Nadia and Sirius held hands, their fearful eyes taking in the door which they were supposed to pass through any minute now or they'd be late. As they stood there, minutes ticking away in the silence, both feared that this would end badly.
"Are you sure about this?" Sirius asked, eyes turning to Nadia, all kinds of questions and concerns flashing through his mind, all the ways in this could go horribly, horribly wrong.
"We said we would do it." Nadia reminded him. They had made a promise, and no matter how scary the task may be, they couldn't go back on their promise now. Their help was needed.
"So how do we do this?" Sirius didn't usually have a problem with this, but knowing how much they'd be facing, knowing the job that faced them, he couldn't help but worry.
"Whatever we do, we can't let them divide us. If they do... I fear what may happen." Nadia said, her tone making it sound like she was completely confident they could do it.
"Don't let them divide us... Got it." Sirius repeated to himself, taking in a heavy breath before he and Nadia shared one final look before walking up to the door. Nadia rose her hand into the air, ready to knock on the wooden surface, however before she could do so, the door burst open on it's own.
"You two are right on time! Come on in, come on in!" Arthur Weasley greeted the couple at the door with a wide smile. "Molly's finishing up feeding Ron in the kitchen, and all the other kids already know you're babysitting them today. I'm sure Bill and Percy will be more than alright. Charlie... Well please try keeping him away from the fire. And as for the twins and Ron... I'm sure you'll make it work." Arthur spoke as he led the two through the Burrow and towards the kitchen. His final words most certainly didn't sound too encouraging.
As they walked into the kitchen they were met with a slightly chaotic sight. Fred and George were running around the table while Ron sat in his high chair too distracted by his brothers to focus on the food his mother was trying to feed him. Charlie sat at the table, tuning all of them out as he coloured in a drawing of a dragon while Percy and Bill worked together to clean up the table after their family breakfast.
"Oh Ron, I give up. Go, go play with your brothers." Molly heaved a sigh as she handed Percy Ron's half full bowl and after cleaning the youngest boy's face set him down on the ground even though he couldn't run around with Fred and George. As she wiped her hands with a kitchen towel, Molly finally turned to their designated babysitters for the day.
"Thank you so much for suggesting this. I think Arthur and I will do well with a day to ourselves." Molly said gratefully as she hugged both of them in greeting. After all that had happened, Nadia believed Molly would need some time to herself, where she didn't have to take care of everyone and run after them, it was why she had suggested that she and Sirius watch the kids for a day while she and Arthur do something together.
"It's no problem." Nadia said with a smile as they broke away from the hug, and was surprised to see doubt on the mother's face. Oh, Arthur and Molly were throwing them into a lion's den and they were perfectly aware of it.
"Alright, make sure Ron takes his afternoon nap or hell be fussy all the time, and be careful not to disturb Percy when he does his evening reading, he very much minds when someone does it. And I don't think I have to warn you to keep Charlie away from anything flammable." Molly ranted off the instructions, the last of which made Nadia give out a small laugh.
"That you definitely do not." She confirmed.
"Oh and Nadia, that also reminds me, please tell me you won't have to go to Romania?" Molly pleaded making Nadia and Sirius share a confused look, wondering what exactly made that come up. Although, Nadia expected it more than Sirius in the end.
"Uh, I'm not sure yet, why?" She asked.
"Charlie tricked us into saying yes if you decide to bring him along." Arthur announced with a shake of his head. Nadia's eyes widened in surprise. That kid was better than she thought, and she realized just how much as Arthur started to explain what exactly he'd done.
"Started by asking all kinds of questions. 'You trust Nadia to take care of me? Even if you had to go somewhere for a couple of days you'd still trust Nadia to watch me? And if we all took a trip, would you let me stay with her while everyone did something else? And if something you thought might be dangerous was around, you think Nadia could protect me?' And only after we said yes to all of those, well..."
"Only after all that did he mention Romania and the sanctuary and when we tried to come up with any possible argument to our favour he used all of our words against us." Molly finished for her husband. "There was nothing to do but say yes."
"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry for ever mentioning it around him. I didn't think he'd latch on to the idea of coming with me so hard." Nadia apologised instantly, fearing that the parents may be angry with her for the position she had put them in, no matter how unintentionally.
"Don't worry about it dear, you couldn't have expected it." Molly reassured her with a pat on her arm after which she swiftly turned to her husband. "Well, Arthur I think it's time for us to leave these two to have fun with the children."
"Yes, yes, dear. Come on." Arthur agreed quite eagerly, helping Molly put on her coat before grabbing his own while Nadia moved over to pick up Ron as he started to chew on the leg of the chair he'd crawled over to.
"Oh we almost forgot, the bedtimes are written out on that piece of parchment over there." Molly added on, turning back as they were about to head for the door. With Nadia's arms holding up Ron, Sirius was the one to pick up the note and look it over. "And George and Fred's is correct, despite whatever they may try to tell you."
"Got it, don't believe the twins." Sirius nodded his head in understanding, folding the piece of parchment and putting it in his pocket before it got lost or Fred and George got Charlie to burn it. He was already starting to get a picture of what they were dealing with and he wouldn't put it past them. He was the kid who changed the clock back whenever he had to go to bed, he was more than ready for whatever they tried.
"Well... Good luck!" Arthur and Molly said at the same time, and just like that they ran out the door, leaving Nadia and Sirius to their 'fun' as they had called it. The two shared a look, nodding as if saying they were ready.
"Hi Nadia."
"Hi Siwius."
Nadia had to hold back a huge 'Aww' as she heard the way one of the twins said Sirius' name in his baby voice. Standing together in front of them, the two seemed like the cutest pair.
"Hi Fred, hi George. So what do you two want to do?" Nadia asked the two with a smile watching as they shared a look amongst themselves. That look made her smile dwindle. That look did not look good.
"Weady Fwed?"
"Weady Geowge!"
And just like that the two twins were running in separate directions, scaring poor Bill out of his wits as Fred almost smashed into him making him drop the bowl he had been carrying and making it shatter into pieces as it hit the ground.
"Don't touch that!" Nadia called out instantly as Bill moved to start picking up the pieces. Settling Ron back in his high chair so there was no chance he could start crawling and possibly cut himself, Nadia reached for her wand. "Charlie, sweetie, put on your slippers so you don't step on a stray piece. Sirius go catch those two before one falls and breaks something." Nadia was instantly in control mode, giving out instructions as she started to clean up the broken bowl pieces.
Sirius did not argue before running into the house calling out to both twins as he followed the loud sound of running in all directions.
"I'm sorry about the bowl." Bill quickly apologised with a guilty look as he stood on the side. "I'll go help Sirius with Fred and George." He said, hoping helping with the twins could make up for the bowl and he was running off before Nadia could even reassure him it was okay. She watched him go, almost getting a heart attack as he narrowly avoided one of the beams behind him.
"Merlin help me." Nadia mumbled to herself as she started to move again, working her magic to fix the bowl as Sirius voice continued to echo through the home.
"But you were just there!"
"There's two of them you idiot!" Nadia called up to him with a shake of her head. She let out a sigh, praying once more to whoever could hear that everything would go alright. But soon enough she was snapped out of her thoughts as a voice spoke.
"So Nadia, when we go to Romania we'll get to see all the dragons, right? Not just the Vipertooths?"
Published: 16th May, 2020