Prelude to Moondance

On their way up the stairs to the seventh floor, they passed Professor Evander, weighed down with armfuls of chocolate. He happily deposited them all onto Remus, advising them all to get to bed as soon as possible, for he had just ran into a few very irritable Prefects.

As Remus started up the stairs to the boy's dormitory, Sariyah took his arm and pulled him back down.

"Yes?" he questioned her patiently.

"Remus, can you start teaching me to duel soon? Perhaps tomorrow?" Sariyah asked.

"I--er..." Remus started. He took a quick glance out of the window, noting that the full moon would be upon him in approximately three days. Sariyah knitted her eyebrows and looked outside as well.

"Yes, tomorrow's fine. After hours, of course, we'll have to find a room and everything."

"I've already found one, it's on the fifth floor. No one's near there after nine," Sariyah replied.

"All right, then there it shall be," Remus answered. "Good night, Sariyah."

Sariyah placed her arms around his slender frame and hugged Remus. "Thank you again, for everything, Remus. Good night."

******

The next night, at nine, as planned, Remus and Sariyah met in the empty classroom. It was devoid of seats and had not been used, it seemed, for years. An inch of dust covered the windows, which gave a glimpse of the lake.

"Okay, Sar," started Remus, placing a bookbag which he had brought with him on the floor, "the idea of these sessions is to make you a better dueler. Now if I did this--" He pulled out an apple from the bookbag and lobbed it at her.

"Accio!" she shouted, pointing at the apple. It flew into her hand, and Remus shook his head, smiling slightly.

"Well, that was a good Summoning Charm...but I'm afraid it won't work in duels. You'll have to use Stupefy or Reducto," he explained tolerantly "Now, try again."

He summoned the apple out of her hand and threw it again.

"Reducto!" The spell nicked the top of the apple, while the brunt of it hit Remus, burning a hole into his red and gold Gryffindor tie.

"Oh Remus," Sariyah said, trying her best not to laugh, "I'm so sorry!"

Remus merely chuckled, and repaired his tie with a few swift wand movements. "I see we'll have to work on aim as well."

The rest of lesson was as abysmal as her first spell. The lessons continued on during the winter months, with Remus having to take a few days break in the middle for his transformation. December and Christmas Break passed quickly, and soon January was upon them

The Dueling Team idea had been posted on all of the message boards around the castle, and the night of the first meeting was quickly approaching.

A green ray of light shot at Sariyah. She dodged it and sent back a Disarming Charm, catching Remus completely off guard and launching his wand into the air towards Sariyah, who caught it neatly in her bronze-colored hand. Remus stumbled backwards from the force of the spell.

"Excellent, Sariyah, excellent," he congratulated. "I think you've got it."

"All thanks to you, Remus," said Sariyah, grinning. "I'm sorry I made you miss dinner tonight...I just wanted to get a little more practice in before tomorrow night."

"Oh, it's alright. One less meal doesn't really affect me much," Remus said, chuckling as he patted his nonexistant stomach.

"Well, you're in luck, Mr. Lupin. Your friend Potter taught me how to conjure food from the kitchens into where one wants it to be," said Sariyah omnipresciently.

"Oh really?" Remus looked a little skeptical.

Sariyah left the room. In a few seconds, Remus heard three loud popping noises as the house-elves arrived, their arms laden with plates of sandwiches and drinks.

Sariyah came back inside and smiled again at Remus. She sat down beside him and they began demolishing the food placed in front of them.

Half an hour later, most of the food was gone, and Remus and Sariyah were at it again, dueling as though they were professionals. One spell after another came from both of them.

"Stupefy!" yelled Sariyah, sending a powerful spell towards Remus.

"Protego!" Remus cried. The spell bounced off of him and went twice as fast back at Sariyah. It hit her and she flew back, hitting the door and sliding down from there.

Remus's wand clattered to the ground as he ran over to Sariyah, who looked a little shocked, but otherwise unperturbed.

"Good one, Lupin," she gasped, gaining air back in her lungs. "I'll get you back for that."

"Here," Remus extended his hand to her and helped her get up from the cold stone floor. She brushed her robes off and glanced up at Remus. "Alright?" he asked.

She nodded. He was only a bit taller than she was, perhaps by an inch or two. By far, he was much skinnier than her and half the girls in her grade, but his size seemed to fit him. His knowledge surpassed most in her class, and the only two who could match wits with Remus were none other than Sirius and James. Remus was built lithely, and he moved quickly and was quite good at sidestepping spells completely.

"One more round?" Sariyah asked hopefully.

"You're sure?" queried Remus, looking a little worried.

She nodded determinedly. He backed away towards the end of the room and beckoned at her to throw a jinx at him.

"Cadere!" Sariyah called, making a horizontal line in the air with her wand.

"Lentus!" Remus yelled at the same time.

Their spells hit each other, as both had no time to duck out of the way. Remus toppled over as if he had slipped on an invisible banana peel, and Sariyah found that she was moving in what felt like slow motion, her brain signals reaching her various nerves as slow as could be.

"What...spell...is...this...?" she asked, her words slow and drawn out, a smile leisurely arriving on her face.

Remus was still on the ground, rubbing his legs. "It slows you down, the Lentus Curse. Wonderful for dueling, because you can get a few good spells in when the other person isn't looking." He winked at her.

"That's cheating though," she said, her voice now quickening to its' normal pace.

"What was the one you threw at me? I felt like the floor was made of ice or something," he said, now getting up.

"Exactly. It just knocks you over; I think I learned that 3^rd year. From Severus, actually," she added as an afterthought.

"Severus Snape? When did you ever learn spells from Severus?" asked Lupin.

"It's a funny story, actually," Sariyah said blandly, as though it really wasn't that funny.

There was a knock at the door, and Sirius poked his head in. "Bon jour, my fellow rascals," he said, flashing a handsome grin. "How goes it?"

"Bad timing, Padfoot. Sariyah was about to delve into the mysteries of Severus Snape," said Remus, looking at Sariyah.

"About Snivellus?" asked Sirius eagerly, his eyes sparkling. He went and stood beside Remus, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "Oh do tell."

"It's not that interesting..." Sariyah murmured, looking at her friends.

Sirius put on a pout and indicated to Remus to do the same.

"You two look like those Nifflers they sell at the Menagerie. Fine, fine, I'll tell you...you see, for some time, Severus and I were...closer," she finished.

Sirius's jaw dropped. "Were you mad? Snape? Snivellus? Greasy hair, pale skin, that slimeball?"

"He's not--well he wasn't that bad, then. He hated you two, Sirius and James, since the beginning, he told me that. It wasn't until he began hanging around that Malfoy and Nott and Elliot Avery that his real colors showed. I didn't think he was horrible, but it wasn't a very good time for me. He was far too interested in dark magic for me to be able to tolerate it for more than a month...but he did teach me some things, spells and whatnot," Sariyah explained.

Remus shuddered. "You were close with him for a month? How...what brought you...I mean, I can't see a substantial relationship going on with you two."

"He never opened up to anybody, including myself. We weren't really friends, it was more of a mutual agreement, more like. I was young, I obviously didn't know any better, I wasn't even friends with Lily at the time," Sariyah said, explaining her predicament. "We didn't even get along. All we did was argue and complain and make fun of each other. You're right, Remus, there was no substance."

Sirius didn't seem like he wanted to give up the subject very easily, but Remus's firm grip on his shoulder stopped him from asking any more questions.

"Well it's all quite in the past now," remarked Remus. "Trust me, Sirius has had worse luck. He thinks he can snog whatever girl he wants, but he tried with that Evelyn Bordeaux..."

Sariyah burst out laughing. "I'll bet she slapped him! Evie is not one Slytherin to be messed with, Sirius."

Sirius kept his cool, blushing only slightly. "There are other fish in the sea."

"He said that after she hit him with her Beater's club," Remus muttered into Sariyah's ear.

Sariyah laughed again. "She's a nice girl, I like her. Excellent at Quidditch...just out of curiosity, Sirius, how old were you when you tried to do that?"

"I was fifteen. Young and innocent, thought I could do whatever I wanted...and I suppose you just don't get that with the older Bordeaux girl. I hear there's a third one after Evelyn's airhead sister Marlene...maybe I'll fail this year just to meet her," Sirius laughed, and winked at Remus, who shook his head.

It was nearly 1 AM as they tucked themselves into their beds, awaiting the last Saturday of January, and the eve of the first meeting of the Hogwarts Dueling Team.