Love, like everything else in life,
should be a discovery, an adventure,
and like most adventures,
you don't know you're having one
until you're right in the middle of it.
Friday, 26th of October, 1973
Great Hall, Hogwarts
The entire school was in awe when Remus Lupin and Eleonore Darensbourg marched through the big doors of the great hall, hand in hand on a chilly Monday morning. Nobody could seem to wrap their mind about their relationship. Just over a week ago Eleonore Darensbourg was together with a certain Quidditch captain and now she had another fling wrapped around her arm.
The envied stares of the entire girl population didn't go unnoticed by her own friend group. Tina even made a joke about it, calling Ellie a femme fatale every time she needed something. Ellie in return, knew that her friend was joking, she was trying to find the humour in this obscene situation. Ellie did her best to convince everyone David and her were never a thing, but soon realized that everybody would talk whether she wanted to or not.
She didn't care about the criticism about herself, she could handle that. She was more concerned about how Remus would handle it. She was amazed by the fact that nothing seemed to faze him, although she had to admit, when there were rumours that Sirius had been her first and not David Hamblin, she thought she could see Remus' teeth grind together.
Sirius in return, seemed to enjoy this situation, he couldn't help but crack jokes about his so called relationship behind closed doors with Ellie. After all the jokes and banter died down, one week later, school seemed to be on track again. Lily and her were quietly walking back from Muggle Studies towards the great hall, Remus wasn't in that class but much to Ellie's amusement, Lily was.
"You guys are adorable." Lily pointed out, a big smile upon her face.
Ellie scrunched her nose in return, hating Lily's looks of admiration every time Remus and her cuddled in one of the sofas. "Stop saying that."
"But you are! You are so the couple of 1973." Lily grinned, stepping off the staircase and into the man hall.
The girls marched towards the Great Hall for lunch, "I'm trying to make Alice and Frank happen." Ellie mumbled, hoping to get some attention off her own relationship and into someone else's.
"You think they are… You know…" The red head whispered, pushing her head closer to Ellie's.
"I know they like each other, I just have to find a way to make it happen…"
"Maybe you should just let them figure it out themselves, I mean you hated it when we got-"
"Oh! Hogsmeade tomorrow!" Ellie's green eyes widened in realization. "If I can convince Remus to bring Frank and then I can bring Alice…"
"Like, a double date?"
"Is it a double date if they don't know about it?" Ellie grinned, a mischief look covering her face. She bit her lip in anticipation, she would just have to convince Remus.
"Remus is never going to fall for your Slytherin style." Lily pointed out, holding back a grin herself.
"I have my ways…" Ellie smirked, noticing the four Marauders sitting at the Gryffindor table. Remus was sitting next to Peter and Sirius and James were sitting on the opposite side of them. She noticed Lily making her way towards the empty seat next to Peter, knowing that Ellie would want to sit next to her boyfriend.
"Hi!" She beamed, throwing her bare legs over the seat next to Remus. She watched him turn his head towards her with a big, massive smile on his face. Quickly planting a cheeky kiss on his cheek, she leaned forward to grasp some eggplant rolls. She couldn't help but chuckle at her boyfriend's reddened cheeks. "How was class?"
"Sucked without you." Remus replied, a small smile upon his face. "Potatoes?" He questioned, looking at his girlfriend.
"That would be lovely, thank you." Ellie watched how he scooped some up, gently putting them on her plate.
"Potatoes, Evans?" She heard James Potter ask her best friend in the background.
"Shove them down your own throat, Potter." Lily snapped, taking her own potatoes and fiercely pushing down on her gold plate.
Ellie tried not to laugh at the situation, pushing her fork into one single potato and popping it in her mouth. She gently leaned on her hand, watching Remus with a smile upon her face. He looked a little uncomfortable underneath her gaze. "Ooohh, I think Darenbourg wants something from you, Moony." She heard Sirius tease from across her.
"Shut up, Black." Ellie snapped, ignoring Sirius' giggles in the background. It seemed that over the years, her attitude towards him left him unfazed. He was used to it and loved teasing her, he knew exactly how to push her buttons and he loved every minute of it.
"Say, Darensbourg, how much do I get if I can fling this potato right into your cleavage?" He teasingly spoke, ignoring the annoyed glare he received from Remus.
"A concussion." She snapped back, returning her head towards her boyfriend with a smile. She lifted her finger, circling down his forearm. Remus knew exactly what she was doing, he knew Sirius was right, she wanted something. "Sweety…" Ellie ignored Sirius wiggling his eyebrows at Remus in a playful matter.
"You need something, don't you?" Remus tried discount the goose bumps forming upon his skin right where her fingers touched her.
"How about we go to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" She simply questioned, not getting to the real point.
"I thought we were already going?" Remus looked confused at his girlfriend batting her eyelashes at him.
"I want to bring Alice and Frank along." Ellie questioned, sipping from her pumpkin juice.
"But I thought it was just going to be us two?" Remus wondered, he was actually looking forward spending some time alone with her. The Common Room and the classes were nice but they were constantly watched. If it wasn't Sirius wiggling his eyebrows at them in the background, it was Christina who cooed them all the time.
"It will be us two, but I have a plan." She ticked the outside of her temple as if she had it all figured out. "You will ask Frank and I will ask Alice and then when we get there, we'll act surprised and we can sneak off after a while."
"Sneaking off?" Remus sounded interested, ignoring his inner wolf whistling. He liked the sound of that.
"Sneaking off." She gave him a grin and one raised eyebrow.
"You know Alice will hate you when they get back, don't you?" Lily pointed out towards Ellie, being the rational one.
"They will not. They'll thank me at their wedding. They'll name their firstborn after me."
"Will you name your firstborn after me? Because I think I had a very good amount of mingling into this situation." Sirius circled his fork towards the couple in front of him, ignoring Remus choking on his pumpkin juice.
"There's no way in hell we're naming our firstborn 'Sirius'." Ellie replied shortly.
"What about Orion?" Sirius shot back quickly, looking at Ellie with expectation.
"Your middlename is Orion?" Eleonore laughed, pointing her fork at the boy in front of her. "Just when I thought it couldn't get any more ridiculous."
"Someone back me up here!" Sirius frantically looked around the table, noticing all his friends were trying to hold back laughter themselves. "Oh that's great, let us all have a laugh at poor old Sirius." He threw his hands up in defeat, "Even you, James Potter! I thought you were my friend!"
Saturday, 27th of October, 1973
Hogsmeade Village
"So…" Ellie grinned, rubbing her knitted hand gloves together, preventing her to get cold. "What have you been up to?"
"What do you mean?" Alice looked in confusion at her friend, she knew she was hiding something the day Ellie asked her to accompany her towards Hogsmeade. It was odd that she didn't want to go with her boyfriend. "You see me every day, we talk every day."
"Well, we see each other in group, we rarely get to hang out. You kno, us two together." Ellie marched towards the village, strolling next to her friend. Alice was wearing a light blue knitted beanie that had flowers all over them.
"Well, my mother made plans for Christmas, she invited the whole family, which will be huge. I think there's 50 of us in total. Are you going to see Remus over the Christmas break?" Alice wondered, she could see the rooftops of the all-wizarding village. The chimneys were smoking heavily in the foggy clouds.
"We have not discussed it yet." Ellie mumbled, "I think it's a little too early to do the whole meet the parents thing."
She couldn't imagine what her parents would say if they actually knew of her boyfriend's condition. Remus had been nothing but the gentleman towards her in the past week, opening doors, serving her food, helping with homework, even just cuddling in the couch. Ellie was absolutely smitten with him, the way he would casually blush when she planted her lips upon his cheeks. The way his eyes seemed to sparkle when she took his hand in front of the whole Quidditch team.
He would always try his best to come and watch her practice and she knew that when they played against Hufflepuff next week, he'd be the first to cheer her on. He was everything she ever dreamed of, apart from Lily, he was her best friend.
She did not care about his monthly transitions but she didn't think she'd be able to say the same thing about her parents… Her parents were never judgemental, never pointed fingers, always cheery but when it came to their daughter, Eleonore knew they were very protective.
Maybe it was best if she just kept this one a secret for now.
"You're right." Alice nodded beside her, "Why isn't Remus coming with you anyways?"
Eleonore bit her lip, she could tell Alice the truth or just bluntly lie to her. She knew she actually wanted to graduate (because Alice would kill her if she lied) so she had to put it out there. "Well, he's at Hogsmeade with Frank."
"Wait-" Alice grabbed Ellie's forearm, stopping their synchronized steps. "You're kidding right?"
"No?" Ellie bit her cheek, noticing Alice her blushing cheeks. "Is that a problem?"
"N-no. Of-of course not, why would it be?" The dark haired girl shook her head, breathing heavily.
"Good." Ellie shrugged, hoping that Alice wouldn't see through her mischief plan.
"And let me guess, we're meeting up with them?" The girl raised her eyebrows at dorm mate.
"Well, I'm not going to ignore my boyfriend if we run into him, that would just be cruel."
"I can't even believe you'd do this, Ellie!" Alice rambled her words, shaking her head.
"I'm not doing anything, I'm just going to look around and buy some chocolate at Honeydukes." Ellie innocently looked around at the various shops in the streets. She knew Remus and her had agreed to meet at Honeydukes when they arrived. The chocolate section to be precise.
"I'll get you back one day, you know." Alice mumbled, still a little pissed off.
"You and Frank hang out all the time, I don't see the problem." Ellie grinned, opening the door for her friend.
"The problem is that you're trying to mingle yourself into our relationship, being the matchmaker and all of that! I don't need yo- Oh, hi Frank! Remus!" Alice immediately blushed at the two boys standing in front of her.
"Remus! Frank! What a lovely surprise!" Ellie spoke with enthusiasm, noticing Frank smiling sweetly at Alice. She tried to convert her eyes from her own boyfriend who was now raising his eyebrows at her, trying not to laugh. "Alice and I were looking around for some chocolate."
"That's a coincidence, Remus here wanted chocolate to." Frank spoke, eyeing his classmate.
"Remus, can you actually show me what kind of chocolate's the best?" Ellie smiled at him, noticing the slight sparkle of enthusiasm in his eyes. "If you could show Alice here what the best sweets are, we'll meet outside in a few minutes, alright?" Ellie quickly wrapped her hand around Remus his arm, dragging him towards the chocolate section.
"Alice looks like she's ready to kill you." Remus mumbled, being dragged away by his girlfriend through Honeydukes.
"She'll thank me later, I'm doing her a favour." Ellie grinned, wrapping her hand in Remus'.
"She'll get you back later, I know she will." Remus mumbled, throwing his arm around Ellie's neck and subconsciously sniffing her hair.
Eleonore grinned, leaning her head slightly in the crook of his neck, enjoying his warmth. "She can't get back at me with stupid dates. I already have a perfect boyfriend."
Remus chuckled, shaking his head, "You're crazy, you know that?"
"But you still like me, right?"
"I will never, ever not like you. Even if you're 50 and getting grey hairs, I'd never be able to forget about you." Remus mumbled, looking down at the green-eyed beauty that he could call his girlfriend. She seemed so content with him, flashing her bright, white teeth to quickly grab his cheeks with her hands and pushing them down on her lips, giving him a big smooch.
"I think you'll get more grey hairs than I will." Ellie scrunched her nose, trying to hold back laughter.
"Where do you think we'll be in 35 years?" Remus wondered, staring at the girl in front of him in wonder.
"I don't know… Somewhere happy I hope. Lily pushing out a couple of babies, I'd at least want to be godmother of one of them. Alice and Frank will be married."
"You think James will finally be able to melt her heart?" Remus grinned, looking at Ellie's ridiculous expression.
"No way that's happening. I doubt Lily's babies will be Potters. I'd have to check for an Imperius. Now, do you want that chocolate or not?"
"You know I do." Remus grinned, grabbing a few packets of his favourite pieces. "Do you want Bertie Botts?"
"I think I'm actually in the mood for Fizzing Whizzbees." Ellie mumbled, "Let me quickly grab them and then we can get out of here."
"We're sneaking off?"
"Of course we are." Ellie looked at him like he asked the world's stupidest question. "She'll thank me when she gets back, don't worry."
Ellie and Remus quickly paid for their sweets and tried to sneak out of Honeydukes as quickly as possible, immediately turning into a little sideway ally so they didn't have to walk through the main street. Alice and Frank would immediately notice them. "Want some?" Ellie spoke, offering Remus some candy.
"Yes. Chocolate?" He questioned, offering his own bar.
She nodded her head, switching the packets in their hands. They soon found a little bench to sit on, the couple had a nice view of the Scottish Highlands in front of them. "This is nice." Eleonore mumbled, placing her head in the crook of his shoulder once again and putting a piece of chocolate in her mouth
"It is." Remus sighed, slightly placing his own temple upon Ellie's beanie. "I'm just, really happy right now, Ellie."
"Yeah?" She looked up, staring into his own green debts.
"Yeah." He nodded his head, his eyes smiled at her.
"Give me a kiss." She mumbled after a few seconds of staring into each other's eyes. His eyes scanned her porcelain skin, finally lowering his head for their lips to meet. The cold of the October air had nothing against the heat of their kiss. Soon forgetting about the sweets in her lap, Ellie raised her hand to touch his cheekbones, sighing when she felt his lips dance against her own.
They had kissed multiple times but it had always been sweet and short. There was always someone in the neighbourhood to interrupt them. Here they were free of visitors, it was just them. She didn't know what came over her but she felt herself dip her tongue into his mouth gently. This was the first time they actually made out, properly.
Ellie could hear Remus' groan in the back of his throat and her heart speeded up even more. She knew he liked it, so she did it again, gently, so she would not scare him off. When she finally felt him grab her neck, pushing her as close as physically possible, she nearly melted into his mouth.
His breath was hot on her lips when his tongue danced with her own. It gave this new sensation she had never, ever felt in her life before, right in the pit of her stomach. Butterflies circled around her spine as she thanked merlin they were sitting down. She didn't think her knees would be able to hold her up if they were standing up and doing this.
She felt the need to touch him, her body craved for him. He was perfect, absolutely perfect. She just wanted to grab his hair and push him on top of her so she could never let go.
"You taste like chocolate."
"Your favourite thing in the whole wide world." Ellie mumbled, slowly opening her eyes.
"Apart from you." His green eyes scanned her face lovingly. A few seconds of silence were shared as the two teenagers comfortingly stared at one another. "You got plans for Christmas?"
"Probably go to the Potters with mother and father. The usual." Ellie scrunched up her nose, a little disappointed that she had to share yet another holiday with James Potter.
"You like James more than you led on, don't look so disappointed." Remus smiled.
"Liking is a big word, I guess I do care about him in a brotherly way."
"Of course you do." Remus looked at her, knowing that Ellie cared more about his Marauder friend than she led on. That was the thing about Ellie, she sometimes had a stone cold expression, you never knew what you were going to get but deep down, Remus knew she cared deeply about his friend, even Sirius Black.
"You have plans for the holidays?" She mumbled, placing her head back in the crook of his armpit, enjoying his warmth and the way his left arm curved around her neck.
"The usual as well, we'll stay in Wales. You'll write, right?" He looked a little worried at his girlfriend.
"Of course. I'll miss you like mad though, maybe next summer we can all hang around? You can come to my house?" Eleonore questioned with interest, not really sure how he would feel about that.
Remus decided to ignore the pang of worry inside his chest, he knew Ellie came from a wealthy, pure blood family and he definitely knew she did not live in a small cottage like he did. Would her father think of him less because he arrived at her doorstep with shabby clothes? Oh god, what if he knew about the lycantrophy? "Do you- are you going to tell them, that we, you know…"
"No. Not now it's too soon, maybe towards the summer." Ellie spoke, "If that's alright with you. I want to spare you the protective side of my father for now."
A deep breath of relieve came through his nostrils, he was good for now. "That's fine by me."
"Okay. I'll have to find a way to make James Potter shut up about us through Christmas Dinner." Ellie thoughtfully spoke, thinking of ways she could actually blackmail him a little bit.
"I'll speak to him, don't worry about it."
"You sure?"
"Yes." Remus nodded his head, "He's not going to throw us under the bus."
Ellie shook her head, "No, you're right. James wouldn't. He teased me a lot last year about sending you so many letters, but now that we're actually together, I don't think he'd do that again."
"He teased you about me?" Remus spoke with interest, he still couldn't believe how blind he had been in regards to Ellie's feelings. How blind he even was towards his own. He knew how happy it made him when he saw Archimedes ticking at his bedroom window, how his fingers would trail over her elegant writing every time he read her letter. He kept everyone one of them in his desk at home, he never threw one out.
"Yeah, he did. You know James." Ellie laughed, shaking his head.
"I do, I do know him. He's really protective of you, actually. Gave me the whole nine yard speech."
"He did?! That douche!" Ellie's mouth widened, "He's not my father."
"Told me we'd see one another at Christmas Dinner." Remus laughed, shaking his head. "It was pretty funny."
"I can't wait until he has a girlfriend and I can scare her with that talk." Ellie smirked, imaging the frightened look on a yet faceless girl.
"You can be very intimidating if you want to be." Remus grinned, "Being the number one in Defense Against The Dark Arts and all of that."
"I can throw a pretty good hex or two, even if I say so myself, yes."
"You'll be a great auror one day, you know." Remus mumbled, placing a kiss on her temple.
"You think so?" Ellie smiled, looking up at him.
"I know so. You'll protect us all, although I would prefer it if you didn't."
"I think I'd go mad if anyone ever tried to touch any of my friends, let alone you." Ellie mumbled, closing her eyes and not trying to think of anything happening to anyone in the group, even Sirius.
"Let's… Let's think about cheerier stuff, alright? We still have a couple of years to go before things get serious." Remus answered, hoping their subject would get somewhat lighter. He noticed the crease of worry on Ellie's forehead.
"Times are getting darker, Remus." She wisely spoke, "We cannot close our eyes for that."
"I know they are." The werewolf spoke. "But we'll protect one another, we'll be fine. Lily and Sirius and Peter, even James and Christina, we'll all be fine. As long as we have each other but right now, let us just enjoy this moment right here."
"You're right." Ellie spoke, staring into the mountains of the Scottish Highlands. "We'll all be fine."
Saturday, 27th of October, 1973
Gryffindor Common Room, Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts
Remus and Ellie had not seen Alice and Frank for the rest of the afternoon. Ellie was not worried about them whatsoever, she knew Alice liked Frank and Frank liked Alice, everything would turn alright in the end. After having some hot tea in the Three Broomsticks and a nice, romantic walk back towards Hogwarts they finally managed to crawl through the portrait towards the Gryffindor common room.
Ellie immediately noticed people lunging around and her attention was drawn to her best friend, sitting at the table with a stack of books in front of her. She turned towards Remus, releasing his hand. "I'm just going to check on Lils real quick."
She watched him nod his head and turn towards the rest of The Marauders sitting in front of the fire place. When she finally made it towards the big table in the corner of the common room, Ellie raised her eyes, "Transfiguration?"
Lily's green orbs turned towards her friend towering over her, "Unfortunately."
"Do you want help, Remus and I did the essay yesterday." Eleonore offered.
The red head sighed, "I appreciate it, Ellie but for once I need to finish it on my own, you've always helped me before."
"Okay, just let me know if you need me." Ellie smiled, watching how Lily's eyebrow furrowed at the essay in front of her. She didn't know what came over her but it seemed as if Eleonore was in a sentimental stage today. Throwing her arms around Lily's neck, she cuddled her best friend from behind her. "I love you, Lilykins!"
She heard Lily laugh in front of her, her best friend's hands covering Ellie's wrists. "I love you too, what's gotten into you?"
"I don't know." Ellie sighed, she tried to ignore the thoughts of Remus and hers conversation earlier. "I'm just grateful today."
"I can tell." Lily grinned, shaking her head.
"I'm serious, let me know if you need me, I'm in a chipper mood." Ellie patted Lily's shoulders once again before turning towards the fireplace and placing herself in between Remus and Christina. She immediately turned herself horizontal, placing her head on her boyfriend's lap and her feet on her blonde friend's lap.
"I get the feet? Rude!" Tina cheekily spoke, placing her hands on Ellie's small calves.
"I'll give you my head if you can massage my skull as good as Remus can." Ellie mumbled, feeling her boyfriend's fingers run through her hair. She could stay like this forever.
"Thank but no thanks." Christina scrunched her nose, "I'll stick with the smelly feet."
"My feet don't smell." Ellie mumbled in the air, closing her eyes to enjoy the gentle touches.
"They do." Tina spoke, watching how Ellie shrugged and bended her knee. She grabbed her ankle with her hands and sniffed her toes carefully. "That's disgusting Ellie."
"And flexible, very bendy." She heard a voice in the background, she knew that it belonged to a certain Black. "Apart from the smelly feet, Moony's a lucky man."
Ellie rolled her eyes, placing her feet back on Christina's lap. "They don't smell. You're such a dramaqueen."
"That my friend, is very true. As long as it does not involve me, I love a little bit of drama." The blonde grinned, watching how the portrait opened and Alice and Frank stepped inside the common room. "Oh Ellie, I think you should hide."
"What, why?" Ellie peeked up, opening one eye to see Alice and Frank looking around the common room. "Shit!" She immediately rolled off the couch, hoping she could hide on the floor, in between the big sofa and the coffee table. She didn't think for one second that Sirius was actually lying on the floor with his arms underneath his head. She heard him groan underneath her as she quickly covered his mouth with her hand.
She watched how Christina held back laughter and Remus amusingly watched the two of them. Sirius was obviously still in pain because Ellie's long legs managed to point into his most sensitive area when she fell down.
Ellie breathed a sigh of relieve when she noticed no one was actually searching for her. She noticed James Potter standing up from his chair and marching towards the big table where Lily was studying fervently.
She released the hold on his mouth and stood up carefully, ignoring the irritated glance Sirius was giving her. She watched over the sofa how Frank and Alice were laughing about something in the background. A grin immediately covered her face as she planted herself back in between Remus and Christina, stretching her feet in front of her, crossing them and letting them rest on Sirius his stomach. "See, I am a genius matchmaker. I think people should call me cupid." Ellie grinned, ignoring James Potter and Lily Evans shouting at one another in the background.
"If you're such a good matchmaker, why don't you try to match those two?" Sirius pointed at James and Lily.
Ellie raised her eyebrows at the way Lily just threw her full 10 pounds Transfiguration book at James his head. He only ducked it by an inch. Ellie rolled her eyes, staring down at Black. "I said I was a match maker, Black, not a miracle worker."
Author's note: Eleonore and her meddling *sigh* She really has some Slytherin in her blood, doesn't she? Well, I thought Frank and Alice were kind of cute, so why not? We all know there will be a little Neville coming in the future. Anyways, the relationship between Eleonore and Remus is very healthy right now, but it'll become a little darker when full moon's around the corner and all of that. We still don't know how Ellie will handle the animagus situation (well you might do...). Anyways, I also hoped you noticed that there's more interaction between Sirius and Ellie, so it's kind of hard to figure out who you want together, right? Because Remus and her are sweet and cute but Sirius and her would be... Well... They're just so much alike. It is and stays a Sirius/OC story but you'll have to have patience for that. Leave me a review, won't you? I didn't get as much reviews last time and it does have effect on how soon I update. Thanks for those who did review btw! I love you. Xo Eva