Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling.
A/N Hello! This is my first fanfic...I've tried writing other stories, but I haven't ever finished one...sorry ahead of time if that happens again. Anyways... I hope you like it! I always appreciate it when authors put a summary in at the beginning of a story, so here it is.
Summary: Elizabeth Shephard is an invisible bookworm (enormously overdone, I know) who is tired of putting up with the Marauder's crap. Not that they notice her enough to pick on her...but she's seen them jinx her friends and fellow club members one too many times... AU, OC/?-She'll probably go on one or two dates with a couple different people, but I'm not sure who she'll end up with yet (I'm open to suggestions). Oh, and I don't do slash.
Elizabeth Shephard was a bookworm. Everyone who noticed her would agree. Not that many people would notice her…she actually took a secret pride in her ability to be invisible. That and her ability to walk up to her friends unnoticed. She didn't have many friends, but she had a surprising number of acquaintances. You know, the sort of people you wave and smile at when you pass them in the hall. But half the time they were surrounded by their crowds of friends and wouldn't notice her, or else she would be off in her own world and not see them smiling and waving. When this happened, they usually thought she was either shy or stuck up; she was smart and had reason to be, or so they thought.
Elizabeth didn't think so; as a matter of fact she was surprised they acknowledged her existence. They were, to her eyes, pretty, popular, smart compared to most people and…well, they seemed perfect to her. She knew she wasn't ugly, but she wasn't pretty. You see, while Elizabeth wished she could be like them, she wasn't. She knew she wasn't, and she wasn't delusional enough to think that if she spent five hours a day doing sit-ups or applying different "beautifying" products to her face, she would magically fit in. Look at Peter Pettigrew for crying out loud! He was practically the definition of average, and yet somehow the most popular boys in school had taken him under their metaphorical wing. And he did fit in with them, no matter what the (slightly jealous) other students said. The Marauders wouldn't be complete without him, just as they wouldn't be complete without the ever-studious Remus Lupin. Remus was probably the Elizabeth Shephard of the group, but every good group has to have one, or it won't click. A/N Look at the Golden Trio- one adventurous leader (Harry or, in this case, James/Sirius), one tagalong the group wouldn't be complete without (sorry to all you Ron fans, but he actually doesn't have much depth… oh, and I'm not saying that Ron would betray them-obviously he doesn't. I think he's a bit more loyal than Peter.), and, of course, one book worm to keep them all in line.
Elizabeth didn't like the Marauders. She had made it a point, being invisible, to see everyone, especially other invisible people. It was hard at first, and she didn't really master it until Third Year, and only then because she had a huge break with her friends (not the acquaintances) and became a loner until she made up with them a year and a half later.
During that year, she sat quietly invisible looking for the telltale signs of others. One of the first she noticed was Severus Snape. She wouldn't have noticed it before; she thought he had been friends with Lily Evans, one of her acquaintances. However, she soon noticed him on the outskirts of the Slytherin table, looking at Lily Evans as though he had been abandoned. Elizabeth knew that look. She had thrown it herself at the friends who now ignored her. She looked closer and saw that he would alternate between looking abandoned by Lily and looking hopeful of being acceptance by the Slytherins. Elizabeth stood from where she sat at Ravenclaw table and wandered over to where he sat. He didn't look up; he probably thought she was exiting the Great Hall. She didn't blame him; he was used to being invisible. She sat across from him, right in his line of sight.
He looked up, slightly confused. "Hey," he said, characteristic glare lining his face, "You're a Ravenclaw"
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" she replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"And this is Slytherin table," he replied slowly, still glaring at her.
"Was there a point there somewhere? I'd be more than happy to continue this seemingly meaningless conversation, but I did actually come over here to talk to you."
He cocked his head to the side and asked, "Why?"
"A couple different reasons," she quickly explained, "One, my friends all decided to ignore me."
"Simultaneously?" he interrupted, "Why?"
"Well, my best friend decided she was 'tired of putting up with all my crap' and everyone else followed her lead." She explained as quickly as she could. She was somewhere between anger and disbelief, but either way it hurt. So she ignored it.
"I'm sorry," he offered, the glare starting to fade. She shrugged noncommittally.
"Anyways, the second reason is that…well, have you ever noticed that some people are on the outskirts?"
"Um…not really"
She laughed, "You mean, 'Other than me, not really' right?"
He blushed, then looked suspicious. Why was she being nice to him?
She sighed. "You're not the only invisible one, Severus. I've always felt like that too. I've been trying to find the other invisible kids ever since…well, I wish I could say 'Ever since First Year', but I was kind of an idiot then and didn't really start until Second Year. I never really managed until my friends started ignoring me a couple of weeks ago."
The look of suspicion never left, but deep in the wells of black she could see a glimmer of hope. A/N Why does hope always glimmer?
"So?" he asked, "Why are you talking to me?"
"Well…this is where it gets a little weird," she replied hesitantly.
"Weird?" he questioned, eyes never leaving her face as she looked at the table.
"See, I had this idea…well, a couple of them actually. They have a common theme…" she trailed off, finally looking up to try to decipher his opinion.
"And the common theme is? Should I be doing a drum roll?"
She smiled, finally relaxing slightly. "Well, I was thinking it would make sense for all the invisibles to…I don't know, sort of band together."
He thought of it for a moment, chewing it over in his head. "What were you thinking, like, just a group of friends or a club or what?"
"Well, at first I was thinking a group of friends, but then I kind of realized that just because we're all loners or invisible doesn't mean we'd actually get along. So, I thought that it would probably be smarter to make it a club."
"Okay…so, why did you come to me first?" he asked, hesitant once more.
She smirked. "Would you like me to be honest or flattering?"
He smiled back. "Can I hear them both?"
"Sure. I'm assuming you want flattering first?" He nodded. "Okay then," she continued in a high voice and fluttered her eyelashes excessively, "Why because, Severus, you are so smart that I knew you would know exactly what I meant and be able to take my stupid little idea and make it into something smart and interesting." By this time he was falling off the bench he was laughing so hard and as soon as she had finished she started laughing so hard that she was crying in no time. The rest of the Slytherins were eyeing them with distaste and edging further down the table discreetly. When Severus and Elizabeth noticed this, it lead to a whole other round of hysterics. By this time most of the Hall was staring at them. The usually serious and quiet students were laughing their heads off! As several students took in the scene of two bookworms laughing on the floor while the rest of Slytherin edged away, some started to laugh as well, until laughter echoed all over the Hall. Even some of the teachers started to chuckle. Severus and Elizabeth stopped laughing rather suddenly, righted themselves and sat down with as much dignity as possible (it wasn't much), then grinned at each other, suddenly and irrevocably fast friends.
The Invisible Club had begun.
A/N Hope you liked it! Please let me know what you think cough review cough. And...I hope my main character isn't a MarySue :). Let me know if you disagree. Oh, and for all you "The Marauder era was in the 70's" people, J.K.R. didn't specify when (in our timeline) anything happened. She also didn't mention current fashions, I'm thinking so we could adapt the stories to our own time. Then again, maybe she just wanted us to argue amongst ourselves :). I'm not planning on mentioning anything that screams "WRITTEN IN 2008!", but if I do, that was my argument.