A/N: Okay, okay, I know that I don't have 5 reviews yet, but at the request of my friend AC, I am now posting chapter 2.
It gets better, I promise. I already have chapter outlines and I have scenes playing in my head. If you review now, you'll get to read the better chapters!
Cookies and rubber duckies to those who reviewed last time! This time, those who review get ice cream and cake!
Kristie
Wait… forgot something…
Disclaimer: not mine.
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Chapter 2
1997, a teashop somewhere in Diagon Alley.
"Let's go to Grimmauld Place. I bet there are a more things from our Hogwarts days there," Remus told Ashantelle after looking at the other pictures. Some were of Kristie and Ashantelle, others of Lily and Ashantelle, others of Kristie and Lily, and still others of the three of them.
"Alright," replied Ashantelle. "But aren't there magical barriers there? I remember you mentioned before that you weren't able to enter because Sirius' mum put a spell that disallowed half-bloods to enter."
"Well, it used to be Headquarters for the Order –"
"The Order? You're still a member, then?"
"Yes, and so are many others."
"I've been gone for a long time!"
"Yes. Yes, you have."
"So what were you saying about Grimmauld Place?"
"It used to be Headquarters and Dumbledore removed Sirius' mum's spell, and in its place put protective spells. When Dumbledore died, the protective spells wore off. The Burrow – Arthur and Molly Weasley's home – is the new Headquarters. Grimmauld Place still has protective spells, but you'll be able to enter it. Harry gave it to Tonks and me, and we put spells to protect us, but allow our friends to enter the house."
"Tonks? The girl living with you now? Ted and Andromeda Tonks' daughter?"
"Yes."
"I can't wait to meet her. You mentioned she's a Metamorphmagus in your letters. I also can't wait to meet Harry. What's he like?"
"Looks like James, except for the eyes… Lily's eyes."
"Those were always Lily's best features. Attitude-wise?"
"He had James' loyalty and Lily's sympathy. Unfortunately, he has the temper of both." At this, both laughed.
"Oh dear, that must be quite a temper. He plays Quidditch, of course?"
"He wouldn't be James' son if he didn't play Quidditch."
"Well, I think we ought to go to Grimmauld Place; I'm leaving the day after tomorrow, so I'd like to look at all that we have left of our Hogwarts days."
"Yes. Let's leave now." Remus paid his bill, then both Apparated to Grimmauld Place.
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12 Grimmauld Place
With a faint pop! sound, Ashantelle and Remus appeared in Sirius' ancestral home.
"It looks like Tonks isn't home yet," Remus said. "She probably is at work."
"Why does she live with you, Remus?" asked Ashantelle. "You never did mention the reason why she lives with you in you letters."
"Er…" Remus blushed and looked away.
"No way. You're pulling my leg," said Ashantelle disbelievingly.
"What do you mean?"
"Remus Lupin, I know that blush. It's the 'I'm in a relationship with a very pretty girl' blush. I saw it several times back in Hogwarts."
"Caught me there."
"She's half your age! Not that age matters, but how are Ted and Andromeda taking the fact that a former schoolmate is now dating their daughter? Of course they were three years our senior, but they still count as schoolmates."
"I don't think they know yet…"
"Remus! And I thought you were the quiet good boy!"
"And I thought you were the anti-gossip good girl!"
"Okay. We're even."
"Let's go to the attic and look for the old Hogwarts stuff. There are huge trunks there; I think even yours is there."
The two went up to the attic and looked for the trunks. The first they found was black. It might have once been one of the high-end trunks, but now it was dusty and worn; even if it hadn't spent twenty years in the attic, it was evident that the owner obviously didn't bother to take care of such an expensive trunk, because no amount of time in the attic could cause such battering.
"Willing to bet you this is Sirius'," Ashantelle said.
"It's James'," Remus said.
When they opened the trunk, however, they were both very much mistaken.
"It's Kristie's," Ashantelle said in a barely audible gasp.
"I almost forgot that she never took care of her trunk…"
"Her dad would buy her a new one every year. Every September she'd have a brand-new trunk, and every June she'd return with a completely woebegone one."
Remus fingered the things in the luggage. He had forgotten that she had left him with her school things when she passed. There were still schoolbooks that would have looked brand new had it not been dusty and twenty years old.
"She never read any of her schoolbooks," Ashantelle said wryly.
Remus continued to look at the things in the trunk. There were broken quills, faded bits of parchment, and moldy sugar quills. His hands found a faded Chocolate Frog card…
1977, the Hogwarts Express
Kristie's P.O.V.
The girls and I look for a compartment. Almost all are full, and I am out of breath when we finally settle in one.
"Water?" Ash asks me, handing a mineral water bottle. I give a gasp of thanks, and drink the water. It doesn't help me breathe, but it's cold and refreshing. I say nothing until I recover. My friends try to act normally, though I know that they're worried. But they also know that when I know that they're worried I don't like it, so they don't show me how worried they are. They don't fool me, though I pretend to be dense and not know.
When I feel better, I return to my usual chatterbox self. Ash and I tell Lily about our trip around Southeast Asia. Before the train starts moving, the trolley lady passes by our compartment (she's rather fond of us), and I buy everyone sweets, not letting either of them pay for their share.
That's something about me – I like buying stuff for people. More often than not, I have nothing to do with my money, so I spend it on my friends. They complain about that a lot, but that's never stopped me, really.
I open a Chocolate Frog and behead it the moment it jumps into my hand. Through the years, that has become my signature move when eating Chocolate Frogs.
The train starts moving, and three rather attractive boys are thrown in our compartment. They stand up, dusting themselves, and I glance fearfully at Lily, whose face is becoming progressively redder due to rage. She'll explode any moment now. I can just feel it.
The three boys are James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, three quarters of the insane group, the Marauders. The other boy, Peter Pettigrew isn't with them. One should wonder why they allow him to hang out with him, because he's rather unattractive and rotund, but that's not the point. The point is Lily hates Potter with a passion to kill, so she hates all of them – except perhaps Lupin, who is one of her fellow Prefects. Ash and I don't mind them too much, and I can get matey with them, actually.
"Potter! What on earth are you doing here?" Lily snarls. Ooooh, I can see her mouth foaming…
Potter opens his mouth to reply, but Lupin decides to intervene and says, "I hope you girls don't mind us staying here. Everywhere else is full." Always so polite, Remus Lupin is. That's why he's Prefect. I wonder who the Head Boy is. Lupin is still wearing his Prefect badge, so it can't be him.
Lily looks at them, thinking whether her sanity would still be intact if she lets them share the compartment. I look at the boys and wonder why she hates them so. There's nothing horribly wrong with any of them, really.
James Potter is one of Hogwarts' most eligible bachelors. He has eyes for only Lily, however, and he's asked her out every moment possible since our fourth year, which, I guess, is the reason why Lily hates him so much. He's tall, with black hair and round glasses. He's fairly attractive, though not exactly godly, but his charm and wit make him more handsome than he really is. He's also smart, in the sense that he's never cracked open a book in his life and yet he's managed to come out on top of almost every class. I, pardon my "Potter-like arrogance" as Lily would put it, am smart in that sense as well. I guess that's why Potter and I get along often.
Sirius Black is another one of Hogwarts' most eligible bachelors, though the odd part is he's never had a girlfriend. Yes, he's had a couple of snogs here and there, perhaps even a couple of one night stands, but that's when he's drunk; I've never seen him ask a girl out properly before. He's tall, with dark hair that falls elegantly at his beautiful grey eyes. He's so attractive and all he has to do is enter a room and girls are all over him. Usually, he just brushes them off, though. Probably he's like Potter and has eyes for only one girl, but hasn't told her yet. Then again, that doesn't sound like the Black I know. He loves to joke around and is life of the party. He's smart in the same sense as Potter and I. He's the Marauder I get along with the most, because we laugh at the same jokes and have the same sense of fun.
Remus Lupin, though very attractive, does not have girls all over him. He's shy and quiet, though he can be fun to be with when he chooses to. Though not as tall as Potter and Black, he's still very tall (taller than Ash and I, at least), and is very pleasant-looking, with the loveliest amber eyes I've ever seen in my entire seventeen years of life. He's a bookworm like I am, and we sometimes talk about really nice novels, despite the teasing of the other two boys. He's one of the very few people who know that I actually am a true blue bookworm. The difference between his choice in reading material and mine, however, is the fact that his includes his schoolbooks and mine doesn't.
"Just let them stay here, Lils," I say. "You, Ash and Lupin are bound for the Prefects' compartment anyway, so I can stay here and pig out with Potter and Black.
"Ah, but I'll be joining Moony, Bardeau and Evans as well," Potter says, a smug grin on his face. Uh-oh, I sense trouble. Ash and I look at each other, and I sense she senses trouble as well.
"What do you mean," Lily growls. Honestly, she's positively animalistic when talking to Potter. It's like she's morphed into a Manticore, or something.
"I mean I've been made Head Boy."
Silence fills the compartment. Silence is said to be deafening, and boy oh boy, this one is bloody deafening. Potter is Head Boy? I don't know how Lily will survive. I look at Lily, and it looks like she's suffered a stroke.
"What!" she finally manages to splutter out.
"James has been made Head Boy," Remus says. "Crazy, I know, but it's true."
"Dumbledore must've lost his marbles!" I say, laughing.
"But… that's not…" Lily is still stuttering. Poor Hogwarts; our Head Girl has been turned into an incoherent, enraged Manticore.
"Possible? 'Fraid it is, Evans," Black says smugly. "Prongs here is Head Boy."
Silence yet again. As if all could be said through silence. This is really pathetic.
"So… where's Peter?" Ash asks. That is the most pathetic attempt to make conversation I have ever heard.
"I think his grandmother's bring him directly to Hogwarts. It's becoming rather unsafe, according to her," Lupin replies, as though nothing out of the ordinary happened. Those two really think that they could solve everything by making small talk.
"Well, I guess we ought to go to the Prefects' compartment now. See you in a bit, Padfoot, Amanpour," Potter says, nodding at me. Black and I eat some of the sweets, laughing at how angry Lily looked and predicting what would happen this year.
With Lily as Head Girl and Potter as Head Boy, this year will be interesting, to say the least.