Tears of the Ages

"And you truly believe you will do best in the businesses of the wizarding world?"

"Something in me just screams, 'You're not cut out for healing!'" Aurelia said smartly. "I think it has to do with death. Not the thing I want to sink my teeth into--and I don't mean that in a literal sense, Professor."

McGonagall pursed her lips in her signature fashion. "Have you considered other courses? Perhaps a job in the Ministry would suit you."

"I'm quite certain I'm the business-type, Professor," Lia said, beginning to slouch in her chair.

"Would you take up your family's business at Otis and Crevitts?"

"That would require me to learn healer stuff, right? Then, no, I don't plan on it."

"Where do you plan on working, then?"

Aurelia looked out McGonagall's window and gazed at the beautiful green grounds that lay beyond the glass. She wished eagerly to be out there, or in her dormitory. Anywhere but here, discussing her future with her Transfiguration teacher. It was quickly becoming a bore. Lia didn't know a thing about her future and didn't plan on doing anything. All she knew was that she didn't want to be a Healer and she could not go another term of that damn Divination class. Why she had been stupid enough to attempt to pass the final exam, she had no clue. But now, she was stuck with it.

The head of Gryffindor house suggested a few activities in business that might have interested Lia, so she agreed to traveling often and leadership roles. After McGonagall's interesting observations and finalized title for her to become the Muggle-equivalent to a travel agent, Aurelia gratefully stepped past the doorframe of the office and past fellow Gryffindors in line for the dreaded Job Search. At least it was dreaded by Aurelia. Other students seemed to enjoy sharing their future with a near-stranger.

"How'd it go?"

Sirius was leaning against the portrait of the fat lady when Aurelia jumped up the staircase.

"Ugh," was what was emitted from her throat.

"That bad, huh?" he asked.

"I can't even begin to express my agony."

"Do tell--" Sirius lifted both arms and made his hands hover around an imaginary crystal ball in imitation of the Divination teacher they all loved so dearly. "What is...your...future?"

Aurelia smiled and pushed his shoulder playfully. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Before he could put in his two cents, she had turned and headed up the stairs, unable to see Sirius' grin.

Despite the innoxious attitude she had displayed for the first four of her school-spent years, Lia had grown to become somewhat unruly and carefree. No one quite knew the true reason, but it was undeniably Silvia's influence.

And Black was not particularly her favorite to tease, though she knew he enjoyed it when she did. As did all the other boys of their age, and some younger...and some older. She wasn't very picky as to whom she gave her attention to and the male population of Hogwarts didn't seem to mind either. Over the summer, Lia had picked up a highly notable flirtatious quality.

It neither alienated the relationships she had recently acquired nor bothered ones of old, which pleased her. Lily and Emily had changed as well, though not so much as their friend.

- - - - -

Her fingers were void of any tremble as they placed the slip of paper in the allotted spot. A puff of air blew the strand of reddish hair from her face. It was proving to be a distraction to her concentration, concentration that Silvia needed. Somehow her fingers sought and found another card, before letting it settle in the desired position.

Footsteps reached her ears as she placed another card in its place.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Grey eyes snapped up to look at the form of Severus Snape. "What do you want, prat?" she asked harshly, irked at being deterred from her mission.

"We have a free period and this," Snape motioned down at what lay before her, "is what you're wasting it on?"

Silvia sneered at him, choosing to sit back and not interrupt the table where her project sat. "I am a girl of mystery. And you're fired, by the way. Even though I don't remember hiring you as a governess..."

"Why you...I ought to..." Loftily he reached into his robes for his wand, having found himself incoherent to forming a sentence.

"I would advise against that action," Evan's voice floated over from the other side of the table where he resided, near the fire. "You're not going to like the result, Severus."

Snape made a face at the other boy, but stopped his grab for his wand nonetheless. It was true; you didn't cross Silvia Colton if you could avoid it and it certainly wasn't worth it over this. "You realize this is ridiculous right?"

"She is fully aware of the fact," a girl said from a seat near Evan. She had a wicked grin on her face. "But dear Via is too headstrong to think much of it."

"Well, Via believes Lizzie should shut her face."

"Via, so violent! Lizzie would like to propose a reconciliation in the form of chocolate. More specifically, a frog," Elizabeth recommended as she looked up from her current novel.

Silvia couldn't help but grin. "Via believes that is an excellent idea. She suggests they start right away."

"Bloody hell! If I hear one more of you talk in the third person..." Avery cried out, trying to concentrate on the essay Professor Flitwick has assigned them at the beginning of the week.

Two arms came out of nowhere to mess with Avery's hair, lightening the scowl on his features.

"Lighten up, Av," Ivie instructed as she seated herself near the boy.

Figuring that everyone had settled down again, Silvia set herself to completing her task. It was weary and tiresome but it would be worth it in the end. She was putting another card on the top when she noticed Severus out of the corner of her eye. He was edging closer. Without looking from her one hand coming closer to the pile's top, the other grasped her wand.

"Don't even think about it."

Dejected, he sat down and opened a book, sending her the occasional glare. The common room proceeded as such until the relative silence was finally broken. BOOM! Smoke was clearing from the center of the table, as everyone coughed and waved it past their airways. Rich laughter pealed through the air as a red-headed figure could be seen rolling about on the floor, holding her sides.

Severus shook his head. "Figures you would try to build a house out of Exploding Snap Cards, Colton."

- - - - -

Aurelia sat quietly next to Lily on the sofa, giving her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook a once-over as to be prepared for class the next day. Lily was fingering through Potions just as silently. Other than a couple second-years in the opposite corner, they were alone. The whole common room was unnaturally quiet. So naturally, they all exhaled loudly when the portrait swung open noisily.

The second-years started to giggle at the sight revealed from the opened portrait--James Potter walked down the short hall and into the room, naked to the waist and drenched in a clear, sticky liquid. His hair was as he liked it, messy, but it would take the better portion of a week to get the goop out.

"James, what--" Lia began, but the look he gave her was beyond malicious. He tightened his grip on the shirt he held clumped in his right hand. She watched sympathetically as he climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

As the rest of his group came crawling through the portrait--Sirius laughing and replaying the missed scene in his infamous commentary, Remus scowling lightly and side-stepping the trail James had left on the floor and Peter playing the part of Sirius' enthusiastic audience--Aurelia espied a hand-length scar on James' back. She wondered faintly what could possibly have gifted him with it when she was yanked from her thoughts by Lily's resounding voice yelling at the troublemakers for interrupting their studies.

Sirius snorted and traipsed up the stairs, Peter following close behind. Remus sat down in the armchair across from Aurelia and offered her a half-smile, but her mind was so focused on the scar, she barely noticed.

"Now, how did James come by that scar," she asked idly. Grinning, she added, "Wait! Let me guess: he got attack by some animal en route of one of Sirius' crazy ideas. Am I right?"

After a moment, Remus replied, "You're not wrong."

That night, lying in bed, Aurelia realized why she had been so interested in James' scar.

On the Hogwarts Express in September, Aurelia had joined the 'Marauders' compartment because half of her regular train had abandoned her for their rounds as prefects and the other half was just gallingly giddy.

She remembered a peculiar conversation she had overheard after Remus had made his first rounds and decided to come back to visit. They had introduced Aurelia to their group's nicknames. Peter was Wormtail, an odd but clever name and she could guess the meaning, but the first three she could not begin to imagine. Sirius was Padfoot, James was Prongs and Remus took the name Moony. She had heard most of them call each other these name before, but still did not understand what they meant. And the boys were not eager to fill her in.

Though puzzling, the comment James made to Remus about renaming him "back-stabber" and how everyone had become very quiet when Aurelia inquired as to what he meant had been even more curious. She had quickly discarded it as a 'guy thing' and they floated back into normal discussion.

If Remus had somehow given James that scar, it would most certainly have been accidental. And Remus had just said he had been attacked by an animal. Maybe James blamed Remus for the incident. Or maybe it was just some huge coincidence.

Perkins closed the door behind her and tip-toed quietly to her bed to get dressed in her night clothes and drift softly to sleep. She had been working over-time as a prefect and had little time for bonding with her friends and classmates. She could only do schoolwork, be a prefect and sleep in her free time.

Aurelia was still lying in her bed, her eyes open and staring at the ceiling, thinking intently. The curtains at the ends of the front board of her four-poster rippled as a result of the light breeze that came from the hallway.

"How were your rounds?"

Perkins jumped in fright and wheeled around to face Aurelia, who had sat up in her bed and pulled the curtains aside.

"Merlin, Lia!" Emily whispered fiercely. "You scared me half to death!"

"Sorry," she replied, but the grin on her face made the apology seem unsympathetic.

Emily slid silently onto her bed and crossed her legs.

"Why're you up, then?" she asked.

"Couldn't sleep. There's a lot of things to think about, you know. I mean, there are about nine hours that the average human spends sleeping in which he could be using to think or to design or to accomplish something. It seems like a complete waste to me. Here we always complain that there aren't enough hours in the day. Well, if we used the time we use for sleeping, there would be. I swear, loads of things could be done in nine hours a night. It would be like a never-ending day. Suppose it'd be a very interesting world, where everyone was tired and cranky all the time. For some people that's not a problem, though. Some people get along fine staying up all night..."

"Well, I'm not one of them." Emily scoffed at the mere suggestion of forbidding sleep, especially since she was so tired. "Do you usually think like this, Lia? Should I be worried?"

Aurelia let herself fall backwards onto her bed and she began staring at the ceiling once more.

"Just an urge. Needed to vent."

Emily looked towards her friend's bed to see if she was all right. When silence filled the room, all but for the soft hum of the other girls' breathing, Perkins pulled her curtains around her bed and fell softly back on her pillow.

- - - - -

"Professor?" Silvia had her hand over her mouth, causing her words to be quite muffled.

Before her, the ghost turned his silver head and regarded her as if he had no recollection to her name. In fact he most likely did not. After a time where someone alive would take several breaths he finally remembered. "Yes, Miss Colton?"

She had not wasted that time while he struggled with her name. She had made small moans and gagging sounds. "Professor, I think I'm going to be sick. It was probably something from potions that I had earlier...and it's not having a positive effect on me. Could I be excused?"

Binns looked at her and blinked at the particularly gross sound that emitted from her mouth. "You may leave, Miss Colton."

The entire class watched her make her way out of the room with all of her things. Once outside the door, she stood near it long enough to hear: "Now the Ilfracombe Incident was..."

With any luck the presence of Silvia Colton would be easily forgotten, just as she had planned.

Striding through the corridors she stopped at the third floor by the statue of a hump-backed witch. Tapping it with her wand and saying, "Dissendium," a portion of it opened. That was what she loved about the old castle; all of the secret passageways that she had a flair for discovering. This particular one lead into the basement of Honeydukes. It was always best to visit Hogsmeade while classes were still in sessions, thereby eliminating the chance of any teacher being within the area. She took her time walking and even changed into slightly different clothes so as not to reveal the origin of her residence. It would be a little obvious if she kept her uniform on.

Silvia made her way through the cellar of the store to the front with little difficulty. She visited the regular stores to replenish items she had run out of. Finally making her way to the Three Broomsticks, she ordered an assortment of beverages. She had the stack set on a nearby table. Pointing her wand at it, it reduced in size until she could easily fit it all in her pocket. She took her time returning to the passageway as well, for she had plenty of time to spare.

And once there, she started back on her journey where she encountered quite a surprise. One that was not pleasant and involved her hitting something, and hitting it hard. Sprawled on the floor, Silvia grappled for her wand. Upon finding the wooden length, she held it within her fist. A voice echoed her incantation of "Lumos!"

Staring back at her from the other side of the tunnel was Sirius Black.

"Git," Silvia spat, checking to make sure her purchases were unharmed. "Watch where you're going."

The Gryffindor stiffened. "You Slytherins are all the same; unable to admit that you might have done something wrong for once."

"Oh, and I suppose that means you Gryffs are without default? If you didn't have those sticks so far up your arses maybe you would learn to think outside the books. Live a little."

"I have no clue how Aurelia can be related to you," Sirius stated, as though her being associated to Aurelia was something drastic.

Silvia rolled her eyes. "Give it up. It's the same way Regulus can possible have the same genes as you."

They both stared at one another through the wand light; features blurred slightly and displaying hatred towards one another. Their wands were pointed. The silence lasted for moments while they were stuck within that position.

"I'm not sure if I should hex you now or not," Silvia ground out finally, her posture not relaxing in the slightest.

"I was trying to see if I could choose a hair color that you haven't tried already," Black admitted, his muscles not relaying any of their tension.

"Pink. I would never make it pink. That would be hideous. Extremely unthreatening. It would give first years the wrong impression."

Sirius's expression slid into a smirk. "You telling me you care about the first years?"

"Not in the slightest." Silvia's face matched his own, expect hers held more malice. "It might make them think I'm remotely benign. And I can't waste hexes on them when they're meant for you."

"Dreadful. Can't say I'm not impressed you found this passage, though. Most don't find any."

"It might not make it through your perfectly clouded mind, but I'm far from most students," Silvia admonished with a small sense of pride. "I thought the hair was a dead give-away to that at least."

"You'd be surprised at how many people believe Gryffindors really are goo--" Sometime during their talk they had both relaxed. Wands were still held aloft but their other muscles had lessened their tension. Now, Sirius's face contorted into one of disbelief and disgust. "Was--were we just having a conversation?"

Upon the implication of that question, Silvia too looked as if she had just stepped in something horrendous. "I think we were. Merlin, I must be losing my mind."

"I think it's contagious," Sirius muttered.

Silvia locked gazes with him suddenly. "Black, this never happened."

"What never happened?" He replied with all innocence.

"Exactly," Silvia said before she lowered her wand and walked around him. She took the rest of the passageway to contemplate the conversation she had just had. It was even civil! She had lost her mind.

Reaching the third floor again she made a hasty retreat to the Slytherin common room. By now classes should be out, and her housemates returned. Opening up the 'door', she strode in and walked straight into the boy's dormitories. It was where they usually met, when they didn't want the younger years bothering them. Not to mention the fact that the boys couldn't set foot in their dormitories.

Extracting two tiny bottles, she returned them to their normal size before walking through the door. Everyone looked at her and Silvia grinned, "Party time!"

"I knew you weren't really sick," Elizabeth snickered as she helped return the beverages and food back to their regular proportion.

- - - - -

The following week Aurelia spent in the library. She told anyone who asked that she was researching a 'query'. Every so often, she would get an intellectual breakthrough for which she quickly cut off any conversation to run to a book. She had grown to despise the book-return policy of Madam Pince. More than once as she read a book it would begin to hover above the table and then fly into the air in search of the library. The first time it happened, she nearly skewered Peeves through the intangible gut with a spear after falling on a suit of armor attempting to reclaim an overdue book. She wished she had after the ghost broke into epic verse about her clumsiness.

By Saturday evening when she met her cousin in an empty second floor classroom at eleven o'clock, her research had gotten little farther than it had been when she had started. Hopeless, she turned to Silvia for advice on the subject.

"You're obsessed," was her reply. "Whatever it is you're trying to find out, you're obsessed with it."

"I am not! I haven't even been researching that much..."

"You've been at it for a whole week!"

"I have not! You deduced that from what I've told you."

"But it's true, isn't it?"

Aurelia gave Silvia the most annoyed look she could muster up.

"Let's say you have a friend who's abnormal--"

"Lia, look around. We're all abnormal."

"No, I mean abnormal in our world."

"Like a Parselmouth or a Seer?"

"No, like an Animagus."

"Okay, what about it?"

"Well, since they have control over themselves, could they unintentionally scar someone with their claws or nails?"

"I don't think so. The size of the scar you described, it sounds more like a wild animal or maybe a werewolf was the culprit. Who's got the scar? You never said--"

"No one," she said softly, her mind racing. "I was just speaking hypothetically."

"Liar! What are you trying to pull?"

Aurelia's eyes were shifting as if trying to find the right book photographed in her mind.

"I have to go," she said finally. "I have to get to the library."

"All right, that's it. I draw the line at my cousin turning into a book-worm." She grabbed her wrist as Aurelia was trying to exit the room.

"You think you're gonna get past Woldrum...did I really just say that?"

They both smirked.

"But I really do have to get back to the common room. It might be in one of the books I already checked out--"

"First meeting in three weeks and you wanna cut it short. Can you get there okay by yourself, jerk?"

"I'll be fine. I'll owl you in a few days."

"I've heard that one before," Silvia said.

They hugged and went their separate ways, peaking around corners for tell-tale signs of the caretaker.

Aurelia was too preoccupied with the millions of theories that were flooding her brain to be so careful after the fourth floor. What if Silvia was right? What if James really was clawed by a werewolf? Even more disturbing, what if Remus was that werewolf? She tried to come up with a different hypothesis, but this one made every bit of sense. Scarred by a wild animal--and of course Remus would refer to himself as such in his wolf form (if in fact he was one)--on one of Sirius' crazy schemes--which would have been following Remus on a full moon--and why Remus always looked so beat up spontaneously each month.

She gasped aloud.

But it hadn't been for running into Professor Slughorn. Which she had.

"What on earth are you doing out of your bed this late at night, Ms. Colton?"

He was dressed much like he always was during the school day. Perhaps he had been grading papers late that night. Great, she thought. Just great!

"I...um...good evening, Professor!" she stumbled.

Slughorn put his hands on his bulging waist, looking expectantly for an answer.

"Well, you see, Professor, I thought I heard something--"

"From the seventh floor?" Slughorn asked cynically. "I very much doubt you have such good hearing, unless you took some elixir I'm unaware of. Come with me."

Damn it! echoed inside her head.

- - - - -

One and a half days later, she was sitting in Slughorn's classroom, silently cleaning out potions jars with a multitude of dead animals and rotting plants inside. She hadn't exactly been doing her best at wiping down the muck-covered insides of the bottles and when the professor hauled Sirius and James in by the ears--literally--he told her to re-do half of them.

Slughorn had more important things to do than look after them, so he went off to do whatever it was he had to do and left the three of them to clean.

"So, what're you in for?" said Sirius in a burly voice resembling that of a jail mate.

Aurelia looked at him sideways and then at James and back down at her dirty cleaning rag.

"Out after curfew," she supplied shortly.

"Ah," James said assuredly. "Need to be taught the finer skills of stealthiest. Want a tutor?"

Lia scoffed. "And you two?"

"The usual," he replied.

"Pertaining specifically to a certain Slytherin of whom you are quite familiar--"

"--and just so happen to share blood."

Aurelia's eyes raised but they did not elaborate. "And...?"

"I told you, the usual."

Seeing as they were not about to lend her a hint of the scene that had occurred with Silvia, she dropped the subject and sighed, knowing what she was about to do would certainly have a negative effect.

The two boys had finally started working on the other end of the row of dirty jars when she said, "Seen any full moons lately?"

The towel James was wrapping around his hand slipped out of his grip and his fist hit hard against the countertop. Sirius shoved him in the side, just barely noticeable.

"Like we take the time to look up at the moon, Aurelia."

She made a sound as if it didn't matter either way and the boys undoubtedly thought they were off the hook.

They were wrong, of course.

One minute later: "How about the Forbidden Forest, then?" she asked casually. "Run into any crazed beasts I should know about?"

"Are you planning to take a hike in there or something?" James asked.

"Not planning, no. But if it should happen, I'd be prepared, wouldn't I?"

Sirius and James did not reply but that did not stop her interrogation either.

Five minutes later: "Have you guys ever stayed up all night worrying about someone--like you know they're having a rough time and you just want to be there for them?"

"Nope."

"Not really."

Seven minutes later: "Do you ever think about what it'd be like if you were the one who'd been bitten?"

"Sometimes I really--" James kicked Sirius in the shin from across the table and, while grimacing in pain, he finished with, "don't know what you're talking about."

Lia placed the jar she was wiping off down on the counter and cast the two boys a hard, narrow look as if they had deeply wronged her. Placing her clenched fist on the table, she stood from her seat and gave a soft "ugh" before walking towards the door.

"Tell Slughorn I did my share," she said calmly. "See you in the common room."

- - - - -

The early year trip to Hogsmeade was taken only by a few confident students and the ones who the confident ones dragged along. The O.W.L.s were quickly approaching Hogwarts and anxiety had been spread throughout the entire population of the fifth year.

At the end of the day, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had positioned themselves on the edge of High Street to people watch.

"You notice Aurelia's been acting a little paranoid lately?"

"Sirius," James sighed. "You heard her the other day in detention. She's on to you Remus."

Remus looked up from his Charms book, closed it gently while saving the page with one finger.

"What? Me? What did I do?"

"Not what you did, Remus," Sirius said and added a morose toned, "Who you are."

He shrugged and opened his book again. "So tell her. It's not like she's a stranger, she's a friend."

"Come off it," said James.

"We just turned into animals for you, Moony! And now you're gonna go off and tell everyone!"

"James, if you and Lily ever, you know, would you tell her if she asked?"

He hesitated before saying, "Only if you all told me I could."

"Why was that your analogy, Remus?" Sirius teased. "Do you like Aurelia like th--"

"No. All of us are just friends. But for you, Sirius..."

"What?"

"It's blatantly obvious."

"You've been drooling over her for some time, mate."

Sirius scoffed unbelievingly. He drooled over no one. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Across the street and a little ways down, Aurelia was laughing with Evans and Perkins, sipping hot Butterbeer slowly. He scoffed again. There wasn't a chance that he was attracted to her.

"Should I go over there and ask her what she knows?"

"That's real incognito of you, Padfoot."

"We're not telling her, right?" Peter asked.

"Shut up, Worm, you've never liked her."

"And you always have."

"Who asked you?"

Remus, James and Peter all broke into laughter when they heard how defensive his tone had been.

On the spur of the moment, Sirius decided to turn. He'd find out what was what with Aurelia if he had to charm it out of her.

"Cover me," he whispered.

"No way, Sirius, you're not--"

But his body had already morphed into the form of a big black dog and he was running down the street, nipping at snowflakes. He was at the girls' sides in a manner of seconds, escaped from his mocking friends. He did not like Lia the way they said. It would just have been weird.

He sat down and wagged his tail sharply, barking just once in a come-play-with-me way. It made all three of them jump. They turned around quickly and smiled, though Aurelia was the only one to bend down to pet the stray.

"He's so cute!" Lia said and scratched behind his ear.

Sirius let his tongue hang out of his mouth the way dogs do and barked again, encouragingly.

"Lia, we have to meet Frieda and Maria in Honeydukes soon. We should get going."

"I'll meet you there," she said absently.

Lily and Emily walked off and Aurelia was left behind, still petting the dog. She looked up and spotted three of the Marauders at the other end of the street. The dog's eyes shifted up to see her glare.

"I can't believe them," she muttered.

Sirius felt her nails dig harder against the skin under his thick fur. He whined a little and she tore her eyes from the boys to the dog. Lia took both sides of his head and continued to rub gently behind his ears; he started to pant.

"They're just so...mysterious, sometimes. They have their own secret society, the four of them. It's got to be just them. But I know the truth...at least I think I do. They're too stubborn to tell me anything! And James and Sirius are so difficult! I wish I could just...urgh! You know?"

She looked back down at the dog and laughed. The way the sides of her mouth curved into a smile made Sirius subconsciously hang his tongue.

"I'm talking to a dog." She shook her head and laughed again. "Hope you find your owners. It's a shame they don't let students have dogs. I'd take you home with me."

She rustled the fur around his neck and stood up, heading down the street in pursuit of her friends.

The black dog whined as he watched her walk. When she was out of his sight, he ran into an alleyway and came out a minute later as a human. Upon finding James, Remus and Peter, he told them, "She said she thinks she knows. She's not positive."

"Than keep it that way," James said. "She doesn't need to know what Remus is--or what any of us are for that matter."

"We should tell her."

The rest of them looked at Sirius, shocked.

"You're starting to act like a bloody girl, changing your mind all the time."

"She just sounds really excluded. Like we're hiding some--"

"We are hiding something from her! We're hiding something from everyone!"

"Prongs, keep your voice down."

"You're impossible!"

"It's an irreplaceable trait."

"Like your deep, passionate love for Lia?"

"Shut it!"

"I don't know if you noticed," said Remus, "but your tail was wagging like crazy when she was--"

"You're supposed to be Mr. Sensitivity, Moony. Don't ruin your reputation by tearing the mickey out of me."

"I dunno what seems more important now. You're making it so easy..."

"He probably daydreams about her during class," said Peter, laughing to himself.

James, Sirius and Remus looked at him blankly. His laughing died and he crossed his legs awkwardly.

"You're terrible at the whole teasing concept, Pete."

"Just--"

"Don't ever do that again."

They walked across High Street and into Zonkos for their third visit of the day.