Bad Romance

By Lily Orange

When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

A/N: Hi, I'm back! This is my new multi-chapter story - which I hope you like just as much and maybe even MORE than Such Sweethearts and You Leave Me Breathless! I have to say, I have written up to Chapter Nine on this story and I am incredibly excited about it and am practically bursting with ideas for it (that isn't a very nice image...) so as I post I will write! Last week we had some days off school because of the snow so I got a great start into it :) Please review LIKE CRAZY and tell me what you think!

Chapter One

Slipping Through My Fingers

It was the hottest day of the summer so far, and Caitlin and Emmy Piper had decided to make the most of it whilst it lasted in the back garden of their home. Caitlin's parents, Emmy's aunt and uncle, who had looked after Emmy since she was five when her own parents passed away, were sat inside, preferring the coolness and shade of the indoors as opposed to the full glare of the sun outdoors.

In fact, Emmy wasn't that keen on being outdoors when it was so flaming hot and sunny. It was Caitlin who adored sunshine; she thought, in Emmy's opinion, that whenever the temperature rose above freezing it was an occasion to get out one of her many bikinis and sunbathe in the back garden in view of their next door neighbours' tree, in which their next door neighbour Tom (who was the same age as both Caitlin and Emmy, sixteen, and the most womanising boy Emmy had ever met in her whole entire life) frequently sat, sunning herself until she had built up a sufficiently golden tan. Emmy, unfortunately, had to sit in the shade otherwise she burnt until she was the colour of a ripe tomato – which she knew would happen from bitter experience.

Virtually every spring, summer and autumn, Caitlin dragged Emmy outside and whilst she lay on a beach towel in the middle of the lawn, Emmy sat in the shade provided by the overhanging branches of Tom's tree, because if she didn't, she would turn the colour of a lobster, which would be great for an actual lobster as they could have used their now scarlet shell to attract another lobster and create a lobster family with lots of baby lobsters – but Emmy, obviously, wasn't a lobster, she was a sixteen-year-old girl and sixteen-year-old boys didn't find Lobster Girls attractive. Not that she knew of, anyway. There was probably some boy, somewhere, who had a weird fetish for girls who resembled lobsters but that would suggest he was quite strange and not a good candidate for being a potential boyfriend.

Emmy shook these rather abnormal thoughts out of her head and leaned back in her deck chair, pitched obstinately in the shade, even though Caitlin had offered to go inside and find the factor fifty suncream that was lying around somewhere in the house so that she could lie down and relax in the heat too. Emmy refused, saying the deck chair was probably more comfortable than a towel on the ground. She didn't even know why they owned deck chairs – although they lived in a hot country, they lived nowhere near the sea and their small neighbourhood was full of English people, namely workers for the Ministry of Magic abroad.

Caitlin's parents worked for the Ministry, for the Auror Department, and had been posted out in Albania for seven years. They had used to live in Britain, in London, next door to Emmy's parents in a neat suburb, and when Emmy's parents had died, Emmy had moved in with them and naturally moved to Albania with them too. She didn't really know how her parents had died, apart from the fact that they had worked for the same office as Caitlin's parents. Her aunt and uncle hastily changed the subject whenever it was brought up – Emmy didn't think they were with that for the time being, but she knew in future that she would want to know what really happened.

Emmy glanced upward, and smirked when she saw a dark blue Converse trainer resting on a branch suspiciously, signifying that Tom had taken his post in the tree and was probably now watching Caitlin sunbathe like the crazy stalker he was. Upon further inspection, she could discern his sunglasses looking out from between the leaves. She thought of warning Caitlin that her juvenile stalker was sat in his prime stalking position, his tree, but, to be honest, she probably wasn't bothered. She wouldn't have flaunted herself in a bright teal bikini if she was.

"Enjoying the shade there, Emmy?" Caitlin called from her spot in the very centre of the garden, by the pond, where Emmy swore she was emanating a golden glow, she was tanning that much.

"Obviously," Emmy replied nonchalantly, leaning back more so she could continue to try and see where exactly Tom was in the tree. She didn't know why he had this insane attraction to Caitlin. He had girls falling at his feet at their Albanian magic school, and went out with a lot of them, but still continued to persistently chase Caitlin, who was seemingly not bothered by him. She declined every invitation to go out with him, and instead busied herself with boys from the school Quidditch teams. Although Tom was quite athletic, at school he tended to race through the corridors either with his friends or from frantic girls chasing him as an alternative to exercising his talents on the Quidditch pitch.

"I'm definitely enjoying the sun," Caitlin informed her cousin in her sugary sweet voice, rolling over and leaving her back to the mercy of the sun. Emmy rolled her eyes as she mentally lambasted the sun – obviously she knew it was necessary as a source of light, but did people not know how to operate light switches? Or how to light a candle? It would have made Emmy's life a whole lot easier if it wasn't there as she wouldn't have had to worry about possibly spontaneously metamorphosing into Lobster Girl every time she walked out the front door without six inches of factor fifty slathered onto her pale skin.

"You would," Emmy muttered, practically sensing Tom salivating all over the leaves as her glamorous cousin turned. She could definitely hear rustling in it, so turned to look up again. There was a leg, patently Tom's, hooked around a low branch that wasn't as obscured by leaves as the others to stop him from falling out of the tree – so he was certainly sitting in it, as per usual. She once again contemplated whether or not to warn Caitlin of the fact that Tom was gawping at her in the tree, but she was too busy acting like a swimsuit model instead of her actual profession of sixteen-year-old school girl.

So Emmy decided to take the mature approach as she was, after all, the most intelligent girl in her year and therefore a logical thinker. She noticed her Aunt had left a large basket of apples by the back gate after picking them off their apple tree in the corner of the garden, so she took the choice to utilise them to great effect – instead of eating them. Whilst Caitlin lay across her towel on the grass, exhibiting her flawlessly curvaceous body, she sneakily began to throw apples up at the tree in order to hit Tom.

"Ow!" she heard him squeak as she managed to expertly hit her target (his head) with a particularly big apple she had found after rummaging around at the bottom of the basket. This was much more fun than worrying about whether she could sit out in the sun for longer than five minutes without turning into the dreaded Lobster Girl or thinking about Caitlin's ever-changing love life.

"Flaming– ARGH!" he screeched in a surprisingly high note as the next apple flew into the tree and, with Emmy's excellent aim (due to her prestigious role of Chaser on one of the school teams, the best school team), hit him where it was supposed to.

Emmy giggled and the sound of her laughing coupled with Tom's high-pitched shriek brought Caitlin out of her groggy state on her beach towel and she looked up to see her cousin sat in her deck chair with a demented smile on her face, clutching a basket of apples.

"Um – Emmy, what exactly are you doing?" Caitlin questioned her charily, unsure as to whether she should be anxious as to her cousin's current state of mind.

"Oh, nothing," Emmy grinned back charmingly, satisfying Caitlin with her vague answer, who rolled back over and closed her eyes.

"I'll get you, Emmy," Tom hissed menacingly from the tree as Emmy continued to repeatedly throw apples at him like a giddy five-year-old.

"Oh yeah, with what?" she whispered back, still grinning to herself at the hilarity of the situation.

"This," he said, and nanoseconds later, all of the apples came back down out of the tree, directed at Emmy's head. She saw them, and with a split-second reaction, dived out of the way, onto the grass, and into the glare of the sun. She heard him chortling away to himself in the sanctuary of his tree.

"Thanks Tom," she called, not caring whether or not Caitlin heard her now, "if I turn into a lobster thanks to you chucking apples at me, then I'll be calling my lawyer."

"You don't have a lawyer," he yelled back, popping his head out of the tree. He looked really funny, with his tanned face and tousled chocolate hair grinning at her through the branches and leaves.

"Says who?" Emmy retorted, scrabbling back into the shade, regardless of the fact she was going through a flower bed and now had a grass stain and soil dirtying her white vest top and denim shorts.

"Me, the fountain of knowledge," he replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. Emmy snorted with laughter at this and sat back in her deck chair, staring at Tom, who was staring at Caitlin insatiably, who was asleep.

"The only thing you're a fountain of knowledge on is Caitlin," Emmy informed him, "because you are OBSESSED."

"I'm not obsessed!" Tom protested, then he smiled. "Why, has she mentioned me lately?"

"Uh, no," Emmy told him truthfully.

"Well, I have this Master Plan, see, what I'm going to do is–" Tom began, but Emmy never found out what his Master Plan to get Caitlin to like him was. Halfway through his sentence, both Tom and Emmy heard a huge bang coming from inside the house, almost as if the front door was being battered down. Even Caitlin heard it – she jumped up in surprise and wrapped the towel around her, her olive eyes wide with fear. Emmy got up from her deck chair and ran to the back window of the house, which looked into the kitchen. The door into the living room was open slightly, and what Emmy could see made her freeze in utter horror.

Brightly coloured sparks – spells – were ricocheting off of the walls and pictures and ornaments were smashing, falling to the floor and littering it with shards of glass and china. She could see four cloaked figures inside, moving round, yelling curses as her aunt and uncle tried helplessly to fight back. They were Aurors – but had been caught off guard.

"What is it?" Caitlin asked in terror, clocking Emmy's face had paled even beyond her normal skin tone.

Emmy couldn't reply – her voice had gone with the shock of the sight she was witnessing. Her aunt turned to see Emmy's face at the window – a tear escaped her eye and she mouthed, "Run."

Emmy didn't need to be told twice – she grabbed Caitlin's hand, who clamoured to get to the window over Emmy's shoulder, but Emmy wrapped her arms around her cousin's waist, pulling her towards the fence, as they heard a harrowing voice bellow, "CRUCIO!"

"Emmy, what's happening? What's going on in there?" Caitlin cried hysterically, refusing to be pulled over the fence. Tom leaped out of the tree and grabbed her, lifting her over it against her will.

"Death Eaters," was all Emmy could choke out as she clambered over the fence, grabbing Tom's offered hand.

"What?" Caitlin caterwauled.

"Be quiet, or they'll hear us," Tom said, suddenly taking charge. "Did your aunt and uncle manage to communicate a message?" he asked gently, turning to Emmy.

"Run," Emmy whispered. Tom nodded, and took both of their hands, and dragged them towards his back gate. He unlatched it and let them out into the woodland path behind. As he locked it behind him, Caitlin began to cry, tears coming out in soft sobs, and she was shivering underneath her blanket.

"Come, run alongside me," he said, and, with their hands still in his, they began to sprint along the path, weaving between the trees and jumping over fallen branches as if they had been meant to do it all of their lives. The two girls were crying at Tom determinedly led them, with a destination in mind. It felt as if they had been running for hours when he finally stopped in front of a tall tree with a rope ladder leaning against the trunk.

"What is this, Tom?" Caitlin asked, wiping tears off of her beautiful face and looking upwards.

"My tree house," he announced proudly, "and our hideout for the time being. Caitlin, you go first, then Emmy, and then I'll go."

Caitlin stepped towards the ladder, and put her bare foot on the first rung. She felt the friction between her skin and the rough woven rope burn but she ploughed on and upwards, still shaking rapidly, breathing heavily and weeping silently. She kept the towel wrapped tightly around her for protection, but her skin was cold to touch. It was cool in the forest, unlike the blistering hot temperature in the back garden of their house. She glanced down when she was nearing the top – Tom and Emmy were still standing on the ground. They had relinquished holding hands, and Tom smiled at her encouragingly. She spurred on, putting her hands on the wood of the tree house, and lifted herself inside. It was much bigger on the inside than the out; and there was books, cushions and boxes littering the edges of it. She crawled over to a corner where there was nothing leaning against the wooden wall, and curled up in a ball, covering herself with her towel.

Soon, Emmy joined her. Caitlin moved forward slightly to sit next to her, and they leaned on each other for support as the tears flowed freely down their faces. Tom was last, and he pulled up the rope ladder and closed the wooden trapdoor.

I hope you liked the first chapter, please REVIEW to your heart's content! Thanks for reading, love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (: