Call it what you want {Theodore Nott}

chapter thirty-four

They all took their usual seats around the table, Amy usually to the side of Sirius but decided to let Harry take her spot so she just sat next to Harry and Fred.

"Had a good summer so far?" Sirius asked

"No, it's been lousy," said Harry

Something like a grin flitted across Sirius' face.
"Don't know what you're complaining about, myself."

"What?" Said Harry incredulously.

Amy knew where this was going. She had overheard many arguments between Sirius and Remus about him wanting to leave the house and do something.

"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 you legs, get into a few fights....I've been stuck inside for a month, isn't that right Amy?"

Amy looked to the two and nodded. Then two tended to joke about how they are stuck inside with no communication to anyone else. Over the short amount of time she had been here, Amy had grown very close to Sirius and it turns out she could relate to him in many ways.

"How come?" Harry asked, frowning.
"Because the Ministry of Magic is 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."

They also bonded over their opinions about Dumbledore and his way of handling things.

"At least you've known what's been going on," Harry 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."

Harry was about to say something before he was cut off by a screaming Mrs Weasley.

"NO, JUST CARRY THEM!"

The three of them looked round and, within a split second, they had dived away from the table. Well, Harry had to push Amy as she never had the fastest reflexes, she was always told she would be no good at quidditch. Fred and George had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of Butterbeer and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with a knife, to hurtle through the air towards them. The stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface; the flagon of Butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere; the bread knife slipped off the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Amy's right hand had been seconds before.

"FOR HEAVENS SAKE!" Screamed Mrs Weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED - IVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS - JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERYTHING!"

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" Said Fred, hurrying forward to wrench the bread knife out of the table. "Sorry my favourite snake, I didn't mean to -"

But he stopped his sentence when he saw Amy laughing at him, Harry and Sirius joined in too and Fred gave a light chuckle. For a second, she felt as though she was in the Great Hall laughing with her friends.

"Boys," Mr Weasley said, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, "your mothers right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age -"

"None of your brothers causes this sort of trouble!" Mrs Weasley raged at the twins as she slammed a fresh flagon of Butterbeer on to the table, and spilling almost as much again.