Backstage Marauders

Backstage Marauders

Author: Jill Rocca

Disc: I wished I owned all, but Harry Potter. Thankfully at least we actually know ONE OF THEM IS GAY!!! YAAAY! (Go Dumbledore gay pride.) Changed the title, I think it’s more fitting.

Fandom: Harry Potter, MWPP era, but in 2006-2007 America. Very AU.

Pairings/Characters: Remus/Sirius central with James/Lily because I love them too. I have a plan for Peter.

A/N: Wow, I haven’t updated for five months. I got caught up in the whole college thing and school … still so busy, but right now I’ve decided to sit down because I have been thinking about it a lot and I have so many ideas! Now to sequence them. I know I said “end” at the end of chapter 2, sorry, I should have put to be continued, but I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry about that!
Also, let me explain the setting: This story takes place in an American suburb in Pennsylvania, not far outside of Philly. No specific name of place, but that’s the general understanding, it’s an area I can describe best. Some of these characters will travel, but this is where they are for school. I will probably talk about Philly and about where they live and describe the school a bit later, but for now, this is what the general setting is.

Chapter 3: Long Weekend

Lily was pissed. No, more than pissed, she was super pissed. No, scratch all of that, she felt more livid and loathsome. McGonagall had blamed the presence of the cheerleaders at “this morning’s spectacle” on her. Lily wasn’t even there and she was getting punished for it! She tried to explain the power struggle between her and her squad and how she had actually gotten into school when the bell first rang not a few moments ago, but she was told that the cheerleaders could still get into the football game for free, but they could not cheer. She didn’t get detention only because McGonagall had called Mrs. Evans to ask what time her daughter left and she confirmed that Lily had been running late.

Lily had always thought that McGonagall was pretty fair, tough, but fair. This was injustice! It was the first game and everyone would be so disappointed … Serves them right for being so stupid. Lily thought, still feeling mad as the German lesson began. Lucius Malfoy couldn’t play, the cheerleaders couldn’t cheer, and even the marching band—whom most of were forced outside by the football team—couldn’t perform at half time. What a night! Oh well.

She tilted her head to the side, not feeling much like paying attention and noticed that Sirius Black was also not paying attention to the German lesson. He was staring down at his unopened binder. One of his hands was tangled up in his hair, the other was on the desk and his face looked scared. Obviously enraptured by thought, he stared wide-eyed at his binder.

Lily watched a little longer as his eyes softened and he raised his head to look at Remus, who was one row up and to his right. Lily was very curious now. Sirius was looking at Remus like Remus had done something to him, something very bad. Lily stifled a giggle as she thought that maybe Sirius was developing a thing for Remus (Oh, how awful it is to be gay! Thank YOU strange society). And how cute would that be? Though she hated the gossip, Sirius Black did seem quite rebellious making him the complete opposite of the sweet and calm Remus Lupin. Lily knew Remus could be quite aggressive in his opinions when he wanted to be. Remus was a real person, so few had figured out, and he was a lot of fun to be around, and so was Sirius if she thought about it (even if he did hang out with a loser like James Potter all the time) and their personalities seemed to compliment each other.

She wanted to squeal so badly, but it wasn’t right to pair two people together when they were unaware, even if they were boy and girl. She continued to watch them. Remus was completely oblivious to Sirius’s constant staring; the other boy couldn’t take his eyes off of him! Indeed, Sirius’s stare was more and more intense the more Lily looked between them. He must have been daydreaming, but what? Lily was writing down some possibilities on some notebook paper, when the magic was ruined when Frau asked Sirius to translate something and he jumped and got all tongue-tied. Sirius didn’t look at Remus again the entire class time. Great, now what was she going to do for fun? She was beginning to quite like the idea of Sirius pinning down Remus somewhere; it was just too perfect. The Sexy Badass going for the class Cute, but Shy-boy …

Such a crazy day.

* * *

“That game sucked!” cried Gideon Prewett.

It was after ten o’clock and Sirius, James, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, and Frank Longbottom were coming out of the gates to the football stadium along with the rest of the crowd that was pouring out from the stands. The whole game was a flop. Since that morning, word had spread throughout the school that Quarterback Lucius Malfoy wasn’t allowed to play, the cheerleaders couldn’t cheer and the band couldn’t even play at half-time. Even though the Hogton & Wartston Gryphons had won the game, it didn’t feel like it. There had never been such a lack of school spirit in HWHS history.

The group was heading off to meet Andy Black and her boyfriend Ted Tonks and Alice, who was Frank’s girlfriend at the park in the center of town. It was this thing that the students did along with all the other high schools in there area called the “Fifth Quarter.” It was mostly and excuse for some to get drunk and play touch football. For others like Sirius and his friends, it was just something to do to hang out before curfew. They all usually met in the center of the park, got a fire going, and made s’mores and drank soda and talked till midnight.

When they arrived, they could hear voices just up top the hill. The boys walked up the steep slope, they often used for sledding. As they reached the top, to their left they could see teens sitting on various benches along a row of trees talking, drinking, flirting, or kissing. To their right they saw people drinking mostly, or many of the non-alcoholics were laughing at the drunken morons or just hanging out and playing a little touch football; one group even ventured to play strip poker, they had gathered quite a crowd to watch the losers take of their clothes and brave losers they were, it was quite chilly out for September.

The boys reached their usual clearing and found Andy and Alice waiting for them. Alice ran and kissed Frank swiftly before turning to greet the other boys. Andy came over to hug her cousin and James briefly before going back to her boyfriend, Ted.

The girls led them over to the benches situated around the clearing and passed out graham crackers. Now the real games could begin. It was sort of funny, sort of sad watching their peers get drunk and try to interrupt the non-alcoholics playing tackle-football. The group would start talking about one thing, then watched the others playing football, and then that led them to talk about school, which somehow led to James announcing Sirius’s odd behavior this morning. The only other ones who were present were Gideon and Fabian, who were also in their first period German class. They both turned to stare at Sirius with questioning looks on their faces.

“Acting weird about what?” Ask Fabian.

“Nothing! I was just freakin’ out about leaving my German book in my locker, you know how Frau gets!” was Sirius’s reply.

The rest of the group looked at each other, and then they burst out laughing. Sirius blushed. Damn, he knew he wouldn’t get away with that one, but he needed to say something other than, “Oh, I just erected over some guy at his locker.”

Andy was the first to say, “Oh Sirius, when have you ever cared about being obedient?”

James wouldn’t stop clapping his hands and saying, “Come on!” he was laughing so hard.

When they had finally stopped laughing, James asked, wiping a tear from his eye, “Come on Sirius, tell us what’s so wrong that you would have to make up something … so …” And he started laughing again.

“Nothing, really, just get off my back about it, okay?” Sirius said sternly. There was no way he would admit to getting jacked up over a guy, much less Remus Lupin, ever.

“All right, all right,” James said.

They spent the rest of the evening talking about school mostly before turning in about 11-something. Sirius was the last to be dropped off in James’s car. They drove in silence for a few minutes before James finally asked, “Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

Not this again. Sirius was so tired, he didn’t even think he could formulate a proper response, so he just said, “I dunno.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“Yes,” Sirius stared out of James’s window. He rubbed his eyes wishing the conversation were over. If it were up to him, he’d rather forget the whole thing, but since all cards were thrown against him …

“I’ll let you forget about it then.” Could James read minds?

Sirius couldn’t admit that he had those feelings, because he would never have the feeling again, he was sure of it. Remus totally wasn’t his type for one thing. He was too … too … well when Sirius got right down to it he sort of enjoyed watching Remus play basketball. The way he moved was really graceful and thought-provoking, but … what? What did that even mean to him? Sirius concluded that he was too tired to contemplate about Remus’s movements.

Hm … Remus looked damn good today in that polo shirt that showed off his arm muscles. Wow, he needed this day to end. He did not have a crush on Remus Lupin, but why was he plaguing his thoughts? Why? He barely even knew Remus … well he knew that Remus was a good person. He could remember a time when he was upset all the way back in first grade and he had hidden because he didn’t want anyone seeing him crying, but Remus had found him and kept asking him what was wrong.

When Sirius finally gave in, he sobbed, “My mom hates me!”

“Why?” Remus had asked.

“I don’t know, she only likes my little brother!” Remus had stayed with him and played with him until he had cheered up, but Sirius had been so mean to him the next day. Remus asked if he could play with Sirius again, but Sirius was already playing with James and some other boys and they said no, so Sirius said no. Sirius opened and closed his eyes slowly thinking about it. He still felt bad about it years later and it sucked. It was Remus’s life, he’d have to put up with so much shit before he discovered he liked basketball and got good, people loved him on the court … but there was something else Sirius couldn’t describe about what happened to him when he watched Remus play basketball; even by himself he looked so determined and motivated. He was so dedicated to the team that it was moving.

James finally made it to Sirius’s subdivision, Grimmauld Place, the only subdivision in the whole town, and dropped Sirius off at Number 12. They said their good-byes and Sirius turned and walked through the gate and up to his door. When he opened it, he was greeted by his father, mother, brother, Aunt, Uncle, and triplet cousins all sitting around the breakfast room. Sirius walked through the hallway to the breakfast room. He looked in confused; they all looked up at him.

He said, “Andy? Uncle Al!”

His Uncle Alphard moved around the table from where he was sitting next to Sirius’s father to hug his nephew. Andy too stood up from where she sat in between her sisters, frowning a little. They had only seen each other a few minutes ago, what was this? Knowing somehow that he wasn’t going to like whatever it was if Narcissa, Bellatrix, his aunt, and his mother were involved he wanted to turn on his heel and go to bed, bad news come what it may in the morning at breakfast as these things usually did, but Sirius just sucked it up and walked into the room.

“What’s going on?” He asked wearily prepared for the worst. He looked up at his uncle and then looked to Andy and then finally to his father. His mother, aunt, and uncle were all smiling. Andy looked a little shocked and the other two (Narcissa and Bellatrix) were looking smug. Regulus on the other hand looked extremely displeased.

“Sit down Sirius,” said his dad.

Sirius moved to the only empty seat, his usual chair next to Regulus and looked at his father. He felt rather patient with whatever was about to be said. That or he was just too tired to care and he could be more annoyed in the morning. It was after midnight! What news could be so important that they needed to all be gathered round the breakfast room now?

“Your uncle and aunt are unfortunately living outside the school district as of late and right now, you know your cousins had to transfer … and so since the school is threatening to withdraw your cousins, we felt it was in the girls’ best interests to move them in here with us.” said Mr. Black.

“We … I mean, Regulus and I don’t have to share a room do we?”

Mr. Black was so taken aback by this reaction by Sirius he didn’t say anything for a moment, which prompted Regulus to say, “We don’t, do we?” He looked desperately from his mother to his father.

His father said, “Of course not, you two should know full well we have enough rooms here to accommodate all the girls.”

“Okay,” Sirius said. “When does everyone move in?”

Still taken aback, Mr. Black stammered, “Uh, um … this weekend hopefully we can get their necessities in the upstairs guest rooms.”

“Okay,” Sirius said again. “Can I go to bed?” He was so weary and barely registering that Bellatrix and Narcissa were now going to live with him. Indeed, all he could think about was that Andy was coming to stay with them and that couldn’t be a bad thing. He’d finally have an ally in the house granted they didn’t drive each other mad over who got first shower, but then he remembered, he had his own shower.

“Err, yes.” His father nodded.

Sirius pushed back his chair and said, “Good night,” He looked over at Andy and said, “Let’s not be enemies.”

Andy nodded blinking wearily.

TBC …
Sorry about that last chapter. I meant end of chapter 2. Couple of minor changes that actually have a pretty huge factor in what I’m planning for later chapters: There are seven periods in their school day. Sirius, Remus, and Lily will have a choir class. Not together I’m thinking, but it’ll be in there. Oh, and I changed the title as you can see.