IMPORTANT NOTE! While this fic is categorized under Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, it is NOT slash.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. "Whisper of a Thrill" is an orchestrated song by Thomas Newman from the movie "Meet Joe Black." The song "Remember When" is by Alan Jackson and we do not, in any way, own it.
Whisper of a Thrill
Chapter One: Remember When
Remember when
Old ones died
New were born
Life was changed
We came together, fell apart
Broke each other's hearts
"Here is your drink, Miss Batsakis," Rosmerta said timidly, placing the mug of Butterbeer in front of me.
Seated atop a bar stool, I couldn't help but wonder for the umpteenth time why I was there. Why did I insist on returning to a place that, despite the many happy memories that had taken place within the four walls of the pub, caused me so much pain?
With much effort, I allowed myself to look across the pub to where a young couple was sharing a mug of Butterbeer that I knew better as the place where James had proposed to Lily that Hogsmeade weekend that felt like so long ago. I knew that on the top of that wooden table were scrawled six signatures that had donned the table since the day before my seventeenth birthday - ages ago, or so it seemed. Through the window, I could see the bench I had been sitting in when Remus, had told me the news about Natalia only weeks before. Then, gazing back at the line of booths under the window, I recognized the place where I had shared my first kiss with…him.
I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the fact that my eyes had welled up with tears for the - oh, who knows how many times a day I cried anymore. I swallowed hard, forcing past that lump in my throat.
"Can I get you anything else, Miss Batsakis?"
"My name is not Miss Batsakis," I replied proudly, giving the barmaid a far angrier look than she probably deserved. "It's Aludra Black."
"Damn these stupid trunks and all the damn stuff I need to fit in it thus making them far too heavy," I grumbled under my breath, struggling to pull my trunk onto the Hogwarts Express as I jugged the cage that held my tawny owl, Chara.
I looked a few yards away where my mum was fussing over my younger sisters, Iris, a fifth year, and Calysta, a third year, who were both Hufflepuffs, as she had been. I sighed heavily, wishing my dad had been able to see us off as well, seeing as I had been pushed aside as soon as we had gotten onto Platform 9 and ¾.
"Need some help, Allie?"
"Oh, my hero," I nodded, smiling at James Potter, who had his own trunk behind him. With one great push, he'd managed to heave my trunk onto the train.
"Bloody hell, Allie," he commented as I jumped onto the train to help him with his own trunk. "What did you bring - bricks?"
"Yes, James, I packed bricks in my trunk," I replied sarcastically, following him down the aisle of the Express and almost wondering if I had. Eventually we stopped in front of the compartment my group of friends and I had deemed as our own on the ride back to London after our first year at Hogwarts.
"Out," James said to a group of first years, cowering at the mere sight of the two big, bad sixth years that were James and I, and they quickly scampered out of the compartment.
From across the aisle, there was a loud scoff. As James continued forward, not hearing the noise, I glanced over my shoulder to see Lily Evans, accompanied by her own friends, Dorcas Meadowes and Sarah Wickersham, giving James and me a very disapproving look.
"Wotcher, Evans," I greeted, giving her a lopsided grin.
The tall redhead looked surprised, as though she hadn't expected me to address her and that her disapproval of James and I would go unnoticed. Lily swallowed hard before giving me a steady nod and pushed her friends into the compartment across from the one James was in, busying himself by putting my trunk away. Before the compartment door slid shut, I plainly heard Sarah say, "She is so weird!" making me grin even more.
Once settled into the compartment, I crossed my legs daintily and looked at James. He looked preoccupied - which had been obvious when his finely tuned Lily Evans radar hadn't gone off yet with her being so close.
"Okay, what do you want?" I asked, getting straight to the point.
"What are you - "
Before he could finish his sentence, the compartment door slid open, allowing Remus Lupin to stumble into it. Very wearily, he managed to drag his trunk into the compartment with great effort.
"You look quite peaky, Moony," James greeted, his hands folded on his lap.
"Do I really, Prongs?" Remus asked as I got to my feet to aid him. "Thanks so much for letting me know."
"And you're bad-tempered, too," James shook his head, tutting as he searched his bag for his trademark Golden Snitch that seemed to have been attached to his hand since the fourth year. "Don't you have a prefect meeting?"
"Yes, I do," Remus nodded as I helped him pull his trunk underneath one of the seats, neither of us wanting to heft it into the luggage racks.
"James, leave him alone," I reprimanded, pushing Remus onto the compartment seat to take a breather. "It's only been, what, two days since the full moon?"
"Yeah," Remus sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back. "The only good thing about it is I don't have to worry about transforming for a whole month."
"Pity," James shrugged as the warning whistle blew, signifying that the train would be leaving in only moments. "I rather miss our little adventures over the summer."
"Pity for you, perhaps," Remus swallowed hard, rubbing his eyes hard with the palm of his hand. "I'm rather okay with the time between months."
James opened his mouth to make a comment, but was struck dumb when the last three members of our group of friends came into the compartment, two of them joined at the face.
Peter Pettigrew sat down between Remus and I, a disgusted look on his face as we all surveyed Sirius Black and Natalia Gianinni continue to explore the insides of each other's mouths with their tongues. After a few moments of silence, James finally cleared his throat and tapped Sirius hard on the back from their seated place next to him.
"Hey, mate, how d'you manage that without coming up for air?"
At this, Sirius and Natalia seemed to realize that they weren't alone in the compartment and managed to pull apart from each other. Natalia flushed slightly as Sirius rolled his eyes.
"You can breathe through your nose, you know."
"Well, before he can launch into this tutorial," Remus interrupted, getting to his feet as the train began to pull away from King's Cross, "I'm going to go down to the damn prefect carriage. I'll be back."
"You don't want to take notes, Remus?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at my life-long best friend. "You aren't planning on snogging anyone anytime soon?"
"No, Aludra," Remus glared at me, using my actual name for added effect, as I loathed it. "I'm not." He then turned to stop James, whose mouth had popped open. "And, no, James, I am not saving myself for a bloke. For the last time, I'm not gay."
"Which is a pity, because you'd be just the cutest little gay werewolf," Natalia grinned, allowing her right hand to slowly travel up Sirius's neck and into his hair.
"I hate you all," Remus stated, then pulled the compartment door open.
"No you don't, Moony," Sirius smirked. "Besides, you'd be completely bored without us around."
"I'd find some way to entertain myself, I'm sure," Remus mused, stepping out of the compartment and sliding the door shut before anyone could say anything cheeky in return.
"He just doesn't appreciate our humour nearly as much as he used to," James mused, noticing that Peter was gaping at him as he always did while he played with his Snitch. He smirked happily.
James seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Sirius and Natalia had returned to their previous activities next to him, completely content with amusing Peter, who would let out a squeal of delight every so often, which would cause James only to smirk more. After a few moments of me trying to distinguish which was more disgusting - listening to Sirius and Natalia playing tonsil hockey or watching James's head grow in front of me - I cleared my throat and jumped to my feet. When I did so, I knocked the Snitch out of James's hand, allowing it to fly around the compartment freely.
"Do you know how hard it is to catch it again, Allie?" James groaned, watching the golden ball flit around the top of the compartment, trying to find a way out.
With one swift movement, I jumped up and snatched the Snitch from where it was floating above my trunk and held it out to James. "Oh, yes, terribly difficult."
"Shut it," James glared at me, then, as though he was thinking better of it, softened his look and stowed the ball in his pocket. "Thanks."
"Anytime," I shrugged. What can I say? Growing up with Remus and my older brother, Lukas, as playmates had sculpted me into the Quidditch loving tomboy that I now was at sixteen.
"Hey, Allie, I want to show you something," James got to his feet, jerking his head at the compartment door. "Come with me?"
"Sure," I nodded, happy for an excuse to get away from our snogging friends.
"Hey, wait for - "
James cut Peter off by sliding the compartment door shut quickly. I couldn't help but let out a laugh as he looked at me playfully.
"What, exactly, do you want?"
"In time," James held up a finger, obviously trying to look as though he was Dumbledore as he gazed at me over the top of his square glasses.
I followed James down the train until he stopped suddenly. Confused, I stood on my tiptoes to see past James, who seemed to have sprouted more than a few inches over the summer.
"What's going on - oh, Snivellus." I let out an annoyed sound, not wanting to deal with moderating between the two archrivals. "Come on, James, leave it be."
However, before I could pull James back, Snape had his wand out, glaring at James from behind his greasy black hair. Just as quickly, James pointed his own wand at the Slytherin.
"Good summer, Potter?" Snape spat at James, his black eyes narrowing.
"It was brilliant as I didn't have to see you at all," James shot back, pushing me away as I tried to pull back his arm.
Noticing, Snape noted, "Leave him be, Batsakis. I don't need help from a blood traitor like you."
"I'm not trying to help you, Snivellus," I scorned, giving him a dark look. "I just don't want to deal with this only fifteen minutes into the term."
James, on the other hand, took a step toward Snape and growled, "Don't call her that."
"Finally given up on the mudblood, have you?" Snape sneered. "Maybe you aren't all bad, Potter - at least Batsakis is a pureblood."
James rose his wand angrily, but, as he opened his mouth to shout a hex, someone shouted, "Expelliarmus!" from behind us, causing James's wand to fly out of his hand and nearly hit me in the face, but I caught it squarely nonetheless.
"Evans," James said breathlessly, turning his back on Snape.
As soon as he did, Snape raised his wand at James and I shouted the same incantation Lily had just seconds earlier, his wand landing between James and me.
"You couldn't even wait until we got to Hogwarts?" Lily asked, Remus behind her, looking thoroughly amused by the situation.
"Er, did your prefect meeting get out early?" James asked, mussing up his hair and absentmindedly stepping on Snape's wand, which let out a resounding crack under his weight.
"Don't pretend you care," Lily narrowed her eyes. "Get out of the hallway or I'll give the three of you a detention."
I opened my mouth angrily to shout at the bossy red head, however the look on Remus's face told me to shut up. I obeyed, but gave Lily a nasty look that she saw fit to return before disappearing into her compartment.
Once she was out of sight, James turned back to his old self and twisted his foot, making sure Snape's wand was thoroughly broken. Then, acting surprised, he exclaimed, "Oops! Looks like you'll be needing a new wand, Snivellus."
"You'll pay for that!" Snape growled, wrenching his wand out from under James's foot and giving him one more dirty look before disappearing into his compartment.
"Are you ever going to grow out of messing with him?" I asked angrily, poking James hard in the stomach with his wand.
"Probably not," James admitted, taking his wand and stowing it back in his robes. "All right, Moony?"
"Of course," Remus replied, stopping in front of their compartment. "Sirius and Nat are back at it in there, aren't they."
"Why d'you think we're out here?" I asked. "Well, besides James practicing being a git, of course."
"Wonderful," Remus sighed heavily, then walked into the compartment anyways.
"Now, which compartment do we want to go in," James mused, looking around.
After a few seconds, James wrenched one of the doors open, revealing the same first years he had told to leave the last compartment we had wanted to go into. They gave us the same frightened look, most likely because they had seen what had gone on just outside their compartment moments ago.
"Out," James said simply.
"But everywhere else is full!" one of the first years, a blonde girl, piped up, then blushed furiously afterwards.
"Does it look like I care?" James asked, jerking his thumb in the direction of the train hallway.
The six first years grumbled loudly as the filed out, leaving the compartment empty for the two of us to inhabit.
"I'm not terribly sure that was nice of you," I admitted, bringing one of my knees to my chest so I could tie my shoe. "Aren't we supposed to look out for the younger students as more experienced witches and wizards?"
"I have a preposition for you," James pushed forward, ignoring me.
"Er, that can't be a good thing," I replied apprehensively.
"Whatever do you mean?" James asked me, trying to be innocent.
"Oh, please, James," I rolled my eyes. "We're going on our sixth year of friendship - I'm pretty sure I know you better than that."
"All right, you got me," James sighed, lounging across for me with his hands behind his head, putting his feet on the seat next to me. "Over the summer, I came up with a bit of a foolproof plan on how I will win the lovely Lily Evans's heart."
I let out a snort of laughter. "Yeah, okay, James."
"I'm serious!" James insisted, dropping his hands to his lap. "This is a great plan. However, I'm going to need your help in order to pull it off."
"I surmised as much," I replied, leaning my chin on my knee. "Let's hear this plan."
"Everyone knows that girls are daft - "
"You're on a roll on this one aren't you, James."
" - and when someone perfect for them is dangling in front of their noses, poised perfectly for them to snatch up, they'll ignore it," James continued as though I hadn't said anything.
"Yes, Evans is just like the rest of us," I waved my hand dismissively. "I've heard you tell me this loads of times. Do you have anything important to add to it?"
"You see, the fatal flaw that girls also possess is the fact that once that perfect someone is snatched up by someone else, they realize the error of their ways," James continued to explain. "So, the idea is that if I am snatched up - "
"No way, James," I put my hands up to stop him. "You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend because you somehow think Evans will fall over herself for you?"
"When you say it like that it just sounds so daft."
"That's because it is, daft, you git," I crossed my arms over my chest, dropping my foot to the ground. "Honestly, James, ask Nat - she's almost crazy enough to go along with something like that."
"In case you haven't noticed, Nat seems to be a bit busy with a certain best mate of mine," James cocked his head. "Come on, Allie, it'd be perfect."
"It won't work, James," I shook my head. "Besides, the reason Evans doesn't like you isn't because you're single. It's because you turn into an arrogant blighter whenever she's in the vicinity."
"I do not!" James said defiantly, digging in his robes to take out his struggling Snitch.
"James, the only time she ever sees you is when you're hexing Snape or something that accidentally brushed into you in the hallways at school," I pointed out, watching him play with the ball absentmindedly. "On top of the fact that you seem to think that combs are just a myth - "
"My hair does this on its own," James jutted out his chin angrily.
"Perhaps, but I'm sure it doesn't help that you're constantly messing it up yourself," I added. "And that damn Snitch - " I reached over and grabbed it out of mid-air before James could and held it out of his reach.
"Hey - "
"Okay, only because I feel sorry for you am I even considering this ludicrous idea of yours," I started, giving him a look. "However, we're going to lay down some ground rules. First, this is only temporary, therefore no hanky-panky will be involved. Maybe quick kisses on the cheek when around people, but I refuse to snog with you at any time."
"Naturally," James said happily, obviously thinking he'd won.
"Second, if, after a month, Lily does not show any sign of not hating you, we will have a tragic and emotional break-up that will include me breaking up with you," I continued, ticking off two fingers on my hand that wasn't holding James's Snitch. "It will involve something relating to you cheating on me or something equally if not more embarrassing for your ego."
"Fair enough," James nodded, although giving me an uneasy look.
"Third, you will bring the hexing, goading, bragging, pranking, and overall Marauder-like behaviour down at least three to five notches," I continued.
"I don't - "
"These rules are nonnegotiable," I interrupted as I got to my feet. I wrenched the window open, allowing a steady stream of wind to make my dark hair fly back. "Fourth, this damn Snitch has to go." I threw the Snitch out the window, causing James to gasp.
"You know how long it took me to nick that one?"
"I'm sure you'll find a new one before next week," I rolled my eyes, forcing the door shut. "Fifth, if we want this to be believable at all, we are the only ones you can know that it's fake."
"What do you mean?" James asked, still giving the window stricken looks.
"Look, our friends are great and all, but they all have big mouths - even Remus," I smirked. "If they know, it won't be long before everyone in Hogwarts knows about this façade we're trying to pull off and you might as well just kiss Evans goodbye. Well, if you could kiss her we probably wouldn't be in this situation then, would we?"
"Thanks for reminding me," James replied. "Are those the only rules?"
I furrowed my brow, trying to think if I'd missed anything important. "No, I suppose that just about covers everything."
"And you're sure about this?" James asked. "You won't back out last minute?"
"Marauder's honour," I gave him a grin, holding out my hand to him as I borrowed the term I'd heard James and the other boys use so often.
James grinned back at me and shook my hand vigorously. "Marauder's honour."
Author's Note: Quick explanation. This story is cowritten by me, kamers, and my darling cousin, La Mariposa. I will be writing as Aludra Batsakis, the young lady you met in this chapter, while La Mariposa will switch point of views for Natalia Gianinni. The chapters will not necessarilly be every other, so we will alert you as to whose point of view it is in by the chapter title.
Anyways, that's about it for now. I hope that you enjoyed this oh so much and if you're interested, feel free to check out the other things the two of us have written. :-)
kamers