Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

1 January, 1978 - Clean Up

*

Midnight passed almost completely unnoticed in the Potter house. Mr. and Mrs. Potter had left on holiday a few days after Christmas, leaving James and Sirius to their own devices with the warning that if they burnt the house down they'd both be grounded for life. This was a necessary reminder as the two boys had almost managed that exact thing in the summer of their third year, when Sirius had been visiting and the two boys had been left unsupervised. Now they were older and wiser, and their explosions were much more controlled.

They wasted away much of the evening debating the pros and cons of keeping hoo-hoo birds as pets. Sirius argued they were too hard to get and their tendency to spout fire without warning made them bad pets. James maintained that the name alone was a good reason to have them simply because you could ask people if they wanted to see your hoo-hoo and watch the horror on their faces until you pulled out a pint-sized bird with a feather sticking straight up on the top of its head.

They were still arguing when a loud crack from outside interrupted them. Sirius frowned, glancing towards the closed drapes. "Who's that do you reckon?" he asked.

James shrugged. "No idea. Remus isn't supposed to come until tomorrow morning."

"Maybe he decided to come early?" Sirius suggested, knowing it was highly unlikely.

James shot him a look of disbelief. "It's 2:30 in the morning and you think Rem is travelling? He's the only one of us who actually gets a full night's sleep."

Sirius shrugged. "Any better suggestions?" he challenged. "Your parents aren't coming back until next week, right?"

James frowned, now twisting around from his seat on the couch to see out the window. "Yeah," he muttered. "For a few days before they send all of us off to the station."

"And Peter has that wedding, so he's not coming until Merlin knows when," Sirius continued, joining James to try to see outside. He pushed aside part of the curtain and peered through, looking out across the garden and trying to make out the figure at the gate.

"They're just standing there," James observed, glancing over at the other boy. "That's mildly suspicious."

"No kidding," Sirius concurred, still squinting outside.

"Wands out?" James asked, picking his wand up from the table. Sirius nodded, doing the same before the two boys headed for the door. It seemed unlikely to him that it would be anything really dangerous. The only thing he could come up with was burglars maybe. Really stupid burglars who weren't at all good at their jobs. Besides which, it had to be someone magical, to have apparated here.

The two boys padded cautiously to the door and opened it quickly, wands out in front of them, Sirius leading the way with James right on his heels. The figure was now walking away, and in the darkness it was impossible to tell who it was but... Sirius took a few steps forward, frowning at the blonde hair tumbling down the person's back.

He was halfway to the garden gate when he took a chance, figuring it couldn't hurt, since whoever it was already seemed to be leaving. "Lavinia?" he asked, his heart in his throat. It was something of a shot in the dark, but he had told her to come if she needed anything. But he had hoped she wouldn't need to take him up on it. Indeed, he was praying that the figure didn't respond, that it wasn't Selwyn.

But the figure froze, now in the middle of the road in front of the house, just at the edge of the light spilling from the open door behind the two boys. She stood still for a moment, back to them, as though not sure whether or not she should turn around. When she did, Sirius felt his heart fall out of his chest and heard James swear quietly behind him.