James was unable to recall a time where he had felt so mentally exhausted. In fact, he didn't think any word would be able to encapsulate how tired he truly felt. Within one evening, he had witnessed and experienced so many things he didn't think he ever would need to.

If this was how he felt, he couldn't even begin to fathom how exhausted Fi must feel.

Fi. The girl that had transitioned from being a foe, to a friend, to a sister, to a whole new identity. The girl he thought he knew, but clearly he didn't.

Strangely though; it didn't bother James in the slightest. Of course he wish he knew sooner, knew about what could have triggered any flashbacks or what would have comforted Fi. Holding a grudge wouldn't help anyone currently, especially not Fi. Instead now, he was determined to discover every little thing that made Fi happy in her prior life, and fill all those negative memories with positives at Hogwarts.

"Please. Stop. STOP."

A panicked female voice interrupted James' thoughts, the voice shaking yet rising more towards the end. It certainly wasn't his mother's voice. So that meant it had to be one other person. It had to be Fi.

Kicking his legs off of the bed, James grabbed a hold of his wand from the bedside cabinet as he stood. Even if he wasn't permitted to use magic outside of Hogwarts, one slightly strict rule was not going to stop him protecting his family. Rules were made to be broken.

Ophelia's room was situated next to where James' room was, this probably why he had heard her yells so clearly. If an intruder had of broken in he would have known, James was sure of that.

Which meant only one other option, and his answer was solidified once he had gently opened the door.

Knees pulled up to her chest and head buried between them was Ophelia. Short sniffles were heard, sniffles that were clearly being forced to remain as quiet as possible but proving a task.

"Fi." James spoke gently, feeling aware that if he spoke too suddenly it may startle her. Either way, the whisper did startle her, but possibly not as much as it could have.

"Hey Jam." Ophelia lifted her head from her knees, just making out James' silhouette in the door. Feeling grateful for the relative darkness that masked the redness around her eyes.

"Do you need a big brother cuddle?" James whispered back, deciding not to ask if she was ok, the answer evident in front of him.

"Please." Ophelia smiled at the question, even if James wouldn't be able to see it.

"Ok, incoming James." James reached his hands out to try and guide himself in towards the bed, once the door closed it was pure darkness. After a couple of stumbles and swear words he had managed to find his way there.

Ophelia shuffled slightly over on the double bed, knees still tucked up against her chest making the manoeuvre slightly clumsy. Once James had settled into one side, he quite literally yanked Ophelia towards him and pulled the duvet up around them both.

"Right, sleep." James patted Ophelia on the head mockingly.

"If only it was that easy." Ophelia groaned, although definitely feeling more relaxed when protected by James. "Did I wake you?"

"Not answering. Go to sleep." James responded, sternly but playfully. "Night Fi."

"Night James. Love you." Ophelia mumbled, somehow managing to fall asleep until she said those words. "Platonically, of course."

"And there was me thinking you finally admitted your lustful feelings towards me." James ruffled Ophelia's hair whilst he spoke. "I love you too, platonically of course."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Ophelia awoke to soft sheets engulfing her and a hand slapped across her face. The usual morning light trickled in through a gap in the curtains, enough to remind what or rather who's room she was in. Detaching herself from the remaining glimpses of a dream, Ophelia took one final moment to eyes to assimilate in the warmth of the covers before letting her blue eyes open fully to see the sun's rays.

Gently, Ophelia removed the hand that laid across her face and moved from underneath it. Trying her hardest not to wake James, she carefully tapped her feet around to ensure she could reach the floor before standing; rather than fall bunglingly. Once stood, Ophelia took advantage of the light in the room and turned to face James; she wished so much that she had her mobile phone with her now.

James had already managed to splay his legs across to where Ophelia had previously been laying, looking like a starfish. His glasses remained on his face, but were askew with one of the frame's arm in his hair and the other down past his nose. Gentle snores passed through his wide open mouth and a trail of dried drool was covering his chin. Whilst biting down on her lip to refrain a laugh, Ophelia tiptoed out of the room.

The Potter's home was rather large, the hallway from the bedroom seemed almost never-ending and either direction out of the room seemed just as plausible.

After a few paused seconds to negotiate with herself on what direction to take, Ophelia took the left. But after passing multiple family moving photos and many doors, it was clear this wasn't the way to reach the kitchen.

"Lost?" A half asleep voice caused Ophelia to turn. In one of the now opened doors was Sirius, his hair pulled back into a ponytail and the rest of his body covered by the door.

"Maybe." Ophelia responded.

"I'm guessing you want the kitchen?"

"Why?" Ophelia replied to the question with a question. "Do I come across as someone who can't survive without food?"

"No. You're just the exact same as Moony, can't survive without a cup of tea in the morning." Sirius answered rather matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Ophelia's heart sunk slightly at hearing Remus' nickname; unsure as to whether this was because she missed him or because she felt so guilty.

"Well?" Sirius had noticed the pause in thought from Fi. "Is it the kitchen you're after?"

"Yeh, sorry." Ophelia shook her head gently, as if this would shake away any intruding thoughts.

"I'll take you. One second." Sirius turned around from the door, knocking it open slightly to reveal a bare-arsed body.

"Sirius!" Ophelia quickly turned her back to the now open door and naked Sirius; feeling thankful she didn't see the front of him instead.

"What? Don't like what you see?" Sirius shouted back, a chuckle evident in his voice.

"It's something I never wanted to see, so please cover up."

"You're safe now." Sirius tapped Ophelia on the shoulder, who turned around slowly with a hand still covering her eyes.

"And you promise you're fully covered."

"I swear on Moony's life." Sirius chose Remus knowing this would cause a cog to turn on Ophelia's brain.

"You better not be about to kill my Rem." Ophelia allowed a gap in her hand to appear, her eyes now peeping through the fingers to reveal Sirius now dressed in a silk maroon dressing gown.

"You're Rem?" Sirius teased whilst tapping Ophelia's nose.

"I - uh. Oh fuck off Sirius." Ophelia played it off as cool as she could, not even realising herself why the word 'my' had slipped out.

"No need to get defensive." Sirius winked. "Ok this way to the kitchen m'lady."

Ophelia allowed Sirius to walk ahead, keeping silent whilst listening to him hum away at a song. A muggle song.

"Queen?" Ophelia asked.

"Yeh, you know them?" Sirius asked, before spinning on his feet to face Ophelia. "Oh of course you do, you were a secret muggle."

"I deserved that didn't I." Ophelia grumbled.

"You did."

"Fair enough." The pair continued walking in silence, they reached the kitchen soon after. "Queen is quite old though now Sirius, they're still incredible, but I think I need to update your music knowledge." Ophelia took a seat at the kitchen table, but noticed Sirius was still standing.

"I wish you had told me." Sirius kept his eyes fixed on Ophelia, almost daring her to turn away.

"I'm sorry." Ophelia could tell it was still weighing on Sirius' mind.

"I could have helped."

"You couldn't."

"I could."

"You did without even intending to though, and that was better than me feeling like you pitied me." Ophelia sighed whilst spilling her true feelings.

"So you pity me for my parents?" Sirius questioned.

"No of course not!" Ophelia shook her head to affirm her statement.

"And neither did I with you, hence why you could have told me."

"That's the past. Let's focus on now." Fleamont had entered the side entrance of the room after hearing the discussion from the living room. "Morning kids."

"Morning Monty." Sirius nodded.

"Morning." Ophelia offered a smile to Fleamont.

"Fi, Mia wants to look at your wounds before breakfast. She's just in the living room." Fleamont flicked his head in the direction of the door.

"Thank you." Ophelia tried to look at Sirius one more time, but his eyes were glued to his feet. Instead, she decided to leave him be for now.

Something that Ophelia had learnt about Sirius over the past year was that he was a very hot headed, passionate person but the reason for this was because he loved people so deeply. If he was angry at Ophelia, it was because he was also angry at himself for not noticing.

Once Ophelia was fully out of sight and any chance of hearing, Fleamont returned to facing Sirius.

"Be nice laddie." Fleamont gently scolded Sirius. "You of all people should understand the want to run away from your past."

"But the difference is I didn't get the chance too." Sirius grumbled back, turning around too so that he was no longer facing Fleamont.

"I hardly call lying in a hospital bed nearly dead, running away Sirius." Fleamont reasoned. "I think you and I both know you are slightly envious of the fact Ophelia has found her feet."

"Monty, I don't want to talk about this."

"Fine. Just don't take it out on the poor girl." Fleamont admitted defeat, knowing that pushing Sirius anyway would be wrong in itself.

Sirius knew Fleamont was right; it was rare Sirius would ever admit he was wrong. Deep down he knew how hard talking about his own family life was, that's if he ever did choose to talk about it. Generally speaking the rest of the Marauder's would never question his experiences at 12 Grimmauld Place; the house he would never call a home. It was only when Fi found out about his troubled parents that he felt able to speak about them to someone. Maybe that's why he felt so angry about the situation; he felt Ophelia didn't feel the same way towards him.

But Fleamont got one thing wrong, Sirius wasn't envious of Ophelia finding her feet. Sirius had already found his feet, right here in the Potter household.

"It's been a very long time since I have done healing the muggle way." Euphemia was currently dressing one of Ophelia's wounds in the living room. "How are you feeling, dear?" 

"Drained." Ophelia eyed Euphemia as she spoke, seeing the older lady's mouth begin to open she decided to stop anything before it happened. "I'm not backing out of the show, if that's what you're thinking."

"I wasn't, no. Blimey you can see you're a Gryffindor." Euphemia chuckled. "Always jumping head first."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"No, no don't be silly. I'm glad to see you feel comfortable around me." Euphemia spoke with a tone that would soothe anyone's nerves. "I was just going to say that I understand, a lot has happened over the last twenty fours both physically and mentally. You have every right to feel drained."

"Oh, thank you." Ophelia was relieved at the notion that Euphemia wasn't upset with her. "Thank you for coming yesterday, and thank you for taking me in for the night."

"You are more than welcome. Consider yourself a part of the Potter family." Euphemia offered a hug at the end of this, which Ophelia gratefully accepted.

"Thank you." Ophelia whispered into the hug

"And you're not going to back out of that performance. Show them your strength."

"Oh don't worry, not much can stop me."

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

After a relaxed morning, the Potter Family alongside Sirius and Ophelia had returned to Ophelia's temporary house. A few errands needed to be completed in order for her before she was collected for the show.

As time was passing Ophelia was growing anxious about the prospect of performing so soon after the intruder. That on top of the fact that it was her first performance back in so long meant her nerves were all over the place. Thankfully she had James and Sirius to keep her laughing.

"Muggle stuff is so strange." James stood holding a small pink tubular wrapper in his hand after leaving the bathroom.

"Ooh, is it a sweet?" Sirius snatched the wrapper from James' hand the second James finished speaking. "Why do you keep sweets in your bathroom Fi?"

"I don't." Ophelia currently had her back facing the boys whilst she packed. Naively believing that the pair wouldn't be causing any trouble.

"It's a bit, weird." Sirius held up the now open packet that revealed a bullet shaped piece of cotton.

"What is - oh." Ophelia turned around and immediately had to bite on to her lip to prevent herself from laughing. "Sirius that's not a sweet."

"It's in a wrapper, of course it is." Sirius held it up by the string to investigate it further.

"It really isn't." Ophelia groaned sarcastically at Sirius' antics.

"How do we know if you're just saying that to stop us eating your muggle sweets." James huffed, crossing his arms in front of him like a toddler would.

"Sirius, darling, why are you holding a tampon?" Euphemia stood at the doorway with a rather shocked face.

"A what?" Sirius and James both answered in chorus.

"A tampon." Ophelia began to explain but was cut off with her own laughter. "We, uh, use it for our time of the month in the muggle world."

"What, you eat it? Like a potion?" Sirius was still holding the tampon in his hand.

"No, we uh insert it." Ophelia wasn't shy about the concepts of a tampon, but she just couldn't decide on the softest way to break it to the pair.

"Insert it?" James questioned, looking back at his mum who now had an amused expression.

"It goes in their vagina, son." Fleamont called from somewhere in the hallway.

"WHAT!" Once again the boys spoke in unison.

"Monty!" Euphemia rolled her eyes even though a smile graced her face. "You could have been a little less blunt."

"He is a Potter though isn't he?" Ophelia chuckled, gaining a laugh from everyone in the room.

"I like this girl." Fleamont was now stood at the doorway beside Euphemia. "There's a laddie at the door for you Fi."

"Oh, did you get his name?" Ophelia questioned, although not too nervous about her safety more curious about who it could be.

"I didn't, he was a similar age though to you."

"It's probably Damian. I'll be back up in a second." Ophelia spoke whilst walking out. "Sirius try not to eat a tampon again!"

Part of Ophelia was really hoping that it was Damian because she needed someone who understood the public eye beside her. But part of her didn't want this, he'd ask questions and she was sure James or Sirius wouldn't be good at keeping up the muggle act.

Either way she certainly didn't expect who was truly at the door.