She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Disowned

We'd arrived back at the Potters', to find that the Nifflers had, in fact, invaded the house, and were intent on finding every glittery, sparkly, shiny thing in sight. They had been very attracted to my earrings and pocket watch, and to James' glasses. It had taken us nearly two hours to sort them all out, and safely return them to a magical cage out the back. By that stage, we were all exhausted, and I was glad that the magic did most of the cooking that night.

Before bed, Maggie had shown me to my room, which was on the second floor and across the hall from James' room. The power of speech failed me, because I was grateful for the lengths Maggie and Reginald had gone to to make the room look nice. The very first thing I'd done was unpack my trunk – I'd hung up all my clothes in the wardrobe or folded them up into the drawers. Then I took out my most treasured possessions – my pocket watch with the stag on it, the enchanted charms from Remus and Sirius, my broomstick, the necklace from Lily – and put them in a safe place.

And, on my bedside table, I put a framed photograph of the Marauders, taken by me about a week before term ended.

James, his hair as untidy as ever, grinning at the camera. James…my almost-brother, the older, arrogant brother I had missed, since my own twin brother had died. Impatiently, I brushed at the wetness in my eyes, and looked at Sirius, standing next to James, and looking so carelessly handsome and slightly even more arrogant than James. But I knew these two…the arrogance only went so far, there was more to them than met the eye.

Peter was at the other end of the line-up, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much admired rebels that were James and Sirius and, I realised with a start, probably with me as well. The smuggled-student, the one who'd tangled with Death Eaters and Dementors…and lived. The feeling of Nott and Lestrange using the Cruciatus Curse on me was still a nightmare…a pain I never wanted to experience again but, as long as Bellatrix still lived, I probably would, since she was so fond of the curse itself and seemed to have it in for me…

Remus, my Remus, was standing next to Peter, with an air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and excluded…I knew, deep within my heart, that he probably feared hurting me…despite my Animagus form of the white wolf, it was still a probable fear, even though I'd proven myself more than able to take care of myself when he was a werewolf…I hoped he knew that I hadn't rescued Snape for Snape…I'd rescued Snape for Remus…so that he didn't have to feel like he was becoming a monster, like Fenrir Greyback. Remus, with his golden hair and golden eyes, smiled up at me from the photograph, and I smiled back.

I still didn't know what to do about my feelings – how could I be in love with two guys at the same time? And, I was only sixteen – I had turned sixteen on March twenty-eight, exactly one day after James had (and I hadn't told anybody about it, because birthdays had never been the greatest experience for me in the past…). What was I doing being in love at sixteen?

Then again…

I looked at another picture, of me and Lily, with our arms around each others shoulders, and smiling at the camera. If anybody looked at the way James felt about Lily…I didn't understand how she could ignore that kind of devotion, unless she really did only see his arrogant side…

I sighed, and placed the picture of Lily and me onto the bedside table next to the one of the Marauders. My wand lay there too, and I missed being able to use it already. Stupid under-aged magical restrictions law. I changed into my pyjamas – pink silk summer ones – and climbed into bed.

"I hope Remi sends Haphazard back too…" I muttered, partially because I wanted my owl back, and partially because I wanted to hear from Remus Lupin again…

*-*

That night, I had a dream about Quidditch, but it wasn't like my normal dreams of playing the sport. Because, usually, when I dream about Quidditch, James is in the dream and I'm usually beating him spectacularly (I can dream, can't I?). I'd dreamed quite a fair bit since arriving in this magical world. I'd dreamed about Sirius and Remus (I won't tell you what), I'd dreamed about playing Quidditch with James of course, I'd dreamed about saving Peter from himself (now that was a dream) and I'd even dreamed about people like Lily, Dumbledore, Molly, Alice and Serilda. I'd dreamed about killing Bellatrix (I woke up and was very ashamed with my dream) and about stopping a giant snake named Nagini from killing Severus (I'd had mixed feelings about this dream) and I'd even gone so far as to dream about talking to a Basalisk and everyone thinking I was a freak. That was more of a nightmare, since I don't like snakes.

But this was the first night I'd dreamed about Regulus Black and his mother.

We were both heading toward the snitch, and his mother was down in the crowd, wearing a diadem and yelling at Regulus to 'get a move on and ask her!'.

Then, as I watched, the snitch suddenly changed into the Marauder's Map, and the scene changed to show me standing in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, wearing silver dress robes and shaking Dumbledore's hand, as Sirius waved to me from the Gryffindor table and Lily smiled at me because her arms were in bandages and slings.

Then the scene changed again, and I was dropping a piece of paper with my name on it into a large goblet, and I looked up to see a huge fiery phoenix circling the Great Hall, it dropped a smaller cup into my hands, and my left ear was hurting.

I awoke with a start, to find a furry black something nibbling at my ear.

"Let go of my earring, niffler!" I told it, reaching over to get a shiny goblet on the other side of my bed, and chucking it into the corner of the room. The niffler jumped off the bed and chased after the cup, retrieving it with it's long snout and bringing it back to me. "Huh. Fun. Okay, fetch niffler."

***

James and I were in the house by ourselves, because his parents had gone out for the day, to visit some friends in town, and I wanted to see the Potter family tapestry that James had spoken of.

We climbed the stairs to the attic, and suddenly something leapt out at us from the darkness.

"Aurgh!!" I cried, as the giant snake hissed at me, and bared its huge fangs.

"It's a Boggart, Em!" James said quickly, drawing his wand which he'd kept on him, probably for this very reason. "We can use magic if it's a situation like this, don't worry." He added, just as the doorbell rang. "Why don't you get that?"

I nodded hastily, and turned and ran down the stairs, hearing a crack like a whip from behind me and James shout: "Oh for God's sake, I am NOT scared of Evans marrying Snivellus!"

"Liar!" I called over my shoulder, hurrying from the second floor landing onto the first floor, as the doorbell rang again. "Okay, okay, I'm coming!" I said, hurrying to the door and flinging it open.

Standing on the front steps was none other than Sirius Black himself, holding his trunk containing all of his things. He looked thoroughly annoyed about something, but his eyes lit up when he saw me. "There's my girl," He said, dropping his stuff and pulling me into a huge hug which made my heart tingle.

"Hi Siri," I said happily, as he drew away from me and looked at me with such love in his eyes that I was sure was reflected in my own – I'd missed him, even though it had been less than a day since we'd seen each other. I eyed his luggage, however. It gave me uneasy thoughts. "But…why are you h…" The words died in my mouth. "Oh God no…did you…have you…" Was what I'd read about finally coming true? "Moved out?"

Sirius nodded grimly. "Yes well, kicked out is more like it, but don't tell anyone. I have disowned my family. I am officially moving in with you guys."

I stared at him, speechless, and then I whispered: "Did your mother…did she use the Cruciatus Curse on you?"

Sirius didn't say anything, but he just nodded.

"WHAT!!??" I shrieked.

"Em!?" James called from the attic, where he was battling the Boggart. "What's going on down there!? Who is it!?"
"It's Padfoot!" I yelled back up to him, anger at Mrs. Black clouding my vision. "Walburga used Cruciatus on him and he disowned his family and is moving in with us and he is here right now with all his stuff and he can stay can't h-" I was cut off suddenly when Sirius kissed me, probably more to shut me up than the fact that we just plain enjoyed kissing one another, although it definitely became an enjoyable experience when our tongues became involved..

There was a silence from upstairs, before James shouted: "RIDDIKULUS!!" And I had the sudden vision of the image of Snape being rejected by Lily before exploding into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and James' footsteps clattered down the stairs. "Padfoot, mate, what happened!?"

Sirius and I broke apart, and Sirius said: "Not much to tell…" But he glanced quickly at me, and I narrowed my eyes. No, of course there wasn't…unless you counted Walburga's strange reaction to meeting me yesterday, like she'd heard of me before…