A/N I really love this chapter with all of my heart. So be nice to it. And to me. =)
Chapter 10
"Lupin! Shelby!" Sirius greeting, swinging open the front door of the Potter's house like he owned the place.
"Hi Sirius!" Shelby said brightly, stepping over the threshold. Sirius hugged her, but Remus acknowledged gratefully that he seemed to keep the hug short and extremely platonic.
"I didn't know you wore glasses," Sirius said. If Shelby had been a witch, she couldn't have vanished her glasses quicker than she whipped them off of her face and into her jacket pocket.
"For driving," she said, blushing.
"You look lovely in them! Right, Remus?" Sirius nudged Remus in the ribs, much harder than necessary, Remus thought.
"Right," he said, wincing and massaging his side.
"Lemme take your jackets," Sirius barked, sending the jackets flying into the hall closet with a flick of his wand.
"Have you been doing magic all summer?" Remus asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Yeah, the Ministry'd never know. They'd just think it's James' parents. Do it at my house all the time, too," Sirius shrugged, leading them upstairs where the unmistakable sounds of a highly energized party were drifting down to them.
"Well great, think you could break this charm my mum put on my watch?" Remus asked, holding up his wrist.
"Remus, you'd make your mother cry if she heard you saying that," Shelby scolded good-naturedly.
"Good thing she's not here," he smiled.
"I don't know, she probably put a spell on your watch and is using it as a walkie-talkie," Shelby laughed.
"What's a walkie-talkie?" Remus and Sirius asked at the same time.
"Never mind," Shelby chuckled.
She seemed to falter before entering the room Sirius was about to lead them into. She grabbed Remus' hand.
"Am I the only person here who's not a witch?" she whispered anxiously.
"Well… no. The boys are wizards, not witches," he replied coyly.
"Seriously, Lup, what if nobody talks to me?" she bit her lip and peered around him into a crowded, lively room.
"Everybody'll love you," he reassured her, squeezing her hand tightly, "And if by some completely crazy chance that they don't… Sirius can just hex them or something."
She smiled uncertainly, but still looked nervous.
"It'll be fine, I promise," he said soothingly, "You… uh… can hold my hand the whole time if you need to."
They entered the room and were immediately greeted by James, who nearly tackled them both to the floor. Peter sidled up a moment later and joined their conversation, which was fine, only Remus wished Peter would stop waggling his eyebrows knowingly towards Shelby.
Remus was especially grateful when Lily Evans approached Shelby and began asking her where she'd bought her dress. Lily was James'… well, something between his girlfriend and mortal enemy, they hadn't seemed decided on which it was yet. Shelby and Lily became absorbed in conversation, Shelby relaxed her grip on Remus' hand (to his disappointment), and James eventually led Remus over to a table laden with refreshments.
"Look at Sirius," James giggled, pointing towards Sirius who was deep in conversation with Amelia Thorne.
"Oh. That. Sirius said things were going well," Remus shrugged.
"Pft… right," James laughed, "I'm fairly certain Amelia hates Sirius. She just doesn't seem impressed by the Black Charm!"
Sure enough, Amelia, looking bored, appeared to excuse herself. Sirius, looking agitated, watched her walk away. Upon spying Remus and James staring over at him, his expression changed to its usual confident smirk and he sauntered over to them.
"So close," he declared.
"To what?" Remus asked, politely.
"You know what," Sirius smiled suggestively. James giggled again and covered up his sudden burst of laughter by taking a swig of his drink.
"Saw Shelby holding your hand," Sirius declared in a sing-songy voice, filling up two glasses from an unmarked bottle with what Remus recognized by both sight and smell as firewhiskey. He pushed one towards Remus and gulped the other down in one swallow.
"I'm not drinking this," Remus said flatly, pushing his glass back across the table to Sirius.
"Moony… you're such a prude," James scoffed. 'Moony, you're such a prude', was something of a catch phrase of James and Sirius'.
"My mother will murder me if I come home smelling like that," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"Prefect," Sirius hissed, as if he were calling Remus a particularly nasty swear word. Remus had to laugh, Sirius just rolled his eyes.
"I think you should try it," Sirius pressured, "It'll loosen you up a bit. Help you make your move."
"I'm actually doing just fine tonight without being intoxicated, thank you," Remus replied loftily.
"Oh, are you?" Sirius challenged.
"Yeah. I told her she was pretty. And I held her hand. Well… she held mine," he replied.
James just stared at him. Sirius barked out a loud, insensitive laugh.
"Congratulations, Moony, when's the wedding?" he snorted.
"Oh shut up," Remus growled, pushing Sirius aside to go talk to Shelby.
She was still talking to Lily and a few other girls who attended Hogwarts had joined the two, although Remus couldn't remember what year or House they belonged to.
"Remus, we were just talking about you!" Lily declared, sending a not-so-discreet wink in Shelby's direction.
"Good things, I hope," Remus replied, an unnatural boldness stealing over him as he threw his arm around Shelby's shoulder and pulled her close to his side.
One of the girls giggled.
"Hello," she said, "I'm Kathy Singh. We have Ancient Runes together. Well, we did, but I dropped the class. It was really hard, don't you think?"
Remus nodded, thinking Ancient Runes was just about the easiest subject in school. He didn't say so, he just shook Kathy's hand and smiled.
"It's so sweet, the two of you," Kathy continued, looking back and forth between Remus and Shelby.
"What's sweet?" Remus asked.
"I mean, it's just so romantic. She's a Muggle, you're a Wizard. It's like Romeo and Juliet," she sighed.
Remus had no idea what to say to… any of that. Shelby, however, laughed and replied, "Except our families don't hate each other and I'm not planning on killing myself over the whole affair anytime soon."
Lily laughed, Remus smiled and shrugged and Kathy furrowed her eyebrows. Just then, Sirius' voice, magically amplified over the noise of the party, announced that it was time for a game.
Remus' heart sank. Was he really going to do this? Nervousness instantly stole over him once more, his heart took up its pounding from earlier and his mouth suddenly felt dry.
"Everyone, circle up," Sirius was demanding, pointing people to sitting positions on the floor.
"Oh, he's absolutely doing this," Remus mumbled.
"Doing what?" Shelby asked suspiciously.
Remus hopelessly gestured to the bottle Sirius had recently drained of firewhiskey.
"Spin the Bottle? You're joking!" she laughed, settling herself on the floor next to Lily. She seemed totally unfazed by the whole situation, excited even. She and Lily, who had obviously become fast friends, put their heads together and began earnestly whispering.
"Sit down, Remus John Lupin," James demanded loudly. Remus noticed everyone else in the room was seated, staring at him and he was the only one still standing, arms folded across his chest. With a particularly malevolent look to first James, then Sirius, he sat.
Sirius grinned and rubbed his hands together.
"All right," he announced, "You all know the game. Spin the Bottle."
Some people groaned, some laughed. Remus shot Sirius a pleading look, mentally begging him to reconsider. Sirius either didn't see, or ignored him and plowed on.
"We'll decide who goes first by birthday. Anybody have a birthday coming up?"
"Mine's in two weeks," Peter beamed.
"Anybody before then? No? Pete, give it a go, mate," Sirius dropped the bottle in the middle of the circle and flopped down next to James.
Peter spun the bottle and everyone burst out laughing as the neck came to rest pointing right between James and Sirius.
"Absolutely not," James spluttered, looking moderately horrified.
"Ugh, spin again," Sirius demanded, his nose wrinkled in disgust. Peter spun once more and sent Sirius an apologetic wince when the bottle pointed to Amelia Thorne. Peter quickly kissed Amelia's cheek, and then Amelia spun. Again, everyone laughed as the bottle pointed right back at Peter. The two smiled at each other and kissed again, this time on the lips, then Peter spun once more. This time, the bottle pointed to Shelby. Remus wanted to curse. Seriously? Peter was going to kiss Shelby before he ever got the chance to? The cosmic injustice of it all made his stomach ache.
"Hi Peter," Shelby laughed, as Peter crossed the circle and planted a quick kiss on her cheek.
"Er, thanks," he said nervously, causing everyone to laugh again.
"This is getting ridiculous, Peter's getting more snogging done in one night than he will in an entire year," Sirius barked.
"Hey!" Peter exclaimed.
"Spin, Shelby," Sirius demanded, ignoring Peter's protest. She did and Remus wondered how in the world nobody saw fit to protest the obvious use of magic that made the bottle spin in the complete opposite direction and land after one revolution pointing right at Remus.
"Oh, bloody hell," Remus whispered. He turned to face Shelby who gave him a shy, half-smile. She was blushing, her eyes were sparkling, she looked absolutely beautiful… And he had never wanted to kiss her less than right at that moment. Never, in all the thousands of times he had pictured their first kiss, did some stupid, rigged kissing game factor into the equation, nor did the presence of his three best friends and a gaggle of random classmates from school. Everyone was staring at them, Remus felt his hands go clammy and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Not like this, he thought desperately.
"Kiss her already!" James hooted, eliciting various catcalls and cheers from the rest of the group. Shelby lifted an eyebrow and smiled encouragingly at him. Remus licked his lips.
"Shelbs," he whispered hoarsely.
"What, Lup?" she whispered back, taking his hand.
"I…" he searched her eyes, willing for her to understand. She just seemed puzzled, one eyebrow still lifted.
"… can't," he finally said. In that moment, her face completely fell, he saw tears instantly spring into her eyes and Remus wished the floor would split and swallow him up.
He barely had time to consider what had just happened, as something nearly as surprising as the earth opening transpired in that moment. Where nobody had been before, there were suddenly several grown-up wizards standing in the middle of the circle of shocked teenagers. Remus' heart sank, if possible, even further as he recognized the insignia on their robes that identified them as wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad.
"James Alan Potter?" asked a square jawed wizard authoritatively.
"Oh, shit!" Sirius moaned loudly. Amelia Thorne burst out laughing. Everyone else remained completely silent.
"Er… uh… present?" James replied, lifting one hand.
"Mr. Potter," the wizard said, "My name is Thomas Begum, and I'm Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. We've been informed by the Improper Use of Magic Office that an unacceptably great deal of underage sorcery has been performed in your home this evening."
"Underage sorcery?" James asked, his voice much squeakier than usual. He shot Sirius a look that clearly translated to, 'You said they'd never find out!' Sirius gazed back at him, helplessly. Under other circumstances, Remus might have laughed at their forlorn expressions.
"Yes, Mr. Potter," the Begum snapped, "Your parents are clearly out and you clearly seized the opportunity of their absence to throw an elaborate party complete with alcohol and underage magic."
"Half a minute, who said my parents were out?" James asked defensively. Remus rolled his eyes. Lying to the Department of Law Enforcement. Well done, James.
"Please answer truthfully, so that we might begin the process of sorting this business out; Are your parents James Potter Sr. and Alice Fawcett-Potter currently on a weekend holiday in Paris?" asked Begum.
"Yes," James mumbled, defeated.
"And so," continued the wizard, "It would appear that they would be quite unable to cast any of the charms that were detected in your home this evening. Logic, therefore, leads me to conclude that said charms must have been performed by you or one of your many friends assembled here this evening."
Nobody said a word. Begum was obviously looking for one of the to take the rap. As far as Remus knew, Sirius had been the only one performing illegal magic that evening (possibly James, as well), but it appeared that nobody was willing to rat him out.
"So one or two harmless charms were cast. What's the big deal?" Sirius had stood up and crossed his arms, "We didn't hurt anyone."
"The 'big deal' is that you've not only broken the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, but the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. Were you unaware, Mr. Potter, of the presence of a Muggle in your home as of 8:36 this evening?" Begum's eyes fell on Shelby and Remus protectively squeezed her hand.
"She's a friend," James said quickly.
"Friend or not, the Muggle's memory will have to be modified," Begum said, drawing his wand. Shelby gasped and Lily laid a hand on her knee.
Remus was on his feet in an instant.
"She's an exception to the Statute!" he exclaimed, panicked, "Her brother just completed his seventh year at Hogwarts. He's Muggle born, he's a wizard. She's known about the Wizarding World for seven years, magic is allowed to be performed in front of her!"
"What is the Muggle's brother's name?" demanded Begum.
"The Muggle can talk," Shelby said in a low voice, "My brother's name is Landon Dixon."
"We all went to school with him this year," Sirius confirmed. Begum's eyes swept over the group of anxious-looking teenagers, then he gave a curt nod.
"As you all seem unwilling to identify the offender, all of your parents will be receiving notifications by owl this evening, noting your possible participation in underage sorcery, a near breach of the Statute of Secrecy, and, if I may say so, a general lack of cooperation with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Begum crossed his arms, looking quite haughty.
In the silence that followed Begum's declaration, Remus' watch suddenly shouted out, "YOU'RE LATE!" in his mother's voice.
"Um…" he looked down at his wrist, "My er… mum says it's time for me to leave."
Sirius burst out laughing. James followed, and soon most of the teenagers in the room had joined in. Begum glowered at Remus and demanded he tell him his name and address before allowing Remus and Shelby to leave the house. Remus gave him the information, waved at Sirius and James, then led Shelby out of the room and down the stairs. In the front hall, they grabbed their jackets from the closet and were soon out the door.
A/N So... there's that. More to come either tomorrow or Thursday. Hope y'all like it!