Welcome to Gaia! ::

The three Marauders headed down from the Gryffindor tower to breakfast. Upon entering they noticed that the stool and Sorting Hat was were it normally was during sorting. Thinking nothing of it they went to their normal places, sat down and began chatting while loading their plates with food.

Peter had tried repeatedly within the last three years at Hogwarts to apologize to them, and Lilly. But the four of them wouldn’t hear of it. Needless to say, he’d given up last week. Suddenly McGonagall stood and cleared her throat, effectively silencing the entirety of the Great Hall. “Now I’m sure all of you are wondering what the Sorting Hat is doing down here. We have two new transfer students that need to be sorted.” The hall immediately filled with whispers, curiosity and excitement buzzing through the students. The Marauders however were far more interested in how prank-able the new students would be. McGonagall cleared her throat again. “AS I was saying,” she started again and the whispers instantly hushed, “These two new students need to be sorted. They’re in their third year.” She looked to the back of the hall. “The two of you may enter now.”

Two girls entered the hall and slowly approached the Sorting hat. One of them had dark rainbow hair, purple eyes, and incredibly pale skin, she was of average height and appeared to be of average weight as well. She had a grin on her face and was constantly sweeping her wavy mid-back length hair out of her face, there also seemed to be something odd about her. The other one had blue hair that was equally long as the first one’s, though it was straight, obviously had volume, and the ends curled lightly. The edges of her eyes were a bright teal that suddenly turned to a deep sapphire near the pupil. She was somewhat tall and was a bit on the thin side, she was also curvy.

“Guys!” Remus whispered to James and Sirius.

“What is it Moony?” Sirius asked, watching him from the corner of his eye.

“We can’t prank those two! The one with the rainbow hair will retaliate and she’ll get mean if you mess with her best friend.”

“And you know this because?”

“The rainbow haired one is my cousin…” James and Sirius looked at each other and blinked, their mouths hanging slightly open.

“Details later, mate!” They replied before turning their attention back to the sorting.

By the time they turned back around the girls had made it to the front of the hall. “Essanthia Graymear.”

The taller of the two girls stepped forward and sat on the stool. The Sorting Hat instantly began to move, startling the person under it. “Hmmm, ooooh, yes. You could be Gryffindor, but Ravenclaw might suit you better. Yes, I do believe… RAVENCLAW!” The Ravenclaw table instantly burst out into loud cheers for their newest addition,

The moment the hat was removed from her head Essanthia hopped off the stool and walked towards the only table that was cheering. “Pixiecup Novaris.” Novaris screwed up her face as the Great Hall burst into giggles and quiet laughter. Remus hit his friends upside their heads which earned him quiet complaining. Novaris ignored the commotion as she sat down and the Hat began speaking.

“Hm, certainly courageous, but so sly and cunning… SLYTHERIN!” The Slytherin table burst out into cheers as well. Though it almost sounded more like hissing.

Novaris sauntered over to the table and sat down. Neither of the girls made any effort to talk to anyone around them. “My name is Severus.”

Novaris glanced at the boy with black, greased back hair. “Hm.” She continued pushing food around on her plate and eating bits of it here and there until breakfast was over. It soon became pretty obvious to a lot of students, especially those that had classes with them, that the two didn’t like to talk to other people except for each other. Luckily for the two girls they had all of their classes together, the first one was Potions. James and Sirius had managed to almost get porcupine quills into the girl’s Antidote to Uncommon Poisons. Not only did one of them catch the two boys, but the other managed to sabotage the Marauder’s potion with three dashes of leech juice, which resulted in the room smelling quite foul and caused everyone to evacuate the classroom.

“Ten points from Gryffindor for failing to properly make their potion!” Professor Tumblewax shouted in a shrill voice, her face red with anger.

Remus shook his head at his two friends. “I told you to leave the two of them alone. My cousin will not only get you back just as good, but she might just one up you.” That was the moment James and Sirius decided that leaving the two girls alone was the best idea.

The rest of the year went by somewhat smoothly. James and Sirius ended up with more detentions, mostly for things they didn’t actually do. The end of the year was the worst for them that year as they spent it in detention. Fourth year went in pretty much the same manner, though the girls didn’t pull near as many pranks. Remus had asked Novaris that the two girls stop or at least tone it down by a lot. Which they did, since he had asked so nicely.

It’s now the end of summer before their fifth year and the girls were having a sleepover. “So how do you think things’ll go this year?” Novaris asked her two friends as she attempted to braid her hair but failed and settled for a ponytail instead.

“I suppose things will go alright this year. Your cousin is an interesting bloke, I noticed he’s one of the Marauders.” Essanthia was successfully braiding her hair, just to silently taunt Novaris.

“Please tell me you two aren’t going to befriend them? I won’t stop you if you do, just don’t bring them near me.”

“Will do, Snaps!” Novaris went to grab a handful of popcorn only to notice that the bowl was empty. “Who wants more p-corn!?” She was up and out of the room before either of the other two could answer. The two that were left behind in the room talked about various things when suddenly there was a scream, which really sounded more like a yell, and a loud crash as something landed on the floor. Essanthia and Severus looked at each other before creeping over to the door to eavesdrop. “Gah, Remus! Don’t do that, you almost gave me a heart attack!”

They heard a poorly suppressed laugh. “S-sorry, it was too good an opportunity.”

Novaris shook her head. “Now I have to make more p-corn.”

“P-co- actually never mind, I don’t want to know where you learned to start calling popcorn that.”

“Soooo…” Novaris started as she began cleaning up the mess on the floor. “What brings you here, oh wonderful cousin of mine?”

“Your school supply list came to my house. Again. So my parents told me to bring it to you. Why are your letters going to my place anyway?”

“Oh you know, confused owl.”

“How the heck do you confuse an owl?” Remus asked with a frown as he crossed his arms.

“Easily!” Novaris smiled cheekily at her cousin, who simply shook his head in response.

“Well here’s your letter. Tell your parents I said hi when they get back.” Novaris nodded and took the letter and Remus quickly left.

Novaris made some fresh not-floor-popcorn and returned to her two friends. “So we should probably go to Diagon Alley soon. How’s tomorr- er, later today sound?”

“Sounds good to me. What about you, Sev?” Essanthia shrugged one shoulder as she reached for some fresh popcorn.

Serverus nodded. “Yeah, that might be a good idea.”

The three of them talked for another hour before they all spread out across the living room and fell asleep. The next morning found Severus waking up to Novaris twitching and muttering in her sleep. “Uhm, no… COOKIE DOUGH!” She sat up much too fast and fell off the couch she had been sleeping on. “Ow.” She heard laughter and looked up to see Severus and Essanthia laughing at her. She simply grinned and waggled her eye brows just to be weird.

The action only caused all three of them to laugh. Mrs. Novaris came in a few minutes later and informed the three of them that breakfast was ready. Upon entering the kitchen Novaris excitedly exclaimed “Pammycakes, waffmles, and miffins, oh my!” As she immediately sat down and grabbed two of each, this caused her mother to laugh light heartedly. “So mum, we were thinking of going to Diagon Alley to get our books and stuff for school.” Novaris said as she drowned her pancakes and waffles in syrup just as her father walked in.

Mr. Novaris grabbed a muffin as he replied to his daughter. “I’ll give you a hundred galleons each, you can keep what’s left over.”

Novaris grinned as she cut into a pancake. “Thanks dad!” He simply nodded and ruffled his daughters hair as well as Essanthia’s hair seeing as his mouth was full of muffin. He then hugged his wife and left.

“I’ll go with the three of you when you’re done eating and dressed. I need to pick some things up anyway.”

They had gotten everything they needed, as well as whatever Mrs. Novaris had to get, and gotten home by lunch time. The three friends were talking excitedly as they packed their new things into their trunks, seeing as they were going to be leaving tomorrow. Well, Novaris didn’t really pack her things, she more like shoved them. “Pixiecup, you know those would fit better if you actually packed them neatly.”

Novaris looked at Severus. “Yeah, but I don’t feel like doing that. Sides, the day I do that is the day I walk up to a Gryffindor and randomly kiss them.” She grinned as she said the last bit. Severus simply shook his head. The three of them played various games until they were told to go to bed.

The next day they were on the train by noon and on their way back to Hogwarts. “So, and then my cat, pffffff, my my my cat did this r-really awesome th-thing. It was a-all woosh! And landed in the f-fish tank!” Novaris exclaimed before she burst into laughter at her poor cat.

Essanthia shook her head as she grinned. “That was a rather humorous sight. But you still had to bathe the poor thing.”

Novaris nodded. “Yeah, had scratches all up my arms after that. I think next time I’m going to, I dunno, petrificus totalus him.”

Severus frowned. “I wouldn’t do that.”

Novaris thought for a moment. “Yeah, I wouldn’t do it anyway. I’d get in way too much trouble.”

Hours later Novaris and Severus were sitting at the Slytherin table while Essanthia was at the Ravenclaw table. The Sorting Ceremony had begun and ended, though the three of them barely noticed. The first feast of the school year was a long one, it always was. “So, Snaps, if you don’t like Potter that much just dye his hair neon pink that glows in the dark.”

“No, Pixiecup. I’ll be no better than him if I do that.”

Novaris was about to reply when Essanthia squeezed between the two of them. “Nova, I double, triple, quadruple, ultra, mega, infinity, dog dare you to put your face right next to Black’s.”

Novaris eyed her best friend skeptically. “I doubt that’s all.” Her voice betrayed how amused she actually was by the dare.

Essanthia grinned. “And blow a raspberry in his face. The timing is all up to you.”

Novaris cackled shortly. “Easy peasy lemon squeezy!” She got up and sauntered over to the Gryffindor table, right behind Sirius. “Yo, Remus! Never got the chance to thank you for bringing me my letter!” She was grinning.

Sirius and James had turned around to look at her. Remus simply looked up from his plate, an eyebrow raised. “You’re welcome. Is there something I can do for you? You’re not exactly the talkative type, even to family. And even less so in front of people you don’t know.”

Novaris suddenly stooped over and put her face in Sirius’. She could hear the people around her suddenly go quiet. Just as Sirius opened his mouth the say something she was sure would be along the lines of how no woman could resist him she blew a raspberry. And got spit all over his face. She quickly turned around, made a motion to her friends, and ran out of the Great Hall cackling like a mad woman. Everyone around Sirius was in stunned silence. And suddenly Remus and James were laughing their arses off.

When James and Remus finally returned from their kitchen run they walked in to find Novaris grinning happily as she watched chess pieces destroy each other. “I still don’t get how this is making war on me.” They heard Sirius ask, neither of the two heard their friends enter.

“The pieces are destroying each other, that’s war enough for me.” Novaris replied with a grin.

Remus snorted at that moment. “That’s great logic and all, but that isn’t how chess works.”

Novaris looked at him with a childish pout. “Watching things get destroyed is fun.”

“And that is why you suck at chess.” Remus replied as he tossed something at Novaris’ face. She immediately dove off the chair in order to catch the object.

“Sweet!” She sat up on the floor and held up what looked to be a small pumpkin pie. Suddenly the pie was lifted out of her hands. She pulled her hands down and looked at them like the food had just magically disappeared and fake sniffled. “Reeeeeemuuuuuussss, my pie disappeared!” She whined in an overly childish manner, causing the pie’s abductor to snicker, the sound caused her to look at the source. “Gimme back my pie, Black.”

Sirius put a finger to his lip in mock thought. “Hmmm… Nope!”

Novaris narrowed her eyes. “Gimme. Back. My. Pie.”

“Only if you share half of it with me.” Sirius grinned.

A few moments later Essanthia returned with Severus to find Novaris chasing Sirius around the Room of Requirement. She noticed the pie in Sirius’ hands and shook her head. “I’m not even going to ask where the pie came from.” Essanthia and Severus went and gathered their things. “We’re heading back to our common rooms, don’t get caught you four. Especially you Teacup, you have a bad habit of getting into far too much trouble when I’m not around.” Essanthia said as she and Severus left after gathering their things.

“Gimme back my pie already!” Novaris launched herself at Sirius in an attempt to get the pie back. She knocked him to the ground and started reaching for the pie, Sirius laughing the whole time.

“So, you think we should say something?”

“Nah, I bet they’ll realize it in a moment.” James snickered as he and Remus continued watching the scene.

Suddenly Novaris paused in her actions, naturally causing Sirius to stop. “Uh, hello? Earth to Nova?”

Suddenly her face turned bright red and she scrambled to get up. “Uh, keep the pie, getting my things and going to my common room!” She quickly grabbed her bag and book and left the Room of Requirement. On her way back to the Slytherin common room she decided to pretend she was playing Mission Impossible, only she wasn’t humming the music.

She rolled across corridors and slid against the walls. She even managed to ninja her way past Filch and Mrs. Norris. She made it back to the common room without incident but when she turned around after making sure the entrance closed quietly she turned around to find Severus right there. She almost screamed but she remained quiet for a moment, registered who she was looking at and then breathed a sigh of relief. “You scared me for a moment!”

Severus raised an eyebrow. And then he noticed her face was slightly red. “Why is your face red?”

This innocent question caused Novaris to blush full force again. “I, uh, um, I’m just… Gonna go to bed. Yes, bed. See you in the morning!” She quickly ran off before he could stop her, though she was sure he’d inform Essanthia and she wouldn’t be able to just brush that off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sirius was still on the ground, rather confused about what just happened. He looked to James and Remus. “What just happened?” He asked with a frown.

“Well mate, considering the position that the two of you were in, I’d say she realized it a lot sooner and was terribly embarrassed.”

Remus nodded. “Or she fancies him. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve ever seen her blush.”

James nodded this time. “Well she can’t be embarrassed if she didn’t fancy him, right?”

Sirius scoffed. “Oh please, she’s a Slytherin, I doubt she fancies me. Even if I am incredibly good looking and desirable.”

James snickered. “You’re just a pervert.”

“I am not a pervert, I’m just loyal to my lust.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and I don’t have a furry problem. We should head back to the common room before Filch heads this way and catches us and we get detention for a week again.”

As the three Marauders were making their way back to their common room, huddled under James’ invisibility cloak, Novaris was curled up in her bed with the curtains drawn and the whole scene replaying repeatedly in her mind. “I totally don’t fancy him.” She muttered to herself. The logical part of her brain believed it, but her instincts sure didn’t. She didn’t get any sleep that night as she was attempting to force her mind to shut down and stop thinking.

“I’m telling you Pads, she fancies you!”

“And I’m telling you she doesn’t fancy me.”

“Keep telling yourself that Padfoot, my cousin most definitely fancies you.”

Sirius grunted and flopped onto his bed. “Right, I’m just gonna go to sleep now. Cause, y’know, it’s Saturday. We have a ton of pranks to pull.”

“And we have O.W.L.s to study for.”

James and Sirius groaned in reply to Remus. Sirius lay awake in bed. “I doubt she fancies me in the least.” He muttered to himself when he was sure everyone was sleeping before rolling over and finally managing to go to sleep.

The second half of the year passed by rather slowly and soon the OWLs were upon the fifth years. Once the group of seven was done with their OWLs they sat back near the Black Lake to relax. “Man that was boring. And hard! I’m pretty sure I failed Charms and Transfiguration.” Novaris complained as she lay back on the grass and stared at the clouds.

“Teacup, you think anything that doesn’t have to do with Astronomy or Divination is boring. Oh yeah, what’s the weather going to be like tomorrow?”

“Sunny with a few clouds and slightly chilly, if you’re planning to go out don’t forget a scarf and mittens, make sure your socks are toasty warm, and that you have your shoes on!”

“You sound like a muggle weather channel.” Sirius commented with a laugh.

Novaris grinned. “That was the whole point.”

Just was James opened his mouth to say something a random student ran up to the group. “Hey, you guys need to head to the Great Hall, something’s happened and the headmaster wants to announce it.”

The group looked at each other before getting up and trudging to the Great Hall.

McGonagall looked around as the last of the students seated themselves. She cleared her throat before speaking. “I would like to announce that we have just discovered a student that is no longer among us.”

“What do you mean?” A first year from the Hufflepuff table shouted out.

McGonagall sighed. “I mean they’re no longer living.” The entire Great Hall fell silent. Novaris was quite sure that some students were staring at her like she was the one who did it.

Nova wasn’t really one to talk or listen about death so she did the first thing she could think of and started fiddling with the table. Her action caught Severus’ eye and only aroused suspicion in him, as well as several other people around her.

A few days later Novaris was on her way to her next class when Sirius, James, and Remus ran up to her. “Hey Nova, you know there’s a rumor going around that you killed that student?”

Nova’s eyes widened. “I-I did no such thing! I don’t even know who the student was, is, argh!” She suddenly crouched down and glared at the floor in an attempt to figure the situation out.

“Look, Nova, you’re my cousin. If you did it and you come clean I’m sure they’ll be lenient with the sentence.”

Novaris quickly stood up and glared at Remus, tears evident in the corners of her eyes. “Remus! You know me better than that!” She quickly pushed past the startled boys and passed her next class, opting to head to the Slytherin Common Room instead.

Over the next few days Novaris noticed that the other students were talking to her less and less. Even her best friend Essanthia was speaking to her less often until the two seemingly drifted apart. She spent the last two of her Hogwarts years talking only when she needed to, other than that she ignored everyone and went on with her business.

After Hogwarts was done with Novaris looked around the wizarding town she was in, wondering what to do. She was quite lost, not to mention she was still being accused of having killed someone. She frowned slightly at the thought before apparating to a location she was sure no one else new of.

She spent the next few years living in the secluded area before she received an owl from Severus.

After reading the letter a few times Novaris decided to reply. As she was writing she made a mental note to practice writing as it felt strange to do so.

((and this is a good spot for a cliffy so CLIFFY FOR YOU.))

Once everyone was seated around the table with food in front of them an uncomfortable, and very awkward, silence fell over the occupants of the dinning room. Novaris silently picked at her food, seemingly undisturbed by the awkwardness of the situation, and seemed to avoid anything that had touched any form of meat on her plate. “So, uh, Nova, how have things, um, been recently?” James asked nervously as Novaris looked up at him from under her long bangs that she hadn’t even bothered to remove from her face.

“As good as living like a hermit can get.” She answered rather bluntly and with a bit of poorly restrained bitterness as she went back to picking at the food on her plate.

“Nova.” Remus set his fork and knife down on the table as he looked up at her, locking eyes with his cousin. “We’re sorry, alright? W-” He was cut off by Novaris raising a hand.

“It’s done and over with, just drop the subject now. It’ll only make me angry if you continue.” She reached for the glass of water in front of her as she spoke and took a small drink as the awkward silence fell over them all again.

As the dinner proceeded Remus suddenly got an uneasy feeling, the feeling grew stronger whenever he so much as glanced at Novaris. Something wasn’t quite right and he couldn’t put his finger on it. He looked at Essanthia. “Essa, I just remembered that there was something I needed to tell you privately. Shall we head into another room for a moment?” Essanthia nodded as she and Remus set their silverware down and stood up.

“Something is wrong.” Remus spoke in a hushed whisper only when the door to the dinning room was completely closed.

Essanthia nodded. “Yes, I know. We’re going to have to worm our way back into her not-existent-at-the-moment friend circle to find out what though.”

“What about Severus? He seems to have gotten his foot in the door on that one.”

Essanthia thought for a moment before nodding. “You’re right; it’s probably because he took the initiative and sought her out and never brought up the past. The best we can hope for is to tell Severus the plan and let him handle it from there.”

Remus nodded in agreement and turned around. “Right, we’ll ask him later after Nova leaves then.” When they returned to the room they found that Novaris had shoved her plate away from herself as if she were done eating, but the plate was nearly full still. “Is something wrong Nova? You hardly ate anything.”

Nova shook her head. “No, I’m full. I should be going. I still have to tend to the other half of my garden.” She replied as she stood and began turning to leave.

Just as she was about to reach the door Sirius slammed his hands down on the table, getting everyone’s attention. Novaris slightly turned her head to look at him through her hair and the corner of her eye. “Damn it Nova! Something’s wrong and I bet everyone in this room has noticed!”

Novaris turned to face the room full of people, most of which were watching her expectantly. Her mouth barely twitched upward but it fell just as quickly as it appeared. “I’ll tell you if you can gain my trust back, Black.” And with that she didn’t wait until she was outside before disapparating back to her home.

“Well, this makes things a little easier… Severus, dear, you’ve been talking with her lately even if it’s just through letters, could you please find out what’s wrong?” Essanthia asked as she picked up her two year old son to put him to bed.

“I can try but it’s no guarantee that she’ll tell me. It’s harder making friends with her this time; she’s much more guarded and reluctant to open up.” Severus replied as he began picking plates up off the table.