Disclaimer: no own.
Because of the characters I am developing and the foundations of what a 'sin' is built upon in this world, I may use some symbology that could be contorted to offend someone. I mean no offense, and I am merely writing a fiction story. Expressions in this story do not necessarily reflect my beliefs.
Yaktsuk
On such cold mornings, as this one was promising to be, it was easy to hate getting out of bed. As much as Remus enjoyed his daily mingling that did wonders for his acute unsociable-ness, the harsh winters of Russia were something he nor his werewolf self could get used to. He was very glad to be moving back to the rest of the cold blooded world, who like standard mammals, needed at least above freezing temperatures on an average day. His tailbone ached severely as he arose from his straw bed. He was sure that if he slept in such a position one more night, he would become hunchback and hobble like an elderly man at age twenty.
With unadulterated reluctance, the young boy moved on to wash his face in a bucket of moderately cold water, only kept unfrozen by a fire that had since been reduced to embers during the frosty night. Remus Lupin had always prided himself in being a fallen man of steeled emotions and a heart of ice, yet his body proved too wayward for his mind; as the water touched his skin, his body shuddered, shivered, and protested rejection as the hot blood of man flowed thru his veins.
Yet, he would not be here if he had not volunteered to run a reconnaissance for the Ministry on the chaos some Death Eaters were reaping as they pillaged towns for funds.
Though the Ministry had provided him with some temporary accommodations and money, his mission had run overtime and he had since run out of supplies. Much too embarrassed to ask for help of the Ministry's overstretched arms, he had shelled himself inside an abandoned military base and made due with a few sickles and knuts he earned a day delivering books for a local shop. It was quiet, and no one learned of his illness here.
Rogue, was what they called it.
After he cleaned up and dressed, Remus attempted to make a feast of famine; brown winter-hardened bread softened with milk, oatmeal made from local raw materials, and watered down mead thickened with a jab of molasses. Remus never managed to subdue a cringe as he drank the bitter mixture from his pottery goblet.
He left the base in silence for the town, not 10 miles away. The walk itself had been quiet in the fresh snow. There was evidence in the snow that perhaps a bobcat had walked this same path. Sometimes a songbird accompanied him into town, and he was grateful for the company, but today the air was silent and even, foreboding a disturbance.
After walking for what seemed like hours, eyes watering and nose beet red from the cold, Remus heard the unmistakable shuffle of his worn shoes on pavement. He had finally reached the paved streets of town. Remus hardly noticed he had arrived, so affixed and intent on putting one foot in front of the other and thinking of warm fires and hot mulled wine. He shuffled onto the sidewalk and not much farther down the road, shuffled into what was labeled by the door – Angel's Bank.
Remus took a seat on a bench within the locale. He honestly hoped that his assignment would not take too long, however as the hours passed by, a cold look of disdain had settled upon his face. He sneered at every goblin teller or any personnel that dare approach him with demands that he conclude his business and leave, and Remus would always reply "That's what I'm doing."
Whenever a goblin would raise his voice or pursue his demands, he was always chased away by a sudden hazel glint in Remus's eyes and a look of disgust.
By two fifty-five in the afternoon, Remus was plum put out when it happened.
Through the bank doors burst a group of hooded reapers, each carrying a wand and a sword. Some of the people drew their wands while others shielded themselves from the intruders but that was little use. Cries of pain and fear rose as all who opposed were eliminated with a quick flash of green light.
When the killing stopped, the bank had gone eerily silent, the deep breath before the plunge into ice cold waters of Death Eaters.
"Give us the money, and you may all yet walk free." A cocky Death Eater chided, his stance was lopsided with arrogance, his wand carelessly held.
Remus finally moved. "You don't want to be doing that." He said with his own British accent.
In unison, all hooded heads turned. Their faces were veiled but the very angle of their wands showed no contempt for this pretty English boy.
With no room for mercy, Remus cast what appeared to be a lumos spell, though the incantation was unclear to all who heard. The light eerily reflected off the clock behind the counter; it stopped on the spot
The clock struck three, and the werewolf appeared.
Replacing the handsome man was a towering werewolf. He was a terrifying sight; his fur was bristled gray but looked like it would be relatively soft to the touch. The hazel eyes had taken over the human, a slightly hint of foam protruded from his mouth and steam puffed from his nostrils, a by-product of the cold atmosphere Voldemort's legacy brought.
Instantly, he looked like a monster.
A Death Eater took a foolish step forward towards the beast, but with a high scream he was thrown aside with the strength of ten humans. The yellow eyes narrowed, as if the werewolf could calculate with the reason of his other half.
The Death Eaters began firing spells. Remus carefully used his "paw" to leverage a table to accommodate his height and his behind the erected barrier. With greatly aided strength, he thrust the table at the Death Eaters, pinning and incapacitating three with the great piece of wood.
The werewolf shifted his attention to the other three, each working with wand and sword. Remus snarled at their old fashioned techniques, then remembered these were also pureblood has bins bent on stupid past traditions, like racial purity. Each Death Eater approached him with his sword. Remus, even with his werewolf abilities, was no match for swords now than he was as a human. The werewolf snatched the briefcase of a nearby dead man and swung it in violent parry to the swords.
Now attacking in earnest, Remus worked hard to coordinate his werewolf weapons and the briefcase to block stun spells and swords, giving payback in only small nicks on their hooded bodies. After minutes of inconsequential swordplay, finally, one of the Death Eaters tripped over a dead body, and the werewolf was able to gorge him in the chest with his claws. The hooded murder was only able to scream for a second before his body was rendered useless.
The left Death Eater saw this as an opportunity and plunged his sword into the werewolf's upper leg. Seeing this as an opportunity to slay the werewolf, the remaining Death Eater made to stab the werewolf as its stance faltered from the injury. Unexpectedly, the werewolf launched forward and took the sword between his teeth, raked them along the cold steel and created a terrible screeching cacophony that few ears could withstand. Both Death Eaters became concerned with their ears rather than the monster, and then, using only his right paw, the werewolf hoisted the left Death Eater through a glass window to the cold snow a story below.
With only one Death Eater remaining, the hooded evil thought to reevaluate the threat of the werewolf. He raised his wand at the werewolf, but there was no time. Sooner than he could blink, the werewolf had the Death Eater within his claws and tossed him over the teller's counter. The airbourne hooded bundle broke a vase of white lilies as he tumbled over the counter and finally came to rest under a bookshelf that had toppled over when his body met with it and its best friend, inertia.
The werewolf looked at the clock. 3:05.
Using his nose to sniff out a surviving Death Eater, the werewolf discovered the one behind the counter had only been slightly injured. Using catlike grace and ease, the werewolf leapt over the counter and ducked down the crumpled heap. He repeated the lumos-like spell, and humanity ruled again.
Remus seized the Death Eater by his cloak and removed the troublesome hood. Cloths were wrapped across his face where a nose should have been, and his eyes, unusually blue, were alight with quirksome terror. His movements were no longer confident and deadly, but jagged and spastic as if he had been momentarily removed from a freezing pond.
"He'll be so disappointed." The Death Eater wailed and then seized Remus by his collar. "Hide me. He's coming." The Death Eater quickly hissed in rhythmic whispers.
He seemed sick with panic.
Then again, Remus wasn't a nitrifying sight himself. He had speckles of blood dashed across his face, both his own and his enemies, and coupled with his pale skin and unusually deep blue eyes, the colours of his homeland seemed embedded into his body. His sandy brown hair, not untamed but messy with inhumanity, hung darkly over his face.
"Where is he?" Remus spat. The cinder-block interior, cold in death and leaking with Russian winter, caused Remus's breaths to come out in puffs of steam. If only glancing for a second, he resembled a dragon.
"W..w-w-w-w-we don'tknow. Healwaysfindsus." The Death Eater stuttered.
Remus only glared, then muttered, "You're coming with me," then punched the Death Eater four times until there was no strength to be exhibited for retaliation or resistance. Fistfull of black robe, he dragged the Death Eater behind him viciously with only a slight limp from his leg, ignoring the defeated man's grunts of pain and discomfort.
On his way out, Remus paused at the feet of the Death Eaters underneath the table, finally coming to. With his hand, he extended his pointer finger and thumb in a mock gun symbol and pointed at the three. "Bang." He pretended to shoot them. "Thank you very much, as always." He smiled for a second, then his face fell dark. He teased and stormed out of Angel's bank, Death Eater in tow.
That day, if anyone had asked Remus Lupin if he felt better than the Death Eater trailing behind him, he would have said no.
Naples
Golden sunshine seeped through the wood paned windows and age-frosted glass, catching the musty air dust that came with a university dating back to the Holy Roman Empire. Nestled at the foot of an old-world statue of Christ was a pretty red-head, her legs hidden behind piles of books. The old school still instilled tidings of a monastery in the heart, and one would feel they were viewing the place through a terra cotta lens. The air was heavy and laced with smells of spices, vellum, and preservatives for both the books, and probably not to far away, research corpses.
"Liiiiiiiiiiily Buddy!" A sing song voice boomed through the cavernous room. Thanks to the architecture, it sounded ten times louder than it needed to be, and seemed that much more ominous.
"It's times like these when I truly appreciate the value of silence." Lily commented without looking up.
A well developed arm plopped across her shoulders heavily, causing Lily to almost fall forward and off of the statue. "What are you doing all the way down here in the bowels of Europe. I didn't think Naples was a city of your taste, unless you prefer sin." The man chided.
"Sirius, I was merely trying to spare your feelings with my first statement, but you plainly can't comprehend. So, in the simplest tongue: Go away!" Lily replied smartly.
"Oh no. I comprehended it all and just chose to annoy you instead. I don't savvy with that sort of talk on a young lady anyways. What do you say we go somewhere more appropriate?" His hand was now massaging Lily's shoulder intimately, his fingers brushing against her spine and entangling themselves sensuously with her most delicate strands of hair. His lips moved behind her ear and whispered in lovers' tones, "Please?"
It took Lily only a moment to elbow him in the face. "Gallantry is lost on you. I am neither blind nor stupid Sirius, but you are. You're obnoxious, rude, conceited, and what many would call the epitome of a loose man. No wonder you are related to Casanova." Lily snapped while Sirius massaged his face like a kicked puppy.
"You're still sore over my ministry contacts? Oh come on Lils, I thought you could see past all that." Sirius whined, and leaned his body lazily and almost insultingly against the base of the statue.
"Perhaps if I were in this position by choice. Your job is never one I would choose to do. I am here to find my family's killer and punish him. There is nothing I hate more in this world than Death Eaters and Voldemort. I will destroy them all." Lily said, her eyes flashing.
"Such bold words for lies. Lily, in case you haven't noticed, you are here by choice. You could have bought a house in the countryside with the monetary compensation for loss and have chosen to forget about it all. However, your clever heart ached for revenge and you, miss innocence, could not withstand your own sin. Therefore, here you are, with me, this dirty, obnoxious, loose man, and daresay I think we have formed friendship of some sort because you have never turned me in and you are certainly not running away from me." Sirius said with a smug grin. He walked his fingers across the spread of Lily's shoulder like a spider.
"And tell me Lily, say you do fulfill your sinful thoughts to the fullest, would you be able to forget what you have done?"
Lily was now looking up, her green eyes glassy with remembrance and emotion, and her stare defiant, certain, and dead ahead.
"Lily, you know of Cinderella?"
"Yes."
"There is a happy ending, right?"
"Yes."
"That's because people shut the book when the villain is defeated, and become content with 'Happily Ever After' because, how could things be bad after happily ever after? But there are very few beings, if any, that can withstand the task of defeating evil. How can you go back to your carefree self when so much bad happened? Trying to find the answer, you'll keep reliving the incidences until death bring you peace, or you become a god capable of defeating evil. Are you a god, Lily?" Sirius commented calmly.
Lily said nothing, nor moved albeit for her quivering bottom lip.
"If you are as virtuous, steeled, and morally solid as you think you are, you should be willing to defeat evil by any means necessary. If I were you, I wouldn't be shrouding myself in this University pouring through books for the Order of Protega, or a way to rid the world of evil. It's not written down even in religion, because if it was it would have been done long ago." Sirius purred.
"I am already making progress Sirius. Merlin knows the last time you opened a book. It might do you some good to read." Lily argued.
"To each his own. Yet, may I point out, that you are sitting on your bum in an old university library, at the feet of Christ, while the world is living without you. Is this accomplishing what you'd hoped? I guarantee you it's been tried already." Sirius purred with an atmosphere of temptation that nearly shattered the presence of the religious dogma.
Lily looked as if she were about to retaliate, but preferring an open-ended debate, Sirius began to saunter away only after throwing a casual "By any means necessary" over his shoulder. His hand formed a mock gun, much like Remus's, and he pretended to shoot Lily in the heart.
Bang.
Then he left.
Lily's gaze returned to the book in her hands and she realized she had already shut it. A dangerous adventure was blooming in Lily's mind. It was insane to be sure, but she could only imagine her dreams of destroying Voldemort. For the first time, Lily underestimated the repercussions of her decision. If she had been aware of what was to come, would she even have started this at all?
Perhaps. Then again, maybe not.
She bounded down from the statue, willing the books to put themselves away with her wand, and chased after Sirius and his seductive plans for her to become Cinderella.
London
Sirius.
She didn't know how but somehow this was all his fault. Her frustration was such that she thought any minute that she would have to scream in order not to burst. She scowled at Sirius' Cinderella threat, yet it disturbed her to no end that his threats were not the only reason why she agreed to meet this person. However, curiosity and the thrill of adventure and success kept her from stopping the night from occurring. Anger, fear, and something she could not identify were rolling through her at such degrees that the tingles were simply overwhelming.
They had arrived at the double door entrance of an upscale flat. The moment Sirius grasped the ornate door handles, she snatched his other hand for reassurance, causing him to wiggle his eyebrows and give her a toothy smile in absolute pleasure. The urge to spit on him occurred, but she reasoned she made need his good graces to get through this.
She gasped as the doors opened. Rather than the highly desired electric lighting that even wizards were endorsing nowadays, the room was lit by hundreds of candles instead. However the candles did not create a romantic atmosphere, but rather accentuated the dark shadows in the rich textures of the room and made it seem more like a monster's lair. Sheer white curtains danced in the night breeze enticingly. Lily and Sirius, still in the death grip of Lily's hand, sauntered forward as if propelled by magnetic charm. Even Sirius seemed to find the decorations unusual, his suave demeanor politely shocked.
"Oy! James. Are you expecting someone other than us?" Sirius called into the room.
A man with messy black hair emerged from the open balcony doors. He was enticing to the eyes upon sight. A breeze played with his untamed locks as he leaned casually against the frame.
"I like the atmosphere of candles better than real light. The sweet smell of burn and sulfur when they are extinguished is satisfying too." James said half-heartedly with velvet innuendo in his voice. The smoothness in his voice caused Lily to fidget in fear; he seemed to be careless in outright personality, but Lily was smarter than to believe for a second that he wasn't paying attention. No one could be friends with Sirius Casanova and remain alive if they weren't always paying attention. The question that made Lily blush was, just what was he paying attention to?
After moments of James' silent appraisal of Lily, he sighed heavily and ran a hand through his messy hair. "I should have known you better than to assume you would come without female company. I suppose you tend to make use of this safe haven for play, where your heart is only beating fast for the other and not for your safety." He said flatly.
"Just who do you think-" Lily began until Sirius squeezed her hand with bone crushing intensity.
"This is Lily. She is not part of my entourage, surprisingly." Sirius shot Lily a wink who returned a glare. " Please do not infringe on her honour be assuming she is a common courtesan. She is a well respected accomplice who does good work."
Lily was discomforted by James' reevaluation of her, now not as a whore but rather as a respectable opponent. While she gave his roaming eyes her most heated glare, she could not ignore a warm hurricane in the pit of her stomach that was encouraged with a few of his inappropriate glances. At least she discovered she wasn't unattractive as she sometimes assumed she was. If anything, at least she was worth a look.
Sirius cleared his throat obnoxiously.
"James, then." James curtly announced. He gestured them to a sitting area lit with the same atmosphere as the rest of the room. There was a bottle of wine on the table and a set of prepared flasks. He poured himself some, then passed the bottle to Sirius to imitate.
"About this sword then…" James opened the floor for discussion.
"Have you found out what it does?" Sirius blurted.
"Can't be too sure. It's a relic from the old world. I'd say the Holy Grail is the only thing more sought after than this. There is no record of exactly what it does but obviously somewhere someone has an idea or no one would have ever tried to kill you for it." James explained as he lazily downed the wine. In reality, James had been using the wine as a looking glass for the young woman. She was in contact with some of the Ministry's most sought after criminals, and her inexperience at politics was something he knew he could manipulate to his favor. He could use her to get dangerous people off the streets. A plan began forming in his mind as a lazy smile graced his lips.
"Well, they didn't try to kill me. They tried to kill her though. Almost succeeded." Sirius said as if it were inconsequential that her life had been dangled before the Fates.
"Almost. I think I should have learned by now not to follow you on your escapades." Lily bit back then downed her own wine. "If we don't get to business quickly, I will get bored and leave. I have Death Eaters to hunt."
"It's not just business. The ministry is going to put us up for a few days until we get this Order of Protega figured out. Business will not be concluded simply within the hour." Sirius explained, his eyes unable to meet Lily's after feeding her his version of the fairytale.
"Sirius! I will not leech off the ministry. I will never rely on them for justice!" Lily's body was shaking with rage. She seethed and made for the door. She had not taken two steps James grasped her elbow and pulled her back down roughly.
"I admit the ministry does have some backwards laws, but in order to search for truth sometimes you have to comprise for the lesser of two evils. What does a jaded girl like you know about the ministry except for that we have seemed to have insulted you in some way?" James said firmly, suspicion and annoyance lacing with his tone.
Sirius winced and inched away from Lily on the couch. He threw his head into his hands and whimpered "oh no."
The man's attitude was positively irksome. Lily slapped James. "How dare you make such a bold statement! My family was murdered and the ministry couldn't make a conviction! Everyone knew who did it, but there were no witnesses so therefore sympathy was indulged and that man let go." Lily spat angrily.
"So you chose to distribute justice yourself, with the help of sinners like Sirius? You compromised innocence for revenge. You are no better than we are, so get off your high horse." James argued with dark persuasiveness. While he seemed icy on the outside, he nearly roared with laughter on the inside. This girl's spirit was amusing, as was her ignorance.
"Dark times call for desperate measures." Lily said almost evilly.
"The ministry may be slow on the uptake sometimes, but we still have to do things fairly. Say we go to war with a country; do we automatically imprison all citizens of that nationality simply because we 'suspect'? No, because that is inhumanity." James said passionately, for though he did not always agree with his job, this was justification of why he remained on that side of hell.
"Then, do men like Lestrange buy your political agendas then?" Lily asked, boldly using her family's killer's name, arrogantly assuming the ministry had never heard of him before with their poor administration of justice.
"Lestrange?" James looked at her with curiosity until the papers for Lestrange's release in a few days' time flashed before his eyes. His hazel eyes widened in shock masked by realization. He resisted the urge to bang his head against the glass coffee table in attempt to rid himself of irony. Was he damned? He had been berated for not wanting to let Lestrange walk, and now someone familiar with one of Lestrange's victims was giving him a bloody hard time. "He was caught a year and ten months ago. Been in Azkaban." James said shakily, choosing not to inform Lily of Lestrange's impending release, as it would do nothing to gain her trust and ultimately eliminate her as a path to his endgame.
Lily's eyes widened and her mouth merely opened and closed like a fish. She stared at James and noted his menacing aura. She half believed, half expected that he labeled her as some half-wit that didn't do politics of good an evil, which was not entirely a misplaced accusation. Her heart was pounding against her chest as her senses tried to uncover traces of bullshit or honesty. She was truthfully unsure whether to feign acceptance, ignorance, or contempt.
It was impossible to come to a conclusion in one night. Yet, it was this night that she first knew that she needed him, whether it be for closure or to further her game. However, she would not merely be a pawn, for if he was toying with her like a game, she would play him right back. Rather than ignite the famous red-head temper, she quietly took a seat next to Sirius again as a failure to reject his evidence.
Meanwhile, Sirius had been coated with a shiny layer of cold sweat. The questions the two were asking each other, and the true answers to both sides would ultimately lead back to his own well-placed deceit and manipulation. The thought of having his head hunted by these two caused his heart to thump and his heart to plunge into his stomach. But it was too late now; they had already started the game.
Before things could go any further, the door burst open with a disheveled man.
"Remus?" James' eyes widened in pure shock. "We thought you were dead!?" He declared.
"I'm not." He spat bitterly and moved inside the flat. "And if you had planned, plotted, and in any way assisted with a way to murder me, sorry to disappoint." Most disturbingly, he added that sentiment with no bitterness or sign that he was unfamiliar nor bothered by the implications in those accusations. It was almost a declaration of welcome to attempted murder, even by friends. It was a promise of heaven in a corrupted religion.
He tossed his sack to a corner and made his way over to the balcony, leaning casually on the frame not unlike James had. He was unlike anything Lily had ever witnessed before. Furthermore, his unkempt appearance and messy hair wielded a somewhat boyish charm that could turn every girl if he ever wanted to star in a movie. She soaked in his appearance entirely, from the short yet shaggy blonde-brown hair to his baby blues. Not only did he seem to move with subtle yet dangerous strides but an overall air of a wolf stalking its prey.
Remus spared her one glance then turned to Sirius and nodded, "Yours I presume?"
Lily nearly scoffed at the response from the charming man as if expecting an equally charming response. Then again, he knew Sirius; therefore he could not be well all around.
Sirius merely grinned and nodded. Lily kicked Sirius in the shin, an action causing him immediate discomfort. Remus merely shook her off her antics like she was a five year old and began staring outside.
James, who had been biding his time with awkward silence, finally decided to break. "We hadn't heard from you in two months. You didn't report in at your scheduled times. I'm sorry I didn't try to contact you, but social calls would be forbidden. I didn't even get to try." James said forlornly.
"You're a marauder. Would a rule have stopped you? No, I say you didn't need to call because you knew I would survive. Remus Lupin is a stubborn weed; he wouldn't roll over and die in the snow." Remus said and pointedly sneered at James. "But even Mr. Lupin can only take so much. Living in Siberia for eight months and waiting for murderers to murder didn't do anything for my social savvy. Maybe I forgot what friends were. I faced the moon alone too." He suggested darkly.
"Murder? Remus, did you kill people? I mean, as either yourself or the other…thing?" James tried to ask without alerting Lily to Remus's other side.
"Sometimes I had to; other times it just happened. The first few times it happened, I figured that I was in Siberia. No one cares about Siberia. No one would notice. Then the ministry began demanding interrogations, and I didn't have them, so I had to break off from the ministry to avoid suspicion against me." The lone wolf explained.
"Remus, that wasn't in your directive! You could go to Azkaban, even if it was Death Eaters!" James appeared to be frenzied and paced the room tenfold. Lily was sure that if he were to continue his steady walk into the night the floor would be completely worn tomorrow.
"Pipe down. Either way, they won't be causing the ministry any more problems. The way I see it, your emotions are coming from the fact that your roommate and partner is a murderer and standing in your flat. You're a ministry official and your ass will be handed to you if you don't turn me in. Am I correct?" Remus asked.
James hesitated. It was only moments such as these that the heavy burden of guilt was too massive for James' broad shoulders and almost robbed him of the ability to breathe. "No, I wouldn't" He said forlornly, and buried his face in his hands with frustration. A burst of powerful exhale escaped between his fingers. James couldn't help but wonder if his morality was being expelled with every breath. Silently, he wondered what kind of person he would be with none left.
"You turned Peter in. Why should I think I would be any different?" Remus smiled quietly into the night as the storm began to rage.
"Remus…" Sirius growled warningly.
"Peter framed Sirius. He was no friend to us. At least…." James groaned loudly. "At least you are still on the same side."
"So that's it then. Anything goes as long as I'm on your side. That isn't something someone of your position should be saying, Auror." The long wolf seethed as the three men began to stare each other down with accusations, intensity, and a buildup of little storms that were unable to unleash their lightning until now.
Meanwhile, Lily was despising the men more and more. Women were often treated as catty individuals, but many subtle femmes could scarcely drive the knife in like these three were. Inwardly, Lily thought it appropriate to slap them both and toss them out on their arses, but her dislike propelled her to be more attentive to these men, as her dislike for them may make them her enemies.
"But it's true. Isn't that how you are, James?" Sirius asked darkly.
"Did you two coordinate yourselves to hit me from both sides?" James growled dangerously.
Now, their prattling had become like the drone of a tele left on at midnight after the viewer had fallen asleep. Lily's body drifted back to rest against the plush back of the couch. These three were meddlesome, annoying and a huge hindrance with their side conquests. She rubbed her temples, instead switching from these men's problems to her own, as she would not accomplish what she came here to do by listening to this soap opera; She would leave here in the middle of the night. Who cares if she had planned to use James and the Ministry. As she expected, James and his job were fall more trouble than they were worth. It wasn't like her to get too deep into anything with anyone. Sure, Sirius may be right; she may be a sinner too, but she certainly didn't want to enjoy the ride.
Then it came in stark realization….
She hadn't found any A-list Death Eaters since her duel with Malfoy a year and a half ago. They had been careful to avoid her campaign, for once choosing flight over confrontation. And then there was the Order of Protega which had loose ties with Death eaters but no allegiance to Voldemort. So, which one would accomplish her goal? Which one would leave her alive? Lily tried to forget the latter statement, until the warmth left her side.
"This is ridiculous. Whores are better friends than you two are!" Sirius said, his voice as suggestive as established wine. He stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.
James swore loudly, and Lily was utterly confused as to what drove Sirius from the flat. She clearly had missed something while she was plotting. Her head pivoted like an owl to the two men, and when she saw they were practically frozen on the spot, she darted for the door, yelling for Sirius.
Lily chased and yelled for Sirius out of the apartment and into downtown London. Unbeknownst to her, Remus Lupin had viewed her pursuit from his balcony. Her yells of "Sirius you can't leave me there by myself!" and "Sirius! What are you doing? What about happily ever after? What are you running from!?" down the street began to melt the corners of him, as he had never forgotten what it was like to need someone and have the favor never be returned.
Remus rolled his eyes and huffed for a few minutes, before using a levitation charm to descend from the balcony. He muttered "I'm no good with these types," as he followed the two at a safe stalking distance.
In his pursuit, he missed the painful glare of James Potter from the balcony.
I don't like it much…heheheh. This chapter in particular put Lily into a more submissive role, which I had a hard time with but it was to clear away some Mary Sue-ness.
Chapter 2? Mildly confusing yes, but I wanted to save some juice for chapter 3, unless you're good with subtle details. We'll hear more about that from Lily and Remus later….and learn more about James's heart of darkness because it's important.
Also, I am aware that many readers get concerned with my sporadic updates. I have finally achieved hosting for a website, and I have posted a fanfiction section that receives weekly updates with my fanfic status. If you are concerned at what point a story is at or where it is going, you can check there before encouraging me personally. Link is in profile. xD
Pleasepleaseplease comment! I am desperate for your opinions? Is it corny? Soap opera? A waste? But thanks for reading!
