Sirius and James being legal adults in the Wizarding world, they were about to get a long-
overdue talk about responsibility.
"Are they in trouble?" Mia eagerly asked her father.
"Yes."
"And you're not going to let me watch? That seems unfair."
"Go on." Charlus playfully shoved at her shoulder, ushering her out of the room
with an amused smirk on his face.
"What do you suppose your mum wants to give me?"
Remus shoved his hands into the pockets of his second-hand robes. Dorea and
Charlus had purchased him new ones, of course, but he had politely insisted on saving
them for Hogwarts. He did not want anyone in Wizarding London or Diagon Alley to
think that he was using the Potters for their money.
"She probably wants to give you Grandmother Black's opal ring so you can properly
propose to me," Mia said casually, unaware at first that Remus had frozen in place, his eyes
wide with absolutely panic. She laughed as she put her hands on his shoulders, shaking him
out of his stupor. "Remus! Remus, I'm kidding!"
"It's not that.. ." He swallowed hard. "Because I... It's just... We're just so...
I'm―"
"Incapable of forming coherent sentences?"
He laughed at the end of a nervous exhale. "You're cruel, witch."
"I happen to think I'm very funny. Don't worry, Remus, I'm not expecting you to
ask me to marry you. There is absolutely no need for you to get down on one
knee. Both knees, however... Remus?"
His attention, however, had been stolen from his girlfriend, turned instead to the
man at the end of the long corridor, speaking with a Healer.
"Dad?"
His father turned, and Remus blanched at the sight of his own father. He had always
looked a bit shabby and under the weather, much like Remus himself, but he now looked
positively ill. His stringy, grey and brown hair was longer than it had been before, though