Sorry for the wait!!! I was gone on vacation, but I found some time to write a little anyway!
*~*~*The Blood Clan and the Marauders*~*~*
Chapter 5: The Morning After
When Marisa let go of Lizzie's shoulders, the teenager almost lost her balance, but managed to stay on her feet. A fears tears rolled down her cheeks. The vampire had seen everything, from her being sorted in Gryffindor to Remus' secret. She looked up at the vampire.
Marisa was furious, the look in her eyes could have made a mortal die of fright. After a few seconds, though, she calmed down and gave Lizzie a smile full of pity and disgust. She shook her head and let her arms fall on her sides.
"I can't believe what I saw. I would have thought you'd be smarted than that. I didn't raise you to be stupid, not even if you're just a bastard child." the vampire said in a gentle voice.
Lizzie was getting nervous. This was the calm before the storm. She knew it. She tried to find something to say, but couldn't come up with anything.
"Do you really believe they would be your friends if they knew what you are? And do not doubt that they will find out eventually, child. You can't pretend to be human forever. You'll slip sooner or later. And what happens then? I'll tell you. They won't just reject you. No. Because they'll find out you're connected to us. If you'd be any other vampire, maybe they'd just kick you out, but they'll capture you. An HALF-VAMPIRE!!! That's very rare. The Ministry will be delighted. An half-vampire at their disposal. What an opportunity."
"Stop it! They wouldn't betray me...THEY'RE NOT LIKE YOU!!!" Lizzie screamed at the top of her lungs.
She knew it wasn't a good idea, but she couldn't listen anymore. She wanted Marisa to shut up and go away. She wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.
"No. They're not." the vampire said. "That's why you'll never be one of them."
"SHUT UP! They'd never let me down."
"Let you down? I've raised you. I've kept you alive. I've taken you under my wing when any other vampire would have killed you, girl! You'd be dead without me. You owe me your life, half-human!!! You're father left you to me. If you're so much like humans, why didn't he leave you with them?"
"I..." Lizzie stammered, looking for an answer that'd shut her up.
"He knew they'd throw you out as soon as they'd learn what you are."
"They don't have to know what I am. I can give hints slowly or stuff...that way they wouldn't get scared and all." Lizzie exclaimed, without thinking of the consequences.
"What? You think they'll accept you like they've accepted that werewolf?!" Marisa replied, anger crawling back in her voice and face.
"Remus isn't evil like you said they all are!" the teenage girl screamed angrily.
Marisa let out a growl, obviously fed up with the discussion. She threw a lock of red hair out of her face and straightened up.
"I want information and at least the body of one of your friends within a month, preferably the werewolf." she ordered. "And don't forget what I told you tonight."
With that, the vampire walked away. Lizzie stood still as long as she could still see the silhouette of the woman, then gave a loud sight. She sat down in the grass and put her head in her hands.
"What am I going to do? If I betray Marisa I'll be killed and if I don't...I'll become just like her."
Lizzie had already killed humans, but it was always when the urges had gotten so out of control that she almost became a beast. Just like when she killed that boy before coming here.
*~*~*~*~*
Prongs was running on the grounds, the werewolf about 10 meters in front of him. Wormtail was still holding on to him on his back. Padfoot had, for some reason, slowed down and was behind him. The animagi wasn't sure how fare behind, but didn't have time to look. Canines could run at their fastest on a longer distance tan stags. He was getting tired and losing ground on the werewolf.
The beast turned behind a wall and disappeared from Prongs view. The stag tried to push himself even harder. He couldn't let his friend hurt anybody. He managed to go a little faster, but as he passed near a tree trunk, he tripped on a root and fell down. The rat tried to hang on, but was thrown in the air and landed a meter or two away from the tree. Prongs tried to get up, but he had hurt one of its paws.
"Now we're screwed." he heard a boy's voice say.
He turned his head and transformed back into James. He saw Sirius standing near Peter, who was a little shaken by his small flight. James could see that Sirius' shirt seemed a little ripped on the back, but decided that it could wait or his friend wouldn't gave walked all this distance.
"Yeah. Who knows what'll happen now." Peter exclaimed.
"We should try to look for him or something." James said.
Both his friends nodded. He got up, glad that it had been one of his front paws that had been hurt. He held his left hand near his chest to be sure not to hurt it again.
*~*~In the morning~*~*
Remus slowly opened his eyes and looked around, registering his surroundings. He was on the Shrieking Shack's floor as usual, but he felt that something wasn't quite right. He couldn't say what, but he knew there was something. He brought his right hand to his face to wipe out the sweat that his nervousness had brought and froze as he looked at it.
There was blood on it. At this realization, Remus' heart started beating faster and his breathing became heavier. He rapidly surveyed his body, but didn't find any injuries. After his quick check-up, he looked down at his hands.
As he kept staring at them, he tried to recall what had happened during the night. The last thing he could remember was the transformation. He normally remembered the night, especially since his friends…The boy's train of thoughts came to a sudden halt. His friends. The blood.
Remus got up to his feet so fast he almost fainted. He leaned on the nearest wall for a few seconds and, then, walked towards the exit tunnel, fearing the worst. Half-way trough it, he heard the nurse who was coming to get him. He almost rushed to her, but remembered the blood on his hands just in time. Hoping his hands were the only part of his body that were covered by it, he crossed his arms to hide them from her sight.
"Ah! Mr. Lupin, how are you feeling?" she asked.
Remus knew very well that he should tell her that he may have hurt somebody, but he would have to denounce his best friends. He forced a smile on his lips.
"As good as I can feel this time of the month." he told the witch.
She smiled back and turned around. Remus followed her, happy she didn't insist on checking him to be sure he wasn't hurt. As they came out and the woman immobilized the Whomping Willow the same way Wormtail had hours before, she looked back at him.
"I'm glad that you seem to have calmed down these last years." The nurse said.
"Yeah." Remus simply answered, not really paying attention to her.
As soon as they were out of reach of the tree, he thank the nurse as usual and started to run towards the castle as fast as he could. When he arrived at the door, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and quickly made his way to the Gryffindor common room.
*~*~*~*~*
Kevin, Miranda and William we're silently and carefully making their way towards the Slytherin common room, avoiding any students or staff member that'd be waking in the corridors at this early hour.
"It wasn't too bad too be a quartet." Miranda told her friends.
"Yeah, but isn't he going to make trouble? I mean, he'll tell people about what happened." William argued.
"Maybe, but I don't think so. He'd be in trouble himself if he did." Miranda replied.
"I wouldn't worry, guys." Kevin stated.
"Why not?" William asked, coming to an halt.
The other two also stopped after a few steps and turned back. Miranda looked at her boyfriend, waiting for him to answer.
"He must be traumatized. He probably won't remember a thing."
"He'll probably think he did it all by himself!" Miranda exclaimed with a huge grin. "Awesome!"
"Ironic, no?" Kevin asked as he started walking towards their common room again.
"Yeah. If he knew what really happened..." William began.
"He'd feel a whole lot better." Miranda finished.
The three had to keep themselves from laughing, afraid they'd be caught if they did.
"But how could we know what happened? We were sleeping peacefully in our beds." Kevin said with a shrug.
*~*~*~*~*
"Ouch!"
James was sitting on a couch in the Gryffindor common room and Sirius was sitting on the ground, in front of him. Sirius had his shirt off and James was trying, despite his wounded wrist, to fix the cuts on his friend's back.
"Stop being such a sissy, mate." James told Sirius.
"I'm not being a sissy!"
"Then why are you whining?" Peter asked.
He was sitting on another couch, facing James and Sirius. He was the only one that wasn't hurt, but Sirius had refused that Peter be the one to fix his back. The small teenager wasn't too good with his hands.
"Shut up!" Sirius spat.
Peter didn't argue, knowing Sirius wasn't in a mood to joke. Neither was James or himself for that matter. The event of the night before were still too fresh in their memories and they were worried about their friend.
"Jeez. What's taking him so long." James said as Sirius got up and put his shirt back on.
"Maybe somebody found him in the castle!" Peter panicked.
"Thanks for the encouragement, Peter." James let out.
"I just hope he didn't hurt anybody." Sirius sighed.
Just as he finished his sentence, the portrait hole opened and Remus came in. He looked extremely anxious and kind of traumatized. When he saw his friends, he smiled and let out a huge sigh.
"You guys are okay? Thank God! I was so scared. I woke up in the Shrieking Shack, but there was blood on my hands. At first I was just confused, but then I got scared because I don't remember what happened yesterday and I got scared. I was so afraid I hurt you guys!" he exclaimed without a pause.
"Calm down a little, Moony." Sirius told him. "We're fine...well, nothing to worry about anyway."
Remus nodded at the encouraging smiles of his friends. Peter kept starring at Remus' hands and James gave him a nudge.
"Go get something for him to clean up before anyone comes down." he told him.
Remus sat down on a couch and James and Sirius sat beside him. They remained silent until Peter came back with a wet towel and Remus finished cleaning up. Once he put the towel down, he swallowed with difficulty and looked at James right in the eyes.
"What happened?" he asked him in a whisper.
James looked at Sirius and Peter for support. Sirius nodded and Peter shrugged.
"Well, you got out. We tried to catch up with you, but...well, we didn't manage to. We looked for you, but we couldn't find you." James explained.
"But if you woke up in the Shrieking Shack, it means you probably went there and we didn't think of looking at the place." Sirius added, not really believing in his own argument.
Remus didn't look really convinced either, but nodded in approval anyway.
"You probably didn't hurt anybody else. The blood's probably Sirius'...you cut him on the back when you got out." Peter said.
"Nothing bad." Sirius said, glaring at Peter. "It'll heal in a day or two."
Remus was about to say something, but they heard somebody walking down the stairs. They all turned around and saw an half-asleep Lily. She smiled at them as soon as she saw them, having no idea of what had happened.
"How was the night?"
"Good." James and Peter answered while Sirius and Remus said the contrary.
Lily stopped and the bottom of the stairs and frowned at them.
"O...kay. What happened, then?"
"Why don't we wait for Lizzie. I don't think any of us wants to tell the story more than once." James told his girlfriend.
"Right. If you say so guys, but you should get ready. We've got Potions this morning and if you want to study a little before the class you better hurry." Lily told them.
"Study?" Peter asked in a very anxious voice.
"Don't tell me you guys forgot about the test." Lily exclaimed with a disapproving glare.
She rolled her eyes and went to sit on the same couch then Peter.
"At times like these I wonder why I ever stopped seeing you as morons." she joked.
"What? I thought you still did." Sirius replied, trying to get his friends to laugh and forget the preceding night for a moment.
He managed to get smiles, but that was all. Lily frowned once more at this unusual behavior. They seemed a lot more serious than usual. She decided not to ask any of the questions that burned her tongue and wait for Lizzie, who should get up soon enough.
*~*~*~*~*
"And that's it." James said as he, Sirius and Peter had finished telling about the events of the night to Lilly and Lizzie.
They were all sitting near the fire place in the Gryffindor common room, which was empty enough since most of the students were still in the dorms, either sleeping or getting ready for the day.
"You know, Remus, I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. If you had hurt someone, there would be at least one person who'd know something happened. They would've told Dumebledore and the nurse would have said something about it." Lily stated.
"Yeah. I hope you're right." Remus said.
"I bet she is." Lizzie said with a smile.
"We should go eat breakfast now...I bet you're all starving with the night you had." Lily exclaimed.
The boys agreed and they all got up, momentarily forgetting the whole werewolf story. Lily took James' arm and Lizzie went to walk between Remus and Sirius, while Peter followed James and Lily closely. So close the other could have bet Lily wanted to slug him.
When they arrived in the Great Hall, breakfast wasn't yet, but they went to their usual seats. They sat down and began talking about all kinds of thing, from school to Quidditch. Students were slowly filling the room and the food would probably appear soon enough.
After a little while, Lizzie dropped out of the conversation as she remembered what had happened the night before.
"Do you really believe they would be your friends if they knew what you are?"
She looked at James who was telling Remus that he wasn't responsible for his injury at all. He kept saying it was his own fault if he had tripped. Had he looked where he was going he wouldn't have.
" You can't pretend to be human forever."
"But I am, no? A part of me is human." Lizzie thought.
If you're so much like humans, why didn't he leave you with them?"
Lizzie looked at her friends, trying to keep the tears away. If she cried, they'd ask her what was wrong and she'd have no answer to give them. She couldn't just tell them the truth.
"Why not, dad? Why Marisa?" she mentally asked her dead father.
"Hey, Lizzie, what do you think?" James asked her.
"Err...I got lost in my thoughts. What were you talking about?"
"We were arguing about which international Quidditch team would win this year." Sirius told her.
"Oh. Well...I actually have no idea." she apologized.
"Told you I wasn't the only wizard who didn't follow Quidditch, Sirius." Lily told the boy.
Lizzie didn't listen to the rest of the argument. She was lost in her thoughts once more. Her father probably had a reason to leave her with Marisa, but she had no idea what it could have been.
"I want information and at least the body of one of your friends within a month, preferably the werewolf."
Lizzie looked at Remus, trying to find a solution to all of this. None of it seemed to make sense. Why should she do all that Marisa wished?
" You'd be dead without me. You owe me your life, half-human!!!"
"My life? You made me your pawn. You've tried to break me more times than I can count. I thought you were near success before I came to Hogwarts." Lizzie thought.
She shook her head, this was so confusing. She wished it would be simple, but nothing seemed to be simple anymore.
Her train of thoughts was broken by the apparition of the food on the tables. She decided to forget about it for a little while, just like Remus tried to forget the same night. After all, she had a month to figure this thing out.
I want to thank all the reviewers! I really appreciate it, even if it's a one liner. As for the other ones(yes, yes, I know there are some readers who don't review.), well, thanks for reading anyway.
NEXT CHAPTER: Drannaor's body is found and things get more complicated!!!