A/N: Back so soon! This one has a twist, so keep reading and reviewing!

First Days are Hectic

Remus Lupin grinned as he stepped on to the train platform. Another crisp fall morning, another wonderful new year at Hogwarts, more wisdom to be gleaned, a new class of first years… he could remember his own first day: the wonder and anticipation of--

"Moony, you're not doing that thing where you narrate your life in your head all sentimental-like, are you? Because you're holding up the line." James Potter pushed him forward with a smile and Remus snapped back to reality.

"Oy, don't shove! It's our last year, you can't expect me not to be a bit sentimental."

"To the contrary," James replied smartly, "I have lots of expectations to be upheld by the new head boy."

"Such as?"

He never found out what James's expectations were, because at that moment their conversation was interrupted by a cry of distress. A small, rat-faced boy came flying between them glanced around nervously.

Remus frowned. "What is the matter with—"

But the problem became apparent when they heard a shout from across the platform. Sirius Black came barreling towards them, very angry and holding the left side of his face in pain. "Peter Pettigrew, I am going to murder you!"

Peter tried to hide behind James to no avail, as James was a good deal thinner than he was. Sirius tried to push past James with throttling Peter in mind, but Remus held him back. By this time, most everyone on the platform had stopped to watch.

"Alright, what happened?" Remus asked, straining to hold Sirius back.

"I'll tell you what happened!" Sirius shouted as Peter cowered behind James. "I was chatting up Eliza Allen—"

"Who's that?" James interrupted.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Only the best-looking sixth year in Gryffindor. And I was about to ask her to Hogsmeade—"

"That's weeks away!"

"James, don't interrupt! I was about to ask her to Hogsmeade when this rat here used a wind charm to blow her skirt upwards, and naturally she thought I'd done it, and she pulled out this bottle thinger and sprayed this horrible stuff on me and my face burns!"

Remus leaned in to take a closer look. "Eliza's a muggleborn… I think she pepper-sprayed you!" He doubled over laughing.

Sirius wasn't amused. "I don't care what she did, the question is how can you fix it!? And how am I supposed to get a new Hogsmeade date looking like this!" He took his hand away from his face to reveal a swollen, watery eye that was redder than Lily Evans's hair.

At that, Remus and James were laughing so hard that Sirius was able to push Remus away and tackle Peter to the ground. Remus and James left them to their scuffle, boarded the scarlet train behind them and hunted down an empty compartment.

Just as they had begun a game of Gobstones, Sirius and Peter trudged in, the latter more bruised than the former but both quite battered, followed by a pretty red headed girl who cleared her throat (as if she needed to do anything to catch James's attention).

"Alright, Evans?" He said in a voice that was much deeper than his usual tone. The other boys sniggered.

"Hullo, James," she replied dismissively, although James sat up straighter since she replied at all. She gave an amused glance at the tattered Sirius and Peter before she turned to Remus. "Remus, we need to head up the prefect meeting in the second compartment."

"You're head girl, then?" asked Remus.

"Naturally," James smiled.

Lily nodded, pretending she hadn't heard James and trying not to appear flattered. "So I'll see you there?"

Remus nodded. "Of course, I'll be along in just a minute."

Lily turned and exited the compartment, and James looked out the window in an effort not to eye her legs as she went. The other boys weren't fooled.

Sirius smirked at him. "So you still have a thing for Evans?"

James shook his head at himself. "Always. But I'm telling you, mate, this is the year for me."

"Keep telling yourself that."

Peter elbowed him. "I don't know, James. I think maybe she was trying to hold back a smile when you said hi. And maybe her neck turned pink a little."

James gave him a look of appreciation. "Thanks, man."

Remus stood up quickly. "Well, I'd better get going. See you guys later."

They vaguely acknowledged his leaving as he slid out the door and headed down the hall. After going maybe two meters, he ran directly into a girl with a tall stack of books in her arms. The books went tumbling to the floor with a clatter and the girl cursed and stomped her foot.

"Sorry," Remus muttered, and he bent to help the girl, who had plopped onto the floor and begun scooping her books into a pile.

"Don't worry about it," she muttered, brushing a lock of dull, mousy brown hair behind her ear. "I probably tripped myself, I'm dead clumsy."

"Still, I should be looking where I'm going."

"Yes, well…" she glanced up at him for the first time, blushed, and looked back down at her books.

Remus brushed off this odd behavior and handed her last book to her, helping her to her feet. "I'm sorry I have to run, but I have to get to the prefect meeting."

"You're a prefect?"

"Head boy." He put his hand out to her. "Remus Lupin."

"Tonks," she replied, not meeting his eye.

"That's a… unique name."

"It's my surname," she replied, finally looking up with another blush. "And I'm not telling you my first, so don't bother to ask."

Remus decided to once again ignore her peculiar behavior and nodded. "Alright, well take care of yourself, Tonks."

She gave him the tiniest smile and turned around, half jogging down the corridor as though she were frightened of him.

Remus took only a moment to stand there in confusion before turning to leave, himself.

When he walked into the prefect compartment, he was greeted by a smile from Lily Evans and nervous looks from the little herd of fifth and sixth years.

"Alright, so we're ready to begin," she said. "I will pass out patrolling schedules at our first prefect meeting, which will be next Tuesday at seven thirty in room 208, that's in the left wing on the second floor. Remus and I will handle it until then. I don't think we need to explain that you guys should never abuse any of your authority and take advantage of other houses or anything like that. You are prefects, and you should act like it." She gave a stern look around the room and the other students nodded in acknowledgement. "Remus, do you have anything to add?"

He nodded and cleared his throat, pulling out the notes that Dumbledore had sent him with his Hogwarts letter. "For those of you who were prefects last year, you'll remember that there is a second year named Amelia Bones who has a severe peanut allergy, so if you see her acting like she is having any trouble breathing, just perform an epinephrasia charm and she should clear right up. Also there is a first year named Nymphadora Tonks who is an animorphmagus, and for those of you who are unfamiliar with that term, it means she can change her appearance at will. She can't be registered until she is of age, so she has a trace placed on her similar to the underage magic trace that will alert the faculty if she is using her powers outside of transfiguration classes and special lessons, which is against the rules. Any questions?"

The prefects shook their heads, so Remus dismissed them and headed back for his compartment. As he passed the spot where he had run into the brown-haired girl earlier, he remembered that she had said her name was Tonks, which would make her the new first year he had alerted the prefects about.

Just then, feet from his compartment door, he ran into someone else. She tumbled to the ground like Tonks had, and Remus turned to apologize, making a mental note that he really should be watching where he was going. He was about to help her up when he got a good look at her and froze. She had thick blonde hair that tumbled to half-way down her back in waves, a perfectly angelic face, and in Remus's opinion, a rather lovely figure.

"Are you alright?" she asked from her spot on the floor, concerned.

Remus shook his head vacantly. Then he remembered his manners. "Oh, of course. I should be asking you that." He reached down and pulled her to her feet, meeting her dark brown eyes. He felt himself blush, which was something he never did. What the heck is the matter with me? he wondered. Control, man!

"I'm Lila Smith," she said with a bright smile.

"Remus Lupin," he replied.

"It was nice to meet you, Remus."

"You too." He felt like swatting himself for coming up with such a lame reply, but it was too late to come up with something better because she had already turned away and headed down the hall with a quick glance over her shoulder. Remus realized, to his horror, that he had been studying the way her skirt swished against her legs like he was James or Sirius or someone entirely not himself.

"Huh," he said to himself, trying to rub the redness out of his neck. He turned and opened the compartment door beside him, walking in on a ferocious game of wizarding chess, where it looks like Sirius had put a leg-locking curse on all of James's white chess men so that they stood helplessly while the little black men ran all over the board, beating them to the ground.

They turned and watched him walk in to the compartment. James forgot about his chess men and gave Remus a look of concern. "Did you make a fool out of yourself at the meeting?"

They noticed that Remus kept glancing out the door of the compartment, back the way he came. "No, why do you ask that?" he said vaguely.

"Your face is redder than the train we're riding, mate."

Remus looked at him for a second and shrugged. "How's the chess game going?"

They three boys decided to brush off their friend's strange entrance. After all, Remus had a lot of responsibility to deal with this year, and maybe he had finally just cracked.

A/N: First chapter. What do you think?