Bad Romance

By Lily Orange

When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

A/N: Sorry about the wait! I'm working on Chapter 14 at the moment, which I'm finding difficult to write, but as soon as I finish it (hopefully today or tomorrow!) I will post another chapter :) Thank you to Squid7000, EllieBaby, xolunaxx, AishaFLY, SweetieCherrie, Madam Black-Lupin, sarlovesoccer, ., Stephanie Cat-Kat, spannieren and Bathsheaba for reviewing; thank you to SweetieCherrie, Thy Crimson Butterfly, sweetypie200494 and xolunaxx for adding my story to your alerts; thank you to Madam Black-Lupin, , xc1016 and LunaPadma for adding my story to your favourites and thank you to sovereignty'd for adding Bad Romance to the Marauders Galore community! :D Also, thank you to anybody who has read and reviewed my Valentine's one-shot Apples!

Another thank you... for your patience in my updating!!! Fingers crossed, it should be much quicker this time :) Enjoy the chapter!


Chapter Nine

The Hogwarts Express

James had decided, for once, that he was going to be gentlemanly and try and carry Caitlin and Emmy's cases onto the Hogwarts Express for them – besides his own. This resulted in him carrying a case in each hand and one balanced on his head like he was some kind of circus act. His fellow Marauders, who had seated themselves on a wooden bench beside one of the great stone columns on the platform, were finding the sight uproarious and were laughing like hyenas, not for the first time that morning. Now they were reunited, everything seemed ten times funnier and, although, being boys, they did not like to admit it, the world seemed ten times brighter with their personalities remixing and the same old jokes resurfacing.

"James, don't ever go to work as a – what's it called? A bag man!" Sirius called as James manoeuvred himself through the doorway of the train and went into a carriage, waving at them through the window – and dropping his case off of his head.

"A bag man?" Emmy repeated, sounding ever so slightly confused. She was slightly more acquainted with muggle ways than Sirius was, but she'd never come across the term 'bag man' before.

"Yeah, the men who carry the bags!" Sirius responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, you mean a luggage handler!" she giggled, and the other two boys and Caitlin started to laugh heartily.

"What?" he shrugged. "It's not like I took Muggle Studies!"

"Maybe you should have," Emmy teased, and he threw his arm around her once more, sending shivers down her spine. It was a quarter to eleven now – Dorea and Charlie had taken them to the station very early as it seemed to be common knowledge that James and Sirius took their time in doing anything. Emmy and Caitlin had grown accustomed to this over the past week – Caitlin was surprised how she had managed to adapt to their new life by the end of the week; not as much as her cousin, but still, she had tried and succeeded. Now they were off to their school – and would be there until the Christmas Holidays, which Dorea had informed them started halfway through December.

"I know all I need to know about Muggles," he protested.

"Oh yeah?" she mocked.

"Yeah! Such as... they invented records, play bloody brilliant music, they make motorbikes and some muggle women sit on these in bikinis and have their photos taken," Sirius answered with a huge grin at the thought of his beloved posters he left behind at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Although originally he had stuck them up as a form of rebellion and defiance, he had gotten used to seeing them every morning when he woke up, especially seeing as a particularly large one faced his bed.

"Hmmn... I think they did a little more than that, but go with that, go with that!" Emmy chuckled before standing up. "Isn't it time we got onto the train now? We can join James in the carriage!" She didn't even bother to hide the excitement in her voice as the other boys and her cousin got up and followed her to train door. She could only marvel at the train; bright scarlet, puffing steam out – it was thoroughly enchanting.

Emmy was completely insensible of the stares her and her cousin were getting – appreciative stares from boys and bewildered stares from the girls. Appreciative because both of them, especially Caitlin, were easy on the eye and bewildered because no-one had ever seen them before, and they were quite blatantly not in first year. They even attracted a few jealous stares for being in such close proximity to Sirius Black and the rest of the Marauders, who were somewhat legendary within most of the school. Emmy, finding this rather amusing, had envisioned them as, when James had given her the David Essex and Robert Redford analogy for Sirius, the equivalent of the Beatles within their school. Everybody loved them and they were seriously talented.

"Here you all are!" James said despairingly as they filed into the carriage he had reserved by unceremoniously dumping the suitcases on the floor. "I was beginning to get worried!" He proceeded to throw his arms around Sirius' neck and sob into his shoulder. "I mean, there's all manner of things out there," he cried, "Snivellus and whatnot!"

"It's okay James, it's okay," Sirius said soothingly as everybody took their seats. Emmy was sat to the left of the window, next to Sirius, who had James on his other side. Opposite Emmy sat Caitlin next to Remus, and Peter on the end. James had strategically left a very large gap next to him in case, he informed them (when he had ceased his pretend-crying), Lily came past and couldn't find a seat.

Sirius whispered to Emmy that this wasn't very likely as Lily would most probably be sitting with her friends, but he thought it was good to humour his Lily-mad friend because otherwise he would go insane. Remus then added that James was already there, having heard the little conversation, earning a kick from James himself.

"Anyway, Remus, aren't you supposed to be prefecting?" James enquired pointedly.

"Um, is 'prefecting' even a word?" Remus shot back.

"Well it should be," James said, waving his arms about in a manner not dissimilar to a baby bird learning to fly.

"Careful, Prongs, you're going to take somebody's eye out!" Peter warned from opposite him. James carried on until he accidentally (on purpose) hit Sirius on the back of the head, smiled apologetically and said,

"Point taken."

"In answer to your previous question, James, I'm going, um, prefecting in a minute, and Lily's going too–" Remus began, but the mere mention of Lily's name sent James crazy. He started ruffling up his hair to make it look, in his words, windswept (but Emmy supposed a more accurate description would be extremely messy) and grinning widely as if he had just discovered that all homework and exams were forever cancelled.

"I want to meet Lily," Emmy grinned.

"Oh, she is the most divine girl ever to walk this earth – she has beautiful emerald eyes, shining copper hair and skin as pale as snow," James said dreamily, only reiterating what he had told them all a million times before.

Remus stood up, shaking his head, and said to them all, "Farewell, good luck with James!" He left the carriage, walking in the direction of the Prefects' compartment.

It was five to eleven now, and James was anxiously watching the hall between the compartments to see if he could spot his lovely Lily anywhere. She didn't seem to be within sight, and he thought he would have heard or seen her by now, as her flaming hair didn't give her much chance to duck out of vision. He turned back to his friends – Caitlin was deeply engrossed in (what else?) writing a letter to Tom, but at least she was smiling when she wrote it. Before she used to cry when writing and there would be tear marks on the letters where they smudged the ink. Peter, Sirius and Emmy, however, were avidly discussing Quidditch, so James decided, as it was one of his best conversational topics, to join in. Soon then were debating which team was better – the Chudley Cannons or the Holyhead Harpies - and didn't even notice the train chugging out of the platform and out of London in the direction of their beloved Hogwarts.

Sometime later, there was a banging sound in the hallway. It jolted Caitlin and Emmy out of their comfortable state – it brought back the memories of that day, just over a week ago, when it all happened. The memory ran through Emmy's head like a broken record that just couldn't be fixed, and both girls instantly paled. The sound was so uncanny to the one they had heard from the garden, their door being knocked down...

Brightly coloured sparks – spells – were ricocheting off of the walls and pictures and ornaments were smashing, falling to the floor and littering it with shards of glass and china. She could see four cloaked figures inside, moving round, yelling curses as her aunt and uncle tried helplessly to fight back. They were Aurors – but had been caught off guard.

"What is it?" Caitlin asked in terror, clocking Emmy's face had paled even beyond her normal skin tone.

Emmy couldn't reply – her voice had gone with the shock of the sight she was witnessing. Her aunt turned to see Emmy's face at the window – a tear escaped her eye and she mouthed, "Run."

Emmy didn't need to be told twice – she grabbed Caitlin's hand, who clamoured to get to the window over Emmy's shoulder, but Emmy wrapped her arms around her cousin's waist, pulling her towards the fence, as they heard a harrowing voice bellow, "CRUCIO!"

"Emmy, what's happening? What's going on in there?" Caitlin cried hysterically, refusing to be pulled over the fence. Tom leaped out of the tree and grabbed her, lifting her over it against her will.

"Death Eaters," was all Emmy could choke out as she clambered over the fence, grabbing Tom's offered hand.

James and Peter were unaware and flung the carriage door open – but Sirius saw them and put his arm around Emmy and nudged Caitlin comfortingly. They both smiled at him appreciatively – and when they heard James emit a hearty laugh, they knew nothing was wrong. The colour slowly came back into their cheeks and they followed the two boys out into the corridor, Sirius right behind them.

"Honestly, Potter, I don't know why you find this so funny!" a girl shrieked at James. Emmy stood on her tiptoes to see past James' head – to see a girl who could only be the infamous Lily Evans. She was devastatingly beautiful, with bright green almond-shaped eyes that lit up her whole dainty face, which was faintly freckled and blushing pink. She had shoulder-length, thick, wavy red hair that curved around her face and highlighted her petite features. She was quite a bit shorter than Emmy, maybe the same height as Caitlin, and was slim but with pronounced curves.

"Maybe it's because you fell down just right outside my carriage," James responded jovially.

"I tripped, okay?" she retorted irritably, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"You fell for me, Evans, just admit it," he grinned audaciously. She shook her head vigorously, spluttering out an answer.

"Like I ever would!" she huffed.

"Did I not tell you? I earned an Outstanding in my Divination OWL and I saw in a crystal ball you marrying me. Just you wait, Evans, one day..." he said calmly, smiling lightly at her.

"Stop it, Potter! I only came up this end of the train because I'm supposed to be patrolling the corridors," Lily excused herself, turning around – but James softly put his arm on her elbow to stop her. She couldn't even ignore the tingles it sent down her spine, feeling his touch on the bare skin of her arm.

"Don't you want to meet my new friends?" he asked earnestly. Lily melted. He would do this every time – making a big show of liking her and asking her out, employing all the witty banter and remarks he could think of, but then he would calmly ask her something and it would just... mellow her. He confused her so much.

"New friends?" she questioned.

"Ooh, who's got new friends?" a new voice was added to the mix. It came in the form of an approaching girl, who was very tall and, like Lily, very attractive. She had dark skin and jet black hair that was poker straight, in a fashionable bob with a blunt fringe that only emphasised her caramel eyes. She was very skinny, but rather bodacious. Unlike Lily, she wasn't yet dressed in her school robes and was still wearing a relaxed checked shirt and tight, form-fitting jeans.

"Hey Aretha!" James greeted the new girl optimistically.

"Hi James," she smiled genuinely, giving him a quick wave. "Where's Sirius?"

"I'm right here," Sirius called and, because of her generous height (Emmy was sure the girl would tower over her), she could spot him above everybody else. Though, with Sirius, it wasn't exactly difficult, as he was a six-foot-four broad-shouldered boy, so he would have been easy to spot in a crowd.

"Maybe we should move back into the carriage, I want you to meet our new friends," James suggested and they all entered the carriage previously occupied by the Marauders, Caitlin and Emmy and sat down. As Lily and her friend entered, they instantaneously clocked the two strangers sat down. One violet-eyed and pale with honey-blonde hair and the other olive-eyed, tanned with dark brown hair. Both, in Lily and Aretha's opinion, were stunning, especially the dark-haired girl.

"These are our new friends, fresh from Albania!" James began to introduce them elaborately, but Sirius thankfully cut in.

"This is Emmy Piper," he said, gesturing to the girl sat next to him with the honey-blonde hair and – Aretha noticed – who currently had Sirius Black's arm resting around her shoulders comfortingly. "And Caitlin Piper," he said, smiling at the girl sat opposite him, who was clutching some parchment and a quill, the girl with the dark hair and the olive eyes.

"Hi," Emmy said friendlily, holding out her hand for the two girls to shake.

"Lily Evans," Lily smiled charmingly, firmly shaking Emmy's hand and grinning welcomingly at Caitlin, who seemed a lot shyer than Emmy.

"Aretha Jessop," Aretha introduced herself, also shaking Emmy's hand.

"It's really nice to meet you," Emmy said brightly as the girls took seats amongst the Marauders who were scattered about the carriage (Remus having now joined them after hearing the commotion in the corridor) – Lily was reluctant to take a seat by James so was now squashed between Remus and Peter whilst both Emmy and Aretha flanked Sirius, who still had his arm round Emmy's shoulders, still comforting her after her flashback of what had happened.

"So – I'm not meaning to be rude, but are you actually English? Because you speak the language so fluently and you don't have a different accent at all," Lily asked interestedly.

"We both grew up in England," Caitlin spoke, looking up from her letter. "But when we were reasonably young, before we started any sort of magical schooling, we moved out to Albania. Both sets of our parents were Aurors and were posted out there and we've stayed there ever since – well, until now, really." She said the last bit so quietly and mournfully that both Lily and Aretha sensed this was a point not to press.

"So did you live together?" Aretha questioned.

"Yes – well, my parents died when I was five; no, it's okay," Emmy rapidly added as the two girls went to mumble embarrassed apologies, "so I've lived with Caitlin ever since then. And the neighbourhood we lived in was full of English Ministry workers, posted out there for different reasons."

"Our friend Tom, who lived next door," Caitlin began, her face lighting up at the mention of Tom, her regular correspondent, who made her feel better whenever she felt blue and who was gradually and lovingly helping her to cope with her loss, "his parents worked for the Ministry too. Not in the Auror Department, something to do with Muggle Artifacts or animals or something."

"Cool," Lily smiled, "do you know what houses you're going to be in?"

"No," Emmy replied nervously – Sirius and James had explained to her the concept of the school houses over large hot chocolates covered in gallons of whipped cream at Starbucks in London (without causing any problems, except for the hundreds of serviettes they'd had to use to mop themselves up when they had a competition to see who could get the most whipped cream on their faces) and how people got sorted into them. Dorea had told the two girls that they would be sorted with the first-years when they got to Hogwarts and that it was nothing to worry about. Emmy hoped this would be the case.

"You definitely won't be in Slytherin," Aretha assured them both kindly.

"Are you both in Gryffindor then?" Emmy enquired.

"Yep," Lily answered, "in our year there're these idiots, minus Remus" – ("HEY!"; "Lily, you know you love me really!") – "and for the girls, there's me and Aretha, and then there's Mary MacDonald, who's really nice and is the school gossip and knows virtually everything about everybody. I think you'd really like her! She's busy with her boyfriend Claude at the moment–"

"Claude?" Sirius gasped, before exploding with laughter and practically crying into Emmy's shoulder.

"He's a seventh-year Ravenclaw. Anyway, Claude's better than his real name," Aretha replied, not trying very hard to keep the grin off her face, "Claudius."

"What a poor, unfortunate kid," James said compassionately before joining in with the rest of the chortles overtaking the teenagers sat in the carriage. He caught the laughing eyes of Lily, who quickly blushed and looked away. He smiled to himself.

It was only a matter of time before Lily would admit she liked him.


So we've met Lily and Lily's friend Aretha! I hope you liked it, thanks for reading :D Next chapter is when we meet... dun, dun, DUUUUN... Regulus Black! Please review, love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (: