Author's Note: Hehe, I put an original character in here, just for kicks. But the point is I wrote it. So there. READ AND REVIEW! READ AND REVIEW!
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In Which A Sister Is Lost And Found And A Man Is Turned Into A Beast
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A dark figure darted across an alleyway illuminated by soft moonlight, lazily bathing the dumpsters and bags of trash in a supple, idle light. A small kitten meowed pitifully, poking its head out of the sopping wet cardboard box that served as its only shelter. The figure threw it a sympathetic glance, but knew she could not stop. If she was to recover the lost Orb of Cloudy Premonition, she must do it in a timely, orderly fashion, with no straggling, deferring or procrastinating. She would pick up the cat later.
She looked up at the ivy wall that loomed up in front of her. Ten, fifteen feet high, strong, limber strands, rough surface, slightly serrated edges. She could climb this easily.
Twenty-seven years old, Knight Starr was quite skilled in the arts of stealth and thievery, having had to live in hiding for the past sixteen years of her life. She was not allowed to have contact with friends, family, or anybody else, making it hard to just walk into a store and ask for a job. Disguises were expensive without a wand.
But as she nimbly climbed the stone wall in the light of the full moon, she realized how lonely she had been for this decade and a half. How depressing it was to be isolated, talking to no one except Dumbledore, and that only a few times a month. She tossed a few strands of silvery brown hair out of her deep gray eyes, wishing she had a free hand to tie it back with.
She arrived at the top and perched on the wall, peering into the garden. Just as she had thought. The owners of this mansion that impended to her left were obviously paranoid. Guards patrolled between the unnaturally neat flower beds, occasionally lighting their wands with a spell she suddenly remembered as Lumos. And tied up in that far corner, pacing restlessly back and forth, was… A dragon? She scuttled across the wall to get a closer look. Yes, a dragon, a Hungarian Horntail if she remembered correctly, walking back and forth, occasionally snorting a plume of smoke out into the cool night air. She gasped. But keeping a dragon was illegal…
She suddenly remembered the task at hand, and forced her eyes and thoughts away from the dragon. She felt along the top of the wall with experienced, agile hands. Her fingers closed around something. A rock. A smile danced at her lips. How uncanny, and yet how perfect it was to find a rock up here, of all placed. She drew back her hand, and with a flick of her wrist, sent the rock sailing into the garden, landing with a muffled thump somewhere in the flower beds.
The guards immediately rushed toward the sound, shouting in a language she did not understand. They started searching through the flower beds, looking frantically for the object that had crashed into the flawlessly kept garden.
Perfect, Knight Starr thought with a wry smile on her face. She braced herself, then jumped, landing with a small echo in a patch of petunias.
Wincing, she suddenly realized why the flowers were so tidy. Every one of them was plastic. Cheap nature killers, she thought disgustedly to herself, mentally spitting at the owner's feet. She rose, throwing a silver material around her in the same motion. An Invisibility Cloak. She grinned, slowly making her way to the front of the garden, where the back door was slightly ajar. This mission was in the bag.
But as she stepped onto the paved patio, a hand suddenly clamped itself over her mouth. She gave a sort of stifled shriek. "Looking for something?" came a soft, dangerous voice in her ear, as a strong hand twisted her hands behind her back. He eyes turned to the person who had found her, and she found herself staring into the cold, hard blue eyes of none other than Lucius Malfoy.
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Remus Lupin stared up at the full moon, and blackness and pain seized his mind. He doubled over, gasping for breath, knowing nothing but horrible, suffocating darkness and the pain. The pain ripped through him, tearing out his heart and lungs, slicing him in half. He fell to the floor, hair starting to sprout on his body, his nails lengthening and hardening into claws, his nose broadening into a large snout.
Moody watched, horrified. "Dammit, Remus, not now, not now," he whispered. His magical eye was spinning frantically in its socket. Remus, who had been steadily transforming into a werewolf, now limply got up, stared at Moody for a second, and loped off into the dark, disappearing into the black streets.
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Remus laughed as he tossed the giant inflated ball to Layla. "Catch!" he shouted cheerfully. She giggled, and laughed out loud as the weight of the ball knocked her over onto the soft grass. Remus ran over to her, shouting with glee. He helped her up, and together they picked up the ball again, commencing again with their game of catch.
A shadow watched them from under the trees of the forest next to the field. "So these are the children of Ross and Luna Lupin. Excellent." He turned, and strode back into the trees, his mind already scheming, leaving the small children to their play.
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Remus staggered among the streets, his soul ragged, his mind half sane. He had taken the potion, but early, assuming (correctly) that he would not have time to take it later.
Memories, now, were lurching through his mind, flashing images. His father and mother, James, Sirius and Peter, Layla…
He lunged suddenly, and his jaws closed around something tough. An arm. A human arm. His stomach reeled as he heard the scream of a Muggle child scampering through the darkness, now laying limp on the ground. Horrified, he staggered back on his hind legs, and turned, whining, back into the darkness. Muggle sirens sounded not too far away. He lay down, curling his tail around him, suffocating in the blackness, slowly slipping away into unconsciousness.
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Remus looked around the dark room. A wooden box sat in the middle, and all around it, people were kneeling. Some were crying. People kept coming in, and shaking his hand and his mother's hand and his father's hand. Then they looked inside the strange box. Remus' parents wouldn't let him look in the box. Layla wasn't there.
"Momma," he whined, tugging on her sleeve, "where's Layla? I want Layla. I wanna go play with her. This is boring."
"I know, honey, I know," his mother said, hugging him to her. "Layla's… not here right now." Her voice cracked. "Okay, Remus, honey?"
"Okay…" said Remus doubtfully, leaning against her. "When will she be coming back?"
Luna Lupin squeezed his shoulder. "I don't know, Remy dear, I don't know."
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Knight Starr struggled out of consciousness, trying to remember where she was, Suddenly, the evening's events came rushing back to her, and she opened her eyes, alarmed.
"Settle down," said Lucius Malfoy almost sweetly, standing over her, his wand pointed at her. "Now tell me, what is your name?"
She struggled to uncloud her thoughts. "Why?" she asked.
Lucius smiled. "Because I want to know, and you may be important. Besides, you can't resist."
She suddenly realized that her state of semi awareness was brought on by a potion. "Knight Starr," she mumbled.
"Oh, no, not that name. Your real name. Your birth name. What is it?"
She tried to remember for a moment. It had been so long. She grabbed it out of the air and said it thickly.
"Layla Lupin."
Lucius Malfoy's cruel smile broadened. "Excellent," he whispered, and was gone.
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Author's Note: HA! CHAPTER TWO! So there. I win. You lose. Mwah. Anyway, I have another fanfic all written out, but since I promised, I had to finish this first. Chapter three is not on the way yet, but will be! (n.n) See ya!