Chapter 2- Crushes and Cliffs
Hi, official Lady Marauder here. The only Lady Marauder. Or Ryan, as most people call me. The whole official Lady Marauder thing is just with the guys. They call me Fireball sometimes too, but that's something else in itself (it's mostly Sirius anyway, but we all know that he's a complete nut). I also hold the lovely title of being the first girl Sirius Black ever kissed. Not so nice a title as Lady Marauder, but still.
The story behind that, you're wondering? I think we were seven when Sirius decided girls didn't have cooties anymore. I just happened to be the first girl he saw. One of the disadvantages of growing up next to the Potters. The main disadvantage. (There are advantages too, though, like getting to know Remus Lupin.) Anyway, it was just on the cheek, and I ended up running away screaming and wouldn't talk to him for a few hours, but it's a fun memory all the same. James likes to bring it up around Sirius' more idiotic and ditzy admirers to get rid of them.
"Did you know he's kissed Ryan Miller?"
Makes for some pretty nasty rumors, but I don't mind. It's not like I would actually want to go out with him or anything. He hasn't kissed me since, for which I'm extremely thankful.
I have some of the best friends a girl could ask for. Three are perfectly normal and sane and everything, four are wacky and crazy and I sometimes wonder if they hit their head really, really hard while I was gone (or before I even left). Well, four sane, three crazy. I don't usually worry about Remus' sanity. Usually.
From the first time we moved until Hogwarts, I never really had any really good friends. Some of them were all right, but most of them just… Yeah, well, you know what I mean. We were always moving, and with my powers, well, they didn't exactly make me popular. Well, it did, but for the wrong reasons. You know what I mean.
My dad's a traveling auror, so we've been all over. He just goes wherever he's needed. We started moving when I was eight, right after my mom died. I blame him for my weird accent that isn't totally British, but isn't really anything else either. So far, we've lived in Italy, Greece, Russia, Brazil, France, and the United States. Not in that order, but we've lived all those places. The United States was the second best, but maybe that was because I actually understood what they were saying. Most of the time anyway. Or maybe it's because of family history.
You see, my mom (mum, madre, whatever word you want to use) was born in the United States. She moved to Britain when she was fifteen, the same age I was when we finally moved back. She and James' mum (hey, I'm bilingual… or octa-lingual or something-I can use whatever word I want!) became best friends almost immediately (I have to wonder if they started out being friends like me and Lily started being friends… Cough, cough). I can remember our moms joking about how James and I would get married one day. Yeah, the crazy things mothers come up with (and for the record, I have never liked James like that). My dad didn't go to Hogwarts, he went to a small private school in the middle of downtown London or something. How they met is beyond me, but the point is that my mom was, technically, an American citizen. Which might have something to do with why I loved the U.S. so much.
If it weren't for my little brother, Daniel (we call him Dan or Danny, Daniel's too grown up for him), I probably would've just come to Hogwarts anyway. I could've lived with the Potters and gone to Hogwarts and not worried about it. But I wanted to be at least a little closer to my brother (he's ten; he'll start next fall). We're really close. Probably because of how close we aren't to our dad.
I think, out of the seven of them, I'm probably closest to James, Lily, and Remus. James because I saw him at least once a year every year since we started moving. It was a compromise my dad and I made: he could choose my school as long as we visited the Potters at least once a year. It was usually at Christmas since both my dad and James' parents had Christmas off. Or at least they used to, before things started getting bad.
Lily… Lily is almost exactly like James. Well, not exactly, but pretty close. When I met her at first, she seemed kind of conceited (she was a cert, I can't really blame her that much), she's extremely stubborn, she's incredibly loyal, and she talks about James way too much. James seems conceited until you get to know him, he's stubborn, he's loyal, and he talks about Lily way too much. See my point?
And Remus? Remus just keeps me from going insane most of the time.
-Ryan Miller, Lady Marauder
~*~*~*~*~
"How'd it go?" Alice asked a little hesitantly.
"It was…" Lily trailed off, searching for the right word. "Better than I thought it would be."
"He really is taking it seriously, you know," Ryan said.
"Yes, I know," Lily said, sitting down. "He made that clear as soon as we started the meeting with the prefects."
Ryan laughed slightly. "You don't know how many times he practiced that speech. He wanted to make sure he showed everyone he really was going to take it seriously."
It was true. He had driven her and Remus up the wall the whole summer, asking how he could prove to Lily he really liked her, and not just how she looked. Ryan had suggested he stop being such a conceited prick around her. Remus had suggested he start calling her Lily. She had agreed with Remus' idea, but had to add that James needed to listen to her idea too if he wanted to get anywhere.
When James got the badge, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. If he could pull off the whole Head Boy thing, Lily would have to take notice. Especially since she was probably Head Girl. So all he had to do (besides calling her by her first name) was get everyone to respect him because he was the Head Boy and prove that it really was important and that he could take thing seriously. Well, things besides Quidditch.
"Yes, the poor dear had to spend her whole summer with the Marauders," Morgan said, trying to look sympathetic. Morgan was the most girly and flirty of the bunch. She wasn't to the point of having a track record as long as Sirius Black ("I can't find the right girl," his motto was, "so I'll just have fun with the wrong ones."), but she'd had her fair share of boyfriends.
"As apposed to some of us, who spent the summer with her boyfriend," Lily teased. Lily was the bookworm, simply put.
Alice blushed. "He's in auror training. I had to see him while I had the chance." Alice was usually the reasonable one, but all her reason usually went out the window when Frank Longbottom was around. Frank had graduated the year before, and luckily had finally asked Alice out before the end of the year.
"I'm sure that's the only reason," Morgan said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "So how was your summer, Lily?"
"It could have been worse," Lily said slowly. They all knew that Lily's sister hated her because she was different. Summer usually wasn't Lily's favorite time of the year. "What about you, Ryan?"
"It was… an experience," Ryan said. Ryan had moved to Hogwarts when they were in the fifth year, only knowing three of the four Marauders. She was Seeker for the Quidditch team and tended to bounce back and forth between the girls and the Marauders, which was dangerous considering she was good friends with both Lily and James. Very few people were brave enough- or stupid enough- to try that.
"I can imagine," Lily said. "I still don't understand how you do it."
"You will soon," Ryan muttered, but no one heard her.
~*~*~*~*~
"Guess what she did."
James gave Sirius a questioning look as he walked into the compartment. "Who?"
"Wheat!" Sirius exclaimed. "Guess what she did."
"Did she kick you out of the compartment, by any chance?" Remus asked, walking in behind James.
"Yeah," Sirius said. "Can you believe it?"
"Yes," James and Remus said at the same time.
"I told you, Padfoot," Peter said.
"You know how she is," James said, throwing himself onto the seat. "There's only one person out of the four of us she wouldn't kick out of the compartment, and that's only because he- how did she put it?- won't cause problems."
Remus smiled slightly, but didn't say anything. "I think she just likes him better," Sirius said, grinning. James and Peter snickered.
"Starting a little early this year, aren't we, Padfoot?" Remus said dryly, pulling out a book. The other three exchanged grins.
It was common knowledge with the Marauders that Remus had a crush on Ryan. Well, the male Marauders. He had since they were eight; he just refused to admit it. And James was pretty sure that Ryan liked Remus (not that he could be talking with his record with Lily). It was just a matter of the two of them admitting it to themselves.
"How was the meeting?" Peter asked.
"It was alright," James said slowly. "I think I'm making progress."
"I would've paid to see the look on Evans' face when she found out you got the badge," Sirius said, smirking.
"I bet she would've paid to see the look on your face when you found out, Sirius," Ryan said calmly from the doorway of the compartment, crossing her arms and grinning.
"I don't think she would have," Peter said.
Ryan rolled her eyes. "I was kidding, Peter. It's called sarcasm."
Peter and Ryan never really got along. Peter thought Ryan was trying to take his place and resented her for it. Ryan just didn't trust him. Usually, when Ryan told you she didn't trust someone, it was a good idea to listen to her. Her powers came in handy for that. But James didn't care what she said this time. He would trust all the Marauders with his life.
"Let me get this straight," Sirius said. "You kicked me out, and then you came in here?"
Ryan grinned. "I didn't come to talk to you. I came because James wanted me to. And I thought that the sane one could use a little relief."
"The sane one thanks you," Remus said, smiling slightly. James and Sirius exchanged looks and had to stifle snickers all over again.
"Did she say anything?" James asked.
Ryan hesitated a little. "She said she could tell you were taking this seriously."
"That's all?"
"It's progress, James. You can take it or leave it. At least she didn't say anything bad about you."
"That could even be considered a compliment by Evans standards," Sirius said.
Ryan nodded. "Towards you anyways."
"So are we going out tonight or not?" Sirius asked, never being able to stay on one subject very long.
"Doesn't matter to me," Ryan said, stepping all the way into the compartment and closing the door behind her. "I just have to get past Morgan and Alice because Lily'll be patrolling."
"Meaning I do too," James grumbled.
"You don't have to-" Remus started.
"We want to, Rem," Ryan said, smiling at how worried he was. "It'd be a waste of research if we didn't."
"A waste of research?" James asked. He snorted. "Like you did most of it."
"I helped," Ryan said, trying to sound offended, but her smile gave her away.
Ryan had seemed to fit right in with the Marauders as soon as she came, but there was a lot she had missed out on. Even though she helped a little with the research on how they could help Remus, they had already done a lot by the time she came. They had even figured out that the only way they could really help was to become animagi, they just had to figure out how. Then after they figured it out and put the finishing touches on the map, Ryan wouldn't let them put her name on it. She felt like they had done most of the work to make it without her, so she shouldn't get the credit.
"I mean it you guys," Remus said seriously. "You don't have to do it."
"But we already have," Sirius said. "Been there, done that. Besides, this is our last year. We have to make it a good one." He threw a wink at Remus that made him blush and that, luckily, Ryan missed.
"All for making this year the best ever say aye," James said.
"Aye!"
"So there's your answer. I'll just have sneak past Lily somehow. I might be a little late."
"Me too," Ryan said. "Alice and Morgan might not let me out, especially since Lily's not there. I'll get there when I can get there, I s'pose." She mock bowed. "And now I must be leaving you all. As much as I enjoy your company, I must get back to sane people."
"Sane people?" Sirius asked. "But, Wheat, sane people are boring."
Ryan laughed. "I could use a little boring. I'm still afraid I might be attacked by a demented lizard."
Peter scowled as the other three laughed.
"Oh, come on, Pete," James said, patting him on the back after Ryan left. "She was just kidding."
Peter muttered something that the rest didn't hear. The other three exchanged a look before shrugging. Sure, Peter and Ryan argued all the time, but they would still help each other out. They still trusted each other. They wouldn't betray each other.
But sometimes a person can only be pushed so far…
…before they are pushed over the edge.
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