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Oct. 24, 7:50 am, Boy's Dorms

Kagumi stretched lazily, not wanting to move; she felt a weight around her waist and looked down. There was a heavily scarred arm wrapped around her, with four fresh claw marks on it. The haze on her mind deepened, as a nose nuzzled into her shoulder. She couldn’t remember much, but she was feeling really odd. There was an odd feeling in her head, kind of like the feeling of standing back to back with someone; a kind of comforting pressure on her mind that she couldn’t immediately recognize.

She turned over, half-awake, to see a bare chest crisscrossed with thin, very old scars. Many of them were faint that she wouldn’t be able to see them were it not for the sunlight streaming in through the window. Her gaze traveled down, to where a bare leg was sprawled over her thighs, which were now bare as well. She blushed crimson when the light fell upon a different part of the boy’s anatomy, one that she wasn’t as familiar with.

Averting her eyes to his face, she saw that it was her own Remus, and his eyelashes fluttered as he burrowed his face in between her breasts. She gasped softly as a different type of flush surged through her body and when he lightly ran his fingers up her leg, her toes curled as strange warmth ripened in her abdomen. She went rigid as his hand slid under her flowing shirt, and he raised his head to look at her. She looked into his golden eyes, seeing a strange sapphire that she recognized as her own fill them as he talked to her mentally.

How are you feeling?

…Confused…

His eyes crinkled with amusement as he slid his hand higher to caress her flat stomach with his fingertips. And why is that, Love?

…I…I can’t think. What…what are you doing to me?

I believe it’s called seduction… He leaned in to kiss her and she gave into the sensations screaming in her brain. His voice was there as well, telling her what to do. Finally, as she felt the proof of his arousal and her shirt was pushed up over her head, she backed away.

“Stop,” she said a bit throatily. He looked up at her with inquisitive eyes, and then pulled the blanket over himself. You must detest me… She hit him on the head with his pillow. Oh, shut it, Rem! I just…need time to sort out…what almost happened, okay?

Why? I wanted you, you wanted me…I don’t see the problem. It’s not like I can get you pregnant; being a Werewolf means being unable to reproduce. I honestly don’t understand what you need to sort out…

“Because! I’m sorry, Rem…I really am. I mean, I love you…I love you dearly. But I don’t want to end up like my sister,” she said aloud, breaking their connection. She pulled on the clothes she had unwittingly shed in the night and waited for him to get his own clothes on. He searched around for some and she had to laugh at him.

“Oh yeah…I transformed last night. Shredded clothes, again…” He draped the scarlet bedspread around his lean hips and turned from her towards his trunk to search for some robes. She got a good view of his back, which had two sets of thick claw marks on his back, beginning at his shoulder blades and curling around his sides. She gasped. He stood up and pulled the robes on quickly, hiding the scars.

I saw through your eyes…Ignore them, please?

Where did you get those?

It’s from where Greyback attacked me as a child. He bit me and then ripped my back to shreds, all because my father upset him. They’re my mark of being a beast. My family always treated them as the sign of a demon. Though they were magical, they were still superstitious.

She caressed him mentally. I think they’re more like wings. It just proves that you’re my angel. He turned to her, eyes oddly bright and he held her after he walked around the bed. Holding hands, they walked down to the common room, where Jade was sitting, trying to buckle her high heels.

“I heard gasps coming from the dorm…did you finally shed the habit, my nunnish little sister?” Kagumi glowered at her sister, throwing her the other shoe.

“Just because I’m not a slut doesn’t make me a nun, Jadalycya…” She whispered poisonously. Her sister looked up with a smirk. “Are you insinuating that I’m a slut?”

“Insinuating? No. I’m flat-out telling you that you’re a slut. You are the fifteen year old Slut of Gryffindor Tower…and everyone knows it,” she snarled. Remus looked back and forth as the rest of the Marauders came down and stopped dead in their tracks at the unfolding row.

Jade stood up smoothly after finishing the last buckle on her heels, flattening down her miniskirt. “And just because you want to stay celibate for the rest of your life makes you a nun. You’re just jealous that you have to be tied down to one guy whereas I can have as many or as few as I want.” Her eyes flashed dangerously. “You and your little wolf-boy there must waiting to tie the knot, and that’s your business. As for me? I wanna get as much sex education as I can,” she threw at her sister.

Kagumi's face turned an abnormal shade of pink as she stood and pulled out her wand. She turned to her sister with her bangs falling in her eyes, hiding them from view. Remus stepped forward.

“Now see here, Jade - -”

“Back off, Rem,” Kagumi whispered with a deadly edge. He immediately back away from both of them, going over to James and Sirius, who were standing with Lily, Faith and Peter. “They’re about to either kill each other, or burst out laughing...I can’t tell which,” Remus whispered.

“What happened?” James asked.

“Um…I think that Jade insulted Kagumi by telling her that she was a nun or something…”

“Jade…face it. You. Are. A. Whore. And a b***h about it to boot. You have utterly disgraced our family name and I am ashamed to call you my sister,” Kagumi spat in Jade’s direction.

Jade gathered her bag and stalked over to the portrait hole. “Correction. I am not a slut. I am a female pleasurer of men,” she said smartly. Kagumi snorted.

“You call people like Amos Diggory ‘men’? Well then I feel so much sorrier for you. Those aren’t men! They’re nothing boys,” Kagumi retorted.

Jade stopped with a small laugh. “Oh, honey! What would you know about it? You’re just a frigid little hag…Hell, I’d bet not even an Incubus could get those legs of yours to spread.”

“Yes, but apparently anything with a small protrusion can open yours!”

“HA! You didn’t say what you swore you were going to say the next time we had a fight!” Jade yelled across the Common Room, leaving several people who had come down in the middle of the row looking very confused.

“Oh, and what, pray tell, would THAT be?!” Kagumi screamed back.

“YOU LOOK LIKE THE FRONT OF A WAFFLE IRON!”

“YEAH? AT LEAST I DON’T LOOK LIKE MICHAEL JACKSON!” Kagumi screeched as they both stomped off. Remus didn’t move, for fear that the laughter rising inside his throat wouldn’t be able to stay there. James looked confused and Sirius was slumped in a chair, laughing his head off; Peter cowered behind Lily.

Jade sat on the topmost step of the Girl’s Dorm staircase, while Kagumi sat on the Boy’s. after about five minutes, Jade came down slowly, as did Kagumi. Upon seeing each other, they burst into hysteric laughter and went down to breakfast together. Remus and the rest of the Marauders stayed where they were, for fear of the insanity that had just taken place. After several muttering glances, they all went down to the Great Hall.

Oct. 24, 8:08 am, Great Hall

“How about this: It would be a sacrilege to lock Malfoy in a Reliquary and let him smother,” Kagumi wrote hastily and passed to Jade, who burst out laughing and spilled pumpkin juice down her light blue shirt. “Aw…Dammit!” The outline of her black bra showed clearly as she muttered and tried to dry it with a spell. Peter couldn’t help but stare as she tried to get the stain out.

“Kagumi Pheonix, you’ll regret that!” Remus started.

“Pheonix?” he asked questioningly.

“I mean...uh…Falcon! Kagumi...Falcon…” In an act of diversion, she threw her empty goblet at Kagumi, who dodged and let the metal hit Peter on the head. Giggling like schoolgirls, Kagumi sprayed Jade with water from her wand and narrowly missed a Transfiguration spell to turn her into a toad. Faith joined in and sprayed Kagumi with icy water until all three girls were soaked. The boys in the hall stared hungrily until Remus, Sirius and Amos cleared their throats. Blushing like mad, the girls waved their wands and dried off magically, earning a quiet groan from many boys at all four tables.

“Hey, sis…check out Malfoy…” Jade nudged her sister in the ribs and they looked across the hall towards the Slytherin table. Lucius Malfoy, though sitting beside his long-time girlfriend Narcissa, had his gaze locked onto the twins. His pale eyes sparkled maliciously and sent a bad feeling down into Kagumi's brain. Her blood screamed that she had to escape, but she knew that tearing out of the Great Hall without warning could cause damaging rumors. They both gave an identical gesture and smiled cheekily at the boy, who was now glaring at them with Hatred.

Kagumi leaned into Remus’s shoulder and a little bit of gold began to swirl in her azure eyes. Watch out, Rem…Malfoy may be looking in a competition.

What? His voice asked her, caressing her mind ever so gently with concern.

Malfoy…he’s been watching me and Jade a lot lately…especially when he thinks we’re not watching. He’ll look at us like…

Like what, Love?

Like... She hesitated, knowing it would sound paranoid. Like he’s undressing us with his eyes… she finished lamely. She was surprised to hear him chuckle mentally. What’s funny about this?! We're being stalked by Malfoy!

You’re worried…that a skinny bugger like Malfoy…is going to take you away somehow and what? Gangbang you? She noticed the humor in his voice was dry, but she laughed with him anyway.

You’re right, Rem. Heck, he probably doesn’t even know how to use it properly. Without clarifying which “it” they meant, they laughed aloud as he snaked his arm around her shoulders and watched Lily beat James up again after refusing to go out with him…again. Andromeda came over to their table.

“Siri!” She said, in an urgent whisper.

“What, Andy?”

“Regulus, Snivellus and Malfoy are planning something…” She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. His face cracked into an evil grin as he turned to the Marauders and his cousin sprinted away. “We’ve got a counter-prank to plan, Marauders,” he announced with spirit. He gathered them around a grubby piece of parchment. Kagumi, Lily, Jade and Faith listened carefully, not being a part of the notorious pranking group, but still wanting to know what to watch out for.

“Alright, Prongs. You’ll go down this corridor and set the tripwire. Moony, this is the area for the delayed jinxes. Wormtail, transform and hide here, right beside…” He pointed to several places on the parchment with glee lighting up his eyes. Kagumi chanced a look over the direction that had been drawn and gasped. It was a map of Hogwarts, in all her splendor. Even the staircases on the map moved right on cue, and things were constantly appearing and disappearing. Great, green, curly writing proclaimed this was The Marauder’s Map.

Not caring about getting caught anymore, she leaned forward over Remus’s shoulder and snickered. “Antler head, that will never work,” she said lightly. Every one of the four boys jumped and Sirius hid the map from view. “What are you talking about?”

She grinned ear to ear and Summoned the map from behind his back. Spreading her bag around them, she made a little wall so that no one could see and then smoothed the map reverently. She pointed down the hall James was going to trip.

“Sirius, that will never work. It’s too easy. What you want to do is have James and Wormtail together, maneuvering around the one-eyed witch and setting the trip as a magical beam. You don’t want a wire of any sort. I know a perfect little spell that Faith and I can teach you that is really useful… Also, you might think about Silent Alerting spells at both ends here and here.” Kagumi waved Faith and Jade over, with a pencil and a large eraser. She marked an X on both ends of the hallway, where the Silent Alarms would be placed. She labeled the names “Wormtail” and “Prongs” in miniscule writing and then placed an arrow going down directly in front of a dot labeled Lucius.

“Then, Remus can place the delayed jinxes here,” she marked a spot slightly off to the side and another right behind Lucius. “And here…and then one right in front. But to get the effect I’m guessing you’re looking for, you’ll need the jinxes to be…different. I would try Jelly Legs, Bat Boogies, and Furnunculus…then, Padfoot can jump out and levitate the tentacle bearing Slytherins into the air, using one of their own spells.” She finished dramatically, this having the desired effect: Their eyes were all alight at the thought of this.

“It’s called Levicorpus. It floats them into the air.” Faith added.

“And how do you know that?” Peter asked shrilly. “What if it kills them or something dreadful?!” Jade looked at him.

“We got a look at Snape’s potions book during Double Potions with Slughorn. You know, there’s a reason Lily, Faith, Kagumi and I are part of the Slug Club. Did you ever think that it was because we’re actually smart?” Jade asked with acidity in her voice.

“Peter, honestly. We hang out with The Marauders, for Merlin’s sake. Do you think we don’t know how to prank somebody?” Lily spoke up for the first time.

Peter looked disgruntled; James, Sirius and Remus though, looked as if Christmas had come early. Kagumi didn’t miss the insult that Peter whispered about her. She looked very angry and leveled her wand at him. Levicorpus, she thought angrily. With a yelp, Peter was hanging in the air with his robes falling down around his face as he yelled to be put down. James and Sirius roared with laughter, and Remus chided her affectionately in her mind as he laughed quietly. When she finally let him down, his cheeks were ruddy and he looked decidedly unhappy about his friends’ laughter. James patted him on the back. “Wormtail, you should know by now not to mess with a fellow Marauder,” he said bracingly. The entire group froze.

Did he really say that? Kagumi asked Remus. He nodded. She, Jade and Faith looked hopefully at Sirius.

“Prongs…did you mean what you just said? Are they fellow Marauders?” Remus asked quietly. Lily sat down heavily as James thought.

“Quite frankly, Moony…I can’t see why not. I mean: Kagumi's your girl. Faith is obviously Sirius’s. Jade is…well, Jade. And Lily…well, I mean…” He blushed slightly, but carried on a dignified sort of voice. “Lily is Lily. So…looks like we’ll have to modify that Map, eh?”

“To the New Marauders,” Remus lifted his goblet with a broad smile. Everyone else did, though Lily and Peter were somewhat reluctant about it. Kagumi took out her pencil again and marked new places on the map. “From the Charms corridor, we’ll float them (as they’ll be unconscious from the three different curses) into the Great Hall and let them float about seven or eight feet up. Agreed?” The rest of the Marauders nodded eagerly as she put her wandtip to the parchment. “Mischief Managed,” she said quietly.

“So when do we start?” asked James.

“Easy, antler head. We’ll start right before Breakfast is over; before classes, since we have McGonagall first.”

Oct. 24, 8:51am, By The One-Eyed Witch Statue

Kagumi slapped them both. “Hey, Antler head! Whatever happened to Lily? And you, RatBoy…Stop undressing my SISTER with your beady little eyes,” she snarled. James rubbed his head as Kagumi dried Jade off with a hot air spell that she had been given back in their second year.

Kagumi had very long hair. So when it rained during a Quidditch match, she got heavier. As a primary Beater for Gryffindor, not being able to fly fast enough to defend teammates was a huge problem. Contrary to cutting her hair, she simply kept it tied up all the time while flying. So finally, after one grueling match against Ravenclaw, she trudged to the library with her head hung down. She pulled many charm books from the shelves and sat in a chair across from a fellow Gryffindor.

His name was Remus Lupin and he was reading again. She often saw him in here, poring over some book or another. They’d been friends since they first met on the train, when he had helped her and Jade defend one Lily Evans from Lucius Malfoy and his gang of Pureblood maniacs. “Hey, Remus.”

“Oh, hey Kagumi. Another near loss?”

“Yeah…this damned hair. Maybe I should just cut it…”

“No! I mean…uh,” she looked at him with a strange half-smile. He blushed. “I …You look good. You shouldn’t cut it. But try this.” He pushed one of the books he had been reading over to her. It was open to a page about Hot Air Charms. She looked over it for a second and then got out her wand.

“Fervensus,” she said, pointing her wand at her hair; she knew that she was messing up the incantation purposefully. Instead of producing hot air, however…it turned her hair a bright, fiery red-orange. Remus laughed and scooted closer. “Keep that look, and you could pass for a Weasley,” he teased. She pouted.

“Aww, come here.” She leaned over and let her waist length hair tumble down her back. His fingers shaking slightly, he pointed his wand at her hair. “Finite,” he whispered unsteadily. The orange reverted to the black with deep indigo streaks she had always kept it. His fingers trembled treacherously as he picked up a section of hair and produced hot air, “Fervensis,” and dried her hair a section at a time.

James pulled out his Invisbility Cloak and threw it over Kagumi, Jade, Peter and himself. Faith had already left and Sirius had to get ready to run to attract Lucius. Remus joined them under the cloak after finishing the Silent Alarms, which meant that Peter had to transform to make room. One of Remus’s alarms went off in the opposite end of the corridor and James nodded to Sirius’s reflection in a mirror of some sort.

“Aww…Look, guys! Minnie wanted to see us,” Sirius said in a cheeky sort of voice that only he and James could get away with. McGonagall pulled out her wand and pointed it at the Marauders; Lily snickered slightly in the background as Sirius and James both flew into their chairs. “I would advise the rest of you to sit down. Before I do give out detentions…” The entire Marauder group sat down near Sirius and James, and the lesson progressed rather well. Kagumi and Faith were sitting in the very front row and it was they, along with Lily, who first managed the spell of turning a hawk into a hat stand.

Kagumi sat, having already transformed her hawk and back again, with the bird on her arm. It was nibbling on her hair, but she was crooning to it and stroking its head anyway. Jade glared at her sister every now and then, slightly envying her talent, but knowing she had almost as much. Faith finished changing the hawk back into its original form when there was a loud explosion from behind. Both hawks on the girls’ arms flew upwards in panic, while the girls themselves whipped out their wands and whirled round.

Sirius and James were sitting in their chairs, with the tips of their hair on fire. Both held squawking hat stand and Peter was cowering under one of the desks. McGonagall’s lips got thinner than Kagumi had seen them in a year as she swooped over to them and pulled Peter out of the neck of his robes. She extinguished her friends’ hair and leaned in to hear what the Professor was saying.

“ - - How, on earth, did you blow up a BIRD, Pettigrew?! How did you manage that?! Tell me, I would like to know. In all my years of doing transfiguration, I have NEVER had someone screw up THAT badly!” Kagumi winced as Peter cringed under the onslaught. As McGonagall raised her finger to threaten him again, the bell rang and it was time for Double Potions.

Upon entering the dungeons, Slughorn greeted the members of his Slug Club with enthusiasm. “Lily! Faith, Jade…Kagumi! And of course, Mr. Malfoy.” Lucius bowed rather stiffly and stood behind his usual cauldron. Slughorn tapped the board once with his wand and there appeared the information on making Amortentia. Several of the girls in the class giggled and it wasn’t until Slughorn beamed at the girls in the front row (Kagumi, Faith, Lily and Jade) that he cleared his throat. The girls were exchanging lewd glances and each girl’s face had the same look: trouble.

The female Marauders each threw several glances towards the back of the room and several unmentionable images filled Kagumi's head. Mostly, images of Remus, at her beck and call…of him writhing under her hands…it wasn’t long before she heard chuckles in her mind. She whipped around, blushing furiously. Remus was sitting with his head propped up on one hand, and his golden eyes were twinkling at her.

Oh, what? Are you spying on my thoughts, now?

Apparently, it’s a good thing I did…And no one ever said that I couldn't...Tell me, do you really think of me like that?

Kagumi cracked at this point, and flung her vial of Belladonna at him, hitting him in the face and causing the rest of the Marauders to laugh. Horace Slughorn turned round from his board, which he was instructing them to take notes from, and looked bemusedly at his class.

“Come on, now. What’s this? What’s funny, everyone?” he asked. Kagumi blushed a deep scarlet and averted her eyes. When the laughter died down, Remus waved his wand to clean up the glass almost lazily and spent the rest of the lesson trying to pry into Kagumi's mind…which she had shut firmly.

Aww, c’mon…you tease me with images and fantasies, and then nothing? That’s not fair.

Shaddup, Rem. I’m warning you. She growled under her breath. Remus used the temporary opening in her mind to slip right back in.

You know you love me.

I dunno…that’s pretty debatable right now. Just because I’m intelligent and usually quiet…well, that doesn’t mean that I can’t have dirty thoughts! Here she blushed even more furiously and threw a sideways look at her sister, who was practically rolling on the floor. She drew out a slip of parchment and scribbled a note to her.

I know that you can pretty much hear everything going on in my mind…that doesn’t meant that it’s funny. Bugger off if you’re going to be rude.

Jade scrawled something back.

As you know, I can indeed hear the gist of what is going on because I’m your twin. However, I find it entertaining, far more so than Slug. So I will tune in, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

P.S.: How come you never told me that you and wolfie shared a connection?!

Kagumi passed it back.

As my twin, you are entitled to know certain things. But I am my own person with my own thoughts and I saw no reason to inform since it had nothing to do with you…And you should know not to mess with me, Jade. I may not be able to do anything about it right now, but I can get you later on.

Oct. 24, 1:30pm, Gryffindor Common Room

Dumbledore closed the portrait of the Fat Lady behind him as he left.

"She's gone", Gumi said with a sniffle. "She's- she's gone."

"Now what?", James asked.

"What can we do?", Sirius squeaked through sobs. "She's gone. Faith's gone and she isn't coming back."

"She ain't comin' back on her own", Jade said, twirling a blur marble in between her fingers.

She hopped off the back of the couch where she was perched like a cat and went over to the portrait hole.

"Where are you going?!", Gumi shouted.

Jade didn't answer but just opened and closed the portrait hole behind her. She ran down the hall where she caught up with Dumbledore, who was going back to his office.

Oct. 24, 1:38am, Seventh Floor

"Professor!", Jade called out, making him turn. "Professor. Do you know where Faith lives, like where she would go to be with her guardian?"

"I know what you want to do", Dumbledore started, putting a hand on Jade's shoulder. "But don't worry yourself with it. She has made up her mind."

"Yeah, and so have I", Jade said, shrugging his hand off her shoulder. "Now, not to be mean and demanding, but you could either tell me where she is going, or wait for me to traps around the world before I find her."

Dumbledore looked at her, obviously trying to tell whether or not she was bluffing, but knew that she wasn't. He told her where Faith was, and she thanked him. She went back to Gryffindor Tower, grabbed her broom and took off threw the girls dorm window.

Oct. 31, 6:40am, Just Outside Gryffindor Common Room Window

Jade was soaked to the bone, hovering on her broom looking in the window, seeing Lily, James and Sirius sitting around Remus who was crying in a chair. She used her connection with Gumi and went through what just happened in Gumi's memories.

"Before I leave, I'll at least show her what has been going on since she left", Jade said out loud to herself.

She turned her broom around and zoomed off into the storm.

Oct. 31, 8:00am, Faith's House

Jade flew up to Faith's window on the second floor of her house, where she found her sleeping in bed. Not wanting to wake her and make her mad, Jade took the note of what was and had been happening since she, Faith left and slipped it in through her window, just as she did with Gumi before she left.

Oct. 31, 10:24am, Gryffindor Girls' Dorm

Gumi came into her dorm, wiping her face as she had been crying. She sat down at her desk and found a letter with water spots on it sitting on her desk, with her name on it. She opened it and read it.

"My darling sister,

I have decided that, for yours and my own sanity, I am dropping out of Hogwarts. I will be persueing a career as a singer, something you know I've always wanted to do. I sent in a tape of me singing and dancing to a talent scout and they signed me right away. I didn't tell you until now because I didn't want you to get your hopes up in case I didn't get anything out of it.

I don't know yet where I'm gonna live or where I'm gonna end up, but just know that, I did my best to try and bring Faith back to you, so that you would at least have a friend that wasn't male.

I will think of you and everyone else always and pray that we see each other again in the future.

I love you now and always.

Your sister,

Jade

Gumi looked in the envelope and what she found made her cry.

It was the locket.

Oct. 24, 11:25am, Leaky Cauldron

"Lemme go", Jade said, shaking Her mother's hands off of her.

"You are in so much trouble, young lady", Jade's dad said. "Take some Floo Powder, you're going back to school."

"No, I'm not", Jade said. "I don't belong cooped up in a school where I can't do anything. I've made my decision, and this is it."

"Sis", Gumi said, stepping forward. "Why don't you want to stay in school? Why? Don't you wanna stay with me and Faith and Lily and James and everyone else?"

"Kagumi, look at me", Jade snapped. "You said it yourself, I've become the Slut of Gryffindor Tower. I thought what I wanted was to be untied to any one person, but I was wrong. I wanna settle down, but I just- I just can't do it."

Jade grabbed her sweater and left the room. Everyone followed her.

"Why?!", Gumi shouted at her down the hallway. "Why can't you do it?!"

"You really wanna know why?!", Jade asked back.

"YES!", Gumi shouted.

"Because", Jade said. "The idea of settling down and getting married and having kids and becoming mother, although it's a great concept, which would be good for you, I think you'd make a great mother. But idea in the context of me, it scares the living shi-ite outta me."

Jade turned on her heel and walked out the front door, leaving Gumi and everyone else awe struck at what was just said.

"I didn't think she ever got scared", Tom muttered as Gumi regained herself and tore after Jade.