House of Lions

September, 1971

Professor McGonnagall's letter — which said they indeed had detention to assist — came to their room a few day's later. It wasn't exactly a letter, but a howler. Eleanor was showering at that moment, taking advantage of every second she had while she let the water run down her spine. 

She had not spoken to James since the argument, and she wasn't really planing to, either. He was her brother, but he was changing in such a way she didn't recognize him at all. It wasn't how it was supposed to happen. They were supposed to be together, like always. Was she stupid for thinking that?

Outside the bathroom, the girls were getting ready to start the day. Emma had learned a way to curl her hair without heat, which implied she was now going around the dorm-room with socks tangled in her hair. Eleanor tried not to stare too much, but it was hard, she looked absolutely ridiculous.

"Could you stop?" Emma snapped when she caught her glancing again, looking at her through the mirror. 

"It's not her fault" Lily comment "You look like nutter".

Marlene giggled slightly, and Emma stuck out her tongue "Well it's a fair price to pay for beauty"

"Whatever you say, Goldilocks".

Eleanor frowned. She didn't understand what that name meant. Goldilocks. She certainly had never heard it, so she supposed it was a muggle thing. Before she could even ask, Eleanor saw with the corner of her eye Lily picking a a red envelope from the grown near the door. Without inspecting it much, she opened it. 

The envelope flew out of her hands and contorted, making it look as if it had a mouth and eyes. 

"AHHHHHHH!" The three girls screamed, clearly not used to that happening. Emma started throwing stuff at it —like that was going to hurt it — at the same time Lily ran beside Marlene. Eleanor just looked at then with disbelieve until one of Emma’s sock hit her face "Oh for Merlin's sake! Emma, stop it."

"Sorry! What the hell is that!?"

"It's a Howler. " she just said, but they kept the confused faces, so she elaborated "It's like an enchanted letter. It has voice. Lily, who was it for?" 

"I dont know. It didn't say".

"And you still opened it!? God, Evans, you are such a gossip".

"Shut it, Emma".

Eleanor came closer, the Howler turned to her direction and appeared to recognize her enough to start talking. "Good morning, Miss. Potter, McKinnon and Lang." Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the room, commanding their attention. "Through this way, I inform you the decision made in regards of your punishment. I'll be expecting you at my office as soon as classes come to an end today. Until then."

And just like that, the Howler began self-destructing, ripping itself apart until it wasn't more than a tiny paper mountain. 

"The magical world so weird".

For some reason, Lily burst out laughing. A kind of laugh that sounded crazy, a little unhinged. But more than unsettling, it was very sticky, and before she knew, Eleanor was wiping away tears from her eyes as she laughed along with the girls.

After some time — when Lily had recovered her composure and Emma finally took those awful socks out of her hair — they went down to get some breakfast. 

It was odd. Although they were roommates, it was the first time the four were doing something together that wasn't school-related. Lily usually left with Severus and the others just wondered off.

They sat at the edge of the table. Conveniently far from James and the others. Aparently, Remus's act of... whatever that was, had sealed James, Sirius, Peter and Remus’s friendship and now they were always together. 

She didn't really know how that worked. She understood why Sirius, he was like an insolent version of James, but Peter was never very interesting to be around with, and honestly, he was a little naive for his own good. Then there was Remus, who she knew nothing about, except that he — apparently — had a very short fuse. But that was the company James had chosen. And it didn't include her.

She ate a toast with strawberry jam and then had another. She didn't like eggs, not boiled, not scrambled, not in any way.

"So, what is Goldilocks?" She asked, scrunching her sone slightly when Lily picked up another fried egg to her plate.

"What do you mean?" Emma mocked, her mouth full with oatmeal "You know, Goldilocks. From the Fairy-tale" Eleanor shook her head "Please tell me you wizards have fairy-tales that teach your children to not be greedy and trust strangers".

“And don’t forget: not to be eaten by creepy witches living in candy houses”.

"Well yes, kinda… not necessarily about witches who eat children” she said, a little confused “I've never heard of Goldilocks. We have the tales of Beedle The Bard, though".

"Brilliant, what are those about?"

"There’s one about three brothers escaping death and then getting some deathly hallows — a wand, a stone and a cloak — as a ‘reward’ but they are cursed and death ends up  taking their lives anyway”. When Eleanor looks up from her plate, the three girls look partially horrified "What? It's to teach us not to be greedy about magic and power. It works most of the time".

"Most of the time!" Lily laughed "How charming".

“Well dark wizards still exist. Are you going to tell me that those fairy tales of yours cured all man-kind?”

“Well no… but that sounds a little grotesque”

“A witch ATE children in your story and you find mine grotesque, Evans? Really?”

"Too be fair,” Marlene commented “Peter Pan killed the kids that grew up, too. So all stories are pretty deranged when you think about it”.

"Brilliant, you’ve killed my appetite". Emma sighted, dropping her spoon in the plate. Eleanor stopped eating too, she was so full, she might throw up. The girls kept talking, dancing between muggle subjects and then asking how thing were for the wizard community. Eleanor was happy to be helpful, although Lily knew must of the answers by reading books.

That's how she learned about her friend’s lives. She discovered that Emma was an only daughter — it was pretty obvious, in retrospective — raised by a single mom, they lived in Hounslow. Marlene had also a single mother, but she had an older brother who was nineteen, his name was Danny and they lived in Old Town Hastings. And then there was Lily. She had a sister, Petunia and an old red cat named Red. Her parents were finance people — whatever that meant. Apparently, Petunia was just as nice as Severus, but who was she to judge other siblings relationship?

Speaking of which, as they made their way down the halls, Eleanor heard James screaming her name from the distance, but she rightfully ignored him. She kept walking, trying to pay attention to their conversation, until James became just too loud to ignore. 

"What does he want?" Lily hissed.

"No idea. It's not like we are specially close lately"

"Oi, Potter!" now Sirius was screaming too. People gave her curious looks as they walked pass her. 

"Whatever they want, you better go to them before they come to us" Emma said, but it was a little too late.

James stood there with a charismatic grin in his face, closely behind, Sirius looked at her with a pompous glance. Lily sighted "We'll see you in class. Save you a seat" she smiled, and then looked at James. The smile was gone "Potter"

"Evans" he made a mocking reverence as she walked away, followed by the girls. As they walked away, Marlene gave her an apprehensive look. Eleanor wished she could go with them, instead she was stuck with him. "What do you want, James?"

James looked offended "Can't a big brother say hi to their little sister?"

"You're only five minutes older" she reminded him, as she started walking "And you were in such a rush to get out of the womb you forgot your brain in there".

Behind her, she heard a soft laugh she didn't recognize, she supposed it was Remus's. For some weird reason, it kinda make her want to smile, but she didn't, because she was angry with the boy walking next to her. 

"Pleasant as always, Princess" Sirius commented.

"James your pet its talking to me. Make it stop". She glanced at Sirius just to see how he closed his mouth and looked elsewhere. He was obviously mad, but if he liked James, he wouldn't be bad to his sister. At list that's what she thought. "I'm serious James, what on earth do you want?"

"Why are you so mad at me?" He asked, a hint of despair in his voice "I've done nothing to you".

Eleanor rolled her eyes. She didn't want to talk about feeling near any of those lads, James should know that, but obliviously he was an idiot "I'm not mad at you".

"That a lie".

" ‘Tis not" she denied. They were near the door to their class and she could see the seat Lily had saved her "We got McGonagall's Howler, if that what you wanted to talk about".

“It was” he admitted “How did you know?”

She shrugged.

"Is it because of the twin connection?" Peter dared to ask. She hadn't really noticed him, he was so so quiet.

"That doesn’t exist" Eleanor and James answered at the same time — an unfortunate coincidence. She sighted “It a myth, Peter”.

"Do you think she told our parents? McGonagall" He asked, notoriously scared. She didn't blame him. Euphemia Potter wasn’t hurtful of violent, but she could scream like there was no tomorrow.

"Well I don't see her grabbing our ears and dragging us back to the house so I don't think so".

James laughed, with a nostalgic look. It made her anger almost disappear, but she could let it go completely.

"Anyway, I'm going to my desk".

"We'll see you later, then" James said, pushing a hopeful smile "At detention, I mean".

"Yeah, I supposed thanks to you, you will see me at detention".

She turned around and went to sit with the girls. It only took a five-minute conversation with James to get her into a bad mood. She sat between Lily and Marlene.

"What did he want?" Marlene asked, wide-eyed as always.

"Nothing" Eleanor smiled at her softly "Absolutely nothing".

→──✦──←

Eleanor was in McGonagall's office just in time for detention. McGonagall was waiting for her, and waited a little while longer for James and Peter, which gained them two another week's detention. As soon as everyone was there, she began diving them into pairs — "No, Mr. Potter you may not be with your friends, this is detention, not a play-date". Emma wasn't very happy when she was placed with Peter, but she certainly was happier than Marlene when she was told to go with James, leaving Eleanor with Remus. 

McGonagall also assigned different punishments for them. Emma and Peter had to pick undergrowth from the vegetable garden by hand, no magic, no gloves. Marlene and James had to polish the wall of trophies one by one, which extended from the bottom until it reached the ceiling. Eleanor and Remus had to give the cages from the Care of Magical Creatures class a good, nice clean.

"At least you didn't get mine" Eleanor tried to cheer Marlene up "You have no idea how nasty animals can be".

That made her smile weakly, but a smile was still a smile. McGonagall began the journey of dropping them off, with the promise to come back every hour to check their progress. When Eleanor walked into the Care of Magical Creatures’s class, she nearly fainted. It was the most horrid thing she had ever seen. The cages were rusty, some seamed to be falling apart. There was a drooping sound but she couldn’t see where it was coming from and it smelled like something was decomposing in there. 

"No way" she led out a breath. Her eyes burned, she wasn't sure if it was because of the fumes that were clearly in the air or because she wanted to cry. Maybe both "This is inhumane"

"Yeah" Remus spoke, without taking his eyes off the cages "It sucks".

"It's a crime, that what it is". She turned to him. It was the first time they had ever spoke, and she didn’t want to appear too obnoxious but she it was an injustice. She couldn’t just shut up and ignore it. "We have to do something” she breath out “These poor creatures have nothing one. They can't defend themselves. We need to help them. No one deserves to live like this" 

Remus looked back at her, something like intrigue shone in his big brown eyes "Ok. Where do we start?"

And just like that, Eleanor started making a plan. There was so much to do, the class was so dirty and forgotten that it was hard to pick where to start, but eventually, she decided to start by moving the cages to the other side of the room. 

The animals were in perfect condition, although they seam a little depressed, so carefully, she took them out, one by one, and put them in the cleanest cages, depending on their species. She wasn’t scared of them, she was familiar with them and she knew they were harmless. Something about being among their own kind made the creatures feel happier, safer. 

Some of the cages were far too rusty and fragile, so much that Remus 'accidentally' broke a bunch of them. That’s how Eleanor noticed the scars Lily was talking about before. He had a few scars poking out of his sleeves, and when bent down to pick some of McGonagall’s cleaning products, she could see a very nasty one across his spine. She wondered what had happened to him to create those awful scars, but she didn’t asked him. She didn’t know how. 

Eleanor realized Remus wasn't like anyone she had ever met before — granted, not much of her new acquaintances were.  It was hard to even picturing as the same guy who punch Severus right in the nose. His presence was calm, easy to be around of. He wasn't shy, he was just selective with his words. He was also, very very sarcastic.In fact, he had a rather dark humor, but she didn't mind.

"So you are mad with James, right?" He asked. She was cleaning professor Kettleburn's desk — the professor responsable for the mess — while he was polishing the windows with the stuff McGonagall had left them. It was some sort of muggle cleaner and it smelled like lemon. It was quite nice, actually.

"Is it so notorious?"

"No, just for anyone with common sense".

"So not James, or Sirius, for that matter" she laughed "And I'm not necessarily mad, per say, its just that the James I know wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble just for the laughs. And he definitely wouldn't have dragged me into it. He was a respectable human being, my brother, believe it or not. Very annoying, but alas".

"I don't think he did it for the laughs" Remus said, without looking at her "I think he and the others did it to take away some of the tension of… you know. So Slughorn focused on them and not me. I wont defend how they did it, and the plan was honestly pretty bonkers. But as I see it, he is still very respectable". 

Eleanor sighted. Was it possible she was looking at it all wrong? She had been so focused on the harm being done to her, that hadn't even thought for a reason for it to be done in the first place. James was like that, he would throw himself in the line of fire for everyone and then think about consequences, but does mean he get to get away with it?…With dragging her down with him? She had no idea.

The thought were starting to give her a headache, so she decided to look at something else instead. From where they were, the moon looked to big, like it might be the center of the universe. Like everyone should surrender to it. She noticed Remus looking at it too, from the reflection in the glass "It's beautiful, isn't it?" He frowned "The moon, Remus"

"Oh, yeah. I suppose"

"It will be full moon in a week" she commented, looking back at the desk.

“How do you know that?”

She shrugged “I don’t know, I’ve always liked astronomy”.

She remembered when she was little and James and her would gather to gather as her mother told them stories before bed. About stars and the people they were named after. About world so far out of reach. So uncertain.

"My mum used to tell me about this legend. She said eons ago, when humans didn't exist yet, the moon was so close to the earth that wolfs would play with it, it was their dearest friend. Then humans came in and the moon was forced to go to the skies to protect itself from out evil. It is said that the wolfs cursed us and that why werewolf's exist; as a punishment. And the werewolf howl to the moon to ask for it mercy. It's also said that when werewolf's die, their souls go back to the moon".

Remus didn't say anything back to her, and she worried she might have seen silly by telling him that tale, but when she looks at him, he's still looking at the moon. He had grown pale "Remus, are you alright?"

"What?" He asked, and she can tell he wasn't paying attention at all. Better, she thought.

"Nothing".

At that moment, McGonagall opened the door for the second time. She looked around in disbelieve. The class hadn't changed that much, but at least it looked habitable and the smell was gone. She smiled, sightly, and Eleanor could see satisfaction in her eyes "Very well" she said, stepping into the class "Not bad for the first day, let's go. It's time for dinner".

As soon as the mention it, Eleanor stomach started growling. So she followed McGonagall gladly.