Chapter Text
“You’ll be sure to write?” Remus’ mother asked placing both hands on his face and standing on her toes to brush her lips to his cheek.
“Of course, I will, Mum.”
“And if anything happens, you make sure and tell us, alright?” She brushed the dirt of his sweater and adjusted his scarf.
“Yes, Mum. I have to go,” he urged as a high-pitched whistle sounded from the scarlet steam engine fifteen feet away.
“Oh, be safe dear.”
Remus paused as he was about to turn and swept both his parents up in a hug. He was taller than both of them now. His father wrapped a firm arm around his shoulder and patting him gently on the back. His glasses dug into Remus’ cheek. His mother kissed him one more time for good measure and they sent him off to the train. Remus waved once more and heaved his trunk through the door with a heavy thump and made his way down the train corridor, giving short “hello”s to a couple of people as he passed. He dodged a young Ravenclaw girl who seemed determined to keep him in a conversation.
In a compartment near the back of the train sat three people completely wrapped up in the mess they were creating: Peter Pettigrew, a small stout boy with blond hair, staring reverently at the other two, James Potter, a much taller boy with dark hair and lopsided glasses, and Sirius Black, a boy in a black t-shirt and ripped jeans with hair fell gracefully to his shoulders, into his eyes. Sirius reached across the compartment to ruffle James’ already untidy hair. James retaliated by shoving Sirius off him. Sirius grabbed a handful of what looked like empty potion vials from the trunk that lay open on the ground, clothing and books scattered everywhere. The vials thumped against James’ back and onto the floor where several shattered; one hit Peter in the knee. Remus smiled leaning against the compartment door, admiring the greatest friends he had ever had, a familiar warmth gathering in his chest.
Sirius stopped immediately when he saw Remus at the door. James batted at his shoulder, but when he caught sight of Remus as well, his face broke into a grin. He grabbed Remus’ trunk from him and hoisted in onto the luggage rack above their heads. Sirius only gaped at Remus, holding onto the windowsill like his life depended on it, hair falling into his eyes.
“Are you alright, Sirius?” Remus asked, eyebrow raised. Sirius snapped his mouth shut and promptly released the window.
“Yeah, I’m great!” Sirius said hastily, brushing his fingers through his hair and pulling it up into a bun behind his head. “Sorry about the mess.” He grabbed his wand off the seat behind him and waved it quickly at the mess around them, muttering spells under his breath so the room collected itself. The vials on the floor repaired themselves. Clothes folded themselves into neat piles, and Sirius’ trunk settled onto the luggage rack, tagging James in the ear as it flew by. James elbowed Sirius, but Sirius ignored him, gestured for Remus to sit in the seat next to his.
Another high-pitched whistle cut the air; silver steam billowed up in front of the window and the train lurched forward, rolling lazily away from the platform.
“Have a good summer then, Rem?” James asked, leaning back and kicking his feet up onto Sirius’ lap. Sirius batted him away. James scowled more out of formality than actual irritation. Remus watched affectionately. They were like overgrown twelve-year-olds.
“I suppose it definitely could have been worse.” Remus said. “My great Aunt came to visit. God, you have no idea…the night mare.” Remus rolled his eyes and laughter pealed through the compartment. “And hiding my ‘fury little problem’ from her—not an experience I’ll be eager to repeat.”
James grimaced “She doesn’t know you’re a werewolf?” He asked.
“She doesn’t know I’m a wizard,” Remus scoffed “She’s my mum’s Aunt. She’d have a fit if she ever found out Mum married a Wizard. You should hear her talk.” Remus pitched his voice high. “‘You should have married up, Hope. Instead you’re stuck here in this dingy cabin with too ditzy to remember his own name. He’s lucky to have you. He’d loose his head if it weren’t for you, dear.’”
Again, the cart filled with snorts and guffawing.
“What about you, James?” Remus asked. “How was Paris?”
James’ smile wilted. “The trip was cancelled, so I spent most of the summer at home. You should’ve seen it. He showed up—,” James flipped a finger in Sirius’ direction. “In the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, soaked through to the skin and knocking on my bedroom window.” Sirius grinned sheepishly.
“He hid in my bedroom for three days before my parents found out. Looked a right mess, too, until my mom fixed him up. He was covered in b--.” But then James caught Sirius’ stern eye, jaw clenched and James stopped talking abruptly.
“Why were you at James’ house,” Remus asked, watching Sirius, who starred down at his lap intensely; a lock of hair slipped from behind his ear. “And do I even want to know what you were covered in?”
Sirius laughed too quickly. “Absolutely not.” The train clicked along the track underneath them. “I ran away from home. Couldn’t stand it. My parents are more intolerable than ever, what with the war everyone thinks is about to happen.” He said the word “war” in a whisper, as if speaking it any louder would somehow make it that much more real.
“My parents haven’t been ignoring it either. That’s another reason we cancelled Paris.” James added. A somber quiet settled over the compartment.
“My dad says the war’s been going on for years now.” Remus murmured. “That You-Know-Who’s been gathering followers since before we started school and the ministry’s been trying to hide the damage. Apparently, that’s gotten a little harder now, what with all the…” Remus let the word trail away.
“Deaths.” James finished for him.
Remus glanced out the window at the grey clouds forming on the horizon. “We’re in for one hell of a year,” he said so softy he thought the others hadn’t heard him, but James let out a small sigh of agreement, Sirius nodded his head with resignation and Peter gave a small groan. The group fell into a melancholy silence.
“Do you…” Peter bit his lip. “Do you think we’re really… that we’re really in danger?” Peter asked finally, digging his fingernails apprehensively into his forearms.
“Not as long as we’re at Hogwarts, Pete.” James smiled, patting Peter’s knee, though Peter didn’t look particularly reassured.
The day got rapidly darker as they travelled north into the clouds that followed them the entire journey. About midday, fat drops of rain followed, plastering the windows in a sheen of water so that the landscape outside was nothing but a blur of green and grey. Shortly afterward the food trolley came by.
“Thank God,” Sirius said, jumping to his feet. “I’m starving.” The Trolley Witch laughed heartily.
“What can I get for you dear?” she asked. Sirius bought half the cart, stuffing a handful of gold into the Trolley Witch’s hands without counting, and spread the sweets over the seat cushions. “Help yourselves,” he told them, digging into a pile of cauldron cakes. Remus had just reached for chocolate frog when Lily Evans burst into the compartment. Her hair was a mess and she had a wild look in her eyes.
“There you are Remus,” she said. “I’ve been looking all over for you. We have prefect duties.” Remus jumped to his feet, dumping his lap full of sweets onto the ground. “Sorry, Lily, I completely forgot.”
“Well, you’re here now.”
“Evans,” James called from the window, running his fingers through his hair.
“For God’s sake, just call me Lily.” Lily snapped, her eyes fixed on Remus as he attempted to wrestle his prefect’s badge from his trunk and pin it hastily to his chest. He snatched up a chocolate frog from the floor and followed Lily back up the corridor.
“See you later Moony,” said Sirius through a mouthful of cake. Remus waved once, and was gone.
“How was your summer, Remus?” Lily asked as they made their way down the corridor.
“Alright. Couldn’t really have hoped for better, I suppose, as far as summers go, I mean. It’s good to be coming back to Hogwarts though. As idiotic as those three are, it’s nice to see them again. What about you?”
“It was… fairly uneventful. My sister spent most of it ignoring me with her God-awful boyfriend, Vernon,” she replied scornfully. Remus chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck absentmindedly. “And of course, I haven’t been able to tell them about You-Know-Who.”
“You know about all the things that have been happening then?”
She sighed. “I’ve been getting the Daily Prophet by owl every day this summer, so yes, I know. It’s really horrible what You-Know-Who and his followers have been doing, murdering people, wizards and muggles.” Lily paused, lunging into a nearby compartment, wand out, and immobilizing a giant boomerang wreaking havoc among several fourth years and ducking beneath the seats. She snatched the boomerang out of the air and stuffed it into the pocket of her robes, shutting the compartment door behind her as she left.
“I don’t know how nobody saw this coming.”
“I think they did, Lily. The Ministry did anyway. They’ve been concealing it from the public for years, to keep the panic to a minimum I expect.”
“How can they have let this happen?”
Remus opened his mouth to respond, but then Lily stopped abruptly in her tracks.
“Lily? What’s—,” but then he looked up. Severus Snape stood in the corridor, looking like someone who had been caught doing something he shouldn’t. His body was stiff, he looked as gaunt and sour as ever, unkempt hair tangled around his face. For an awkward moment Snape and Lily stared each other down, refusing to break eye contact. Snape took a half step back, hunching slightly. For a moment, he opened his mouth to speak, stopped, clenched his fist and opened his mouth again, but before he could say anything, Lily looked away, grabbed Remus by the wrist and stalked past him. Remus made no complaint and didn’t look at Snape as he was pulled by, though he could still feel the Snape’s gaze burning into his back as they walked away.
When Lily finally slowed down, she was trembling. Remus rested a hand on her arm.
“Are you alright, Lily?” Remus asked gently.
“I… I still feel guilty.” She pulled a thread from the hem of her skirt, snapping it off and brushing it on the ground. “That I stopped being friends with him, that he—,”
“Don’t,” Remus told her. “He may have been your friend, but he’s never been a very good person. That much became obvious last year, when…”
“I know.”
“Besides, we can almost guarantee he’ll be fighting on the wrong side of the war when it comes down to it. You see the kinds of people he hangs out with.”
“That isn’t fair, Remus—,”
“Isn’t it?”
“I… oh, you might be right.”
“I usually am.”
“Don’t get cocky, Remus, it doesn’t suit you.”
When Remus got back to the compartment, it was just past three. The rain continued to pound heavily at the window and periodic flashed of lightning illuminated the compartment. The lanterns had already been lit in spite of the early hour, and the fire cast odd shadows on the walls. Candy wrappers littered the floor. Peter was fast asleep leaning against the doorframe, his breath misting on the window and James was chewing on a pile of sweets that Sirius had clearly been trying to save for Remus.
“Remus!” Sirius said when Remus came back in. “Sorry, James has gone and eaten most of your chocolate.” Sirius glared at James accusingly. James crumpled the candy wrapper he was holding with a guilty grin. Remus rolled his eyes.
“James, how could you?” He feigned offense, pressing his hands to his chest in mock-hurt.
“I saved one?” James lobbed the last chocolate frog at Remus; it hit Remus in the eyebrow and toppled down to the floor, sending James into guffaws.
“Oi, I’ve got enough scars on the rest of my body, I don’t need any from you, too. And anyway, I got some chocolate from Lily.”
James sobered up in an instant. “Did she say anything about me?”
“As a matter of fact, she did. I believe she used the words, childish, self-obsessed and buffoon.”
“She did not.”
“Not to far a leap, I’m afraid, Prongs,” Sirius said, picking the frog up off the floor and tossing it back at James, catching him by surprise. An easy smile settled on Sirius’ face. It was contagious. Remus dropped into the seat beside Sirius. In the sound of the rain pounding outside the window, the creak of the train barreling closer the Hogwarts, and his two best friends bickering, Remus let himself drift off into sleep. He woke up several hours later as they were pulling into Hogsmeade station, his head resting on Sirius’ shoulder.