"Who the fuck are you?" said the boy.
"Who the fuck are you?" countered Faith.
"I asked first."
"And I asked second."
There was a tense silence. And thenㅡ "James! There's a girl in your living room!"
***
When Faith Potter gets expelled from Beauxbat...
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"Where wolf?"
Faith looked around the Great Hall, and her eyes snagged onto an approaching figure. She pointed and whispered, "There wolf!" Sirius and James erupted into uncontrollable giggles as Remus sat down, slumping against the table.
"I will kill you all."
Faith grinned, gently patting his head to comfort him. "Please rip me to shreds."
He shot her a tired glare. Remus looked absolutely knackered, and Faith couldn't help but think he honestly looked like he had just rolled out of bed and tumbled down seven flights of stairs to get to the Great Hall for breakfast because he was too tired to walk. His clothes hung a little more loosely on him, complexion paler than ever. As the full moon approached Remus' mood took a turn for the worse but they were all used to it at this point.
Peter shovelled some pancakes onto Remus' plate for him when it was obvious he wouldn't be moving any time soon, and James shoved a fork into his hand. "Want us to feed you, too, Moony?" teased Sirius. Remus grunted and shoved the tiniest pancake slice into his mouth.
The October full moon was in two days. For the time being they had stored the Animagus potion in the Shrieking Shack, seeing as it was the only quiet place that would suit its brewing needs until the lightning storm. Not for the first time Faith wondered why potions have to be so goddamn specific.
They managed to secure the rest of the ingredients a few weeks before after a terribly arduous trek into the Forbidden Forest. Faith had seen too many spiders and risked wetting herself far too many times; she was surprised her ego was still intact. The darkness had tested them ("Why are there so many bloody trees ㅡ ow!" she hissed, rubbing her elbow. "It's a forest, Faith, there are meant to be ㅡ WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" yelped James, clutching Sirius' arm like a human shield. "It's just Peter, now shut the hell up.") and it was through the aid of James' invisibility cloak that they had gotten through the several Acromantula and other dark creatures unharmed.
Faith never wanted to go back there again.
She stirred her porridgy spoon into her pumpkin juice. Chunks of oats floated up to the surface and Sirius shot her a disgusted look. They had discussed earlier that the potion might have to be moved from the Shack to somewhere else since Remus would be filling the abandoned house with his screams and cracking bones, but they were very reluctant to let him go through this particular phase by himself seeing as they were so close to perfecting the potion.
Faith sighed, and quickly slapped her hands together in prayer, squeezing her eyes tight. "Please let there be a lightning storm, please let there be a lightning storm!"
Sirius opened his mouth to say that prayers never worked, but Peter suddenly spoke.
"Hey guys!" he said, breaking Faith out of her thoughts. "There's going to be a storm on the night of the full moon!"
Faith's mouth dropped. "I'm freaking magical," she whispered.
***
"You're not coming," said Remus sternly, shrugging on his robes with slow, painful movements.
Faith rolled her eyes, "Like that will stop us."
"I'm being seriousㅡ" Sirius opened his mouth "ㅡshut up, Sirius."
Sirius looked affronted, "I didn't even say anything!"
Remus continued as if Sirius hadn't spoken. "I'm not risking you four being in the shack while I'm changing. It's too dangerous, what if I attack you before the potion works?"
"That won't happen," argued James calmly.
"And how can you be so sure?" Remus was unrelenting. The four understood his concerns but honestly, Faith thought he was a bit of a dumbass if he thought that would scare them off. She voiced her thoughts and he socked her in response.
"Ow!" she winced, rubbing her arm. It had actually hurt.
Remus looked panicked and reached his hand out, before stopping himself abruptly and dragging his hand down his face. "See, this is why you can't come. I can barely control myself as isㅡ"
"ㅡThat's because Faith is stupid and she elicits a violent response from anyone she talks to by defaultㅡ"
"Hey!"
"ㅡbut Remus, you have to trust us. This is the first time we can actually help you instead of just sitting around waiting like wives for you to come back. Let us be there for you," James pleaded softly, staring hard at his pseudo-brother who was avoiding his gaze. "Please."
Remus sighed in defeat, leaning against the walls. He smiled sadly. "You can be," he said, his eyes still guarded, "but not today. At least secure your forms first, make sure you can shift without any trouble. I won't fight you joining me after that, I promise."
The boys frowned and clenched their jaws in response, looking away. Faith flopped down on Remus' bed in defeat. Remus sighed again, walking towards the door, before leaving without another word. They listened to his footsteps retreating down the stairs.
"We're still going, aren't we?" she said into the silence.
Sirius leaped up and grabbed James' cloak, her cousin offering her a hand to pull her up from the bed. Peter walked nervously over to the door, pressing his ear against it. "He's gone."
Sirius snorted as they all grabbed their wands and huddled under the cloak. "You're right, Faith. He's totally a dumbass."
Yeah, she thought as they stepped out of the Gryffindor common room, traversing down the hallways as silently as they could. But he's our dumbass.
[Written: 17/05/20]
[Edited: 28/06/20]
IMPORTANT!: I went back and edited some of the chapters, a few of which I would recommend reading again just so you can see what I've changed and not be confused with the later plot! I fleshed out Faith's background a little bit (because for some reason I completely forgot she has a family) and I'm hoping to give better explanations as to how she got her Elementalist powers, the extent of them, and how she met Remus and Lily! If you want to re-read the book I won't stop you, but if you just want to read the plot-specific chapters you can find them marked with the asterisk (*)!
I hope you know that I love and appreciate every one of you ♡ Thank you so much for reading and commenting, my loves.
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(That's meant to be me but...I'm horrified at how much it looks like Snape 💀)
The next chapter will be up next week! Can anyone guess what Faith's animagus form will be?
