The train pulled into Hogsmeade station. Remus had survived the long journey by sticking his nose deep into his book and answering as few of the questions the others who had joined his carriage as possible. In truth they hadn't been too keen to talk to him once they had seen the state of his clothing, and were mostly content to leave him to read the set texts for the year. Changing into his robes had provided a minor panic as he realised that he would have to bare his legs – and scars - in order to switch his trousers into his black school ones, but he soon noticed that they were too engrossed in their conversation about who would be chosen this year to join the "Slug Club" (whatever that was) to pay much attention to the scrawny boy in the corner. Once in his robes Remus had felt more comfortable, with no siblings or charitable family or friends his parents had been forced to buy second hand robes in Diagon Alley, which were still up to surprisingly high standard.

He merged in with the tide of black robed students flowing off the train and was greeted into the crisp Scottish night by heavily accented shouts ordering "Firs' years" to head in a downhill direction, against the movement of everyone else. Remus craned his neck to see where the shouts were coming from, worried that his ears were deceiving him and not wanted to draw attention to himself by making a simple mistake seconds off the train. He needn't have strained his neck though, the owner of the booming voice was clearly visible over the sea of children, standing head, shoulders and chest above the rest.

Remus darted through the crowd, muttering "sorry" more times than he could count at the slightest bump into someone. He only lifted his eyes up from the staring at peoples knees when he stopped abruptly at the back of a large gathering of people his own age, surrounding the gigantic man.

A few minutes later the man called out through his mass of facial hair to the impatient new pupils, voice echoing around the small station. "Alrigh' follow me."

The group turned and followed en mass, and Remus was sucked along, forced to become one with the group of children. And yet he still felt alone. All around him was chatter, high spirits and anticipation, yet filling Remus' body was nerves and a tight knot in the pit of his stomach. Maybe once he'd gotten a few cycles under his belt here he would be able to start to untie it, but for now it was staying firmly tied, tighter than a Gordian knot. For the past four years of his life he'd been kept away from people his own age, only seeing a few members of his own family, and the odd friend who dared visit the house. Those visits had been far and few between though, and filled with awkward silences and people looking past him, but at the same time furtively staring at him, as if half-expecting him to transform in front of them, in broad daylight. Remus just wasn't used to people like this.

They came to a stop in front of a large dark lake, the haze of lights just showing around the edge of a bordering cliff. Remus hung back while the others got into groups of four and filled up the small wooden boats, unsure who to join. The hulking man saw Remus' apprehension and laid an enormous hand on his shoulder, causing Remus to struggle not to wince and pull away.

"It's alrigh' they're a bi' old but 'ey won' sink." He said gruffly. "There's enough space o'er there f' ya."

He pointed to a boat with only one occupant, a lanky boy with equally lanky greasy hair down to his shoulders. The boy sat hunched over on the wooden seat, staring sullenly at the bottom of the boat. There was something odd about him but Remus couldn't place, however he did recognise him as an introvert like himself, and realised that he could of picked a worse person to have to share a boat ride with. At least he wasn't going to try and pressure him into talking much. Or so Remus hoped.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Remus asked, approaching the boat. When the boy didn't turn around, just shook his head, greasy hair swaying, he took it as a cue to take a seat, glad that his presumptions on the level of conversation – or lack thereof – had been correct.

The boats silently glided forward at the giant's command, perfectly in sync with each other. From all around him Remus could still hear the chatter of conversation, but it was hushed, either by whispering or by the water he wasn't quite sure, but he didn't feel like breaking the near silence. By the light of the torch at the helm of his boat he studied the other boy. His nose was hooked, his hair overly greasy and eyes sullen, but it was his clothes that marked him out as different more than anything else. Although they followed the school rules, his shirt had a small amount of frills around the collar, and his robes gave off the impression of once being impressive and expensively tailored, but before numerous patches and darns.

Hogwarts came into view as they rounded the edge of the cliff, and while the rest of the boats emanated impressed "ooohs" and "aaaahs", from Remus and the sullen boys boat there was just the involuntary sound of Remus' gulp and the crack of the damp wood that made up the seat breaking off as his hand tightened hard around it. The size of the school shocked him, if it needed to be that big, how many students did it house? How many people was he putting in danger? His mother's words came back to him, and he started to think that maybe she was right. Maybe he was going to murder someone. He should never have come.

The boy didn't turn, but spoke for the first time. "Nervous?"

"It's just bigger than I imagined."

There was a pause as the boy lifted his head to look at the castle, and shrugged. "Won't be that bad."

Remus thought about it, and couldn't say that he agreed. "It's the people I'm worried about. Do you know any?"

"No." He flicked his hair and shot a quick glance over to the right, at the neighbouring boat. "Well, one... sort of."

The neighbouring boat drew a closer and its occupants looked over to them, but the boy had dropped his head back down and resumed his former position staring at the bottom of the boat, where water was beginning to seep through the wooden boards. Auburn hair shining as it caught the light of the torch, one of the girls called over to them, "Sev!"

The boy didn't move.

"Severus! I know that's you."

Severus looked up at last. "Lily. You made it then."

Remus could see, even in the dull light, that there was more life in Severus' eyes than there ever had been before. He wasn't sure where the moody boy's reluctance to talk to her came from, but he knew that it wasn't from hatred. That much he could tell, but the rest of the boy's emotions were shielded from his keen eyes.

"I told you I would." Lily shouted back as her boat slipped in front of theirs as they travelled in single file through a tunnel carved into the huge rock.

Severus gave a half-smile and resumed his position, eyes boring into the wooden planks again.