I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own the Marauders. They belong to JKR. I am not she, therefore, I owneth not.
Neither do I own the idea of "Lupin's Little Harem." I read it in a fic a couple of years ago. If you know which fic I am referring too, please let me know. If it is your fic, please do not hate me! With all that taken care of…On with the show!
It was on the train sixth year. Lily was on her way to find the rest of the girls (after patrols) when she heard voices speaking earnestly in one of the compartments.
"But what if no one likes me? What if no one wants to be my friend."
It sounded like a first year. But what really surprised Lily was the voice that answered back.
"You'll have friends." Remus Lupin's voice was quiet and confident.
"How do you know?" the girl threw back in his face.
There was silence for a moment. "Before I came to Hogwarts, I had never had a friend. Ever."
"How could you not ever, ever have had a friend?" the girl sounded shocked. Lily could practically hear Lupin's shrug.
"I just didn't. Then I came here. I expected to be rejected, and instead I have three wonderful friends."
Lily peeked through the door of the compartment. Lupin was sitting on one seat, a small girl with dark brown hair beside him. He always looked a little worn out, but he actually seemed ill today. The girl seemed to notice as well.
"Are you all right?"
Lupin nodded and pushed his sandy-brown hair out of his face. "Yeah. Just tired."
Lily ducked out of sight as the other three Marauders appeared around the corner, Black and Pettigrew with their arms full of various sweets and Potter clumping along in front of them on the crutches he'd been using since Lily first saw him at the station. They were laughing about something or other as they entered the compartment.
"Here Moony." Potter spoke first. The prat. "Chocolate."
"Thanks Prongs." Lupin's voice was muffled. "Guys. This is Anna Williams. She's a muggleborn first year."
"Ah!" Black sounded rather sly. "A new member of LLH."
"Padfoot!"
The laughing was rather uproarious. Lily rolled her eyes. Last year, in the girls' bathrooms, she had learned that most of the first and second years had crushes on Lupin. She had never seen why before. Sure he was different from the other Marauders, but she knew that he was the one behind the great hall turning into a large swimming pool back in their fourth year.
The older girls called the admirers, 'Lupin's Little Harem.' Black must have learned about it from one of them. She had to admit that there was a certain indulgent fondness in the way that Elaine McKinnon had spoken of LLH.
"What's LLH?" Anna asked curiously.
"Nothing." Lupin said very quickly. "This moron just isn't right in the head."
"Oi!"
"Anna, this is James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and the weird one is Sirius Black."
"Hi Anna." Potter said. "Are you excited?"
"Yeah." Anna's voice was very quiet. "I'm a little scared though. Everything is so new!"
Potter laughed. "You'll get used to it eventually." Lily peeked into the window again in time to see him grin at the child. "Is there anything in particular you are scared about?"
Anna nodded, her eyes on the floor. She murmured something that was too quiet for Lily to hear.
Potter frowned a little. "I won't lie, some people might. But if they do, you just come to us and we'll set 'em straight. Okay?"
Elaine McKinnon showed up then and dragged Lily off to the compartment where she settled down in between Alice and Imogen and accepted a chocolate frog from Lian and a home baked biscuit from Catherine. Before joining in the gossip and settling in for another year at Hogwarts.
This fic is rather rough around the edges, un-betaed, and is actually something that I found in my files and revamped a little before sticking it on here. The OC's mentioned in the last paragraph are some of my fills for the Marauder's yearmates (you should get to meet them more eventually) and as for James with crutches…that is part of my very extensive and rather complicated Marauder head-cannon that I will eventually get written down and share with you.
More chapters should be coming soon, but with finals looming...who knows. I'll try.
Constructive criticism would be very lovely and would help me make this chapter better. Flames would not be so lovely.
