Part Twenty Eight – A New Friend

"Hagrid 'll help," James said as he led the way through the snowy grounds on their second day back at Hogwarts after the Christmas holidays. "He's great with animals, I heard Dumbledore say so."

"I hope so," Remus said as he cradled his new owl in his arm. He didn't know what had happened to Conall, but when he'd gone to find him to send a message to his parents letting him know that he'd arrived safely back at school, he'd discovered the small bird was injured and unable to fly. He'd borrowed one of the school owls to send his message and James had immediately suggested taking Conall to Hagrid.

"Why not Professor Kettleburn?" Sirius had asked. James had merely shrugged and replied that if Dumbledore was praising Hagrid then that recommendation was good enough for him. Remus agreed and so found himself on his way across the grounds to Hagrid's hut.

Hagrid came to the door almost immediately and within minutes he had invited the boys inside and was tending to the bird with care and expertise.

"Did yer all enjoy yer 'olidays?" Hagrid asked after he'd finished binding up Conall's wing.

"It was great," replied James. "We were all visiting each other and all those parties. Shame we had to come back to school."

"Yeah," agreed Peter, although Remus was sharp enough to notice that Sirius wasn't saying much and from what he'd seen of his home he was probably relieved to be back at school. He soon realised that he was not the only one to have picked up on Sirius's silence.

"You're the quiet one, are yer?" asked Hagrid to the general hilarity of James and Peter as they described their horse race at the Lupin farm.

Remus smirked slightly until he realised that even though Sirius was far more open with them than he had been before he was still not comfortable talking about his home life with others.

"Oh, like that is it?" Hagrid said with an understanding smile. "'ere 'ave a cup of tea and put 'em out yer mind."

Two cups of tea later and the topic of conversation had moved back to the Black New Year party once more. Remus shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he listened to his friends talking and the topic turned to Severus. He couldn't say he was surprised, the other boy had been a popular topic on the journey back to Hogwarts and for much of the previous day.

"I think my mother wanted me to make friends with him," Sirius said, his voice incredulous. "On New Year's Day she barely shut up about how he was a model student and how proud his mother is of him."

"He sent me right to the main party room," James explained to Hagrid, Peter already having been filled in on the events of the evening before the Hogwart's Express had even made it out of London. "He was deliberately trying to get us into trouble."

"Now, now," Hagrid said as he put the kettle on from across the room. "Yer don't know that."

"What do you mean Hagrid? He sent James to the party. We'd have been in so much trouble if I hadn't spotted him in time."

"Well James, did Severus know yer weren't supposed ter be there?" Hagrid asked reasonably.

"That's not the point. I asked where Sirius was and he sent me right into the lion's den."

"Did 'e know Sirius weren't in the main room then?"

"Er…"

"Um…"

"So 'e might 'ave thought Sirius were in the party?"

Remus bit on his lip as Hagrid voiced the question that he himself had wanted to ask at the time, but had been too nervous to say.

"I guess," replied James with obvious reluctance.

"You did say he was on his own in the kitchen when you flooed in mate," Sirius pointed out at Hagrid's reasonable logic. Remus noticed the disappointment in his tone but was thankful that it was minimal. Maybe his friends would start to give Severus the benefit of the doubt from now on, a New Year resolution of sorts, or at least leave the other boy in peace.

"So yer don't want ter be causing no trouble this term with no good reason," said Hagrid.

"It's like I was saying," Remus finally said. "You do tend to think the worst about him all the time."

"Still doesn't change what he did last term though," Sirius declared.

"Yeah, that's right," James agreed.

"Yeah," Peter echoed.

"But yer don't want ter be getting into trouble now, do yer?" Hagrid advised.

"No," James muttered, whilst the rest of them nodded their agreement.


It was almost full dark when the boys finally left Hagrid's cosy hut and braved the elements. The snow had been falling heavily for some time and the footprints they had left on their journey to the hut had all vanished during the course of the afternoon. Remus promised to call back in a few days to check on how his owl was doing and Hagrid assured them that they were all welcome to return any time they wanted to.

Remus spent the rest of the day in the Gryffindor common room hurriedly re-reading his homework assignments from before the holidays whilst Peter and Sirius were practising the charms and spells they'd learnt the previous term in readiness for their first lessons of the new term.

Remus was just re-reading his History of Magic essay when a shrill shriek sounded from a group of girls at the other side of the room.

Peter, startled, dropped his wand and the cup he'd been levitating fell to the floor and smashed. Sirius quickly pulled out his own wand to repair it before turning his attention to the girls.

"What's the matter?" Lily was asking Veronica who'd jumped up from her seat on the sofa and was casting a suspicious look around the room.

Remus twisted around in his seat as Veronica backed up towards the fireplace. By now she had the attention of the room who were startled to see her leap to her right with another shriek as her left arm flew up to her ear.

"What is it?" one of the fifth year boys asked with a degree of impatience as he set aside his book.

"Something touched my ear," Veronica wailed as she looked around the room.

"There's no one near you," Lily insisted as many others in the room nodded in agreement.

"It must have been one of the ghosts," Veronica stated before she suddenly jumped again and clutched at her right ear.

"It most certainly was not," Sir Nicholas said from across the room where he had drifted in, apparently having heard the commotion from wherever it was he was lurking. "I assure you, young lady, the ghosts of Hogwarts have no desire to terrorise the students in such a juvenile manner."

Veronica looked at Sir Nicholas with a sulky expression on her face before reluctantly returning to her seat.

Gradually the rest of the students turned back to whatever they were doing before Veronica's outburst and Sir Nicholas drifted out through the wall again. Peace reigned once more in the common room and Remus turned back to his essay.

"Hey look," Peter exclaimed a short while later. Remus looked up to see that he was carefully pointing his wand at the cup which was flying above them, first drifting to the left, then to the right, and back again, with a precision that only James and Sirius had previously managed to accomplish.

"Nice work," Remus said as Peter beamed at him. Sirius leaned back in his chair with a curious expression on his face as he watched the cup fly slowly around before eventually coming to a halt on the top of Sirius's head.

"I don't think it's my style," commented Sirius with a mildly amused expression as he placed the cup back on the table.

"I didn't mean it to go there," Peter said, scratching at his nose as he contemplated the cup. "It just went there on its own."

"Sure it did," Sirius laughed. "Maybe you need a bit more practice, either at levitation or transfiguration - so that you can turn it into a decent hat."

"I guess," Peter mumbled as he continued to look confused before casting the charm once more to make the cup rise into the air.

Eventually the students began to leave the common room for their dormitories and Remus, closing his book, pushed back his chair to leave too. It was only the sharp kick to the leg from Sirius that kept him in his seat.

"You can wait up for James if you want, but I'm kind of tired," Remus said, yawning widely.

"Madam Pince will have kicked him out of the library half an hour ago," Sirius said. "No matter how many essays he didn't bother to get done over the holidays, she wouldn't let him stay late. He should have been back ages ago."

Remus signed and looked towards the firmly closed common room door. James had pleaded his excuses earlier in the evening and headed to the library after explaining that he'd managed to forget to do all of his assignments set in the final week of term and only the quiet of the library would help. Remus had raised an eyebrow at this but James had, for the first time since arriving at Hogwarts, seemed genuinely swamped with work.

"Maybe he's stopped by the kitchen for supplies?" Peter suggested hopefully as the minutes ticked by.

"Or maybe he's already here…" Sirius said as he tapped his fingers on the table whilst waiting impatiently for two sixth years to finish their discussion about the next Quidditch match and leave.

"Already here?" asked Peter, looking about the room again. Remus did likewise but could see no trace of their friend, only the two older students who finally seemed to be taking their discussion with them to the dormitories.

"Okay James, give it up," Sirius said as he too gazed around the room.

A moment later Peter jumped up with a squeal. "Something grabbed me," he said as he backed himself up to the wall.

"Or someone," suggested Sirius as Remus finally realised what was happening. "Got bored did you James? Wouldn't have dug out that invisibility cloak, perhaps?"

"How did you guess?" James's voice, slightly muffled, asked before he suddenly appeared, holding out the said article.

"You can't spend that much time 'in the library' without arousing suspicion," Sirius said as he reached for the cloak and, taking it from James, wrapped it around himself until only his head and hands were visible. "Why didn't you use this to come round on New Year's Eve?"

"My parents took it off me and only gave it back to me on the last day of the holidays. Thought I might have disrupted their party or something."

"Wonder what gave them that idea," Remus laughed.

"I can't imagine," James said as Sirius pulled the cloak over his head.

James grinned as he reached out to pull back his cloak and missed entirely. Sirius reappeared several feet away with a wide grin on his face. "Me neither," he replied.

Remus had the suspicion that more trouble was heading their way.