad-Eye leads the group into the house, Harry following behind. Alex sits against the wall asleep, she had tried waiting for them but had fallen asleep the moment she sat down, a small knitted blanket rests across her, no one had the heart to wake her.
Moody shakes her awake as he passes, "Black, get up!"
She groans and grips the blanket wrapping it further around herself and leaning further back into the wall.
"Harry."
"Mrs. Weasley."
Harry smiles at the older witch returning her motherly hug that he has missed the past few weeks, "Heavens, you're all right. Bit peaky, but I'm afraid dinner will wait until after the meeting's finished. Nope. No time to explain. Straight upstairs, first door on the left," She points him in the right direction, "Oh, Harry, dear, take Alex will you, she's been waiting for you, she fell asleep."
"Yeah." Harry shakes her but she pushes him away, with a sigh he lifts her up from the floor and carries her up the stairs.
"Mudblood, werewolves, traitors, thieves. If my poor mistress knew the scum they let into her house... what would she say to old Kreacher? Oh, the shame."
Harry stops half way up the stairs and looks at the old House Elf that walks past.
"Freaks."
"There, there, mistress. Scum of the earth. Not like it was in the days of my fathers. Kreacher is here."
Harry kicks open the door still holding onto the sleeping Alex, he jumps almost dropping the girl when Hermione attacks him in a hug, "Oh, Harry. Are you all right? We overheard them talking about the Dementor attack."
Ron walks over taking Alex from him and setting her down on the bed in the room, "You must tell us everything."
"Let the man breathe, Hermione." Ron says as he gently lays the blanket over Alex.
"And this hearing at the Ministry. It's just outrageous. I've looked it up. They simply can't expel you. It's completely unfair." Hermione continues on.
Ron rolls his eyes and Harry tries to hide his laughter, he smirks slightly at his two best friends watching as Ron lays a protective hand on Alex's shoulder.
"Yeah. There's a lot of that going round at the moment. So, what is this place?" He asks looking around.
"It's headquarters. Of the Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret society. Dumbledore formed it back when they fought You-Know-Who."
"It's also Alex's house," Ron adds glancing around at the room that belonged to one of Sirius old family members, "It's where she and Sirius have been living."
"Couldn't have put any of this in a letter, I suppose? I've gone all summer without a scrap of news." Harry said bitterly.
"We wanted to write, mate. Really, we did." Ron says sincerely.
"Only..." Hermione trails off with a sigh and moves to sit down.
"Only what?"
Hermione sighs again and glances up at him, "Only Dumbledore made us swear not to tell you anything."
"Dumbledore said that?" The pair nod and Harry sighs turning away in frustration, "But why would he keep me in the dark? Maybe I could help. I'm the one who saw Voldemort return... the one who fought him, who saw Cedric Diggory get killed."
"Harry." Fred says appearing in the room.
"Thought we heard your dulcet tones. Don't bottle it up, though, mate. Let it out."
"If you're all done shouting..."
"Do you wanna hear something a little more interesting?"
They all nod and the twins look around spotting their third partner in crime asleep beside their brother, "Alex, get up."
"Five more minutes, Remy, this is a good dream."
They all shake their heads at her, "Wanna cause some travel."
"Always." She says suddenly wide awake.
"If anyone has a right to know, it's Harry. If it wasn't for Harry... we wouldn't even know Voldemort was back. He's not a child, Molly."
"But he's not an adult either." Molly bites back, "He's not James, Sirius."
"Well, he's not your son."
"He's as good as. Who else has he got?" Molly asks.
Alex leans closer to Ron, trying to hear the conversation going on downstairs, he instinctively wraps and arm around her waist, "He's got me."
"How touchingly paternal, Black," Snape drawls out, "Perhaps Potter will grow up to be a felon, just like his godfather. And how good of a job you have done with your daughter, exactly like you, a trouble maker."
"Now, you stay out of this, Snivellous. And don't you dare talk about Jellybean that way."
"Snape's part of the Order?" Harry asks looking between them all.
They all nod, "Git." Fred and Alex say in usion.
"...about your supposed reformation."
"I know better."
"So why don't you tell him?"
Suddenly Crookshanks appears and begins to attack the ear, "Get off it."
"Crookshanks! No! Stupid cat... Jellybean!" Alex's cat looks up upon hearing her name, she glances at Crookshanks who is a few steps away from her then back to the others before resuming to pamper herself.
"Get it up." George orders.
"Crookshanks. Stop it."
They try to pull up the ear only for the cat to get a stronger grip, "Get off, you bloody cat."
"Crookshanks. Leave it alone."
"Hermione, I hate your cat."
"Bad, Crookshanks."
~~~~~
"Well, we'll be eating down in the kitchen."
The twins apparate beside their mother making her yelp and jump, "Just because you're allowed to use magic now... does not mean you have to whip your wands out for everything." She says hitting them as they run into the kitchen,
"Hi, Mum." Ginny says quietly squeezing past.
"You hungry, Harry?" Molly asks.
Arthur appears by his wife's side smiling at the boy, "You sure you're all right, Harry? Gave us quite a turn."
Alex begins to walk back up the stairs, going unnoticed by most of the group, she drags her feet tiredly behind her, "Stupid-stupid blood traitors."
"Away with ya, Kreacher. Bloody menace." She says in annoyance.
The house elf drags himself away as she continues to climb the stairs to her room, throwing herself onto the bed that creaks slightly.
She didn't have to share her room, there was enough rooms for a few people to have their own, Ginny and Hermione got their own rooms too, but the boys have had to share.
Alex looks up when there's a knock on her door, Ron pokes his head inside with a smile, "You're not hungry?"
"I need sleep." She says grabbing her black dog stuffed animal and hugging it to her chest, Ron chuckles closing the door behind himself and sitting down beside her on the bed.
She looks up at him and then shifts closer to the wall creating space for him, he hesitates for a second before laying down on his back and staring at the ceiling, she copies his actions, their arms brushing together in the small bed as they look at the tacky glow in the dark stars on her wall.
"You see that?" She points to a cluster of stars right above her bed and he nods, "That's Sirius, Dad though it'd be funny to organise them into constellations, have no idea what that one down there is supposed to be through."
She points to one near her bedroom door, it just looks like a bunch of stars lazily stuck together forming a sort of cross, "Does he know?"
"I don't think so." She admits with a breathy chuckle allowing her arm to drop back down, it brushes against Ron's sending tingles through both of their arms.
They lay in silence, allowing the moon and the street lamps to be the only light getting into the room. They can hear some people retreating to their rooms, Ginny, who is in the room below says goodnight to Harry from across the hall before closing her door.
It must be late now, around midnight, maybe one in the morning. Alex doesn't have an alarm clock, or a normal clock so she can't really tell what the time is.
Laying there, with one of his best friends Ron has the sudden urge to take her hand, to cover her small ones with his large ones. To see if they'll fit perfectly together. He's brought from his thoughts when he feels Alex shift beside him. Looking down he finds her sleep, the teddy still wrapped in one arm but her other thrown across his chest.
He flushes red but smiles down at her, moving his hand to push the strand of hair from her face. Then he moves himself into a more comfortable position falling asleep beside his best friend while his mind searches for an answer of what this feeling in his stomach could possibly be?