Disclaimer: Do you really think that If I was JK Rowling and owned Harry Potter that I'd be writing on fanfiction? No, I thought not.
Tears of Sadness, Tears of JoyI know it's been long since I updated and I'm sorry. I was ironing out confusions and it occurred to me that some others might want to have their confusions ironed as well, so you don't have to read, "The Story So Far", but you can if you want to, and there is actually a chapter…
The Story So Far…
Chapter 1 - We learn there is a dance (with posh frocks and the like) and that the Marauders don't plan on attending because none of them have dates (aww), so they are going to try out their new animagi forms with Remus transformed.
Chapter 2 - The dance. Lily drops in on her way to Lucuis to make James jealous; Lucius won't tell her why he asked her to the dance. The boys know something is up but can't figure out what, Dumbledore comes in and guesses what they're up to that night. They go off to the whomping willow and all transform. In animagi form, Sirius dominates Remus in werewolf form, but Remus dominates James (oh no!). James goes back to the oh-so-romantic gardens put up outside the castle and finds Lily in distress.
Chapter 3 - We find out what happened to Lily, and so does Dumbledore and McGonagall (James tells the Marauders). Lucius and his evil supporters (mwhahaha) take Lily back to the Slytherin Common Room and give her a drink that will paralyse her body. Lucuis reads one of Lily's old diary entries; she falls and cuts her leg in a Birthday game, but the point is that the mud mixes with the blood - get it "mudblood".
Chapter 4 - Breakfast. The Slytherins vs. Lily – Lily throws pumpkin juice in Lucius's face – not quite as good as castration, I know, but it will have to do for now. Then the Slytherins get hauled off to McGonagalls/ Dumbledore's office, take your pick.
Chapter 5 – We find out more about Remus. The rest of the Marauders are sitting there laughing about Malfoy and co (hahaha) and Lily goes off to find Remus in the library. He finally tells her about his "furry little problem". Hints that they are more than friends.
Chapter 6 – Breakfast (again). The Marauders find out Remus told Lily about his "furry little problem". Potions class – hints that Lily is up to something. Last little bit – Remus is thinking maybe Lily is changing her mind about James now he's being nice and all.
Chapter 7 – We meet Holly. Lily puts things down to that time of the month, and Holly tricks Lily into practically admitting that she fancies James (at last). On the train journey it's James vs. Remus and it looks like James is winning, but Remus's cheerleaders step up their routine and take him off court (couldn't resist). Back on the pitch James takes a break whilst Holly lets Sirius know 1) She doesn't have the foggiest about what's going on and 2) She's not interested. Sadness. Lily takes Remus away to divulge what she's been up to in Potions… learning about brewing the Wolfsbane Potion (that one that Snape makes for him in PoA? Remember?)Remus hugs her in thanks and guess who spots them? Oh yes, Mr Prongs indeed…
Chapter 8 – Part I of the 6 weeks Summer Holidays… and there are six characters! Fancy that! Anyway, my own clever ideas aside "ahem", Lily gets out of dinner with Petunia and Vernon by staying at Holly's for a few days. Her father, however, tells her mother (bad move, Mr Evans) that Lily's opinion of James is rising. Meanwhile, Lily-in-love spills her heart to her best friend (cue: awww).
Chapter 9 – Part II of the summer. This time we're with Sirius, who, with the help of Peter, is trying to convince James that Lily has realised she loves him. James however, is convinced that Lily loves Remus, yet wants to make her happy (sigh)… by doing his holiday homework. So Sirius and Peter are left to a game of chess in which Peter displays his unfoggying dense situation skills, to Sirius's great surprise. The boys realise that Remus and Lily are in fact NOT in love (gasp) and that they've treated him all wrong. Wanting to make it up to him, the boys hatch a plan needing the two-way mirror, but in Stage One: Acquiring said Mirror, to their shock and great disgust, they walk in on…James doing his holiday homework! Quickly, they scamper away to chat with their woeful werewolf and discover…
Chapter 10 – Part III of the summer. And discover… that he is not, in fact, as woeful as they wondered! He has a rather attractive veela look-alike in his sticky paws. Remus, meanwhile is thinking that the boys need a lesson, and shows them that he is not a pocket-size dictionary/ guide book/ self help book…He is, as a matter of fact, life size. So whilst our babbling, bumbling band of baboons are baffled, Remus is needing his own pocket-size dictionary/ guide book/ self help book… so who does he turn to? Oh yes, our lovely fair maiden Lily Evans. Dun dun dun.
Chapter 11 – Summer, Part IV – HollyBy the way, I'm making Remus come from a really posh background – yes I know in the books he's poor, but you'll just have to cope.
I haven't read through this because I wanted to get it posted before I have to go to End of Term Service. Lucky me, fun, fun, fun. Not.
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"And then, she's like James, you're so cute, and he's like, I LOVE LILY!" Holly sighed and leaned backwards over her bed with her hair dangling down.
"I don't think he actually said it in those words, Lils." Holly cackled. Her observation was met with a scowl, the full effect of which was still able to be received in the half light of the dying embers when one was upside down.
"Well, not exactly, but –"
"Lily?" the girls jumped as Remus' head appeared in the fire. Holly sat up to switch her bedside light on and the girls winced slightly as the room was bathed in a soft glow. "Two for the price of one, excellent. I had hoped you were both here. I checked your house first, though Lily – promise." Remus plunged in at the deep end, "Hey Holly; girls, I've got problems."
"Clearly." Holly's brow arched. He chuckled and then carried on,
"I've been seeing things." Holly snorted – this was going from bad to worse… or should she think from funny to hilarious. Lily, however, was on the ball as usual, ready and raring to go with a reliable reply…
"Oh dear." Holly blinked; surely that didn't just happen. Where were the helpful solutions? The alternatives? The long winded explanations! Oh the explanations! Meanwhile, the same thoughts seem to have been whirring through Remus' mind – minus the dramatics.
"Oh dear?" he repeated, as though sure he had not quite heard it right. His brow was slightly furrowed as if attempting to do question 42 of a 50 question History of Magic quiz.
"Hmm." Was Lily's intellectual solution. The alternatives were, "Are you sure they're not just dreams or daydreams?" and "Maybe you'd better explain a bit more?" and then of course there was the long winded explanation which was, "Because I don't understand." Holly amused herself with these little illogical musings.
Remus was a bout to comply, when he saw Holly slide to the floor so as to sit next to Lily. He addressed her,
"Holly, I'd appreciate your help too – I've got people problems." It was clearly late at night after a very stressful day. Remus shook his head, knowing from the smirk on Holly's face that she understood what he meant to say, "Anyway, about these visions." He broke off, laughing to himself.
The girls sat patiently (Lily) and not-so-patiently (Holly) throughout Remus' fun filled hallucinations, trying to make sense of it all. After a brief silence Lily began again, a little more logically than before.
"Well, maybe it's just the stress of everything." She suggested. The she sat up as though ideas had just hit her, "Or it could be this thing between you and the Marauders, maybe James' whining/ Peters' persisting/ Sirius' irritating finally got to you! Then she got a look about her. She glanced once at Holly and turned to Remus with a "serious" look on your face. "Remus, are you having girlfriend problems?" Holly burst into laughter, and then hastily covered her mouth.
Silence.
"Well, now that you mention it…" the smirks fells off the girls' faces as they stared incredulously at the head in the fire. He proceeded to tell them all about Caroline, "And if I tell the boys about her, they'll think she's a made up scam because James has got this mad theory I'm in love with you because he saw me hug you on the train, if they see her, they'll think she's a random girl I've bribed with homework or something and start asking weird questions, if I just introduce you to her, she'll be suspicious of you, and the guys won't like her anyway because she's a muggle."
Holly looked at him, mentally picking her lower jaw off the floor, "Remus, we'll think about it – get some sleep." She tried to sound as non-patronizing as possible… - cough - cough -
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A few days later, Holly sighed as she tossed over on the other side of her sun bed, looking accusingly at herself. Her family had gone off somewhere, and she was left for a few hours to bask in the sun in the comfort of her own (rather large) garden. Despite what some might think, she hated her body. Oh yes, it was definitely attention grabbing, but it always got her the wrong kind of attention. That is, the attention from people she didn't want, Sirius amongst those.
She knew, however, that Sirius was partially joking (although he wouldn't say no to a chance with her), but it really irritated her having to send out "don't even think about it" vibes all the time. She felt it gave her a permanently bored expression, and shoved all the "nice blokes" far, far away from her. Blokes like Frank... No! You will not think about him!
Holly regretfully shook her head, obeying her inner conscience. It would do her no good to daydream… daydream! She hadn't been thinking about solving Remus' visions! Oh well, Lily must have been doing something other than thinking about James…She hoped…Or would she.
The blonde reached out and fumbled about on the table beside her for her mobile,
"Lily?" There was an "I'm eating cookies at the moment but I can hear you" noise of acknowledgement on the other end, "Lily, what are you doing?" She asked. There was a swallow.
"Eating cookies, why?" From the scrunching sound following, Lily was obviously holding the packet up to the device to prove she was telling the truth.
"Yeah, okay, I get that you're eating cookies, but why." There was a short pause and then a wail,
"What if James doesn't love me anymore, what if he's fed up with me because I was so mean to him. Hollyyyy!"
"Of course he loves you." She replied, a tad absently. It was going to be one of those calls again. There followed half an hour more Lily-reassuring, before Holly actually got to the point.
"Lily, have you spoken to Remus after last time we spoke with him?"
"Oh, yeah, he said that he wanted us to go round this evening to his mother's little get together and meet Caroline." This was an extremely shocking week for Holly.
"Meet Caroline? Who else is going to be there?" she moaned.
"Meet Caroline." Lily confirmed. "A few family friends and the classy section of the neighbourhood. So you have to smile and be nice. And clothes! Nothing too pretty, either, we don't want her to think that Remus likes you or me. I think he's intending for her to make friends with us before she meets the Marauders. You know, just so she's assured Remus knows some normal people."
"Okay then. I'm coming round to yours this evening by the way. I've invited myself." She replied.
"I was going to invite you anyway, but never mind. See you later." Holly heard Lily hang up, and then dragged herself into an upright position. Summer holidays really weren't a time for relaxing.
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That evening, Lily's door was opened to find, as she had ordered, one Holly, dressed nicely, nothing too pretty, ready to go to the Lupin's. "Do we have to go immediately?" Was her enthusiastic greeting.
Lily merely laughed and gestured her in, admiring her taste. A light summer skirt and a strappy top completed with sparkly flip-flops and a few bracelets; Lily smirked evilly, "Very nice – Frank would like it." Holly whipped around.
"How did you! You! Oh. My. God. Just don't say anything to anyone. Please – I'll behave myself tonight." She promised.
The girls apparated themselves to the werewolf's lair fashionably late, after all the teasing, that is.
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Holly seriously thought that she was going to die of boredom. Seriously – these people had nothing exciting to talk about. Although she was a half-blood herself, and grew up in the muggle world, she never realised how much she missed Hogwarts when she was surrounded with people who wouldn't know all the in-jokes, the enchantments and general day to day life – not even about Hogsmede. It was quite a shock for her when no-one made any Herbology jokes when they found out her name. Various people had been asking her all evening, if she was going to go to university, what she wanted to do, what she did at the moment – on and on and on.
Oh dear. Remus Lupin aka walking talking encyclopaedia was beckoning herself and Lily over to be introduced to an extremely pretty girl clutching his arm. Unfortunately for her, her legs obeyed and she approached the pair at the same time as Lily with a smile on her face.
"Caroline, this is Lily and Holly. They both attend the same school as me," he improvised, "You two, this is Caroline." He looked to them both with a "please don't screw this up for me" look, and Lily just couldn't be that mean to him.
"Caroline, we've heard so much about you!" Lily offered her hand. Caroline extended her dainty hand and shook Lily's, then offered the same greeting to Holly. Remus was thanking his lucky stars Holly was keeping her scathing comments inside her head; he had seen her sulky look earlier.
"Oh, I've heard a bit about you too." Holly switched off. The girl pronounced every letter, in an educated and measured tone. Kind of like the tone she was supposed to have learned from her mother. She wanted to tell Remus that he'd soon get bored of this girl, but then she began to think. Caroline really was good for him – she'd write him flowing letters whilst he was at "boarding school up North", greet him at the train station, be taken to dinner (and use the napkin properly), spend his money for him and go out to coffee mornings.
Even though she didn't really like her, Holly made an effort to be charming, after all – she wasn't about to break up Remus' first proper relationship. Plus there was her promise to Lily as well.
Holly wondered if now that Lily had found out about Frank, she'd force her to do something. She hoped not – after all, Holly was very uncharacteristically patient about waiting for Lily to realise that she loved James…
Seriously, people I haven't had a review in a long, long, time - is it really that bad?
Reviews would be appreciated.
Love,
x Imperial Princess x