A/N: Thanks for all the constructive criticism guys, I will do my best to act upon it. I'll do my best to make the chapters longer but I'm afraid I won't be able to promise anything. Would someone be able to give me an idea of how long you'd like chapters to be? I've looked at a few fics and they vary a lot so I don't really know what I should be aiming for. If someone wants to let me know that'd be much appreciated. Thanks again.
(Morningdove14: Lily isn't in Slytherin; everything is as cannon as I can manage. In Chapter 2 she was sorted into Gryffindor and she mentions being in Gryffindor in Chapter 5 in part of her argument with Snape. Also I agree that I didn't make it clear at all, but Remus was surprised that she didn't ask him which was why he asked her if she wanted to know, he never actually wanted to tell her that he was a werewolf despite his moment of insanity where he revealed his scars. I hope that clears things up for you a bit and you will continue to read.)
Remus shook himself and pushed the details of his conversation with Lily away. He would only manage to make himself feel bad about not telling her the truth, and that was a very dangerous thing for him to do. No matter how kind and understanding she seemed to be to him he couldn't reveal the truth of his situation to her, not to anyone. That was the promise that he'd made to his family, and the promise that his family had made to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore in turn had made to the Governors. So much was riding on his ability to keep this quiet, and he'd already let more slip than he ever should have. He made a promise to himself that he wouldn't tell Lily anything more about his scars or anything which could compromise him or his family. As for the boys in his dormitory, he would tell them the same lie as he told Lily, that way there wouldn't be any chance of them hearing a different story. They might think that he was a freak, but it was the lesser evil compared to coming clean about his werewolf status.
His eyes fell on Sirius and James sitting on a low wall in the courtyard, with Peter hovering awkwardly by their shoulders, and Remus made his way over to them, the only friendly faces that he recognised in the throngs of young witches and wizards. Sirius and James were deep in conversation with each other, but Peter, excluded as was becoming the norm, noticed his approach.
"Here's Remus." He said, tugging on Sirius' sleeve, which he irritably pulled away as he tiredly looked up at Remus' approaching figure, clearly having tolerance when it came to Peter.
"Come back to join us then Remus?" Sirius said, shifting up slightly to let Remus sit down. "I was just asking James if we should start to find you."
"Yeah, where were you?" James inquired as Remus took a seat next to Sirius and made sure that his sleeves were pulled down as far as they would go without drawing any attention to them.
Remus looked at the floor and considered for a second what he was going to tell them. He didn't want to admit that he had wanted to get away from them, guessing that it was a social faux pas to run away from your room mates and potential friends. "I heard Lily and Severus shouting at each other and thought I'd better go and see what was going on before someone lost an eye to a wand." He lied, sticking as close to the truth as possible without giving anything away.
It was Sirius' voice that he heard first. "Lily and Severus?"
Remus was on the verge of answering when James cut across him. "Lily's that girl who sat across the table from us at breakfast this morning."
"I didn't notice." Sirius said dully, going back to inspecting the end of his wand
Peter piped up quickly, desperate to get involved in the conversation. "I saw her. She was talking to that boy with the weird cloak and long hair in Potions as well."
"That's Severus." Remus said to him, practicing patience with the shorter boy, even though he wasn't naturally compelled to do so.
Remus was quickly discovering that there were some people around him that he wasn't too keen on becoming friends with, and Peter was one of them. It wasn't due to being polar opposites, rather if anything it was because Peter reminded him of whom he could be; an outcast, begging for attention and not remotely interesting. Where Peter was close to stupid on the intelligence spectrum, Remus hoped that he was nearer the top, or at least that was what the morning's lessons had suggested, and where Peter followed the other boys like a lost puppy, Remus chose when to dip in and out of the conversation, without his interjects being totally ignored. Seeing Peter standing between the dark heads of the other two boys Remus realised how hard it must be not being included properly in conversation, and resolved to be pleasant to the blonde haired boy, if not particularly friendly.
"That greasy haired Slytherin?" James asked quickly.
Remus nodded his affirmation, wondering why he was so interested all of a sudden. Severus struck him as an odd person, but he didn't seem that interesting, and especially not to someone such as James, who had spent most of the time he had been with him engrossed in deep conversation with Sirius, plotting pranks that they were going to play throughout the year and reminiscing about the time they'd spent together – which to Remus seemed to mostly have consisted of escaping Sirius' family and doing whatever they could to ensure that he was going to wind them up as much as possible. His interest in the activities of one particular boy struck him as slightly strange even if he himself had shown interest in Severus after their short boat ride across the Great Lake together.
"Yes – "
"I hate him!" James exclaimed, jumping to his feet with the passion of his hate. "Did you hear what he said to me on the train? Did you hear him Sirius?" His brown eyes were burning behind his thick round glasses with the reminder of his encounter with Severus and his messy black was blown by the wind into an even messier state, giving him a slightly possessed appearance.
Sirius, well accustomed to James' temperament and outbursts after seeing him regularly ever since he'd been born, didn't bat an eyelid, but both Peter and Remus, who had yet to encounter this side of the boy flinched at his exclamation of hatred. Peter shrank back, as if trying to make himself small enough to hide behind Sirius, and Remus became awkward, and wondered how to calm him down. His mother would know how, she always managed with his father, it was when he was in darker moods that she didn't intervene, except for some failed shouting, which, Remus thought, did more harm than good.
"Of course I heard him; I was sat right next to you." Sirius replied calmly and passively, almost seeming bored by the turn that the conversation had taken.
"Oh. Right yes." James deflated, remembering that Sirius had been in the compartment with Severus had entered and caused a stir. "I still can't believe what he said. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy..." Gryffindors can be brainy too!"
"Look at Remus, he's not got an ounce of brawn on him but he was top of all the classes this morning." The boys all laughed, Peter slightly later than the rest of them, as if he had to confirm first that laughter was appropriate, and even then, it seemed awkward. Nothing seemed to come naturally to him; it was all a huge effort.
His cheeks flushed a bright red, Remus tried to talk over the top of their laughter. "Look at me in Potions though, I was a disaster."
His modesty forced him to correct them, he wasn't perfect. He was far from it. So, so far, it almost felt like a crime to let them believe that he was. Almost as bad as letting Lily think that he got sad enough to hurt himself deliberately, but at the same time nowhere near as bad, she must be worried sick for him. Why had he let her believe it? He could have said something else, made up some other story. Remus silently berated himself harshly for the way that his earlier conversation had panned out.
"We all have our weak points Lupin, I'm sure we can get you through Potions if you can get us through the rest of the lessons."
Remus laughed weakly, dissolving back into his own private thoughts. In order to change the subject away from him he looked up at the giant clock face on the wall of the courtyard, clearly hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, but in perfect repair thanks to the spells repelling moisture and air from reaching the hands and iron face, preventing them oxidising. "Look, it's almost time to get to Defence Against the Dark Arts." He said, brushing himself down and waiting for the others to get to their feet.
Sirius leapt to his feet, whipping his wand out and getting into an exaggerated duelling pose. "Ready to get trounced, Potter?"
"You wish, Black." James snarled playfully, brandishing his wand even more extravagantly, causing Peter to scuttle out of the way in fear of the short wooden stick becoming thrust into a bodily orifice.
Suddenly, out of nowhere there was a reprimanding cough. "Boys!" Both play-duellers stopped quickly, and spun around in the direction of the voice, which came from an emerald green cloaked witch, whom they recognised as Professor McGonagall from their earlier Transfiguration lesson. "There is to be no fighting in the school grounds thank you very much." They both quickly hid their wands behind their backs, as if by hiding the evidence they would no longer be accused. "If I catch you again I will have to take points from Gryffindor. And believe you me, that is not something I want to do." She finished off with a slight wink.
"Sorry Professor." They both intoned, joined by Peter, who stopped sharply when they both stared at him in confusion.
She turned on her heel, before pausing and looking back towards them, "And by the way Mr Potter, if you ever feel the urge to practise magic outside lessons perhaps you should think about helping Mr Pettigrew here with his Transfiguration. You appeared to have quite a natural talent for it."
Swelling almost visibly James' head cracked open in a wide grin. "Did you hear that? A natural talent."
Remus sighed as he started boasting about his Potter blood, conveniently ignoring Sirus' reminders that his mother had been born a Black, knowing that it would be the topic of the afternoon. He did have to admit though, that James' matchstick did look more like a needle than any of the others in his class, it had been shiny and had a hole in the end, even if it wasn't very thin. Knowing that he would have plenty of time to hear about James' Transfiguration success Remus hurried off to Defense Against the Dark Arts, not entirely sure what it would entail, but still keen to make a good first impression.
