Backstage Murderers

Author: Jill Rocca

Disc: I own no characters other than the few OC characters mentioned here and there, but the major ones I have manipulated belong to JK Rowling.

Fandom: Harry Potter, MWPP era, but taking place in 2006 and in America. Very AU.

Pairings: Mostly Remus/Sirius, then some James/Lily and in case you're wondering, Peter is just going to be a minor side character (as minor as it gets) because he is so unbearable and I hate writing for him. Sure he'll have a descriptive paragraph and a slight role in this, but other than that he will be mysteriously missing from this fanfiction.

A/N: Ahhhhhh, new fic! Hope you all enjoy. Yes, I KNOW there's a ton of HP-high school fics out there, but I really have NOT read any of them to the knowledge that my memory serves, so I don't think I'm likely stealing anything. Though I will be mad if someone steals MY stuff, but I'm sure no one will. Thanks for reading!

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

—Joseph F. Newton Men

Chapter 1: Those Little Misunderstandings

Closing his eyes and feeling the rugged roundness of the ball, Remus bent his legs and threw the basketball, only opening his eyes when he heard the swish of the net. He moved to go get the ball as soon as it hit the hard, waxed floor of the basketball court inside the school gym. The space was completely empty except for him and his stuff if one counted inanimate objects as an audience. He liked it this way, especially when the cheerleaders weren't practicing. He liked to come to the court as often as he could when it was undisturbed by youths coming to watch the pretty cheerleaders practicing.

This basketball court served as his only solitary confinement he could come to and be himself in all of his school. Hogton & Wartston High School was not a place where Remus Lupin generally fit in. It was a school ruled mostly by wealth and perception for when power could be obtained. People would be nice to you one day and then disturbingly capricious the next. Remus liked to be nice to everyone, but he didn't necessarily let anyone take advantage of him either.

Remus loved basketball, and he was very good at it too, he had always started for the high school team, even becoming a member of varsity in his sophomore year. It was strange to the other members of the team that such a good player was so meek and quiet and preferred to be by himself than at large house parties, but Remus was just being himself. He didn't really like being out at night so late anyway, but the more popular sort of people thought he was a complete idiot for not conforming to do what they did, so Remus didn't really have any friends, well, except for one.

Lily Evans, a cheerleader, was sort of his friend and sort of not. She would never sit with him at lunch, even if Remus didn't spend his time in the library, but she would call him or IM him if she just wanted to talk. In Remus's opinion, Lily was the smartest, most observant cheerleader to things that didn't consist of fashion magazines in the whole school. She was very pretty with long red locks and brilliant green eyes, but he wasn't attracted to her the way most football players drooled after her. He just liked her personality; they shared similar tastes in bands and nonconformity, but Lily did like to cheer, so she stuck with her cheering mates as much as she could bear.

She had remarked to him once before that, "They're not so bad once you get to know them and they actually like you back, but I don't know Remus," when he had asked her why, if she thought most of them were such bimbos and sluts, did she hang around with them? "I mean, I don't whore around like they do, or drink, or party till dawn, no, I take myself home around eleven." As if that were any better.

Now that Lily was cheerleading captain, she called all the shots. At the start of the year, just a week or two ago, Lily had promised Remus that the other jocks would be and must be nicer towards Remus on her command, but Remus wasn't expecting much, though he appreciated her friendship and loyalty.

Remus kept practicing his shots even though the basketball season didn't start until late November, but he had nothing else to do. What were they doing in school? Sure, he had some Pre-Calc/Trig homework, then he had to read a passage for AP History, then do some easy German work, and then solve some short Chem equations. That would take him maybe two hours or less, depending on his level of interest.

Remus just kept shooting. He loved the feel of the ball beneath his fingers, but he also loved letting it go, even when the ball didn't make it in the hoop, the gentle caress it gave his fingertips as it left his hands … he understood the ball, and the ball most times understood they way he was pushing it to make it in the hoop. His coach said that Remus should definitely be looking at a basketball scholarship within the next year. After a few more minutes of happy solitude, Remus began to get the strange feeling that he was being watched. He stopped shooting for a while and looked around the darkened basketball court, saw no one, shrugged, and went back to shooting for a few more minutes, putting the basketball back in the gym locker area, grabbing his stuff and car keys as he went and left the school for home.

If only Remus realized that someone had been watching him. Sirius Black stood a ways away from Remus behind a bleacher, clutching his duffle bag, just watching the way the other boy moved. Sure, Sirius knew the guy, Remus Lupin, resident shy guy/quiet kid of HWHS. The two boys didn't hang out at all. Sirius had had an encounter with Remus twice before though, once in elementary school and then in middle school. They had never hung out before high school though as friends. Sirius wasn't sure why he never thought of becoming friends with Remus. Not that someone as nice as Remus would probably want to hang out with Sirius anyway.

Sirius was known around the school as the school bad ass, someone you want on your side, but never someone you want to cross. Sirius might be like that on some accounts given his temper, but not really. He felt pretty damn misunderstood, by everyone, even his teammates on the soccer team, except for his best friend James Potter. His bad ass exterior was popular with all the girls in the school, especially the ones in his grade. They were always falling all over him, much to his dislike, and some of the more forward ones would call out to him in the hallways or insist they walk him to their classes or try to force their friendship upon them, but Sirius didn't want it at all. He knew he was quite good-looking, but he didn't like to flaunt it around. In their earlier years, he and James got into several fights—which they won—which labeled them the school bullies pretty much, but at the moment in their junior year, was it so wrong to tell off the cocky little freshmen? Besides, it was sort of fun as long as no one killed themselves.

The story of how Sirius came to watch Remus was a short one. Sirius's soccer practice had stopped early and he hated when that happened because he looked for every possible way to not be at home with his family. Damn sadists. His mother was all in a fit because they were throwing a dinner party on Saturday that Sirius had to be home for. Great. Not. Since his family was the wealthiest in the whole county, maybe even the whole damn state, they had a very large house with a range of servants and ornaments and the most expensive furniture all imported from this place or that and Sirius hated it all, but less than he hated his family. His family thrived on making people feel low and insignificant in their high wealth and Sirius didn't feel like that at all, which led to numerous, pointless arguments shared between him and his mother. His father did nothing to defend him; he just sat there and let his mother run the show. He couldn't even count on his own little brother, Regulus, but who could count on a sad tart like him? No, the only person Sirius really counted on was his cousin, Andromeda, and she would be there Saturday at the dinner party, which was important as his mother had to discuss something with the entire family. At least with Andromeda they could sneak out, grab James, and go see a movie and have a really fun dinner elsewhere and keep their sanity.

So as Sirius was finished changing and turning down James's offer to give him a ride home with some of his own mates in one of their cars, Sirius wandered around the school. The library had closed early, not that he ever used it, and the after school clubs he just didn't go for, so no go. He found his way back into the locker room, which was still open since football was practicing, and he flopped down on a bench and took out some homework to do. After maybe an hour or so of boredom, he finished what he needed to do and supposed he should start the long trek home (walking was his preferred method of travel, as it took the longest possible amount of time away from spending time in the same house with his family), but as he was gathering his things, he heard a loud thumping coming from the basketball court.

He opened the door a fraction and slipped inside to see the school shy boy practicing his shots. Sirius hid behind the bleachers so as not to disturb the other boy, who looked so amazing while he practiced; he was truly a genius of the sport. Sirius watched for about another hour before the other boy turned in. He watched as Remus arched his back and could see all the details of his calm face as he closed his eyes, blind to the world, as if he were concentrating hard on using his other senses, and flung his arms up, almost like a dancer, flicking the ball towards the net with such ease, and Sirius watched as the ball flew into the net with grace. Sirius was in awe. He didn't know someone could play a single sport with such elegance and grace, nor move so easily.

Sirius liked Remus. He liked him a lot, but not in the romantic sort of way, Sirius liked his personality from what he had seen of it. He was really good at a popular sport that came with the whole cheerleader and letter jackets package, but Remus wasn't like all the other jocks and didn't make any moves to be like them at all. He was very good at basketball and didn't flaunt it around. He was a starter player and didn't boast about it to get the girls. No, Remus seemed to be perfectly happy being polite, modest, and just being himself, but not in an obnoxious way. He seemed really likeable, and Sirius really wondered why he and James didn't ever talk to him, but maybe it was just because he was so shy and came off as a little uninviting, so Sirius supposed his subconscious was keeping him away from making a new friend, and boy did the kid need friends, he didn't really have any from what Sirius could tell. The boy was in his junior year and he didn't have a single friend? Odd, maybe he didn't want any, but Sirius couldn't tell.

Sirius was just watching Remus leave the gym and he figured he ought to as well, not that his own mother cared. Sirius could be out for days and not even noticed, but he needed a shower. So, Sirius trekked out of the gym and walked on home.

It was a warm September evening as James stood in the parking lot waiting for his friend Sirius to finish whatever business he had wandering the school like a lost puppy trying to avoid going home, and James made it his business to give the other boy a reason to not feel lonely as he walked home. So James waited, he had already done his homework and was just working on a little puzzle in his lap when Sirius came out. James looked up and Sirius looked down at him.

James smiled and said, "Ready to go home now?"

"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked bewildered.

"Idiot, don't act like I don't know you. You do this every time we have an early practice. I didn't ride with the other guys, I parked in the very back of the parking lot because I wanted to wait for you," James said.

Sirius was amazed that his friend would do that for him and highly thankful that he had found such a good friend amidst the crap-runners (DEF: those crappy people that run the school) in the school. He crouched down and said, "You didn't have to do that you know,"

James just said, "I know, but I wanted to. I can't have you wandering the streets like a lost puppy dog, all smelly and lonely."

The two boys laughed and talked all the way back to James's car, which was situated at the back of the student parking lot, presumably so Sirius wouldn't see it, and since the parking lot was full during the day, he probably wouldn't have seen it, but now that the parking lot was empty and desolate, he could see it quite clearly.

James liked waiting for his friend after practice, and sure Sirius liked taking as long a time to get home as possible, he still let James take him home. James secretly knew that Sirius was saving up all his allowances from his Uncle to move out of his parent's house soon as he was able to make it on his own, which James didn't expect to happen until Sirius was in college, which might be tough, but Sirius never wanted his parents to pay for his college education, as they would probably send him to a school of their choosing instead of letting Sirius choose whichever path he wanted and James knew Sirius hated following other people's paths.

James Potter was an only child and had about as many relatives as Sirius, but the connection was much less hostile. James liked his parents a lot; they were always there for him. He'd hate it if anything ever happened to them, opposite Sirius who wished bad things would happen to his family for all the crap they put him through, and James knew it was truly a lot of stupid shit Sirius had to put up with, his parents really sucked, and this was why James's parents, who also didn't like Mr. And Mrs. Black, invited Sirius over for dinner and to spend the night frequently, though they would never say anything in front of Sirius about what bad parents Mr. and Mrs. Black were towards their son, but should they judge? But hey, facts were facts.

James turned into his family's three-car driveway and parked about ten minutes after he dropped Sirius off at his house. He was greeted by his mother's cooking as soon as he stepped in, so throwing down his bag in their foyer, he went to join his parents for dinner.

James was a good kid … at home. He was definitely not his principal's favorite well-mannered student at school though. He and Sirius often took their stresses against the conformists out on the conformists themselves, but as the principal knew they performed all the pranks, he really had no proof that they had actually committed them.

For instance, today, James and Sirius had borrowed the office's locker combination record from the secretary's desk, photocopied it, and put it back. Then they had looked up Sir Lucius Malfoy's locker combination. As the resident King of the school and superstar football and lacrosse starter at HWHS, he made it his duty to stomp on and trounce everyone and everything he didn't like, and unfortunately Sirius's triplet cousin, Narcissa Black, was his resident girlfriend. So anyway, they found out his locker combination and took it, searched through the locker, and taped up male porn all over his locker and his binders. They took out his English binder and slipped in one last picture he wasn't likely to notice for a few days of class work and taped it in there, then wrote, "Enjoy!" on the paper they stuck it on and dated it. It was great because they wrote "Enjoy" taking turns writing each letter a different way so he wouldn't be able to tell.

A somewhat small prank to what they usually did, IE, flooding the football locker room toilets (hey, there were at least two drains in there, so what they got stopped up?) but who would find out? No one was in the hallway at all, as it was during lunch, and they did it before the Hallway Nazis got to do their rounds after they ate. During the bells in between the end of lunch and fifth period, when Lucius came up to his locker with Narcissa slung under his arm like a football and his little letter jacket followers-gang, he swung Narcissa around to kiss her hard on the cheek, her short skirt flying up and down much to the other boys' enjoyment, and then opened his locker. It took a while for the impact of what was in his locker to fully hit him. He stared at all the gay porn looking horrified and several more students came over to survey the damage and the Hall Nazis came over to see what this was about and immediately ran to the principal's office, who came out immediately.

The funny thing was that Lucius was the one who got in trouble, no questions asked, a whole week of detentions for his wonderful locker display. The principal had asked him with a smirk, "Have you been redecorating Mr. Malfoy?"

James and Sirius came by the locker along with some other students, their own little band of odd followers that genuinely sought their protection from the letter jacket-clad monsters. Over the years of their high school experience, they had actually gained a bit of popularity surprisingly, even some of the weirdest jocks would sometimes talk to them. It was quite odd. But anyway, they all looked at it, pointed and laughed like all the others, including Remus Lupin, who was also there standing next to Sirius laughing at the amazing display of pornography.

Also, Lily Evans had been there laughing at what had happened. Narcissa got angry at her saying it was Lily's duty as cheer captain to not laugh at the star players whom she was cheering for at football games.

Lily, like a real trooper, only said, "Yeah, but it's so funny! Lighten up Cissy! I know you're boyfriend is gay, but really, this is hilarious!" This only made James love the girl even more.

Several people noticing the bit of offensive slang Lily had unintentionally used began chanting, "Queer and Cis-sy! Awe-some cou-ple!" Over and over again, like little animals. James was about to join in too, it was like the other teens were praising Lily on her comeback, but James also didn't want to look like a kindergartener.

See, James had had a crush on Lily Evans for a little while now, and anything that made her more cute and likeable raised his level in love for and adoration of her. He lay on his bed messing up his hair, a bit of a habit of his, thinking of ways he could win over Lily Evans, but it was hard when she thought he was a damn conceited ass hole, who went around teasing people, and yes, James liked teasing little freshmen, but honestly, they were freshmen! What else was he supposed to do, show them around and make them feel welcome? No, his way of making them feel welcome was showing them who to not mess with, that were all; it was just a difference in opinion.

Oh well, he'd find another way to woo her in the morning, not that he hadn't tried countless times before to ask her out. She could at least respect his daring.

Lily Evans however did not think she could respect an obnoxious pig's daring. James Potter, in her opinion, flounced about himself boasting about his good grades and mocking the freshmen who were mostly considerably smaller than even he himself was; he only reached about two or three inches taller than Lily. No, Lily did not like James and would rather be shot dead by the other cheerleaders, who wanted her so, than go out with James Potter. He just pissed her off so much!

Though, he didn't piss her off as much as the other cheerleaders, especially Sirius Black's, (who was also not on Lily's good list either, as he helped James haze the freshmen), cousins, Bellatrix and Narcissa Black, who seemed to be completely against her becoming cheer captain and looked for numerous ways to unseat her from her position.

It was hard to be a good leader and not result to violence when it came to managing her cheer squad. All except for Bellatrix and Narcissa's triplet sister, Andromeda. She was just as good-looking as they were (as they were all fraternal, and boy, were they all different) and just as rich, as they were sisters, but even though they were all related, Andy wasn't a bitch. She was completely humble and willing to listen to Lily's new cheer instructions whereas the others made it their business to not, unless people came to watch, then Lily actually got things done, unless they were learning their routines for cheer competitions in which their main instructor came in.

Lily was on the brink of asking their cheer instructor if she would sit with them full time during practices since she couldn't manage the girls, and in fact, Lily had had one of the members of the Audio Visual team secretly tape their rehearsal and he had given her the tape. Lily sat up watching it in her room smiling at all the wrong things she could show her instructor and show how she desperately tried to get the girls to rally with her, but only so few of them did. Hopefully it wouldn't all blow up in her face to which the cheer instructor would say something along the lines of, "You are just a bad leader, let the Black triplets take charge," or something shit-ridden like that.

Lily figured she should call Remus and tell him the news of the atrocity of what she had to go through, but before she did that, her parents always made her finish her homework before IM-ing and phone calls. So she got to it.

"Reeeeeemus!" Lily called into the phone once she had finished all her homework.

"Hey," Remus said cheerfully.

"Tough way to come out the closet isn't it for poor, poor old Lucius?" She asked giggling.

"You mean, 'rich, rich young Lucius', right? He's everything but poor and old," Remus joked.

"Yeah, really! I mean, we all know he didn't do it, but Narcissa's furious, she claims to have broken up with him and didn't even want to practice cheering today, can you believe it?"

Remus snickered into the phone, "Actually I can, but they'll only be broken up for about a day, you know that. In fact, I do not doubt that as we sit here in our rooms, they are making up and out at this very moment."

"Heh, yeah!" And this was how their conversations on the phone usually went; Lily really enjoyed talking to Remus. He was the only one who seemed to understand her, and the other way around. Remus might come off as extremely shy in person, but actually, he was very talkative and funny once you got him going. Remus was also a very good friend, Lily wouldn't have him any other way, plus she sort of assumed that Remus was gay, but she wasn't about to pry into his most personal life.

"Can you believe that complete ass James Potter asked me out after math today?" Lily asked indignant, she needed advice on how to throw this ass hole in the trash for good.

"Yes I can, as he's done it several times before," There went Remus again, the ever-present voice of reason.

"Well, he keeps sounding so confident each time as if I really will say yes, but I keep turning him down, just to show him not everyone loves him."

"Oh Lily, I think you do really like him, you're just determined to deny it." Remus said simply.

"No way!" Lily began to protest, but Remus made her stop.

He said, "All right, say what you will, but you know, he was the one who put all that gay porn in Lucius's locker you know, I saw him and Sirius Black doing it at lunch today."

"And it's just like him to do stupid immature things like that!"

"And there you go again …" Remus began to chuckle and Lily saw no point in continuing trying to convince him that she absolutely did not like pompous ass holes like James Potter.

The two friends joked for a little while longer until it was about ten o'clock, and Lily's mother had come up to tell her she had to stop tying up the phone lines, so Lily said see you tomorrow to Remus and hung up. She did always enjoy her conversations with Remus, he was a very good listener and advice-giver and the school newspaper was looking for a new advice column writer this year, and if he wasn't careful, she would just slip his name into the suggestions box …

Well, she was tired and needed to not think so hard on so many things at the moment. Usually around ten o'clock she got online to talk to her "stupid friends" as she liked to call them. She had no idea why she defended them all the time around Remus and it was unfair to even them that she bashed them behind their backs. She really needed to make new friends that actually liked her personality, like Remus did, but she guessed she wouldn't have that kind of freedom until college. So instead of hoping online tonight, she rested, tomorrow, she felt, would be a long day.

TBC …

Next installment coming next week! I hope you all enjoyed it, it took forever to write, but as you see, it's a lot. Please review and tell me what you think. This was the intro chapter, and I hope I didn't make it too much like an intro, as they are usually boring and annoying to get through. I really worked on this one for you guys! I tried to keep it o some topic that I really knew, like what's it's like to be a misunderstood teenager, and I really wanted to work with this fanfic seriously, so I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!

Oh, and as per my Peter-description at the top, yeah, he might get a paragraph or two and a sentence or two of dialogue, but I have decided not to work with him at all, unless, he really does become James, Sirius, and Remus's friend, but then he'd do something bad that they'd kick him out, but it just seems easier on my poor nerves to leave him out of their/my lives/life, so … you know, I think that's what I'll do.

About my writing: Ugh, some of my transitions are bad, but trust me, I tried to make them as sensible as possible, will work harder next time, but ehh, hard to get in all the stuff I wanted for the intro.

Other things:

1) Yes, I know Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Andromeda aren't really triplets, but in this story I figured it'd be easier. Dunno if all fraternity is possible, but ah well. It is now …

2) I make up odd nicknames for things/classes/people throughout, so if they look stupid to you, feel free to laugh at them, I don't really care.

3) Not sure I'll be able to update this weekly, but at least semi-frequently. Judging by the amount of time I spent working on this first chapter … hopefully I'll meet my deadlines though.

4) I'll explain the James/Sirius/Remus friend circle later.

5) No matter what anybody says, Peter is not going to be a major part of this story. I'll add him in as a minor character or comic relief, but nothing more.

6) I'll think of better pranks for James and Sirius to pull off in the future.

7) Can anyone tell me what the Uncle Sirius mentioned in the 5th book that gave him inheritance money? Unfortunately, my copy is at my mom's house in Pennsylvania and I'm all the way out in Georgia with my Dad, so I can't look it up myself, but if someone could kindly tell me what the Uncle's name was, it would help the third chapter greatly. Thanks:)