Harry Potter Fan

((I am new here, and thought this might be a good outlet for one of my Marauders' fics. It's a romance/comedy fanfiction. Please enjoy! Your comments are appreciated, and once I get one or two, so that I know people are interested, I'll post the next part.))

Unnerving. This was the one word Remus Lupin had for a description of the woman sitting in front of him: unnerving. Of course, there were the obvious details—the physical and mental ones, especially—that were distinctive about Miss Ramsden. Oh, there were plenty of those, but somehow Remus didn’t find the words “brown-haired” or “blue-eyed” adequately fitting when it came to the task of depicting either her or her personality.

For one, Nadia Ramsden was rather smart. Worst of all, she knew it. She had been a Ravenclaw in Remus’s year at Hogwarts, and they had competed heatedly for grades from day one. It hadn’t been a very friendly competition either, Remus mused, but then Nadia herself was far from friendly. Sirius always swore to anyone that would listen that he had seen the young woman laugh once, but Remus was hard-put to believe his fellow Marauder.

Then, there was the matter of her looks. She was plain by society’s standards, and yet had a standard all her own, a standard reminiscent to Remus of that of the women from the 1920’s. This was certainly unnerving to Remus, because Nadia seemed to use it to her advantage by wearing heavy eye shadow and dark lipstick.

Lastly, her voice did nothing but add to Remus’s unease. He had never heard anything so infuriatingly sensual in the way a female spoke until he heard Nadia talk for the first time. Her voice was low and scratchy, close to that of a woman who had smoked for many decades. Though seldom heard, Nadia’s voice was probably the thing about her that exasperated Remus most. He could hardly stand her, and yet when she gave her reports to the Order of the Phoenix Remus caught himself hooked on her every word. It was maddening, to say the least.

Right now, Remus was contemplating a move to a seat far away from Nadia Ramsden. She had been throwing what he guessed was her favorite dagger into the table and pulling it out for nearly fifteen minutes. The habit was now another item on the list of things that irritated Remus about her. Part of him figured that Nadia did it just to aggravate the hell out of him. Another told the previous part not to flatter itself.

Of course, Remus more readily agreed with the first part; why else would the woman be wearing such a cheeky sideways grin? There wasn’t exactly much to be grinning about these days, sideways or fully. Merlin, Remus wished the meeting would start already. Out of nowhere, he became sort of glad Sirius hadn’t thought to triumphantly point out that Nadia was sporting something that resembled a smile. He didn’t know if his tired mind could handle Sirius overdoing a moment of victory.

Thunk! Pause. Thunk! Pause.

Remus sighed heavily, leaning back into his chair. He knew that if he moved Nadia would start throwing the dagger into the wooden table more forcefully than she already was, just so the sound would follow him. Somehow it was hard for him to believe that the woman had a friendly bone in her body. According to Sirius and James, Nadia could be quite friendly; Remus was of the ideal that Nadia Ramsden was pure sadism and nothing more.

“What’s wrong, Lupin?” He looked up to find Nadia smirking at him as she added, “You look tense.”

Yes, he was on the verge of shooting back at her, and I haven’t the slightest idea why. That retort, Remus knew, would let her know that she was getting to him, something Remus hardly wanted. Instead, he yawned and said, “It’s been a long day.”

“I see.” THUNK! “That certainly explains why you’ve been grinding you teeth for the past sixteen minutes.” THUNK!

Biting back a growl, Remus glared across the table at her. The smug little witch, she knew why he was tensely grinding his teeth! He sat fuming in silence, his list of grievances pertaining to Nadia growing ever-longer.

“Who’re we waiting on, Sirius?” asked Nadia offhandedly, which nearly made Remus huff angrily. She had undoubtedly heard the announcement that Lily and James Potter would be late just five minutes earlier; he supposed that Nadia was just asking to see if she could make Remus lose his temper.

Sirius Black, who had befriended Nadia in their fifth year at Hogwarts following a failed attempt at asking her on a date, immediately snapped to attention in the chair on the young woman’s right. “Er, Lily and James,” he dutifully responded, seeming also to have conveniently forgotten the similar statement from a few moments prior to the present one. “Lily’s been sick.”

“So James told me,” Nadia agreed with the subtlest of nods. Remus could’ve sworn that she cast a smirk in his direction before she returned her attention fully to plunging her dagger into the table, tugging it out, spinning it between three fingers, and repeating the process.

Lily and James, Remus thought helplessly as Peter Pettigrew sat down next to him and began to watch the dagger with fascination from across the table, could not possibly arrive soon enough.

After what felt to Remus like an eon of nerve-eroding thunks!, James and Lily Potter hurried into the large dining room of Number 326 Avalon Lane, the secret headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. They seated themselves on Nadia’s left, the last empty chairs nearest what was usually Albus Dumbledore’s place at the head of the table.

“Sorry we’re late,” James apologized. He was grinning from ear to ear, Remus noted; it was James’s infamous way of silently begging for someone to ask him why he was so elated.

“I’ll bite,” Nadia said with an airy sigh, not looking up from her current dagger-throwing pursuits. “Why the grin, James? I thought you informed me just two nights ago that Lily was dreadfully ill.” Now Remus spotted a smile tugging at the corners of Lily’s lips and wondered what exactly was going on.

James, meanwhile, was about to burst with whatever was his obviously enthralling news. “Well, Nadia, if you must know, Lily and I are expecting a child.”

“Haha!” Sirius’s barking laugh echoed in the high-ceilinged room, and he nearly knocked over his chair in his rush to get up and clap James on the shoulder in congratulations. “Mate, that’s terrific!”

While Sirius and James celebrated, Remus leaned toward Lily. “Congratulations, Lily.”

“Thank you,” Lily murmured back, a smile finally parting her lips. She shook her head as James and Sirius returned to their respective seats, more kind wishes coming from everyone else around them.

Dumbledore entered, and everything and everyone came to order. Nadia’s dagger had disappeared, much to Remus’s relief. Just before Dumbledore began the meeting, however, Remus heard Nadia whisper to James, “Congratulations. And to think Lily would’ve hexed anyone into submission back in fifth year for the mere suggestion that she would carry your child.” James just chuckled, still grinning proudly. Sighing, Remus settled into his chair for the meeting ahead.

((LOL....I love it....very humorous and alittle romantic.....great you just have to keep writing it....and I will keep reading it ;D oh yeah and WELCOME TO THIS SITE! ;D ))

((Aw, thanks! Glad to be here. I'll go ahead and post a bit more, and save some for tomorrow.))
Remus was glad to find that the Order meeting was nowhere near as torturous as the wait beforehand. He was even happier when Nadia got up with all the other members who weren’t staying for dinner. Even though Nadia herself had provided Number 326 Avalon Lane—a former safe house for members of the very secretive and mysterious Ministry-affiliated agency for which she worked—for the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, she almost never hung around for meals. Remus was fine with it, all the same. The less time he was forced to spend in her presence, the better. Remus even sank into his chair contentedly once Nadia was gone; it felt like some manner of unhappy weight had been lifted from his already weary shoulders.

He was almost fully relaxed when he realized someone was laughing. Startled, it dawned upon Remus that someone was laughing at him. He straightened in his chair and surveyed the faces of the remaining people at the table, discovering James to be the chortling culprit. Despite the fact that James had matured greatly in recent years, Remus knew the laugh to mean that something incredibly devious was being processed through his pal’s mind. “What?” Remus inquired, struggling to keep his discomfort out of his voice.

“You,” said James. “Nadia takes deep satisfaction in making you squirm, and you go right on letting her.”

“So?” Remus attempted to seem to the entire world like he was not bothered by Nadia as much as he really was, yet somehow the whole universe knew that Nadia did, in fact, bother him a great deal. He really wasn’t sure why he even tried to hide it anymore. “I can’t stand her. She knows that.”

Sirius plunked himself into the seat Nadia had vacated and broke in, “Exactly, Moony. She knows, which is precisely the reason she makes you miserable at any given opportunity.”

“Oh, let it go,” Lily chided the pair, ever the matronly figure of the group. As always, she was ignored by all but Peter, who was taking the conversation in as if it were the back-and-forth action of a Quaffle in a particularly thrilling game of Quidditch.

“If you can’t stand her so much,” James pressed on, oblivious to both his wife and Peter, “then mate, why don’t you ignore her?” His eyes were fixated on Remus, whom he was watching with an especially sly grin.

As if Remus hadn’t asked himself that very same question! Why didn’t he ignore her? Remus instantly found something extremely intriguing to look at about the table in front of him. “She makes it hard,” he mumbled, which had some truth to it.

Sblack personing, James banged the table with his closed right fist, acting as if he’d just made the most exciting discovery in history. “Oh,” he stated simply and, smirking, sat back in his chair. He snickered again every few seconds and then went back to his silence; this caused Remus to wonder if James wasn’t taking a page out of Nadia’s book. James stared across the table at Remus, almost daring Remus with his eyes to ask what the hell was so hysterical. Remus closed his own eyes, vowing not to give in to the silent challenge.

When James burst into laughter, Remus sighed in defeat and opened his eyes. “What’s ‘oh’?” he asked.

The smirk on James’s face spread from ear to ear. “You fancy her,” he said, as if they had been politely chatting about the weather; for all his tone mattered, though, James could have just accused Remus of snogging some girl in a broom closet.

“Do not!” Remus snapped without giving it a thought, so fast that even Remus himself wasn’t exactly convinced by how he’d said it. Of course he didn’t fancy the pest of a so-called woman! Her life seemed to be centered around being a cold-hearted woman; it certainly didn’t revolve around making him fall for her.

James, now chuckling quietly along with Sirius, said, “Prove it, then. Ten galleons say you make out with her before my kid’s born.”

It was Remus’s turn to laugh, and laugh he did. The idea in itself was absurd! Ten galleons may have been nothing to James Potter, but to Remus Lupin it was a nice sum for what seemed an easy bet to win. How much could happen in seven months? Not enough, Remus thought smugly. “Might as well pay up now,” he grinned as he and James shook on it. What Remus was forgetting, though, was a very important detail: James hardly ever made a bet unless he already knew that he would win. It was hard to tell whose grin was wider, because everyone knew Remus did everything short of move mountains just to avoid Nadia.

James Potter had his ways, though….and only when it was too late would Remus remember that.

((LOL.....so cute.....this story is so good.....nice but the suspense to who will win the bet is killing me now.....see you on tomorrow ;D ))

Indeed, BUMP (Err, that means write more)

((Haha, I figured that 'bump' wouldn't mean something negative. Glad you're enjoying it.  ;D))
Three weeks passed in uneventful succession, which led Remus to wonder if James just wanted an excuse to slip him ten galleons. Six months and a week to go, Remus thought, grinning as he pored over his copy of the Daily Prophet. Maybe, he mused with a laugh, Lily would even give birth early. It wasn’t something Remus would normally laugh about, of course; he just disliked Nadia Ramsden that much.

“Unh,” came a moan as Sirius ever-so-gracefully made his way into their shared kitchen. “Wha time’s it?” he inquired, stumbling toward the medicine cabinet.

Remus chuckled to himself. “Noon.” It seemed like Sirius was in a constant caveman-ish state (or, as most called it, suffering from a hangover) every morning of every weekend thanks to the large amounts of alcohol he consumed when he went out at night. His mid-hangover habits never failed to amuse Remus. “Have fun last night, Sirius?”

Shooting Remus a death glare, Sirius replied, “Piss off.”

Remus snickered as he turned the page of the Prophet, the newspaper shaking along with his quiet laugh. He usually hid Sirius’s bottle of hangover cure potion for kicks, but Sirius had taken to chunking things of late if the aforementioned bottle could not be found. Remus supposed that his roommate might just work out one hazy Saturday morning that, hangover or not, he was a wizard with a wand and a repertoire of hexes, but until such time Remus would risk taunting Sirius. In fact, he was just about to fire off another snide remark when an owl fluttered in the open kitchen window. The owl landed on the dining table in front of Remus and held out its leg, a note attached. As he untied it, Remus recognized James’s familiar scrawl. He patted the owl’s head, and it took off through the window.

“What is it, Moony?” asked Sirius.

“A note from James,” Remus answered, unrolling the piece of parchment and beginning to read.

Moony—

You, my friend, are going out tonight. There’s this new club called “Le Masque” where everyone, as your keen and penetrating mind might have already surmised, has to wear a mask. So put on something that doesn’t screech “I’m a nerd!” and conjure yourself up a mask! I’ll be there to get you at eight o’clock.

Prongs

PS—Oh yeah, I’ve got a date for you. She and Lily’ll meet us there. Cheers mate! And yes, Padfoot can tag along.

He stared at the post script for a long time without a single discernible thought. His friends were always dragging him along on their weekend adventures; that was nothing new to Remus. No, the novelty of it all lay in James’s arranging what, apparently, was a blind date for Remus. Normally Remus got his own dates, if there were any to be had. Yes, this was certainly strange. That James had planned it caused the whole thing’s suspiciousness to double in Remus’s “keen and penetrating” mind.

“What does he want?” inquired Sirius, whose speech had become considerably less slurred.

“Er,” said Remus, debating with himself over whether or not he should actually tell Sirius the contents of James’s letter. Hell, thought Remus, Sirius was probably in on it already. “James set me up with some girl on a date at Le Masque tonight, a double with him and Lily.”

Once Remus mentioned Le Masque, however, it was obvious that Sirius had tuned out any further information. “Le Masque! I’ve been thinking about going there. I’ll just, er-” Sirius ran a hand through his hair in a devilish manner, a grin spreading on his face. “-join you lot on this little outing.”

“Yes,” Remus muttered, rolling his eyes, “there’re bound to be some women you’ve yet to snog.”

“What was that mate?”

Rolling his eyes a second time, Remus replied, “Oh, I said it’s fine. James said you could tag along.”
((Any theories as to who this blind date might be? Coming next post...))

omg ur an amazing writer!!! i was captured after your first post!!!! keep writing!!!

((oh wow....it's Nadia as his blind date right....and I bet she's gorgeously dressed but in a mask so Remus doesn't know it's Nadia and they kiss.....and then Remus loses the bet......haha just a theory.....continue I can't wait....))

((Good theory. Of course, if they kissed at the end of the night, I wouldn't have much of a story, would I? ;) Assuming it is Nadia that's his date, of course. Thank you both.))

Nadia Ramsden didn't normally wake up to owls tapping on her window. The birds usually dropped the post through its specific slot in her door and went on their way. So it was slightly irritating for Nadia, who was attempting to enjoy her weekend off by sleeping as late as she possibly could, to open her eyes and see James Potter’s tawny owl pecking insistently on the nearest windowpane. “Nothing that you have to say,” Nadia mumbled as she threw back the bedcovers and clambered out of bed, “James Potter, could possibly be urgent enough that I need to get out of my bed before noon.” Nevertheless, Nadia opened the window, and in flew James’s owl. It perched on the dresser next to her, patiently sticking out its leg for her to detach James’s letter. She reminded herself that it wasn’t the owl’s fault for her sleep being interrupted and unwrapped the letter with a sigh, absently stroking the owl's head as she began to read the note.

Nadia--

How are you this fine morning? Since I have it from extremely reliable sources that you are off-call this weekend, I am extending a mandatory invitation to you to “Le Masque,” a new club where masks are required. Be ready! Lily will be there for you at eight o’clock tonight.

James

PS-I’ve set up a date for you. He and I will meet you and Lily at the club.

“That’s it?” Nadia asked the piece of parchment in her hands. James hadn’t given the guy’s name. Snorting impatiently when the parchment didn’t reply, Nadia tossed the letter aside. The only things stopping her from telling James that she couldn’t attend were the fact he’d made sure that she was not on-call at work and the knowledge that if she tried to hide, Lily would drag Nadia out of bed, put a mask on her, and take her to Le Masque in her pajamas. James had unfortunately rubbed off on Lily, who’d started to show a mean streak since their marriage. Casting a glance to her watch, Nadia saw that she had eight hours in which to get ready. “Might as well,” said the young woman with a sigh, shuffling out of the bedroom.

((yeah my theory was right.....continue.....I am anticipating....but you're right.....I bet they dance and then they realize who they're with and then...and then....ummmm.....Remus leaves angrily....?I dunno.))

((I'm almost to the point where they take off each other's masks. I must say...Remus will not be happy.))
“Oooo,” Sirius chuckled, entering Remus’s room unannounced. “Look who’s ready for his da-ate!”

Once Sirius was in range of Remus’s arms, Remus gave him a good shove. “Shut up.” Remus stood in front of his floor-length, freestanding mirror, eyeing his reflection with a pleased expression on his face. Not too bad, he thought. He was wearing the forest green robes that he reserved for going out with the guys and a simple black mask that covered three-fourths of his face, stopping just above his mouth. Not too bad at all; definitely not nerdy.

“Think she’ll be a looker?”

Sighing, Remus again wondered to himself whether or not Sirius was in on the whole thing. He decided to answer with a wry smile, “What’ll it matter? She’ll be wearing a mask.”

“Till midnight,” said Sirius, clapping him on the shoulder and grinning before sweeping out of the room.

“Till…” Confounded by this news, Remus turned and called after Sirius, “Midnight?”

Sirius stuck his head in the door, now wearing a navy blue eye mask trimmed with gold. “Did I stutter, mate?” Remus directed a glare at his friend, which apparently led Sirius to conclude that now was not the time for snarky comebacks. “Er, yeah, till midnight. At midnight, everyone in the place takes their partner’s mask off. James told me.” Sirius’s head left his doorway once more, leaving Remus in a bewildered state. Pictures were running through his mind like stampeding hippogriffs, all of them of how this unmasking would go. His heart was sinking already; what if she was gorgeous and high-class, not unlike James in the latter respect? Remus considered himself lucky when he had two Galleons to rub together, and wasn’t exactly as dashing without the mask that was currently hiding most of his face. And somehow, he got the feeling that James wouldn’t let him sneak out before midnight…

((haha that would be funny....I have another theory now.....they were about to kiss but then the clock struck midnight and they took off their masks and everything will change.....haha sorry.....I'm kind of thinking of something similar to Cinderella))

((Imagine Remus acting as if he'd been hit by a disarming charm, dropping her mask, I think...I'll save the last part of the second chapter till tomorrow. School starts here tomorrow. :( ))

((oh man.....I feel bad for you....what about us.....what about our needs.....LOL.....joking.....just finish writing soon ;D ))

Quote from: harrypotterfan:) on August  6, 2007, 09:54:20 AM
((oh man.....I feel bad for you....what about us.....what about our needs.....LOL.....joking.....just finish writing soon ;D ))

lmao WHAT ABOUT OUR NEEDS" that's jokes. Anyways, d**n this is something that JK herself would've wrote, it's so detailed and perfect. I'm more of an action loving guy but this is pretty good. Keep it up!

((hey hey.....you see we should read something like this more often.....ahem people out there....))

((i can't write romance, lol, and i dont like it either but this is coming along nicely. A bit predictable but still nicely))

Quote from: LordBlaZe on August  6, 2007, 01:45:17 PM

Quote from: harrypotterfan:) on August  6, 2007, 09:54:20 AM
((oh man.....I feel bad for you....what about us.....what about our needs.....LOL.....joking.....just finish writing soon ;D ))

lmao WHAT ABOUT OUR NEEDS" that's jokes. Anyways, d**n this is something that JK herself would've wrote, it's so detailed and perfect. I'm more of an action loving guy but this is pretty good. Keep it up!

((Wow, thanks a lot...it's really a compliment, saying that this is something JK herself would've wrote. Wow. I feel...honored. Thanks a lot! You know, I think you're one of my first guy readers, LordBlaZe...))

The more she looked at herself in the mirror before her, the more Nadia felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t the matter of being in an evening gown, but the thought of spending four hours with a man whose name she could not ask, a delightful tidbit of which Lily had just informed her, that was behind her unease. “If it wasn’t James planning this,” said Nadia, “I would be highly suspicious of it all.”

Lily laughed. “What, you mean you’re not already on your guard?”

Sighing, Nadia donned the silver and black mask that she’d been holding in her hand. “I’m forever on my guard, Lily. James and his ways just don’t faze me like they used to.”

“I know what you mean,” said Lily, sporting a grin. “After all-”

“You married him,” Nadia finished. “Right?”

Lily snickered, and the snickering quickly turned into a very infectious fit of giggles. Nadia discovered herself unable to stave off some chuckling of her own. She closed her eyes and shook her head: on the whole, it was a mistake on her part. If Nadia had not shut her eyes, she would’ve seen a still-giggling Lily wordlessly wave her wand in her direction; so was the charm that would shatter one Remus Lupin’s illusions of fun at midnight. “Come on,” Lily bade Nadia aloud, “we’d best be off.”

“If we must,” relented Nadia, turning with a pitiful expression to face Lily. “You’re absolutely sure that you can’t modify their memories and let me stay here?”

“I am,” Lily answered, smirking. Just to be certain that her quarry didn’t make a last-ditch escape attempt, Lily got a firm hold on Nadia’s right arm, one which made Nadia wince. “I simply can’t let you have wasted all that time getting ready!” She dragged Nadia toward the living room, so they could use the fireplace instead of Apparition.

“That’s a matter of opinion,” huffed Nadia under her breath.

“What’s that?”

Silently cursing Lily’s hearing, Nadia cleared her throat. “I said I agree, I hate wasting time.”

“I thought so.” Lily hoisted Nadia’s jar of Floo powder off the mantel and at its owner. No, thought Nadia as she took a handful of Floo powder in her hand, there’ll be no escaping tonight.

--------

“And don’t you think of giving us the slip,” James ordered Remus for the fifth time since he’d arrived at Sirius and Remus’s humble abode, Peter in tow. By now, Remus had given up all hope of getting out of Le Masque before midnight. “And you can’t-”

“Ask her name,” Remus and Sirius both tiredly recited as the clock struck eight, Sirius impatiently adding, “Yes, Mummy, I think he gets it. Might we leave now?”

Eyeing Remus as if Remus was clearly still contemplating a disappearing act, James conceded, “All right, let’s go,” four small words that, little did he know, would ruin Remus’s night and possibly life as he knew it.

((That was for you two! And so ends chapter two...third chapter, the actual date, coming soon...))

((Just wanted to add that, as I said before, the next part may take a while. I haven't had a single moment to write today, but I'm almost finished with chapter three...almost. So, as soon as I finish that, you'll have the first part. School is MURDER. Blegh. Your comments mean a lot! Thanks!))

lol thxs...short chapter but good. Keep it up, oh and check out my fan fiction. I always like having good writers comment it. It's called, Rise of Lestrange.

Quote from: N.Black1753 on August  7, 2007, 10:32:42 AM
((Just wanted to add that, as I said before, the next part may take a while. I haven't had a single moment to write today, but I'm almost finished with chapter three...almost. So, as soon as I finish that, you'll have the first part. School is MURDER. Blegh. Your comments mean a lot! Thanks!))

((LOL....well continue....I loved the ending, ' "All right, let's go," four small words that, little did he know,would ruin Remus's night and possibly lifeas he kenw it.'))

((Well, everyone, here is the first part of chapter three. Hope you like it.))

She’d faced down hardened criminals, come up against creatures more than three times her size, and escaped death once at the hands of Lord Voldemort himself, but Nadia had never been as nervous as the moment when a masked James stepped out of the fireplace. All that Nadia could really be sure of tonight was the fact that Le Masque was located in France, not England; besides that, Nadia knew her name, enough French to get by for the night, and that James Potter was a right git for forcing her to spend her Saturday night with a man she didn’t know. The last item on her list caused her to snicker, unheard by Lily thanks to the loud, pulsating music echoing around them.

“Hey, you!” shouted James, who was wearing a large grin as he led a man dressed in green robes and a black mask up to Nadia. Lily giggled and waved at the man in green. Apparently they know each other, Nadia warily observed as the man smiled back at Lily, glad to see that the stranger seemed just as skittish about the whole affair as Nadia was.

“My name’s not ‘you’!” Nadia shouted in return. Sirius—who appeared, Nadia noted, quite sharp in robes of navy blue and a matching mask—joined their little group, Peter following close behind him. “Someone’s looking handsome,” she complimented her best friend.

He jumped as if he hadn’t recognized her until that moment. Taking Nadia’s hand, Sirius kissed it and replied, “And you, my dear, are simply ravishing-”

“Knock it off, Padfoot,” James said, exasperatedly whacking Sirius over the back of the head, “she’s not your date. This-” He pushed Sirius out of the way and gave the green-robed guy a nudge. “-is her date.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Out of habit, Nadia cordially extended her hand to him. The stranger, to Nadia’s amazement, bowed low and brushed his lips against her knuckles. She shivered involuntarily.

“I believe the pleasure is mine,” he said, straightening and gazing intensely into her eyes. “And how are you, fair lady?”

“Doing well,” Nadia nodded her head to him, all thoughts of calling James a right git for getting her out of her apartment and to this club having completely dissipated. “And you?”

Giving her a charming smile, he responded, “Wondering if you’d care to dance with me.” Still holding Nadia’s hand, he spun her around and pulled her to him. “Will you?”

Nadia raised an eyebrow. Whoever this man was underneath his mask, he either felt confident because of the cloth covering his visage or was just naturally as domineering as Nadia was. She found herself impressed beyond words, whatever the case. “Yes,” said Nadia finally, a smile parting her lips, “I will.”

“Excuse us,” the stranger said to their friends. He steered Nadia through the crowd until they blended in with the other masked dancers. Inclining his head to Nadia since there was no room for another gentlemanly bow, he smoothly placed his left hand on her waist, using his right hand to grasp her left one. “Now.” His voice, reflected Nadia as she draped her free arm over his shoulder, sounded rather hypnotic. Perhaps it was simply because their faces were now inches apart. “What, since we can’t use our real names,” he inquired cordially, “can I call you?” They began to rotate slowly on the spot to the slow music now flowing mournfully around them.

Silently racking her brain for something clever, Nadia took a few seconds before she decided, “Artemis.”

“Ah.” He smiled. “The Greek goddess of the moon…” He paused, frowning for some reason unknown to Nadia. “And hunting,” he finished, regarding her curiously. “Any personal significance?”

“I hunt down criminals for the Ministry,” Nadia informed him, certain that the statement was quite vague, “as part of my job.”

“You’re an Auror?” guessed the stranger.

She smirked. “Not quite.” Before he could question her any further, however, Nadia asked, “And what would you like to be called?”

“Romulus.” His answer was casual, but quicker than Nadia had been expecting; he had obviously thought it over in advance.

Assuming that “Romulus” was testing her intellect when he didn’t say more, Nadia remarked, “Roman legend…one of the founding twins of Rome who was raised by a wolf. How interesting, that you should choose the name of the twin who dueled with his brother and lived.”

“Indeed,” Romulus agreed, visibly pleased by her response. “And to think, I had you pinned as just a pretty face.”

Laughing lightly, Nadia retorted, “You may yet find yourself wrong on that, as well.”

He looked at her for a heartbeat before a smile lit his face all the way to his eyes. “I don’t think so.” Spinning her around with one hand, Romulus said into her ear, “If your lips are any hint, of course.”

“Oh, is that so?” Nadia said once she faced him again, smirking. Mockingly, she said, “And to think, I had you pinned as a guy with James’s manners.”

Clearly not offended in the least, Romulus chuckled. “And was this before or after I spoke to you, fair goddess?” He dipped her toward the ground and drew her even closer.

“Before,” she admitted, feeling a little guilty. Nadia regained her dignity by skeptically asking, “Fair goddess?”

“What would you prefer?” Romulus gave her an innocent, questioning gaze. “A goddess’s name should be revered, almost never spoken. Perhaps ‘your Worship’?” She shook her head at the escalating levels of flattery that Romulus was showering on her. For a second, Nadia was reminded of Sirius, and considered asking if Romulus had learned his smooth-talking from her best friend. “Yes,” he pressed her to answer, “would that do?”

“Yes!” Nadia astonished herself by loudly replying. Romulus threw his head back and let out a bark of a laugh; Nadia snickered.

“Your Worship-” Nadia heartily laughed at this. “-I believe I like you.”

Smiling in a way that only Sirius had ever caused her to do in the past, Nadia countered, “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Romulus thanked Nadia, his eyes glowing warmly as he watched her. Now that she thought on the matter, Nadia couldn’t recall ever meeting a more charming guy in the past few years. She’d always had her nose in a book at Hogwarts, a fact Sirius still pointed out to anyone who cared to listen; romance hadn’t really been on Nadia’s plane of awareness during her school years. Of course, she wasn’t about to let Romulus know any of that. Admit the bare minimum: that was Nadia’s philosophy. “Your Worship, it would seem tonight is looking up.”

“Just what I was thinking.”

They laughed.

((OMG...the suspense.....I loved this post especially....Remus does have a way with the ladies huh?LOL....loved it when Sirius came in and James smacked him.....just vizualizing it cracked me up))

You are a wonderful writer, keep it up.
I don't always like romance stories, because some people make them too romantic. But your's is just right.

Awesome job!

((keep on writing....I can't wait.....LOL))

nicely done ;)

it's awesome!!!

((Wow! :o So many readers! Thank you! The last part of "chapter three" is from Remus's point of view...again, I will forewarn you that school has started for me and I will not be able to finish the next chapter for a while, seeing as school is MURDER. Actually, I'm still in the planning stage, because I carefully planned this chapter, and was rather pleased with the result, so I am taking my time with chapter four. Thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoy this!))

At two minutes to midnight, Le Masque’s atmosphere seemed to have been electrified, and Remus could certainly attest to the electricity. He and the mysterious Artemis had been dancing for nearly three hours on end. Remus’s feet had been complaining since the end of the first hour, but Artemis’s every smile let him ignore their protests. His fingers were itching to rip her mask off and reveal the woman beneath, and Remus was sorely tempted to let them have their way. On the other hand, midnight meant that Artemis would see his face; the knowledge made Remus so nervous that he jumped when Artemis said, “It’s almost midnight.”

“That it is, your Worship,” Remus replied slowly, breathing a sigh of relief when his voice didn’t crack. Artemis smiled at him. Merlin! he thought, swallowing a small moan. Did she know what sort of effect she was having on him? Remus felt as helpless as an ice cube in the summer sun each time Artemis flashed that smile of hers. He rested his masked forehead against Artemis’s, adding, “The moment we’ve both been anticipating, I think.”

“You’re aware of what happens when you assume, I hope?” she teased, smirking as she rubbed her nose against his. Remus had to bite his tongue to keep himself from groaning, despite the fact that her skin and his hadn’t actually touched. “No,” said Artemis with a laugh, “I have been wondering who you are, however much I hate giving James Potter a reason to say he told me so.” She glanced at James, who was keeping a close watch on them while he danced with Lily just a few feet away.

Remus smiled wanly at that. “I know what you mean.” He was about to say more when his eyes caught on Artemis’s lips; he’d been staring at those lips for the better part of the evening, wondering to himself how they might feel against his, how they’d taste…

“Romulus?” Coming back to reality, Remus realized that his mouth was slightly hanging open. Artemis gently pushed his jaw upward with a grin that made him melt on the inside all over again. “Silly.”

He couldn’t take much more. Without a word, Remus’s hand moved toward the edge of Artemis’s mask, and she silently reached out for his. A clock began to strike midnight, and Remus impulsively leaned closer as they slowly pulled off each other’s masks; he was going to kiss her. Just before their lips met, though, Remus recognized the unmasked face staring back at him: it was Nadia. Crying out in alarm, Remus jumped back as if a hex had hit him and dropped Nadia’s mask. How had he not figured this out before? How had her scratchy voice not tipped him off? Remus wasn’t sure. What if she had James charm me to not recognize her? Remus thought, fuming instantly. “You!” He felt sick, and why shouldn’t he? He had almost kissed her, Nadia! “You did this!”

Much to Remus’s disappointment, Nadia truly looked as surprised as he was. “It wasn’t me, Lupin,” she said, laughing breathlessly with a sidelong look at his mask in her hand, “though I should’ve-“

"Then it was James,” Remus cut Nadia off angrily. He turned on the spot and Disapparated back to his and Sirius’s apartment, his breath becoming shorter once the sensation that came with Apparition wore off. You should’ve expected something like this! Remus scolded himself.

Seconds later, Lily, James, and Sirius appeared around him with a simultaneous CRACK! “Moony, mate,” James began, “what happened?”

“What happened?” Remus reiterated incredulously. “What the bloody hell happened? You set me up with her, that-“

“Hey,” interrupted Sirius, a warning tone in his voice. “Watch what you call Nadia.”

Huffing, he was on the brink of telling Sirius that, Nadia’s best friend though Sirius was or not, Remus would call her whatever he d**n well pleased. “Witch,” Remus corrected himself begrudgingly. “Is that how you were planning to win? And who did what so I wouldn’t recognize her voice? Who?”

James and Lily, both bearing guilty expressions, raised their hands. “Sorry,” said Lily, “I charmed her voice so you wouldn’t know.”

“And I charmed you so she wouldn’t recognize you in a mask,” James admitted, “but Remus, you were having a good time with her!”

That was the bit that really made Remus seethe: until they’d taken off each other’s masks, he had been having fun. “Don’t remind me,” Remus snapped. He stalked off down the hallway to his bedroom, his robes billowing out behind him as he went. There was no doubt in Remus’s mind that he had ever had a worse night in his entire life. He launched himself onto his bed and sighed, clutching handfuls of his own hair in frustration. While Remus wanted to forget everything about the past few hours, his mind taunted him with the clear memory of her heady, entrancing scent; the thought of her powerful smile; and the ghost of the sensation of her body against his. “Stop it,” he moaned, turning over on his side. Nadia Ramsden would have to be avoided like the plague, more so than ever.

Wonderful.
This deserves a bump.
Great job.

(FYI to newer users on HPFF, bumps were used as a way to say you liked a story and wanted more.)

((Aww, thank you! I'll be carefully planning out the next chapter so it'll turn out just as good.))

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

this is pretty goood ;D

((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.))

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

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

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

((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...))

((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!) ))

I like it, keep going.

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...))

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

Keep it up.

((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...))

Uh-oh. I smell a trap.

((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.))

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

((Hm...well...here's the action. Enjoy.))
It was remarkable, Nadia mused as she carefully climbed the ivy fence that rested on the back wall of Malfoy Manor, how some families designed houses so similarly. Malfoy Manor was laid out exactly the same as the Lestrange place. The dining room, like the other house, was two stories in height. Even the windowsills were wide enough for one or two people to stand on comfortably. She sighed as she slipped into position and tapped her earpiece twice. “Lupin, do you copy?” Nadia mouthed; no response. One glance to her watch told her that she was twenty minutes early.

Sighing again, Nadia leaned against the outside frame of the window, glancing down into the dining room below. There was Lucius Malfoy, looking snobby as always with his silver snake-headed cane and black attire. Does he ever grow tired of looking like a woman? she wondered to herself with a smirk. Supposing not, Nadia closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing her forehead. Lupin’s letter still registered as peculiar in the danger-sensing part of her mind, but he would answer for it when he arrived. All would be well.

“Perhaps you will tell us now, Nikolai, where your daughter is,” said a cold, high-pitched voice in the dining room. Nadia’s earpiece picked it up immediately, and her eyes flew open.

Dad? she thought, turning her head ever-so-slightly to look in the window. Sure enough, there was her father, on his knees before Voldemort and a laughing crowd of unmasked Death Eaters. She put both hands, covered by James’ invisibility cloak, on the window and leaned in closer. From her vantage point, Nikolai Ramsden had been severely beaten. His clothes were in shreds.

Her father, the head of the secret agency she worked for at the Ministry, had been missing for a few days. Some of the senior agents thought nothing of it, attributing his absence to a lead he was following and had yet to report in on. In the back of her mind, Nadia had known better. Her father always reported in, no matter what he was doing. He usually called her off her assignments to join him, if he got in too deep.

As a response, her father spit at Voldemort’s feet. While some Death Eaters reached for their wands to rebuke the man for his bravery, Voldemort simply raised a hand and chuckled. “Yes, I see where her legendary temperament comes from. You have lasted long through torture. I can only hope that dear Nadia-” Here Voldemort paused for another cruel laugh. “-will last longer.”

Barring his teeth at the Dark Lord, Nikolai growled, “You’ll not lay a hand on my daughter!”

“Remus,” Nadia mouthed; static was her only answer. d**n him, where was he? He was the one who’d told her to be here! She looked at her watch; fifteen minutes were left until eight o’clock. Nadia tapped her earpiece five times, a signal of emergency. “Any Eastern seaboard agents based in U.K., please respond,” she begged silently. “Bravo leader in danger. Please respond.” The static on the other end of her earpiece seemed to be having a good laugh at her predicament.

Yet again, Voldemort was laughing. He slowly rose to his full height. “You disagree, Nikolai?” he genially inquired. With a nod to Bellatrix Lestrange, who suddenly disappeared, Voldemort looked right into Nadia’s father’s eyes. “We’ll see.”

With her eyes glued to the scene below her, Nadia was caught off-guard for the second time that day when Bellatrix reappeared right next to her in a puff of black smoke. She felt a hand jerk off the hood of the cloak, and heard the little laugh she’d always hated. “Well, well, look who I found!” Bellatrix giggled, viciously ramming Nadia’s head against the windowpane.

Nadia’s vision exploded in pain. She experienced the sensation of being pressed into thin air, and knew Bellatrix was Apparating back inside the mansion with her inattentive hide in tow. Bellatrix threw Nadia at Voldemort’s feet. Nadia wasn’t completely aware of what Bellatrix said to the Dark Lord; she was too busy trying to focus her sight.

“My sweet,” Nikolai rasped. Nadia reflected that had he, too, not been in the same situation, her father would’ve been scolding her for her lack of vigilance. She looked to her left, where her father’s voice had come from, and slowly crawled over to him. Resting her head on his shoulder as she used to do when she was a little girl, Nadia was vaguely conscious of the fact that her father’s hands were tied behind his back.

“I’m sorry, Commander,” she said, biting her lip to keep from howling in pain. “I got caught.”

He shushed her, pressing his lips to the top of her head. “You did all I could ask for, sweet,” Nikolai whispered reassuringly.

“Touching,” Voldemort murmured. Nadia suddenly fell over; her father was snatched from her by Lucius, and Voldemort leaned down next to her. “However, dear Miss Ramsden, I do believe your father has outlived his use.”

Lips rearing back in a snarl, Nadia jumped to her feet. “Not if I’ve got anything to say about it.”

“Yes, I thought you might. Bella,” Voldemort said offhandedly over his shoulder. Bellatrix waved her wand before Nadia could so much as go for her own, and disarmed Nadia. Nadia fell on her back, but Voldemort picked her up by her collar, holding her, his chest against her back. He whispered into her ear, “You are mine, Miss Ramsden. Not even your precious father can save you now.” Laughing cruelly, he shoved her in Bellatrix’s direction. Bellatrix caught Nadia in a chokehold and held her there, making sure she was watching as Voldemort raised his wand at the crumpled form of her father.

Nadia, though still a little disoriented from Bellatrix shoving her head into the window, struggled with all she had against Bellatrix’s grip. The Death Eater only giggled, tightening her hold. “You aren’t escaping, sweet,” she hissed into Nadia’s ear.

Scowling, Nadia knocked her head against Bellatrix’s. The witch let Nadia go, shouting in surprise. The clock was chiming eight o’clock, and time practically came to a standstill as Voldemort waved his wand and said the words that Nadia had least wanted to hear. “Avada Kedavra!” he shouted.

“No!” Nadia screamed, feeling as though she were sprinting underwater as she ran to throw off Voldemort’s aim. It was too late, however. Time sped up to its normal pace, and the green jet of light that issued from Voldemort’s wand charged toward her father.

Regardless, she dove for Voldemort, hoping to tackle him to the ground and beat him senseless. Lucius Malfoy roared, “Stupefy!”, and the red flash hit her right as her fists were inches short of making contact with Voldemort’s face. She hit the floor hard, and let out a groan.

Voldemort, clapping, came to a halt and looked down at her. “Very good, Miss Ramsden. Very good.” Two pairs of hands hauled her to her feet before him, and she was disgusted to feel one of Voldemort’s long, spindly fingers trace a path around her lips. “Such a performance. I daresay I enjoyed it almost as much as when first we met. Do you remember that night?”

“I’d hoped it to be our last time,” Nadia retorted, spitting blood out of her mouth. Without warning or giving it a second thought, using the hands on her arms as balance points, she did a backwards flip and spun into a roundhouse kick that sent Rodolphus Lestrange flying across the room. A simple punch to Lucius Malfoy’s nose took care of the long-haired snob.

“Why you little wh***!” screeched Bellatrix Lestrange as Nadia took a waiting stance before Voldemort. She flew at Nadia, wand in her hand.

Holding up a hand to stop his minion, Voldemort chided Bellatrix, “Now, now, Bella. You must understand, Miss Ramsden is quite angry at the moment.”

“So am I!” Bellatrix cried, restrained by her master’s arm. Nadia, whose lip was bleeding, smirked at the woman’s situation. “Let me kill her, Master! Please, let me kill her!”

“Oh no, my lord, allow me the pleasure of at least dueling with your little slave before I die,” Nadia shot back, glaring right back at Bellatrix Lestrange.

Clearly amused, Voldemort replied, “Perhaps later. Are you joining our side, then?” Nadia turned her murderous glare on the man, who seemed disappointed. “Very well. Lucius?”

The last thing Nadia felt was a violent blow to the back of her head, delivered by the head of Lucius’ walking stick.
((Oh wow. Thoughts, fair readers?))

You wrote the action very well, I could see it all in my head. Good job!

I love it!! I always expected that Remus would burst in right on time and save Nadia's father from death, but still I loved it!!

((Well, of course, we can't end this chapter without a word from our dear werewolf friend...))
Jaw agape, Remus could not believe his eyes as Nadia collapsed at Lucius Malfoy’s feet inside the mansion. He wasn’t thinking when he yelled out, “Nadia!” in alarm.

All the heads in the dining room turned in the direction of his position, and he thought, Bugger. Voldemort was the first to grin. He let Bellatrix and Lucius disappear in two black swirls of smoke. They reappeared behind Remus.

Remus was completely unprepared, and on top of that, he had none of the skills Nadia possessed. He wouldn’t have lasted two seconds, nevermind the few minutes she had lasted in the hands of Death Eaters. Quick only on the draw of his wand, Remus faced fate and aimed his wand at Lucius Malfoy. He began to cast a spell at Malfoy, but Malfoy was quicker. “Expelliarmus!” The spell was so powerful that Remus was sent flying backward through the window.

Landing in glass shards, Remus moaned. Something wet rolled down his forehead, and he instantly closed his eyes, not wanting to think of what it could possibly be. He didn’t even try to pick himself up as Nadia might have done. “Well, well!” came Voldemort’s voice somewhere above him. “Miss Ramsden’s partner. Not at all as skilled as her, it seems.”

He opened one eye, and next to him Remus found Nadia’s unconscious form. Remus reached out for her hand to feel for her pulse, and found she was still alive. He wasn’t sure, however, whether life was a good thing or a bad thing at the moment. He’d been amazed by her courage, her sheer talents without her wand; he hadn’t been aware what a deadly weapon his partner was. Voldemort was talking again, but he didn’t hear any of it. He blacked out still holding Nadia’s hand, and surprisingly, he wasn’t mad at himself for touching her.

((I must apologize to Remus for throwing him through a window. Sorry, Moony. Thoughts, my readers?))

Haha, now I have to apologize...for laughing when he fell through the window....lolz

Bump!

Fantastic!! Please write more!!

((Don't you just hate it when you're reading a book, the hero gets into big trouble...and it leaves the hero hanging, switching to some other character you couldn't possibly care about at that moment?  ;D Well. I'm pulling that one here. Thought a little James and Sirius might be a nice change of pace.))

Sirius paid very little heed to Remus’ absence. He laughed to himself, wondering if ol’ Moony had finally run off with Nadia like James seemed to think Remus would do. “Nah,” Sirius chuckled aloud, shaking his head. Five months were left until Lily’s due date, and he very much doubted if Remus would so much as hold Nadia’s hand by then. Of course, Sirius knew he’d been wrong before…but to his thinking, those weren’t too many times, and he knew both of his good friends, especially Nadia.

Did he ever know Nadia! She adored torturing Remus. Hell, to Nadia, teasing Moony was a bloody sport that she’d been perfecting since her first year at Hogwarts. Sirius was simply a spectator, but he knew the game well and had sometimes served as a referee alongside Lily in their later school years. Shaking his head with a grin at the memories, Sirius tossed back the last of his milk and got up to put his glass in the sink. Maybe Remus had simply found himself a girl--other than Nadia, of course—and forgotten about coming home for two days. That was it, Sirius told himself.

“Have you seen Nadia?” James suddenly appeared in front of him, and Sirius just barely stopped before he collided with his best friend, who had a rather worried look on his face.

Sirius laughed, nonchalantly pushing past James and setting his glass down in the sink. “’course not, mate, she’s not my girl. Not anyone’s girl, last I recall.”

“Very funny,” James said, pulling a crumpled letter out of his pocket. “One of the guys from the all-mysterious Agency brought this to me.” After smoothing it out, he handed it to Sirius. “Read it and tell me what you think.”

With a yawn, Sirius took the piece of parchment from James and glanced over it. He gave it a second glance, and read:

Nadia,

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

Remus

Eyebrow raised, he held the letter up to the light. “What, was Nadia trying to forge ol’ Moony’s writing or something? If she was,” he added, pressing it back into James’ still-outstretched hand, “she did a crap job. Doesn’t look like Remus’ handwriting at all.”

Giving Sirius a grave look, James slowly slipped the letter back into the inside pocket of his robes. “Exactly.”

Out of the blue, Sirius began to recall Remus coming to tell him that he was leaving for another night of duty. “Wait…” Squinting as he brought the memory to mind, he continued, “Remus said Nadia sent a letter to him two nights ago, not the other way around. And don’t they use those silly codenames they picked out for each other at Le Masque when they write?”

“They do,” James answered, his eyes growing more fearful by the moment. “You haven’t heard from him since he left Saturday night, have you?”

Sirius shook his head, involuntarily shivering. Whenever Remus went out on duty with Nadia, he always made a prompt return in the early hours of the morning, about six or seven o’clock. Remus would walk past Sirius’ room, give a wave, and abruptly collapse onto his bed with little to no words passed between them at all. “And what about Nadia?” Sirius asked numbly.

“I don’t know, but we’d better find out just what exactly was going on here,” James said, “starting with Dumbledore. Let’s go.”

((Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! Regardless of that, this is my present to you all. Thoughts?

PS-I don't think I've mentioned it, but my icon is Eva Green, the actress I think would play Nadia if she was a real HP character. Agree? Disagree? Already figured that one out? ;) ))

Agree...and figured it out. Lolz. She's who I had in mind when I imagined all you wrote.

Weeee. Do Sirius and James save the day?

((Haha. Well, she does have that scratchy voice Remus likes/hates so much. At least, she did in Casino Royale. And as for Sirius and James saving the day... ;) I'm not sure yet.))

Consciousness was an elusive creature. Nadia wasn’t sure at what point in reality she finally grabbed hold of it, but when she did, she was slow to open her eyes. In her experience, the light when one woke from a period of unconsciousness was unbearable, and moreover, it was smart to feign that unaware state just a little while longer in order to check out one’s surroundings. All these were things she’d learned from her dad, who would tell her when she got out of this—

Nadia’s thoughts came to a stop, and her eyes opened wide to the darkness that surrounded her. Remembering that she had just seen her father killed the last time she was conscious, Nadia felt as if the breath had been knocked out of her. Her father was dead. Daddy’s…gone?

The words echoed around her mind. Daddy’s gone. It seemed...strange to think, this phrase. It couldn’t possibly be true! Nikolai Ramsden was an immortal, in Nadia’s mind, an immortal that seemed ten feet tall and completely spell-proof. In public he had been the Commander; in private, he’d been simply ‘Daddy.’ Her father had gotten a tough job when her mother, Katya, had been killed in the line of duty, and he’d been left with a teenage daughter to bring up by himself. Nadia, however, thought that her father had stepped up to the responsibility with exceeding skill. While most of his duties were put on hold when she was at Hogwarts, he still took care of his “sweet.”

“Nadia?” a voice rasped from behind her. She recognized it as Remus’ voice. “Are you awake?”

Blinking in a useless attempt to bring her eyes into focus, Nadia realized that she was sitting down. In fact, she was in an uncomfortably straight-backed chair with her hands tied behind her back and her legs bound to those of the front of the chair. “Un…” Nadia groaned, trying to put her jumbled thoughts into a coherent response. “Unfortunately,” she replied weakly. She leaned her head back, but bumped hers against someone else’s. “W-was…” The effort of talking was almost too much. “Was that your head?”

“Yeah,” was Remus’ strained answer. “We’re tied back-to-back.”

“d**n,” Nadia instinctively swore, wishing she could rub her head. Her lip felt sort of swollen, and she was sore all over. Trying not to bump her head against Remus’ again, she grasped what her reply could’ve been construed to mean and weakly added, “No offense.”

Laughing faintly, Remus shot back, “None taken.”

A very feeble smile crossed Nadia’s face. “Good. I’d have taken offense if there were. Might…” Pausing to take a shallow, aching breath, Nadia finished, “Might have had to come back there.”

They both laughed, that time. Laughter, Nadia knew all thanks to her late father, was the key to surviving torture, which was undoubtedly what they would be put through before long. Nadia was certain they would have to keep the witty, light banter going in order to keep alive…or, at least, keep what was left of their sanity about them.

“You and what army?” Remus retorted half-heartedly. She grinned, now. This sounded, surprisingly, rather like the man she’d come to know through long nights of unexciting stake-outs.

“My fists,” Nadia breathed jokingly, letting her head settle against her chest for a moment.

“Your what?” asked Remus, sounding as if he’d just been Stupefied.

“Fists.” Despite the fact that he couldn’t see her, Nadia raised a skeptical eyebrow. “What’d you think I said, Lupin?”

((Hehe, a little humor between our heroine and favorite werewolf. What could Remus have POSSIBLY thought she said?

Thoughts?))

Mits? Kiss? I dunno....

((Close, close...let's find out.))
Remus fell into a rather embarrassed silence. What had he thought she said? Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Remus could’ve sworn that Nadia had named her lips—not her fists—as her army of choice.

The part of Remus that still resisted all friendly thought of Nadia made his current train of thought squeal to a screeching halt. Wishful thinking? it scolded. Of course not. You don’t think of her like that. Ever.

That isn’t true, said a second part. Remember that blind date?

He didn’t know who she was! protested the first part.

Moaning, Remus hissed, “The both of you, shut it.” All this thought was making his head throb. What did it matter how he thought of Nadia? They were probably going to die pretty soon, anyway, and there was no way Nadia could free herself to “come back there”…was there?

“I wasn’t aware there was anyone else in the room, Lupin,” said Nadia from behind him. He heard her gasp for breath afterward, and supposed that in the small brawl she’d started, Nadia had probably sustained a few bruised ribs or worse. It sounded as though the effort it took for Nadia to speak wasn’t helping her condition at all.

“Stupid question,” Remus changed the subject and apologized before he even made his inquiry, “but are you all right?” They were so close in proximity that he could faintly smell the clean, ocean-like scent of her hair. She always smells nice, he thought absently to himself. Perhaps it was because Nadia wasn’t the dreadful creature from hell that he’d always made her out to be…something told Remus that creatures from hell smelt of ashes, not the ocean.

Oblivious to Remus’ thoughts, Nadia replied with an incredibly shaky laugh, “Not…sure. Breathing hurts worse than…” She coughed, and moaned before she finished, “worse than usual. Talking…” Again, Remus noticed the vast amount of energy it took for Nadia to string together a few words. “…doubly so.”

Feeling her head droop forward and away from his, he frowned in slight concern. Sure, he himself had been thrown through a window, but he hadn’t put up an exhausting fight as she had. “Try not to talk so much,” Remus chided her, his voice softened by his concern.

She chuckled frailly. “If I didn’t know better…” There was a long pause before Nadia continued, and Remus straightened in the darkness, alertly listening until she said, “I’d say you were a…a little worried about me.”

“A little,” Remus admitted, trying to keep up a bright dialogue for her benefit. “I couldn’t fight our way out of here like you could.” What he didn’t say was that he had been frightened by how the Death Eaters had taken her down. If they could defeat such a competent witch as Nadia, what hope was there for the rest of the Order? Certainly, there was strength in numbers, and the Death Eaters had remembered that before the young witch.

“I’m flattered, Remus.” Although Nadia broke down into another coughing fit, he could hear the smile in her voice. “Really.”

He couldn’t help but smile to himself—she’d never called him by his first name in such relatively civil circumstances before. The way she said it had a nice touch to it…it was just…

Remus wasn’t sure what it was, but he sort of liked it.

Before he could say more, however, the door to the basement was thrown open, and a seemingly blinding light preceded the two figures that entered the room. Remus, who’d closed his eyes against the light, didn’t see who the figures were until the door had shut and he opened his eyes. Once his eyes focused, he found Bellatrix Lestrange smirking at him from behind Voldemort, her wand emitting a glowing light.

Nadia’s head snapped up against Remus’, and again her head collided with his. “Sorry,” she hissed, a ferocious tension filling her tone.

“Oh, Master, she’s awake!” Bellatrix squealed in delight, clapping her hands together and giggling the most sinister giggle that Remus had ever heard.

Voldemort grinned a grin that raised chills on Remus’ arm, and Remus suddenly feared for Nadia. What were they planning on doing to her? Unfortunately, some part of him had a good idea. “How kind of you to join us, Miss Ramsden! I trust you’re well.” With Bellatrix following at his heels, Voldemort walked completely around Remus to speak with Nadia.

Remus heard a snarl in Nadia’s voice as she replied, “Go to hell.”

Laughing coldly, Voldemort kept up a pleasant tone. “Now, now. I’d hoped for more eloquence than that, Miss Ramsden. Perhaps a little persuasion?”

Gritting his teeth in worry, Remus held his breath. It made him quite uncomfortable not being able to see what went on behind him. Maybe that was the enemy’s intention in tying them to chairs that sat back-to-back. He wasn’t well as it was…

He didn’t need Nadia screaming in agony to add to his unease.
((Well...hm. My favorite part was when Remus figured out that creatures from hell would smell like ashes, not the ocean. Yours?...other thoughts?))

ok this my kind of.... dirty, but I personally thought that Remus thought she said tits!!! lol

And I agree that was my favorite part, I'm half expecting that Remus will hold her hand behind the chair.

I assume that you've seen Casino Royale  Extremely good movie, although I had to keep pausing it to ask my brother to explain.

wow taht was amazing

Wahahaaaa. Creatures from hell smell of ashes...hee hee. I always though brimstone was more like them.

((Hm. Never thought of Remus holding her hand, but it sounds incredibly...huh. I'd better stay quiet.  ;D ))

James knew that things were serious when Albus Dumbledore sat down in a stunned silence at his desk, resting his elbows on the desktop and bringing the tips of his fingers together. The headmaster's eyes were thoughtful behind the lenses of his half-moon glasses, and Dumbledore himself looked grimmer than James had seen him in a long while.

   As Dumbledore contemplated all that he'd been told, James turned to glance at Sirius...and found Sirius pacing restlessly. With a frown, James pushed the bridge of his thick-rimmed glasses back up his nose. Sirius was close to Nadia, almost as close as James was. James was disturbed by Nadia and Remus' disappearance, but probably nowhere near as much as Sirius was disturbed by it. Sirius looked after Nadia like she was the little sister he'd never had, and Nadia doubtlessly knew Sirius better than James himself did.

   Almost as if he felt James' eyes on him, Sirius stopped pacing long enough to look at James. Too many friends have disappeared at Voldemort's hands lately, James thought, figuring that the same thought was most likely circling Sirius' mind. Words of comfort were useless; Sirius wouldn't be comforted until Nadia and Remus were found alive.

   "I didn't send either of them any orders Saturday night," Dumbledore intoned gravely, folding his hands in his lap. "And what bothers me is the fact that she believed an obviously faked letter. She knows I send her and only her any orders."

   "It's not like her at all," Sirius gruffly agreed. "Nadia-"

   Dumbledore held up his hand to silence Sirius. Hearing footsteps hurrying toward the door, James, too, straightened and listened. The door was flung open, and McGonagall exclaimed, "Headmaster, quickly! A body's been found at the gates!"

   Sirius exchanged a terrified look with James and dashed out the door. Following his friend's example and not waiting on Dumbledore, James turned and pushed past the head of Gryffindor house, taking the stairs two at a time in order to catch up with his best friend. Just as he flew over the bottom step, James heard Dumbledore and McGonagall scrambling to follow them.

   As he caught up with Sirius, James heard his friend muttering, "It's not her, it's not her, it's not her," over and over like he was chanting some sort of incantation.

   Poor Padfoot, thought James as they sprinted through the familiar halls of Hogwarts. Of course, James wasn't immune to the same sentiments as Sirius. The Potters had lived next door to the Ramsdens since before James had been born, and in lieu of a sibling, he'd grown up alongside Nadia. They had practically lived at each other's houses and driven both of their parents crazy once they'd gotten brooms to fly. Memories flashed by at random: he and Nadia playing one-on-one Quidditch, he and Nadia getting on the train to Hogwarts for the first time, he and Nadia playing against each other as Seekers for their respective houses' Quidditch teams, Nadia rubbing a major Defence Against the Dark Arts grade in Remus' face, Nadia as Lily's maid of honor at his and Lily's wedding...

   He realized that in his mind, Nadia was impervious to death. How could Nadia possibly die? She'd been there for him for as long as he could remember, and James had gotten used to thinking that could never possibly change. Engrossed in these recollections, James ran straight into Sirius, who'd come to an incredulous halt at the gates of Hogwarts. "Sorry, ma-"

   Stopping mid-apology, James saw that it wasn't Nadia or Remus' body dumped carelessly at the gates...it was the body of Nadia's father.

   Stumbling back as if he'd had the wind knocked out of him, James felt two hands catch him just before he fell to the ground. If he had thought death held no sway over Nadia, then he'd certainly believed that Nikolai Ramsden was immortal...

   He had been wrong.

   Dumbledore knelt at the lifeless man's side, finding a note in Ramsden's shredded pocket. He stood up and read it to himself.

   "What does it say, Albus?" McGonagall, who kept a firm grip on James, inquired. James shook his head quickly and came back to reality. It wasn't like Voldemort or his followers to leave notes.

   Grimly, Dumbledore read aloud, "'His sweet will be next.'" Sirius snatched the note out of Dumbledore's hands and glared at it as if it were a Death Eater in disguise. Patiently, Dumbledore inquired, "I presume that refers to Nadia?"

   Nodding stiffly, James replied, "Nikolai called her his sweet." His voice seemed to be coming from some imposter...things went on as if James were watching from the sidelines. There was no question now that Voldemort had Nadia, and more than likely Remus.

   The question was...was either of them still alive?

((Just wondering...do you guys and gals think Remus is going to lose or win the bet? Lemme know! More as soon as you answer my question, lovely readers.))

He is so gonna lose. Haha.
Or maybe he'll win...time will pass...and then he'll find Nadia. Lolz.

Awes...I love the name Nikolai...that makes me sad he died.

((Well, I believe we shall see. Anywho, this next chapter is still work in progress...so I'm not posting it JUST yet. But I do have a couple of questions, if you don't mind answering. :D

Should Sirius and James be the ones to save Nadia and Remus?

What would you like to see happen, provided Remus and Nadia are freed?))

I dunno, I can see it happening...you know? Sirius and James to save the day! Ta-dah! Hahaa.

What would I like to see happen? I'd like to see Remus admit to Nadia (if no one else) that he has feeling for her.

What I think should happen is that Sirius and James appear at the window of the place where Nadia and Remus are being kept, and since they're tied back to back, only Remus can see them.  Then he starts talking to the death eaters so that they won't notice his friends at the window, and then Sirius and James burst through the window and defeat the death eaters after a terrific fight of course.

((Ah, but dagum it, there's no window in the room. It's a basement. I think I have their route of escape, now...))
"Perhaps a little persuasion?"

The phrase reverberated through Nadia's mind. Voldemort spoke as if he were going to make a convincing presentation to Nadia on why she should have more grace than to tell even those whom she hated to go to hell. Yes, from his tone he sounded like a nice guidance counselor, and his wand—a wand that had cast many a killing curse—seemed for a moment as if it was going to act as a sort of pointer. Nadia knew, however, that she was hardly about to receive a little talk centered around minding her language: 'persuasion' was just a polite little way of referring to torture.

Closing her eyes, Nadia saw her father standing in front of her. It was only a memory, but the memory was a startlingly clear one. In this memory, she herself sat tied to a chair, not unlike her present situation.

Standing with the same ramrod-straight posture which he had instilled in her, Nikolai Ramsden was an imposing figure to all who saw him. He had his arms crossed behind his back, and his face was grim. Later, he had told Nadia that torture was the one lesson he hadn't looked forward to teaching her. However, it was a lesson all agents of his agency had to learn.

Breathing in and out slowly, Nadia wondered at the grieved look in her father's eyes. It can't be that bad, she naïvely told herself.

"You will hate me for this, sweet," said her father softly, "and I cannot say that I shall blame you." He looked away from her. "That you are my daughter does not excuse me from educating you fully on surviving even the worst aspects of torture." Nikolai fell silent.

"Daddy?" Nadia prompted him, frowning. Her eyes tracked him as he began to pace like an angry lion.

Steeling his face into an unreadable expression, Nikolai launched into one of his renowned lectures. "Muggles will focus on physical pain. Mutilation. Broken bones. Endless beatings." He abruptly stopped pacing, still not daring to meet her eyes. Instead of a soft, mournful tone, Nikolai's voice rang with strength, commanding Nadia's utmost attention. "All of which are reprieves from a wizard's combined arsenal of physical and mental pain."

Inhaling sharply, Nadia could do nothing but stare at her father, waiting for whatever was to come. She could tell that inside, the infamous Agency's commander was faltering. As he spoke, Nikolai's native Russian accent crept onto the British one he had picked up upon moving to England, a sure sign that he was nonplussed.

Nikolai came forward and knelt before Nadia, affectionately entangling his fingers in her hair. Looking up, Nikolai's gaze was intense. "Memory, my sweet, is an effective defense when one isn't faced with a skilled Legilimens. After a while, the Cruciatus curse will break through." He stood, planting a kiss on Nadia's forehead as he straightened. "It all depends on the memory."

"Persuade all you like," Nadia finally countered, the corners of her lips upturning in a defiant grin, "but if you ask me, killing someone's father and then threatening her with torture aren't exactly the best in recruiting measures." She already had a memory in mind, but whether it was strong or not would be up to time to tell.

Voldemort began to speak again, but a harsh female voice screamed over his, "Crucio!" Nadia's back arched, and her face wrenched in pain. She hadn't expected that one, but thankfully the first few were always the worst. Sharp, needle-like sensations pierced every centimeter of her skin—her darkest fear, needles! Were they getting better at this?

When finally the real feeling of the curse subsided, Nadia collapsed against the bonds on her chair, the prickle of needles prolonged by her deep-rooted hatred of them. Bellatrix was laughing...Nadia was vaguely aware of the young woman's hand on her face. "You didn't scream," Bellatrix said in slight awe.

"She's her father's daughter," Voldemort coolly observed. "But even Nikolai broke."

Nadia wretched her chin out of Bellatrix's grasp. "Don't talk about my father." Behind her, she could hear Remus breathing heavily. What would he do when their amusement with her grew thin, and their attention turned to him? Nadia knew she had to keep the two interested.

"You aren't in a position to make demands, Miss Ramsden." Voldemort shook his head and headed for the door. "If she changes her mind, Bella," he called over his shoulder, "send word." There was a bright burst of light, and then the sound of the door slamming shut.

"You're all alone with me," Bellatrix said lightly, amused. She took a step back. "How'd you like it? Did it just scare you so?"

"Almost as much as your face," Nadia retorted, still panting slightly.

To Nadia's surprise, Bellatrix simply snorted. "Did my dear cousin teach you that? I'm sure he's missing you right about now." Narrowing her eyes, she grinned and added, "Probably wondering if ol' Wolfy there is your new lover."

"In a battle of wits, Bellatrix," rasped Remus suddenly, "you would certainly lose to Nadia."

"Oh, he is your lover, then?" Bellatrix intoned, chuckling darkly. "Don't think Sirius'll like that. But then, you never said 'yes' to him, did you?"

Rolling her eyes, Nadia shot back, "Is useless yammering the way you lot torture people now?" No, she thought with a frown, she hadn't said 'yes' to Sirius; she'd kept on being friends with him. Just friends...

It was none of Bellatrix's business.
((If I said what I wanted to say about that last bit, for those of you who haven't figured some things out, it'd give a lot away. So I just won't say anything but ask for your thoughts! Please let me know your thoughts. Then and only then shall I post more. ^_^))

Ahhh! Sirius was turned down, haha. Poor Padfoot.

Awwes, the memory with Nikolai made me kinda sad.

Bump.

((You know, I've always thought it was sadly amusing that Sirius was such a playboy while he was in school, and he didn't end up married before he died. Anyway. *shuts mouth and gets on with story*))

Obviously sensing that Nadia was on the verge of making a comment that would result in more torture, Remus interrupted her. "They never can shut up, can they?" he inquired of Nadia as pleasantly as if he'd just asked her for the time. Nadia smiled to herself. So she had taught him a thing or two.

"And they're all ugly as hell," Nadia added, feeling as if they were carrying on another mid stake-out commentary. "Dearest Bella and Cissy seem to have gotten the short end of the good looks stick in the Black family."

"Crucio!"

More blinding pain. Nadia bit her lip so hard that for a moment she thought she would draw blood. Oh, but it was worth it. Remus might've made her smile, but she'd had to get a jab in Sirius's honor. "Never," said Bellatrix as the red light of the curse disappeared, "talk about Cissy." Nadia felt too weak to come up with a response, and she coughed so hard that her eyes watered. "Oh, are we going to cry?" Bellatrix asked in a voice one might use with an infant.

Yes, thought Nadia with a quavering laugh, your face just hurts me that badly. Her laugh dissolved into another coughing fit.

Remus's voice crackled in her ear, "You sound awful." He was using the earpiece, Nadia realized, but she couldn't respond. Bellatrix would see. "You're going to cough up blood if you don't stop."

"Perhaps we should quit for now," Bellatrix went on, unaware that Remus was "speaking" to Nadia. "I'm not sure we can take it." There it was, noted Nadia, that note on the air that contradicted Bellatrix's every word. She had her memory ready, this time, ready to go just as the woman opened her mouth and screeched "Crucio!"

"Well, Padfoot, what've we got here?" James's voice echoed over the pain. It was Christmas in this memory, and James's family had invited Nadia and her father over for dinner. She let herself fall into the memory, just as her father had taught her.

"Looks like a girl," Sirius answered James with a wide grin, giving her an appreciative glance. He didn't cross the Potters' doorstep, however, as her father slid past him and James with a low greeting.

"Good evening, sir," said James. Once Nikolai had disappeared down the hall, James looked between Nadia and Sirius with a knowing smile and persisted, "And not a bloody bruise, wouldn't you know? She's dressed in a color other than black!"

"Or Ravenslaw blue," Sirius maintained, using his and James's immature name for the House of Ravenclaw. "And she's in a dress!" His eyes glowed at the realization.

"Are you two gits going to let me freeze," laughed Nadia, "or are you going to let me in?" She held up two tins, one clearly marked for each of her friends. "I bring good tidings of food."

James snatched his without question. "Cookies!" he cried triumphantly, yanking Nadia in by her arm and forcefully hugging her. "You're going to make old Padfoot a happy man someday," he stage-whispered into her ear. Sirius punched James's arm and shoved him toward the Potters' living room as Nadia giggled at James's unique thanks. She knew he'd have his tin of cookies open before he reached the den.

"Out with you!" Sirius called after James.

"Sirius and Nadia, sitting in a tree!"

"Out!" Sirius shouted again.

"K-i-s-s-i-n-" Nadia gave James what he had famously dubbed "the look," and James needed no further convincing to leave.

When James—still half-singing his little song under his breath—had finally gone, Nadia shook her head and said, "Welcome to a Potter and Ramsden Christmas dinner." Smiling, she held out Sirius's tin of cookies. "Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas," he returned, gently taking it from her. "You look really, erm, nice. With, y'know, your hair down. And all."

She laughed, not knowing what else to do. "Thanks. He was just kidding about it all, you know."

"I know."

As the red once again disappeared, Sirius's face, too, faded away. Nadia held onto it for as long as she could...and got a distinct impression of disappointment from Sirius's expression. Maybe she was just reading too much into things, as usual.

"Can you hear me?" A door slammed shut on the edge of reality. Nadia blinked and shook her head, though it hurt. She was coughing again, and felt a warm liquid on her knees, seeping through her clothes. Remus's voice was quiet, shaken...fearful. "She said you coughed up blood. All over her. She wasn't very happy."

Nadia felt dizzy. She wanted to respond, but didn't. She was too tired. She hurt. She just wanted to be in her nice, cozy bed. At home. In fact, she'd give all the money in her savings to be back at that Christmas dinner.
((Well? I rather loved that memory. What'd you think of it? More when you tell me. ^_^))

Such a sweet memory.

By the way, you have lots of talent, please tell me you are writing your own ideas for books and such as well as doing fanfictions.
You could go far.

((Well, no book ideas yet, but I'm trying my hand at original short stories as well as fanfictions. I've won a couple of writing contests in recent years, so at least someone thinks it's alright. If you'd like to see my original stuff, I could e-mail it to you.

Would you like more, or shall I save it for tomorrow? It's nothing very exciting, mind.))

If you have nothing beter to do, by all means, POST. If, however, you would rather do something else, we can wait. haha.

And sure, I'd love to read your original things. If you have a dA account, it'd b even better. If not, just e-mail them to me. (alchemysped@yahoo.com)

((Do you have a Yahoo Messenger account? Or just e-mail address? Look for an e-mail from Lara Croft. Teehee, don't ask.))

I used to have the messenger, but it slowed my computer too much, so I got rid of it.
And I won't ask, but I take it you like Tomb Raider. haha.

((Okay, this'll be it for...an undisclosed amount of time. School cranks back up on Monday here...so. Enjoy. Heck, I'll divide it into two bits. ;D ))
Remus wondered at the fact that Nadia was still conscious. Most people he knew blacked out after two or three bouts with the Cruciatus curse...before she'd stormed out, Bellatrix had succeeded in performing it four or five more times on his comrade. More intriguing still was that Nadia had not screamed. He had known that people with the all-mysterious "Agency" Nadia's father ran—had run, Remus corrected himself—were tough, but could they possibly have been trained to last so long when tortured?

"She'll be back," Nadia's voice said into his ear. "Probably'll beat me before another round."

Not very reassured, Remus remarked silently, "You still didn't scream."

"I doubt if you would've liked to hear that, Remus," Nadia said on a whisper. "I doubt it very much." She started coughing once more.

Leave it to Nadia, he reflected, to retain her humor in such a situation. "Have you been tortured like this before?" he asked.

He must've sounded thunderstruck, because Nadia's voice turned serious. "A couple of times, yes." If not for the earpieces, he would've been straining to hear her. "Let's hope they'll focus on me and not you. I've been coached on how to handle it."

That didn't matter, Remus vaguely thought. He'd take it if it meant not hearing her in so much pain. "There's only so much a man-"

"Or woman."

He laughed, but only briefly. "Or woman," he conceded, "can take."

"Hm," Nadia murmured in agreement. Remus felt her head move away from his.

"Nadia?" he asked. "Nadia." No answer. "Nadia, are you alright?" Still no answer.

He was alone.
((Dun dun dun. Thoughts? Comments? Random caffeine fueled insanity? Whatever it is, post it here for the next bit. Happy New Year!))

Happy New Year!!!!

I love your writing!!!! E-mail it to me too!!!

(lilbean2326@aim.com)

((Okay, for real, this is the last bit for a while. I don't know when I'll get the spurt of inspiration I need to make the next chapter awesome, but until then, enjoy this.))
Sometime later the door to the room opened, and in sauntered Bellatrix Lestrange, followed by a host of Death Eaters. All but Bellatrix were wearing masks. "Let's see if we can crack the girl now," she said over her shoulder, obviously the leader of the group. They all ignored Remus, marching around him to Nadia. Unable to feign sleep any longer, Remus jerked his head up and listened.

"The werewolf's awake," remarked a male voice; Rodolphus, Remus recognized after a few seconds.

"Leave him, darling," Bellatrix responded, a grin obvious in her tone. "He'll get enough torture tomorrow night."

Remus drew in a breath of horrified realization. Tomorrow night was the full moon. He couldn't feel the side effects yet, but he soon would. If they didn't get out of here by tomorrow night, then Nadia was in real danger.

She's in enough danger now, he thought, frustrated.

"Wake up, sweet!" said Bellatrix in that mock-baby voice she'd used to undermine Remus and Lily as prefects. A horrible pop! sounded, and Nadia's head banged against his. Bellatrix must have slapped her. "I said wake up!" she growled. Nadia moaned. "That's right. Now, sweet, can you hear me?"

"Unh..." was translated in Remus's ear to "Unfortunately." Had he not replied the same to a similar question Nadia had asked, just weeks ago? Now Remus took offense at Bellatrix turning the question on Nadia, amusement at Nadia turning his answer on Bellatrix.

"Don't listen to her, don't listen, focus on my voice." His mouth moved desperately, and oh, he hoped no air was coming out, that the earpiece was still doing its job.

"Good. We want you awake. Ready?" The voices of the Death Eaters chorused an amused affirmative.

"Crucio!" cried out five voices at once. Another voice gasped through gritted teeth, making a noise that sounded like something between a whimper of pain and a scream. Remus cringed as his chair shook, and the room was filled with red light. Nadia's whimpering seemed to last forever, even after the red light had gone. Please, he urged an unseen force, please, make it stop. Let someone come for us. Someone. Anyone. Before they really hurt her...

Or I do tomorrow night.

((Thoughts? Anything in particular you'd like to see happen after they escape, provided ;) they do? PLEASE lemme know, it'll help me write faster.))

Oh my god, you have such a devilish mind to be able t think about the werewolf thing...good job.

Yeah 180% amazing!! I hadn't even thought about that.

Maybe they notice Remus' mouth moving, and then since his eyes are closed (you can make them be closed) and so they think he's praying for help or something

((Sorry this has taken so long. Here's part one of chapter eight.))

The scream that came when finally Nadia could not hold her own against torture hurt more than any scream Remus had ever endured. Every weary muscle in his body tensed, his jaw clenched, and his heart painfully skipped a beat in its already heavy tattoo against his chest. Things had officially gone from bad to worse—no, no, that wasn't right. Things had skipped right over worse and sped on to horrible, to dire, even. How were they going to get out alive?

"Cru—"

"No, no, unfortunately that's enough! The Dark Lord said to leave her once she cracked," admonished an undistinguishable male voice from underneath a mask. "He'll delight in picking up where we so humbly left off." Remus gulped. He didn't make the mistake of assuming that Nadia was in any condition to grapple with Voldemort himself.    

She wasn't.

Low, rumbling laughs—irritatingly mixed with Bellatrix's high-pitched giggling—followed the Death Eaters out of the dark room. How much time had passed since they had come in? Remus didn't know. It seemed like centuries. Ages. Eons. Too long, by far.

His chair shook as Nadia coughed and sniffled. Was she crying? He listened. Yes, Nadia was either crying or shaking in fear. Wouldn't have made your pathetic heart ache two months ago, some voice insolently commented.

We weren't partners two months ago, and besides, I hated her, he snapped inwardly at the hateful voice.

Forget him, a gentler side said of the rude one. Comfort her.

How? he wondered. What did one say in this sort of situation? 'Hey, there there, it'll all be alright'? Remus rolled his eyes. Of course not. As a matter of fact, there was a strong possibility that the opposite would be the outcome of their increasingly bleak situation.

"Nadia?" he asked. Oh yeah, the voice jabbed at him, comforting.

She mumbled something that, even with the earpiece, Remus didn't catch. He frowned. This wasn't the Nadia that had tormented him throughout school or thrown daggers into a table and pulled them out repeatedly just to get on his last nerve. Remus wasn't even sure if this was Nadia. It wasn't any part of Nadia he'd ever seen—or, he thought, heard—before.

He really wished he could do something, even if it wasn't play hero and get them the hell out of this bloody room. Nadia was worse off than Remus originally thought. She might have been a little better with sleep, he supposed, but there was no sleep in these d**ned wooden chairs! There were definitely blackouts, but those weren't very restful. There certainly were no dreams...

Just nightmares.

Flexing his hand, Remus winced. His muscles were getting stiff, a culmination of staying still for so long and the beginning of his symptoms before the full moon. He almost jumped when he felt another hand brush against his, settling down when he realized it was just Nadia's.

The gentle voice in his head nudged him, and he could almost see it smile encouragingly. Slowly, with a little stab of pain, Remus took Nadia's slim hand in his rough one. As he rubbed little circles on the back of her hand with his thumb, Remus heard Nadia begin to calm down. Her breathing pattern slowed to a normal one, and she wasn't shivering so violently anymore.

There, said the gentle voice. Good job.

Remus couldn't find it in him to disagree.

((Like I said, so sorry! I had it last week, but the site wasn't working. Thoughts?))

Really good I absolutely love it!!!  I would very much like it if they can get out of there alive though