Author's Note: Don't worry too much about Sam's sudden
appearance, Voltora, it'll all work out (grins). This chapter, however, is all flashback to Remus first meeting
Sosia. As for disclaimers—well I
don't own them, and I'm certain that you don't own them, since we
all know that J.K. Rowling owns them!
And if there is any money being made off of this, no one has told me
about it!
And please leave a
contribution in the little box (at the bottom of the page), as they would say
in the Labyrinth!
Chapter Three: Beginnings
The
first time he met Sosia had been on Platform 9 ¾, waiting to board the Hogwarts
Express. It had been the beginning of
his second year and he and his friends had planned to meet and get a
compartment together. Sirius had
mentioned that his younger sister would be starting that year, but Remus hadn't
really thought much about that.
He
and his parents had gotten there early, and Remus had already scouted out a
large compartment for the eight of them—himself, Sirius and his sister, James,
Peter, Lily, Simon and Margaret—to share as they planned their escapades for
the coming year. He was euphoric, he
had friends and he was actually good at his studies. His only worries centered on how to keep his friends from finding
out that he was a werewolf. He knew
that Sirius and James had been a bit suspicious of his monthly disappearances,
and he only hoped that they had forgotten about them over the summer.
"Daniel,
over here!" His father was calling to
someone, and as Remus looked over two bodies came hurtling towards him.
"Remus! We've missed you this summer!" James cried after he and Sirius finished
knocking him over and had picked him up again.
"Why
didn't you come to the Midsummer celebration?
Didn't you get my owl?" Sirius
said at almost the same moment.
"Remus
was ill, or I know he wouldn't have missed your party for the world." His mother covered for him quickly, when she
saw him begin to get flustered in his attempt to come up with an excuse. The full moon had fallen on Midsummer's eve.
"It
appears to be true that the Potter blood runs true, Daniel. No one could mistake that James is your
son." Remus hadn't known his father
knew James'.
Daniel
Potter laughed, "Yes, Susanna said the same thing."
"Actually,
she said that she would have to be very careful if she ever thought of cheating
on Dan here, because she be sure to be caught out if the child didn't have that
unruly thatch of black hair!" Laughed
the dark-haired man that was accompanying them.
"Matthias! Really, repeating such things in front of
the children." The woman accompanying
Matthias Black turned to the boys and said, "why don't you get your things on
the train now, and Sirius, try not to do anything ridiculously dangerous while
you're at it." She did not, however,
sound very confident in this last direction being heeded. " And take your
sister, show her around."
"Yes,
Mum." Replied Sirius, and Remus noticed for the first time, the shy wide-eyed
girl half hiding behind Mrs. Black, her arms wrapped around a cat that seemed
to be an odd shade of blue.
"Remus,
meet my sister, Sosia Aemilia Black."
Sirius announced with a flourish.
"Sosia, this is Remus Justinias Lupin.
The Professor here is just the fellow to go to if you need anything researched
in that monster of a library they have at Hogwarts."
Remus
mimed a playful blow at Sirius' head, then said "Hello, Sosia. You probably already know that you should
ignore most of what comes out of your brother's mouth."
Sosia
smiled shyly at him and Remus was struck by how much she resembled her
brother. Almost like she was merely a
petite female version from the same model.
They shared the same straight black hair and odd quicksilver-gray eyes,
and the same quirk of a smile.
As
Sirius proceeded to push the trolley containing their trunks in the direction
Remus had indicated, James stood back by the adults, still looking
speculatively at Mrs. Lupin.
"Hey,
James! Come on lad, the train's this
way." Sirius called over his shoulder,
"honestly, the boy's mind's been slipping over the summer." He continued to Remus, shaking his head in
mock-worry as James turned and dashed to catch up. Sosia trailed behind them, carrying her cat.
"My
mind's slipping? Remind me please,
Sirius, which of us wandered into the bonfire at Midsummer because he'd had a
bit too much butterbeer?"
"I
meant to do that, I was trying to see if those extinguishing charms our parents
had been going on about were really any good."
Sirius replied loftily. "Anyhow,
that's not important; what's important is if Remus was able to find that
distance explosion charm over the summer.
I've really been looking forward to seeing if we could actually soak the
entire Slytherin house table in pumpkin juice."
James
rolled his eyes, but before he could reply another pair of voices called out to
them.
"James,
Remus, Sirius! Help us with this
thing!"
"Ow! That was my foot!"
Simon
and Peter had managed to collapse their trolley and knock one of the wheels
loose. It had rolled off down the
platform after bouncing off Peter's foot.
Laughing, James and Sirius went to help, leaving Remus to look after
their trunks and Sosia, who had taken up position on the other side of the
trolley, half hidden from him behind the trunks, still clutching her cat. Remus decided it wouldn't hurt to try and
draw her out.
"That's
a very pretty cat, what is its name?"
"Gamaliel." She replied shyly. "He's a Russian Blue and he's very smart. He can steal Tarsus' tail feathers without
getting nipped. They make wonderful
quills."
Remus
grinned at that; Sosia was definitely a Black, to train her cat to go after
Sirius' owl for quills.
"Would
you like to hold him? He doesn't like
these crowds," and, indeed, the cat looked as if he would be much happier
somewhere else. "But I'm sure he'll be
nice if I ask him."
"Ah
no, I don't think so. Cats don't seem
to like me." Came his quick reply,
precious few animals would tolerate being held by a werewolf and he didn't want
to panic her cat.
"Don't
worry, Gamaliel isn't like most cats."
And with that, she deposited her cat in his arms before he could form
another protest. To his amazement,
Gamaliel merely looked up at him for a moment before hopping onto his shoulder
to command a better view of his surroundings.
Sosia giggled as Gamaliel used Remus' head for balance as he reared up
to enjoy this new perspective. After
his initial panic, Remus found himself grinning back at her.
"See? He likes you. Well, he likes your height anyway." She temporized, as Gamaliel climbed to perch a moment on top of
Remus' head, then leapt down and curled around his little mistress' ankles,
obviously demanding to be picked up again.
"Lazy." She remonstrated him
affectionately as she complied.
Just
then, a sudden and loud crashing noise interrupted them and they turned to see
the now fully wheeled trolley containing Peter and Simon's trunks go careening
down the platform directly into the new Head Boy, Frank Longbottom, and Peter's
brother Christopher. It looked as if
they were going to save the teachers the time and trouble of thinking up
detentions for the second years by doing away with the lot of them right there.
"It
was an accident!" Protested Peter,
scampering away laughing, as his brother shouted about removing him from the
land of the living. Soon, there was a
massive game of tag going on as Frank and Christopher tried to catch any of the
four boys who had been in control of the offending trolley.
"Oh,
what have they done now?" Lily
had come onto the platform behind them during the commotion, pushing her own
trolley and followed by Margaret and her luggage.
"It
actually was an accident." Remus
explained, "at least, I think it was."
And he explained the lost wheel and the careening trunks.
Lily
rolled her eyes and smiled, "that sounds like just their luck. Do we have a compartment yet?"
"Yes,
this way ladies." And he executed one
of Sirius' notorious sweeping bows, although with not quite as much success as
Gamaliel chose that moment to jump onto his back. "Ah! Sosia, what is he
trying to do, scalp me?" Remus cried as the cat attempted to climb up his back
to his shoulders and head again.
"No,
I think he just wants his nice view back."
She said between giggles.
"Well,
tell him he can't have it!"
"Oh,
all right." And still giggling, she
detached her cat from his robes and kept a good hold on him.
"Thank
you." Noticing Lily's questioning gaze,
Remus introduced Lily and Margaret to Sirius' little sister as the boys came
back from their invigorating game of chase, having eluded their would-be
captors by hiding amongst the parents.
"Come
on," cried Sirius. "There's lots left to plan, if we're going to win the House
Cup this year and humiliate the Slytherins completely in the
process! We have to show Sosia how it's
all done." And grinning his
exceptionally mischievous grin—the kind that many of his fellow students had
already begun to associate with dangerous and often ludicrous pranks—Sirius put
his arm around his little sister and they all followed Remus to their
compartment.
Author's
note: If you're wondering what Gamaliel
looks like, here are some pictures of Russian Blue Cats,
they are a regally beautiful and mysterious breed.