"I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones." - Oscar Wilde

Where You Belong

Chapter 11

Andrea sat in the common room a week later ignoring the pile of homework that sat next to her. Instead she sat watching everyone around her. The marauders were back in full swing and making up for lost time by pranking someone almost everyday. The rest of the school was giddy with the end of the term being only two weeks away. A sad smile crossed Andrea's face as she realized that she would probably be spending Christmas alone but maybe then she could get a chance to work on some things without the awkward questions from Remus and Lily.

"Alright boys the ever pressing question…do we stay at lovely Hogwarts for Christmas or not?" Sirius asked through his pancake stuffed mouth ass he waved the parchment in his hands.

"Well I have to go home because my grandmother's coming in from France," Peter announced.

"I can go home but I have a feeling that my house will be quite empty the year due to my mum and dad working so much lately," James admitted.

"I have to stay due to…well you know," Remus said quietly.

"Well we all know that I'm not going back to my house," Sirius said. "So it looks like we'll all be staying at Hogwarts this year, well except for you Pete."

"It's ok you guys will just have to tell me all about what you did after break," Peter replied.

"Don't worry Pete we'll give you all the gory details," James said. "I wonder who else will be staying over break."

"James just wants Lily to stay so he can try to win her over once again," Sirius playfully replied.

"Shut up Padfoot!" James yelled.

"Come on guys we've got to go or we're gonna be late to Potions again," Remus said trying to break up the playful fight between James and Sirius.

"Alright Moony calm down we're going," Sirius said as he stood up and gathered his books for the day's classes.

Andrea was headed to the common room after their last class of the day, Defense. The Marauders were being held back from class as usual and Lily had run off to talk to one of the other girls in their dorm room.

"Hey Andrea!" Remus called out as he jogged to catch up with his friend.

"Yeah Rem?" Andrea replied as she stopped and turned to face him.

"I was wondering what you were doing for the holiday's?"

"Oh I'm staying here at school," Andrea replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering," Remus said with a mysterious glint in his eye.

Andrea just looked on in confusion as Remus turned around and disappeared the same way he had come from. Once he was out of sight Andrea shook her head and continued on her way but after a few steps changed direction and headed to the library knowing that she would have to be there in a half hour anyway.

Andrea was halfway through her Charms essay when Remus and Lily joined her in the Library.

"There you are I was wondering where you had gotten to," Remus said as he sat down next to Andrea.

"I had nothing else to do so I got a head start on my work," Andrea answered.

"Well if you had been here the whole time I would've thought that you'd be further along then just halfway through the Charms essay," Lily commented.

"I was looking for a book before I began to work."

"Ok well let's get some work done," Remus declared as he pulled out his Potions essay. "Can you help me write this because I have no idea what I'm doing?"

"Sure," Andrea replied as she moved her chair closer to Remus'. She looked up to see if Lily wanted help as well but Lily was looking at her own parchment with a barely suppressed smile.

After two hours of straight work the trio packed up their books at the sound of Remus' growling stomach.

"Sorry," Remus said as he gave a sheepish look to his stomach.

"Why don't you go on ahead you don't have to wait for us," Andrea said.

"Well see I kind of promised Ja- er Potter that we would sit with them tonight so Remmy's waiting because we're going with him. I hope you don't mind but I figure that since we've got to work with them in Defense we may as well try to get along," Lily explained.

"Ok sure…well I'm ready whenever you guys are," Andrea said waving her arms to Remus and Lily.

"Well let's go then."

The trio made their way up to the Gryffindor common room to drop off their books and then headed down to the great hall where the rest of the Marauders and Lily's friends were all seated and filling their plates. Remus sat next to some fifth year with Andrea and Lily to his left. James and Sirius were across from them with Peter in-between. Andrea sat quietly in-between the two as they talked with their groups of friends. Some of their doormats sat on the other side of Lily so she spent most of dinner talking to them instead of talking to James but Andrea could tell that he was happy that she was just talking to him at all. Andrea remembered when she first got here how much Lily 'hated' James and how they were always fighting and yelling at each other but now Lily was kinder to James as she began to see him for who he really was. James on the other hand had cooled down considerably since the prank Andrea had played on the Marauders in the beginning of the year. The impending war outside also helped to force everyone to grow up a bit although it looked like the Marauders would never really grow up. Andrea looked wistfully around her at all the smiling and happy faces and the gossip that buzzed through the hall. Yet she had no part in it, she was just a quiet observer in this happy hour.

"So I'm all alone again," Andrea thought. "Again? I haven't really been left alone since I've been here. But why so I feel like I've been in this position so many times before?"

Andrea continued to sit mulling over her thoughts now oblivious to the ruckus that was going on around her.

"I've really got to start looking into why I can't remember things that I feel like I should be remembering," Andrea thought unaware that her face had taken on a pensive and slightly troubled look. The many questions that surrounded the subject of her memory made her head hurt. Andrea gave a great sigh of frustration before tilting her head to the side and resting it on Remus' shoulder, without even realizing it, as she continued to ponder her lack of memory in certain aspects.

Remus had been laughing his head off with the other Marauders at the prank they had played on the Slytherins where their food had been charmed to start jumping around, even the food in their stomachs, when he felt a head collide with his shoulder and a frustrated sigh. Remus looked down to see Andrea leaning her head on his shoulder and a pensive look upon her face.

"Ah Ang don't go all Lily on us," Remus jovially exclaimed.

"Hu?" Andrea said as Remus' voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Lily's the one who sits around huffing and puffing about our pranks with the disapproving look upon her face. You're supposed to be on our side laughing right along with us, besides we didn't do anything bad just having a little fun," Remus explained. By now the others had turned away from the Jumping Slytherins and were watching Remus and Andrea.

"Sorry Rem I wasn't paying attention, sorry I missed your prank," Andrea replied in a distracted voice.

"It's ok Ang it doesn't matter really. Are you ok?"

"Hu…yea I'm fine just…thinking."
"Well ok it's just the pensive look isn't a good look on you."

"Oh Ha Ha Lupin you're a right riot. What am I not allowed to contemplate the wonders of the world?" Andrea shot back.

"No I'm just saying you look like you're off in another world and you look kind of sad," Remus said.

"Sorry Rem I'm just thinking about some things that seem to escape me," Andrea replied.

"Anything I can help with?"

"Nah but thanks for the offer. Even I'm not a hundred percent sure what I'm looking for yet."

"It's ok you'll figure it out," Remus replied as he gave her a comforting one armed hug.

Sirius, James and Lily watched the whole exchange without interrupting the pair. The whole time they talked never once did Andre remove her head from Remus' shoulder and for most of their conversation Remus was slowly rubbing his had across her back to help her relax. Even once they were done talking he kept his arm around her and she kept her head on his shoulder. Lily smiled as she watched their interaction and knew that she would be drilling Andrea for information later along with the rest of the sixth year Gryffindor girls. Sirius and James looked at each other and shared a worried and confused look. Both boys knew that Remus deserved some happiness but neither was very keen on Andrea. James was ok with her he just didn't like how she had been occupying Remus' time the last few months. Sirius in the other hand felt that there was something she was keeping from all of them and wouldn't trust her until he knew and was sure that she wasn't just using them all.