This was written for the Pirate Ship Competition, with the theme of "Accidental Parenthood." I used the prompts of Summer, Frog, Chimpanzee, Pasta, Fever, and Elephant.
Word Count: 1,119.
We met on the train to Hogwarts. From the time when we first saw each other, we were fast friends. There was some attraction between us that we didn't understand until later, but we followed our gut instincts.
Though we were opposites in so many ways, the similarities between us were striking. He was as much an outcast as I was within my own family, but where he was revered for breaking family tradition, I would be killed if my secret came out. A werewolf at Hogwarts? Other parents would be furious, not believing that I would never willing hurt someone.
Anyway, back to that fateful meeting. I was sitting alone in a compartment when he walked in. With his imposing looks and arrogant manner, the air seemed brighter around him, like even the molecules wanted to be close to the sense of life that was almost tangible near him. He asked if he could sit beside me, and I shyly agreed. Minutes later, we were joined by two other boys, one was chubby and had pale watery blue eyes, the other was self confident, tall, and black haired.
We later learned each other's names, the chubby boy was Peter, the one with messy black hair was James, and the first boy was Sirius. I rolled SIrius's named around my mouth thinking that it suited him. A bright star next to which we paled. I gave them my name, Remus, and returned to my book.
Sirius wouldn't quit pestering, asking me all manner of questions. Through his incessant chatter, I learned that he was a Pureblood, a member of the House of Black, had always wanted to try pasta (it wasn't traditional, so his mother wouldn't allow it), and his least favorite season was summer. Apparently he disliked summer because it was when he would be going back home, which he despised.
When we reached Hogwarts, I was struck dumb by the beauty of the castle. It was magnificent! Even a mythical place like Minas Tirith had nothing on the ethereal castle before me.
While waiting in a chamber off the Great Hall, to be Sorted, I presumed, ghosts came floating out of the walls. They were just like in my copy of Hogwarts, A History!
The four of us were Sorted into Gryffindor, and talked over dinner, on the way to our dorms, and well into the night.
Over the course of the year, James, Peter, Sirius, and I became known as the Marauders, a group of fearsome pranksters. I had no wish to be part of their mischief making, but I couldn't resist the hope in Sirius's eyes when he pleaded with me to put my studies aside and join them.
At the end of First Year, I was at the top of my class in everything but Potions, Sirius had claimed that award. We put our skills to use in planning many a prank, and terrorizing the school.
Second year passed without many major incidents, unless you count us reversing the gravity in the Charms corridor, so that everyone would have to walk on the ceiling. Or when we transformed the staircases into Muggle waterslides.
I spent most of my time in the library, researching for school work or pranks, while Peter became Sister's guinea pig for experimental potion making.
Our Third Year passed in a fevered frenzy of discovering the delights of flirting with girls, which I found strangely unappealing, setting frogs loose in dorms, attending classes, and new electives.
During the early winter of this year, Sirius decided to confirm a hunch of his by marking the days I left every month on a lunar calendar,m deducing my werewolf status. He told my friends, but they didn't hate me! In fact, James hatched the harebrained idea to become Animagi and keep me company while I was in wolf form.
In fourth year, I realized that I was in love with Sirius, but didn't have the courage to tell him. After a few awkward weeks of silence between the two of us, he found out why I kept running away from him and asked me to be his boyfriend. Of course I accepted, and we spent every spare minute together after that. James' only comment was that we didn't want to see us shagging.
James started to follow Lily around like a lovesick puppy, and hexed Severus Snape in sight, for simply being a Slytherin and being friends with his "fair lily flower." Sometimes James could be so blind. Especially when it came to romance, he was like some sort of monkey, quite possible a chimpanzee or an ape. I mean, seriously. Hexing Lily's best friend would drive her away, not make her fall in love with him!
In fifth year, James, Peter, and Sirius became Animagi. Sirius vowed never to leave me alone again, but then, just months later sent Severus to the Shrieking Shack on a full moon. Heartbroken, I refused to talk to him, or even look at him until Easter. Anytime he walked into the same room that I was in, or vice versa, everyone could feel the metaphorical elephant in the room, even if no one knew its cause.
James finally succeeded in driving a wedge between Lily and Severus, pilling more tension on top of the already present teenage angst.
In retrospect, it was probably that year that drove Peter away from us, and into the Dark Lord's ranks.
The next two years went without many major events. James and Lily became a couple and we graduated from Hogwarts. Among many tears, we parted, James and Sirius to the Auror Division at the Ministry, Lily to work as a Healer at St,. Mungo's, and I went to the Muggle world in an attempt to find work.
James and Lily's first child, a boy by the name of Harry James, was born the next year. Without meaning to, or really wanting to, Sirius and I were pulled into parenting rolls. So, in a way, even though I'd be arrested for being near him, young Harry had four parents who loved him equally.
While Sirius and I loved him, neither of us were prepared to become his only set of parents when James and Lily were murdered a year later. Mad with grief, Sirius went chasing after Peter, only to be framed as a traitor, leaving me with Harry.
Over the years, I've raised Harry as best I could far from prying eyes. I just sent him off to Hogwarts, and I hope he finds someone just as brilliant as I did.