A/N: I generally don't agree with writing dialect for reasons too detailed to go into here (you can always find the arguments elsewhere if you want), and I've made a conscious decision not to do it in the past, including when writing Fleur. However, we meet Hagrid in this chapter, and Hagrid's speech is iconic to a lot of people. So...I tried to recreate it here. I'm still trying to decide if I want to do that when I write Hagrid in the future. Word count: 2817

Chapter 7

Make New Friends but Keep the Old

There was something about a walk on the Hogwarts grounds that left you feeling refreshed. It had taken years for Remus to take up the habit. For awhile, he'd only come out on the grounds for classes or when with his friends, never alone for a walk. He hadn't wanted to look like a loser who didn't have friends.

Once he'd gotten over himself, it felt ridiculous that he'd been worried about such things, and he'd found himself taking regular walks to relieve his stress as his workload got larger in sixth year. He was sure he'd be taking even more advantage of the grounds as they got closer to N.E.W.T.s.

The late September air was just the right temperature as it ruffled the light jacket he'd donned instead of his cloak. Standing on the edge of the lake, he closed his eyes and let the wind whip at his hair. He'd needed peace after spending most of the day cooped up in the library trying to memorize the ingredients for the Draught of Living Death.

Was it still only September? He forced himself not to think of the pile of work left for him to complete by Monday.

"Oh, hello."

Remus' eyes flew open to find Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, watching him with an amused grin. He was standing far enough away that Remus didn't have to crane his neck back far to see his face.

Remus grinned back, embarrassed at being found lost in his thoughts.

He'd hardly spoken Hagrid over the years, but Remus had watched him from afar at times, fascinated by the man who was from the others in the castle different from everyone else at the castle. Remus was sure Hagrid was half-giant, and it had made him want to know the gamekeeper to ask him how he dealt with prejudice. But, if it were true, Hagrid was hiding it, and Remus had decided it was better to keep his distance.

He'd done some research on giants several weeks into his first year. That was when he'd known for sure Hagrid was in a similar position to him. Remus was certain Hagrid's job as gamekeeper wasn't a profession he'd chosen so much as the only option he'd been provided with.

The knowledge he possessed from the books in the Hogwarts library left him feeling awkward as he tried to appear nonchalant. As a member of the staff, Hagrid was aware of Remus' lycanthropy, but at least they both knew about that. Remus knew what it was like to wonder if someone knew your secret without being able to know for sure. Not unless you revealed the secret in the process.

"Nice day, isn' it?" Hagrid asked, looking up at the blue sky.

"Yeah, it is," Remus agreed.

He stared at the heavy-looking box Hagrid had in his arms. The gameskeeper followed his gaze and grinned.

"Importan' business," he said, patting the box with one hand as he supported it with the other.

Remus nodded as if that made perfect sense, but he had the feeling Hagrid was keeping secrets. There might have been a scratching noise coming from inside the box, Remus couldn't tell before Hagrid stowed it away in an interior pocket of his jacket.

"Tell me if I'm bein' too forward," Hagrid continued, "but ter tell yeh the truth, I've bin curious 'bout yeh since yer firs' year. It can' be easy with, yeh know…"

Hagrid scratched at his face, frowning as he tried to come up with a sensitive way to word what he wanted to say, but Remus wasn't bothered being asked about his lycanthropy by Hagrid. For the first time, Remus didn't hold any fear that Hagrid was going to look at him differently based on his answers.

"It's been better than I expected it to be," Remus admitted.

Hagrid observed him, his grin returning.

"I've seen yeh with yer friends. The four of yeh look close. Do they know?"

Remus smiled as he thought of his friends, bringing one hand up to rub at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, they figured it out by the end of second year. Looking back, I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was pretty scary at the time when I didn't know how they were going to react."

Hagrid beamed. Remus swore there were tears in the man's eyes, but he was tasteful enough not to point them out. He blinked rapidly to clear the moisture from his own eyes. He'd never stopped to consider whether Hagrid had been able to make friends when he was a Hogwarts student.

"Tha's great."

Hagrid sniffed before he could go on, and Remus noted that he had tried to be discrete about tugging a handkerchief that was large enough to serve as a baby blanket out of his pocket.

"I never had tha' meself," Hagrid admitted. "I like seein' things change for others, 'specially with the war an' all."

Remus frowned, remembering the newspaper stories about Voldemort recruiting giants that were similar to those written about werewolves. Things weren't that different for him and Hagrid. Hagrid may not have had painful transformations every month, but he also didn't have the luxury of hiding his giant heritage as easily as Remus often could his lycanthropy. Remus wasn't sure which was worse in the end. He didn't think it mattered.

"Listen," Hagrid continued. "I know yer busy, wha' with NEWTs an' all, but I'm always up for visitors if yeh find the time. Yeh can bring yer friends. Anytime is fine with me."

"I'd like that," Remus said with a smile. "I'll come."

From the expression on his face, Remus felt as if he'd given Hagrid something that few, if any, students had before. If he'd known that speaking to Hagrid would leave the gamekeeper this happy, he would have bitten the bullet and done it years ago.

He wasn't sure how his friends would react to Hagrid. They'd never spoken about him much other than when trying to avoid him during midnight excursions on the grounds. Still, he knew he'd be visiting Hagrid again whether it was with or without his friends.

Hagrid offered him one last smile and an exuberant wave before wandering off.

Remus had battled with insomnia since he was young. After his first transformation, his young self, not capable of processing everything that had happened, had come to associate darkness with the painful change, and he'd gone from being a child unafraid of the dark to needing to sleep between his parents if he had any hope of getting rest.

As he'd gotten older, he'd become too embarrassed to seek out comfort from his parents anymore, and instead, he'd been forced to lay staring at the ceiling for hours on end while he willed himself to sleep.

What had been a struggle during his childhood had come in handy once he'd begun Hogwarts and befriended boys who loved to explore the castle during the night. It had gone unspoken, but he knew his friends had caught on to his propensity for late nights spent awake. Their excursions had picked up in frequency around the time they'd caught on to his condition, and their most elaborate pranks that required days of planning had always been executed in the days leading up to the full moon.

Even the professors had caught on and taken to watching them particularly closely during those days.

The frequency of their late night trips had diminished during sixth year, when their N.E.W.T. work had caught up to them and studying wasn't as easy as it had once been, but that didn't mean the others had entirely forgotten about Remus' difficulties with sleep.

Since being named Head Boy, James often wouldn't return to their dormitory until an hour or two after curfew, when Remus was already attempting to sleep. On that particular night, he wasn't back yet.

Sirius and Peter weren't asleep either as Remus stared at his canopy and willed his eyes to stay shut. He could hear them. Peter was scratching at a piece of parchment as he attempted to finish the Transfiguration essay that was due the next day. It was the one subject he refused to receive help in out of a need to defend his status as an animagus.

Sirius, on the other hand, was determined to stay awake merely because his three best friends had yet to go to bed. Remus turned his head to peak at Sirius through the cracks in both their bed-curtains and rolled his eyes. Sirius always needed to be in the middle of things, and he would never go to sleep if he thought there was a chance of him missing something, even something as mundane as a story James had to tell about catching two fourth years snogging in a cupboard.

When James did return an hour after Remus had begun trying to sleep, it was with a flurry. He remembered the late hour only once he was in the dormitory and saw the hangings of their beds closed. After hesitating for a minute, he announced in a loud whisper, "Are any of you lot awake? I need to tell you something."

With a groan, Remus sat up and tugged his hangings all the way open, only to be met by a widely smirking Sirius sitting at the end of his own bed.

A second later, James' demeanor caught his attention instead. There was a spring to James' step, and a brilliant smile was firmly in place on his lips. He didn't look like someone who was tired and wished to go to bed after a long day.

He was even humming to himself as he tugged off his tie.

Remus shared glances with Sirius and Peter, who had abandoned his fraught essay writing.

"Prongs," Sirius said, not worried about keeping his voice down, "what's going on, mate?"

James' humming abruptly stopped as he glanced at them as if he'd forgotten he was supposed to be telling them a story. With a content sigh, he settled himself onto his bed. His robes had been discarded along with his tie, and his shirt was half unbuttoned. That ruffled state was the least of his worries as he animatedly began speaking.

"Tonight has been marvelous, lads. Truly marvelous."

Remus shared another look with the other two boys. This time Peter looked as if he were struggling to hold in laughter, and Remus couldn't blame him. James was making quite a picture: half undressed but smiling like he'd gotten a glimpse of heaven.

"Mind telling us why?" Remus asked.

James flopped back onto his mattress, and both Peter and Sirius couldn't hold in their laughter any longer. Sirius was able to quell his faster, so it was Peter who James flipped off, earning a wad of parchment to the face from Peter in return.

"I'm serious," James whined.

Despite the small spat, his smile was firmly in place when he sat up.

"You aren't going to believe what happened while Lily and I were on patrol."

"Did Lily compliment your tie?" Sirius said. "Tell you it goes with your eyes? I've been telling you that for years, Prongs. I'm offended that it took someone else saying it for you to believe me. I'm an honest man."

"Shut up, Padfoot," James shot back fondly.

Remus sat up and moved to Sirius' bed to speak to James more easily.

"Lily asked me to go to Hogsmeade with her in two weeks."

James bounced in place as he shared the news, making his mattress springs creak. He watched them expectantly, but for a few seconds there was only silence. Remus felt a smile that mirrored James' growing on his face.

"Merlin, it's finally happened," Sirius whispered. "It finally fucking happened."

He collapsed onto his mattress much like James had earlier.

"No more whining, no more building up your ego when she rejects you." He propped himself up on his elbows and asked, "What will I do with my time now I've been set free?"

James picked up the parchment Peter had thrown at him and lobbed it at Sirius, but Sirius dodged it. Remus watched with half-hearted irritation as it rolled under Sirius' bed, sure to be forgotten until the house elves came across it.

"I'm trying to share important news with you, Sirius. Can you stop being an arse for a few minutes?"

Sirius gave James an exaggerated smile, but they knew he was being genuine when he said, "I'm happy for you, Prongs."

"We all are," Peter said. "We're also thankful that you'll shut up about being rejected now."

There was more sniggering from Peter and Sirius, but James ignored them, turning instead to Remus, who raised a questioning eyebrow at James' intense gaze.

"She said that you spoke to her about me," James admitted, reaching up to mess with his hair. "She didn't tell me what you said, but it must have been pretty flattering, so thank you, Moony."

Remus titled his face away as it burned.

"I didn't say anything I wouldn't have said to anyone who asked."

James nodded awkwardly for a moment before clearing his throat.

"Still," he continued, "thank you. I love you, Moony. Have I ever told you that?"

The warmth in Remus' cheeks grew to a fire, and he couldn't look at James at all.

"Stop being dramatic," he said.

All four of them had exchanged the sentiment before, and Remus didn't doubt that his friends did love him. But they'd only said it during highly emotional moments, usually when Remus felt least deserving of their friendship and they felt the need to prove themselves to him. It had never come when they were casually sitting in their dorm while they were supposed to be asleep.

Sirius jumped on the opportunity to further Remus' embarrassment. He leaned over and pinched at Remus' cheeks.

"We all do," he said. "You truly are a gem, Remus. And apparently a miracle worker. Mind putting in a good word for me when I need it?"

"Just point me in the direction of the girl in question, and I'll get on it," he replied sarcastically.

Surprisingly, Sirius didn't take the joke further. Instead, he crawled up his bed and began turning down his sheets, all but shooing Remus back to his own bed in the process.

"Whelp," he said, settling himself in. "This has been quite the night. Congratulations to Prongs. I love you, by the way. Thanks for telling me how wonderful I am. And you, Moony. And you, Wormtail. It's a big ol' love fest, but now it's time for sleep. Good night, sleep tight."

Just like that, his eyes were closed and he was doing a remarkable job of faking sleep.

The other three Marauders shared a questioning look. For a second, Remus thought one of them might say something, but then Peter shrugged, and all three of them simultaneously decided that it wasn't worth getting concerned with.

Sometimes Sirius Black didn't make sense.

"Moony…"

Remus looked up and sighed at the way Sirius was pouting at him. He pushed his notes away, only regretting slightly that he wouldn't be able to revise when Sirius was making such a distraction of himself.

"Yes, Padfoot?" he said, taking pains to sound more annoyed than he felt.

Sirius smirked.

"Tomorrow is Hogsmeade. Do you need to spend all evening on schoolwork?"

"That would mean I should do it now. Otherwise, I won't do it at all."

"Of course you'd do it. You're Remus Lupin. The idea of you not finishing your homework is laughable."

"And I finish it by actually working on it when I have the time to. Like right now."

Sirius shrugged and leaned back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head.

"I just wanted to check in on the game plan for tomorrow. Prongs is the only one with a date, so us and Wormtail are obviously going to scope out how things go, right?"

Remus groaned.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"On the contrary, Moony. It's a brilliant idea. Don't you want to see how it goes?"

"I want to hear how it went from James and Lily later. You really think we'd be helping James by gawking at them from three tables over in the Three Broomsticks?"

"No one can fault us for being in the most popular pub in Hogsmeade. We're not going to do anything wrong."

"Wrong? Maybe not. Smart? Definitely not."

"It'll be fine," Sirius stressed, smile wide on his lips.

Remus leveled Sirius with a sharp gaze before his shoulders fell seconds later.

"We stay discrete," he said, keeping his expression stern even when Sirius' smirk made his stomach flutter.

"Discrete," Sirius promised.

In the end, they weren't discrete, but Remus had been expecting that anyway.

A/N: The next chapter will be an interlude in Lily's POV that details her and James' date, including the snooping of the other Marauders.