A/N: I wrote this several months ago for Foodie's birthday. She wanted a love story between two of the children of the couples from her story.
Alison is the daughter of Ticia Orendes (daughter of Lucius Malfoy, and an original character by the name of Adriana Orendes) and James Lupin (son of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks). She is their youngest child, and a bit over-protected. She also, as you will see, inherited her Grandmother Tonk's grace.
Sevilin is the son of an original character we created to interact with Ticia as another possible suitor, Zeren Travers, and the youngest daughter of Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater. He's basically taken the place formerly filled by Draco in Slytherin house: he is the prince of Slytherin. However, unlike Draco, he gets along well with Gryffindors, and we went back and forth about whether or not he should be with Ticia more than he has been in Foodie's story. But Ticia was always meant to be with James, we both knew that from the first time she wrote the two of them together. So we created Sevilin. With Sevilin and Alison, we created the love story that Teecie and Zeren could not have.
I hope you will enjoy the story. And if you like it, and haven't given Teecie's story a try, you should definitely give it a look.
The universes is not mine, nor are several of these characters. No infringement is intended.
Memories
By Elfflame
Based on the characters from New Beginnings: Teecie's Story, from the True Revenge universe.
Alison's first memory of Sevilin was when she was three. It was vague and hazy as most early memories are, but she knows the details from other family members. Cousin Mel had thrown a huge family party thrown in honor of her son Lucas's first birthday. She and her husband James had invited everyone on both sides of the family, and Alison's mother had been thrilled to see her friends there with their sons Sevilin and Devin.
Sevilin was six at the time, and when their parents had introduced the two boys to her brothers and herself, Alison recalled seeing a small frown on her father's face when she'd smiled up at the lovely blonde boy with the bright sapphire eyes. He wasn't interested in playing with a three year old girl, though. He was much more interested in becoming friends with Nicky, who was his same age, and a boy. So Alison spent the rest of the day sitting near the place where the boys were playing at being aurors.
She remembered loving it every time he glanced in her direction, grinning.
Her next memory of Sev was when she was six.
It was Jem's fifteenth birthday, and he'd insisted on having a huge bash at the farm. Granda Lucius and Grams Adriana had been more than willing to host, insisting that each of the children also be allowed to invite their own guests, so that they did not feel left out of the fun.
Alison had invited Annie Wood, her very best friend, who attended classes with her at the local magical comprehensive. Nicky had invited Sev.
The two boys had visited each other many times over the years, though Sev did not attend their comprehensive with them. He had tutors that worked with him to teach him what his father felt he needed to know. It was the pureblood way, he told them. Jem had replied that they were purebloods as well, and he need not be so snotty just because he had money.
Jem didn't like Sev much.
But Alison did.
This time, Sev and Nicky ran off before she could follow, so she and Annie made a game of trying to find them. When she heard them in the pond, she was so excited to have found them that she dove right into the pond, accidentally driving her head right into Sev's chest.
It was a good thing her mum was a healer, but Sev still went home with a great bruise on his chest. It was the last time he had come to visit with Nicky. Nicky had been allowed to go visit the Travers to see Sevilin, but Sevilin was no longer given permission to visit the Lupin household.
The next time she saw Sev was on Platform 9 ¾ when she was eight. He and Nicky were practically vibrating with excitement. Jem had already deserted the group, as he was a prefect, and expected in the Prefects' compartment for the prefect meeting on the train. Stewart had noticed a friend or two, and was already trying to desert his brother for his friends as his mother admonished him to, "Take care of your little brother, Stew. You know what it's like as a first year. He'll need your support. And Jem will be busy. So I want you to watch out for him."
"Yeah, mum, all right. Can I go now?" Stewart had grumbled.
Their mother had nodded, and watched him, sighing as he disappeared into the crowd of students.
Alison, meanwhile, had been edging closer to where Sev stood. She smiled up at him, and those blue eyes looked down at her for a moment before he smiled back.
"Have fun at school, Sev," she told him.
He grinned. "I'm sure I will."
Nicky pulled on his friend just as Alison reached for him, and instead of catching his hand, she grabbed a handful of his new robe, which, unfortunately, tore straight off in her hand. Horrified, she looked down at the torn robe she held, just glad that he was wearing the regular Hogwarts uniform underneath, and mortified that she'd caused such destruction.
Her mother, upon seeing this, had sighed again. "Oh, Ali. What am I going to do with you?" She had done a quick repair spell on the robe, and Sev had thanked her graciously before the two friends ran off to grab a compartment to themselves.
She had watched him go with tears of frustration in her eyes. Why couldn't she go too?
When she was eleven, Sev broke her heart for the first time. She stood on Platform 9 ¾, and watched as he walked off with his new girlfriend.
She was so depressed by the time she was sorted that the fact she wasn't even sorted into his house barely seemed to register. The only thing that made the first few months bearable was the fact that her friend Annie Wood had been sorted into Gryffindor with her.
Still, she would frequently see Sev and his girlfriend holding hands in the hall, and once she had even spied on them while they had kissed. It had left a sour taste in her mouth, and her stomach churning.
So, when the girl had stopped speaking to him, she had been secretly thrilled. Even more so when Sev had decided to avoid the girl by eating at the other tables. The day he had come to eat at the Gryffindor table was the highlight of her first year. He had sat next to her the entire meal, and she hadn't bruised him or ripped his clothes once.
Right up to the point where his ex had appeared, and she had turned to snarl at the girl and ended up dumping her still-full goblet of pumpkin juice all over him. She sat mortified as her brother Stuart had come to Sev's aid, casting a cleaning charm and apologizing profusely for what she had done.
She hadn't been able to face him for weeks after.
He kissed her at the end of her first year.
It had only been on the cheek, and only because he had seen how upset she was. Of course, he thought it was because they were leaving school, but really it was because she knew she wouldn't be able to see him for two whole months.
Nicky had hurried to find them a compartment while Sev had comforted her, and Ali had been thrilled to be alone with him, even for the few moments they'd had. She clung to him as he awkwardly patted her back, and she had been more in love with him than ever.
And then she had ruined things again. She had slipped on a pebble as they made their way to the train, twisting her ankle, and causing both of them to tumble to the ground. She had flushed horribly, apologizing all the while as he picked her up and carried her to the cabin her brother had reserved for all of them.
She hadn't been able to look at him for the rest of the trip.
The next year, she and Annie had cheered on Sev and Nicky as they tried out for the Slytherin team. Both boys had managed to get on, Nicky as Keeper, though only a backup, and Sev as one of the team's main chasers. Annie had flushed when Nicky had approached them, gleeful, and thrown his arms about her neck and given her a kiss on the cheek, but Alison's eyes were only for Sev.
He was so calm, and hardly looked as though he'd even broken a sweat, but there was a glow in his eyes she'd never seen before. He looked absolutely beautiful.
She smiled at him and congratulated him for getting on the team, and his mouth tilted up into the most beautiful smile Alison had ever seen in her life.
He thanked her, and she lurched forward to give him a hug, and ended up knocking him backwards. He only just managed to break their fall with his hands which he thrust behind him just in time to catch their fall. Unfortunately, in doing so, he fractured his wrist. Nicky snarled at his sister to just, "Leave the poor bloke alone already, won't you?" before helping Sev to his feet and leading him off to the hospital wing.
She avoided him for the rest of the year.
Slytherin won the Quidditch and House Cups that year. Nicky was in such a great mood that night that he even allowed his sister and her friend to join their victory celebration, and Alison sat on the couch in Slytherin the entire time, watching her brother and Sev surrounded by admirers.
Then Nicky, being surprisingly charming due to all the good cheer of winning, asked Annie to dance, and Alison was left alone, watching her friend and brother dance, and Sev chatting pleasantly with his many admirers. She told herself it was useless to try. She'd only end up doing something horrible, and if he didn't hate her yet, he certainly would then.
But every so often, he would look out over his crowd of admirers and catch her eye, and she would see something glint there.
She and Annie didn't leave until past eleven, and Nicky and Sev accompanied them back to the Tower. Nicky because he'd invited them, and Sev because he was a Prefect, and could keep them out of trouble if one of the professors caught them out of bed so late.
At the portrait of the Fat Lady, Nicky drew Annie away to thank her for being such a lovely dance partner. Sev turned to Alison, and she found her heart beating faster when he smiled at her once more. He thanked her for attending their party, and told her he hoped she'd had a nice time, and she'd told him how pleased she'd been to attend. Then, just before he turned to leave, he took her hand and pressed it to his lips, his eyes smiling at her the entire time.
Nicky had reappeared then, and dragged him off, saying, "Come on, Romeo. She's only thirteen, remember?"
Alison couldn't even recall the ride home the next day, as she spent the rest of the week floating on a cloud. After all, she hadn't hurt him or messed up his clothing once.
The next year, he broke her heart again. But this time she could hardly blame him. After all, his father approved of the girl. She'd had a proper pureblood upbringing, and didn't cause disaster to fall on him every time she was near him. She was better for him then Alison could ever be. She just wished she could convince her heart of it.
So she tried to forget him. She began to look at the other boys near her age. But the problem was, none of them were him. And none of them could ever match up to his kindness, beauty, and elegance.
So she stopped looking. She buried herself in her schoolwork, and helped her mother out in the Hospital Wing when she was bored. Her mother told her how grown-up she was being, and how proud she was of her, but that didn't lessen the pain in her heart.
Every so often, particularly on Hogsmeade weekends, she would see the two of them together. And she knew it was useless. The girl was far prettier than she would ever be, golden-blonde ringlets and hazel-green eyes, perfect figure, and worst of all, she was his age. They saw each other every day. There was no way she could compete with that.
So she was shocked when she happened upon him one day in a truly foul mood. He turned away from her, trying to apologize for his temper, but she told him he had nothing to apologize for. That everyone had bad days, and sometimes they just needed to talk to someone to feel better.
He smiled sadly at her and told her that talking wouldn't change a thing.
His blue eyes met hers, and she had to force herself to remember how to breathe, so she looked away and asked what was wrong.
He tried to avoid the subject, asking her how her year had been so far instead, but she persisted, so finally Sev began to speak. His father had great plans for him, he told her. But that meant that he had to have perfect marks, perfect manners, and—and he sneered at this—a perfect wife. Whether or not he liked her was irrelevant, he said.
And this startled Alison, for it hadn't occurred to her that he would dislike such a beautiful girl. She can't be that bad, surely, she said, but he laughed harshly.
She was worse, he told her. Vain and petty and spoiled, and nothing like what he wanted. But his father didn't approve of the girl he did like, so that was that.
And that was when Alison's heart truly broke. For if he was in love, especially enough to even think about going against his father, then she had truly lost him. She stayed only moments more, telling him she was sure he'd come up with something, then left before the tears descended.
By the end of the year, Sev was barely speaking to his father. And no longer spending any time with the girl his father had forced on him. He now spent all his time with Nicky, or on the pitch.
Occasionally, Alison would see him glance her way, as though he might approach her, but she couldn't handle the possibility he might want to tell her about the girl he was in love with, so she always got up and left before he could approach her.
And then the worst thing ever happened. He and Nicky had a fight. Nicky wouldn't tell her what it was about, but insisted she stay away from him from now on.
When they went home for the summer holidays, Alison watched him approach, looking as though he desperately wanted to say something, but Nicky whisked her away before he could even speak, leaving Jem, who had been the one to come to meet them, to chase him off.
Sevilin did not return to Hogwarts for his seventh year. Even Nicky, who had been furious with him for unnamed reasons all summer, was concerned. His younger brother, Devin, told them that he had been transferred to Durmstrang by their father, in an attempt to "get him away from bad influences."
Nicky had immediately written to his friend, and the two boys had become friendly once more, albeit long-distance. But when Alison asked him to tell Sev she was thinking of him, he refused flat out. Told her it probably was for the best that Sev was in a different school, and that she should get over him now, before she discovered just what a mistake caring for him was.
She stopped speaking to him after that.
She tried to write a letter to Sev herself, but could never figure out what it was she wanted to say to him. Declaring her love seemed so foolish, particularly if he was in love with someone else. So, after many failed attempts, she gave up.
It was a miserable year.
She didn't see him again until after she'd left Hogwarts herself. Nicky was celebrating getting onto the Wimbourne Wasps as their first-string Keeper. His London flat was packed, and she was reminded of the party she'd attended in her second year. She felt out of place, and the only people she knew were her brothers and Annie, who was more interested in spending all her time draped over Nicky, who she had been dating recently.
When Sev appeared at her side, she wasn't sure what to think. In many ways, he looked nothing like the boy she remembered, but that hair that now draped his shoulders was still the same cornsilk blond, and those eyes were as blue as ever. He asked her to dance, she didn't even try to resist.
They spent the entire evening together, and by the time she returned home, she was almost ready to hope again. For there had been no mention of the girl he had been in love with enough to go against his father in Hogwarts. Just memories shared, and time apart catalogued for each other.
And, when she had received a bouquet the next day, she had not only begun to hope, she had allowed herself a moment of pure elation. Could he really feel the same way for her that she felt for him?
The next week passed quickly.
Once Alison had left school, she had drifted for a few months before her uncle Peter had asked her if she'd like to help him out a few days a week. He was a comic strip artist, and often found himself too busy to keep things up. She would simply take up the slack. The job had been simple, deal with any owls or floo calls he got while he was working, and keep the place tidy, every so often going into town to fetch him lunch at the Three Broomsticks so that he could meet his deadlines.
She loved the job. She'd always been rather close to her uncle, as he and his wife had never had any girls, and Peter had always treated her as a surrogate daughter. They got along well, and it kept her from falling into depression.
The Thursday after Nicky's party, she'd gone to Hogsmeade to do a few errands and retrieve lunch for them both when she found herself hurtling right into someone in her haste to get to the post office before eleven so that she might make it to the Three Broomsticks by noon.
She was horrified. Her clumsiness had never entirely gone away, but she'd managed to keep from hurting anyone else in a long time. In fact, the last person she'd hurt had been…the man who was laying on the ground in front of her, blue eyes dancing, blonde hair mussed, and a large grin across his face.
"Oh, Sevilin! I'm so sorry," she exclaimed, helping him to his feet and dusting him off. "Are you all right?"
He smiled down at her and laughed. "I'm fine, Alison. But if you're feeling the need to make it up to me…have lunch with me?"
It took her a moment to respond. Did he mean that the way it had sounded? "I wish I could, Sevilin."
"Sev, please. You don't need to be so formal with me. We've known each other for a long time. Dinner then?"
She blushed. "Sev. I'd be honoured."
Then he'd taken her hand and kissed it lightly before allowing her to continue on her way.
She'd floated through the rest of the day.
When he'd arrived at her parent's house that evening to pick her up, her father had taken him into his study, and they had been there for a long time. Though she stood near the door, she was unable to hear a word they'd said. Her father must have cast a silencing spell.
Her mother had comforted her, telling her that all fathers were protective of their little girls.
Alison had sighed, saying that they were simply friends, and that her father would chase any chance of that away if he didn't leave Sev alone…
But Sev had emerged apparently unscathed from her father's study, and together they'd walked slowly towards Hogsmeade. They had spoken the entire way there, and she tried to pretend that this was all she needed, but deep inside, she knew it wasn't true.
Sev had guided her down a little side-street to a restaurant she'd never noticed there. The maître d' recognized Sev, and settled them in a quiet booth near the fireplace. The food was excellent, but the company was better, as the two caught up on all the years they'd lost after Sev had been transferred to Durmstrang.
He talked about missing her and her brother, about how he still wasn't talking to his father for what he had done, and how he was currently spending time up at the school, learning Potions from her uncle Draco.
When she asked him about the girl he and his father had argued over, Sev had quickly changed the subject. Did that mean the girl didn't want him? Did that mean she might still have a chance? She hardly dared to let herself believe it, so instead she asked more about his work with Draco. Was he planning on becoming a Potions Master, she asked.
He nodded. If his father truly did intend to cut him off, he told her, he wanted to make sure he had a good career to fall back on, and he had always admired Professors Snape and Black, so it only made sense for him to follow in their footsteps.
As dinner wound to a close, she found herself wishing she could just take the chance, but even being his friend was too much to lose, so she simply did what she could to suppress her longing.
The walk back to her parents' house was quiet. Not uncomfortable and awkward, but calm and peaceful. So when he reached out to take her hand, at first she thought nothing of it. And then their fingers twined, and she realized this was Sev whose hand she was holding. Sev's skin that was pressed so close to hers. Her heart sped up, and she tried desperately to pretend that everything was normal.
They reached the house, and Sev turned to look at her, eyes intent in the darkness. "Ali, I know you had a crush on me when you were small…"
Alison flushed. It was embarrassing to even think about it. Even worse that he knew. "Ali, it's okay. You shouldn't be embarrassed by it. At the time, I was flattered. It was cool. And you were always so sweet."
Here it came, she thought. Now he would tell her that he just thought of her as a friend, and he wanted her to be the first to know about the girl he wanted to marry. She sighed heavily and looked away.
But he pulled her chin up so that she had to meet his eyes. Those blue eyes that were the first thing she could ever remember loving. "Ali, I did a lot of thinking that year, when father wanted me to find the 'right' girl. He made me attend all these parties, said he'd met your mother at one, and had things been a bit different…" He shook his head. "Anyway, he wanted me to find someone with lineage, Ali. But I realized, after thinking about it, that there was only one girl I could stand to be around more than a few minutes. Most girls were clingy and needy, and really only wanted me because of who my father was, Ali. But it was never like that with you."
She looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Sev?" She couldn't let herself believe it. He didn't mean what she thought, did he?
He smiled. "Ali, the reason Nicky and I got in a row was that he thought you were too young for me. And he hated the way my father saw you. He knew father would never approve, and he wanted you to be happy. Told me to stay away from you." His hand was shaking a bit now. "But I can't, Ali. I tried. I stayed away this long only because I hadn't seen you in so long, and I'd convinced myself you were better off without me. And then I saw you at Nicky's, and I knew. Ali there's no one else in the world I want more than you. Do you still want me?"
Ali was stunned. Sev wanted her. Sev wanted her enough to go against his father. Enough to lose his best friend. She didn't know the point at which she began to smile, but soon he was smiling back, and leaning towards her.
When their lips touched, she knew her life would never be the same again.
Fin
