The disadvantage about having close friends was the fact that they knew it was within their rights to visit one of their closest friends' house unannounced. In Florence's case, it was the most terrible situation, given the person that she and her mum were concealing from the world. She had hoped, for the entire duration of the summer that both Nicolai and Xander will have the decency to actually owl first before coming over.

But sadly, the odds were not in her favor. She and Sirius had been sitting in her bedroom, two weeks have gone by without any mishaps with Florence's friends. He was teaching her how to play a song on her guitar when the front door had slammed close rather loudly, making their eyes go wide. Nicolai's loud voice followed the sudden interruption, which made Florence freeze momentarily in place.

Nicolai was supposed to be at her Nan's house in the countryside for 3 more days. Why was she back?

"Floooooo!!" Nicolai half yelled, the two hearing her heavy footsteps trudging up the stairs. She and Sirius scrambled to get the guitar paraphernalia out of the way. Sirius couldn't really head out of the room, as Nicolai would surely see him. So he risked it, and dove under Florence's bed, just in time as Nicolai strode in to her room.

"There you are... Why's your door wide open? I thought you were in the bathroom or something."

"No," Florence nervously chuckled, "Just here. Sitting on my bed and contemplating life."

"Why didn't you hear me, though?"

"I spaced out," she flashed her an apologetic look, "Sorry."

"It's fine....." Nicolai's voice trailed off as she scanned the state of her friend's room. The duvets on her bed looked extremely messy. Too messy to have been caused by one person sitting. And Florence was always neat and tidy, especially when it came to making her own bed. Nicolai grew suspicious.

"Did you...." She frowned, "Did you have a boy in here?"

"A boy? Pfft, no? Who would I even have in my room?"

"Fred...Obviously. Was he here? Did he visit you?"

"No. No one was here," Florence said again.

"Well, speaking of him...Does your mum know already? About you and him? You know it wouldn't be fair if you didn't let him meet your mum when he let you meet his." Nicolai pointed out, to which Florence was too worried about Sirius getting caught to respond properly.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. We talked. I told her about Fred and all. She wants to meet him, too, but I haven't arranged it yet," she latched on to Nicolai's arm, trying to swerve her out of the room without looking suspicious. "So why'd you come over? How was your trip to your nan's house? Spare no details, we'll—"

They heard a loud thump from under Florence's bed, Nicolai's brows raised in surprise. "What was that?" she asked curiously, detaching herself from Florence, inching closer to the bed, "What? Didn't hear anything."

"No, no. I did. It sounded like it came from under your bed." Nicolai muttered. Florence braced herself, as she watched Nicolai pull up her covers that exposed the bottom of her bed frame, mind racing as she thought of all the ways in which she could explain why Sirius Black was in her house without Nicolai freaking out.

"A dog!" her friend exclaimed, Florence feeling the weight being pushed off of her chest. A big black dog came crawling out from under, licking Nicolai's face in a friendly gesture. She loved dogs, and was immediately engrossed in animagus-Sirius that her suspicion diminished.

"When'd your mum get you a dog, Flo?" Nicolai asked, patting him on the head as she got up from her spot on the floor.

"Uh... Last week?"

"He's adorable!" Nicolai gushed, "What's his name?"

"Padfoot." Which was partially true. Sirius had given his furry alter-ego a name. Nicolai was patting the dog profusely, and seemed as if it would take Florence quite a while to get her out of the room. "I wish mum let us have a dog," she said sadly, cupping Padfoot's face in her hands, "Who's a good boy?"

Florence suppressed a laugh, her lips pressed in to a straight line. "You guys came back early... How come?"

"Oh, Penny needs to leave by tomorrow, so we had to cut the visit short. Thank Merlin for it, though. My nan makes this terrible mushroom soup and she's under the impression that everyone loves it. She kept refilling my bowl, that woman. Dreadful."

"Your Nan is a gem."

Nicolai rolled her eyes, "Yeah, sure. A gem. Everyone in my family wants to shove her into the ground...." her voice trailed off. "Oh! I was going to ask you if you'd come with me to Diagon Alley to buy Penny a birthday gift?"

"Why couldn't you have bothered Xander for this?" said Florence, "He's sure better at picking out gifts than I am."

"I did try his house....Mrs. Haddlowe said he's in Berlin with Adrianna. Says they'll be coming back early morning tomorrow."

"Who's he seeing in Berlin?"

She shrugged, "Relatives, I presume. Or one of Adrianna's Harpies press conferences again. So, can you come with me?"

"Hold on, I need to ask my mum. But I'm pretty sure she'll say yes."

Sure enough, Jane had let her out of the house, with the agreement that Florence was to return in five hours, since Jane still had work in the evening. It was enough time, and more than enough with how quick Nicolai was when it came to searching for the right shop. Penelope was not a complicated individual, and so they had finished their task in less than two hours.

She and Nicolai, after a few hours under the sun, had decided to get themselves ice creams to cool down. Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor was right around the corner from the bookshop they had just left.

"You know," said Nicolai, as she slid into a booth with Florence, "Alexander may be a complete and total goon sometimes, but it sure feels oddly incomplete without him."

"It's his lankiness, you know. Makes you and I look more confident."

"Probably..." Nicolai chuckled, scooping another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "So what's the deal with your mum and the Ministry? I overheard my parents say she's in trouble or something. But they wouldn't really tell me anything if I asked."

"Oh," Florence said glumly, "That. She's not in trouble. Well not really. She just got promoted recently and all...Dumbledore's representative. Mum's just taking a lot of heat from people who want to reach Dumbledore desperately... It'll pass, I'm sure."

"What could Dumbledore be so busy with? What does he do when he's not managing a whole school of children?"

"Who knows for sure?" Florence chuckled.

"What if he has a cat farm with Professor McGonagall in Wales or something?"

A vivid, but brief image of Dumbledore in farmer's clothing with a wheelbarrow filled to the brim with fluffy, meowing cats surfaced in Florence's head, her brows arched in indifference.

"That was an extremely random thing to say, Nic."

"Well. Random is my middle name."

"It's Bridgette, actually." Florence chuckled.

"Whatever, Magdalene. Say, want to explore all the shops here? I've never been into anything else apart from this ice cream shop, Flourish and Blotts, and Ollivanders."

"What's there to see in Diagon Alley, though?" Florence frowned, finishing the last bits of her ice cream.

"I don't know...that's why I want to explore, dummy. I've never been here without my mum or Penny. We could go to the Magical Menagerie and look at all their cats."

"Okay...but I have to be home in," she glanced at her watch, "In about two hours."

"Sounds fair," she shrugged, dumping her ice cream cup into the trash, before tugging on Florence's arm. "Come on!"

-------

Tired and absolutely famished, Florence had came home thirty minutes earlier than she was supposed to. Nicolai understood, and told that they could hang out again sometime, hopefully with Alexander too. Florence greeted her mum, Remus, and Sirius briefly, before trudging up to her room, in desperate need of a power nap.

It had been quiet during the first hour, Florence sleeping soundlessly with her duvets over her. But it had made an unexpected turn when she heard a door slam from downstairs.

"Yes, Sirius. I am aware that he'll be here any day from now," it was her mum, the sound of her voice was probably enough to wake the dead. But as to why she was making such a racket, Florence was curious.

Jane's office was right below Florence's bedroom, which caused her voice to be heard through the hardwood floor. She slipped off of her bed and laid down flat on her belly, straining her ears to listen to the conversation downstairs.

"He's written to you, Jane. Dumbledore told you he's coming. Aren't you atleast going to tell Florence? Before he actually catches you by surprise and just pops out of the blue?" it was Remus speaking, Sirius was mumbling something too quiet to be heard. It was followed by the sound of one of her mum's heavy chairs scraping against the floor.

"I am going to, Remus. Okay? I'm not going to keep this a secret from my daughter. But it's better that we don't tell her yet. Remember he is still on the Ministry's watchlist. His disappearance was highly suspicious, as he was very involved in the order. And they're not letting me off the hook either, since I'm now working directly as Dumbledore's representative. They mustn't know that he's coming back. Or that Dumbledore's getting the order together."

Who was coming back? Who was he? Florence thought to herself, frowning as she pressed her ears harder against the flooring.

"Your daughter won't say anything, Jane. Who is she even going to tell?"

"We can't risk it, Remus. We just can't. We'll tell her when we've moved in to headquarters, when everything is sorted and good to go. Right now the only thing we'll have to explain is that she's not going to be able to see her friends for the rest of the summer."

Her eyes widened. Were they going away? Where?

"Your call, Janie." She heard Sirius sigh, "We won't fight you on this. She's your daughter, and we trust that you know what's good for her...Just, be sure she won't get too taken aback when she meets him."

"The resemblance is uncanny, if you've forgotten." Remus chimed in.

There was a long pause, before Florence heard her mum speak, "Florence will be all right. She's tough. And until then, she won't know of his existence."

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a.n: 10K!!!! Massive thank you to everyone ❤ Hello to all my new readers. Whether I see you on my notifs or not, I'm very grateful for everything ❤

-Denise