Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all its characters, creations, and such belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing except Eve Pankhart, Dawn Pankhart, Mrs. Sternstone, Anna Twitter, Cynthia Young, Derek Gotter, and any other character not of J.K. Rowlng's creation that are original characters of my own creation, and my plot idea for this fanfiction, which comes from my imagination. The Phantom of the Opera and all its characters, creations, and such belong to Gaston Leroux and/or Andrew Lloyd Webber. I have not written this fanfiction to benefit me in any way, shape, or form; I am merely using my imagination in addition to J.K. Rowling's and Gaston Leroux's and/or Andrew Lloyd Webber's characters, creations, and such to produce this fanfiction for my entertainment and enjoyment, nothing more.
Author's Note: Hello, all! Any and all reviews and constructive criticism (but no flames, please) are more than welcome, as I am an aspiring writer. This fanfiction is just a little something that came from the thought, What if Remus Lupin had a girlfriend back in his Hogwarts days? What would she be like? What would their relationship be like? How would everything play out? Also, this fanfiction may be AU, and is rated T for humor, language, and couple-like activities.
I hope you enjoy reading this fanfiction as much as I've enjoyed writing it! Please check back every Sunday, as I will do my best to update each week.
Readers beware of spoilers from any of the Harry Potter books in this fanfiction.
Publish Date: Sunday, December 23, 2007.
Written in the Stars
Chapter One: The First Meeting
Upon hearing the words that felt as harsh as fingernails scraping down a blackboard to his ears, Remus's quill screeched to a halt on the parchment, and he registered what the Astronomy professor had just said:
"You will each be working with one partner for your next project."
Finally snapping out of his horror-struck daze, Remus glanced down at the parchment to see that a little pool of ebony was widening from the tip of his quill, obscuring some of the notes he'd just taken.
"Bugger," he muttered as he blotted the puddle up with the tip of his multi-stained plume. As he was blowing the ink dry, he couldn't help but overhear his friends quietly bickering from across the aisle.
"You know what this means, right?" Peter whispered as he jabbed a meaty thumb into his well-padded chest. "He's got to be my partner; I need this grade the most!"
"Shove off, Wormtail," James hissed, giving his friend a light push. "Mum will kill me if I do poorly in another class!"
"Since when have you ever cared about what your mum thought?" Sirius retorted, poking his best mate on the shoulder.
Remus sighed and shook his head, strands of his tawny hair falling into his eyes as he did so. As usual, they were arguing over whom would have him as a project partner. As if it weren't bad enough that his friends knew and took advantage of the fact that he was the most studious and grade-conscious of the Marauders, they also found ways to get him to do all the work and share the credit.
The whole idea annoyed Remus to no end, of course. Who wouldn't be frustrated if their own friends took advantage of them? He loved them dearly, though at times, such as when it came to academics, they had a tendency to become deadweight. But, as always, he would let them slack off and take more than their fair share of credit in the
end. They were his best friends in the whole world, and that was saying something considering the nature of his condition. He couldn't let them go; after all, whom else could he turn to? Sure he had other friends, but he wasn't as close to them as he was to the Marauders, and none of them knew he was a werewolf.
Rubbing his temples as he squeezed his coffee-hued eyes shut against the bickering, Remus turned the issue over in his mind. They had done an awful lot for him in the past; they'd kept his secret, continued to be his friends, and turned into animagi for his sake. Well, when he thought about it like that… He figured that a little stress and hard work on his part wouldn't be all that much compared through what they'd gone through for him.
Feeling a quick tap on his shoulder made Remus's hand drop from his face, and he turned to look over his shoulder. He saw Sirius grinning sheepishly, with Peter and James glaring knives at the back of his head.
"Moony, ol' chum, ol' pal, wouldn't you much rather have your best mate Padfoot for your project part- OW!" Sirius clutched the back of his head as he swiveled around in time to see James retract a notebook. A pair of particularly attractive girls who sat just behind James giggled, sliding Sirius deeper into an increasingly unpleasant mood. No one made him look bad in front of girls.
Another bought of quarrelling ensued, causing Remus to groan in frustration and drop his head onto the desk. Ah, yes, another day in the life of the werewolf…
"However-" The word from Professor Sinistra sliced through the fight like a dagger through cream. When she gained the attention of the class once again, she continued, "However, seeing as there are certain students in this class who feel it necessary to take no part in the assignment until credit is granted, I'm afraid I'm left with no choice but to assign partners for this project." She had walked up the aisle the Marauders were bordering and authoritatively gazed down her long nose at them as she said this.
The faces of the three disputing young men fell, and the rest of the class groaned in unison at the news. Who wanted to be assigned a partner they didn't like or know?
Across the classroom, a witch sat bent over two parchments. Her head was bowed low, causing her chocolate-hued curls to curtain her mad scribbling. One parchment was partially covered with notes that had been verbalized by the professor within the first eight minutes of class. The second parchment was an enchanted two-way that was overflowing with ink, discreet conversations with her best friend, Anna, successfully luring her attention away from her Astronomy class. Usually Eve wasn't so easily distracted from what her professors were saying, but, then again, exciting goings-on didn't occur every day.
He asked me to the ball on Halloween! How amazing is that?
That's great, Anna! Just be careful, though;
Eve paused for a moment in her writing to glance up. A few desks behind Anna, she saw that the boy in question was chatting up a very enthused girl.
I hear Derek is a bit of a flirt.
No, no, I'm positive it's different with me, Eve. You should've seen the way he smiled at me; I thought I was going to melt on the spot!
Eve shook her head and sighed. Anna was a poor judge of character when it came to boys, and her best friend knew that this wouldn't end well. How could it when she was after a boy who was known for not-so discreetly courting more than one girl at a time, and then dumping them like yesterday's rubbish once he got bored with them to go hunting for new eye ornaments to hang on his arms? Then again, Anna, herself, wasn't much better, seeing as she had a fickle heart when it came to relationships.
Just… promise me you'll be careful, Anna.
Promise. Oh! It looks as if there's a fight of some kind breaking out between the pranksters. I wonder what they're arguing about?
The brunette lifted her dull gray eyes to view the amusing sight and, chuckling, offered:
They're probably fighting over who they feel is the best looking of the bunch.
If that's the case, I can end it for them- Sirius, most definitely.
Ah, yes, there went Anna again, always going for the ones who most likely wouldn't remain loyal.
"Hmm," Eve softly murmured to herself, beginning to idly doodle little flowers and swirls and hearts… before hearing what Professor Sinistra said.
Oh, come on! As if we need to be babied like that!
The professor promptly spun on her magenta heel and clicked her way back to her desk, where a fat roll of parchment sat. Sliding her violet, slanted glasses that hung on a decorated silver chain up to the bridge of her nose, Professor Sinistra cleared her throat.
Peter began bouncing in anticipation in his seat with his fingers crossed and eyes squeezed shut, muttering to himself, "Please let me and Moony be partners, please let me and Moony be partners!"
"Sirius Black and Anna Twitter," the professor announced.
Eve watched from her seat as Sirius swiveled around in his chair, tilted his head to flick his dark bangs out of his eyes, smiled, and winked at the blonde. Anna giggled and gave him a smile and a dainty wave in greeting.
Doing her best to ignore the common sight that was Sirius Black's flirting, the professor coughed low in her throat and continued reading, "Severus Snape and James Potter."
Severus, who had been subtly admiring the view Lily Evans created as she bent over to pick up her fallen quill, gawked first at the woman's horrible judgment in partner pairing, and then at the prospect of having to work with Potter, of all people.
"What?!" James yelped, rising from his seat so quickly that his chair overturned with a loud clatter.
Glaring at the disruption in her classroom, Professor Sinistra pursed her excessively lipsticked mouth and clicked a couple steps closer to the nuisance before gravely telling him, "Mr. Potter, if you speak out of turn once more, I shall be forced to give you detention and take thirty points from Gryffindor."
"I don't care! I'd rather take a detention than a project with Snivellus." With that, he gathered his belongings and stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door shut on his way out. The undeterred professor pulled out a scrap of parchment from her desk and scratched a few words down while reciting the next set of names.
"Derek Gotter and Cynthia Young."
Cynthia's mouth scrunched up, making her look as though she'd just tasted a lemon. She'd have to spend the next thirty days working alongside that toe scum? Ugh, she didn't even know why she had agreed to court him in the first
place; he was forever making eyes with other girls, flirting with anything in a skirt, and prematurely making moves on her! She'd dumped him two weeks ago, when she realized that he was no good.
Derek, on the other hand, looked pleased with this arrangement, and smoothed over his dark locks and grinned at her. He, with his rounded face and slightly immature features, wasn't as handsome as the oh-so-famous Sirius Black was, but he was charming with the ladies, and that usually worked. His ex-girlfriend rolled her eyes at his display and crossed her arms before shifting in her seat to pointedly look away.
Anna grew scarlet and looked less than amused at this pairing, as she knew that they had once been a couple. She had begun to write something to Eve on the two-way parchment, but she was so infuriated that she applied too much pressure on her quill and snapped the tip clean off. Pulling the embedded quill point out from the parchment, she glared at it and chucked it, hitting the professor by mistake.
Professor Sinistra blinked and jerked to one side ungracefully, making her look like an uncoordinated centaur attempting to do the jig. She looked around the classroom for the student responsible for hitting her with… whatever it was, and saw Anna attempting to shield her face and a curious slice of parchment with an open book.
"Miss Twitter, do keep your possessions to yourself; it would be a pity to take points from Ravenclaw for your carelessness."
Anna nodded her head quickly and slid down a little in her seat.
Sniffing the air haughtily and repositioning her glasses on the bridge of her nose, Professor Sinistra took up her parchment once again.
"Remus Lupin and Eve Pankhart."
Remus, who had been looking increasingly relieved as each of the Marauders were partnered up with other students, felt a wave of release break over him. As he looked up, he noticed that his partner was looking over her shoulder at him. Their eyes met, and they each smiled before Eve offered a polite wave and turned back around to face the front of the classroom.
Well, this would be a refreshing and long-overdue change, unless she neglected to carry her own weight in the project. Remus's temples throbbed dully at the notion, and he massaged the stress away as he assured himself that this had to be better than working with a fellow Marauder. His belief was solidified even more when Peter groaned and began scowling at Eve's back.
It didn't take long before the entire class was paired off and the Professor began filling the students in on the details of the assignment, strutting the aisles of the classroom while doing so. "Your projects will be due in precisely one month. The project itself is up to you. In the past, I've had students create models of the universe and moon phases; write histories of specific stars, constellations, and planets; and chart which constellations and stars can be seen at specific times throughout the year. The choice is yours. My only requirement, however, is that it looks like a well-thought-out presentation that took a month to complete, not just something thrown together the night before." She shot a glare in Peter's direction, and he slid down in his seat so far that his bulbous nose sat on his desk.
After a pause, she waved her arms in the air and announced, "Class dismissed."
Eve watched as Anna scooped up her books and became acquainted with Sirius, who seemed pleased as punch to meet her. After seeing the two walk off together, chatting away, she decided to do the same with her partner, seeing as they'd be spending quite a bit of time with one another over the next month.
Once her books were packed neatly away inside her book bag, Eve pulled a curl out of her face and followed a pack of students, including Remus, out of the classroom. When the knot of people finally dissipated, she hustled to get her
short legs to catch up with the stride of the young man's long ones. A little out of breath by the time she got to him, she extended a hand and said, "Hello. I know we're in the same house and year and whatnot, but I don't think we've ever been properly introduced. I'm Eve."
With a courteous smile and a gentlemanly tip of his head, the boy shook her hand and replied, "I'm Remus."