September 1st, 1971, 11:14a.m.
Remus Lupin
His hands were shaking. His legs were shaking. Every bit of him was shaking, essentially. Even his brain felt like it was shaking, though that might have been the rumbling of the train. He was dragging his trunk behind him, the weight of it making his arm sore after all this time. He'd been looking for an empty compartment since he'd gotten on the train, but all of them were full; even the ones with only a few people in them had people who looked like they were the best of friends. He didn't want to interrupt.
A red-headed girl and a boy with pale skin pushed past him abruptly, the girl's trunk banging into Remus's.
"Sorry!" the girl cried, but didn't stop. Remus pulled his trunk closer to him.
"It's oka–kay," he said. The boy glanced back at him and sneered. Remus sank in on himself. He turned away quickly and opened the next compartment that looked empty.
A pair of boys stopped laughing abruptly, looking up at him. Remus felt his face go hot and he regretted opening the door at all.
"Hullo!" said one boy of the two boys inside, a bespectacled boy his age with caramelly skin and a mop of thick, messy hair. "Were you looking for a compartment?"
"Y–y–yes," Remus stuttered. He dropped his gaze hastily, trying not to wince.
"You can join us then," said the other boy, and Remus looked back up. He had curious eyes, a stormy gray instead of any color filled the irises. "What's your name?"
"R–Remus Lupin," he answered. He tried to keep back the wince.
"Come on in, then, R–Remus," the boy in glasses said with a grin – Remus couldn't help but shrink at the mockery of his speech, even though it sounded good-natured. The boy scooted over on his bench and patted the seat. "My name's James. A couple of wanna-be-Slytherins just left, so anyone's welcome after that."
"That w–wouldn't happen t–to be that ginger g–girl and her friend?" Remus asked. He did wince, his tongue failing him at even the simplest of sentences.
"Yeah," James said.
"You don't have to be sad about your stutter," said the other boy, startling Remus. "My brother used to have the worst stutter, our nanny taught him how to get rid of it. Don't remember how, though, sorry."
Remus felt his face flush again. He pulled his trunk completely into the compartment, not knowing how to respond to that. The luggage rack about James was empty, so Remus quickly lifted his trunk and shoved it out of the way.
"Thanks," Remus said, dropping onto the bench next to James. He clasped his hands in his lap, his gaze on the floor.
"You want to play Exploding Snap, Remus?" James asked.
Remus looked up. James was still smiling at him. "Sure," he said and managed a smile back.
"Awesome, I was just about to teach Sirius here how to play poker with it," James said, pointing to the boy with gray eyes. Sirius was a funny name, Remus decided, funny enough to go with the thin gray eyes.