Netra and Will, as Remus now knew the two buskers, were packing up their equipment and instruments when he was suddenly struck with an idea.
I should get their autographs for Callum!
Remus looked behind him to let the rest of the Marauders know what he was about to do, only to notice that Sirius wasn't amongst them. Remus turned back around and found his friend approaching the two muggle buskers with that annoying, confident swagger of his. Sighing, he jogged to catch up to Sirius. Just then, Willow left the spot after saying something to Netra but Remus decided not to question it.
"Hey! I didn't know you busked. You and your friend sounded really good!" Sirius remarked, running his hand along Netra's keyboard.
"Can you not?" she retorted, moving the keyboard away from him a little.
"Oops, I'm sorry!" Netra rolled her eyes at Sirius' almost sarcastic response.
Remus looked back and forth at the two. "You know her?" He knew that Sirius wasn't foolish enough to mess with a complete stranger.
"Yeah, who's she?" James, who had now caught up with Peter asked, slightly out of breath. "And don't leave me!" he huffed, jabbing Remus with his elbow. Remus let out a nervous chuckle and shook his head with a fond smile.
Paying no heed to James and Remus' antics, Sirius responded to their query. "She's another Gryffindor in our year. A pureblood too, I've seen her at my family's parties quite often." The rest of the Marauders looked at her in shock.
"Damn, I thought you were a Muggle. My apologies," Remus said sheepishly.
"You didn't think that Lily, Alice and Marlene are the only Gryffindor girls in our year, did you? And don't make the mistake of assuming someone's identity just by looking at them. I use muggle technology because it's actually quite brilliant, but it doesn't make me a Muggle," Netra snapped.
"Oh, it's nothing like that! No hard feelings, I agree that Muggle inventions are underrated in the wizarding world for sure," Potter replied. Willow had just returned and raised a confused eyebrow at Netra who shook her head slightly.
Breaking eye contact with Willow, Netra smiled a little. She expected no less of a blood traitor such as James Potter. But she couldn't help but worry about whether her Muggle friend had heard any of Potter's previous sentences. Shaking the thought out of her head for the time being, she listened as Remus started speaking again.
"Yes, of course!" Lupin smiled. "My cousin is a huge fan of you two," he nodded at the two of them, "and I'd love to get your autographs for him! Oh, I'm Remus Lupin and these guys are Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew."
"Willow Wood and Netra Mitran," Willow supplied. "We're flattered! I'd definitely be willing to give my autograph."
"I can too," Netra added. We're giving autographs now? I would never have thought our busking would take us this far.
"Wonderful! Thanks so much." Lupin handed Netra a piece of paper and a pen. She signed and handed it to Willow who also signed and gave it back to Remus.
"Muggle invention right there," Potter smirked at the pen. Netra glared at him and glanced slightly at Willow in hopes that he would get the cue that her friend was a Muggle. Potter understood and looked at her apologetically.
"Sorry, I didn't know he was a-"
"You dumbass! Just shut up already," Netra hissed. She turned to Willow and hoped he would buy the bullshit explanation she was about to give. "Muggle is a house in the school we go to. They're the house of creators," she invented wildly. "The guy who created pens went to our school, see. We take this personality test after getting accepted, and they sort us by our results."
Willow stared at her, amusement dancing in his eyes, and Netra panicked. She couldn't think of anything else, but surely her explanation wasn't that unbelievable? A quick glance at the Marauders confirmed that they wouldn't be any help if Willow was skeptical. They were astonished she found an excuse that made all their wizarding language understandable. Netra thought that with their pranking tendencies, they would be adept at explaining away the unexplainable, but apparently not.
"Personality tests for houses?" Willow chuckled.
Lupin recovered first, "Yeah, it's a bit extra. Most schools hand them out randomly, don't they?"
"It's unique!" Willow grinned. "So, what are the houses you have, then?"
"Well... Muggle for the creative, Wizard for the brave, Pureblood for the, uh, traditionalists and Squib for the rest. Yeah." Potter said, nodding to himself.
Netra was surprised Potter managed to come up with anything at all, let alone something believable.
Willow looked suspiciously close to laughing, "What houses are you lot in? And what's Gryffindor?"
"Potter and Black are in Wizard, Pettigrew's a Squib and Lupin is in Muggle. I'm, as much as I hate it, a Pureblood. Gryffindor is another name for Wizard. He's the guy that founded the Wizard house, but he was in love with the idea of magic and that whole Merlin fable so he named the house Wizard. Hufflepuff named Squib, Ravenclaw named Muggle and Slytherin named Pureblood. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw just chose nonsensical names, but Slytherin was inspired by his love for purebred dogs. Now, you've all got to get going, don't you?" Netra quickly said before their luck ran out and one of the Marauders put their foot in it.
"Right, right, my mom's expecting us. Thanks again for the autograph!" Lupin exclaimed, somehow managing to keep a sincere, apologetic expression while simultaneously cutting off Black before he could even speak with no remorse.
"Of course!" Netra grinned. Lupin was the only one who retained some sanity, after all. "I can even give you our schedule for next summer at school if Will and I get it all sorted by Easter!" Netra called as the four teens walked away.
Lupin paused in his quiet lecturing to turn around and grin, "That would be amazing, thanks!"
No, thank you for making sure those idiot friends of yours didn't break the Statute and force me to Obliviate one of my best friends.
The moment Lupin and the band of foolishness that he followed around were out of sight and hearing range, Willow turned to Netra, beaming.
"You're a witch!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Suddenly, everything makes so much sense!"
Seeing a look of terrified disbelief make itself home on Netra's face as she reached into her pant pocket, Willow wrung his hands hastily. "Don't worry, dear Merlin don't worry, I'm a Squib, see! It's fine, you don't need to get Obliviaters or anything!"
Instantly, Netra relaxed, "Thank Morgana above! You don't know how hard I've been trying to keep up with the Muggles so I didn't screw us all over. But really? You're a Squib? The only one I've met is that Figg woman. You know, the one that caused that huge scandal with the Princes before she finally left and took her mother's maiden name? You're so much less eccentric!"
"You know, some would say our love for music is eccentric," Willow laughed as he zipped up his guitar case.
"Fair enough. Cats aren't too bad of a thing to obsess over, I suppose," Netra hummed. "But! More importantly, nowI don't need to lug my keyboard around everywhere!"
She picked up her handbag off the sidewalk, opened it, and after checking to make sure no Muggle saw, she put her keyboard, its stand and its speaker inside. Seeing Willow's astounded expression, Netra grinned.
"Undetectable Extension Charm and a Featherweight Charm," she explained. "If I'd known you were a Squib, I wouldn't have had to lug these things around looking like an idiot."
"Yeah, yeah, you're a cool witchy witch that can do magic," Willow pouted, though Netra knew him well enough to guess that it was all for show. "Forget that. Muggle, Squib, Pureblood and Wizard are houses? And Slytherin liked purebred dogs?"
Netra groaned when Willow burst into hysterical laughter. "It was all I could think of!"
"If I were a Muggle, I'd have thought you insane and that your school needed an inspection!"
"Oh, shove off!"
Instead of doing that, Willow followed her as she walked to King's Cross. "Now that I know you've got magic, I'm going to take full advantage of that and Floo home instead of taking the bus."
Netra's eyes widened, her mood instantly sobering, though that wasn't Willow's intent. "Right, you can't get onto the platform unless you Floo."
Willow nodded, "Yeah, a Squib's life is... well, we get the best of both worlds, but also the worst, like Muggleborns."
Netra wasn't sure what to say to that—the discrimination Squibs faced was something she couldn't relate to, being a pureblood—so she opted to give him a side hug.
"Yeah, well, if anyone ever bothers you about that again, I'll hex 'em for you."
Willow laughed, "My knight in shining armour."
"And don't you forget it!"