Black's Daughter And The Half-Blood Prince [Book 3]

Arguements

They all walked into the kitchen, which looked a little less gloomy than the rest of the house.

Harry took a seat, he looked quite pleased to see Sirius, he was in fact the only 'family' he had left in the wizarding world.

They spoke a bit and Mrs. Weasley spoke up, “And if you want dinner before midnight I’ll need a hand,” she said to the room at large. “No, you can stay where you are, Harry dear, you’ve had a long journey.”
She said as Harry had gone to get up.

“What can I do, Molly?” said Tonks enthusiastically, bounding forwards.

Mrs. Weasley hesitated, looking apprehensive.

Alecto grinned softly, she knew Tonks was a clumsy witch, everyone knew that.

“Er—no, it’s all right, Tonks, you have a rest too, you’ve done enough today.”

“No, no, I want to help!” said Tonks brightly, knocking over a chair as she hurried towards the dresser, from which Ginny was collecting cutlery.

Soon, a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables of their own accord, supervised by Mr. Weasley, while Mrs. Weasley stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire and Alecto took out plates, more goblets and food from the pantry. Harry was left at the table with Sirius and Mundungus, who was still blinking at him mournfully.

Alecto listened as they spoke softly, as if they were afraid they would disrupt something if they spoke any louder.

“Had a good summer so far?” She heard Sirius question him.

“No, it’s been lousy,” said Harry.

Alecto rolled her eyes as the put the plates on the counter, he's had a lousy summer? He's been outisde each day, all day having his thoughts all to himself, she'd been told.

'Lousy'

What's lousy is being locked up in this horrendus, dingy house for weeks on end, where there were screaming portraits who yelled at you for walking down the stairs too loudly and where some of the ill-lit rooms carried ghastly smells of which Alecto didn't know existed.

Something like a grin flitted across Sirius’s face.

“Don’t know what you’re complaining about, myself.” he muttered.

“What?” said Harry incredulously.

“Personally, I’d have welcomed a Dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. You think you’ve had it bad, at least you’ve been able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few fights… I’ve been stuck inside for a month.”

“How come?” asked Harry, frowning.

“Because the Ministry of Magic’s still after me, and Voldemort will know all about me being an Animagus by now, Wormtail will have told him, so my big disguise is useless. There’s not much I can do for the Order of the Phoenix… or so Dumbledore feels.”

There was something about the slightly flattened tone of voice in which Sirius uttered Dumbledore’s name which proved that he wasn't entirely happy with him at that moment.

“At least you’ve known what’s been going on,” he said bracingly.

“Oh yeah,” said Sirius sarcastically. “Listening to Snape’s reports, having to take all his snide hints that he’s out there risking his life while I’m sat on my backside here having a nice comfortable time… asking me how the cleanings going—” Alecto looked at Sirius, he's not spoken a single word to her about Snape, he knew she had feelings for him but it seemed like he was trying to avoid it.