A/N: I claim no ownership whatsoever over any characters or places mentioned in this story. The plot is original. Reviews are taken seriously, as well as criticism.

Scatter the Remains

Chapter One

The shadows of the roaring fire's dance flickered before Sirius Black's cold, silent face. The 7th year was stretched languidly across one of Gryffindor's several fireside chairs, staring intensely into nothingness. The chime of a grandfather clock told him dimly that it was eleven at night. Already many students in the common were dispersing, saying good night to their friends before climbing the stairs up to their dormitories.

"Night, Lily," Sirius heard his best friend, James, say quietly to his girlfriend. He watched the two of them from the corner of his eye.

James Potter was a tall and slight boy with friendly hazel eyes, a charming smile and black hair that always stuck up in the back. He was extremely well known for his extraordinary Quidditch skills, and when he walked down the halls, people looked at him admiringly and whispered amongst themselves that this was James Potter, undoubtedly one of the best Seekers ever to play in the history of Hogwarts Quidditch teams.

Although James wasn't a natural genius nor extremely book smart, he was clever, quick-witted, and a hard worker. He was a favorite amongst teachers for his politeness, but behind that dashing grin, James also had an unfortunate attraction for making trouble - often with Sirius. Usually, though, he could talk or charm his way out of the stickiest situations. And for that reason, his Head Boy badge gleamed brightly, pinned to his robes, matching the one that Lily wore also.

Lily Evans was beautiful. Not stunningly gorgeous like Sirius was, not cute like Judith Bones, just beautiful in her own serene and natural way. She had long flowing red hair, pale skin and large sparkling green eyes. When she smiled, and she did so frequently, it was almost a reflex to smile back.

At the moment, James was holding Lily's hand and as he bent down to gently kiss her cheek, he murmured a few words that made Lily smile. She cast one last lovesick glance at James before heading up to bed.

"Padfoot?" James called after Lily had left. Sirius returned to gazing into the fire, pretending he hadn't witnessed the whole scene.

"Yeah, Prongs?"

"Shouldn't we head up?" James said as he plopped down in another chair facing Sirius'. By now, there were only two other Gryffindors in the common - Frank Longbottom, scribbling madly at his Transfiguration essay, and a third year who was desperately trying to cram some complicated spells, probably for some test tomorrow.

"Nah, I'm waiting for Remus," Sirius replied, casually brushing his silky bangs from his face.

James frowned. "Where is he, anyway? Tutoring Peter?"

"Yeah. That psycho."

Over the past few weeks, Peter Pettigrew's grades had been declining dramatically. He seemed distracted all of the time, fearful, pathetic and extremely out of character. Sirius and Peter were probably the most distant of their group, but Sirius had always put up fairly well with Peter's dull-wittedness. Yet recently, he'd become increasingly annoyed every day as Peter continually whispered for help in classes, thus distracting Sirius and preventing him from understanding anything either. Finally, in an attempt to prevent Sirius from breaking Peter's neck, Remus Lupin had offered to privately tutor Peter.

Tonight, they were in the library, probably pouring over books together. Sirius felt slightly ashamed and angry - he'd been banned from the library for a whole month because he'd hexed Snape there after Snape had called him a 'good for nothing poster boy'.

"You know, Padfoot, hexing Snape wasn't worth it," James spoke suddenly, as if he had read Sirius' mind. "Madam Pince hold grudges, and she's pretty sour to the people she dislikes."

"Shut it, James. I don't want to talk about that," Sirius snapped.

"Snape's a git, but nothing is going to change that," James continued. "He hasn't got anything - no family, no friends. Well, I suppose he's got his Slytherin friends, but half of them are all death eaters anyway. I mean, the poor guy is all alone except for his books. Maybe we should give him a break."

Sirius stared at his best friend incredulously for a minute. Then he started to laugh. Normally, when Sirius Black found something funny (and he could usually find anything and everything funny), his laugh was extremely pleasant and attractive. But not this time - he sounded sarcastic, derisive, almost cruel.

Frank Longbottom looked up for a second, surprised, but bent his head back down to finish his essay.

"Listen to yourself, Prongs. Since when have you started to defend Snape? Since when have you two become best friends? Has he asked you to borrow some shampoo yet?" sneered Sirius. "Listen to me. Snape is not a good person. He's evil and twisted and if he had the choice, I'm positive he'd kill you without batting an eye. He's a rotten Slytherin, for heaven's sakes! You know, in the same league as Voldemort."

"Well how would you know?" James shot back, clearly vexed. "All you've ever done is insult him and humiliate him. It's not like he has dozens of girls chasing after him. It's not like the teachers love him. It's not like he's had the choice of running away from everything, Sirius!"

At this, Sirius Black rose abruptly from his chair. James stood up also, unafraid. Facing each other, Sirius was the taller one. James and Sirius' steely eyes were locked in what would seem like a very furious glaring contest to a passerby. Both right fists were clenched tightly around their wands.

A muscle twitched in Sirius' jaw.

"Fine, then!" he spat, resolving not to pound on James' face at the last second. "Go ahead and frolic with Snape, will you? Go and mutter incantations with him. Go and join leagues with Voldemort with him, he's such a wonderful friend of yours. See if I care." And with that, he walked stiffly off toward his dorm, completely abandoning the thought of waiting for Remus.

"Coward," James muttered under his breath. He covered up a yawn and desperately yearned to get some sleep, but that would mean following Sirius into the dormitory - and James wasn't about to do that anytime soon. Instead, he fought down another yawn and climbed out of the portrait hole to see what Remus and Peter were up to.

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Ten minutes later, James found his two friends seated at a library table covered in textbooks, parchments and notes. Peter had apparently fallen asleep, as he was snoring soundly, head on the table. Beside him sat a very tired-looking Remus, who was currently engaged in some huge textbook that James imagined he would probably never have the patience to read.

"Hey," James said quietly, taking a seat.

Remus looked up and closed his book when he saw James.

"You should be asleep," was the first thing he said.

"As should you," James replied. Taking a closer look at Remus, he couldn't help but feel a little panicky.

As usual, Remus Lupin was dressed rather shabbily. His clothes were clean and unwrinkled due to Remus' neat freak personality, but they were well worn and fading in color. It was only the second month of term, and already his robes were a good three inches too short. James desperately wanted to buy him new ones, or do something - anything - but he knew Remus would be embarrassed and annoyed that James had spent money on something he didn't need. Remus was very different from other teenagers in that sense - he didn't care the slightest about his appearance.

"Besides, everybody knows that Sirius is the stud," Remus always laughed. "He does enough primpin' for the both of us."

But it was a real shame Remus didn't care. His soft, auburn hair was always in need of cutting and gracefully fell into his eyes. He had deep, honey-colored eyes that focused straight on you when he talked, a lilting voice that could've coaxed stone to tears and an altogether warm presence that made him somebody to trust, to confide in.

But despite his kindness, Remus was withdrawn around strangers and people just usually regarded him as the quiet one of the Marauders, the braniac who never quite measured up to James and Sirius' coolness or popularity.

Maybe Remus' antisocial personality was partially because of his being a werewolf. James, Sirius and Peter had discovered this bit about their friend after two years of pondering why he always disappeared once a month. Remus had been terrified of their reaction, but to his surprise, his three friends had put in the effort to join him at the full moon in animal form. After three long of years of hard work, they could transform into Animagi form. Sirius was Padfoot, a handsome, ferocious black dog, strongest of the three. Peter was Wormtail, a rather dull grey rat. And James, James became Prongs, a magnificent stag. The four Marauders usually referred to each other by their Animagi names. Remus became 'Moony', named for his state during the full moon - an uncontrollable and fierce wolf.

However healthy Remus was as a regular person, the monthly transformations always used up a lot of his energy. As a result, Remus usually always looked ill and exhausted. Dark circles hung under his eyes, his cheeks were hollow from his usual lack of appetite, and his skin was so pallid he looked liked some sort of friendly vampire.

"...he fell asleep out of nowhere, the third time already, and I didn't have the heart to wake him up. So I decided to camp out here tonight and do some reading and then you showed up. Are you listening to me? James? Prongs?" Remus waved his fingers in front of James' blank face.

"What? Oh, yeah, er, I'm listening," James lied.

Remus smiled, showing extra sharp canine teeth. "Sure you were. What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Lying is an immoral thing to do, Prongs."

James could see that he wasn't going to fool Lupin. He never did.

"I had a row with Sirius." James confessed. He immediately felt a lot better after saying this.

Remus frowned. "What for?"

"Snape. I defended him...and our sweet-tempered friend got a little annoyed," said James. "Well, actually, I think he was about to punch me for an instant, he was white and shaking like mad. You know Sirius."

"Snape's not so bad," Remus said, sounding distant. "Sirius should acknowledge that."

"Yeah, he should," James sighed. "Hey, who knows, maybe they'll be partners for the upcoming Potions project. That should teach them to get along."

"They'd probably pour the stuff in each other's goblets and both end up dead," Remus grinned.

Peter Pettigrew chose this moment to promptly wake up. He blinked, eyes adjusting to the light. He looked confused for a moment, before noticing James and Remus.

"Morning, Peter," James said cheerily.

"Oh, wow, I must've fallen asleep again," Peter whispered, flushing red.

"Don't worry about it, it was only for a few seconds," Remus immediately jumped to the rescue before Peter could turn even redder with shame. Actually, it'd been a good hour, but he wasn't about to tell Peter that. "I was about to crash myself. I think it's about time we called it a night and all get some shut-eye."

Peter nodded in relief. For the millionth time, James wondered how Remus could possibly be so nice to someone. He helped them clean up and put some library books back on the shelves. The three boys then exited the library (Madam Pince said a fond farewell to Remus - he was by far her most favorite student in Hogwarts, though Remus always denied it with pink cheeks).

They entered the common room, which was now empty, and climbed up to their rooms. Stepping inside, James' eyes immediately flew to Sirius' bed, but Sirius had drawn the curtains and couldn't be seen. Silently, each person changed into their nightclothes, slipped under the bedcovers and said goodnight.

A few minutes later, when Peter's snores already rang loudly, Sirius Black lay staring at the ceiling.

"Snape's a filthy bastard and for once, I'm right about this," he whispered to himself stubbornly.

Remus was the only one who heard this, but he never ever spoke of it in his years to come.

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