Title: Of High School, Werewolves and Deadly Nightshade
Disclaimer: Yeah yeah, sure sure.
Alternate Universe-y things: Lily used to be in another school, Peter's kinda evil already, Severus? Eheheheh…a lot of ooc-ness, but it all adds up, I promise.
Chapter Four: Deadly?
In which we learn of Remus' Predicament and That which They would call Deadly.
Remus shook his head and continued on his way. He was blocked again, this time by Minerva McGonagall, a Teacher's Assistant who was in training to become a teacher.
"Lupin!" she called sharply. "Assembly. Common Room. Now."
Remus flashed his most charming smile at the Professor to be.
"I'll be up in a minute, Minnie," he said with the tone of voice that made most ladies at Hogwarts go weak at the knees. "I just need to retrieve something very important from James' locker downstairs."
The older woman was slightly unnerved for a while by Remus' award-winning white teeth.
Her trainer, Professor Alexander Brown walked by with some of Remus' classmates walking behind him like chicks behind their mother hen. This served to remind Minerva and she good-naturedly grabbed Remus' shoulders, turning him around, and gave him a gentle push away.
He smiled at her again. "Have it your way, Minnie," he said, but he turned away with an irritated expression on his face and walked the two meters back to the common room.
Every Gryffindor in the Fifth Year was present. The few other students who were around seemed to have noting to do with the assembly whatsoever and were ushered out of the room. Remus walked over to his friends. On the other side, Cynthia McKinnon was staring at him with her eyes narrowed, poisonously. He had scarcely looked at her before Professor Albus Dumbledore, their Deputy Headmaster and Head of Gryffindor House, called them to attention.
"Good afternoon, students," he said. "Today, you have been called here for me to introduce to you a brilliant new classmate! Please come on up, my dear."
There was a round of polite applause as, to Remus' expectations, the pretty girl he had just decided to ignore moved out of the crowds, letting herself be seen.
"Gryffindor, Year Five, I present to you Miss Belladonna Jordan Marten." Announced Professor Dumbledore happily. "Miss Marten hails from the United States of America and has recently transferred here on special request. My dear, these are your new housemates. During the remainder of your school life these faces around you are like your family. You have classes with them, eat with them, er, unless you so choose otherwise, train with them and so on. Would you care to say a few words?"
Faced with no real choice, Belladonna stepped into the center of the room.
Everyone fell quiet as soon as they could truly see the new girl. Sirius was entranced by her beauty, as was Peter along with most of the boys in the House.
"Nightshade," Sirius whispered appreciatively.
"Deadly nightshade," added Peter. Both were staring fixedly at the blonde. Even James was speechless. Remus rolled his eyes at his hormone-charged friends. He joined them in staring at her, though. He was still trying to place what it was he had seen in her eyes. What she was hiding.
Remus recognized it as a secret. He knew. He had secrets of his own.
Something unusual about Remus, in fact part of the reason he was so attractive to females, was that he was a werewolf. A cursed werewolf, as he had been bitten by another a long time before he had set foot in Hogwarts. The Deputy Headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore had seen this as no excuse for him not to have a full magical education and chosen to enroll him anyway. This was why he could never commit to a girl no matter how much he liked her. This was also why the Marauders were just so close. This secret was like a pact between the four boys, a promise of friendship. Effectively, nobody got in and nobody got out.
Remus had initially hid his condition from his friends because he had grown up in a prejudiced place where people feared and shunned him for being a werewolf. When they had found out, he had discovered that they were not the bigots he thought he had known them to be. Instead they broke a very serious law to help their friend through school life. They learned to become Animagi. Animagi were magical people who could turn themselves into animals at will. Being an Animagus was very advanced in magic, and very dangerous if done wrongly. Thus, the Ministry of Magic had issued orders that only qualified Witches or Wizards could apply to become Animagi and then they had to be registered and accounted for at all times. Failure to do so was not the cleverest thing to do, but the Ministry was ignorant to the mischievous ways of young wizards.
This provided the explanation behind the strange nicknames the Marauders had for each other. Moony, they called Remus for his sensitivity to the full moon. James could turn into a stag, and so was named Prongs. Padfoot was whom they referred to Sirius as; his Animal was a big black dog that resembled the Grim. His choice in Animal had been made in Third Year, when they all became Animagi, after quitting Divination class, and finally Peter, whose Animal was a rat for some reason, was nicknamed Wormtail.
Belladonna began to speak a little spitefully. "Well," she began. "I come from Washington D.C. and previously studied at the American Institute for Young Witches and Wizards where I was that close to graduating but those miserable bastards.." she trailed off, realizing what she was saying. Regaining her calm, she spoke again. "And I have come here to complete my studies because my family has relocated from America to England and hold the opinion that this…place…would be a good place to learn. Since I'm new here, I just feel that I'd better warn you first. I'm not just here to learn, and if anyone gets in my way, they'd better watch it."
Everybody gaped at her. She suddenly felt a little self conscious.
"Merry Christmas?" she tried weakly.
Professor Dumbledore laughed merrily. The Gryffindors were silent. All Headmasters or Deputies were a little insane at least, and Albus Dumbledore was no different.
He then exited the room, Belladonna behind him, her face red.
The Marauders decided to go play a game of tennis. Tennis in the wizarding world was not significantly different from Muggle tennis, except played on broomsticks. During doubles, one player had to be on the ground for each team. They headed for the Hogwarts Sports Complex. The Sports Complex was actually a huge hall, big enough to accommodate any court, field or pitch. Anytime a student wished to play a sport other than Quidditch, which was the only sport played with a real pitch, he or she had to book the Complex beforehand and the operators would magically manipulate the hall to be the battling grounds of the desired sport. Serious Quidditch enthusiasts sometimes made use of the Complex while the real pitch was unavailable.
Just like everybody else in Gryffindor House, Sirius brought up the subject of the new girl.
"That Marten seems really unhappy here."
James agreed. So did Peter. Peter sort of agreed to everything.
"Don't you think she's hiding something?" protested Remus. "I mean, the way she said that her parents had 'relocated' sounded a little off to me."
His three friends stared at him. "Why, Moony, I do believe you're getting paranoid in your old age!" said James.
"Yeah?" challenged Sirius. "Well if I didn't know better, I'd say you had it bad for the Belle! Actually, I don't know better!"
Sirius and James fell about laughing. "He has a point you know," Peter mumbled.
"That's ridiculous," huffed Remus. "That .." he sputtered a little, trying to find the right words. "..dragon's mother-in-law would do good to appear as if she doesn't have more issues than the Daily Prophet's girl magazine! Besides, I'm damned if I'm going to desert my faithful admirers in such a way."
Nearby, a group of passing Ravenclaw girls giggled.
James rolled his eyes.
"Well," noted Sirius, a little more sober. "You have to admit she's pretty shagable."
"Definitely shagable," agreed James, nodding his head.
Remus looked appalled, and the rest of the game passed without event.
Ok, so it was a little short, no real story stuff….but please review anyway…again, it gets better I promise.