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A Girl in the Clubhouse


Remus was packing his things into his book bag, preparing for the night in the Shrieking Shack. He stuffed his pencils and parchment in and some sandwiches Peter had knicked for him from the kitchens, though he probably wouldn’t eat them seeing as the very smell of them had turned his stomach, he still thanks Peter profusely for thinking of him. Sirius was sitting on the edge of his bed, watching everything Remus was packing. “Two chocolate fudge bars?” he asked, seeing Rey put the candy bars in his bag.

“Yeah,” Remus blushed, “And I’ll bloody eat’em both, too. It’s a miracle I’m not fat as a pig.”

“Mmm, a miracle, yes,” Sirius replied, nodding and leaning back against his extended arms. “Eating two fudge bars all by yourself, yes.”

James rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Remus took along an extra jumper, too, and Sirius remarked on it, “How bloody cold do you think it’s going to be tonight, huh, Lupin?” he asked.

“Colder than it’s been in here,” he replied, “And you know me, I get cold easily…”

“You’re going to be wearing two sweaters as a wolf then? Maybe one on your front legs and one on your hind ones?”

Peter laughed, “That would look funny.”

Remus said, “I’m sorry, am I not allowed to take two jumpers if I’d like to?”

“No, no,” Sirius said, “Take two of anything you’d like.”

James sighed through his nose and stared very hard down at his textbook.

Remus finally finished up and he grabbed his Muggle Studies textbook and slid his wand into his pocket. “Alright you lot. Have a good Halloween. See you next month.” He laughed at his own joke. “Bye…”

“Bye,” James and Peter chorused.

“See you,” Sirius replied with a bit of a smirk about him.

Remus headed downstairs, carrying his stuff and acting quite as though he were going to the library. He was halfway across the common room when Lily Evans came dashing over. She huddled close to him, “Rey, it’s here.”

His eyes flashed with excitement, “Yeah?”

“Yes. It came in a great big box. I know you’re about to go out to the Shack, but do you fancy a peek first?”

Remus nodded eagerly and glanced over his shoulder to be sure none of the fellas were following after him. Lily led the way over to the stairs to the girls dorms. She drew her wand out and tapped the stairs announcing, “Invitavie.” Nothing seemed to happen, but she waved him onto the stairs with a flourish, “There you are, Mr. Lupin.”

“What was that for?” he asked, “That spell?”

“Don’t you know? The girl’s dorms are protected - seems Hogwarts founders believed boys were rather perverted so they’ve made it so a girl has to cast that spell on the stairs in order for a boy to step on them,” Lily laughed, “Frank Longbottom learned the hard way not even a month ago what happens when you’re not invited.”

“Blimey,” Remus muttered.

Lily led the way down the hall to her room, and Remus looked about. It was similar to the boys dormitory except everything that they had that was the dark maroon of Gryffindor was in gold in hers and she’d decorated it with loads of maps and photos from all over the world and a poster of a sailor kissing a girl in a city square. “I love that photo,” she said, catching Remus looking at it. “I’d love to be kissed like that by a boy.”

“Don’t look at me,” Remus said. “I’d like to be the one being kissed as much as you would.”

“Just you wait, Rey,” Lily said knowingly.

“I’ll be waiting ‘til I’m a hundred, nobody wants to be with a werewolf,” he said. Then he spotted the box, “Is that it, then?”

“Yeah that’s it,” Lily nodded.

Remus rushed over and knelt beside the box - so did Lily - and the grabbed hold on the packing tape that held it shut and pulled the tape off the box lid, peeling it away so that the flaps popped open and a great deal of styrofoam packing peanuts fluttered about with the rush of the lid pulling open. Remus reached in, rummaging about the peanuts until he felt the stereo and he excitedly grabbed hold of it, pulling it and the two four inch speakers out of the box.

“Blimey!” he whispered, “It’s wonderful.” He put the player on the floor and dusted away the packing peanuts carefully so that the plastic gleamed all fresh and new. The machine smelled of newness and he ran his fingers over the buttons that did Merlin knew what and ran a palm over the compartments for storage. It was just so perfect! He smiled down at it, “Wow. Wow. Sirius is going to be so bloody excited! I can’t wait until his birthday. Wow.”

“Here are the cassettes, too,” Lily said, reaching for a smaller package. “They sent them separately.”

Remus ripped open the top of the package and looked the cassettes over. Deep Purple, of course, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Abbey Road from the Beatles, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Steppenwolf, and, his favorite of them all, and the one he planned to put in the stereo for when Sirius first turned it on, a single by The Troggs -- Wild Thing.

“Brilliant,” he said, starry eyed.

“What do you want me to do with it until you’re back?” she asked.

Remus glanced at the window, then looked at Lily. “Well… do you… do you fancy maybe helping me one more time?”

“Sure, with what?”

“Will you help me bring it out to the Shrieking Shack?”

“Sure… But… why would you want to bring it out there?”

Remus explained, “Well it runs on eleckytricity, see, and the Shack’s got some of that. Old Ogg used eleckytricity, it seems. So until I can figure out how to fix it so it’ll run on magic, Sirius can use it out there.”

“Why would Sirius be in the Shrieking Shack? I thought that was just where you go when you’re… you know, changed?”

Remus said, “It is, but… well, James and Peter and Sirius made the upstairs sort of a… a clubhouse for us all to hangout in… It’s brilliant. But you can’t tell them I told you about it, it’s supposed to be top secret.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” she said with a smirk.

They packed the stereo back up amongst the packing peanuts, though a good deal of them were stuck about the room. Remus stuffed the cassette cartridges into his back and they folded the boxtop closed for easier carrying.

It was quite a tedious process, carrying that box all the way down the stairs and out to the grounds. By the Whomping Willow, Remus tossed the rock at the knot before turning to Lily, “Once we get it in the tunnel, I’ll push it along myself. You don’t have to come all the way out to Hogsmeade with me.”

Lily frowned, “But - I wanted to see the top secret clubhouse.”

“You do?”

“Yes of course!”

Remus glanced warily at the sky.

“It’s only two o’clock, I’ve loads of time to go, see the clubhouse, and get back before moonrise,” Lily said, knowing exactly what he was thinking.

Remus laughed, “Alright, fine. C’mon then.”

They carried the box along to the tunnel and out to the Shrieking Shack. All along the way Lily’s wand lay across the box top, illuminated and glowing off the walls of the tunnel, with the random roots poking out here and there and she looked about with wide eyes at the sight of all the packed dirt that they were moving past, feeling just a wee bit claustrophobic. Finally, they reached the trap door and Remus pushed it open, then gave Lily a help up through the door. Once she was through, he pushed the box up (it was very heavy, especially with his weak muscles form the approaching moon).

Lily was looking about the Shack’s living room area as he pulled himself through the door. Lily ran a palm over the wall, her fingertips touching scrapes that had come from the werewolf’s anger one night early on… deep gashes in the wood, made by strong claws… Her fingers fit into the grooves and she stared at them with wide eyes.

“Did you make these?” she asked.

“Yes,” Remus replied.

Lily noticed there were lots of broken places in the walls.

“You should’ve seen it in here before they fix it up,” Remus said, “I promise, this is a very vast improvement.”

“Wow.” Lily looked about. “It was nice of them to do it for you.”

“Yeah it was,” Remus nodded. “You wanna see the clubhouse room? This area’s just where I stay when I’ve gone wolfish… Upstairs is where the magic happens.” He grabbed hold of the box and she did, too, and they carried it up into the extra bedroom where Remus cast the spell to lower the disillusionment charm for Lily and the dreary mirage they’d set up faded off to reveal the duvet-enclosed room with the wide beds in an L and the desk covered with half burned-down candles and a bag of sweets left behind the last time they’d come out. A few of the feathers from that busted pillow the month before still clung to the underside of the bed.

Lily looked around, feeling as though she were getting a peek at something sacred. She swallowed back the emotion this thought rose up in her. It was like hallowed ground, though she didn’t know why, she just knew that this moment - standing among the Marauder’s things - felt as though it were a monumental moment in her life.

She spotted a wall where they’d cleared everything, stripped it right down to the dry wall under the flowery wallpaper that had been there, and they’d magicked a small banner Remus had drawn on a parchment on the top that said The Wall of Pursuits. Below, they’d started sticking things - stuff that represented things about themselves. There were the lists of adjectives, and Sirius had stolen a picture of a motorbike that he’d stuck up on the wall, and Peter had put an excellent graded paper from Mopsus on… James had hung a list of adjectives that described Lily, though - thankfully - he hadn’t labelled it as such.

Lily stared over the things they’d put up.

“We’re going ot get more stuff,” Remus said, “One day the wall will be full and we’ll be able to start taking stuff down that we’ve done. It’s sort of a bucket list, as they call it, you know? Things we want to do before we die.”

Lily pointed at the motorbike, “I’d save that one for last unless you fancy that being sooner rather than later…”

“That one’s Sirius’s,” Remus explained.

“Should’ve known,” Lily laughed.

Remus smiled, “Yeah you probably should’ve…” he stared up at the motorbike picture. “He wants to get one and modify it so it flies.”

“Oh no,” Lily groaned. “I’ll never stop worrying.”

Remus looked over at her with an amused expression playing on his lips. “You worry about Sirius Black, do you?”

Lily said, “You can’t ever tell him. Or any of the others, for that matter.”

“Do you worry about them, too?” Remus asked, thinking of James.

She flushed.

“You do, don’t you?” Remus teased, laughing, “You worry about all four of us. Even James.”

“You definitely can’t ever tell Potter,” Lily said quickly. “I mean it, Remus Lupin, I’ll hex you if you do.” She held up her wand, “Swear it that you won’t.”

Remus held his hands up, laughing, “I solemnly swear, Lily.”

“Good.” Lily lowered her wand. Not that she could’ve hexed Remus Lupin even if he’d immediately sent an owl to James. She’d have hexed the owl first. She couldn’t imagine anybody looking at Remus and being able to hex him.

Remus looked at her with a smirk. “Would it really be so horrid if James found out you worry about him anyway?”

“Yes,” Lily said emphatically. “Very horrid. He might think that I like him or something like that.”

“Do you?”

“No,” she answered primly. “Not at all. It’s just that you lot are sort of a package deal - you and Sirius and Peter and the toerag… So if one of you gets hurt then… then you’re all hurt and I don’t like it when you’re hurt so… I worry about you lot and all the stupid things that you get into.”

“Really it’s just James and Sirius with the stupid things,” Remus replied.

“But they make you get into stupid things with them,” Lily said.

Remus laughed, “Sometimes.”

“Like Sirius with this blasted motorbike,” she pointed at the picture on the wall. “He’s going to be dragging you off on rides on it and I’ll be standing on the ground worrying about you.”

Remus laughed, “No way will I ever get on that death trap.”

“You would if he asked you to,” Lily said. “With those big stupid eyes of his -- being all blue and --”

“Actually,” Remus smiled, “They’re grey.”