Set in the Marauders Era and is possibly going to become canon once they graduate. ENJOY!

CHAPTER 1

An Evening at the Ministry

"Remus! Please come down stairs! You know how your father feels about being late!" Remus heard his mother's airy voice float up the stairs. For the past few minutes he had been standing in his room, resenting his parents. But, as much as he hated to admit it, he owed them. So he would be wasting yet another of the few Saturday nights left in the summer to attend a ministry party for one of his father's articles in the Daily Prophet or his contributions to the ministry or something like that. It truly disturbed Remus how much his father was working with the ministry (despite the fact that it was very plausible that he was trying to butter them up and slyly convince them to accept magical creatures as important parts of the wizarding community). Remus didn't know. All he could focus on at the moment was how these parties were probably considered to be forms of torture in some cultures.

The teenager sighed and slipped on his shoes before lazily making his way down the stairs. By the time he rounded the corner on the second landing of the narrow staircase he bumped into his mother who was climbing the stairway as fast as her high-heeled feet could permit. The two steadied themselves and the woman released a sigh, of what seemed to be relief.

"Thank god you're ready! You're father would've thrown a fit if you took any longer," she smiled at him and straightened his tie. "Now just try to be pleasant tonight. For your father?" Remus forced a smile and nodded slightly. She ruffled his hair before gathering a handful of her floral, floor length dress in one hand and beginning back down the stairs. She turned back to look at her son, who was still standing on the landing, silently protesting his desire to stay home. "Well, come on now! Let's get going," she gave him a look that could be regarded as the equivalent of physically dragging him down the stairs. Remus obliged begrudgingly and walked down the rest of the stairs and into the sitting room to find his father sitting in one of the oversized chairs before the fireplace, drumming his fingers impatiently.

Without a word the graying man rose slowly from his seat and strolled towards the fireplace, lifting the container of floo powder from the mantelpiece.

"'Bout time you decided to join us," the man said, moving the jar of powder in a circular motion his eyes fixed on his son.

"Yeah, sorry. I couldn't find my shoes," Remus lied. It was the last thing he needed for his father to discover the pity party Remus had thrown himself in his bedroom instead of getting ready.

"Right then! Let's get a move on!" a smile spread across his father's face. He extended the jar to Remus, "Escort your mother, would you?"

Grabbing a handful of floo powder Remus felt his mother take his arm and he led her into the fireplace. They stood there for a moment, the blonde woman adjusting the bundle of curls at the back of her head and smiling at her husband. Remus looked from his mother to his father, trying to decipher the silent conversation that they were having. He was still amazed at how they could still look at each other with so much love in their eyes after all of these years, after everything they had gone through with his…condition. The man threw a wink at his wife and said, "Ministry ballroom, Remus."

Remus released the powder and shouted, "Ministry ballroom!" before being engulfed by a wave of green flames. When the flames subsided, the two stepped from the sizeable, black marble fireplace and into a ballroom full of people. Remus sighed. Why did his father have to get into this sort of thing? Of all jobs, why one that required the presence of his family to maintain a reputation. His mother, still clinging to his arm cleared her throat, catching the attention of her vacant son. She gave him a worried look and he reassured her with a smile while she released his arm to be escorted by her husband. Remus followed slowly glancing around at the people present; big shot writers from The Prophet, along with even an editor or two, photographers, and representatives from the Ministry voicing their respect for the newspaper. And now his father was part of this, part of this fake form of admiration and these truly un-genuine people. He knew his father was above all of this, but he had no desire to be the one to tell him what he should and shouldn't do. He brushed away his thoughts and continued to walk in wake of his parents, feeling shamefully out of place.

The night drawled on. The adults mingled and danced while Remus quietly roamed the exterior of the dance floor in an attempt to find something to do. Occasionally his parents would introduce him to an important person or some sort of figure head, to which he would mindlessly smile and shake hands with only to forget their name the second he walked away.

After he polished off his second butterbeer Remus opted for a bit of fresh air. He made his way through the open French doors leading to the patio, where it seemed he would be able to enjoy a few moments away from the lively ballroom. He shoved his hands into his pockets and took in his surroundings. Trees and shrubs wrapped in string lights, a fountain endlessly spewing water surrounded by twinkling pixies.

He sighed and collapsed onto a stone bench before the fountain, rubbing his temples. The music from the ballroom grew significantly louder and with a surge of frustration he flung to his feet, storming toward a large cluster of trees. He leaned against a tree and slid to the ground before he began to pick at the dry, August grass. Finally free from the infuriating music he contemplated lying down but before he could do so his attention was drawn to the branches above him. The trees had been wrapped in a multitude of string lights, illuminating the eerie shapes of branches against the inky blue sky. Among the jagged shadows Remus noticed the outline of what appeared to be a dog clinging to a particularly large limb of the tree he was sitting under. The animal cried out in short bursts of barking and whining as it wildly tried to regain its perch. Remus flew to his feet, straining his neck and eyes to get a better look at the creature. However, as soon as he did so it lost its grip on the bark and began to plummet to the ground in a flash of orange fur. Panic stricken, Remus held out his arms and tried to follow the dog's path of decent, in hopes of saving it from falling to it's death. Within seconds he found himself holding the torso of a small, orange fox. The animal had somehow contorted itself to be halfway in his arms with its legs tangled in the string lights on the trunk of the tree.

"Oh, hello," Remus looked into the animals pointed face. "Lovely of you to drop in," he chuckled to himself and the fox seemed to exert an air of boredom, "Alright sorry, I can see you're not one for corny jokes, are you?" The creature simply blinked at him, "Right then, let's get you untangled." He reached over to the tree and worked to unknot the wires without dropping the creature. "These people are magic and yet they still insist on using electricity, it's bloody stupid in my opinion. You know, I've never really been I fan on the ministry to tell you the truth," he held the fox, now free from the wires, in his arms and stroked behind its ear. "Alright, there you are," he set it down on the ground and reoccupied his previous seat under the tree, but the fox did not run off as he had expected it to. It simply sat, leaning against his outstretched legs, staring at him.

"Well go on then! Run off into the forest!" he waved his hands at it, but it simply sat there. "What? Are you trying to avoid mingling too?" the fox swung its tail across the ground as Remus continued speaking to it, "I wouldn't put it past you lot to know how to mingle, in a fox sort of way, though." Remus looked into the animal's large round eyes that seemed to be sparkling with amusement. This pattern continued for a while; Remus talking to the fox, just mindlessly verbalizing whatever came to mind, while the animal listened. It was odd to Remus how this fox seemed to be interested in his thoughts, be he kept talking assuming his words to sound like gibberish to the mass of brownish orange fur, that had relocated itself onto his lap.

In the midst of his rambling Remus felt his empty stomach churn, he had only eaten a few hors d'oeuvres earlier that evening foolishly thinking such a small amount of food would fulfill his werewolf sized appetite. He removed the small, warm body from his lap and stood up. "I'm going to go get something more to eat. I'll be right back with something for you too, okay?" He turned and began walking back to the ball room, his stomach somewhat leading the way. But before he could travel too far from the small orchard he heard a voice call out to him from behind, a soft, sweet voice that had been projected in his direction just enough to coat his ears with the words being spoken.

"There's no need to trouble yourself," Remus slowly wheeled around on his heel to discover a tall, thin, barefoot girl standing among the trees, the fox nowhere in sight. He was quite taken back by the girl, by her large blue eyes and her heart shaped face and her soft brown hair, tinted with red, which was tied back loosely while stray pieces of hair hung around her ears. "Thank you, though," she grinned at him as she fiddled with the silver triangular pendant hanging from the long silver chain around her neck.

"You're an-" Remus began only to be cut off by the girl.

"An animagus? Yeah, but I'm not registered so don't go off and tell anyone alright?" she paused and smiled, "Now where did I leave my shoes…" she walked off and began circling around trees and peering into bushed before she finally returned carrying a pair of grey, canvas heels announcing triumphantly, "Found them!" Remus couldn't help but smile with her sense of accomplishment. As she slipped on her shoes she said, "I'm Elaina Monroe, by the way."

"Remus Lupin," they shook hands awkwardly. "So do your parents work for the Ministry?" Remus asked, trying to make conversation.

"Unfortunately, yes. My dad is an editor for the Prophet, which I consider to be working directly for the Ministry," she then added, "My mum's a muggle," in afterthought.

"Yeah, my mum's a muggle too and my dad's a journalist for the Prophet."

Elaina looked at her feet shyly and, still wanting to talk with her, Remus thoughtlessly asked, "Would you like to dance?"

"With music?" she met his gaze, sounding a bit shocked and Remus nodded. "But you said you hated the music."

"Oh right yeah um, sorry about um talking so much earlier…see I uh didn't think anyone was really listening," his voice became very small and embarrassed by the end of his sentence.

"It's quite alright, I actually enjoyed listening to you and, I mean, I won't embarrass you and tell anyone," she pushed her long bangs from her eye and then added, "But, yes, I'd love to dance. Although, I must warn you, I'm kind of a horrible dancer."

"I'm sure you're just saying that," Remus replied as the two of them made their way into the ballroom, ineptly stepping into the crowd just as a slower waltz began to play. They hesitantly began dancing among the others and, trying to ease the slight discomfort between them, said, "See, you're not a bad dancer at all!"

"You'll regret saying that when I start stepping on your toes – consider this an apology in advance," she stopped watching the movements of her feet and smiled at him.

Remus smiled back, internally promising anything to have kept that comfortable eye contact once she glanced away. "So, Elaina –" she interrupted him.

"So, Remus," that sense of comfort between them had returned.

"What year are you in?"

"Seventh, and you?"

"Same. Why is it that I've never met you before? Your name sounds terribly familiar, but I've never quite noticed you before…and, I must say, I don't know how I could've overlooked you."

Elaina smiled, "You miss a lot when you have your eyes closed, Remus." Remus went quiet after she said that, he had been walking about with his eyes closed, not looking for anyone in particular, despite many of Sirius' attempts at matchmaking. In the midst of his thoughts the pair had somehow made their way to the middle of dance floor, swaying and moving slowly to their own tempo.

"And you've noticed me then?" Remus asked her, the question having been on his mind.

"Of course, how could I not have?" Remus lifted and eyebrow and Elaina laughed. "Perhaps I should've said: how could I let your infamous pranking go unnoticed?"

"Well, what can I say, I do what I can," for a moment they both just smiled at each other, refusing to break eye contact.

"I didn't really expect you to be so kind, to be honest," Elaina let the loose wisps of hair fall from behind her ears to hide her cheeks that had turned a light pink.

"Well, I didn't expect for such a lovely girl to drop in on my evening. Thank you for that, by the way," Remus responded, mentally scolding himself for possibly triggering an uncomfortable situation, but the girl's cheeks and ears became significantly more pink, so much so that not even her hair or the dim lighting could conceal her flushed skin.

As the night progressed on, the two teenagers continued to dance and laugh, all the while becoming more and more relaxed in each other's presence. When the ballroom started to thin out Remus departed from his companion reluctantly and followed his parents into the fireplace, his tie loosened and a smile plastered on his face.

Thanks for reading! Reviews would be lovely! And also, I'd like to receive about 5 or so reviews for another chapter (unless, by some miracle, I'm extremely inspired and can't wait to upload my second chapter).