"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune…to lose both seems like carelessness"
Oscar Wilde The Importance Of Being Earnest
Where You Belong
Chapter 12
Christmas Break came with all its cheer yet Andrea did not feel much of it as she stood on the front steps of Hogwarts and watched as Lily rode away to the train to head home for the Holidays. Andrea was now forced to spend her Christmas break with three-fourths of the Marauders, and it was not something she was really looking forward to.
Christmas morning dawned bright, cold and full of snow as those inside began to rouse for the age old tradition of opening presents. Those in Gryffindor tower were quite shocked tough when they found nothing but a note at the foot of their beds where their presents normally resided. Andrea read the simple note, In the Common room, and stared once more at the beauty outside before getting dressed for the day.
Andrea entered the Common room to see James, Sirius, and Remus already tearing into their presents. In the corner of the room sat a modestly sized tree the Andrea had not noticed before, underneath it sat six piles of presents for the six occupants staying in Gryffindor tower. Andrea calmly walked over to the tree and sat down next to Remus in front of her presents. She tentatively reached out and pulled the two packages with her name on it closer to her. She was about to open them when she heard a noise coming from the girls stairs she turned to see two girls come stumbling down the stairs. The girls were younger and looked nervous about joining the sixth years. Andrea looked briefly at the remaining two piles of presents and decided to approach the girls.
"Kimberly and Kelly?" Andrea said breaking the momentary silence that had fallen over the common room.
"Yes?" The older of the two girls answered.
"Well are you two going to join us and open presents or are you just going to stand there and stare at them all day?" Andrea asked looking directly at the two girls. The girls looked at each other and then broke out in smiles as they ran across the room to get to their presents.
Once Andrea was sure the girls were comfortable and had begun to open their presents she turned to her own presents and opened them. Lily had gotten her a book on Charms to help her do better and some Honeydukes chocolate. Andrea smiled at Lily's presents and carefully set them on the table behind her before moving onto her other present. Remus had gotten her the scarf she had seen on Hogsmead and a book of all the works of Edgar Allen Poe, one of her favorite American writers.
"Oh Rem thank you so much I love it!" Andrea said as she looked at the book before putting it down to give Remus a big hug and a quick peck on the cheek.
"Yea well Lily had mentioned that, that was one of your favorite writers and I figured that you could use something besides textbooks to read," Remus sheepishly answered blushing from the hug and kiss Andrea had given him.
Andrea just smiled in return and picked up her book as she made her way to a couch and curled up to begin reading her book.
"Wait aren't you going to open the rest of your presents before you begin reading?" Kelly, the older of the two sisters, asked.
Andrea looked up to respond and realized that the other five occupants of the room, James and Sirius included, were all looking at her waiting for her answer.
"Um…well you see I've already opened all of my presents," Andrea said as a blush crept up her pale cheeks.
"You only got two presents!" The younger girl, Kimberly, exclaimed.
"Yeah well I have no real family so I only got presents from my closest friends," Andrea explained.
"Why do you only have two friends?"
Andrea was startled by the question so it took her a few minutes to gain her bearings and figure out a way to answer the question. Once again the girls question had captured the attention of everyone in the room.
"Well…you see…I'm kind of a shy person so I've never really had a lot of friends. Besides a lot of people don't like me because I used to be in Slytherin."
"Oh well I like you, you're nice and friendly and I'll be your friend if you want," Kelly offered.
"I would be delighted to be your friend Kelly," Andrea replied with a smile on her face. "Now why don't you finish unwrapping your presents so we can have a snowball fight."
With a smile and a flourish the girls returned to opening their presents and Andrea went back to reading her book. Remus stared at Andrea for a few more seconds before returning to his own pile of presents with a smile upon his face as well.
Soon the piles of presents dwindled down and the only ones left with anything to open were James and Sirius. Both boys looked at their last present in confusion not knowing who it could have come from, with a quick look at each other they silently agreed to open their presents at the same time. Each found a small box with an assortment of candies in it and a note attached, with a shrug they turned their attention to the letters.
Happy Christmas Boys!
In light of the holiday spirit I offer these prank products as an offering of peace. I know we got off on the wrong foot so to say and I understand why you guys are skeptical of me and my behavior, but trust me when I say that I'm on your side and I don't plan on hurting any of you. Remus is one of my best friends as he is one of yours so I think it only fair if we called a truce. You don't have to get all buddy-buddy with me but can we please stop the constant fighting and try to move on?
Hoping for the best
Andrea
P.S.- enjoy the present I found them in my trunk so put them to good use and do me a favor slip one of the yellow cake looking ones to Snape I think you'll enjoy the results!
James and Sirius looked at each other when they were done reading their notes and looked at the sweets in the boxes before looking over at Andrea who was sitting on one of the couches completely engrossed in her book from Remus.
Andrea felt two pair of eyes focused on her from across the room and knew that James and Sirius were staring at her but she refused to look up at them. She read a little further before closing her book and glancing around the room.
"Well if we're all done opening our presents why don't we head down for breakfast," Andrea suggested getting up from her spot on the couch. The others nodded their consent and left their presents in favor of finding food.
After they had all had their full of food the six Gryffindor's decided to head outside for a snowball fight. Andrea grabbed the other two girls and headed to the tree by the lake to set up their base. The boys chose to put their base near the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
The simple fight soon became an all out war between the boys and the girls, although James and Sirius were aiming more for Andrea then the younger two. Even though Andrea was the main target she could tell that they weren't attacking with as much ferocity as she would have expected. Andrea pulled Kelly and Kimberly down behind their snow wall to formulate a plan to beat the boys where they would charm the snowballs to follow the boys to draw them out and then all out attack. The girls were just about done setting up their plan when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around Andrea's stomach and lifted her up and over their shoulders. Andrea shrieked in surprise realizing what had happened.
"Hey you guys can't do that! Remus Lupin you put me down right now!"
"Why should I do that? Without their master planner the girls will never win," Remus said. Andrea was sure that there was a smirk upon his face but seeing as all she could see was his backside she couldn't be to sure.
"Fine then," Andrea picked up her head to stare at the two girls still in their snow base winked at them and then yelled, "Run!"
Instantly the charmed snowballs took off after the three boys. Once James and Sirius realized what was happening they began to retaliate. Remus was still in-between the two bases when the attack began and so most of the snowballs ended up attacking the two in the middle and not the bases. Under the attack of twice the amount of snow Remus tripped and lost his balance and ended up falling on top of Andrea who was lost to a fit of the giggles. The snow continued to fly overhead as the two lay there recovering from their fall. Remus was laying there half on top of Andrea as he thought about what had just happened. Andrea's declining giggles brought Remus out of his daze and he turned to smile at her.
"Rem can you get up this snow is cold," Andrea asked with a hint of the giggles still in her voice.
"Unfortunately, my lady, I was told to capture you and keep you from fighting at all costs," Remus replied with barely suppressed mirth in his voice and eyes.
"Come on Rem your on top of me making it slightly hard to breath and the snow is soaking all my clothes. Get Up!"
"Well then let me assist you."
With that Remus jumped up and, before Andrea even really had a chance to react, he reached down and picked her up and headed towards the castle. The various shouts to Remus to put her down and come back to the snowball fight were lost to the wind as he hurried toward the warmth of school. Andrea finally gave up trying to convince Remus to put her down. In all reality she found it quite nice to be carried like this, she was no longer thrown over his shoulder but was cradled to his warm chest with an arm behind her back and under her legs. She shivered as the breeze swept over her and found herself curling instinctively closer to Remus to keep warm. Remus only held her closer with a smile upon his face and quickened his pace.
"Don't worry you'll be warm by the fire soon enough."
"Yeah well I better be it's freezing out here."
"Really I hadn't noticed," Remus said dryly.
"Yeah well it's all your fault I'm so cold anyway," Andrea replied.
"If I recall it was you who suggested that we have a snowball fight in the first place."
"Yeah but I didn't asked to be smothered in it by you."
"I didn't smother you in the snow," Remus said trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.
"Whatever just get me warm ok?"
"Sure anything else your majesty?"
"Yeah a nice throne and you as my personal servant as payback for making me so cold," Andrea joked.
Remus was helping Andrea snuggle under another blanket when the rest of their group came traipsing through the portrait hole.
"Moony, why'd you leave us?" James inquired.
"Yea we had to fend for ourselves against these two hooligans, it was awful," Sirius dramatically complained.
"Oh hush you two the girls didn't attack you that bad besides Rem had to make sure I didn't freeze seeing as he's the one who shoved me in the snow in the first place," Andrea answered.
"But Andrea…"
"Kelly, Kimberly why don't you two come over here and tell me what happened after I left," Andrea suggested interrupting whatever Kelly was about to say. The boys took up the couch across from the girls and engaged in their own conversation.
Hours later the six Gryffindors sat around the fire full from the Christmas feast and happy to be surrounded by friends. Sirius and James took the two arm chairs by the fire and were huddled together speaking in low whispers. Kimberly and Kelly sat on one of the couches writing a joint letter to their parents while Remus and Andrea took the other couch. Andrea was lying across the couch with her head in Remus' lap both were too wrapped up in their own books to realize that Remus was playing with Andrea's hair as he read. Yet the other occupants of the room did notice. Kelly and Kimberly were giggling and talking in excited whispers thinking that the whole situation was cute. James and Sirius were trying to think of was to prevent the inevitable, just because they had decide to give Andre a chance didn't mean that they wanted her to get too close to Remus she could still hurt him.
"Moony put down your silly book and do something entertaining with us," Sirius whined like a five year old.
"Well Padfoot what did you have in mind?" Remus responded.
"Truth or Dare?" Sirius suggested in his sweetest and most innocent voice.
"Oh can we play?" Kelly asked.
"Why don't all six of us play," Andrea suggested getting up from her comfortable pillow.
"Sure." Sirius said.
"I'll go first!" James said. "Padfoot, truth or dare?"
"Dare!"
"Ok I dare you to walk around in your boxers all day on the first day of classes."
"Fine. My turn…Moony, truth or dare?"
"…Dare." Remus said.
"Ohhh I dare you not to do your homework for the first week of classes," Sirius declared."
"Sirius I can't do that!"
"Nope too bad Moony you've got to do it now…or not do it I should say," Sirius said with a smug smirk spreading across his face.
Remus was about to protest more but Andrea stopped him by leaning close and whispering in his ear. "Don't worry they never said that someone else couldn't do your homework for you so let it go."
"Fine. Now my turn. Andrea, truth or dare?"
"I'll go with truth to mix it up a bit."
"Ok Truth conference!" Sirius yelled as the other five huddled together to discuss what question to ask Andrea. After a few minutes they all resumed their seats and Remus turned to look at Andrea.
"Ok Andrea what happened to you and your family? Like what really happened to you to bring you to Hogwarts?" Remus asked with a hint of regret in his face because he knew that Andrea disliked talking about her past but their curiosity about her was too much.
"I-I really don't remember…"
"What do you mean you don't remember?" James asked intrigued.
"Look when I arrived here I remember talking to Dumbledore about how I was adopted at a young age and my last name was changed. I moved to Canada with my new family and then six months ago my parents were killed so I came back to England where I was born to try to find some family. It didn't go well seeing as I have no idea what my real last name is I searched adoption agencies to try to figure out who I really was but all I got was a list of children named Andrea that were adopted around the same time as me. I then went to see if I could find some family, that's when I ran into my 'aunt' Sandra and she decided to take me in until school started. So I'm still on my own." Andrea explained.
"Well it sounds like you know what happened to you," Kelly stated.
"I know but the problem is I don't remember doing any of that it's like some made up story that I was told to explain my arrival at Hogwarts. I don't remember anything before I arrived here."
"Have you told anyone about this?" Remus said.
"No I've been trying to figure it out for myself since September when I realized I couldn't remember things."
"Maybe you should tell Dumbledore about this," Kimberly stated.
"I guess so but I really don't see how he can help me I'm sure he's busy enough as it is," Andrea replied.
"Yea but you can still try can't you?"
"Alright I'll go to him after the holidays….Now lets get back to the game," Andrea said effectively taking the attention off of her and her lack of memory.