Disclaimer: only Malika belongs to me

Chapter 2

End of June, 1994

The day went by too slow for Malika, she wanted to go home, to Remus, but she had to be at work. And to make it even pass slower, there wasn't much work to do today.

Malika knew it would change in a few days, when they started organizing the security for the World Cup Quidditch in August. Many aurors would have to provide the safety of the players as well as the spectators.

Finally, lunchtime came, and as usual, Malika had planned to have lunch with a few other aurors and auror trainees. Today would apparently be a special lunch, a group of auror trainees had just passed their tests, and would soon join them as full-fledged aurors. Of course, this happened every year, and Malika had every year lunched with these new aurors. This year however, one of the new aurors was Nymphadora Tonks, and this would make lunch definitely special, if only for the pumpkin juice that would probably cover them soon, when Tonks would trip over something and spill her juice over her friends, as usual. Malika knew what to expect when Tonks was nearby, she had knew her when Tonks was only a child, and the girl had always been incredibly clumsy.

Malika didn't know if Tonks remembered her, she hoped not, she had tried so long to put the past behind her, it certainly wouldn't be welcomed if Sirius's cousin would want to reminisce with her, in fact, the fact Tonks was Sirius's cousin made Malika not want to talk about the past with her. Just seeing the sparkling girl, with just as much joy of life as Sirius used to have, was a stab in Malika's heart.

So Malika stayed a bit away from Tonks, as usual, and talked instead with her friends Jane Bell and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Jane had been her friend since Malika had returned to England in 1987, after her long years of travelling abroad. She reminded her a bit of Lily; Jane was just as kind, happy and understanding; just what Malika had needed back then. Kingsley however had only shortly become a good friend, after Sirius had escaped from Azkaban. Kingsley was in charge of the investigation about Sirius's whereabouts and he had asked her a few questions back then. He had been very understanding when she had told him she didn't like to talk about it, she had told him part of her past and he had listened to her, accepted there were things she didn't want to talk about and he had supported her since then.

As they arrived at the place were they would have lunch, she tried to push away the memories of her old friends, and tried to have a relaxing lunch with her colleagues and friends of this part of her life.

December 1972 (Marauders 3d year)

Malika walked towards dinner, together with Lily. It had been a tiring day and week. Luckily it was almost Christmas. They would have two whole weeks to relax. Just one more week to go. Malika would spend Christmas at home, just like the last two years, she was always happy to see her parents again. Lily wasn't so happy, she often complained about her older sister Petunia, who hated the fact Lily was a witch and decided it reason enough to hate her sister. Upon hearing Lily, Malika had long since decided she was happy to be an only child.

As the girls walked along the Gryffindor table, toward two empty places, they past James Potter and his gang, who had shortly started to call themselves the Marauders. The boys had continued to gain popularity as the years past, and by now, they were the heroes of Gryffindor, liked by everyone except the Slytherins, the only other exception being Lily and Malika. Despite their friendship with Remus, the girls hadn't warmed up towards the other boys, quite the opposite actually. To make matters worse, James Potter had recently decided Lily was the girl of his dreams, and he did everything to gain her attention and win her over. Of course, everything he did had the opposite effect of what he intended, and the girl hated him more than ever.

As they past the Marauders, James Potter mussed up his hair and grabbed Lily's hand.

'Tomorrow is another Hogsmeade weekend, I know you want to go on a date with me Evans, so just say yes.'

Lily tore herself out of his grip, 'Forget it Potter, I am not going on a date with you, not now, not ever.', she snapped.

James seemed unfazed by her behaviour. 'If you have a date already, it's easy to call it off you know', he winked at her.

Now Lily was really furious, 'Oh, that's rich, honestly, which part of 'no' don't you understand. I. Am. Not. Going. With. You.' After a short pause to take a breath, she continued, 'As a matter of fact, I have a date, I'm going with Malika!' and with that, she flung her arms across Malika's shoulders. Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, who were sitting besides James, burst out in fits of laughter. 'Nice one, Evans.' Sirius gasped. James on the other hand was stunned, the look on his face was priceless, and upon seeing that, Lily and Malika burst out laughing too.

Malika was the first to calm down, as she noticed someone was missing. 'Where is Remus,' she asked with a frown. James answered curtly, 'He's gone home to see his mother who is ill.' Malika's frown deepened. 'Again? He's gone almost once a month, isn't that a bit often?'

But before anyone could say more, Lily had had enough of hanging around the Marauders, and pulled Malika down the table to have dinner.

That night in the library, Malika was still thinking about Remus's strange disappearances each month. She was pretty sure it had happened every month since she had known him. She had a diary where she wrote every day what had happened, and when Remus was absent, she mentioned it too. When she asked him, he had always said he went to visit some relative that was ill, and sometimes he was ill himself. That had sounded more accurate actually, because every time he returned, he looked very pale, she had even seen scratches on his arms a few times. She knew he had never told her the truth and she wished he would trust her and tell her one day.

Malika sighed, wondering about Remus wouldn't get her homework done. So she picked her DADA book out of her bag and returned to her DADA homework. The next moment however, she found herself staring out of the window, again wondering about Remus. A full moon illuminated the grounds below her, she stared at it for a few moments, before her eyes widened. The next moment she was leafing trough her DADA book, she was sure they would cover them this year. Indeed she found in her book a chapter about werewolves. While reading it, her heart started beating faster, she was sure she was on to something. After reading the chapter, she pulled out her diary and a calendarwith the moon cycle on it. Another few minutes later, she knew that every time Remus had been absent, it had been during the full moon, every full moon since she had known him. Slowly the truth sunk in that one of her best friends was, in fact, a werewolf.

Then she started wondering what she would do now. Would she confront him? No, she decided, he obviously didn't want to talk about it and he didn't want her to know either. After some moments of pondering about it, she decided to not do anything, but act as if she didn't know anything about it. She hoped he would tell her in time, when he was ready for her to know about it.

At least, now she knew what was going on, she didn't have to wonder anymore, so she could continue on her homework now.

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