Chapter 38- Strange Beginnings

 

“Emia?  Emia honey, wake up…can you hear me?  Honey, can you hear me?”

Light shined into Emia’s world once again as her eyes fluttered open, and she stared into the eyes of a person that looked like he was ready to have a coronary.  Sirius!  Sirius was so worried that his eyes were as wide as saucers, his face was flushed, and he kept nervously running his hands through his hair.  That was just how he acted when he was nervous. 

But why was he the one extremely worried about her?  How long had she been out?  Why wasn’t her sister or Lily bending over her totally scared and nervous for her health?  It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate Sirius’ concern…exactly. 

If Emia agreed to appreciate Sirius’ constant concern for her, that would be like accepting him again.  Like telling him that breaking up with her was fine…that she was just here for him when he wanted her.  How unbelievably desperately Emia wanted to be with Sirius is almost impossible to convey in fan fiction, but she could never let him know.  That single thought had been slowly destroying her patience, personality, friendliness, happiness, everything…

It depressed her beyond words.

But what could she do?  She couldn’t let on she liked him, could she?  Of course not.  But perhaps…well…maybe if they were friends, Emia could be with Sirius, without actually being with Sirius. 

It was with this mindset that Emia looked up at Sirius, and smiled, “I wasn’t done lecturing you yet.”

Sirius finally noticed that Emia was awake when she spoke, and was suddenly flooded with more relief than he’d ever felt before.  “You’re awake!” he yelled with utter elation, hugging her until Emia felt she might need the bloody Jaws of Life to get him off.

“What happened?” Lily asked with total concern.  “What was so special…or lack thereof about our Death Eater friend here?”

Emia looked carefully down at the body and felt her heart begin to race.  Her palms begin to sweat, and world began to blur.  The truth…he was real.  She didn’t want to believe it…but there he was.

Oh Dear God.

Emia opened her mouth to answer, but felt her mouth go dry every time.  Avia entered the room, looked at the floor, at the Death Eater, then gasped, and held on to Remus, who was behind her.  “What’s wrong, honey?” Remus cooed as Avia almost choked him with her tight grasp.

“It’s…it’s…Emia…I thought he left…I thought he died!”

“So did I, Avie.  Apparently not,” Emia said morosely.  “I didn’t think he was evil…I just thought he was…different.  Could his friends’ constant taunting have driven him to this?!”

“I didn’t think it would. You’re right…he’s not evil…he’s…mislead,” Avia said quietly, walking over to hug and console her sister.

“Well, why’d he try to bloody kill Lily?!” James asked cynically from the corner.

“He knows who she is.  He knows we care about her.  She became a target,” Emia said quietly, staring at the floor.

“What about your parents? Can’t they do something?” Sirius asked into Emia’s ear, stroking her arm to calm her down.

“Hah!  They’re gone so much that I doubt they realize we exist,” Avia laughed cynically.

“And they definitely don’t talk to or about our brother,” Emia added sardonically.

“You have a brother?!” Sirius asked in shock.  It was rather new news to everyone but Lily.

“You’re looking at him,” Avia said quietly.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Do you think we’re really helping by leaving them alone a bit?” James whispered into Lily’s ear during their carriage ride up to Hogwarts.  James and Lily were in a carriage with Remus and Avia.  Emia and Sirius had gone to share another carriage with Peter and his new Hufflepuff girlfriend, Michelle.  Avia and Emia had split up because they thought that perhaps the guys could take their minds off of everything.  If they could make it through the rest of this day…everything would be fine.  They could tell.

The carriages bumped promptly up to Hogwarts as always, and they walked into the hall to receive the standard pep talk from McGonagall before entering for the Sorting and Feast.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Twenty minutes later, the group was sitting down in the usual order-

(B/A/N-Which my wonderful fans remember from Chappie 16, of course!)  Peter kept up a lively conversation with Lily about his summer, and the different things he did with his grandparents. (Peter’s mother was murdered early into the summer, and you remember that his father recently died at the beginning of the story, so he was sent to live with his grandparents)  Avia and Emia flirted with Remus and Sirius just to keep their minds off their brother, because his presence on the train had disturbed them so.  They didn’t even realize that git was alive, much less evil.  They knew he didn’t like them, but they didn’t think he would be willing to kill them.  That was just rude and asinine.

“So, Emia, did ya miss me over summer?” Sirius asked, suggestively wrapping an arm around her waist.

“Hehe…I don’t think so!” Emia said, not missing a beat by elbowing him in the stomach.

Avia, also not missing a beat, chimed in, “But, dear sister, you did…remembering every single night when your dreams started out recollecting you and Sirius’ first date?”

Emia turned a rather tomato color of red, and asked furiously, “How did you know that?!”

“You talk in your sleep, m’dear, and you just told all of us.  Oh, and all those diary entries that started with- *clears throat* Dear Diary, I miss Sirius. Single life sucks. I wish I could have him back…”

Emia got even more angry, and asked in a deadly tone, “You’ve been reading my DIARY?!?!?”

Emia’s angry tirade was cut off by McGonagall setting down a stool and a raggedy old hat, which began to sing.

“Oh, get this over with,” Emia grumbled, knocking Sirius’ hand off her ass, “I don’t have all bloody day to sit here and get felt up.”

“But you wish you did,” Sirius whispered with a chortle, which earned him a piercing slap on the cheek.

McGonagall looked severely over to the origin of the smack, and waggled her finger, silencing the entire Hall, and allowing the bothersome bonnet to begin.

(B/A/N- Sincerest apologies, fans, but I don’t have enough time to make a new Sorting Hat song, so I’m just going to use the one from “Weather”…I’ll make a new one for next year though, promise…)

“Four founders in an uncanny age,

 All with wisdom of the cleverest sage

Built a castle that will last many years,

Teaching pupils to overcome their fears.

Godric Gryffindor, the lion,

Always the bravest of the four,

Prized his students on the qualities

That he possessed and more.

Rowena Ravenclaw, brilliant woman,

Always had her head deep in a book.

She understood that knowledge was prized,

And it was for that value she would always look.

Helga Hufflepuff, kind, understanding,

Diligent, hard-working, and sincere,

Believing that if you truly worked your best,

You had nothing left to fear.

Salazar Slytherin, ah, what to say?

He certainly was his ambitious…

Ideas definitely abound,

But when it came to truth,

He hadn’t much to be found…

These four founders,

All wonderful in their own way,

Came to form an estate of wisdom, courage, and learning,

That lives on to this day.”

The Sorting Hat closed its brim, and the applause began.  It was uproarious…amazing loud, everyone seemed to enjoy the hat’s song.  Then the real work began.

“Adkins, Wayne!”

A brunette, gangly little boy of eleven tottered up to the chair.  He seemed cruel…radiating an unhappy vibe, almost.  Sure enough, five seconds later…

“SLYTHERIN!!!!”

The names went on for about thirty minutes, exhausting everyone that was patiently, or impatiently in Emia’s case, waiting for their dinners.

Finally, the last one came.

“Zonko, William!”

A raven-haired boy with amethyst eyes made him way up to the hat.

Sirius turned serious for once in his life, and leaned in toward James and Lily. “Is that THE Zonko’s son?! Zonko is a god! We must meet this boy and show him our ways!”

James laughed and replied, “Assuming the kid makes Gryffindor, look at those purple eyes…people with unnatural eye colors generally make Slytherin.”

“Oh, discriminate much, dear?!” Lily asked sarcastically.

“What, it’s true!” James insisted.

“No, it’s not!  Look at Charlie Foust…his eyes is bright orange, and he’s a bloody Gryffindor!” Lily said in indignation. Bright green eyes were not normal, and were a Slytherin color, was her boyfriend trying to suggest she belonged in Slytherin?!

When she asked this of James, he abruptly realized what a corner he’d painted himself into, and replied “But honey, your green eyes are gorgeous, and a natural eyecolor! Granted, a color most people aren’t blessed with, but that’s what makes you special!”

Lily sighed and looked back up to the front.  The stool was just being put away with the hat, and Professor Dumbledore was standing up.

“Hey, we never got to figure out what house that kid was in!” Sirius whined.

“It’s just as well,” Emia chimed in, “you don’t need any more Zonko’s stuff, or any ideas, especially for a discount! God help us all if you actually meet the kid, you’ll scare the living daylights out of him!”

“So? He’ll learn to love us.  Everyone loves me!” Sirius said with an egotistical smile, while snaking another arm around Emia’s waist.

Sirius said the last part of his statement rather loudly…okay, so the whole Hall, including Professor Dumbledore, heard him.  Most were laughing, a couple were quickly repudiating his egotistical babble, and Dumbledore was trying to get everyone’s attention.

“AHEM!!” Dumbledore said, in a tone slightly louder than his normal one.  “And Mister Black, all I can say is that I certainly love you!”

“Thank you, Professor! I love you too!” the quirky fifteen year old yelled back.

Dumbledore chuckled and continued, “Well, if there aren’t any more declarations of strange or odd or narcissistic emotions left, I say we eat!”

“Hear, hear!” was the chorus from the mass amounts of students.  Suddenly all sorts of different foods appeared at the tables, and the students dug in.

Later into the dinner, Lily realized something that had been bothering her all summer.

“Emie?” she asked the blonde across the table. 

“Yeah, hon?”

“You know what’s been bothering me since early this year?”

“What?”

“What was that STUPID password from Christmas break?!”

“I don’t know…I had to cover my ears too.  Apparently, all seven of us are affected by this mysterious offensive password.”

James looked like he had just thought of something, and poked Lily in the side.  “Lil, honey!  We could check the previous password records in the Restricted Section! Now that we’re prefects, we can check it out!”

Lily smiled, “You’re right! Wow… good job! We’ll go after dinner, and we’ll meet back with you guys in the common room to tell you what that dumb thing was!”
Everyone nodded enthusiastically, every single one of them was at least a bit curious about this password by now.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

James and Lily sat down at a table while James carried Gryffindor- The Password History in his right arm.   It was a very thick book, with passwords dating back to the beginning of the school.  However, only Lily, James, and the sixth year Gryffindor prefects could access this particular book.  You could only view the passwords to your respective house, so there was no misuse of passwords or breaking in to the dorms or such.  It was just a smaller risk this way.

The couple sat down next to each other, and opened to book to “December 1973/ January 1974- Passwords”. 

“Hmm, here it is,” Lily said, running her sleek hand down the page.

James leaned over to see, and furrowed his brow.

“Unworthy Mudblood- James Belongs to Me.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

B/A/N- Your weird cliffie for the day! Yay! How exciting. Hope you liked this Chappie…don’t forget to review!