"You'll be sure to write?" Remus' mother asked placing both hands on his face and standing on her toes to brush her lips to his cheek.
"Of course I will, Mum."
"And if anything happens, you make sure and tell us, alright?"
"Yes, Mum. I have to go," he urged as a high pitched whistle sounded from the scarlet steam engine fifteen feet away.
"Oh, be safe dear." She kissed him one more time for good measure, and sent him off to the train. Quickly, Remus heaved his trunk through the door, with a heavy thump and made his way down the train corridor, giving short "hello"s to a couple of people as he passed. He had to dodge a young Ravenclaw girl who seemed determined to keep him in a conversation.
His friends were sitting in a compartment near the back of the train. James and Sirius were shoving each other around and laughing, while Peter sat in the corner, looking up at them with reverence.
Sirius stopped immediately when he saw Remus at the door. James batted at his shoulder then turned, and his face broke into a grin. He grabbed Remus' trunk from him and hoisted in onto the luggage rack above their heads. Sirius just stood there, gaping at him, holding onto the windowsill like his life depended on it.
"Are you alright, Sirius?" Remus asked, eyebrow raised. Sirius snapped his mouth shut and promptly released the window. Remus sat down next to Peter.
Another high-pitched whistle cut the air, silver steam billowed up in front of the window, and the train lurched forward, rolling lazily away from the platform.
"Have a good summer then, Rem?" James asked, leaning back and taking up most of the seat on his side. Sirius kicked him away so he was forced to take up only half the space. James scowled more out of formality than actual irritation.
"Definitely could have been worse. My great Aunt came to visit. God, you have no idea…the night mare." Remus rolled his eyes and laughter pealed through the compartment. "And hiding my 'fury little problem' from her—not an experience I'll be eager to repeat."
"She doesn't know you're a werewolf?"
"She doesn't know I'm a wizard. What about you James? How was Paris?"
"Trip was cancelled. You should've seen it. He showed up—," James flipped a finger in Sirius' direction. "In the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, soaked through to the skin and knocking on my bedroom window." Sirius grinned sheepishly.
"He hid in my bedroom for three days before my parents found out. Looked a right mess, too, until my mom fixed him up, covered in b-." But the James caught Sirius' eye, suddenly stern, jaw clenched and James stopped talking abruptly.
"Why were you at James' house," Remus asked curiously, "covered in what?"
"I ran away from home. Couldn't stand it. My parents are more intolerable than ever, what with the war everyone thinks is about to happen. He said the word "war" in a whisper, as if speaking it would somehow make it happen faster.
"My parents haven't been ignoring it either. That's another reason we cancelled Paris."
"My dad says the war's been going on for years now." Remus said quietly. "That You-Know-Who's been gathering followers since before we started school and the ministry's been trying to hide the damage. That's gotten a little harder now what with all the…"
"Deaths." James finished for him.
Remus glanced out the window at the grey clouds forming on the horizon. "We're in for one hell of a year," he murmured so softy he thought the others hadn't heard him, but James let out a small sigh of agreement, Sirius nodded his head with resignation and Peter gave a small groan. The group fell into a melancholy silence. Remus played idly with the edges of a hole in his jeans.
"Do you… do you think we're really… that we're really in danger?" Peter asked, digging his fingernails apprehensively into his forearms.
"Not as long as we're at Hogwarts, Pete." James said, patting Peter's knee comfortingly, though Peter didn't look particularly reassured.
The day quickly got darker as they travelled north into the clouds that followed them the entire journey. About midday fat drops of rain began following, plastering the windows in a sheen of water so that the landscape outside was nothing but a blur of green and grey. Shortly afterward the food trolley came by.
"Thank God, Sirius said, jumping to his feet. "I'm starving." Sirius bought half the cart and spread the sweets over the seats. "Help yourself," he told them. Digging into a pile of cauldron cakes. Remus had just reached for chocolate frog when Lily Evans burst into the compartment. Her hair was mussed up and she had a slightly wild look in her eyes.
"There you are Remus, I've been looking all over for you. We have prefect duties." Remus stood up, dumping his lap full of sweets onto the ground. "Sorry, Lily, I completely forgot."
"Well, you're here now."
"Evans," James called from the window, running his fingers through his hair.
"For God's sake, just call me Lily." Lily snapped, her eyes fixed on Remus as he attempted to wrestle his prefect's badge from his trunk and pin it hastily to his chest. He snatched up a chocolate frog from the floor and followed Lily into the corridor.
"See you later Moony," said Sirius through a mouthful of cake. Remus waved once, and was gone.
"How was your summer, Remus?" Lily asked as they made their way down the corridor.
"Alright. Couldn't really have hoped for better, I suppose, as far as summers go I mean, Though, I did miss my friends. What about you?"
"It was… fairly uneventful. My sister spent most of it ignoring me with her God-awful boyfriend, Vernon," she replied scornfully. Remus chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck absent mindedly. "And of course I haven't been able to tell them about You-Know-Who."
"You know about all the things that have been happening then?"
"I've been getting the Daily Prophet by owl every day this summer, so yes, I know. It's really horrible what You-Know-Who and his followers have been doing, murdering people, wizards and muggles. I don't know how nobody say this coming."
"I think they did, Lily. The Ministry did anyway. They've been concealing it from the public for years, to keep the panic to a minimum I expect."
"How can they have let this happen?" Remus opened his mouth to respond, but then Lily stopped abruptly in her tracks.
"Lily? What's—," but then he looked up. Severus Snape was standing in the corridor, looking like someone who had been caught doing something he was quite sure he was allowed to. For an awkward moment the two stared each other down, refusing to break eye contact. Snape looked very much as though he would like to say something to her, but before he could, Lily looked away, grabbed Remus by the wrist and stalked past her former friend. Remus made no complaint and didn't look at Snape as he was pulled by him, though he could still feel the Slytherin's gaze burning into their backs as they walked away.
When Lily finally slowed down, Remus notices she was trembling slightly.
"Are you alright, Lily?" he asked gently.
"I… I still feel guilty that I stopped being friends with him, he—,"
"Don't," Remus told her. "He may have been you're friend, but he's never been a very good purpose. That much became obvious last year, when…"
"I know."
"Besides, we can almost guarantee he'll be fighting on the wrong side of the war when it comes down to it. You see the kinds of people he hangs out with."
"That isn't fair, Remus—,"
"Isn't it?"
"I… oh, you might be right."
"I usually am."
"Don't get cocky, Remus, it doesn't suit you."
When Remus got back to the compartment, it was just past three. The rain continued to pound heavily at the window and periodic flashed of lightning illuminated the compartment. Candy wrappers littered the floor, and Peter was fast asleep leaning against the wall, his breath misting on the window. James had taken Remus' seat next to Peter and was chewing on a pile of sweets that Sirius had clearly been trying to save for Remus, with his legs propped up on the opposite bench.
"Remus!" Sirius said when Remus came back in. "Sorry, James has gone and eaten most of your chocolate." Sirius glared at James accusingly. James crumpled the candy wrapper in his hand with a guilty grin. Remus rolled his eyes, and went to sit beside Sirius.
"Think I'll take a leaf out of Peter's book," he muttered. Within minutes he was fast asleep. When he woke up again, his head had fallen onto Sirius' shoulder.