Chapter Text
"Fucking hell" Remus whispered under his breath as his mum's car approached the school. Well, "school" was one way you could put it, but really, the place was an entire castle. Everytime she'd told them about where she'd been working for the past year he'd brushed it off, she always described the school as a magical castle that could only exist in children's stories, with dark secret corners and beautifully decorated rooms They'd known it was posh and old, but christ, he half expected some dragon to come out from behind it.
"Mum, you've got to be joking" they sayed, still mesmerised by the extraordinary building in front of him.
Hope chuckled "I know it's a bit different from our two room flats back home, but this is your new school, love"
she smiled apologetically and Remus knew that behind those kindly eyes, Hope Lupin was extremely worried that her son wouldn't fit in at the school full of normal looking, ridiculously rich, kids. She was quite right to too, he mused.
They got out the car and his mum pointed at his entrance, she gave him a kiss and headed off to where they assumed the teachers went in. Remus struggled not to stare in awe at the huge ceilings and luxurious tapestries hanging everywhere, there was one with a sour faced man with a thin, long, white beard and one of a merry looking chubby woman with honey coloured hair. He headed staight into the hall their mum had described, the one with the beautiful night sky painted above the four long tables, already filled with students wearing the ridiculous uniforms they were supposed to, although, Remus noticed, the girl's skirts were much shorter than what they were supposed to be, almost nobody's ties were on properly, shirts were open too wide... Maybe these teenagers weren't that different to the ones at his old school afterall.
A teacher stopped him at the door, she was tall and wore her gray hair in a tight bun, Remus immediately disliked her, she looked stern and scary
"You must be Mr. Lupin, am I correct?" She asked him, not unkindly.
"Uh, yeah" he replied
"Wonderful! You're in my house, Gryffindor. Your mother has told me a bit about you and I look forward to having you in my classes Mr. Lupin" she smiled at him again and suddenly, they didn't hate her at all
"Go over to the table on the far right, with all the students in the red uniform, those are your housemates. The prefects will give you the rest of the instructions after dinner"
And with that, she was off, helping some other lost kid or screaming at another.
He headed for the table she told him to, which seemed to have the loudest students. They all kept smiling and hugging, happily reunited after a summer in Marseilles or wherever posh people went on holiday to. Remus was at a loss, they didn't know what to do and some people had started to notice the new lanky kid with the huge scar across his face, they whispered to eachother but nobody seemed to actually want to welcome him, all except the Marauders of course.
"hiya!" a girl that looked about his age with vibrant red hair smiled at them "what's your name?" She asked
"Remus" he smiled shyly and gratefully at her
"I'm Lily, pleased to meet you".
After she found out that they were indeed in the same year, Lily had him sit with her friends. There was Mary, who kept getting pestered by boys trying to get her to "go to Hogsmeade with them" (Remus wasn't sure if that was a euphemism for something and he wasn't enclined to find out either). Marlene was bruske and direct, she asked Remus some questions and bantered with everyone else, however, her entire demeanor changed when her girlfriend Dorcas arrived, Remus could tell they really liked eachother by the way they kept making puppy dog eyes at one another, it was really very cute. Remus was also happy to find out that the group was safe to come out to in the future, since they didn't seem to mind the two girls dating. Lily was probably his favourite, she too asked him loads of questions like where he was from and what his best subjects where, she made sure he was integrated in their conversations and even told him a little about his new classmates and teachers. There were also three boys in the group, James, Sirius and Peter, who were all very kind to Remus. When Lily introduced him, the taller one, James, exclaimed in delight, apparently they'd been waiting for him, since they were going to be their new dormate. Remus wasn't sure if he was too happy about this since the boys looked very close already, still, they were very nice. Maybe Remus would be alright afterall.
"so Remus, where are your from?" Someone asked him for the third time that night
"Wales" replied Remus
It had been Sirius, the boy looked at Remus expectantly, it made Remus uncomfortable
"What part?"
"Um, Cardiff"
"But you accent isn't Welsh, is it?" Asked James, looking at Remus with open curiosity, not in a mean way as if he was a zoo animal or anything, just in a "I'm interested in what you have to say" way, Remus wasn't used to it
"Oh well, my dads Northern" he explained "I've been living there this past year"
"Oh! Im Northern too!" Added Marlene, as if her strong manc accent didn't make that obvious "what part?"
"Sunderland" he replied, happy that he was maintaing a conversation.
And so, about half an hour pased like that, he was asked things, he responded, people kept getting up and hugging eachother and every minute that passed he relaxed more and more. He watched James and Sirius make loud, silly jokes, conversed with the girls about the latest thing they'd been watching on Netflix and eventually, got to the topic of music with Sirius. The boy really was quite unnerving and, Remus noticed, stupid hot. He had longish silky black hair he kept playing with, beautiful blue-grey eyes with long eyelashes and a delicately defined bone structure, with high cheekbones and a long nose. Remus idly wondered if he was straight...
"Remus, what kind of music do you like?" The raven haired boy asked curiously
"Oh, I like old music"
Sirius' face broke into a huge grin "really?! Me too! Who's your favourite artist?" Sirius went one about how he loved T-Rex, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Queen, Oasis... He was talking very fast and all Remus could do was smile and nod as he listed artists (except for Queen, he sort of grimaced at that one) when Remus thought the other boy had finished he explained how his favourite artists was David Bowie, only for Sirius to do the same at exactly the same time. The both looked at eachother bewildered for a second, then burst out laughing excited by the fact that they both liked the same music. They all talked for a little while longer, Lily was a hardcore Swiftie, James liked anything that had a good beat to it, Peter didn't really bother with music much (a fact that deeply disturbed Sirius and Remus) though he did like Cavetown apparently, Mary enjoyed rave music and Marlene was obsessed with riot grrrl stuff, Dorcas loved Mother Mother.
As the minutes passed the group got less and less awkward, it could've only been about half an hour but Remus felt as if they'd known these people for ages and they seemed to genuinely like him, they talked about which subjects each of them took together and what studygroups they could form, since this year they were supposed to take their GCSEs and would be doing quite a bit of work. Finally, the teachers appeard at the top of the hall. Lily pointed at each of them and told him who they were, Remus recognised their names from when his mother had talked about them and from Lily's earlier explanations of each of them. There was McGonagall (who had been the one to tell him where to sit earlier) she taught English and Literature, Flitwick taught maths, Binns History, Slughorn ("how on earth could he go into teaching with a name like that?! ") was chemistry, Trelawney was the arts teacher, Hooch taught P.E, Sprout home economics, Pomfrey was the nurse, Pince the librarian, Hagrid biology, Kettleburn philosophy and finally Hope, who taught music. Remus didn't bother telling Lily he knew that one quite well. After all of them had sat down another man came in, he had a very long white beard and wore a ridiculous robe- thing, it was baggy and maroon with small designs, Remus had no idea what to think of it, just that he bet all the students made fun of it, how could they not?.
Instead of sitting down with the rest of the teachers, Dumbledore (that was the headteacher' name) walked to the centre of the platform where the teachers ate and gave a speech, it was the standard cheesy speech Remus suspect all teachers made at the begining of the school year, all about how they had to work hard and get good grades, not get into trouble and be kind to eachother. Remus thought it was all a load of bollocks, the rest of the table seemed to think so too, since everyone kept looking at eachother and smirking mischievously. Dumbledore finished his speech by giving the students permission to finally lift the covers off of the millions of plaits in front of them. Remus didn't know what they had been expecting, but it certainly wasnt an incredibly delicious looking banquet. At his old school all they'd basically served was globs of mush that vaguely resembled stuff like peas or scrambled eggs. The hundreds of plaits that laid in frot of him now were all sorts of different meals, roast chicken, Shepherd's pie, sausages, salad, steamed vegetables, fish, chips, beef, pork, Yorkshire puddings... Remus thought he might burst with joy. Sirius had been watching his expression and Remus looked up to find he was now barely containing his laughter
"They don't feed you at home do they Lupin?" Sirius teased, Remus flipped him the V good naturedly before putting a bit of everything he could possibly reach onto his plate.
They spent dinner much like they'd had before, except this time they were all giddy from the delicious food amd drink. James Sirius and Peter told Remus all about the pranks they played on the students and staff, including when they'd swamped all the corridors on the ground floor with water from the lake or when they'd put itchy powder in Slytherin's pyjama's. You're probably wondering what on earth Slytherin did to deserve this, the answer is, well, be Slytherin. The boys told Remus all about the rivalry between the two houses, how they constantly played pranks on eachother and how sometimes, it got ugly on the rugby field. They told Remus all about rugby too, James was the captain and Sirius played as well, apparently everyone took it quite seriously, Remus was expected to attend every match and even though he wasn't too bothered about the sport, he felt a twinge in their heart at the thought that these boys who he'd just met were already so graciously inviting and including him in things.
Dessert came and went and Remus found himself squashed in between Lily and Sirius on one of the many, many stair cases in Hogwarts. Sirius had to basically shout into his ear so that he could be heard amidst the chaos of Gryffindor house. They were apparently waiting for the prefects to give them the monthly password they needed to get into the common room. Remus already thought this was a bit much and was gob smacked when they finally reached the top of the stairs and realised the door that lead to the commom room was in fact a portrait of a woman singing opera. Remus didn't understand all the secrecy but was enjoying it immensely. Hogwarts, he was coming to understand, was just as magical on the inside as it was on the outside. It really did feel like going to school in some fantasy castle in the middle of nowhere, Scotland. Remus felt like some main character in a children's novel.
"Okay so, this is your bed Remus, I sleep over here and that's Sirius and Peter. The bathroom is next to Peter's bed and everything else we basically share" James gave him a wide grin, his excitement about Remus moving in made them very happy, truly. Finally, after a day of worrying he could have a relaxing night secure in the knowledge that everything was probably going to be alright.
The room of course (like the rest of Hogwarts) was magical. It was at least three times as big as Remus' old room, complete with an en suite bathroom, a fridge, an enormous desk table and two comfy looking sofas. Remus slept in one of the courners, which they liked, it felt very cosy. Sirius slept closest to him, his bed against the wall, James was next to the window on the other corner and finally, Peter slept opposite the bedroom door. Remus was also pleased to see a lovely bookcase which did have books on it, but wasn't quite full. Remus would be taking care of that. There was also loads of storage space, however, what seemed to be Sirius' wardrobe was packed full of clothes, he'd even had to put a rack next to his bed with more on. It looked good though, his fashionable black and white clothes making the room look even more aesthetically pleasing, because it really was nice. It didn't particularly look decorated with much thought or anything, It's just looked as if three teenaged boys had grown up there without parental supervision and had filled it up with evidence of their hobbies, friends, family, favourite bands, books and films, etc... Remus loved it. What looked like James' rugby uniform was thrown across a chair, none of the beds where made except for Remus', the wall next to Sirius' bed was filled with band posters, there were art supplies strewn across the desk as well as homework and laptops. The bookcase had everything from YA to classics and there was even a space on it just for DVDs, Remus smiled at how many 2000s romcoms there where. They were also very excited to see two huge
speakers at the top of the shelf, oh how he was going to enjoy playing music very loudly on those. However, perhaps the thing that made Remus the happiest was the pansexuall flag hanging above James' bed. A huge grin spread wide across their face as he looked at it. James caught them looking and smiled too, he looked very proud.