Demorior Mori Mortuus Amaris

To die for love

By Silver Sparklze

CHAPTER 7

For disclaimer see chapter 1

Adeline led Remus to her room, and stroked the door gently, touching the small phoenix with reverence. "Sui laid." She whispered softly, and the door opened.

"What does the password mean?" Remus asked.

"Greetings." Adeline said briskly, leading him in. "I don't know what language it is in, but it's very nice. I wish I knew more of it than one phrase."

Remus nodded. "It certainly sounds very…elegant." He said, as if searching for the correct word.

"I know exactly what you mean. It's hard to find a word that will suit it, isn't it." Adeline agreed, walking over to the desk. She pulled open the top drawer, and took out the three pictures. "Here they are." She said quietly.

The third picture was one she'd painted a long time ago, when she was only ten. Because of that it had nowhere near the sophistication of the other two, with every colour as bright as possible. Harry's eyes were a brilliant green, his hair the darkest black she could find. It had amused her mum to no end to see Lily's hair coloured in with bright red crayon, and to see the blonde man's hair (in her mind he'd been a sandy, tawny blonde, rather like Remus) bright yellow. Remus picked that one up first.

"Who're these people?" He asked, pointing to the people in the picture.

It showed Lily and James holding Harry, with two other men huddling around him, the blonde handing him a toy he'd just dropped, and the dark-haired man being hit over the head with a rattle. In one corner of the picture was another man, who Adeline had drawn a dark purple circle around.

"Uh…that's Lily and James holding Harry…I think the blonde may be you," Adeline blushed, "But I don't know who the other two are. All I know is that I didn't like the one with the circle around."

"Ok." Remus said. "I think I know who the circled man is. I think that's Peter Pettigrew, one of my former best friends. And as for the man that's being hit in the head…that's another of my former best friends, but for a different reason. He's a former because he died. His name was Sirius Black."

"Oh…what did Peter do to merit no longer being your friend?" Adeline asked, "You strike me as a very loyal friend, faithful to the last breath. It must have been huge."

"I can't tell you." Remus said stiffly.

Adeline took a step away; hurt clearly showing on her face. "Oh. I understand."

"No, you don't. It's not really my story to tell. You should ask Harry. It's got to do with his parents."

"Oh." Adeline nodded, the flash of green making its way through her mind. She turned back to the pictures, and lifted the one of Harry and Lily off her bed. "This one's my favourite." She told Remus, handing it to him, "It reminds me of me and my mum, except my mum was the one with dark hair, and I was the one with red. My hair's darkened since I was this little. But my mum had dark skin too. She was African-American."

"But…how?"

Adeline knew Remus was confused as to how she could have such pale skin if her mother was African-American. Adeline smiled sadly. "I was adopted." She told Remus gently, "Illegally adopted. Twice. The first time…I don't know exactly what happened, but my adopted mother and father were killed by an animal. I watched it happen, I know that much. The second time around, Mum and Dad adopted me, and I've only ever known them. My birth mother died giving birth to me. At least, that's what I've been told." She sighed, running her hands through her hair.

"I was one of the lucky ones, I know. People like Harry…they didn't have it as easy as I did. I mean," Adeline shook her head, "Poor Harry."

"Yes, poor Harry. You know, you two are quite similar. Both orphans, who watched your parents die, neither one knowing about your connections to the Wizarding World until Albus informed you, albeit your informing was different from Harry's. Both of you hate Severus."

"Hard not to." Adeline said rather sharply.

Remus smiled sadly, "Not really." He said, "I knew someone who loved him very much."

"Loved?"

"She died in the First War against Voldemort."

"Oh…" Adeline looked sad, and she couldn't help but feel sorry for the crusty man whom irritated her so much. "Who was she?"

"Her name…" Remus paused; "She was a muggle-born. It was strange, actually. He got a huge crush on her during our fifth year. She was a Ravenclaw, but a really good friend of mine, quite adamantly good, but with the sharpest tongue imaginable. All in all, she wasn't very good at school, being far too caught up in smart-mouthing the teachers rather than actually answering any questions.

"I mean, she did the work outside of class, and would have gotten excellent marks if she ever bothered to hand it in on time, but she always waited until the last week of term, when the teachers had given up on getting anything out of her, before handing it all in. She really, really pissed them off.

"Then only classes she ever actively participated in were Potions and Charms, although she usually at least listened in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was when she was doing an extracurricular Potions assignment that she and Severus met for the first time. He snarled that she shouldn't be there, scrawny, mudblood that she was, and she told him to get over himself and to pull the broomstick out of his arse.

"Needless to say, Severus was shocked. No one other than James and Sirius had ever spoken back to him, and not even they had dared say something like that. They preferred to play nasty tricks on him. And here was a five foot muggle-born who didn't pay attention in class that he could probably crush like a bug exchanging insults with him.

"The thing that Severus didn't understand was that after that comment she was perfectly civil towards him, acting as if neither of them had said anything. Slowly, over the next semester, Severus and Linda – that was her name – saw each other more often. Every single time, Severus sneered at her, and called her names, but he never again called her a mudblood, and so she never again reacted to his teasing.

"Finally, Severus realised that he liked her. A lot. So he asked her out, and she accepted. They became inseparable, until…" Remus sighed, "Until Severus accepted the Dark Mark." Adeline gaped.

"Doesn't that mean he's a slave of this Voldemort dude?" She asked.

"Yes." Remus ran a hand through his hair, "He never meant for her to find out, but she caught him holding his arm one day, wincing, and so she reached out, and pulled up his sleeve. By then she was an advanced healer, and she'd probably been about to fix him up. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to like the tattoo. She dumped him on the spot, and stormed out of the Library. Severus was studying as the current Potions Master's apprentice, and Linda was studying as Madame Pomfrey's assistant.

"After that things went from bad, to worse. Linda would snap and snarl at him every time she met him, but, strangely, she never once told Albus. It was only after she'd been killed in the War that Albus found out Severus was a Death Eater. And it was only because Severus confessed it himself, and begged to be made a spy."

"Why didn't Linda tell?" Adeline asked. Remus shrugged,

"To this day no one knows. I suppose we could ask her."

"What?!" Adeline sat down on her bed, just missing the third picture, the one of Harry with Ginny, dancing.

"She's a ghost. Lives in the Forbidden Forest, in a cottage right in the middle." Remus explained.

"Does Severus know?"

"Of course not! Linda thinks he's still a Death Eater, and I haven't managed to get her to stop throwing things at me for long enough to tell her that he isn't." He grimaced.

"But she's a ghost! They can't do that, can they?"

"She's more than a ghost, she's a Quickesilver. That's a female poltergeist. She can throw anything she wants. She's solid."

"Oh!" Adeline vowed to never ever take up residence in the Wizarding World. It was way too confusing.

Author's Notes: This is mainly just a filler chapter before the next one, a nice long Remus/Adeline piece with a dash of Severus thrown in. Shake twice and serve at room temperature

Reviewer Response:

TheItalianBanjoist: So can you really play the banjo? Coz that'd be really cool. But no, ::laughs:: that's not what I'm here to do. Demorior Mori Mortuus Amaris means To Die For Love. Sorry, it's just the title. Not really anything significant. Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you like my story .

Andy: Lol, the Olympics have been cool to watch. Sorry, I'll try to segment it out more. Is this chapter any better?

oOoLintuoOo: Lol, I think I just like Brendan Fraser. But the guy who did play Remus did an excellent job, I'll agree with you there. I should be the one apologising, it's taken me ages to update.

JamieBell: Well you've found out now why it was so terrible that she fainted. A wolf killed her birth parents! At least…oh darn, if you hadn't then I've ruined it for you. Sorry o.O. I'm glad you like it so much. Isn't that always the way though. Just as you admit you think a guy's really cute, or when you're badmouthing your parents, they turn up behind you. Murphey's Law.