Chapter 21

It was an odd feeling for Adria to feel so powerful, to have her head held high and her lips pursed, and her heeled clad foot crossed over her leg. Her hands perfectly clasped together on her lap and Jude was silently sitting on just that, tears dried from their morning and absentmindedly playing with the ends of Adria's lengthy hair.

Beside her, Benji sat. His hair was styled, unlike most days, a tie to his neck wrapped around a collared white shirt under a crisp grey blazer that Arden spent hours trying to figure out the perfect spell to get the many creases out of it.

And to his left was a shifty looking Alina - nervous, she was and scared of what was to come. She was the youngest, but that didn't dampen her ability to prove herself, to prove that she was just as right to be sitting with her siblings - Benji to her right, Alfie to her left and Adria who only wanted to take her hand, right there matching the eyes of the man behind a perfect mahogany desk.

"Your father..." he said, "very well-off."

"As was our mother," Adria said. Her voice was cold, and Jude looked up to her with such confusion - because that was not his Adria talking, it was a voice unlike any of them had ever heard before, but the man in front of them...a sexist, too high in power man who wished for nothing than to keep such money to himself.

"Yes...yes she was." He nodded quickly, eying the girl - no, eyeing the woman in front of him with curiosity, intrigued by her...by her looks and her stance and her clothes...and the way the child in her lap looked at her with such love, like a child with his mother.

"Yours?" he nudged towards the boy...too full of himself to realise it was not her child, but her brother but in saying that, he didn't care.

"My brother - our...brother." She ran her hand through his hair soothingly, "but if such things matter then maybe it'd be good to tell you I'm pregnant!"

He held back a snort, though the judgement shone through and his eyebrow had risen and with a huff, he spoke, "kids these days."

"Kids these days seem to sit behind desks upon a high horse," Adria snapped, though her voice feigned calm, and the man shifted, "Mr Specker, this meeting was called because you are withholding money - rightful money­­ from us. This will of my parents was from them, and it's ours, that house and what we intend to do with it is our business and this company, no matter the length of time my father worked here has no right or business with it."

"You must be out of your mind," Mr Specker scoffed, "if you think I'm going to let a bunch of...of children! Take this fortune."

"Sir, if I may," Alfie spoke, shifting slightly and Adria could tell he was biting his tongue, "I have a family. I have a wife - a child...I am not a child myself, and neither are my siblings. We are here to claim what is ours, we are here to take what we should've had months ago - what should have been brought to light months ago."

Adria wasn't sure she wanted to know what the call was so early that morning. She had woken to the constant ringing and jumped to get it just so Jude wouldn't cry from the early wake-up call, but what she didn't expect was that her money...and the rightful money to her siblings was being held from them by her father's company.

And his old partner.

"You may have known us since a young age," Benji spoke, a calmness to his voice and his hand clutching Alina who did not like the man in front of her, "but we are not that age anymore."

"I knew your father better than anyone else-"

"Yes, you really had such a bond when you didn't recognise his son," Adria but in, eyes narrowed to a glare, "this is not a discussion. This is not a debate - that money is ours and this company had no right to take it, or even think they had any sort of right to take it!

Not only is that my father's money, but my mother's too - the well-off woman that you cannot accept because you are blinded by such sexism that you cannot think of a woman to be powerful and independent.

Well look here, look at my sister too...we are the independent woman that our mother left on this earth - and if that scares you, good!

Don't you dare try to take from us what is rightfully our own, don't you dare try to steal what is ours." Adria was fuming, and she had reached for Benji's hand who held it tightly in his own.

Mr Specker was silent as he stared at the five, the young boy in the girls lap who looked ready to pounce...ready to chop his head off and her siblings...all of which had a look of pure disgust for him and his shoulders slumped, "The lawyers will send you the contracts tomorrow which will legally give you rights to a split sum of your parent's wealth...as well as their house. The house you wish to sell."

Adria nodded, and with many things she wished to say to the man in front of her - she held her tongue and stood with Jude clinging to her and her siblings standing too, "good day."

"Your parents would be proud of you," he spoke with a low voice, something like sadness that Adria never thought she would hear from the man, but he was ready to take everything from them, ready to steal what wasn't his.

So, with her head held high, her eyes sharp and stance powerful, Adria turned, Jude in her arms and his around her neck, and spoke with such edge, "we know."

-

"We are...officially rich," Adria whispered, eyes wide as she turned to an amused looking Sirius, "we are rich!"

"Well, we were rich with that gold," Sirius snorted, pulling on her jacket so that she fell into him, "but we are now richer."

"Too rich," she whispered, cupping his cheek and pressing her lips to his, "far too rich."

"Is there such a thing?"

"Money is going to corrupt that pretty mind of yours," she whispered, slipping her arms around his neck whilst he let out a loud laugh.

"It'll help us immensely," he kissed her ear as he spoke into it and she nodded, though silent - and he knew she was thinking about it, "did you ever think we'd have such help?"

"I thought we'd be living in someone else's house," she spoke a truth she hadn't ever admitted. It was amusement underlined with a serious tone because she truly did think that her little family - Sirius...Jude...her - that they'd be homeless, or somewhere cramped.

That Alfie would have Jude and her and Sirius would have to fend by living at James and Lily's on their couch or something along those lines...she never thought she'd ever have her own house, have such responsibility, especially so soon.

"This week has been so eventful," she groaned quietly, her head resting on Sirius' shoulder as he held her close, "and it's not even over. We have so much we have to do - the wedding, Sirius! It's so soon."

"What did I tell you?" Sirius asked, lifting her head and holding it in his hands, "it's taken care of. The wedding is not your concern right now, I have Lily helping me - I have James and Remus and Peter doing all they can to fix it. Finn and Milo are picking out suits for us all - and Benji is going along because even the two of them together can't pick a decent outfit.

Mildred and May are doing the cake...Isaac and Blair are travelling to Hogwarts to hand out invitations to the professors...baby you have too much on your plate right now to worry," he kissed her fully and she felt herself in such a daze that she almost stumbled.

"So really," she mumbled, leaning in to kiss him once more, "all I have to do is show up and look pretty?"

"Well I certainly wouldn't mind that," he smirked, "your job is to find what you're going to wear. Whether that be my hoodie or a dress, but I don't want you stressed."

He pressed his hand to the small bump of her stomach, "this little one doesn't need stress either."

"Do you think it's a boy little one or a girl little one?" her head tilted as she looked down at her stomach, "I'm not sure. You'd think I'd be able to tell."

"Well I don't think it works like that, baby," he laughed, and she frowned, "but regardless...I'll love it just the same."

"Me too," she nodded, a smile wide on her lips, "this week is too crazy for me to cope."

"Then stop coping and go rest!" Sirius exclaimed, "Merlin, you'd think you didn't know what sleep was."

"Oh shush," she huffed, "yesterday I had to pretend I was high and mighty and powerful and inside I was shaking like a leaf. I made Benji buy me food after it just to calm me down...it was worth it, though. Mr Specker was always an arse to my mum when we were younger, thinking he could just order her to make him coffee and tea on arrival at our home.

She took it though...for dad - with a smile. I certainly didn't," she grumbled, "I tell you, if I ever perform the killing curse, make sure it's on him, will you love?"

Sirius let out a laugh, "I'll make sure of it."

"Pong!" Jude screeched loudly from the living room, startling the two leaning against the kitchen counters and Adria moved quickly, stumbling against the wall with a smile on her lips at the sight of her best friends.

"James!" she exclaimed, rushing to throw her arms around him whilst he picked her up to hug her, "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"I know," he frowned, tightening his grip, "sometimes I wish we could just go back to Hogwarts...play quidditch and forget about the world."

"Sounds like a fucking dream," she sighed, pulling herself from his grip to tackle Lily, "so can I bribe you for information on this wedding...or?"

"Afraid not," Lily giggled, subtly guiding Adria to sit down whilst James scooped up Jude in his arms with a wide smile, "I have been sworn to secrecy, Ads but don't worry, you're gonna have the best day of your life and it's hardly a week away."

She nodded silently, running a hand through her wild curls and leaning her head on Lily's shoulder, "what am I going to do, Lily?"

"What do you mean?" asked the redhead, intertwining their hands.

"I mean...in life, with this baby and Jude - and...just life," she shook her head, "is it gone? Is this what I'm doing now? Baking cakes at a bakery whilst a war wages around us and everything goes to shit?

Is Sirius going to ever get a job he truly falls in love with and instead just works at a muggle fucking garage? Is Jude going to grow up in this house his full life?" she shook her head, "I was supposed to see the world, you know? I wanted to live."

"Addy," Lily whispered, running her hands through the girl's hair and eyeing James spinning Jude. She watched her boyfriend intently, how much Jude loved him...the relationship he had with the boy and tried everything to ignore how much scars littered his face and bare arms from their last order mission, "I think after this war...your perspective on what you have is going to change.

Of course, it's not the ideal way of living, you're taking on so much responsibility, but I don't think your life is over because of that. Look at that little boy, and how much Sirius adores you - Ads, I think your life is finally beginning."