And There Were Always Two... - oc x r. lupin & oc x s. black

- 2 -

Ashley hated the moon. It was beautiful and mesmerising, but it hurt to breathe when she looked at it. It was her most closely kept secret, even her sister didn't know about it.

She could see it out of the window of her dorm. Last night she had stayed awake all night staring at it, reminiscing on memories that brought tears to her eyes. No one had ever seen her cry. It had been almost morning by the time she fell asleep and barely an hour had passed until Mavis woke her up.

"I'll kill you if we're late," Mavis growled, using her whole body to tug at Ashley's arm until she finally tumbled onto the floor.

"I hate you," Ashley mumbled.

She groaned as she rolled over to stare up at her sister.

"I know, now get up."

The two girls got ready relatively quickly. It was still September and warm, so when Ashley started pulling on her sweater it was quickly vetoed by Mavis. The two girls were paler than vampires, despite spending their summers outdoors.

Ashley found herself a jar of honey and brewed a spot of tea. She could see her sisters staring at her judgmentally out of the corner of her eye as she poured a bit of tea over the honey and stirred.

"You're a freak," Mavis told her.

"And you're not?" She raised a brow.

When they walked into the Great Hall, they sat down at their usual spots on the Gryffindor table, in the shadowy corner where neither the light from the window nor the torches could reach them. Breakfast had already been served.

There was a loud commotion as the Marauders entered. Ashley stared at her food, too preoccupied to notice that Mavis was trying to hide behind her hair, too.

Sirius Black, with his long black curls, and James Potter, with his glinting glasses, were laughing about something. Remus Lupin had draped his arms over their shoulders, positioning himself in between the two. Peter was walking beside them. His eye caught the twins' and he waved. They smiled back. Once the Marauders sat down far, far away from them, the girls acted as if nothing happened.

Ashley glanced at her timetable. She had potions first, and that was fine. She wasn't bad at potions.

Out of nowhere, Mavis's hand ripped her timetable out of sight.

"Ooh, potions! Me too!"

Ashley just spooned some honey into her mouth, not deigning to reply.

There was a period of silence, during which Mavis stared daggers at James Potter. Finally, Ashley got up.

"We should go."

Mavis stuck out her tongue.

Ashley reciprocated.

Potions wasn't particularly far. Severus Snape and a couple of his goons walked past them. Mavis flipped them off, while Ashley just rolled her eyes. The two girls were easy "mudblood" targets and often terrorised when found on their own. They turned towards the stairs going down into the dungeon, and Mavis's hand reached for her walkman.

"Shit!"

"Hmm?" Ashley mumbled, her mouth full of honey.

"My walkman! Forgot it in the dorm!" Mavis looked positively distraught, but Ashley just stared at her blankly. "We have to go back! Ash, please!"

"Not a chance."

Mavis was livid. Ashley half expected her to flip her off, but instead, she stayed silent.

That was until Mavis snatched the honey out of Ashley's hand and chucked it out the window.

"What the actual pygmy puff!" Ashley exclaimed.

"Now we're even."

"That's not how it works, Mav. You forgot your walkman, which I had nothing to do with. And that was my favourite spoon!"

Back home, Ashley had a collection of pretty, antique silver spoons. It was a tradition that Mavis gave Ashley a spoon for Christmas, and in turn, Ashley would give her a new cassette.

"Fine, I'll get you a new one," Mavis told her as they walked into potions.

They were the last ones in, as everyone else was already there. Amidst all their arguing they hadn't seen that the majority of the Marauders were in the class with them. They had managed to avoid this misfortune for the last four years and assumed it would never happen.

"Come up to me for your seat assignments," Slughorn called.

Mavis pushed Ashley in front of her.

"Ah! Mavis Curron. How are you doing today?"

Ashley realised he was talking to her. It was true, without headphones and tea mugs, the twins were quite identical. Mavis and Ashley always found it very amusing when they were mixed up.

"Quite well, sir. What about you?" Ashley answered, grinning.

"Very good, very good. And you, Ashley?"

"Fine, thank you," Mavis said, purposefully sounding very shy and then winking at Ashley when Slughorn turned away. She loved making fun of Ashley for being less outgoing than her.

"Your seat assignments for this month are Ashley Curron with Black, and Mavis Curron with Lupin."

Ashley nearly had a panic attack. As they walked to their seats, they took their real spots -- without the switch -- which Ashley was glad for. She didn't think she could face Lupin.

"Oh no, no, no," Slughorn called. "Don't go mixing about. Mavis, go sit next to Lupin, don't cause any trouble."

Ashley stiffened as she lifted her bag and walked across the room. She saw the relief on Lupin's face as he thought "Ashley" was moving away from him, but really Ashley was the girl sliding into the seat next to him.

Slughorn started his lecture, but she didn't hear him. She was awfully aware of him. He was so close, and he didn't even know that it was her. After a while, she realised that was leaning slightly away from him. There was nothing she could do now, without him noticing.

"I'll get the ingredients," he said all of a sudden, waking Ashley up from her daze.

She nodded.

She didn't even know what potion they were brewing.

When he walked away, she glanced over at her sister. Mavis was furiously arguing with both Sirius Black and James Potter, gesticulating wildly while Sirius smiled at her and James was fuming.

"Okay, I think I got everything."

Ashley looked up to see Remus barely balancing everything in his hands.

"Oh Godric, let me help," she said, jumping up.

Item by item she piled everything onto the desk. As Remus sat down, she started sorting everything in the order that they would use it.

"Your sister didn't... say anything about me, did she?" he asked, looking at her curiously.

She froze, her hands hovering over the various vials in front of them. There was a millisecond of panic before she shook her head. She hadn't told Mavis anything, so she might have let him have his relief at that. Mavis didn't even know Remus and Ashley had been acquaintances once.

Ashley resumed her feverish organisation, and she could tell Remus was suspicious. The guilt had been eating at her for years, and she thought she would finally die of it at that moment. But she didn't, to her extreme disappointment.

"You don't have to go that fast, we've still got forty minutes to brew the potion," he told her with a laugh.

"I know," she said, through gritted teeth.

Forty minutes.