Title - When You're Strange
Chapter title - Growing
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Friendship/Drama/Fantasy
Disclaimer - I do not own the Harry Potter, books or films, in anyway shape or form. I only own the plot points surrounding my oc's, not recognized from the books or films. For this chapter I own, Emyrs Shields, Polly Ainswood, Imelda King, Holly Shining, Warwick, Martin, Jack, Lola Sharpe and Malorie Talbot.
Chapter Word Count - 2729

To: whysosirius - Firstly, your pen name is brilliant! And thanks for the review, I'm glad you're enjoying! xx
To: whysosiriusumbridge - Not sure if you're the same person as above or not but even so, thanks for the review! I really appreciate it. xx
To: zZhell-butterflyZz - Thanks! I've had a few people now telling me that they like the pacing of the story which is super reassuring so thank you so much! xx
To: SirusSunday - No, there's way more of this story to come! xx
To: Misty - Thanks so much! xx

A/n - Please leave a review, let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate it!


Something that Malorie had never noticed before her third year at Hogwarts was just how much Remus suffered because of his problem. She'd never paid attention to the whispers in the halls until she over heard Severus Snape one morning as she and Remus were walking to breakfast together. Snape was talking to Emyrs Shields and Polly Ainswood, two other Slytherin's in third year. She didn't realize who he was referring to at first, only hearing part of his words as she was listening to Remus talk in hushed tones about James' plan to map out the school.

"Scars... Always dissapearing... Something weird going... A freak."

The final word was one that always made the hair on the back of Malorie's neck stand on end and her fists clench. Is was a word she'd grown up with, a word she thought described herself until she found Hogwarts. She stopped walking, Remus stopping a few steps ahead when he realized she was no longer at his side.

"There's obviously something wrong with him. Why else would he be so pale, covered in scars and always missing from class?" Emyrs whispered.
"But what's wrong with him?" Polly asked.
"Who cares? He's a freak and a half blood. He doesn't deserve to be at Hogwarts."

Remus heard. He saw Malorie's face and bit his lip. He shook his head, pleading with her not to say anything. But Malorie wasn't looking at him. She wasn't looking at anything, concentrating on not pulling her wand out. Instead she turned on her heel and marched over to the Slytherin trio.

"What exactly has it got to do with you if someone has scars or isn't in class. If it involved you a teacher would tell you. And as for being a half blood, I'll remind you Severus that your best friend is muggle born."

Her tone was calm but low, more venomous than Remus had ever heard her speak. He saw Emyrs and Polly smirking, clearly enjoying the confrontation. More students were coming into the hall now but luckily none had yet noticed that anything was amiss.

"Bit nosey aren't we Talbot." Polly hissed. "Listening to other people's conversations."
"If they're about my friends they don't get to stay private." Malorie growled back. She wasn't looking at Emyrs or Polly, she expected this of them. But as much as she had a distaste for Snape, she had hoped, being a friend of Lily's, he'd be better than this.
"Lily is muggle born." He began, stepping closer to Malorie. She could see that he knew exactly how wound up she was and she knew he was hoping to get a rise from her. "But she isn't a freak." If it was a reaction he wanted, a reaction he would get.

Before Remus could stop her, her fist had clenched, recoiled and collided with the side of his face. The closeness of the two students didn't allow the force of her fist to hurt him too much, but his head snapped to the side and hit the brick wall behind him, cutting the skin on his forehead. Polly retrieved her wand first, but Remus already had his out, pointing it between her eyes.

"What in the world..." Alice and Lily had rounded the corner, finding a crowd of students now staring at the confrontation. "Mal, what's happened?"
"Your so called friend just punched Sev in the face." Emyrs answered.
"You what?"
"He deserved it." Malorie grunted, not bothering to explain. She didn't need to, Lily wouldn't believe her anyway.

The small crowd parted and Malorie groaned as Filch came into view. His face contorted into a nasty grin.

"You lot, come with me."


They were lead to a classroom where McGonogall and Slughorn soon joined them. Snape, Emyrs and Polly laid it on thick with the story. Claiming that Snape had been expressing concern over Remus' absences and Malorie had mistaken his words and attacked him. Of course Remus and Malorie told the truth, that Snape had been bad mouthing and provoking and Malorie only landed one punch. But it didn't matter. It was three against two and one of the two had hit someone. Malorie was given detention every night for a week, narrowly avoiding being banned from quidditch tryouts on Friday afternoon.

Snape held his smug grin for the rest of the day and Lily would do nothing but scowl at Malorie across the room. It didn't help that they returned to the first lesson of Monday late which just happened to be Potions with Slughorn and the Slytherin's. Since Lily wouldn't work with her, Malorie worked beside Frank who shared a table with Sirius and James. At least one thing was certain. Her boys would be proud of her.

"Where were you at breakfast? Someone said something about a fight with the Slytherins." James asked in a hushed tone.
"Snape was talking about Remus and his scars." She whispered back. "He called him a freak so I punched him in the face."
"Brilliant." James grinned and Malorie chuckled.
"Damn. I wish I was there to see that." Sirius groaned, aiming a high five to Malorie as Peter passed by their table with the excuse of needing new ingredients.
"Remus just told me everything. You're brilliant, Mal."
"Malorie. Thanks Peter." She turned back to Sirius and James. "Although Lily looks like she wants to tear my head off."

She glanced over her shoulder to find Lily running her finger along the small line where the cut had been. Madam Pomfrey soon fixed it up and the line won't even be there soon. She huffed and turned back around.

"I should hit him a bit more, make some permanent damage." She grumbled, mainly to herself, but her friends could hear. "Maybe fix his stupid hook nose for him."
"He really annoys you doesn't he?" Frank asked with an amused smile.
"You didn't hear what he was saying about Remus."
"I'm not saying you weren't justified." Frank defended. "But you've never been particularly fond if him, is what I meant."
"Well... He just gives me this vibe that... I don't know maybe he's not a innocent as Lily seems to think he is."
"He's a Slytherin and you get a vibe?" Sirius scoffed. "Never mind vibe, he should be giving you alarm bells."


The rest of the day passed by in a slow manner, as the first day back to school will do. The boys had been overly protective of Malorie whenever a Slytherin student passed by and she couldn't say she wasn't grateful.

It wasn't until she left the common room to head to her first of five detentions that anything happened. Lily was on her way back, staring straight ahead to avoid looking at Malorie.

"Lily, will you just talk to me? You don't even know what happened." Malorie pleaded, grabbing the red heads wrist.
"Yes I do." Lily snatched her hand away. "Sev told me everything and I think you're foul."
"I'm foul? You didn't hear what he was saying about Remus. He kept calling him a freak."
"Stop lying!" Lily shouted. It was the first time Malorie had heard her raise her voice, unless she was voicing her opinion on James Potter.
"I'm not lying!" She shouted back. "He said that he was a half blood and didn't deserve to be at Hogwarts!" The boy in question emerged from the portrait hole along with James, Peter and Sirius. They'd obviously been drawn out by their shouting.
"Severus wouldn't say that!"
"How do you know?"
"Cause he is half blood!"

Malorie faltered as Lily turned on her heel, shoving past the boys and dissapearing from view. Not wanting to speak to anyone just yet, Malorie made a swift exit from the hall. Her mind was racing. Why on earth would Severus say something like that about Remus if he was only a half blood himself? And why was Lily so blind to his behaivour. The whole thing was making her head spin and before she knew it, she was crying. She didn't want Lily to hate her, she was one of her best friends.

"Mal?" Sirius' voice came from behind her. Turning she found her four favorite boys watching her with cautious expressions. Sirius' face fell when he saw her tears. "I thought you didn't cry anymore." He stepped closer with a small smile. "There's no need to cry over that slimy git." He pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as the others moved closer too.
"Yeah, Sirius' right. Snivellus deserved everything you gave him." James agreed.
"And then some." Added Peter.
"I'm not crying about him." She mumbled into Sirius' shoulder.
"Lily." Remus sighed. "She'll come round."
"She can't hate you forever." Peter shrugged as Malorie moved back from Sirius with a shy smile.
"Have you ever met a girl, Pete?" She laughed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "We can hold grudges well into our deathbeds... At least one good thing came from this."
"What's that?"
"James just called him Snivellus. I think it's a pretty fitting nickname."


That Monday was seemingly just a small stumble for the school year. Almost everything else seemed to be going according to plan. She was doing well in her lessons, getting on better than ever with the boys, Lily seemed to be calming down and realizing that maybe Severus wasn't completely blameless and Malorie's first music lesson was seeming promising from what she'd heard from older students who had attended in previous years.

Friday also brought along quidditch tryouts. The day passed slowly as she grew more and more excited, James and Remus were finding it hilarious at how giddy she was. She could barely hold onto her cup of pumpkin juice during lunch. She raced off from COMC before anyone else, reaching the quidditch changing rooms just as Warwick was pulling out the brooms.

"Hi, Warwick." She smiled, pulling a set of quidditch robes out and holding them against her body to test their size.
"Hi. Good to see you at try outs again. From who signed up, I already know you'll be on the team."
"Don't jinx me." She laughed, switching the robes for a different set, a little shorter in the leg. Warwick watched her for a second before speaking again.
"You look different."
"My hair?" She frowned, kicking off her shoes.
"No... I'm not sure what it is. You just look different."
"Bad different?"
"Good different." He reassured. "Well, I'll see you on the pitch."
"Yeah."

She pulled off her outer robes, finding Sirius and James smirking at her when she dropped them on top of her bag.

"How long have you been here?"
"Not long." James hung up his bag as Malorie began to pull on her quidditch robes. "Hey, did you know you look different?"
"Oh sod off." She grunted, finding that the top half of the robes were a little too constricting. "Crap."
"What?"
"These robes are right for my legs but the tops too tight. But the bigger size are too long."
"Here, I can sort that out." Lola Sharpe, the seventh year keeper, pulled out her wand and sent a spell to the material covering Malorie's chest. The fabric stretched out, making the garment a perfect fit.
"Thanks." She grinned. "I owe you one."
"Don't worry about it, same thing happened to me when I started growing in third year."
"When you what?" Malorie balked.
"Started growing." Lola repeated. "You're thirteen, you'll be busting out womanly body parts now."
"I..." Malorie glanced down at her chest. The robes had fit her perfectly last year. And she had had to buy new school robes since her old ones were too small.
"Correct me if I'm wrong." Sirius interrupted. "But are you talking about her breasts?"
"Did you not here me when I said sod off?" Malorie slapped the back of his head as he and James burst into laughter.
"Don't worry." Lola chuckled. "Boys grow up too, it just takes longer."
"It'll take a life time with those two."
"I resent that."
"Resent away, you're still a child."

Malorie laced up her boots and followed the team out onto the pitch. Martin had returned as seeker although even Malorie could see that last years determination was gone from his eyes. He seemed almost bored by the whole thing.

The time for her to try out seemed to fly by as she shot through the air after the snitch, James and Sirius cheering her on from the stands. She had three timed chances to catch the snitch and then it was a fourth years turn to try. Once she'd finished she sat in between the boys who, despite being as immature as they were, made her feel a whole lot more confident in her abilities.

"How did I do?" She asked, watching the fourth year take to her broom.
"Brilliant. There'll be no beating you this time that's for sure." James beamed like a proud brother.
"Thanks." She blushed a little as she glanced down at the pitch, spotting the Slytherin team emerging from their changing rooms. "Hey, isn't that Regulus?" Malorie asked, nudging Sirius with her shoulder.
"Hm? Oh yeah, he's trying out for beater this year." He said absently, although it was clear to his two friends that he was dying to go and wish his brother luck.
"I'm sure he'll do great." James reassured his friend. "Although it'd make for an interesting match wouldn't it. A different brother as beater on each team."
"Is he good?"
"He learnt from the best." Sirius smirked.
"I'm going to go ahead and presume you mean yourself when you say that."
"Who else?"


"Remus!" Malorie charged towards her friend as he was walking towards the hall for dinner. The pale boy barely managed to move out of the way before she took him down.

"I take it you made seeker then?"
"Yep." She popped the 'p', the grin on her face contagious.
"Wicked."
"Yeah, that and a boyfriend." James teased.
"Oh?"
"Ignore him. He and Sirius seem to think that Warick fancies me and vice versa. Idiots the pair of them." She shook her head, her plum hair falling from behind her ears.
"I think that's all the updates." Sirius nodded. "Oh no just one more, Mal's a lady now."
"Was she a man before?" Remus frowned, an amused smirk settling onto his face as they sat down beside Peter.
"Haha. She a growing woman. As Lola put it, she'll be busting out womanly parts now."
"If I have to tell you to sod of again, I'm going to make you eat your own under wear."


At the start of October, when the group trudged downstairs in the morning, they found Holly and Imelda looking excitedly at a new notice pinned to the board. Curious Malorie moved closer to read, an ecstatic smile gracing her features as she turned to the boys.

"Halloween party for third years and up!"
"Huh?"
"Look!" She turned back to the notice. "October 31st, Halloween party, third years and up only..." She scan read, only reading out the important bits. "Curfew extended to midnight, fancy dress, prize for best solo, duo and group costumes!"
"Oh no." James groaned.
"What?" Sirius was still rubbing sleep from his eyes.
"She's going to make us dress up."
"Don't say it like that!" Malorie groaned. "Halloween's fantastic. We could win best group costumes easily!"
"Mal-" Peter began, correcting himself after the glare he received. "Malorie. I don't really think we have time to be making costumes. We're kind of preoccupied with the whole... Animagus thing." He whispered the last part.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" She whined. "Me and Remus will make the costumes whilst you carry on with your new hobby."
"Will we?" Remus' eyebrows shot up as he was dragged into the discussion.
"Yes." Malorie nodded. "Please? Please, please, please, please, please?!"
"Fine!" Sirius chuckled. "We'll go to the party in costume."
"Not fine!" James countered.
"I won't make you go as Peter Pan I promise."
"Who?" James tilted his head in confusion, Sirius and Peter mimicking him.
"Pure bloods!" Malorie rolled her eyes. "I promise your costume will be gruesome and gory and scary. Ok?"
"Fine." James grumbled before he headed off to breakfast.
"This is gonna be wicked."


A/n - Whew. This took a while. So, please, please give me some ideas for halloween costumes for everyone. And I mean everyone not just the Marauders. Thanks for reading! xx