Heather (ParisWriter) is resposible for Raeanne, and I (Jess/Fredslover) have been given the great pleasure to write all of Remus.
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Raeanne Cummings walked along the dingy London streets, re-reading the letter in her hand. There was no signature, yet whoever had sent it seemed to know her.
Miss Cummings,
I am writing to inform you of the unfortunate news that Lord Voldemort has once again risen to power and is currently gathering his Death Eaters in preparation for the second war between the Light and Dark. Now that you are of age, I feel that it is time you are offered a position in the Order of the Phoenix, as your parents held before you. If you accept this offer, please report to Number 12 Grimmlaud Place, London, at your earliest convenence with this letter. If you do not wish to accept, then see to it that this letter is destroyed.
A Friend
Rae wondered what sort of "friend" sent a cryptic note about joining the group her parents had been working for when they were killed. It didn't matter, though... Of course she wanted in. She wanted to make those, those... people pay for what they did to her, and what they did to her parents.
She looked up from the letter to the line of houses before her, forwning.
"There is no number twelve!" she called out into the chilly night air, her breath coming out in a small puff of vapor.
Sighing deeply, she looked down at the piece of crumpled paper in her hand and shifted the oversized dufflebag on her shoulder so it didn't quite cut into her flesh so much. She was about to tear it to shreds and head back to New York when suddenly another house appeared between two others, as thought out of thin air.
"No way," Rae whispered, grinning at the sight. She walked up to the front door, spinning around about halfway down the walk as she marveled at the very large, very old, and very dilapidated house that was now between the two houses that had been right next door to one another just a moment before.
Reaching the door, she raised a hand and knocked sharply on the partially-rotted oak surface. Then she turned around and looked back up at the waning moon with a smile on her face as she waited.
Remus Lupin had been standing in the foyer, walking out of the kitchen, when he heard a knock come from the front of the house. It was fairly loud, and he stood still a moment, staring the red curtain hanging over that retched painting of Sirius's mother. No sound came from the beneath the curtain however, so he moved from his stiff position.
He raised a scar ridden eyebrow, wondering who in the world it could be. No one had said anything about coming at this time, nor had anyone mentioned any guests.
He made his way to the large door, making a sorry attempt to tame his chestnut hair, and dust off the old, raggity jacket he had just put on.
Sighing, and shaking his head, Remus grabbed hold of the ancient door handle, pulling it towards him.
Rae turned around as she heard the door opening behind her and grinned at the man standing before her. He was older, probably in his late thirties or early forties, with liht brown hair that was greying slightly at his temples and tired-looking hazel eyes. She raised an eyebrow as she took him in, some sort of inner instinct telling her that they had something in common.
"Hey," she said, nodding in greeting. "I'm here about joining the Order."
She handed him the letter, which was badly crumpled but still readable, and shifted the bag on her shoulder again as she crossed her arms over her chest and watched him carefully as he read the letter.
He really wasn't all that bad-looking. Maybe if he didn't look so tired, he would be what a lot of girls considered handsome. Sure, she saw the scars... but she blew them off. If her instincts were right, she knew exactly how he had gotten them in the first place.
Remus took the crumpled piece of parchment from the new arrival, unravling it the best he could. He recognized Albus' handwriting immediately, and after scanning it quickly, he nodded.
" ...Miss Cummings? Would you happen to have a first name? " He asked, folding up the heavily damaged parchment, and sticking into his chest pocket, making a mental note to burn it the first chance he got.
She watched him carefully fold the letter and place it in the breast pocket of his jacket, noting the weariness of the simple movements.
"It's Raeanne," she informed him. "Call me Rae."
They stood there for a moment in an awkward silence as he continued to evaluate her with a critical eye, and she found herself reaching up to run a hand back through her hair in a somewhat nervous fashion.
"So... Can I come in," she asked, "or should I make camp out here on the stoop?"
Remus hesitated for a moment, then, placing a hand on the small of her back, led her into Grimauld Place. She smiled up at him. So he was a gentleman? There were so few of them left nowadays... it was a nice departure from the jerks she usually dated.
"And what about you, handsome?" she asked him as he closed the door behind them. "Do you have a name?"
The question came out of nowhere, although, it wasn't unexpected. Well, at least the initial question wasn't...it was the handsome part that had caught him off gaurd.
" Remus Lupin, " He said, pretending to be unphased, something he had learned to do in the past years. " Moony...if your feeling particularly witty. "
He smiled, but only slightly, as he led her the rest of the way into the old house. It was times like these that he felt the smallest amount of shame, because the house, although they had done a decent job of cleaning it up, stilll looked a right mess. Not the most impressive surroundings for the head quaters of the Order, but, there were more important things going on here than cleaning.
" Oh, and if you wouldn't mind keeping your voice down, just while we're in the foyer...don't want to, er, disturb anything... " He warned, pointing to the red curtain.
"No problem, Remus."
Rae winked at him as she walked stealthily along the hallway, letting her wolfish instincts take over to assist her in the task of getting by whatever was behind that curtain without disturbing it.
She said it politely enough, there was absolutely nothing strange about the way those words had come out of her mouth...
Then why was it that he felt so off, like there was something that he wasn't understanding about this woman? It was like the answer was standing right in front of him, but he could see it. He felt like it was something obvious, something that he sould have immediately picked up on...but he wasn't.
"Nice place you guys got here," she commented without a single hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking... 'She's just being nice.' But man... You shoulda seen some of the crappy places I've lived. They make this place look like a palace."
" Yes, well, I suppose it's alright. " He respoded, mentally comparing it to the Shrieking Shack, a place he had called home for a night out of every month during his school years. Yes, compared to some places, this was a palace.
"So, what is it?" she whispered to him as they inched their way past it together. "Some sort of demon in a cage or something?"
Whatever it was, it definitely piqued her interest. Sort of like that nickname he had given her. Now she was almost positive he was a werewolf. She would wait until later to ask him, in private.
He smirked, eyeing the curtain warily.
" I wish...no, no actually it's a portrait. " He informed, realizing how stupid it seemed, to have to sneak past a portrait. But they'd regeret it if they didn't.
Rae stopped walking and looked at him with a disbelieving expression.
"You're kidding, right? The thing you're so scared of is a portrait? Why doesn't someone just take the stupid thing down?"
She backed up from him, placing her dufflebag on the floor. She took off her black leather jacket and tossed it onto the bag, revealing the black tank top she was wearing underneath that allowed her scars on her right shoulder and the tattoo around her left arm to show.
"Look... I'll do it for you right now. Save ya all the trouble and take it down myself."
Rae turned around and walked over to the curtain on the wall, reaching out to grip it so she could pull it free of the picture lying beneath.
" No! " Remus whispered harshly, grabbing hold of Rae's wrist, trying desperately to stop her from pulling the curtains apart.
Once his hand got held of her wrist however, his other arm had, unvoluntarily, flung out, hitting the portrait. He felt the hard surface of the painting beneath his hand, through the soft contor of the curtain.
" Close your ears... " He muttered, placing his free hand over one of his ears, and using his other hand to pull her away from where the now stirring painting hung.
The red curtains parted themselves, revealing the painting of the horrible mother of his best friend. He had only come to meet her once before, over summer break, James had been there as well of course, and that was an experience Remus had been quick to try and forget.
" BLOOD TRAITORS! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, I'LL NOT STAND FOR THIS! " Mrs. Black shouted, her aged face contorted in anger.
" Damn woman... " Remus muttered, referring to the bloody banshee bellowing on the wall.
" Damn woman... "
He muttered it under his breath and Rae twisted out of his grip, her mouth agape as she stared at him indignantly.
"Hey," she said shortly, picking up her things off the floor. "Maybe if you had told me it was an enchanted portrait, I wouldn't have gone near it in the first place. And I still don't see why no one has gotten rid of that damn thing!"
The last few words she shouted over the volume of the portrait's screams, throwing a nasty glare back at it.
" I was speaking about the portrait! Not you! " He yelled, giving Rae as much of an apologetic look as he could muster when that insufferable woman in the painting was screaming at the top of her lungs.
" ...HORRIBLE FOOLS! YOUR NO MORE THAN DIRT ON MY BOOT! " She continued, not letting up the slightest, as Remus grabbed hold of both sides of the curtain, pulling with all the strength he had left. His muscles ached as he strained them, drawing the curtain as far closed as the woman would allow them.
" Do you mind? " He asked, motioning with his head to the curtain, indicating to Rae that she should help him.
Rae dropped her stuff to the floor again and went over to his side, nodding at him as she reached him.
"Move over, sweetie, I got this," she told him as she placed a gentle hand on his arm and pushed him aside.
Raeanne grabbed the curtain with both hands, giving it a sharp tug back over the portrait. It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked to be... almost as if the portrait beneath was fighting back. It took her a second try, but she managed to get the curtain back in place. Thankfully, the screaming woman in the painting soon fell quiet.
"There," she said a bit breathlessly as she turned to Remus and pushed some of her hair back out of her eyes. "And I hardly broke a sweat."
Remus watched from the sidelines as Rae closed the curtain, only taking two short tugs. He would have blushed, had he not been so amused. he watched as she huffed, moving the hair from her face.
Rae looked him over and saw how tired he was and how weak he seemed. She took a few steps closer to him and decided to take a stab at what her intuition was telling her.
"Have a rough transformation with the last moon, Remus?" she asked, taking care to keep her voice low so as not to disturb the portrait behind the curtain again.
His eyes widened. How did she know? Had someone told her? It made him uncomfortable for certain people, especially ones that he didn't know, to have knowlage of that certain fact.
" What? How did you...who...? " He muttered, feeling flustered. She didn't have much time to answer, as the were now making their way into the drawing room, which was surprisingly crowded.