Chapter 9 - You're a WHAT?
It was early morning of course, and Remus sat around with nothing to do but study as usual. It was third year now, and he would be thirteen on the upcoming May. He was bored, and he couldn't ask for nothing else to do on a calm spring morning. It was the day before he invited his friends to visit his house for the Easter Holidays. Remus felt giddy as he sat and ate his cereal.
"Morning Remmie." James greeted him, as he sat down across the long table from Remus.
"Morning, how's your research going?" asked Remus, questioningly.
"It's going steady. Sirius found the actual incantation in the Forbidden Section the other day." James said, keeping his voice down. "He used my cloak."
Remus rolled his eyes. In honor of his Werewolvery, Sirius, James, and Peter had decided to become animals, like him. And to do that, they needed to learn the art of Animagi. It was no easy task; especially to do it and not be discovered by the teachers. James' invisibility cloak came in use for trying to complete such a great task. It often allowed the friends to travel about unnoticed by the teachers and other students.
"Have you thought of any nicknames?" Remus answered, laughing.
"I don't know. We can't really call ourselves anything because we don't have our Animagi forms yet. All I know is that Peter is Wormtail because his experiment gone wrong." James answered.
Remus choked on milk, and as if on cue Peter joined them both at the table.
"H-hello guys," he spoke twitchingly, "Nice day, isn't it?"
"Hello Wormy," James chimed, and Peter flinched. Remus opened his mouth to speak, but the post was just coming in.
Everyone looked up, as usual. Remus noticed a spectacular golden owl from the crowd of the browns and grays, and his eyes widened at once.
"It's Aurora." He said, mouth agape. "I don't even remember the last time I got an owl from Alanze."
James and Peter looked at Remus questioningly.
"Not that I've been wanting to hear from her, it's just been months since I have." Remus innocently replied, freeing the letter from the owl's leg. His stomach churned anxiously, eager to actually read his letter. He then fed her some of his cereal and went along to read it.
'Dear Remus,' it read.
'For the last past months, I wish I could have written to you but its just the fact that I had ran away that I did not. Yes, believe what you just read, I did run away. I can't tell you the exact reason why… you'll find out soon enough. Just know that my mother and I had a row and she wanted nothing to do with me. I guess its because she's finally finding out that refuse to be anything like her as I grow older.
I did make a friend after so long at Mulberry. It was only for a week, but I had a friend. I don't even remember her name; I guess it was a dare for her to befriend me because she moved away the following week.'
Remus paused after reading that, and glanced around guiltily at James and Peter as they talked to each other. He returned to his letter
'I finally returned home. If I had not I would not have written you. This is primarily because I had no way to contact Aurora. I have been out for a while and now I finally have realized that there is a bigger world out there than what I am used to, no matter how sheltered my mother makes me.
I miss you; I still do not have anyone to talk to on weekends when mother wants to be bothered with me when I'm home from school. Other times, I write in my journal but it's not as satisfying as speaking to a living person who actually gives a true hell that you're alive.
I think you probably forgot about me; which I hope is not indefinitely true. Even if you forgetting me is still so, I still appreciate you befriending me when we were younger. I still remember the old Remus. I still feel a glow, especially when I think about what happened that day at the platform. Do you still feel it?
I miss you.
With Love,
Alanze.'
'What in the world is wrong with this girl?' Remus thought silently to himself. The letter troubled him. He had actually, for a while forgotten that Alanze indeed had existed. Why was she still writing to him? He hadn't spoken to her in half a year! How thick could one person be? But then again…
She was having troubles at home. She needed him now more than ever. And even though he didn't want to think about it… that little embrace… was it worthy enough to even be called an embrace?… they had at the platform two years ago still haunted his mind.
He didn't even realize he was blushing his cheeks off.
"What's up with the Lupe?" came a voice that Remus wasn't used to hearing in the morning.
"Sirius?" he spoke aloud, "What the bloody hell are you doing down here so early?"
The only reply that he got was a fit of laughter from the three of his friends. Remus' brow furrowed nervously, and he scanned the letter for the second time.
Alanze still had no friends? How old was she now… like eleven? She ran away from home… Remus knew her mother was crazy but never psycho enough to disown her own daughter.
A pair of arms threw themselves around Remus' neck from behind. Remus froze from the touch, and having his mind occupied his eyes searched the table. He saw James immediately tense and take his left hand to crumple up his hair, which had been untidily enough already. Remus inhaled and from his senses and James' reaction, he knew it was Lily.
"Hello!" the redhead called cheerfully. She sat directly next to Remus and by Peter. Remus looked at her as if he had never seen a girl before in any day of his life.
James glared wholly at Remus, before returning to his breakfast. Remus never noticed.
"G'morning, Lily." Remus answered mechanically, "You're down later than you'd usually be."
Lily laughed. Her dark green eyes had become intensely lighter over the years Remus had known her. They were a light bottle green and went well with the splash of freckles that appeared on her face just the year before.
"You know I'm up in the morning with the chickens, Rem, but I just couldn't wake up today. I can't get over the fact that you just didn't invite me to come over your house."
"That's the last thing we need, Ragweed," James replied bitterly, speaking the truth, "I'd kill myself if you were there. The last thing I'd want is for you to be drooling all over Moony like you usually do."
Everyone around the table paused. Lily blushed fuchsia, and looked down at her toes. Sirius' jaw dropped.
"What'd you call him?" he questioned.
"Moony?" James repeated, glaring irritably at an apple in the center of the table. "Why?"
"That's the perfect nickname! Moony!" said Sirius with a satisfied smile. "That's your new name, it suits you Remus. So, from now on, you're Moony!"
Remus laughed, not even feeling embarrassed about what James had said about Lily. Usually, he took up for the girl but his mind was preoccupied. Lily must've noticed so she spoke up for herself.
"Shut up Potter, and I do not drool over Remus. You're just immature and jealous!" she said hotly, raising her nose in the air.
"Am not!" James said glaring, "Take that back, you brainless plant!"
"You are too, and don't call me a plant just because my name is also a flower!" Lily replied.
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Ah ha! Who's immature now!"
"Shut up, Potter!"
Remus scarcely heard them arguing, as he got up from the table unnoticed with his letter.
-x-
"Welcome to Mainland Place." Remus greeted dismally. His mother answered the door after he had wrung the bell. He self-consciously glanced over at Sirius while James and Peter eagerly stepped inside the door.
"Sirius... what are you doing?" questioned James, watching his friend in amazement.
"The... thing!" Sirius answered gleefully, extending his index finger and rapidly pressing the doorbell. He laughed wickedly. "Press the mini button and noise echoes throughout the house! Then people come to the door!"
Peter glanced stonily at Remus and James before speaking. "S-Sirius, it's a doorbell. That's the whole purpose of the thing... to ring and alert the people within the house that there are visitors outside the house who want to come in."
At Peter's words, Sirius abruptly stopped playing with the doorbell and stood to gape, mouth wide open. The look didn't last very long, however, before it was replaced by Sirius' maniacal smirk.
"D'you know that's the smartest thing you actually said and I understood throughout these whole three years I've known you, Peter?" Sirius told his friend, looking astonished and speechless.
James and Remus exchanged glances before bursting into fits of laughter. Sirius took that time to return to violating the doorbell.
"Who insists on ringing that thing until I go mad?" a deep voice demanded, walking past the three young-men in the entrance hall. Quietly, he stuck his head outside the doorway to see who was pressing his bell.
"Oooh! More people! This button must be rigged by magic!" Sirius marveled, his eyes chocked full of boyish innocence. "I claim this... the new... Ringy-Dingy Magic People-Pusher Thingie for the South of Newfoundland!"
Artemus glanced stonily at Sirius, then towards his son.
"Reckon this lot is Sirius, right?" he questioned blandly.
"Right-in-one!" chimed the three Marauders standing in the doorway.
"Reckon you should all get in and make yourselves comfortable." Artemus told, as his wife, Selena, stood nearby and smiled at the four young men and welcomed them all inside. Remus' father was helping Peter carry his bags toward the stairway before speaking again.
"My wife and I set up the guest bedroom full of cots, so if you guys don't mind sharing a room for the holidays, things should be fine for you. We'll bring your trunks up later; just leave them here in the hallway."
"Thank you Mr. Lupin," said Peter politely. James and Sirius nodded in agreement.
"Dinner will be ready around six, boys. You don't have to help," chipped in Selena, a calm smile on her face.
"I'll show everyone about, shall I?" said Remus, blushingly, "Mind you... it's not a big place." he added, taking off his cloak and hanging it in the closet.
"YAY!" screamed Sirius, bouncing up the flight of stairs after Remus and the others. The house was small; they didn't have much to see. The four boys were just about to settle down and play Exploding Snap when the doorbell rung again.
"RINNNNNNNNNNNNG!"
"Shut up, Sirius!"
"Remus!" called the voice of Selena. They heard the door open, and his mother greet someone before calling up to him again.
"Remus! There's a visitor here for you!"
"Visitor?" asked Remus, looking at his friends curiously. "Who...?"
"You told your Muggle we'd be here?" asked James, "That could be her."
Remus paused for a moment. He hadn't told Alanze he was going to have his friends over for the holidays... or even that he was going to be coming home.
"Remus," said his mother's voice, more sternly this time. "Alanze's at the bottom of the stairs for you. I told her yesterday you were coming back home for the holidays. She's been dying to see you. Now don't be rude."
"Er... then send her upstairs. I'll introduce her to Wormtail, James and Sirius," said Remus wincing.
They heard small feet clamber up the stairs very clumsily. In a hurried voice, Remus turned to his friends and warned them.
"She's a bit of a train wreck, but be nice. Don't hurt her feelings… she's very moody. And she's only eleven so don't expect much." Remus grumbled, just at the right moment Alanze burst through the door.
The girl was still an unfocused ball of energy. A bit taller, Alanze was now free of her braces. She now had unusually straight, pearly teeth. Remus smiled a bit as she still wore thick glasses that made even James' frames look in style. Alanze still had puffy hair that looked like was fought into a solitary braid. Upon seeing this, Remus smiled softly to himself. His smile vanished when she began to speak and he realized she still spoke in an annoyingly high voice that sounded like a whine. He would've thought that over two years her voice would've deepened at least a little bit.
"I haven't seen you in years!" she started, smiling and cooing at Remus as if he were a doll in her possession, "I've missed you soooooooooo much, R.J.!"
"Er..." Remus said nervously, looking at Sirius who couldn't believe that such a girl looking like Alanze could possibly be created.
"So who're your friends?" said Alanze, nauseatingly. She spoke in a manner that stated she obviously didn't have many people to talk to and didn't know how to converse. "Are they from your Hogwarts too?"
"Yes." Remus answered shortly, "This is James, Sirius, and Peter." he introduced them all in turn, "They're my age. Thirteen."
"I'm eleven," stated Alanze, matter-of-factly, "I just upgraded from Mulberry Primary. I'm in some weird private school now that I cannot even pronounce. Mom chose it for me. She said it would be better if I got to know more about my Arabic roots."
Remus knew from the letter and from before that Alanze's mom was overprotective and it worried him a bit when her mother came to making decisions on her daughter's behalf. He didn't even know Alanze's mom all-too-well but from what Alanze spoke of her and what he experienced years ago and read she still sounded half-crazy. Slowly, Remus eyed Alanze's clothing apparel, to notice she still had on the same long dress that covered almost every aspect of her body up from the public.
He flushed suddenly, remembering that night when he saw her in her dark purple nightshirt…
"Guess what!" Alanze said quickly, holding out a yellowing letter for Remus to read. Remus snapped out of his trance, and gazed at the letter. Was it yellow? It looked more like... parchment. But it couldn't be...
"What is it?" asked Remus, dreading the worse. He saw the seal, and wanted to know no more. "You've got accepted into Hogwarts?" he spoke slowly, eyes bulging out of his head.
Sirius' snigger turned into a thoughtful cough only because James elbowed him in the arm.
"So you're a witch now?" asked Peter gently, "You must be Muggleborn if you never knew."
"I reckon so, but bad thing is Mum thinks it is a hoax so I really cannot go. But I know that I have enough magic in me to have this sent to me. Maybe... you all can put in a good word for me?" Alanze asked all four of the boys, looking very hopeful.
Remus looked as if Christmas had been canceled after months of preparation.
"What? No!" the words came tumbling out of Remus' mouth. Even Sirius looked shocked.
"W-why?" Alanze questioned, looking very putout. "I do not understand – I – I thought it would be good if we got back together and we could be friends again."
"I don't want you to go to Hogwarts!" Remus said incredulously. He thought of how the two worlds would immediately collide. His old Muggle world with his new Wizarding world… he couldn't stand it.
"That's mean, Remus," said James, who was used to hurling insults at Lily daily, "Even for me, that's mean."
As if she was used to people being mean to her, Alanze paused and stared coldly at Remus before speaking. "What do you mean, Remus?"
Remus looked fearful after hearing James' comment. He hadn't meant to say what he did; he and everyone else knew he wasn't that mean to others.
"I-" he tried to explain. His palms were sweaty and he was nervous. Why was he suddenly so upset he had been mean to Alanze?
"You what?" Alanze added, her lip twitching. "You know, all this time I was under the impression you were my friend. You wrote back, R.J."
James and Sirius sniggered at hearing Remus' nickname. Remus blushed to himself, embarrassed.
"That's what I mean! Don't call me R.J. anymore; my name is Remus! And, and I'm older than you! Stop trying to revert me back to childhood! And besides - I only wrote back because I promised I would!"
Alanze surveyed all of the older boys' faces. A single tear ran down the side of her face, as she looked over to Remus once more.
"You know, you were always a source of comfort to me. Like I said in my letter, when I needed you – you would always write back and act like you care. I am sorry that you changed so much… that you cannot accept the way I am around your new friends. Sorry I bothered you." She replied too calmly.
"Bye," she chimed sadly, leaving and shutting the door quietly and slowly after her.
And Remus felt bad. He felt worse; he felt horrible.
"And you know what else?" Alanze added before finally leaving, "I'm going to get into Hogwarts whether you want to help me or not."
-x-
Remus sat at the Gryffindor Table. Holidays had been over; and ever since then he had been fronting that what Alanze said hadn't bothered him. But, on the inside he was hurting and tortured from what he had said. What if she never spoke to him again because of how he acted in front of the others?
"He's still brooding. G'morning Wormtail," James answered in response of Peter sitting down next to him at the table.
"I-I still think you shouldn't have-" Peter tried to help, but Remus grumbled and turned away from him.
"If I wanted your opinion, Rat face, I would've asked." Remus had become awfully angry after his incident with Alanze.
"Touchy, touchy!" was Peter's only reply.
Sirius was in a good mood. A group of girls kept looking at him adoringly, and he loved any good attention from the opposite sex.
"Hello," he said cheerfully, "Owl post!"
Remus put his head sheltered under his arms as he lay on the table. The last thing he wanted was another letter to make him feel even worse than he did.
"Hey Moony, you have a letter." James told, grinning madly.
"Froumoo?" asked Remus, very muffled and miserable from under his arms.
"What, sorry? I don't speak cow," answered James, puzzled.
"FROM WHO?" Remus literally had to scream to get his point across. "Open it!"
Grumbling, James opened his letter. "It's from your Mumma."
Remus sighed and blindly reached towards the parchment, and opened it. What he read wasn't really something he wanted to hear.
'Remus', it read in cramped, hurried writing.
'My son, I don't want to know what you and Alanze had a fight about, but she turned to me two days ago in tears. She ended up telling me her secret of how she's a Muggleborn and how her mother wants to disown her for being magical. I'm ashamed of you. Alanze was the first friend you made when you first moved here and now it seems as if you just traded her in for James, Sirius and Peter. That's not fair to her, Remus. Now, with you out of her life Alanze has absolutely no friends. She's been coming to our house to be with me because I'm the only one she claims that will listen to her.
Push comes to shove; I decided to take her on a trip to Diagon Alley to show her a taste of the Wizarding World. She enjoyed it, and I opened up a Gringotts account for her and put in about ten galleons. After I allowed her to take some of it out, we went and brought a few things. Oddly enough, the sky turned completely gray and it was as if a magical fight had been going on while we were standing on the street. I got separated from her… and the last thing I saw of the girl was her running down towards Knockturn Alley.
Afterwards, I tried to find her – I called for hours and even searched Knockturn Alley but it was of no use. She's lost, Remus. I owled the Ministry, and they said they'll send an Auror search party out to find her if she's still missing. I'm worried. What if someone kidnapped her? Or worse, what if she's dead?
I'm blaming myself for her disappearance. I just wanted to let you know that she's gone. Perhaps you can tell Dumbledore to keep an eye out for Alanze. She really wanted to go to Hogwarts… perhaps she found a way?
I'll write you later if we hear any news,
Your Mother,
Selena'
Remus dropped the letter silently. First he insulted Alanze and felt ashamed for doing so, and now Alanze was missing? It wasn't his mother's fault the girl was gone - it was his!
Remus sat as if he hadn't read anything written from his mother. He murmured, "Incendio!" and set the parchment aflame. Of course, his friends looked at him weirdly but what they didn't know surely wouldn't kill them…
-x-
She ran quickly, silently, with absolutely no idea where she was heading. She ended up running around a village and she assumed it was Wizarding. Besides that, she had no idea where she was.
"Who're you?" asked a raspy voice. She whipped around, half-scared and half-interested to the person addressing her. It was something wrapped up in a dark cape. Whatever it was… it's face was covered completely.
"I-" she started, then thought about not talking to strangers. She continued to walk on nervously, pretending as if she knew where she was going. The thing… whatever it was… kept a close tag on her as she walked. She was starting to get paranoid – she didn't like being followed.
"I'm going to tell my m-my mum that you've been following me for the past ten streets!" she yelled aloud, nervous now. She looked up at the nearest street intersection and the signs read Dark Maple and Serpentine. She then glanced around, trying to see if anything looked welcome enough for her to try to get help. Unfortunately, nothing did. The neighborhood looked just like the street names described them; the houses were dark, ominous and shabby. She didn't know what else to do.
"I think you're bluffing and you're a lost… helpless little witch," Said the thing, whatever it was… that was following her. "You have no idea where you are."
She trembled, fearing the worse. Then impulsively, she began to run. It wasn't the smartest thing to do – because her stalker followed in hot pursuit.
She knew something bad was bound to happen – but hope crossed her eye. In the distance she saw a large mansion and began to run towards it. It looked like people lived in it from the fresh flowers that grew and from its sleek look over the shabby little town. Maybe if she made it that far… someone could help her…
But she couldn't outrun her captor. It finally caught up to her – and it took to the air as he knocked her down. It flew high over her head, and she screamed and shielded her face once she saw what the creature was… she had never seen/imagined a thing like that in her life…
Something counteracted with the attacker as she lay trembling, backwards on the ground. She watched as the two creatures fought… the second one was grumbling in a low voice about the first being out of his "territory"… but the first wasn't bound to give up. As she watched, the second creature snarled and threw the first to the ground then stood in front of her… as if he were indicating that she was his. The first, on the ground, growled back, then threw his hood over his head and retreated. The second watched him leave.
She wanted to escape while the second had his back to her, but she just couldn't. She was rooted to the spot… and she felt the creature would've known if she moved anyway.
"What are you doing here, little witch?" asked the person, in an alarmingly smooth voice. The creature now sounded human, and like a young male.
"I was lost and separated from my guardian." Answered the girl, frightened, "Please… don't hurt me."
"I'm not going to," said the creature, his back still to the little girl, "Unless you give me a reason."
And then… he turned around. The girl's jaw dropped, very surprisingly. The creature… despite its look before now seemed human. It was insane, because he was incredibly handsome and young, like the girl supposed. It was outlandish… how could something so nasty have transformed into a man that made her blush in just a few moments?
"Besides your fall, are you okay, witch?" asked the guy, surveying the girl with dark eyes. "You look astounded."
"I-" the girl started to try to explain, but tons of questions flooded out of her mouth instead. "Where am I? What was that… that thing? Who are you?"
The man didn't smile or show any emotions on his face. He just looked extremely annoyed at her ignorance.
"You are in what your kind call Parasite Alley. How'd you get through here?" he asked, now curious.
"Knockturn Alley… but…" the girl tried to explain. She was interrupted, however.
"That explains everything. Well here at Parasite Alley, there is no magic. Just… us parasites."
"I don't understand." She claimed, truly confused. He walked over and stooped down to the girl's eye-level. She saw that his eyes were a dark, almost black green and it made her swoon.
"We are Vampires…the hunters and enemies of the type of humans in your world. No witches are allowed past Knockturn Alley; which is why this place isn't overrun. All the creatures that live in Parasite Alley either want to kill you right now to have dinner, or kill you just for sport." Told the man.
The girl tried to swallow a hard lump in her throat, but she just couldn't move. It was if she was petrified; the man who was talking to her just kept staring… and she kept staring back. It remained that way, in silence, for ten minutes almost.
"You are not pure," the Vampire finally told her. "You wouldn't have made it across the Wizarding barrier if you were a true witch. Still, you wouldn't be poison to my kind. The other Vampire that was following you probably sensed that if he fed on you, then he wouldn't become sick."
Her left eye twitched as the Vampire finally stood up. His legs cracked from staying in the bent position too long, and he stretched…though he never once removed the girl from his eyesight. She couldn't break off from staring into his eyes… they were hypnotizing…
"Come with me," he told her, "I shall explain everything to you back at my manor. We cannot stay in the streets; the sun is about to set and every Vampire within range will want your sweet human blood." He added creepily, and she shuddered.
"And how do I know that I can trust you?" she questioned, still not moving. "How is it that you are a Vampire and you don't want to hurt me?"
"Because not all Vampires are bad creatures," said the man simply, "Do you wish to go with me and be safe… or stay here and be devoured?"
The vampire extended his arm gracefully in the direction of the girl on the ground. She raised her twitching arm slowly, and the vampire pulled her to her feet.
"Please, just help me find my guardian. I just want to go home," sighed the girl sadly as the Vampire held onto her, as they seemed to float effortlessly towards the manor far in the distance.
"I'm sorry, but you can't." The man said politely. The girl shivered and let out a wail of anguish.
"Why? You said you would help me!" she screamed, trying to wrench her arm out of his grip. She wiggled all she could, but his grip never faltered.
"I said I would protect you, that's about all," replied the Vampire, chuckling lightly, "But look at things this way. You have two simple choices. You either stay with me… protected and out of harm's way. You cannot leave, which leads to the other choice. If you want to leave, then you will have to venture on your own twelve miles back towards Knockturn Alley. There are hundreds of Vampires in Parasite Alley, and I won't be responsible for what happens to you."
The choice was obvious… she wasn't going to try her luck and escape – she just had no other decision but to stay with the mysterious Vampire. And no one even knew she was alive because in the human Wizarding world, she was no more.
-x-
Three days later, Remus got a letter in the mail at morning post. It made him so sick to his stomach that he leapt from the table, and ran away in shock.
His friends, sitting at the table leaned in to read the note that made their friend so horrified. And he had good reason to be so upset at the contents within the letter.
'Dear Remus,
Unfortunately there has been no sign of Alanze. Aurors have been searching, and followed her trail to the base of Knockturn Alley. Naturally, since Wizards are not allowed by a law to enter into the village beyond Knockturn, it is assumed since Alanze wasn't halfblood or pure that she crossed the line. If that is so, she is definitely dead. Nothing but the worse is on the other side of that barrier, and there would be no chance of survival for her.
I'm so sorry.
Mum'