Disclaimer: Do not own any characters you recognize…. I'm a poor, poor student; get your greedy hands away from my pockets… Please Oh yeah, I don't own the Sex Pistols- if I did… well…
POV: LIMITED OMNIPOTENT (except for possibly the first chapter, which is just setting things up)
A/N: I changed the quartet's house from Ravenclaw to Slytherin, integral to the story.
Second A/N (August 1st, 2007): This story is not going how I wanted it to- none of the characters are very well rounded, and Adrian's the center of attention, which is not something I was aiming for… So I'm adding a bunch of stuff to it… Also, the Buddha thing is something I was reading in my Monty Python and Philosophy book, so I added it in for fun. :) It is NOT a statement about Religion, or against or anything like that… It's just building Remus' character. Thank you. Oh, same with the Nietzsche.
Chapter One
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Remus sat down on the uncomfortable wooden bench. Here he was, yet again, watching his fellow Marauders play Quidditch with Frank Longbottom, Gryffindor 7th year, and Annabelle Brown, Sirius' current girlfriend and mad Chaser.
Sighing, he glanced up as Lily Evans joined him, opening her book on the Goblin Wars. Lily was James' Not-Yet-Girlfriend, for while he was making an honest effort not to piss her off; James and Lily were not a couple… Yet.
Opening his own book (an exciting read about the dangers of being a vampire hunter), the sixteen year-old scanned the Quidditch Pitch, looking for more familiar faces.
Unsurprisingly, as the day was sunny and comfortable, there were quite a few students hanging out. A cluster of Hufflepuffs were chatting amiably with some Ravenclaws (probably on the latest gossip), and a small group of Slytherins were… Well, he had no idea what they were doing.
Remus focused on the Slytherins, curious as to what they were up to… Plotting, maybe? That seemed like a Slytherin action.
Despite what most of the school thought, Remus and his friends were not 'out to get' every Slytherin in the school. Mostly just Snape, now that Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix Black, and her little posse had graduated.
He recognized them from his year. A blonde girl, who he knew was named Izzy Tabbleshwats, sat braiding a boy's hair, obviously charmed from its natural dark brown coloring to a sickly purple-pink… The Egyptian boy, Rami Touya, glowered at the air in front of him, but put up with her… Albeit, grudgingly.
Next to them sat a black-haired boy, closely watching James berate Peter for something to do with a Beater Bat, Pumpkin Juice, and a Ping Pong ball. His name was Dominic Lucretia, and he had grey eyes, a grim face, and a lanky body. Remus, of course, had to withdraw the boy's features from his memory, as the Slytherins were much too far away to examine details.
On his lap, lay the head of his twin sister, her own curly black hair slightly longer than her twin's, reaching to her shoulders, unlike Dominic's, which only went slightly past his earlobes. Remus remembered that her eyes were blue-grey, and her face lit up easily, countering her serious brother.
That was what Remus did, actually. He watched, and he stored information. It was very useful when doing homework- remembering obscure facts from History of Magic, for example- and when plotting with his fellow Marauders.
Remus watched as she quite suddenly jumped up, startling her brother. Then, to both teen's amazement, started to twirl around, her arms stretched out and her face turned upwards.
Then Remus felt it… Just a drop, then another, and another. James and Sirius were already heading towards him, with Peter chugging faithfully behind.
"Come on, let's get out of here! I don't really feel like playing in the rain, anyway." James spoke loudly at Remus when they reached him, and the four Marauders proceeded to the school, Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, Slytherins and Hufflepuffs alike around them.
Now, why couldn't he recall the black-haired girl's name?
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The next day came, and Remus awoke in his…comfy….warm…soft… Bed. Merlin, he did NOT want to wake up, but he was always the first up, and if he didn't awake and raise his friends, none of them would make it to classes until past noon. He knew this was true, it had happened before.
He groaned, scratched an itch on his backside and literally rolling out of bed, moving to shake James awake.
Slowly, the four boys trudged down the stairs and down towards the Great Hall for breakfast. When Remus sat down, he poured himself a cup of coffee and pulled out a book, 'The Buddha's Philosophy of Man: Early Indian Buddhist Dialogues.' No, Remus was not Buddhist, but he had found the book in the Religion section of the Library when searching for a text for History of Magic.
Opening up to his bookmarked page, he began to read, ignoring James clamoring next to him.
'I asked them whether, so far as they knew it or perceived it, the human world was perfectly happy, and they answered "No." Then I asked them: "Moreover, can you maintain that you yourselves for a whole night, or for a whole day, or even for half a night or day, have ever been perfectly happy?" And they answered: "No." Then I said to them: "Further, do you know a way or a method, by which you can realize a state that is altogether happy?" And still to that question they answered: "No." And then I said" "Sirs, have you ever heard the voices of heavenly beings who had realized rebirth in a perfectly happy world, saying: 'there is a right path, a true path, which is in human capacity to follow, a path to the world of unfailing bliss, for we ourselves by following it have come to this world of bliss'?" The still answered: "No."'
Remus mused as he finished his coffee, his thoughts straying from the meaning of the passage, straight to his reminded lack of happiness. Would he ever be happy for a full day? No. Would he ever be happy for half a day? No. His affliction made him a monster; it made him someone that people hated, that people hunted. There was no set path for him, except to lock himself up three nights a month and wish for the best. He would never find bliss, and he would never know a way to make him truly happy.
But he could be content.
Remus had realized this his third year, even a year after his friends had discovered his secret and had supported him- he had been especially destructive one evening and had ripped up his own body. The pain the next day, and the horrified look his friends and teachers gave him made him feel isolated, lonely and unwanted.
He smiled slightly- he had been wrong, though… His friends did want him. Even if he couldn't ever be happy for a whole day, he could be content- his friends loved him, even if he could kill them without a second thought as a werewolf.
Despite his misgivings about where his life was going, he was feeling okay. He was in school, he was learning, he was with his friends. It could be worse… And it couldn't be better- this was the best, and he was more than glad to have it..
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On another hidden part of the castle, someone else was being forcefully removed from the blissful vacuum that was sleep. Adrian fought off her attacker, slapping at hands that wouldn't relent… but then, they were gone. She found herself snuggling up to her pillow, happy thoughts filling her again.
And then came the shock of her life. Cold, wet water crashed around her, ripping her away from her comfortable little nest.
"Adrian, wake the fuck up! You have Care of Magical Creatures." Izzy's sharp voice pierced her ears, and Adrian rose.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" As Adrian readied, she checked the book she got over summer, 'Hairstyle, Makeup and More! Charms for the Young Punk'. Speaking a charm in chapter 6 (The Beauty of Knots), she dreaded her hair.
Ten minutes later, Dom saw a black head of hair stumble down the Girl's Dormitory Staircase, followed by a serene blonde.
He sighed, heading over to them. "Here." The girl found her green and silver tie choking her, instead of hanging loose…
Adrian grunted her thanks, and then moaned. "Coffeeee…"
Izzy and Adrian sat down at the end of the Slytherin table, separated from the rest of their year by first years, second years, etcetera. They didn't really get along with most other Slytherins (not hate, just indifference) and preferred the company of Rami and Dom, instead of the silly girls in their dorm.
Across from Adrian, at the Gryffindor table, a boy sat, reading 'The Buddha's Philosophy of Man.' He had light brown hair, and a tired face that held novels within its mental and physical scars. She recognized him as Remus Lupin, one of the four famed Gryffindors; James Potter, Sirius Black (his brother, Regulus, was a year younger and in Slytherin. Adrian found him tolerable, Dom found him amusing) and Peter Pettigrew were the others.
Dominic and Rom joined them only five minutes after the girls had started breakfast, Dom tossing a book, 'A Nietzsche Reader' at Adrian. She grinned at him, and he smiled slightly. "I'm done, you can read the rest."
She opened the book to a random chapter (it was very hard to get through the book sometimes) and started reading.
'The free human is being judged immoral because in all things he is determined to depend upon himself and not upon moral tradition… If an action is performed not because tradition commands it but because for other motives (because of its usefulness to the individual, for example), even indeed for precisely the motives which once founded the tradition, it is called immoral and it is felt to be so by him who performed it.'
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After breakfast, morning found the twins walking out onto the grounds to Care of Magical Creatures. Taking a detour, they stopped by Rubeus Hagrid's hut for tea and rock cakes.
The twins always had enjoyed his company; he loved animals even more than they did, and was fun to talk to. He had even made Dominic smile once, an actual genuine, happy smile.
Sure, they were 'nasty, bad Slytherins'… But he had met them before they were sorted, and even ingrained prejudices wouldn't cloud their friendship. Besides, he knew their father, and considered him a good man.
They left his hut with 5 minutes to spare before class, Adrian's pockets filled with rock cakes. Passing them to Dom, she grimaced as he started gnawing on one.
"I can't believe you actually like those things."
Dominic was a strange person- well, they both were. He had a strange sense of humor, black and snarling, where Adrian's was perverted and teasing. A genius, his only bad subject was divination- it was the only time Adrian had ever heard her brother say "poppycock" and she hadn't stopped laughing for weeks.
They were twins, they were attached by the hip, but they were so different.
"Yeah, well I can't believe you like coffee." That caused Adrian to fall into dream land, a place filled with coffee, stacks of books, and Alagastor Zorland, the "gorgeous" lead singer of the wizarding band, The Screaming Banshees.
Dom shook his head at his sister, and dragged her over to where the rest of their classmates were standing.
Exchanging polite nods, they joined the only other Slytherin in their 6th year NEWTs class, Amelia Williams (the only other girl in their year that they could stand); Izzy was at Divination, and Rami had a free period. It was a relatively small class, overpowered with Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors… Izzy was at Divination, and Rami had a free period.
Divination was a popular subject, the 6th years having it split into two classes, so Dom and Adrian would be taking it another hour. The teacher, Professor Dellfee, was aged and brittle, and none of the students knew how much longer the talented woman would be teaching.
Professor Négrier gave the directions for the work they would be doing that period, her cold French voice warning them to focus. She was a rough, strict teacher, but she was very good at what she did. Conversation would be saved for after class.
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"So Amelia, what's been up?" Adrian and Dominic joined the proud Slytherin on the way back to the castle, and she slowed down to their relaxed pace.
"Oh, nothing… Homework's been a real bitch, though." She focused on the green streak in Dom's hair. "Nice hair, Lucretia. Great color choice." She smirked at him, and he returned it.
"Oh, I feel so left out." Adrian pouted.
"Yeah, yours is cool to, goosehead."
"No need to humor me, Williams." She sniffed. "I know you don't think I'm good enough for you…"
They grinned at each other, and started a conversation on the importance of fireproofing spells. Dom walked quietly next to them, listening to them ramble off…
He loved his sister, he really did. Before he had met Izzy and Rami, she had been the only important thing in his life, the only one he actually cared for. Now he had three loved ones, and it made him happy- well, as happy as someone who didn't believe in the emotion could be.
Suddenly, he tensed. He could feel people running up behind him, and it made him uncomfortable. Dominic really didn't like other people, never acknowledging people outside of his friends (and a few other Slytherins).
"Hey, Evans! Wait up!"
A dark-haired boy pushed through Amelia and Adrian, and they knocked into Dom, who caught the girls before they fell. "Clumsy oafs." His lip twitched into a half smile at the girls, before he turned to see why the rude teenager hadn't bothered to apologize.
The boy, one James Potter, was yelling at Lily Evans, red-headed, intelligent, and furious.
"You're such a jerk, Potter!" Dom pulled his friends to a stop, curious. This could be mildly entertaining.
"What, why?" The bespectacled Gryffindor was genuinely confused, and looked back at his friends, who had joined the Ravenclaws and Slytherin to watch.
"You just can't push people around!"
"…Huh?"
Lily gestured, and James focused on Dom and his companions. Amelia was wearing a slight smirk, amusement and superiority shining from her eyes, while Dom was, per usual, expressionless. Adrian was glancing around her, wondering what everyone was suddenly looking at.
She never was good at acting like a real Slytherin.
"Oh, them? Who cares? Just some stupid Slytherins…" At this, Amelia smirk even grew, the death threats starting to flood into her mind.
Adrian muttered "You know, I think I should take offense to that…" amused at such prejudice coming from someone from the supposedly 'noble' and 'righteous' Gryffindor house.
Adrian and Dom both recognized that they were being used to start a pointless fight between two sexually frustrated hot heads, and shrugged simultaneously.
It was entertaining, watching them, but Adrian felt it needed something… She had it! Life at Hogwarts was always missing this!
"God save the Queen… We mean it, man…"
Peter was jealous; he loved his friends, but he hated how they always got all the attention, how he was always pushed into the sidelines. It wasn't fair, being the 'ugly one' the 'small one,' the 'stupid one.' He knew he was lucky to even have friends, never having been accepted into a group before Hogwarts, but still. He wasn't perfect like them, he got jealous.
Peter didn't understand that his friends didn't care that he wasn't perfect.
Sirius was bored of this- James and Lily were always fighting, and he wanted them to just fuck already. Of course, he avoided telling either of them this, for fear of either a drooling James or a hard, angry slap.
He had never really understood what his friend saw in the girl. Sure, she was intelligent and gorgeous, but she had a stiff upper lip when it came to the Marauders, and Sirius didn't think she was worth the effort.
Remus was amused, but bored as well. This happened every day, sometimes more, and James and Lily were getting a bit monotonous. He glanced around, and then stared up at the sky… 'Oooh… clouds… Wait? Singing? Who's singing? And badly, at that?'
The black-haired girl from the Quidditch pitch was just to his left, joined by the other Slytherin and her hard-faced brother.
"Adrian, shut up." Oh yeah, that was her name. Remus like her name, it suited her. She blew a strand of black hair out of her face, grinning at her brother, who rolled his eyes slightly. Remus wouldn't have caught the change in the boy's facial expression if he wasn't practiced at noticing little details.
He could already tell how Adrian and Dominic acted differently from each other. Dominic seemed to be a stereotypical stoic Slytherin, except Remus had noted over the years that the boy rarely had a sneer twisting his lips, instead choosing to be completely expressionless- his face wasn't cold, just… stone. He had never seemed overly cruel, unlike some of the people in their year, just chose to watch them. Choosing a quiet stare to intimidate his peers, other than the mean and dark presence other Slytherins took.
Adrian on the other hand, was loud, obnoxious (getting in trouble often), and was usually seen wearing a silly grin on her face. Despite this, Remus knew from experience that she had the Slytherin Sneer well practiced. She wasn't intimidating, per say, but her presence was certainly noticeable. Her laugh was loud (as Remus noticed now), and she was intelligent, raising her hand in class often. Remus pulled incidents from memory, noting that Adrian was more open and relaxed then her counterpart, welcoming people with open arms and a strange smile.
And yet, despite there differences, they were rarely seen apart.
They were certainly an interesting pair. Remus made a note to pay more attention to them.
She pouted, and watched as Lily ended the 'conversation' by slapping James. Sirius took that as his cue to leave, and joined the put-out James at walking into the castle.
"Well, that was fun." Adrian's voice broke him from his daydreaming (about Coffee, books, and …Adrian? Why was Adrian in there?)
"Hmph. Gryffindors are so… Clueless." Spoke Amelia.
"Why clueless?" Remus decided it was time to butt into their conversation, and they allowed him to join them. Adrian granted him space next to her, and he rose to walk between her and Amelia.
"Oh, you know they just want to make with the fleshy." Adrian smiled at him, and Remus felt his stomach flutter a tiny bit. He chalked it down to hunger… Maybe he should stop skipping breakfast?
They laughed, Remus's soft and quiet, Amelia's cold and amused, and Adrian's loud and relaxed. Dominic did not laugh, just smirked wider. Why would he lower himself by laughing? Remus decided that Dominic was certainly the Slytherin poster boy...
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Dominic and Adrian sat down to lunch a few hours later. As Adrian pulled out Tolkien's Silmarillion, he piled her plate with food. She always forgot to eat, and he needed to make sure she wouldn't end up fainting in Transfiguration like last year.
No, he knew his sister didn't have an eating disorder, she was just spacey. But he worried about her nonetheless. He was the eldest, it was his job…
'Anyway, who else would look out for her, our mother? Not bloody likely.'
He had always held a grudge against his mother, choosing the anger route instead of the sad acceptance Adrian held. She had never treated her children the way most mothers did, instead treating them as a burden and not as loved ones.
She had left them only a year ago to join the Dark Lord's services, and they were forced to find their father, who had left the woman after Adrian and Dominic had been sorted into Slytherin, taking their littlest sister, Demetri, with them. Dom would rather be living on his own with Adrian, instead of being forced to rely on a man who abandoned his children.
He knew his father had thought there was no hope for his children when they were sorted into a house full of dark wizards- he had assumed Dom and Adrian would join the Dark Lord. But he was stupid- Dom had no urge to follow someone else and be a servant. Adrian felt the same, but with more moral reasons.
Neither of them held the prejudice that came with their house, Adrian was a caring and empathetic person, despite her manipulative tendencies, and she had never seen a reason to hate someone just because of blood.
Dom, on the other hand, hated everyone equally.
Taking his time to eat (after having made sure she started) he watched his peers make idiots of themselves, smirking slightly.
Izzy and Rami were chatting happily across from him, flinging food at a few Slytherins down the table. At the table next to their table, a James Potter was serenading Evans, her cheeks flaming with fury and embarrassment. Sirius Black was goading them on, Pettigrew was shoving his mouth filled with cake, and one Remus Lupin was reading.
Dom sighed quietly, his expression unnoticeably changing from cold to sad. Only Adrian could completely read him, and she glanced over at him, raised her eyebrows, and went back to her book.
She knew him well enough to know that it was best to leave him be, at least in public. He had always taken things harder than her, though most would think that because her emotions were worn on her sleeve that it meant she was weak and easily affected by life's "woes."
No. She could match her brother's ability to hide his emotions, but she chose not to. It just wasn't how she dealt with their past. She wouldn't let anyone other than Dom, Rami and Izzy see her break down, but she wouldn't hide behind a mask of indifference. It only caused the pain to build up.
Like Dom, she worried about her twin. Eventually his dam would break, and bad things would happen.
Shaking her head, she decided to change her course of thoughts.
"Hey, you guys?" Adrian drew the attention of the other three to her. "Are we working on the project tonight?"
Rami responded for the rest. "Yeah, at eight?"
Rami was a handsome Egyptian boy, smart (you kind of had to too be in that "group") and kind, different from his fellow Slytherins. He came from a long line of Egyptian Purebloods, supposedly holding a few Pharaohs in its line. Rami was incredibly ambitious, though, already making 'connections' for his future, where he will do something amazing and important.
"Sure, same place?" Izzy asked.
Izzy was a silly girl, whose family had always (Izzy had rolled her eyes when she had told them this) been in Slytherin, automatically making her one- she rather didn't want to end up like Sirius Black, whose family had disowned him for being "different." She was also ambitious, wanting to meet and help people, to become one of the greatest healers of her time.
None of them were 'proper' Slytherins, but it was the only house they really could have been in, they were just too different from the other houses.
"'Course."
"Alright, see you guys later. Rami, Dom, we have Ancient Runes." Adrian said goodbye, and the four close friends parted.
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It was evening, and Adrian sat in an abandoned classroom, leaning on Dom, half asleep. It had been a long day, the professors loading an especially large quantity of work onto them.
Adrian watched as a mouse skittered across the floor, and smiled. She liked the empty feeling the room provided, it held stories of years long past, from their school years and before.
Suddenly, the door to the classroom banged open, Izzy and Rami stomping in, laughing. Setting down bottles of butterbeer, they grinned at the twins as they sat down.
"We're close."
Izabel nodded. "Yeah, Dom, you'll probably get it by the end of this week, at the latest. Adrian, I know with your special 'twin connection' you won't be far behind him, and Rami and I should be done by the end of the month. All of us just have to practice, and we'll be set."
"This is great, only a little longer!" Rami said excitedly
"Yes…" Dom nodded to them, and smiled slightly. It felt good to be able to do something other people couldn't- he and his friends had been meeting since the middle of their first year, researching, learning new spells, getting ahead of their classmates. They strived for knowledge, and they were very good at whatever they did, helping each other in their bad subjects.
It was part of the Slytherin ambition.
So, over the years, Adrian, Rami, Dom and Izzy had studied magic- from light to dark, Herbology to Divination, school work to obscure facts, whatever met their fancy. But, ever since third year, they worked at one thing above all the rest; to become Animagus. It was dangerous, they knew. It was illegal, they didn't care.
That damned Slytherin ambition.
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