Tricks That Once Fooled Me
As the group of friends clambered noisily aboard the carriage and entered their compartment, the wooden door banged slightly, as it was repeatedly moved from side to side.
Ariana sat down by the window, nervously avoiding their gaze as they laughed and joked about their summer holidays. The carriage jerked as the train slowly began to move forward, and first years hung out of the windows, waving goodbye to their parents and promising to send owls as soon as they got Sorted.
The window misted up fairly quickly, as the temperature outside gradually dropped further and further. The large group of parents were stood on the very edge of the platform, straining their eyes to see their beloved children hanging out of the windows of the train. Some were blowing on their hands, in a futile attempt to warm them up and their breath hung in frosty clouds in front of them, creating clouds of dragon's breath.
Remus had noticed Ariana's silence and once their companions had raised their voices in volume, discussing what their first prank of the year should be, he leant forward and asked her in a quiet voice if she was all right. She should be asking him the same thing.
His normally pale skin looked almost green in the light; he looked very sickly. His forehead was sweaty and clammy and every so often he began to shiver. Ariana was about to advise him to go to the Hospital Wing as soon as they arrived when she realised he was like this a lot. He would be like this for a day or so and disappear for another day or so, then turn up as if nothing had happened. Pretty much every time this happened, he would turn up late to class and silently sit next to her. From her vantage point she could easily see he was covered in bruises and scratches. Due to their position in the register, they would always be sat next to each other so she could see it happened every single time he disappeared. Something strange was happening to Remus. If she knew them more then maybe she could be in on their secret. She barely knew the four guys who referred to themselves as The Marauders and this year it was going to change. She was going to make an attempt to become one of them. Properly. She wanted to belong. To hell with her mother.
"Nothing." She smiled, making an effort to show Remus that everything was fine.
Glancing to the right of him, she noticed that Peter was watching her, a strange sort of gleam in his small, watery eyes. In a way, they always gave her the impression she was talking to a rat, whenever she graced him with a sentence or two. Which was very, very rarely. She didn't like Peter. Never had, probably never will. He was small, extremely annoying and had a high-pitched squeaky voice that made her want to use the Silencing Charm on him every second of the day.
"I'll tell you later, 'Kay?" She promised, making a vow to herself. Make Remus her best friend. Maybe she could help him, if she could just find out why he's always ill.
The train ride was long and arduous but became a lot less awkward once Lily came back from the Prefects' carriage. To Ariana, it felt as if a great weight had lifted off her chest now that she had someone she was very close to that she was able to talk to. Things got even better once Peter mentioned he wasn't feeling too great and waddled off to find a toilet. He didn't return.
A comfortable silence filled the compartment as Lily sat down next to Ariana.
"Ari?" She asked quietly, almost cautiously and as if she was trying to avoid asking her question.
"Yeah?" She answered, her head against the window and her eyes closed.
"How come you didn't write?" she asked "Again."
Ariana's eyes shot open and she blushed, hoping no one had noticed. She turned slowly to face Lily, who had an innocent look on her face, betrayed only by the faint hint of red below her ear. A sure sign of anger.
"Um," she thought, inventing quickly "Artemis couldn't fly for a couple of weeks. Then my mother needed to use him for her business work and other 'important' documents" She laughed nervously, hoping the fact that she'd used her sarcastic quotation marks would be enough to calm Lily down.
"Ariana Lupus!" Uh-Oh. She cringed inwardly, knowing that she'd upset her. "I've known you for what, Six years? And never once have you replied to my owls! I even invite you to stay over pretty much every holiday, but no, you just ignore me!"She stood up, breathing heavily and her face thunderous.
"Until you can be bothered to reply to my letters, I don't think we can be best friends anymore." She added, finally getting quiet and walking out of the compartment, robes flapping and her foul mood becoming obvious as she shouted some more at some innocent second years for laughing too loudly.
Ariana looked up, her face ashen. The three boys were frozen in their previous positions, Remus sitting straight up and looking as ill as before, if not worse. Pumpkin Pasties and Chocolate Frogs surrounded James, and his face was frozen in an expression of pure shock and amazement. Sirius was much the same.
"Wow." spoke James "That was…different." He rubbed his eyes and stretched, a massive pile of empty sweet wrappers slithering to the floor. He left them.
"I'm gonna change into my robes. Coming Padfoot?" He heaved himself off the squishy seats, which had by now, moulded themselves into the shape of his body.
"Yeah, might as well. Ari' looks like she's about to puke, an' I don't wanna be there when she does!" He joked, looking awkward about witnessing Lily's outburst.
As soon as they had left, Remus asked her what it had been about. Ari beat him to it.
"She said we can't be best friends anymore." She whispered.
"She thought of me as a best friend?"
"Of course!" Remus said, his voice soft. "We all do." He added quietly.
"Except Peter, but ignore him. Peter's an imbecile." He said, making her half-laugh.
"Now," He stated, clapping his hands together. "What was that argument about?"
"I-" He cut her off.
"I know that you haven't been replying to anyone's owls. You've done it to me too. And James. All I want to know is, why?" He sounded confused and almost hurt.
"My mother." She whispered, "She doesn't like the fact that I'm associating with Gryffindors. She won't let me. She says that she can't control my friends at school, but she'll sure as hell choose my friends at home." Remus drew in a breath, looking more than a bit confused.
"I thought that your mother was a Muggle, that's why you're a Half-Blood?"
She shook her head. "I'm Pureblood. I never knew my father, but I use his second name. I'd rather not use my mother's. She's a Death Eater. Or as good as; though I don't think she's been branded. Yet. " Remus recoiled, looking stunned.
"I am so sorry for lying. I just didn't want to be judged. Please forgive me." She whispered, feeling disgusted with herself for deceiving her friends.
"It's okay. Perhaps we should forget about this conversation, James and Sirius are coming back. But you have to explain to Lily later. She'll forgive you."
"Thanks Remus. You've been great." He smiled
"What are friends for, eh?"
Everything.
