EMERGENCY TRANSFER

Sirius felt something terrible boiling up his blood as he watched Anne, James and Remus get along so well and he had dragged Peter to his side, who didn't want to leave Sirius sulking alone, but wanted to meet and try to socialize with Anne.

"Whatever's wrong with you?" Peter asked Sirius once Anne was sitting between James and Remus on the breakfast table, getting quite a few looks of curiosity.

"She's weird," he answered simply.

Peter rolled his eyes.

"So am I and I didn't see you avoiding and glaring at me when we first met, Pads. What's really wrong?" Peter asked once more.

"She gives me a few bad feelings, like... I don't feel comfortable around her," he explained.

That seemed to get Peter's attention, making his ears move a bit as he started to pay full attention to his friend and leaving his breakfast on the side, worried about what that meant as a whole.

"Do you need to get out of here? Did she do something to you?" Peter asked, hand quickly going to hold Sirius'.

Sirius pulled his hand back and crossed his arms, ignoring Peter's attempt of comfort by rolling his eyes and pretending he didn't see the worry and pity in his friend's eyes.

His friends would always look at him like that ever since the year before, fifth, when they found out about the way too many scars on his calf and thighs by the rattan stick his mother had in her room. It wasn't even that bad, but apparently no one else would do that to their children.

"No, it's nothing like that," Sirius dismissed him. "It's more like... a vibe."

Peter sighed and crossed his arms too, not going back to eating.

"You are not very good at catching vibes off of people. You can barely read a room, Padfoot," he teased.

That made Sirius smile.

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" he defended himself half-heartedly.

"My arse!" disagreed Peter. "Listen, give her a chance, alright? You don't need to be her friend, but at least try to be polite to her, alright? She's new and she's confused. James seemed to like her and already took her in like he did with that one first year, the German kid I forgot the name. If she does anything, you come and tell us, and she's out. Got it?"

Sirius looked at Peter.

He knew his friend just wanted to help him and support him, but at the same time wanted to be social and kid to people because that was who Peter was. Although he needed help and protection from people bigger and stronger than him physically, he knew he should help other people that were bullied like he was before James decided it was time to fight back for him and dragged Sirius and Remus with him.

They were one. They were the Marauders.

If James had taken a liking to the girl, it was nothing more than Sirius' job to make sure she was alright and make her trust him somehow.

"You're right, Wormtail," he said to Peter, pushing his shoulder gently. "Cheers, mate."

Peter smiled a bit and went to take a sip of his morning juice.

While that conversation happened, the talking two seats away from them was much shallower and even a bit awkward between the people.

While James and Remus decided Anne was polite and nice enough to hang out with without asking too many questions at once, the girls were not as gentle or subtle about their curiosities and had asked several questions at once, making it hard to Anne to understand or want to participate in a simple conversation.

"I didn't see you," Lily Evans had said, eyes narrow in suspicion.

"Really? Because I talked to you," Anne said blinking in confusion. "I suppose you were still half-asleep. You told me you would've known if a transferred student was meant to come soon and seemed pretty upset about being clueless over it. I suppose you calmed down once I explained I wasn't expected."

Evans blushed a bit.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I was rude," she tried to apologize.

"No, no –" started Anne.

"She's rather rude once she wakes up. Give her ten minutes and a cuppa and she's fine," Marlene jumped into the conversation, winking at Anne to show she was joking around. "She's proper nice, though. Promise!"

"Oh, no! She was just fine. I understand that it's confusing to see someone you don't know getting into your room in the middle of the night," she said, blushing too. "Guess I was lucky I wasn't hexed."

Though it was a joke, some of the girls stiffened.

"With the present situation, it wouldn't be surprising," Alice said quietly, just loud enough for Anne to hear.

The war.

Anne had just escaped a war and there she was, getting herself in another one.

She had forgotten for a moment what she was meant to be doing in the past – she forgave herself quickly because she deserved just a moment, just one breakfast with her parents, even if they had no idea who she was and would never love her the way she wanted them to. Just a moment. Just one morning of normal life.

She took in a slow, deep breath and tried to remember the smell of her Normal Morning – waffles, toast and tea with honey. She needed to remember that. She wanted to remember that. She wanted to – consciously – gather a small part of her brain, erase the information in it and remember it with every detail she could.

"You came from Canada, then," Lily took the reigns in the conversation once more. "How is the situation there?"

Anne shrugged.

"Better than here," she said. "But... Here's home. I thought it would be better to be here, present... ready. Far away from the..." he hesitated, "past."

James glanced at her before exchanging a look with Remus.

Anne saw that, but said nothing.

"You think you'll fight when the time comes?" James asked.

"Are you wanting to put the girl in danger already, Potter?" Evans attacked, making Anne look up, alarmed. "Just because you met her first, it doesn't mean –"

"I didn't mean anything by it. It was just a bloody question," Potter answered, clearly upset with the accusation he had done nothing to get. "And, apparently, you met her before me. That doesn't mean you're her owner."

"And you are?" Lily asked once more.

Remus sighed.

"He never said anything like that, Lily. We're just talking, just trying to know each other. Keep the animosity between you two away from Anne's face, she just got here and is barely eating breakfast watching you two," Remus jumped into the discussion. "We're all used to it, she isn't."

"It's alright," Anne said, a small sting on her chest. "I had a few friends that were just like you two... They were going to get married, or so I betted."

The quick memory of seeing Ron and Hermione mid-discussion, one sitting on Harry's right and the other on his left and making him the arbitrary in their 'conversations', came into her mind and made her smile for just one second. One second before it hit, she would most likely never see them again.

People around her noticed the sadness, but no one said anything.

"Well, we're not getting married," Lily said with certainty.

"Oh, just you wait, Evans. I'll prove you wrong," James said, winking at her. "What do you like more? Emeralds or rubies?"

Anne looked up at him in slight shock.

With James being so physically alike Harry, it made her forget that – so many of the times – they were so different when it came to girls. James had a very healthy relationship with sex in general while Harry was taught it was disgusting and not meant to be talked about or enjoyed; James a teenage-boy, Harry had always been a grown-man-child. While Harry had his first crush with fourteen and only allowed himself to focus on girls – truly – at fifteen, it was just a small space of less than two years before getting himself away from all that to fight in a war that was never meant to be his.

Anne grieved once more for her brother, this time in silence and with no tears.

"You two would make a good couple," Anne said.

Remus held his breath so he wouldn't laugh too loudly.

James, on the other hand, was not as subtle, he just threw his head back and laughed loudly, throwing one arm around Anne's shoulder and poking Peter with his other.

Peter, who had been talking to Sirius, turned to look at his friend.

"Did you hear that, Wormtail?" James asked, eyes shining in amusement. "Anne said Lily and I would look good together!"

"Anne doesn't know what she's talking about!" Lily said, but it was too late. A lot of people had heard the girl and were giggling, some even agreeing. "Anne, take it back!"

"I cannot!" Anne said, laughing and trying to escape James' arm weighting her down and making her feel a bit suffocated. She wanted space. "Potter, you're hurting me!"

James took his hand away from her and apologized quickly before turning back to Peter and Sirius, having a quick conversation with them.

Remus was not as distracted as James and had clearly seen Anne's subtle distress and uncomfortableness as she hugged herself by the elbows under the table and smiled with a relaxed face to Lily, still joking with her. He had heard with his good-werewolf-hearing how her heart seemed to double the beating once she had been held against James closely. Though it was clear he was not flirting with her and she had made it clear she was not attracted to him in any way, she still seemed to have a disagreeable reaction.

The werewolf leaned closer to her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, voice low.

Anne looked at him, face doing its best to look confused.

"Yes," she said. "Are you?"

"Absolutely," he said, eyebrows frowning.

She smiled without showing her teeth and turned back to Marlene, now talking about the classes they were share.

Remus didn't take his eyes away from her for the rest of the meal, clearly not letting the small conversation they had go to his head.

Remus sat beside Sirius during Transfiguration and watched as James and Peter poked each other and messed around trying to be as silent as they could so McGonagall wouldn't freak out with them. Still, his eyes seemed to carry itself to Anne, who was sitting beside Alice and trying to get some help from the girl, clearly lacking a bit on the subject.

"Oh, come on, Moony," grumbled Sirius trying to transfigure his teacup back into a rat. "Don't tell me, now you're interested in her?"

Remus chuckled.

"Absolutely not," he promised.

"Then stop staring at the new girl!" Sirius hissed, pushing his elbow in Remus' ribs.

Remus pushed him away a bit.

"Stop it!" he warned. Sirius smirked and threatened to do it again, but didn't. "I just think there's something going on with Anne," he explained.

"Oh, so you felt it too?" Sirius asked, sounding surprised.

"What?" Remus asked, confused.

Was Sirius paying attention to their conversation on the Great Hall?

"The off-vibes she gives. I feel like... she's lying or something, or least not being wholly truthful," he explained. "She said she came back to Britain because she wanted to fight for the Light side in the war or whatever bollocks she wants, but I think she's lying."

Remus was surprised as she nodded.

"Yes, yes, I think so too!" he said.

Sirius sighed in relief.

"Oh, Merlin's beard, I thought I was going bonkers!"

"No, mate. I think she ran away from Canada," Remus said, trying to get support from his friend, but Sirius just stared at him. "I know, it sounds like bollocks and shit–"

"Absolutely," agreed Sirius.

"...but hear me out. James touched her and she did the same thing you used to do in first year."

Sirius blinked.

"What?" he asked. "I don't remember anything from that."

"You know the," he moved away slowly, cringing and trying to hold a fake smile on his face, forcing an awkward chuckle from deep of his throat, "this thing, you know? It was the fucking same!"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't do that," he said. "Never done it."

The werewolf chuckled in amusement.

"You did exactly that," he disagreed. "But now, seriously – and don't do the joke, Sirius, honestly – I think she's been beaten or something. She was pretty nervous and uncomfortable."

"Maybe she just doesn't like being touched. There are people like that," Sirius said. "You're one of those," he reminded his friend.

"Yeah, but... the way her face went pale and all. That was not just not liking to be touched. She didn't flinch, but it looked like she wanted to, but held back," he said, disagreeing once more.

Sirius looked at Anne, trying to find anything was somehow familiar in her behaviour, but she seemed like a normal girl.

She was skinny – perhaps a bit too skinny – and a bit more on the pale side of things. Though she was sitting on the very edge of the left seat, leaving a space between her and Marlene, but she was new in the school and not everyone was comfortable with sharing so little space between themselves and their new schoolmates. She didn't seem uncomfortable in the presence of someone, but she didn't seem, well... comfortable either. She was stone cold focused on Marlene's teachings and trying again and again. She didn't seem very confidante on her skills, but didn't stop trying.

Insecure. Determinate. Awkward... Space.

Though it didn't remind Sirius about himself, it reminded him of someone else: Regulus. His little brother.

He thought for another moment.

She did say she had a brother, but didn't say anything about where he was or what he was doing, maybe she didn't have any contact with him anymore. Was she the younger child? Was she protected like Regulus had been by Sirius? When her own 'Sirius' left, was she left behind and felt betrayed and unproper, always like she was doing something wrong like Regulus made sure to tell Sirius he had felt?

Marlene moved, trying to holding onto Anne's wrist and show her the movement, but froze for a millisecond when Anne's eyes widened and she tensed up. Anne laughed it off, mumbling something that made Marlene smile uncertainly, but keep going.

Sirius looked away to Remus, who was now holding his rat and petting it, calmly watching the interaction too. The animagus cursed himself for being so rude and protective about James with Anne as he knew that she had accepted the invitation and wanted to get friend because she most likely had never had such opportunity before.

"Fuck," Sirius sighed, a bit louder than he wished himself to.

"Mister Black, language, please!" McGonagall said from her table, clearly having heard the cussing. She did not give him detention, which made Sirius very happy since he had a date that Saturday before Quidditch and he didn't feel like cancelling.

"Sorry, Minnie!" Sirius called, winking at her and making her glare at him. He went quiet, not wanting to push and finally get the detention he had escaped from.

"I know, right?" Remus said, calling his friend back into the conversation.

"I should've seen it coming," Sirius complained. "I, of all people, should've seen it coming. And I was being so rude to her..."

"We've only known her for a few hours, Pads. I only noticed because she was right next to me and touched me when she cringed away, not a big deal – you were busy," Remus comforted him.

"Do you think we need to tell anyone?" Sirius asked, worried.

Before Remus could answer and give his own opinion about what they should do over their suspicions, the classroom's door opened and Headmaster Dumbledore peeked his head in, glistening eyes running around the students and stopping only for the split of a second on McGonagall, who got up from the chair she had sat, watching the students and walked over to him.

They whispered on the talking, making it hard for even Sirius, with his animagus' hearing, to understand anything more than Anne's name.

Sirius looked at Remus, who was looking back at him. They looked at James, who was already looking at them with Peter by his side, all clearly having understood the girl's name and wanting to know what it was.

"Miss Sage," called out McGonagall. "Get your things and follow Professor Dumbledore. He wants to have a talk with you and it'll take a bit, so you won't be able to come back to my class. Go straight to your next class after, please," she added.

"Yes, ma'am," said Anne, getting up and giving the professor her small white rat and thanking her before walking around.

As the door closed, Remus heard.

"Professor, is this about my parents?" Anne had asked, voice wavering in worry.

Remus held onto Sirius' arm as he straightened his ears to hear a bit more as the two people walked away.

"No, my child, just about your... emergency transferring. We need to decide the subjects you'd like to take," he chuckled. "We had little time to decide so last night. We had a lot of things more important than silly school subjects to talk about, don't you think so?"

"Yes, sir, I do," she agreed.

The voices disappeared as they turned the corner of the corridor.

Remus came back into his own body, finally taking notice of his surroundings and smiling sheepishly at Professor McGonagall, who seemed to know what he was doing and was chastising him in silence.

"Anything?" Sirius asked.

"She was an emergency transfer," Remus answered. "Whatever that means..."

"We'll find out," Sirius answered. "Give me a bit of time and I'll have information."

Lots of people saw Sirius and his laid-back ways as lazy, but when the dog wanted something, he'd bite it and never let it go. His curiosity always took the best of him, making him go over the top to prove himself to be right or to find out an information he wanted.

Anyhow, by the time Sirius had not shown up to lunch after the DADA class, Remus knew exactly where he was and what he was doing, though she couldn't share this information with the others since Anne was sitting beside Peter and talking calmly to him.

Remus cut the Divination class to run into the library and see Sirius with thirteen books on the table he was sitting by, feet over the table.

"Sirius," he called in a low voice.

Sirius looked up in surprise by someone having found him.

"Hey, Moony," he greeted, turning the page and then looking back at the words in the book on his hands. "What is it?"

"You're skipping class and you skipped lunch too," Remus said, "James was worried and even went back to the Tower to see if you were there, but I said you had a stomach-ache and went to the Hospital Wing."

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius dismissed. "And he believed?"

"He's busy with Peter, he said he saw a snake eating a rat on his Divination homework with his crystal ball. Almost had a panic attack," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "But I knew you were here and... Padfoot, I don't think it's very polite to come and try to see what 'emergency transfer' means."

Sirius chuckled.

"Oh, yeah?" he mocked. "Watch me. Come on, Moony, since when have you known me to do something simply because it's polite?"

Remus took a second before nodding. It was a true. He had not known Sirius to do so in any occasion since the day they met. Sighing, he took a seat on the same table as Sirius, but not beside him.

"I took the Map, to make sure he wouldn't find us," Remus added. "Didn't even have to look for you in it, I knew exactly where you'd be."

"You know, if someone heard you, people would totally think we're having an affair," Sirius joked. He looked up. "Are you interested?" he winked.

"Not since our third year," Remus confessed.

Sirius laughed and looked back at the book.

"I knew you had a crush on me," he teased.

"Fuck off!" Remus said. "Did you find anything?" he asked, pointing with this chin to the book.

Sirius nodded.

"A few things," he said. "It's very rare. There were, like, three or four in the whole Hogwarts history..."

"Don't make me wait. Tell me what you found!" Remus urged him,

"Weren't you the one saying it was wrong and all?"

"I don't give a fuck, honestly. Too curious, and it's not like we're doing this to be mean," Remus went into a logical thinking.

Still, the guilt was there. He ignored it.

"Well, I found a few emergency transfers in Hogwarts history. There was one in 1560, a girl who got pregnant and ran away from her family in France and Hogwarts took her in. There was another one 1735, a boy from Scotland that managed to run away from his family, he was a muggle-born, his family wanted to burn him after years of abuse; the headmaster adopted him. Well, there was another one in the 1940's, it doesn't specify the year, but a girl from Germany," he looked up. "Did you know there was a war in the Muggle World in the 40s? The girl ran away from Germany once her family was killed. Dumbledore is mentioned, but she was taken in by someone else and changed her name, after all she was just 11."

Remus felt a pain in the back of his head as he watched his memories of Anne flinching away and the way she would talk about her brother.

"I think we found it, then," Remus said.

"I wish we wrong, but yes," Sirius said. "Anne wasn't safe with her family and was sent here because there was nowhere else that she could go. She's a half-blood sage, she's safe here in England even with the war going on."

Remus looked at his hands.

"How bad could it be?" he asked.

"It must have been bad for her to think she was safer in a war than away from it," Sirius said.

Remus looked at Sirius.

They had a silent agreement made that afternoon.

From that moment on, Anne would be the protegee of the Marauders, either she liked it or not and they knew that they didn't need a lot to convince James to follow them into it and, where the Marauders went, Peter would follow.

Anne would be the safest girl in Hogwarts.