Out of the Blue
Chapter 5 – Avoiding you.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything…
RATING: PG-13 (T) to R (M) - violence, language, angst, horror, mild sexual interactions, etc. If you can watch BTVS/AtS and read HP, I doubt you'll have any problem with this story.
TIMELINE: Takes place after season two in BTVS, and during the marauders last year at Hogwarts.
SUMMARY: BTVS/HP crossover. Life sucked for Buffy Summers. After taking her refuge to LA, she had hoped she would finally have some of that peace the Hellmouth couldn't provide. She should have known she was hoping for the impossible. When she gets propelled into another dimension, her life changes forever - but is it for the better or for worse?
CENTRAL PAIRING: Buffy/Remus
OTHER PAIRINGS: James/Lily, Sirius/OC
Special Thanks to: My Beta - CharmedChick
The next morning was a day full of pain. As soon as they woke up, the marauders knew it would be a bad day. They all had a headache, and their feet were killing them.
"Remind me never to shop with girls again...ever!" James complained, as he made his way over to his rumpled clothes on the floor. He moaned as he bent down.
"My back is killing me!"
"Hear, hear..." Sirius muttered. "Why didn't we make the bags feather-light or something?"
"Because James decided to prove he wasn't a wimp," Remus said, and James glared.
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too! I seem to recall Lily herself offering to charm them, but noooo. You had to be the strong, macho-man, and prove you could carry them without any problem."
Now Sirius looked thoughtful too.
"You know, Prongs, I think Moony's right."
"When am I not?" Remus mumbled.
"Yeah, he is..." Sirius continued, and started to imitate James and Lily.
"James!" He said in an high-pitched voice, and threw his hair over his shoulder. "Do you want me to charm those bags? You look a little tired!" he said, and fluttered with his eyes.
Then he changed voices.
"Oh, no, Evans! Me, James, your knight in shining armor, does not need your spells! These bags are nothing! I can carry much more!" Sirius said, and flexed his muscles.
Then, he changed personas once again.
"Oh, James! You are so brave! And strong! And handsome!" He ended the act by clutching his heart, and falling to his knees in front of the real James, who scowled.
"James! I know I've been a twit with no sense of humor. Can you ever forgive me? MARRY ME, James, and let me carry your children!"
Remus and Peter burst out into wild laughter- Peter was rolling at the floor. James, however, glared daggers at Sirius.
"Shut it, Padfoot, before I transfigure you into something nasty- like a spider, and then, I squash you to death."
Sirius clutched his heart again.
"Oh, James," he sniffed. "I am seriously hurt. You wouldn't do that to me?"
"Watch me," James said threateningly, and took a step forward, and Sirius, who felt James wasn't in the best mood, hastily backed off.
"Woah, no need for violence, Prongs! I was only playing around!"
James just glared once more, before going into the bathroom, shutting the door with a loud 'bang'. Sirius winced.
"I guess he really was in a bad mood..."
When the marauders got down to breakfast, it seemed the only one still suffering from soar feet and aching back was James. When he saw the food, however, he brightened.
When Lily and Buffy entered, he brightened even more. Remus, did not.
"Morning!" Buffy said happily. "Do you guys have classes today? Professor DD said I should just sit in on some classes, to get used to this school. I mean, Salem Academy is SO much different," she said, making sure the marauders heard her sarcasm.
"Well, I got Arithmancy," Lily said, "but since you weren't going to take it..."
"No need to sit in on that, then. Nothing else?"
"Well, I think the guys, James and Sirius, have muggle studies."
"I won't take muggle studies either."
"Oh...well," Lily bit her lip, as she was thinking.
"You could always have Divination, with me," Peter piped up, and Buffy was then glad she didn't have that class, if Peter was the only one taking it...
"I won't take that either!"
James and Sirius sniggered.
"What? Is it something wrong with that?" Buffy asked crossly, and James shook his head.
"Nope. It's the other way around, it's great! It's just a load of rubbish. I quit as soon as I got the chance."
Sirius grinned.
"Understandable. The old toad was only predicting his death all the time." He started to imitate the Divination teacher.
"I see a dark future for you...love walks hand in hand with death...," he said in a deep voice. "I see...ARGH!" He raised up from his chair. "I see...THE GRIM! Oh, my dearest boy...you are going to die young! You will suffer a terrible fate because of someone you thought was your friend. Beware of those close to you..." With that, Sirius fell back in his chair.
The entire Gryffindor table laughed now.
"Anyway," Sirius said, and took a bite of his bread. "The only reason James didn't walk out on the class was because the old toad also made some other predictions...and James loved those."
Lily groaned. "Sirius..." She said warningly, but too late. He had already started another round of his little 'game' for the day.
He sniffed, and took Lily's hand, as if to read it.
"...Oh, my dearest...You will end up marrying the one you thought you hated! It is predicted, by the stars!"
Buffy giggled, and so did everyone else. She could almost guess what came next...She was right. Sirius mimicked Lily's voice, before again playing the part of the divination teacher.
"Who?"
"JAMES POTTER! Don't look at me like that, girl! It is true, and written, clear as any day! You will marry each other, and you will..."
"SIRIUS!" Lily said. "Shut it right now, before I hex you into oblivion!"
James had turned a nice shade of tomato red in his seat, and was doing a very bad job of pretending he hadn't noticed a thing.
Sirius smirked.
"Anyway, that was why James kept going to the lessons. Those predictions were the highlights of the week! Prongs lived for them!"
Buffy could barely breath, she was laughing so hard. Sirius was hilarious!
Lily just huffed.
"Well, Buffy, since you probably don't want to go to Divination, and Muggle studies would probably be boring, you should go to Arithmancy with me and Remus, even if you don't take it."
"Remus takes Arithmancy?" Buffy said, interested. Maybe Arithmancy wasn't so bad to sit in on after all...
James and Sirius sniggered behind their breaths, and Lily's lips was twitching dangerously.
"Well, yes."
"I'll go with you then!" Buffy chirped. She was kind of curious on Divination after Sirius little 'play', but spending a lesson alone with Peter...no thank you. He was still giving her the creeps, and more so every day.
"That's alright with you, Remus, right?" Buffy asked, and turned to the marauder who hadn't said a word through the entire meal.
"Huh?" Remus looked up from his plate, and James raised his eyebrows.
"Have you been listening to a word we've been saying?"
Remus just gave him a look.
"Of course I did, it was kind of hard not to."
"Well, is it alright?"
"What?"
"With Buffy sitting in on yours and Lily's Arithmancy lesson?" Sirius filled in, growing slightly irritated.
Remus shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. I mean, she can do whatever she wants."
Four jaws nearly hit the floor at this. 'Is Remus really alright?' Lily thought. She could have sworn Remus had a thing for Buffy, but now she wasn't so sure...
"Remus, mate? You okay?" James said. It looked like he'd been thinking the exact same thing as she had, for once.
"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
James looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, just shook his head.
"Never mind."
"Well, I'm going to head up to my room, get my stuff. See you at the lesson, Lily," Remus said, and left. Buffy looked after him, a slightly hurt look on her face. Remus hadn't said good morning, he hadn't said goodbye...he had pretty much ignored her completely.
Lily looked at Buffy worriedly.
"You coming? We should get ready too..."
Buffy opened her mouth.
"You know what? I think I'm just gonna go back to the dorm...maybe read or something on a subject I'm actually gonna take. I mean, it's kinda useless wasting an hour on an unnecessary lesson..."
Buffy rose from her chair and left. She'd barely touched her breakfast.
"Psst! Moony!" James whispered.
"What?" Remus whispered back. The marauders (minus Peter)were in their Astronomy lesson, but neither of them (well, except Remus) were paying attention, as their professor's voice soared over the room.
"...And that is why Mars is the planet of war. Jupiter, on the other hand..."
"What was that at breakfast?"
Remus frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"With Buffy!" James hissed. "You were completely rude!"
Remus frowned again.
"I was not rude!"
"Yes, you were! You just shrugged her off!"
"Well, maybe I wasn't in the mood to talk to her," Remus said, clearly irritated.
"Now, sod off, before the teacher notices. I'm trying to listen!"
James was slightly shocked, and hurt, by Remus tone. However, he refused to give up.
"Is it because of the Diagon Alley thing? At Ollivanders? Aren't you over that yet, mate?"
Remus stiffened, and James knew he'd hit the spot.
"...When you compare Jupiter with Mars..."
"Oh, come on! It doesn't matter! She doesn't hate you!"
"Oh, no? Well, she seems to hate werewolves, and that means she hates me!"
"She never said that!" James said, his voice rising slightly.
Neither he or Remus had noticed the teacher had now became silent, and that everyone was listening in, on what seemed to become a fairly interesting subject.
"Well, she implied it!"
"Oh, come off it! So you're just going to throw away the only crush you've had since...well, EVER, just because of...your...furry little problem?"
The students around them frowned, all wondering what Remus' rabbit had to do with this.
"YES! Just because of that!" Remusexclaimed."It's not like we have a future together!"
"Don't say that!" James argued. "Talk to her! Tell her the truth! Maybe she'll..."
Somebody coughed, and James snapped his mouth shut immediately. He had completely forgotten they were in a lesson.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin, I'm sure you were having a very interesting discussion, I somehow doubt it has anything to do with the differences between Jupiter and Mars. If it does, please tell me."
Both boys were silent.
"I didn't think so. Twenty points from Gryffindor, and detention with me tomorrow evening, eight o'clock."
The students groaned. Not because of the lost points, but because they had wanted to hear the end of the discussion. It was rare that the marauders fought, and even more rare when Remus Lupin lost his temper...and he never did it in class!
"Now look what you did!" Remus hissed towards James.
"Another five points, Mr. Lupin. And if you open your mouth one more time, I'll make it fifty."
This shut Remus up, and he returned to his work. However, he kept glaring daggers at James throughout the rest of the class.
Sirius, who'd been watching the dispute happily at first, was now frowning. This wasn't good.
The little dispute known throughout the entire castle by next morning, and both James and Remus had had several people asking if this was true, and if it was the end of the marauders. Neither answered. The rumors had also reached Buffy's ear, however, it was in a version as far from the truth as possible.
Rumor had it that Remus had a crush on Buffy, who had a crush on James, who had a crush on Remus, and that Remus had been disappointed at Buffy because of this, and James had tried to make a move on Remus now when he was 'free', but Remus had become mad, and now both refused to talk to each other, and James was no longer a marauder because he was gay. And somehow, a rabbit had been throwned into all of this. It was all a big, confusing mess, and no one really knew what to think.
InBuffy's ears, all of it was clearly rubbish. It was obvious Remus did not fancy her - he seemed to hate her for the moment, and she definitely did not fancy James, even though he was good looking and a good friend. And even more out of picture was James fancying Remus - where the Hell had that come from? James Potter - gay? Nothing wrong with gays, of course, but him being gay was about as possible as Peter being accepted onto the Quidditch team - never. And it was so obvious James fancied Lily. And where the Hell did the seemingly non-existence rabbit came from?
Well, even if the rumors flying around the castle right now was growing steadily, Buffy was sure they'd die out sooner or later. However, she was curious as to what the argument had been about. Maybe she should ask James...she sniggered. Or maybe not. He'd been very busy with fending off the male population of Hogwarts who wanted to date him. He probably didn't have time for her...and Remus...well, Buffy wasn't sure what was up with him, but he'd been avoiding everyone - or her, as a matter of fact - as the plague. And Buffy was determined to find out why.
"Hey, Potter," a fifth year Gryffindor boy walked up to him, and James sighed. If it was another one who wanted to ask him on a date, he would...he would...well, he would do something drastic, that was for sure.
"Yes?" He asked with a forced smile.
"Well, I just...I just wanted to ask you if..."
"...No, I don't want to go on a date with you," James said. "And now sod off before I do something that will get me expelled!"
The boy's eyes widened, and he scurried off. Sirius came up behind, an amused look on his face.
"Oh, Prongs," he said, smirking. "I feel bad for you. But, as a matter of fact, that boy wasn't going to ask you out."
"He wasn't?" James asked dumbly.
"No. Most of the boys in Hogwarts are straight, so why would everyone who comes up to talk with you be on a quest to ask you out?"
"Well, maybe because the last eight have..." James mumbled, but Sirius didn't listen.
"He was wondering when the Quidditch tryouts were being held - he was thinking about trying out for Keeper. He asked me, but since I'm not on the team, I didn't know, and therefore, sent him off to you. Good job, Prongs. You probably scared away a good Keeper candidate." Sirius patted a stunned James on his back, before leaving.
James groaned. This day was only getting worse...
Remus groaned. This day was only getting worse. He had a detention at eight, and loads of homework, even though the term had just started. The teachers had been going on like crazy about this year being so important since it was their last, and their NEWT year on top of that. He started to read through the first paragraph on the Astronomy essay - Differences between Jupiter and Mars.
'It probably would have been a lot easier if James hadn't interrupted me, and I could have listened to what the professor said...' Remus thought grumpily. The essay wasn't due until next week, but he wanted it over with as fast as possible, so he could focus on the more 'important' homework...say, Defense Against the Dark Arts.
He was interrupted by the portrait hole flying open. Remus sighed. If it was another person who wanted to ask him about the 'triangle-drama', he'd probably stun them or hex them or something...maybe the bat-boogey hex. It was nasty enough. He looked up, and stared into a pair of sparkling blue-green eyes.
"B-Buffy." Remus stammered.
"Hello, Remus," Buffy said cooly. "Can we talk a little? Maybe about why you've been avoiding me?"
Remus blinked. Had he been that obvious?
"I haven't been avoiding you!" Remus protested.
Buffy just raised her eyebrows.
"I'm not!" Remus protested. "Buffy, I'm really not avoiding you. Now, if you excuse me, I have homework to do, so I'll just head up to my dorm and read," Remus said, and got up from his seat, taking his things with him.
Buffy looked after him for a long time.
"No...what gave me that idea?" She mumbled sadly.
A/N: Oooh, poor Buffy…and poor James! REVIEW!
