Title: Turning tides
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairings: Preslash snupin and preslash JamesxLily
Notes: Marauder Era. AR/AU. Evil Dumbledore.
Summary: Lily and Severus recently learned they were twins and are now attending Durmstrang with fellow former Hogwarts student Remus Lupin. There they shall learn new subjects and make interesting friends. Durmstrang has a more lax view of Dark Arts and Dark Creatures. Who exactly is the author of their Dark Arts textbook?
His head hurt, he'd have to think about this long and hard…
Chapter 15
James was little surprised to learn from Sirius that their cousin Andromeda was Head Girl and her former betrothed Lucius was Head Boy.
While James had learned of the elopement between the end of the Third Task and Aunt Walpurga's celebration of Andromeda's victory, he was still shocked.
Given how exacting Aunt Walpurga was in her expectations and Narcissa's uneasy glances between her aunt and guardian to her eldest sister; James would have expected a disownment and Andromeda losing her likely place as Head Girl. After all, academically it was most assuredly Andromeda's; it would only be whether or not she had earned enough prestige as Triwizard Champion to off-set the scandal of her elopment. Given that she was Head Girl, it was obvious that she had. Despite being a distant relation, James was proud of her.
He hoped that his own hard work would earn him the same status; both prefect and in time, Head Boy. Sirius just wasn't as studious, James knew that his best friend and cousin wasn't the sort to put much effort into classes that didn't hold his interest.
History of Magic had gotten more interesting after Dumbledore had been suspended and Professor Flitwick had become their Headmaster. It wasn't a nap class but actually interesting; after all, there was more to Wizarding History than just Goblin Wars.
It wasn't interesting enough to make a career out of it; however, James did learn that the Triwizard Tournament took place every four years in the past and that in this incarnation it was only open to sixth years.
James hoped that he would be thought worthy at such a time…
Perhaps, he would see Lily there. Surely, transfer student or not, she would be chosen. She was apparently vying for top of her year for marks with Severus and Remus after all.
XoooooooX
Severus hadn't thought he needed more friends then just Lily…
But Remus had wormed his way in and soon after, so did Regulus. The spare of the main line of the Black family may have lacked his brash brother's charisma but he had patience and thoughtfulness that would prove more valuable in the end. He and Regulus had bonded over similar interests two winters ago, since Severus loathed things like Balls…
He and Regulus usually ended up claiming a shadowy corner to discuss and debate.
At first, Severus had been jealousy of Aurelius having a connection to his twin…
But the whole 'nearly dying' from anemia had helped him put that to rest. Lily had encouraged him to befriend Regulus and to show him around. The connection between Remus and Corey had been slow to grow.
Both had been bitten and magically adopted by Fenrir Greyback to save their lives as Severus understood it. Severus did wonder why they didn't resort to that to save himself and Aurelius…
XoooooooX
When Fenrir first brought Corey home and said that he would learn more about himself and his gifts by mentoring Cory, he didn't expect to like the kid.
However, given that Corey' birthday was about nine months after Remus and he was intelligent; he was half-Corner after all, they had grown close. Apparently, he was a spare to the family that owned Wiz-Hard Books. Remus hadn't expected that the two first years would be able to do their own work as well as keep up with Severus, Lily and himself. Having them join them for their end of term exams had been shocking.
Having grown up an only child, Remus had resented Corey at first but his adopted brother was used to being treated as an annoyance. But the younger werewolf grew on him and Remus found himself less irritated by his presence.
Maybe being a brother wasn't quite so awful after all…
XoooooooX
Lily was broadening her experiences as well as her mind since Aurelius came into her life. She knew she wasn't 'his Lily', but she was the closest he had to that aching part of himself. A broken jigsaw piece to his puzzle, her piece would never fit properly, but that was okay. He was finally starting to heal, his secrets were no longer needed to hide pieces of himself. It was adorable seeing that bemused look when Lucius was lecturing him.
While Aurelius would never quite feel like the legal father he was supposed to be to her, that was alright. Lily had gotten used to having a dysfunctional family.
Petunia loathed her and Lily knew it was just because her adopted sister sensed a difference between them and that difference scared her. Lily tried to be as kind and loving to Petunia as she could for their parents' sake, but she doubted that it reached her sister. If it weren't for Andromeda and Narcissa's relationship, Lily would have thought that all sisters had similar dynamics to herself and Petunia.
Lily wanted Severus to open himself up to people other than just her, to trust and make friends. She included Remus, Corey and Regulus as much as she could but she really did enjoy her girl time at Durmstrang with Anastasia. Durmstrang was very different from Hogwarts; it wasn't uncommon to hear a plethora of languages spoken by the students. While reading Russian took serious adjustment, learning languages was fun. Latin and French were only so helpful…
Lily enjoyed holidays as a break she earned but learning was so interesting, she wanted to keep learning. Somedays, she was certain she wanted to be a teacher… perhaps, at Hogwarts where she could explore with less supervision than as a student. She was only a third year, time would tell.
What do you think? Outstanding? Exceeds Expectations? Acceptable? Poor? Dreadful? Troll?