The littlest Marauder

Part 1

(AN: Aoibhe is pronounced eev)

The air was smoky and cold as Aoibhe made her way through the train station. Her brown mess of curls was occasionally caught by the wind and was flung into her mouth, adding to the annoyance she was already feeling that morning. The overweight ball of black fluff mewled its annoyance from its carrier as she ran her cart over yet another bump. She'd had the cat for over five years, since she began at Beauxbatons and her frustratingly cranky cat hadn't changed since then, though she had become rather attached to the ignorant moggy. The train station was brimming with people and she saw more than a few people in a similar situation to her own bustling around with carts full of trunks and various different pets in oddly shaped cages. Eventually she came to platform nine and stared suspiciously at the wall between it and platform ten, going over the instructions slowly in her head. She took a deep breath and winced as she began to run towards the wall praying that this wouldn't end in disaster! Three steps, two steps, one step, she closed her eyes but the impact she was expecting never came. She stopped running and opened one eye, her breath leaving her in a sigh of relief , then she opened her other eye and was greeted by a beautiful ruby red steam engine, spewing smoke into the air. She smiled proudly to herself before the whistle blew and she knew she had to get on board. She gave her luggage to the conductor, taking her carry bag and her beloved Noire with her of course, though that was mostly due to the fact that if she left her there she wouldn't look at her for a month. She hopped on the train and made her way down towards the end trying to make sure she didn't embarrass herself in the process. Five minutes and no tumbles later she found herself an empty booth, and she smiled giddily. She shut the door behind her and put the cat down on the seat and placed her bag above her head in the rack, before letting her cat out of her carrier. The black beast stretched slightly on the seat, digging her claws into the material before looking at her owner expectantly. Aoibhe rolled her eyes but sat in beside the window and the cat jumped on her lap and fell asleep, again. She pulled her wand out of her pocket and muttered wingardium leviosa and watched as her battered copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's floated above her head. She let the book drop into her lap and put her wand away before pulling her feet under her, much to the anger of Noire. Now before we continue to say Aoibhe was a romantic was an understatement and though she had never been in a relationship, much less ever been in love she was infatuated by the idea of that one perfect person. Though she grew up in the country of L'amour, Beauxbatons was a girl's school and now at the age of 16 she had very little interaction with the opposite sex. She began at the beginning of her book and it wasn't long before she felt the train pull sluggishly away from the station. She removed her nose from the book and watched as the train departed, smiling sadly and a little wantonly at the proud parents waving their children off. She sighed forlornly and shook her head sticking her nose back into the book; her zanidoo however was disrupted by the sound of very loud teenage boys. There were three of them, chuckling to themselves until one of them caught a glimpse of Aoibhe and very subtlety whacked one in the arm, alerting the other two of them to the presence of the small brunette looking at them quizzically over the brim of her book. Aoibhe quickly looked down blushing and began to focus on her book trying to ignore the rather loud whispers coming from outside the door. The door opened slowly and Aoibhe looked up slowly to find two of the boys wearing matching grins, while the other one looked shyly away. "Do you mind if we sit here?" The leader, (at least she assumed he was from the way the other two followed him into the compartment and stood behind him), asked throwing a devilish smirk her way, he was tall with messy black hair, blue eyes and glasses. Aoibhe just nodded politely and went back to her book hoping they'd get the idea and leave her alone. She had no such luck, "so how come we've never seen you before, I usually notice the gorgeous ones?" another boy spoke up, this time it was the very attractive boy with shoulder length black hair, grey blue eyes and the sexiest smile she had ever seen. Aoibhe was completely dumb struck; she blinked rapidly for a moment before the other boy came to her rescue. "Oh for goodness sake Padfoot leave the poor girl alone, we've been here five seconds and you're already flirting" he turned from his friend and sent her an apologetic smile, "sorry Sirius is a bit forward." She smiled back, blush returning to her cheeks, this boy had a pile of blonde hair, baby blue eyes and red cheeks, making him look altogether like a little cherub. "Oh it's okay I'm just not used to forward" she smiled bashfully and the boys brightened as she spoke. "To answer your earlier question, I'm new, I just moved to London from France" she closed her book and then realised the boys were all still standing. "You can sit if you want to" she said smiling, amused at the boys behaviour and the leader sat first as the others followed suit and the two dark haired boys squished the blonde against the window, leaving her on her own opposite them."So, Frenchie what's your name?" the ringleader asked winking at her, it was very clear to Aoibhe that the boy had a very high opinion of himself, though Aoibhe found it difficult to dislike him. "Aoibhe Flood" she rolled her eyes, "and don't call me Frenchie, I'm not actually French though if the accent and the name didn't clue you in you're dumber than you look Mr..." she giggled slightly at his amused expression and felt his friend chuckle beside her. "Potter, James Potter" he stuck out his hand and she shook it, "this is Sirius Black" he pointed to the good looking one who also stuck out his hand but proceeded to place a kiss to the back of hers leaving her a little speechless. "Tout le plaisir est pour moi" Sirius smirked and Aoibhe smiled warmly at him, "tu parle Français." "Oui, mais seulement quand je dois ou lorseque les belles femmes sont impliquees", he winked and she giggled. "Lisse tres lisse Monsieur Black, mais tu n'es pas assez lisse" she winked back and Sirius gave her his first non flirting smile, "it was worth a shot" he shrugged. "As you can tell Sirius is our resident ladies man" James butted in rolling his eyes at Sirius. "And we have Peter Pettigrew" he ruffled Peters hair and Peter groaned at James before shaking her hand enthusiastically, "we're also missing another one, Remus Lupin, he managed to go and get himself made prefect so he's at a meeting but will be joining us shortly" James explained. "So why the sudden move, needed a break from the bitchiness of an all girls school" James sat back and Aoibhe froze, it was an innocent question but it left Aoibhe floundering for an answer for a moment. She scratched Noires' ears and listened to her purr satisfactorily before an answer came to mind. "My dad works for the Ministry, he was based out of France but he decided during the summer it would just be easier if we came home" she smiled a little too much, technically it wasn't a lie, she just bent and added some stuff to the truth. Sirius leaned across and began to play the charm offensive again, "and who, is this?" he went to stroke Noires fur. Before she could say anything the cat swiped at Sirius's hand and he recoiled in horror causing the others to collapse into laughter and her to try and keep her giggles behind her hand. "I'm sorry" she gasped, chest heaving with the amount of effort she was using to not fall over laughing, "she hates new people." Sirius just glared at the cat running his finger over his hand, glancing down at it in worry every now and then, the cat hadn't left the tiniest of scratches which caused her to laugh even harder. Noire sat up on Aoibhe's lap and looked down her nose at them as if to prove Aoibhe's point and she began to lick her paws glancing around the compartment giving the other boys evil eyes. "So, what year are ye in" she smiled at the boys pulling her feet from under her and closing the book. "6th" they chorused in time and Aoibhe marvelled at how close the boys were. "Oh good we're all in the same year" she beamed and the boys found it hard to not smile when she did, there was something different about her, she flirted with Sirius, got along swimmingly with Peter and laughed both at and with James. It was clear though that she was unlike the other girls who either fawned over the marauders or hated them, she liked them for them, not just their looks and the boys definitely liked the way she was able to stand up for herself, even if she was a little shy, but there was one last person they needed to convince. A half an hour into their journey there was a tap on the compartment door and Aoibhe looked up and found herself lost for words. She had to assume the very handsome boy with tawny brown locks, Amber eyes and an unusual amount of facial scaring smiling in at them was Remus Lupin. "Ah the prefect has decided to grace us with his awe inspiring presence" Sirius smirked and called him in. "Sometimes it's nice to mingle with the common folk" Remus answered back with a put on posh nasal quality to his voice. "Well Mr. up your own arse, this is Aoibhe Flood and she is our new best friend, Remus dear there's no easy way to say this but you've been replaced", James apologised sincerely and Aoibhe was ready to make her own apologies but Remus stopped her words dead in her throat when their eyes met. "Hello" he smiled softly down at her and she blushed and smiled back, "hi" she also added a little wave. The moment was broken as the other boys coughed and Remus was jarred out of his stupor and sat beside Aoibhe. "Nice to meet you" he beamed and stuck out his hand, "same here, I've heard a lot about you" she giggled, "none of it good." She tried to ignore the tingling in her hand as he shook it and he rolled his eyes at the boys, "really I leave you alone and you find the new girl and gossip to her about my faults, I wish there was some way I could give ye all detention, oh wait" he grinned wickedly and the others rolled their eyes, "this is going to get old fast" Peter sighed. Aoibhe took to giggle which yet again disturbed the cat on her knee, she stretched out and glanced around the room with her large yellow eyes until she got to the new addition, she stared at him for a moment and Aoibhe watched in amazement as her cat got off her knee and perched herself on Remus's. "Well that's odd, she's never done that before" Aoibhe shook her head in disbelief and Remus just smiled, "I have an animal magnetism thing" this left Aoibhe in confusion and the others in stitches. Within an hour (or half an hour in Remus case) of meeting Aoibhe all of them felt an extremely strong sense of protectiveness for the small brunette. That was to become immediately obvious as yet another shadow crossed the compartment door, this one a lot less welcome and their laughter turned to silence as they found Lucius Malfoy leering at them through the glass. The door swung open and Aoibhe was curious as to the angry eyes all around her. Her confusion didn't last for long though, for as soon as the stranger opened his mouth she understood their problem, "Potter" he spat and James' glare hardened towards the boy with flowing platinum blonde hair. "Malfoy" he sneered and Aoibhe inclined her head slightly, which allowed Malfoy to catch a glimpse of her from behind Remus. "Ah so this is the French half breed I've been hearing about, you had no chance at all did you dear" he pulled a fake frown then grinned evilly at Aoibhe who lowered her head, tears forming in her eyes, she'd never been called a half breed before and the words stung in her head. However with that the four boys stood and raised their wands towards Lucius, surprisingly it was Remus who spoke, "leave now" he whispered viciously and Malfoy raised his hands, smiling knowing he had found a soft spot in their armour.He strutted of and they all waited until he was out of sight before retaking their seats, Remus immediately turning to face Aoibhe as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Are you alright" he asked slowly taking her hand in his and stroking it softly, Remus had thought she looked small before but now she was tiny all curled in on herself. "Yes, I...I'm fine I've just never been called that to my face before it's not particularly nice", she mumbled softly and Remus wasted no time in wrapping her up in a hug. "I know" he replied and she nodded in understanding, while he rubbed soothing circles over her back. The other boys were horrified especially James, Malfoy had reached new lows and he would pay for making the poor girl cry, she looked a tiny frightened bird in his eyes. Sirius was disgusted too but he was more interested in Mooney's reaction, he had never, not once said anything to Malfoy on their behalf before. Maybe it was because she was a girl or she was new but Sirius could tell Remus quite liked the new addition which would also be a first, an idea that left him smiling softly at the couple across from him wrapped in each other's arms. Remus let her go after a few minutes and she thanked them all quietly, after a little bit she was out like a light and the boys tried to keep their voices down as she slept. "I'm going to kill Malfoy" Sirius spoke first and James followed suit, "he made poor little wren cry", the others looked at him and he just shrugged. "She reminds me of a wren, she's small, cute, clever, sweet, quiet and a little feisty" he chuckled softly and the others had to agree that she was very wren like, she was their own little wren. The boys decided it would be best to wake her because they had to change into their robes and they assumed she wouldn't want to change in front of them. "Hey wren" James knelt in front of her and shook her shoulder slightly causing her to groan softly and blink slowly waking up. "Oh how long have I been asleep" she sat up straight and pouted causing the boys to laugh at her little frown. "About an hour" Sirius replied and he stood up and offered her his hand which she took inclining her head slightly, Sirius yanked her up causing her to stumble slightly and fall into his chest. "Aw you're already falling for me" he wrapped his arms around her waist and she whacked his shoulder in reply, "you're such a prat" she giggled and he let go of her still smiling. "Are we there yet" she asked and James shook his head, "no but we need to change and unless you'd like to change with us..." he trailed off and she blushed bright red. "I'll just go then, accio robes" she stuttered slightly and quickly walked out of the compartment and the boys watched her go with four fond smiles. She returned about ten minutes later in her grey skirt, white blouse and grey jumper with black tights and pumps. She opened and shut the compartment door and was immediately met with cat calls and snickers, "well, well" Sirius smirked, "someone looks very sexy" Aoibhe simply rolled her eyes and whacked Sirius' head before resuming her seat. Sirius turned and found Remus going increasingly redder and trying not to stare at Aoibhe who had struck up a conversation with Peter about muggle sweets. "You alright there Moony" Sirius teased and Remus just glared at his best friend resisting the urge to punch him. Aoibhe then began the arduous task of putting Noire back in her carrier but eventually the cat gave up her will to fight and surrendered to Aoibhe. A voice rang through the carriages asking the students to leave their baggage on the train. She leaned down and softly stroked her cats head with her finger through the carrier bars, "it would make me a whole lot happier if you tried not to kill whoever takes you off the train" the cat just yawned and gave her a bored look. "I've tried my best it's up to fate now either everything will go smoothly or she will in fact take someone's arm off" the others laughed but she shook her head, "I'm entirely serious."

The coversation betweeen Sirius and Aoibhe translated goes like this,

Sirius:The pleasure is all mine

Aoibhe: You speak French

Sirius: Yes but only when I have to or when pretty girls are involved

Aoibhe: Smooth, very smooth Mr. Black but not smooth enough