Marauder.

 In the complete, technical definition, it means; to rove and raid in search of plunder. Six years have passed since Remus and his three friends came to earn this title. He wasn't quite sure why he felt like getting out the photo album, but it was a nice reminder of how the innocence in them used to look.

The Hogwarts letter with his school supplies list lay next to the photo album, catching his eye. This is the last year he'll be getting this letter, and the subjects look to be challenging. Potions. He never did like that class. Defense, now that was a different story. Being a werewolf, one tends to pick up certain things when reading about your own condition. School starts tomorrow. The smell of his own excitement in the room is starting to get to drive him insane.

Collapsing onto his twin bed, his knee's pulled up, resting the book in his lap. 'Sirius… I'm glad you cut your hair,' he mused, smiling to himself, coming across a picture of the 2nd years. That was back when James would pull his glasses off for each photograph, thinking it made him look more suave. He figured out years on that they actually 'complimented the shape of his face', or so the boy had confessed to his best mates.

This summer had been a blast. Since Sirius moved in with the Potter's, he was free to run around with his friends more so than the previous year. Remus' father was a bit reluctant to let the three boys come visit their friend, especially so close to a full moon. It was the first time he'd been allowed to roam his parents' orchard while transformed.

The next page of the album held pictures from one of their snow fights out on the grounds at Hogwarts. There was something else that happened that day. Remus lay on his bed, silent all the while, trying to remember what it was. Cold. Snow. Ice. Ice skating… he was getting closer. Ice skating. Thin Ice. Amy. Remus smiled to himself, the memory suddenly coming to mind. She'd been ice skating with her friends, and gotten too close to the thin ice. Remus was the closest one to the hole, so he did what any warm-blooded werewolf would do; jumped in after her. They had to sit out the afternoon in the Wing, listening to Madam Pomfrey lecture them both, but in his mind, it was worth it. Amy was two school years younger than he, but that didn't mean he hadn't noticed her long before the accident.

A hand coming up to rub his eyes, he paused to glance at the watch on his wrist. Nearly 10 pm. Had he been looking at pictures this long? Almost at the last page, this was where his favorite pictures were stored. Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail. The three had agreed to become their animagi selves last summer while the four friends were on a camping trip for Remus to take a snapshot of. Moony. Moony was the only one missing from an individual picture. ' I don't need to see the wolf… I don't want to see the wolf.'

**********

"Five more minutes," came his drawling, sleep-laden voice. Mrs. Lupin ran her hand over her son's forehead, checking for any sign of fever before picking up the jeans he'd discarded on the floor, taking them down for a wash. 10 minutes later Mr. Lupin was upstairs, pounding on his bedroom door. Remus sat up with a start, suddenly remembering what today was, "I'm up! I'm up…" he muttered, grabbing a clean shirt, sniffing it to make sure it was so, heading downstairs once dressed.

The table was set with the usual breakfast options, his mother always fussing over how he was too skinny. Spreading some marmalade onto a piece of toasted bread he was mentally going over the contents of his trunk, making sure he'd gotten everything. He'd found a small pouch of coins on his windowsill before coming down for breakfast and had a sneaky suspicion it'd been left there by his father. Mr. Lupin was a complex man, more so to Remus than anyone else. He was always distant, expecting Remus to do his best and achieve the best in everything. One of the reasons Remus pushed himself so hard. Yet every year, since he started at Hogwarts, Mr. Lupin managed to give his son a little money that he'd set aside with the school year in mind.

Remus glanced around the kitchen for his mother, having finished his second piece of toast and a plate full of bacon, making sure to scatter some of the other breakfast foods so it looked like he'd eaten them. Drinking his juice down quickly he bound up the stairs, going over his shelves, patting down his pocket to check for his wand. Mrs. Lupin called up the stairs for him, "Remmy! Darling! We're leaving."

Smiling to himself he grabbed his copy of 'Hogwarts, A History,' which held one of his most brilliant ideas inside; The Marauders Map, tossing it into his bag he always carried over his shoulder. Thudding down the stairs several at a time, he arrived at the bottom wearing the biggest grin of the year. Mr. Lupin holding one end of Remus' trunk, the boy came over, grabbing the opposite end, smiling still as he prepared for his second to last trip, as a student, to King's Cross Station.