Edited 3/2/2022
Chapter Twelve, Three down Two to Go

Christmas seemed to fly by. Josie had had an amazing time with her brother, her parents and her friends. However, the vision she had while at the Gala was constantly playing on her mind. She knew she should've sent a letter straight to Dumbledore but she hadn't wanted to interrupt his Christmas. But as today was the 27th she had no guilt whatsoever with sending him the letter today, which was the first thing she did when she woke up.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I hope you had a good Christmas. I'm sorry I'm sending this late but I didn't want to interrupt your Christmas. On Christmas Eve I had another vision on the location of another You-Know-What. It's located in the old Gaunt house in Little Haggleton, I'm not sure of what protections lay around it, but I can tell you it's a golden ring with a black stone at its centre, and that he wishes to move it in a few years time.

Three down and two to go, Professor.

Hope you have a lovely New Year

Regards,
Josie Potter

Josie read over the letter as it was drying before rolling it up and slipping it into the pre-addressed envelope and calling James's owl through her open window.
"Hello Ares." Josie cooed, scratching the owl behind his ears, getting a happy hoot in reply. "Can you take this to Professor Dumbledore, please?" Josie asked. Ares hooted in reply and took the letter in his beak, rubbed his head against Josie before taking off out the window.
"Mewoaw!" Merlin cried from the bed where he had just woken up pulling Josie's attention from the mountain views.
"Hi baby." Josie crooned, walking over towards her bed where Merlin lay curled up staring at her. "Did you have a nice sleep?" She asked, scratching behind his ears eliciting a loud purr from her familiar.

"There we go. That's nice, isn't it? Right, Mummy needs to go get ready." She gave him one last stroke and kissed his head before heading into her bathroom for a nice hot shower. Once she was finished in the shower she wrapped one fluffy towel around her hair and the other around her body; brushed her teeth, used her mouthwash, cleaned her face with some face scrub before finally putting on some moisturiser and deodorant.

Humming a little to herself she headed out to her bedroom to her closet directly opposite her bathroom to pick out some clothes for today. She finally decided on red matching underwear, a black skater skirt, a maroon tank top, maroon tights, brown heeled boots and a mustard waterfall cardigan. Once she was dressed she sat at her dresser and brushed her curly hair, ending up putting it in a braided ponytail. Once she was satisfied she slipped on her betrothal ring and Heiress ring and put on some shimmery beige eyeshadow in a Smokey effect, winged eyeliner, mascara and dark red lipstick.

She had just put everything away when there was a loud pop from beside her startling her slightly.
"Oh, I'm sorry Miss." Lou-Lou apologised with a bow. "Lou-Lou did not mean to startle you."
"It's alright Lou-Lou, I was just in my own head." Josie dismissed kindly. "Is everything alright?"
"Oh, yes Miss. Mistress Mia just sent me to see if you were alright." Lou-Lou said hurriedly.
"Thank you Lou-Lou." Josie said, smiling softly at her. "I'm heading down to breakfast now."
"Okay Miss. Lou-Lou will make sure that your breakfast and your favoured tea are still hot." She said, before she disappeared with a loud pop.

***

"Morning." Josie greeted, as she entered the family dining room and taking her seat in between her mother and James after kissing her both parents' cheeks.
"Morning." Regulus greeted gruffly from across the table. He was not a morning person. Not that Josie could blame him, neither was she really.
"Morning sweetheart." Euphemia greeted, smiling as Josie kissed her brother's cheek.
"Morning Josie." James and Remus greeted. Remus seemed to be the only person wide awake at the table. She really didn't understand morning people.
"Morning love." Sirius smiled at her lovingly from across the table.
"Morning Princess. Did you sleep all right?" Monty asked, concerned.
"Mmm Hmm." Josie hummed, taking a sip of her honey tea. "Much better thank you, Daddy."

"Good. That's good to hear Josie. I was wondering if you would like to have a picnic at lunch? Just the two of us." Sirius asked. That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, before Josie could say anything Monty was fixing a fierce and overprotective glare upon Sirius while James and Josie were cringing for two different reasons. James; because he had been fixed with that glare when he'd told his parents how he'd treated Josie before the start of this year. And Josie; because she felt sorry for Sirius who had evidently put his foot into his mouth. Looking around the table; Josie could see everyone had a varying degree of expressions upon their faces.

Regulus was trying not to laugh at his brother for putting his foot in his mouth; Remus, looked somewhere between half amused and half overprotective; Jamie was in the same boat as Remus but instead of being amused he was cringing at their father's angry expression; her Mama had a frown upon her delicate face but her ocean blue eyes were hard with a warning directed at Sirius; and her Daddy was angry and overprotective beyond believe.
Sirius realising what he'd done scrambled to make amends before he ruined everything, tripping over his words in his haste.
"I-I... err-" Sirius cleared his throat and tried again. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant obviously James, and Remus and Regulus if they had no other plans, would chaperone. I just meant Josie and I would have the picnic." Sirius corrected, his voice a slightly higher octave than normal as Monty's glare didn't let up.

Finally Monty nodded and sat back in his seat. "That is... acceptable." He said, before taking a sip of his coffee as he looked over the invoices for his company.
"Really Monty?" Mia asked, with a delicate eyebrow raised. "Was it necessary to make Sirius sweat like that?"
"I like Sirius, I do. You know that, Mia, but I have to protect our baby girl no matter who she's betrothed to." Monty said, shrugging his shoulders as he pushed his glasses further up his nose. Mother and daughter just sighed and shook their heads at him, before starting up their own conversation as they all finished their breakfast in a comfortable silence. As soon as Josie had finished she jumped to her feet preparing to dash out to the plains to see the Abraxans only to be stopped by her brother.
"Josie, do you want to play Quidditch?" James asked hopefully.
"Sorry boys, places to go." Josie said cheekily, before dashing outside leaving everyone else to smile fondly at her retreating form.

***

Later that afternoon while Josie was now seeing to a Knarl she found, Lou-Lou suddenly appeared telling her Sirius was waiting for her, which was good as she was starving and gasping for something to drink. Since breakfast that morning Josie had been all over the grounds, from the grassy plains, the woods, the lake and even the start of the mountains that the wards reached to, seeing, playing and even tending to every creature within those habitats, and she had to admit that she was exhausted. But she loved it. She loved being with the creatures, it's one of the reasons she gets along so well with Newt Scamander and why he gave her Merlin in the first place. Since she could form an interest in things: she was all about creatures magical or non-magical she didn't care which and her passion had grown as she had.

"Thank you Lou-Lou. Where is he?" Josie asked curiously.
"You're welcome, Miss. He's on the hill that looks over most of the grounds." Lou-Lou informed her before popping away.
Josie knew that hill all too well. She should do with all the times James and herself had rolled down it when they were younger, in fact they had rolled down the hill, just the other day to the amusement of their friends. Setting the Knarl gently on the ground by his burrow in the tree stump, Josie said goodbye to him with promises to be back and set off in search of her elusive love.

Ten minutes later she arrived at the designated hill spotting James, Remus and Regulus watching them on the other hill. Out of hearing distance (for James) but not out of sight, Josie waved to them as she walked up the hill and when she got to the top her breath was taken away from her. Sirius had set up a beautiful layout with a red checkered blanket, red and purple pillows, a whole assortment of food with a wicker basket and an iced bowl holding a few bottles of butterbeer.

When she looked up she noticed Sirius was anxiously waiting for her reaction only to sigh with relief when he saw the wide smile spread across her face, a similar one now mirroring hers upon his own face.
"Sirius, this is wonderful." Josie breathed.
"I'm glad you like it. Come, I bet you're hungry after spending all day dashing about the grounds tending to your creatures." Sirius said, holding out his hand to help her sit on the blanket. Only to sit down besides her once she was comfy. "Tell me about your day." Sirius requested a wide smile on his face as he watched Josie light up as she told him excitedly all about her day with the wonderful creatures she'd come across today.
"Sorry." Josie apologised, a blush upon her cheeks and ducking her head slightly, playing with the strawberry on her plate. "Rambling on about the creatures..."

"Hey," Sirius said, using his fingers to gently lift her chin up. "I like the way you light up when you talk about things you love." He said, making her blush deepen as she giggled embarrassedly. "You never have to apologise for talking about them to me. To anyone. Ever." He added seriously.
"Thank you Sirius." Josie said, leaning forwards and pressing a sweet, tender kiss to his lips. "Tell me about your day." Josie requested as she laid down resting her head on Sirius's thigh and holding his hand as she looked up at him and he looked down at her, each with wide, loving smiles upon their faces. Sirius smiled as he told her all about his day reconnecting with his brother, the four of them planning pranks for when they return to Hogwarts and he admitted how shocked he was at what a little prankster his brother was making Josie laugh.

"Sirius, he's an Animagus and a year younger than us. That should've been a giveaway." She teased.
"Hmmm you're right. I'm so unobservant!" Sirius cried dramatically, making Josie laugh again.
"Oh shut up you berk." Josie laughed, gently shoving him as Sirius laughed.
"But I'm your berk." Sirius added, smirking down at her as Josie burst out laughing before she started gasping, holding her sides from how hard she was laughing.
"Oh...that was so.... cheesy." Josie gasped in between her fits of giggles making Sirius smile even wider as he leaned down to kiss her once again.