-CHAPTER TWO-

The Hogwarts Express

Remus immediately regretted asking. The boy with the glasses rolled his eyes irritably at his question and threw his hands up in the air with exasperation. The boy with the long hair chuckled a little, and the small boy with the round face blinked mutely at him, as though he'd just asked a really stupid question. The red headed girl in the back of the compartment flashed a quick glance in his direction, but said nothing.

'Sorry,' he muttered, trying to ignore the heat creeping up his neck, 'my mistake. I'll just-'

'Why are you all asking my permission?' the boy with the glasses sighed exasperatedly, 'Of course you can sit down. It's not as if it's my train, is it?'

Remus stared at him, then looked away quickly. It wasn't fair of him to just barge in with the rest of them when he was clearly an outsider. He should probably just thank them and try and find an empty compartment...

'Here,' the boy with the glasses said, grabbing Remus' trunk from his hands and lifting it into the luggage racks as though it were no heavier than a broomstick, 'You can barely move in here with all these trunks all over the floor. I don't suppose you want to grab the others?' he threw a glance over his shoulder at the boy with the long hair, who began wrestling his own bag onto the racks.

'So I can sit here?' Remus muttered, watching as the boy with the glasses hefted the next trunk over his head, 'I mean, none of you mind?'

'Course not,' the boy with the glasses shrugged, 'well, she might, but she's not exactly the chatty type, so you should be okay, you know.' He smiled broadly at the red-haired girl, who was staring out of the window with a glazed look that told Remus that she wasn't really interested in looking at the scenery.

'Is she okay?' he asked in an undertone, not wanting to pry, but feeling a pang of concern as he noticed her puffy green eyes and the tear channels on her cheeks.

'No idea,' the boy with the glasses sighed, 'I did ask, but she told me to sod off, so I guess it's none of my business.'

There was a crash that made Remus almost jump out of his skin. He whirled around to see the long-haired boy jumping up and down, cursing, and Remus noted the enormous trunk lying awkwardly on the floor at his feet.

'You all right, mate?' the boy with the glasses asked, looking amused.

'Bloody thing weighs a ton!' the boy with the long hair swore, his grey eyes narrowed in pain as he clutched at his toes. He sank down back into his seat, massaging his foot, but quickly stopped when he noticed that everyone was staring at him.

'It's bloody heavy!' he frowned, glaring at them as though defending himself, 'it's not as if I dropped in on purpose!'

'Cause not,' the boy with the glasses blinked, as though confused but his friend's reaction, 'It's his trunk,' he nodded at the round-faced boy, who jumped a little as he was mentioned, 'what have you got in there?'

'Not much...' he squeaked, 'Just the usual things.'

'Have you tried an extension charm?' the boy with the glasses asked, and to Remus' surprise he reached up the sleeve of his scarlet jumper and pulled out a magnificent wand of gleaming red-brown wood.

'Don't they already have them?' the long-haired boy asked, looking suddenly interested at the appearance of the wand.

'Well, yeah,' the boy with the glasses shrugged, 'but they could always do with extending a bit more.'

He raised his wand. All eyes were fixed on him: pale grey, watery blue, even the red headed girl's emerald ones. The boy with the glasses grinned nervously at the attention, and rolled up his sleeves.

'Don't,' Remus croaked, his voice suddenly hoarse, 'that's illegal.'

But he was too late. The boy with the glasses had waved his wand and cried:

'Capacious extremis!'

A jet of sparks flew from the end of his wand and collided with the trunk, causing it to shake a little before becoming once again completely still.

'Did it work?' the round-faced boy asked eagerly, looking in awe at the trunk as though it were made of solid gold.

'Open it,' the boy with the glasses said smugly, stowing his wand carefully back up his sleeve with a rather self-satisfied air.

The round-faced boy opened the trunk with trembling fingers. It was packed tightly with clothes and books and packets of sweets, but as far as Remus could tell there had been absolutely no change in the trunk's capacity whatsoever. The red-haired girl and the boy with the long hair both burst out laughing, and it was the boy with the glasses' turn to flush red in embarrassment.

'Well,' he sighed, trying to regain his dignity, 'It's probably just as well. Like he said, expansion charms are technically in breach of the Statute of Secrecy.'

The boy with the glasses looked up at Remus, and flashed him a quick grin.

'I'm James, by the way. This is Sirius,' the long-haired boy recovered from his laughing fit enough to lift a hand in greeting, 'that over there is Lily,' he pointed at the red-haired girl in the window, then frowned at the round-faced boy, who was desperately trying to squash his belongings back into his trunk, 'I don't think that I got his name.'

The round-faced boy blinked, looked around, realised that he was being addressed, and smiled shyly.

'Peter Pettigrew,' he said proudly, 'I'm Peter Pettigrew.'

'Remus Lupin. Pleasure to meet you all,' Remus muttered, and curled up onto the cushioned bench. He flinched a little as he realized that the boy with the long hair, Sirius, was looking at him with a gleam in his eyes.

'So,' he grinned, rolling his eyes at the boy with the glasses, 'I don't suppose you care to tell James here what you're Quidditch team is? It's sort of a big deal for him.'

Remus felt his heart sink.

'I... I don't really follow it,' he muttered, busying himself with picking at a patch on his jeans, 'I've never had the time. Sorry.'

James sighed melodramatically.

'Amateurs,' he held a hand to his forehead as though consoling himself, 'I'm surrounded by amateurs.' He cast a glance sharply at Lily, who was ignoring them all once more and continuing to stare raptly out at the countryside. 'I don't suppose that you have a Quidditch team?'

She gave a disgruntled noise that was clearly a negative affirmation.

'I didn't think so,' James rolled his eyes, 'ah well. We can't all be perfect.'

Sirius was looking at Remus again, making him feel rather uncomfortable. There was something about the other boy that Remus that put him on edge. Perhaps it was his steely grey eyes which looked at Remus as though he were a problem that the other boy wanted to solve.

'Are you alright?' Sirius asked slowly, watching Remus intently from underneath his curtain of long, smooth, black hair, 'He's just messing around, you know. Not that Quidditch isn't very important,' he grinned at James, 'but it isn't everything.'

Remus shrugged, searching for an excuse that would explain his unease and desperately wishing that they would all just leave him alone.

'I'm just a bit nervous,' he said quickly, 'I've never really spent much time away from home before. There's a lot to think about.'

'I suppose so,' James said nonchalantly, 'I've never really thought about it like that - it's all so exciting, isn't it? How about you, Pete? You look just as frightened as Remus does!'

Peter flushed even pinker as he spoke. James was right. He did look almost as nervous as Remus felt. Almost.

'It's not going to be that bad, is it?' he glanced worriedly around at them, 'Everyone's told me that I'll have a really good time, so I guess that we'll all just forget about home after a while, and... and it will all be okay.'

Remus wasn't all that sure that he wanted to forget about home. He didn't want to think about how it would be four whole months before he could return to his parents: he missed his father, with his hearty laughter and dodgy spells that never failed to make Remus smile; he already wanted to see his mother again, with her muggle dresses and sweeping hugs and bright eyes that always made told Remus that everything was going to be okay. They might not be rich and they might not be normal, but they were family. Without them, Remus was convinced that he wouldn't last the month. Actually, he was fairly certain that he wouldn't even survive until Sunday...

Remus shuddered a little. He took a deep breath and pulled his sleeves further down so that his whole hands were covered in the oversized sweater. Next to him, James had pulled out his wand once again and was now exhibiting it proudly.

'Mahogany and phoenix feather,' he was saying to Sirius, 'Eleven inches and pliable. Mr. Olivander was disappointed by how quickly we found it. Dad told me that he likes tricky customers.'

'Then he will have been delighted with me,' the other boy said in a would-be casual tone that Remus didn't miss, 'It took him an hour to find me a match. Mother wasn't too pleased.'

Apparently James didn't notice Sirius' sudden cold tone. Instead he grinned and asked 'So what wand did you end up with?'

Sirius drew out his wand carefully from the deep pockets of his trousers. In the sunlight the wood gleamed as though it was made of onyx. He held it up as carefully as if it were glass, and grinned slightly at the obviously impressed look on James' face.

'Ebony and dragon heart-string. It's ten and three-quarter inches. Apparently it's good for transfiguration.'

'Mine too,' said James, pushing back his hair and trying to twirl his wand through his fingers, 'but it depends on the wizard, doesn't it?'

Remus privately wondered what either of the pair of them knew about wand law. His father had told him it was a difficult thing to study and each wand-maker had their own opinions on different woods and cores. He said nothing, though, because at that moment Peter stood up to get his own wand from his trunk, and as he touched it the tip lit up and shot a fine cloud of purple smoke straight at Lily in the far corner of the compartment. James let out a roar of laughter as Peter apologised profusely.

'I - I didn't do anything,' he stammered, 'I swear it! It's done that a couple of times, I think it's just accident prone...'

'Ah, but the wand chooses the wizard,' James chuckled, 'wands act depending on their owners, so if your wand is a spaz then that's your fault.'

Remus was watching Lily, who had got a mouthful of purple smoke and was spluttering. Tears had returned to her eyes.

'Are you okay?' he asked, not wanting to draw attention to himself but feeling bad for the girl, who was obviously very upset about something, 'I'm sure he didn't mean-'

'Oh leave me alone, all of you!' Lily snapped, and Remus was surprised to hear her speak, 'Can't you all just leave me in peace? I didn't ask to be stuck in here with you!'

'Actually, you did,' James said evenly, 'You asked me if the window seat was taken and I-'

'It was the only place that wasn't taken,' the girl said in acid tones, 'Didn't you hear me? I want to be left alone.'

'Fine,' James held up his hands, 'If you can't take the odd joke then I'm not sure what the point is in talking to you anyway.'

Lily glared at him.

The new boy fascinated Sirius. He didn't think that he could ever remember seeing anyone half as beat-up and shabby in his whole life. As James, to Peter's delight, suggested that someone find a pack of Exploding Snap, Sirius took the opportunity to watch Remus out of the corner of his eye. After the red-haired girl's outburst, the boy had slowly got to his feet, opened his trunk and pulled out a book so tattered that Sirius couldn't make out the title which had once been etched into the cover and was now utterly illegible. He currently appeared to be engrossed in it, having not said a word for five minutes, but Sirius hadn't yet seen him turn a single page.

'You playing, Sirius?' James asked, deftly shuffling the pack he had taken from Peter and raising an eyebrow at him.

Sirius shook his head, trying to hide his confusion. Exploding Snap? He honestly couldn't remember the last time that he had played it. It was a kid's game. He'd used to play similar games with Regulus when they were young, but that had been years ago. He was fairly certain that the Black family hadn't even owned so much as a set of Gobstones in well over five years.

Sirius had somehow lost interest in playing games; he supposed that it was probably something to do with the fact that after his fifth birthday his relatives insisted on buying him books and sheet music instead of playing cards and model trains. Last year, though, Andromeda had sent Sirius a set of model Quidditch players that were enchanted to fly around the room picking up whatever they could carry and throwing things at each other. He had thought they were hilarious, but when a chaser snatched Orion's pocket watch out of his hand and launched it at a window, his father had insisted that they had to go.

That was what it came down to, Sirius supposed as the first card exploded. His father had never seemed to approve of games, which had always struck Sirius as rather odd. He'd once said as much, but as always happened when he made a comment or asked a question, his parents had scowled at him and locked him in his room. It hadn't been that bad though: Reg had come to see him and let him borrow his Quidditch magazine.

Somehow, Reg never got locked in his room. Sirius supposed that it was because he never asked awkward questions or said things he wasn't supposed to. There were times when Sirius was jealous of that. It wasn't his fault. When he thought something, it just came out. He couldn't help what he said any more than he could help the fact that he was left handed or that he didn't like eating sprouts - not that Orion and Walburga had much tolerance for either of those, anyway.

Damn, Sirius thought, it felt refreshing to be able to lean back in his seat without being shouted at. He couldn't help but feel a little excited that it would be a whole three months before he had to worry about chewing too loudly or slouching when he stood.

Sirius started as he saw James looking at him expectantly. Clearly a question had been posed that he had missed.

'Hmm?' he asked, noticing Peter's smoking eyebrows and realising that he hadn't noticed them get burned, 'Sorry - must have dozed off. Did you want something?'

James snorted.

'I was just asking you all if you were hungry, but if you'd rather just stare into space-'

'I'm alright, thanks,' Sirius lied, thinking of the breakfast that he hadn't touched. 'There should be a food trolley coming around at lunchtime, but that's ages away.'

'Hardly,' said James, getting up and reaching into his trunk, 'It's almost twelve already. I'm famished. Liquorice Wand, Peter?'

Sirius gaped. James' trunk was overflowing with packets upon brightly coloured packets of sweets. He could see Cauldron Cakes, Sugar Quills, Chocolate Frogs and more boxes of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans than he had ever seen in his life.

'Blimey,' he spluttered, 'you could give yourself a heart attack just looking at all that sugar.'

James shrugged, tearing the paper off of a pack of Droobles Best Blowing Gum.

'It's not all for now. First years aren't allowed to visit Hogsmead or anything, so Mum got me enough food to keep me going until they can send some more. Droobles, Remus?'

Remus stopped pretending to read and looked up.

'No thank you,' he muttered, 'I've got my own lunch.'

'Suit yourself,' James shrugged, and settled back down onto the seat, 'I suppose it's more for us. Another game Peter?'

Peter began dealing out the cards as James had done, only a little faster and more tidily, as though he had practised it many times before.

'I love exploding snap,' he sighed happily, 'Mum and I play it all the time at home. She taught me how to play when I was little, so now I'm really good at-'

A loud bang and a flash of white light made Sirius jump into the air. Smoke was billowing in great grey clouds from the seat to his left. The entire pack had spontaneously combusted in Peter's hands. James was so beside himself at the sight of Peter's scorched face that he almost fell out of his seat. Sirius couldn't help but shake with laughter himself at the look of bemusement on the other boy's face and at the way the tips of his hair were shrivelling up in the heat. Remus was trying hard not to chuckle, but Sirius could see quite clearly that he was shaking with suppressed laughter.

'Here,' Sirius said when he had recovered, and he pulled out his wand and concentrated hard, 'Tergeo,' he muttered.

Nothing happened. Feeling foolish, Sirius tried again. It was a simple enough spell, his mother used it all the time when she saw grime on Sirius' shoes or on the corner of her clean tablecloth. He'd never tried it before, but he had managed other spells that were a little harder.

He flicked his wand, and he soot vanished from Peter's filthy skin, returning his plump face to its usual pink colour. Pleased with himself, Sirius slid the ebony wand back into his pocket, and looked up to see Peter staring at him in awe.

'Thank you,' he said breathlessly, 'that was amazing!'

'Don't mention it,' Sirius grinned.

James was still chuckling as he tucked into a Chocolate Frog.

'Sure that you don't want one?'

Sirius did want one, but once again he shook his head. The food trolley would be coming around in a minute, and he would buy his own Chocolate Frogs then. He didn't want it to look like he couldn't do things for himself.

At that moment, the compartment door slid open once again. Sirius looked up briefly, and saw that it was another boy of his age, with long greasy hair and a long, pale, hooked nose. His eyes were shadowed, his cheeks were sallow, and his billowing Hogwarts robes did not quite fit him. There was something in his black eyes that made Sirius shudder. He was reminded inexplicably of his own father.

Luckily the boy paid them no attention. He moved quickly past without so much as a glance and sat down opposite the red-haired girl, whose face was pressed tightly to the window pane. James didn't appear to even notice the boy. He munched happily on his Chocolate Frog and dangled another in front of Remus' nose.

'Chocolate, Remus?'

'I'm alright,' he blushed, not taking his eyes off his book, 'I'm not hungry.'

'Liar,' James teased, 'you look as though you haven't eaten in months. It's okay, you can eat it, I don't mind.'

'Really, I'm fine,' the boy muttered, and Sirius noticed for the first time that along his left jaw there ran a series of pale lines that were so old they were practically invisible, but were unmistakably scars, 'I just want to read if that's okay.'

James shrugged.

'Fine by me. What are you reading?'

It occurred suddenly to Sirius that James hadn't noticed the way that Remus was squirming in his seat, or indeed that he had made absolutely no progress in his book in the last ten minutes. Sirius quickly debated whether or not he should say something, but was saved from making a decision by an outburst from James himself.

'Slytherin?' he snorted incredulously, turning at something that the hooked nosed boy that now shared their compartment had said, 'Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?'

He turned and grinned at Sirius, waiting for him to agree. A cold shiver ran down Sirius' spine as he failed to grin back.

Both of his parents had been in Slytherin. Their parents before them had been as well, and as far as Sirius could tell, his whole family going back generations had all been sorted the same way. Orion and Walburga hadn't said anything, but their shared assumption had been all too evident to Sirius - his parents expected him to follow in their footsteps and uphold the noble name of Black. They'd even gone so far as to buy him a new Slytherin scarf. He'd found it draped over the end of his bed one morning, and had felt the same sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach that he always felt when he thought about the sorting ceremony.

In final weeks of August, he'd begun to have nightmares that always started with him being sorted into Hufflepuff, and ended with his family locking him in the cellar with a cage full of poisonous snakes. He'd spent most of his time after that trying not to think about it, although his attempts had been far from successful.

'My whole family have been in Slytherin,' he said, forcing himself not to lose eye contact.

He half expected James to turn on him, as he had done earlier when Peter had said bad things about the Montrose Magpies, but to his surprise the other boy kept on beaming at him.

'Blimey,' James shook his head, 'and I thought you were alright!'

Sirius' insides writhed at the comment, but he kept his calm and shrugged at James, painfully reminded of how the other boy had acted when Peter had insulted his Quidditch team. He didn't want to provoke a response like that, not when he was just starting to like James.

'Maybe I'll break the tradition,' he grinned, although inside he was dreading what would happen if the Sorting Hat decided to do just that, 'Where are you headed, if you've got the choice?' He thought that he could guess the answer.

' 'Gryffindor,' ' Sirius' suspicions were confirmed as the other boy pretended to raise a sword up to his shoulder, ' 'where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad.'

Lily looked vaguely interested, but her hook-nosed friend snorted. As Sirius turned to look at him, he realised what it was in the boy's black eyes that reminded him so starkly of his own father: contempt.

'Got a problem with that?' James asked, furious.

'No,' the hook-nosed boy said, though his sneer quite clearly said otherwise, 'If you'd rather be brawny than brainy...'

Sirius snapped. There was just something in the hooked-nosed boy's demeanour that made him angry. Maybe it was his leering tone, or the disparaging way that he was looking at James, but Sirius couldn't help but think about the time that his father had tried to teach him the levitation charm. When Sirius had failed, Orion had worn exactly the same snide expression that the hooked-nosed boy now wore. At the time, Sirius had been unable to say anything to defend himself, but now, free from his father's short temper, there was nothing holding him back. On impulse, he spat derisively across the compartment.

'Where are you hoping to go,' he scoffed at him, 'seeing as you're neither?'

For a second he wished he hadn't said it – the look of outrage on the hook-nosed boy's face gave him pause. Making enemies of fellow Slytherins before they even got there was bound to end badly. But then caught sight of the look on James' face as he clutched his stomach laughing, and Sirius let himself believe that that would make up for whatever consequences there would be for his insolence.

Lily stood up, her face almost the same colour as her hair. She glared angrily at James and Sirius and nodded at the door.

'Come on Severus,' she said haughtily, still glaring at the pair of them and ignoring Remus and Peter completely, 'let's find another compartment.'

James caught Sirius' eye, and somehow Sirius knew exactly what James was thinking.

'Oooooo...' James jeered, and Sirius joined in. He couldn't help but find Lily's superior tones incredibly funny, especially when she had been so angry at them earlier. She grabbed her trunk and stormed out of the compartment, her friend Severus gliding creepily behind her in his oversized robes. Peter was staring at them with a mixture of confusion and apprehension on his pink face, but the second that the hook-nosed boy's back was turned, he somehow found the courage to call out after him.

'See ya, Snivellus!' he squeaked, just as the door slammed.

'Snivellus?' James blinked, then fell about laughing all over again, pointing at Peter.

'What?' Peter asked nervously, 'what is it? What did I do?'

'Severus,' Remus sighed in his corner, 'His name was Severus, not Snivellus.'

James continued to roll around on his seat, clutching his sides and gasping for breath.

'Oh,' Peter blushed, 'I thought-'

'Never mind,' Sirius grinned, 'It sort of suits him, don't you think?'

'Definitely,' James chuckled, reaching for a Cauldron Cake, 'Are you guys sure that you don't want anything to eat?'

At that moment, a short, plump witch pushing a trolley piled high with sweets and sandwiches appeared through the compartment door.

'Anything off the trolley, dears?' she asked kindly.

Sirius paused for a moment, then looked at enormous pile of food on James' seat, and the accompanying broad smile. Suddenly, maintaining his pride didn't seem quite as important as it had done a few minutes ago.

'No thanks,' he told the witch, 'I think we have enough here to go around.'

Disclaimer: (counts for previous chapter and the whole fic FYI) - I don't own anything. Not even all the words are mine - it's literally copied from/as close to canon as possible. So please don't sue me.