A little drabble on the early friendship between Remus Lupin and James Potter. Thanks theybecameanimagi for inspiring this.
It was a Thursday evening and first-year James Potter had plans. Sirius had just told him of the most awesome idea of how to get Professor Caelinus back for letting Mulciber get away with his filthy comments in Defense class. Sirius had gone to the Library to look up a few necessary pieces of spell work and James had agreed to find a third conspirator, which was needed for the prank to work.
It wasn't long before James found Remus Lupin off in a little alcove by himself. He was writing something with a muggle contraption like the one he'd seen Evans use sometimes.
"Hey Remus – Sirius just came up with the brilliant plan to turn Professor Caelinus's chalkboard into soap. We need a third person to stand guard. " James said; hoping he would agree. It was only a two weeks into the term but Remus had already agreed to stand guard on a previous prank of his and Sirius's, so it was worth a shot. Remus seemed like a decent bloke; distant but nice he supposed, maybe they could become friends?
"Can I finish copying my notes first?" Remus asked, looking up from his work.
"How much more is there?" James asked, if it wasn't much he could wait; it would take Sirius a bit to find the spell anyways.
"Just a page" He replied with a smile.
"It'll take Sirius that long to find the spell anyways" James replied.
James then watched Remus copy his notes. The copied pages were much neater than the ones he wrote in class, which were scattered with ink blotches and made James's notes look neat.
"What's with the muggle contraption?" James asked, wanting to break the awkward silence.
"It writes. And doesn't spatter like quills" Remus replied
"Why do you use it though?" James asked; he was pretty sure Remus had a wizarding family
"It's how I learned to write; my mum taught me – she's a muggle. Besides ballpoint is easier to use than quills" Remus replied
"That's neat. But how is it writing without ink? It can't be conjuring it if its muggle device right?" James asked. Really he wanted to know; Remus was writing without dipping the pen in ink, in fact there was no ink bottle on the desk; but it was clearly writing in what looked like ink.
"There is ink; inside it in a small tube" Remus replied
"Really can I see?" James asked
"Not now; I need it to copy my notes." Remus replied
"When you are done?" James asked. He really wanted to take the contraption apart.
"Sure, but I thought we were going to prank Professor Caelinus when I finish." Remus replied, now grinning
"Yeah. Caelinus first. Then muggle contraption" James replied. Caelinus took priority; he could take the muggle thing apart in their dorm after curfew – not that he cared about curfew.
