Once Upon a Blue Moon…
redwood
Disclaimer: It's all J. K. Rowling's! (There's a shocker).
Author's Note: Hi there… this is part of a sixth year MMRPPL fic I've got planned, since you were all so insistent that my AU shouldn't end. Anyway, the good part for all of us is that I'm not going to have any cliffhangers, because it's not really a series, just a bunch of stories that go in a specific order. Also, the title will change from part to part.
Author's Note II: In my AU, a blue moon doesn't affect a werewolf.
* * *
I heat up
I can't cool down
You've got me spinnin' round and round
Round and round and round it goes
Where it stops nobody knows
Every time you call my name
I heat up like a burning flame
Burning flame, full of desire
Kiss me baby, let the fire get higher
Abra, abracadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra, abracadabra
Abracadabra
You make me hot, you make me sigh
You make me laugh, you make me cry
Keep my burning for your love
With the touch of a velvet glove
Abra, abracadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra, abracadabra
Abracadabra
I feel the magic in your caress
I feel magic when I touch your dress
Silk and satin, leather and lace
Black panties with an angel's face
I see magic in your eyes
I hear magic in your sighs
Just when I think I'm going to get away
I hear the words that you always say
Abra, abracadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra, abracadabra
Abracadabra…
- Abracadabra, Sugar Ray
* * *
Morning dawned early on the twenty-eighth of July. In a large house- a more appropriate term would have been 'mansion,' but Allya thought of it as a house- not terribly far from Hogsmeade, a young girl was being awoken by her house-elf.
Allya rolled over, pulling her pillow over her ears. "Five more minutes, Tiny?" she grumbled into the mattress, not wanting to leave the warm sanctuary of the bed.
"Tiny is sorry, Mistress, Tiny is, but Mistress said for Tiny to awaken her at ten past seven…" The house-elf seemed nervous- with good reason, because no matter what he did, he ran the risk of displeasing his mistress.
Allya groaned audibly. "All right, I'm up." She swung her legs out of the bed, adjusting to the cool temperature of the room. "And what did I tell you about the third-person thing? It drives me nuts! You know better than that!"
Tiny cringed. "Tiny- er, I apologize, Mistress."
Ally cringed, too- if there was one thing she hated worse than her house being called a mansion, it was when Tiny called her 'Mistress'. But she couldn't wean him off of it. "Don't bother," she said, heading for the shower. "Tiny, d'you mind doing the decorating? I haven't got my license yet- it's supposed to come today, and I can't reach the ceiling in the ballroom the Muggle way…"
"Yes, Mistress!" Tiny squeaked, then ran off to do her bidding.
"This could be interesting," Allya admitted to herself, starting the hot water. "Definitely could be interesting."
"And how exactly are we getting there?" Lily asked James, brushing the soot off of her shoulder and stepping into his arms for a quick kiss.
"Flying!" James exclaimed excitedly. "She owled me directions yesterday."
"Goody," Lily said, flopping down onto the couch beside him. "I suppose the others will be here soon?"
James did his best to conceal a grin. "Not for another hour."
Lily pondered his words and expression for a moment. "An hour, eh? What're we going to do for an entire hour?" She caught the 'I-know-exactly-what-we'll-do' look on James' face. "An hour… you scoundrel," she murmured. James only laughed.
An hour later, Remus and Mioré showed up in James' fireplace. At about the same time, Sirius and the big flying bike landed in the backyard by the shed. Black looked like his name- he was covered head to foot in dirt or something akin to it.
"What happened to you?" Remus asked as Sirius sneezed.
"Bad pollution over Muggle London," Sirius answered, coughing and closing the door behind him. "I'll be going to find the dirt-eater now," he told James, then headed up the stairs. Halfway up, he spotted Lily coming out of the bathroom. Stopping dead in his tracks, he yelled, "Oi! James! How long has she been here, eh?"
James' face suddenly matched his girlfriend's hair.
"'Bout an hour," Lily answered, brushing past Sirius on the stairway.
Sirius grinned. "That one's got stamina… an entire hour?" Nobody missed the conspicuous wink he shot at James.
Mioré and Remus exchanged glances and shared a thought- it was good to have him back.
It wasn't five minutes before they were all back at the broomshed, getting ready for the flight.
"I'm not sure about this," Mioré commented. "I've never been great on a broom, how far is it?"
"About fifteen minutes by air," James answered, studying the directions one last time. "No, make that half an hour. We'll have to detour around an all-Muggle area. Not enough cloud cover."
Mioré paled. "Um…"
Sirius was silent a minute, as if pondering. "You and I'll both fit on Nova, if you want to fly with me."
Mioré's mouth dropped open. "It flies?" (Sirius looked offended.) She thought for a second. "You named your motorcycle Nova?"
Sirius shrugged. "I figure she'll be the end of me."
"She?" Mioré joked, "I don't think I like you having another woman in your life…"
Remus raised his eyebrows at James for an explanation- James just shrugged and mounted his broom. Lily and Remus grabbed theirs, too, and the five of them flew off into the sky.
At the Nightrunner residence, Allya was having a nervous breakdown. "The Andys are coming, Warren's coming, Arika said she'd come, Lils, Mioré, James, Remus, Sirius, Adrienne, Lindsay…" someone rang the doorbell, and she jumped up. "I can't answer the door looking like this!" Suddenly, she remembered- the license for the use of her magic had been sent to the mansion earlier that day. As her parents were dead, the Ministry found that it was necessary to allow her to practice magic to some extent over the holidays. She was still getting used to it.
A quick spell later, and flowing blue robes trimmed in silver and gold replaced the pajamas she'd seen fit to wear all day. A flick of the redwood wand, and the blonde hair piled in curls atop of her head. "Much better," Allya decided, then rushed off to answer the door, Tiny at her heels.
When she opened it, she found both Andys- one a fourth year (Keeper for the Quidditch team) and one a sixth, like her; Lindsay, Adrienne, and Arika, a seventh year Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "Excellent," she said. "Come in. Guys, this is Tiny, my house-elf. If you need anything, just ask him…" Tiny nodded and quickly made himself scarce. Allya sighed. "He's always doing that… come in. Ballroom's this way. In case you hadn't noticed, Tiny's already got your brooms."
The Andys, Adrienne, Arika, and Lindsay exchanged glances, then looked at their hands where their brooms should have been. "Efficient," Lindsay muttered.
A flick of the redwood wand, and the dining table was set in the ballroom. "Great," Allya said, and Tiny started the music. "You guys can sit down… the others should be here soon."
"Uh huh," Lindsay said, staring wide-eyed at the size of the room in which she found herself.
"No problem," Adrienne murmured.
Arika, a bit more composed than her younger friends, smiled. "Nice place…" she listened a moment. "And your house-elf has good taste in music."
Allya grinned. Neither of the Andys spoke, probably a bit put-out by being stranded in a room with so many girls.
The door chime sounded again. "There they are!" Allya exclaimed. "Let's go, Tiny!"
The door swung open, and almost before Tiny had the broomsticks, Allya had flung herself into Remus' arms.
"Hello to you to," he said in a low voice, fighting a smile.
Ally didn't say anything- she still had her face buried in his shoulder.
Finally, Sirius cleared his throat loudly.
"Uh, right. Well, come in. Everybody else is already here, in the ballroom…"
"You have a ballroom?"
"Shaddup."
"Wow," Sirius said, gazing upward at the ceiling in the ballroom. "That's quite the decorating job, Ally."
"Tell Tiny, not me," she answered, pulling out a chair at the table. "Anyway- bon appetite, eets machelich, malzeit, buon appetito, etceteras, etceteras."
"Good idea," someone responded, and the feast began.
Much later, when Sirius was done his fifth helping (and everyone else was dancing), he exclaimed, "Boy can your house-elf ever cook."
"Tell me about it," Allya replied, grinning over Remus' shoulder. The song they were dancing to ended, but they didn't let go. Arika, Lily, Mioré and Lindsay were over by the enormous bay window, marveling at the perfect view. James and Sirius were discussing something- Quidditch, a prank, or the Nova, if the male stereotype was to apply (A/n: that's not supposed to be offensive in any way!). The two Andys were talking about the Ravenclaw Seeker- as if anyone else even cared enough to listen in.
"How come you're not busting at the seams?"
Allya laughed as Sirius placed his knife and fork parallel on his plate, which vanished (European tradition- knife and fork parallel on a plate means you've finished the meal). "Everything in moderation, Sirius, my friend, everything in moderation. And if you had a cousin like Aylla living with you for nearly a month…" she shuddered. "You'd learn soon enough not to put on any weight, too."
James caught Remus staring absently out one of the large bay windows at the full moon. "This is too weird," he muttered under his breath. "Normal," he murmured, looking at his (and Ally's) hands and back to the moon.
"Does anybody have the time?" Arika asked. "I've got to be home at quarter past nine- Mum's got a new system of house rules going on now that we've got another child in the house."
Lily glanced at her watch. "It's quarter to," she said.
"Oh- must be going then!" Arika called. She, Lindsay, Adrienne, Warren and the Andys left with Tiny, who was getting the brooms.
"Ahh…" Allya sighed when they'd gone, tapping her wand and summoning a couch from the far corner of the ballroom. "That was fun," she said.
Sirius looked at her blankly. "Aren't you going to get some sort of warning for underage use of magic?" he asked suspiciously, half-expecting a crazed Ministry owl to go smashing through one of the windows.
She pulled something out of her pocked and threw it at him.
As he read the small card, Sirius' eyes widened. "I'd be jealous, but that's a really terrible picture of you."
"Oh… shut up, Sirius."
"So…" Remus began, still staring absently out the window. Allya's gaze followed his to the hill on the front of the property, the one with the tall tree precariously perched atop it- a perfect place from which to moon-gaze.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.
"I'm always thinking what you're thinking," Remus answered. "The question is… are they?"
Allya grinned maliciously, her gaze travelling over the four non-werewolves left at the party. "What do you guys think? Up for a game of, say… hide-and-go-seek-in-the-dark?"
James blinked in the silence. "Aren't we too old for that?"
Ally and Remus exchanged glances. "You are never too old to play, Prongs, buddy. Let's go."
The night was clear and cool, but not terribly cold at first. "This is going to be excellent," Ally whispered to Remus, rubbing her hands together.
"I'm 'it' first," Remus said, as it was my idea, Ally just announced it for me… the tree's free. Better run…" He shut his eyes and began to count.
Everyone scattered, lighting their torches. The torches were extinguished as soon as Remus' eyes were opened, of course, and weren't really necessary in the first place due to the light of the enormous full moon. When he'd finished counting, Remus' sharp eyes opened, tracking the footprints in the grass. It was easy to figure out whose were whose- Sirius had monster feet, Lily was wearing high heels for some unfathomable reason- maybe she just felt dwarfed next to James all the time, Mioré was wearing sandals- her feet were about half the size of Sirius', and James would obviously be the set that matched the high heels… where was Allya?
He finally spotted her shoes about three meters from the tree. Clever girl, he thought dryly. Making it harder for me to track you… He made for the nearby woods- very domestic woods- and began searching around silently. He'd given up after a few moments and backed out again, seeing Sirius running towards the tree, when out of nowhere, something tackled him to the ground.
"Gotcha!" Allya whispered loudly, not making any effort to get her carcass off of him.
"Excuse me for asking," Remus replied, "But… wasn't I it?"
She thought for a minute. "Good point." Her sapphire eyes looked down into his, and he was suddenly very aware of how close their bodies were.
"Um… you gonna get off me?" he asked.
Ally grinned. "No." And then she kissed him.
Gradually, they made their way back up to the very top of the hill, right under the tree. Remus slipped his arms around Allya's waist, and together they stared up at the blue moon.
"Think we should look for the others?" she asked finally, breaking the comfortable silence.
"Nope," Remus answered. "James and Lils are already in the tree, and Sirius is chasing Mioré with a snake, trying to convince her it's harmless…"
Allya blinked. "Do you want to say it, or shall I get Sirius?"
Remus smiled knowingly. "Sirius is involved. I'll say it." He took a big breath, looked straight upward, and shouted, "James and Lily, sittin' in a tree…"
There was the sound of branches breaking and muffled cursing, then something hit the ground nearby. Allya investigated. "James' sock, Lily's shoe, a belt- are they stripping?"
"Do you really want to know?"
Allya thought for a moment. "No," she said, "I really don't." And they were silent the rest of the night.