Fourteen years. Selene hadn't seen anyone from the Wizarding World in fourteen years. She had made a few Muggle friends, but they weren't at all like her wizarding friends. If they invited her somewhere on an extremely sunny day, she would have to decline. She couldn't handle the sun. That was a plus of living in London.
Alot had happened in fourteen years. Sirius had escaped from Azkaban - an inescapable prison. Harry would just be finishing up with his fourth year at Hogwarts. She had read in the Daily Prophet that he was the youngest wizard to ever participate in the Triwizard Tournament. It was all very exciting, even though she was only reading about it through the Prophet.
It was the morning after Harry's last task - according to the Prophet. Selene was sitting in the kitchen of her little house. There was a scratching on the window above the sink, and Selene looked up to see an owl. She let him in and took the copy of the Daily Prophet off from his leg, and dropped a Galleon into the bag it carried. It flew off out the window without a backward glance.
This is what she had been waiting for. To see if Harry had won.
Selene unfolded the Prophet, and there, on the front page, was a picture of Harry leaning over a boy who was laying on the ground.
She read the article twice.
Harry had won the Tournament.
Lord Voldemort was back.
She took out her wand and muttered the charm for fire. She watched the copy of the Prophet burn before grabbing a piece of paper. She wrote a quick letter, sent it with her screech owl, Bernard, then darted upstairs to her bedroom.
It was time to return.
~oO0Oo~
It was two days after the full moon, and Remus looked awful. He was pale and had new cuts all along his arms and a few on his face. They would just turn out to be scars like the rest of them.
He and Sirius were sitting in the kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius was extremely bored. When he escaped, Remus had to tell him not to bring up Selene to anyone, and explained why. Sirius had nodded, but pouted. Her secret was as well kept as she wanted.
Remus had tried to send her letters, but his owl always returned, letter still attached to its leg. He rarely thought about her anymore, but once in awhile, like now, she would cross his mind. He hoped that his best friend was fine.
"Boys! No more explosions!" Molly Weasley yelled as she walked into the kitchen. She smiled kindly to Remus and Sirius, the former because she genuinely liked him, the latter to be polite. She began preparing dinner, humming softly to herself. There was soon another muffled 'boom' and Molly huffed, walked over to the door in the kitchen and yelled "Another one and neither of you get to go to Diagon Alley this year!" She then stalked back into the kitchen to continue cooking. The house was silent.
Molly put dinner in the oven, not yet baking for there was an Order meeting tonight and they would eat afterword. Everyone slowly began to come and sit around the table. Fred and George snuck around and sat in a corner, hoping to not get caught, and Molly flung a shoe at them and hissed, "Ive told you, you aren't old enough. OUT!" She shoved them out the door lovingly, as all frustrated mothers do and looked up to see Harry standing in the entryway.
"Harry, dear! Come in!" She says. "Ron, Hermione, he's here!" She called up the stairs. Almost immedeately they were greeting their friend.
~oOoOo~
Molly was huffing around the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner, angry that Sirius told Harry anything. She just wanted him to be safe. She knew that ignorance was bliss.
"Oww! Bloody bird!" Molly turned to see what was going on, only to see Remus holding the back of his head, with an owl standing on the table in front of him, its leg extended, offering the letter it carried.
Remus leaned down and took the letter from the owls leg.
"Who's owl is that?" Sirius asked from beside him.
"Not sure." Remus looked at the envelope. Nothing was written on it. He flipped it over, still nothing to tell him of its sender.
"Well, open it!" Sirius said, smacking his friend lightly on the shoulder.
"Calm down, Padfoot." Remus sighed as he opened the envelope. It was a short, to the point letter that wasn't written on parchment, but Muggle paper.
Dear Moony,
I have heard about the return of You-Know-Who. I told you that I would return when I was needed, and I believe that time has come. I will meet at Headquarters. I will see you soon.
Your dearest friend,
Screech
"She is coming back?" Sirius said, having read the letter over Remus's shoulder.
"It would seem that way." He replied quietly. There was no way that he was going to see her again. He had prepared himself years ago that she wasn't coming back. But now it seems that she would prove him wrong.
Remus and Sirius looked at each other, remembering their friends. Wormtail, the traitor who had killed James, and Selene, who had left them. Only one would come back. They hugged each other, Sirius saying "I didn't think she would ever come back." And Remus agreeing.
~oOoOo~
The next day had been such a long day. Sirius had woke early, and Remus had gotten there only an hour after. They both had been conversing quietly all day, not much talking to anyone else. Sirius had been almost bouncing all day with excitement, while Remus had had a smile on his face and a gleam in his eye.
It was now quite late, around 6 o-clock, and there was still no sign of anything. They were just as high strung as they had been all day. Ginny noticed that they kept looking at the door.
She had gone upstairs just to get away from their jitters; it was making her nervous just watching them. She started to get bored and wanted to talk to Hermione, so she was coming back downstairs. She had made it to the bottom of the stairs when something moved, catching her eye. She gasped at the sight.
There was a woman standing in front of the door, looking around. She had auburn hair, with black lace pinned into it, draping down her face, just past her nose. Her red lips were turned up in a polite smile at her.
Ginny couldn't help but stare at her outfit. Even though it was mid-summer, she was wearing a green floor length dress, made of a light material. It had long sleeves edged in black lace and she was wearing black lace gloves. It was like she stepped out of a history book! She even held a black lace parasol in one hand, though it was closed and perched on the ground.
"Hello," her voice was soft but assertive, "is Remus around?" The lady stood as straight as a pin. The skin of her neck was so pale!
"Um, yes. Let me get him for you." Ginny said, somewhat shyly, before all but running into the living room. "Remus, there is a lady here to see you." She said as soon as she was in the doorway.
Remus looked at Sirius quickly, then ran out to greet the strange lady, Sirius right behind him.
"Who is it?" Ron asked.
"I don't know, but..." She continued to explain the lady.
~oOoOo~
Remus ran into the entryway to a familiar sight. Selene was standing there, lace in her face and a parasol in her gloved hands. She was looking at him as he entered, smiling. As soon as Remus made it to Selene, he wrapped her in a tight hug, but then almost immediately let go. She was just as cold as always!
"I am so glad to see you!" He said.
Her red lips turned up on one side. "You always did have a fondness for me that no one else did. Hello Sirius, my favorite convicted murderer." She said, smiling, showing her pearly teeth.
"Hello, my dear. It has been too long." He took her hand in his and kissed its knuckle.
She tossed her delicate head back and laughed. "You are as flirtatious as always."
"Of course." He smirked. "I thought that I would have to be, seeing as you can't get anyone else to flirt with you." This remark made her lift her parasol and smack him in the side with it.
"You are terrible! Oh, and Kreacher has already taken my things to a room. He seemed quite happy to see me." She smirked. They could still only see her mouth, but it was enough.
"Of course he was happy. You are the darkest thing to be in this house since my mother died." Sirius replied, earning another swat from the parasol.
"Would you like to meet the rest of the order? The ones that are here, of course." Remus said. She nodded, the lace flowing around her face, and he lead her into the living room.
Remus stood off to the side of the doorway, while Sirius stood to the other side.
"Well, that is Molly Weasley." Remus says, pointing to a pudgy middle aged woman who is staring at their guest with a slightly shocked expression. Selene rolls her eyes behind the lace.
Selene nods her head to Molly. "Hello, Molly." She says, smiling.
"These are Molly's children, Fred and George," Remus points to two red headed boys - obviously twins. "This is Ron, and that one is Ginny."
"Hello, everyone." Selene says politely.
"This is Hermione Granger." He points to a brown haired girl who is holding a book.
"Hello, Miss Granger." Selene's red lips quirk up politely.
"And this is Harry." At the sound of Harry's name, Selene's head snaps to where Remus is pointing.
"My, god..." She whispers, looking at Harry. Her hands reach up and unhook the lace from her hair, tucking the end of it into the wrist of her glove. Molly's eyes widen, Fred and George smile, Ginny gasps slightly and Ron's face turns red, to the tips of his ears. These are all reactions that Selene is used to, so she ignores them, walking to Harry.
She squats down in front of Harry, her back straight as a board, with an awed expression on her face.
"The resemblance to James is remarkable!" She whispers. "You have Lily's eyes, I'm sure you've been told. James was one of my dearest friends. One of my only friends. I do hope we can become friends." She smiles at him kindly before standing. She walks over to Sirius and Remus.
"Looks just like James, hmm?" Sirius says.
"Yes. It is like a memory. Like James is still here." She says.
"So, I am assuming that you will want to be sleeping with me." Sirius says quite loudly, making everyone's eyes widen to where they seemed to pop. Selene reached up and swatted Sirius on the back of the head, making a satisfying 'SMACK' reverberate through the room.
"Oww!" He grabs the back of his head. "That hurt!"
"Stop whining and show me to my room. I would like to change." She says, smirking proudly.
Sirius leads her from the room and up the stairs. The first door they come to is where he stops. "This is the only empty bedroom at the moment. Please don't take too long. We've missed you!" Sirius says, Remus nodding enthusiastically.
"I will be only a moment." She replies, opening the door with a flourish, walking inside and flinging the door shut.
Selene dug around her trunk until she found the dress she was looking for. She changed quickly, shedding her gloves and leaving the parasol. She took the pins out of her hair, letting it fall gracefully down her back.
She returned to the living room shortly and joined Sirius and Remus. They were sitting on a couch and she chose a chair that was directly next to the couch. She sat closest to Remus.
"You don't want to come sit by your lover?" Sirius says, pouting playfully at her.
"Would you slap him for me?" Selene mutters to Remus, who obligingly reaches over and smacks Sirius in the back of the head.
"Stop doing that!" He says, holding his head.
"Well, then stop saying things that will get you slapped." She responds.
"So, how have you been? Did you do well in the Muggle world?" Remus asks.
"Of course I did well. I am Selene Tussaud, I can only do well." She smirks then sighs, "It was quite lonely. No one would come near me. I was once called 'cold hearted' when a man touched my hand on the bus! Can you believe that."
"I would go running for the hills if I had touched you." Sirius declare.
"That would be wise, because I would hurt you." Selene smirks, making Remus smile. "And you know what the hardest thing was? Going against the other part of myself. I am really craving a blood flavored lollypop from Honeyduke's!"
"I cant imagine craving one of those." Ron says, scrunching up his nose. "Now, Chocolate Frogs on the other hand..."
"Well, I have dropped enough hints. If you cant figure it out, I am sorry for your mother and am sure your grades suffer dearly." Selene says, smiling, making sure Ron knows that she is messing with him.
"What does that mean?" Ron says, his eyebrows furrowing together.
"Hermione looks well read. Maybe she can take a guess." Selene smiles at Hermione.
"Um, well..." She begins, everyone looking at her. "The way you were dressed when you got here, your skin color and... blood lollypops... points to vampire. But you said that you can go without blood, just that you wouldn't mind getting some, which is confusing."
"You must be the smartest witch of you age! Yes, my father is a vampire, mother is a Death Eater. I can live without blood, but the longer I go without it, the more I want it. The sun is painful, but if I cover up, I can go outside. I like garlic on my popcorn, but it is hard to apply makeup, since my image does not appear in a mirror." Selene smiles. "There are not many like me in existence. The last I knew, there were only five of us." Everyone is quiet for a moment. "I am sorry if that makes you uncomfortable." She looks down at her fingers.
"No, no. That is just a lot to think about." Molly assures her, with a small smile.
"Oh, why did you leave to begin with?" Sirius asks, lifting an eyebrow. Remus had told him that she left and wanted to be kept a secret, but he wanted to know why.
"Well, the others of my kind had joined the Death Eaters, and they wanted me, too. I asked if they realized that I was a half-blood, and they told me that they wanted me because I was 'conceived of darkness.' What does that even mean? They kept bothering me, and I worried over what they would do if I kept saying no. Even after James and Lily...They still bothered me. I didn't know what else to do." Selene explains. "You couldn't tell anyone because I didn't want them to find me."
Sirius nodded. He had missed her. WHen he had been preparing to escape from Azkaban, he had been hoping for Remus and Selene to greet him eventually. Then Remus told him that Selene was gone, so it was just the two of them. Now she was back and it made him quite happy.
"Remus, have you been getting your wolfsbane potion?" Selene asked with soft eyes.
"It is in short supply at the moment. Quite expensive. So no, I haven't." He replies.
"Okay, and if I recall correctly, the full moon was three days ago. Have you been taking care of your wounds well?" She asked. She had always taken care of Remus. She always carried a special ointment that would make even cursed cuts barely scar.
"As well as I always have. Why?" He asked, wondering where she was going with this.
"Come on then." She said, standing. Sighing, Remus followed her.
She led him to her bedroom and dug around her trunk while he stood in the doorway. She was wearing a white floor length dress with quarter sleeves. It was quite low-cut, and showed a lot of cleavage. When she stood with a tube of ointment in her hand and turned to Remus, she noticed him staring at her.
"It's not like I haven't done this before." She commented. "I hope this works. This stuff is fourteen years old. Come, sit on the bed." She gestured for him to sit.
Once he was sitting, she opened the tube and began applying it to the fresh cuts on his face. "Close your eyes, there is one on your eyelid." She said quietly, and he obliged. She knew that it was weird to have someone touch you who was so cold, so she tried to be as quick as possible.
She had finished with his face and began with the cuts on his arm. "These are quite deep, Remus." She said, and he felt her cold breath on his arm. She applied quite a bit to each of the cuts on his arm, so they would heal well, then looked up at him. "Any more?"
"Do you realize how much we missed you?" Remus asked her in a quiet voice.
"I'd guess as much as I had missed you." She replied, standing. "Are there no more cuts then, Moony?"
"No more." He said, watching her move to her trunk and tossing the tube of ointment in.
"We should probably go back and sit with Sirius." She said. Remus nodded, not really wanting to have to share her company with anyone else.