Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling rocks. Enough said.
A few weeks had passed whilst staying at the Potter's house, and nothing much had happened except games of quidditch in their back yard, and Peter getting stuck inside a wooden barrel full of melted Chocolate Frogs.
It was two weeks before Hogwarts was due to start and the three girls had already gone to bed. It was four in the morning, but the Marauders were still wide-awake.
"So, What do you guys think of Emily?" asked Sirius, for what was about the millionth time.
"She's nice," said Peter, "She helped me out of the barrel. You guys just stood and laughed!"
"Yeah, she is nice. But she not half a klutz!" sad James, "Like yesterday she tripped over my cat. I mean, I don't even have a cat!"
"Don't be stupid James, she said she'd tripped over a rat, not cat. Wormtail must've been asleep on the floor." Said Remus.
"Yes, but still. You don't trip up over a big fat ugly rat lying in the middle of the floor do you?"
"Hey!"
"Who cares if she's clumsy?" said Sirius, "You've all met my cousin Tonks, right? How many times have I told her to watch out for that stupid umbrella stand?"
"Nymphradora – "
"She'd kill you if she was here."
" – isn't that bad, Sirius."
"Well, that's besides the point!" said James, "We aren't talking about your cousin Sirius! What about Emily?"
"We've already said she's nice."
"Yeah, nice one Peter."
"So Padfoot, mate," said James grinning, "Do you fancy her?"
Remus sat up at this comment, and Peter looked at Sirius expectantly. James was always straight to the point.
"What? No way!"
"We've all seen the way you two flirt with eachother! You're all over her!"
"Listen, Emily rocks. Okay? But I've known her all my life. We've been friends for as long as I can remember. I couldn't go out with her. It would be too weird, and I don't like her in that way."
They all sat in silent for a while. They were all thinking. Remus was the next to speak.
"When's Emily's birthday?"
"What?"
"Emily's birthday."
"31st of May, why?
"Oh. It's just I've thought of something good to give her."
"Already?"
"Well, it's just because of something she said before, you know, when we were all listening at the door."
Remus told them about his idea. He had been thinking about it for several weeks. His fellow Marauders seemed to like it.
"Well it doesn't have to wait till her birthday."
"Yeah, If we sort it out, we could do it as a… 'Welcome to Hogwarts' present. She'll love it."
"If you look into Moony, we'll get her there."
XxX
The Marauders were smiling widely as they walked up the pathway, with Emily blindfolded and in their control. The path led to a small cabin beside a lake. The Marauders had refused to tell the girls were they were talking Emily, and they had travelled a long way, and gone through a lot of trouble to be there. They grabbed Emily's hand and made her knock three times on the wooden door. It was a few moments before it opened, and Sirius ripped off Emily's blindfold.
A young couple was standing in the doorway, both of them with auburn hair and freckles. Emily could have been gazing into the Mirror of Erised. Remus smiled.
"Mr and Mrs Higgins, this is Emily."
Emily's mouth opened with shock, but widened into a smile as she felt tears stinging the back of her eyes. Her parents. Her actual parents! The ones she'd been dreaming about for so long. They even looked like her! She stood there beaming before they all pulled eachother into a huge hug. The Marauders smiled at eachother as they watched the family re-unite in front of the small log cabin. It felt like years to Emily before they pulled apart, and Emily's Mother beckoned them all inside.
Emily continued to smile broadly as she stepped inside. She didn't know what she had expected, but it wasn't this; it may have looked like a small, humble cabin but these were wizards we're talking about. Inside the door was a large sitting room, enough to fit all of the visitors and more. The family sat down on the soft chairs, though the Marauders politely declined, saying they needed to get home.
The Higgins' just stared at eachother, tears wiped from their faces, and arms round eachother, before Mrs Higgins cried,
"My baby! My little girl!"
"Mum! Dad!"
Once they had clamed down slightly, and each had a cup of hot chocolate in their hands, they finally managed to talk to eachother without bursting into fits of emotion.
"Mum, what happened?"
Emily's parents looked solemnly at eachother, and taking eachothers hands they looked back towards their daughter.
"Darling, you have to understand. Your father and I, we were young. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. When we fell in love, we didn't realise it would move so quickly, and we would soon have a child."
"You mean, I was an accident? You didn't want me?"
"No darling, we wanted to have a child, but we hadn't expected to have you so soon, when we were still in school and – "
"You had me at school?" exclaimed Emily.
"Well, yes. We did," said her Father calmly. "We were in our 6th year, we weren't even of age yet."
"So what happened? Why did you get rid of me? Couldn't you have kept me at Hogwarts? Or come out of school or something?"
"Darling, it wasn't just our decision. We were still in school, and so we had to be… advised by our Headmaster. He told us we should finish our education, and that he would find somewhere for you to live, where you would be able to grow up around magic. We thought that the best idea at the time, darling. We wouldn't have been able to look after you whilst we were at school."
"Dumbledore assured us that you would go to Hogwarts when you were ready. We trusted Dumbledore. We believed in him, that he would make sure you were safe. We didn't know he would keep you a secret."
"What?"
"He didn't tell us where he'd taken you. We had no way of finding out. We were left in the dark till the end of our schooling, and then for the other 13 years of your life."
Emily sat in stunned silence. She kept opening her mouth, as if to say something, but would close it quickly again. Her parents exchanged worried glances, as their daughter got up quickly and began to pace around the room. Finally she pulled open the door and ran out into the fresh air, towards the darkening lake.
Emily looked around the beautiful landscape as she contemplated. The large, dark green lake was bordered with a thick forest of trees, towering high above it. The sun had already set, but was casting faint light across the sky still, allowing Emily to see around her.
So it was Dumbledore. She thought. It was the Hogwarts Headmaster who was the cause of my terrible childhood. The reason I was kept down in the servant quarters in the mansion of some stuck-up pureblood-fanatic maniacs. It was Dumbledore who made sure my parents neglected me my entire life.
Emily stood by the lake's edge, watching the reflection of the bright, full moon ripple at the slight breeze. Coldness began to creep in on her, and she found herself shivering slightly, without a cloak. She looked towards the forest. She stared for so long that her eyes began to play tricks on her, trees swishing and shadows moving. She shook her head as she stared up at the moon. She had never seen it so bright before. She heard a rustling noise coming from the trees nearby, and wondered what kind of animals lived in the forest. The woods near the Black's mansion were filled with all kinds of magical creatures. She'd once had a nasty encounter with a Boggart in the Forest there, and Sirius had found her screaming, pinned against a tree; the Boggart had turned into a large spider. Sirius had laughed about it for weeks, maybe even months. Emily didn't think it was funny. She just hoped that rustling wasn't another Boggart.
Emily turned suddenly as she heard more rustling, rising quickly and cautiously off the floor. She felt around her pocket for her wand, and grasped onto it tightly. She gasped as the creature came into sight.
The wolf was hunched over, breathing heavily. It's teeth were bared as it started to move forwards. Emily ran. She didn't look back as she began to run back towards her parents' house. She could hear it's feet pounding against the ground, getting louder and louder; she was barely halfway when it got to her. The last thing she felt was being pushed hard to the floor, and a surge of pain as the wolf bit into her right shoulder. She didn't even scream.
Authors Note: SHOCKING! It's sad, but i had to do it. (wipes away tear) well... you get the jist. i made it quite short, just because it would be silly to do the rest just yet. well...erm... all very serious and whatnot. tell me what you think - i dont even care if you tell me it's crap - PLEASE!! SOMEONE JUST REVIEW ME!