*Disclaimer* Harry Potter and all of it's characters belong to J.K. Rowling, it is not mine, and I am not making any money off of this story.

*Summary* Okay, I honestly have NO idea where this plot is heading.All I know at this point is that it will be a romance between my fictional character Liz Jordan and Remus Lupin, with some twists thrown in. Please please please email me if you have ANY ideas about plot development, character development, etc. I could really use the help! : )

BTW this is my very first fanfiction, but I love reading it so much that I just had to write my own, especially one with Lupin (!) as one of the main characters. Also, I am not a total Harry Potter nut, I just read the books, so forgive me if I mess up minor details, and feel free to correct me on them. I hope you enjoy!

*Lori*

Driven Under

Chapter One

'Liz Jordan was not beautiful.'

This was the line she repeated in her head like a mantra almost every morning when she first

looked in the mirror, often with an amused inner smile. They were the famous opening words

of Gone With the Wind (with Scarlett O'Hara's name in place of her own, of course), the

Muggle book she had read when she was eleven and had reread at least once a year. Her

parents were both Muggles, so she was thankfully allowed, even encouraged, to read non-

magical books over the summer holidays.

It was this quote that she thought of with a big smile as she gazed in the mirror on

this Wednesday morning in July. The reason that she always found this so entertaining was

that, after a hot shower, the use of her blow dryer, and the application of makeup, she was

actual quite beautiful, almost stunningly so. Her thick, light brown hair went from limp and

dirty feeling from not being washed since 24 hours before, to shiny and straight, glimmering

with the small golden highlights that had been added from many hours of lying out by the pool

during the summer. Her lightly tanned, dull skin adopted a subtle glow from a small

application of bronzer, and her full lips had a wash of color added to them. Her big, bright

green eyes, eyes to rival those of Scarlett O'Hara herself, were carefully lined, and her

eyelashes were curled and mascara'd. Sometimes, if she happened to be thinking of it, she

would think to herself, 'Liz Jordan was quite beautiful!' with a small smile.

Liz thought that life's little ironies should be taken with a light heart and a quick smile,

and the thing she found so ironic about her appearance was that, even though she knew that

other people thought of her as a beautiful young lady, at the end of the day, when

her hair was up in a messy ponytail and her makeup was washed off, she was just a very

plain, almost ugly 16 year old girl. Sometimes she found herself wishing that she was a

natural beauty, so that she didn't have to wake up extra early to make herself up in the

morning or so she didn't have to carry eyeliner or mascara or other such things in her bag for

midday touch ups. But she would quickly squash those thoughts out of her mind, because she

was just not meant to be naturally good looking. It might be a pain in the ass to have to be so

high maintenance all the time, but wishful thinking would do her absolutely no good.

This particular morning, she was not really thinking of all these things. Instead, she

was too busy looking forward to the fun day ahead. Today she was going to Diagon Alley to

shop for school supplies for the upcoming year at Hogwarts, where she was going into her

sixth year. As most of her friends' parents were witches and wizards and lived in the magical

world, and her parents were Muggles so she lived just outside of London, she did not get to

see them much during the summer. But today, they all had plans to meet and go shopping

together. Liz was very excited to finally see her friends again after a long summer of missing

them. Sure, they owled back and forth frequently, but for teenage girls, that was just not the

same as seeing each other in person.

After she finished her morning 'beautification' routine, she got dressed in jeans and a

T-Shirt and pulled on her witches robes over them, slightly dusty and wrinkled from almost

three months of sitting in the bottom of her trunk. She went downstairs, and cast a longing

glance at the shiny grand piano sitting in the parlor, her fingers just itching to play. Piano was

her one true love, and she had learned a long time ago that days that began with a bit of

playing were often the best days. But, with a glance at the clock on the mantle, it was almost

11:00, and she was to meet her friends at the candy shop in 30 minutes. She walked to the

kitchen, where her mother was busy directing a group of caterers with the final preparations

for the luncheon she was hosting later that day. It was for her Garden Club or something, Liz

recalled, but her mother held parties and lunches and things like that so often that it

would be impossible to keep track what they were for.

Her parents were not extraordinarily rich, as people who participate in so many social

events often are, but they were without a doubt very well off, and her mother was a natural

hostess, renowned in upper middle class London society for her extravagant parties. 'It must

be a strain on her sometimes to have to make up stories about my whereabouts while I'm at

Hogwarts', Liz thought with a small pang of guilt, 'but she certainly can't tell them where I

really am.' Her parents' usual alibi for her was that she was attending a private boarding

school in the States, where none of her parents' friends' children attended, so it would be hard

for them to check, not like they would, of course.

"Mum, I'm leaving!" Liz called over the heads of the many caterers and assorted hired

help that were currently bustling about. Her preoccupied mother glanced up and smiled, and

called out a "Bye, Honey!" in return, her hands busy rearranging a bouquet of lilies that some

maid had doubtlessly screwed up somehow. Liz turned and retreated into the next room,

smiling to herself while thinking what a wonder it was that she was so down to earth with a

mother like hers, who liked to spoil her rotten, but also felt that throwing parties and

entertaining an endless supply of friends and acquaintances was more important than

spending time with her only child. Despite this, Liz loved her mother very much, and held very

little resentment against her and Liz's equally absent father, who spent much more time at

work and on business trips than he did at home.

Liz wandered aimlessly towards the foyer, where she glanced at the towering

grandfather clock to discover that she had a whole 20 minutes until it was time to leave.

Without a single doubt of what she would do with this unexpected amount of free time, she

headed back towards the parlor, and happily sat down in front of what she privately

considered her 'best friend'. Even though her winning combination of good looks, a bright

personality, and, on top of it all, money, had always ensured that she would have a large

number of friends, she had always felt that the time she spent with her piano was better than

the time she spent with real people, even people she actually liked.

She quickly jumped into a happy, light piece by Lizst, loving the way her hands felt

running over the smooth, ivory keys, almost with a mind of their own. Lizst soon transformed

into a slightly darker Bach composition, a bittersweet piece that lifted her already wonderful

mood into new, blissful heights. She soon slid into the state of mind that so often overcame

her when she played, a place where she was totally unaware of her surroundings, unaware of

anything except the music. With the persistent ringing of the doorbell, though, she was

abruptly jolted out of her reverie. She looked at the mantle clock, thinking that surely it was a

mistake, that the clock was totally off, because it couldn't possibly be 12:30 already! She had

only sat down to play for a few minutes, 30 at the most! Certainly not for more than an hour!

She jumped up, shaking a little as she almost always did unintentionally when she realized

that she was very, very late for something.

Without a second thought, she picked up her bag and grabbed the floo powder that

was on top of the mantle, disguised as ashes in a porcelain urn. She threw it into the fire and

said clearly, "Diagon Alley", but not too loudly as she realized that the first of her mother's

guests must have already arrived, and it certainly wouldn't do to have them overhear her.

Green swirled all around her, and after a few moments she very abruptly landed on her bum

in the middle of a crowded tavern. She stood up and brushed herself off, and, always self-

conscience about her looks, went to the bathroom to check her hair and makeup. After a few

minor touchups, she gladly emerged from the small, odd smelling bathroom and left the

tavern. Once outside, she looked up with renewed wonder at the sight of Diagon Alley, with all

its wonderfully interesting shops, filled with things that she could probably spend hours, even

days, messing around with. She smiled to herself and shook her head slightly. Magic never

ceased to fascinate her, even after 6 years spent filled with it.

She slipped into the busy crowd and made her way down the street. It seemed that the shops

always changed their location, making it increasingly hard to find exactly where she was

looking for. In this case, it was the ice cream shop that she and her magical friends had

frequented for the past six years, and where she was supposed to have met them almost two

hours ago. She remembered it being between Flourish and Blotts and a wizarding version of

CVS pharmacy, but when she approached the supposed location, it wasn't there. In its place,

however was something even better. The sparkling sign displayed the store's name, 'The

Magic of Music', in big, bold letters, surrounded by dancing music notes. It's big glass windows

were filled with instruments of every variety, from pianos and harpsichords, to gleaming

English horns and a magical instrument that she recognized as a cintolay, a strange mixture of

a harp and a clarinet. 'I bet they have sheet music!' Liz thought excitedly, and then

remembered guiltily that she was supposed to be finding her friends. 'Oh, what the hell. I'm

already really late, I might as well go in and take a look.'

Once inside, she felt a shiver go through her as she looked around at the beauty of all the

musical instruments. She quickly spotted a gigantic rack of sheet music up front marked

'Piano', and gazed at it in wonder. 'I could happily spend all day in here' she thought dreamily.

She kneeled down and began rifling through the sheets on the lower part of the rack. Soon

she was once again in her own little world, lost in the towering stacks of music and the pure

joy of finding such a place. She hardly noticed a shadow suddenly falling over her, nor did she

hear the light 'click' of the footsteps that accompanied it. She did, however, notice when

something strong grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down on top of it. She let out a small

yelp of surprise and confusion and, still trying to get a sense of her surroundings, lay still on

top of what felt like a person. Her suspicions were proved correct when she felt heavy

breathing on the back of her head. The mystery person groaned lightly and muttered

'Goddamn' under his/her breath. From the tone of the voice, Liz concluded that this person

was definitely a male, or else a very mannish sounding woman. Something in Liz's brain

snapped, and it finally dawned on her that she was lying in a very uncomfortable position on

top of a stranger. Rather annoyed that her peaceful reverie had been broken for the second

time that day, she rolled over onto her stomach and found herself face to face to a very

attractive middle aged man. All her annoyance was promptly forgotten when his hazel eyes

met her green as each took in the other's appearance, and suddenly Liz became very

conscience of the fact that she was lying on top of a very good- looking wizard in the middle of

a music store. The man's eyes widened suddenly, as though he too had just become aware of

her presence.

"I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed breathlessly.

"It's quite okay," she said in almost a whisper, realizing that she was breathing very hard and

suddenly wondered whether it was from the shock of the fall or from the sheer good looks of

this mysterious man. Either way, it was definitely time to get off of him. She stood up and

offered a hand down to help the man up. He took it, and as he stood up he groaned again. He

put a hand on his back.

"I think I hurt my back when I tripped," he said, wincing.

Then he looked up at Liz. Or down rather, as he was a bit taller than she was. He blinked at

her in disbelief, as if she were a ghost or something. Then he seemed to get his senses about

him.

"I'm-umm I'm really sorry I tripped over you, I guess I just wasn't paying attention." He said sincerely, and then added, "I get so out of it when I'm around music, I'm hardly aware of anything around me," he said with a small smile.

Liz paused before answering him as her brain registered this new information.

"You-you play the piano?" she finally asked, a bit dumbly.

"Yea, ever since I can remember. Of course, I don't have as much time as I used to for practicing, but I still love playing. I assume you play.?" he cocked his head slightly and gestured to the spot where she had been looking.

"Umm." she blinked, still not fully back in the real world. "Yes-yes I do," she stuttered. "I'm afraid I get the same way you do when I'm around music, otherwise our fall may have been prevented," she added with a smile.

"Is your back okay?" she asked as an afterthought.

He blinked, as though he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Umm.yes, it's quite fine now. I can't even feel it!" he added reassuringly.

They both stood there for a moment until Liz suddenly remembered that this man was a total stranger. 'Hopefully not for long.' she thought to herself slyly.

"I'm Liz. Liz Jordan." she said hastily. She extended her hand. The man shook it.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Remus Lupin."

A/N: To be continued. I'm afraid I'm a bit winded after so much writing in one night, so I'll leave it there for now. R and R please!!!!