ᴅɪsᴘᴇʟ ᴍʏ ʙᴏʀᴇᴅᴏᴍ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴅᴇᴜʀs' ᴇʀᴀ

How Emily and Remus first met

Soo, basically, it's not a chapter. Here's a little side story. There would be a few more as the main story unfolds. Enjoy ❤️

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"Moony!"

Remus looked around in bewilderment; Sirius was peeking from behind the cabinet. He wouldn't mind, but it was the library, and Black was, to put it mildly, not a frequent visitor.

"Moony, we need a book! From the Restricted Section!" James peeped out from behind Black's shoulder, disheveled, with an unhealthy fire in his eyes.

It was their fourth year and Remus, despite being a prefect, wasn't allowed to go to Restricted Section. But when Sirius and James could be stopped with such a small thing like the strictest ban under threat of expulsion?

Moony tiredly leaned back and nodded at the chairs beside him.

"No, Madam Pince can't stand me after I spat a chewing gum at her in second year," James whispered, shaking his head. "All right, the book isn't particularly scary. We want to summon a couple of poltergeists to make a ruckus during exams."

"Since when you're not able to pass the exam on your own?"

"Moony, please" James folded his hands prayerfully, looking at his friend with his cunning eyes. "Just go to Madam Pince, look at her with your honest eyes and she will melt."

Lupin sighed and, after thinking for a while, nodded. You should have fun sometimes, right?

Well, he didn't particularly expect Madam Pince to really agree and so quickly, but a good-natured smile spread on her face when she saw Lupin; and even if the librarian was surprised at the request, she didn't show it.

"She smiled at you like you were her youngest son," James laughed as Moony went to the Restricted Section.

"You weren't allowed to go, so be kind, pretend you're not here," Lupin snapped.

He wandered between the shelves, looking for a book and glancing casually at the most incredible works that were stored there. Obviously, books of dark magic were also present in the Restricted Section.

"Oh!" Lupin exclaimed softly, looking at the distant upper shelf. "Found it."

The noise on the other side of the shelving alerted him.

"Beata," someone hissed quietly, "what are you doing, idiot?! Don't go there –"

Everything happened very fast. Remus noted that the cabinet suddenly became closer and seemed to hang over him. Then it staggered dangerously and finally collapsed directly on Lupin. The guy barely had time to jump aside and got buried in an avalanche of books.

"Sprinkles, I told you!" someone exclaimed angrily. 

Lupin, brushing off the dust and sneezing every now and then, began searching through the books.

"Is everything fine?" he heard the same voice, only now it was sympathetic and guilty. 

A dark-haired, pale girl with thin lips and the gaze of a cautious little animal looked uncertainly at him.

"Yeah," he grinned, clumsily rising from the floor. "You just helped me get the book, it was too high."

The girl smiled crookedly as if she wasn't completely sure that this was a joke and was afraid to seem stupid.

"You're welcome!" a satisfied voice of Beata Sprinkles. "We do only good deeds!"

"MISS SPRINKLES!" Madam Pince roared. "I forbade you to enter my library!"

"Excuse me, guys, but I'm gonna get the hell out of here," Sprinkles took off like a rabbit, disappearing among the shelves.

"Um, excuse her," the girl said and gave him a hand, "Emily Parker."

"Remus Lupin," Remus looked at Emily with interest.

"I know," Emily nodded. "I mean, you're one of the Marauders. It's difficult to lose sight of such a person." 

Something sour and sarcastic was in her voice. Usually the girls went crazy, hearing about the famous Marauders, but here...it was almost contempt.

"Uh, I'm not like..." Lupin suddenly began to justify himself, but stopped immediately. "Are you judging me?"

"We didn't drink the toast of our friendship yet, Remus Lupin," Emily shrugged.

"I don't drink at all," Lupin retorted and almost didn't lie.

Emily raised her eyebrows and smiled a little.

"Unexpectedly for – "

"Marauder? Don't judge by appearances, Miss Parker," Lupin smiled back.

He liked their swordplay; she was a bit prickly, but there was something about her that he never got in contact with Marauders.

"YOU!" Madam Pince thundered over them. "What happened here?"

Her kind attitude towards Remus evaporated as swiftly as it appeared.

"Cabinet. It fell," Emily answered with a straight face, Lupin barely suppressed a chuckle.

"On its own?"

"Do you think I can drop it?" skinny Emily really didn't look like a person capable of moving such a huge thing. Beata was, well, a very different animal.

Madam Pince looked heavily at Parker, frowned and finally said, "You'd better not keep company with this Slytherin, Miss Parker. You're a good girl." 

It sounded like Beata was devil incarnate. 

"Clean this up and don't show me your faces for the next two weeks."

Emily just snorted, staring at Madam Pince's departing back. 

Until the end of the day, she and Remus were doing shelving and were surprised to find similarities in a very wide range of interests. 

After all, Emily gave Remus some advice on the book he found and went away, leaving a strange aftertaste of interesting conversation and biting coldness.