Quills
Chapter five
By justification to wormtail
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A/N: okay so maybe the story isn't as far off from the books as I had originally planned, but it's still different. I have yet to read any stories about the marauders in which Remus, Sirius, Lily or James were put into Slytherin, although I have read one about them when Peter was in that house.
Sorry that it's taken me this long to update.
Here's chapter five!
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"Dad!?" A young woman with dirty-blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun looked up from the small child that she was holding as she heard her younger sister's exclamation. "Father, we hadn't expected you for at least another year or two," the sister's voice had changed drastically from surprise to a cold hatred.
"Don't act that way, Minerva," said a broad shouldered man as he came up behind the black haired woman. She was quaking in anger. He turned to the older man who had appeared over a knoll just moments before. "Although he must have some good reason for coming here so off schedule," he sneered.
"Would you two please stop," snapped the newcomer. "I didn't ask for it to happen you know."
"You kicked me out of the house," accused Minerva.
"I had to," said her father through gritted teeth. "It was for your own safety."
"I'm only fifteen, Dad! You can't just boot me out onto the curb."
"I knew that you would come to your sister's house," he explained firmly.
"That doesn't mean that you're welcome here, Father," the blonde woman spoke for the first time. Mr. Prewett turned to look at his oldest daughter.
"Ceres please don't start," he begged. "I just wanted to see my children and my grandchildren before they catch up with me. Please?"
"Why should I let you anywhere near Remus and Romulus, they've been through enough with having you as their grandfather," she snapped.
"Look, I haven't done anything of that sort in years!"
"Oh really," said Minerva, her voice dripping sarcasm, "then why are they after you now? Decide to put off a grudge for a couple of years did they?"
"Please just let me see them one last time!" the old man pleaded. "All of them," he added as his eyes rested on his son. The black haired man growled and cast his father a hateful look.
"Fine, but keep in mind that I'm only doing this for Mum," he grumbled before grabbing Minerva by the wrist and dragging her along with him towards a cottage that stood just beyond the trees of the forest. Ceres mutely went about rubbing some dirt off of her sons face as she held back angry tears. The five-year-old stared at the man who he'd hardly met before with wide eyes.
"So your mother's here too?" asked the man after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.
"Yes," was the curt answer.
"Will she come out to see me?" his voice was hopeful. Ceres sighed and set Remus down, she cast a sideways glance at her father before answering.
"Probably," she sounded frustrated, "even after what you did to her…she still loves you."
The man just nodded in response.
--The scene changed--
"Mama?"
"Yes little one?"
The boy sniffed and clung to his mother even tighter as he began to cry. "M scared…"
"Shh, it's alright little one. We're going to be okay, everything's going to be alright." Ceres whispered to her son. There was a strangled cry from next landing down. A long joyous howl of a successful hunt pierced the night sky. Minerva bit her lip and let the tears flow as she wondered which of her family members fell. She moved the five other children farther away from the door.
"Ceres, what about Dad?" she asked in a hushed tone. Ceres groaned and gazed out the only window in the room, the traitorous full moon illuminating the pitch-black night.
"Let him fend for himself, he's got a wand and some sense left," she drew her son closer as another howl sounded. "And besides," she added, sounding scornful, "he's the one who got us into this mess in the first place."
"Okay…" a second later, "but what about Mum and Bacchus and Adelle?"
"OH NO!" Remus suddenly screamed. Everything went quiet but the five-year-old failed to notice. "Mama, Auntie – they'll get my teddy bear! We've gotta go back and save him, he's the one that Grandma gave me!"
"WHAT!?" Minerva screeched. "Remus you can't go out there for a teddy bear!" Remus sniffed again and glared at his aunt through his tears.
"But they'll rip him up," he protested.
"Remus honey, Auntie Minerva's right, you can't go out there," Ceres said softly. "Poppa and Uncle Bacchus are taking care of it." A shadow of fear passed over his face.
"Are Grandma and Granddad and Mommy helping too?" asked Marielle as she started to walk towards her aunt and cousin. There was a shriek of pain from the area of the kitchen, the occupants of the room either flinched or stiffened as they cried. Gideon and Fabian lashed out, grabbing their younger cousin around the waist and pulling her back to them. The nine-year-old struggled against their hold but subsided when Molly yanked on her braid and told her that it was a couple of werewolves that were scouring the house.
"Mum?"
"Yes Romulus," Ceres answered her older son with exasperation.
"When are they going to give the signal?"
"When the wolves are distracted," his aunt answered stiffly. There was the sound of scraping by the door. "Remus," Minerva whispered frantically, "go over to Romulus, now!" Ceres let go of her son and nudged him in the direction of his brother and cousins. Before anybody in the room could move a muscle Remus was at the door, with his hands clutching the knob defiantly.
"Poppa could be on the other side!" he cried. The two adults were frozen in shock but Marielle raced to her cousin's side and put her hands over his.
"Or it could be Mommy!"
Ceres ran forward and snatched her niece up, she went over to the others and ordered them to each grab hold of her and not to let go. Just as Minerva reached Remus the door was flung open, a huge grey wolf lunged at the small boy. Everybody in the room shrieked as the two were sent flying to the pine flooring.
"NOW!!"
The bellow rang throughout the entire house and Ceres hesitated for an instant before remembering the other children. With a loud crack the woman and five children were gone, leaving Minerva fumbling for her wand.
There was a crash and Minerva looked up to see her brother-in-law standing in the doorway, bloody and disheveled and staring at a spot behind her in horror. The fifteen-year-old witch spun around just in time to see the wolf sink its teeth into Remus's right side.
"Let's go Abe…" Aberforth nodded as Minerva put her hand under his arm and he felt himself rising, the scene before him dissolved into the candle lit office reserved for the DADA teacher. They just stood there for a long time as the witch tried to compose herself.
"What happened to everybody?" he asked softly. Minerva stared at the penseive with puffy red eyes, for a minute she didn't speak.
"My oldest sister, Ceres, she disapparated with all of the children except for Remus, she still regrets not picking him up along with Marielle but she just wouldn't have been able to hold both of them at the same time. John managed to get the werewolf off of his son and Bacchus, my brother and the oldest one of us, he called the Ministry and Healers from St. Mungo's over…"
She moved over to her desk chair and sat down, motioning Aberforth into the chair across from her as she did so. "What happened to your parents and Adelle?" he questioned. Minerva let out a suffering sigh.
"Well, Adelle died along with my mother that night," she said, "and my father went mad knowing that he was the cause of it all." She gave a short, bitter laugh then. "Poor little Adelle, she was always his favorite daughter…she always forgave him instantly no matter what it was he did. And mind you all those bad things could fill a novel."
"Oh, so how long were you hiding from the werewolves?"
"Ten minutes at most, but they found all thirteen of us in about five and then Adelle and Mum were dead in another five and Dad was crazy as soon as Mum's body hit the floor. Then John and Bacchus were almost skinned alive and Remus was shouting about his teddy and everything was just a sodding mess!" she took a calming breath and gazed at a framed picture that was sitting directly in front of her. "Marielle's an orphan now, her father died the day after he found out that Adelle was pregnant."
"How?"
"Suicide," Minerva answered curtly. "He wasn't ready for fatherhood yet."
"Oh…" Aberforth though for a moment, he gave a crooked half-smile. "Your family's a bit tragic you know."
"Shut-up, now isn't the time for jokes," the witch snapped, "you wanted to know how it happened so I showed you."
"Right, sorry wrong time," he agreed. "What time is it though?" Minerva glanced at a wooden clock that was sitting next to the picture frame. Her eyes widened.
"Late!" she scrambled out of her seat and towards the door. "Time for classes, got to go, see ya at dinner, bye!" The door slammed shut behind her leaving a baffled Aberforth sitting in a fluffy red armchair as the candles about him flickered and died.
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--James Potter--
"WooHoo!" James threw his fists up in triumph as he danced around the Ravenclaw common room. Some of the working students exchanged amused glances while others glared at the offending first year. "Com'n Sevie, we've got friends ta be a'meetin!"
"And what exactly do you mean by that Potter?" asked the greasy haired boy without looking up from his textbook.
"We've got to go down to the Quidditch pitch today," James answered with a grin. "We're finally allowed to fly the brooms!"
"It's just a practice though," Florean put in as he began to pack up his supplies. "And I hear that the school brooms are pretty bad."
"I don't care how bad the stupid things are as long as they get up into the air!" said James as he opened the door leading out of the vast room. "Now come on you two, I told Peter that we'd meet him by the Great Hall."
"Right behind you my friend," Florean said jovially as he hefted a scowling Severus out of his wooden chair. "Now move it Snape!" he pushed his dorm mate out the door, past James who was holding it open.
James and Florean bounded and laughed through the hallways in a race to see who could reach the Great Hall first, Severus just sighed and stared forlornly in the direction from which they had come.
"At least Lily will be there," he muttered as he slouched after the other two Ravenclaws.
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Okay so that's chapter five. I've had that idea for how Remus got bitten for a long time and decided to put it in the story through Minerva's thoughts in a penseive. Also it's a way to show the growing relationship between the two teachers.
I'll try to be quicker with the next update, ciao – Nicole!