Chapter Text
Moving to Crestwood Academy wasn’t Remus’ ideal world, but he didn’t necessarily have a choice.
His mother - Hope Lupin - passed away from pneumonia 3 months earlier. Remus and his father, Lyall, simply couldn’t handle the grief. The empty house. The balls of wool and knitting equipment still sitting beside her chair, ready to be returned to. The strawberry scented shampoo left in the shower that Remus or Lyall wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. The blouse hung up beside the ironing board, ready and waiting to be ironed for the work the next day. Except Hope wasn’t coming back.
Which Remus was only beginning to accept. So it was his father’s decision to move them down to a different house, deeper into London and have Remus attend a school near by. The only option was Crestwood Academy - a posh boarding school. Remus didn’t have a choice.
So that brought him to his first day.
Remus walked in through the main office with anything but a smile on his face. He walked up to the reception desk and muttered his name, and the office lady who was covered in wrinkles called for a prefect to show him to his dorm.
“Lily Evans. Nice to meet you.” A red-headed girl held her hand out in front of Remus. She had a prefect badge attached to her vest, so at least Remus knew she wasn’t some random student.
“Remus.” Remus answered, taking note of the freckles dotted across her face like stars in a constellation.
“Can I see your sheet of paper?” She asked. Remus handed her the paper that included his timetable, dorm number, etc.
“Ah! Block D, room 4. I feel sorry for you.” Lily chuckled a bit to herself but handed the paper back to him. He tucked it into his blazer pocket. What was there to be sorry about? He wasn’t put with dickheads, was he?
“Why? What’s wrong with that room?” Remus asked in concern.
“Nothing, really. The boys are just lunatics. You’ll see.” She laughed.
𝘖𝘩 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵, 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘰.
“Here’s your room. I’ll leave you to it. Just unpack and be down in the cafeteria by 6pmish. It ends at 7pm. Ask any questions then, I’ll probably be at the prefect table.” Lily skipped off and caught up with another girl, then began to chat.
Remus checked his watch, 2pm. Majority of the students would still be in classes at this hour. He’d probably get until 3pm alone, which was perfect. - it wasn’t the start of a term. It was midway through. His Dad claimed just because he was moving doesn’t mean he should wait for a new term to start school.
“Are you our new roommate?” A short, stubby blonde boy chirped as Remus scanned his key card and hauled his bag in. The boy sat up in bed with a smile and sat his phone down.
“Oh- Yeah.” Remus answered. He didn’t expect anyone to be here until later.
“I’m Peter. You?” Peter grinned excitedly, which Remus was a bit suspicious about. But at least he didn’t seem like a dickhead.
“Remus.” Remus yawned and stood in the middle of the room, figuring out which bed was free.
“That one.” Pete pointed to a bed in the corner. The only one without a window. Great. How was Remus meant to smoke? Fuck that. He groaned but hauled his bag over and dumped it beside the bed.
“Hey, you want to come meet the other two at dinner tonight?” Peter asked.
“Sure.”
James Potter and Sirius Black probably had the largest egos on Earth, by the way they were acting. Did they feed off of each other or something? They both had their chins up and shoulders back while eating - Sirius holding the fork delicately, might Remus add - and were rambling about how girls kept staring at them.
𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴.
“Pleasure to meet ya, Remus.” James grinned over a mouthful of pasta but didn’t bother with a handshake. Sirius gave him a nod of acknowledgement - but hell, if Sirius wasn’t one of the most attractive men Remus had met.. even if he was a tosser-
𝘕𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱.
Even though Remus stopped those thoughts himself, a girl with long brown hair walked over and parked beside Sirius, leaning in and kissing his cheek. Remus scoffed as he saw Sirius grin. Was he really sharing a dorm with him?
“Hey gentlemen.” Isla winked, specifically in Remus’ direction which made him scrunch up his nose a bit. Her ego must of matched Sirius’.
“Isla.” The group responded without a greeting before her name, their tones all laced with boredom. This made Remus laugh a little, did the group not like her? He didn’t blame them
“Who’s this?” Isla smiled with her pearly whites, tilting her head up at Remus. She just gave him a semi-judgemental look, one that said ‘can’t tell if you’re hot enough to leave my boyfriend for’.
“This is Remus. Our new roommate.” James smiled and patted Remus’ back. Isla didn’t listen, just turned back to Sirius and began fiddling with his tie.
A girl with shaggy blonde looks and winged eyeliner then approached and slammed her hand on the table. “Breaking news!”
“Marlene! Have you kissed her yet?!” Mary - another girl Remus met that was sitting at the table, who he didn’t mind - gushed.
“No! I can’t rush into that. But she smiled at me and said hello!” Marlene sat down beside Mary with her tray of food. “She’s so lovely.”
“She’s friends with my brother.” Sirius joined in and scrunched his nose up.
“Oh shut up.” Marlene rolled her eyes. “I want to ask her out so bad. Just worried she’ll say no.”
“She’s lesbian as fuck, look at her.” Sirius joined in again. Remus looked around to see a so called Dorcas, but Sirius mustn’t have been actually looking at her.
“I’ll think about it then.”
Towards the end of lunch Peter asked Remus to pull his phone out, and Peter put his number in saved under the contact ‘Pete :)’. He told Remus to message if he needed anything, which he greatly appreciated, if he was honest.
The night went okay. Sirius was supposedly in Isla’s dorm, and James and Pete were both actually friendly. Remus did end up having an early night to prepare for classes the next day.
The next day when classes actually started, Remus had math first. Just his luck. But at least a famiilar face, Lily, was in there too. To his relief, the class didn’t have a seating plan so they also sat together. Sirius sat a row ahead. None of the others shared a class.
Remus noticed Sirius rolling up a paper ball and aiming to throw it at the teacher. Bloody idiot. Did he think this shit was hot? The paper got the teacher - of which Remus didn’t even know his name - right in the head. The teacher swiveled around angrily, nostrils flaring trying to figure out who did it. But Sirius had leaned back in his seat, acting causal.
“He’s so annoying.” Lily groaned quietly, to which Remus chuckled a bit and nodded. He was glad people were on the same page as him. “Like what does he get out of that?”
“So is his girlfriend.” She added.
“Agreed. Should ask him if throwing paper helps him sleep at night.” Remus rolled his eyes and Lily sniggered.
At lunch the group sat together again - except Lily, who was at the prefect table. The whole time, Remus had a good chat with James, Peter and even Mary. He was also fond of Marlene too - quite happy that there was at least another student who wasn’t straight, but he hadn’t spoken to her much.
Throughout the duration of lunch, Sirius was sending small glares to Remus as if he’d offended him. Remus had been here five minutes and this stuck up boy was just a total dick in general, but now to him? 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘥. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦.
“Don’t worry about him, Remus.” Peter nudged him. “He’s a bit full of himself, he’ll get used to you and you’ll be good friends.
“Oh great. Just what I want, to be influenced by him.”