6 September 1971
Remus trudged slowly up to the first year boys' dormitory, late in the evening. A heavy, draining pain was weighing on his back and shoulders, and two or three angry red scratches were still burning on his collarbone, despite the copious amounts of harsh-smelling ointment that Madam Pomfrey had applied to them. Fortunately, they were well-hidden by his robes.
Overall, the first full moon away from home had not been quite as dreadful as Remus had been expecting. The shack in Hogsmeade where he had transformed was certainly eerie, but it was also enormous and open, and Madam Pomfrey had been at his side the very instant he had awoken in the morning. Remus had spent the entire day after the full moon recuperating in the Hospital Wing under her watchful eye; the school matron had fussed over him almost as much as his own mother did at home. By dusk, Remus had actually begun to wonder if she would ever let him leave.
On the whole, Remus was enjoying school immensely. His classes were fascinating—particularly Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was taught by a young, enthusiastic professor named Professor Belby. Rumor had it that he was an up-and-coming potioneer and that he had only returned to teach at Hogwarts for a year, while he conducted research with Professor Slughorn, the Potions master—which Remus thought was a pity. He very much liked Professor Belby and knew that he would be sad to see him go. Apart from Defense Against the Dark Arts, Remus was doing quite well in almost all of his other classes. Potions was proving to be his only real weakness—and it certainly didn't help that Professor Slughorn was always a little skittish around him, though Remus was fairly certain that this had little to do with his Potions abilities.
Remus couldn't bring himself to feel too sorry about this, however, because for the first time in his life, he had friends—two wonderful friends in James Potter and Sirius Black, who genuinely seemed to seek out Remus's presence. Remus had already gotten his first detention for hanging around them, but he didn't mind in the slightest. Besides, for his detention, Professor McGonagall had simply assigned him to assist the groundskeeper, Hagrid, in his pumpkin patch for a few hours—and by the end of it, Remus had felt as though he'd found another friend at Hogwarts.
Releasing a tired sigh, Remus pushed open the door to his dormitory and slipped inside. James and Sirius were conspicuously absent, despite the fact that curfew was only a half-hour away, but Peter Pettigrew was curled up on his bed, frowning down at his Potions spellbook and nibbling on the end of a quill. Remus felt a pang of guilt at the sight of Peter. At the start of term, Remus had resolved to include Peter in his unexpected friendship with James and Sirius; after all, there were only four first year Gryffindor boys—it seemed almost a crime to exclude anyone. But over the past several days, Remus had been having such a grand time with James and Sirius that he'd quite forgotten about his initial promise to involve Peter. Neither James nor Sirius seemed particularly receptive to him, and Remus hadn't wanted to force the issue.
Now, however, ignoring his own exhaustion and aching limbs, Remus made up his mind. "Hello, Peter," he greeted the round-faced boy kindly, walking up to his four-poster bed with a smile. "What're you working on?"
Peter jumped, sitting up and shooting Remus a wide-eyed look. "Potions," he stammered.
"Oh," Remus nodded. "Slughorn's essay?"
Peter heaved a despondent sigh. "I've got no idea what I'm doing," he mumbled, holding up a sheet of parchment that had half a paragraph scrawled onto it, with many crossings-out and ink splotches. "I'm rubbish at Potions so far."
"Potions isn't really my strong suit, either," Remus assured him bracingly, remembering the Cure for Boils that he'd concocted during their last class—Slughorn had deemed it merely passable. "But if you want, we can work on the essay together."
Peter looked at him in amazement. "Really?"
"Of course," Remus said, feeling the knot of guilt in the pit of his stomach twist painfully. He wished he'd made more of an effort to talk to Peter earlier. "In fact, I'll get my notes, now, if that's all right with you."
"Yeah," Peter said enthusiastically, sitting up straight and moving some of his things to make room for Remus on his bed.
Remus grinned, heading over to his bed and rifling through the schoolbag that hung from the footboard. Pulling out his own Potions spellbook and half-completed essay, he walked back to Peter and perched himself on the foot of his bed.
They worked together for nearly forty minutes, comparing notes and developing arguments for their papers. Peter, it transpired, was not as unintelligent as he seemed to think he was—he simply lacked confidence in his abilities. However, once Remus explained certain portions of the text to him in detail, he noticed that Peter was able to catch on quite quickly. Remus, for his part, didn't mind having to teach and reteach the material—in fact, he rather enjoyed it.
"So, I think that if you just shift these two sentences up to your introduction, you'll be good to go," Remus told Peter, pointing to a few lines in Peter's second paragraph.
Peter beamed at him. "Thanks, Remus. This was really helpful."
Remus grinned. "No problem," he said warmly.
There was a moment of silence as Remus began collecting all of his parchment and tucking it neatly into his Potions spellbook, preparing to head back to his own bed.
But then— "How'd you get them to like you?" Peter blurted out.
Remus looked up, frowning; Peter's face had turned bright red, and he looked very embarrassed.
"Sorry?" Remus asked, confused.
"James and Sirius," Peter mumbled, avoiding Remus's eyes. "How'd you get them to like you? I've tried being nice to them—but I think…I'm pretty sure they think I'm too stupid to be their friend."
"You're not stupid, Peter," Remus said sharply. "And James and Sirius do like you—"
"They barely notice me," Peter interrupted gloomily. "I'm not their friend—not really, anyway. Not like…not like you."
Remus stared at Peter, unsure of how to respond. He wanted to deny it, but he knew Peter wouldn't believe him. James and Sirius could be rather insensitive sometimes—and unfortunately, Peter happened to fall under that category. Biting his lip, Remus racked his brain for something comforting to say—but at that very moment, the dormitory door swung open, and James and Sirius themselves tumbled inside, their faces flushed and their eyes alight with excitement.
"Remus!" James crowed, sprinting over to Peter's bed and throwing an arm around Remus's neck. Pain jolted through Remus's shoulders—still sore, as he was, from the full moon—but luckily, James seemed not to notice. "Where were you today? You weren't in classes—or at meals!"
There was a slightly tense pause, as Sirius and Peter both turned to look curiously at Remus, as well. Remus felt a prickly heat creep up his neck, but he determinedly kept his tone nonchalant as he shared the excuse that he had spent the better part of the morning rehearsing in his head. "I was feeling a little ill last night," he told them, shrugging. "Madam Pomfrey made me stay in the Hospital Wing all day."
"That explains why you look so awful," Sirius said, grinning wickedly.
Remus raised his eyebrows at Sirius. "Reckon I still look better than you."
James laughed loudly and leaped to his feet, tackling Sirius and mussing his hair. "When will you learn not to try and outwit Remus, you git?"
Remus grinned broadly, watching Sirius yelp in pain and struggle against James's grip. Finally, gasping for breath, Sirius managed to extricate himself, and he straightened up, throwing James a dirty look. James merely smirked.
"Anyway, we've got brilliant news!" Sirius turned back to Remus, practically floating with excitement. "We bullied one of the portraits on the third floor into telling us where the kitchens are—they're down the basement staircase in the Entrance Hall. We just need to tickle the pear!"
"Tickle the pear?" Remus repeated slowly, bewildered. "What on Earth does that mean?"
"Dunno, but it sounds promising!" James chimed in, grinning. "I think we should check it out tonight."
"I'm in," Sirius said promptly.
"Excellent! How about you, Remus?" James asked brightly.
Remus looked between James and Sirius, biting his lip. "It…it's fifteen minutes past curfew."
James snorted, waving his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that," he said. "I've got my Invisibility Cloak. We won't even be seen."
Remus stared at James in amazement. From what he'd read about them, Invisibility Cloaks were incredibly rare. But then again, from what he'd learned about James in the past several days, his family was an old, well-respected, and wealthy one—it seemed quite fitting that James would have been given an Invisibility Cloak.
"C'mon, Remus," James persisted. "I bet they have chocolate down there. Think about how good a slab of Honeydukes' finest sounds right now. Plus, it'll help you feel better! Chocolate's medicinal."
Remus raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Who taught you that?"
"My mum," James shrugged. "She used to give me chocolate whenever I was ill. Although, now that I think on it, she might've just been trying to bribe me into keeping my mouth shut. I'm really annoying when I'm ill."
Sirius snorted. "Because you're such a puffskein otherwise."
James punched Sirius's shoulder, though he laughed. Remus grinned. Then, finally, with a relenting sigh, he slipped off of Peter's bed and stood up. "All right, I'll come."
James and Sirius let out loud, triumphant whoops of glee, slapping a high-five. Rolling his eyes but feeling quite pleased nonetheless, Remus turned around to gather his Potions materials from where they lay on Peter's bed—but then, he froze. Peter had climbed under his bedcovers and was now staring up at the ceiling with a miserable expression. Remus's stomach fell.
Crossing his fingers tightly in the pocket of his robes, he turned back around to face James and Sirius. "Hey—can Peter come with us?"
James and Sirius stopped celebrating and looked at Remus in surprise.
"Peter?" James asked dumbly.
"Yeah," Remus gestured toward where Peter was now sitting up in bed, gazing at Remus with a flabbergasted expression.
James and Sirius looked at each other for a moment. Then, shrugging identically, they turned to face Peter. "Yeah, I guess he can come," said James. "The Cloak's big enough."
Remus's heart lifted. Glancing over his shoulder, he grinned at Peter.
Peter beamed back at him.
Author's Note:
I think I'm going to start updating this story on Wednesdays! :) Thanks for reading!
Ari
