The Unnerving Bet (Marauders' era)

[harrypotterfan:)]

oh man....almost kissed....LOL....yeah continue....I want to know the outcome of Remus and Nadia.

[LordBlaZe]

this is pretty goood ;D

[N.Black1753]

((I think I've got my plan for chapter four...and possibly the rest of the story. Character development, especially when one character loathes another like Remus hates Nadia, takes a looooooong time to make it realistic/believable. I'll write it and see where it goes.))

[harrypotterfan:)]

((okay....can't wait though ;D ))

[dobby888]

oh that was absolutley amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i just cant get over it!!!! good job!!!! keep going!!!!

[harrypotterfan:)]

we're just waiting for you to continue......

[N.Black1753]

((So sorry...I suppose I disappeared off the face of the earth for the past few months. Luckily, I do have a few chapters for you all! I'll have to reread what I've posted so far, but I do have more. Worry not! More in about five minutes...))

[N.Black1753]

((The beginning of chapter four...five and six are considerably long, and I'm in the middle of composing chapter seven as I post.  :) ))
Remus did not leave the apartment in the week following the debacle at Le Masque. After a particularly nasty incident in which Sirius hid a laugh in an unconvincing cough and ended up hanging upside down by his ankle for an hour, Remus had the place to himself for three successive days. In his bitter state, Remus found this highly amusing. It wasn’t often that Sirius was scared of him.

On the seventh day proceeding what Remus called ‘James’ sick little joke,’ James Potter himself materialized in a chair at the dining table right across from Remus. Remus, who was instantly reminded of the previous Saturday night, responded by disappearing behind the Daily Prophet. The makeshift barrier would disguise his pained expression. He wasn’t taking in a word of the day’s obituaries, of course. He didn’t even see the newspaper before him; instead, Remus was bombarded with unwanted visions of a masked, smiling Nadia.

“Oi, Moony,” huffed James, “you can’t hole up here for the rest of your life just because your lips almost touched Nadia’s!”

“Can’t I?” Remus snapped from behind the newspaper. A hand appeared in the middle of the sports page and pulled it down so that Remus had nowhere to hide. Huffing, Remus demanded, “What?”

“Can Sirius come back yet? He only laughed.”

Looking into James’s eyes, Remus saw that his friend hadn’t come round on Sirius’s sorry behalf. Neatly folding the Prophet, Remus smoothly replied, “He should learn not to laugh at inappropriate times.”

James didn’t press the matter. He sighed and said, “Remus, I was just trying to show you how-”

“Nice she is?” he dejectedly cut James off, turning his head. James had an infuriating tendency to take his sweet time in getting to his point, and it certainly wasn’t helping Remus’s mood at the moment. Sensing that James wasn’t there to make excuses for himself, either, Remus barked, “Drop it. Why’re you here?”

“I thought we might hit a snag.” James reached into his robe pocket—the same one, Remus knew, in which James stashed his wand. Out of the corner of his eye, however, Remus saw James retrieve a sealed piece of parchment instead of his wand. “Dumbledore wants us to swap duties,” James finally elaborated as he pushed the letter toward Remus’s side of the table.

Without directly looking at his fellow Marauder, he took up the letter and carefully opened it. As Remus read Dumbledore’s official but short note, he was rather calm. After all, changes in assignments were part of the normal comings and goings of the Order of the Phoenix. It wasn’t until Remus remembered that James was partnered with her for stake-out duty that he saw a catch. “Wait…” Slowly, he lowered the letter to the table, glaring at James. “She’s your partner.” Remus tossed the parchment at James and pushed his chair away from the table. “I won’t-”

“Relax!” James, Remus was not amused to see, bit back a grin as he pulled another letter from his pocket. ‘Anneliese McCartney’ was tidily written on the side James waved at him, and Remus stopped feeling as if he were breathing through a straw. Anne, Remus reflected cheerfully, was nothing like Nadia. Anne was incredibly sweet, caring, and on the whole uncompetitive. “Nadia switched with Annie, and I-” He dropped Anneliese’s letter back into his pocket. “-have just traded with you.”

“Fine,” Remus said nonchalantly, “now if that’s all-”

“Can Padfoot come back?” James anxiously inquired, hastening to his feet. “Fish and visitors, and all that.”

First he tries to play Cupid, now Poor Richard? “Only if he returns after I go on watch.”

Bowing and tipping an imaginary top hat, James bade Remus a suspiciously joyous farewell and Disapparated. It was a farewell that might have otherwise put Remus on his guard. On the contrary, however—as Anneliese McCartney’s name had been mentioned—Remus was like Hogwarts Castle without its protective charms. Defenseless. Anneliese had been in Hufflepuff. He’d gotten to know her when they both became prefects and had harbored a crush on her ever since. Tonight, thought Remus, might not be so bad after all.
((I'll continue once I know you guys are out there reading once more! (A.k.a., fair readers, please reply!) ))

[Ginny Weasly]

I like it, keep going.

[N.Black1753]

Tonight might not be so bad after all, Nadia mused, confronted with a sputtering Remus Lupin. “I’m sorry, Lupin, but Annie has a special assignment in Miami in the United States, and she won’t be back until next year. Speak much louder and you’d might as well march in and announce yourself to Voldemort.” She reached into her pocket and brought out two small, flesh-colored earpieces. “Now-”

“I can’t believe this,” Remus huffed, turning away from her.

“You’d might as well,” said Nadia patiently. Barely able to hold back a smirk, she put a hand on his shoulder and turned him back toward her. “These are-”

Remus, however, was more concerned by Nadia’s touching him than the magical surveillance equipment in her hand. He jerked out of Nadia’s grasp and brushed his shoulder off as if she were highly contagious with dragon pox. “Don’t touch me.”

Grinning smugly in the darkness, Nadia bit her lip and resisted commenting on how he hadn’t minded her touch last Saturday. “Stop being such an arrogant little berk,” she sternly bade him, “and listen to me. These are our improvements on Muggle technology.” Nadia nodded at the earpieces in her hand. “Put it in your right ear. Don’t speak; mouth the words you want to say. The earpiece will transmit your words to me as if you were speaking them into my ear.” She held out her hand, gesturing for Remus to take one. “Tap it twice to turn it on, once to turn it off.”

Sighing, Remus picked up one with a look of revulsion on his face. He eyed her expectantly, and Nadia amused herself by thinking how much he must loathe taking orders from her. She decided to have a talk with James later about his torturing Remus this way. Despite the fact that Nadia was willing to work with Remus, he quite obviously wasn’t wiling to work with her, and that didn’t make for good surveillance for the Order. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Here.” She pressed the little bud into her right ear and waited for Remus to follow suit. When he did, she mouthed, “Can you hear me?”

“Un-” Nadia snorted; Remus had spoken aloud. He tried it again. “Unfortunately.”

“Pleasure working with you, too,” she responded without a sound, motioning toward the Lestrange mansion. “Come on.” Nadia sighed and swung James’s invisibility cloak over her shoulders and, handing one she’d borrowed from the Ministry to Remus, trudged up the hill. “Now,” she continued. “See those bushes by the front door? You take that window on the left of the door. Stage left.”

“I know my directions,” Remus barked. Thankfully, this time, he remembered not to speak aloud.

Rolling her eyes, Nadia considered suggesting that Remus go home, grow up, and come back when he had some common decency. She wasn’t up for another argument, however, and said nothing of the sort. “I’ll be on the far left window behind the house, on the second floor.”

“And how do you plan on getting up there?” Remus inquired snappily.

“Climbing,” Nadia said simply, adding a stern, “don’t rattle the bushes.” Snickering to herself, Nadia hurried to the backside of the manor and began to climb a drainpipe with the satisfaction of having the last word on Remus. She and James had long ago broken the protective charms on the mansion, and still not one of the Death Eaters had had the sense to replace them. They probably didn’t know the charms were gone, thanks to the skill with which she and James had broken them.

As she got a good stance on the windowsill, Remus muttered, “Sickening.”

Nadia looked down on the dining room and had to agree. There was Bellatrix Lestrange herself, sitting in the floor with her head and arms in Voldemort’s lap. “And note that old Rodolphus says nothing about it. Doesn’t even glare like a real man should,” she commentated silently.

Surprisingly, a gentle chuckle answered her from Remus’s end. “None of them are real men.”

Smirking, Nadia couldn’t resist carrying on the conversation. Even the commentary she kept going with James was never quite so amusing. “Honestly, Lucius could be mistaken for a woman if not looked at closely.”

“And Narcissa always has her nose in the air like she’s caught wind of something foul, she’ll drown next time it rains,” laughed Remus silently. Nadia put her hand to her mouth and stifled a giggle. She’d always thought that she was the only one who noticed the ever-sour expression on Narcissa Malfoy’s face.
----------

Remus sat back when he heard Nadia snicker. Why was he cracking jokes for Nadia’s amusement? More importantly, why the bloody hell was he enjoying it? He fell silent. He shouldn’t be enjoying it! It was her he was talking to. Her, the woman whose only goal in life was to make him utterly miserable!

Why, then, was she speaking to him in a civil manner?

Rubbing his eyes, Remus mentally cursed James. What had he done, slipped some Love Potion into Remus’s drink this morning? Remus could only wonder, and the thinking made his head hurt that much more.

You’re flirting with her, a voice inside Remus said. Stop now or you’ll be out ten galleons.

Remus shivered. Hell no. He’d never touch that woman again, if he could help it. Musing that Nadia wasn’t even a woman, but more like a creature, Remus tried to listen carefully as his earpiece picked up the discussion going on inside the Lestranges’ dining room. Yet for some reason, he wasn’t focused on what was being said; he was instead imagining the way Nadia had to be smiling right now. Remus almost sighed contentedly when he realized whom he was thinking about; then, he slapped himself. What was getting into him?

Snorting, Remus told himself that it wasn’t an appreciation for Nadia--that was for sure.
((Thoughts?...chapter five, filled with action, coming soon...))

[Ginny Weasly]

Lupin is such a little kid. *shakes head lauging*

Keep it up.

[N.Black1753]

((That he is. ^_^ That's why we all love him so much, right?))
Nadia was in the middle of hand-to-hand combat practice when an owl fluttered into her vision, a letter in its small beak. Those few seconds of distraction cost her: her sparring partner rammed his pole into the back of her knees and knocked her feet out from under her. Gritting her teeth as she slammed onto her back on the mat spread onto the floor, Nadia did her best not to moan in pain. She cursed whoever it was sending her such an urgent letter in the middle of a sparring session as she rubbed her head and got to her feet. “Must be important,” grunted Evan Griffith, who watched with unreadable eyes while Nadia snatched the letter from the owl. The owl hooted in slight alarm and flew away.

“It’d better be,” Nadia snarled as she tried to catch her breath, ripping open the parchment envelope and flinging it aside. What she found was a speedily written letter in Remus’ neat handwriting.

Nadia,

Dumbledore just passed on word about a meeting at the Malfoys’ mansion. Eight o’clock. Same spots as Lestranges’ place, I assume?

Remus

Flipping the letter over just to be sure that she hadn’t missed anything, Nadia huffed. That was it? And why was Lupin calling the shots, now? She rubbed her suddenly throbbing temple.

“Not important?” Evan rumbled softly.

“No, no. Pretty important,” she sighed, glancing at her wrist watch. It was seven twenty. Nadia had been up since about the same time that morning, but she’d been trained to stay up for two, three days in a row. This wouldn’t be much of a problem, so she hoped. Just another little bit of stake-out duty was all.

On the other hand, something about Remus’ letter altogether bothered her; it just didn’t seem right. Nadia knew Remus well enough to know that he rarely let his witty side show in his writing. Plus, Dumbledore never ran knowledge of Death Eater gatherings by anyone other than her. It was her area of work for the Order. She couldn’t, however, take the chance that the letter was a fake when perhaps Dumbledore just felt like sending information to Remus instead of her. “We’ll finish this tomorrow, Griffith,” Nadia murmured, walking away to get changed. He muttered a reply, but Nadia wasn’t listening. She was too deep in thought over Remus’ letter. It just didn’t sound right to her thinking, and later, she would sincerely regret not listening to her intuition.

((Whoa, short, but more to come...))

[Ginny Weasly]

Uh-oh. I smell a trap.

[N.Black1753]

((Oh, beware my cliffhangers and action of doom and exposition...or maybe the characters should. Yeah.))
Stake-out duty, so Remus came to learn, wasn’t restricted to Saturday nights. It actually took place at any place and on any night that the Death Eaters were meeting, and Nadia always seemed to know both. She would promptly alert Remus within a few hours of her receiving word on Death Eater gatherings, and sometimes she’d even send a short note by owl with a few instructions.

So it was that Remus Lupin came to begrudgingly enjoy Nadia’s company. Stake-out duty was a cold, cold undertaking, and it was sort of nice having someone to talk to…even if that someone was a woman that part of him still swore was from a deeper level of hell than Voldemort.

On this particular Saturday, an owl flew up and tapped at the kitchen window. Nadia never used the same owl, but Remus was pretty sure from the bird’s urgent manner that the owl had come from Miss Ramsden. He shuffled across the kitchen floor and opened the window. The owl glided in and dropped the letter on the kitchen counter next to Remus. It didn’t wait on him for a tip, instead hurrying back out into the fading light of the evening. Shrugging, Remus shut the window once more.

He picked up the letter and opened it, finding that it was indeed from his partner at the Order. The ink was slightly smudged, and her writing sloppy, but it was still Nadia’s writing. Remus found it a little odd that she wasn’t using the codenames they’d picked out for each other, but thought nothing of it.

Remus—

Malfoy Manor. Eight o’clock. Same positions as Lestrange mansion, be on time.

Nadia

Eyebrow raised, Remus read the note over a second time. “Be on time?” he reiterated aloud. What was she telling him that for? Of course he’d be on time! Was she, once again, trying to get on his nerves?

Of course she is, Remus decided silently, glancing over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. The clock was just striking seven thirty. Since when did Nadia send him instructions for a stake-out thirty minutes before the time she set in said instructions? Putting this out of his mind, he shuffled back to his bedroom to prepare for the coming night.
((The next part is much longer. Action-packed, one might say.))

[dobby888]

GREAT!!! I LOVE IT!!!BUMPY!!