Full Moon Scars
Chapter 1 - The Last Chocolate Frog
It wasn't long before dinner, but during that time James and Sirius had come to be in a rather foul mood after their disagreement with Remus, not helped by the fact that he made them work on their homework with the threat of not helping with the next prank. Peter had seemed to find this amusing, until Sirius told him to shut up, after which his face assumed a pale, blank look the rest of the walk to the Great Hall. They seemed to cheer up after being reminded that they'd get to see the new 6th year in a matter of minutes - "We should prank him and see how he reacts," Sirius smirked. "That'll be the 'prat test'."
Things seemed especially loud when they entered the hall, the Slytherins were even talking a little noisily - they were usually quiet. Quiet, and sneaky. Well, except for when they were cheering about something bad that had happened to the Gryffindors, anyway.
"Hey, who's that?" Sirius muttered, jerking his head in the direction of the staff table. There was a girl standing to one side of it, looking rather as if she wished she could blend into the wall behind her.
"I dunno, do I?" James muttered back, claiming the empty stretch of bench across from Lily Evans for them, grinning at her as he did so. The redhead shot him an ugly look, then ignored him completely and started up a conversation with the girl beside her.
"Bad luck, Prongs," Sirius whispered, sounding far more amused than sympathetic. Dumbledore raised his hand for silence, and things quieted down almost immediately.
"Before we begin on this wonderful meal, I have an announcement, of sorts, to make."
Sirius leaned forward expectantly.
"There will be a new student joining the sixth year today," He paused, during which time Professor McGonagall had led the mysterious girl up in front of the staff table, a very old and battered-looking piece of fabric clutched in her hands.
"She can't be the new - ?" Sirius whispered, staring at the girl.
"I thought you said it was a new 6th year boy, Moony?" James muttered accusingly.
"I dunno, I assumed it was, Professor McGonagall didn't specify. Now shut up if you want to hear!" Remus muttered back, annoyed.
"Miss Espinosa has been attending another, albeit less well-known, school of magic until this year. She will be sorted, and then you may all get on to the far more important matter of feeding yourselves." McGonagall gave the girl a tiny, reassuring smile as she placed the Sorting Hat on top of her dark hair.
It was silent for a moment, everyone's eyes on the girl. More silence. Then, finally, "GRYFFINDOR!"
McGonagall gave a much larger smile, whispered something, and pointed quickly at their table before returning to her seat with the Sorting Hat. The Gryffindors broke out into grins and cheering, including whistling from several guys, and the Slytherins' lips were almost all curled as she made her way quickly down their table, searching for a spot. Each person she passed went abruptly from cheering to looks of surprise as they got a closer look at her, one girl drew in a sharp breath that was quickly muffled.
"What's that about?" Sirius muttered.
"you're about to find out," James said.
She had made her way all the way down to their end of their table, and Lily had scooted over to allow her room to sit while they had been talking. The new girl was staring at the table, long, dark brown locks of hair falling to hide her face like a curtain.
"I'm Lily," The Gryffindor prefect said with a smile.
"Carmen Espinosa," The new girl formed her words perfectly, with a very heavy, and very pretty, accent.
Carmen lifted her head up slowly to look Lily in the face; they were about the same height, with Carmen just slightly on the shorter side. Lily's eyes widened, but she masked the look very quickly. The girl on her other side, however, had let out a small gasp that wasn't so easily hidden.
"What do you people keep making that sound at?" Sirius demanded irritably, glaring at Carmen accusingly.
Lily shot him a vicious, warning look. Carmen, however, seemed to have been expecting this, and met his look with a guarded, decidedly not friendly look.
"They're staring at this," She said, in a harsh tone, bringing her hand up to her right cheek. Sirius' eyes widened this time, and Peter let out a yelp, staring at her, earning a hard kick under the table from James. Remus, himself, had to try hard to keep his own eyes from widening. Of course, he had his share of scars, for sure, but he hadn't been expecting her to have ones like that.
There was a row of vicious lines cutting across the right side of her face, one passing directly over her right eye, and there were two shorter ones across her lower left cheek, by her mouth. It was a wonder she could even still see out of her right eye. All of these marks still had a faint red look to them that made Remus sure they were relatively fresh, and left no doubt in his mind what had made them. It looked like they had, indeed, found the new werewolf.
Carmen, meanwhile, was glaring at them all, as if daring them to say something.
"They're always like that, don't take it personally. Why don't you try some - " Lily started, but Carmen cut her off.
"I'm not hungry. I think I'll go find the dormitories, that Professor lady told me how to get there." And she left in a swirl of brown hair and robes.
"She sure can move fast," Sirius muttered, as Carmen disappeared out of the hall, people staring shamelessly at her as she passed.
"Nice going, Black! You tactless, insufferable little - Ugh!" Lily hissed, then stood up with a glare and swept out after Carmen. Professor McGonagall was frowning at them from the staff table.
"What did I do?" Sirius muttered reproachfully.
Professor McGonagall had, in fact, told Carmen how to get to Gryffindor Tower, but what she hadn't told her was the current password. Lily found her at the entrance, arguing with the Fat Lady.
"I'm telling you, I'm a new student here, Professor McGonagall told me how to get here!" Carmen was exclaiming.
"No password, no entrance." The Fat Lady said in a very firm voice.
"What pass-"
"Jelly-legs," Lily said, coming up behind the other 6th year, who flinched at her sudden appearance, watching her carefully out of the corner of her eye.
"Thank you!" The Fat Lady said, with a smile of approval at Lily as the portrait swung away from the wall.
Carmen shot an ugly look at the painted woman as she followed Lily inside, pulling the portrait shut behind her.
"Why'd you follow me?" She asked, glaring at the taller girl.
"To see if you were okay, and -" Carmen's eyes had narrowed dangerously. "To introduce myself without being interrupted by those gits, and to tell you about Hogwarts. Or whatever else." She shrugged, smiling at the new student.
Neither of them said anything, an uncomfortable silence stretching between them.
"So you've been going to a different school of magic?" Lily asked.
"Yes. I'm gonna go put my stuff away, okay? McGonagall said it'd be up here already. Where - ?"
Lily looked disappointed, but pointed her in the right direction anyway, and stayed behind in the common room with a book to wait for the others to get back. In a matter of minutes, there was a loud bout of laughter from outside the portrait hole. She dropped her book expectantly, only to scowl a moment later as she recognized the four figures climbing inside.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, with a glare.
"We nicked a load of stuff for you and Carmen off the table." Sirius grinned, lifting his robes slightly to show her a large pocket stuffed with rolls and small slivers of pie wrapped in napkins.
"Padfoot had a thoughtful moment." James supplied eagerly, smiling at her. "Where is she?"
"In our dormitory unpacking. I tried to talk to her, but - Hey! Just what do you think you're doing?" She launched herself out of the armchair, book in hand, to chase after them - they had started towards the girls' staircase.
Lily pushed to the front of them, retreating up the steps with her book clutched to her chest.
"Boys aren't allowed up here. There's a charm on the stairs that prevents it, too!" She declared, making it to the top and glaring down at them.
"Oh, but we know how to get around that," Sirius said, smirking.
"Watch and learn, flower," James grinned, and led the way up the stairs.
Lily's scowl deepened at the nickname, but she watched with a smug look, waiting for it turn into a slide and dump them on their arrogant arses. Her mouth dropped into a little 'o' as she watched - they were coming up all right, with their feet on the bars of the railing, clinging to the rails without touching the stairs.
She looked positively scandalized as she took a step back and the first three clambered onto the landing carefully.
"Why so shocked, darling?" Sirius asked with a grin.
"That - that's preposterous! It shouldn't be that simple!" She exclaimed. "You're not supposed to be up here!" She gave James a shove back towards the stairs. "And you! You're a prefect, you shouldn't let them do that!"
Remus flushed, staring at the floor between his feet. She had a point.
"You know what they're like. It's kind of pointless to tell them not to do something, Lily," He said sheepishly.
Peter, meanwhile, was still making his way, much slower, up the stairs.
"Oi, Wormtail! What's taking you?" Sirius bellowed, peering down at their smaller friend.
Peter gave a yelp and his foot slipped, landing hard on the stairs, which promptly converted into a steep slide that carried him back down and out onto the floor. Sirius groaned.
"Come join us when you finally make it up, then!" He called back down, then shot a grin at Lily and made his way to the 6th year Girls' dorm with a far too cheerful air.
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you know where our dorm is," Lily said, wrinkling her nose at him as he grinned once more in answer.
Carmen was sitting cross-legged on the bed nearest the door, talking fondly to a barn owl, an unopened letter on the bed beside her. The owl flapped it's wings, rising to hover in front of her, and tugged on a strand of her hair playfully. She gave a soft giggle and it gave an affectionate nip to the hand that pushed it away.
"Go on, you, go join the school owls. Thanks for the letter," She stroked the owl's head and lifted it up to the open window above her, watching it soar out of sight.
"Carmen?" Lily asked as they approached, and the dark-haired girl whirled to look at them with an alarmed expression. Her eyes had a wild look in them, like an animal being hunted.
"Oh, it's you.. Sorry. Don't sneak up on me," She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear absentmindedly, then seemed to notice the three behind Lily for the first time.
"What do they want?" Her voice had gone a little more hostile, glaring at them with dislike.
"Er - " Lily shot a look at them over her shoulder. "They brought some food for you, and I think they want to introduce themselves."
"I'm not hungry," Was Carmen's immediate response.
"Fine, then," Sirius said, sprawling on the bed next to her - the one that happened to belong to one Lily Evans, who glared at him. James shoved him off, earning an almost-smile from Lily - until he sat on it himself with a smug look, and she scowled.
"You can sit here," Carmen said quietly to the redhead, who shot her a grateful look.
Sirius had clambered back up to sit beside James, Peter had made it up the stairs and sprawled on a different bed, and Remus - ever the gentleman of the group - was on the floor, leaning against the wall across from them.
"What are you looking at?" Carmen challenged Peter, who looked mortified at being caught staring at her, and chose not to respond.
"Are you going to actually talk or just sit and stare all night?" She asked, yet again, as another moment passed.
"We'll talk, but will you actually answer?" Sirius glared.
"Depends on the question."
"Give us twenty truthful answers, and then we'll leave you alone. Deal?"
She made a face, but agreed reluctantly.
"Where did you go to school until now?" Lily asked, somewhat reluctantly, but she couldn't hide the curious trace in her voice.
"A school near where I was born, and where I lived until recently."
"Which is where?" Said James.
"The place where my father was born, and that's two questions gone."
"But you didn't really answer the first time, James was trying to get a straight answer!" Sirius protested.
"He asked another question," She said triumphantly, with a grin.
Lily snorted and looked highly amused, and Remus' lips twitched as he watched the mutinous looks on his friends' faces.
"So where, exactly, is this school, then?" Sirius demanded irritably.
"It's out in a secluded area similar to Hogwarts, with charms and spells to keep muggles away, in Spain."
"So you were born in Spain, then?" Remus asked, looking up curiously.
"Yes. My father was from Madrid, Spain, and my mother was from London. She moved in with him when they married, and I was raised in Spain. I got my father's looks." She twirled a dark piece of hair around her finger with a distracted look, as if she was remembering the place. "English is a second language to me, I learned Spanish first thanks to my father. My mother insisted though, and a good thing - we've just moved to Britain." She gave a very small, hesitant smile at Remus.
Sirius and James exchanged significant looks, peering down at their friend.
"I hear the others coming from dinner. You'd better go or we'll never hear the end of it!" Lily said, casting an alarmed glance in the direction of the staircase.
"All right, all right, we're going, relax, Lils," James rolled his eyes, but got up anyway.
"You sure you don't want anything we nicked?" Sirius asked Carmen.
"I'd take a Chocolate Frog if you've got one, but I'm really not that hungry." She responded, grinning more openly now.
"Here," Said Remus, digging a hand down into his robe pocket to withdraw the one he'd been saving, and handed it to her with a small smile.
James and Sirius exchanged another, more astonished look as they followed him out and up their own staircase.
"That was his last frog from the train!" James whispered, staring at his friend's back.
"I know - Moony, give away his last bit of chocolate?"
"What's the world coming to?" James shook his head, stuck halfway between excited and amused.
"There's no way he's not gonna fall for her - she seems to like chocolate, and her eyes and hair are the color of it! He must be in love already, it's inevitable!" Sirius snickered.
James let out a loud snort, and then they both started laughing as Remus gave them an odd look.
Sorry it took a few days to update - an essay to complete for English and that sort of time-consuming stuff. Reviews are loved, and the next chapter is coming soon! :)
HarryBrumbyGames: Thanks! I had the story idea totally out of the blue, working on far more boring stuff and couldn't resist writing it. And, you win virtual cookies for reviewing! :D
