Disclaimer: I own nothing but Malika, Jane and Cynthia...

A/N: I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, I had a lot difficulties with writing it and it didn't come out the way I wanted it to, but I promisenext chapter will definitely be better.

Chapter 15

Januari 1995

It had been a few weeks since Malika had started her own Privet Werewolf Support Service and had returned to working as an Auror, to not raise any suspicions. Together with Jane and Kingsley, she had assembled a small number of people who were prepared to help them.

Some of them were searching for safe places where werewolves could spend the full moon, others were in charge of assembling ingredients and making Wolfsbane potion. Some people were able to provide important information about the political ongoings, mainly Umbridge's further plans.

Their best 'spy' inside Umbridge's trustees was Cynthia Robertson, a fact greatly disliked by Malika, but she had to admit Cynthia helped them a great deal, not only in providing information but also in keeping their actions hidden from Umbridge.

However, they weren't able to organize themselves enough before the full moon of Januari.

Now, only one important thing was left to do: they had to contact as much werewolves as possible, tell them what the purpose of their organization was and ask for their cooperation.

During the last meeting, they had discussed who would do the talking and Malika wasn't surprised to see that most of them were reluctant to actually go talk to a werewolf, sympathizing from afar was of course much easier. After much debate, Malika grew really irritated and told them she would do the talking, so they wouldn't have to worry about it. Kingsley had argued she couldn't do it all on her own and Jane had agreed with him.

To Malika's surprise, Cynthia had volunteered to do her part, if someone went with her and in the end it was decided that Kingsley and Nymphadora Tonks, who had also joined them, and Cynthia and Jane would go in pairs. They had split half of the werewolves they had to visit between them, still leaving Malika with the other half, but she didn't mind.

Malika had told Remus about the Support Service and their plans and he had volunteered to accompany Malika, for which she was very grateful. Together with Remus, she had a relative easy time in gaining the trust of most of the werewolves they visited, they had even encountered a woman who proposed to make a large supply of Wolfsbane Potion, if they could provide her with the necessary ingredients. It was like the woman herself had said: since she was a werewolf, she wasn't able to find a job, so she had enough free time for potionbrewing, something she happened to be good at and making a larger supply of the potion to help others meant only a little more extra time well spent instead of wasted away.

Of course there were also many werewolves who were less trusting and harder to convince, but who could blame them? One of them even threatened Malika, probably trying to scare her away and convince himself again that no one would ever accept him because of what he was. However, his treats quickly died down when, instead of scaring Malika, it became obvious he only managed at making Remus angry, and being a werewolf himself, the man knew all too well it was a bad idea to provoke a werewolf into defending his loved ones.

There was one thing about the Support Service Malika hadn't told Remus yet. She didn't want him to know Cynthia had joined them, Malika had no idea how he would react to the news, but she figured it wouldn't be good. It would be better if he didn't know at all, although a little voice in her head told Malika it was selfish of her.

During these last weeks, Malika had often considered how ironic fate could be sometimes. Sirius and Cynthia returning in her life in six months time, that couldn't be coincidence, right? Malika couldn't help but feeling apprehensive over the meaning of all that.

December 1976 (Marauders 7th year)

The Yule Ball had left everyone in a very good mood and the first two days after had been very enjoyable for Malika, Lily and the Marauders. They went outside for snowball fights, played games in the common room or just talked, and during all of this, Sirius didn't stop teasing James and Lily about their new relationship. That is, until James jinxed his mouth shut and threatened to keep it that way.

The third day after the Ball, however, things changed drastically and something happened that spoiled the mood for the rest of the holidays.

On the morning of the third day, after breakfast, McGonagall stopped Malika and steered the girl to the headmaster's office. The Marauders and Lily returned anxiously to their common room, wondering what was going on. Their questions were quickly answered when Malika returned, tears steadily streaming down her face.

They all stood up and hurried towards her, Remus reached her first and Malika threw herself in his arms, sobbing her heart out. It took them some time to calm her down enough to let her talk, but she kept sobbing and holding onto Remus as if he was a life line to shore and she would drown without him.

"My parents…(sob)…Death Eaters came…(sob)…they were apparently after me…" She started sobbing again and buried her head in Remus' shoulder, but she didn't need to say anymore, they knew everything they needed to know.

Voldemort had been steadily growing in power during the last years, but until now, the friends had never really been confronted with the consequences of the war that was raging in their world. At Hogwarts, they had been protected against every possible attack and even James, whose father was an Auror, had never heard what exactly was going on. They simply hadn't realised this war could affect them too, until now.

And now they didn't know what to do, they didn't know how to help their friend who had lost so much in such a short time. They could only sit there and wonder how it was possible life had been so easy yesterday and so hard right now.

This was the day where they realised they would soon enter the real world where the walls of Hogwarts couldn't protect them anymore and where reality, and this war, would come knocking on their door in no time.

And this was the day where they decided they would fight this Dark Lord with everything they had, and they would do it together.

It was also in these days that new changes presented themselves inside the group.

One thing was that the relationship between James and Lily became stronger and by the middle of their last semester at Hogwarts, they were already talking about marriage. Another thing, although most members in the group didn't realise it, was that Peter became even more quiet than he had been before and started to distance himself a bit from them, saying he wouldn't be any help when they had to fight and nobody bothered to contradict that.

The first and probably most striking change at the time, however, was Malika's behaviour. The first week after receiving the news of her parents' death, Malika had hidden herself in her dormitory and refused to leave. Lily had to bring up food for her, which the boys had fetched in the kitchen, in order to make her eat.

After more or less a week, she finally came down, but she barely talked to anyone. Instead, she started studying all the time, starting early in the mornings, keeping it up almost all day long and deep into the night. She barely hung out with her friends, and it seemed to them like they couldn't reach her anymore. This went on as the new semester started and Malika spent every free moment in the library.

At first, everyone let her do as she wished, thinking this was her way of dealing with her parents' death. After a few weeks, however, her friends started to worry and tried to get her out of her books and get her to talk with them.

One day, when Lily asked her why she was studying so much, Malika answered she wanted high marks because she had decided she wanted to become an Auror. Lily was really astonished about that, because Malika had never thought about that before, but when she tried to talk about it with her, the other girl just returned to her books and ignored her.

Both Remus and Sirius had tried to get through to Malika, but they didn't succeed and after receiving enough cold shoulders and snappish answers from the girl, both boys gave up.

Another few weeks passed by and slowly, Malika started to get out of her isolation and sought out her friends again, who silently accepted her back. Things seemed to go back to how they used to be, although Malika would never be the same again.

Something else had changed too. When Malika had returned to her friends, she soon noticed Sirius was often off to somewhere, without anyone knowing where he could be. After a few days, however, the reason made itself clear to her, when she passed an empty classroom on her way to the library during a free period, and found him snogging a blond Ravenclaw sixth year.

When she had arrived in the library, she couldn't concentrate on her work, instead she thought about Sirius and his new girlfriend. Malika silently admitted to herself she had mixed feelings about Sirius finally moving on. On the one hand, she couldn't help but feel slightly jealous, but at the same time, she was thrilled about it, and that confused her a bit.

As she thought longer about it, she realised why she was so happy. Now Sirius had finally gotten over her, she didn't have to feel guilty anymore, when she decided to be with Remus. Her heart fluttered as she thought about this.

Finally, there was nothing between her and Remus anymore!

Malika easily decided she would spend as much time as possible with Remus now, and maybe she could catch him alone soon, and they could have a talk. Maybe he would kiss her again like he had done after the Yule Ball. Malika sighed dreamily. Things seemed to go her way for once.

000

A week had passed by and things didn't go like Malika had hoped. She had tried to catch Remus alone all week, but somehow this seemed almost impossible to manage.

Whenever he was around, the rest of the group was there too and they weren't able to talk, what bothered her even more than that was that Remus seemed to disappear sometimes, a bit like the way Sirius did, but less often and less conspicuously. But what bothered her most of all was the way Remus seemed to avoid her a bit, on the outside their friendship seemed to be like it had always been, but Malika soon noticed he had become a bit distant towards her, as if he was afraid to be too close to her.

His behaviour hurt her, but she didn't want him to know that, she only hoped things would go back to how they used to be between them and from there move on to something more than friendship.

The first week of March, that hope was completely crushed.

It was Friday evening and Malika was sitting on a couch before the fire talking with Lily. James, Sirius and Peter were sitting a short distance from them, playing a game of exploding snap. Malika had asked them before where Remus was, but they didn't know.

Suddenly, the portrait hole opened, and Malika was relieved to see Remus enter, but the next moment, she felt like her heart stopped beating when a girl she didn't know followed him in, laughing at something he said. She watched in a daze how he took the girl's hand and guided her in the direction of the fire, the girl had blond hair and light green eyes that sparkled with laughter.

The two of them stopped where the other Marauders were sitting and Remus called Malika and Lily over to them. When they were all settled and eyeing the unknown girl curiously, Remus spoke. "I want you all to meet someone, everyone, this is my girlfriend, Cynthia Robertson, a seventh year Ravenclaw, Cynthia, these are my friends James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Malika Andrews and Lily Evans." Cynthia smiled sweetly towards all of them.

Malika felt her heart breaking at his words. She realised only now Lily had been right when she told her Remus wouldn't wait for her forever and when Cynthia turned towards her, Malika realised she would never be able to compete with the beautiful and undoubtedly smart Ravenclaw.

She couldn't bring herself to smile at the girl, and as Malika and Cynthia looked each other in the eye, Malika realised the other girl's smile was forced and frostily. They stared at each other longer than necessary, seemingly trying to stare each other down, until Lily cleared her throat and directed Cynthia. "It's nice to meet you Cynthia." Cynthia turned to Lily and the awkward moment was soon forgotten. The others started talking among themselves and Malika tried to keep up a cheerful appearance, but felt like she was failing miserably.

After a few minutes, she excused herself and left for her dormitory, but no one seemed to take notice of her. For the first time since sixth year, Remus didn't say goodnight, didn't give her that sweet peck on her cheek, he didn't even acknowledge her, something that had never happened before. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she climbed the stairs and she had never felt this alone in life, even after her parents' death she hadn't felt like this. Then, she had had her friends to comfort her, Remus had been there and had held her while she cried. Now, no one had a clue as to how she felt. Her friends were chatting happily with that Cynthia girl, Remus' girlfriend, she had taken him away from her. Malika knew he had never really been hers, but she couldn't help but feel a great deal of dislike towards the girl.

When she reached her dormitory, she was glad to see no one was there and she threw herself on her bed, sobbing her heart out.

A few moments later, someone entered the dormitory, but Malika ignored the other person, who sat down on the bed beside her and put a gentle hand on her back. When her sobs had calmed down a bit, Malika sat up and faced Lily, who had a look of concern on her face.

"Are you all right?"

Malika huffed. "Of course not, I just got notified that the boy of my dreams has someone else."

Lily sighed. "I hate to say this but…well…I told you so."

Malika glared at her friend, but when Lily put a comforting arm around her, she started sobbing again. Lily engulfed her in a hug.

"I love him, Lily," she whispered in her friends shoulder.

"I know."

"What should I do now?"

"Nothing."

Malika looked up. "What?"

Lily sighed again. "I know this hurts, but there's nothing you can do. If he really wants to be with her, then you will have to accept that. You will have to try and move on. I'm sorry to tell you this, Malika, but you have been playing with both Remus' and Sirius' feelings for months, something like that is bound to backfire sometime."

"I didn't mean to play with their feelings." Malika looked horrified, she had never thought about it that way.

"I know that, but you can't expect someone to wait for something that might never come, it's only normal they have both moved on."

"You know, when I realised Sirius had found someone else, I was happy, I was relieved. I thought…(sob)…I thought I could have a chance with Remus now. But I was too late." Fresh tears started streaming down her face as she whispered the last words. "I was too late. And it hurts so much."

Lily hugged her best friend again, letting Malika cry on her shoulder until the girl started to fall asleep. As she tucked Malika in, she silently hoped Remus and Cynthia would break up soon, now Malika had finally admitted her feelings to herself.

000

Please review...

Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter.