After a highly awkward parting at King's Cross Station (in which Amos Diggory made snide digs at Hadrian about being unworthy of being co-champion of the Triwizard Tournament while Sirius made barely-concealed threats to Cedric out of Hadrian's earshot) they all finally reached the Burrow. Heather and Hadrian would floo home the next morning after staying the night, at Mrs Weasley's insistence. Not that they protested much.
It was when they were finished with their hearty dinner that Sirius and Remus asked to speak with them, sombre looks on their faces. A prickle of unease passed through Heather. She wondered what could have made even Sirius look so, well, serious.
Mrs Weasley, bless her, bustled them into Charlie's unoccupied room to give them some privacy. Or as much as they could with one of FredGeorge's Extendable Ears under the door, of course. She rolled her eyes at the rubber ear, flicking up a wandless privacy charm that she knew would work against the listening device. Really, they expected to fool her with one of those things? She'd helped make them!
She sat next to Hadrian, waiting for the two men to start talking. She had a feeling she wouldn't want to be standing for this. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked eventually, when all they did was look at them uncomfortably.
"Well, the other day, Dumbledore asked us and Snape to go to your Aunt's house." Sirius coughed into his hand, nudging for Remus to continue.
Her eyes widened briefly in surprise. She'd known that Professor Snape had visited them, but she didn't expect Sirius and Remus to have gone with him. She'd forgotten to ask him about how that went.
She smiled a little, remembering the talk she'd had with her teacher. She was glad that they had cleared the air. The situation wasn't ideal, but at least they could be friends in private. Her heart beat a little faster when she thought about the hug at the end. She didn't know what had come over her. Professor Snape wasn't exactly someone people thought was huggable, but it had felt nice.
"I hope you pranked them good," Hadrian muttered viciously, snapping Heather out of her thoughts. Sirius smirked weakly and shrugged.
Remus coughed. "Well, about that. That's what we wanted to talk about. I don't know if you know, but the Headmaster originally sent us there to persuade Petunia to take you in again for your protection." Heather nodded sharply. The old man was really presumptuous. She held in a grimace of distaste at the thought of the man. "There might have been a change of plans when we got there, however."
Oh, what did the three wizards do when they were there? She thought about what she'd told Professor Snape and what she knew of his protectiveness. Sighing, she asked "Did you leave them alive, at least? I don't want to have to be your defence counsel again, Sirius."
"Ignore Heather." Hadrian leaned forward eagerly. "Tell me you got rid of the bodies."
"Unfortunately, we didn't kill the bastards." Sirius narrowed his gaze defensively. "How do you know we did something anyway?"
"Hah! As if you'd have been able to hold back. I bet Professor Snape told you some things about our childhood. There's no way he would have allowed us to go back." She trusted her Professor enough to know that he hadn't divulged anything she'd told him in confidence. Besides, if he had, these two would have been much more overbearingly worried.
"So it's all true?" Remus asked haltingly. "About the...abuse?" He cursed himself for the blunt question. Perhaps he should have worded that better. His cubs both frowned. Yep, definitely should have used another word.
"Well, that would depend on what you mean," Heather-flower said wryly. "Yes, we stayed in a cupboard while living there. And there wasn't much food to be had."
"Not to mention that time with the aconite," Hadrian said in a too-cheery voice.
Remus suppressed the instinctive grimace he had at the word. What did Prongslet mean by that?
"Aconite, what, did they poison you or something?" Sirius asked jokingly. Well, not like Remus hadn't been itching to ask. He wouldn't have quite put it like that, though.
"Got it in one! It was good that Heather detected it before we ate." Hadrian shrugged casually, as if it wasn't a big deal that their relatives had tried to murder them.
A furious growl slipped past his lips before he could stop it. Those disgusting muggles had tried to kill his cubs! The irony that it was aconite - wolfsbane - they had used wasn't lost on him.
"We should have maimed them before leaving," Sirius spat furiously. Both Moony and Remus concurred. No one mentioned anything, but he was sure his eyes were currently amber in colour. "At least Snape got to castrate the pig..."
Both his cubs perked up at that little titbit. Suddenly, Remus wished that he had done that himself. Without a spell.
Heather burst into laughter. "Professor Snape really has a castrating spell? I thought he was kidding." Strange, why would Severus be discussing that with his teenaged goddaughter? Not that he was opposed to teaching the cubs that spell.
"I just wish we hadn't apparated away so quickly. I'd like to have heard his screams of pain." Sirius sighed longingly, vindictive pleasure gleaming in his grey eyes.
Hadrian snorted. "It wouldn't have lasted long. He's so unfit, one scream would have knocked all the breath out of him."
"Anyway," Remus inserted, "you two won't be going back there. Not if Siri and I have anything to say about it." Severus, as well, he suspected. He was unexpectedly protective of these two.
Smiling, Heather shook her head. "You two needn't have worried. I'm legal, remember? Headmaster Dumbledore can't force us to do anything. Thanks for everything though."
"Yeah," Hadrian said, nodding, "I bet you played some epic pranks on them, too."
"Sure we did! We gave them the ol' Marauder treatment! Remus spread nasty rumours about them to the neighbours while I jinxed the entire house!" As Padfoot launched into an eager retelling of the spells he'd cast on the Dursleys, Remus ran the whole conversation over again in his head.
There was just something about it that nagged at him. Why was it that Severus had known about the Dursleys and yet he and Sirius only just found out? Had Heather told him? She always spoke of Severus rather fondly, Remus knew. Was it because he was her Head of House? But Remus remembered the dressing down she'd given Sirius for insulting the other man. It didn't seem like just the typical respect a student had for their Professor.
If Remus was being honest, he was rather envious of the relationship they had. They didn't exactly broadcast it, but Remus had the feeling that they were closer than they liked to show. Hell, Heather had sided with Severus against her own godfather! Even after a year or so, Heather still seemed to hold him and Sirius at arm's length. Hadrian liked them well enough, but he mostly took his cues from his sister. He didn't begrudge the siblings their distance, of course. He berated himself every day for not being there for them while growing up, werewolf restriction laws be damned. Still, he hoped that they would eventually be able to trust him more. Or at the very least Sirius, their actual godfather.
At any rate, he was glad that Severus didn't let his hatred for James taint his interaction with his children. Of course, they were Lily's children as well. Perhaps that was why he seemed to have more of an affinity with Heather rather than Hadrian.
He supposed it would take a daughter of Lily's to reach out to the grumpy sourpuss that was Severus Snape.
~~~
"Rian, Icarus is here for you!"
Her brother practically skidded down the stairs, almost tripping over a foot stool. Well, he would have, if not for Heather's quick action in nudging it out of the way with magic.
"Real smooth, Hadrian," Heather said teasingly. His hair was in a mess, clothes rumpled from his mad dash. Despite that, his eyes were glowing with excitement as he made his way towards the elegant eagle owl on their windowsill. (And, really, those owl restriction wards had been a devil to set up. At least they knew their mail was secure. She would have to thank Bill again.) "Another love letter?"
Just a week ago, that comment would have brought a cute blush to his cheeks. Now, though, he just stuck his tongue out and retorted, "Jealous?"
Ahh, they grew up so fast... She sighed and pouted. He wasn't fun anymore. She supposed teasing him every time his daily letter from Cedric came had inured him to the embarrassment.
She waved him off to go read his letter. Speaking of owls, she was still waiting on one from FredGeorge. They would normally have sent her at least two by now. Come to think of it, the only mail they'd gotten was from Gringotts, Cedric, Bill and her one customary greeting from the Greengrass sisters. None from the other Weasleys, Hermione or even Sirius and Remus.
Odd.
Hedwig had even returned in a grumpy mood with her letter for Fred and George undelivered just yesterday, even though that had never happened before. The snowy owl was an excellent postbird and always delivered their mail faster than most others. She had been rather flustered at the failed attempt, the poor dear.
Perhaps they should pop in at the Burrow to check up on the Weasleys? Maybe later, once Hadrian finished with his reply. Experience told her she wouldn't be able to drag him away before that.
At this rate, she'd soon have to pull Cedric aside for a little...chat. Just the two of them. Simply to find out his plans for his relationship with Rian now that he had graduated. Sirius and Remus would probably agree to keep Hadrian occupied for an afternoon. Or perhaps a whole day.
Well, Hadrian would take 2 hours, at least, to finish his letter. Until then, she'd go brew some potions. She'd almost perfected her Runic Potions index. Just a bit more fine-tuning to the equation was needed. Soon, two years of hard work would come to fruition.
She had a brilliant plan for after she graduated. And she was sure the Potions Guild would be very obliging once they read her research.
~~~
Wards were wrapped tightly around the Weasley home. The very empty home.
While there were usually some muggle-repelling and alert wards present, the Burrow had never been so heavily-fortified before. It was understandable for the Weasleys to improve the defence around their home, what with recent events. However, these particular wards weren't designed for mere defence. They were lock-down wards. That in itself told Heather that the Weasleys hadn't just all gone out for some family time. This was meant for securing a home on a more long-term basis. It would be too draining to set up and take down for just short trips outside.
Well.
That wasn't good.
Paranoia made her drag Hadrian home immediately and ramp up all the wards. Something had made the Weasleys decide they needed to evacuate their homestead and secure it as tightly as possible.
"They didn't even tell us anything! Could something have happened to them?" Hadrian mused aloud. He gasped. "Maybe they were under ambush and had to flee!"
Heather shook her head. "No, no I don't think so. Those wards were much too complex to be last minute work. Those kinds take days, at least, to set up." Besides, she didn't think any of the Weasleys had that kind of expertise with warding. Besides Bill, of course. From their letters, she knew he was still on his long-term stint in Egypt and wasn't due back until next week. "This must have been planned."
Her brother scrunched his face up. "Ron didn't mention anything."
"Neither did Fred and George." Biting her lip in worry, she added, "Let's not jump to conclusions. There was nothing in the papers, so it probably wasn't an attack. We'll just have to wait for them to contact us." Perhaps she would write to Bill if they still didn't hear from them after a week.
As it turned out, the wait didn't last very long.
Just the next morning, a familiar owl clacked its beak on the kitchen window. Hadrian hurried to let in, for once leaving his reply to Cedric half-written.
With trepidation, Heather took it when it was handed to her. As Rian petted and fed Pig, she read the letter - more of a short note - aloud.
"Dear Smidget, apologies for the lack of word. A particularly old and stubborn bee has been stinging us when we try to reach the treetop. It was quite insistent. It even herded a pack of weasels into the doghouse the other day. Next thing you know, it'll be luring birds in next week. Anyway, we're not the type to let that stop us. We'll try to climb the tree again soon. Love, Gemini."
She shook her head at the twins' cryptic message. At least she knew they were alright.
"What d'you reckon that means?"
"Well," she hummed, "it seems like someone's been trying to stop the twins from sending me letters. The Weasleys have also been convinced to stay somewhere else. And I guess someone will try to persuade us to do the same." What she couldn't quite figure out was what 'bee' and 'doghouse' meant.
"The bee is probably the Headmaster. 'Dumbledore' is a lesser used word for bumblebee."
She looked dubiously at her brother.
"What? Hermione was obsessed with etymology for a while. Naturally, she tried to find out the meanings of the names of powerful wizards."
"I'm more amazed that you remember that."
"I just happened to, okay?" he mumbled defensively. "Anyway, that just leaves 'doghouse'. Are they in trouble, you think? That's what 'in the doghouse' means, right?"
She shook her head. "I don't think so. That's a muggle phrase, so I don't think the they even know it. Besides, why would Dumbledore get them in trouble?"
Hadrian's head shot up. "I got it! They're staying at Sirius' house! Sirius and Remus haven't written either, right?"
That made sense. Why Sirius' house, though? He hated it. She'd never seen it, but from what she'd heard, it was a horrible place to live. That was, of course, providing he hadn't exaggerated like he usually did. She doubted there were really rows of mummified elf heads mounted on the walls.
"Why don't we go visit them?" Hadrian suggested. "Just to make sure they're okay."
She agreed wholeheartedly. Where had the man said his house was again?
"Right! He lives at-" Rian cut himself off, frowning. "...I don't remember? It's on the tip of my tongue..." Shaking his head, "Nope, I lost it."
Heather could have sworn that the dog animagus had told them his address before. Usually when he whined about how awful it was. Which was about every other time they met. Like Rian, however, it just felt like she couldn't recall it. But it wasn't like she had forgotten, either. It was a little like there was a block preventing her from remembering. It made for a distinctly odd feeling.
"Maybe it's some sort of secrecy spell or something. There are such things, right, Heather?"
"Yeah, you're probably right. I suppose we have no choice but to wait for them to come get us. But how are they going to find us? No one can get to us through the forest and our floo is also restricted to a case-by-case invitation only."
"Ugh, we can't find them, they can't find us," Hadrian groaned. "Who was the smart arse who came up with this idea?"
"Dumbledore definitely underestimated how well-hidden we are. I bet he thought he'd be able to find us using our address. The only reason he even has it is that book Hogwarts uses to track students." Privately, she thought it'd be hilarious to watch Dumbledore stumble through the woods trying to find their Unplottable house. Only the thought that he'd probably send others to do the work made her reconsider. She didn't really want to cause Professor Snape to have to do that.
"We should probably just make it easier on them. You were planning on going to the Ministry for your Apparation license next week, right? We could go shopping in Diagon after that. They'll probably find us while we're there."
"Good idea, Rian!" They'd have to be cautious, though. Her brother had a rather large target on his head.
~~~
Their outing went about as expected. After passing the tests and getting her license, Heather side-alonged Hadrian to Diagon. They shopped a little, not really buying much since their supply lists hadn't come through yet. Halfway through lunch at the Leaky Cauldron though, they were joined by Sirius and Remus. She had to keep from snorting at the horridly fake surprise they tried to convey at the 'coincidence'. Heather suspected that Dumbledore had an informant in the bar.
After a vague explanation about being invited back to Sirius' house 'to catch up', Heather and Hadrian were apparated out of the place. They landed in a Muggle suburb with nondescript houses lined in rows. The street sign said that they were somewhere called 'Grimmauld Place'.
"This is where you've been staying?" Hadrian asked curiously. Heather was as disbelieving as her brother. She couldn't really imagine blood purists like the Blacks living amongst Muggles.
"You haven't seen anything yet!" Sirius said, grinning. "Literally."
Remus rolled his eyes at the other man and handed both of them a piece of paper. "Read it, but don't say it aloud. Remember those words."
Looking down at the slightly crumpled paper, she noted that it said: 'The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is at Number 12 Grimmauld Place'.
She wanted to ask what this 'Order of the Phoenix' was, but was interrupted by movement in front of her. For seemingly no reason at all, two houses in front of them were pushed aside to make way for another house that seemed to sprout from nothing. The bizarre sight garnered little more than a slow blink from her. Her godfather seemed put out that her reaction was so muted. Well, she was a witch. She'd seen weirder things.
"The Fidelius Spell?" she guessed. Of course. That was why she and Rian hadn't been able to recall the Sirius' address no matter how hard they tried. Now that the Secret had been revealed to them, she could remember all the times the address had been mentioned.
"Should have known you would recognise it." Remus shook his head fondly. "What don't you know, Heather?"
"How to relax!" Hadrian chirped cheerily. She shot him an affronted look. The traitor.
"I do know how to relax. I'm friends with George and Fred, after all."
Sirius draped an arm on each of their shoulders and herded them towards the door. "Speaking of those two miscreants, did you know the Weasleys are staying here as well?"
"Oh, really?" Heather asked, wide-eyed and innocent.
"What for?" Rian added in the same tone.
Behind them, Remus narrowed his eyes. Why did he have the feeling that the two knew more than they let on?
"Ahh, well," Sirius answered, oblivious, "Headmaster's orders. What with old Snakeface around, it wasn't safe for them at the Burrow. Anyway, I humbly welcome you-" With a large flourish, he slid the door open and bowed. "-to the manor of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black!" Right on cue, it seemed, a high shrilly voice began screaming bloody murder. "Or what I like to call, Hell on Earth."
As she took in the dusty gloom, badly-patched furniture and actual mounted elf heads on the walls, Heather wondered if she and Rian should have just stayed home after all.
~~~
They were quickly bustled off into the rooms where they would be staying. This set alarm bells off in Heather's mind, because it kind of sounded like they would be here for quite a while. She'd thought they would stay for dinner then go home, or maybe stay a night or two. Really, though, it seemed like they were to stay for the rest of the summer.
Which was preposterous, really. The Nest was perfectly secure. Besides, she hadn't brought the potions work that she planned to work on.
It wasn't like she didn't want to spend the summer with the Weasleys and her godfathers. It was just that she and Hadrian had gotten accustomed to living in their own home, even if they did floo over to the Burrow frequently.
"You can just ask Dobby to bring your stuff over! Since he's a bonded house elf, he can get past the Fidelius now that you can." Sirius pouted, widening his eyes for a full puppy dog effect. "Don't you wanna spend some quality time with ol' Padfoot and Moony?"
"Well-" she hedged.
"Did I mention the Black family library and fully-stocked potions lab?"
"-I suppose it would be nice," she finished eagerly.
Rian coughed into his hand, muttering something that sounded like 'nerd'. She smiled sweetly at him. "Oh dear. I wonder how you're going to mail Cedric now. His owl probably won't be able to find you."
"Heather!" he whined. She just chuckled smugly and skipped off to find her friends.
~~~
"Smidget!"
She heard the twin chorus of cries and had about a second to brace herself for impact. As expected, two red blurs soon crashed into her and four hands wrapped around her as they went tumbling to the - extremely dusty! - ground.
"Castor, Pollux," she greeted to show that she had received their letters. They grinned cheekily, fist-bumping. She would have to ask them how they'd gotten mail out from under Dumbledore's nose.
"C'mon! Come up to our-"
"-room and we can catch up."
"Little Ronnie's probably in the kitchen-"
"-with your brother and Hermione."
Ron, Hadrian, Fred and George were sharing a room while she, Hermione and Ginny were in another. Good, that meant they would have privacy while they talked. Once in the room, she secured it with a few wards. She was finally 17 and could use her wand. Of course, the law hadn't been as big an impairment for her because of her wandless magic. Still, more intricate spells required the use of her wand.
"So, Dumbledore? Mail ban?" Heather asked, getting right down to business.
Fred grimaced. "Ugh, the old man just showed up a few days into the hols and convinced Mum and Dad to move us here."
"Which okay," George cut in, "made some sense. But then he forbid us from mailing you and Hadrian."
Fred held the point of his wand against his throat and whispered a spell. Smiling genially, he then intoned in a mimicry of Dumbledore's voice, "'For their own safety. Don't worry my boys, we will soon invite them to stay here as well.'"
She laughed. Wow, that tone was spot on. She could almost picture the twinkle in his eyes.
"Great right?" They sat up eagerly. "We were thinking of putting the spell into a sweet. We'll need your input later."
Heather nodded. "Sure. I might have a few ideas. But anyway, how did you send us that letter?" That elicited proud smiles. It wasn't everyday someone could fool Albus Dumbledore. (Heather and Hadrian were rather large exceptions to the rule.)
"Well, our first few letters were-"
"-promptly returned to our beds."
"One time he even caught us right before Pig could fly off."
"You know that disappointed-"
"-face he gives? Yeah, double it."
"But remember the undetectable-"
"-invisible ink we were working on?"
Oh, they meant the one that would reveal itself only with a specific spell and passphrase. Fred and George had come up with the idea after being caught passing messages in class. Unfortunately, they had only managed to get the ink to stay invisible for a few hours before it wore off.
"Did you two work out the kinks in it?"
They smiled sheepishly. "Well, not exactly."
"We figured Dumbledore couldn't intercept your mail, just ours."
"So as long as he was fooled enough to allow the letter out-"
"-we'd be all clear. We went ahead and wrote in that ink."
She laughed when she realised what they meant. The ink had been invisible when Dumbledore checked it, but the words appeared again by the time she received it. "So that's why the letter was written on the back of a Honeydukes' order form. I just thought that was a very unsubtle hint for Christmas."
George scoffed. "Oh please. We're expecting much better presents for Christmas."
"You brought it upon yourself," Fred said, wagging his finger at her, "Setting the bar with your dragonhide gloves and secret bases."
Heather didn't bother pointing out that it was just the one secret base. Shaking her head, she muttered, "Only you two could manage to fool Dumbledore using a defective potion. You're lucky he has a weak spot for the candy you were 'ordering'." They just beamed impishly, as if wracking their brains for a way to go around a powerful wizard's order not to send letters to their friend was something they did regularly.
Privately, she thought that great Christmas presents were the least they deserved for all that they did for her.