Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
Not Often Very Likable
I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
(My Immortal - Evanescence)August 2nd, 1995"They're here! People are here!"
Sirius rushed down the many flights of stairs at Grimmauld Place, feeling like
Christmas had come early. "Moony! Tonks! People are here!" he shouted, quickly silencing
the portrait of his mother who had started screaming.
"Calm down, Pads." Remus chuckled as he followed Sirius to the front of the house,
where Weasleys began filing inside. "You're going to scare them." He patted Sirius on the
shoulder as he joined him in greeting the family of redheads.
Arthur Weasley stepped forward while his wife and children struggled behind him
with their trunks, all trying to squeeze into the hallway at once. Arthur looked just as Sirius
remembered him years ago, though with a few more pounds around the middle and a little
less hair on top.
"Sirius, it's good to see you again after all these years." He offered a kind smile and
extended a hand of greeting.
Sirius grinned, taking the hand gladly. "Arthur Weasley. Can't thank you enough for
taking your family on that trip to Egypt. Without that photograph in the Daily Prophet, I'd
still be in Azkaban."
Arthur frowned and looked down, clearly guilt-stricken. "I only wish that―"
"You couldn't have known, Arthur," Sirius assured him, interrupting the man to do
so.