บท 100: Lend a hand
The days at Sirius's uncle's house passed. They were more fun than James first thought. This was because Sirius and James had total freedom.
Alphard let them do whatever they wanted. Leave the house unannounced and explore the town. Throw quaffles in the middle of the room without caring if they broke anything. Flying brooms in the backyard of the house, which was huge.
Even Alphard told them they could use their wands since their house had protections that allowed them to cast magic without worrying about the ban. As long as they were inside the house. So James was able to practice offensive and defensive spells with Sirius.
As for the muggles there was no problem, as Alphard had taken care of that problem so they would only see a normal yard.
Living with Alphard was like living with another friend or teenager. James and Sirius would get up very late and go to bed at five or six in the morning. Alphard did the same.
According to what Sirius told him, Alphard had many investments in magical businesses that generated a large amount of income for him, and he could live doing what he wanted, without depending on a job.
James these days had to cook. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since he was the best of the three at cooking. He had to do it with the random ingredients he found in the kitchen.
When he first woke up it was common to see Alphard drinking a breakfast whiskey at two o'clock in the afternoon while watching muggle television. To James' surprise, Alphard had many muggle tastes: motorcycles, music especially rock, movies, television, etc.
James knew that Alphard was to blame for Sirius not despising Muggles like his mother and other family.
"What's on the menu today, James?" asked Alphard as he noticed that James and Sirius had woken up. Today, they managed to wake up a little earlier. It was 13:43. Alphard had taken a liking to James these days. He could eat well thanks to his nephew's friend, so he appreciated him. Plus, that he had a very good sense of humor just like Sirius and him.
"Mm, there's not much. We should go buy some stuff in the village," James said, opening several drawers and the fridge.
"Go. Sirius knows where there's muggle money," said Alphard, lighting himself a cigarette.
Sirius got up from his chair yawning, took the money, and started walking towards the village with James. They had about a fifteen-minute walk to the village.
After they finished shopping, they went back to the house (James bought food for the next few days so they wouldn't have to go out again).
James as he was about to get to the kitchen noticed that there were more people, and there was a female tone arguing and yelling.
"Uncle Alphard! How can you possibly send two kids out to shop and get them to cook for you!? Besides, he's Sirius' friend!" said a young woman in her early twenties. Her hair was light brown and soft. She had rather large brown eyes.
Next to the girl who kept scolding Alphard as if she were his mother, there was a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy, who was trying to make hand gestures to calm the girl's anger.
"They're not children, Andromeda. They're thirteen years old... I was surviving on my own at that age," said Alphard, annoyed because he couldn't hear his TV show.
"Thirteen years old!" exclaimed Andromeda indignantly, "Look at the dump they're living in!" she added, spreading her hands and looking at the state of the kitchen.
"We're twelve..." muttered Sirius, who was watching the fight as if it was a TV show.
"When you were his age, it didn't seem to bother you much about cleaning the house," said Alphard, and Andromeda, who was about to say something remained silent, as he was right.
"Calm down, you two," said the blond boy, who had a soft and pleasant voice, "They're here. Sirius and his friend," he added to stop them from fighting. The two turned their heads and noticed James and Sirius watching them both with bags in their hands.
"I'm sorry you had to see that..." said Andromeda, regaining her composure. She happily greeted Sirius and introduced herself and James. The blond boy was her fiancé, Edward Tonks.
James found it curious that he had the same name, he had in his past life as Edward Rothschild.
As James was about to cook, Andromeda stopped him and forced him to sit at the table. She would do the cooking. Edward started to clean the place with his wand, meanwhile, the master of the house was still watching TV on his sofa. It was strange to see a sofa in the kitchen, but he had brought it for comfort.
"We already have all the preparations to start setting up the tent in the yard and stuff. Did you get the drinks?" asked Andromeda with her back turned as she was cooking.
"Yes. Tom gave me a discount buying so many drinks," nodded Alphard.
"Good. We'll start setting up the tent and stuff later today, even though the wedding is outside, I'd like the house to be in good condition..." said Andromeda, as the guests would first go through the inside of the house and then head to the park.
"As you wish. A little cleaning and it'll be good as new," Alphard said without paying much attention.
"Not just a little... Me and Edward will be busy, so we have to perfectly set up the tents, tables, and chairs outside. Can you take care of the cleaning inside? Just the 1st floor, the 2nd floor we won't be using," Andromeda asked.
Alphard frowned slightly as he watched the television. He knew well the state of his house. It could take many hours and maybe a couple of days for such cleaning.
Just then James spoke up, "We'll do it. We're free."
"Would they do that!?" asked Andromeda with a smile, looking at James and Sirius.
'We?" thought Sirius. He didn't find the idea of cleaning up piles and piles of garbage and random objects pleasant, but seeing his cousin's smile, he ended up agreeing.
"Great, thanks! That saves us a lot of work," Andromeda said gratefully.
"Thanks, guys," said Edward with a pleasant smile.
After they finished eating, some friends of Andromeda and Edward arrived and started working in the park to get everything ready for the party that would be in 5 days.
As James had volunteered to help, he decided to take his task seriously, forcing Sirius to start cleaning up right then and there, much to his chagrin.
Alphard got his butt off the couch and went to do his business.
James spent all afternoon and part of the evening with Sirius cleaning and tidying up the downstairs, especially the area that would be used as a reception area for the guests, before going to the area where the wedding would be held.
It was hard work, and they all ended up dusty dirty, and sweaty. It wasn't entirely boring, as there were many very peculiar and quirky objects. James wondered where Alphard must have bought them from.
"Phew... Damn... Where does my uncle get all this junk? Should I get Kreacher and put him to work?" muttered Sirius, lying on the floor and looking up at the high ceiling of the house.
Kreacher was his house elf. After some thought, Sirius shook his head. If he brought that elf, his mother would find out about the wedding, as Kreacher is a loyal servant to his mother and hates anything to do with muggles, half-bloods, etc.
"Stop being so whiny. It was just a bit of exercise. We'll train more than this on the quidditch team," James said, looking at Sirius as if he was exaggerating things too much.
"You've been training with the team for a year now. Don't compare my fitness to yours," complained Sirius, standing up and shaking the dirt off his clothes.
"Boys let's eat. We're outside," said Edward, peeking out the door.
James and Sirius walked along happily. They were starving. In the large courtyard, they had set up a long table with several chairs. Besides Andromeda, Edward, and Alphard there were the friends who helped the couple today.
The dinner outdoors was very delicious one of Edward's friends was a chef, and he cooked a delicious barbecue, while they were eating Sirius wanted to try his uncle's fire whiskey, but Andromeda stopped him.
They went to bed earlier that day, as they were tired from tidying and cleaning for hours. Thanks to that their schedule was arranged a bit. The next few days they were cleaning and tidying non-stop. James proposed using the Nimbus 1001 to move around the house faster.
Sirius agreed immediately, and their efficiency and speed increased. They also found it useful to use the brooms to catch objects that floated and tried to escape when they saw someone trying to catch them, such as flying books.
Finally, the day of the wedding arrived.
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