The Outcasts
By: stargirlr
(A/N: Many thanks to those who have read or reviewed my new story!! My YCM readers all know my regular excuses as to why this chapter is so late, and as I think most of you have read this story are YCM readers, I won't bother with them… Wow, what a long, pointless sentence… Writing the excuses would have been simpler.
Hmm… so, have you ppl gone to the new jkrowling site? Great, isn't it? I mean her style of writing notes and stuff is so funny… Reminds me of some of my more brilliant author notes. Smiles conceitedly Ok, so, basically, if you haven't checked out , please do! By the way, before you go running… or rather, clicking off to that site, please read this chapter! I worked hard for it!!)
Chapter Two:
The same night, at around two o'clock in the morning:
Sirius heard the bird's tapping penetrating through the heavy silence.
He woke up sleepily and opened the window.
He could make out the red envelope even in the dim light.
Red envelope! His eyes widened. At two!! He looked at his sleeping friends.
He thought quickly and then removing his wand, created a soundproof barrier around him.
He opened the envelope.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL FILTHY SCUM! YOU HAVE SCROUNGED OUR PURE BLOOD!" His mother's amplified voice boomed out.
James turned in his sleep.
Sirius yawned.
Remus entered his first Defense Against Dark Arts class fearfully.
The thought had begun to haunt him day and night. What if someone found out what… well, what he was? He sat down wearily and glanced at his professor.
Professor Taylor looked like she was pretty sharp as well young and attractive.
And she was the D.A.D.A. teacher after all. She knew how to identify… one of them, right?
Did she know? He thought anxiously, watching her out of the corner of his eye… Had Professor Dumbledore told the other teachers? What if she didn't know, and she found out and told everyone? What if— His course of thinking was suddenly cut off: class had begun and the Professor had started teaching.
"Well students, Welcome to your D.A.D.A. class. Even though this is your first class, I do not intend fettering it away trying to learn your names" She said sarcastically, "or what your favorite ice cream is. We have time enough for that later." She paused abruptly and took a swift glance around the class. "Alright, now if you will all walk over here, I'll show you exactly what an African Gormy is." Forty-five minutes later, Remus was sitting straight up, rapt with attention, smiling to himself.
This was definitely his favorite class.
Nik and the rest of the group had somehow managed to 'arrange a meeting' between Andromeda and Sirius. At first, Sirius couldn't understand why it was so difficult… but he hadn't yet realized the enormity of the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry.
So finally, one evening, he met Andromeda on the school grounds.
"Siri!" A tall, exotic girl greeted him by his nickname.
"Andy!" Sirius grinned. No one had called him Siri in a long time. Actually, he realized, only Andy had ever called him that… But the last time he had met her was… one year back. He remembered perfectly. The patriarch of the Black family, Andy's and his grandfather had somehow found out that Andromeda Black, from the direct line of the Blacks was living a Muggle.
It was actually a very odd relationship, Andy had told him.
She had never been happy with her family's thoughts about muggles… She didn't know why she was superior… why someone else was inferior.
Once, when she had had some urgent work in Hogsmeade, with no overage wizard or any floo powder, she was forced to travel by Muggle transport. Andromeda traveled by train and on the journey met the first boy she was not distantly related to. She was instantly attracted to the charming young man who knew nothing of her family, her wealth or her family's power. Believing herself in love, she fled with him to his apartment.
As she expected, she was disowned.
Of course, Andromeda hadn't really been in love with him. She was dating someone else now.
Andromeda hugged Sirius.
"Andy!" he repeated, but this time with a slight edge of annoyance. "Don't hug me in public!" He hissed under his breath.
"Oh, all right! So… you're not in Slytherin, eh? What'd your mum have to say about that?"
James let out an exasperated noise as he desperately tried to control the wild growth on the top of his head, which, unfortunately, he had to call his hair.
He was on his way to the first class of the day, Potions. The last time he had had Potions, Professor Rathbone, the horrible Slytherin inclined teacher, on seeing James, had inexplicably cut ten points from Gryffindor.
Later he dismissed the reason as 'intolerable sloppiness' fixing a pointed glare on his hair.
The loss of ten points had had depressingly negative effect on his already pitiable popularity. Earlier, people had just ignored him. Now, they avoided him. But of course, Remus, Peter and he suspected even Lily were just as unpopular.
Sirius? Poor Sirius had it the worst.
Actually, he had started off quite well, right in step with his peers… in fact, all of them had…but after the incident a few weeks ago? James recalled the incident perfectly as did Sirius….
As Sirius had found out on the very first day of school, the day of the sorting, the other Gryffindors weren't very happy with a Black in their midst. At first, it had just been random comments and insults. Something he was used to. Later, it got worse: taunting, threatening, bullying and then actual physical violence.
Again, something Sirius was perfectly used to.
But not something, apparently, that James was used to. In the beginning, Sirius had kept the bullying to himself. After all, it was his problem wasn't it?
But one day, when at the end of lunch, Sirius still hadn't appeared, ("Its Sirius! You know he can't miss a single meal!" James told Lily) James went to look for him. And James found him as well.
In one of the back corridors, Sirius was being beaten up by a group of first year boys called the Leos', not incidentally led by a first year Gryffindor named Leo Turner.
By the looks on their faces, James had clearly startled them.
"HEY!" snarled Leo, a tall, rather fat boy with small beady eyes and a huge neck. "Get outta here!" James ignored him and only paid attention to the bloodied up boy in front of him. "Is that you, Sirius?" Sirius nodded, flecks of blood flying to the floor.
"HEY!" repeated Leo. "DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME? I said, get outta here!" "Leave Sirius alone." Said James firmly.
"I'm warning you!" said the boy next to Leo shaking his fist aggressively. James recognized him as Malone, a Hufflepuff first year. "Don't get in the way of us and this Slytherin." "He's not a Slytherin!" yelled James.
"Oh really? So, you support him do you? You like this pretty boy Black whose parents have killed so many of our families? Why, I bet he has committed a few murders himself, huh, Black? Is our resident Slytherin a murderer as well?" "Shut up! You can have no idea that he's like his family. Maybe he's like Andromeda, huh?" "Andromeda, the seventh year Slytherin?" "Yeah, her! Do you know she's a great friend of the Head Boy and Head Girl and their other friends? What, you don't believe it? Ask them yourself." He pointed to a tall figure behind Leo.
Leo and his gang whirled around to face Nik and Hayli.
"Fighting in the corridors, Leo? Tut tut, Not that I didn't expect this from you… Ten points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Detention if I see you fighting ever again." He glared at Leo's expression of surprise. "Yes, Turner, from my own house… Now all of you get out of here." Sadly, rather than deterring them from bullying Sirius, Nik's comment had increased his unpopularity. People began following James and Sirius around, hissing "Slytherin" and "Suck up…" or "Head boy's pet" in their ears.
When Lily, Remus and Peter found out, well, they were supportive of Sirius as well, sentencing them all to being outcasts.
Travis had suddenly become very indifferent to their group, not nearly as nice as he was on the first night, but not downright rude either. James figured he was just not ready to oppose the public opinion of them.
James entered the Potions classroom and began praying.
Five minutes later, he sat down, cursing under his breath. Ten points…
Again…
Lily entered her dormitory, dragging her feet unhappily.
She hated this room. Absolutely detested it.
Or rather, she decided, she didn't hate the room, what she hated was the people in the room.
She plonked down on her bed, and examined the other girls.
Specimen 1)
Andrea Jenkins A Class 'A' snob. She dressed in the most expensive clothes and was quite pretty. All she talks about is Leo Turner and the newest witching fashions. She didn't like Lily simply because Leo didn't.
Specimen 2)
Rachel A'rista Exquisitely radiant and beautiful, has the entire male population at her feet and doesn't realize it. Very soft-spoken, Lily had hardly ever heard her string an entire sentence together. Although not very intimate to Lily, polite enough.
Specimen 3)
Robyn Whitaker A tomboy, shorthaired and Quidditch loving. Best Friends for life with Sunny Rio, a snobby Ravenclaw. She didn't like Lily, because she had, unfortunately, heard Lily say that 'Quidditch is the most boring game in the world' or something to that effect when Lily was 'fake fighting' with James.
Specimen 4)
Karen Stone A small, mousy girl. Sweet and friendly by nature, she had been 'kidnapped' by Andrea. Too bubbly, according to Lily.
Specimen 5)
Frieda Young Short and baby cute, she followed Andrea everyone, and envied Karen because she's Andrea's supposed best friend.
Specimen 6)
Lily Evans Depressed, unpopular, alone, lonely…
Lily pulled the curtains around her bed and sat cross-legged and absolutely still for a few moments. Then, from her bedside table, she snatched up a still photo of her mother.
Sleeping on her stomach and gazing deeply into the photo's unmoving eyes, she began to cry.
Susanne, Lily's mother had enrolled her, all of five and half, in an elite neighborhood, privately owned nursery school, a place where only the wealthiest socialites sent their pampered and spoilt brats.
But, that was what Lily was. Pampered, spoilt and every bit a brat.
Her mother was a self-made woman. She didn't depend on her husband in the least, and her husband knew and detested the fact. Susanne had written two or three romantic novels, soppy rot, as she called it, which had made her a fortune.
That's why, Lily, although not typically rich, was being sent to Little Angels Nursery.
Little Angels, indeed.
At first, it was fun… Her classmates were just like her. They knew that they could ask for the moon and they could get it.
But one day, Lily found out… Susanne had cancer—malignant cancer just diagnosed in its last stages. The family was devastated. The doctor suggested chemotherapy, surgery, anything, everything. And that's where the family's last pence went-- in slowing Susanne's certain death. Finally, they had tried everything and now? There was nothing, the doctors said, nothing they could do.
One day, Lily came home--- Brandon, her father, was standing outside the house, staring blankly at the gray sky.
"Hi daddy! Guess what I did at school?" "I don't want to know." Came a stony answer.
Lily's face fell and then brightened. "That's okay, daddy. I'll tell mummy." As she tried to open the door, her father sat down and hugged her tightly.
"What's… what's wrong, daddy?" She said, scared for the worst possible thing.
He hugged her even more tightly and from his mouth pressed down on Lily's shoulder came the muffled answer. "I'm sorry honey. Mummy… mummy's left us." Lily struggled out of her father's strangely claustrophobic hug.
"No… no, daddy. You know it's bad to tell fibs, daddy. Grandma, she told me so." She said, tears running down her face.
"I'm sorry honey." Her father repeated.
She ran into the house, screaming, calling her mummy.
Lily checked every last room, including the attic and basement. Lastly, as the last shred of hope, she entered Petunia's room.
Petunia was on her bed, lying face down. She looked up when Lily entered, her eyes red from incessant crying.
"Petty?" asked Lily cautiously. "Mummy's gone?"
Petunia nodded.
After her mother's death, the family moved to a smaller, more economically viable apartment. Lily was removed from her nursery and enrolled in someplace 'closer to home'. Lily knew what that meant.
It meant that all her family's money had been spent on her mother. Now she was being sent to a public school.
At her new school, St. Teresa's, one of the other girls, Katie Ruskin, found out that Lily used to go to a private school. On hearing this, Katie, fierce with a mixture of fear, envy and admiration, rounded up a gang of her friends. With her gang on one side and lone Lily on the other, they began a vicious war of taunting, fighting, scratching and threatening.
On the home front, for many months at a time, her father could not get a job. And when he occasionally did, more sooner than later, he would get fired. The family's money problem pressurized them all. Both Lily and Petunia wore their old clothes repeatedly. Petunia, older than Lily by a good five years felt the pinch more. She had been used to having the newest, most fashionable garments and then suddenly…
When Lily's father wasn't home, and that was often, he would be out in some pub, drinking for hours on hours. On such days, Petunia would baby sit Lily. When their father did come home at some unearthly hour, either Lily or Petunia would lock the door of their common bedroom.
Once, the first time, they had left it open… At a quarter past two, Lily felt someone shaking her. She opened her eyes and saw her father through the dim streetlights outside her bedroom window. He held a pair of scissors in his hand and was mumbling something repeatedly.
"Damn stupid hair, just like her mother's, had to go and leave us… all alone, all alone we are, and I'LL CUT OFF YOUR HAIR, you stupid girl…" At this juncture, Petunia had also woken up. "Dad?" Brandon turned to her.
"Dad, please go away. Now, dad." She said firmly, not letting her father realize the fear seeping through her. To her amazement, her father actually listened to her.
Maybe that's why Petunia was so bitter. At the age of eleven, she had been roped in to be a mother to Lily. She had spent almost five years of her life taking care of her sister.
The next morning, and every morning after a drunken night, Brandon would apologize to his daughters, begging forgiveness for whatever he had done last night.
Of course, Lily and Petty would forgive him. After all, what else could they do?
And everyday when Lily came home, she would finish her homework and then mooch around her shabby house, eating out the stock of food in the fridge and the cupboards. What else was there to do?
No friends of Lily lived nearby, but she wasn't allowed to go out alone anyway, so that didn't matter.
No T.V., no video games, no nothing.
All she could do was eat. The Government had given them food stamps for that.
That's when she had grown really fat… After months on months of diets, exercises and Petunia's constant drilling, Lily had come back down to "Slightly Overweight".
Just as depressed Lily was, with her studies and her few friends, the days flew by for her as well as for everyone else.
Suddenly, it was November, November 27th to be precise, dark and gloomy… What a perfect day to be born, thought Sirius sarcastically.
He stared at his watch nonchalantly. When his friends had found out that his birthday was coming up, he had begged them not to do anything special. But today, it looked like they were bent keen on doing exactly the opposite.
In fact, James had told him to wait in their dormitory for a 'surprise'. Suddenly, surprise, surprise, James pushed the door open and with a flick of his wand, the lights turned out.
"Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday to you…. Happy Birthday dear Sirius… Happy Birthday to YOU!" the chorus of James, Remus, Peter and Lily's voices sang.
Lily entered last, holding a cake, brightly lit by eleven small candles.
"Guys…" Sirius said softly, his gray eyes, shining in the candlelight.
"I know, I know. We shouldn't have!" Lily cried, grinning.
Sirius put his head in his hands, his voice muffled, "I've never had a real… a real birthday cake before… Thanks… a lot…" Lily's contagious grin had spread and now all of them were smiling.
"You guys… you're…" Sirius said.
Everyone paused to humbly and modestly disagree.
"You're just some crazy eggshells!" Sirius ended and began laughing loudly.
They stared at him open-mouthed.
"Crazy what's?" asked Remus in disbelief.
"You heard me… eggshells!" He fell on his bed, howling.
Christmas time came quickly enough. None of the group went home and none of them asked why.
The morning after the holidays had begun, Peter received an owl from his grandparents.
The owl had appeared during breakfast, along with James' daily newspaper.
Peter took it into his hands, staring at it with fear and a bit of disgust. He threw into his bag.
"Aren't you going to read it?" asked Lily curiously.
Peter sighed and picked it up. Tearing it open, he glanced at it listlessly and threw it to Lily's side.
She read,
My Dear Peter Jonathan Henry Wolfgang Kniver Pettigrew the fourth,
Both your grandfather and I were very disappointed to receive intimation that you would not be spending this Christmas in our presence. I hope you know that this action will not be taken lightly…yada, yada, yada, annoyed with your absence, blah, blah, blah, since your parent's death, we have treated you as our son, this is the way you repay your gratitude… Lily dropped the letter. "I'm so sorry, Peter…" She looked up at him sympathetically.
He just shrugged awkwardly and turned away.
All of them were silent.
(A/N: Alrighty, how'd'you like that!! I'm sorry to end on a sad note… but the thing is, I wanna wrap up the first three years or so ASAP. I prefer writing nice, funny, fuzzy stories as compared to writing these long angsty chappies. Not as long as the first chapter but not as short as my YCM chappies… this chapter is about 3 thou words long. My YCM chapters range from 800 to 1500. Be happy!! Oh, by the way, does anyway agree with me when I say that this chappie was just a ' dukh-bhari kahani'?
That means, do you think this was too angsty? Tell me… I'd love to lighten it.)