Sirius Black loosened the tie around his neck as he entered his dormitory, throwing his book bag across the room as he did so. It landed, with a muffled thump, on the bed's occupant.
"Hey! What'd you do that for?"
"What have I told you about staying out of my bed?" grinned Sirius, walking over to said bed and sitting down on it with a big bounce. He lay down and knocked into his best friend James, who nearly toppled over its side.
"Yes, well, we all know you got the best bed. Don't know how you managed to get one that's so much more comfortable than everyone else's," grumbled James, rolling back onto the bed and giving Sirius his own shove.
"Money, dear Prongs, money," grinned Sirius, sitting up and looking at James. "Count and Countess Black have paid good money to the hallowed learning establishment of Hogwarts Boarding School."
James sighed theatrically. "Just because you have a lot of money, you think you can go about throwing book bags at your best mate. Really."
"Yes," Sirius said, letting out his short, bark-like laugh. "What are you doing here, anyway? Fancied an afternoon nap again?"
"Well, I was napping," said James, now sitting up himself. "But then I noticed the new bed."
"New bed?" asked Sirius, his eyes following James's outstretched finger. It was true; there was a new four-poster bed added to their tower dormitory, decked out in the same thick red and gold comforter as the other three beds, sitting a few feet away from Sirius's.
"I was just going to go and see how it rated in terms of comfortableness when I was rudely assaulted."
"Let's get to it, then, shall we?" asked Sirius, and he jumped off his bed and onto the new one.
"Not as good as mine, unfortunately," he said, giving it an experimental bounce as James joined him.
"Afraid to say you're right, Padfoot," James agreed. "I'll just have to keep using yours, then."
"Although," Sirius added, leaning back now, "the pillows are rather fluffy."
"Hmm," James said, leaning back as well.
"And these are definitely new bed things," Sirius said, plucking at the comforter and blanket. "Probably much better than ours."
Lost in their laughter, James and Sirius didn't notice when the door to their dormitory slipped open.
"Er," said a voice from above them. Sirius and James looked up, their laughter dying out, as they contemplated the boy who must be their new roommate. He was tall and thin, with golden-brown hair that fell past his ears and into his eyes, which were bright in his pale face. Sirius couldn't help himself from staring at the boy, who had the kind of good looks that he only seemed to be able to notice if he looked at him slantwise. In spite of this, Sirius's eyes were immediately drawn to a long, jagged pair of scars running from the top of his head, through his eyebrow, and down his cheek.
"Sorry to interrupt," the boy said, quirking a small smile. "But I think that's my new bed?" He was looking around the rest of the circular tower room; the other beds all had their owner's trunks set out in front of them, contents falling over them and strewn across the floor, and posters stuck up around their walls.
"Right," said James, standing up quickly and brushing off his clothes. "We were just—er—"
"We were testing out the comfortableness ratio of your bed," said Sirius with a straight face, also getting up to greet the boy.
"And how did it hold up?," he asked, amused, as he set down his trunk in front of his bed and opened it.
"Fairly well," Sirius continued on. "Not as good as mine, but I think it's better than James's or Pete's."
"I'm James, by the way," James added, sticking out his hand. "James Potter." He gave the new boy his most charming smile, the one that helped James wiggle his way out of late homework assignments or detentions.
"Remus Lupin," the boy answered, shaking his hand politely.
"Sirius Black," Sirius said, shaking Remus's hand as well; he felt a small jolt run through him as the boy slipped his thin hand into his own.
Sirius stuck his hands back into his pockets and watched, with some small fascination, as Remus opened his battered trunk and starting pulling out his belongings.
"Pete lives here as well," said James. "That's his bed over there. He's stuck in detention now though, so I expect you'll meet him later."
Remus raised an eyebrow but didn't comment, pulling out stacks of his sweaters and a few dog-eared books.
"We're going down to dinner now," said Sirius. "Want to join us?"
"I should probably finish unpacking," Remus said quietly, not meeting their eyes. "Thanks, though."
"All right," said James. "If you ever want a tour of the place or anything, let us know. It's pretty big."
"And we know all its secrets," Sirius added.
Remus smiled and thanked them again.
000
"What's up with him, do you think?" Sirius asked for the dozenth time. He was sitting in the back of his European History class with James, leaning back in his chair so that its front two legs were tipped off the ground. Neither of them was paying attention; they never did in History class, which was by far their dullest subject. The Professor, an aging little man named Binns, droned on in the front of the class, eyes on his notes, for the entire hour and fifteen minutes each lesson; personally, Sirius thought a riot could break out under his nose and the man wouldn't notice. He and James had started seeing how much noise and distraction they could cause without getting into trouble; so far, they had successfully lobbed wadded up balls of paper from the back of the classroom into the trash bin at the front, crouched beneath the desks and tied together a few people's shoelaces, and, during one particularly daring tryst, cut off a chunk of Severus Snape's hair without his noticing.
Today, however, Sirius and James were not pulling any of their pranks; it was a Monday morning and Sirius had a pounding hangover, and it was all he could do to remain awake in the class. That didn't stop him from watching Remus Lupin, however, who was sitting in the front of the classroom diligently taking notes.
"Who, Lupin?" asked James, unable to stifle a huge yawn.
"Of course," Sirius said, watching as Lupin's hand glided across the page of his notebook, scrawling out the notes that Sirius would probably nick from his book bag later.
"Dunno," said James, his eyes glazed over; the subject of Remus Lupin, while interesting at first, had quickly become less so to James, who now turned a sleepy eye toward the girl sitting a few seats over from Remus, her bright red head bent over her own notebook.
"But where was he all weekend?" Sirius asked.
"Beats me," said James.
Sirius sighed, deciding that talking to James was getting him nowhere.
"What d'you think, Pete?" he asked the boy on his other side, who was sitting with his head in his hands and gazing at the blank parchment before him.
"What?"
"I said, what do you think's up with Lupin?"
"Oh—I don't know. Whatever James said."
Sirius rolled his eyes and turned away. While Peter was always a laugh, he wasn't one to have deep conversations with; he had tired of the subject of Remus even more quickly than James had.
If Sirius was being honest with himself, he might have admitted that his recent obsession with Remus Lupin, was, as James put it, a bit mad. At first, the subject of their new dorm mate had been an interesting topic for James, Peter, and Sirius. Remus was hardly ever in the room, except for when he crept in late at night, and he shook off every offer the boys made inviting him to eat or to hang out on the weekends. Far from deterring his interest, this mysterious behavior made Sirius all the more interested in getting to know the boy.
"If he doesn't want to hang out with us, that's up to him," James had said once, shrugging off Sirius's latest round of questioning. He was used to Sirius's behavior though, and had seen him border on obsession several times before, so he let him run his course, though he had started getting an exasperated look in his eye every time Sirius brought it up.
Now, Sirius continued to watch him for the rest of the lesson instead of paying attention to Binns. Once the bell rang signaling the end of class, Sirius jumped out of his seat, but by the time he reached the front of the classroom Remus was gone.
000
"She's bound to say yes to me if I keep asking," James said. It was dinnertime, and the three boys were sitting in the Great Hall. The meals at Hogwarts were excellent, by boarding school standards, and they had just finished a delicious course of steak-and-kidney pie. James was glancing along the table every few minutes, staring at Lily Evans with abject longing as she sat and chatted with her friends.
"That's the spirit, mate," said Sirius. "Just keep bombarding her until she's so tired of you asking she just gives in."
James scowled at him. "I don't see you doing too well, either. Where's Zabini, then?"
"We broke things off last week," said Sirius, leaning back.
"Oh," said James. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. Why didn't you mention it?"
Sirius shrugged. "It wasn't even serious anyway, you knew that." The truth was that he had barely thought about Anthony lately, the boy he had been seeing on-and-off for a few months.
"Well, sorry anyway," said James, giving him an odd look before turning to Peter. "What about you Wormtail, any luck lately?"
Peter turned slightly pink. "I wish you'd stop calling me that," he said around a mouthful of food. "And no. I'm thinking of asking Bertha Jorkins to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend, though." He said these last words all in a rush, his cheeks flushing an even deeper shade of pink.
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Well, would you look at that. Wormtail here is doing the best out of all of us. Never thought I'd see the day."
"He said not to call him that," James said, though he was grinning.
"How can I help it if that fat rat Snowball fell in love with him?" Sirius asked, mock-innocent. It was true, though; they had been supposed to be training their rats to go through a maze and eat the pellets of food at the end, but their rat had scampered off the table, crawled up Peter's arm, and nestled onto his shoulder. The name had stuck ever since. Even their usually strict biology Professor, McGonagall, had had trouble disguising her smile that day.
"Enough romantic talk, though," Sirius said, getting up from the table and stretching his long limbs. "Although Peter and Snowball are the greatest love story of our generation, we've got a prank to pull on Snivellus."
Peter looked slightly disappointed at the prospect of missing dessert, but followed James and Sirius out of the Great Hall all the same.
They wound their way down the giant staircase that led down from the Great Hall into the Entrance Hall; from there, they pushed on one of the large oak doors that led down into the twisting dungeon passages. Hogwarts Boarding School was an ancient castle, whose four founders had dedicated themselves to education and made sure that the building was designated as a learning establishment for posterity. Though the castle was enormous, with twisting spiral staircases, secret passageways, ornate oil paintings, thick oriental rugs, and even clanking suits of armor, there were only four dormitories in the place; not that many students could afford to attend, and the school only gave out a few scholarships. The four dormitories were named after each of the founders, and the one they were making their way toward now happened to house their least favorite student, Severus Snape.
Sirius and James's loathing of Snape had been instant, and by extension Peter was included in it too. The boy was simply nasty; there was no other way to put it. While he was exceptionally bright, here on a chemistry scholarship, his intelligence did not extend to social matters. He was rude to everyone (except for Lily Evans, which was perhaps the sorest point of the whole thing for James), often making snide comments that left some of the younger students bursting into tears. James and Sirius had made antagonizing Snape one of their top priorities, having fought with Snape on their very first train ride to school. Snape didn't take that lying down though, and was a clever and cruel adversary. They had all ended up in the nurse's office because of Snape, who had on more than one occasion slipped some of his little chemistry experiments into their drinks.
"Got the stuff?" James asked, once they had reached an old marble statue that served as their vantage point. Peter nodded and pulled out a small, bulging back from his book bag.
"Brilliant!" James said. "And now we wait." He slid down the wall by the statue, turning his head to look out at the corridor beyond. Sirius and Peter joined him.
Their planned prank was simple enough; they had purchased a large bag of stink pellets a few weeks ago from the joke shop in the nearby village Hogsmeade, and had been itching for the chance to use them. After some careful reconnaissance by Peter, they had determined that Snape often made his way back to the Slytherin dorm by way of the shortcut where the statue they hid behind stood. Their plan was to drop the stink pellets into his pockets as he passed by, counting on the fact that he was usually engrossed in some chemistry book as he walked.
They had been waiting for nearly forty-five minutes when Peter spotted him; Sirius had nearly been about to suggest they leave the prank for another day, but there Snape was, slinking down the hallway.
"Slimy git," Sirius whispered, eyes narrowing in automatic dislike.
"Shh," James whispered back, already holding a brimming handful of the stink pellets. When Snape passed by their hiding spot, he dropped the small pellets into his trouser pocket, holding his breath. It seemed to have worked, for Snape kept walking.
The three boys grinned at each other; then, however Snape's voice broke out in the silence. They held their breath-
"Lupin?" It was Snape speaking, his nasally voice dripping with dislike.
"Severus," Remus said; it was indeed him, passing by in the dungeon shortcut.
"What are you doing down here?"
"It is a crime to be in the dungeons now?" Lupin asked lightly, and Sirius felt a rush of admiration for him that he was not backing down.
Snape simply narrowed his eyes at Remus, made to leave, then stopped.
"Potter," he breathed. "Black!" His hands had found the bulge in his pocket, and he pulled out one of the stink pellets with a deranged look in his eye.
"They did this," he said, turning around on the spot, his eyes scouring—
"Sorry?" asked Lupin. He too was surveying the surrounding area, and his eyes roamed over the statue three times before he turned back to Snape.
"I'll get them in detention for this," Snape was muttering, he took a few steps backward.
"I'm afraid not," Lupin said, still in his airy tone of voice.
"Excuse me?" Snape had stopped, staring at Lupin.
"I'm afraid you can't get them in detention, as it was me who did it."
"You?"
"Yes," he continued on. "I'm terribly sorry, didn't know you'd take it this badly. Just a friendly little prank."
Snape continued to survey him through narrowed eyes.
"Right," breathed Snape. "I'd watch my step if I were you, Lupin." He stalked past Remus, giving him a nasty shove with his shoulder as he did so. Remus watched him go, absently rubbing the spot where Snape had shoved him, until he disappeared.
Once they were sure Snape was gone, James, Sirius, and Peter emerged from behind the statue.
"That was brilliant!" James said, staring at Remus in awe.
"Really," Peter squeaked.
"Yeah, thanks," Sirius added.
"No problem," Remus said, giving them a smile. "I don't quite like Snape. Didn't want you lot to get detention."
They beamed at him as they made their way back up to the Gryffindor dormitory, Sirius slinging an arm around his shoulder. Whether he liked it or not, Remus Lupin had won the respect and friendship of the Marauders.
A/N: What did you think? Worth continuing?