Remus heard the soft fizzle of the flames dying down, peering into the sitting room confirming that his father had gone; Remus wondered how long his mother would sleep and decided that he would wait in his bedroom until she awoke. Walking towards the stairs Remus looked towards a small calendar resting on the kitchen bench he only had to wait one month until he was off to Hogwarts, excitement rushed to him quickly followed by panic, what would happen if everyone found out? Would they shun him? Accuse him of all the things that went wrong? Of course they would he was a monster, a beast, a beast that didn't deserve to go to a school full of normal, magical children. Remus resolved to never share these feelings with his mother or father; he would bottle them up so as not to worry anyone with his problems. They were his problems after all.

After several minutes of sitting in his bedroom going over the supply list one more time, even though he knew it better than the back of his hand it was somewhat soothing and reassuring reading the letter over and over again, Remus' mother knocked softly on the door then opening it slowly and peering in to see the boy sitting and reading. Remus looked up and gave a shaky smile, a mixture of nerves and excitement caused his smile to falter, either his mother did not notice or did and decided against bringing it up.

'I see you've had your breakfast' she said in her unfailingly calm voice.

Remus smiled in response, he felt this wasn't enough but the only thing on his mind worth bringing up was Diagon Alley and he feared that the only thing that might come from discussing this would be him flailing around the room in pure excitement that this day had finally come.

'Good. We'll be leaving just before lunch, taking the floo. Excited?'

'Yes!' Remus replied a little too quickly.

Mrs. Lupin chuckled. 'Good, good. Make sure you have all of your things ready.'

At 11:45 Remus sat staring at the old fireplace just as he had been doing for the past hour, tapping his fingers in impatience.

Mrs. Lupin walked towards her son patting him on the shoulder and taking hold of the small pot containing thin powder. Remus took a handful of the powder and stepped in the fireplace, how odd this must have looked to someone not as used to floo powder as he was, he wondered and then with a confident voice Remus said;

'Diagon Alley!'

As Remus was sucked into the grate the green flames whirling around his head, he was spinning until he felt a cold hard ground, and he was there. He was in Diagon Alley.

A short while after, Remus' mother shot out of the fireplace, dusted herself and her son off and then began muttering what sounded like a shopping list.

'I'll just need to go to Gringotts first. Go to Madam Malkin's and start getting fitted, I'll only be a few minutes.'

'Okay' Remus said relieved that he didn't have to go into Gringotts and see the judging eye of the Goblins.

Remus walked around for a little while until he spotted the sign for the fitting shop. Remus stepped beyond the threshold of the shop and spotted a large full body mirror, panic struck him. Would he have to strip down to nothing but his under wear? Would they notice they scar? (Of course they would. He thought) Would they ask questions? Remus turned his head towards the door, he was fast, he could do a runner. These thoughts were interrupted by a darkhaired witch.

'Only be a moment love.' She said to him with a smile.

The witch walked back to her current customer, a young boy, he looked the same age as Remus but much more confident. The boy had nice robes, far fancier that Remus would ever be able to afford, he had neat but longish black hair and light grey eyes.

'Stop fidgeting!' Squawked a tall thin pointy woman which looked to be the boy's mother. A small boy possibly a few years younger that the boy being fitted stood behind his mother looking pleased that his brother was being yelled at. Remus took an instant disliking to this woman.

'Sorry' Said the boy, more towards the witch fixing his clothes rather than to his mother.

Remus couldn't help but stare at this family and he hoped that the pointy woman would not turn and see him.

The witch fitting the boy broke the silence.

'So what year are you going into? Do I need to change the colour?'

'First ye...' The boy was cut off by his mother

'Sirius will be entering his first year. No you will not need to change the colour however you will soon need to change the colour to green when Sirius gets into Slytherin.'

'Not if I don't get into Slytherin.' Said the darkhaired boy.

WHACK! Remus didn't know what had happened until the boy's mother spoke up

'You will get into Slytherin, no son of mine will be anything less'

The boy opened his mouth in response, but closed it and went to rubbing the back of his head where his mother's hand had hit him.

The witch measuring the boy looked flustered and quickly took down his measurements and helped him out of his robe and began discussing the price of the items with his mother. The boy Sirius put his clothes back on and looked at Remus. Remus wished he was made of glass. Sirius swaggered over to Remus and held out his hand.

'Sirius Black'

'Remus Lupin'

'First year?'

'Yeah. You?' Remus knew the answer but asked only out of fear the conversation would die out.

'Yeah.' Sirius jolted his head towards his mother and younger brother

'I'm not like them' Sirius said almost defensively

Remus nodded, he could tell that this boy was nothing like his family, he had a different feeling about him. Remus was about to open his mouth when Sirius' mother walked over and pushed her son through the door, not even acknowledging Remus' existence.

'Maybe I'll see you on the train'. Sirius said as he was being rushed out of the shop

'Yeah, I hope so.'

'Hey, maybe we'll even be in Gryffindor together.' Sirius said an obvious dig at his mother.

The boy's mother stopped and looked at her son, a look that could have made McGonagall run away with wee dribbling from her robes. Sirius' mother grabbed her son and practically threw him out of the shop, with her younger boy the obvious favourite happily walking behind.

Remus knew Sirius would pay for what he said; he just didn't know what price.