| Subject: When the Marauders Met (Chp2) |
Author:
Ginger
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Date Posted: 00:37:55 09/20/02 Fri
In reply to:
Ginger
's message, "(Fanfiction) When the Marauders Met" on 00:25:28 09/20/02 Fri
>Chapter 2<
Neighbours
The next morning, Peter was awoken bright and early by a rap at the door.
His parents were both still asleep. Peter moved cautiously towards the front door.
“Hello?” he said in a tiny voice. He opened the door with the metal catch still fastened on. He peered through the gap into the London street outside.
“Hello?” he said again, a little clearer.
“Hello!” came a man’s curt voice.
A man, who appeared to be a muggle, wearing a white coat and holding a couple bottles of milk in his hand.
“I believe you requested for milk?” said the milkman.
Peter shook his head, “No. I only moved in last night with my parents.”
And anyway his parents would never get involved with muggle dealings.
The milkman looked at his order form, “Is there no Mr. T. Lupin living here, then?”
Peter shook his head again.
“Damn,” said the milkman, scratching his head, “I must have the wrong address.”
Peter thought for a moment then quickly blurted out, “Did you say Lupin?”
“Yes.” The milkman said.
“Well, I think the Lupins’ live at number 10, as far as I know.”
“Oh.” The milkman softly uttered, then he thanked Peter and headed towards the old flat two doors away.
Why would they be getting milk, from a muggle? Thought Peter. Only poor wizard families interfere with muggles.
Then a horrid thought struck him.
Maybe the Lupin family were poor.
Indeed, Peter was right (for once in his life); Remus Lupin and his Uncle Tim were poor. And they also ordered the milk in the muggle-fashion.
Remus’ Uncle was a very unsuccessful wizard, you might say - a Squib.
Timothy Lupin had no work in the wizarding world; to the ministry and a lot of other wizard employers he didn’t have the quality suitable enough. This was the very reason of his low finances. In a desperate action, Tim looked for work in the muggle world instead. The mailman, or postman, was the only job he could find. He also had a very hard time adjusting to the muggle system. Being brought up in wizard fashion, he had never heard of postage stamps before. So it took him a while to learn what 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class meant.
Anyway, Remus and his uncle only earned muggle money - which took then a few months to figure out that there was a wider selection of currency that what the wizarding world use.
Still, sometimes Remus would exchange the muggle money for wizard money in Gringotts. This was mainly for any wizarding supplies or for Remus’ bank account.
This all then explains the Lupins slim amount of money and the milkman. Uncle Tim and Remus got along with muggles anyhow, after learning their ways for five years now, since they moved into the old flat on Baker’s Street.
Peter Pettigrew watched from his living room window as the milkman knocked on the Lupins’ front door. Peter was very curious and anxious to see his long-distanced pen pal, Remus.
Nobody answered the door, though and the milkman (getting impatient) banged his fist against the wooden door.
Unfortunately, Tim was out in the post office, getting an early start this morning and Remus was still in bed.
*
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Remus Lupin bolted upright from his comfy bed. A very loud knocking had disturbed his peaceful slumber. Remus was not happy, as he was very tired and feeling ill.
He plodded through the flat, quickly slipping on a pair of knee-patched jeans.
From looking through the crackled glass window he could see an outline of some white-clothed man.
Bob Granger! Thought Remus, that nice old milkman.
He smiled and quickly clicked open the front door.
No, it wasn’t Bob; it was a whole different face. Then Remus suddenly remembered that Mr Granger retired last week. This was obviously a new milkman and he looked really grumpy and pissed off.
“Hi.” Said Remus, “I’m sorry for the wait, how much are you charging? I don’t really remember, you see my uncle usually deals with the muggle-er-I mean money.”
The milkman blinked. He swore this boy had just said ‘muggle’.
Remus smiled innocently back.
“Er…yeah.” Muttered the milkman, “that’s one forty for two bottles.”
Remus quickly handed him some coins and then the milkman trudged off without even a ‘thank you’.
I don’t like this milkman! Declared Remus’ conscience. No manners at all.
He watched the grumpy man walk back down the street. As Remus watched the milkman pass the house number 6, he saw a face staring at him from its window. A boy with dark mousy brown hair and a pointy nose.
I wonder, thought Remus. Could that possibly be Peter Pettigrew?
His thought was answered as the boy dashed from the window ledge and outdoors,
“Remus!” Cried the small boy, “It’s me, Peter! I’m here at last.”
Remus stepped forward, wondering whether this boy was Peter. Well, he wasn’t what he expected. From what he read in his letters, Peter had told him of all the heroic thinks he’d done - like saving a Unicorn from near death and staking a blood-sucking vampire. But as he saw Peter now, it was obviously all lies. Remus noted straight away by the look of his face that Peter was a total wimp.
Remus frowned. He couldn’t see that their friendship wasn’t going to last, but somehow he knew this boy could be trustful, possibly.
“Well.” Remus finally said. “We meet at last! I daresay, you look quite small for your age.”
“Yeah,” Peter said shyly, “It runs in the family.” He chuckled slightly, “We might as well be called the Shorts!”
Remus smiled. Wimpy, but funny enough.
*
“SARAH!!”
Sirius bounded downstairs with the speed of a hound dog.
“Sarah, you’ve been raiding through my stuff again!” Sirius bellowed.
He entered the living room.
Sarah was unpacking some ornaments that belonged on top of the fireplace.
“As if I want to look at your junk.” Snapped Sarah. She placed a model of a castle on the stone mantelpiece.
“Well,” said Sirius, walking across the room, “someone’s been in my room and emptied all my moving boxes all over the place!”
Sarah looked up, rather surprised at this news.
Sirius remained glaring at his sister.
“I just told you it wasn’t me.” Sarah, having enough of Sirius’ bad temper fled from the room.
Sirius was angry, so angry he flung his arms in the air. As if in comparison the door Sarah walked out of, slammed hard shut.
Sirius jumped. The noise startled him.
“Sarah, don’t slam doors like that!”
“Stop blaming me! For everything!” Came Sarah’s muffled voice, from upstairs, “I hate you, Sirius!”
Good, thought Sirius.
*
James woke up late, as usual. It was 11am when he finally got dressed and sat down for brunch (a meal between breakfast and lunch).
His parents had gone out, so James found he was alone, (well except the house-elves, but that didn’t really count).
“Would Master Potter care for some croissants?” A couple of house-elves entered with a large golden tray piled with fresh croissants.
James took a couple and headed towards the library. But before he even reached the main stairwell, the front doorbell chimed.
Ding! Ding!
A blue house-elf hurried up to him.
“Sir, there are two muggles at the door, a man and woman.” Then the elf scurried away to the direction of the kitchens.
James sighed and walked towards the heavy oak doors.
Ding! Ding!
All right, all right, thought James and he heaved the door open.
There certainly was a man and woman standing on their veranda, dressed in muggle clothes.
So was James anyway, he had quickly pulled on some trousers and a jacket before he reached the door.
They might think it weird if they saw a boy dressed in black robes.
“Hello there.” Said the muggles.
The man reached his hand out in welcome, “I’m Paul. Paul Black.”
“James Potter.” Said James, shaking hands, “Are you the ones who moved in yesterday?”
“Why yes,” said the woman, “I’m Melanie Black.”
“Nice to meet you.” Said James, politely, “My parents are out at the moment, I’m afraid.”
“Oh.” Said Mrs Black, “Well, we were just saying hello and also,” here she handed James a piece of white paper, “to invite you and your family to a party we are having, tomorrow evening.”
“A party?” James said, (never been invited to one before), “wow, that sounds great.”
“Yes, it should be a good do.” Mrs Black said, “we’ve invited most of the street already.”
“Really,” James raised his eyebrows slightly, “Everybody. That’s…er…a lot of people.” He eyes the many houses on the street.
“Tell me about it.” Mr Black muttered, rolling his eyes.
Mrs Black, not noticing her husbands impressions, chattered on, “we have lots of guests, yes, and we decided to have it in the back garden. It’s very big, you see, and it should be fair weather tomorrow.”
James nodded, and then asked, “so, it this party to celebrate a birthday?”
Mrs Black suddenly laughed, “Silly me, o how silly I am.”
Mr Black rolled his eyes again and softly breathed out, “Indeed.”
James smiled at this.
“Yes, it’s for my son’s eleventh birthday.” Mrs Black finally managed to say, after her laughing.
“Same age as me then, well tomorrow, anyhow.” James remarked.
“Oh, good.” Said Mr Black, “Another eleven year old.”
“That’s good to hear.” Cried Mrs Black, “Sirius will be glad to make new friends.”
James smiled vaguely at this, “So you’ve met the Malfoy’s then.”
“Yes, well, no, we met their butler, though, he had a very strange manner for one.” Mrs Black said, “Very strange, but we heard children’s voices in that big house of theirs.”
“Very strange, the butler, he seemed in a hurry to shut the door, so we just gave him the leaflet.” Said Mr Black, “Very odd.”
The Blacks stood silently for a few moments, waiting for a possible answer.
“Er…yeah. Odd.” Said James, but he knew the real truth behind it.
*
“So, Remus.” Said Peter, “is your Uncle in, my parents would be thrilled to meet him. I’ve told them all about you and your uncle and-.”
“My uncle’s at work!” Remus interrupted, Peter had been talking so fast without any breathing pauses that Remus was certain that Peter would burst.
“Oh, ok.” Peter finished; he suddenly looked at Remus’ flat. Remus felt himself going red. He didn’t really mention to Peter how poor he actually was. Maybe he was ashamed to admit it.
“I like your flat.” Said Peter, but Remus could tell by the look on his face that he didn’t mean it.
Just by the way Peter was eyeing the boarded up windows and the woodworm eaten window frames, he knew he didn’t mean it.
“Yeah,” Remus said quietly, “Home sweet home.”
Peter turned his gaze from the broken roof tiles to Remus again and smiled.
Remus was rather surprised at this; he would have thought Peter would dislike him now for being poor.
“So, do you wanna see my house?” Peter said with excitement. “I could show you my collection of chocolate frog cards. I’ve nearly got the whole lot!”
Boy, thought Remus, this boy was certainly enthusiastic at times.
“Ok.” Remus replied, “Lemme just lock up first.”
He locked the front door, with an old rusty key. It made a terrible crunch noise when it turned the lock; it was painful to the ears.
Peter ignored the terrible noise and hurriedly took Remus by the sleeve and ran to door number 6.
“My house!” Said Peter, “Hopefully my parents are awake, and my mum usually wakes early to start brewing her daily potions. My mum’s good at making potions, she sells them too!”
Remus tried to take this all in; Peter was still talking very fast.
Remus looked up at the neat and tidy house. It was a perfect house to live in. He could have envied Peter, but instead he just smiled.
“What a nice house.” Remus managed to speak, eyeing the freshly blue-painted door. He also noticed that Peter had left the door open, in his haste to meet him earlier.
“Oops.” Peter said softly, “How clumsy of me, anyone could have sneaked in.”
Peter laughed it off and led Remus inside.
Peter was dead thrilled to have met his best friend and only friend in whole wide world. He’d had friends before, but they had disliked him after a while. They said he was clumsy and a noisy chatterbox at times too, oh and there was the frequent names of “loser” and “scardy cat”, how could he ever forget that.
He tried to forget his old stupid, useless non-friends and focused his attention to his guest. Remus was looking at the furniture and the many ornaments and precious valuables that his family had owned for centuries uncounted.
His mother was indeed in the kitchen, preparing a new mixture in one of her many treasured cauldrons. His mum seemed to collect cauldrons; she had about ten at the moment, stacked away in a large cupboard.
“Peter!” his mother called. “Where have you been, Peter? You shouldn’t worry your mother like that.”
“Nowhere mum, I’ve brought Remus with me though. His in the dining room.” Peter peeped through the kitchen door at his mum, who was stirring some bubbling brew.
“Remus is here?” His mum said, “Well, don’t be rude, dear, ask him if he would like a drink or something to eat.” His mother began adding powdered beetle to the mixture.
Yeargh, thought Peter, what in world is that!?
“Oh, do you like the look of my new potion?” Asked Mrs Pettigrew, suddenly answering Peter’s thought, “You know I bet it will be a hit in Diagon Alley!”
“Yeah, great mum.” Said Peter, being ironic, “Maybe you should open a shop.”
Mrs Pettigrew’s face lit up, “You know Peter, that is an absolutely fabulous idea.”
Peter screwed up his face, imagining the horrors her new invented potions would bring. His mum was better at the originals, like love potions and Pepper-Up potion. The two new ones she recently invented were tried out on him, a guinea pig as he was, and it made his face turn orange for a week. Peter shuddered at the effect it might have on the customers. Suddenly Diagon Alley would be full of witches and wizards plodding around looking like Oompa Loompas.
“You know, I can imagine it now, ‘Pettigrew Potions’” Peter’s mother stared at the nearby wall in a half dream.
Peter sighed thoughtfully. More like ‘Pathetic Hex potions’. He grabbed a pitcher of pumpkin juice and two goblets and quickly hurried out the kitchen before he gave his mother any more stupid ideas.
*
Sirius decided to go out; he had had enough tiding up for one day. The mess in his room had taken him nearly three hours to make his room look as neat as ever. His mother would be proud.
He took his basketball and a hang-on basketball hoop and went out onto the back porch.
It was around 4pm and the weather was pleasant and not as hot as it was yesterday.
He hung the net on a hook on the wall, which was a perfect spot and then began to shoot some hoops. He enjoyed this moment in life, just relaxing having no hassle from his bratty sister or his parents. It was nice and quiet. He started to think about what school his mum would end up dumping him in. Some grammar community for boys. He sighed in a depressing way. At least he has four weeks of summer still.
“Hello.”
Sirius turned sharply on his heel.
“Who said that?” He said quickly. He swore he heard a boy’s voice.
“Up here.” Said the voice.
Sirius looked over at the garden wall. A boy was sitting on it. It was quite high as well, so he was quite surprised and impressed. The boy had rather messy black hair and glasses, also a cheeky grin. “All right there?”
Sirius shot a hoop with his back to the net, trying to even the showing off between them, “Not bad.” Said Sirius, he ran to fetch his basketball as the boy jumped down onto Sirius’ garden.
“I saw you move in yesterday.” Said the boy, “My names James Potter by the way.”
Sirius turned towards him as he picked up his ball, “Sirius.” He said. “So you live in that big place then, I bet you have dozens of servants don’t you.” He dribbled the basketball in front of James, smirking.
James was staring at him, looking rather puzzled. “What’re you doing?”
“Playing basketball.” Answered Sirius, “What’s it look like.”
James still looked confused.
“Come on, don’t tell me you’ve never heard of basketball before.” Sirius held the ball in one hand and began to spin it on his finger. “I guess you’ve never really had a life then.”
James looked a bit put off with his remark, but then James kind of looked as if he agreed.
“I’ve never played any sports before.” Said James.
Well, that settled it, thought Sirius.
Sirius began to teach him the basics of playing basketball. James was very interested and was soon beating him at a small one on one game.
“Well, for a rich kid who’s never played any sports at all, you sure have hidden talent.” Sirius panted, clutching his knees.
James grinned as he scored another hoop. “I guess there is such thing as beginner’s luck!”
Yeah, thought Sirius. Luck.
“So,” said James. “I’ve heard that it’s your birthday tomorrow, excited at all.”
“Not really,” Sirius mumbled, “They get duller the older you get.”
“Well it should be good, after all you’re having a party.” James began to climb up the stonewall again.
Sirius looked up, “How? How do you know I’m having a party? How do you know it’s my birthday as well?”
“Your mum told me.” James replied.
“Oh,” Said Sirius, tying his shoelaces. Then he got up and thought, my mum told him? “What? James-.”
But he was gone.
Fine, thought Sirius. I need to have a nasty chat with my mother, anyway.
And he headed for the backdoor leading to the kitchen.
James quickly went through one of the many doors into his home. He had completely forgot about the dinner guests. His parents were hosting a small dinner celebration in honour of a great wizard. Dumbledore, Professor Dumbledore that is. From what his parents told him, Dumbledore was going to be the new headmaster at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry.
How could he of forgot? He rushed upstairs and changed out of his muggle clothes and slipped into some dinner robes.
The dinner gong was clanging downstairs by one of the house-elves.
James rushed down the stairs at top speed and when he reached the bottom step he tripped up on his robes and fell flat on his face.
“All right, Potter?” Said an oily unpleasant voice.
James cursed under his breath. He stood up quickly and narrowed his eyes.
“What are you doing here, Malfoy?” Said James, in a threatening tone.
“Me and my family were invited here by Dumbledore, so we were only too happy to accept.” Lucius smirked and then he looked around him, “but if we knew before that it was being hosted here, we might have cancelled.”
James clenched his fists and began grinding his teeth into powder, “Then why don’t you leave then.”
“Oh, we couldn’t do that.” Said a girls voice, “Otherwise daddy won’t be approved to be minister for magic.”
A curly blonde girl stepped from behind Lucius; her eyelashes flickered as she stared sweetly at James.
James just sighed deeply, “Veruca, you will never learn will you. Your daddy’s a slime ball who should be locked up in Azkaban.”
“You better watch what you say, Potter!” Spat Lucius, “That’s my little sister you’re talking to.”
“Well I can’t exactly watch what I say.” Remarked James, “I don’t have eyes in my mouth.”
“You will when I’ve finished with you.” Lucius stepped forward, whipping his wand out.
“Lucius!” Hissed Veruca, “Remember what mummy said.” She grabbed her brother’s arm, but Lucius pushed her away.
“I don’t care this Potty boy is dead meat.”
“Boys,” Said a familiar voice behind them, “I trust this conversation is non-violent.”
Dumbledore was standing there; his white beard was shining at them with its peculiar glow.
Lucius hid his wand back inside his cloak.
“No, sir.” Said Lucius, “I was just showing Potter here my new wand, he reckoned I didn’t have one, so I was just proving it.”
Lucius turned to look at James.
“Yeah,” James said, “It’s great.” And walked to the dining hall.
*
The Pettigrews welcomed Remus in a very friendly manner. He wasn’t really used to this kindness, especially by wizard families.
Mrs Pettigrew seemed a nice enough woman, very fussy it seemed and a little over-excited at times too. Mr Pettigrew seemed a rather twitchy man, he had a long pointy nose, similar to Peter’s and he had a jumpy habit when he heard sudden loud noises. Remus also noticed a contrast between the couple; how Mrs Pettigrew had more fat on the belly and Mr Pettigrew had less hair on the head.
He was in Peter’s room now sipping a goblet of pumpkin juice.
“Hey, did you hear that howling last night?” said Peter, staring out the window.
Remus pretended he didn’t hear him and stared at the floor.
“Did you, hey?” Peter asked.
“Howling?” Remus replied, “er…yeah-there’s this dog…dog-yeah a dog lives nearby, howls a lot-.” He looked up, “Especially on a full moon.”
Peter shuddered, “it frightened me, that howling. It made me think of wolves.”
“What?” startled Remus, looking up at Peter again.
“Yeah, wolves howl and on the full moon.” Stated Peter, like a textbook. “I read about it once.”
Remus raised his eyebrows slightly, ‘Peter reads books? Books about wolves?’
“Right.” Said Remus. “Wolves.”
Peter spat his pumpkin juice out suddenly looking as if a thought had just struck him - if that was possible.
“What if-“ Peter blurted. “What if it was a werewolf!”
“Huh?” Said Remus, standing to his feet this time. He went pale in the face. “No! I told you it was a dog. A dog!”
Peter looked shocked at Remus’ reaction to this. “Er-ok, take it easy, it was just a thought.”
Remus breathed out a sigh of relief and sat back down.
Peter refilled his goblet, wondering why Remus made such a scene earlier. He needed to change the subject.
“Hey, do you want to go and have a look around Diagon Alley. I haven’t been there before.”
“Yeah, sure.” Agreed Remus, smiling and looking more than happy to be somewhere else.
Peter quickly drank the rest of the juice and searched through his cupboard for his bag of money.
“I need to get my Hogwarts stuff anyway.”
“But we haven’t even been given our letter yet?” Said Remus, looking confused.
“Oh, not that stuff, I mean a pet. My mum says I should have a pet with me when I go to Hogwarts.”
“Oh, ok.” Said Remus. “That’s cool, let’s go then!”
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