Of Train Rides, Making Friends and the Founding of Rome
DISCLAIMER: I don't own a thing, this was written for the purpose of entertainment only.
*A/N* This was actually supposed to be a multi-chapter, but now it's a one-shot. I hope you'll enjoy it, if you do, have a look at my other Harry Potter fics, too!
Traduction française sur la page de Peaseblossom-pixie sous le titre "Où l'on parle de voyages en train, d'amis et de la fondantion de Rome".
His fingers clutched the book - a battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration - as if his life depended on it. The rattling of the luggage trolley, the screeching of his new owl and the hundreds of voices around them bore into his head and his worn bag grew heavier with every step.
Smoke filled the air over the platform and stung in Remus's eyes. His last transformation had been just two days ago, meaning he was feeling far from healthy and was looking even worse.
His parents, walking closely behind him, were both positively beaming with pride, his mother cast amazed looks around the platform and at the scarlet train.
But Remus couldn't muster the same optimism - yes, of course he was immensely curious, of course he wanted to learn, become a wizard. However, the other kids' eyes gleaming with innocent, undiminished excitement were proof enough of the difference between them and him.
None of them ever had to move because they had wrecked half the house, completely out of control. None of them had ever dreaded a night the way he had. Surely none of them had ever felt so much pain, and surely none of them had ever been completely convinced they were going to die - but exactly that was what Remus went through every month.
And, as much as he tried to be positive, as much as he tried to make the best he could of the rest of days and nights - the wolf had stolen most of his childhood and all of his innocence and the things children his age enjoyed tended to frighten him half to death.
Surely nobody was going to like him anyway, Remus thought bitterly. He hadn't been in contact with anyone except for his parents for years, and he wasn't sure he knew what to do with other people.
Well, he always had Gina. The owl didn't seem to sense the beast in him (although he wasn't sure one could expect this much of an ordinary short-eared owl). So that meant he did at least have one friend.
"Go on then, love," his mother said gently, squeezing his shoulder. "Time to go."
He nodded, but his lopsided smile didn't seem to convince his father. "You'll love Hogwarts, Remus," he said quietly.
"Yeah, that's not all I'm worried about," Remus muttered, staring at his feet, then gripped his bag and plastered another smile on his face.
"You'll see, once you're there you won't want to come back," Lyall replied, smiling.
"We'll write you," his mother added softly. "Though I still don't understand how this owl-thing works."
Remus still wasn't convinced, but nodded, took a deep breath and hugged his parents goodbye.
.
His insides were squirming when he entered the train. A scrawny boy with greasy black hair stormed past him, already in his robes.
Everybody else seemed to look forward to Hogwarts without a second thought, but Remus was mostly scared.
Which was probably why he stood around outside the compartments for over twenty minutes until he managed to pluck up the courage to open one of the doors.
"Um," his voice sounded strange to his ears, and far too quiet, too, "I'm… mind if I sit there?"
The two boys looked up. One of them, a handsome boy with a defiant glint in his grey eyes and an aristocratic sort of arrogance in his posture, scrutinised him rather critically from head to foot. But the other, brown eyes blinking behind a pair of glasses, grinned at him and answered:
"As long as you're not as weird as the last guy… have a seat!"
Remus stepped inside tentatively, still clutching his book and his bag, suddenly very aware of his run-down robes and possessions.
"I'm James. You?"
He took a moment to realise he was being spoken to - he had to look pretty stupid to the others, as if he didn't even remember his own name.
"Er, Remus." He felt like he should say something else, so he added lamely: "You know, like the guy who didn't found Rome."
James threw him a confused look. "Lots of people didn't found Rome, right?"
"It's just this old Muggle myth," Remus replied rather defiantly.
"Oh, okay," James answered, laughing. Remus admired how effortlessly he did that. "I wouldn't know much about that. My whole family are wizards."
"Yeah, mine too," the other boy added, his voice full of barely contained resentment. "So what's that story?"
Remus shrugged. "Well… there are those two brother, Romulus and Remus. They're having a contest to find out which of them gets to found a city. They're counting birds, I think… anyway, Romulus wins, and he starts building a wall around his new city. His brother wants to make fun of him and jumps over it and, er, Romulus kills him."
The boy with the grey eyes laughed. "Sounds like my brother. I hope you don't have one."
A shaky smile stole on Remus's lips and he shook his head.
"Well, my parents named me after a star and my name sounds like bloody adjective, so I shouldn't be talking really," the other added, talking with ease and confidence just like James and so very unlike Remus who was still looking for how his voice normally sounded like. "I mean, Sirius - seriously."
James burst out laughing and Remus grinned, too.
"Now then, the joke's been made, so let's drop that topic, shall we?" Sirius said with a smirk.
"Okay, Remus," Remus could only hope James didn't notice how he flinched every time he was being addressed, "what house do you wanna be in?"
"Dunno," he muttered. "Don't care, really. Slytherin doesn't sound very nice, though," he added with a slight smile.
"Look at that, Sirius," James said. "We've found a normal one."
Remus thought he couldn't be more wrong, but managed to keep his mouth shut.
"Now, where's that trolley everyone keeps talking about?" Sirius asked, getting to his feet. "I'm starving."
And he got a handful of gold coins out of his bag.
"That's a lot of money," Remus remarked quietly and bit his lip, shocked to find he'd said that out loud.
"Yeah well, my deranged family has to be of some use," Sirius answered drily and left.
Meanwhile, Remus and James exchanged the stories their parents had told them about Hogwarts (meaning James talked and Remus listened).
A few minutes later, Sirius came back with his arms full of cauldron cakes, chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's All Flavoured Beans and a whole lot of sweets Remus had never even heard of and dropped them on one of the empty seats. He and James dug in enthusiastically and were soon surrounded by small heaps of empty wrappings.
"Merlin, have at it," Sirius said, laughing, when he noticed Remus's hungry look and threw him a chocolate frog. "If you get Morgana though, I want that card, my collection's still missing her."
Remus was more than happy to give all his cards away - he'd didn't care much about collecting things, anyway - and he found talking got easier very quickly. In fact he was fairly sure he hadn't talked as much in months, not to mention he'd never before had this much chocolate in one day.
Nor had he laughed so much in, well, forever.
Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be too bad after all.
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