Disclaimer: Any characters, names or places that you recognize are purely taken from their respective owners for a harmless story. I do not intend to make any money from this piece of fiction and have no silly plans to try and get it published. I won't be repeating this disclaimer in further chapters because I think it is unnecessary. So this disclaimer stands true for this chapter and for the ones that will follow it.
AN: This is certainly not my first fic or my first HP fic, but it is my very first James and Lily story. It is also my very first novel-type story. I've had this in drafts for so long. First few chapters are written and I have a basic plan, BUT it was time I shared with all of you. So please enjoy and leave me a comment at the end.
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In the cold wet rain, two black-haired men dressed in formal deep burgundy robes made their way down the cobbled streets of Knockturn alley.
They walked quickly and with purpose, their long strides acting to their advantage in the downpour of rain.
"It's worse that the Hogwarts dungeons, down here," the bespectacled of the two spoke in grim humor. The other, taller man smiled tightly. "Prongs, this is the clean side of the dark arts." And the taller man, Sirius, was right. James knew this and so refrained from any further comments. They walked on and finally came to the last turn in the alley before reaching their destination.
There were masses of pure blood folk, just like them in burgundy robes roaming around the street.
Sirius and James, maneuvered their way forward...easily picking up younger wizards and moving them aside.
"Hey!" a particularly brave boy yelped at Sirius' manhandling. But at one look, involving the raising of one perfectly shaped eyebrow, the boy quailed and visibly started shaking.
"Is there a problem?" Sirius asked in a low dangerous voice, eyeing the boy's obviously inferior navy blue robes. "N-n-n..." but the boy never got the word out because Sirius had already moved on, giving the boy one last disdainful look.
"I hate this place," James grumbled, as they stood pressed up to the metal frame of the gate. "I know." was all that Sirius replied and since there wasn't any point in repeating his statement, James kept his mouth shut and glared at anyone who tried to speak with him.
Twenty minutes passed and more people that their was capacity for had arrived. A hush fell as the minister of magic, Tom Riddle, stepped forward; the first lady-Bellatrix riddle was on his arm. To the world they were the beautiful and enigmatic saviors. The heroes of the pure blood society.
To James and Sirius, they along with the rest of the delusional and twisted magical world, was stark raving mad.
Because for as long as their memories would allow them, both could remember coming to the annual event and being revolted every single time.
Because this was the mud blood servants fayre. And this year, it was the turn of the men to buy a servant. They were both twenty years old and it was wizarding tradition.
And being the oldest, richest and best bred of the lot, James and Sirius had a reputation to keep...in the wizarding world this was all that mattered-reputation.
Riddle began his annual speech. It was the same every year. How, the pure bloods, had to keep their blood clean and the magic pure. Mudbloods were there to serve those of better blood. Anyone was allowed to make their bids when the auction for the servants began. Of course, the half bloods (identifiable by their navy blue robes) could auction too. After all, they only had half of the bad blood that Mudbloods had, but since they were never as rich as the oldest pureblood families, only the cheapest and worst servants were left to be taken by them. The male and female servants were kept separately, normally due to the different roles they would be fulfilling. As stereotypical as it was, most wanted female servants for the cooking, cleaning and sometimes even pure pleasure. The male servants were expected to know how to clean and please their owners, but the usual markets of buyers was for manual labor and sometimes help in businesses.
The very idea of it all, disgusted James and Sirius, but they masked it and kept up their family values. It wasn't like it actually affected them, after all. In fact it was families like the Potters, the Blacks, the Prewetts, the Delaware, the Malfoys and the Mulcibers that benefitted the most from this regiment. And when the oldest, purest and richest of all had no complaints, how dare anyone else?
As Riddle continued to speak, Bellatrix stared up at him with adoring eyes. Finally Riddle's voice came to an end: "my lovely wife will now begin the proceedings, have your gold ready." James looked at Sirius and stifled a laugh. Bellatrix was Sirius' cousin and had met James on many dinners at the Black household. Both black-haired men knew that Bellatrix Black riddle was anything BUT lovely.
"Can we get a new one, mummy? Price is really slow at cooking and she never makes my bed!" A small boy with red hair was saying as his mother dragged him along. "Be quiet, Bill, Price isn't there to do your chores! You're supposed to be learning basic Muggle studies from her."
"Well are we getting someone to make bacon then?" the boy persisted, clearly not satisfied with his mother's answer
"We'll see. Arthur needs a servant to help in the office, they don't get by cheap and we haven't that much gold on us today."
The ten year old pouted and was silent for a moment during which the woman looked around and saw two familiar young faces and started walking in their direction.
"Adam McKinnon's older brother has a servant for when he goes to work. Why can't daddy use him?"
"Hush now Bill, we'll see what's on offer today."
The woman was plump and short and happened to be the wife of a very good friend of James, so when she and Bill came near the front, both black-haired men greeted her and her son with identical, warm smiles.
"Why, Molly Weasley, you become prettier, day by day," Sirius, said bowing comically in front of her.
Molly giggled and swatted Sirius' head.
"Ignore him, Molly, he's gotten worse recently," James said, kissing her cheek. Whatever reply Molly was going to give, was drowned by a magically turned up and booming voice.
The voice of Ludo Bagman, the ministry's head of public interest had begun the auction.
As the servants were called up one-by-one, Ludo introduced them and gave little descriptions of each as well as their accomplishments and their drawbacks. It was like auctioning antique furniture. There were ratings for their beauty, their intelligence, personality and of course magical ability. As Ludo Bagman continued through the tedious list, scroll cards with each servant and his or her credentials began to magically fill out and distribute within the buyers.
People around them started pushing and shoving to get closer to the front so that they could place their gold before anyone else had the chance to bid any higher. Molly waved once at the men and also joined the general crowd. The Weasleys were thorough purebloods but their sheer numbers meant that they were amongst the less wealthy.
James stretched at length and covered his mouth as he yawned. Sirius smirked at his friend's clear boredom and extracted a cylindrical tube from his pocket.
"Smoke?"
"James accepted the cigarette and used his wand to set the tip alight and took a long drag.
They would be here for hours.
"How long until, the idiots have finished making their bids and we can place our own gold?" Sirius spoke after a while.
James took another long drag before speaking. "Let the rubbish ones be taken first, I've heard the good ones are only being brought in later."
Sirius smirked. Sometimes pretending to not give a damn just was so much easier.
The street, in itself, was festive. Decorated with pumpkin lanterns and poison ivy, the street looked like a party. The Dizzy Quaffle and Celestia Warbeck as well as lesser-known music bands were performing in different corners. Here and there were squibs roaming around in yellow robes, selling eateries to any one who would buy.
Having been to one, James could vouch that this day was as good as any Muggle carnival or London's legendary Muggle music festivals.
Sirius and James roamed aimlessly and sulkily in the case of the latter, to pass time. People automatically moved out of their way. A few even apologized for getting in the way. But the men walked on, ignoring the stutters and apologies and the general bleating around them. Until one fat, portly man hurtled into them.
'Alrigh? Din mean ta hur' ya. Wanna buy some blood purifyin' potion?" he slurred, obviously drunk.
"Dung!" Sirius snapped seizing the man by his scruffy navy blue robes.
The man, Mundungus, opened his small eyes a little wider and gave a queer grunt like laugh. "Black? Not buyin a servant? Did mamma not give you enough gold?"
Sirius dropped him, disgusted and James gave Mundungus a scathing look.
Mundungus was still on the floor and laughing when he bellowed out something that made a few people stop and stare as Sirius turned around slowly.
"Care to say that again?" he spoke, softly, his grey eyes boring into the man on the floor.
"Said tha ya migh wanna get one of 'em birds tha' round here as your own. Could use her instead of yaar mamma. Heard she kicked ya out!" and with that he passed out.
Sirius was about to leap onto Mundungus' passed out body but James tackled him and pulled Sirius back.
"He's not worth it, mate." James ground out and then glared at the crowd of onlookers that had gathered.
"What are you all staring at? Get back to the stalls!"
Some time later, both men were sitting in a small booth near where the Dizzy Quaffle was playing a number one song: 'Snitch versus the game'
Sometimes you've got to keep your eyes on the game…forget the snitch. The music played on.
"That used to be my motto! You've stolen my motivation speech!" James shouted as one of the band members, and James' fellow ex-team mate, winked upon hearing James' shouts of mock indignation
"You should have let me beat him up," Sirius muttered once James was seated again. The latter just rolled his eyes.
"You'd have started a scene."
"I don't care. He shouldn't have said that."
"Padfoot, you need to stop getting worked up about this every time. Stop letting that woman get to you. She disowned you, big -stinking-like-dung-bombs- deal! Stop pretending to be all victimized and acting up every time someone talks about her." James hissed.
Sirius looked away at some couple arguing fervently and then took one last sip of his drink and got up, brightly. "Where are you going," James asked, wearily.
"To get myself a hot chic" came the reply and didn't wait up as the latter quickly jogged up to him.
"Cousin, how wonderful to see you," Bellatrix spoke with false sweetness. "As usual, Bella, the pleasure is not returned," Sirius remarked airily and moved past her with intentional disregard. Bellatrix glowered and Sirius tripped up as he moved away.
James raised his eyebrows at Bellatrix's wand and said, "Congratulations, Bella, you've finally learnt how to send a tripping hex. Maybe you can move onto the jelly-leg curse," he smirked and followed his mate over.
"I'd be careful Potter, your name can't save you every time." She spat out, loud enough for James to hear but he only smiled and walked on.
"No, no, I'm not taking anymore bids."
"Aw, come on Baggy, just one more bid," James said holding out six bags of gold.
"Oh! Mr. Potter! Of course, of course, didn't realize it was you. Just you wait, sir we have the perfect girls just waiting for your eyes. What is it that you and Mr. Black seek? A girl for the bedroom? Or perhaps a kitchen maid? Sirius composed his face so that his clear disdain wasn't apparent, whilst James answered on his and Sirius' behalf. "Actually Bagman, we are here to purchase our very own personal servants. Tradition, as it is, you know."
Ludo sucked in a breath and smiled. "Ah. Well then, I know just who you might be looking for. If you wouldn't mind waiting a few moments, I'll be getting down to them as soon as the blues have all gone," he said in a rushed voice, indicating the navy-blue robed folk.
"May I request you head on inside and take a look at any that meet your fancy? We can do business in a little while, once all potential buyers have arrived."
He and James walked up to the stage and glanced at the servants all ready to be sold.
"Excuse me, darling," Sirius spoke softly and winked at the girl who was standing in front of a door marked 'Authorized warlocks only.'
The girl blushed furiously and scuttled sideways out of his way. James suppressed a laugh and instead rolled his eyes as he followed Sirius inside. Of course, not all the servants here were here out of desperation. Some actually chose this profession – even enjoyed it to a degree.
The inside of the little cabin was like a Muggle caravan. James noted that although space was cramped, everything that could be needed was present. A basin, a kitchenette, a toilet and a small living/sleeping area. The magic was eminent as the area marked out clearly as Ludo Bagman's, with his belongings scattered here and there, was self-cleaning itself. A mop was sweeping across the floor and a hovering bucket full of soapy water forced Sirius to maneuver his way around the settee.
Of course, this wasn't where Ludo Bagman actually lived himself. This was just where he conducted important business to the top of the chain purebloods.
And since it was the business that James and Sirius were interested in, they made their way into the second living area.
This space was similarly arranged to the one that preceded it. However, there were no hovering buckets or self-arranging kitchen appliances and instead of one sofa-cum-bed, there were four.
And instead of Ludo Bagman being present, there were four girls. Four servant girls to be exact.
Currently they were all speaking together in soft voices but upon hearing the heavy footsteps of potential buyers, a dreadful silence fell amongst them. This period of the whole auction was the worst. The uncertainty of not knowing whether they were safe from cruel masters was a torture that gave nightmares to them long after the actual auctioning day.
For a while the men and the girls stood in silence. Eventually Sirius cocked his head to the right and strode towards one. He stretched one long and elegant finger and stroked the girl's cheek lightly as he scrutinized the girl in front of him.
The girl was petite, with softly flowing brown hair and big, innocent looking eyes, but in comparison to Sirius' six-foot plus frame, she was unflatteringly dwarfed.
And visibly terrified of Sirius' attention to her.
Sirius looked into her eyes. His grey against her sky blue.
"Darling, I won't bite, you know. I left the fangs at home today," he whispered loudly in her ear. The humor, however, was lost on the girl and she gasped audibly and tried to step back but only succeeded in stumbling against the inopportune table leg. With fast reflexes, only a Quidditch player could possess, Sirius grabbed hold of her arm before she could fall to the ground.
"Not that I would without your explicit and full permission, but you know I would endeavor to make the bite worth your while!" Sirius said in a louder and more jesting manner. The girl blushed and a friend of hers nudged her. An action that was not missed by Sirius. He waggled his eyebrows at her and she grinned back.
"What's your name then, beautiful?" he asked, still holding onto the small brunette. The other smiled radiantly, almost arrogantly and in a clear voice she spoke. It could almost be passed for confident. "I'm Mallory. Mallory Sharples. And are you really a vampire or were you just scaring Marlene, here?" She had a darker complexion to Marlene and her voice suggested a hint of Asian in her mix. "She's easy to frighten that one," she added, pointing to Marlene and looking straight at Sirius through her long and thick eyelashes.
Sirius' mouth turned up at the corners and he took in the sight of the girl who spoke to him in such a self-assured manner.
She was short. Not petite like Marlene, for she had perhaps a hint of too much weight in comparison to her friend. However everything about her. The way her jet-black hair were styled ,the way she held herself and right down to her flamboyant robes screamed independent, if not rebellious.
Sirius was impressed and had she not been a servant, he would have taken her home in a flash.
Truth was, of course, that this Mallory Sharples was, just like Marlene and the other two girls, a servant-girl – almost a plaything.
"Marlene is it?" Sirius asked looking down at the girl still in his grasp. She blushed furiously again and avoided eye contact. Sirius smiled amusedly and as he looked back at Mallory, his eyes held mischief.
"Well I can't reveal all my secrets to you, who knows you may come and stake me in my own coffin!" he answered Mallory's question.
A third girl, who had yet not spoken nor been spoken to, giggled and Mallory rolled her chocolate brown eyes, while Marlene blushed redder as Sirius called her 'darling' again.
But it was the fourth girl who caused the somewhat light-hearted banter to come to an utter and complete finish.
That too, all because she snorted.
"Yeh right," she scoffed in obvious insult as instantly a hush fell in the room.
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AN: Sorry, this is such a rubbish place to end the first chapter, but end it had too otherwise it would go on for far too long! Anyway, I do hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I am really excited about this story – can't believe its finally up on . Please tell me what your initial impressions are – would love to hear your thoughts. Hopefully see you with the next chapter.
Love to all the readers,
-Vitzy-