(Short Chapter but it's a leading one! I'm a Leo sun Slytherin, what are you?)

I woke up early feeling well rested. The bed much comfier than the one I had slept in all week.

I looked around the flat in the morning light. It was bare, only having the necessities and simple furniture, Sonny having moved everything else out.

It was welcoming and peaceful. Bright and quiet, but not in a nerve wrecking way that made me feel like I had to be just as quiet, but a way that meant my mind could take a similar approach. Still and slow. It seemed like I had all the time in the world and I didn't need to worry about a thing.

I made the bed, though it didn't look very aesthetically pleasing as I was using the spare sheets left behind, and decided I should take a slow stroll back to the leaky cauldron as I was to meet Narcissa at noon. Leaving a note on the made bed that I'd be back at five pm for sure to sign the paperwork to rent the flat and that I had to leave to meet Narcissa which was prearranged.

It had finally been a full week, flourishing in my freedom.

I felt an energy about myself that I'd never felt before. I had never been able to meet myself without stress and I was becoming quite fond of who this version of myself.

I felt like I was becoming me for the first time in my life. Without worry, without stress, without high expectations being held over my head like a tilting bucket of nails.

All I had to do was survive and romanticise my time doing it. Surviving in these conditions felt almost easy in comparison to the environment where surviving was more important than anything else.

I thought more about what Sonny was suggesting last night. That if I wanted to rekindle old relationship, like we had done, I couldn't trust the opportunities were just going to present themselves and that I should create them.

Coincidence brought Sonny and I back together but that didn't mean the same for everyone I once knew. For all I know I have missed meeting an old friend by mere seconds and might continue to if I don't seek them out.

It was a terrifying notion but one I understood I had to do if I wanted to receive the same closure as I did last night.

Truthfully, I'd probably only reach out to two people. One of them deserving a reply, although belated and one of them sharing my blood.

The two people I'd want to reach out to also felt the hardest to approach, quite frightening to imagine how the gesture would be received. If at all, which I would also understand. There was probably a correlation between the desire to speak to them again and the urge to stay away.

I got to the leaky cauldron at around ten in the morning. Leaving a couple hours for me to read the muggle storybook I had yet to finish, as I waited and run up to the room and change into fresh clothes.

It was very quiet and I could start seeing a theme. Quiet all days except Friday nights and I assume Saturday was the same as the floor was stickier than usual. The dirty mop still doing a horrible job at cleaning.

Narcissa came in, running early. Which was in character for her.

It had only been a week but it had felt like longer. I got up and embraced her in a hug.

She looked stunned. We had only properly hugged a number of times and never on a happy occasion. One of them being the night she helped me escape, another being when she was finally allowed to see me after so long.

"I was going to ask how the week had been but I'm assuming good?" She lightly smiled and took a seat.

"Again, I can't begin to explain how grateful I am that you helped me out of that mess." I said with weight to my words.

Without her I wouldn't have had experienced such a divinely peaceful week and future.

She looked at me kindly. Without saying a word. I know she didn't expect to be repaid and that gratitude was enough.

"Have you decided what you're doing next?" She asked.

"I'm actually going to sign a rent agreement later on today. I've found somewhere to rent!" I said enthusiastically.

She looked impressed.

"I suppose I don't have to go through the options I had found you this week then?" She asked. I shook my head and thanked her anyway.

"I'll write you down the address. Come visit me whenever you want, I mean it." I said and started looking for something I could write on and write with.

Narcissa reached into her small bag and pulled out a dainty silver pen and address book. I took it and scribbled down a copied version of the one Mary had wrote for me, I still hadn't memorised it completely yet.

"What now?" She asked me.

It was as if she had come with a long list of possible next steps I could make, as if she didn't believe I was going to figure it out myself. Which I didn't blame her for assuming, I didn't think I'd have come so far in a single week either. The resources she must have researched and collected were very much appreciated, though not necessary. Which I felt was a personal achievement.

"I actually was considering reaching out to..." I began but had to take a sip of water and fix a throat that was threatening to dry out.

It had been so many years since saying his name out loud.

Narcissa seemed curious.

"Sirius and...Remus." I managed to say, starting to aggressively chew on the skin around my thumb as a result. It was just his name but it felt heavy.

"Absolutely not." She said instantly.

"Why not?" I said, being shocked by her sternness. So much so it snapped me out of feeling nervous.

"It's just not a good idea."

"Why not?" I repeated.

"Too many reasons to list." She said stubbornly.

"Why not?" I persisted.

I didn't understand the absolution of her words. Why she wouldn't even consider it would be a good idea. I understood how it could end tragically, my initial response to reaching out is fear of rejection. The feeling makes me want to recoil in on myself but I had to consider how I may feel if I never see them again, which also felt tragic. Surely that was easy to understand?

"I don't want to fight." I began.
"I'm asking you why because I respect your opinion." I said.

It was true. I never growing up, always viewing her as far too obedient, a suck up and someone who lacked a back bone. I had discovered with age that she was deeply intelligent and behaved in a way that offered her respect and trust from the people that could take away her freedom of choice and then did as she pleased with the information she was given, slyly. She was very independent and knew what people wanted to hear so that she could be unbothered. It was as if she presented her own ideas to someone in a way that made them believe they came up with it themselves and then went along with it and praised them for it...knowing she was the one who she was in fact praising.

By saying I respected her opinion she relaxed with her stubbornness and unwilling attitude to expand upon 'why' she didn't believe reaching out was a good idea.

"Sirius will get you in all sorts of situations where you could be exposed to chaos. Trouble hasn't stopped following him from the moment he could speak." She explained.

I knew she had a point. He did seem to sniff out trouble, attracting complications whenever he went. Perhaps it hasn't changed with time, though I still believed he deserved to hear that I would have stuck up for him again if the opportunity was to repeat, though using different methods.

"And Remus?" I said, feeling my heart constrict at his name once again.

She hesitated.

"Just not a good idea." She said plainly.

"Narcissa, please." I said, about to beg her to expand. It was like trying to pull information out of a brick.

"There's a list. Not yet confirmed, but there's talks of making it compulsory to be on and public. Lucius' father works for the ministry and I heard him mention the name of someone Bella has been hanging out with in that little club. It caught my interest and I shouldn't have snooped but something told me to and now that regulus is getting involved I know that was the reason, it was as if I could feel he'd be involved eventually and he leaves his paperwork out, not locking it away and...you know what, I can't." She started to explain a bit disconjointed, speaking fast and irregular. Then cut herself off immediately as she began getting deeper into her explanation.

She completely avoided eye contact, which was out of character for her and nervously played with the stitching of her skirt. I have never seen her pick apart at good tailoring.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Genuinely worried as I had never seen her portray anxiety openly to such degree.

I rested my hand on top of hers and to stop her picking at her clothes.

"He was on the list, Artemis." She said looking at me with great concern.

"You didn't say what the list was for." I reminded her.

"Werewolves."

(Uhhhh how do we feel?)