Hello and welcome to the first chapter of "I Solemnly Swear That I'm Up To No Good..." and I hope you will all enjoy it!
Moony's POV:
"Don't stay out too late, Remus," my mother said as she brushed her blonde hair out of her light blue eyes. The smile she smiled when she said these words managed to make the frown on my face reverse into a pleasant smile.
"I won't," and with that I walk out of the front garden and down the street but not before turning back to wave to my mother. I am supposed to be meeting my friends at the local park however I am a bit late. I break into a run. I turn the corner. I freeze.
A body covered in blood lay on the floor, the ghost of his last scream etched upon his face. Dark red liquid surrounded the victim's body like a cloak and the front of his body was torn open by a brute force. I try to scream but no noise comes from my mouth. It seems as if every cell in my body had frozen and it took a great deal of effort to even make myself blink. Crouched next to the body was a nightmare. A werewolf with blood dripping off of its fingers turned to face me and I finally found my voice. I screamed louder than I ever had before and in the distance I heard tires screeching and footsteps drawing closer. I didn't have time to run before the creature latched itself onto my arm and dug its jaws into my flesh. My scream became more distorted as tears started streaming down my face and before the thing could continue to devour me a gunshot went off.
I wake with a start, my heart pounding in my chest, sweat dripping down my face. I stare at my left arm and think about the dream. If only it was just a dream. Today is September 1st and that means I am finally returning to Hogwarts to see Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail. Brushing off the horrid dream, I clamber out of bed and get ready to travel to Kingscross Station.
As I go to double check that I have packed all my things, I look on my table and see the moving picture of the marauders on Christmas. Sirius is ruffling James hair and James is shoving him off whilst laughing; I have my arm around Sirius shoulder and am high fiving Peter at the same time who has the broadest smile on his face. I sigh. It's been a while since I have seen them, but that's going to change today.
James went to Japan with his parents this summer to test out his Japanese speaking skills and every week he has been sending me postcards, mockingly bragging about how amazing he and his holiday is whilst I was at home in rainy England. He has however promised to bring me back some gifts so I'm not going to complain.
This year, like the last, Sirius went to France with his family but he doesn't seem to speak much about his family in the letters he sends unlike James. Sirius, being a part of a well-known pureblood family is expected to speak various languages and be very smart and that was the reason for his trip to France.
The Pettigrew family had saved up a lot of money and had finally been allowed to take Peter to America seeing as he couldn't speak another language. He sent me photos of him at various landmarks and all the sweets he could afford to take with him, and gradually, with every picture he took his face became more freckly instead of tanned like Sirius and James.
It's going to be great seeing them again after so long. I grab my now full to the brim trunk and drag it down the stairs behind me making a lot of noise as I do so. I leave my trunk by the front door and let my nose lead me to the kitchen where I smelt my mother, Hope, cooking bacon and eggs. My father was sitting at the table reading "Werewolves" for the millionth time for the slightest bit of hope that the other times he read it he missed something about a cure. The attempt is futile and I'm sure he knows it but he keeps trying. My father's name is Lyall and he is quite tall, with black hair with patches of grey here and there. He wears big rimmed glasses and he ever so often pushes them up his nose as he reads. My mother also at first wanted to find a way to cure me and we sent hundreds on hiring the best doctors to find a way to return me back to normal but nothing worked. After that my mother realised that nothing could be done. My mother looks a lot younger than my dad but in actual fact she is two years older. She has long blonde hair with blue twinkling eyes that remind me of Professor Dumbledore. She too is tall and thin.
"Morning Remus," she says cheerily as she shares out the food. "I'm going to miss you, but the least I can do is let you leave with a full stomach." I take the plate after thanking her and sit down next to my dad.
"Oh, Remus, look" he said to me pointing towards a sentence on the page he was reading. "Let's try..." I zone out on what he is saying because I already know it's not going to work. Occasionally, whilst he is talking I add "uhuh"'s or "yeah"'s to make it seem like I am listening but in reality I just want him to shut up.
I quickly finish my food and we all turn our heads to the direction of the front door where we heard the honk of the taxi's horn outside. I grab all of my last minute belongings and my trunk, put it in the boot of the taxi, and clamber inside next to my mother who is applying her make-up seeing as she didn't have time in the morning. Shortly after, my father gets in the car and tells the taxi driver where we are heading and we set off.
I turn around to look at the house I'm not going to see until Christmas and I wave goodbye to it as it disappears over the horizon.
Every year at the platform is the same. The tears of parents who are saying goodbye to their first years; the laughter of friends being reunited after so long; and the whistle of the train that signifies the end of one journey and the beginning of another.
"Remember to write every day," father says as he gives me a hug and then ruffles my hair.
"I'm pretty sure we both know that I will forget," I joke and he laughs. I turn to my mother who is dabbing at her eyes with her pink embroidered handkerchief. "I'll miss you mom." I say and give her a hug that she returns a bit too tightly.
"I'll miss you too," she weeps and then the conductor blows the whistle. I give them both one last hug, grab my trunk, and jump onto the train. Luckily there is an empty compartment close to where I got on so I throw my trunk into the overhead compartment and sit close to the window so I can wave goodbye to my parents.
I wipe a tear from my eye and not a moment too soon as Sirius Black comes bursting into the room looking more tan and tall than ever. His hair has gotten much longer since I has last saw it seeing as it is now almost shoulder length. "Bro!" he says coming towards me to give me a high five. I return it a smile finding its way onto my face. Whenever anyone is around Sirius they can't help but smile. He effortlessly puts his trunk next to mine and then sits opposite me when Peter opens the compartment door panting as if he had ran for the train. It seems as if he had eaten a bit too much in America as he seems larger than he was previously. His hair had also changed. It had turned lighter due to the amount of sun and his face was covered in freckles.
"Hi guys!" he says after finally catching his breath and closing the door behind him. We greet him and Sirius and I talk as Peter struggles to get his trunk over his head.
"It's really not that hard," Sirius huffs after watching him struggle for way too long. He stands up and grabs the trunk with one hand. He then swings it over his shoulder and into the space next to his trunk. He then smirks at Peter, bows to my applause, and sits down. Peter goes to sit down next to me but then the train starts moving slowly and he loses balance. I catch him quickly and in the corner of my eye I see what looks like a mop of hair running next to the train. "For god sake Prongs," Sirius says as he too catches sight of James. The train picks up speed and so does James, we laugh at him in the window for a bit but after a while, whilst carrying his trunk he manages to wrench the door of the train open and jump inside. He then walks over to our compartment and opens the door smiling, not even the slightest out of breath.
"Sup," he says and like Sirius, throws his trunk on the rack above our heads.
"Way to make a dramatic entrance," I say amused and he shrugs.
"Well you know me," James smirks and then sits down next to Sirius.
"How do you run so fast?!" Peter asks in awe and James does an exaggerated sigh and I sigh because I know what's coming. Seeing as James is tall he has always had the advantage when it came to running. He, like Peter and I, grew up in the muggle world and so his parents let him go to a running club. Normally, whenever someone brings up the topic of running, he acts as if he is an Olympian being interviewed and is melodramatic about everything he does.
"Well you see Peter, when I was a young boy my father took me into the city to join a running club and ever since then I trained for six nights a week-" James said.
"It was actually two nights a week," Sirius corrected.
"- for five hours a day-" James continued.
"For one hour a day," Sirius corrected again.
"- and that made me the man I am today." James finished, puffing out his chest and flashing his winning smile at Peter.
"And that made him into the cranky, big headed, prepubescent 13 year old he is today," Sirius finished with a smile and Peter and I laughed, whilst James hit Sirius over the head with his jacket.
It's great to be back.
Thanks for reading!