FIC: Halloween Mayhem VIII [Harry Potter, Marauders]
Author’s Note: Dunno why I’m saying this, but Shara is pronounced ‘Shah-rah’. And another thing: Teknoman (or, to use the original title, Tekkaman Blade), the series I borrowed Shara from, is a Japanese cartoon, better known as an anime. It’s quite old, so the quality of the animations is sometimes a bit poor. To put it simply: I’ve never been able to make completely sure of what eye colour Shara really has - hence the reason none of the characters know. It seems to be some kind of purple, though... Here, have a look: www.fanimanga.com/TB/shara.html
More info on the original Shara and Teknoman in the PSAN.
Chapter Eight; Somebody Tell Me I’m Dreaming
James was not sure how he had landed himself in his current state of horrified shock. Well, he was (Sirius had left, he had realised he hadn’t been paying attention when Sirius had talked about Shara the day before, he asked Peter to repeat what he had found out, and Peter had), but it was hard to believe he had actually let it happen the way it had happened. Yet, he had, and it had, and... oh, bloody Hell. Why hadn’t he paid more attention before, when Sirius explained the situation, instead of acting like a moron over Evans? If he’d noticed before, he might have... well, he wasn’t sure what he could have done, but at least he would have known sooner!
"Please don’t tell me you just said her last name was Carter." he said faintly, sagging into the overstuffed chair. He saw Peter adopt a helpless look and groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "Of all the girls Remus could have picked..."
"W - what’s wrong?"
"If her last name is Carter, and she’s a Hufflepuff, then she has got to be the little sister of Nick and Cain Carter."
"They sound familiar..." Peter said uncertainly.
"I’m sure I’ve yelled their names in my nightmares some time or other. They’re Hufflepuff’s Beaters, Wormtail! They’re tall, muscular seventh-years, and they tend to crack their knuckles whenever someone looks at their little sister funnily."
Peter paled dramatically, but James paid it no heed; he did that a lot. James ran an uncertain hand through his hair, wracking his brains for any and all knowledge he had on Shara Carter.
"So, Shara Carter, Shara Carter... Fourth year Hufflepuff. Blond and short for her age. Looks suspiciously Malfoyish, but her family is full of Muggle-borns. Two bloodthirsty older brothers - or actually, three, but Conrad has already graduated. He’s an astrologer now, I think. The Carter mother is dead... I guess that’s why the brothers are so protective of Shara. She’s really quiet, though she doesn’t seem to be boring or unintelligent. On weekends, she usually wears an orange dress. Nice boobs, though her face is a bit plain. Her eyes are a greyish green, but she wears coloured contacts, so it can differ daily. Best subject is Herbology, worst DADA. She wears a rather expensive perfume."
If she was the type Sirius called ‘boring’, James did not want to find out what kind of girls his hot-tempered friend found ‘interesting’.
Peter looked surprised. "Wow, you sure know a lot about her."
James shrugged, though a blush crept up to his face. "She used to wear glasses up until a year or so ago, and I keep tabs on everyone inside Hogwarts who wears glasses."
"Oh... because you wear glasses yourself, right?" Peter said, understanding lighting up his face.
"Yeah yeah, because I wear glasses myself." James confirmed irritably. It wasn’t like he could help it that he used to get teased about his glasses by the kids in the Muggle pre-school his mother had insisted he went to. (At least, until that time he had gotten so jealous of the boy who’d been chosen to play Peter Pan in the school musical that young James had decided to ‘out-perform’ him on the big night by wrapping his father’s invisibility cloak around his toy broomstick and showing him how flying really went. Half of the Muggles in Godric’s Hollow had had to be obliviated, and the Ministry of Magic had banned James Charlus Potter from Muggle education for life.)
"But that’s not important. What we need to do, is find out if Shara has any feelings for Remus, and if so, what those are. If she doesn’t like Remus the way Remus likes her, he has a problem. If he tries anything at all, he won’t have just a pissed off girl to deal with, but two eight foot tall gorillas - with brains this time, unlike Crabbe and Goyle - out for his blood."
Peter looked incredulous. To his annoyance, James realised that this probably had more to do with his implication that Remus would ‘try something’ than the ‘eight foot tall’ comment, which was, though exaggerated, admittedly more realistic than the idea that Remus would start bothering Shara if she didn’t like him back. Even Wormtail was turning against him - his loyal follower, the one who worshipped the ground he stood on, was turning against him!
Peter came as far as a tentative "Remus isn’t like y-" before he noticed James’s glare and silenced himself abruptly.
"At any rate, we need to do something." James said, cutting off any and all comments Peter might have wanted to make as he stood up from his chair by the fire and started gathering his things. It was getting late. Maybe he would be able to think more clearly in the morning, after a night’s sleep had cleared his head for a bit. "If Remus raises one finger towards the Carter girl, Nick and Cain will jinx him into bits. We need to do something to prevent that from happening."
"So... what will we do?" Peter asked uncertainly.
"We find out whether Shara is interested in Remus." James said without elaborating. The only way he could currently think of doing that was to ask her or her friends, which would ruin everything. Spoiling Remus’s surprise would not help matters if they wanted to make it up to him. "And if necessary, we then find out how to keep Nick and Cain Carter from cursing Remus to next Thursday."
Of course Peter would have to ask the one question James had no answer to. "How?"
The next morning at breakfast, James kept an eye on Shara Carter while Peter kept an eye on Remus and Sirius. The former still stubbornly refused to sit anywhere near them, while the latter seemed to merely stay present to carp at everything they did.
Every now and then, James was able to get a glimpse of the girl that had sparked so much controversy from between the broad shoulders of two seventh years with long, dark hair. Shara was a petite figure - tiny compared to her big brothers. The family resemblance was hard to find, but the bond they shared was unmistakable to anyone who watched them together. If he thought rationally, James was forced to admit that the Carter brothers, always laughing, always trying to cheer their little sister up and hit on the girls while they were at it, were not violent or aggressive at all except for on the Quidditch field. And seeing Remus’s frail, delicate eye catch made the feeling that their protectiveness was no more than justified almost convincing. But they were so intimidating... No wonder Shara was so quiet. If she made even the slightest sound of discontent, her brothers were all over her. Even the Slytherin team, which was full of human gorillas as of late, was wary of Hufflepuff’s Beaters. James had been forced to retreat from their towering forms too often in the tense days before Quidditch games to feel comfortable with the knowledge that Remus would have to face them in order to get to Shara.
But he didn’t know what to do about it. It was driving him nuts. The only safe option he could think of was to stop Remus from trying to woo Shara; the only option not available. They couldn’t ask Shara about her feelings directly, which automatically ruled out any chance that they could get her to convince her brothers to leave Remus alone. Would they perhaps be able to approach the twins directly? It would be tricky. There was no guarantee that they wouldn’t disapprove of the entire plan and tell Shara, or opt to scare Remus off anyway.
Not to mention the fact that Remus was a werewolf. If the thing Remus had for Shara was similar to James’s predestined love for Lily, that would eventually pose an even bigger problem in the future. The way the Carters were now, they would never accept it, would never let a Dark creature near their sister, no matter the kind of person he was in between full moons. It dawned on James that making the decision to do this must have been a hard one for Remus. Merlin, no wonder he was so upset about the way they had reacted...
No matter how hard he tried, the solution kept evading James as he ignored the professors of that day. He kept getting stuck, and the fact that Sirius stayed moody and Peter seemed to be getting more nervous by the hour didn’t help any. There seemed to be no way at all to help Remus without hindering him at the same time. Yes, they could use the Cloak, or have Wormtail spy on Shara in his rat form to search for clues as to the state of Shara’s love life, but that method could remain ineffective for weeks, and they only had until Halloween. They needed to get their hands on this information before Remus made his move.
James stared moodily at Professor Kettleburn’s hippogrifs, one elbow resting on his knee and his head propped up on a fist, not paying the least amount of attention to what the professor was saying. Most confidential conversations, like the ones girls confessed their crushes in, were carried out in the safety of dorms; out of reach for boys. Asking her friends would be suspicious. She would surely find out about their inquiries. Girls seemed unable to keep secrets...
Then, as he, Sirius and Peter came back from Care of Magical Creatures, their last class on Monday, James saw a flash of copper on the marble steps leading up to the great double doors, flaring up like a beacon in the pale, sharp autumn sunlight, and it came to him.
Lily.
The animagi Marauders were not the only ones whose minds were occupied by Remus. He had been sauntering around the edge of Lily Evans’s thoughts from the moment he asked her where he could find McGonagall.
She still felt a little guilty about searching Remus’s belongings, despite - or maybe because - of the ‘lessons’ she was giving him now. She felt like a hypocrit. Each time she looked at him in class, wrapped up in what the teacher was saying, or saw that mellow half-smile of his as he helped and encouraged insecure first-years, she couldn’t help but hear Severus’s voice... Werewolf.
Lily’s heart refused to acknowledge the theory. There was no way sweet, kind Remus could be - but she had seen it happen before, hadn’t she, had seen how a guilty conscious or fear of discovery could turn someone into a better person. Oh, sure, now Remus was as bad as she was? No, she refused to believe that his good nature was anything other than genuine. And still...
No! she told herself firmly for what seemed like the millionth time that year, glaring at the book-case before her. Severus’s so-called ‘evidence’ was nowhere near sufficient, and he hated everything to do with the Marauders in the first place, and even if something fishy was going on with her fellow Prefect, there was no way Dumbledore did not know about it, and if Headmaster Dumbledore let him stay at Hogwarts, then it was not up to her to place doubts by that decision.
Lily sighed and ran a hand over the spine of an age-worn book. It was a bad habit, sticking her nose in other people’s business, but one she was almost loath to give up, despite the trouble it frequently got her in. She shouldn’t have done it; she should have trusted Remus to tell her. But her concern had proven to be stronger, and it haddened really mattered what Severus said about him, in the end. He was a sweet boy, just a bad judge when it came to his friends. Lily would hate to see him get into trouble because of those ‘Marauders’. If making sure he was alright meant violating his privacy, well... then that would be what it took. He would never have to know, and it really was for his own good.
Remus and his predicaments distracted her so effectively she didn’t even notice Potter approach her in the library, where she was absentmindedly perusing a shelf full of books on non-verbal spells, until it was too late.
"Evans?"
She whipped around to face the voice, her hand already halfway to where she kept her wand. Much to her surprise, though, Potter stood more than an arm’s length away from her, and he had his hands raised into the air in a gesture of harmlessness.
"What do you want, Potter?" Lily snapped, hiding her confusion behind irritation.
"I know what you’re thinking, Evans - Merlin knows I’m thinking it too - but believe it or not, I am not here to ask you out on a date."
Lily frowned. "Sure, and pigs fly of their own acco-"
"No, seriously," Potter cut in quickly. "I’m here for Remus."
Lily stopped. She saw him look hopeful. Lily deepened her frown. She saw his face fall.
"Really." she said in an icy voice. "If I remember correctly, you were yelling at him not even two days ago, about me."
"W - well, yes, that’s true, but -" Potter stammered.
"I told you to leave Remus alone, Potter, and Remus doesn’t want anything to do with you at the moment. So tell me how this is not about me? Using your own friends as an excuse is low, even for you."
For a moment, it looked as though Potter felt genuinely hurt. "It’s not an excuse, Evans." he said through gritted teeth. "We made up - well, partly made up. But he still won’t talk to us, so we want to make it up to him for real. It’s just that... I think we need you to do that."
He told her that he and Black had realised they had been wrong and had done the right thing by apologizing to Remus for their behaviour (which Lily was not sure she believed) and that Remus had said he was not angry about the things they had apologized for (which she found much more plausible, as she doubted Potter and Black could comprehend cheese dip, let alone real human emotion) and that now, Remus still refused to talk to them. (Lily was with Remus on that.) He also explained that they were really sorry, and that they wanted to make it up to Remus somehow. Their plan?
"Prepare Shara for Remus." Lily deadpanned. Why did that sound familiar?
James nodded eagerly. "Yes! Isn’t it perfect? When we do that, Remus will know that we do support him. We... sort of gave him the impression we didn’t, and I think that’s why he’s angry at us."
It took a moment for Lily’s mind to stop reeling. Was she hallucinating or something? Had her wish that the smart, handsome, funny, but infinitely annoying James Potter would be capable of being a sweet boy who cared for others beside himself, finally gotten the better of her? Was this even James Potter? The Potter she knew seemed to be physically unable to refrain from making vulgar insinuations or jinxing people who annoyed him. If he meant what he was telling her now, that meant that there was possibly more to him than Lily had ever been able to imagine.
Yet... how could she tell if his intentions were pure? Maybe they just wanted Remus back on their side because they needed him for one of their immature pranks. And Potter could tell her all the stories he wanted, but what about Black? The row those two had had in the common room the previous day had sparked a round of gossip that had not escaped Lily’s notice. The infamous ‘Marauders’ were falling apart, it seemed. Who was she - a Prefect - to prevent the demise of the most troublesome gang the school had known in years? Besides, if the Marauders were to disband, then maybe Remus would be able to find some decent friends for a change.
Lily crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Remus simply doesn’t want you guys to be involved in his love life?"
"I know he’s mad at us at the moment." James said. He looked her straight in the eye, which unsettled Lily somewhat, because his expression was entirely serious; she’d never seen him like that before. "And I know we deserve it. But we’ve always stood by him when he needed us. We’ve been his friends through even the hardest of times and we’re not about to abandon him now because of some petty grudge."
His expression became almost pleading when he saw the scepticism on Lily’s face. He could have saved himself the trouble; Lily’s mind had momentarily wandered out of the physical Potter’s reach as she contemplated whether the infamous James I-Hate-Everything-Related-To-The-Dark-Arts Potter would ever befriend a dark creature, let alone stick up for one like Potter often did for Remus. But what did he mean with ‘the hardest times’?
No! Cut - It - Out! Remus is ill, it runs in his family, and that’s the end of it.
"Look Evans, I know you don’t think very highly of me, or the Marauders, but I mean it. He means a lot to the three of us, and I don’t believe for a second that he’d be happy if we never talked to each other again."
He did have a point there. Despite what Lily thought of the entire situation, Remus had been sombre ever since the first argument with his friends. Lily had reasoned that he may just needed to get used to the change, but a seed of doubt had sprung up in her mind. Potter seemed sincere... And whatever inhibitions she may have, she had to admit that his offer was tempting. There was only so much Lily could accomplish by assisting Remus himself. Shara was still an uncertain factor in the equation, one that greatly worried her. Maybe, if she did what Potter asked... hm. The Marauders themselves would not even pose a risk. If she got involved in their plans, she might be able to stop them from doing anything that would hurt Remus again.
Shaking off the thought that she was acting like a Slytherin, Lily said: "Alright. I’ll work with you. But you can’t force me to do anything, and when I think you’re crossing the line in any way, I will inform Remus of your meddlesome scheming. And if you even hint at breaking school rules, points will be deducted from all three of you."
James looked like he couldn’t believe his luck. A wide grin spread over his face as he said: "Really? Oh Merlin, this is such good news. Thank you, Lily, thank you. I don’t know how to thank you for this. I could kiss you! Crap, no - not like that, really, I don’t mean anything by it! I would kiss a hippogriff if it’d said what you just said."
A hippogriff?
Still grinning from ear to ear, James explained. "We only had a rough sketch as of yet, and before I thought of asking you it seemed impossible, but with your help, it might just be enough. We’d like you to approach Shara Carter and find out if she fancies anyone. It would be perfect if you could find out if she likes Remus or would be interested in him as a boyfriend, but we must not let her know what’s going on. That’s very important - if Shara were to find out about our or Remus’s plans, that would spoil everything. We’re trying to help Remus, not ruin his schemes. Also, if it is in any way possible - again without raising suspicions - we need to find out how Shara’s brothers think about Remus."
"Her brothers?" Lily interrupted. "What do they have to do with anything?"
"You don’t have any brothers, do you?" James asked.
"Neither do you." she countered.
"Well, no, but I’m a guy, I know how things like this work... If I had a little sister, I’d sure as Hell wouldn’t stand for it if someone I didn’t approve of tried to make a move on her." Lily noticed he looked rather pale. "And since Nick and Cain Carter are Hufflepuff’s Beaters..."
Lily guessed that she must have turned equally pale when that little detail came back to her. "I’ll see what I can do." she promised.
James looked at her with an expression of wonder. "Thanks, Evans. Really. This means a lot to me. And the others as well."
"Don’t get your hopes up, Potter. I’m just doing this for Remus." she warned. But who the warning was meant for, she wasn’t entirely sure. He hesitated, and then awkwardly stuck out his hand. After a moment of confusion and doubt, Lily took it.
That must have been the first time they had any physical contact that did not result in violence. Some part of Lily wished they’d started out like this from the very beginning.
When James returned to his dorm, he was almost floating.
"What have you been smoking?" was Sirius’s logical first reaction.
James dropped himself on his bed and stared at the top of his canopy dreamily, cradling his right hand to his chest. "Lily agreed to help us." he sighed, before drifting back into paradise. He imagined he could still feel the touch of her hand against his.
"That’s great news!" Peter exclaimed.
Sirius snorted. "I’m sure you’re still sore from your last assignment, aren’t you, little rat?"
"Cut it out, would you, Sirius? He’s right, you know..."
"Look who’s talking!" Sirius snapped at his best friend.
Said friend looked at him oddly. "But Lily talked to me. She didn’t slap or hex me, she didn’t even shout at me once in the entire conversation!"
If anything, this scared Sirius. James wasn’t sure how or why, but the he seemed more concerned than annoyed when he went back to his tinkering. Sirius was trying to construct a machine of some sort (and had been for some time now), but without a screwdriver, he wasn’t getting very far. James let it all slide, still feeling too overwhelmed by the time he had spent talking to Lily to concentrate on anything else. Silence settled in the dormitory, for a while only broken by the scribbling of Peter’s quill on his parchment, the tinkering of Sirius’s mysterious Muggle contraptions, and Sirius’s under-his-breath mutterings, which went roughly along the lines of "Damn Muggles for making me need a screwdriver I don’t have." and "Yoko bloody Ono.".
Then suddenly, Sirius threw down his things and said, frustration evident in his voice: "If Remus really wants a girl that messes around with her appearence that badly, why can’t he wait a few years? My baby cousin Nymphadora would be perfect for him."
"You have a cousin?" Peter asked stupidly.
"One you’d hook Remus up with?" James asked more intelligently. He sat up, frowning through the remnants of his euphoria. "Bloody Hell Padfoot, you’re not making any sense anymore. I thought you didn’t want to help Remus get a girl."
"T - this is different." Sirius spluttered.
"How?"
"Because Nymphadora is only two years old!"
"You can’t possibly think of hooking Remus up with a toddler!" James exclaimed.
"My point exactly!"
Sirius then did what he seemed to be doing a lot lately: he threw his things sloppily into his trunk and left, claiming he’d be working on the paint-filled dungbombs and did not wish to be disturbed, leaving James with the urge to just give up on trying to understand his friend’s unpredictable mood swings.
For some reason, Lily felt offended. But she ignored the feeling and focussed on the matter at hand. "So, what did you have in mind for me to do?" Lily forcibly dragged herself back to the conversation and situation at hand.
PSAN:
Let me close this chapter with some info about Shara Carter. For those of you who hadn’t read the notes in the introduction, I did not make Shara up. She was originally a character from the mecha anime (non-jargon: Japanese cartoon about big humanoid robots) Teknoman, also known as Tekkaman Blade. (ff.net has a section for it, you should check it out!) She was the younger sister of the show’s protagonist, Nick Carter aka Teknoman Blade. Her role consisted mostly of being terminally ill, being a defected fighting machine while dying and, well, dying. By the hand of her other brother and Nick’s twin, Cain aka Teknoman Saber, no less... But in a pretty way! I’ve never seen such a beautiful explosion as the one that she made when she died. Anyway, I always thought it was a shame that she had to die so quickly after finally being introduced (Nick all but worshipped her and talked about her all the time), so when I needed a girl for this fic, I instantly decided to adopt her. I used a lot of facts from Teknoman to shape her history and give her something of a background to explain her behaviour. If anyone was wondering, by the way; Shara’s original hair colour was a milky green bordering on platinum blonde, hence the Malfoy association.
But it’s best if you forget all the above, because the witch Shara Carter in this story has been completely adapted to fit the Harry Potter universe.
In this story, Shara Carter is the youngest of a family of four children, raised by their father. Her oldest brother Conrad has already graduated and Nick and Cain are in their seventh year at Hogwarts. (And in case you were wondering, no, they’re not all out to kill each other this time. :P ) Shara’s family is neither rich nor renowned, having a long history of marrying ordinary Muggles, but they’re a loving family. Since their mother died when Shara was very young, her big brothers pamper and protect her, which made her shy and a bit unworldly (quite unlike Ginny, who I see as having to be though, ‘one of the guys’, in order to cope in her primarily male family). As you’ve read before, Shara seems to be perpetually content, which is an attitude she picked up mostly due to the fact that she doesn’t want her brothers to fuss over her so much. The trouble she has with the pure-blood fanatics at Hogwarts from time to time is another reason; because her family is so overprotective of her, she doesn’t want to give her friends any reason to think they should protect her too. Her favourite flower is the amaryllis.
There, I hope this prevents you from looking at her like she’s an alien - really, she was only genetically altered by aliens! She was born perfectly human, even if she didn’t die like one... Er... Okay, you get it. I for one hardly ever read OC stories because I can’t stand it when some Mary Sue (or their distantly related cousin, the decently written OC) steals the show from the canon characters, who are the reason I read fanfiction in the first place. Dorcas, as fun as she could be to write about at length, has made her definitive exit as far as my current planning is concerned, for exactly that reason. Sculpting obscure characters is fine, but using them in fanfic about primary characters is not something I’ll be making into a habit any time soon. If Shara and Remus will get together? Well, you’ll have to keep reading to find out...
(Note that Shara is already among those unlucky enough to be targeted by the more criminally inclined Slytherins because she has so much Muggle blood in her family, which makes the chance that she’ll die somewhere in the First War quite big... *halo*)
Chapter One: Take Your Positions!
Chapter Two: And Lose Them Again...
Chapter Three: Regroup ASAP
Chapter Four: This Is Called A Collision
Chapter Five: I Did Warn You Guys - That Hurts
Chapter Six: We’ll Be Playing Blind Today
Chapter Seven: Bet You Didn’t See That Coming
Chapter Eight: Somebody Tell Me I’m Dreaming
Chapter Nine: Please Play Nicely
Chapter Ten; Surprise, Surprise