At the doorbell, Fauna woke to the smell of burning. Her head popped up from where she’d rested it on the table, and her nose twitched. She glanced behind her at the oven.

Oh shite. Oh shite oh shite!

“Nooo!” She groaned, scurrying around looking for the oven mitts when the house elf appeared, his face twisting in displeasure. Fauna thought she caught him mutter something about ‘no hat girl in the kitchen’, but the elf shooed her away and up the stairs.

“She’s here!” Fauna hollered as she skidded into the foyer in her cupcake slippers. After last night, the house and its occupants were in total disarray. Everyone was mad at someone, except for perhaps Grace, who had managed to sleep through the screaming, crying, hexing, and door slamming that had ensued. Dark circles shadowed Fauna’s eyes, and though the boils had healed, it left her skin splotchy and uneven. Getting through training today had been a nightmare.

What an introduction for poor Addie!

Fauna opened the door and ushered her in, helping her with her suitcases and other belongings. Once they were both tucked inside warm, she leaned against a trunk, catching her breath and letting out a cough at the winter air that had lodged into her chest.

“Hi,” she smiled then, giving her a tight hug.

"You didn't mention you'd be living here, darling. You certain you'll be fine in such a large place? Know that if anything comes up..." "Muuuuum. I'm fine, promise! Fauna seemed more than thrilled in telling me that they had room for me here," Adelia spoke up, grinning at her mother as she held the dog cage in one of her hands. Marmy agreed, barking only briefly, going quietly right after when the house elf did the appear/disappear act.

Fauna came right after with a sisterly embrace. Luckily, Marmy made it to the ground before it occurred.

Addie hugged back, grinning ear to ear. "Hey, you! You're actin' like you haven't seen me since I was blue and furry?" she remarked with a grin. Anneliese snickered at her daughter - after all, Anne, Malcolm, Addie, Maurice, and Jimmy had endured the after effects of the potion Maurice had created for Halloween.

"Bonjour, Fauna, dear...Thank you again for allowing Adelia to stay with you all for a spell. We brought Marmy; seems she can't be without Adelia. Malcolm wanted to leave a 'hello' with you; he was busy with a photoshoot today." Addie looked at Fauna with a shrug, soon noticing the dark circles and blotchy face.

"...What happened to you? Training going haywire?"

Fauna gave Anneliese a polite nod, feeling strange around the woman that her Da had picked to be with for the long haul. Though she resented her, she tried not to show it, placing the blame for her mum's heartache squarely on her Da's shoulders.

"You're welcome," she told Anneliese simply, awkwardly. It was best to ignore the comment about Malcolm. He was either smart enough not to show his face, or cowardly, and Fauna hadn't decided which.

"Sort of," Fauna tucked her hair behind her ears, meaning to tell her about the fight later. She could contain herself from whining about Brett until Addie got settled in. Probably.

So, she focused on Marmy. "Adorable!" Bending down, she smiled at the animal. "Can I let her out?"

Snuggle her, she meant. Just seeing Addie and the cute little furball made Fauna feel a little better at the moment.

Brett stirred lazily at the sound of the door bell. Last night had been long. She'd had trouble getting comfortable with the horns protruding from her butt, but at some point in the night the spell had worn off and her bottom was back to normal. Sitting up in bed, she ran a hand through her mussed up hair and perked an ear. Oh, that was right. Fauna's cousin was moving in with them today.

Crawling out of bed, Brett found a clean pair of underwear- that didn't have horn-holes- and grabbed the first shirt on the floor she could find. This resulted in her wearing a pair of gray boyshorts and a t-shirt Dax had bought in Muggle London. But it was dark in their room, and she hadn't paid much attention to the top she had pulled on. It was long and baggy on her, though, a fit she found to be comfortable. "Get up," she said to Dax. "Addie is here." Their beds were on opposite sides of the room this morning. After Brett had finally told Dax the truth about what had happened in Dion's room before anyone showed up, he'd been pretty miffed.  Which is why she'd ended up going to bed behorned.

Yawning, Brett trudged downstiars- and sniffed the air. Lunch. It was burnt. Damn. She had to go in to work the late shift tonight, a delicious lunch was apparently out of the question at this point. That was what happened when you let Fauna in the kitchen. Or let her do anything. She was clumsy.

When she came downstairs, and saw the blotchy skin of Fauna's face, she frowned a little. Brett still felt guilty for the way things had fallen apart last night. Even so, she wasn't about to do more apologizing and take the full blame for everything that had gone wrong. But Fauna's boils were gone, so were her horns, which meant everything was more or less back to normal.

Brett had been unaware that Adelia's mother had been coming with her. Had Brett known that, then she probably would have put on more clothes. "Morning," she grunted to Fauna, then Brett waved at Adelia and her mother. "Did you burn lunch?" Brett directed at Fauna. "Smells awful."

_{Note: Marmy (short for Marmalade) is a crup/choco lab puppy breed.}

---

Marmy barked happily at the prospect of being let out - after all, Marmy recognised Fauna's scent was very similiar to that of Malcolm, Alfie, and Addie. "Mhm, here." Addie bent down and unlocked the cage which led Marmy out to explore. The chocolatey silver crup pup was quick to start sniffing around, eventually wagging her tail in a seal of approval. Marmy stopped at Fauna's feet, nudging against her body, and barked as Brett showed up.

Anneliese wasn't going to judge - they were young adults, after all, and young adults, wizarding and Muggle alike wore to what they felt comfortable in come morning time. "Well, love, I'd best be off. Make sure you mind the pints and quarts, your manners too, but have a good time..." Anneliese leaned over, kissing her eldest's cheek. "Keep in touch otherwise you'll have your grandparents, Jimmy mainly, asking thirty-eleven questions. Love you, dear. Be a good watchdog, Marm." Marmy left Fauna momentarily to be pet by Anneliese and after final embraces, Anne was heading off, Apparating in the spot they were told to do so.

Addie looked back to the two fellow classmates while Marmy returned once more to Fauna's leg. "....IF we're worried for lunch, I'll cook. I'm good at it, promise."

Everything was more or less back to normal - for the girls, anyway. For Dax, the ensuing arguments between he and Brett had let him in on what had really happened - and on a possible truth that he was absolutely sure was not true. There was no way! He and Dion were identical. There was no way that Dion's was bigger! It didn't work that way. Karma didn't work that way!

He came downstairs agitated, rubbing an eye and grumbling. He was wearing more or less what Brett was wearing - minus the shirt, anyway, which really just meant he showed up in his underwear (boxer briefs, naturally). Walking around practically unclothed, he wasn't an unusual sight.

Well, for the Radford house, anyway.

But he was a man on a mission, and he came downstairs not with the usual dazed stance but with strides full of  purpose. He spotted Addie, but for now, she wasn't the object of his questioning. He had an issue to resolve, and he needed the one person who might know the answer...other than Brett.

"Fauna, you've seen Dion's junk, right?" He asked, the moment he stepped into the room. Addie got barely a nod of acknowledgement. "Would you say it's big?"

Fauna bent down to scratch Marmy's ears, giving the crup lots of attention, both because she was cute and because it meant she only had to wave at Addie's mother as she left.

She stood, her smile faltering at the arrival of Brett. Fauna inclined her head toward Addie as if to remind her they had a guest and she might not want to walk around like that for the next few days. She sniffed the air at her comment. It wasn't that burnt!

"Thanks," she told Addie, then frowned at Brett. "But it's fine."

Then Dax strode in. What was wrong with her housemates! They had real clothes, she'd seen them! But before she could say something, he blurted out a question. An awful, awful question.

Her eyes went wide. She glanced at Addie. "What!? - I, you - um - No!"

Fauna continued to glare, bug-eyed at him, until she realized what she'd said. "I mean! No, I haven't seen it! Damn it, Dax!"

Caught by a strange impulse, Fauna took off one of her cupcake slippers and threw it at him. "Ugh!"

First hexing Brett last night. Now cupcake violence! What was next? Fauna was losing her mind.

She watched as Addie's mother departed. She offered the woman a lazy wave. She was about to tell Addie it would be awesome if she could cook something edible- but Fauna was insisting that it was fine. "Guess I'll grab something to eat on the way to the office then," Brett said. If Fauna was going to serve a guest burnt lunch- that was her business. But if Brett was going to be working a late night, she wanted some good food to fuel up on. Not charcoal tasting crap.

Brett turned, watching Dax come into the room... practically naked. She couldn't help the way she grinned at him. Even if she saw it (almost) every night, Brett still liked to look at Dax's body. She snorted- loudly- at the first question out of his mouth. The previous night she might have led Dax to believe that Dion was superior to him in that way- but she had no idea if it was true. She was trying to get under his skin. It appeared to have worked.

"Haven't seen it?" Brett asked- obviously in complete disbelief to Fauna's claim. She opened her mouth to make a comment about how Fauna didn't need to lie to them- but as she threw her cupcake slipper at Dax, Brett quickly realized that might be a bad idea. She'd gotten hexed the previous night, and it seemed that Fauna's mood and temper had not improved any. She needed a strong helping of whiskey in her coffee.

She shifted her gaze to the girl she believed to be Fauna's cousin. (Fauna had told her that Addie was her half sister, but it had slipped Brett's mind.) "It was a long night," she offered- a vague explanation, but it would have to do. "Fauna isn't usually so crabby in the mornings."

This was, well, ahem, awkward.

Her mother was gone and Addie was quite happy about it because the sudden discussion about male anatomy made her deeply blush alongside her sibling. It wasn't due to virgin ears, Addie would admit that if need be, but the only body she chose to visualise at this time was Matty. As for visualising his muscular body was something that would lead to tears and that would hardly become a good beginning to living here at the estate. Marmy barked in excitement with the cupcake slipper being thrown and instantly went after it, plopping it into wet puppy mouth and brought it happily back to Fauna, wagging her tail at the step-sibling.

"I believe you, I can tell you all have, so no worries there." A pause. "As for being crabby, I've seen it, but rest assured, it only comes around the time of month and if she's particularly unhappy about something," Addie whispered lowly, keeping two blue eyes on Fauna, hoping she wouldn't become the next victim of circumstance. Her words were truthful; as for what happened to this household the night before, Addie didn't dare to begin guessing. After all, she'd been hexed once by Fauna.

She didn't want it again.

The slipper, cupcakey though it might be, wasn't something Dax had been expecting her to throw at him. Early morning as it was, it smacked him right between the eyes with a soft thwap, and then fell to the floor.

Dax being Dax, this did little to phase him.

"Oh, come on, you have to at least have a guess," he said, tone thoroughly whiny. "Brett says you've seen - ooh, a dog." The change in tone was as abrupt as a train wreck, Dax going from whiny pleading to cooing at Adelia's dog. He squatted down, grinned, and rubbed the dog behind the ears.

"Brett said you'd know!" He added, apparently suddenly remembering the topic that had brought him here in the first place. "He cheered you up last night,after all!"

"I'm not on my period!" Fauna hissed at Addie, though that was the least of her worries. In the back of her mind somewhere she felt guilty about putting Addie in the middle of a fight two seconds after she'd moved in, but she just couldn't take it.

"He fixed my face, that's all!" Fauna's voice rose at Dax, already feeling the warmth in her cheeks. She bent down, retrieved the slipper, and gave Marmy a distracted pat on the head. Then she got back to yelling.

"So shut up about it!"

Having no idea that Brett had told Dax the truth, she hesitated for just a moment. But damn Brett! She kept making it ten times worse! Because of her, innocent cuddling had turned into making out had turned into bow chicka wow wow!

"I was lying to you, ok? Nothing happened between me and Dion! I was trying to... to help," she gestured with her slipper at Brett, giving her a death glare. "I'm never helping again!"

"Shut it, Dax," Brett snapped, slamming her bare foot down hard onto his. "Don't torture Fauna. It's not nice. Besides- nobody cares whether yours or Dion's is bigger other than you." Which was exactly why Brett had put the idea into Dax's head in the first place. He'd gotten grumpy about her confusing the two, and she'd wanted to get a little payback for it. She and Dax were not in a relationship, and she was allowed to snog whomever she pleased. Whether it was Dion or Ignatius Prewett. Not that she was trumpeting the latter about. Discretion and all that.

She shifted her gaze to Fauna, feeling guilty again as she proclaimed she was never going to help again. Perhaps Brett had been a tad ungrateful, but then again, Fauna was a notoriously awful liar and had hexed her in the bum. That was more important than anything else at the moment. Brett had to work most of the night, and she had barely slept thanks to Fauna's poor aim and judgment... And Dax's refusal to help her when he found out what had really been going on in Dion's bed.

Brett gave Dax a warning glare before she shuffled off into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. If she was going to be dealing with these idiots so early in the morning after such a long night, she definitely needed something to snap her into alertness and make their company more bearable."Welcome to the madhouse," she called back from the kitchen, directing the statement toward Adelia.