don't forget about me •marauders r.j.l•

storms arise (part 1)

Just to clear something... Amelia has some nicknames... I just want you all to get who called her what and why:
Amy- everyone who has some sort of intimacy with her, like Lily, Marlene and some other girls at Gryffindor
Millie- Both Peter and James cause they find it funny and like saying the word
Mia- her beloved cousin, who does it just to annoy Amelia
Lily- Sirius calls her by this nickname when she's with Lily so he can annoy both of them. Sometimes James joins in.
Mel- the sweetest one (this literally means honey in Portuguese so...) only Remus calls her that and Amelia loves it!
Credit of the edit above to whoever did it (there a watermark somewhere)

1975, 5th year
The last four years at Hogwarts, besides studying for examinations for myself, pranking and exploring Hogwarts's grounds for the lads, were spent planning and studying our plan to become Animagi... I'd like to say we were able to to keep it hidden from Remus for such a long time but there is so much you can only do when three dragondung heads, who detest to study, found themselves lodged constantly in the library. I kept telling them, during our 3rd year (when the Hogsmead trips started) to pause a bit on the research because Remus was sure to suspect if his three best friends choose a day studying in the library over a day exploring Honeydukes or The Three Bromsticks... Not that Remus minded that much, he loved the place as much as I and Lily do. Merlin, we're such nerds.
Speaking of, my friendship with her had never been worse, specially through 3rd and 4th year. She condemned me for spending so much more time studying with the boys she hated ("That James Potter! How can you endure him, Amy?) and not enough time with her and Severus. Severus himself had started to gain new acquaintances in his House... Not exactly the crowd to be near.
Anyway, back to Remus... He found out in the beginning of 5th year...
"Please, Amy?" Lily cried from the pillar she was leaning onto, in Platform 9 3/4, "Don't tell me you are joining the boys?" She almost spat the word. "Remus won't even be there!" I moved surprisingly fast and put my hand over her mouth.
"Zip it, Lily!" I looked around, making sure no one was eavesdropping, "I'm their friend... It's not just because of Remus... It's the same matter as last year-" she cut me off.
"And the year before that and even the year before that one... I'm sick of all this secrecy, Amelia!" She cried out, "I'm your friend as much as any of those hooligans... I deserve to know!"
"You know I can't tell..." I avoided her gaze, "It's not my secret to tell... Besides!" I said, remembering a key argument to shut her up on the subject, "You're going to that prefect meeting, with Remus, so I don't see the problem of me staying with the lads..."
Lily pushed a stray strand of ginger hair behind her ear, "You know I would rather if you stayed with with Severus..." She said, knowing damn well what my answer would be.
I decided to spare her the full speech and said only "And what? Babysit him away from the Black Arts...Not a chance, Lily. Besides, he's a big boy, he needs to sort out what's best for him."
"But, Amelia, he's our friend... We ought to be there and..."
"And what?" I look at my ginger friend with pity and, taking a hold of my messenger bag and my owl's cage, say "Lily, Snape will break your heart..." She winced at the use of his last name "And... Don't get me wrong! I will be there to pick up the pieces... Every single one of them." I paused to see if Lily meant to object, "But trust me on this, my dear friend... I would rather not."

*•*•*•*•*

Nedless to say Lily had left without so much as an okay or any sort of acknowledgement of my concerns... Fine.
I told her so... When it happens I'll hex Snape into oblivion.
Maybe Lily is right... Maybe I am spending too much time with the lads... But we're so close to finding the exact formula to the potion and the spells involved.
This Summer we hadn't been so fortunate as to being able to see each other and research together.
Sirius and James were gone all Summer because of some vacations in America the Potters had organized and Peter... Well, Peter was Peter and he spent his summers glued onto the TV set catching up on all his favourite muggle films and tv series.
So I was alone with not really that much to look into. All the information was at Hogwarts's library and I couldn't exactly break in (believe me, I tried).
Instead this had been the Summer to write. I had always loved to write and read, of course, but writing a novel was my dream. I had a big leather bound journal my father had given me that I wrote down small stories and ideas for something bigger... But eventually all I ended up writing were letters to Remus. He too was lonely, and all he did was read.
In letters he told me about the books he was reading... And I don't know if it was his way of describing them or the actual books themselves, but I was extremely tempted to pick the same copies he had been reading.
We started our small bookclub. Every forth nigh each chose a title and the other would have to get it. We'd both read the chosen book and discuss our opinions.
About a month or so before school started, we had chosen (with much protestation from Remus) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, a muggle author.
Romance novels are my guilty pleasure, specially if the male love interest is quite complicated and the female protagonist is a headstrong independent young woman.
Remus detested Mr Darcy, he wrote that the character made love sound quite complicated when in fact it was not, at least in his case.
I wondered what he meant, so I wrote, asking him about it and Remus's reply was quite simple.

If Mr Darcy suffered from lycanthropy and felt like he couldn't tell Elizabeth Bennett about his love towards her because of it, I would had comprehended him better.

He had also told me he was to be a prefect.
So, arriving at the compartment and not seeing him was not a surprise. What indeed surprised me were the lads, who had their heads stuck in books.
"Mia!" Greeted Sirius when he saw me at the door, "My beloved cousine!" He said in lanky French, not the most gifted in languages, my cousin... For my aunt's dismay.
"Lads." I responded taking a seat next to Peter. "May I ask about the strange thomes?" I said with a raised eyebrow at Peter's volume. The title read Transfiguration: Do it yourself's.
James looked glad to have an excuse to set the book down, "You see, my dear Millie, when yours truly and your beloved cousin went abroad..." Both he and Sirius smirked, "We came upon some very interesting and eye catching titles we thought might help in our quest to..." He lowered his voice, "You-Know-What."
"Indeed." Agreed Sirius. I looked at both of their titles.
"You mind as well put a sign on our compartment door and charm it to scream Hey, we're illegally turning ourselves into Animagi! Come and see!" I said, sarcasm dripping from my tone. The boys looked confused.
He could've chosen the minute after that to show up, or the minute after that one... But, because the Universe hates me, Remus Lupin passed at that exact moment by our compartment.
He was coming in, very cheerful, maybe to say a quick hello before heading to the prefects meeting when said, "Mel, I wanted to talk-" he stopped and looked around.
I was holding two books in the air, their obvious titles in display, James was holding his in the same manner and so was Peter, reading from his, quite oblivious as to what was going down and Sirius just looked whide eyed, maybe thinking what I was thinking.
Fuck.
Remus's expression changed from confusion, while he eyed every single one of the books that were displayed in the compartment, to realization... And then there was anger.
"What the hell is going on?" He roared grabbing thomes after thome... After all, James had even more copies sitting in the small table by the window.
Fuck.
"We can explain..." Tried Sirius, always the one who talked his way out of situations like these... But Remus was having none of it.
"For these past years you've been acting off... But I told myself it was only the weight of school, pushing you to study even harder... Only when I noticed what you were studying did I start to have some suspicions." At the statement I cursed all the times the careless bunch left their researches laying around.
Remus continued "I know what you're doing... And besides it being really dangerous, I wouldn't have minded... Well" he seemed to reconsider, "I would have but keeping it from me has only made everything worse..." He looked disappointedly at each of his friends, the ones who were always there for him... I was just a girl who fancied the living days out of him... A girl who shares his interest of books, his best friend's cousin... Someone he'll never see as more than a friend.
But right now I am in no place to complain, maybe he'll let it slip because it's me, he doesn't really care that much about me, right?
"Look, Remus..." I try to take some blame from the lads,"I was the one behind this, okay?" I said calmly... Only when he showed me a disappointed sad look did I stop to gather my thoughts. Why are you looking at me like that? It's not like you care...
"I was the one who convinced them not to tell you..." I was cut off by Remus.
"You came up with all this?" He asked, his voice dripping with pain.
"I..." I couldn't speak, not with Remus looking at me with that much disappointed and sadness.
"You thought you could help pour Remus, because that's all I am... A pour lad who something bad happened to... That's all there is to know about the unfortunate soul that I am" There was a bitter sarcasm in his voice.
"I did it because I care about you! Damn it, Remus!" I practically screamed in his face.
Remus just looked at me almost confused, "You know something, Amelia?" Oh, full name... That can't be good. "I never expected this from you..."
I was laughting at that, "What? To try and help you? I suppose not... I'm just some girl, why would I try to help you?"
I felt the lads gaze on me... Remus just looked into my eyes while shaking his head slightly.
"You're not helping me..." He whispered and left the compartment.
And that's the story of how I got Remus not to speak to me for most of 5th year.

Kinda of a cliffhanger... Not really but meh... I'm just gonna write the next chapter... It will be kinda of the 2nd part to this one.
The edit above is Amelia after Remus left the compartment.