Full-length story! It's focused on the Marauders (though since it's me that should be expected, I rarely focus on anything else.) it will follow them throughout their years at school and possibly further. The main focus is Remus, though the others (even Peter) will have a big part in it as well. This first chapter is their first encounter, on the train before first year. I don't own anything in this fic; Jo is the only one with that right.
Chapter One: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
"Come, Remus, if you don't hurry you'll miss the train!" a tall woman said to a boy, of about 10 or 11, standing a meter behind her.
"Mum, I've changed my mind." he said with a shaking voice.
"Remus, you've wanted to go to Hogwarts since you've been two and they've made special arrangements for you. Don't let your worries get the best of you and come now."
"What if no one likes me?" he asked conveying the reason he was holding their journey back.
"Why wouldn't they like you, Remus? I think you're a perfectly likeable young man!" she retorted while worrying the very same herself. Not many people liked werewolves and if Remus told someone who didn't than it may ruin his chances at the school he had longed to go to since being infected.
"But mum, it's a turn off, my problem that is. All the children who live by us won't ever play with me. They call me a monster! And the every other person in the magical world thinks so too! That's why it takes so much for dad to make ANY money! That's why he HAD to work today!"
"Remus you're not a monster," she insisted, though she knew that everything her son had said was true, "don't believe the horrible things that they say to you! The ministry is basing their claims on werewolves like the one that bit you, you have to prove them wrong but if you take it to heart then you'll end up exactly as they currently make you out to be!" Resuming her original calm tone she added, "Now hurry on so you don't miss the train."
"I guess I have to go now..."
"Goodbye, Remus." she screamed as her only son hopped onto the train. "Don't forget to write! See you at Christmas!"
"Love you, mum!" Remus cried back. "I promise that I'll try to make friends, mum. I promise!" As Remus shouted this, his face full of tears, the train began to pull away from the station.
"I love you too!" his mother yelled back. After the train was gone from sight she turned to walk away but before leaving she whispered, as though her son was still standing next to her, "They'll love you, Remus, I promise."
Remus had been staring out the window, wishing for nothing more than his parents, for two minutes. He finally realized that he should probably find a seat. He wiped the tears from his face and started to look for an empty compartment. Most of the compartments were completely full with older students who already knew each other and were in the same house. Finally, as he neared the last compartments, he found one with only three other boys sitting in it. Since it was the least full out of all of the compartments that he had checked and the boys seemed to be about his age he decided to take a deep sigh and enter the compartment.
"Um... hi." Remus shyly started. "Can I sit here with you lot?"
The three boys were a boy with longer, curly, dark hair, grey eyes, and an unusually sad face for a boy starting Hogwarts; a second boy with short, messy, jet black hair, hazel eyes, glasses, and an smile of excitement; and a third boy with short, mousy hair, blue eyes, and slightly buck teeth.
The boy with the messy jet black hair looked at Remus with a cocked head, which discouraged Remus as soon as it appeared and replied, "Well..."
Before he could finish his sentence Remus interrupted him, already sure that he was about to be turned away, and blurted out, "Oh it's fine if you don't! I'll find somewhere else to sit." He turned to leave the compartment.
"No, wait!" the same boy as before quickly called to Remus. "I really want you to sit here! Can't you take a joke?" Remus' face turned red and the boy quickly changed his last statement, sure that Remus could not take a joke, "I mean, why did you think we'd turn you away?"
"I just thought that your hesitation foretold your unwillingness for me to sit with you and your friends."
"Them?" the boy said, laughing, and pointing to the two boys next to him. "We've just met; I've barely even learnt their names. Which reminds me, what's your name?"
"Remus Lupin, you?"
"I'm James Potter." he announced looking proud of his name. He turned to the other two and stared. After a few moments he sighed "Aren't you two going to introduce yourselves to Remus, or shall I do it for you?"
"I'm Sirius Black." the other dark-haired boy muttered and then added, "I know the rumors that you've probably heard about my family and though they're probably true, I'm not like them."
"I haven't actually heard any rumors." Remus told Sirius. "My parents try to stay out of others' business; it's gotten them in trouble before."
"All the better," replied Sirius, "their reputations give bad names to the few of us who aren't like the rest of the family."
"I'm Peter," piped the mousy haired boy.
"It's lovely to meet all of you," Remus replied.
"Listen to the way he speaks," Sirius teasingly stated as he nudged James' side, "there's no way he won't be a Ravenclaw."
"Oh definitely!" James exclaimed before turning to Remus and saying, "I suppose you won't be joining me in the courageous house of Gryffindor."
Remus shrugged, "I don't know, I wouldn't mind either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor though I almost fear my ability to be in Slytherin."
"I wish I had a choice," Sirius sadly remarked, "but no one in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black has ever been anywhere but Slytherin."
"That doesn't mean you have to be there." James retorted.
"That's like saying you, a Potter, could sort out of Gryffindor."
"But I don't want to sort out of my family House," James pointed out, "and you do! Beat the curse Sirius, come to the brave side!"
"What about you, Peter?" asked Remus.
"I don't care, anywhere but Hufflepuff."
"Hufflepuff's not that bad," James stated, but added, "not that I'd like to be put there, but it's so much better than Slytherin. Plus Hufflepuffs are loyal little monsters."
Remus shuddered at James' use of THE word. He hoped none of the other boys had noticed his obvious discomfort at the use of the word but Peter was looking at him and had seen his head lower and his body begin to shake.
"What's wrong, Remus?" he asked. "Did something that James said bother you? I thought it was all nice things." James and Sirius both stopped nodding off and turned to look at Remus.
"No, he said extremely nice things," Remus lied. "I just became a little chilled."
"Hey! First years!" a tall boy, from Slytherin by the look of his uniform, screamed. "You better get changed, we're almost there." After yelling he proceeded to promptly leave their compartment.
They listened to the boy and changed from their jeans and t-shirts into their blank, black school robes. Looking around at the other boys, Remus noticed that all of their robes looked brand new while his were quite shabby, and second-hand. He suddenly became ashamed of what his parents had become after his accident; all the wealth that they had possessed was spent on trying to cure their only son's lycanthrope. He wasn't even sure how they had the money to keep their lovely countryside home but every time he would try to get involved in financial matters his mother would tell him that it was not a child's business and a child's only business is to play. He had to fight his inner spirit to stop himself from fighting with his mother, especially because he knew it was his fault that they had these problems anyway, since he could remember being about three and going to very extravagant places. Parts of him would often wish that his parents would have let him die and keep that lifestyle, for their own sake, while the other part would always be thankful that his parents had the money and the love for him because without it he would probably be dead. One of the things that nagged his mind the most was that he couldn't even pay them back because werewolves couldn't get jobs. His father always tried to tell him that it wasn't necessarily true but Remus could tell that he was lying. He could also see the hurt in his father's face every time that they spoke; he still blamed Remus' lycanthrope on himself. Remus didn't feel that way though, in fact he rather admired his father; he stood up for what he believed in, even though it put the people he loved in danger. Remus could only ever hope for the courage that his father displayed, but now that he thought of that...
"Remus?" James questioned, bringing Remus out of his deep thought.
"Huh?"
"I was just trying to ask you if you knew how to play." he said pointing to the wizard's chess board sitting across from him. "I've asked about ten timed," he over-exaggerated, "Where you in a trance or something?"
"No, I was just thinking."
"That's some really deep thought." Sirius said as he joined the conversation.
"Don't feel bad just because you can't think that hard," Peter cracked at Sirius.
Sirius began to give Peter one Hell of an evil eye and James moved his eyes rapidly between the two of them screaming "fight, fight!"
Remus placed himself between the two of them, "How about we don't get in trouble before we're even in a House?"
Peter and Sirius both mumbled replies of agreement. It was only a short matter of time before the two of them were joking around again, no thoughts of the near fight still lingering in their young minds. Remus, inwardly, sighed in relief and was already sure that this friendship would last, especially now that they had passed over their first bump.
"So, James, how about that chess game?" Remus happily asked.
"You're on!"
They spent the rest of the train ride playing a livid game, with Sirius and Peter as the unnecessary "referees" calling the oddest and most unneeded "penalties".