Kings Cross station was loaded with people. Muggles and wizards alike crowded to board their trains. Owls screeched through the station making an irritable conductor rub his eyes and shake his head.

That was the problem with being a wizard in a Muggle train station. Platform nine and three quarters was beyond the Muggle ones, between platforms nine and ten.

James Potter moved through the crowd, hauling his heavy trunk and owl with him, getting funny looks from passersby. He was starting his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and couldn't have been more excited. He loved Hogwarts. It was his home.

There was a stone barrier between platforms nine and ten. Looking around to see if anyone was watching, James leaned on it and slid through into the wizarding platform, nine and three quarters.

Tons of people crowded this station, parents saying good-bye to their children.

He squinted ahead, and caught sight of a black haired boy getting hollered at by his mother. James grinned. Sirius' family was strictly pure blooded and hated everyone else. Sirius himself was sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin, the house the rest of his family had been in for decades. Sirius of course wouldn't want anything to do with his mother.

James continued forward, his mother and father in his wake.

"JAMES!" bellowed Sirius leaping onto him, nearly crushing the life out of him.

"Sirius, mate!" yelled James back, trying to get the taller boy off of him. Sirius was good looking as ever. His untidy black hair went every which way and his dark eyes were alight. He was already dressed in his school robes.

"Good summer?" asked James. Sirius' grin melted away instantly.

"I don't exactly want to talk about it." He muttered darkly. "I'll tell you on the train." James noticed that Mrs. Black was glaring at her son from behind him.

"Fair enough." Said James still smiling. "Hang on. I've got to say good-bye to my mum and dad." Sirius held back. He had always been jealous of James' parents being so nice and understanding. Sirius would never have that.

James' mother kissed him on the cheek and his father patted his shoulder. James looked strikingly like his father. Tall and bespectacled with the same black hair, but James' father's hair was flecked with grey.

James caught up with Sirius who was still looking sullen.

"Come on! Let's get good seats. I'm not sitting in the back again." He dragged Sirius onto the train, and the pair of them made their way down the carpeted corridor. By this time, almost all of the compartments were full, and then they came to one that was occupied by two boys. One was short blond and rather plump and he was playing with a miniature model of a hippogriff. It was bucking and snorting in his hand. The other boy was very thin and pale with light brown hair. He had his nose in a book entitled Curse breakers and their Discoveries in the Fourteenth Century. The book was extremely thick.

"REMUS!" shouted Sirius, and he greeted the thin boy much like he had James. Remus' book flew out of his hands as Sirius' bulk made contact. He laughed and tried to throw Sirius off of him, but Sirius outweighed him by a good fifty pounds.

When all greetings had been said, they took their seats. Remus levitated the book back onto his lap and pushed his hair out of his eyes.

"So what's up with you, Sirius?" he asked. "When you wrote me over the summer your letters were always covered in dog prints." Sirius snorted.

"It was hell I tell you."

"Ok then tell us." Said Peter Pettigrew. Sirius leaned back, clearly enjoying the attention.

"Well, over the summer, I really did my best to cover up the fact that I hang out with Muggle borns, a blood traitor, and a werewolf all year. And I really tried to keep it out of conversation with my mother."

"But?" inquired Remus looking interested.

"But my darling cousin Bellatrix spilled the beans."

Peter looked frightened. Sirius continued.

"So I left. I decided I had had enough with my family, and I lived with the people next door."

"Well that shouldn't have been so bad." Said James. "Aren't they Muggles?"

Sirius smirked. "What I mean to say is that I lived with the Muggles next door…as a dog." Remus looked shocked. James however, burst out laughing.

"Oh!" he gasped clutching his sides. "There are so many jokes I could make about you right now." James was still laughing like a maniac when Remus said,

"Well that was really dangerous wasn't it? I mean, your mother must have known!"

"Actually, I don't think she did, Moons." Said Sirius rumpling up his hair again. "She doesn't know I'm an animagus so it seemed to her that the Muggles next door just adopted a friendly stray. And they fed me and everything. So I wasn't dying." Remus still looked concerned.

"But the Muggles…they didn't know you were a human did they?"

"Nope." Said Sirius casually. "They just fed me and gave me water and took me on walks and I complied." Then Sirius grinned. "Of course sometimes dog food just wasn't going to cut it so I caught a few squirrels."

Remus looked horrified.

"You just randomly caught squirrels and ate them? Blood and all?" Sirius' grin broadened.

"They're actually not that bad. Oh come on, Remus. Don't tell me you of all people have never eaten a small wild animal." Remus went pink but the corners of his mouth twitched. Sirius continued.

"Mum thought I'd gone to live with one of you before I showed up a few days before term for my books and stuff. I don't think my ears have been working properly since then."

"What did she do?" asked Peter looking entranced. Sirius tilted his head lazily to one side and continued with a lopsided smile.

"Well mainly she just screamed at me. I've never heard her like that before. Then I started shouting at her and dad. Mum just kept going and tried to curse my mouth off." He paused. "I don't suppose any of you know how it feels exactly to get your mouth ripped off your face do you?" The other three shook their heads. James was still silently laughing.

"So there I was with no mouth, but luckily I knew the counter curse and I got it back when she finished. Then I stayed in my room for three days straight and packed my stuff. They didn't want me to go back, but I told her that if they didn't let me, I was going to tell the rest of the Black family that I was in love with a Muggle Born. That shut her up and she had to be nice to me." He looked out the window.

"I hate them." He whispered. "I'm nothing like them, you know. I'm proud to be a Gryffindor. I wish it didn't have to be this way." Remus reached out a hand and rubbed Sirius' shoulder.

"We know, mate." He said softly. "You deserve to be in Gryffindor, and we'd be rubbish without you." Sirius smiled slightly.

"Thanks guys." He said. "I'm sorry. Let's talk about something else."

But they couldn't for their compartment door slid open and Lily Evans stood on the threshold. She looked as pretty as ever, her long red hair falling down her back. She was dressed in her school robes and she smiled when she saw all of them.

"Hey guys!" she exclaimed. The four of them waved. James looked dazed.

"H-hey Evans." He said, rumpling his hair. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Hi James!" she said. "Everyone have a good summer?"

There was a chorus of "yes" and "How about you?"

"Well it was pretty quiet." She said. "I missed you all. Hugs all around!" and she hugged the four of them consecutively. James went bright red when his turn came. Lily looked at Remus in a puzzled way.

"Why aren't you in front with me, Remus?" she asked.

"Why would he do that?" asked Sirius with a disgusted look. "Have you decided to ditch us, Remus?" Remus' face flushed pink.

"I already checked with the first years." He said very quietly. It seemed that he was somewhat embarrassed by saying this, puzzling the other three even more. Lily however beamed.

"Excellent." She said. "I'm so glad it's you and me. I was thinking there would be someone annoying like Black, but I'm quite pleased." Sirius stuck his tongue out at Lily. She returned the gesture.

Remus muttered something that sounded like "mhm' But it was lost.

"Well aren't you excited?" demanded Lily. She was frowning slightly now.

Remus went pinker still and didn't meet her eyes.

"Well….yes….I suppose I am. My parents were pleased at least."

"Great!" said Lily. "Anyway, I'll see you later." She left. James was quiet.

"S-s-she…I think she got prettier." Said James, a strange misty look in his eyes. "And she hugged me." Sirius cackled with laughter.

"You really need a life, James." He laughed. "Anyway, he continued, "What was she talking about, Remus? What are your parents pleased with?" Remus sighed heavily.

"Are you going to drive me insane if I tell you?"

Sirius considered this question for a minute.

"Yes." He answered finally. "Now out with it."

"Well…I've been made a…"

"A what?"

"A woman?"

"A prefect." Remus hissed at Sirius with a dirty look.

Their reaction was hysterical. James burst out laughing again. Sirius fell off his seat laughing. Peter however said,

"Wow, congratulations, Remus."

"Thank you, Peter." Said Remus. "Oh shut up you guys!"

"Do you have the-the badge?" choked Sirius. Remus held it out. It was small and shiny, like it had been recently polished.

"Ok….ok…" said James regaining control of himself. "Sorry, mate. Just kind of ironic that you should be a prefect."

"Yeah, I know." Said Remus. "I was really surprised."

"Well I'm not." Said Sirius. "You're a brilliant student. All the teachers like you. You're really all right." Remus beamed.

"AND, you get to hang out with Evans every few days and that's rewarding enough." Said James still looking a bit foggy.

Remus laughed at this.

"Yeah, well that's not a huge reward considering my world does not revolve around Lily and her butt." He said, swatting James on the arm. James laughed.

"I bet you wish it did though." He said happily as though the thought of Lily's butt was the best thought in the world.

"No thanks. I don't spend all day gaping at it.

"BUT YOU WISH YOU DID!"

"Not likely." Said Remus picking up his book again. And that was the end of that.

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet for the Marauders. Sirius and James fantasized about what kind of pranks they could play on Snivellus, Severus Snape.

"We could spike his pumpkin juice with a love potion." Suggested James rubbing his chin.

"Yeah that's a good idea." Said Sirius, thinking. "OH NO! Here's what we do! We spike the love potion to make him fall in love with…with…LUCIOUS MALFOY! HA!" James doubled over laughing.

"Oh that's brilliant, Sirius. Really brilliant! Everyone will think he's gay!"

"Everyone already thinks he's gay, Prongs." Hissed Sirius.

Remus had gone to sleep, his book still open on his lap. Now that he was still, they saw that he looked worse than usual. Dark shadows hung under his eyes. His face looked gaunt and from under his school shirt and tie, they could see the faint bump of his collarbone. He had gotten thinner.

It was one of the problems with being a werewolf. Remus rarely looked healthy, but it seemed worse now.

"How much has he told you?" asked Sirius looking at Remus' sleeping form.

"About what?" asked James.

"Transforming without us." Sirius said, leaning forward.

"Not much…" James said thoughtfully. "He mainly talked about doing stuff with his dad. He didn't really bring it up much, though I asked." He looked at Remus. "What's that?" asked James, pointing at Remus' neck and the few inches of skin showing under his robes. There was a small scar jutting up towards his jugular.

"I don't know." Said Sirius. "I finally wrote him and asked about it. He said his transformations have been harder lately. I offered to come and get him. He said no. Probably a good call since Mum kicked me out two days later." Sirius got to his feet and waked over to Remus. He pulled the collar of his shirt forward and gasped.

"Bloody hell." He whispered. James came forward to look. Sirius unbuttoned Remus' shirt a few buttons.

Remus' chest was covered in scars and cuts. Some looked fresh and were bleeding. Around one of his sides, a huge bandage had been wrapped neatly. His mother was a Muggle doctor. Sirius backed away looking sick.

"Why didn't he tell me?" he wondered aloud. "He should have…my God." Remus woke with a start.

"What are you doing?" he snapped, slapping James away from him. James looked taken aback. Sirius however, looked angry.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Tell you what?"

"Oh I don't know! Maybe that you've been tearing yourself apart all summer! You should have come to stay with one of us!"

"It's nothing!" said Remus shaking his robes back into place. Sirius shook his head in disbelief.