Title: Understand Me (2/?)
Author: Eleret
Author E-mail:Eleret@aol.com
Category: Romance/Angst
Rating: PG-13 (For some kissing, depressing stuff, and adult themes)
Spoilers: PoA GoF (maybe) (Knowledge in all of the books is recommended but not necessary.)
Summary: Lily Evans and James Potter have been on the same Quiditch team for a while, yet they know almost nothing about each other. Narcissa Claude and Sirius Black are completely different and they don't even know each other yet. Remus Lupin can't figure Nancy Bode out. Sybil Trelawney and Peter Petigrew form a club for unappreciated people. And no matter how much they deny it, what all of these eight teens want most is someone to understand them. N/S, L/J, R/OC (not a Mary Sue), and P/Sybil.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I own only Nancy Bode's first name and Narcissa Claude's last name.
A/N: Second Chapter! Yes! Gosh, I can't believe how easy this is to write! This one will probably focus a bit more on the L/J aspect of things, and maybe Sirius will find out the name of his mysterious acquaintance! Thanx to my cousin Lucy for saying she will help me with the Romance in here because, quite frankly, I do angst. It's thanx to her that there will be loads of fluff! Also thanx to the people at FictionAlley.org for writing such wonderful stuff that inspired me. Especially Doodle, DragonFlight, Kazaera, Saff83, LilyAyl, and Grindylow (did I spell that right?).
Chapter Two: Early Morning Quiditch and a Sirius Rescue
Lily Evans was woken up at exactly five o'clock in the morning, as she did every day. This day, however, was a special one because it was a day with Quiditch practice first thing. Lily quickly jumped out of bed and grabbed her Quiditch robes that she had laid out neatly the day before. Her friends informed her that she was a "perfectionist freak" but Lily had long since started ignoring their teasing comments.
In ten minutes Lily was dressed and had brushed her red hair into an orderly pony tail at the back of her head. Grabbing her Silver Arrow, a present from her best friend, Alanna, last year for getting on the team, she walked out of her dormitory and down the hall to the fifth year girls' dormitory to collect one of the Chasers on the team, Lucy Bricks.
Lucy was a notoriously spunky and hyperactive girl who was most often bouncing off the walls. She also seemed to have a limitless amount of energy, and she was a very good Chaser.
After Lucy was awake and getting dressed, Lily fetched the other girl on their team, the shy and quiet Isabelle Lawrence. Isabelle was a third year who had joined the team the year before as a second year. She was an amazingly talented Beater who, though she had been on the team for a year, still rarely talked to her team members and whom, after a year of knowing her, Lily still didn't really know at all. Isabelle, it turned out, was already awake and getting dressed. Then Lily made her way down to the common room.
As she went, Lily thought about the team they had this year. It was very strong. James Potter, the captain, had been seeker on the team since his third year, and a reserve in his second year. Sirius Black and Isabelle surprisingly made a very good and evenly matched team of Beaters, Sirius with more strength and Isabelle with an almost uncanny knowledge of where she was needed. The trio of Chasers: Lucy, Fifth year Amos Diggory, and Fifth year Roddy Pontner. As Lily entered the Common Room, she couldn't help but smile. She was the keeper of one of the best teams Griffindor had had in ages. The Quiditch Cup was in the bag!
***
James Potter sighed with satisfaction as he surveyed his team. It was the best they had had in a long time. Last year they had lost the Quiditch Cup by one point, and he wasn't about to let that happen again. With a triumphant grin, James jumped astride his Silver Arrow and zoomed into the air.
Sirius whooshed past him tailing a Bludger with careful precision as Isabelle came up from his other side to hit a Bludger that he hadn't even noticed coming. Isabelle, now there was a real catch. The year before last Sirius had gone through three Beating partners, claiming he couldn't work with any of them, and then, last year, Isabelle had showed up. It was as if she was meant to be a Beater, for all that she was slight, because she seemed to have an almost supernatural (even in the wizarding world) talent of knowing where a Bludger was.
Then Lucy, possibly the most energetic person James had ever met, came hurdling just inches past James to give the Quaffle a precise hit straight to one of the other Chasers, Amos. Amos grabbed the Quaffle and sent it spinning precisely to Lily. James smiled as he looked at the small red head sitting in front of the three hoops. Lily had been meant to be a keeper, James was sure. As he watched her effortlessly knock the Quaffle towards the last Chaser, Roddy, James felt his stomach jump with a funny joy. Shaking his head, he decided that it must just be joy. Lily was a wonderful keeper, and James was sure nothing would be able to get past her. That was all.
Shaking his head slightly, James returned to his own job: finding the snitch. Soaring upward, he flew up until he was high above the Quiditch pitch, then he looked around for any glint of gold. For James, Seeking had come naturally. There was an almost meditative quality about it for him, a way to find inner peace. Then, seeing a glint of gold over by the other teams goal posts, He zoomed almost vertically downward, spinning at a tremendous speed past Sirius, who gave him a grin, toward the Golden Snitch. When it was in range, he leaned back on his broom, pulling it level and reaching out to grab the small golden object in his fingers. Pulling completely out of his dive and hovering in the air, James grinned down at the small, iridescent wings flapping against his fist. Only then did he become aware of the cheers from his team mates.
***
Narcissa Claude sighed as she walked into the Great Hall of Hogwarts for breakfast. Taking her customary seat at the Ravenclaw table, she surveyed the rest of the hall with cool, gray eyes. Over at the Griffindor table, the Quiditch team had just come in from practice and they were eating as though they hadn't for weeks. There was the boy she had bumped into yesterday, Sirius Black. He was grinning and joking with a small girl with brown hair and tan skin who was smiling a bit at him and nodding her head.
The Hufflepuffs were laughing raucously at the Fat Friar, who seemed to be telling some joke. Narcissa sighed. They were so easily amused, those Hufflepuffs. And so bad at hiding their feelings. Did they take pride in having everything they thought written all over their faces?
Then there was the Slytherin table. Narcissa seemed on the outside to be only coolly surveying them, but really she was boiling with rage. She should have been in that house. If she were, her parents would not scorn her as they did now. Looking over them, she decided that it was no great loss that she was not in that house, at least not friend wise. There was Denis Zabini with his girl friend Haley Boot. And there were the infamous four: Severus Snape (a slimy conniving git, in Narcissa's mind), Condreus Crabbe(even more stupid than he looked, if that was possible), Gorgaundus Goyle(equally as stupid, as well as looking like an ogre), and, lastly(and in Narcissa's opinion least) Lucius Malfoy, the ringleader. Lucius had been a double crossing little git all his life, in Narcissa's opinion, from the time at age three that he had scorned her for protecting a cat he had wished to kill to the time just one year ago when he had dropped his best friend since age two, Avery Knott, because he had fallen in love with a Gryffindor. Narcissa loathed him more than anything for his trickery and cruelty, but she also loathed him because she was his girl friend.
It was not as if Narcissa had had much choice in the matter. Arranged Marriages might have been outlawed centuries ago, but that didn't stop old wizarding families like the Claudes from making their children go out with people just for the sake of power. And Narcissa was bound to Lucius by the fact that they were betrothed to give both of their families more power. And also, there was the fact that Lucius was a spoiled git and wanted her to be his just because she didn't want it.
But Narcissa was not a person who bent easily to others' wishes. She would find a way to get out of marrying Lucius, even if it meant hiding from him for the rest of her life, as she had had to do yesterday. She had vowed to herself long ago that she would marry only for love, or not at all. It had only been later that Narcissa realized there was no such thing as love and had vowed never to marry at all.
***
Sirius Black rarely liked to be alone. He was always in the middle of things, always where the commotion was. Today, however, he had a strong urge to go for a walk by himself. It was a feeling that Sirius had had only once before: when he was twelve and got the letter that his mother had been killed by his father and that his father was going to Azbakan. Then, Sirius had taken his broom and flown out over the Forbidden Forest for several hours until he reached Hogsmead, where he had crashed into a building because he had been blinded by grief.
Now, he decided to go for a walk around the lake.
As he walked over to the lake, he felt a fresh, brisk autumn breeze lift his black hair off of his forehead, and he smiled. It had been a very long time since he had gone for a walk by himself in the autumn, and he had forgotten how beautiful everything looked in the late fall. The trees were bare, and the grass was brown, yet there was a crisp tinge to the air that made everything seem clearer and more peaceful.
Sighing happily, he sat down beneath the shad of a tree on the bank of the lake and watched the cool blue-gray waves roll up onto the shore. The Giant Squid stuck one large tentacle up out of the water and grabbed a piece of wood that had been floating on the surface before submerging again.
Leaning back against the tree's trunk, he took out a book that Remus had given him on his sixteenth birthday this summer when he stayed over at his house. It was called, "A Complete History of Hogwarts' Trouble Makers, through the Ages," and on the inside cover Remus had inscribed, For Inspiration. It was possibly the best present Sirius had ever gotten in the form of a book, but today he just couldn't concentrate on it.
After reading the passage, "Mundungus Fletcher- One of the best trouble makers of the '40s. He specialized in transfiguration and charms. He loved to steal food from the kitchens and he was caught by the Caretaker a total of 520 times in his seven years at Hogwarts," for the fifth time, he gave up and closed his book.
What was it that was bothering him? He wondered in annoyance. He didn't often have a feeling like there was something he ought to be remembering.
And then Sirius remembered: it was the girl he had met yesterday in the Owlry in Hogsmead. He needed to know what her name was or he was never going to be able to concentrate. Sighing again, Sirius stood up and began to walk around the lake, as if she might materialize in front of him. Actually, it was her voice that materialized, not her herself.
***
Narcissa had been sitting behind a bush beside the lake when they came. It was Lucius and his cronies. Narcissa sighed with apprehension and closed the sketch book she had been drawing in. This wouldn't be good.
Lucius smirked as he got near her, "Why, Narcissa dear, fancy meeting you here. I expected you'd be in the Library like a good little Ravenclaw. But, since you're here, I need you to come with me for a bit. You are my girl friend, after all."
Narcissa barely concealed a wince. She was a strong girl, and she didn't put up with much crap, but it was hard to stand up to Lucius when he had two seven-foot boulders at his back who served his every whim.
She managed to look him coolly in the eye. In a slightly bored tone that she had had to practice for weeks to manage, she said, "Lucius, your girlfriend I may be- your servant I am not. I am busy at the moment. Please go torture little first years, or whatever else it is you Slytherins do for fun."
Lucius glowered at her, "Narcissa, you will come with me now. Unless, that is, you wish to spend the rest of the after noon researching new cover-up spells in dark glasses and a cloak, like you so often do?"
Narcissa quickly suppressed the urge to shutter at the way he calmly put his abuse of her. Her temper started to flare, and she beat it down, making herself sound collected and together, "I do not wish to do that, no. However, I am not at your beck and call, Lucius. I am entitled to doing what I want."
It was then that Sirius came in, having heard enough.
Narcissa looked up to see the tall, black haired boy, as different from Lucius and day from night, coming around the bush she had been hiding behind, looking as if he were just out for a casual stroll. It was only the fierce glint in his eyes that made Narcissa suspect other wise.
"Hello, Malfoy," Sirius said in a would-be casual tone. How dare Lucius Malfoy abuse his girlfriend? Much less make his two body guards do it for him!
Lucius smiled tightly, "Black, I suggest you leave. This is none of your affair."
"Oh," Sirius said, thinking quickly, and hoping that this girl (Narcissa, he reminded himself) would actually want to be helped, "But it is. You see, Narcissa and I are partners in Transfiguration and we have to go work on our joint essay on Animagus. We're only three quarters of the way through," Sirius's dark eyes dared Lucius to object.
Lucius, sensing the famous Black temper was boiling, did not rise to the occasion. Shrugging he said, "Fine, then. But Narcissa, I want to meet you later in the prefects' room."
Narcissa gave him a haughty look that said, "If I wish to, I will." And followed Sirius up to the castle.
***
End of Chapter two!
A/N2: So, how did you like this one? How about five more reviews before I write the next chapter? I have gotten a bit more of a plan about this story and its sequels, and it will work very well. However, I do need encouragement. Lots and lots of it! And thanx bunches to the people who reviewed! Don't have time to find your names now, but I'll try to remember to do a thanx section in the next chapter.
So, next chapter. Finally some S/N and L/J action, and perhaps Remus, the as of now unknown girl, Peter, and Sybil will come more into the spotlight! You'll just have to wait and see!
Wow, this is so much fun!