Remus hadn't believed his stay at Hogwarts was a permanent one until the owl had thrown the letter on his table with gusto one morning. He'd been in constant communication with Lily and Sirius the whole time, however, Sirius would only use the Communication Mirror and throughout their usual discussions, one thing was certain-the wizarding world was in a state of an active volcanic eruption, they never knew when the lava would spew out and if it would burn down the whole world with it or not.
Regardless, the Daily Prophet stuck to denial as the best way to treat the increasing riotous atmosphere.
"Do you believe what Eugenia Jenkins said to the Daily Prophet about the goblins' riots?" Lily asked animatedly to her parents who blinked innocently.
"What did she say, darling?", her mother pursued.
"She said that the goblins and the wizarding community will come to a treaty wherein the goblins would claim ownership to all the swords or other merchandise they have ever created!", she barked loudly over breakfast one of these days and her parents complied with her whims and shook their head morosely, to which she jumped up and began writing another long letter to her dear friend Remus dictating to him the possibilities in which the wizarding world was doomed.
'First, it'll be the goblins, then the giants..soon even the Dementors will claim owership which is obviously undue to those nincompoops!'
Remus read her letter the following day with a smile plastered on his face. Just as he imagined his friend's red hair on end and her green eyes flashing with ferocity nobody should ever face, his Communication Mirror began whirring and emanating light.
"Remus!", Sirius' overly familiar voice called to him. He left his chair with the letter still in his hand and raced to find his mirror. He picked it up just in time.
"What were you up to?! I almost gave up on calling today.", he growled at which Remus snorted and showed him Lily's letter.
"Lily was telling me about the treaty..", he explained.
"James isn't going to like it if he found out you've been flirting with his girlfriend you know..", Sirius winked.
Remus laughed at the incredibly ridiculous idea and between breaths said,"I'd dare not say but isn't Gloria the most recent adventure of James?"
This caused a different reaction to Sirius' face than expected and Remus knew his friend too well to know that he was hiding something. However, he decided to find that out later.
"How's your teaching going?", Remus offered a change of topic.
"Blimey! My folks haven't been as hellbent on perfection since ever! They aren't even sparing Bella.", Sirius complained as he rubbed his red hand.
"What's that?", Remus questioned looking at his hand.
"A Doxy-bite.", Sirius said with a straight face.
"So, did Bella break any more rules to visit the camp or what?", Remus asked.
The camp was something Tom Riddle had started alongwith the Knights, it meant rigorous training in the Dark Arts so that he could gain more followers for his cause. Usually, pureblood families had proudly signed their kids in for the programme, but the Blacks had decided to enroll only the 'worthiest' and 'oldest', as they'd put it.
"Yeah, she keeps breaking into their camp wanting to drool all over that slick Tom Riddle.", he grimaced at the thought of anyone having a crush on the slick thing he had seen last Christmas in Professor Dumbledore's office. Then again, it was his cousin, Bella, who probably found this slick git beautiful according to her standards.
Remus laughed at the grimace which played on Sirius' face when he took his cousin's name. Sirius' face lightened a little as he took in Remus' laugh but was abruptly intruded as a menacing female voice crept through the mirror to Remus.
"Sirius, what're you up to?"
Remus' eyes widened as the mirror suddenly went blank and he was left staring into his own horrified face. Sirius had gotten himself into trouble, yet again. Since Christmas, Sirius had been narrating how his parents had been giving him a hard time, because Bellatrix had told them everything. How he hung out with Gryffindor snobs and pranked their neighbour's sons and daughters, how he jinxed the Slytherin urinals and how he was part of the group which caused the Knights to be exposed in the first place, This resulted in them never taking him to outings, never letting him send any letters or receive any unless they were from Hogwarts and they had even threatened to disown him and leave him in the depths of Albania where even the Dark Lord wouldn't be able to find him. Sirius knew better though.
Remus spent the rest of his holidays following the riots of the goblins, the giants' take on the war, the strategic parts of the wizarding community which would help them solve this war before it began. Despite all of those ongoing things, however, Remus was more than grateful to his father to let him attend Hogwarts even after hearing about the time the Marauders had absently crept right into his spot and hearing about it from Professor Dumbledore himself. He had a sneaking suspicion his father was under the Imperius curse but he didn't seem as vague in his disposition as the curse was rumored to make its victims.
Nevertheless, with James' daily dose of his pranks on his neighbour muggle kid, Lily's regular updates, Sirius' daily complaints of his family and Peter's weird silence where he was sure the boy was sleeping somewhere with his stomach full, he knew that the coming year was one to look forward to and he had never been as correct before.