Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 80: Bittersweet

"Come in"

Unsure what to do with itself, Harry's hand found it's way to the nape of his neck, as he began to feel all of sudden very conscious of his lack of a shirt.

His bruise had almost completely faded beneath the ointment, leaving just a faint red flush over his skin. Though with his embarrassment, the red seemed to crawl over his chest and up his neck

At Nell's command, the door creaked open, and James poked his head into the room.

Upon seeing the pair, Harry with his shirt off and Nell across the room with her arms fixed at her side, he raised his eyebrows, looking between the two.

"Meetings over"

"Oh right" Harry coughed and looking over to Nell, who's eyes seemed to be anywhere but on him, he flushed darker than ever.

"I was just getting changed" he grabbed his top from the edge of the mattress, pulling it over his head.

Still stood in the doorway, James watched amusedly as the pair painfully avoided the eye contact they so clearly wanted to make with one another.

"I'm gonna go find my dads" Nell decided, placing the ointment on the nearest surface and making a hasty move for the door.

Her face was uncomfortably hot, her hands lost at her sides and her heart thumping relentlessly in her chest. And as she tried to grasp onto why, it all got increasingly worse.

"Good to see you kid" James grinned, giving her a squeeze on the shoulder as she passed in the doorway.

"You too" she somewhat mumbled, clearly focused on something else entirely.

James watched her go with an amused spark in his eyes and as soon as she was making her way down the staircase he turned his head back into the room with a devilish grin.

"What?" Harry snapped at his father's suggestive look, still recovering from the embarrassment and utter bewilderment of what just happened.

"Nothing" James shrugged innocently, dropping his grin but not the glint of humour in his eyes.

Harry sighed, turning around to aimlessly organise the various bottles of healing ointment Nell had laid out onto the mattress.

"I was just getting changed" After a beat of silence James mimicked his son's words from before with a return of that goofy grin.

"Dad" Harry groaned, flopping his head into his hands with embarrassment.

"Sorry! Come on, no hug for your old dad?" James opened his arms.

Rolling his eyes Harry shuffled across the room and let his dad wrap his arms around him.

"I missed you kid" the father smiled, squeezing his son tighter.

"Yeah yeah" Harry said begrudgingly after a moment.

"There she is" Sirius grinned at the sight of his daughter wandering into the kitchen.

He and Remus were leant against the counter, Remus holding a cup of tea to his lips, humming.

"Yes we were wondering where our little eavesdropper got to" He spoke into his mug.

Choosing to ignore Remus' comment she ran forward into Sirius' open arms at the excitement of being home with her parents again.

Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her off the ground slightly, squeezing her close to his chest.

She was never away from home for too long, considering the full moons, but these days it never seemed to be on normal circumstances. Their reunion was also clouded by some sort of impending conflict or trauma.

She missed running back into their arms the way it felt when she was younger. She missed what everything felt like without a war bubbling to the surface in the background.

"Missed you puppy" he kissed her temple.

As he set her down, Nell went to hug her other father equally as tightly, burying her head against his chest.

"Ah ah ah, the tea! You'll burn yourself-" he had to lift the mug quickly above her head to stop her knocking it out of his hands as she crashed into him.

Sighing, he allowed Sirius to lift it out of his grasp before moving to wrap his arms around his daughter.

"You okay?" He whispered against his daughters head, waiting before she nodded in reply.

"But Mr Weasley-" she remembered, the harrowing events of the evening returning to her.

"Is going to be just fine" Remus interjected, "they found him just in time."

"I could have done more.. found McGonagall sooner, or -"

"Shh, you did good kid" Sirius assured her, though in her guilt Nell wasn't so easily convinced.

Why did it seem the people around her only ever got hurt? And how soon would it be until it was someone in this room?

Mr Weasley was a good man, he'd been nothing but kind to her and now he was lying in a bed in St Mungo's. And yet she was being praised for saving him? None of it was right and her exhaustion, and the ever approaching moon, began to get the better of her.

"No. No, Mr Weasley nearly died and I know it's got something to do with me, you won't tell me anything but I know it has -" she stepped away from Remus.

"Nell-" Sirius tried, reaching out an arm to comfort her, growing in concern at her outburst.

"No." She shook him off, "why-"

The kitchen door swung open, a bright and smiling Lily poking her head in, doing her best to keep everyone distracted as they awaited more news from the hospital. The tension in the room reached a standstill at her beaming voice.

"Nell, Sweetheart." She smiled at the sight of her. "There's some food for everyone in the dining room, Harry's already gone through, you must be starving"

Nell returned the smile, grateful as always to see Lily, though struggling to stifle her feelings and that string of unanswered questions still tugging within her.

"We'll be down in a second Lil" Sirius greeted her warmly, the redhead quickly heading back out the way she came.

With the closing door returned the vacuum of tension, resealing the two fathers and their terrifyingly curious daughter inside.

Nell sighed, tired of being at heart of everything and yet knowing nothing at all.

"Why won't you tell me anything?" she pleaded quietly, not angry but desperate.

 And tired, so tired.

She looked to her fathers.

"Please."

Sirius, so much to say on the tip of his tongue and wanting nothing more than to wrap his daughter up and hide her from it all.

"Nell-" he started, before Remus starkly interrupted him.

"We should eat." He looked dangerously stoic, burying his ever growing guilt a thousand miles down as his only daughter looked to him desperate for answers.

"It would be rude to keep Lily waiting." And with that he left the room, without another word.

He wouldn't give his daughter answers, he couldn't. 

The terrifying fact of it was that it was becoming increasingly apparent that there would be no more hiding of their child from the world they were so merciless dragged into all those years ago. And Remus couldn't bear it.